Janthir Wilds | The Ancient Gaming Noob

Blizzard came pretty close to recreating 2012 by dropping an expansion release on top of a Guild Wars 2 launch date… not that I believe the conspiracy theories from the Mists of Pandaria era, but it was a memorable enough moment that I made reference to it when posting about the Guild Wars 2 Janthir Wilds expansion last week.

The War Within – Coming in August

And so it goes, the Janthir Wilds expansion will launch on August 20th, and The War Within will start rolling out with early access… for those who spent the most money on the expansion… on August 22nd, with the poors joining in on August 26th according to the launch schedule posted by Blizzard.

The War Withing Launch Roadmap

That will be a busy week between Tuesday the 20th and Monday the 26th.

As for what is coming with the new WoW expansion… well, nothing as deep as actual player housing, but there are the usual more levels, more zones, more dungeons, and more raids along with some new features:

Delves: Deep beneath the surface lies treasure vaults waiting to be discovered. Explore these world instances solo or with up to four friends, along with an NPC companion, to defeat bosses and gain epic end-Learn more about Delves in our overview article.
Warbands: Expand the potential of your alternate characters with account-wide progression across your family of characters on your Battle.net® account. Share your Warband Bank access, War Within Renown, achievements, collections, and more. Visit our latest article to learn more about Warbands.
Hero Talents: Rise to new heights of power with new Hero Talent trees. Each class specialization has access to two choices of self-contained Hero Talent trees inspired by iconic Warcraft® universe archetypes. Revisit our previous Hero Talent previews to get a glimpse at what is in development.
New Battleground: Deephaul Ravine
Professions: New Recipes and Enchantments, updated NPC Work Orders
UI Updates: Improved quest icons to make types of quests clearer.
Skyriding (previously Dragonriding): Take to the skies on one of your favorite flying mounts with all new flight mechanics. Learn more in our Skyriding overview article.

Blizzard also has an announcement cinematic to go with the news, as one has come to expect… though I do remember a time when they were so rushed to announce something that the cinematic wasn’t ready yet.

Meanwhile, Blizz is still encouraging people to join The War Within Beta and to please pre-order the expansion, which comes with a level boost at all tiers so at least one of your retail characters can avoid the bland voyage through the Dragonflight content.

I am personally a bit attracted by the idea of this expansion, but not enough to throw any money at it yet. I am happy enough in WoW Classic for now.

Blizzard – World of Warcraft: The War Within Goes Live August 26!
Massively OP – World of Warcraft The War Within launches August 26
WCCFTech – World of Warcraft The War Within, WoW’s Most Ambitious Story Arc to Date, Launches August 26
PC Gamer – World of Warcraft: The War Within gets a release date, marking the exact start of the MMO’s new 3-expansion long era

Hey, Guild Wars 2 is having an expansion this year… like they did last year… are they going to get on the annual expansion kick? Anyway, the big announcement for the fifth GW2 expansion was yesterday and it is certainly something worth noting. Keeps me from having to write a real blog post anyway.

Going to the The Janthir Wilds

What are people going to get with the Janthir Wilds?

New Maps

It kind of goes without saying that there has to be some new place to adventure, so here we go to the Isles of Janthir.

The view shown is nice…

It sounds like there will be three new maps for adventure which, among other things, will lead to the ability to craft a legendary spear… and we’ll get to spears.

Homesteads

Account wide customizable housing is part of the plan for the expansion, and everybody loves player housing… when it is done right at least.

A homestead

Will ArenaNet hit the sweet spot of customization and utility? Well done housing can make a title very sticky while poorly done housing tends to be a wasted investment. There are a lot more details to come on that front.

Spears – Not Just for Under Water Anymore

Hey, they called this out on the feature list, not me. That they had a weapon limited to under water content… the most unloved content by some accounts… which seems like an investment that wasn’t ever going to pay off. So now you’ll be able to wield spears on land, including the legendary spear mentioned above.

New Raid

Wouldn’t be an expansion without some new group content, though I am reading that this is the first new raid in five years? Is that true? See what happens when I write about games I don’t play. I’ll make up for that by linking out to all the related posts I can find I guess.

New Mount

Welcome to the Warclaw…

Cat mounts for all my friends

Possibly a New PvP Mode?

I mean, it is on the list but the they are developing it based on community feedback to become available in the next year makes this seem a bit less than concrete. People often say they want PvP until they get PvP.

There is even an expansion announcement video to get you in the mood.

All that can be yours for just $25 according to the store page, which is a deal in this day and age. And it even comes with a level boost! But if you want to spend more, ArenaNet has two other options at the $50 and $75 level, each with additional digital upgrades.

How much for the expansion?

I’m not sure what an Identity Repair Kit is, but it sounds like something I might need.

As is often the case, if you BUY NOW you will get some special goodies including the title “Homesteader” as well as some cosmetic skins. Also, many things are for sale in the cash shop and the now annual Dragon Bash festival is under way.

Anyway, all of this is coming on August 20th… which we’ll no doubt soon find is the World of Warcraft The War Within pre-patch or some such. It always happens. Now to link out to better informed opinions than my own.