Guild Wars Hard Mode

I mentioned Hard Mode in a previous post, and I have done some digging about the subject. The most information in one place happens to be at GuildWiki. Check it out for yourself.

The basic overview of hard mode as we know it (there is no official word yet), is that each mission in the post-searing world can be played again on a harder difficulty. Monsters will be more difficult. Remember when you had to run from a bunch of monsters at the end of the Great Northern Wall mission? They were all about level 8. If you go back now, you can defeat them rather easily. Now imagine doing that mission again, and instead of a ton of level 8 Charr running after you, it is now a ton of level 24 Charr.

Apparently there will be new items that drop only in hard mode as well. This includes a new item called the lock pick, which reportedly can open any chest in the game.

There are a few titles that can only be gained by playing hard mode, including the new Guardian and Vanquisher titles. Also the max title for Sunspear and Lightbringer can finally be achieved.

For those of us still working on Normal Mode, some of the more difficult bosses and monsters will be toned down when Hard Mode is released.

There is no specified release for hard mode yet, though the updates later today lead me to believe that it will be soon. It has been stated that Hard Mode will be implemented as a game update, not as an expansion.