There is more to the world of Tyria than a little abracadabra. Over a decade after launch, this extraordinary MMORPG has taken Tyria to the brink of destruction, blown up entire cities, defeated dragons, slayed our hearts, and now it’s time for a new adventure. We got an early peek behind the curtain with a preview of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, and the Wizard’s Tower.
The Wizard’s Tower has played a central role in much of the pre-release hyperbole and speculation for the latest Guild Wars 2 expansion and seems like the perfect place to take a look ahead. This mysterious construction doesn’t just hover above the pastures of Kessex Hills. In Secrets of the Obscure, you’ll find it central to Amnytas. This spacious new region that seems to sit beyond normal time and space played host to a rabble of journalists for a swift tour, and it’s certainly impressive.
The Wizard’s Tower sits at the heart of this new map and acts as something of a safe haven, existing between realms and ready to save us from the latest battle facing Tyria. The pearly white palace acts as a moment of brevity in what ArenaNet promise will be an epic battle. The scale of this safe zone provides room for all manner of NPCs and plenty of exploration. Expect every possible resource at your disposal, and tons of secrets to unravel. This tower, in particular, comes littered with scraps lore and knowledge. It’s so gargantuan that it hosts its own jumping puzzles, there’s even a little corner of Halloween nestled along a hidden hallway. If you have the time, take e a stop in this sae zone and simply explore. It’s a delight of discoveries, and hopefully one that will uncover new surprises as time unfolds.
Beyond the Wizards Tower
The new maps we glimpsed continue to play on the same sense of vertical scale that we’ve seen before. Instead of delving all the way down into What Lies Beneath, these maps twist up into the endless void. Beyond Tyria’s own time and space, a council of magic has erected constructs and Colosseum that exude power and impose themselves upon the landscape. Amnytas is a hub of magical knowledge, with all the major areas constructed around the same time. These include the aforementioned Wizard’s tower and a series of huge islands. Each act as a Bastion and are the centre for different schools of thought. While one of these towering giants might tend to balance, another focuses on Strength. We already know balance, nature, obscure, celestial, and strength appear, but more are still to come. Located in the middle of these is a huge palatial spire, which plays a centre role in this map and the work of magical scholars. No spoilers, however. Where New Kaineng and the Canthan chapters of Guild Was 2 leans on Eastern influences, these new areas are much more aligned to western mythos. All gilded marble and immense spires, these new branches of Guild Wars 2 draw on traditional high fantasy tropes and a little bit of Greek legend to remind players of the scale of what’s at stake. Anybody coming to take a look around these new locations will find them utterly crammed with places to explore.
Out beyond the safety of those marble walls, fractals of reality sheer into existence. Slices of Tyira fall through the gaps and come to rest across this preview. A jungle outcrop that could only be from the furthest reaches of Maguma lay sandwiched between desert outcrops and floating dangers. Scattered among these untethered attractions are one of the core features of Guild War’s latest expansion. Rifts that seem to seep through form a demon realm must be sealed, before something truly monstrous can come crashing through into existence.
As ArenaNet advertised in a recent blog, Secrets of the Obscure adds a new tool to help take down these rifts. Players picking up this new adventure will quickly get access to a new device. Adding an extra button onto your busy toolbar, this Rift device will allow players to find portals with the push of a button. The star-spangled highway that unfurls through the void is a great way to point players in the right direction, but that’s not all it does.
This new tool is crucial to clearing out invasive rifts. Players coming into contact with an inky black miasma can draw out the horrific Kryptis that hide behind these veils. Point and click is the first step in brining Avatars of Despair or Gluttony into the world. ArenaNet detailed Rift Hunting in recent previews, but these battles to save reality also help secure a wider objective among the Wizard’s realm. They act as a way to protect a powerful magic called the “Beacon of Ages” and should hopefully scale in a way to make the map we experienced an adequate challenge to any sized group of players. That said, if this particular activity isn’t difficult enough then groups can lay lures, known as Motivations, to increase the difficulty of these encounters as they occur.
Rift Hunting gave my own group of unfortunate souls the opportunity to go head-to-head with the Kryptis before they attack Tyria proper. A contortion of carrion, these demons carve a swathe of destruction across the landscape with unsettling ease. They feel deliberately out of place as they launch AOE bombardment, produce powerful melee attacks, and ooze powerful reams of energy that rotate and plough through players, as if inspired by the magic of the revenant. Maybe that’s just a similar visual cue, but who knows when you’re bending reality. You’ll also, of course, encounter the traditional break bar, and while these monsters are new and unfamiliar, there’s nothing here that should concern battel hardened Commanders.
Rift Hunting does mean Rift Loot, and we gathered a bag full of Essence of Triumph while taking on these encounters. This reward appears to scale. Essence of Triumph looks to be the Tier 3 reward and is good for all the major crafts. While I didn’t get a chance to check out all the vendor recipes, I’d expect it to be crucial in crafting the newest weapons for this expansion.
Although we focused on taking down a Tier 3 rift, scaling means that these events are accessible enough that they can be taken down while grinding through map metas. The areas beyond the safety of the Wizard’s Tower do have other events. We unfortunately, won’t be talking about the additional strike mission or the truly epic events that this map culminates in. Suffice to say it might ruin the overall experience, but Rifts are just a small taste of what’s to come.
The Wizard’s Vault
We only got a glimpse of the content cluttered around Amnytas, and there’s certainly more than just chasing magic Kryptis dust. A significant rework of Guild Wars 2’s reward structure is coming with the latest expansion. The Wizard’s Vault is the closet we’ve seen to a battel Pass system in guild Wars 2. While plenty of new Achievement Points are up for grabs, the Wizard’s Vault is a range of objectives that will largely overtake the Daily Quests. Rather than simply replace these, the Wizard’s Vault looks likely to be a more expansive series of options that players can pick and choose from, with a variable range of deadlines. While we didn’t get a full breakdown of the rewards on offer, it seems the intention is to give players the choice to pick their goal and work towards a permanent set of rewards, just like a Battle Pass.
Movement
The problem with moving around a map of this size, isn’t entirely unknown to Guild Was 2 veterans. While the more civilized constructions of mages might hold stairwells and portals, dancing between floating platforms requires wings. Areas like Bloodstone Fen were difficult enough to get around back when battling the White Mantle without Ley Line gliding. In Amnytas, even this would be pretty much impossible. The very first introduction to this very map was a loading screen featuring two speeding Skyscales, and you can expect to need your very own. While a Griffin will do, heroes of Tyria will need a flying mount. ArenaNet advised that they are making the Skyscale less arduous to get in Secrets of the Obscure, with a series of bonuses that they detailed in another recent look forward. The great thing about this is that existing owners won’t miss out. Whether you own one now or go back and complete the Skyscale quests retrospectively, two tiers of bonuses will add extra haste to those wings and some additional spice to the fireballs hurtling through the skies.
The Skyscale doesn’t just feature as Ley Line propelled transportation. Adventures carry over into Secrets of the Obscure, and at least some of these challenges lean into in air mount racing. Path of Fire might have aimed to make riding Raptors popular, but things really took off when the player community started pushing flying mounts to their limits. One of the Adventures available in Amnytas actives a timed Skyscale track, turning the surrounding area into something akin to Pilotwings with dragons. While racing through rings of light, you’ll get to take down targets using the new Fireball skill.
Our time in Amnytas did demonstrate a few things ahead of Secrets of the Obscure. There’s much more to this expansion than simply getting on the tail of another dragon. The sheer scale of Amnytas and its interiors is breathing, and the events that pay out on it are likely to be just as ludicrous. The Skyscale is your friend. Get one now if you can, and you’ll benefit later, and prepare for Guild Wars 2 to surprise you all over again.
