Guild Wars 2 To Spread Out High-end Rewards And Make Strikes More Easily Accessible

Why do we play video games? For compelling gameplay, rich and deep stories, or challenging encounters? Nah, it's all about the rewards! You know it's true.

ArenaNet today talked about that most vital topic in a blog post detailing several changes coming to rewards in Guild Wars 2's upcoming expansion, End of Dragons, as well as how a few other systems would be added to or changed with the expansion.

Mystic Coin/Clover rewards from high-end Fractals will be changed so that ArenaNet can "spread out" those rewards across other activities, such as strikes and raids. Meanwhile, Icebrood Saga strikes, which currently award three colors of Prophet Shards, will be scaled back to just award blue shards, while new strikes in End of Dragons will hand out green shards. Those can be traded for Mystic Coins and Clovers, and raiders can also acquire Mystic Clovers through a new trade-in option.

The four new strike missions in EoD can be accessed by players once they've cleared the requisite part of the story -- something I learned during my first preview session, where I fought Mai Trin in one of the new strike missions. There will be regular mode strikes and, at some point after launch, a challenge mode will be available.

The final topic covered profession roles in 10-person content, specifically how more professions will gain access to vital boons like alacrity. And yes, ArenaNet knows that warriors would like to do more than tote banners into battle, and plans on making both those and spirit rangers less of a go-to requirement for groups, but that won't come until after End of Dragons' launch.