26 November brings with it changes to Guild Wars 2’s endless dungeon, the Fractals of Mist. For a start there will be three new mini-dungeons added to the Fractal pool and two new bosses to fight at the end of a successful run.
The rotation, too, is being changed to give you a progressively harder time as you progress through the endlessly linked dungeons.
The way Fractals of the Mists has worked in the past is that you head over to Lion’s Arch and sign up with a group to dive into a random string of dungeons (or fractals, if you want to use the proper name). After completing three dungeons you spar with a boss character and then you’re all given lots of loot. Each successful run makes the dungeons harder and the loot better.
On 26 November Arenanet are releasing an update to Fractals of the Mist, a year after the system was first released. For a start it now assigns Fractals in a progressively hardening difficulty. So the first dungeon will be picked from a pool of instances that are more welcoming. The later ones, they come from the deep end of the pool. Where there are sharks and floaters.
Also, that level that increases each time you beat a boss, that’s now shared across all your characters on a single account. Which is handy.
There are three new Fractals that Arenanet describe as thus:
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Thaumanova Reactor Fractal: You voted, and Kiel delivered! Experience the moments leading up to the catastrophic destruction of the Thaumanova Reactor, caused by the Inquest’s reckless experiments with Chaos Energy.
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Molten Furnace Fractal: Relive the beginning of the assault on the Molten Alliance base from the Flame & Frost release! Watch out for the supercharged Dredge Engineer!
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Aetherblade Fractal: The Aetherblade pirates from the Sky Pirates of Tyria release can now be found in the Mists as well – and their traps and tricks are deadlier than ever!
And two new bosses, too:
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The Molten Berserker and Dredge Firestorm from the Molten Facility Dungeon are back! The deadly duo will challenge you to focus your fire while avoiding their attacks.
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Mai Trin from the Aetherblade Retreat will also try to get between you and your well-deserved rewards. Avoid her first-mate’s cannonball barrages while bringing down her shields.
A very neat change is the new Mistlock Instabilities. From level 30 onwards each dungeon run will have a new instability for your party to overcome.
Another change is that all infused rungs and backpacks now have an agony resist slot. Here are the full details
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All current infused rings and backpacks will start with a +5 agony resist infusion (this replaces the +5 agony resist that was previously on the item itself).
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Players will be able to find +1 agony resist infusions commonly in the fractals after level 10.
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Artificers of at least 100 skill will be able to combine two infusions of the same level with a Thermocatalytic Reagent to make an infusion of the next level. For example, you could take two +2 infusions, combine them with a Thermocatalytic Reagent, and create a +3 infusion.
There’s now also a special daily chest for each defeating a fractal boss so that’s an encouragement to dive in regularly. Based on your current fractal level you’ll get rewards like Empyreal Fragments, Fractal Relics, A Pristine Fractal Relic, Gold. Oh, and the boss chest will have a greater change of rare rewards. From level 10 up you can find Fractal Weapon Skins, Ascended Rings, Ascended Weapons, Infused Ascended Rings.
For those of you running the fractals more than once a day there will be a chest rewarding you Fractal Relics, Agony resist infusions, and blue quality, or higher, equipment. After level 30 you can also get the Rune of Resistance and the Sigil of Momentum.