Repent! For the penultimate update to Guild Wars 2’s Janthir Wilds expansion is at hand!
We are at the midpoint of this expansion’s continuing story with the launch of Repentance today, and the last episode, Godspawn, left us with a lot of questions. The threat of the Titans seems to be extinguished for now, but Ura left us with a tease of a larger threat coming — as defeated villains are wont to do. Repentance’s story has a lot of interesting twists and turns (which I’ll do my best not to spoil in this article), but suffice it to say that even though the Mursaat are extinct, what these long-running villains from the earliest days of the Guild Wars franchise have left behind is still quite dangerous.
As I saw during ArenaNet’s press preview ahead of today’s release, this chapter brings with it a new map called Mistburned Barrens. Hopefully, the chat will be less awful than other Barrens I could name; please, at least keep the Chuck Norris jokes tasteful. It is the center of much of the Mursaat activity and bloodstone sacrifices that we got a glimpse of in Janthir Synistri. The Wayfinder and company arrive here searching for a way into the ruined Mursaat city of Bava Nisos, and the portal to the Mist Realm of Torment that Ura teased at the ending of Godspawn’s story. Fortunately, a lot of the bloodstone here has already been drained by the titans Greer, Decima, and Ura, after they came through the aforementioned Mist portal. Unfortunately, the whole place is crawling with Mursaat ghosts.
Some players will undoubtedly be frustrated by the fact that early in the story, progress is gated by a mastery. You will need three mastery points to unlock the Mursaat Mirror mastery in the new Mursaat Shadowcraft line, but don’t worry too much; I count six “commune with this place of power” type mastery insights available in the open world of Mistburned Barrens — although you do need said mastery to get one of those points — and there is plenty to keep you busy on this map while you farm XP.
The mirrors themselves work sort of like jade tech zip lines, turning you into a wisp and sending you on a preset path to a specific location, generally inside of a big bubble of magic protecting a reward of some kind that otherwise cannot be entered. I can’t say for sure, of course, but everything in this mastery line — the mirrors, additional map-specific materials, and better loot from events — sounds like things that are going to be used only on this map, maybe the next one, and then promptly forgotten about. Oh well, it’s not the first time we’ve gotten a mastery line like that, and it likely won’t be the last.
As for Mistburned Barrens itself, this map is a little different from what we’ve seen before. There is no meta event, but there are a series of survey events that kick off periodically, where players will join a party of NPCs to venture down one of the three lanes in the map. Each lane has its own unique visuals, narrative theme, and final boss. The event chains have a number of possible random occurrences built in, which should keep things fresh for multiple runs. Surveys happen pretty frequently, with the idea that you don’t have to wait for an hours-long event timer or scrounge for a party in the group finder; you should just be able to jump into the map at any time and there should be something going on.
When the devs were describing the map with multiple, themed lanes and randomized event chains, my mind went instantly to Drizzlewood Coast. I asked the devs if this map was similar, but they said this map was more about exploration rather than an ongoing battle. Also, after the press event, I wandered around the map on my own for a while, and I had no problem getting from place to place without assistance, though the survey events were clearly built for groups.
A few voices will still be missing from this release – notably, Countess Anise, who features heavily in this story, as well as the player Charr and Sylvari females, who were absent in the last release – owing to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA voice actors’ strike. ArenaNet promises they will be added in in a future update once the strike has been resolved.
This release also adds Greer as a second possible boss for the Mount Balrior convergence. The devs present described Greer’s convergence mechanics as being a hybrid between his meta event version and his raid version, scaled up, of course, for as many as 50 players.
Of particular interest to players who don’t own Janthir Wilds or Secrets of the Obscure, this update brings with it 12 new relics that can be crafted and traded by anyone, regardless of expansion ownership.
If you are looking forward to the legendary backpiece promised to us by the end of this expansion cycle, you will want to complete Mistburned Barrens’ meta achievement, which will reward you with the – no, I’m not making this up – Salmon of Knowledge backpack, pictured above, which will be used in the creation of the new leggy.
Infusion fans should also keep an eye out for the new bloodstone infusion, which will drop from the Janthir Wilds raid, convergence, and (rarely) survey event bosses.
Repentance, and its accompanying Mistburned Barrens map, looks to be a nice addition to this expansion cycle. I have to say, I’m enjoying Janthir Wilds’ post-expansion content so much more than Secrets of the Obscure’s. I’m more invested in the story, the characters, and the design team is still finding new ways to put twists on tried and true content types. ArenaNet did confirm for us that there is a new map coming with the final release of Janthir Wilds, not just an expansion of Mistburned Barrens, which makes me happy.
Looking forward to doing some scouting missions with you all!
Flameseeker Chronicles is one of Massively OP’s longest-running columns, covering the Guild Wars franchise since before there was a Guild Wars 2. Now penned by Tina Lauro and Colin Henry, it arrives on Tuesdays to report everything from GW2 guides and news to opinion pieces and dev diary breakdowns. If there’s a GW2 topic you’d love to see explored, drop ’em a comment!
