Guild Wars Eye of the North Sneak Peek Weekend

Pre-order Note
The Eye of the North Sneak Peek Weekend is only available to those who have purchased the Guild Wars: Eye of the North pre-order pack from NCSoft/Arena.net, or other online and offline vendors (such as Amazon.co.uk/.com). A serial key is included with the pack, which is registered to allow players to enter the Eye of the North Sneak Peek via a quest, available in one major city in each current campaign.

In all towns where the Quest into GW:EN is available, you must be level 20 to recieve the quest. All members of the party must also be 20th level as well, except for Henchmen.

Nightfall Entrance
For characters in Istan, take the quest in Kamadan from Bendah (Hole of Istan) to enter a "fissure" not too far outside the city. When you go inside, you enter a large cave system. You will have to defeat a few low level Corsair groups (levels 8-11) before encountering a group of Dwarves led by Ogden Stonehealer who are trying to blow their way out through the tunnels.

The encounter ends with meeting an Asura and following him to outrun creatures called Destroyers who are all level 28. There is a 3 minute time limit, but no battles unless you want to be torn apart by the Destroyers. Follow the green waypoints until you can get to a zone for an easy 2,500 Experience Points and take you to Boreal Station in the Far Shiverpeaks. Right before going into the station, there is a cutscene with the first encounter and conversation with a Norn. Completing this run will unlock Vekk, who is a level 20 Air/Water Elementalist Asura by default, along with a new Hero Monk, Ogden Stonehealer.

Factions Entrance
For characters in Factions, see Minister of Maintenance Raiugyon in Kaineng Center for the quest. It is very similar to the one for Nightfall (Istan). Instead, you fight groups of three level 20 Am Fah Assasins and some groups of level 20 assorted Am Fah till you find Ogden Stonehealer.

Once you reach the dwarves the cutscene will display. As soon as cutscene ends follow the dwarves to the exit. You have 3 minutes to follow the dwarves as they run. Mobs of Level 28 destroyers will overrun you if you attempt to fight. Tip: having a running skill will help you after the cutscene. You may have to leave one or more hench or heros behind to slow down the mobs.

After sucessfully completing quest you will appear in Boreal Station (NE of Yak's Bend).

Prophecies Entrance
Len Caldoron stands near the fountain in Lions Arch, and offers a quest called What Lies Beneath. It is very similar to the one for characters in Istan: same "fissure", same cave system, but in this quest, players defeat groups of Undead (Hellhounds, Grasping Ghouls) at levels 11 to 16. Players will then encounter the Dwarves.

Known Bugs

 * Those who installed Guild Wars using the Boot Camp Windows XP partition from their Macs will be in for an unpleasant surprise. In mission three, on their way to the Hall of Monuments, the one after viewing the cinematic featuring Jora and the Dwarves, the player's computer will randomly crash due to a memory dump error before promptly restarting the computer. There is no proposed solution for this bug as of yet.


 * Note: This bug also occurs not only on Macs but on other PCs as well.


 * Sometimes when you're in Kilroy Stonekin's tournament, you will be knocked down, and forced to return to the outpost; disregarding the "stand up" skill.

Places known to crash with Intel graphics chips
 * Talking to 1st Norn.
 * Beside pool.
 * Outside Hall of Monuments.
 * Beside single NPC in Eye of the North.
 * Outside gate of Gunnar's Hold.
 * Drakkar lake portal.


 * Some players using Intel graphics chips have found that after loading Boreal Station, their client now crashes when under graphical stress. This is due to a driver failure (in which the driver either stops or becomes caught in an infinite loop), which requires a full system reboot and causes a message stating that the system has recovered from a serious system error. There is no known fix at the time, but keeping movements and camera rotations to a minimum when one's frame rate is low (during loading, etc.) minimizes the frequency of the error. Reducing some ingame graphics options (F11) can also help. Unlike the "boot camp" error, crashing can occur at virtually any time.


 * [It should be noted that many Intel-based Macs use Intel graphics chips -- the graphics driver is the likely cause of both of these problems, not Boot Camp.]


 * When activating the Northen Proof of Duty in Sepulchre of Dragrimmar the game crashes. (You can not get to level 2 in this dungeon because of this bug).

Beware
 * The quest Defend North Kryta Province should be complete or abondoned before doing the Eye Of The North quest from Len Caldoron in Lion's Arch. If the quest is active it will be harder to keep Captain Greywind alive against the Titans than the usual monsters.

Graphics Chips with Issues with GW:EN
Post your graphics card on your computer when you experienced these mission and graphics crashes... and where are they commonly found on

Intel 945 chipset hp media center pc when taking hench from eye to ice video driver causes crash. i found if i only take hero's it does not crash, no explanation i can think of for this.
 * Intel Integrated GMA 950/945G, Motherboards and the ordinary white MacBook 2006+
 * Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family, Toshiba Satellite A100 - So far, it's only crashed in the Domain of Fear, and at any time in GW:EN
 * Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family, Dell XPS M1210
 * Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family, Dell Inspiron 640m
 * Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family, Dell Latitude D620
 * Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family, Dell Inspiron 6400
 * Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family, Dell Inspiron E1505 **Seconded. Problem is anywhere in Guild Wars. I was in Elona the last time of four times it crashed** ***Third-ed***
 * Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family, AMILO Pi 1505
 * Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family, Gateway MX6956 - System crash anywhere in GW:EN, usually at scenes or between areas
 * Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family, Acer & HP laptop computers, gateway tablet pc
 * Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family, Dell Dimension DV051 - ****I second this graphics card entry, Spent hour and half on phone with dell to hear i had to purchase a graphics adapter****
 * Intel 82945g Express Chipset Family, Dell Optiplex (I installed older version of the drivers(6.14.10.4299) and issue has gone away, others should test to confirm.)
 * 17in flat panel monitor on Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family - crashed when attempting to speak to Jora

Many of the Mobile Intel(R) imbedded graphics chipsets do support dx9 but not have hardware shaders or hardware T&L. I experimented and found an optimal configuration of using -noshaders without -dx8 on the command line. I have a 915GM/GMS on my Samsung Q1 and can play GW:EN without any crashes on it.

According to this PlayNC support page, Intel Graphics Chips 915 and 945 series are currently supported: http://www.plaync.com/us/support/doc_2664.html?prod=48

Therefore there may be a fix shortly for those who have problems running the game on Intel integrated graphics.

Monuments

 * The Monument of Fellowship - contains big statues of your unlocked Heroes and Pets. In order to add a hero statue to the monument, the hero must have access to armor upgrade and needs to be in your party when you enter the hall.
 * The Monument of Devotion - shows little statues of your minipets and collectibles that you have obtained.
 * The Monument of Honor - shows your titles and accomplishments, including finishing a campaign.
 * The Monument of Valour - displays unlocked high-end weapons obtained from the Eye of the North expansion.
 * The Monument of Resilience - shows all your ascended armour sets.

Side Note: In order to activate a monument, you need to talk to Gwen, after the cut-scene. Gwen will give you a tapestry.

Once you have used a tapestry on the monument of your choice, then you can display the related items.

A second tapestry can be obtained by completing the quest "Northern Allies" so it is assumed the last three tapestries are unlocked by completing the main quest for each race (Dwarf/Norn, Asura and Ebon Vanguard).

Beware
 * Minipets added to the Monument of Devotion in GW:EN, will become customized to the owner of the Minipet. It is advised not to borrow Minipets from others, as they will become customized to you, and so can't be traded back and used by somebody else.
 * Adding a set of 15k Armor to the Hall of Monuments will show a placeholder for the armor set - some placeholders display the correct armor sets, others do not.

New Titles Avaliable

 * Deldrimor
 * Ebon Vanguard
 * Norn
 * Master of the North

New Pets

 * Polar Bear
 * Mountain Eagle
 * White Wolf
 * Black Wolf
 * White Moa

New Weapon Skins
Note: This section also includes items that were previously only available as PvP rewards.

Sword

 * Dark Scimitar
 * Lesser Dark Scimitar
 * Greater Highlander Blade
 * Highlander Blade
 * Mammoth Blade
 * Steel Broadsword
 * Platinum Broadsword
 * Gilded Edge
 * Bronze Edge
 * Sephis Sword
 * Etched Sword

Axe

 * Charr Axe
 * Greater Summit Axe

Dagger

 * Savage Dagger
 * Arrowblade Daggers
 * Crescent Daggers
 * Thunderfist Brass Knuckles
 * Brass Knuckles
 * Crude Daggers

Spear

 * Lesser Guardian Spear
 * Greater Guardian Spear
 * Draconic Spear
 * Forked Spear

Scythe

 * Raven Scythe

Bow

 * Oaken Recurve Bow

Shield

 * Ebonhand Aegis
 * Equine Aegis
 * Oaken Aegis
 * Enameled Shield
 * Darkwing Defender
 * Plated Shield

Focus

 * Cup

Staff

 * Dolyak Prod Staff
 * Dragon Spire Staff
 * Aureate Staff
 * Fuchsia Staff

Green Items

 * Avarr's Scepter
 * Bow of the Kinslayer
 * Earthbound Staff
 * Elsnil's Frigidheart
 * Fenrir's Bastion
 * Johon's Longbow
 * Korn's Hornbow
 * Myish's Scythe
 * Nifling's Staff
 * Taameh's Scythe
 * Whiteout's Focus
 * Asterius' Scythe
 * Shield of the Kinslayer
 * Havok's Maul
 * Spear of Kinslayer
 * Maul of the Kinslayer
 * Lissah's Edge
 * Baglorag's Maul
 * Destructive Blade
 * Antiquated Rod

Quest Items

 * Top Left Map Piece
 * Top Right Map Piece
 * Bottom Left Map Piece
 * Bottom Right Map Piece
 * Encrypted Charr Battle Plans

Consumables

 * Powerstone of Courage
 * Armor of Salvation
 * Grail of Might
 * Scroll of Resurrection
 * Star of Transference
 * Perfect Salvage Kit

Collectable Drops

 * Frigid Mandragor Husk
 * Glacial Stone
 * Jotun Pelt
 * Mountain Root
 * Superb Charr Carving
 * Pile of Elemental Dust
 * Beserker Horn
 * Vaettir Essence
 * Frozen Wurm Husk
 * Modniir Mane
 * Destroyer Core
 * Undead Bone
 * Stone summit Emblems