Returning player questions
What you get with HoT has not changed, regardless of whether you’re a new or returning player. But you should be able to find it much cheaper now if you shop around. (Make sure it’s a retailer you can trust obviously, especially if you’re buying a digital copy.)
The next expansion doesn’t have a release date yet. Literally all we know about it is that they’re making one, they haven’t officially announced it yet so we haven’t been told anything else. There’s lots of speculation of course, but nothing official.
But I think it couldn’t hurt to hold off on getting HoT for a while at least. If I was you I wouldn’t buy it until I’d familiarised myself with the base game again and felt ready for something new. Depending on how long that takes we might have news about the next expansion by then, if not you’ll just have to decide if you want to risk getting HoT on it’s own. But given the expansion hasn’t even been announced yet I think it’s a safe bet it won’t be coming any time soon, I doubt it will be out earlier than October and it could be a lot later than that.
This game can be overwhelming, but no more so than any big RPG. I recommend starting a new character and just focusing on levelling up through the open-world maps and the story at first. That will allow you to familiarise yourself with the game and then you can move on to other things as and when you’re ready for them. One of the nice things about GW2 is that it’s very casual friendly, there is nothing you’re really going to miss out on if you’re not doing everything right now. You can choose what you want to do and go through it in your own time.
As for weapon swap that depends on a lot of factors. Some professions can’t swap weapons at all, but then they tend to have other mechanics that replace it (like engineers swapping which element they’re using). Some professions do have weapon swap but it’s entirely possible to make a build which doesn’t use it. It really depends on what you want to play. But I’ll leave the specifics up to people who know more about builds than I do.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
You get a discount on purchasing HoT, because it’s no longer at release day prices. Otherwise, no, you get nothing … largely because you didn’t “pay extra for the first part”, you paid extra for GW2 at the time you bought it, rather than later on.
Weapon swapping is still pretty common, especially to flip from ranged to melee, but it’s not absolutely required on most classes. (Ranger has the depressingly overpowered CD reduction after swap that makes it mandatory to swap on cooldown most of the time.)
Buy HoT if you want:
- New Zones
- Access to the new zones (also requires the new story).
- Gliding
- True autolooting
- Advanced fractal abilities (you can fractal through max level without them, though).
- Elite specializations
For me, that was well worth the US$50 I spent.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Buy HoT if you want:
…
For me, that was well worth the US$50 I spent.
For me, well worth the approximately 3.1 cents per hour of entertainment.
The other question is: should I wait a bit longer, considering a new expansion is about to be released? Also, when is it coming out? Couldn’t find a date…
In 3 months, season 3 will likely end and reveal the next expansion. HoT will likely be replaced at that point due to their 1 box model. HoT could actually be free right now if they do 5 months of refunds again.
The other question is: should I wait a bit longer, considering a new expansion is about to be released? Also, when is it coming out? Couldn’t find a date…
In 3 months, season 3 will likely end and reveal the next expansion. HoT will likely be replaced at that point due to their 1 box model. HoT could actually be free right now if they do 5 months of refunds again.
Hmm from what I understood it doesn’t work that way. The point was to make the core game free and then allow the new players that come into the game to pay once for all the new future expansions that come along.
Hmm from what I understood it doesn’t work that way.
Free as in, buying the next expansion will give you access to HoT, just like how HoT included the core game for free, prior to it going F2P.
Their plan was to bundle all past expansions into a single box. I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t happen however, as it’s simply a terrible idea. It doesn’t even make sense to include it, considering HoT isn’t actually required. It’d be more profitable to move it to the gem store or even make it F2P.
Hmm from what I understood it doesn’t work that way.
Free as in, buying the next expansion will give you access to HoT, just like how HoT included the core game for free, prior to it going F2P.
Their plan was to bundle all past expansions into a single box. I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t happen however, as it’s simply a terrible idea. It doesn’t even make sense to include it, considering HoT isn’t actually required. It’d be more profitable to move it to the gem store or even make it F2P.
Hmm I think you got it backwards. If I recall correctly, the game went F2P before the release of HoT. Why is it such a terrible idea to you ?
I’m of the same mind as Flog: Core will remain the “trial” or F2P portion of the game, and all expansions will be included when you buy. Just think about it a bit and it makes sense to do it that way.
Hmm I think you got it backwards. If I recall correctly, the game went F2P before the release of HoT.
The core game did go F2P shortly before launch. In the months prior to that however, they stopped selling the core game and replaced it with HoT, which included the core game for free.
To be clear, their plan is to include all past expansions with the current one so they’re only selling a single box. If that hasn’t changed, when the next expansion is available for purchase, HoT will no longer be available as it will be included with it. Unlike the core game however, HoT will not be F2P.
Why is it such a terrible idea to you ?
Their reasoning for bundling it was to make it easier to get into the game, but HoT isn’t actually required to play through the next expansion so there’s no need to include it.
The obvious downside is that it’s going to cause complaints, just as bundling the core game did. Why go through the trouble of offering compensation when they could simply move HoT to the side.
The benefit however is that it’ll bring in more people, which is desperately need since HoT was designed for active maps. Making it F2P however would not only make it far more active, it would also be more profitable, assuming people buy gliders, plus they could break it up, selling the story separately for example.
Hmm I think you got it backwards. If I recall correctly, the game went F2P before the release of HoT.
The core game did go F2P shortly before launch. In the months prior to that however, they stopped selling the core game and replaced it with HoT, which included the core game for free.
To be clear, their plan is to include all past expansions with the current one so they’re only selling a single box. If that hasn’t changed, when the next expansion is available for purchase, HoT will no longer be available as it will be included with it. Unlike the core game however, HoT will not be F2P.
Why is it such a terrible idea to you ?
Their reasoning for bundling it was to make it easier to get into the game, but HoT isn’t actually required to play through the next expansion so there’s no need to include it.
The obvious downside is that it’s going to cause complaints, just as bundling the core game did. Why go through the trouble of offering compensation when they could simply move HoT to the side.
The benefit however is that it’ll bring in more people, which is desperately need since HoT was designed for active maps. Making it F2P however would not only make it far more active, it would also be more profitable, assuming people buy gliders, plus they could break it up, selling the story separately for example.
Thx for explaining your viewpoint. However they could make the next expansion require gliding (and by that I mean the more advanced version of gliding), which is only available by first getting into HoT storyline for new players, so I am not so sure I agree with you.
(edited by flog.3485)