Guild Wars 2

I thought it would be fun to speculate on what kinds of content/features we can reasonably expect to have access to, when the game’s first expansion hits. It’s not meant to be a wish list of things I’d like to see, or a list of suggestions — just what I think is realistic to expect.

New Classes: I think we’ll get one or two new classes, one of which will undoubtedly be a heavy armor class. There are only two heavies right now, but three lights and three mediums.

New Weapons: There may be a couple new weapons introduced to the game, like perhaps pole-arms, guantlets/claws, whips, or some other. More likely, though, I think each class will gain access to another pre-existing weapon that they didn’t have before. It essentially attains the same goal, but doesn’t clutter the economy with more and more items.

Character Progression: I’m not sure if the level cap will be raised, though if it does I wouldn’t bet on more than 85. There could be other ways of advancing characters besides just more experience levels, though — adding another tier of very expensive skills, or maybe letting us learn new weapon skills that can be slotted into our regular 1-5 keys.

Races: I don’t think there will be any new races in the game’s first expansion, and we may not see any for a while. We already have five very different races as it is, and I think at this stage ArenaNet is better off expanding on the world we know rather than diverting enormous amounts of time and resources to new starting zones, personal stories, character designs, etc.

New Zones: It’s hard to say what the addition of new territories will bring to the game. Will the new zones be set for 80 and up, or will there be more areas that bump everyone up to max level? Depending on where the story goes, we’ll probably see new approaches to “endgame” (such as it is) that vary greatly from how Orr functioned (or didn’t). Fighting for territory and safe camps sounds brilliant on paper, but there was no degree of permanence to anything that went on in Orr. Anything you captured was retaken 5 minutes later, it seemed. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I think we may get to actually fight for new territory gradually, together, as a server. We may “unlock” a whole new zone piece by piece, by fighting through it and clearing it of dangers over months of real time. Each new bit will advance a new chapter of the story, with the “end boss” not accessible right off the bat.

Personal Story [SPOILERS]: This will continue from where things left off, but I think there may be some changes to what exactly has to happen once players reach level 80. I mean, is it reasonable to require new players (or alts) to complete the Arah dungeon and kill Zhaitan, when everyone just wants to do the new stuff? Is that really what you want people to be worried about, when a new expansion hits? It’s hard enough to get people to run the story modes of the other dungeons, and even those are optional. I think there will be some kind of option to semi-skip the dungeon, or at least do a scaled-down, solo-able instanced version of the Zhaitan fight. We don’t want a large segment of the game’s population just leaving their story stuck at that point indefinitely.
With regards to how the new content will be structured, I think there will probably be some new spin on the “three factions” mechanic we saw in the first chapter, or maybe there will be some other set of choices you can make that will provide you with optional conveniences, access to exclusive strongholds or supplies, or even responsibilities and duties with regards to the aforementioned shared zone progression.

Mini-Expansions?: It may be that not every expansion that’s to come for this game will be a major, boxed release. Why not have mid-way DLC mini-expansions, as a way to get new content to us faster, and at a more steady pace? It doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. Of course, we don’t want to see that overshadowing the free content patches that we’ve been getting so far — it’s a slippery slope, and we don’t want to feel like we’re paying for something that might have been free otherwise. But, heck, if we’re okay with paying for an expansion, then why not optional DLC story missions, zones, etc.?

Release: Tough to say, but I’d wager first or second quarter of 2013.

That’s what I have, for now. What do people think? Am I way off? What do you think we’re going to get, come expansion time?

I expect a cap raise to 90, actually. 85 doesn’t seem like enough of an increase.

Hopefully any future expansions will involve a great deal of thought. Many players have Lvl 80 characters with a lot of maxed-out gear, possibly a Legendary, and 100% map completion.

Which means that adding to the map could ruin some people’s 100% world completion. And adding new tiers of equipment could ruin people’s inventories, and the concept of Legendary equipment as a whole.

I’m looking forward to the new content they will inevitably add, but also dreading the complications that will emerge.

I think they’ll add the Tengu as a playable race and the Domain of Winds as their new starting area. Which will also open it up to other races.

Simply because I think this is why it’s sealed off at the moment and if I’m right it’d make sense to add that before adding other races.

Dunno, a lot of focus lately has been about underwater. Lost Shores were about a new threat from the depths, recent patch did quite a bit of work on underwater combat, and there is a race of underwater creatures that have the potential to be playable.

Tengu with gangnam style or chicken dance?

Yes please thank you.

Danikat.8537:

I think they’ll add the Tengu as a playable race and the Domain of Winds as their new starting area. Which will also open it up to other races.

Simply because I think this is why it’s sealed off at the moment and if I’m right it’d make sense to add that before adding other races.

I agree.

I think adding Tengu as a playable race would be extremely easy for them to do (since the Dominion of Winds is right next to a starting zone already), and is by far the most sensible thing to do….but I don’t know if that will be their first expansion or not.

What races they pick will depend on which dragon we hunt next, I think. If we go after Jormag, either the Kodan or Largos (or both) are pretty viable options. Both come from the northern oceans, so they’d be right at home fighting the ice dragon of the north.

The only reason why I bother with this forum is because ArenaNet has proved in the past how they are willing to listen to fan feedback, no matter how bad said feedback is.

In GW1, the original game had 6 professions. The second chapter had 2 new professions and 25 new skills for the old 6 professions. When the third chapter was going to be released, ArenaNet originally said they were going to release two new professions and skills only for the six original core professions. Some players complained, and so ArenaNet decided to release new skills for all professions.

This was a massively bad idea.

• With 75 skills per profession, the original game had more or less 450 skills.

• In chapter 2, with two new professions, each with 75 skills, and 25 skills for each of the old professions, the game went to more or less 750 skills.

• In chapter 3, with two new professions, each with 75 skills, and 25 skills for each of the 8 older professions, the game went to more or less 1.100 skills.

ArenaNet can hardly balance all skills available in GW2. There is no way they could possibly have balanced more than one thousand skills.

And guess what? They got themselves stuck, since if a new chapter had less professions and less skills for old professions as previous chapters, players would complain that they were not receiving a full chapter.

Ergo…

• Chapter 4 would need two new professions, with 75 skills each, plus 25 new skills for each of the 10 older professions.

• Chapter 5 would need two new professions, plus 25 new skills for each of the 12 older professions. Is anyone still making the math to see how many skills the game would have by this time?

Having too many skills killed GW1. There was no way ArenaNet could possibly keep the game balanced with so many skills, and they shot themselves on the foot when they decided that new chapters would adopt a system in which more content would demand even more content on the next chapter.

Incidentally, it’s ironic that some GW1 players complain about the lack of skills in GW2. It’s far better to have 100 somewhat balanced skills than 1.000 thousand skills, of which only 50 are somewhat balanced and the other 950 are kept underpowered so the game balancers don’t have to worry about them.

ArenaNet needs to add as few skills as viable per expansion. They should add more “cosmetic” things – a new race with lore and a few new racial skills. One, at most two new weapons for old professions; if only a single weapon, a couple new utility skills. And nothing more. Or GW2 would suffer the same fate GW1 had.

Erasculio.2914:

Incidentally, it’s ironic that some GW1 players complain about the lack of skills in GW2. It’s far better to have 100 somewhat balanced skills than 1.000 thousand skills, of which only 50 are somewhat balanced and the other 950 are kept underpowered so the game balancers don’t have to worry about them.

I agreed with you up until this point.

The problem is that the “100 balanced skills” in GW2 are most certainly anything but balanced, and it’s fairly clear that they’re never going to get there.

I don’t disagree with the notion that too many skills can make the game too hard to follow, but right now, GW2 is nowhere near having too many skills. Right now, it suffers from having far too few.

critickitten.1498:

Danikat.8537:

I think they’ll add the Tengu as a playable race and the Domain of Winds as their new starting area. Which will also open it up to other races.

Simply because I think this is why it’s sealed off at the moment and if I’m right it’d make sense to add that before adding other races.

I agree.

I think adding Tengu as a playable race would be extremely easy for them to do (since the Dominion of Winds is right next to a starting zone already), and is by far the most sensible thing to do….but I don’t know if that will be their first expansion or not.

What races they pick will depend on which dragon we hunt next, I think. If we go after Jormag, either the Kodan or Largos (or both) are pretty viable options. Both come from the northern oceans, so they’d be right at home fighting the ice dragon of the north.

Largos (thanks, btw, i keep forgetting their name) come from both north and south. But so far the focus have been down south as best i can tell.

Anyways, i think ANet have worked on making tengu playable. But i think there is a statement somewhere that they ran into issues with animations. But in terms of armor, and in terms of facial structures during cutscenes.