alt="Guild Wars 2 - Charr Arena Event"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/90540/preview">

One of the more interesting href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2">Guild
Wars 2
dynamic events shown at
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/event/nycomiccon/2010">New
York Comic Con 2010 was The Last
Whiskey Bar, a Charr outpost in
Dragonwatch, an area in Dragonbrand just south of Brandview, which
offers a great view of where the
Shatterer holds sway. In it, the Charr
enjoy their favorite pastime: not drinking, not necessarily, at least,
but fighting. And not just any sort of fighting, but fighting against
overwhelming odds. Best of all, Charr players are invited to join in.

We first spoke with the barker,
who with colorful exhortations
encouraged me to jump down into the fray. Several NPC allies were
hanging out, and upon arrival in the pit I was offered a choice of
several enemy types with varying difficulties. Martin Kerstein, Guild
Wars 2 Community Manager,
explained that every player in the pit has a
few seconds to chose the enemy type, which for this instance included
branded charr (what else?) and beasts.

The setting is something out of
Mad Max, an open air metallic
Thunderdome sans the dome. Waves of mobs enter through either a gate or
come down via a ramp, meaning you don't want to get caught looking in
one direction as the waves begin to roll in. I stuck around for two
waves, one of which was beasty, one was branded charr. The encounters
consisted of waves of 5-7 enemies each and were fairly short-lived. I
was feeling pretty good about myself until Martin noted that I was a
level 47 fighting level 43 mobs.

width ="620px" alt="Guild Wars 2 - Charr Arena Event"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/90542/preview">

As
shown on the above map, players will have quick access to The Last
Whiskey
Bar event once they've unlocked the Dragonwatch waypoint. Be
sure to check out our larger href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/90541?size=_original">map
of the Dragonbrand in Guild Wars
2 to
see some of the other outposts and events players will have access to
in the area.

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89593/preview">

Martin took
the opportunity to
introduce me to cross-class combos. In
my unknowledgable demo-inspired hotkey frenzy, my href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/previews/elementalist">Elementalist
had been
spamming firewall spells with no tactical understanding whatsoever.
Martin kindly suggested I must be a genius when he noted that a nearby
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/previews/warrior-reveal">Warrior
had taken my cue and was using his Whirling Axe ability to spin
off fireballs into the horde of beasts storming through the gate. Each
class has a number of these secret yet fairly intuitive cross-class
combo abilities, and if players can dream of a combo, it might just
work out in-game.

The Last Whiskey Bar, while not
stocked with Glenlivet, Jameson, or
even a good bourbon, was nonetheless a fun and lore-wise diversion from
Steeleye Span and The Shatterer, and was just one of the interesting
new ways to play Guild Wars 2.
To find out more about Guild
Wars 2 from
NY Comic Con 2010 and beyond, be sure to check out all of our previews
and features at href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2">Guild
Wars 2
- Ten Ton Hammer!