Guild Wars 2’s upcoming Visions of Eternity enlargement is only one week away. For the primary time within the franchise’s historical past, gamers will enterprise past what was explored within the two video games and uncover a brand new land, flora, fauna, and all related risks. Castora is a completely new space, not often mentioned in mainstream Tyrian conversations exterior of apocryphal sailor tales. From the little or no data gleaned from such sources, it’s an island of life and magic unbound.
ArenaNet invited me to discover Castora earlier than its official launch and expertise the primary zone for shut to 2 hours, the place the builders took us on a journey. I acquired to see all the things from the brand new caves, coves, and shoals; I took half in an occasion in opposition to a T. Rex, ventured into an Inquest lab disguised as a Golem, and even fought in a meta occasion in opposition to two bosses. To not point out, I additionally acquired a preview of the rewards ready on the distant shores of Tyria.
Castora is gorgeous and lethal
Our exploration started on the beachhead established by a ragtag workforce of survivors, who name themselves the Hullgardeners. In the meantime, our personal group of Astral Ward and Tyrian Alliance members ventured inwards, by means of the snaking waterways and rocky outcrops. We did use the brand new Skimmer mount, and sure, they’re being geared up with many new talents in Visions of Eternity, akin to a lift to extend flight time and top, in addition to the flexibility to roll by means of with out dismounting.
As we have been exploring, we stumbled on an Inquest gizmo-laden Tyrannosaurus Rex, being mind-controlled and wreaking havoc. Naturally, everybody dismounted to cease such an inhumane experiment. The subsequent 3 minutes have been spent making an attempt to calm the dinosaur down, whereas making an attempt to cease the Inquest from conducting such an experiment, and the builders guided us by means of it (and helped us struggle it).
It needs to be famous that solely the primary map was out there for exploration, and the second was fully off-limits. We additionally took half within the meta occasion of the map, the place we went up in opposition to a norn duo who have been unusually aligned with the Inquest. It grew to become clear that there was one other faction of survivors on the island, who name themselves Freebooters and are more likely to fireplace the primary shot and take your cash.
You’ve gotten new instruments to tackle Castora’s lethal facet
Throughout this complete tour, I didn’t go up the prospect to play because the Guardian, particularly because the Luminary. Primarily as a result of it’s a class I didn’t get to expertise in the course of the Visions of Eternity Beta Specialization occasion, and secondly, as a result of I discovered the specialization’s theme to be reactive. It supplied simply sufficient harm, boon assist, and crowd management impact to make it a particularly versatile class.
You wouldn’t want such instruments if Castora weren’t a harmful place to start with. Dinosaurs are scary as it’s, and now the Inquest has given them mechanical implants and “upgrades” in Visions of Eternity. After which there are the Freebooters. Beginning as mere pirates, they’ve additionally obtained Inquest tech and, naturally, have turn out to be formidable enemies. None extra so than the 2 aforementioned meta-event bosses.
I received’t give out a lot details about the struggle, simply that gamers will discover out they’re virtually magnetically attracted to 1 boss over the opposite, much like how teams must align themselves to particular feelings to fight Eparch’s summons. I don’t suppose will probably be a really tight DPS chase like Eparch was, however will probably be on the identical scale as Greer and Decima in Janthir Syntri.
Placing the motion subsequent to the journey in Visions of Eternity
Once we requested the builders concerning the largest inspiration for the workforce and what formed the general growth of Castora, “Motion film” was the reply each time. From the start of our journey at a shipwreck, to discovering a misplaced island stuffed with dinosaurs, to preventing pirates geared up with state-of-the-art tech, and even breaking right into a secret lab in disguise, the theme was shining by means of.
Talking of the lab infiltration, it was a really quick marketing campaign mission, which is a stark departure from the same old Guild Wars 2 providing. Usually, marketing campaign missions are lengthy and infrequently have a prolonged stroll from encounter to come across as characters present exposition and context. This was maybe the largest gripe of the playerbase throughout Janthir Wilds, which had extra conversations than fight. Personally, I didn’t thoughts the slower tempo, however I’m not against a breakneck marketing campaign both.
Aspect Tales are additionally an vital characteristic in Visions of Eternity, targeted on delivering shorter tales and interconnected tidbits by means of achievements and exploration. There are additionally new Masteries coming with Visions of Eternity, however to maintain my expertise considerably novel when the enlargement launches, I made a decision to not dive too deeply. The brand new Wavehawk (a.okay.a Skimmer) talents are part of the brand new Mastery system.
The rewards for exploration are Legendary
Similar to each different enlargement earlier than it, Visions of Eternity is bringing a complete suite of latest weapons and armour to gather and use within the wilds of Castora. And for the primary time, the brand new Elite Specializations are bringing new and distinctive armour items as Specialization mastery rewards. This can be a welcome change from earlier expansions, which gave Ascended weapons as rewards for finishing the Specialization collections.
The largest prize for Visions of Eternity gamers is the brand new Legendary Aquabreather, named Selachimorpha. The primary Legendary merchandise of this class, Selachimorpha makes shark fins develop out of your again underwater and makes small fish comply with you round. The one draw back is that there isn’t a major concentrate on underwater fight right here, regardless of the theme, so Selachimorpha’s results will probably be restricted. There are additionally different Legendaries to be acquired in Visions of Eternity, primarily 3 weapons, a hoop, and an adjunct, however we weren’t proven these.
Visions of Eternity is a totally new horizon for Guild Wars 2, as it’s a really uncharted territory for the franchise, with fully new lore and options. It’s providing a brand new storyline, new interactions between the varied Tyrian races, and the potential to recruit new allies and threats which have advanced with out the affect of the Elder Dragons and the Mists. I, for one, am blissful to play extra Guild Wars 2 always, so it is a good time for me.
Guild Wars 2 Visions of Eternity launches on October 28.
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Edited by Arnab Chakrabarti
