Guild Wars 2 Gets First Raid in Coming Update

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will receive its first piece of raid content on Nov. 17 through a free update, developer ArenaNet announced today.

Called “Spirit Vale,” the first of three planned raid wings to be released will invite max level characters to group up with nine other players to take on the game’s most challenging content to date. Sticking with Guild Wars 2’s design philosophy of allowing any player to play any class (“profession” in Guild Wars terms) while serving any role, Spirit Vale and all following raid content for Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns can be tackled by any raid composition of ten players.

“Conquering the challenges in Heart of Thorns raids will require active strategies, not UI-gazing, with weapon and ability changes on the fly, skill combos, dodge rolling, and positioning for attacks being keys for conquering the content,” ArenaNet said in a press release. “One of the main aspects of game play in Guild Wars 2 is the versatility of each profession in the game, including the ability for all professions to heal. This will give raiders a large amount of freedom with party composition without reliance on the conventional tank, healer and damage dealer ‘trinity’ to take on challenges.”

Rewards for completing Heart of Thorns’ raid content will come in the form of mini-pets, new weapon skins, ascended gear, and the highly coveted legendary gear.

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, the first expansion pack for Guild Wars 2, was released last month. The base game, Guild Wars 2, was also made free-to-play with a few restrictions, however. Earlier this year, ArenaNet detailed what players can expect from the first raid content for Heart of Thorns.