Guild Wars 2 Shows Off Fishing And Skiffs

Fishing! It's the be-all-and-end-all request for seemingly every MMORPG that's ever launched, and today it was Guild Wars 2's turn to jump into the deep end and describe the activity that will be coming in the End of Dragons expansion in this week's Guild Chat livestream.

As was the case with gliders and mounts, you'll unlock fishing very quickly after starting up expansion content. You'll equip a rod, lure, and bait, and then can go to work in any body of water throughout Tyria. To catch a fish, you'll need to move a bar on a UI to match up with a marker, and the longer you keep it there, the faster your catch meter will fill. Once it's full, you'll reel in your catch. You can filet the fish you catch to provide cooking materials or trade them in for rewards.

You can fish from the shore or from your skiff, which was also previewed in today's stream. Access to skiffs comes a little later in the expansion, akin to Path of Fire mounts after the raptor. They carry a maximum of five players; passengers can emote while seated, and their emotes recharge the skiff's "turbo boost" ability. When someone successfully catches a fish while on a skiff, it provides a "fishing party" power buff to everyone on the skiff.

There are Mastery lines for both fishing and the skiff that provide a variety of bonuses and additional capabilities. And yes, the ability to "anchor" skiffs means that you can create a "boat bridge" and have a raucous late-night party with all your friends full of fishing and alcohol consumption. You know, just like in real life.