GW2: Path of Fire

On Friday I logged into GW2 to check my daily login rewards and then I saw... mounts. I hadn't picked up the expansion but right then and there I knew I had to have a mount or few too. So, I dabbled around over the weekend in the Crystal Desert. No real spoilers here on story, just some thoughts on what I've experienced so far.


Starting out if you're having a tough time finding some of the easier mastery points, Dulfy has a guide here which helped. So far I have unlocked the raptor (first one you unlock through story) the hopping bunny looking springer mount and the skimmer mount. Currently I am working on the jackal mount which looks so awesome. They are all really neat, it is a bit redundant at times to swap them out for this or that but I am slowly getting used to it. I love having mounts! You can dye them, but it only colors a portion of their pattern, I wish you could completely color them but I suppose we will have tons of skins in the shop soon enough.

The story seems decent, not going to get into specifics but I'll touch on it. More blathering on about main characters romantic issues that I don't care about or even remember and the fact that I didn't do much in the last story line kind of made it seem like I forgot to do my homework or something. So I was like, okay whatever, if you say I was there...heh. Story is okay, nothing amazing, some funny bits help and I find it gets better as it progresses onward. The actual places you get to travel to and explore in this expansion are what makes it shine, well, that and the mounts. The Crystal Desert is really beautiful, I love deserts in games and this one is full of all kinds of sights to see. Travel is much easier once you get your mounts and some more mastery points put in them. Some of the areas are a bit densely packed and I find the raptor good for umping away and ahead of them, though some areas you just can't get away from all those blasted mobs. There are things like quicksand and poisonous or hot water, you can use a skimmer over these, that is really awesome.

I haven't really done much with my new class specialization, I have been working on getting mounts and hunting around for pets on the ranger. Nor have I used my character boost yet. I am happy to start with the ranger, I nabbed a sand lion and a poisonous looking flower, very cool pets! I was so hyped when I saw some of the new ones, not a ton but there are several, I think three or so more I need to find to have them all.

Overall it is a nice expansion well worth getting. You don't need HoT but it is pretty helpful if only for the gliding mastery. Lots of places to explore, new currency for new goodies, new achievements, hearts that reset daily. I like it much better than HoT, while it was a lovely looking expansion it just felt so enclosed and staggering, this on the other hand feels more open and welcoming. It was a bit jarring for me to get back into the game after some time of not playing as much. All the jumping and finding mastery points, not my most favorite things but soon I started having fun as I progressed. I look forward to finishing up the story but I still have a ways to go. All in all I am pretty happy with the expansion, I had no issues with anything at the launch, that part was great for me.

I have taken way too many shots, everything is so pretty! I'll share a few. Safe adventures!