Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons’ New Expansion Features Are Disappointing

The impending release of a new expansion is always an exciting time for any MMO, but Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons is losing some of its momentum with a disappointing set of new features. Guild Wars 2’s first two expansions included game-altering additions in the form of elite specializations and mounts, but it feels like End of Dragons is starting to come up short on expectations for these kinds of features.

Following the release of Path of Fire and the fourth Living World season, Guild Wars 2’s time was seemingly coming to an end before mass layoffs and a reconfiguration of the studio lead to the beginning of The Icebrood Saga and the groundwork of a new expansion. The End of Dragons expansion is finally bringing players back to Cantha, an island region of the world that was beloved by fans of the original Guild Wars. ArenaNet has consistently succeeded at translating locations from the original game into Guild Wars 2 and that is unquestionably going to capture the nostalgia of long time Guild Wars players, but massive features like the Siege Turtle mount and a new set of elite specializations promised to be a convincing selling point for all players.

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Similar to the introduction of masteries and mounts in the previous expansions, Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons is bringing fishing and skiffs to the game. Fishing is something that some players have been requesting for years and it’s a feature that could quietly become a major addition to the game. But while fishing is nice and skiffs will allow it to be a cooperative activity, it’s not nearly a strong enough mechanic to sell an expansion. Fishing is a great leisurely activity for an MMO that offers players a way to relax in the game’s world and kill some time, but it’s not a reason why people play the game. In that respect, End of Dragons will heavily depend on its new set of elite specializations, which players have found to be pretty underwhelming through the initial phase of beta testing.

End of Dragons’ New Elite Specializations Are Underwhelming

New classes are always a major selling point for any MMO expansion. But instead of entire new classes, ArenaNet has opted to release elite specializations for each class in Guild Wars 2, offering new ways to play the game’s classes with entirely new themes and concepts. It’s been a success through the first two expansions, but after three End of Dragons beta events, players have been left disappointed in the new set of elite specializations coming with this expansion.

Guild Wars 2’s New Elite Specializations Don’t Completely Break Class Rules

Prior to the first End of Dragons beta event, Screen Rant previewed the first trio of new elite specializations and discussed the idea of breaking class rules with ArenaNet developers. Conceptually, this idea has held true for many of the new elite specializations. Mesmer’s core clone mechanic has been fundamentally altered, Engineers have become complementary pieces to their customized mechs, Revenants now alternate between two different legends simultaneously, and Thieves are able to directly heal allies. These kinds of concepts all match the approach of breaking class rules, but they don’t fully execute on that idea.

There are problems with all of the new elite specializations. Virtuoso is just a core Mesmer without clones, Harbinger doesn’t do anything creative with the concept of being an apothecary, Catalyst is yet another melee Elementalist that isn’t even particularly good, Specter uses ally-targeted healing abilities in a game that wasn’t designed for ally targeting, the Untamed fails to truly synergize the Ranger and its pet, Mechanist is extremely passive due to its reliance on the mech, Vindicator is clunky to play, Willbender feels like it lost out on real utility skills to make up for the game’s lack of a true hand-to-hand weapon, and Bladesworn heavily emphasizes that the player use its new gunsaber kit.

Guild Wars 2’s elite specializations aren’t all bad, and some of the concepts are there, but they just haven’t worked well in practice. At this time, there doesn’t seem to be a reason for players to want to play any of the End of Dragons elite specializations over any of the others in the game, and that’s a problem.

Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons’ New Elite Specializations Are Bland

ArenaNet may have backed themselves into a predictable corner with Guild Wars 2’s elite specializations. Rather than just introducing one or two new classes with an expansion, this system requires the creation of nine new twists on the game’s existing classes. It’s a lot to ask of a development team each time an expansion comes out, and as a result, this new set of elite specializations feels a bit uninspired in terms of how they’re showcased and the execution of their concepts.

The Virtuoso and Mechanist are fine elite specializations that absolutely have a place in Guild Wars 2, but they’re fairly basic concepts that aren’t nearly as interesting as their alternatives. Harbinger has a great premise in shifting Necromancers towards becoming an apothecary, but all of the new skills are simply drinking a potion to gain a buff without any real interesting functional mechanics. The Willbender and Vindicator take interesting ideas in hand-to-hand combat and legend juggling but fail to do them in a way that feels fun to play. The Untamed was inspired by the original Guild Wars’ bunny thumper, a popular Ranger build which combined hammer knockdowns with pet damage, but it doesn’t do a good enough job of amplifying the pet’s involvement. And on top of these kinds of issues, even the art used for many of the new skills is extremely bland. It’s an interesting set of elite specializations conceptually, but they’re boring to play.

In time, many of these elite specializations will likely reach a point where players are satisfied with them after they’ve received balance updates. This could happen as soon as the Guild Wars 2 expansion’s final beta or as late as two years from now, but ArenaNet is generally pretty good at getting classes to a place where they’re all viable in different areas of the game. But it is unfortunate that players aren’t thrilled about what should be an exciting batch of new elite specializations. In general, the new features being introduced in Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons have been a disappointment, which may make it difficult to bring players back after a troublesome stretch for the game. The series’ long-awaited return to Cantha still promises to deliver with beautiful environments and a lot of nostalgia for long time players, but an underwhelming amount of new features could prove to be a difficult obstacle to overcome for an MMO that many believe is still struggling.

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