Guild Wars 2

I have wondered if you will need to have completed the GW2 ‘Zhaitan’ personal story and Living world season 2 (if you have it) in order to start the HoT personal story in Verdant Brink? I have only completed this on one of my main character and so, if this is the case, I wouldn’t be able to play the HoT PS on my alts?

I think it is very very unlikely that Anet will make people play through the PS and LS on all of their characters in order to play HoT. Characters do not need to finish the PS to play the LS for example. And, like you said, not all players will have season 2 anyway.

I think the only requirements will be having HoT and the character being level 80.

The Devs have stated you do not need to have completed your PS or LS Seasons 1 or 2. They did, however, recommend you do so, continuity-wise.

Good luck.

That will not be required, if you don’t mind immersion break-story wise, if you haven’t finished the personal story. Otherwise you can jump right in with any lvl 80 character.

From what I understand, the HoT PS is designed to be replayable. So even if there are minor things you miss by not doing the Zhaitan arc, things like no specific reactivity due to Order choice or NPC story encounters, there would still be the opportunity to go back, do the Zhaitan arc and then re-run the HoT PS and see the small, missed reactivity.

Considering that the “Vanilla” PS takes place two years before HoT, it shouldn’t be necessary for you.

The PS was basically ANet’s way of getting you to explore various places and was a way to direct you to Orr by getting you to go to new areas as you leveled and the areas were level appropriate at the time. Doing it was not required, but it did provide direction in PvE.

For HoT, the replayability will likely be like Living World S2, with achievements that are earnable in the chapters after finishing the chapter and redoing it, with some piece of nice gear for doing them.