Guild Wars 2 is set to launch on Steam in 2022. The developers revealed this at the beginning of the year. Since then, there have been continuous updates aimed primarily at improving the onboarding process and resolving the chaos surrounding currencies and story gaps. The upcoming update on July 19 also targets improvements for newcomers.
What does the patch on July 19 bring? Primarily general improvements:
- The four world bosses from the starting areas will be revamped and are expected to leave a strong, lasting impression. These include: the Great Jungle Wurm, the Shadow Behemoth, the Svanir Shaman Chief, and the Fire Elemental. They will receive toughness adjustments, updated abilities and health points, as well as better models and textures.
- The currencies in raids will be reduced. There will now only be Magnetite Shards and Legendary Insights. The additional rewards for later raids will be converted into these. Moreover, adjusted rewards will be implemented for the challenge modes in the raids.
- The instabilities in fractals will be revised to prevent frustrating extremes.
Additionally, the update brings back an old episode of Living World Season 1. This time, it revolves around Queen Jennah’s anniversary celebration.
Throughout the year, the old episodes of Living World Season 1 are being released, as these were originally intended to be temporary events. However, this created a gap in the story that is now being fixed for the Steam release. The episodes will be permanently available to all players for free.
Everything about the latest expansion End of Dragons can be found here:
Guild Wars 2 will be better for newcomers for the Steam release
What are the developers currently doing for the Steam release? As mentioned above, almost all adjustments are currently focused on making onboarding easier or removing confusing elements from the game:
- The eight individual currencies in dungeons have been removed. There is now only one currency that can be earned in each dungeon. Additionally, rewards have been slightly improved.
- A new mode has been introduced for raids that makes it easier for beginners to defeat the bosses. The training arena has also been simplified.
- The categories of daily achievements have been simplified and consolidated.
- Support for DirectX 11 was activated back in 2021. There are ongoing bug fixes or adjustments to improve gameplay feel and performance.
Additionally, since the release of End of Dragons at the end of February, challenge modes have been released for the four strike missions, one of which was extremely difficult, two balance patches have been published, new legendaries have been introduced, and several events have been held.
What’s next for the summer? For the summer, plans include the release of another episode of Living World Season 1 and adjustments to gameplay systems. Here, the focus is mainly on World vs. World, which is set to be completely overhauled and restructured.
You can see the complete roadmap here:
Steam release could cause a small boom
Is it worth making so many adjustments for the Steam release? Very likely. SWTOR launched on Steam at the end of 2020. Although there wasn’t a major update, over 34,000 players were simultaneously checking out the MMORPG at peak times (via SteamDB). At one point, it was even the MMORPG with the most players and remains to this day the MMORPG with the best rating on Steam.
So there was a bit of hype around SWTOR, and the developers of Guild Wars 2 are likely hoping for something similar. Their game is even a bit friendlier to free-to-play players than SWTOR.
When is GW2 releasing on Steam? This is not known. Officially, it is only stated that the release will take place sometime in 2022.
What do you think about the latest changes to Guild Wars 2? Would you check out the MMORPG on Steam, or are you already playing it without the Steam release?
Along with the Steam release, the developers have also announced the fourth expansion:
Guild Wars 2 shows roadmap for the future of the MMORPG – Announces 4th expansion and Steam release
