My team has a mission.

A mission to bring all of you an awesome, high-end dungeon experience that will be challenging, rewarding, and a ton of fun! After a lot of long hours and hard work, I think we’ve accomplished that goal. I’m proud to introduce to you our new dungeon: Fractals of the Mists!

This dungeon is unlike anything you’ve played in Guild Wars 2. It’s built of an array of mini-dungeons, which we call fractals. These fractals are slices of the Mists, fragments of time that have been stabilized by the intrepid asura researcher Dessa. Some of these vignettes from history may be familiar to original Guild Wars players, while others will represent previously unseen events. Because of their eclectic origin, each fractal is built as a distinct, separate experience with themes, mechanics, and art specific to that fractal.

You access the Fractals of the Mist by gathering your party of five in Lion’s Arch and entering a new asura gate (seen below).

Unlike the other dungeons, your party can be any level. We’ve employed World vs. World-style sidekicking to make this dungeon accessible to all players. But keep in mind, our aim was to challenge level 80 players. Going in at low levels is not for the faint of heart!

Once you enter the portal you’ll be taken to the Mistlock Observatory, a safe haven created by Dessa within the Mists. From there you’ll start your first round of fractals. You’ll be sent to three randomly chosen destinations and once you’ve vanquished all three of these fractals, you’ll be brought back to the Mistlock Observatory hub to rest and regroup. On top of that, every other round before you return to the hub you’ll be faced with a bonus “boss fractal.” Here, you will face an encounter akin to our big world bosses!

Seems simple, right? Well, there’s one last mechanic that makes this dungeon unique.

To make Fractals of the Mist even more challenging, every time you re-visit the hub, the dungeon scales up in difficulty. That’s right, a scaling dungeon! The dungeon will remember your progress, and will poll the party’s levels when you enter, scaling the dungeon to the highest common attained level. It’s a true challenge, but as you hit higher and higher scales, the dungeon will get more and more rewarding. You’ll have to have some serious skills and solid tactics to make it through these Fractals. After a certain point, our new Ascended items and Infusions become crucial tools for survival. To learn more about this new type of high-level gear, check out this post from designer Linsey Murdock.

We can’t wait to see you in the Mists!