Expansion site: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/secrets-of-the-obscure/
Trailer: Click Here
Announce Blog: Click Here
Combat Updates: Click Here
Story, Mastery and more updates: Click Here
ThatShaman Countdown: Click Here
After the Dragon Cycle - Guild Wars 2 News: Click Here
First Contact: The Kryptis and Rift Hunting: Click Here
Thank you! I see my GW2 cycle repeating: Buy the expansion, play it like mad for two months, get fed up with the game, ignore it for a year or so, repeat…
Similar to how I currently play it hahaha. I login for dailies here and there, but it’s definitely a game I do in short bursts generally.
One of the things I love about the game is that it completely supports that play-style and I never feel like I get left behind on things.
Then take it slow this time! You don’t have a deadline 😂
sigh you’re right ofc. Promise I will try to ;-)
MightyTeapot’s take on the Expansion Announcement
- Part 1 (Overview)
- Part 2 (Strike Missions, Flying mount improvements)
- Part 3 (Rewards)
- Part 4 (Combat)
A SotO countdown by that_shaman: https://thatshaman.com/tools/soto/
Very nice, I’ll add that to the post.
That_shaman never disappoints.
@[email protected] Maybe we should pin one of the Secrets of the Obscure posts (suggestion: this one here) and assemble our combined feedback in one place instead of creating 10++ posts many of them actually referring to the same topic or even the same link.
I’ve pinned it. Maybe @[email protected] can put “megathread” in the title?
Done!
And here we thought we get a content drought. Dang that is a lot of stuff to unpack.
Dunno what i am most exctied about. The new weapon system or the new maps.
Everything sounds awesome and they must have worked their asses off to deliver it this year. I wonder what they got planned after that but i am happy with what we will get. One of the rare cases where i like to preorder.
Damn I wasn’t expecting a new expansion so soon. I bought EoD on release and I have barely started…
EoD didn’t feel that long. But the story rarely does. The real content is the stuff around that and I feel that I barely started this for all the chapters available.
I bought EoD still haven’t had the chance to finish everything (don’t even have the pet turtle yet) and was surprised when a friend told me that there was a new xpack coming and we didn’t even get lws.
At Launch: Weaponmaster Training
Once you’ve unlocked Weaponmaster Training in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, you’ll be able to use elite specialization weapons without the corresponding trait line equipped. This will be the case even if you haven’t trained an elite specialization.
…
Here are the weapons that will become part of each profession’s core proficiencies in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure:
- Guardian: Axe (main hand), sword (off hand), longbow
- Revenant: Shield (off hand), greatsword, short bow
- Warrior: Dagger (main and off hand), pistol (off hand), torch (off hand)
- Engineer: Mace (main hand), sword (main hand), hammer
- Ranger: Dagger (main hand), hammer, staff
- Thief: Scepter (main hand), rifle, staff
- Elementalist: Sword (main hand), warhorn (off hand), hammer
- Mesmer: Axe (main hand), dagger (main hand), shield (off hand)
- Necromancer: Pistol (main hand), torch (off hand), greatsword
I find this kinda weird:
- Do you have to train it in SotO (as a Mastery) or does it simply unlock/change as soon as the Expansion goes live?
- Why does it allow to equip weapons from Elite Specialization without even unlocking the Elite Specialization? So you can equip them on level 1 characters, too? But doesn’t this reduce the incentive to actually progress/develop a new character?
I think this should have been part of a Balance Patch and not an Expansion Feature and it should also include the Utility Skills and not just the Weapons:
Weapons and Utility Skills specific to Elite Specializations can now be equipped as soon as they are unlocked, i. e. without slotting the corresponding trait line.
This would also simplify the UI code, because it makes various checks and the disabling of skills/weapons on build/gear swap unneeded.
Oho, I just noticed that ArenaNet announced even more weapons to come later …
Future Update: Expanded Weapon Proficiency
To round off our combat systems updates, we’re granting each profession proficiency with an additional weapon. Like we said earlier: getting to play with a new weapon and changing out your first five skills is one of the most impactful parts of an elite specialization for many players. The weapons and weapon skills we’re introducing to each profession in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure are meant to satisfy that same itch of a new skillset—we just focused on making these weapons fit in with the existing trait lines.
This is planned for the second major release after launch (and we’re aiming to ship those major releases quarterly). We’ll have more details about the style of play associated with these weapons as we get closer to this feature shipping, and later this year we’ll have a beta for you to preview the changes. For now, here’s the lineup of who’s getting what:
- Guardian: Pistol (main and off hand)
- Revenant: Scepter (main hand)
- Warrior: Staff
- Engineer: Short bow
- Ranger: Mace (main and off hand)
- Thief: Axe (main hand)
- Elementalist: Pistol (main hand)
- Mesmer: Rifle
- Necromancer: Sword (main and off hand)
Maybe they are talking about people who already have it unlocked on other characters or you can use those weapons as soon as you unlock the first trait in the elite.
They specifically say that you can equip those weapons as as soon as you unlock Weaponmaster Training in SotO (whatever unlocking means) without training a (any?) Elite Specialization.
I don’t know whether this means that you do not even need to own the corresponding Expansion. I think it’s really weird.
They explicitly say that you don’t need other expansions, if you only want to play with those weapons. But it will NOT unlock the elite specialization. So: you want a long bow core guardian with only core game and new expansion? You can.
Hmm. Maybe that is exactly what it means and they just get rid of all requirements except having the build traits when you play with a class and unlock the Weaponmaster training.
Dunno if that will be accountwide like a mastery or if you have to play through it with every character. I think it is the former but the way they made the jade bot im not sure.
The madlads are bringing Zojja back. And in a new outfit as well, which I’m assuming belongs to the new faction which will retroactively explain her absence (didn’t Taimi even say that she has no idea where Zojja is during IBS?).
Also Wizard tower hype!
The madlads are bringing Zojja back.
Guess they were able to afford Felicia Day voice finally again /s
not sure what i think of the wizards vault so far. Most of the PvE stuff seems to be from the latest addons and it only rewards one gold per day instead of the two gold you got with the old system.
@avater @Winged_Hussar I’m bummed there’s no more WvW potions anymore. I was doing the easy WvW dailies and saving those up too I got 80 for an easy gift of battle. Guess I’ll actually have to play the content now 😁
Agreed, no super easy gift of battle progress anymore lol
ffs it’s coming out in august and I still have HoT, PoF and EoD in front of me…
same! just came back 3 months ago after playing in 2012-2015…so much to do
If it makes you feel any better, HoT is the hardest one, and the newer expacs are (reletively) easier than HoT
I had played hot way back when it was released so I already got all the necessary mastery points. I was surprised how short the story of the game is.
Started now with LWS3 and will continue it after i return from my honeymoon vacation !
feel you
Haha I still have some of PoF and the whole of EoD story left. I ain’t gonna feel bored for a while 😂
I took a break from the game from around Mid-HoT to around Living World Season 4. I only just recently managed to catch up on my Primary Account. My Secondary Account is still missing Icebrood Saga and hence does neither have the Legendary Amulet nor access to EMP.
Luckily I have both the Griffon as well as the Skyscale mount fully unlocked on both accounts. So I’m well prepared (and looking forward to) for them being buffed in SotO.
https://mastodon.social/@massivelyop/110866406551811677
Some new screenshots. 🙂
The adventure continues through three major story and content releases to follow. A self-contained story with its own resolution will play out at launch. Later releases will seamlessly pick up where the launch arc concluded and tell the rest of the expansion’s story. Additional features and updates across the game are planned for release every quarter.
We will be getting the rest of the expansion in another 3 releases, each being released around each quarter. This means that we will see the next release around christmas and the story will be concluded summer next year?
I think a lot of the ideas here are exactly what I want from the game, since flying mounts and the overworld are my favorite parts.
But I also play specter and herald a lot and I don’t wanna relearn how to use them after today’s balance patch. We’ll see how their rotations turn out but I’m not super excited for quickness herald anymore :(
It seems like ANet is getting some of the low hanging fruits + getting rid of the lore constraints (most of them) in this expansion. Let see how it goes. With a bit of passion and boldness, it may very well be nice.
New information about the story here
Awesome - Added!
