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Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2’s first-ever feature pack launches today, giving players access to a wealth of new options and some significant quality of life improvements. While one of the major focuses of the title has been a push toward continual episodic-content and frequent updates, the feature pack is the first large-scale patch in some time.
I had a chance to check out the improvements and additions at PAX East 2014, and while personally I haven’t had a chance to play much Guild Wars 2 recently I’m going to go back in for another look with this patch. I’ll probably do some streaming, so keep your eyes peeled for that. So what’s new, anyway?
For the collectors and gear-gurus, the wardrobe will be a welcome sight. Instead of bags becoming full of all-manner of equipment, the wardrobe will allow players to customize looks and skins on the fly, without hauling a basket of weapons and armor around. Players simply unlock wardrobe options upon acquisition of items or by meeting requirements, all unlockable visuals are browsable in the new interface so players can easily explore and determine what they’re looking for. In addition to the new wardrobe, dyes will now be account-level unlocks instead of character specific (And as a rare dye collector, this is an incredibly welcome change).
The trait system has been completely overhauled to ensure players are actually making meaningful choices with each point placed in a path. In addition to this significant overhaul, players can now choose from a variety of special traits that need to be unlocked at various tiers.
These traits can be acquired through various means - Some can be acquired through completing specific quests, others through purchase, and more. Unlocking more will give players extra options, but the system allows players to find the one that suits their playstyle and then go work on completing the requirements. This system looks considerably more interesting than what we had access to before, and it will be nice to see some massive variation in player builds.
Possibly the most exciting thing coming with this patch - A new PVP arena to play in and streamlined PVP rewards. Players can track progress toward new stuff with a handy easy-to-understand system, it’s much easier to understand and work on making meaningful progress toward rewards.
On the PVE side of things, the servers will be switching over to megaserver technology - meaning you’re never going to end up in “dead zones” and you should always have potential allies available. Eventually the current world structure will only be used to handle PVP World-vs-World designations.
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