Guild Wars 2 - Visions of Eternity Expansion Discussion Thread

[PACOX]

Elite spec better came and went. I was a bit busy so didn't bother to post. Quite a few specs I've overperformed number wise - Ele, Mesmer, engineer, ranger, thief kind of. Guardian was great at healing and tanking, some people complained about the gameplay but I didn't play it enough to make a judgement. Necromancer was fine. I forgot the rev spec existed. Warrior just plays like it's current heal build which can get awkward to play..

So Anet just dropped a decent revamp of the onboarding process for fractals, along with a new legendary and possibly the first interaction of the LFG system. Also a new PVP mode (well it was in beta and now made permanent).

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topi...tember-9-2025/


Anet really didn't mention any of this in their roadmap. Just boom, new content. They also peaked on Steam like a week ago. Not sure why. Maybe it was the sale and elite spec beta. Maybe other MMOs are having droughts, idk. GW2 is the only traditional MMO I've been playing this year, I barely know what's going on in the other ones.

[Edge-]

The "fractal-finder" got me back in a bit. Random drop, neat stuff.

[Edge-]

Shockingly, there's no weird grinds or wonky steps to getting the legendary gloves.

Literally just get 450 fractal dust (not super hard between the chievos and all) and congrats, have some legendary gloves.

That brings me to 3/6 legendary armor, which is nice! Still gotta farm for hat/shoulders/boots.

Edit: You can get extra infusions for what seem like fairly "reasonable" prices - plus some additional fractal grinding. Nice 5 power/9 agony res ones for 10g, 30 ecto, and 1 of the orbs you get from getting another 150 dust. And it changes the color of one of your gloves, too, so you can stack two to change them to the same/different colors.

Or buy other armor class versions for 200 icy runestones, gift of mighty/magical prosperity and one of the orbs from 150 dust.

I'll prob try to get at least one infusion, doubt I'll go for both.

[PACOX]

Anet did a media dump







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Missed the blog post on them adding quickplay raids a few weeks back.

Also they are working on graphic improvements. I remember them mentioning them in the past I don't know how far they are going to push their improvements but shadows are first.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/new...s-of-eternity/

The before and after photos are better in this reddit post imo

https://old.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/..._demo_as_gifs/

We're never getting a GW3...

[Edge-]

I'm not convinced that the shadow upgrades are that massive of a lift (I am no engineer though, so if someone is please correct me). Work, yes, but this seems like more of the "tech we now have access to after moving to DX11 after resisting it for years" combined with their new format of approaching expansions. Not complaining either way, the upgrades look nice.

Anyways, expansion drops tomorrow. Conveniently finishing up the main story overcapped my AA - not by as much as I'd wanted (you can get around 1700ish, I got to 1500) but plenty enough to set me up to buy whatever I really want the first week.

Sadly this is also PoE1 league launch week this Friday so I know I'll be playing that a lot (even if I play SSF). I'm still not even super up to date on all the latest with the expansion beyond it being inquest and dinos or something. Will probably make slow progress on the story.

And as a reminder -

Please use spoiler tags [spoiler] when discussing anything related to the narrative for a while after launch, thanks!

[Edge-]

Non-story related, but will use spoiler tags.

If you stumble across Flapjacks Starblessed, FEED THE CAT. Takes you to a little chest and...KITTENS

Just starting and glad I ignored info. I'm kinda ok with the cast/crew we're going with so far, always happy to have Canach back though Isgarren can piss off. Starts of relatively strong, like the little gameplay gimmicks and the first bit of the first zone is pretty ok so far.

I have no clue what I'm doing with Luminary but I'm trying a generic power build with Zeal/Radiance and GS/Sword|Sword because I haven't used the latter in ages and want a bit more mobility.

[PACOX]

Got to play for about two hours yesterday. I'm digging it. Getting to the new zone was a bit long but Anet gets points for being thematic.Th3 little bit of underwater stuff I did wasn't annoying and it feels good to see a return of actual underwater gameplay.

[Edge-]

Th3 little bit of underwater stuff I did wasn't annoying and it feels good to see a return of actual underwater gameplay.

Thankfully it's apparently mostly exploration-based. I found some hidden spots that seem like they're part of achievements, which is cool.

First zone has a lot of little side activity/small achievements/collections which is nice, so far.

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When you meet the dude with the wavestrider collection, DO THE WAVESTRIDER COLLECTION THEN, IT IS VERY MUCH NOT OPTIONAL - it's how you get the mastery. It seemed optional. It's not. Now I have to go back and replay the story because the collection items you need are only on the map during that part of the story.

I've been enjoying myself so far but is a face-palm-ingly bad oversight to not require its completion before progressing. I'm genuinely fucking annoyed.

[Zodiark]

Eh looks cool. Idk maybe I'll give it a go if I feel like I'm needing a break from WoW. I loved GW2 when it first came out but something about the combat didn't quite grab me the same way WoW's does. I played GW2 on and of and on and off for years and years. I was in the Beta back in the day when the whole "next wow-killer" phase was going on and everyone thought this might be the one... Lot of us from not only my WoW guild at the time but also from my Rift guild, (which was another supposed wow-killer, when it proved not to be we thought maybe just maybe GW2)

[Edge-]

I've been playing casually and am still in the first zone, in part because I missed the wavestrider mastery and needed to go back to unlock it/get the XP to unlock the second step for the main quest.

So far I generally like the new zone. It's very pretty and nice to look at. It's generally well laid out IMO. Some of the group events and whatnot are goin to be be a pain later, but it's pretty solid so far.

I'm marginally curious to see where the narrative goes, went in basically ignoring all info about the expansion narrative etc.

Luminary is...pretty good I think? Building with Radiance/Zeal for high Resolution uptime for the bonus crit and passive might stacking, plus lots of Light Aura explosions. Still GS/S|S (tried spear but wasn't a big fan), it feels like a lot of buttons compared to other builds but it's pretty fun? Damage seems solid and it's got fantastic burst. Looks like it could be used as a boonbot, too?

[PACOX]

Still in the first zone because I ended up getting sucked into the side stuff. Often repeated, Anet can start stories very well. Feels like they hit the mark.

Guild mate told me to turn on the music. It's hitting. I hope they do an optimization pass on their shadow update. It looks great but taxes the hell out of my FPS on some maps.

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Luminary is...pretty good I think? Building with Radiance/Zeal for high Resolution uptime for the bonus crit and passive might stacking, plus lots of Light Aura explosions. Still GS/S|S (tried spear but wasn't a big fan), it feels like a lot of buttons compared to other builds but it's pretty fun? Damage seems solid and it's got fantastic burst. Looks like it could be used as a boonbot, too?

It's looking like it's really good in a tank role or dps according the Snowcrows discord (they make builds and a lot of theorycrafters hang out there).

[Edge-]

It's looking like it's really good in a tank role or dps according the Snowcrows discord (they make builds and a lot of theorycrafters hang out there).

I can see it being tanky when built. I just saw the ability to deliver alacrity and quickness and was tinkering around with the idea of boonbot. Otherwise yeah, DPS works very good with the 2 hammer hitting fucking hard.

[PACOX]

I'm just now getting to the 2nd zone. Still enjoying everything...despite a bug where I had to back and redo some of the story. That meant I had to spend a lot more time in the first zone than I a planned. Lots a grief among the castaways. Not done with the story but I like how the Inquest interact with the pirates without going into the spoiler territory. I got spoiled in regards to the main villain a little bit but I am excited to reach them in the story. Cool stuff

[Edge-]

I'm just now getting to the 2nd zone. Still enjoying everything...despite a bug where I had to back and redo some of the story. That meant I had to spend a lot more time in the first zone than I a planned. Lots a grief among the castaways. Not done with the story but I like how the Inquest interact with the pirates without going into the spoiler territory. I got spoiled in regards to the main villain a little bit but I am excited to reach them in the story. Cool stuff

I put this on the backburner for the PoE league but I'm in the same boat with the progress. Almost done with the Skimmer mastery so I can continue and make it to the second zone (soon, I assume).

I do appreciate that we see a few Astral Ward friends again in the first zone, I just wish we got to do something with them in the actual story. The other Astral Ward members are way cooler than Isgarren.

[PACOX]

Somewhat related, GW1 is being updated

https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/new...wars-reforged/

[Xilurm]

I'm gonna buy that. Always wanted to play GW1 back in the day but was way more into WoW instead.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

Oh wow, I wonder what that will be like. I actually enjoyed GW1 much more than 2 overall, being able to build and skill out a whole team to solo everything was fun.

Devona looking great!

[PACOX]

Arenanet doc that just dropped. I had it one in the background. It was pretty cool. Arenanet is exactly company I thought they were. I mean that respectfully.

[vian]

Brahm dead yet?

[PACOX]

Raid LFG rework blog post

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/n...ng-february-3/



Basically they are taking more frol FF14s system. Strikes and Raids are all call Raids now. They adding a quickplay feature (automated LFG), unified currency, a bunch of other little QOL things meant to make it easier for new people to explore 10 man instances and the ability for vets tailor their raid nights.