Guild Wars 2

Right now we are getting a lot of news about things that will come when HoT is released.
However most of them sound like simple feature updates to the core game and nothing that is specific to the expansion.

So far it looks like this:
Everyone gets:
- Elite specializations
- Guild Halls (kinda unsure how it is limited if you can`t enter the new areas)
- New Legendary Weapons (tied to Mastery System)
- Mastery system and it`s rewards

PvE gets:
- New regions + Lore + Story (unknown how much and how far these things will reach, or if they will be suplemented by LS)
- New Armor/Weapons (Mastery System?) (no amount given so far)

Everything else they said so far are features that everyone get, even if he doesn`t has HoT. This mostly concerns PvP and WvW it seems
- Stronghold
- New Borderlands
- Condition revamp (already ingame)
- New Fractal mechanics
- etc.

i know the reason for this is obvious (reducing fragmentation, etc. ), but can we get some clarifications on what will be HoT exclusive, since if you have no interest in cosmetics or the elite, the expansion is a no go for WvW and Pvp as far as I am concerned.

As far as we know currently only Stronghold and new borderlands will be for everyone, while everything else will require HoT.
Fractals might be hard to lock behind HoT (unless lvl 51+ require Masteries) but other than that most new content will be locked behind the expansion.

Elite specs are HoT exclusive, what we have right now is the specialisation system, HoT purchasers will be able to unlock an elite specialisation line for the professions, people that do not ownj the expansion will not get access to the elites.

It’s not been clarified yet whether everyone can access guild halls

Masteries are also set to be HoT exclusive, I believe, which in turn makes precursor crafting HoT exclusive.

The only things we know for certain everyone will get access to are the WvW and PvP maps, and the system changes that have been implemented thus far. I suspect fractals, too.

High level fractals may be locked (or very expensive) behind the expansion depending on how they do the agony scaling. There’s a mastery for new powerful agony infusions.

This is a great article that covers exactly this question (or at least everything known as of about a month ago) http://mmoarlee.com/2015/07/07/everything-we-officially-know-about-heart-of-thorns/

Guild Halls will also be HoT exclusive. Guildies without HoT will be able to interact with the rest of their guild through a special “Guild Building” in Lion’s Arch, but they will not have access to the Halls and their specific features.

Mist Champions, or at least all others beyond the basic one. The Guild upgrades in WvW, I believe.