GW2 Janthir Wilds - Discussion Thread

[PACOX]

Update 2 trailer:



* New map
* New raid difficulties for wing 8
* New convergence boss
* All the other standard refreshes and additions like relics, skins, etc.

I might be misremembering but I thought they said the stories were going to be new stuff? A good chunk of this expansion and the last one are related to GW1 stories. Im not complaining its just funny. Some of my guild mates were old to play a lot of GW1 and are liking all the callbacks.


Related lore dump Anet posted the other day

Quartely studio updateand roadmap

The Chart



Schedule

March
March 11—Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds: “Repentance”
March 25—Ura Raid Legendary Mode and WvW Quality-of-Life Updates

April
April 8–April 15—Dungeon Rush Bonus Event
April 15–May 6—Super Adventure Festival
April 15—Skills and Balance Update
April 25–May 2—WvW No Downed State Bonus Event

May
May 6–May 20—Return to End of Dragons Bonus Event
May 13–May 20—Roller Beetle Racing Bonus Event
May 20–May 27—PvP Push Beta and Rush Bonus Event

[Lotus Victoria]

Finally completed the Precursor spear yesterday. Took me a long while, as I'm not very rich or efficient at farming.

Damn, crafting legendaries really is something in this game. I like it!

[PACOX]

New map preview



Wizards Vault refresh

[Edge-]

Some of the new armor pieces look pretty good. Wish we got another mount skin, but oh well. A chair is nice, and I guess we get a new infusion?

[Edge-]

Partway through the story. Protip: Rush the story bits before exploring the zone and doing events, you need to get to a certain step to unlock the mastery line you need to continue progressing and you'll just burn a bunch of XP towards the new homestead mastery.

On the zone...I'm not sure what I think so far. I think I've done most of the events. I like that there's more structured chain events to a point, most are pretty rad little adventures the first few times through. But there also don't feel like there are that many things to do outside of those chain events...and that getting XP in the area is kinda a slog as a result. One good thing is that it seems that at least one of the bigger event chains has a few different options for the final step (giant elemental event). Only noticed it in one event so far.

It's still fairly small, but feels dense in the sense that it's all being used. But I'm not sure if this really feels like that much more than the first sliver of Inner Nayos. Quality is higher, but the quantity so far is lacking as I've been repeating things after a few hours.

Still need to finish up the story to see how much there is to that and do a bit more exploring (missing 3 PoIs), but so far I'm "meh" on this update as my day 1 hot-take.

[PACOX]

Havent done the story but did some of the CM raid fights. The fun fights got better and the annoying one is even more annoying, go figure. Havent beat any of them but progression is fun.

[Edge-]

Havent done the story but did some of the CM raid fights. The fun fights got better and the annoying one is even more annoying, go figure. Havent beat any of them but progression is fun.

I gotta try the convergence with the new boss...greer I think?

I don't raid/care about raids but it's nice to hear that this one is apparently pretty good. I need to finish the story but I kinda worry I'm already burning out on the new zone. The concept of the design is good - three lanes with decent quality event chains that each have some minor variations between them. But in practice it feels so...bleh. I don't know why. It's not radically different than Drizzlewood in concept and Drizzlewood is arguably my favorite zone in the whole game (at least the first half) but it just feels like there's "less stuff" to do in it.

Got the last PoI and surprised how some areas of the zone feel largely unused for events. Fleshing those out with some smaller non-group events would definitely help break up the monotony and add so much needed solo options/diversity to the zone.

[PACOX]

I gotta try the convergence with the new boss...greer I think?

I don't raid/care about raids but it's nice to hear that this one is apparently pretty good. I need to finish the story but I kinda worry I'm already burning out on the new zone. The concept of the design is good - three lanes with decent quality event chains that each have some minor variations between them. But in practice it feels so...bleh. I don't know why. It's not radically different than Drizzlewood in concept and Drizzlewood is arguably my favorite zone in the whole game (at least the first half) but it just feels like there's "less stuff" to do in it.

Got the last PoI and surprised how some areas of the zone feel largely unused for events. Fleshing those out with some smaller non-group events would definitely help break up the monotony and add so much needed solo options/diversity to the zone.

I think the biggest issue is knowing that it will be the newest map for the next three months. I finally got around to exploring the map. Its a nice little cozy map but even the slowest players are going exhaust it. It also feels kind of like that forgettable map they released after End of Dragons. I can look up the name but why bother, its so lackluster. Its the 2nd raid focused patch in a row in a game where the super majority of players do not raid.

Side note. Greer is the new convergence boss and the one thats kind of universally hated in raids. I think the open world and convergence versions of him get more love because he isnt as nearly annoying when you're dealing with he nonsense in a party of 10.

[Lotus Victoria]

I love the Kodan but I've grown to resent anything related to the Wizard's tower. I don't like Isgarren and the cast haven't won me over. They are making me miss Braham of all characters. Christ.
The new format with these long periods of nothing aren't doing any favors for the story as well. Shame.

[PACOX]

I feel like Isgarren is supposed to be an unlikable person but we'll see if it works out narratively or if he just remains annoying. I don't mind the new format but its not balanced across all gaming modes. Raid community is eating, achievement hunters are eating, no one else is. Next patch will have a fractal, map, CM convergences, new legendaries, we'll see how hard that hits.


A bit of an aside. SOTOs final meta even is actually fun now that its mostly dedicated players that run it. Weird how that works.