Guild Wars 2 - Secrets of the Obscure (DLC)

Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure is the fourth paid expansion for ArenaNet's long-running action MMO, and it lands in a strange spot in the game's history. The base game is free-to-play, but this DLC assumes you have absorbed hundreds of hours of prior content, including the previous expansions Path of Fire and End of Dragons. If you're jumping in cold, stop here and play the free chapters first. For returning veterans, though, Secrets of the Obscure offers a genuinely interesting pivot. The expansion introduces Kryptis, a demon faction from a fractured realm called the Mists, and the story leans hard into the aftermath of the Elder Dragon saga that defined the game's first decade. The writing is tighter than some earlier seasons, with a few character moments that actually land emotionally, though the pacing still suffers from that distinctly MMO habit of stretching a four-hour plot across twelve hours of content. The new hub area, Skywatch Archipelago, is visually striking, a cluster of floating islands with vertical movement that finally makes the glider feel essential rather than cosmetic. Nayos, the second new map, goes darker and stranger in its aesthetic, and is the better of the two for exploration. On the systems side, the big addition is the Weaponmaster Training mastery, which unlocks off-profession weapons for every class. In practice this means your Necromancer can wield a hammer, your Ranger can pick up a pistol, and suddenly build variety opens up in ways that feel genuinely fresh past the 1000-hour mark. It is the kind of mechanic that rewards theorycrafters and casual players alike, and it retroactively makes older content feel more replayable. The Siege Turtle mount introduced in End of Dragons gets no equivalent wow-factor mount here, but the skyscale, already in the game, gets quality-of-life love that makes it more accessible to newer players. What does not work as well: the Rift Hunting system, which is essentially a repeatable open-world event loop dressed up as endgame content. It gets old fast, and if you were hoping Secrets of the Obscure would solve GW2's long-standing issue with endgame depth beyond fractals and raids, it does not. The legendary armory improvements and build template system are solid, but these feel like overdue polish rather than bold new design. The expansion also shipped with some content on a post-launch cadence, so early buyers got a slightly incomplete package that filled out over subsequent patches. For the right player, specifically someone who already loves Tyria, has cleared the main story, and wants new maps plus a mechanical shakeup for their main class, this expansion delivers decent value. For lapsed players considering a return, the Weaponmaster Training alone might justify the price. For brand-new players, this is the wrong entry point entirely. Monika, Scout Team