Guild Wars 2 on how Path of Fire is the most ‘complex’ story ANet’s done

Even if you’re a Guild Wars lore fan whose favorite word is “Cantha,” it’s likely that you’ve lost a bit of the story along the road between Guild Wars 1 and 2. Enter today’s Guild Wars 2 dev diary, which serves as a handy refresher course: In addition to a more top-down narrative explanation in the video, there’s an actual timeline of events leading up to the present day, explaining why this time we’ll be fighting an actual god instead of a dragon.

Indeed, the studio says that returning to the Crystal Desert and its southern cousin, Nightfall’s Elona, has been planned for since the launch of Guild Wars 2 way back in 2012. “It’s a pivot,” the story team says. “Players have been contesting against elder dragons since the game launched. We have beaten two of the elder dragons of a possible six, and as a result of beating these two cosmic scale entities, we’re starting to see the repercussions. It seems very much like we shouldn’t kill any more elder dragons, but lo and behold, here comes Balthazar.”

That guy, right? Watch along below, and don’t forget to get caught up on mounts with our deep-dive in Flameseeker Chronicles from earlier today.