More info about today's patch and a new contest giving away 5,000 free copies of GW2.

The next update for Guild Wars 2, Fractured, will be launched later today. Fractals of the Mist was first introduced a year ago and this update will see the first changes to them. Not only will players see the introduction of three new fractals, but updates to the rewards, difficulty and the addition of the new Mistlock Instabilities at levels 30 and above.

Fractals of the Mist is like the history documentaries of Tyria. Each fractal portrays a different moment in history for players to experience first-hand. With this patch, ArenaNet re-creates two temporary dungeons, the Molten Facility and Aetherblade Retreat, through their own fractals. Alongside these returning favorites is the Thaumanova Reactor which tells a story that happened just before the launch of GW2 on the game’s internal timeline.

The two returning favorites will not be exactly as players previously saw them. ArenaNet has chopped each of the dungeons roughly in half, with the first half being the new fractals while the latter half added to a bonus boss rotation alongside Jade Maw.

The Molten, Aetherblade and Thaumanova fractals are a permanent addition to the game, but this update also adds a temporary story mode version. Players will be able to enter a story version with Ellen Kiel where she will explore the fractal lobby and the Thaumanova instance. Since the fractals are random, ArenaNet set up this story as a guarantee that players will see the new content in a less challenging setting as well as get some story from Kiel herself. Unlike the fractals themselves, however, Ellen Kiel (and the story fractal version) will only remain in the fractals for the duration of the Living World release.

The biggest change coming to fractals is the difficulty changes from 1-30 and the introduction of Mistlock Instabilities at levels 30 and beyond. Before this patch, higher level fractals would just increase the difficulty by raising the damage and health of mobs. This had a cap around level 50 after which mobs would just end up one-shoting players. To get past this, ArenaNet has changed the difficulty scaling to go up to 30 (while also reducing the mob HP some) and implementing the Mistlock Instabilities after 30.

Mistlock Instabilities are an additional challenge given to a fractal level. Each level will have its set instability, not a random draw from a pool of different challenges. The example given to us was that at level 31 Mossman would randomly pop out and follow players during all of the fractals at that level. To keep the surprise as players progress through the instability levels, ArenaNet did not give us any specifics on other instabilities other than some are fun random things while others are more difficult such as disabling certain types of damage or criteria on how mobs take damage from players.

While the current cap for fractals, and therefore instabilities, is level 50, ArenaNet already has plans for instabilities up to level 100. They also have ideas on where they want to take new fractals in the future, having an entire whiteboard in the office filled with ideas for additional fractals to implement. As for rewards, it doesn’t sound like there is anything concrete at the moment, but they definitely want to add rewards at higher levels that will allow players to show off their fractal prestige.

Alongside the new update, ArenaNet is announcing the Great MMO Migration campaign. The campaign's goal is "to entice new players to join the millions of gamers who've made GW2 one of the most popular MMOs of all time." Players can participate in the campaign by uploading a 30-second video reciting the Guild Wars 2 Oath in a public place. Anyone who makes a video has a chance to win one of 5,000 free copies of Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition. For more information on how to enter, and to see the Guild Wars 2 Oath, check out the Great MMO Migration page.

Don't want to make a video? Now through Dec 3, Guild Wars 2 will be at its lowest price ever at $29.99. Go to buy.guildwars2.com to advantage of the 40% off sale!

Matt "Mattsta" Adams

Follow me @MattstaNinja