The addon has a name that will strike fear into the hearts of Guild Wars 2 fans: Is the story of the old dragons really over?
At least in the so-called theme park MMOs, they are important: the actions. Alone to give the played character a raison d’être in the worlds apart from mob-beating, crafting and co. Since 2012, Guild Wars 2 has been telling the story of your heroic character, who takes on the ancient dragons in the fantasy realm of Tyria with his NPC gang.
The fairy tale was a rather muddled affair at the very beginning, and in the first add-on Heart of Thorns the story kept losing momentum simply because of the scraping for the then new masteries (special skills in several upgrade levels, such as flying with a paraglider). After that, the story got steadily better in the small expansions of the Living World, and the second major add-on Path of Fire was finally a kind of pièce de résistance in the context of Guild Wars 2.
Now End of Dragons goes one better. The plot and dramaturgy are outstanding. But what does the add-on achieve beyond that? Let me put it this way in a nutshell: It could have been better.
Well, scared? Well done, because End of Dragons is actually far from being bad, it just has a few small quirks and one comparatively big one in my eyes. I’ll break it all down for you now.
Table of Contents
Hardly any barriers to entry
The story of End of Dragons picks up pretty much exactly at the end of the Ice Brood saga and thus at the last chapter of the Living World to date. What’s nice about this is that those who have skipped the Ice Brood saga are informed about the current state of affairs by means of fluffy hints scattered throughout the first dialogues.
Nevertheless, I recommend reading up on what happened in detail on the internet before you set off for Cantha, if you don’t care about Eisbrut and Saga.
Even more beautiful though: None of the things that were important in the other add-ons are absolutely necessary for the new add-on. Those who skipped Heart of Thorns simply get the paraglider, which was so essential at the time, in the basic version. Those who skipped Path of Fire can swing on rental jumpers (with a purchase option) or on taxi raptors with fixed routes to quickly cover large distances.
By the way, these are also practical for owners of the running lizards, if you want to get to the fridge or the toilet quickly but don’t want to stand around in the countryside: the little animal trots off, so do you, only in the direction of the kitchen or bathroom.
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The dragons are loose
You’re just hanging out at the Eye of the North and chatting with your own dragon (Aurene, who first appeared in Heart of Thorns) – and then it’s 2006 again and you’re suddenly standing in the lovely province of Seitung after some crazy airship action.
Just as Path of Fire is based on Guild Wars Nightfall, End of Dragons sends us to the Asian-inspired Cantha from Guild Wars Factions. The only difference is that Cantha now looks a bit … oh, what am I talking about, it looks completely different.
At least in the huge city of New Kaineng. Where traditional buildings once stood, skyscrapers illuminated with so-called jade technology now grow into the sky. Guard robots patrol everywhere, jade bots buzz through the air. The technology-loving asura in my NPC gang are quite excited.
Without giving too much away now: Jade technology in Cantha comes with a price. And it comes at an astonishingly high price, as becomes increasingly clear in the course of the story (Badum Tss!). And that the old dragons are somehow hanging in there, even though they can’t actually hang anywhere anymore … yeah yeah, I won’t go into any more depth.
The fact that the story keeps you interested so well is not only due to the great discoveries and tasks and the sometimes surprising mechanics (such as remote-controlling Jade Bots) that Arenanet has come up with. For me, it was above all the dialogues that drove me further and further east and towards the finale.
Guild Wars 2 has never been so clever, so emotional and so humorous as in End of Dragons. Right up front in this context: Detective Rama, who keeps law and order in New Kaineng, is initially highly sceptical of our troop, gives us the odd quip and then gradually turns into a valuable ally.
There is also a bit of dying in between, but at least for me this adds to the drama in a pleasant way. Regardless of this, I now wonder how Arenanet will continue Guild Wars 2 after this add-on. End of Dragons is indeed more than just a caesura. It is an ending, a very conciliatory one at that. At least on the story side.
Beautiful drop height
Yes, the story is my personal highlight of the addon. In second place behind it? Indeed, the visuals. In Seitung alone, there are so many impossibly beautiful views that I spent half afternoons just gliding over the island with the Griffin (I still don’t own the stupid Sky Scale, because my lifetime gets more precious with every year).
Which makes sense anyway, because End of Dragons also comes with vistas and points of interest and mastery and hero points again. These are – as they should be – often placed very, very high on the maps. I don’t even want to know how people who don’t have all the mounts from Path of Fire manage that. New teleporters and ziplines or not.
Surprisingly, the maps New Kaineng and Echo Forest with their canyons of houses and trees are also quite eye-catching, but the two also combine the biggest problem in End of Dragons for me. Because it’s so exhausting to get from A to B there despite a few waypoints, because the view is so often slowed down so quickly, because in New Kaineng in particular many things are spread out over umpteen altitude levels – because of all these circumstances you often only see other players during events.
How often I have strolled through the magnificent capital of Cantha, only to think at some point: “Where is everyone?” Then you quickly meet up for one of the altogether quite demanding event clobberings, if you can get there fast enough before it’s over. And then everyone disappears again into the canyons or canals to go fishing.
In this way, Arenanet cannibalises one of the most important distinguishing features of an MMO. Even for me, who prefers to be on my own. But playing alone or feeling alone are two fundamentally different things.
The new attack missions
In the last chapter of the Living World (Ice Brood Saga) to date, Arenanet has introduced the so-called attack missions. Behind this is a crisp, multi-level battle, which is not quite as hefty and time-consuming as a raid. The raid missions are played with ten participants. The four missions can be entered either via the respective entry points in the world or in the player hub Arborstein.
You don’t have to master everything
So, now that I’ve named three of the four cards, I’ll quickly add the last one as well. It’s called, appropriately enough, Dragon’s End. Yes, hyphenated, I don’t know. Just as we know Seitung, New Kaineng and also the Echo Forest from Factions, we also know Dragon’s End, but rather under the title Jademeer. There the map opens up again. And mainly in a rich jade green.
Not only does the story finale take place on Dragon’s End, the biggest event of the game also wants to be staged there. After several preparatory skirmishes, it’s time for one last big effort – which fails surprisingly often.
Whether it’s due to the players and a lack of understanding of the mechanics, or too little damage dealt, it’s not significant, it’s annoying. Even more annoying is that, at least until 15 March, you could only earn the turtle egg by successfully completing the event, which after collecting tasks finally culminates in the new siege turtle.
This then has to be levelled up afterwards via the usual mastery treadmill. Meanwhile, you can also buy the egg for one of the new currencies. And I refuse to count how many currencies Guild Wars 2 has by now.
This sounds more negative than it really is, because the turtle is optional content, as is the aforementioned sky scales. You don’t necessarily need it to feel comfortable. Just like you don’t need to max out most of the other mastery paths that come with End of Dragons.
Within the story tasks, for example, we get the new Jade Bot, a small flying robot that needs to be charged so that we can use it to open special chests (for ourselves) or activate defences (for the general public). At a higher level of mastery, we can also use it to place a personal waypoint.
In the final stage of development, the bot acts like the Ranger’s pet and can lift the master or mistress back to their feet if they have not paid attention in battle. However, this is only possible in PvE.
Furthermore, End of Dragons comes with mastery paths for fishing, shipping and for expanding your own base in Arborstein, a player hub located in the Echo Forest. As I said, all optional.
Collect, collect, collect
Apart from the optional mastery paths, End of Dragons is above all a feast for completers and collectors. Some of the collections go beyond the borders of Cantha, for example, I was already at Lonarpass in the academy to pick up an old tapestry after a small jumping puzzle. Arenanet really does have an exemplary command of such things: luring players into the old areas so that the regions there don’t become deserted. Be it through dailies or collections.
For those who want to go really hard, set about unlocking one or more of the new legendary weapons. As usual, these require a preliminary stage, which you can either build yourself, provided you have the recipe, or find in a reward box. And then it’s down to the nitty-gritty to get all the necessary stuff to upgrade to a legendary weapon.
Lazy and wealthy people can also buy the new legendary weapons in the auction house, because unlike the Legendarys of the second generation, those of the third generation can be traded again. Currently the third generation costs just under 5,000 gold in the AH, about a week ago it was over 7,000.
Nekro with guns
Like Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire, End of Dragons again comes with new elite specialisations, new ways to play the classes. Which includes that each class now has access to one more weapon type. The Ranger now wields a hammer as the Untamed. The Engineer carries a mace in the Mech Handlebar flavour and also gets to command a – you guessed it – mech.
The Necromancer can now also use pistols with the so-called Harbinger build. Now it is not the case that you necessarily have to take a gun in your hand. You can still walk around with a staff and an axe and focus, for example, and still use the utility skills of the new specialisations. In this respect, Guild Wars 2 remains exemplary for tinkerers who want to try out their own approaches, even with End of Dragons.
Nevertheless, I tried my hand at the Hammer-Waldi (just because of pleasant memories of the first Guild Wars) and Pistol-Nekro. With the result that, should I want to play the classes seriously, I will need considerably more time to get used to them. This is mainly due to the fact that the new specialisations I played are a tad too complicated to be intuitively fun.
Yes, the Hammer Valdi (in combination with the Two-Handed Sword) has gained mobility. Yes, if you can place all the skills perfectly together, it throws out great bursts, but in normal PvE that is rarely necessary. And in PvP… oh, timing and opponent behaviour and finger knotting and stuff.
Bottom line, I’m a little underwhelmed by the new specialisations. After all, why would I, for example, now play a guardian as a new will-twister like a thief when I can also play a thief?
But between you and me: I wasn’t thrilled with the new specialisations in Heart of Thorns either at first, but over time I fell in love with the reaper. Maybe I’ll still find access to the Hammer Valdi, although certainly not in PvE. End of Dragons is still young, Arenanet should still improve the classes. Just as I should perhaps improve my key mapping so that I don’t die from the new skills, pet changes, the unleashing of the woodsman and the lizard’s tail slap.
Editor’s conclusion
End of Dragons is not as big, as groundbreaking an addon as Path of Fire. Maybe that was never the intention, but maybe the pandemic has pointed out to Arenanet that in these times you better stack smaller if you want to keep a release date. In any case, there is a lot in it for GW2 fans, the story campaign is captivating, the landscapes are beautiful, explorers and seekers are rewarded. And in the smallest edition, the add-on costs just a measly 30 euros. You can’t go far wrong with that.
I just find it astonishing that the developers reproduce the mistakes of Heart of Thorns a little bit, at least in New Kaineng and the Echo Forest. Yes, it’s not quite as insanely convoluted as in the first addon on the two maps mentioned. And the enemies are also nowhere near as crisp and tough, but I miss the ease of strolling there, I miss the feeling of togetherness there, even when I’m travelling alone. And in the Echo Forest I sometimes also lack the urge to look what’s around the next corner, because everything there looks similar at a high level except for the real eye-catchers.
Personally, I also think it’s a shame that the PvP faction has once again been forgotten in the add-on. Of course they are happy about the new specialisations, because the tinkerers have something to do again, but there is no new map for the small PvP, no adjustments to the big WvW mess (they have been in beta for years). Guild Wars 2 has crazy strengths there, but they remain hidden for the mass of players because it’s so specialised that it might scare even very curious people away. Nevertheless, with the additional attack missions, Arenanet has opened the door a little wider for the challenging raids. Perhaps more players will find their way in there now.
