Journeykin
Janthir Wilds, Guild Wars 2’s fifth expansion, pushes the game north and west into the long‑hinted Janthir Isles while quietly re‑centering one of its older mounts. The Warclaw, originally introduced in 2019 as a World vs World‑only mount, returns here in an “enhanced” form tied to the new region and the lowland kodan who call it the Journeykin. The result is a mount that now has a clear place in both WvW and PvE, framed by story beats rather than existing only as a competitive convenience.
The Warclaw’s first incarnation came with a relatively long WvW collection and was functionally almost useless in PvE, outclassed in movement and utility by every other mount. Ahead of Janthir Wilds, ArenaNet simplified its WvW unlock to a single World Ability Point investment per character and confirmed that owning Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire would auto‑grant basic access once the August 20 update landed. In Janthir proper, the Journeykin layer sits on top of this: during Chapter 1, “Unknown Territory”, you encounter and befriend a feral warclaw in Lowland Shore, feeding it a concoction from Barbed Vale and unlocking a new PvE mastery line that expands its abilities on land much like the Secrets of the Obscure skyscale track did for that mount.
Functionally, the mount keeps its core identity. It still shares the standard mount endurance system, has its own health pool, and in WvW can boost allied movement, claw gates, and dismount enemy players. The Janthir Wilds masteries add more PvE‑relevant tools: improved speed and stamina regeneration through traits like Well Rested, stronger engage attacks, and expanded group utility that makes it a viable choice when Skyscales are disabled or less efficient. Cosmetic support has followed suit; the September 2024 Panda skin, for example, reskins the Warclaw/Journeykin as an armoured panda with dyeable plating and animations that slot neatly into the existing rig, underlining ArenaNet’s intent to keep the mount in regular use rather than leaving it as a niche option.
All of this sits within a wider push to make Janthir feel like a place where mounts and movement matter. Lowland Shore and Janthir Syntri, the first two maps, are built around broken coastline, flooded lowlands, and steep ridges where a ground‑bound mount with good sprint and group buffs earns its keep. The lowland kodan you meet there—Wayfinder allies rather than Shiverpeaks zealots—have their own spiritual frame and see the Journeykin as a partner in travel and work, not just a war beast, which is why the new name sticks in story dialogue. Taming and training one becomes part of establishing diplomatic ties and learning how this isolated population has survived without Koda’s guidance, tying a long‑standing WvW mechanic back into the living world narrative.
Mounts in Guild Wars 2 have always been about more than speed boosts, and the Journeykin continues that line. Early experiments like the raptor’s long leap and the springer’s high jump were explicitly inspired by games such as Metroid and Zelda, designed to make old spaces newly accessible once you unlocked the right tool. Giving the Warclaw a full PvE footing through Janthir Wilds keeps that philosophy intact, turning it from a specialist siege engine into a mount that sits comfortably between combat utility and exploration. As the expansion’s quarterly updates add another map, a raid, and more rewards tied to the same systems, that blend of mechanical depth and world‑building seems likely to remain the core of what the Journeykin means out on Janthir’s shores.
