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Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons has a brand-new chapter of content coming to the game, releasing tomorrow. This is the second of the two free updates coming to the title that will see them digging out of the Gyala Delve. A familiar threat from the days of the original Guild Wars will make an appearance. It will be up to groups of adventurers to deal with this threat, hopefully once and for all.
Ahead of this week’s content update, I spent some time with the ArenaNet dev Joe Kimmes, the What Lies Within Team Lead. I took a brief tour of the latest story coming to Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons.
A private guided tour through Guild Wars 2’s “What Lies Within” update
This was my first time in the Gyala Delve, and I have to say, it was quite a scenic area. The deep greens of the rocks and water were a soothing visual. I haven’t been active in Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons in a while, so I did miss some content in this expansion. Thankfully, I played a character that was more geared up for the encounter.
I took a tour of some of the missions players will be tasked with in Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons’ What Lies Within story. We had no problem completing the content. But since we were down a few players, there was a bit of staff intervention to make sure we could defeat the final boss in a reasonable amount of time.
Players will enter the Jade Caverns until they reach a familiar locale for old-school Guild Wars 1 fans - The Deep. It was a raid location back in the older days of the franchise, so it will be nice to revisit for many Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons fans.
This also means that the Oni - Canthan Demons - will make an appearance. In fact, one particular Oni will be the Final Battle of this Guild Wars 2 story. The Ravenous Wanderer lurks here. In order to deal with it once and for all, hopefully, the Jade Brotherhood and the adventurer (player) concoct a plan to bring the Oni to the surface in the current expansion of the MMO.
Players will use the Siege Turtle mount in Guild Wars 2 to break open a path to the surface by collecting energy and using it to power the demolition equipment. There will also be Oni along the path, so keep that in mind.
I did not see the entire Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons story, so I cannot spoil it for you. However, I completed the mission Escape the Deep, which does exactly as it suggests.
Doing this on the backs of the Siege Turtles is incredible fun, but I worry about returning players that don’t have one. Since I have not completed the collection for this mount, I do not know how challenging it is to do. There will, however, likely be players that need a gunner, which will make the mission more viable.
It’s a fun escape sequence for this action-based MMORPG, culminating in a truly staggering boss fight. The Ravenous Wanderer is a great group fight, and though we were undermanned for the encounter, we still completed it easily enough.
One of the developers did give us a bit of an edge to make the fight quicker, if nothing more. It’s a massive, multi-colored void beast, taking teamwork to bring it down. It has several AOE attacks and can also summon allies to aid him.
It’s certainly a battle that requires teamwork, be it with a guild or random allies. Some players will farm energy to power batteries. Others will get a mecha online to aid the group. The mechanical equipment players power up will certainly be worth it.
You’ll need to power up some sniper rifles and use that Jade Behemoth machine to properly damage this boss, as he’s immune to most attacks. The sniper rifles, once powered up, will be used to break his Defiance Bar so that you can attack the boss's demonic hearts.
From that point, you’ll rinse and repeat. I won’t spoil what comes next, but it was certainly a wild ride when it comes to fresh content in ArenaNet's MMORPG. Upon defeating the boss, though, there’s an hour of peace-time, where you can do a wide variety of activities in this update.
Alongside that, there are plenty of new outfits to unlock, as well as the adorable mini-Phoenix pet. Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons’ new update, “What Lies Within,” is an enjoyable storyline that players won’t want to miss out on.
What Lies Within heads to Guild Wars 2 as a free update on May 23, 2023, and offers players plenty of challenges and new content to explore in the latest expansion to ArenaNet’s free-to-play action MMO.
