Guild Wars 2’s Raids and Wardrobe update launched this week, bringing two features that—based on description alone—should have made players very happy. The big tentpole additions are a new raid quickplay option and a major wardrobe update, the latter introducing a fashion template system that, on paper, lets players quickly and easily change their looks.
This is the first major update of the Visions of Eternity expansion cycle, one that—in a tweak to how previous annual expansions worked—features very little in the way of new stuff. Due to complaints around how limited the updates were in previous expansions, ArenaNet is saving new maps and story chapters to the second and third major updates. This one, then, is all about the quality-of-life additions.
So how much quality of life have these two new features actually brought? Let me take a big sip of coffee and check in with the game’s community…
First login since Tuesday’s patch from r/Guildwars2
Previously, transmog happened via the wardrobe option of your equipment template. You’d apply your fashion directly to your equipped weapons and armour, pay the required number of transmutation charges, tweak your dyes, and you were done.
Under the new system, you now build out your fit in the new fashion template—and apply it to an equipment template from there. There are some benefits to this system, but they’re situational. If you want your character to have a single look that’s consistent across different pieces of equipment, it’s relatively easy to set it up so that—no matter what you equip—you’ll retain your chosen style.
By default, Guild Wars 2 characters have two equipment templates. And now, by default, accounts also have two fashion templates. So if you want a separate look for each build, that’s also relatively painless to set up, and may actually be an improvement in the somewhat rare case you’re using the same weapon or piece of armour across multiple builds.
If you use legendary equipment, however, or worse if you’ve purchased additional equipment slots for your character, the system is a straight downgrade. At best it requires more clicks to achieve the same effect. At worst, you risk losing some of your current looks because you accidentally pressed a button.
For instance, my main character has a full set of nine equipment templates, each with a different look, and full legendary armour and weapons. One benefit of legendaries in Guild Wars 2 is they can be added to multiple equipment templates at the same time, but with different stats and transmog for each—all without spending any transmutation charges.
Previously, changing a build’s look meant the following:
- Select that build’s equipment template
- Change the skins and dyes
Now, because the old equipment template wardrobe menus have been removed in favour of the new system, the process looks like this:
- Select the build’s equipment template
- Go to the new fashion tab’s wardrobe
- Right click on a fashion template and select ‘Get Equipped Fashion’
- Change the skins and dyes
- Click the “Apply to equipment button”
- Right click on the fashion template and select ‘Clear Fashion Template’ so I don’t accidentally and permanently overwrite another build’s fashion when selecting builds in the quick change menu above the weapon swap button
- Absolutely never check the “Apply on equipment change” box lest it wreaks havoc on my current setup in real time
Basically: the process is longer and more awkward. As someone who paid money for extra equipment templates for my main—already one of Guild Wars 2’s more odious microtransactions, given how much less you get compared to just buying a new character slot—it’s hard not to feel like I’m retroactively being short changed for the time and money I’ve already put in.
And yes, it would be less of an issue if the number of fashion templates the game gave was less stingy. Two feels restrictive enough that the system doesn’t really shine—if you want a series of styles that exist independently of equipment templates and builds, there’s not exactly much room for experimentation here. And new slots cost 600 gems a piece—for reference, a pack of 800 gems costs $10 or £8.50.
In short, I’m not feeling much quality of life from this quality of life update. About the best I can say it’s messy—a clunky system that doesn’t feel good to interact with. At worst? It’s a microtransaction play dressed up as some big new feature, one that actually lessens the use and effectiveness of previous microtransactions I’ve bought. More fool me, I guess.
The community outcry is certainly a bad look for a game that felt like it had some momentum behind it after the release of its most recent expansion—a genuinely great new area that’s been fun to explore over the last few months. But between the community frustration around the fashion update, and the generally half-baked and confusingly implemented nature of the new raid quickplay system—itself buried inside a niche listing in the desperately aging LFG menu—this major update has been a miss.
As yet, ArenaNet hasn’t addressed the community’s reaction to the update. I’ve asked the studio for comment, and will update this if I hear back.
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