Guild Wars 2’s latest update has tweaked underwater combat in the game. This came out of the blue, and one wonders why it took them 6 years to do something about underwater combat and content. Prior to the update, it’s fair to say that underwater in Guild Wars 2 is an amazing experience. Plenty of of MMORPGs have tried to incorporate a world, zone or part of a map with underwater content and haven’t been able to match what GW2 can. Movement is fluid, the vistas are incredible and of course, there’s character progression content down there too in the form of Hero Points and more.

So why hasn’t it been as popular or well regarded over the last few years? Majority of the game’s new content updates are always on-land, and this is the case for every MMORPG out there. What’s the deal with the sudden tweaks to underwater combat? One of the major tweaks this update was to make underwater combat match the fluidity, balance and pace of combat on land. Having played for quite a long period, I can say that these intentions have been met. Underwater combat definitely feels swifter and fluid than ever before. Monsters underwater take the same amount of time to kill on land, which is a realistic reflection of a player’s gear progression and stats.

Intriguingly, the update doesn’t end there. There are now new content for players in the depths too. Sunken treasures can be found across bodies of waters in Tyria, and it comes with accompanying achievements. Players receive a key daily from a daily quest of killing 10 Kraits, and can then go open sunken chests wherever they find them. What’s in those chests? You can expect gear and currency, but most importantly, you will receive a new trade able currency called Swim Speed Infusions.

These Swim Speed Infusions will be used to barter for a better tier of infusions from the new NPC in Lion’s Arch. The real candy however, are the Ascended level Aqua Breathers that’s up for grabs. It costs gold in addition to 500 or so Infusions, so it may take a few weeks of dailies to get it. That is all the new content for now that’s available for players to enjoy the new underwater changes. I do believe however, that this is a prelude to something bigger. Maybe there’s a new underwater zone in the works for the next episode of the Living World Story. What do you think?

The post Guild Wars 2 2018: Has Underwater Combat Changes Made The Depths Better? appeared first on Mmos World.

• Glyph of the Tailor: Gain a 33% chance to receive bonus cloth scraps.
• Glyph of the Leatherworker: Gain a 33% chance to receive bonus leather scraps.
• Glyph of Industry: Gathering completes 50% faster.
• Glyph of Flight: Increases movement speed for 5 seconds after gathering completes.

The game is offering all players (Non F2P) a free glyph from the in-game store to use, but assuming you have more than one unlimited tool, you’ll need to get the rest. So where do they drop from?

Something To Gamble On

The answer lies within the Black Lion Chests, or the game’s RNG lockbox. Glyphs now have a chance to drop from there, so players will need to purchase a key using gems to try their luck at getting one. Still, is this update necessary and why would players pay for something like this? To be fair, there are non-gem store ways to get them too. Limited use tools can be upgraded with glyphs that you trade Karma for at vendors in the main cities, but remember, the tools will expire. The good news is, the upgrade glyphs simply return to your inventory until you get more limited tools to use them on. There’s a catch though; Limited-use tools with inherent bonus effects are the only tools exempt from glyph swapping, and their effects can’t be removed or changed.

The good news is, they aren’t bound on acquire, and you get buy them from the auction house too if you’d rather not spend real money on gems to get them via boxes.

According to ArenaNet, here’s why they included this:

“We intended this to be a nice little bonus, but instead it felt incomplete and arbitrary. We wanted to organize the system to make it clear where bonus effects come from and how players can get them, both through the Gem Store and in the game.”

Cosmetics May Be Your Thing

That’s not all however. If you own a bunch of unlimited tools, you can now swap their cosmetics freely at the cost of Transmutation Charges via the wardrobe. This is the same system that you use to change your character’s look, so it’s standard fare. Important to note here is that the skins are account wide, so if your alt has the nicer skin, the wardrobe will just pull that for you to use on other tools you get in the future.

Overall, this update will be well receive for hardcore crafters. Materials out in the world require some labor to gather, and the Glyph of Industry is the most efficient and popular for that. Currently, it’s going for 400+ Gold on the auction house.

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