Coming back after a long break: what changed while you were gone

You log in, your character is standing where you left them, and half the interface is different. This page is the catch-up, in the order the changes will hit you.

Your gear is fine

Start here, because it is the thing returning players worry about first and it is the thing that changed least.

Ascended is still the ceiling. No new tier arrived while you were away. Your old exotic set is roughly 95% of ascended and remains perfectly usable. Nothing in your bank became junk, no patch invalidated your stats, and there is no catch-up grind waiting for you.

That is unusual enough to be worth sitting with for a second. In most of this genre, a two-year absence means your character is scrap.

What was replaced while you were gone

🔴 Relics. The big one. Secrets of the Obscure pulled the sixth rune bonus out of runes entirely and moved it into a new equipment slot. Every build you left behind is missing a piece. Open your hero panel, find the empty relic slot, and put something in it before you wonder why your character feels weak (the full story).

🔴 Weaponmaster Training. Elite specialisation weapons now work on every specialisation of that profession, including core. A firebrand can carry a longbow. If you left before August 2023, half the builds you thought were impossible are now three clicks (what that changed).

🔴 Daily achievements and login rewards are gone. Both were folded into the Wizard’s Vault: objectives, a currency called Astral Acclaim, and a shop. If you are wondering where your login chest went, that is where.

🔴 WvW is not server-based. World Restructuring in June 2024 detached teams from worlds. You no longer transfer to play with friends, and the ladder is rebuilt monthly (how it works now).

Living World Season 1 exists again. It was rebuilt as playable instances and has been free for everyone since November 2022. If you played in 2013 and watched Lion’s Arch burn live, you can now go back and see it as content.

The first hour back

1. Fill the relic slot. Everything else can wait; this one is making your character worse right now.
2. Open the Wizard’s Vault and look at the shop. Ascended gear boxes are the cheapest they have ever been for a returning account.
3. Check your wallet. You probably have thousands of a map currency you forgot about, and the vendors are still standing.
4. Check what Living World episodes you own. Some you claimed by logging in years ago and never played.
5. Do not respec or rebuild anything yet. Play one map first and see what the character feels like with a relic in it.

The thing nobody warns returning players about

You will open your inventory and find it full of things you cannot identify, from systems that did not exist when you left.

Resist the urge to clean it out. Half of it is festival currency, a third is a component of something you were collecting, and the rest is worth checking against the market before it goes to a vendor. This game has added about nine currencies since you left and deletes almost nothing.

And the softer version of the same advice: do not try to catch up. There is nothing to catch up to. Nobody out-levelled you, no season closed with your name missing from it, and the maps you never saw will still be there next year. Pick one expansion, play it like it is new, and let the rest wait.