Hi, folks. My name is Cal Cohen, and I’m the lead skills and balance designer at ArenaNet.

Expanded weapon proficiencies are coming in 2024 during the second major update for Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure™. When that feature arrives, each profession will have access to a new weapon, and today’s topic is the thief’s axe.

The axe is a ranged damage-dealing weapon that can be utilized by both power and condition builds, depending on the off-hand weapon. The core gameplay revolves around throwing axes that linger for a period of time, during which they can be redirected by the dual-wield skill to strike enemies again. Let’s take a look at a few skills to demonstrate this.

Skill 2 is Venomous Volley, which throws out a fan of three poisonous axes. Once these axes reach their final destination, they’ll remain spinning at that location but won’t deal additional damage while stationary. Up to six spinning axes can be active at once.

The dual-wield skill with an off-hand dagger is Harrowing Storm. The thief teleports to a targeted enemy and recalls all spinning axes back to themselves, augmenting the axes to also inflict torment. The returning axes maintain their original properties, so in this example the returning axes that were created by Venomous Volley will inflict both torment and poison. For maximum value, build up more axes before recalling them, as an enemy struck by five returning axes will also be immobilized for a short duration.

We’ll be back to show off the rest of the thief axe skills along with the full set of new weapons during the Expanded Weapon Preview livestream on November 27 at 12 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8), which will be followed by the Expanded Weapon Proficiency beta starting at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on November 28 and ending at 10 p.m. Pacific Time on December 3. Please note that since this is a beta event, there will be placeholder UI, art, and audio for some of the weapon skills.

We’ll see you in the Mists!