As part of Game Director Colin Johanson‘s Q1 state of play update, ArenaNet has confirmed that gliding is coming to the Guild Wars 2 zones that we know as Central Tyria after being warmly received as part of the Heart of Thorns zone-specific mastery system last October. Switched-on, eagle-eyed fans had already guessed that Central Tyria gliding was on the cards after a little teaser clip was shown during a recent livestream, but those whispers have now been solidly confirmed as a part of the 2016 Winter update additions coming on January 26.
Central Tyria gliding was far from the only news to come out of the state of play update: 2016 is set to be the year of balance and depth, promises Johanson, with regular seasonal game updates with “a focus on new content and polish for our existing, successful parts of the game.” In two weeks, we’ll see the first of these seasonal updates that will bring gliding to Central Tyria, improvements to the Shatterer boss fight including a new achievement category, a new PvP Mist Champion, quality-of-life improvements for fractals, better event recognition for healer and support builds, new marker and promotion tools for the squad UI, and much more.
The first quarter of 2016’s development timeline doesn’t end with the Winter 2016 update; the Lunar New Year event starts with the update and ends on February 9th. The next raid wing, called Salvation Pass, will allow raiders to continue the hunt for the missing Pact squad. The new PvP League season kicks off on February 23rd. And $200,000 is up for grabs next month in the Pro League Season One Championship. Johanson left us with a teaser plan for the rest of the year, mentioning Living World Season 3, fractals improvements that even includes new fractals (yippee!), and the big WvW overhaul we’re waiting on. Whew, what a year it’s set to be! Read the full details on the official website.
