The MMORPG Guild Wars 2 is getting a new expansion this year. We at MeinMMO are already giving you tips to prepare for End of Dragons.
What is happening in Guild Wars 2? In April the current season of the Living World ended with a major battle between two Elder Dragons. This laid the foundation for the upcoming expansion.
End of Dragons is set to release in 2022 and will take us to Cantha, the area from Guild Wars Factions.
We want to give you 9 tips to help you prepare meaningfully for End of Dragons.
Is it still worth starting Guild Wars 2 in 2022? Yes, because especially new players have a ton of content and stories to discover. With the always uniform level cap and the same item level, they can quickly catch up to veterans.
You can find a detailed assessment on this topic in this article: Is it still worth starting Guild Wars 2 in 2022?
Play through the story
The most important tip to prepare for the upcoming expansion is to look at the previous content and especially the story. After all, we will also be heading out with our group of heroes again in End of Dragons, and it makes sense to know these characters beforehand.
Also, the reason for fighting dragons should be clarified beforehand.
While most veterans might have already checked this off, it’s particularly important for new players and returnees.
This is how the chronicle works: You experience the story of Guild Wars 2 in different phases, which you can follow in your chronicle in-game:
- From level 1 to 80, you experience the so-called personal story. This is free for everyone.
- Then it continues with Living World Season 2, which you must purchase separately.
- Next comes the expansion Heart of Thorns, which you automatically own if you buy the latest expansion Path of Fire.
- After that, it continues with Living World Season 3, which again costs extra money.
- Next is the expansion Path of Fire.
- Then comes Living World Season 4, also again with costs.
- Finally, Living World Season 5 – also known as the Icebrood Saga – of which the last episode is currently free.
Secure a precursor for a new legendary
In May 2021, the developers launched a special event for newcomers and returnees. Episodes of the Living World were distributed for free through this. If you missed the event, you can unlock each episode for 200 gems (2.50 euros or in-game gold).
Additionally, new achievements were introduced in the game, which you can find in the “Side Stories” tab. New tasks are available for each episode. Anyone who completes all of these tasks receives a legendary amulet. Anyone who finishes at least 10 episodes gets a precursor for the new legendary weapons in End of Dragons.
So completing the tasks is already worthwhile before the release of the expansion.
Farm materials for legendaries
With the new roadmap for 2021, the developers of Guild Wars 2 have already revealed that new legendary weapons will come with End of Dragons. These are special skins that are very expensive and have a cool effect: You can constantly and arbitrarily change the stats.
Veterans can therefore already start farming certain materials that will be needed for legendaries in the past and likely still in the future, including:
- Mystical coins (which are currently rising incredibly fast in price)
- Obsidian shards for karma
- Honor badges in WvW
- Mystical lucky clovers
- Ectoplasm orbs
- T1-T6 materials of all kinds
Tips for farming mystical coins: Currently (on May 8), a mystical coin costs over 2.6 gold. It may therefore make sense to farm these coins yourself rather than buy them. You can obtain them through:
- The daily login rewards (just log in briefly every day)
- Through the daily success “Mystical Smith,” which can be completed irregularly
- Through the daily fractal chests
- Once a day when defeating the Ley-Line Anomaly
- From daily automated tournaments in PvP
- With a lot of luck from the Fluctuating Mass; the bags you can get from daily converters
Collect hero points
With hero points, you unlock new abilities and traits for your classes in Guild Wars 2. You can find these points in the open world and can interact with them or defeat certain tasks or enemies to earn them.
The hero points will become particularly interesting with End of Dragons, as each class will receive a new elite specialization and thus new abilities and traits.
The system of Guild Wars 2 is designed in such a way that you can already collect hundreds of points more than you can actually spend so far. So if you want to test the new specialization as soon as End of Dragons launches, you can already collect hero points in advance.
Generally farm gold
In addition to the legendary weapons, the new expansion will also bring new skins and possibly even new stat combinations for your equipment. And this will initially cost gold. Therefore, it makes sense to start the new expansion with a full wallet.
We have created a detailed guide for this: Guild Wars 2: How to farm gold quickly in 2021.
Unlock the Skimmer and other mounts
The mounts in Guild Wars 2 are a cool means of transportation, with each mount having its own function. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to own each mount to experience certain content and explore areas.
The following 8 mounts are offered in Guild Wars 2:
- Raptor – can jump particularly far
- Springer – can jump particularly high
- Skimmer – can swim above and below water
- Jackal – is particularly fast and can teleport
- Griffon – can fly quickly
- Roller Beetle – rolls downhill the fastest
- Sky Scale – can fly and cling to rocks
- Warclaw – is useful for WvW
How to get each of the mounts is revealed in our mount guide.
What is special about the Skimmer? The Skimmer was revamped in 2020, so it can now be utilized underwater as well as above water. A new quest was introduced that you must complete first.
You can find the guide for unlocking it here: How to turn your Skimmer into an underwater mount.
Secure “Quality of Life” items
In Guild Wars 2, there are some useful items that I can only recommend to other players. These include account-wide inventory slots that are shared among all characters. You can only get these in the gem shop, where you can buy them for real money or exchange gold.
Other useful items include:
- A copper-powered recycler – gem shop
- Tarktun’s personal delivery portal, which also functions as a mobile merchant – reward for an achievement
- Endless trading express, bank access express, or hair kits – very rare drops and easiest obtainable through the auction house
- Various converters like Mauldrey, the shimmer of sentiment, or Herta – rewards for achievements
- One of the merchant passes like the airship captain’s pass – gem shop
If you are interested in these items, you can find tips and guides in the wiki or from our colleagues at Guildnews.de.
Farm and store transmutation charges
The last tip is especially important for fashion fans. Since the equipment level remains constant, the appearance of characters plays an important role in endgame.
You can change your appearance at any time through the wardrobe, as long as you have enough transmutation charges. Since new skins will also come with the new expansion, you should farm these charges in advance:
- The easiest way to get transmutation charges is through the login rewards
- A good alternative for farming is exploring maps. For the full exploration of cities like Godslost or Lion’s Arch or the area Southsun Cove, you are guaranteed to get 5 pieces, otherwise, there is a chance for them
- If you enjoy PvP and WvW, you can earn transmutation charges through many reward paths
- In case of emergency, they can also be bought again through the shop by converting gold into gems
Play Guild Wars 1 Factions
If you want a first glimpse of the upcoming continent Cantha, you can already enter it in Guild Wars 1. Although there will be significant differences between the two versions – after all, over 250 years have passed – ArenaNet will likely include some Easter eggs for fans of the first part that will be better understood if you have already played Factions.
With these 9 tips, you should be well-equipped for the launch of End of Dragons. Do you have any other ideas or additions for preparing for the expansion? Then feel free to write them in the comments.
Guild Wars 2 is also not the only MMORPG receiving an expansion this year. We have summarized all expansions and new releases here: These are your most anticipated MMORPGs and expansions for 2022.
