Guild Wars 2 is getting a new expansion in August

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In August, the new expansion “Secrets of the Obscure” for Guild Wars 2 will be released. This finally opens up the wizard’s tower that fans of the series have been eyeing for a good 18 years. But other elements also inspire our editor Alexander Leitsch.

What’s in the extension?

  • The Wizard’s Tower comes into play as a starting point, along with two new areas.
  • In the Skyguard Archipelago, players must climb and hold their own against the demon race of the Kryptis high in the skies of Tyria.
  • Amnytas, on the other hand, is right in the demon realm.
  • Players can assert themselves in two new 10-player Assault missions. These are similar to raid instances in other MMORPGs. Later they will get a challenge mode.
  • Each class will receive a new Gunsmith training, giving them access to all elite specializations’ weapons even if they aren’t equipped. This should provide more build variety.
  • A new skyscale mastery is coming into play, allowing you to use thermals or attack enemies from the air.
  • There will be monster and bounty hunts awarded by the Astral Guards – the “good” faction.
  • Players can look forward to new currencies, rewards and achievements. The highlight here is a set of legendary armor that can only be obtained through open-world PvE activities.

    • When is the new expansion coming out? Secrets of the Obscure is scheduled to be released on August 22nd. So there are only 8 weeks between announcement and release. You can pre-order them now.

    The expansion is also the start of a whole series of quarterly updates. These should then bring a new fractal, another map and new story content that will conclude the story of Secrets of the Obscure before the next addon is expected to continue in 2024. According to the official website, 3 more quarterly patches are planned.

    How expensive will the expansion be? In the basic version, Secrets of the Obscure costs 24.99 euros. By pre-ordering, you’ll get bonus items including a title, a magician’s hat, and a shared inventory slot.

    There are also two other packs (Deluxe and Ultimate Edition) that bring additional bonuses and up to 4,000 additional Gems. These cost 49.99 and 79.99 euros respectively.

    You can watch the trailer for the expansion here:

    Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure trailer

    More videos

    Guild Wars 2 finally lets me explore something new again

    The Wizard’s Tower is a magical place. He’s been in the game since Guild Wars Prophecies in 2004. It hovers over the sea south of the Kessex Hills. But so far you have not been able to interact with it, you can only admire it from afar.

    Players have come up with the craziest myths and stories about who or what is lurking in this tower. Even the developers have made hints and jokes about the tower over the years. With every expansion since 2015, I’ve hoped that he might finally come into play.

    Because he brings the fresh wind that I’ve been missing in the game for years. In the Path of Fire and End of Dragons expansions, we primarily explored areas that I already knew from the predecessor. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Nightfall or Factions and even if 250 years have passed – basically I already knew everything.

    In a column back in March 2020, I begged that ArenaNet please take us to a whole new area, like the jungles in eastern Tyria. But the Wizard’s Tower, which also looks stunning in the trailer and screenshots, makes me even happier. Because it solves a mystery that I’ve been carrying around with me since 2005.

    The story of Secrets of the Obscure also breaks out of the usual pattern around dragons and suddenly introduces all new enemies and a whole new story arc. Although this was already clear in advance, it is good to read that the developers have come up with something new with a completely new enemy race.

    That 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 the future expansions should be smaller but appear more regularly, I was concerned that the purchase might hardly be worthwhile. Why spend 20 or more euros if there are only a few new areas in the end?

    With the additional Assault Missions, class weapons unlocked, and new Legendary Armor set, ArenaNet has provided enough incentive to get my anticipation for August high.

    Only a few weeks until release

    Of course, the short distance between announcement and release is curious again. The Guild Wars 2 developers handled this in a similar way back in 2017 with Path of Fire.

    So we can now expect a relatively large number of blog posts and smaller live streams until the release, which only fuels the anticipation even more.

    How do you see the new expansion? Does Secrets of the Obscure sound like a good continuation of the story or would you have preferred something else?

    By the way, you don’t have to wait until the next update in Guild Wars 2. It wasn’t until May 23rd that the last quarterly patch came out with a new area, and today – June 27th – the new Jade Wind-themed fractal came out.

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