Guild Wars 2 Returns to Raiding After 5 Years with Major Update and New Casual-Friendly Approach
Guild Wars 2's first raid in over 5 years launches today as part of the Godspawn quarterly update, marking a significant shift in the game's content strategy under its new annual expansion cycle.
The raid introduces several player-friendly features to appeal to the game's traditionally casual playerbase:
- Normal mode designed with lower difficulty to welcome new raiders
- Challenge modes for all bosses coming in a future update
- Legendary difficulty for the final boss
- Map and boss encounters repurposed for story content and 50-player Convergence events
Dragon standing in purple flowers
The Convergence event offers a unique twist, presenting the raid's content through a story told by Kodan leader Stoic Alder, featuring randomized elements and challenges that change based on the narrator's embellishments.
Winged alien creature with flames
This approach represents ArenaNet's solution to two challenges:
- Making raid content more accessible to casual players
- Efficiently using development resources by repurposing content across different game modes
While this strategy helps bridge the gap between casual and hardcore players, some veteran raiders may miss the unique, custom-designed spaces of previous raids. However, this compromise aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of raid content while maintaining Guild Wars 2's broad appeal.
The update is part of Janthir Wilds' broader refinements to the game's release schedule, which has already shown improvements in map design and content pacing compared to the previous expansion, Secrets of the Obscure.