Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity

1. Summary

Fewer than half of the 71 reviews recommend Visions of Eternity. 25 praise how the new Castora zones look and feel, including 8 that vote the expansion down, and 13 speak well of the nine new elite specializations. Seven negative reviews name the specs, sometimes with the skimmer upgrade, as the only reason to buy it.

Most of the complaints are about the campaign. 19 reviews object to story progress being held up by collection hunts, renown hearts and mastery grinds, and 5 of them recommend the expansion anyway. The writing itself divides players: 7 reviews like the story, some rating it above Janthir Wilds and Secrets of the Obscure, while 11 call it bland, badly written or the weakest yet. In the first week after launch, crashes and story-blocking bugs added to the complaints.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Beautiful, dense new mapsHigh

"The Art team and the World team absolutely cooked," one reviewer wrote. No other part of the expansion gets as much praise: 25 of the 71 reviews speak well of the new zones, 8 of them negative reviews. Players describe the tropical island setting, caves and underwater tunnels, and small details: one found the environments "felt really enchanting with the lightning bugs floating around under the tree canopy," and a longer review says "there's tons of little things to explore and interact with." One reviewer calls the two launch maps "some of their best designs since PoF." A few also like the map events and metas.

The praise often comes with limits. A negative review says "the new location is beautiful and that's all the good I can say." Another says the pretty-map phase "wore off very quick," and a third finds the maps gorgeous but says nothing makes them stand out next to Cantha or Janthir. Two reviews call the maps bad outright. One player asks for portal tomes because the vertical first map is hard to cross, and the same player reports that a 4070 Super can't hold 60 fps at 1440p on many maps.

Nine new elite specializationsHigh

25 reviews mention the new elite specs, one for every profession. 13 speak well of them: "I've got 9 fantastic specs to play with," one wrote, and another says "most of them are excellent." Luminary, Ritualist, Galeshot and Evoker come up by name. One player found Luminary improved since the beta and wrote "it is great that they listened to the feedback," and another uses the easy new hero points to try the specs on every alt.

Six reviews criticize them. "The specialisations are meh," one wrote. A Ritualist player says "Ritualist is better than it was in the beta, but it still feels awkward to play," and adds that a friend was not impressed with Galeshot. Others object to balance changes made after launch, and one player says the game does a poor job explaining how to unlock the specs and regrets buying it to play a bard.

The skimmer upgradeMedium

7 reviews mention the reworked skimmer mount, which one describes this way: "it now dives, hovers, and soars." Four negative reviews list it as a plus next to the specs, and another review calls the new skimmer masteries cool. The one complaint comes from a first-time expansion buyer who bought it for the flying skimmer and felt misled when it was nerfed soon after: "the feature I was most excited for was effectively changed before I even had the chance to experience it."

Easy hero pointsLow

Two reviews like that the new hero points are easy to collect (one notes they are not champion fights): "This gets a Thumbs up just for the easy Hero Points," one wrote, since it made trying specs on alts quick. Another review says most of the points sit where "you need mounts/skills from other expansions to reach."

Where players are split

The story and its smaller stakesHigh

18 reviews give a view on the writing, 7 for it and 11 against. Supporters like the tone and the villain. One review says "Even the story is much more natural imo, without the forced scope of an epic," and another likes that the new antagonist "does not feel like another world-threatening force of nature, something I've gotten rather tired of." An asura player enjoys the Inquest as the main enemy. A review written in September 2026 says the campaign felt smooth and that "the Wizard Saga now has solid ground to stand on."

The 11 who dislike it find the story flat. One calls it "The least compelling story yet," another says "the story ends up feeling very plain," and a third calls it an "absolute nothing-burger of a plotline." Long-time players miss the old cast: "The returning cast of fan favorite characters like Rytlock and Canach are oddly sidelined," and one review says the new NPCs are cringe. The opening divides people too. One player wrote that "within 15 minutes I was on a new beautiful map having fun," while two reviews found the early sailing mission rough ("The sailing experience to the island was awful and not fun at all."). One review complains that dialogue still can't be skipped.

Seven reviews rank it above recent expansions in some way, most often Janthir Wilds and Secrets of the Obscure, and seven say it is no better or worse.

Is it worth buying just for the unlocks?Medium

Eight negative reviews say the expansion is worth buying only for what it unlocks: "Buy it just for the elite specs and mount upgrades," one wrote, and another called it "garbage you'd ONLY buy for the elite specs and nothing else." Some reviews defend the price. One player who finished the launch story wrote "I feel it's worth the price point as it stands," and another told readers to "ignore the people that think 25 bucks is a lot for a buy to play game." One review tells players to skip it and save for Guild Wars 3.

Launching with half the expansionMedium

6 reviews point out that the expansion launched with two maps and part of the story (chapters 1 to 8, per one review), with more arriving in later updates. Four of them hold back judgment hopefully. One player is "excited to see where it goes in future updates," and another notes the review covers "only half of the maps and story at the time of writing." A negative review is less patient: "It's not really complete yet."

The homestead islandLow

Three reviews mention the new homestead. Two like it: one describes saving and sharing layouts and a private island plot for owners of Janthir Wilds. The third finds the island pretty but says "it looks like a corny pirate themed adventure playground."

What frustrates players

Story progress locked behind collections and grindsHigh

19 reviews object to how the story makes players stop and work before it continues, more than raise any other problem. 14 name collection hunts or fetch steps, and others name mastery walls, heart currency or filler. Five of the 19 recommend the expansion anyway. "The story is just running around searching for unmarked quest objects," one player wrote. Another says "having collection achievements gating story content is just insane." A third lists collections, heart currency and mastery grind and concludes "Combine those two things and you lose motivation very quickly."

Reviewers add specifics: items picked up one at a time with combat disabled, collections that "won't give you more than vague hints on how you progress," and mastery requirements nobody announces. One player put it this way: "Sinking a million xp into a mastery track only to find out the next story beat needs a different one to progress feels bad." Recommenders object too: "still hated the forced collection for main story tho," and another says the collection steps "affect the pacing negatively if you just wanna do the story and explore later." One reviewer says unlocking the flying mount also means searching unmarked nests for an egg. The complaint started in launch week and still appeared in reviews the following summer. One positive review waves it off and tells struggling players to follow a guide.

Bugs and crashes at launchMedium

6 reviews, all written within a week of launch, report bugs or crashes. One says "CONSTANT, and I mean CONSTANT crashes," with an endless loading screen in PvP and repeated crashes in WvW. Another warns "seriously, don't buy untill the bugs are fixed." Others report story missions full of bugs, a hero point that could not be completed, and "a severe bug occurred, making it impossible to continue the game." One positive review written two days after launch says "the annoying bugs are getting fixed," and no later review reports a new bug in the expansion's content.

Can't install, log in or link the purchaseLow

Three reviews could not get into the expansion at all: one could not install or download it, one could not log in, and one warns "This will not link to your account so the purchase will have to be refunded."

Nerfs to features players paid forLow

Three negative reviews say a balance change took away what they bought the expansion for: the flying skimmer, a Fire Evoker build ("The build is incredibly clunky to play now, and is genuinely no longer fun."), and the new specs in general.

Boss fights you can't readLow

Two reviews say the large boss fights bury their attacks in visual effects. One describes "Disco light show boss fights you can't even tell what is happening on your screen," and the other says the final map boss tries to "blind the players with all the particle effects we can muster."

Account bans with no appealLow

Two reviews describe permanent Guild Wars 2 account bans that have nothing to do with the expansion's content: one on a second-hand PC, one for moving gold between the player's own accounts. Both say support would not look into it ("Support refused to review the logs and just closed the ticket.").

3. The player conversation

Most reviewers write as existing Guild Wars 2 players. 15 reviews compare Visions of Eternity with earlier expansions (Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire, End of Dragons, Secrets of the Obscure, Janthir Wilds), and several negative reviews say they love the base game while criticizing this release. A thumbs-down here often rejects the campaign and leaves the rest of the expansion alone: 14 of the 41 negative reviews praise its maps, specs or skimmer. Some thumbs-up reviews carry the same complaints, and 5 of the 30 positive reviews object to the story gating. Others on both sides say little more than "Love it" or "Just for the new specs."

Long-time players focus on the story, the missing characters and the pacing compared with past expansions. Two reviewers who say they are new to the game or its expansions raise different problems: one saw the Fire Evoker build they had just picked up get reworked, and one lost the skimmer flight they bought the expansion for. A third, who found the spec unlocks unexplained, regrets the purchase.

The mood dropped after launch. In launch week, 15 of 26 reviews were positive. After that, 15 of the remaining 45 were. Bug and crash reports come from the first week after launch. The collection complaints run from launch week through the following summer, and later reviews add Guild Wars 2 account bans and a single complaint about a fashion templates update. Reviews from September 2026 still disagree: one calls the campaign smooth and the story good, while another rates it below Secrets of the Obscure.

4. What the developers could do

1. Take collections and mastery gates out of the main story path. This was the most common complaint (19 reviews, including recommenders), and one player asked them to "uncouple the collections from story progress at a minimum."
2. Give the returning cast and a central threat more room in later chapters. Among the 11 reviews that dislike the writing, players call it bland and plain, and two say iconic characters like Rytlock and Canach barely appear.
3. Test story instances, PvP and WvW for crashes before launch. Six reviews from the first week after launch report bugs or crashes, including endless loading screens and a story-blocking bug, and one told readers not to buy until they were fixed.
4. Mark collection objectives and say which mastery the next chapter needs. Players describe unmarked quest objects, collections with only vague hints, and mastery points spent on the wrong track.
5. Fix Steam purchase linking and installation for the expansion. Three players could not install it, log in, or attach the Steam purchase to their account, and one expected to need a refund.
6. Explain balance changes to newly sold features before or as they ship. Three negative reviews say a nerf to the skimmer, the Fire Evoker or the new specs removed what they paid for.
7. Cut particle effects in large boss fights so attacks stay readable. Two reviews say the effects hide the mechanics, and one describes half the squad going down to attacks they could not see.