Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire

Guild Wars 2 goes back to basics with Path of Fire.

With Heart of Thorns, ArenaNet laid out a template for new expansions. Its follow-up, Path of Fire, follows that formula almost exactly. A new way to traverse the world? Check. New masteries? Check. New specializations? Check. A new land, events and storyline? Check, check and check. Despite this, Path of Fire kicks against the template, showing how versatile this approach to expansions can be. Take, for example, the public event system, which populates the map with objectives that scale based on the number of people working to complete them. Heart of Thorns was built around map-wide meta events, pulling everybody on a single instance together to complete a series of interlocking objectives. Exciting in principle, they relied on fully populated maps and the guidance of people who knew what they were doing. Path of Fire returns to Guild Wars 2’ s original, standalone series of events and chains—many of which can be completed solo.

That’s not to say Path of Fire’s event style is better (although it’s less dependant on other people, and is therefore more consistent). Rather, the difference helps build the sense of variety across Guild Wars 2 as a whole. In fact, much of Path of Fire feels like a considered counterpoint to Heart of Thorns, offering a separate style of adventure. It’s less experimental as a result of that, but in a way that feels effortlessly natural.

These are the sort of high-minded, macro level design shifts I think about when I’m sat, looking at a blank document, tasked with writing a review of Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire. But it’s not what I’m thinking about when I actually play the expansion. In the game, I’m more concerned about whether I can use a Springer mount to get up a steep mountain to secure a collectible mastery point, or if my Raptor can leap over a gorge containing an intimidating number of hydras. I’m bouncing between events, mopping up the occasional quest and hunting the hero points and vistas that build your progress to map completion.

It’s effortless to play and packed with distractions and amusements. Over here: a chef wants you to chuck ingredients at him. Over here: This quest-giver will unlock a new mount. Over here: a team of players, organized under a commander icon, are completing the bounty board—a non-stop train of difficult boss encounters. Before you reach them, a new event pops up, and other players gather to complete it.

Through the keyhole

During one evening’s play, I set off in the direction of a story mission marker, but am almost immediately distracted by a huge, dilapidated temple. I change course, head inside and, as I’m working my way through a band of enemies, discover a door I can’t open. Further in, I find some NPCs gathered near a rune. I grab the rune and take it back to the door. It opens. Interesting.

Over the next few hours, I delve further into the temple, which has been overrun by monsters and lava. One door offers runes to open another, and another, and each contains weapon pieces that can be collected to unlock new weapons and—always more crucially in Guild Wars 2— their cosmetic skins. I’ve completed plenty of jumping puzzles and mini dungeons in Guild Wars 2— shortform, repeatable challenges that end in unremarkable loot. This was something different. I rarely pay much attention to the collections system, but by marrying it to specific, one-off gear, collected across your exploration of a single area, it led to a memorable few hours that resulted in some valuable rewards. It’s a great example of how Path of Fire uses Guild Wars 2’ s existing framework to do something new and memorable.

The density and variety of stuff to do proves essential, because otherwise Path of Fire could easily

It’s effortless to play and packed with distractions

feel directionless. This is a natural consequence of Guild Wars 2 having never raised its level cap. Load into the expansion, and you can wander anywhere and do anything. It has no specific endgame because it’s all endgame—sitting alongside every other bit of endgame ArenaNet has made since launch. It’s a design philosophy that can make Guild Wars 2 as a whole feel scattershot, seeming to bounce between a focus on PvP, raiding, Fractal dungeons and meta events without rhyme or reason. But after five years of updates and two expansions, that approach is starting to build into a rich, varied tapestry of stuff.

The downside is that, often, I’m not entirely sure what I’m working towards. I only really play one of my characters—a Thief—and I’m pretty happy with my armor and weapons. Extra bonuses, like Legendary weapons, often feel a long way off, and more immediate Exotic loot drops tend to be sold or salvaged for an incremental increase to the amount of gold and materials that accrue in my bank.

Fortunately, aimless exploration is fun on its own terms, thanks largely to the new mounts. On paper, it’s an underwhelming inclusion. Almost every other MMO already offers mounts, and Guild Wars 2 doesn’t really need them. They work in Path of Fire, though, because each offers a specific ability that changes how you travel. Raptors can leap large gaps, Springers jump a great height, Jackals can blink forward and travel through sand portals, and Skimmers, well, skim across things.

It’s a fun way to traverse the world. Springers are a little awkward, yes, their enthusiastic high jump not playing well with Guild Wars 2’ s camera. But having a new way to interact with the environment has a big effect on the feel of play. You can also take mounts out of Path of Fire and back into Guild Wars 2’ s previous maps, creating new routes through familiar locations.

Each ability is different enough that it’s obvious what mount you need for any particular obstacle, but their inclusion still gives ArenaNet the tools for creative puzzle and environment design. Plus, mounts offer something concrete to work towards. On the first map, Crystal Oasis, I stumbled upon a location called Sanctum of Nabkha. It featured a sprawling sand portal puzzle, only available to those with who had unlocked the relevant mastery reward, leaving me with a reason to work towards that particular goal.

As in Heart of Thorns, masteries— unlocked by earning XP—offer passive buffs that aid exploration. In Path of Fire, though, masteries are entirely based around the abilities of your mounts. That’s a major upgrade to the system. Heart of Thorns had plenty of unlocks that served little purpose, as well as some designed to gate your progress through the story. But mounts are frequently useful. You’ll use them constantly as you travel through the new areas, and so any upgrade to their abilities is a boon.

The new maps look great, too, carrying on Guild Wars 2’ s excellent environment design. Yes, it’s a desert world, and that means the land is full of sandy dunes, but there’s variety throughout the five maps. One is an undead stronghold, surrounded by poisonous rivers flowing through long, winding gorges. Another has been corrupted by crystals, bathing the area in a washed-out hue punctuated by purple. There are villages, oases, and a vibrant city that looks completely unlike those found in Guild Wars 2’ s original landmass.

Lore and order

There’s also plenty of history to dig into for players of the original Guild Wars. The main story follows your character as they and their guildmates hunt down the god Balthazaar. It’s rich in lore, to the point that I—as someone who didn’t play the first game—found myself tuning out of some of the more intricate historical explanations. Still, as a series of missions, the campaign does try (at times unsuccessfully) to move away from the game’s standard mission template. The variety is welcome, even as the specifics of the narrative never hooked my attention.

That’s okay, though. MMOs serve different functions for different people. A reason that I’m not breaking down how successful the new specializations are, for instance, is because I’ve spent five years in Guild Wars 2 playing mostly one class, and rarely in PvP. I’m also not versed in the lore, and only somewhat invested in the story’s ancillary characters. For me, Guild Wars 2 is about traveling my way through a gorgeous world and forming ad-hoc groups with random players—briefly collaborating to take down some large monster, or hold off against waves of soldiers. At providing this type of experience, Path of Fire excels.

While five new maps might seem slim for an expansion—albeit still more than Heart of Thorns launched with—it’s important to note that Path of Fire is far from finished. That’s thanks to the Living World updates, which, assuming they follow the last season’s format, will launch every few months—adding a new map each time. The current version of Path of Fire is a new chunk of land filled with interesting things to do and find. The Path of Fire that will exist by the time Guild Wars 2’ s next expansion launches will be far larger and more varied still.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m working towards