Heart of Thorns?
Like almost any expansion for a game, you will have to buy the expansion in order to access and play it.
You have to buy the expansion to play the expansion content. You can play the core content without buying the expansion.
Keep in mind the expansion is on sale now for the next couple of days at half price.
Hi guys, i’ll cut it short, I might start to play again soon and I have a question.
Since i bought the game (when it was buy to play) do I have to buy the expansion too or it’s free for us?
2 important things to note about how they changed their business model.
1. The base game is essentially Free2Play now, and gives players access to all Pact Tyria content. This is mainly to get people into the game and hopefully upgrade to a full account. https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/
2. Instead of their old scheme of ongoing content, they changed to expansions for big updates at the demands of the player base. However, this introduced 2 changes that are difficult to swallow at first. Every expansion includes all previous expansions, sans the Living story chapters which are unlocked if you play during the event, or pay gems to retroactively unlock them. The price of all expansions moving forward are expected to be full price, and will block players from new content (including Living Story) until they pick up the expansion. Part of this is because new LS content will start relying on Mastery systems for the maps, and one of the Mastery Tracks (Gliding) is going to be integral for almost all maps moving forward.
HOT’s launch was problematic, and a lot of those issues have only recently smoothed over. At 50% off, its worth it for the Elite specs alone; however, their new big ticket PvE content (Raids, Legendaries, Collections, and Map events) still has a measure of initial frustration attached to it. There are still semi-regular public trains to unlock base line stuff on HOT maps (Hero points for Elite specs, and mastery points); but being completionist for achievements (which are required for full mastery unlocks), and is going to require the help of a guild or a public train, as nearly everything in HOT is designed as large scale group content.
Elite specs are also pretty important to operating in HOT and Season 3 Living story, because they’re designed to go hand in hand with the new Mob designs. And trust me….. if the Mordrem in Silverwastes give you a hard time, you’re going to want to ask for help with getting your builds updated.