Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds stays in its comfort zone but adds a feature I’ve wanted for years

Guild Wars 2 is one of those MMOs that feels like it’s been around forever, and with its fifth expansion, Janthir Wilds, launching on Aug. 20, it’s clearly here for the long haul.

Janthir Wilds adds two open-world maps north of Kryta, a new primary weapon type for the first time, and a Warclaw mount with new abilities for PvE content. The feature I’m most excited for, however, is Homesteads—Guild Wars 2’s take on player housing.

I spent around an hour with the new expansion during the preview and had a blast, but aside from housing, it stays well within its comfort zone. Janthir Wilds feels like another serving of the MMO we’ve played for years, and if that sounds fun to you, you’re in for a treat.

Back to basics

Kicking off the Janthir Wilds preview, Guild Wars 2’s narrative lead, Indigo Linde, said Janthir Wilds “takes us back to our roots on terrestrial Tyria” with a “much more focused story.” It starts with your character meeting the Tyrian Alliance, a new faction founded to protect Tyria following the events of End of Dragons. You’re then hastily shipped off to Lowland Shore, one of two new explorable regions in Janthir Bay.

From the outset, Janthir Wilds feels far more low-key and down-to-earth than last year’s outlandish expansion, Secrets of the Obscure. Your first mission sees you exploring an uncharted forest while you fight off aggressive wildlife and ends with you taming a wild Warclaw—the mount you use to traverse Guild Wars 2’s new zones.

Warclaws were initially intended for PvP, but Janthir Wilds gives them a host of fun PvE-focused abilities. You can chain up to five jumps in the air if you manage your stamina properly, sniff for treasure, and even pull objects or enemies with a big chain. Warclaws are fast and frantic, and while I enjoyed hopping around the new regions, I couldn’t help but feel they’re a bit lackluster compared to prior expansions.

Maguuma’s towering jungles in Heart of Thorns are a treat to explore, and the neon towers of End of Dragons’ New Kaineng City are striking, but the regions we visited during the Janthir Wilds preview felt like base-game zones. I didn’t see any of the complexity or depth we had in older content, but I’d love to be proven wrong by the full experience.

The new regions aren’t without charm, though; Janthir Bay’s settlements are cute and cozy, and they’re home to the Kodan, a fierce but fuzzy tribe of bear people who thrive in battle—and remind me a bit of WoW’s Furbolgs. They wield Guild Wars 2’s new weapon type, Spears, which are another standout addition in Janthir Wilds.

Stick ’em with the pointy end

Janthir Wilds marks the first time ArenaNet has added a new primary weapon to Guild Wars 2. Spears existed before, but they were aquatic-only, and now you can use them on land with an entirely new moveset for every class. I enjoyed the new Spear abilities on my Necromancer during the preview, and more build diversity can only be a good thing.

After sparring with our Spears, the preview took us to the second zone, the Janthir Syntri, where we fought a new world boss—a titan called Greer. It’s a lumbering monstrosity made of roots and brambles, and while it was fun to fight, there was a lot going on, and it was tough to avoid damage, especially in melee. It could be a holdover of Guild Wars 2’s aging combat system, but the fight did feel distinctly messy compared to other modern MMOs. Guild Wars 2 isn’t really about the combat, though, so if Janthir Wilds’ other systems hold up, that’s good enough for me.

Home is where the heart is

After felling the beast, it was time to explore the expansion’s best feature—Homesteads. In Janthir Wilds, everyone gets their own Homestead shortly after arriving in Janthir Bay. I’m a sucker for player housing, and this might be the best player housing system I’ve seen in a 3D MMO since Wildstar (RIP).

The system is fairly straightforward; accessible via your Conjured Doorway, your Homestead comprises a big plot of land with a house in the middle. You can freely place up to 1,000 objects from the new decorating menu. There’s a farm and a mine where you can harvest the gathering nodes from your Home Instance and even a stable containing all your mounts.

Eager to push the limits of the Homestead system, I immediately started building a giant stack of mushrooms and littered the developer’s island with inane objects and scenery pieces. Aside from the object limit, there are virtually no constraints to what you can build, so I can’t wait to see all the weird and wacky community creations.

All things considered, Janthir Wilds looks like a positive addition to an MMO that’s already rich with relevant content. Spears, Warclaws, and Homesteads all feel fun and fresh, and if the open-world areas have more to offer than what I saw during the preview, Janthir Wilds will absolutely be worth playing.