This month we have more MMOs to look at, and even if you played some of them, these new expansions and updates may change your mind.
Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire
Five years after the vanilla release, Guild Wars 2 is getting its second expansion. Compared to Heart of Thorns where we got a lot of new features and content revamp, this time the devs seem to have focused on getting a ton of new content out.
One thing you should know from the start is that purchasing the Path of Fire expansion won’t give you Heart of Thorns, although you can get the bundle for a reasonable price. For those of you who haven’t play Guild Wars 2 until now, the core game is free to play, and you can upgrade it at any time. Owning Heart of Thorns isn’t required, but there are some exclusive content tied with the first expansion.
Path of Fire will bring vast new maps, five to be more exact, with different bioms, such as magic-drenched desert plains, ancient ruins and temples, and thriving oasis, just to name a few.
Four new mounts (Raptor, Skimmer, Jackal and Springer) are also coming to the game, and they can be trained using the max-level mastery character progression system to leap across canyons, bound up high cliffs or skim over quicksand.
For those of you looking to further customize your in-game experience, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire will bring 9 new elite specialization for each profession, each with new playstyles, weapons and traits. For those of you unfamiliar with these specialization, we can say that this update is almost bringing 9 new classes.
To top this out we will also get new stories and some really badass enemies (mobs and bosses alike). If you want to learn more about Path of Fire, be sure to check the official
expansion site.
Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire will officially launch of September 22, 2017, and if you preorder the game now, you will also gain a Sunspear Weapon Skin, a Miniature Balthazar and the title of Elonian Envoy. All of these, starting from 29.99 euros.
WildStar: Homecoming
I know WildStar isn’t the most popular MMORPG around here, but you don’t lose anything if you give it another time, especially now, when the Homecoming expansion is almost here.
WildStar Homecoming will launch on September 6, 2017, bringing new features such as Communities, a new monthly event and of course, new content. So let’s take a closer look at these new updates.
Communities. After investing a lot of time in creating your virtual home, now it’s the time to invite your friends in order to work together to shape up the best neighborhood. As a land owner you will have the option to share land near your house, and those invited will get the opportunity to relocate their homes.
The monthly event is also related to houses. Called Residential Renovation, this new challenge will a get players to complete a variety of housing-centric tasks that will award unseen home decorations. I never spent a lot of time building or decorating a house (maybe just in ArcheAge), but I really like how passionate some gamers are about these features, as you can see in the video below.
The amount of Prime content will also get expanded with two new dungeons (The Sanctuary of the Swordmaiden and Deep Space Exploration Expedition). Besides these changes, Madame Fay’s Arcterra Collection will be making a limited time return.
Wildstar Homecoming expansion will be free to play, so if you want to give it a try, just go to the
official site, download the game and jump right in.
Eve Valkyrie: Warzone
You may be wondering what is Eve Valkyrie doing on our September 2017 list, right? The old game was rebranded as Eve Valkyrie – Warzone, and starting from September 26, it will no longer require a VR headset. The new expansion, if we can call it this way, will also bring new ships, new maps and different modes.The Warzone expansion will come as a free download for existing players, and it will launch at $29.99 for rookie pilots. The game will be available on PC and PS4.
Developers talked about new distinctive roles in battles, for each ship within a class, a revamped Heavy and Support class, and a brand new entry, The Covert class. Your ships will have a new unique Ultra ability that is supposed to change the course of battles, when timed correctly. These abilities will vary from area-of-effect damage, healing and damage boosts to increased mobility or advanced tactical information.
As a welcoming gift for rookie pilots, all new players will gain access to all ships from the start, and a new open hangar will be available, where you can choose and experiment with different ships and guns.
The upgrade path was also revamped and now they have a modular progression system in action that give players new modifications and unique abilities for every ship. In Eve Valkyrie Warzone you’ll get the so called flat upgrades, stats boosts with no negative consequence, and trade-off upgrades that will increase a particular stat, but reduces another one.
There are a lot more changes coming, so if you’re interested about this title, be sure to check the latest announcements on the
official site.
Blade & Soul: The Rise of the Gunslinger
Announced at Gamescon 2017, Blade & Soul: The Rise of the Gunslinger will arrive on September 13 as a free update that will include a new class, several in-game events, and a few system updates and revamps, such as the new crafting and gathering system (you can read more about it
here).
On the Korean server, this class is known as The Maestro and was released on June 14. Although not many details were shared on the official site, we already have the skill tree for both Flame and Shadow, thanks to our friends from
Bnstree.com.
There are only a few days left before this update hits the live servers, so keep an eye on the
official site for more details regarding the gunslinger class and the in-game events and promotions.
Wild Buster: Heroes of Titan
This game hit the Asian headlines a few years ago and was originally described as a sci-fi version of Diablo 3 or Path of Exile, but looking at its MOBA aspects, I think we can safely say it looks more like the MMORPG version of MxM Masters from NCSoft.
We’ve included this game on our September list, because Wild Buster: Heroes of Titan is currently having an indiegogo campaign, where you can get
Alpha Test Access for just $18 (limited to the first 100 buyers).
There weren’t many things shared yet, so let’s see the core features, as listed on their official Steam page.
Key Features:
Full MMO with ARPG style-combat: Shooting, slashing, burning, dodging, rolling - Think fast, move faster!
MOBA-style Character and Skill System:
- Different skill combinations with 2 powerful ‘ultimate skills’ to choose from for each hero
- Skills can be upgraded and customized with Items
2 Factions:
- Guardians: Military organisation tasked with the mission to protect all humans, who rely on strict discipline and training to do so.
- Abandon: An alliance of unbound wild mutants. They are less organized, but experts in utilizing weapons and gadgets to survive even in harsh environments.
12+ selectable heroes (24 planned) that employ distinctly different play styles and unique abilities:
- Tank, Range Dd, Melee Dd, Support
- Mech suit engineer, petclass, dual wield blade assassin, sniper, and many more
Rank level system: increase your account wide level beyond the character level to get extra attribute bonuses.
MMO Features:
- Versatile gear with different attribute increases, rarities and set bonuses
- Crafting, enchanting, armorsmithing, weaponsmithing, jewelry crafting, mining and fishing
- Achievement system
- Guild system
- Auction house
- Group finder
- Different mounts and pets
PvE Content:
- 500+ varied quests and daily missions
- 22+ dungeons with unique boss fights and 3 different difficulties
- 4 Raid instances with challenging boss fights - assemble a strong team or go home!
- 4 Defense maps where players have to protect a payload against engaging hordes of monsters
PvP Content:
- 5 vs. 5 Player squad league (10 vs. 10 planned after Early Access)
- 4 open PvP zones
- Free-for-all PvP treasure fight where the winner takes it all
If you want to see some gameplay action, check Steparu’s video, but take note that this is a very old version of it.