Guild Wars® was released 21 years ago this month, and we’re celebrating with a sale. Save during the Anniversary Sale, now through April 16 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific (UTC-7), when you buy or gift Guild Wars® Reforged, Guild Wars Eye of the North™, or the Guild Wars Bonus Mission Pack.

• Guild Wars Reforged—40% Off
• Guild Wars Eye of the North—40% Off
• Guild Wars Bonus Mission Pack—40% Off

In addition, until April 16 save 40% on all Guild Wars Reforged in-game items!

The sale is also on Steam, but only until April 9 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific (UTC-7).

Adventure awaits!

Tyrians, rejoice! Our yearly Black Lion Trading Company’s March sales have begun! Many discounts are awaiting you, so buckle up and take a gander at our selection. During our sales, we’re adding bundles that will upgrade your account with valuable items. But that’s not all! Some cherished items are about to return to the Gem Store at a discounted price. As always, brand-new cosmetic items and Black Lion Chest updates are on the calendar, too. Follow the trail of discounted goodies over here:

March Sales Schedule

Black Lion Chest Keys will be discounted by 30% during two separate intervals. Stock up from February 27 to March 3 and from March 28 to March 31 to take full advantage of these savings!

Week 1—February 24 until March 3

• Outfits—25% off
• Unique Weapon Skins—25% off
• Featured Bundle—Fashionista’s Package (see below for details)

Week 2—March 3 until March 10

• Mount Skins—25% off
• Dye Kits—25% off
• Novelty Items—25% off
• Featured Bundle—Fashionista’s Package (see below for details)

Week 3—March 10 until March 17

• Backpiece Skins—25% off
• Gliders—25% off
• Chairs—25% off
• Featured Bundle—Build and Equipment Template Bundle (see below for details)

Week 4—March 17 until March 24

• Unique Armor Skins—25% off
• Emotes and Expansion Items—25% off (includes jade bot skins, fishing rod skins, and homestead items)
• Permanent Finishers—25% off
• Featured Bundle—Superb Storage Package (see below for details)

Week 5—March 24 until March 31

• Character and Account Upgrades—25% off (includes Bank Tab Expansions, Bag Slot Expansions, Character Slot Expansions, and gathering tools)
• Featured Bundle—Superb Storage Package (see below for details)

Fashionista’s Package

We’re kicking off our March sales with an amazing bundle tailored for all lovers of high Tyrian couture! This fashionable offer can only be purchased once per account and contains the following items:

• 1 Black Lion Outfit Voucher
• 1 Black Lion Weapons Voucher
• 1 Black Lion Cape Voucher
• 5 Guaranteed Dye Unlocks

The Fashionista’s Package is now available for 800 gems from February 24 until March 10.

Build and Equipment Template Bundle

From March 10 until March 17, upgrade your account with our returning template bundle! This offer can be obtained once per account, and it is available for 800 gems.

• 2 Build Template Expansions
• 2 Equipment Template Expansions

Superb Storage Package

From March 17 until March 31, expand your journey in Tyria with a variety of items that’ll enhance your incredible adventures. The Superb Storage Package has a limit of one purchase per account, and it is available for 1,600 gems.

• 1 Bag Slot Expansion and 20-Slot Bag
• 1 Shared Inventory Slot
• 1 Character Slot Expansion
• 1 Material Storage Expander

Have fun, and happy gaming!

Mischievous Ferret Warclaw Skin

Ferret warclaws are known for their playful and prankish behavior; they are extremely energetic but also love sleeping for long periods during the day. With a mount like this, you won’t run out of funny and fluffy surprises! The Mischievous Ferret Warclaw Skin is now available for 1,600 gems.



What’s in Stock

We’re shuffling our stock of mount and skiff skins this week! Starting on Friday, February 20, these items are 20% off until March 6. Some of our favorite items include: Shelled Skyscale Skin, The Ferryman’s Skiff Skin, War-Torn Marauder Warclaw Skin, Dreadnought Raptor Skin, Regal Moth Skyscale Skin, Panda Roller Beetle Skin, and Fluffy Samoyed Jackal Skin.

Returning This Week

Looking to share an item between all your characters? We have the perfect discount for you! From today until February 24, Shared Inventory Slots are available at a 20% discount.



• Available Now in the Gem Store!

  Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

The Competitive team is excited to talk about an upcoming event we’ll be running during the month of March! As we’ve talked about in the past, one of our priorities is to align player goals when it comes to winning and make winning feel important to teams. On the road to reaching this goal, we’ve made several changes to scoring in World vs. World (WvW) in the past. We’ve made updates to victory points and adjusted the points gained from objectives, both per tick and on capture, but now we’re looking at changing how War Score is gained.

Before we dive into the details, it is important to note that the changes we’re making for this event are not final. We’ll be looking for and gathering as much feedback as possible from the community, and we will make updates or even fully roll back changes as needed.

What Is War Score, Exactly?

War Score is the term for the points you currently gain from capturing and holding on to objectives. These points accumulate over the course of a skirmish—a two-hour window in WvW—and at the end of each skirmish. Victory points are awarded to teams based on that score, which in turn accumulates over the course of the week. We want to change how War Score is gained throughout the skirmish period while incentivizing and rewarding more active gameplay. To achieve this, we have some War Score rebalancing changes that we’ll be beta testing in an event in the near future!

During this test, we’ll be removing the points gained from holding objectives. This sounds like a big change, and it is, but we’re going to add it back in several different places. You’ll earn points for taking part in multiple different activities in WvW as either a defender or an attacker while ultimately helping your team achieve victory. You can get points for things like killing guards, building siege equipment, and downing and resurrecting players. The purpose of these changes is to give more agency to players when it comes to how their team is performing in the Mist War while not relying so much on passive progress ticks. That being said, it’ll still be extremely important to hold on to objectives and participate in actively defending the objectives you own, as you can generate large amounts of War Score for your team during defense events. Additionally, the points gained from capturing objectives will be increased. Several actions that grant War Score will also scale by objective type, upgrade level, and the number of defenders in the area.

Schedule Change

Currently, new teams are created during the first week of each month; however, for this test, we’ll be moving team creation a week earlier, starting on February 27. This means you’ll need to have the correct guild selected for team creation before lockout on Monday, February 23. This test will run for about five weeks, with the next team-creation period returning to its normal schedule on April 3, which will mark the end of this test.

Quality-of-Life Updates

We’re also planning to make some quality-of-life updates to a few WvW systems alongside this test, including allowing waypoints in your home borderland and Eternal Battleground spawn keeps without needing to upgrade and a change to help cut down on players being stuck in their spawn keep versus overwhelming forces on Eternal Battlegrounds. We will also be adding access to the newly released Infinite Utility Primer and Infinite Metabolic Primer via WvW, as we mentioned on the forums. The full notes on these changes will be found in the February 24 release notes.

What Comes Next?

Before signing off, we want to give a brief overview of some other WvW work that we have planned. During the beta test, we’ll be paying close attention to the amount of War Score being generated from the new sources to see how they’re performing relative to our expectations. We plan to run a second beta test of the system with these War Score adjustments alongside another new system: end-of-match rewards. As mentioned earlier, we want to make winning a match feel more important to teams, and additional incentives for match placement are one element of that. After the second test is complete, we’ll reevaluate the state of War Score distribution, and if we’re happy with the result, the changes will stay enabled. Otherwise, we’ll continue to iterate on the system through beta-event tests until we feel that it meets our goals. End-of-match rewards will be permanently enabled once we’re confident that the updated War Score system is a good representation of playing WvW with the intent to win.

End-of-match rewards are a good reason to care about the match at large, but we also want to reward players for their accolades during smaller chunks of time. With that in mind, we’ll be looking to create a similar reward system on a per-skirmish level to better align with individual play sessions. Log on, play for a skirmish, and get some cool stuff.

Further down the road, we also plan to look at the participation system with many of the same intentions as the War Score updates: rewarding players for active gameplay while removing some of the passivity of the current system.

These plans are largely focused on updating reward structures and incentives to better align with active gameplay, but we’re also looking into new content ideas. While there aren’t any specifics to share just yet, we’re thinking about ways to add new gameplay experiences to WvW. Whether that will be by refreshing existing mechanics or adding new things entirely—i.e., new events—we’ll likely want to leverage a similar beta test and iteration cycle for these new ideas, but our goal is to find things that will be positive permanent additions to WvW.

As always, we’re on the lookout for smaller quality-of-life adjustments or mechanical tweaks to improve the overall gameplay experience and flow of the game mode for the future, and your feedback helps shape the direction of those changes.

Happy gaming! We’ll see you in the Mists!

Cute Poses Emote Tome

Love is in the air, so show off your quirky cuteness with the Cute Poses Emote Tome! This emote pack contains the “/PoseShy” emote, “/PosePeace” emote, “/PoseHeart” emote, and “/PoseSassy” emote, and it is now available for 600 gems.



What’s in Stock

We’re getting a big restock! Starting on Friday, February 13, mount adoption licenses and mount packs are 20% off. This offer will last until February 27. Some of our favorite items include: Astral Manticore Skyscale Mounts Pack, Amnytas Feathered Raptors Mounts Pack, Skyscale Ascension Mounts Pack, Exo-Suit Mounts Pack, Eternal Crossings Mount Select and Adoption Licenses, Arcane Delights Mount Select and Adoption Licenses, and Shiverpeaks Mount Pack.

Returning This Week

Upgrade your account today with our weekly discounts! From today until February 17, Bank Tab Expansions and all permanent lounge passes are available at a 20% discount.



• Available Now in the Gem Store!

  Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

Spiked Inquest Package

Rock the vibe of a modern villain with a style that’ll make you feel as powerful as you look. This pack will pair perfectly with the Feathered Inquest Armor Pack; adjust your infiltration look with some perfect finishing touches! The Spiked Inquest Package includes the Spiked Inquest Helm Skin, Spiked Inquest Gloves Skin, and Spiked Inquest Greaves Skin, and it is available now for 1,200 gems.



Black Lion Chest Update: Dance Essence Chest

Inside each chest, you’re guaranteed to find a redeemable Black Lion Statuette, the Evon Gnashblade Lucky Envelope, and two common items. You also have a chance to find something rarer in the fifth slot, including special items, glyphs, and skins from the Imperial Everbloom Weapon Collection and the Necrotic Essence Weapon Collection.

Exclusive Item: Dance Platform Package

Become the star of the dance floor with our new rhythmically funky package. Follow the groovy beat, and your moves will tear up any stage with a lively bop! The Dance Platform Package includes the Dance Platform Glider, Dance Platform Chair, and “/HappyDance” Emote Tome, and is a new, exclusive drop from Black Lion Chests.



Painter’s Brilliance Weapon Collection

Paint the battlefield with pure vibrant art as you fight your way through the challenges of your epic journey. Arm yourself with the most powerful weapons of all: your imagination and creativity. Each weapon skin can be obtained in exchange for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket.



What’s in Stock

On Friday, February 6, we are getting a fantastic restock of dye kits with a 20% discount. This offer will be available until February 20! Make sure to check out some of our favorite items: Norn Dye Kit, Jormag Dye Kit, Glint’s Winter Dye Kit, Frost Dye Kit, Winter Chimes Dye Kit, Solar and Lunar Dye Kit, Metallurgic Dye Kit, and Blue Shift Dye Kit.

Returning This Week

We have a fantastic selection of discounted items waiting for you. Until February 10, Material Storage Expanders, Recharging Teleport to Friend, Black Lion Expedition contract boards, and Black Lion Garden Plot Deeds are available at a 20% discount.

• Available Now in the Gem Store!

  Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

This release is an example of the ways that player feedback shapes our approach to development. In our retrospective on Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™, we talked about changing our release plans based on responses to the quarterly releases for that expansion. This new approach allows us to modestly increase the amount of story, but more significantly, it allows us to bundle the story in a way that should make the second and third major updates for Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity feel more satisfying to play through. It also allows us to focus this release on other parts of the game. As we talked about in that retrospective, we’re excited to deliver features that make the game easier understand and more enjoyable to play by refining and modernizing the systems that are already in the game. Today’s release is doing exactly that for two big areas of Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity—raids and the wardrobe system!

The Raids Feature and a New Raid Encounter

Players can now challenge the new raid encounter, Guardian’s Glade, and face off against a truly awe-inspiring crustacean! The challenge mode will become available in three weeks. One of the easiest ways to access the new encounter is through the new raid UI, a core part of our raids update, which also features the merging of Strike Missions into raids as raid encounters. You can read about the raids improvements in detail in our recent blog on the topic and raid livestream. When you get into the game, be sure to check out the Achievements tab and the new raid reward vendor in the Lion’s Arch Aerodrome to start exploring the changes for yourself!

Fashion Templates and Fashion Week

When you first log in after downloading today’s update, you should receive an in-game mail with some free transmutation charges encouraging you to try out our latest wardrobe system update: Fashion Templates! You can learn all about the changes in our blog or preview livestream, or just open up your Hero panel and go to the Fashion tab (not the Equipment tab!). When you do, you’ll get a one-time prompt to save your current cosmetics to Fashion Template 1 for free. You start out with two free Fashion Templates, and more—up to a total of nine—may be purchased through the Black Lion Trading Company.

To celebrate the addition of Fashion Templates, Fashion Week is taking over the official Guild Wars 2 forums from February 3 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8) to February 10 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8)! Fashion Week’s theme is “God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals,” and it’s your chance to channel your divine presence, overwhelming power, or quietly terrifying reverence through your look. Whether you arrive as a benevolent deity or something far more ominous, we can’t wait to see how you command the runway. And for those who truly ascend above the rest, the grand prize is a legendary weapon of the winner’s choice! To enter, head over to our forums and leave the mere mortals in your wake.

Wizard’s Vault Improvements

Alongside the seasonal refresh of new rewards that come with quarterly updates, we’ve made a number of improvements to the Wizard’s Vault. At a high level, this update focuses on making objectives clearer and more flexible, improving reward variety, and protecting the long-term health of the game’s economy.

Daily and weekly objectives have been refreshed to improve variety and reduce friction, with several older objectives retired and new ones added that better highlight core activities like fractals, world bosses, and World vs. World (WvW). We’ve also introduced greater flexibility in how you engage with the system: daily and weekly objectives can now be selected independently, and you can freely adjust your chosen categories as long as you haven’t started progressing them. Combined with new special objectives that will roll out over the course of the season, including ones tied to festivals and bonus events, the Wizard’s Vault should feel more responsive to how and when you want to play.

The Wizard’s Vault shop has also received a broader tuning pass this season, including updates to pricing, quantities, and item availability. We’re updating the seasonal inventory with three Black Lion Keys and a Bag Slot Expansion, alongside other new additions and astral acclaim price tuning. As part of this work, we’ve removed the unlimited Bag of Coins option and adjusted the remaining limited-supply gold reward, which now offers more total gold per season at a slightly higher astral acclaim cost. These changes are intended to limit gold inflation and support the long-term health of the game’s economy. For full details on shop changes and reward availability, be sure to check out the complete release notes.

And, of course, there’s a refresh of the rewards in the Wizard’s Vault for everyone to collect and enjoy. The Castoran Coral Quest License takes you on a journey to obtain the Coralheart Pillar staff and Coralheart Stake sword. These ascended weapons grow bioluminescent coral formations as you wield them! The Seaside Scholar’s set is now complete with three new skins to help you become a beach-loving sage. Then there’s the Toxinshell weapon set with its beautiful-but-deadly design for all of our terrestrial weapons. Finally, the Tropical Leaf Cape Set grants you dramatic leafy shoulder and cape skins that surround your character with impressive foliage.

Legendary Rewards

Soak in perpetual vacation vibes with the new legendary ring! Endless Summer brings the beach with you wherever you go with splashing water effects and sand at your feet—complete with sandcastles, shells, and crabs!

Talk to Shaman Palak near the Hullgarden Pier Waypoint in Shipwreck Strand to learn more about making this ring your own.

Raiders will find new rewards waiting for them, including the new Dhuumscale skyscale mount skin. Six new combat relics for Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity are also now available.

Lunar New Year & Upcoming Events

Gallop towards a fresh Lunar New Year with decorations and festivities in Divinity’s Reach! Of special note is the opportunity to earn the Celestial Hoofed Shoes boot armor skin that will grace you with hooves worthy of the noblest centaur. Other incredible rewards include the Plush Mordy Backpack, the Lucky Great Horse Backpack, Celestial’s Firework Weapon skins, and the Mini Horse-Gourdon!

This festival is accessible to players of any level. Even if you’re brand new to the game, you can easily take part in our Lunar New Year activities and earn new cosmetic unlocks, utility items, and more! Check your in-game mail for an Invitation to Lunar New Year, and double-click the item to teleport instantly to Divinity’s Reach. The Wizard’s Vault also has special objectives directing you toward Lunar New Year activities so you can earn more astral acclaim and collect your rewards!

This festival kicks off a quarter full of events:

February

• February 3–24: Lunar New Year
• February 24–March 10: Return to Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds™

March

• March 3–10: Dungeon Rush Bonus Event
• March 10–17: PvP Rush Bonus Event
• March 17–24: Bonus Event (to be announced)
• March 24–31: Bonus Event (to be announced)

April

• Mid-April: Super Adventure Festival

Twitch Drops and Sneak Peeks

Starting today, you can earn Twitch Drops when you tune into participating Guild Wars 2 streamers! Drops are active until February 8 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC -8), so connect your account and start watching!

Before we sign off, we wanted to give you peek at what’s still in development for future releases. Below you’ll catch a glimpse of the third map for Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity. And, for a less visual preview: one of the two legendary accessories coming in the next major update will be acquired in WvW! We’ll also be back in a month or so to talk about some exciting experimental changes we’re making to War Score in WvW.

“With the staff in hand, the way opens before us. The only path to Tyria’s survival. A road I walk because someone must, and no one else will.” —Vloxx

Happy Raids and Wardrobe release day!

—The Guild Wars 2 Team

The first major update for Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™ arrives on February 3 and will allow players to create and save Fashion Templates to easily swap between.

A New Home for Your Wardrobe

A new Fashion tab within the Hero panel will house wardrobe and gathering tool appearance choices, which means you will no longer find wardrobe or outfit selection in the Equipment tab. In the wardrobe, players can change the appearance of their armor, outfits, backpacks, and weapons.

As players of our own game, we’re particularly excited that the wardrobe now allows you to also edit the dye colors of applicable items, rather than needing to switch between different tabs for appearance and dye options. When you have an item slot selected, you’ll be shown cosmetic options, and when you select a dye channel, you’ll be shown dye options. The randomize feature will continue to only impact skins or dyes in a single randomization; selecting an appearance slot will change the randomize button to only randomize skins among those available to your armor class and race, and selecting a dye channel will make it only randomize dyes.

It’s important to note that the wardrobe will only display appearance options for the weapons that your character currently has equipped, and equipping weapons is still managed through the Equipment tab. Similarly, infusions are tied to the equipment item system rather than cosmetics, so they are still managed through the Equipment tab.

Introducing Fashion Templates

At the top of the wardrobe, tabs will indicate which Fashion Template a character is currently using and allow for navigation between different templates to preview or edit. Every character begins with two Fashion Templates by default, so you’ll be able to swap between two separate looks. Additional template slots, up to a total of nine, will be available for purchase in-game through the Black Lion Trading Company for 600 gems. A template slot is for your entire account; each character will get the benefit of being able to swap an additional look for each template slot unlocked.

Transmutation Charges are used to save a cosmetic skin to a Fashion Template, but Fashion Templates are free to apply. A Fashion Template is first edited (which has no cost), then saved (costing a Transmutation Charge for each piece of equipment to be updated in the template itself), and then can be freely applied to your equipment until it is edited and saved again. If a piece of equipment that your character has equipped is of legendary quality, saving a new cosmetic appearance for that item in a Fashion Template will not cost Transmutation Charges.

If a Fashion Template includes the appearance of a weapon (or any piece of equipment) that you are not currently wielding, that appearance will not be applied.

When this goes live, you’ll receive an in-game mail with some free Transmutation Charges and a suggestion to check out the system. On each character, you’ll have a one-time chance upon first visiting the Fashion panel to save your currently equipped cosmetics to your first Fashion Template without spending any Transmutation Charges.

Fashion Endgame

Beyond the basics, there’s a bevy of options for fine-tuning your fashion. Right-clicking on any single item slot saved to a Fashion Template will allow you to apply it individually, rather than needing to apply the whole template. A new checkbox will allow you to apply your chosen cosmetics to any items that your character equips, so if you’re leveling or otherwise swapping out armor, you don’t have to reapply the template every time. And advanced controls within the wardrobe will allow you to inspect, clear, and rename your Fashion Templates.

Like Build and Equipment Templates, you’ll be able to select Fashion Templates through the quick-access menu on your skill bar and assign a hotkey to them. Hovering over a Fashion Template in the quick-access menu will show a preview of which items and dye choices are associated with that template.

And, like Build Templates, Fashion Templates will be sharable! You can generate chat- sharable Fashion Template codes that can also be saved if you want to preserve old looks or share fashion tips outside of the game.

And Tools, Too!

Like other pieces of equipment, gathering tools and their glyphs will still be managed through the Equipment tab. However, gathering tool cosmetics will be separated from the wardrobe and Fashion Templates. Their appearance can be changed—for free!—through the Tools section of the Fashion tab.

Into the Future, Fashionably

We’re continuing to work on the Equipment and Fashion sections of the Hero panel, including moving mounts, gliders, and conjured doorways to the Fashion tab; expect to see additional updates in a future release for Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity.

We’ll be live on our Twitch channel this Friday, January 30, at noon Pacific Time (UTC-8) to take a closer look at the Fashion Templates feature, so tune in to see it in action!

Classic Leather Boots Skin

With a timeless design and crafted from the finest materials, these boots are made to be both stylish and practical for everyday use. Perfect for a walk in the wilderness or to mount up and set out on an adventure. The Classic Leather Boots Skin is now available for 400 gems.

What’s in Stock

We’re getting a restock of our chairs for the season! Starting on Friday, January 30, these novelty items will be hot with a 20% discount. This offer will last until February 13. Some of our favorite items include: Ornate Grand Piano, Candy Cane Chair, Dueling Elements Chair Package, Comfortable Reading Chair, Glacial Chair, and Skyscale Chair.

Returning This Week

Salvage all you need or expand your account with this week’s discounts! From today until February 3, the Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic, Silver-Fed Salvage-o-Matic, Runecrafter’s Salvage-o-Matic, and Equipment Template Expansions are 20% off and Build Template Expansions are 40% off.



• Available Now in the Gem Store!

  Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

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 rewards vendor will offer both one-time and weekly items in exchange for raid currencies.

A new daily achievement category, Raid Boss Bounties, will highlight raid encounter and raid wing bosses for bonus daily rewards. The Raid God achievement and several other new raid achievements have been added, and updates have been made to several wings and encounters to create achievement parity, including mentor achievements for the raid wings that didn’t have one.

Raid achievements that are not associated with quickplay cannot be completed in quickplay raid encounters. However, two new quickplay-specific achievements have been added. There is a weekly achievement with rewards for completing up to 10 quickplay raids a week, plus a single-time multi-tier achievement for completing quickplay raids that awards new relics from the upcoming release.

We’re also thrilled to introduce new raid leaderboards for challenge mode completions! These are similar to those used for adventures and will display global top completion times as well as your own time for raid challenge mode.

Coming Soon!

Everything we discussed today and more will be shown in detail during our livestream this week! Tune in to our Twitch channel this Friday, January 23, at noon Pacific Time (UTC-8) to see it all for yourself, and then start getting ready; you’ll be able to put the new raid UI to the test and access an all-new raid encounter when the update lands on February 3! This will be followed three weeks later by a challenge mode.

We’re excited to have everyone jump in to experience quickplay and our other raid improvements. As always, let us know what you think on our official forums.

Good luck, and happy raiding!