Mat’s Stag Night
A good Guild Wars 2 pub‑crawl lives or dies on the route. For a stag night in particular, it helps to think of it as a loose tour of Tyria’s drinking cultures, with enough structure to keep people moving and enough slack to let conversations, dares and screenshots happen along the way. Waypoints make the logistics easy; what matters is picking a handful of stops with distinct atmospheres, and giving each one a short moment of context so the evening feels like a story rather than a random sequence of loading screens.
A practical plan starts with an itinerary and a communications setup. Publishing the route in advance—waypoints, any expansion or story requirements, and a rough timetable—lets guildmates sort out alts, outfits and travel unlocks before the night itself. Squad chat plus a voice channel keeps the group coherent, while squad markers or “tag and follow” instructions help anyone who gets lost. One simple rhythm is to gather in a racial capital, do introductions and a first toast, then alternate between city pubs, rural inns and one or two more unusual venues, taking a screenshot at each stop. “Drinking” can be handled however suits the guild: bought ales, tonics, /drunk emotes, or a mix of all three.
Kryta still makes the most natural starting point. Divinity’s Reach is dense with points of interest, cheap to reach, and steeped in human history: a wheel of districts built on the Divinity Coast after Zhaitan’s tidal wave destroyed old Lion’s Arch, and a city that has seen White Mantle rule, riots and the rise of Queen Jennah. The Busted Flagon, with its timbered interior and central bar, works well as a first gathering place where everyone can line up in their finery, raise a glass for the guest of honour and take the “before” picture. From there, the Dead End Bar offers a shift in tone: a noir‑tinted corner of Divinity’s Reach tied directly into Living World Season 1 and 2, where Marjory Delaqua pieced together Scarlet Briar’s plans. Dropping in a quick recap of that storyline, or replaying a snippet of her investigation dialogue, gives the stop more texture than a simple refill.
Stepping outside the capital, Shaemoor’s inn in Queensdale provides a low‑level, village‑scale contrast that many players recognise from their first steps as human characters. It sits right by early hearts and events, and has long been used as a roleplay spot: militia, farmers and travellers all jostling past one another while new players sprint for centaur events outside. Further afield, Ebonhawke’s inn in Fields of Ruin brings in the Ascalonian dimension. As the last major human city in Ascalon, under siege for generations before the truce with the Charr, it has more of a garrison feel: a place where soldiers and refugees share a drink under heavy walls. A route that threads Busted Flagon, Dead End, Shaemoor and Ebonhawke gives you a neat human arc from village to royal capital to border fortress.
Other races add their own flavour. Hoelbrak’s Courage Brewery and surrounding Biergarten capture the Norn approach to drinking: no formal bar, just open kegs, fire pits and a sense that any cleared space can become a feast hall. It sits within easy reach of Keg Brawl, which doubles as a structured mini‑game if you want a competitive interlude between quieter taverns. For Charr, the Serrated Blade Tavern in the Black Citadel shows how even leisure spaces are built out of industrial scrap and bolted metal, its lower level lined with barrels and standing tables for off‑duty legionnaires. Three Legions Court in Smokestead, with its event about preventing a bar fight between Iron, Blood and Ash soldiers, is an easy way to fold in some light, in‑character grandstanding and mock arguments.
Smaller frontier venues help to break up long hops between capitals. The Butcher’s Block in Diessa Plateau, with its Meatoberfest heart and event chain, is a natural Charr frontier bar where you can set simple tasks like “complete one event, buy the local brew, then move on”. Human hamlets in Gendarran Fields and Harathi Hinterlands have unnamed inns and Seraph‑run taverns that can stand in for roadside pubs on a longer route. Lion’s Arch deserves a stop almost by default, whether at one of the rebuilt city’s visible bars or the little night‑only tavern that boots you out at dawn, which doubles as a playful in‑game clock. A brief reminder of Lion’s Arch’s own history—flooded by Orr’s rise, refounded by Cobiah, smashed by Scarlet, rebuilt again—helps newer players read the city around them while they drink.
If the group owns later expansions, Elonian and Canthan stops can round out the night. Amnoon’s tavern and casino give an Elonian desert spin on hospitality, all music, lamps and sand‑scarred walls, while Arborstone’s inn offers a quieter, reclaimed Canthan hall reworked into a modern hub. Club Canach or one of the End of Dragons tea houses can stand in for a late‑night city bar, a jump forward in style from the more medieval Krytan and Ascalonian spaces. It is perfectly feasible to go, in a handful of waypoints, from a Queensdale village inn to a neon‑touched Canthan club.
Threading all of this together works best if the route loosely mirrors the stag’s character or history. For a human guardian whose story began in Shaemoor, you might start at the village inn, climb up through Divinity’s Reach, pass through Lion’s Arch and finish at Amnoon’s tavern or Arborstone, marking a career that widened out from Kryta into the wider world. For a Charr warrior main, Smokestead’s Three Legions Court, the Serrated Blade, Diessa’s Butcher’s Block and Ebonhawke sketch an evening that follows the treaty years and old battle lines. At each stop, a short prepared note—two or three sentences of lore or personal anecdote—is enough to give people something to toast to before they scatter for drinks, emotes, brawls or screenshots.
Logistically, the fewer surprises the better. Checking in advance who has Arborstone, Dead End or Club Canach unlocked avoids awkward stalls on the night, and noting in your route where in‑game time matters (such as the nocturnal Lion’s Arch tavern) lets you plan around Tyria’s day–night cycle. Ending back in a major hub—Hoelbrak’s fires, Lion’s Arch’s plazas, or the Busted Flagon where you began—gives latecomers somewhere obvious to find the group and offers a natural place for the final toast and group photo, whether that is a neat line of Nobles in matching coats or a pile of Charr slumped on benches after too many rounds of Keg Brawl.
