Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire Expansion Announced

The announced announcement was announced today when ArenaNet announced the next expansion for Guild Wars 2, Path of Fire.

Guild Wars 2 – Path of Fire

I do like the art style they use for the logos.

There is, naturally enough, a site dedicated to the expansion along with a FAQ with a whole bunch of information ANet would like to share with you.

There are new zones, new stories, new specializations, and mounts.

Bhagpuss at some date in the near future…

They aren’t all bunny mounts, but that there are bunny mounts says something… I’m just not sure what.

The expansion itself is slated to become available on the morning of September 22, 2017.  You can, of course, pre-order immediately, which will net you some “bonus items” which are:

• Sunspear Weapon Skin of your choice
• a Miniature Balthazar
• The title of Elonian Envoy

As is the custom of the time, the expansion itself comes in three flavors.

Path of Fire editions

The price range here, coming in at $30, $55, and $80, seems more in line with reality than the $40, $80, $130 price range that Standing Stone Games put together for the Mordor expansion.

And, like the LOTRO expansion, and the last couple of WoW expansions, Path of Fire comes with a booster to bring a character up to max level so you can go straight to the “good stuff” you’re buying, should you not already be at max level.

According to the FAQ you do not NEED to have the Heart of Thorns expansion in order to enjoy Path of Fire, but if you don’t have it you should to note the following:

• You must purchase Heart of Thorns to unlock and use the gliding mastery, as well as all other masteries introduced in and exclusive to that expansion. You will be able to complete all of the content in Path of Fire without the use of any Heart of Thorns-exclusive masteries.
• You must purchase Heart of Thorns to unlock and use the 9 elite specializations introduced with that expansion.
• Path of Fire includes access to the revenant profession, but not the Herald elite specialization. If you only own Path of Fire, you will be able to create a revenant character and unlock the Renegade elite specialization.
• You must purchase Heart of Thorns to claim the new guild hall released in Path of Fire, and access the Scribe crafting discipline to fully upgrade your guild hall.

But if you’re pre-ordering Path of Fire they’ll throw in Heart of Thrones for a discount.  Then nobody need ever know what a slacker you are.

You know you want it…

And if you’re not convinced about the expansion, ANet has some scheme to let currently registered users in good standing try it out from Friday, August 11 through Sunday, August 13.  Since the base game is free, you could just create a new account if you were interested enough.

So there it is.  I expect we will see a big spike on the Guild Wars revenue chart when NCsoft announces their Q3 2017 financial results.