Guild Wars 2

Last I played was shortly after Fractals was introduced. I never grinded those for the fractal legendaries, but are my other then-legendaries now worthless or sub-par? Are we still farming fractals or other dungeons for gear? I read some time ago of some new stat being added? What’s everybody doing currently – some new Living Story or other content? Any permanent changes to the world since fractals? Any other things I should know about?

LA is destroyed, Freocity has replaced Crit damage %, Dungeon and fractals gear are still being farmed, MF is now account bound in the form of luck. Ascended gear is slightly higher then exotic, but not so much that its a must have except maybe higher level fractals. The current events now are the Bazaar of the Four winds, and the Queens Pavillion until season 2 launches next week with the introduction of the Story Journal, which will allow you to replay any of the Living Story episodes provided you at least LOG IN during the time of the episode, or purchase for 200 gems.

Happy reading:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates

Legendary Weaponry are now “Omnistat” gear, meaning you can change their stat combination outside of combat to any existing combination you desire, and their stats are equivalent to Ascended grade weapons, so your Legendary Weapons are still worth a lot functionally.

Ascended equipment is now widespread. In Fractals, only Ascended trinkets existed, there is now ascended equipment for every slot, excluding Runes and Sigils. Ascended Weapons and Armour can be crafted using level 500 crafting professions (All crafting professions except Jeweler and Chef got a level cap rise to 500), or Ascended weaponry and armour can be obtained through drops from high-level content like World Bosses or PvP Reward Tracks. They’ll drop in the form of a box, aligned with a particular stat, then you can choose any type of weapon or armour for example, from that. So I may get a Berserkers stat weapon box, but then I have the option to select a Greatsword, Sword, Dagger, etc, etc.

PvP has been 100% revamped. Glory no longer exists, instead, you are rewarded with money, and the loot boxes you get from Reward Tracks. The basic philosophy is do games, get loot boxes. Depending on which track you select to do, you are guaranteed 3 Exotic weapons, and 1 Exotic armour piece of your choice.

In Fractals, a number of new Fractals have been added to reflect events in the Living Story, including a renewable source of Azurite through Fractals, but otherwise, its still the same.

Living Story is currently not going on, so ArenaNet can design the next season of LS. In the story so far, the main villian of Living Story Season 1, Scarlet Briar, invaded Lion’s Arch, generally caused trouble, and woke up an Elder Dragon in the process. Living Story Season 2 is coming on July 1st, as seen on the news pages and forums, and LS2 will feature new zones, and hopefully the ability to battle the aforementioned 6th Elder Dragon, Mordremoth.

Im sure ive missed an entire myriad of things, but thats a general overview of whats been happening.

Almost forgot, Tequatl got an upgrade, and The Three-headed Jungle Wurm was added. And a new fractal path, and a dungeon path in TA. A new WvW map/mode was added.

We also got a new trait system, some items that were soul bound are now account bound, some weapons now allow you to add a second sigil, if you play WvW you now have account bound WxP along with a new area EotM (Edge Of The Mists) which is a 24-7 karma train of flipping objectives and can be a fun distraction.

There’s more I’m sure…. just jump in you’ll be fine.

Thanks all. I’ll be treading through prior patch notes when I have some time, but these help a lot.

I returned to GW2 after 8 months or so away. The game has seen a lot of nice quality of life improvements but the fly in the ointment for me has been the new trait system…it’s completely fubarred new characters in my opinion.

Waiting until level 30 to get the first trait point, along with content gated/gold + skill point trait system all the way to level 80 has put a huge damper on meaningful character development prior to level cap. Essentially the game is on hold until you reach level cap and only then you can start to truly build your character.

Before this change, you could be well on your way of shaping your play style and build prior to 80.