Today ArenaNet launched Jormag Rising, the culmination of the meta event that takes place in the Icebrood Saga map Drizzlewood reflecting the battle between the United Legions of the charr against the Frost Legion Dominion and the ice dragon Jormag.
After players complete the meta event involving retaking zones across the Drizzlewood map and defeating the Dominion at Wolf’s Crossing a new northern part of the Drizzlewood map will become available and players will be able to push in.
During the Drizzlewood campaign, players worked with charr Legions to retake portions of the map as part of ground operations to push the Dominion back. Players acted in a ground advance and support role to assist forces pushing into those regions and to hold ground, this culminates by delivering a massive blow to the Dominion at Wolf’s Crossing.
Extending the Drizzlewood map and joining the vanguard forces
After Jormag Rising drops, the map will no longer reset after a victory at Wolf’s Crossing, instead, players will join vanguard forces and push north towards the Frost Legion Citadel – a towering construct of metal and ice.
In each segment of the map, players will attempt to call out the Tribunes of the Dominion and beat them into submission. Doing so unlocks progression through the map’s meta and leads to the final assault on the Frost Citadel and a no-holds-barred engagement against a revamped Claw of Jormag.
We already know the Claw from Frostgorge Sound, but this newly revamped version will provide a totally different experience. As described by ArenaNet in a recent Developer blog, the upgraded Claw fight will have players push into the Frost Citadel, fight through legions of corrupted charr, and finally face off against a much more intelligent Claw that will require players to actually pay attention to their environment and the mechanics of the fight.
As the vanguard, players will be in the front lines of the battle and going up against champions of the Dominion. They will also be supporting main characters such as Kasmeer who will be assisting charr ground forces as they punch directly into enemy territory.
New United Legion Masteries
To make vanguard operations more feasible, the United Legions have given players access to more charr-based technologies.
This new zone will also open up three new masteries attached to United Legion Waystations, these new masteries include Iron Legion Medizookas, Ash Legion Mount Stealth, and United Legions Waystation Mastery (an upgrade to the EMP).
First up, the Iron Legion Medizooka is a weapon that deploys with a rocket jump into the air and gives access to support rockets while airborne. Using this Waystation ability provides players the ability to deploy extra firepower from above alongside healing rockets and other types of area-of-effect support from on high.
Next is the Ash Legion Mount Stealth, this provides “Stealth 2.0” for mounts that makes any mount invisible to enemies for five seconds.
Finally, the United Legions Waystation Mastery upgrades the EMP ability to hit a little harder and apply a lasting shock-field on the ground for four seconds.
A dominating show of force and expansion of the story
Jormag Rising includes further story involved in the Icebrood Saga, which continues the tale of the charr civil war. Alongside the new map meta, the attack on Frost Citadel, and the fall of the Dominion, players will find themselves following Imperator Malice Shadowsword deep behind enemy lines to face off against Jormag itself.
As we already know, this episode will lack voice acting, so remember to read communication as they come through. This is not to say there is any reason to skip it because of a lack of voices – the story itself is still compelling, interesting, and heavy on the action even without the more cinematic experience.
We still expect that ArenaNet will revisit these episodes after the coronavirus pandemic plaguing the world and get voice acting back into the game in the future; but the lack of voice actors to continue their work has not slowed down progress on content releases.
That’s it for our preview of the new Jormag Rising zone in Guild Wars 2. Leave your opinion below and see you on the ice sheets pitting United Legions steel against the Dominion and the ice dragon.
Images: ArenaNet
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