Guild Wars 2

1. Any Dungeon/instanced content planned?

2. Will any of the base (pre-specialization) professions be getting anything new? Even if it’s just new boons/effects brought to the current skills?

3. About Specializations, how will the base professions compare to them? i.e. Will there be weapon(s)/skills/traits that a base Ranger can use that a Druid cannot? Or in GW1 terms, is acquiring a specialization equivalent to a Ranger becoming a Ranger/Warrior, or a Ranger/Warrior being able to swap between that and Ranger/Monk?

4.Final Question: How much of the new HoT content will be showing up in the base game?

Angry Joe? Kinda feel like squealing like a little girl. I guess that means I’m a fan of yours.

Anyway there’s certain things that players want to know which Anet isn’t going to tell us until they decide to tell us, including but not limited to: specializations, release date, weapon combos, some conditions / boon overhauls etc. So you could still ask but I’m not expecting too much from ANet.

At this point my main interest is in how much mileage I’m going to get out of the expansion. Now they’d probably not be able to put a fix hour value on it, but I’d be interested in knowing about world bosses, dungeons, possible raids, how long to max out a mastery track etc. So far ANet has been rather silent on the topic of how much we’re getting in this expansion (focusing more on features). A lot of players (correctly or incorrectly, its debatable but at the very least can’t go without qualifications) have felt that the last few years hasn’t seen a lot of new content being added to GW2. So I think a lot of uncertainty can be addressed if only we knew more about how much gaming we’re going to be getting come HoTs release.

Tachenon.5270:

AngryJoe, I recommend that you reinstall the game before the expansion is released and start a new character. After playing for a while, and I don’t think it will take long, you will probably have some pretty big questions of your own to ask.

This is in reference to the New Player Experience (NPE) (I guess). I don’t think this particularly relates to HoT though.

BrunoBRS.5178:

oh, i figure i’ll drop a question too.

Q: Will the core professions get new utilities and reworked skills to embrace the new tech we’ve seen with the revenant, or will we have to specialize to have access to those new toys?

^ This question has huge worth. You should ask it.

My question is if the new PvP Mode, ‘Stronghold’ will be free for all users or only playable if we purchase the x-pac. I ask because ArenaNet have said that they are merging the queues for the old game mode, "Conquest’ with ‘Stronghold’. How will that affect users who don’t buy the x-pac?

Hey Joe,

Read this archived post https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/balance/PvX-Balance-Iteration-Wrongdoing/3680985 and ask if the development team is going to finally change their balance philosophy and start addressing some major lingering issues starting with the HoT xpac.

*I know the above linked topic is old, but it is still relevant and applicable to the current state of the game and development team.

Since you have been gone for a while, I’ll let you know that profession balancing updates have been made at turtle speed and mostly meaningless changes have taken place (read any profession patch notes to see what I’m talking about). The development team has allowed red flag issues and player concerns like “perma stealth” builds, condition “carpet bombing”, immobilize stacking, continuous knockback effects, lack of viable build diversity for every profession in pvp environments, the unholy dps-dps-dps trinity meta… to remain, while mostly making changes to skill texts and trait, rune and sigil numbers that run behind the scenes. Yes, the Revenant profession and specializations coming will add new dynamics to gameplay, but we have not heard any word on core problems being fixed. While some players may be happy with the current development and xpac direction, let’s not forget that this is a combat oriented game and it is vital for the development team to take profession balance and mechanics seriously.

Gw2 could be one of the top combat mmos out there, but so far the developers have squandered potential by sticking to the living story, gem store and “out of left field” updates status quo which has alienated a huge playerbase. While much of the game design hides many profession and combat flaws through zerg play in pve and wvw, there are players out there simply not content with “blobbing” their way to victory with auto attacks and “gimmicky” mechanics. Also, the spvp “e-sports” combat scene is abysmal because of all that has been mentioned above, and you can watch any twitch stream to see how awful, unbalanced and uninspiring small scale combat is. Overall, playing and watching gw2 really makes you scratch your head wondering how a talented team of developers, with the tech to back them up, would allow professions and combat to remain so stagnant and stale.

BrunoBRS.5178:

oh, i figure i’ll drop a question too.

Q: Will the core professions get new utilities and reworked skills to embrace the new tech we’ve seen with the revenant, or will we have to specialize to have access to those new toys?

+1 This question is very important to me. Cause putting the new (resistance boon etc) stuff behind specializations, will make the old ones feel inferior, utility wise. Can’t let that happen imo. Old profs (non specialization) still needs ‘looking after’.

Heya Joe, I’ve been a fan of your show for quite some time!

I’d like you to ask them if their upcoming AI changes also apply to minions.

Minions currently are as dumb as a box of rocks, but with PvE mob AI changes coming there’s a chance it affects minions, too.

I don’t think that anyone has asked this yet!
You could be the first one. (…probably.)

AngryJoeShow.5864:

Hey guys,

Hi Joe,

First a question for you: are you looking to pitch the some softballs where they tell you stuff that they were already absolutely determined to put out into the blogosphere or do you want some piercing questions that they have to pause and think a moment before answering?

Because things like “what weapons will the new professions have?” are textbook first case. Questions like “How well did hiring that outside studio for NPC AI work out and what changes did that bring to the game?” are still very relevant without being just another honk of the horns.

AngryJoeShow.5864:

[…] you guys still here on the forums! […]

ouch.

Great to finally hear from you again, Joe.

My question: Are the developers open to the idea of adding new races?
Normally races are just skins, but in this game it is much more complex because of the personal story.

Will we get a complete rehaul of the current dungeons, as there is suppose to be improved AI, change to stability, a new CC…

A fair number of the questions in this thread are on subjects we’ve yet to get blogs on. Had the blogs already appeared, the questions would be different, perhaps more focused on specific points. I still want the questions asked, though!

As others have covered most of the game mechanics issues, I’ll ask you to see what you can find out about QoL changes and cosmetic additions. Will more things become account bound (crafting skill, for instance)? Will a substantial number of new armor and weapon skins show up, preferably in game but some in the gem shop is fine? By substantial I mean more than one or two that will then have everyone running around in the same thing because it’s the only new thing. I’d love it to be closer to the variety that was available at launch.

Will the makeover kit special faces, hairs, and colors make their way into character creation, leaving room for new special ones to keep the kits selling?

A mechanics query: Will the megaserver get further refined to vastly increase the likelihood of being with one’s home server, at least in cities?

None of that is urgent. I’m much more keen to learn more of specializations and guild halls. But people already asked about those

Have fun at your event!

How are racial skills going to work with the revenant? Will they change with the swapping of legendaries or will they stay the same? Will the revenant even be able to use racial skills or will they be removed from the game altogether?

As others have said, i recommend taking a while to read up/“get back into the game” as it were, so you understand the differences from launch compared to now (quite a few differences in my opinion) that said, my main question if i had the opportunity to ask anet, would be

What will set apart the new WvW borderlands from EoTM, in regards to balance and to keep it from being a glorified karma train?

along with that, i’m also curious about specializations and what their plans are on keeping non-specialization/“vanilla” classes from becoming underpowered in comparison.

P.s. love the show, your guild wars 2 and ESO reviews in particular I think were spot on.

Regarding sPvP:

Is there any chance you are willing to split the two gamemodes, stronghold and conquest , as opposed to putting them in the same queue?

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

As others have said, i recommend taking a while to read up/“get back into the game” as it were, so you understand the differences from launch compared to now …

I get the feeling Joe’s visit to ANet is tomorrow, as he posted early today that he’ll be going there “Tuesday” not “next Tuesday.” There’s a limit to how much up to speed he can get in one day

Could you ask if there will be story releases to set up the xpac? Like maybe something small where we see Rytlock come back before the world is flooded with other Revenants? or we see some infighting start with the Sylvari?

I would like it if the next living world started just before the xpac to tease us and gradually get us ready rather than having to choose for a while between doing all the new stuff or the story that explains it at launch.

Since most people will be leveling a Revenant, will there be any improvements to the 1-80 portion of the personal story?

Hey Angry Joe,
I have 2 questions:

• Will we get an updated engine (like directx11/12 support). I have games that are graphical more intense and yet run with higher settings then GW2 does.

• My 2nd question exists out of 2 parts. I’m not sure how much you know of the ‘Living world’ so I’ll try to cover the basics (as my question is about that).
  When the game launched we had the personal story. After launch they continued the story using the ‘Living World’. ‘Season 1’ were basically big (none instanced ) events that usually required everyone on the map to work together. Season 1 updates stayed for 2-4 weeks and then got removed completely. Then we got ‘Season 2’, this worked much like the personal story does. Every 2 weeks you could ‘unlock’ a new part of the story for free, if you didn’t log in for those 2 weeks you have to pay 200gems for each ‘episode’.

(And now my question): An expansion usually attract new people and also people who left and now return. The story of the expansion continues after season 2. Will the expansion contain both season 1 and season 2? People who are new (or come back) will play the personal story (and kill zhaitan) and then discover there is a massive story gap (as season 1 isn’t anywhere in the game) and season 2 is (currently) behind a separate paywall (8 episodes for 200 gems each). So they’ll find the story going from being a pact commander working for trahearne to exploring the area with some wanna-be-adventures who they have no relation ship with (as they can’t play season 1).
So will the expansion contain season 1 and season 2 or will they risk telling a story that doesn’t make any sens and potentially even turn off people (since season 2 is behind a seperate paywall)

Also sorry, for the wall of text that (hopefully) makes some sense.

Since stronghold is going to be put into the Spvp unranked and ranked matches map selections, does that mean expansion players will be separated from those who don’t own HoT?

Will non-expansion players be able to access the new WvW map? Guild Halls?

What content/feature changes is the core game getting basically.

Anything on engineers and hammers ?

I hope you like reading…
Here is mine.

• Are there going to be any new animations or emotes?
• The late areas and final fight of the original release where borderline unfinished, while the Personal Story had more lows than highs. Are there any plans to fix them?
• How many new maps actually are there?
• The story of HoT seems to follow exactly where the living world left off. Are there any plans to help new players follow/play the story so far, besides retrospective videos?
• The current PVE suffers greatly from a justified overuse of the Beserker stat combination (Glass Cannon). Are there any plans to promote diversity? If yes how are they planning to deal with the Light Armoured classes.
• There have been absolutely no mention of dungeons in the expansions. And the current ones kind of suffer. Are there any plans to introduce new dungeons or fix the old ones?
• How many stages will actually support the announced new PVP mode? Any plans for more PVP game modes in future patches?
• Is there any update on their engine? Will it run better on rigs with multiple cores?

WILL NECROS GET SOME LOVE TO A FORMIDABLE FORCE AND IS THE GREAT SWORD COOL THANK YOU

Hey Joe! Fan of your work.

The biggest thing I want to know is if they have a back-up plan if fans aren’t happy with HoT just having the one region it does. Will they work to get more regions in this year through Living Story or something like that.

(Other GW1 expansions use to come with dozens of regions and globe spanning type quests, this is apparently a totally different type of expansion that is limited to a single region so the gameplay value here concerns me.)

Thanks.

Questions Involving Traits;

What are your thought processes when going into resolving what I’d call “dead traits”? For instance, things like Inner Fire which is a trait for Guardians that states “When a Guardian gains burning he gains fury.” Traits like that are too specific and are rarely, if at all, taken. Are you planning to resolve those issues with this expansion?

OMG I Love You AngryJoe!!!!!!!!!! <3
I can’t wait for your interview!

You’re a journalist. Do some research. Like a journalist does.

Can’t wait for your video
Could you ask if they plan on doing an open beta of the new maps or let players try the demo at home?
Also, is there a new personal story or are they going to restart with living story updates
after the launch?
Can we expect another feature patch before the launch of HoT?

Ty!

Please, would you ask about armor style going forward?

It’s been an ongoing request from the community for less trenchcoats with medium armor, less butt-skirts with heavy armor, and less robes with light armor. Yet with each new set of skins that get released, it’s more of the same.

Is this something that they are concerned with and do they have any plans to change?

This is a topic that gets brought up ALL the time, yet interviewers never even attempt to get answers.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Hey Angry Joe, love your show, glad to see you coming back. I hope you can do a peek at what has happened since you departed, but I know you probably have a lot of other games to draw your attention and time.

Good luck with the event, and if you want a couple questions:

- Will there be a way for new/returning players to experience the story of Living World Season 1?

- Is there going to be a Season 3 before the release of Heart of Thorns? If so, will it be focused on leading up to the content or more focused on world-wide reactions to what happened?

- Will someone please unshackle Josh Foreman and let him work on SAB World 3? Or at least a cyclical availability schedule for the Box so it’s still special/limited but not offline all the time?

Your question 2 has already been answered by the devs and its a no cause the expac starts right where we left off in season 2.

Is the waypoint in the Charr area near the Guild Labyrinth ever be uncontested? also the one in lions Arch? Theres not a single mob event going there can Arena.net just make it disappear or removed if doesnt work?

zorifour.2173:

Is the waypoint in the Charr area near the Guild Labyrinth ever be uncontested? also the one in lions Arch? Theres not a single mob event going there can Arena.net just make it disappear or removed if doesnt work?

Living World related

PopeUrban.2578:

You’re a journalist. Do some research. Like a journalist does.

You mean like ask the opinions of an expert?

This is why you ROCK, Joe! I know you will straight up ask the devs the questions we ask and not sugar coat them.

WvW has been neglected for a long time. The announcement said we’d be getting rotating maps… it’s a start, but that isn’t nearly enough to keep the rapidly-dying community alive. What ELSE do they have planned for WvwW? Keep in mind that a poor answer will lead a mass exodus to Camelot Unchained

GUARDIANS: Specialization for Longbow?

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

BrunoBRS.5178:

oh, i figure i’ll drop a question too.

Q: Will the core professions get new utilities and reworked skills to embrace the new tech we’ve seen with the revenant, or will we have to specialize to have access to those new toys?

+1 This question is very important to me. Cause putting the new (resistance boon etc) stuff behind specializations, will make the old ones feel inferior, utility wise. Can’t let that happen imo. Old profs (non specialization) still needs ‘looking after’.

I literally was about to post this.

AngryJoeShow.5864:

Great questions so far!
I’m really excited about the event empowered by you guys! The event will be on Tuesday and ill return on Wed, but most of the stuff will be embargoed for a tiny bit after.

That’s funny you’re Joe as the other day I was re-watching your review of Guild Wars 2 again since I last saw it well over 2 years ago and thinking about the path the game has taken compared against what I initially expected. Since the game has certainly had it’s ups & downs I would be really interested to hear what ArenaNet thinks their biggest successes and failures are. Likewise, of course interested in what their future plans entail in particular to both PvE (e.g. more and more details about new, challenging, small group related content) and what their balance cycle for PvP is going to be post HoT (hopefully faster!). If anything Joe, ArenaNet feeds us a lot of over-hyped pieces - would be very interested to get your realistic take on it all. Keep up the good content.

I was wondering if A-Net regretted removing the energy bar from the original 8 professions. If they could do it over, would they add it back?

The Great Al.2546:

I was wondering if A-Net regretted removing the energy bar from the original 8 professions. If they could do it over, would they add it back?

This, I liked the energy bar because it promoted more careful thinking about rotations.

Hello angryjoe, your show rocks!! (ANGRY RANTS XD)

Anyway, one question i have is: How long away are from the expansion release?? (not actual release date, maybe Q2? Q3? Q4? 2016?? thats all.

PS: AND ask if they can tease us about anything from SUPER ADVENTURE BOX!!

Thank you!

Will there be another tier of cultural armor? perhaps special weapons, armor, foods and back pieces that can only be crafted by specific races for example?

What sort of content can we expect moving forward after HoT? How will the living world story be handled for the players who don’t buy HoT? how will it be handled for those who do?

Would you ever consider adding larger parties so while I’m roaming with friends I’m not limited to just 5 of us?

What if I don’t want to use a specialization? How might I be competitive with other players who do decide to use them?

I found the personal story to feel less personal and more scripted as the game progressed. Will we see more empathizes on your choices when creating a character such as for human if you are devoted to Lyssa or born a commoner?

Q: What is Anet’s reason for introducing the mastery system?

Q: Will all zones be accessible at launch or will they be released over time like the living story?

Q: What were the other 3 names that were being considered for the expansion?

Joe, I hope you finished the personal story if you want a question that would hit pretty dam hard. This one question which has to do with the final fight with Zhaitan; which stands as a testament to why developers should not be rushing things out the door. Just like how you got angry about quick time events being used for some lazy ending. This one featured some 1 button smashing to end it all.

Well the final fight in PS was even admitted be rushed by the developers, and has never been revamped for all of that criticisms it got. So the question would be something like this: “Will HoT not feature an anti-climatic ending that is not akin to something like the main personal story ending for GW2?” Don’’t let them get away with “well you can see from our living season stuff we have improved.” It should be a promise the ending will not be rushed to the chopping block again.

1.) With the expansion and new maps revolving around being so vertical, is there any work being done on improving the issues with the Z-axis? such as fixing falling damage and how leap and movement skills work over uneven terrain and gaps.

2.) with the new additions to pvp with stronghold combining aspects of both sPvP and WvW is there any plans to improve the tutorials for these 2 game modes?

3.) We have heard some whispers about the trait system getting a revamp, will other areas of character progression be changed and improved in the future?

Will there be raids with like 20 people?

Also any sort of release date for HoT.

Hey Joe, nice to see you here!

Q: Do they have any thoughts on improving dungeons?
Currently, the issue is that people just “stack” and rush through the dungeon content, which is uninteresting, monotonous and a waste of potential. What are their thoughts on this? Will they improve monster AI to remedy line-of-sighting and stacking? What can they do to make non-berserker (pure DPS) builds attractive?
May they consider different difficulties of dungeons, as right now dungeons seem to completely stomp new players and be trivial for experienced players.
Will there be more dungeons? Will there be more interesting boss mechanics than one-shots? Dungeons, Joe. Dungeons. Ask them about the freaking dungeons. What is up with the dungeons in this game?

Thanks for asking us, have a great time!
Cheers.

My question:
“Will Engineer Hobosacks still be a thing, or has their wait in the pipeline finally ended?” or “What is ahead of Hobosacks in the pipeline, and when was it put in the pipeline?”

Context:
There’s been a thread about them for two and a half years, with every response being “We don’t have the resources right now.” In that time, the first wave of things that was mentioned as taking up the resources have been finished, various customizations implemented (including mail carriers, custom finishers, and a few other things), and generally the impression I, at least, have been getting is that the resources to fix hobosacks will never be allocated because they will always be on something else. The criteria for ‘more important than hobosacks’ has thus far seemed to consist of ‘does it exist?’

AngryJoeShow.5864:

snip

So here’s what you’ve missed in the game for story:

~Many seemingly unrelated groups attacked the rest of game’s world. Molten Alliance, Sky Pirates, and Twisted Clockwork armies up until the big ol’ revealing that it was puppet mastery by Scarlet Briar. Later she gets a few more groups with the Krait and the Nightmare Court too. Eventually she takes her whole shebang army and attacks Lions Arch with a giant drill in the middle. The whole thing was a lengthy manipulative plot to find and crack the Ley Line of magic running smack dab in the middle of the harbor there so as to wake one of the Elder Dragons. Players killed Scarlet at the end just before the drill breached, but the drill still breached anyways.

~And all the above just happened in Season 1. Season #2 was the waking of the monster as Mordremoth’s vines attacked towns, forts, and Waypoints. Players do some major investigation, some things happen, we lose Rytlock to a floor that eats him, and then it ends right where the assumed expansion is going to start at. That is to say that a bunch of “nice” Sylvari went all psycho on the Pact and started attacking allies while the ships also got diced up in Mordremoth’s vines in Maguuma.

So that was the story related aspects of the game over the past 2 years summed up as simply as I could. There was also events that happened for players as added annual events:

• -Halloween (annual at …Halloween)

• -Wintersday (annual around Christmas)

• -Dragon Bash (might not happen again, as Lion’s Arch has since been obliterated)

• -Bazaar of the Four Winds (might not happen again, most sabotage destroyed ships of the Zephyrites and many died)

• -Super Adventure Box (hopefully will happen again…World #2 left with an absolute cliff hanger that even hinted at World #3 with a partial level designed there too).

• -Chinese New Year (added this year, probably due to Chinese launch of game within the past year. Expected annual.)

• -World-vs-World Seasons (happen whenever, not sure there’s a pattern as to when they start a new one)

• - Queen’s Jubilee/Crown Pavilion (Gladiator events in Divinity’s Reach with bosses, mobs, skill challenges, and cool stuff).

I don’t think I missed any, but I’m sure that they can add in more if they’d like. We’ve cleaned up a lot of the Southsun Cove area to being a now beach resort area for the Consortium, so they could always do a summer themed thing there if they’d like (yes, please?!).

Few feature changes:

• -Character armor look is universal across both sPvP and PvE (due to the changes that they’ve done with the Wardrobe system), and so unlocked skins are also universal for both aspects of the game too.

• -Gold, Dyes, and mostly everything related to customization and/or collections is now Account Wide. A big, HUGE plus for aesthetic obsessed players such as myself.

• -World vs World Masteries (were you here for them?)

• -Edge of the Mists (added WvW map to alleviate WvW queues, however no real WvW or PvP is done there. Comm PINs working those maps are there for the purpose of circle-flipping for currency, which ends up being PvE only)

• -Quaggans, Quaggans, and mooore Quaggans. You no like Quaggans? Shame on you!

Some questions that I’d like you, Mr. Angry Joe, to consider asking please:

1. What kind of mini-games are going to be added with HoT?
2. How many jumping puzzles will be added? Will they be exclusive to Maguuma or any added to “the old world”?
3. What’s your position on Polymock and allowing that lone Asura to finally finish the work on that gate?
4. If your “fix” for injecting more defensive use in WvW fails, with players falling back to the current mechanic of zerg flipping, do you have backup changes to adjust for the possibility of that happening?
5. What’s your favorite race and why?
6. What’s your favorite class and why?
7. Trauhern stole the spotlight from the player in their “personal story” and in the end it became all about him [that glory hog!]. Will this happen again with the main story of the HoT expansion? Will Trauhern even be a factor or will he be one of the corrupted Sylvari that we may end up killing (please say “yes!” to that second part)?
8. What ever happened to Reaper’s Rumble and why has it not returned to the last two year’s Halloween events?
9. Are there currently more sPvP maps in the works? If so, are they set with the mechanics of the new one or the old point capture system or a third, yet unrevealed system?
10. How hard was it to design a lane-centric MOBA style game mechanic in a MMO space PvP mode?
11. Release date?

Thank you for your time.

Thanks for reaching out to the community, Joe. Coincidentally, I stumbled upon your initial GW2 review a few weeks ago (I’d watched back when you made it as well, but that was awhile ago!) I may not always agree with your opinions, but I like your show.

Anyhow, I would like to see the following subjects brought up:

Can players look forward to seeing additional dungeon and/or small instanced group (5-10) content that we’ll be able to do outside of ‘open world’ events?

What sort of release window are you aiming for? Other than festivals, it seems we are going to be hurting for new content until HoT gets released.

What is the name of the Guardian Specialization? (No, really, if you take any ideas, don’t take that one… but I very much want to know!)

Joe the issues GW2 have at release are the same you pointed out in your Destiny review.

1- Lack of story telling
2- Repetitive mission designs
3- frustrating RNG loot

these problems are being fixed, still not perfect (i mean, still have room to improvements) but it’s better now, enough to make me buy the expansion.

I don’t have anything to ask to the devs, just wanted to point this to you, so you can look at this in your expansion review.

1. I’d like to know how the developers plan on keeping sub-specializations on an even playing field with their original counterparts. So for example, we know that rangers will have the option to become a druid, but what’s keeping every ranger out there from changing into a druid? Will I have any incentive to create a ranger and stay as a ranger?Will druids be more mechanically advanced than the ranger? Will all rangers be expected to specialize as a druid?

2. Another question I have is what the developers’ stance on meta builds are. Are meta builds encouraged? If not, are there any plans to widen the viability we have when choosing traits? Where does ArenaNet see the trait system going in the future?

3. Will we see more jumping puzzles?

And will you be doing an Angry Review of the expansion when it launches??