Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons

1. Summary

Two-thirds of the reviews recommend the expansion, and most of the praise goes to the new activities and the scenery. 41 reviews speak well of at least one new feature or of how Cantha's maps look, 4 of them negative reviews. Fishing and the scenery lead the praise (17 reviews each), followed by the two-seat siege turtle mount (13), the elite specializations (10) and the meta events (7).

The story divides players: 12 reviews praise it, 13 criticize it and 3 land in between. Critics describe long unskippable dialogue and a cast they found obnoxious or hard to care about, and 4 of them recommend the expansion anyway. Map complaints are mostly about layout, above all in New Kaineng City, which reviewers call hard to navigate and unfinished. Another 6 reviews report crashes, bugs or lag.

Many thumbs-down reviews are about accounts rather than the expansion's content: 13 of the 35 negative reviews, mainly Steam purchases of the expansion that never showed up in game (7) and Guild Wars 2 account bans (5).

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Fishing and your own skiffHigh

All 17 reviews that mention fishing like it, including a negative review that lists "Plenty of fishing and you get a boat!" among its good points. Many are one-line shout-outs ("I like fishing"). "They also added fishing, so I gotta recommend it just for that alone," one player wrote; another found "fishing is pretty fun and a solid way to make money," and a third "really enjoyed leveling fishing and skiff piloting". The skiff, a personal boat, comes up in 8 reviews, usually next to fishing: "who doesnt want to ride turtles and fish on your own boat." For a player who plays Guild Wars 2 without combat, the glider and the skiff make End of Dragons the best-value expansion.

Beautiful Cantha mapsHigh

Of the 17 reviews that praise how the new maps look, 2 are negative. One reviewer likes the "Japanese thematic combined with cyberpunk like futuristic dragon powered City," and another said the expansion "feels like someone put Studio Ghibli and Blade Runner in a blender and made it an MMO." Gyala Delve gets its own mention: "gyala delves especially was amazing to just explore". A negative review that calls the story missions a snoozefest still grants that the expansion's "map looks beautiful". Some of this praise comes with reservations. One reviewer calls the maps "beautiful, if not a bit too greeney" and says they usually have few players, and another, who loved how the maps look, found "the forest is annoying".

The siege turtleHigh

Some players bought the expansion for the siege turtle mount ("Got this for the turtle", "You had me at Siege Turtle"), and one got it "so my friends could ride my turtle and boat". The turtle comes up in 13 reviews, and all 13 recommend the expansion. It is a two-seat mount, and one reviewer warns "you can’t fire the cannons on your own, someone else has to operate them." Unlocking it takes work: one player found it "incredibly hard to get the turtle that I paid for," while another liked that "There was no RNG involved" even though one step needed a 10-player strike.

Strong elite specializationsMedium

The new elite specs get praise in 10 reviews, including 2 negative ones, and one of those lists them as its only good point. One player wrote that "the elite specs are some of the best," and another review praises "the best elite specs" while calling the story missions lame. A negative review says the specs "offer a fair few new options to the classes" but dislikes the Engineer's Mechanist, whose mech it calls "frankly ugly and far too big".

Meta events and instanced contentMedium

Players call the meta events "crazy" and say "the metas are soo fun," and one rates the expansion's instanced fights "some of the best instanced content in the game"; 7 reviews praise this group content in all. One player called the final boss meta "an absolutely epic open world boss fight", and another found that Gyala Delve's meta paid out "an insane amount of loot". Four reviews say the Cantha maps can be too empty for these events. "Sometimes finding enough people for the final boss meta event can be a bit challenging," one wrote, and another was "lucky i did it mid-saturday". One review adds that the events "take a long time to finish even with lots of people".

The jade botMedium

The jade bot, a robot helper upgraded through masteries, comes up favorably in 6 reviews. "You really need this if you want to farm mats with the jade bot quicker," one player says, and another notes that "Jade Bots aren’t game-changing until the final mastery, but even before that they’re still a useful tool."

Music and soundLow

Three reviews praise the soundtrack, including a negative one that lists the "amazing new music tracks and sound design" among the good. Another gives "Music 10/10".

Where players are split

The story and its castHigh

Of the 28 reviews that give a view of the story, 12 are for it, 13 against and 3 in between. Some supporters see it as a satisfying close to the Elder Dragon storyline: "Great Conclusion to the Dragon Saga," one wrote, and another said End of Dragons "gives the Guild Wars 2 story some real closure while opening the door to something new". Others call it "surprisingly good", say "it starts off with a strong hook", or promise a "story that'll make one cry".

"This is by far the worst expansion story-wise," one critic wrote, and the objections cover the writing, the pacing and the cast. Five reviews complain about long or unskippable dialogue. "The dialogues are endless and exhausting, and they add nothing of value," one says, and another describes "Almost 0 action, 15 mins unskippable dialogues and missions that feels more like farmville/animal crossing than an action MMORPG." Six reviews dislike the characters, from "most characters range from boring to obnoxious" to "the extreme focus on a handful of characters that are hard to care about". One long review says the writers "make sure their NPC's are the star and you are support in your own story." Not everyone minds the length: a player who likes the story wrote "I see some ppl complain about the long dialogue but that's not too much of a bother."

Still, 4 of the 13 critics recommend the expansion. One of them calls it "okay" at best and warns "If you are getting this strictly for the story, I would NOT recommend it," and another sums it up as "Lame story missions bundled with some of the best instanced content in the game and the best elite specs." It works the other way too: a long-time player who recommends Guild Wars 2 voted this expansion down, writing "I cannot give this expansion a positive review."

The ending or the final battles get praise in five reviews, including one from a critic of the cast who wrote "The ending is possibly the ONLY thing that saves EOD from getting lower than a 5/10." Another reviewer found "The final 2 battles are just simply amazing." One long negative review calls the ending dumb.

How it ranks among the expansionsMedium

"Good but not as good as Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire," one review says, and another says "Writing was no where near as great as Path of Fire." In all, 7 reviews rank End of Dragons below earlier content, most often Path of Fire and Heart of Thorns, and 4 of them still recommend it. Two reviews disagree and call it the best Guild Wars 2 expansion. Three positive reviews suggest waiting for a discount ("It’s not essential, so you can pick it up on sale."), and one of them, despite its thumbs-up, says "I can't recommend this one" because of how the maps were put together.

The East Asian settingLow

Four reviews comment on how Cantha draws on East Asian cultures. Two enjoy the mix of Japanese themes and futuristic tech. The other two, both from players who recommend the expansion, found the borrowing shallow: one says the expansion "took everything Asian and just mashed it together", and another wanted armor closer to traditional garments, noting "there is only a few armor sets and they all look the same" and adding "I just wish they’d represent the Asian aspects better".

What frustrates players

New Kaineng City and hard-to-navigate mapsMedium

A player who loves the base game and every other expansion wrote that "trying to find your way in New Kaineng CIty is just the worst experience ever". Of the 11 reviews that criticize how the Cantha maps are built, 7 are negative; six name New Kaineng City, and a seventh blames "the incredibly frustrating level design of the city maps". Another reviewer calls New Kaineng "a city that is impossible to navigate on a mount that can't jump," and others describe it as "incomplete and severely rushed" or "a fake city, though, with too much concrete going nowhere." Two reviews say the maps assume mounts from earlier expansions: "You need flying mounts from another DLC," one wrote, and the other says "50% of locations suck if you don't have a fully upgraded skyscale". Others call the zones "heavily pathed", with long empty stretches and a taxi service to cross them, or "uninspired".

Steam purchases that never show up in gameMedium

A Steam purchase that never reached the game is the subject of 9 reviews, 7 of them negative; some report it happening and some warn others. Five tie it to accounts: the Steam version of Guild Wars 2 runs on its own account, so a purchase there does not reach an existing ArenaNet account. "Do NOT buy this if you are using your original GW2 account as you will not have access to the DLC unless you make a brand new account through the Steam Launcher!" one warned in the week the game came to Steam. A player who bought it in a February 2026 sale was told by support "that anything bought on Steam won't transfer over," and another says "this product will not work for you even if your account is linked." Four more simply found the expansion missing in game, one of them after two days of access. A positive review advises buying on ArenaNet's site because "Steam seems to not provide the Key codes to add the expansions to your account". Another positive review blames the buyers: "Most of the negative comments are due to people being unable to read," it says, since they bought on Steam expecting the expansion on a separate ArenaNet account.

Story missions that crash or breakMedium

Bugs, crashes or server trouble come up in 6 reviews, 5 of them negative, and several hit the story instances. In the first month on Steam, one player lost a 20 to 30 minute first mission three times when the "server crashes at the end of the last cutscene", then updated the review to say it seemed fixed and that the expansion "is Very very nice". Two years later another player wrote that the "4 YEAR+ OLD DLC STILL CRASHES ON THE FIRST QUEST". Others describe "having to restart a couple of quests to get the quest area to actually advance with the quest" (the final fight included), an hour lost to a story bug, "desynced NPCs, massive lag", and server trouble "at Kaineng City during meta".

Filler quests and grindMedium

One player was "forced to be an Uber delivery guy on a damn raptor", another describes "one quest that is literally wait 10 minutes looking at a black screen to get a passport", and a third objects to having to "farm 500 of this material that drops 3 at a time from a specific event". In all, 6 reviews, 5 of them negative, describe tedious quest design. Others name enemies with "unlimited knockdowns" and forced movement debuffs, story bosses that are "Invulnerable heavy", and, in a positive review, "massive amounts of grinding" to unlock the turtle.

Account bans with no appealLow

Five negative reviews describe Guild Wars 2 account bans that have nothing to do with the expansion's content, all written between August 2025 and July 2026. One came a week after the player bought a second-hand PC, one was for real-money trading when the player says they only moved gold between their own accounts, and one player believes it was over character names. Three say support would not explain or reconsider: "you can be banned at any time and they won't even tell you why."

Steam accounts missing older Guild Wars 2 contentLow

Two reviews say a Steam account lacks things players on ArenaNet's own client have. One lost access to the Hall of Monuments rewards tied to Guild Wars 1. The other missed most of the earlier Living World story as a Steam player and wondered whether End of Dragons' plot would land better with it.

3. The player conversation

Most reviews are short, and many reviewers write as existing Guild Wars 2 players, comparing End of Dragons with Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire and the Icebrood Saga. Three were catching up on the expansions one after another, years after release ("Been playing through the expansions in order."). On the negative side, the account complaints break down into Steam purchases that never showed up in game (7), Guild Wars 2 bans (5) and the Hall of Monuments (1), while 14 negative reviews criticize the content itself, mostly the story, New Kaineng, quest design and bugs. Some recommendations come with reservations: 4 positive reviews criticize the story, 4 criticize the map layout, and two more warn readers off despite the thumbs-up.

Story criticism runs through the negative reviews that engage with the expansion itself: 9 of those 14 criticize the story. Among the 69 positive reviews, 37 praise at least one new feature or the scenery. The account complaints come from a separate group of reviewers, who say little or nothing about the expansion's content.

Of the 13 reviews written in 2022, when the game arrived on Steam, 12 recommend the expansion. The share was lower in every later year: 13 of 20 in 2023, 11 of 17 in 2024, 21 of 32 in 2025 and 12 of 22 in 2026. Story praise and story complaints both appear in every year from 2022 to 2026. Account-linking complaints run from the Steam launch week to March 2026, and crash reports in the story missions continued in 2024 and 2025.

4. What the developers could do

1. Let a Steam purchase unlock on an existing ArenaNet account, or say plainly on the store page that it can't. Nine reviews say a Steam purchase never showed up in game or warn others that it won't, seven of them negative, and support told one player "that anything bought on Steam won't transfer over."
2. Rework New Kaineng City's routes so players can find their way without other expansions' mounts. Eleven reviews criticize the map layout and six name New Kaineng; one player warns of hours spent going in circles, and another calls New Kaineng "a city that is impossible to navigate on a mount that can't jump."
3. Make story dialogue skippable and trim the longest exposition scenes. Five reviews object to long or unskippable dialogue, including "15 mins unskippable dialogues" and ten minutes of audio-log exposition near the end of the story.
4. Fix the story-instance crashes and quest areas that force restarts. Six reviews report bugs or crashes, and in September 2024 one player said the first quest still crashed and had to be restarted until it didn't.
5. Put the player character back at the centre of the story. Six reviews dislike the cast, and one says the writers "make sure their NPC's are the star and you are support in your own story."
6. Cut filler steps from story and map quests. Six reviews name padding such as delivery runs on a raptor, a ten-minute black-screen wait for a passport and material farming.
7. Help players find a squad for Cantha's meta events. Four reviews say the maps can be too empty for the big events, which seven reviews praise.
8. Explain account bans and offer a real appeal. Five reviews describe Guild Wars 2 account bans, and three say support would not explain or review the decision.