The adventure of Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™ continues today! Delve deeper into the island of Castora and experience both its beauty and its increasing perils. In the second of three major updates to our latest expansion, "The Only Way" introduces five new chapters continuing the expansion story, a gorgeous new map, two legendary accessories to craft, two new Masteries, new combat relics, and a refreshed Wizard's Vault—plus an expansion of Fashion Templates!
You can also read about today's update in the full release notes.
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The Journey So Far
The launch story for Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity began with an investigation into a series of secretive Inquest voyages out of Lion's Arch. Skip down to the next section if you want to avoid story spoilers.
In your pursuit of the Inquest, you and your allies sailed to the island of Castora—a place of great danger and intrigue, where magic and history seep from the soil. While tracing the Inquest's movements, you gained new allies in the village of Hullgarden and a deeper understanding of your enemies' goals in this mysterious, lost place. Once refuge to the seers, Castora was a test bed for their magic, and you witnessed firsthand how the Inquest harnessed it for their own means. As you dug deeper, you learned that the Inquest kingpin, Director Vloxx, is on a mission separate from his retinue, and he claims to only be interested in the Inquest as a tool. But in the race to retrieve Ancora, a powerful seer artifact, the director pushed just ahead of your efforts. In the end, you were left questioning the motives of Vloxx, who believes that his plans are the only way to save Tyria. Is he right?
It's been a few weeks now since Principal Biomancer Sebb's death. Your pursuit of the Inquest lures you deeper into the thicket of Castora, straight to the heart of Eternity's Garden, our newest map. Once through the thicket, your mission is simple: find and stop the Inquest at all costs. Forge a path through the garden and close the gap between your allies and Vloxx before it's too late. The Inquest may have a head start, but you have Isgarren's ancient knowledge on your side, and word has it that fractures have deepened within the Inquest ranks.
Though the dangers here are far greater than the Inquest alone, should their missions prove successful, the strength they'll gain is incalculable. Will you make it in time?
For a refresher on the expansion story so far, check out our full recap video below:
Eternity's Garden
Our new map for this release is Eternity's Garden, a place of worship and innovation utilized by the seers thousands of years ago to forge great weapons and amplify the creatures of the island—and themselves. Though long abandoned, the deep forests and temples still hum with life. Castora's defenses stand eternally ready, and all eyes are fixed upon you. Unfortunately, the Inquest have taken full advantage of their head start and have been establishing fortifications and ransacking seer ruins to exploit their technology.
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Eternity's Garden features a dense, treacherous jungle where the flora is as deadly as the fauna! It's a mystical environment enhanced with ancient seer security measures, and surprisingly, not all of them are immediately hostile. While exploring the new map, players will discover seer culture, learn how they utilized their magic, and even befriend their constructs. Eternity's Garden culminates in a climatic new meta-event against the Inquest, which catches the eye of a more ever-present foe. You can even obtain the rare Swiftwing Raptor mount skin as a reward for participating in the meta-event and group events found in the new zone!
Accessorize with Legendaries
Two new legendary accessories are now available for crafting. Stella Radians is a new legendary PvE accessory that illuminates your character with a celestial halo. Strife Unending is a new legendary WvW accessory; its visual effects scale up in combat as you kill enemies and resets when you are defeated. Strife Unending also applies visual effects to siege equipment that you use. Both accessories can be crafted twice, so you can have a copy in both accessory slots.
Master Castora
Today's update also expands horizontal progression opportunities for your characters with two new Masteries and six expansion relics to earn and unlock.
Earning the Residual Mirror Magic Mastery provides you with a magic find boon after you complete a magic-mirror challenge. Learn the Combat Maneuvers Mastery to enhance the benefits of Stealthy Survivor and Lucky Shield. With this upgrade, Stealthy Survivor allows you to interact with supply stashes to apply stealth even while in combat. Lucky Shield is enhanced to automatically restore your full health points (and grant you a barrier) when you reach 25% health while on Castora!
Fresh Fashion Updates
We're also building on the Fashion Templates feature released earlier this year, including new ways to change individual cosmetics and the ability to add more of your look to templates! Now mounts, gliders, conjured doorways, and skiffs can all be managed and dyed through your Fashion Template in a special Travel section. Additionally, the Current Fashion tab has been added to both the Wardrobe and Travel sections of Fashion Templates, so you can change cosmetics and dyes without needing to assign them to a Fashion Template.
New Wizard Vault Rewards and More!
Do you have astral acclaim burning holes in your pockets? Fear not! New rewards are now available in the Wizard's Vault. This season, you can earn the first three pieces of the Ward Hunter's armor set: boots, gloves, and shoulders. The new Enchanted Springer Skin adds glowing runes and magical orbs to another of your favorite mounts. Show off your physique with the "/Flex" Emote Tome, and channel the brilliant spirits of Castora with a collection of skins from the Gwyl Monarch's weapon set.
Beyond the Wizard's Vault, there's also new relics, an infusion, a weapon set, and a variety of other rewards for exploring the new content and map to round out the available goodies!
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Twitch Drops until May 17
Twitch Drops are running from now until Sunday, May 17 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7). Earn a Bloodstone Dye Kit, Mini Orange Kitten, Shattered Bloodstone Ascender Combo, and Pirate Captain's Outfit by watching participating streams after connecting your Guild Wars 2 and Twitch accounts!
The Road Ahead
As always, this release is just the start of a new quarter full of events:
June
- June 2–23: Dragon Bash
- June 23–30: Fractal Rush Event
- June 30–July 7: Roller Beetle Racing Week
July
- July 7–14: PvP Rush Event
- July 14: Skills and Balance Update
- July 14–21: Dungeon Rush Event
- July 21–28: WvW Rush Event
- July 28–August 4: World Boss Rush Event
August
- August 11–September 1: Festival of the Four Winds
- August 28: Guild Wars 2’s 14th Anniversary
Lastly, we have a new ranger pet we'd like to introduce you to. We think it's otterly adorable:
We hope you enjoy this latest update to Guild Wars 2. Happy adventuring, and we'll see you in Tyria!
—The Guild Wars 2 Team