The new expansion “Secrets of the Obscure” for Guild Wars 2 will be released in August. It finally makes the Wizard’s Tower accessible, which fans of the series have been watching for about 18 years. However, other elements also excite our editor Alexander Leitsch greatly.
What is in the expansion?
- The Wizard’s Tower comes as a starting point along with two new areas in the game.
- In the Skywatch Archipelago, players must climb and assert themselves high in the sky of Tyria against the demon people of Kryptis.
- Amnytas, on the other hand, is located directly in the demon realm.
- Players can assert themselves in two new strike missions for 10 players. These resemble raid instances in other MMORPGs. Later, these will also get a challenge mode.
- Each class receives a new weapon master training, giving them access to the weapons of all elite specializations, even if they are not equipped. This is supposed to provide more build diversity. Additionally, each class will receive a brand new weapon in a later patch, for example, the Ranger will get the mace for main and off-hand.
- A new mastery for the Sky Scale will be introduced, allowing you to utilize updrafts or attack enemies from the air.
- There will be monster hunts and bounty hunts assigned by the Astral Guardians – the “good” faction.
- Players can look forward to new currencies, rewards, and achievements. The highlight here is a set of legendary armor available only through PvE activities in the open world.
When will the new expansion be released? Secrets of the Obscure is set to be released on August 22. So, there are only about 8 weeks between announcement and release. You can pre-order it now.
The expansion is also the start of a whole series of quarterly updates. These are supposed to bring a new fractal, another map, and new story content that will conclude the story of Secrets of the Obscure, before it is expected to continue in 2024 with the next addon. According to the official website, 3 more quarterly patches are planned.
How much will the expansion cost? The basic version of Secrets of the Obscure costs 24.99 euros. As a pre-order, you will receive bonus items, including a title, a wizard hat, and a shared inventory slot.
There are also two additional packages (Deluxe and Ultimate Edition) that offer more bonuses and up to 4,000 additional gems. These cost 49.99 and 74.99 euros, respectively.
Here you can watch the trailer for the expansion:
Guild Wars 2 finally lets me explore something new
The Wizard’s Tower is a magical place. It has been visible in the game since Guild Wars Prophecies in 2004. It hovers over the sea south of the Kessex Hills. But until now, players have not been able to interact with it, only admire it from afar.
Players have come up with the craziest myths and stories about who or what lurks in that tower. The developers themselves have made hints and jokes about the tower over the years. With every expansion since 2015, I have hoped that it would finally be included in the game.
Because it brings the fresh wind that I have missed in the game for years. In the expansions Path of Fire and also End of Dragons, we primarily explored areas that I already knew from the predecessor. No matter if Nightfall or Factions and even though 250 years have passed – basically, I already knew everything.
Already in a column in March 2020, I pleaded for ArenaNet to finally lead us to a completely new area, for example, to the jungle in the east of Tyria. But the Wizard’s Tower, which also looks breathtaking in the trailer and the screenshots, makes me even happier. Because it solves a riddle that I have been carrying since 2005.
The story of Secrets of the Obscure also breaks out of the usual patterns surrounding dragons and suddenly brings entirely new enemies and a completely new story arc. Although this was already clear from the outset, it is nice to read that the developers have thought up something new with a completely new hostile race.
This alone makes Guild Wars 2 super interesting again in 2023.
But the features around it also make a very solid impression. After the developers revealed that future expansions would be smaller but would appear more regularly, I was worried that the purchase might hardly be worth it. Why spend 20 or more euros if in the end there are only a few new areas?
With the additional strike missions, the unlocked weapons for the classes, and the new set of legendary armor, ArenaNet has created enough incentives to significantly increase my anticipation for August.
Only a few weeks until the release
Curiously, there is again a short interval between the announcement and release. The developers of Guild Wars 2 have already handled it similarly in 2017 with Path of Fire.
We can therefore expect relatively many blog posts and smaller livestreams until the release, which only fuels the anticipation even more.
What do you think of the new expansion? Does Secrets of the Obscure sound like a good continuation of the story, or would you have wished for something else?
By the way, you don’t have to wait for the next update in Guild Wars 2. The last quarterly patch with a new area was released on May 23, and today – June 27 – the new fractal on the topic of Jade Wind was released.
