Greetings, Tyrians!
It's hard to believe it's already been a few months since Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ launched. As we wind down 2024, we'd like to give the community an update about all things Guild Wars 2. Our fifth expansion added one of the most requested features to the game—homesteads—and it's been wonderful watching the creativity of players as they decorate their new homes. You also got to experience the beauty of Lowland Shores and survive the dangers of Janthir Syntri with your new allies, the lowland kodan. With the kodans' help, you were taught to wield spears and ride the warclaw like you never have before. But Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds has just begun, and in one week, you'll be able to join forces to tackle our first raid in five years, craft a new legendary spear, and continue your story with the lowland kodan.
Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds—"Godspawn"
"Godspawn," the first of three major updates to Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, is coming on November 19. Three new story chapters will continue your adventure against the threat of the titans. Will you and your allies be able to uncover a path to securing peace for the inhabitants of the Isles of Janthir?
In addition to new story chapters, there will also be a new raid and Convergence, the new legendary spear, Klobjarne, along with a new Wizard's Vault season, relics, weapon and armor rewards, a Mastery update, and new homestead decorations!
Stay tuned for previews of the new rewards and Wizard's Vault refresh in our launch day blog!
Raids Are Back!
In next week's update, we will be introducing our new 10-person raid, which will take you to Mount Balrior. It features three bosses and several smaller, varied encounters that will test your coordination and adaptability.
At the heart of Mount Balrior's narrative are Greer, the Blightbringer, and Decima, the Stormsinger, the two titans you battled in Janthir Syntri. After their defeat, they've retreated to Mount Balrior to recover and regroup. This time, they won't be alone. Their raid versions bring back the chaotic, relentless attacks of Greer and the structured, strategic mechanics of Decima, but cranked up to new levels of intensity. Expect familiar moves executed in ways that will keep your group on their toes, along with a few completely new surprises that Greer and Decima have in store.
Embark on the New Convergence in Lowland Shore
For a different flavor of group content, we are also launching a new Convergence in the "Godspawn" update! Like the Convergence in Guild Wars 2®: Secrets of the Obscure™, up to 50 players can participate in public squads every three hours, with private squads able to start any time. Expect a challenge comparable to the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure Convergence bosses, with most groups completing it in 20-30 minutes.
In this journey, Stoic Alder, the Claw of the lowland kodan, narrates your adventure to young kodan cubs, adding unique story twists with every playthrough. Fans of Greer and Decima will find familiar attacks, but with adaptations that make this event a fresh experience. As our first multi-purpose map, Mount Balrior includes hidden passages and adaptive designs, setting the stage for future rotations of bosses and a challenge mode arriving later next year.
Stay tuned as we dive deeper into what's next for both raids and Convergences in an upcoming blog later this week!
World vs. World (WvW) Updates
Our team is focused on refining core systems in WvW while we continue planning for some of our larger, long-term goals. One major area of focus is incentivizing winning—or, in other words, creating shared goals that encourage teamwork. We've consistently heard two key pieces of feedback: players often have different preferences for defending versus not defending, and, more generally, many players feel there aren't enough incentives to win matchups. By aligning team goals around winning, we hope to address both these issues. It's a big task, but it's one we're dedicated to, and we're excited to start rolling out improvements.
We're also making some significant scoring adjustments for the first time in a while. This is an essential step in aligning player goals and encouraging teams to prioritize winning together. We've updated PPK (points per kill) values, the points for capturing objectives, and will soon launch adjusted VP (Victory Point) numbers tailored to different time zone coverage.
In the short term, we've been updating several key parts of WvW game elements. We've overhauled the siege system, improved the participation system to make earning repel credit more consistent, and introduced new attribute combinations exclusive to WvW (alongside tweaks to existing ones that don't impact PvE). We're also working to adjust certain tactics and strengthen objective lords to better serve as rally points for defenders. To make WvW more rewarding, we've added unique skins, infusions, new ways to spend WvW currencies, and better skirmish track rewards.
Accessibility for new players is a key goal, too. The warclaw is now immediately available in WvW, mastering it is faster, and new exotic gear with selectable attributes is readily obtainable.
World vs. World Restructuring and Competitive Updates
The World Restructuring team is currently focused on larger improvements to the team-creation algorithm, with special consideration given to improving the issue described in this forum post.
We're also enhancing the guild panel with a new UI element that displays which members have selected the guild as their WvW guild, making it easier for guilds to coordinate their World vs. World activities and avoid missing team-creation lockout deadlines.
Additionally, we're updating the character select screen, replacing World Selection with a Region Selection UI panel. This will allow seamless transfers between North American and European datacenters. With this change, intra-region transfers will no longer be necessary, which also eliminates the risk of spending gems on redundant world transfers. Regional transfers will now have a flat cost of 500 gems simplifying the process.
Also, for players who took part in our PvP Push beta event, we recently sent out a survey to gather feedback on the event, and we'll be reviewing the responses and then determining our next steps for the game mode. There will be more Push news in 2025 as we continue to work with the community on building the Push PvP mode.
Guild Wars 2 on the Epic Games Store!
Guild Wars 2 will be making its debut on the Epic Games Store later this month, and we're thrilled to welcome a new batch of players to the world of Tyria. Guild Wars 2 has been captivating players for the past 12 years, and we are excited to make Tyria even more accessible to players by partnering with Epic.
Keep a look out on our official platforms for a release date (and an epic new Guild Wars 2 trailer) soon!
Wrapping Up 2024
While the year may be coming to a close soon, there's still plenty of things coming up for Guild Wars 2. November and December will also include more events: a two-week New Hero Jump Start event, a "birthday" bash for Evon Gnashblade, and Wintersday coming up on December 10. Lunar New Year and a second skills and balance update will be coming along near the end of January 2025. Around then—or a little after—we'll be back to talk about the next few months of Guild Wars 2.
Here are some dates for our upcoming events to close out the year:
- October 29–November 19: Extra Life In-Game Bonus
- November 12–November 25: New Hero Jump Start Event
- November 25–December 2: Evon Gnashblade's "Birthday" Celebration
- December 10–January 2: Wintersday Event
And finally, as a reminder of what's still to come in Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds in 2025, we have this handy content chart:
Happy adventuring! We'll see you in the game.
—The Guild Wars 2 Team