Back in July, we announced that a new homestead map would arrive with the launch of Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™. Today, we’re thrilled to share more details about it, along with some exciting quality-of-life improvements. These enhancements will be available to anyone with access to homesteads, which requires ownership of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds™. Players who also own Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity will get a magical new map to decorate called Comosus Isle.

To see everything we’re talking about today—including the new map—join us for a livestream on our Twitch channel this Friday, September 5, at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7).

Looking to take a break from the pressures that come with being the commander and wayfinder? Talk to Deft Lahar in your homestead, and he’ll set you up with your very own private island in a Castoran paradise.

Start your day on Comosus Isle by hanging out at the beach’s fishing spots or by enjoying a guided ley-line tour that takes you on a scenic journey around the dazzling mountain bursting with energy. Thrill seekers can dive through the top of the mountain to the otherworldly caverns below, and explorers looking for a more relaxed time can hike through the hidden tunnels to get there instead. Once there, wash your worries away in the bubbling pool and let the crystal resonance of the area revitalize you.

Your new vacation home is a three-story suite that comes fully furnished with a sitting and dining area, kitchen, bedroom, and a balcony where you can enjoy the ocean view in private. If you’re looking for a livelier time, you can wander over to the attached club hangout area.

If you’d prefer not to have a house on your island, fear not! The house—and every decoration it’s made from—can be removed and stored in your decoration inventory. They’re yours to keep! You can construct a new house just the way you like it or remove it entirely and customize the look of your island getaway.

So, you’ve decided to pack up all your stuff in Hearth’s Glow and move to paradise? Before you go, consider using the new decoration layout feature to make a record of all your carefully placed decorations. That way, if you get sunburned a little too easily, you can move back and get all your furniture set up again with just a few clicks. Are you a big fan of Wintersday? Save a festive layout for your homestead that you can swap to in seconds when the season arrives!

The best part is that you can share your layouts with others! Layouts are stored as XML files that you can freely share with anyone you like. We can’t wait for the expert interior decorators in our community to share their amazing designs with everyone! Please note that layouts are stored locally, so if you play Guild Wars 2 on multiple devices, you’ll need to copy your layout files over.

When you load a layout into your homestead, it will only place the decorations that you have crafted and own. You’ll also be shown a list of the decorations that you’re missing so you know what you’ll need to go make!

You can also save the layout of a homestead you’re currently visiting. Maybe you aren’t much of a decorator yourself, but you’ve been impressed by all the amazing work you’ve seen in your friend’s homestead? Ask them to enable the Party Layout Saving option while you’re visiting, and you’ll be able to save their layout and import it into your own home!

Finally, we’re adding a new option to make decorating your homestead a bit easier. A Place Duplicate skill will be added to the Modify Existing Decorations mode and will allow you to use an already-placed decoration to guide your alignment of a new decoration. This alleviates the need to manually align decorations when you’re building things like walls or fences.

To utilize this feature, edit an existing decoration and position it to where you’d like your next piece to go. Then use the new Place Duplicate skill instead of Confirm Modification. Assuming you have more of that decoration available in your storage, it will place it in the newly selected area and leave the existing decoration where it was before. This is definitely easier to visualize with a video:

We can’t wait for you to see Comosus Isle and all of the wondrous locations there are to explore within. This gorgeous map and the features we discussed today will be shown in detail during our livestream this week. Tune in to our Twitch channel this Friday, September 5 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7) to see it all for yourself. And if this sounds like the all-inclusive resort experience for you, you can prepurchase Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity and unlock some of the digital rewards today!

Greetings, Tyrians!

Today, we invite the community to participate in a beta event where you can try out all nine of the elite specializations coming when Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™ launches on October 28! Now is the perfect time to log in and have some fun playing with new talents, skills, and builds.

From now until August 27 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7), you can harness the power of mercurial mold with the amalgam or rain arrows down on your enemies with the galeshot! To review the deep-dive blogs we dropped on the nine elite specs, click here, here, and also here!

If you have a Guild Wars 2 account in good standing, you are invited to try out the elite specialization beta—you don’t need to prepurchase Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity to join the fun. But if you are looking to prepurchase, feel free to check out the various editions here.

Every Guild Wars 2 account in good standing, including Play for Free accounts, will automatically get character slots marked “Beta” when the beta event begins. Clicking on one of these slots will allow you to create a character using any of the nine Guild Wars 2 professions.

From there, explore the open world or try a game mode dedicated to group play. You’ll find options to join World vs. World and structured Player vs. Player in the bar located at the top-left corner of your UI. To tackle the Fractals of the Mists instanced group content, visit Fort Marriner in Lion’s Arch and enter the portal.

Important Note: Beta characters will disappear at the end of the event, and any gameplay progress earned while playing on them—including rewards and currency—will not be saved.

After you’ve had a chance to play, we’d like to hear what you think—what you enjoyed, what you think could be improved, and why you liked or disliked certain elite specializations in the beta. Head on over to our forums and leave us some feedback. Thank you in advance for participating in the beta!

If you missed our last round of Twitch drops, we’ve brought them back for the Visions of Eternity beta! From today through August 24 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7), tune in to Guild Wars 2 streams on Twitch with Twitch Drops enabled to earn in-game rewards, including an Inventor’s Sunglasses Skin, the”/Hiss” Emote Tome, and a Ritualist Outfit!

Can you believe it’s been thirteen years since the launch of Guild Wars 2®? Neither can we! Let’s celebrate this achievement together with an anniversary sale on expansions, including Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds™!

From August 19 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) to September 2 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7), you can take advantage of special deals on Guild Wars 2 expansions. Adventure to new areas with your characters and expand your account with new features from our five released expansions. With Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity™ releasing in October, now is the perfect time to grab a friend and catch up on what you’ve missed!

The following discounted items are available now on the official Guild Wars 2 website, with some of the same exciting deals on Steam! For those looking to add the Living World™ series to their collection, you can find them on sale for at least 30% off in the in-game store. The anniversary sale is not currently available on the Epic Games Store.

Head north to the wilderness of Janthir—a dangerous land that was once home to the strange mursaat and their White Mantle sycophants. Befriend the lowland kodan who reside there, and learn the secrets of wielding a spear on every profession. Your journeys will lead you to own your own homestead, engage in a challenging new raid, and forge a bond with a warclaw mount with new abilities!

Both Standard and Deluxe editions of the Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds expansion are now available at a 20% discount.*

In a world finally safe from the Elder Dragons’ corruption, new threats rise to seek power. Embark on an epic journey and uncover the mysteries of the Wizard’s Tower as you defend the skies against incursions from the Mists. Unlock access to weapons that were previously exclusive to elite specializations for each profession and an updated path to unlocking your skyscale mount.

Both Standard and Deluxe editions of the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure expansion are now available at a 30% discount.*

The future of Cantha is now. The dragon cycle that has sustained and blighted Tyria for ages is collapsing. Mortal hearts and choices will define this moment in history—and echo into the future forever. Unlock new elite specializations, Masteries, and more, including access to fishing and skiffs.

Both Standard and Deluxe editions of the Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons expansion are now available at a 40% discount!*

Experience the entire dragon cycle saga from beginning to end with Guild Wars 2—The Complete Collection. This bundle contains an entire decade’s worth of content! Included Guild Wars 2 Living World® Seasons 2–5 and the first three expansions:

• Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns®
• Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire®
• Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons

You’ll also get two Level-80 Boosts, allowing you to instantly level up two characters and jump straight into our latest content, plus two Shared Inventory Slots to easily share items with every character on your account.

The Complete, Deluxe, and Standard editions of the Elder Dragon Saga Collection are discounted by 50% for the length of the sale. Note: Only the complete collection of the Elder Dragon saga is available through Steam store.

Unlock mounts, gliding, and more with the first two expansions for Guild Wars 2. This package grants you access to a new profession, the revenant, as well as eighteen elite specializations to change the way you play. Experience the joy of movement with the best mounts in MMOs.

This expansion bundle is available now at a 60% discount!

Our expansion sales are also available from the following third-party retailers:

Americas:

• Guild Wars 2 Steam
• Amazon
• Nuuvem
• Hype Games (Brazil)

Europe:

• Guild Wars 2 Steam
• CDgalaxis (Hungary)
• Gameliebe (Germany)
• Gamecardsdirect (EUROPE)
• Gamecardsdirect (France)
• Gamecardsdirect (Netherlands)
• Key4you (Czech)

*Deluxe packages for Guild Wars 2 are not available through the Steam store.

Today, we’re unveiling the final three elite specializations coming to Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™! If you missed our previous reveals, make sure you check out the elite specs blogs for the mesmer, ranger, and guardian and the thief, necromancer, and warrior!

Before we dive into the details for the revenant, elementalist, and engineer, make sure you tune into our Twitch channel this Friday, August 8, at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) for a live preview of the three elite specializations we’re talking about today. You’ll also be able to play all of the elite specializations yourself during our beta event from August 20 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) until August 27 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7).

Having toppled the powerful jotun civilization in the previous dragonrise, Jormag was poised to claim the Shiverpeaks and beyond when they awoke once again. However, as the dragon’s influence crept south of the mountainous crown, displacing the various kodan sanctuaries, it collided with the stalwart and courageous resolve of the norn and their ever-watching guides, the Spirits of Wild.

Despite their resistance, Jormag’s campaign left lasting scars on many of the spirits, consuming or corrupting those that held the line. In the years since Jormag’s defeat, the norn have made strides to reconnect and commune with the spirits. Many now turn to old practices that harken to a time when the first pacts that entwined both groups in spiritual harmony were spoken—the centuries-old tradition of the evoker.

Drawing upon the forces of the natural world, these norn elementalists call upon spiritual companions and empower them with elemental energies. At the spirits’ behest, the norn have been encouraged to share this practice beyond their own to help restore and heal Tyria’s nature spirits.

Every evoker starts with a choice: Which element do you want to specialize in? Selecting an elemental skill on the F5 slot will specialize in that element, granting a few bonuses. First, the attunement skill for that element will have a significantly reduced recharge time. In addition, some of the evoker’s traits and utility skills will be affected by your chosen element. And most importantly, a familiar of that element will join you on your adventures.

Fire specialists will be accompanied by the cunning fox, water joined by the mischievous otter, air by the agile hare, while earth gets the stalwart toad. The familiar has two different skills that are available in the F5 slot once they are fully charged: a basic skill and an empowered skill. The basic skill is charged as the evoker uses their own weapon skills, requiring a total of six to fully charge. Weapon skills that match the familiar’s element will count for double, meaning that only three fire attunement skills would be required to fully charge the fox’s skill. The familiar’s empowered skill will unlock after using its basic skill three times, and that’s when the evoker (and their familiar) unleash their full potential.

The evoker is a flexible specialization, capable of filling a number of roles depending on which element you specialize in. Those leaning toward fire may choose to focus on condition damage, as the fox will complement those builds well.

The fox’s basic skill is called Ignite. When activated, the fox will launch a fiery missile at your target, dealing some damage and inflicting burning, and enemies struck by this skill in quick succession will receive additional stacks of burning.

After using Ignite three times, and hopefully inflicting a good chunk of burning, evokers will gain access to the fox’s empowered skill: Conflagration. Using this skill will summon the fox near your target, after which it will perform a leaping strike that inflicts burning and also spreads any burning from that target to nearby enemies (up to a limit—we thought that spreading 1,500 burning stacks might be a bit too powerful).

Tune in to our stream this Friday for a full reveal of the other spirit companions and their abilities!

Asuran scientists have studied, manipulated, transformed, and occasionally displaced oozes at every level of scientific research. Endlessly adaptable, oozes can absorb the properties of substances and living creatures they come into contact with—and a recent breakthrough has allowed them to be used as a powerful tool for both defense and offense.

The mercurial mold is a special species of ooze that can form a symbiotic bond with its owner and interpret their needs in battle. It’s lightweight, responds instantly, requires no special feeding, and—best of all—no fatalities have been reported as a result of the bonding process. Why not give it a try?

Bonded with their mercurial mold, amalgams are engineers with unparalleled adaptive capabilities. By being able to freely customize which morph skills they select, you can arrive to any fight with the right tools to survive and dish out damage. Amalgams can temporarily meld with their slime, resulting in an altered or even mutated form. An amalgam’s experimentation results in a malleable fighter that can always find the edge in combat.

Amalgams replace the engineer’s utility toolbelt abilities with morph abilities. There are several morph skills, and you can select which ones to fight with in the same manner you select your utility skills. The morph skills command the mercurial mold to shapeshift into different forms, such as a shield, defensive spikes, or even a massive sword.

Your elite toolbelt skill is replaced by Evolve. Evolve briefly combines the engineer and mercurial mold into one being, granting a host of benefits. These benefits, however, are unique to each slime. As you select your morph skills, your mercurial mold’s composition is altered to also change what happens when you evolve. These compositional shifts, called strains, can vary from granting superspeed and quickness to stunning nearby enemies when you evolve.

Amalgam’s utility skills are stances. The mercurial mold can assist you to shift your form, making you as dense as steel or as light as a feather. With the skill Liquid State, you can even melt down into a puddle!

Centuries ago, the hero who defeated the fallen god Abaddon met a strange entity imprisoned deep within the Realm of Torment: Razah, a being born of the Mists. Freed by Abaddon’s death to seek their own purpose in life, Razah chose to accompany the hero across Tyria, and their boundless curiosity led them to study and master any number of martial and magical disciplines.

But Razah’s story seemed to have ended with their companion’s; no one has seen or heard from them since. They may have returned to the Mists to wander or fallen to the corruption they once feared. They might have learned to mimic human behavior precisely enough to live a hundred lives in obscurity. Or they could have been watching our world, still learning—and waiting for someone like you.

After the complexity of having two different legends in the form of Saint Victor and Archemorus in Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons®, we wanted to focus on a single legend that offered an equally unique experience. As a denizen born of the Mists, Razah is the first living legend to assist the revenant in their adventures.

With the conduit, we wanted to portray the multifaceted nature of Razah’s unique link to the Mists. Thus, the elite specialization was designed to have a malleability and flexibility that reflects Razah’s ability to transform into any profession. By amplifying the revenant’s connection to the Mists, the conduit can tap into a deeper well of power through the legends they choose to channel, further augmenting their existing strengths.

As the conduit, you gain the ability to use Cosmic Wisdom, allowing you to further channel the powers of your equipped legend, giving rise to different forms. As an example, using Cosmic Wisdom with Legendary Assassin Stance equipped gives access to Form of the Assassin, granting the conduit bonus power and movement speed, as well as inflicting debilitating conditions on foes you strike. Cosmic Wisdom only lasts for a limited amount of time, but it can be extended through the use of affinity.

Affinity is a new resource that represents the strength of your connection to your legend. Affinity can be gained through using any legendary skills that cost energy. Each point of affinity you gain increases the duration of Cosmic Wisdom by a set amount; however, you lose all affinity as you swap legends.

Thanks to the power of Razah, conduits gain access to Legendary Entity Stance, bringing with them various skills that harken back to when they wandered Tyria as a hero. Each skill in Legendary Entity Stance has an effect called Resonance, a bonus effect that comes into play if the corresponding legend is equipped in the other slot. For example, Beguiling Haze normally shadowsteps you to your target while performing a quick attack on them. However, when Legendary Assassin Stance is equipped as your second legend, the skill becomes an area-of-effect targeted skill, allowing conduits to shadowstep even without a target, and strikes all enemies in the vicinity.

We hope you enjoyed our elite specialization previews! Let us know on our socials and forums which one you’re most excited to play in the upcoming beta on August 20.

Tune in to our Twitch channel this Friday, August 8, at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) for more details on the conduit, evoker, and amalgam!

For more information about Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity, head over to our official site.

The Zephyrites have once again set sail for Tyria’s shores, while Queen Jennah’s Crown Pavilion has opened its gates to visitors from far and wide. That can only mean one thing: the Festival of the Four Winds has returned!

Starting today, adventurers of all levels are welcome in the Labyrinthine Cliffs and Divinity’s Reach for a season of celebration. The festival ends on Tuesday, August 26, at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7), so don’t miss your chance to gather rewards, catch up with the Zephyrites, and make the most of this summer tradition.

This year’s festival comes with a fresh breeze of exciting additions, giving players new reasons to return to the cliffs and the pavilion. By completing this year’s meta-achievement, you’ll unlock the Cloud Cuirass, a striking new chest armor piece designed to reflect the airy elegance of the Zephyrites themselves.

Weapon collectors will find plenty to chase this year. The newly introduced Leviathan Bone weapon set makes its debut, featuring fearsome designs carved from mythical leviathan remains. These weapons are earned through the annual meta-achievement and weekly festival achievements.

For those looking for a more nautical vibe, the Seashell Shield, Seashell Focus, and Seashell Staff bring a touch of oceanic flair to your loadout. These one-off weapon skins can be found at the festival’s dedicated weapons vendor.

If you’re a fan of minis, don’t miss the Mini Garenhoff Coon Cat—a long-haired fluffball that’s ready to follow you across Tyria. This adorable feline is available from the festival vendor.

Deft Lahar returns with an expanded inventory of decoration recipes, including six new homestead recipe books that bring beloved Festival of the Four Winds guild hall decorations into your personal homestead. In addition, five brand-new decorations inspired by the spirit of the festival will also be available to add to your homestead or guild hall. The new additions include the Lightning, Sun, and Wind Aspect Crystals, the Zephyrite Display Stand, and even a Siege Turtle Rental Post!

The Labyrinthine Cliffs can be accessed via Lion’s Arch, and the Crown Pavilion can be accessed in Divinity’s Reach. Check your in-game mail for an Invitation to the Festival of the Four Winds and double-click the item to teleport instantly to your desired location.

When you enter the Labyrinthine Cliffs, you will arrive in a whole new area! This beautiful explorable zone is located on the Tyrian coast. You can navigate this map using the various aspect crystals: wind, sun, and lightning. There are activities all over the map, so keep your eyes peeled!

Experience the thrill of finding treasure with fellow players by participating in the treasure hunt meta-event, or try your hand at one of the races! The Skimmer Slalom and Flying Dolyak adventures will offer you the fun you need in this beachy location. There are also sky crystals all over the map that you can find to complete achievements.

If you decide to head to the Crown Pavilion, you will discover many other activities! Join other players in defeating the greatest enemies of Kryta in the Boss Blitz event. But worry not; these are not real beings. They are merely Queen Jennah’s watchknight soldiers.

Face off against the strongest individuals in Tyria. Talk to one of the fight managers to join the queue, and you will be transported to a one-versus-one arena—the Queen’s Gauntlet! Cheer on your friends or show off your skills to the world.

You can also help the Zephyrites at the Labyrinthine Cliffs seaside by preparing for a treasure hunt! Fill water balloons at the shore and send them up to the upper docks by kite basket.

Grab your friends and unlock rewards together! Remember, you have three weeks to experience it all as the festival ends on August 26! Happy adventuring!