Guild Wars 2 new expansion announcement next week

A second Guild Wars 2 expansion will be announced next week, Tuesday, 1st August.

A dedicated page on the Guild Wars 2 website says the expansion will be unveiled 9am PDT, which is 5pm in the UK (BST). You'll be able to watch the announcement on YouTube, Twitch or Facebook.

What the second Guild Wars 2 expansion will be about is teased in a cutscene at the end of the current Living World Season 3 content. In a nutshell, it looks to be set in the Crystal Desert and star the Elder Dragon who lives there, Kralkatorrik.

Guild Wars 2 - The Second Expansion Reveal | Massive Spoilers | Cutscene Frame-by-Frame and Analysis

Heart of Thorns, the first Guild Wars 2 expansion, was set in the Maguuma Jungle where Elder Dragon Mordremoth lived, and was released nearly two years ago.

What's fascinating about Guild Wars 2 and its expansions is that ArenaNet always tries to do things a little differently - ArenaNet has even wholeheartedly pledged never to raise the Guild Wars 2 character level limit and never to introduce higher-tiered equipment tiers - both common features in a typical World of Warcraft expansion.

What Heart of Thorns offered instead was a separate progression path tied to an area - the newer jungle zone particularly. These Mastery paths allowed you to improve abilities linked with the area such as a hang gliding, which would gradually allow you to unlock secrets in previously inaccessible areas. Heart of Thorns also introduced class specialisations as well as the new Revenant profession. I wonder what the new expansion will do.

In an adjoining blog post, ArenaNet co-founder and Guild Wars 2 game director, Mike O'Brien, announced long-time team member Mike Zadorojny as lead designer of expansion two.

In related Guild Wars 2 news, I recently spoke to the game's art director Horia Dociu, who took over the role from his father Daniel Dociu earlier in the year. It's a heartwarming story of father and son, with a dollop of chasing the American Dream on top.