I will admit, when ArenaNet first announced it was shifting its Guild Wars 2 release cadence to smaller, more frequent expansions a few years ago, I was a little nervous. It felt like a step down, especially since it meant that elite specs wouldn’t be tied with each expansion. I love the fresh burst of energy and excitement that used to come with the big, sizable expansions Guild Wars 2 has been pumping out since 2015, and I was afraid that these smaller packs would feel like much less of an event – and more like a Living World release you have to pay for.
I am happy to say I was wrong. While it’s hard to deny that it is smaller in scope than, say, Path of Fire or End of Dragons, the latest expansion, Visions of Eternity, has proven to me that this game can still get me hyped! And getting my hands on it and wandering its colorful jungles has only gotten me more excited.
The devs described Visions of Eternity as their “action movie expansion,” putting the player at the center of the action, exploring uncharted parts of the world, and working to keep that intensity throughout. They cited a wide variety of inspirations, from Tomb Raider to Indiana Jones to Atlantis: The Lost Empire. I know many players (myself included) expressed displeasure with the past couple of expansions that had long, drawn-out story instances with lots of NPCs talking to each other, and I wonder if this change in emphasis was a reaction to that.
The story revolves around the island of Castora, an island never before seen in Guild Wars lore. Sailors believe the place to be cursed, and no one who sails there ever returns. It turns out this situation was largely due to treacherous storms caused by a confluence of elder dragon magic. Now that the elder dragon cycle has ended, the Inquest have taken an interest in unlocking the island’s secrets.
At the start of the expansion, players will pursue the Inquest and find themselves washed up among the Hullgardeners, a community of shipwreck survivors who have committed to banding together to survive along the shores of the harsh environment. They have built cities out of pieces of wrecked ships, not unlike old Lion’s Arch. They stay along the shoreline to avoid the dangerous creatures who live further inland.
While the Hullgardeners are all about living peacefully and sharing with their community, not everyone who washes up on the shores of Castora is so friendly. The Freebooters, a mishmash of different pirate groups from around Tyria, live deeper in the jungles. If that doesn’t sound bad enough, the Inquest have allied with the Freebooters and supplied them with advanced tech, and together they are using that tech to cybernetically enhance and weaponize the already dangerous local wildlife, like the red neon-clad dinos you may have seen in the trailers. The Inquest often ends up being a bit of a joke, with lots of self-absorbed mad scientist types, so I’m excited to see the organization’s more menacing side!
We were shown the first zone’s meta event, which involves two Freebooter pirates lieutenants. After breaking their shield, everyone in the area is polarized either positive or negative, as are the bosses. The bosses escape through portals, and players must enter the portal that matches their polarity, or find themselves unable to deal damage. Your polarity will periodically shift, so keep an eye on the symbol over your head. It’s a nice way to teach the ever-present “everyone split up evenly between the two bosses” mechanic without needing someone to organize the thing.
I am, personally, super pumped to play the new elite specs that are coming with this expansion. A lot of work has gone into them since the beta back in August. ArenaNet has already detailed those changes in its own blog post, so I won’t belabor them here. Something players have been wondering since the announcement that this set of elite specs would not come with new weapon masteries is what about those specialization themed ascended weapons that used to come with each new elite spec? Well, we won’t be getting any themed spec weapons, but we will be getting a new armor set that is earned by completing various similar in-game achievements and activities.
Another tentpole feature of this expansion is the upgraded skimmer mount masteries. While this speedy stingray has been useful for traversing over water since its introduction in Path of Fire (and for exploring underwater shortly thereafter), Visions of Eternity gives the aquatic mount a set of new tricks – most notably, its new 2 skill, which will allow it to fly higher and move faster for a period of time, and its upgraded 1 skill, which allows the player to dash forward without dismounting unless the 1 key is held down.
This expansion also brings with it the game’s first legendary aquabreather. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d type, but here we are. While aquabreathers aren’t regarded as terribly useful, this legendary does have one nice feature that makes it stand out from other legendary armor: Once added to your legendary armory, it can be used by any character on your account of any armor class.
The aquabreather is called Selachimorpha (the scientific class name for sharks), and when equipped underwater, it will surround the player with a school of fish, and shark fins will grow out of their back and arms. If you want to show off your magical SCUBA gear while on land, don’t worry; you can transmute any helmet to look like Selachimorpha, though it won’t have the special effects on land.
The fact that this expansion boasts both a legendary aquabreather and an upgrade to the skimmer has led some players to wonder if this islandy expansion will feature a lot of underwater combat, as three dimensional combat is often clunky, and depending on your class and spec, many of your key skills may not function under water. When we asked about this, the devs surprised us by saying that, yes, this expansion will feature an emphasis on underwater content in the form of exploration, but players shouldn’t expect significantly more underwater combat than previous releases.
I really appreciate that ArenaNet is pushing the story into new and untapped areas of the world. As much as I enjoyed revisiting places like Cantha and the Crystal Desert, there is so much on the map of Tyria that hasn’t been explored. It would be so easy for this team to play it safe in nostalgia-land, and I wouldn’t hate it if we got back there some day, but for now, it’s exciting to see Guild Wars 2 breaking free of its predecessor while still remembering where it came from.
Visions of Eternity launches in just one week, and I’m super excited to explore the maps (we weren’t even shown the second map, Starlit Weald, for fear of spoilers), master new skimmer abilities, decorate the new homestead map, and test out the new elite specs along side everyone on October 28th!
Flameseeker Chronicles is one of Massively OP’s longest-running columns, covering the Guild Wars franchise since before there was a Guild Wars 2. Now penned by Tina Lauro and Colin Henry, it arrives on Tuesdays to report everything from GW2 guides and news to opinion pieces and dev diary breakdowns. If there’s a GW2 topic you’d love to see explored, drop ’em a comment!Source link
