Guild Wars 2: The big Winter update 2016

In a few weeks, the first major update since the launch of Heart of Thorns for Guild Wars 2 is coming. We will tell you what new features there will be.

A major update per quarter

For Guild Wars 2, a kind of roadmap has finally been presented for the time after the expansion, revealing how the year will progress. The biggest change is likely the introduction of quarterly patches, which are somewhat grandiosely referred to as “significant quarterly updates.” The first of these major updates is expected to occur on January 26. Although the developers want to reveal many more details within the next 14 days, a rough overview has already been presented.

• Gliding is coming to Central Tyria! With the purchase of the mastery skill, it will soon be possible to take out the glider and soar through the air in the “old world” as well.

  

• The Shatterer in the Dragon’s stand will be polished. The battle is supposed to become more challenging and offer numerous new rewards. Along with this comes a new achievement category that even tempts players with a fancy new back item.
• Comfort improvements are coming for the Fractals of the Mist. From now on, there will be a small control panel at the entrance of each of the small instances where the difficulty can be adjusted. It is no longer necessary to leave the fractal to modify the difficulty.
• Supports can breathe a sigh of relief! After they have always drawn the short straw in events since performance was only based on damage dealt, supporters will now receive appropriate rewards as well. Those who heal, bless, remove conditions, and assist allies will receive participation points in events. However, one should still hit the boss or targets at least once to appear on the list.
• Some changes to the WvW battles should also help smaller groups to prevail. Now, only 1 player can recover from the downed state by killing an opponent instead of the previous 5 players. Defeated players can no longer be revived during a fight – they must either wait until the battle is over or respawn at the next way point.

Besides these highlights, there are many other small details, such as a new champion of the mist, Tybald Leftprank, a brewery opening its doors, new guild decorations being added, and more interface options made available for control.

Events in Spring – Lunar New Year, Raid, PvP League 2

Spring 2016 still has some other highlights, which the developers briefly touch upon.

• Players can participate again in the Lunar New Year event starting January 26, celebrated for 2 weeks (until February 9) in Divinity’s Reach. The celebration has been updated and comes with new rewards.
• Just 3 days earlier, on January 23, the second official PvP season begins, in which the new class changes are supposed to take effect. We discussed these balancing changes in detail in this post.
• Finally, the next area of the raid will also open its doors. Players can continue their investigation into the dark forces responsible for several incidents in the Maguuma Jungle. Although there is no fixed release date for the “Salvation Pass,” the developers want to keep us updated.

What’s coming this year?

Alongside all this information, there is already a glance into the future, discussing what other innovations 2016 will bring to Tyria.

• Without wanting to spoil too much, the story of GW2 will continue in a new season of the Living World and seamlessly connect to the events of Heart of Thorns.
• Fractals will receive further improvements, such as the promised leaderboards, legendary fractal backpacks, and completely new fractals.
• Also on the agenda is the major WvW update, in which the core mechanics of victory conditions, such as population balance, points, rewards, and support will be addressed.

There is still no date for these changes. They are expected to be released “sometime in 2016,” i.e., in the second, third, or even fourth quarter update of the year.

For more information about the game, check out our Guild Wars 2 topic page.