Guild Wars 2 requiring players to change passwords after long maintenance, new PVP map detailed

Last night, Guild Wars 2 went down for some rather rare maintenance work, shutting down servers for roughly four hours. Now players are being prompted to change their passwords when they attempt to log in.

No specific reasons were given for this, but the message that pops up mentions new security guidelines.

In other Guild Wars 2 news, ArenaNet is also offering a detailed look at the new Spirit Watch PVP map being released later this month in the Gathering Storm update. The map has a norn theme going for it, putting players up in the Shiverpeaks where they duke it out beneath the watchful gaze of the Spirits.

The objective here is a little more complex than you might've expected. Players will be fighting over an Orb of Ascension hanging out at an altar on the map. There's a short commune time in order to pick it up, and the player holding the Orb needs to get three captures across the map. While the Orb is in your possession, you can still use all your skills, but you won't be able to activate swiftness or stealth; plus, there's a 40% move speed penalty. If you're downed or teleport, you'll drop the Orb.

Here's a little more about the whole capturing business, with a video after the break:

Once the Orb of Ascension is brought to a shrine capture point, the Spirit of the Wild at the shrine ascends, immediately scoring bonus points for your team. If it’s a capture point that your team controls, your team scores 30 points; if not, your team scores 15 points instead. Also, if the Orb is brought to an enemy point, in addition to the bonus points scored, the capture point will instantly become neutralized! The Orb resets to the altar 10 seconds later.