Guild Wars 2

Hey all, it’s been a long while since I last played. I completed all the content way back when the game first came out, all but the last of the dungeons (cant even remember its name now) but it was always bugged so we were unable.

I had a great time, I moved on to other pastures but thought it about time I returned. Myself and 4 close friends intend to return very soon.

Questions:

1. Whats happened since the release of GW2 to the game? (I know thats a broad question, but how has it been expanded upon, has the cap changed.. what lands have been added)

2. Is this really the FIRST expansion? That really suprises me… Has the world not changed since then? What have veterans found to do??

3. The new expansion has guild houses.. brilliant news… I understand details may be sketchy at this time but will my band of just 5 be able to guild up and get one? (yes we like a challenge) or is it going to be guilds with 100 members plus (or some other restriction)

4. When is the Expansion out?

Thanks for indulging me, your time and help is greatly appreciated.

Kutter

Disclaimer: English is not my native language, so i apologize in advance for any mistake i made.

1) If with “cap” you mean the max level for characters, than it hasn’t changed. It’s still level 80. Three new maps have been added: Southsun Cove, Dry Top, and the Silverwastes, which are related to events that happened in the living story (the post-Zhaitan part of the story) but can be explored even if you have not played it. Also, because of the events of the living story, some of the old maps have undergone significant changes.

2) Yes, this is the fist expansion. No, the world did not stay static all this time. A lot of stuff happened with the living story (seasons 1 & 2) updates over the past 2 years.

3) Dunno.

4) Nobody knows that yet.

By the way, the leveling and the trait systems have been greatly changed, so be prepared for a lot of WTF moments.

If left in less then 6 months, then you missed 2 years worth living story world changes….. And trust me you’ll hate yourself for missing the Breach Maker event.

The land scape other then LA (which got wrecked several times) is largely unchanged, though parts of Kessex still have lingering Story damage. But other then that, most of the events took place in dungeon like environments. These were to take the place of formalized expansions (for free); but the community eventually got fed up with declining quality of events and a horrid 2-week release schedule for 2-3 hours worth of story missions. For the most part, it was intended to have value to players who are actually playing.

The entire build and trait system was revamped, so you have to relearn everything you’ve ever known about builds. Classes are about in the same place they were that long ago…. though some have faired better with the updates then others.

About the only worthwhile thing I can suggest worth checking into is Fractals. Its what dungeons should had been….. but sadly there are only a handful of fractals in rotation.

1 & 2. (Combined because the answers are interconnected.) I have to admit I always hate answering questions like this because Anet always try to do things differently so you can’t really gauge this game by the same standards as others.

The simple answer is that the level cap hasn’t increased, isn’t going to increase when the expansion is released and might never be increased and so far they’ve added just 3 new maps (Southsun Cove, Dry Top and Silverwastes). The equally simple but more confusing answer is that in spite of that many returning players find the game almost unrecognisable and are frustrated at how much they’ve missed.

Because of down-scalling and instancing it’s very easy for “end game” content to be added to existing maps, for example one of the things they added is an extremely hard raid-style boss requiring coordination between 3 large teams of players, ideally all level 80 and in BiS gear. It’s in a level 50 map. A lot of veteran players also spend a lot of their time doing the dungeons, which range from level 30-80. And the Living Story, which continues the games main storyline and is entirely for level 80 characters takes place everywhere from starter zones to the new maps.

So there’s not really a simple bench mark to use to explain what’s been added or changed, but there has been a lot. Here’s a list of releases (although it’s missing the most recent updates) which gives you a starting point. If you’re interested in the plot look up the Living Story, if you want to know about changes to the mechanics there’s probably a list somewhere but the main thing is the 23rd June patch which re-did pretty much everything.

3. We don’t know exactly but my understanding is they’ve said it will be possible for smaller guilds to get them. Some people have also suggested small guilds could temporarily band together to help each other unlock the halls, but plans like that really need to wait until we have more details.

4. We don’t know, but most predictions are September at the earliest.

I couldn’t have asked for more, thanks again for your help.

It seems as luck would have it I was able to get my old characters back and as I was our old guild leader the guild still exists! Which I guess is a great start.

Heres hoping we will be able to do the guild hall thing from this base.

Have fun all, and thanks again.