Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity Brings Back Elite Specs, Ship Housing, and Skimmer Love

Why Visions of Eternity Actually Matters

Guild Wars 2’s new expansion, Visions of Eternity, is out now, and it immediately pinged my radar for one reason: elite specializations are back. As someone who adored End of Dragons’ spec shake-up (Virtuoso made me fall in love with Mesmer all over again), I’ve been waiting for ArenaNet/NCSOFT to do more than add a new weapon and call it a day. This time, the team is tying elite specs to unique trait lines instead of specific weapons, which is the kind of buildcraft freedom that actually changes how you play.

• Two new open-world maps set on the myth-drenched island of Castora, with the Inquest poking where they shouldn’t.
• Nine elite specializations, including Guild Wars 1 vets Ritualist and Paragon, reimagined for GW2’s pace.
• Three mastery tracks, notably a serious Skimmer glow-up with combat and treasure-finding utility.
• A new homestead: a three-deck beached ship with much-improved building tools and shareable layouts.
• Priced at $24.99/£21.99-aggressively fair if the specs and housing depth land.

Breaking Down the Expansion

Castora is the shiny new locale-an island that’s basically Tyria’s Bermuda Triangle, long dismissed as legend until the Asuran Inquest set their sights on its magical secrets. Expect two open-world maps filled with hostile aquatic types, ley-line gliding loops, and the usual “beautiful but deadly” ArenaNet biomes. It’s a more compact footprint than the sweeping sprawl of Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire, but that fits the studio’s new cadence: faster, more condensed drops instead of years-long waits.

Elite Specs Return: Real Buildcraft, Real Stakes

The headline is nine elite specializations, including the big nostalgia plays: Ritualist and Paragon. Lead competitive designer Cal Cohen summed up the shift away from just adding weapons (like Janthir Wilds’ spear) pretty bluntly: weapons only add so many play styles; elite specs blow the doors off. He also stressed the team started with “iconic” elements-Ritualist spirits and Paragon’s command flavor—then reimagined them so they actually work in GW2’s frantic, combo-driven combat.

This matters for two reasons. First, tying specs to trait lines instead of weapon gating should open up a wider matrix of builds, not just the usual meta-chasing. Second, it will absolutely rock competitive modes. If you’re a WvW roamer or sPvP lifer, brace for a few weeks of chaos while the community lab-rats everything. My question is whether ArenaNet can ship quick balance passes without smothering novelty—End of Dragons taught us that early nerfs can deflate experimentation if they’re too heavy-handed.

Housing 2.0: A Beached Ship, Finally With Tools That Respect Your Time

The new homestead is a three-story ship tipped into the sand, and honestly, this is the kind of weird, thematic housing arena GW2 excels at. The big win isn’t the scenery, though—it’s the tools. A duplicate function for quick copies, a “modify existing decorations” mode to snap and nudge pieces without fighting the camera, and a layout feature to save and share builds. Senior gameplay engineer Sarah Davies put it plainly: the goal was to get “the best of both worlds”—a proper open-world vibe with real building convenience.

For the RP scene, fashion wars crowd, and the screenshot brigade, this is huge. My lingering asks: are there friction points like placement caps or steep material sinks that turn creativity into a grind? And will visiting and showcasing other players’ builds be smooth enough to fuel a real housing community, not just solo showpieces? If the answer is yes, GW2 might finally have the social glue housing systems bring to other MMOs.

Masteries, Skimmer Buffs, and the Side Loot Loop

Three mastery tracks ship with the expansion, and the Skimmer—long the overlooked aquatic mount—gets promoted to something you might actually hotbar on purpose. Combat tricks and a sonar-like treasure detect make ocean routes and shoreline events feel more purposeful. Add a new legendary weapon and aquabreather plus fresh Wizard’s Vault rewards and armor sets, and you’ve got a tidy treadmill that respects alt play and collectors without feeling like a spreadsheet.

The Value Play and the Faster Cadence

At $24.99/£21.99, Visions of Eternity is priced to move. That’s smart. The modern GW2 model—Secrets of the Obscure, Janthir Wilds, and now this—trades giant tentpoles for quick injections of meta-shaking systems. The gamble is depth: two maps and a housing zone won’t hold without engaging loops and meaningful build diversity. But bringing back elite specs while making housing less of a chore hits both the combat junkies and the decorators, and that’s a rare two-for-one.

What I’m watching post-launch: balance cadence for the new specs, whether Ritualist and Paragon evoke the right vibes without becoming one-note gimmicks, and how quickly ArenaNet iterates on homestead tools if creators hit walls. Also, if you’ve been away since End of Dragons, the expanded build customization should make returning feel fresh without burying you in homework—assuming tooltips and trait synergies are clearly surfaced.

TL;DR

Visions of Eternity is a focused, fair-priced expansion with real gameplay teeth: elite specs that open builds back up, housing tools that respect your time, and a Skimmer that finally matters. If ArenaNet nails balance follow-ups and keeps iterating on housing, Castora could be more than a pretty detour—it could be the start of GW2’s best cadence yet.