Guild Wars 2's next expansion will add its first new raid in five years, as well as 'the most player-friendly housing system in an MMORPG'

We're just two weeks removed from the conclusion of Guild Wars 2's fourth expansion, Secrets of the Obscure. But thanks to the MMO's recent switch to an annual expansion cycle, that means we're only a couple of months away from the launch of the fifth expansion. 

It's called Janthir Wilds, it's arriving on August 20, and it's bringing two oft-requested additions to the game.

The first major new feature is Homesteads, a housing system that will let players decorate their own, personal space. While there are few details currently, ArenaNet is calling it «the most player-friendly housing system in an MMORPG». That's a bold claim, but this is an MMO that prides itself on more casual, player-friendly design systems. Check back later this month when PC Gamer will bring you an exclusive first look at Homesteads.

The second big check off the community wishlist is a return to raiding. Guild Wars 2's last raid, The Key of Ahdashim, released back in 2019, after which ArenaNet shifted to strike missions as the de facto end game for 10-player squads. Strike missions are more LFG friendly—each is a standalone, raid-like boss—but players have been wanting a return to the more intricate design of the game's raid wings for some time.

Guild Wars 2's eighth raid won't launch on August 20 with the initial release of Janthir Wilds, but will arrive in a follow-up update as part of the expansion's lifecycle. This is in part due to a tweak being made to the annual expansion plan, as revealed last week in a post by game director Josh Davis. In it, Davis addressed some of the frustrations players had with the new expansion model as seen in Secrets of the Obscure—specifically around the story and the way the expansion's final map was released a third at a time in quarterly updates.

On the story front, Davis admitted that Obscure was trying to fit too much in—making the progression of the chapters, specifically the demon war of the quarterly updates, feel rushed and underdeveloped. In