Yesterday ArenaNet announced the next expansion for Guild Wars 2, called Secrets of the Obscure, will be released August 22, 2023. Here is the trailer.
So let’s start off with a bit of background information. After the release of End of Dragons in early 2022, ArenaNet announced that they are moving away from their previous release model of focusing on Living World seasons in-between major Expansions. This was in response to player frustrations over long periods of “content drought” since the Living World seasons tend to feel light; notably, there was a five-year gap between Path of Fire and End of Dragons expansions, and End of Dragons in-and-of-itself doesn’t feel as meaty as Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire.
Instead, ArenaNet is going to release smaller expansions at a quicker pace, at slightly reduced prices. Secret of the Obscure (henceforth shortened to SotO, cuz I ain’t typing the full name every time!) is the first expansion to follow the new model, so it’s very interesting to see what it has to offer.
The fourth expansion for Guild Wars 2 launches on August 22, 2023 at approximately 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7)
New rewards system that combines daily login and daily achievement systems, allowing you to play Guild Wars 2 the way you want to–whether it’s PvE, Player vs Player, or World vs World, or a mix–and earn a wide variety of exciting rewards for doing so.
New objectives to complete daily, weekly, and with each quarterly release. You’ll earn Astral Acclaim which can be exchanged for new weapons and armor skins, a small selection of items previously exclusive to the gem store, crafting materials, gold, mystic coins, legendary crafting starter kits, and more (Griffon Mount Skin pictured).
Those rewards will refresh on a quarterly basis and old Wizard’s Vault–exclusive rewards will move into a legacy section of the vault, where they’ll remain available for the same type of currency indefinitely.
Our goal is for Wizard’s Vault rewards are meant to be attainable through regular, normal play; there are no paid upgrades or progression skips, and the legacy section exists to take the time pressure off and allow players to catch up if they take a break.
Some Wizard’s Vault tasks and rewards are exclusive to Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, but all accounts with a level 80 character will have access to the feature.
At launch, you’ll be able to play through a self-contained story; following launch, this story will be seamlessly expanded upon in updates that come out every few months, telling a second, stand-alone arc.
A new force rises to threaten Tyria. As you fight back against Kryptis invaders from the Mists, you’ll uncover the answers to mysteries that have haunted Tyria from the time of the original Guild Wars®. Ancient rivalries come into play — the world is at risk. While we’ve relied on the aid of our allies in many adventures to date, it’s time for you to find your footing in a darker, more mysterious side of the world.
Two explorable zones and the Wizard’s Tower outpost, floating high above the Tyrian coast, will be available at launch. In the releases that will follow every few months, a third explorable zone will open in conjunction with the ongoing story that plays out.
You’ll make allies of the Wizard’s Court and the Astral Ward — ancient protectors of Tyria who have been brought out of their seclusion by the Kryptis threat. Two additional Mastery lines will be introduced which are closely tied to the expansion’s story. Through your new allies, you’ll gain access to a powerful artifact called the Heart of the Obscure.
The Heart of the Obscure and Astral Ward Masteries will aid you as you hunt and close rifts throughout Tyria. Together, the two Mastery lines will allow you explore the world more freely, take on greater threats, and earn richer rewards.
On August 22, two new armor sets will become available. The first, the Astral Ward armor, is thematically tied to the story of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure and shares the same appearance for all three armor weights. The second set, Rift Hunter’s armor, has unique looks for each weight. A third set will be released after launch. New unique weapon skins, armor pieces, and back items coming on August 22 and in following releases.
The various crafting components come from open-world gameplay in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure. Planned release in the second major update following the expansion’s launch. You’ll be able to begin working toward it on August 22. Crucial components will be available to acquire, and you’ll be able to start training your Astral Ward Masteries to unlock crafting recipes.
Part of the necessary steps for completing your legendary armor will be completing the Astral Ward and Rift Hunter’s armor collections.
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Two new Strike Missions, with challenge modes
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A Fractal of the Mists, with challenge mode
We’re adding a new skyscale mount acquisition method with this expansion. Whether or not you own Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire or completed the original skyscale collection, Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure will grant you a more streamlined collection to unlock a skyscale of your very own.
Once you’ve unlocked the skyscale in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, you’ll get access to a new Kryptis-themed skyscale skin collection.
Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure skyscale Mastery line includes new abilities:
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Fireball: aerial flame attack while mounted
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Combat Launch: mount your skyscale in combat
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Ley-Line: Flying mounts can use ley lines
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Wind Beneath Your Wings: Flying mounts can use updrafts
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Rising Spirits: Updrafts regenerate the skyscale’s flight meter
Weaponmaster Training, available at launch: turns the elite specialization weapons already associated with each profession into core proficiencies. You’ll be able to use elite specialization weapons without the corresponding trait line equipped, even if you haven’t trained an elite specialization. Even if you don’t own the other expansions, you’ll be able to mix and match weapons from the elite specializations associated with them.
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Guardian: Axe (main hand), sword (off hand), longbow
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Revenant: Shield (off hand), greatsword, short bow
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Warrior: Dagger (main and off hand), pistol (off hand), torch (off hand)
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Engineer: Mace (main hand), sword (main hand), hammer
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Ranger: Dagger (main hand), hammer, staff
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Thief: Scepter (main hand), rifle, staff
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Elementalist: Sword (main hand), warhorn (off hand), hammer
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Mesmer: Axe (main hand), dagger (main hand), shield (off hand)
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Necromancer: Pistol (main hand), torch (off hand), greatsword
You’ll be able to try out Weaponmaster Training and combine different weapons and elite specializations during our beta weekend, which will run from June 29 to July 2.
With the first release on August 22, the sixth tier of each rune set will instead complete the stat bonuses associated with that rune set, and the additional special effects or conditional bonuses will be removed entirely.
We’ve split the additional special effects off into their own Relic component, so you can choose both the stats you want and which special effect is right for your build. Everyone’s build will include a relic slot that becomes usable at level 60. Many of the relics that are available to players regardless of expansion ownership will cover the functionality of popular sixth-tier rune bonuses.
Other core relics have an updated effect compared to the sixth-tier rune they used to be associated with, like the Relic of the Thief: “Upon striking an enemy with a weapon skill that has a cooldown or resource cost, gain 1% strike damage for 6 seconds, up to a maximum of 5 stacks, and refresh duration of all stacks to 6 seconds.”
Generally, you’ll be able to get relics through crafting, instanced content like Fractals of the Mists and Strike Missions, reward tracks, achievements, and more. To celebrate the new system, we’ll distribute a relic selection box to all players at launch.
Planned for the second major release after launch (aiming to ship major releases quarterly), we’re granting each profession proficiency with an additional weapon.
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Guardian: Pistol (main and off hand)
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Revenant: Scepter (main hand)
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Warrior: Staff
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Engineer: Short bow
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Ranger: Mace (main and off hand)
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Thief: Axe (main hand)
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Elementalist: Pistol (main hand)
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Mesmer: Rifle
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Necromancer: Sword (main and off hand)
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.
Prepurchasing guarantees you the following three rewards:
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The Demon Hunter title,
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The Arcane Spellweaver’s Hat Skin,
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A weapon choice box that will get you started on the Eagle Eye weapon set — one of three upgradeable, two-tier weapon sets coming in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure.
There’s quite a bit to unpack here, but the first thing to note that ANet is indeed moving forward from the Dragon Cycle. Sure this is the fallout of End of Dragons, but it’s refreshing to see the story branching out to other parts of the Guild Wars world. It’s almost surprising that ANet is tackling the Wizard’s Tower in Garenhoff — the mysterious floating tower has been there since the very beginning, and has been the focus of a lot of player speculation, to the point where it feels like the tower is meant to be one of those things that’s never resolved. To have the new expansion focused on this little nugget is pretty exciting for long-timer players! 
SotO deviates from the previous expansions in a big way by not giving us new Elite Specs, which admittedly is not surprising given how much time and effort it takes to develop those. But ANet took a different route this time, expanding Weaponmaster Masteries and weapon proficiencies to give us a lot more options in equipping our characters. I have to say I’m more excited with this than new Elite Specs, mainly because I don’t play competitively and frequently I only use one or two Elite Specs.
The new zones/maps, story missions, rewards and Masteries are in-line with expectations, but there are a couple of other things that catch my attention. One is the reworking of Armor Runes, which sounds both interesting but also concerning — in the sense that how that will affect existing slotted Runes? I have some fairly expensive Runes in place on some toons, and I really don’t want to redo them.
The other thing is the introduction of new Legendary Obsidian Armor. I’ve stated several times in my GW2 posts that I don’t go the Legendary path, because of the insane costs of crafting them as well as time commitment, but the critical part is that it requires me to engage in game modes I’m not interested in — namely PvP and Raids. I don’t care how cool the rewards are, but forcing me to repeatedly participate in gameplay I don’t enjoy is a definite no-go.
This new set of Legendary armor, on the other hand, is evidently designed to be craftable through open-world PvE activities…. and that’s right up my alley. I’m sure it’ll still require an insane amount of time and costs, but at least these will be achievable for me. With any luck, these will become my new longer-term goal in-game!
So yeah, I’ve already prepurchased SotO, and honestly can’t wait for it. At USD$25 I thought it’s slightly pricier than I expected — I was expecting USD$20 but I’m not going to quibble over a measly five bucks for a one-time purchase. Already SotO sounds more fun than EoD, so let’s see if the final product matches expectations!
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