Hello, Guild Wars 2 community!
Here’s a look at what’s coming to Guild Wars 2 over the next few months.
February 27—”The Realm of Dreams”
Next week we’ll be releasing our next major update for Guild Wars 2®: Secrets of the Obscure™, the second of three planned updates that deliver the expansion’s full story experience. This update introduces three new story chapters that follow hot on the heels of the events of “Through the Veil” and pull the wayfinder deeper into the unfamiliar world of Nayos and the Kryptis society.
This update brings a slew of features and content additions for Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, including new weapon proficiencies for all nine professions, the tier-one Obsidian legendary armor set, the legendary relic, the Temple of Febe Strike Mission challenge mode, expanded Astral Ward Masteries, two new Convergences bosses, and the sky-chak striker ranger pet.
It also includes refreshed rewards for the Wizard’s Vault, complete with new seasonal objectives. We’re also introducing some changes to the Wizard’s Vault daily and weekly objectives to address player feedback. Some objectives have had additional options added so that they can be completed in multiple ways, and some of the less popular objectives have been shelved for the time being. The intent of these changes is to improve the overall feel of the objective selection, reduce friction with required times for global-timer events, and reduce the number of expansion-only objectives that caused players to have different weekly objective lists.
March 19—Systems Update
Postprocessing Graphics Options: We’re introducing more granular options for the postprocessing graphics setting. Currently, there are only three options available for postprocessing: “Off,” “Low,” and “High.” Each of these settings controls hidden options such as bloom, color grading, color tint, distortion, light rays, and selection outline. These sub-options are now checkboxes in the Options menu, allowing you to pick and choose which aspects of postprocessing are displayed.
Skills and Balance Update: Our next major balance update aims to improve quality of life for some existing builds like deadeye, bring some unviable builds like power-based harbinger into the meta, and improve some underutilized traits and utilities. The preview for this update can already be found on the official Guild Wars 2 forums.
Player vs. Player—Expanded Champion Achievements: The Champion achievements that track wins for each profession are being expanded with three additional tiers at 500 wins, 750 wins, and 1,500 wins with new titles for each. As an example, engineer will be able to earn the Legendary Genius title at 500 wins, Fabled Genius at 750 wins, and Ultimate Genius at 1,500 wins. These achievements will take already-earned progress into account.
World vs. World—Expanded Realm Avenger Achievements: At last! The Realm Avenger achievement, which tracks player defeats in WvW and awards the Ultimate Dominator title, has been expanded with 9 additional tiers at 250,000 increments. Each tier comes with a new variant of the Ultimate Dominator title that reflects the number of players that you’ve defeated (e.g., Ultimate Dominator II). These achievements will take already-earned progress into account.
World vs. World—Lord Update: We’re modernizing the loadouts of castle, keep, and tower lords with the addition of a new channeled healing skill that aids objective defenders in combat, giving the lord a more active role in battle. Attackers will need to keep a close eye on the lord and break their defiance bar to minimize the support they’re able to provide. As a note, this is currently a stretch goal for the update and may need to shift out to a future update.
Mastery Change—Noblesse Oblige: With the March 19 update, the Noblesse Oblige Central Tyria Mastery, which increases revive speed and removes downed penalties on successful revive, will no longer remove downed penalties in Strike Mission and raid challenge mode encounters. This will help maintain the intended difficulty level of these encounters by reinstating some penalties for ignoring encounter mechanics.
April 16—Super Adventure Box Returns
Moto and his famous invention, the Super Adventure Box, return to Tyria! The 8-bit game-within-a-game will receive updated rewards and some additions to the World 3 Test Zone.
Looking Ahead
Our final quarterly update for Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure is just a few months away, bringing with it the story’s finale, new foes to lock swords and shields with, a new fractal dungeon and challenge mode, new relics, tier two of the Obsidian legendary armor set, a Wizard’s Vault rewards refresh, and more! And then our next expansion announcement—and its subsequent launch—will be right around the corner. 2024 is shaping up to be another great year for Guild Wars 2.
We’ll wrap up today with one final legendary tease located below! As always, thank you for your ongoing support.
We’ll see you in the game.
