At long last, ArenaNet is opening a big new chapter in the online role-playing game Guild Wars 2.
Let me start with a personal anecdote, something that is known to increase reader-author bonding. It was 2006, I was at E3 with my colleagues, had a crumbly laptop with me, even by the standards of the time, and wanted to play a bit of Guild Wars: Factions alongside the trade fair business, not just for fun but for professional reasons.
This went well until the horde from NCsoft (publisher of Guild Wars) of all people invaded the hotel and stretched the already desolate network (USA, 2006, popular, but also quite rotten cult hotel!) to the maximum. Gone were the happy hours in L.A. when I could hop through the Japanese world of Factions with my assassin (new class at the time).
Almost 16 years later: I’m back in Factions territory, but in Guild Wars 2. Arenanet has asked for the preview date of End of Dragons, the addon is due to be released next February. And even though it was quite an entertaining encounter, I have to admit: Things used to be better. I can still remember times when Guild Wars preview events were much more informative and journalists were let off the leash. For example, at the legendary main game event, where I was allowed to fill my hard drive with videos for an entire weekend. Or the weeks-long beta access.
This time, however, everything was pretty streamlined (in New High German) and limited to 90 minutes. It was also stupid that I wasn’t allowed to play a build I knew. All participating press representatives could only use one of the new elite classes of the add-on (more on that later), and I had to warm up to mine first – without being able to say whether the Harbinger (new necro elite) is any good to me. But I’m afraid I’ll stay with the Reaper, because I’m a habitual necro.
But there wasn’t much to see. Or rather, I’m not allowed to talk about everything yet, there’s an embargo on parts of the event until 8 February. Oh, I don’t know …
Table of Contents
With turtles to victory
So there I am with others in the Echo Forest known from Factions and swinging on the new mount that will come with End of Dragons: a siege turtle. It has the special feature that it needs two players to be effective. One has to steer the beast, the other shoots from fat cannons, five shots are available. Once fired, the cannons recharge slowly, but it’s quicker if Schildi moves a lot.
We are to improve the turtle bit by bit by mastery points, for example to give it double health points for a short time or to make it jump higher and further.
Here we go, our group slowly wobbles through the forest to the goal, which reminds me at least in an unpleasant way of Heart of Thorns. Not because of any height levels, but because everything seems so cramped. Gosh Arenanet, Path of Fire has shown so beautifully that Guild Wars 2 with a bit more space (also for the view) is that crucial bit better. So for me. Well, maybe it will be different in other areas, a forest is a forest after all, but the scenes from End of Dragons known so far all seemed similar too.
At our destination, the well-known Fort Espenwald, we first use siege shields to blast the entrance free, then we go deeper and deeper into the building, where we finally lay a boss. Actually, we couldn’t have killed it, because the attack on the fort is a world event that can’t be done with just a few Hansels. For our tour, however, the developers have adjusted the strength of the enemies.
Strike missions included
Following that, we play one of the new Strike Missions, which are ten-player missions that aren’t quite as crunchy as Raids and don’t require a polished meta, but still remain challenging enough not to get bored. Our opponent is a pirate who some of you may still know from the very first part of the Living World, which you can no longer play. Her name is Mai Trin. She pummels us with adds, we have to adjust our positions in space to her attacks, dodge a lot and at the end there’s a … well, I’ll call it a surprise.
Petri Heil
Fishing has always been popular in role-playing games, whether off or online, most recently I got bored doing it in New World. Bored perhaps because I had to go fishing with my father so often as a child. I don’t even want to think about the traumatic experience when I wiped Dad’s self-made super fly irretrievably into the branches of a nearby tree while fly fishing.
And yes, there is a difference between angling and fishing, but that’s only in passing. In End of Dragons you can now do that too, i.e. fishing. To make it not quite as dull as in real life, you can go out on waters with your own little boat, which has room for four other players, and look for the best fishing spots there. Incidentally, the more players in the boat, the faster it moves.
So many beautiful weapons
By the way, the fish are not only meant as ingredients for buff food, you also need the very special ones for making the new legendary weapons that come with End of Dragons. Unsurprisingly, they are all subordinate to the dragon theme, while the precursors (which are not real, because they are actually already legendary) are based on Aurene (young dragon). From these you then make your desired dragon weapon. For example, a greatsword that screams Jormag or Mordremoth or Zhaitan. Really nice: If you want to have them all at once, you don’t need a new precursor for each sword.
And great news for all lazy as well as wealthy players: unlike the legendary weapons of the second generation, those of the now following third can be traded in the auction house again.
The New Elite Builds
In connection with the weapons, we must of course also mention the new elite builds, because they are of course not only there to give us more variety and options, but also to get players to craft (or buy) a legendary pistol for their Necro. As before, the arsenal of weapons of the basic classes will be expanded again for the new elite classes. The necro and the warrior will also have pistols, the woodsman will have a hammer (hach, this brings back memories of the good old hammer ranger warrior in GW PvP), the thief will have a sceptre.
We can only tell you how much fun the new builds are, which build is suitable for which type of player and how much players will grumble about the balancing in PvP once the add-on is released. But as I said above: I think I’ll stick with my Reaper. I already have two legendary weapons for it: Horn Howler and Axe Frostfang. And the latter is actually also a dragon weapon. Ha!
Editor’s Verdict
The preview may read a little stroppy, but that’s mostly because of what I’ve described about the event. If, for example, I were a decision-maker at Arenanet, I would have taken the press on a grand tour of the addon, pointed out special things, let the journalists breathe and look. Because that’s the only way to give the readers and potential players of the add-on a proper impression of it. And yes, in three devils’ names, even then you can still agree on detailed NDAs in which it is stated that please don’t spoil enemy XYZ or location ZYX.
But as it is, I don’t have much to report apart from what is already circulating on the net. Hopefully I have been able to spice it up enough for your amusement so that you read to the end.
All that remains to be said is that I’m looking forward to the addon (pardon the phrase) because I still love Guild Wars 2 after all these years and despite Heart of Thorns’ slight design progression. So much so, in fact, that I might buy one of the new legendary weapons at some point.
