Guild Wars 2’s balance update arrives next week – with ‘underwater combat’ revamp

Remember back before Guild Wars 2 launched and its underwater content was touted as the most innovative thing in years? And remember when it launched and underwater content actually was miles ahead of underwater content in pretty much every other game – but was still mildly annoying? And then remember how ArenaNet kinda stopped developing much for it, and now you just skim yourself right over water altogether?

That’s changing, though we don’t know quite how just yet. ArenaNet posted this morning that it’s pushing out the planned balance update next Tuesday on May 8th, and with it, big changes to underwater combat too.

“The next Guild Wars 2 balance update arrives on May 8, bringing a sea change to underwater combat! We’re enhancing underwater skills and utilities so you can blast the barnacles off anything that tries to nibble your toes while you’re swimming. Keep a lookout on the morning of the May 8 balance update—we’ll publish a developer blog post that wades through all the details.”

Reddit is somewhat baffled by the announcement, guessing so far about new rebreathers and new maps (presumably the new fractal) with underwater content.