Guild Wars 2’s Visions Of Eternity Update Makes Big Quality Of Life Changes To Housing

When Visions of Eternity goes live in Guild Wars 2 on October 28, it will bring with it a lot of new content and changes to the free-to-play MMORPG for players to enjoy, such as the various elite specializations that players have been able to try out already. Something that players haven’t seen or been able to try out are the changes coming to the game’s housing system. While it may not be a surprise that a new island is being introduced, players might be pleasantly surprised by the new quality-of-life changes being introduced.

ArenaNet recently offered us a peek at the changes coming to Guild Wars 2’s housing, showing off the new island as well as other changes that are definitely made for those who take their housing seriously. To begin with, yes. There is a new island. Of course, obtaining this island requires players to have Visions of Eternity to access it. They’ll also need Janthir Wilds.

This new island has a magical mountain with a glowing cavern underneath. The mountain spews bioluminescent magic that affects flora, while the cavern goes deeper than players may have thought, even allowing them to explore it via waterways. And yes, players can build in the cavern.

Speaking of building, this is one area where players will find plenty of QoL changes. The island does come with a specific house, as well as a stable for mounts. But this house is different from what players have encountered before, because it’s made completely out of decorations. This means that players won’t be locked into a style and that they’ll be able to be more precise in their building. If you’re wondering, walls and doors are included as decorations. There are more than 75 new decorations being added.

To make building your dream home easier, the team is introducing a new modification skill that can duplicate items already placed, provided there are enough of the item in the player’s inventory. Effectively, rather than trying to line something up freehand, players can tell the system to copy it, placing the new item on top of the existing one and allowing the player to slide it where they want it. The items can also be easily rotated and snap into place.

This system also allows players to create a “pallet” of sorts, by laying out all their materials on a map just for that purpose and copying them over. In addition, the Decoration Layout feature allows players to save their layouts – which are tied to the maps they’re created on – and share them with others. The system saves the layouts locally as an XML file, which means players can simply share the file with friends who’d like a copy. Sharing can also be done in-game via party saving, making it available for visitors to copy.

The good news is that these improvements will apply to the entire homesteading feature and will also be coming to guild halls. Though, it will work differently for the latter due to permissions. As noted above, access to these features will require players to have both Janthir Wilds, which unlocks housing, and Visions of Eternity.