Guild Wars 2

I have HoT, but the thought occurred to me while reading another thread. It’s been said that you need HoT to play through LS3, okay yeah that much was obvious. I just wondered, will there be anything released for players who don’t have HoT? Or once they’re through LS1/2 and personal story, will they be restricted to Seasonal content such as Easter, Wintersday etc?

LS2 gave 2 new maps that you can access without having LS2 unlocked. It is possible that they plan something similar for S3, but only time will tell.
If new maps are coming there is probably going to be gliding involved though, so it might effectively lock people out.

Considering LS3 will probably take place in HoT maps (as well as core Tyria ones) you’re going to need HoT for it.

They have a fractal team developing new fractals at the moment that I’m assuming will not be gated behind HoT since it’s a core feature and also a logistical nightmare to tie behind an expansion pack.

When SAB comes back (between now and the rapture) you’ll have access to that, too. Anything affecting WvW or PvP (other than elite specs) cores will also get. Other than that, no idea.

I would expect that most new stuff is going to require HoT in some way even if the action is not in the HoT maps. They need to sell copies to keep the money flowing.

Any changes in noninstanced central Tyria that don’t involve masteries or elite specializations should be available for all. Quarterly updates bring many changes to core features such as world bosses, WvW, skills…just don’t expect much on the story side.

We can hope there’ll be more content at some point but considering how they’ve locked things off for new players taking advantage of base game technically being free to play, hopes are not high for additional non HoT content. As someone who doesn’t have heart of thorns I’m curious if it even added enough to be worth buying to be honest as I find there’s quite alot of game without it.

I don’t like HoT or the difficulty level but I absolutely, really, totally love gliding in core maps. It’s a bit irrational because it doesn’t really contribute very much but I love it anyway.

And Sphinx makes a good point. We’ve seen a Shatterer upgrade recently so maybe there is hope yet for some updated core content.