Update log
Full Guild Wars 2® update
The complete published notes, normalized for clean reading and source attribution.
Extracted changes
- Gameplay
- Maps
- Events
- Store
The first major update for Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™ is on its way and coming with it are a new raid encounter as well as major updates for raids and the raid encounters formerly known as Strike Missions. Our goal with all of these is to unify Guild Wars 2's challenging instanced endgame content while making it easier to navigate. We introduced some of our thinking behind this change shortly before the expansion launched, which you can read here, and now we're ready to share some additional details.
The Unification of Raids
Starting with the upcoming release, Strike Missions will be known as raid encounters, and they will be available alongside raid wings in the Looking for Group panel as well as the new raid UI and every raid portal. Through the raid UI, squad leaders will be able to select which encounter to enter, including specific bosses of multi-encounter raid wings and all challenge modes. The UI will also track encounter clears for the week. Squad leaders will also be able to move the squad directly between raid maps without first needing to exit a raid before entering a new one, leading to a more seamless experience with fewer loading screens!
Raid Encounter Quickplay
From the raid UI, selecting Quickplay will allow you to enter the queue. When the queue completes and you accept the raid, you and your new squadmates will be transported into the raid. Nobody will be assigned a commander or lieutenant role by default, and all players will have the option to put down markers and start ready checks. All players in quickplay will have an effect applied that provides moderate bonuses to help groups succeed regardless of party composition. Upon successful completion of the encounter, you'll be presented with the option to stay in your party and go to the Lion's Arch Aerodrome or leave the party and return to the map you were in before entering. Like the quickplay queue for Fractals of the Mists, the raid quickplay queue does not try to do any matchmaking for party composition. Likewise, it has also been curated to include encounters that pose a roughly similar challenge to randomly matched groups of players. At launch, that list will include:
Aetherblade Hideout
Whisper of Jormag
Boneskinner
Cosmic Observatory
Temple of Febe
Xunlai Jade Junkyard
Old Lion's Court
Kaineng Overlook
Because of its newness, the new raid encounter will not be part of the quickplay pool and there is no bonus event planned for raid quickplay at its launch.
Rewards, Achievements, and Leaderboards
Rewards have been normalized across raid wings and encounters. This includes the conversion of Prophet Shards to Magnetite Shards; Magnetite Shards and Gaeting Crystals will be the currency for raid rewards moving forward. To accommodate that change, the weekly cap for Magnetite Shards has been raised to 800.
Raid bosses have been grouped into five categories based on difficulty, and each boss in the same category will award the same amount of Magnetite Shards. The higher the difficulty, the more rewards! Quickplay raids provide reduced amounts of the same currency as their non-quickplay version. Additionally, the reward for raid encounters is now gated weekly to be consistent with raid wing bosses.
Three new raid-exclusive rewards, including a new Dhuum-themed skyscale skin, have been added to the raid system as part of this update. These are not locked behind the same weekly gate as other rewards. Separately, a new raid
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