Guild Wars 2 news » Introducing the New Spirit Watch PvP Map

In the upcoming patch, you will be able to play our latest PvP map—Spirit Watch! This norn-themed map, which is surrounded by sheer cliffs, features shrines to the Spirits of the Wild and a new secondary objective.

In this map, we combine our established conquest gameplay with intense capture-the-flag gameplay—except instead of a flag, players will battle over the glowing Orb of Ascension! Opportunities for vertical play abound in Spirit Watch, with constant battles raging across bridges, valleys, and cliff sides. The map also provides plenty of brawling opportunities as players race to the center for control of the Orb.

Here’s how it works: At the beginning of each match, the Orb of Ascension spawns at an altar, located in the center of the map. In order to pick up the Orb, a player will have to successfully complete a very short commune time. The player carrying the Orb will want to take it to any of the three capture points —represented as shrines to Wolf, Raven and Bear—located up in the surrounding cliffs.

While carrying the Orb, the player still has access to all of their skills, but has a 40% movement speed penalty and is unable to stealth or gain swiftness. If they teleport or become downed, they will drop the Orb.

Once the Orb of Ascension is brought to a shrine capture point, the Spirit of the Wild at the shrine ascends, immediately scoring bonus points for your team. If it’s a capture point that your team controls, your team scores 30 points; if not, your team scores 15 points instead. Also, if the Orb is brought to an enemy point, in addition to the bonus points scored, the capture point will instantly become neutralized! The Orb resets to the altar 10 seconds later.

That’s it for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at Spirit Watch and are as excited for the new map as we are!