I've been gone for a year, help me catch up!

Title says it all. I've been out of the game for awhile and I'm looking for anything new that may have come along in the game recently.

PvE/PvP, Dungeons, Quests, stories, anything and everything. Let me have it.

The only thing I can think of that's new is the Winds of Crap... errrr Winds of Change saga for characters who've completed factions.

(There are those who enjoyed it.)

zcoins are sellable now. along with new envoy weapons for zcoins. there are boxes that drop in all pvp formats that have loot. the winds of change quests are available in cantha. go to kainang center to start them.

There are several Hard Mode quests.
These can only be completed in Hard Mode and are versions of other quests, but differences, like more enemies or enemies with more powerful builds.

For now there's only a few iconic Prophecies quests and the Winds of Change line of quests.

Assassins got another nerf bat with shadowform, you are no longer invincible, but have 5dmg reduction for each assassin skill you currently affected by. Everyone is pushing for HoM titles for guild wars 2. Both mesmers and rita are used in high end game now, mesmers kick everything down to it's knees. Lots of beefed up Mesmer skills. We also go a 7 hero update. Some costumes, high mat prices now. Yeah

Also, a change in many ele skills (but mostly elites for now) and some other skills throughout the classes (they also think they nerfed SoS...)

I also just came back from a really loooooooong break, and I don't understand those party-seeking terms anymore. I dropped by the Temple of Ages for some old times UW/FoW fun, but all I saw on chat were a bunch of never-before-seen terms.

"Forming group need T1, T2, T3, T4" and a hell load of other stuff I can't remember. Everything just looks like this to me:
lfm GPL 100+/gn ToC totl OGC and pnp L/T62, Fl + TCL^100.

Thought I walked into an advanced chemistry class or something... only that people were kind of mean 'cause no one bothered to reply when I asked. Twice. Felt like a bunch of mindless party-seeking bots running around spamming chem equations. So I'm asking here if anyone can help me with those terms, then perhaps I can start playing in UW/FoW. But after the cold treatment it really makes one feel like quitting again.

I'm also afraid that the party set up are strictly limited to certain classes, with certain specific builds only, which means my mesmer or prot/heal hybrid UA monk will be... forbidden? Damn this game is starting to piss me off.

They were forming groups for speed clears of UW/FoW.

For each group, each space requires a certain profession running a certain build, for example; one necro running a Mark of Pain build, 2 spikers with either 100b, or VoS builds. The "T1 T2 T3 T4" was requesting "terras", sins who run a certain SF build.

If you want to join the SC, have a look on PvX wiki to see what is required.

Legendary Survivor now counts the xp since your last death. So you can try it over and over again. Also Drunkard title has been changed so you don't need to spend 10,000 mins drunk, you only need to eat 10,000 drunk points.

Thanks, still wondering what 100b and VoS mean. But it doesn't matter I guess, seems like it is as I expected; the Temple of Ages is off limits to anyone who isn't there to farm.

100b = 100 blades warrior. It's a warrior who has 100 blades and whirlwind attack, along with a shadow step and other skills.

VoS = vow of strength dervish. Functions the same as the 100 blades warrior but is a dervish instead. Seems to be players prefer dervishes over warrior because scythes can hit 3 enemies

Both of these are used in the Fowsc (fissure of woe speed clear) to clear it in HM under 1 conset.

You can see all of the FoWSC builds here: http://www.gwpvx.com/FOWSC

Yes essentially they have taken over the place.

I say let them, speed clears are boring. And they can be mean to each other as much as they want, I don't have to be part of it.

PS. The winds of change stuff wasn't too bad. It can be hard in places, but why else would you play?

Most people just like to steam roll over everything without thinking. (That's real boring...)

Sadly, that has been the case for many years now