I’ve heard arenanet say that what they will release in 2014 will be better than an expansion. Ive also heard them quote they have 4 major releases for 2014. Not that all 2014 is only 4 releases, but that out of all of them, there are 4 major ones they have planned. I’ve heard that new maps will come later in the year, around the summer probably when LS 2 should probably be creeping in.
From players, ive heard people saying they think new races, new zones, new classes, players housing, etc. Pretty much everything a player could withdraw from his fantasy.
Realistically I doubt we will get new races. I also doubt a new class will come, I dont know why even though its been 18 months since launch and you’d think we would, but something about the state of gw2 and the way anet is talking about the game makes it feel as if it just came out and they are still tweaking things. Here is a list of things I really do think we will see in 14’ at minimum.
New maps, new spvp modes, a new wvw map perhaps(but much much later in the year) or maps like eternal bl edited(ive heard devs talk on the cdi about smc), new weapon/class combinations and perhaps new weapons near the end of the year, new dungeons and fractals, and new utilities and elites. This is at least the minimum of what I expect and nothing of it is too surprising and almost all of it is something we’ve heard about from the devs in little or more detail. I do however believe a number of interesting features are hiding in the devs sleaves which they plan to release. Some of these features were not mentioned in the feature patch because the devs said they weren’t ready to talk about them yet, however when this patch comes I believe it will be around the end of the wvw season 2 even though id really really REALLY want it to come earlier(like april). The reasoning behind this probably is because the feature patch that contains editing to crit damage/sigils/runes and class changes were greatly disrupt the season.
All in all I think if any year could be more important for gw2 it would be this one. There are some crucial things which I still think need to be addressed in this game like the great lack of diversity in the PVE meta which is simply due to poor game mechanics/design. The major reason 2014 needs to be the last year of repair for these problems that have lingered since launch is because its already been 18 months and other BIG mmo’s release this year TESO, WS. Last question, what do you realistically think will come out in 2014 for gw2.