Guild Wars 2

I am not looking for an argument just understanding what i am spending my money on.

After reading and looking at the advertisements and such for HoT. What are we getting?

1? New Map/Zone In PvE
1 New Class (with their specialization?)
Some Gliding or odd after level 80 skills that only apply to that Zone?

Alot of the changes to the Skill system are standard. Seriously what else are we getting besides those two things? Are the 8 specializations , IE: Engineer getting to use a hammer, what they are locking? The PVP and WvW changes are also included in the standard Gw2 game aren’t they? Just a little confused bout what the expansion comes with.

Stuff.

(moreletters)

http://mmoarlee.com/2015/07/07/everything-we-officially-know-about-heart-of-thorns/

Donari.5237:

http://mmoarlee.com/2015/07/07/everything-we-officially-know-about-heart-of-thorns/

That is very helpful. Thank you!

Jinsei.5702:

Donari.5237:

http://mmoarlee.com/2015/07/07/everything-we-officially-know-about-heart-of-thorns/

That is very helpful. Thank you!

Alot of that is “free” content. The WvW and PvP stuff you’ll have access to regardless of owning HoT, same as the changes to fractals. Anything that changes the core game you will get, as that is now the “core” game. The only things that are really tied to HoT are the new maps, mastery’s, Revenant, Elite specs and the new legendary weapons.

Yep, the link goes to a site that breaks it down by what is HoT-specific and what goes to everyone, to the best of what is known.

Jinsei.5702:

I am not looking for an argument just understanding what i am spending my money on.

Sure. We will get:

• An overglorified DLC pretending to be an expansion and priced as if it were a new game
• A handful of new maps, most of which will consist of repetitive copy-&-paste events like the Silverwastes
• Half a new profession (the revenant has less skills and less customization than the other professions in the game)
• Specializations, of which only the mesmer, the necromancer and the warrior ones appear to have been well developed among those we know of
• Only 4 legendaries, despite how those have been promised since 2013. ArenaNet is promising to add more, but when, considering (again) the 2013, remains to be seen.

And little else. The other changes – like the change to WvW – are available even to those who won’t buy HoT.

Really, it’s not worth prepurchasing. Wait until after release so you know what you are paying for – the fact ArenaNet won’t tell us about it by itself is a bad sign, but worse comes to worse you can buy HoT for cheap in the recycle bin some months from now.

OP, I suggest you look at the site I linked. I’d have to review it again myself but I think it’s fairly objective and you can form your own opinions on the value.

No need to deal with the embittered (or the completely enamored come to that).

I asked the same thing over a month ago. No response. I have made threads asking honest questions like, “If we are getting 3 Legendaries at HoT launch and you’ve announced 2 legendary backpieces, is the 3rd Legendary a weapon?” No response. How many maps? Nothing.

Here’s one of the handful of threads I have made addressing this exact thing.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/ArenaNet-Try-Harder-to-get-me-to-Pre-Order/first#post5310179

They want me to give them money without even knowing what i’m getting? That’s laughable.

Iason Evan.3806:

I asked the same thing over a month ago. No response. I have made threads asking honest questions like, “If we are getting 3 Legendaries at HoT launch and you’ve announced 2 legendary backpieces, is the 3rd Legendary a weapon?” No response. How many maps? Nothing.

Here’s one of the handful of threads I have made addressing this exact thing.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/ArenaNet-Try-Harder-to-get-me-to-Pre-Order/first#post5310179

They want me to give them money without even knowing what i’m getting? That’s laughable.

The Legendary Backpacks are rewards, and the “3 Legendaries at launch” are the craft-able pre-cursor legendaries. Edit: apparently at least the PvP one is counted.

Colin said on the PoI before the BWE last week that they aren’t going to release all the specific details of the expansion before it comes out. So we won’t know how many zones, the size of them, how much story there is going to be etc… He also mentioned that what we have seen of verdant brink is about 25% of the story and zone. So that should give some feeling for that zone at least.

On the one hand, the fact they aren’t revealing everything pre-release is sort of nice. One problem I have in other MMOs is everything is found and known before the patch/expansion ever hits which really limits the enjoyment of exploration and discovery, which are two things Arenanet seems to care about preserving.

However, I do get some people want to know exactly what they are getting before they buy so not knowing these things is a big problem. That is totally understandable.

The thing is, pre-purchasing any game or expansion is always a gamble. Even when all information is released things still sometimes change or get cut because there are a lot of hard realities when it comes to game development and especially when it comes to MMO development.

Anywho, basically in this case if you want to know everything you are going to get before it comes, you should probably just let go of the idea of pre-purchasing HoT. They aren’t going to make a lot of info available. There’s nothing wrong with waiting until the expansion comes out and buying it then if you feel like it is worth your money. Sure you’ll forgo the bonus things, but taking the risk ahead of time is why companies offer those bonuses in the first place.

Arlee.7038:

… also mentioned that what we have seen of verdant brink is about 25% of the story and zone. So that should give some feeling for that zone at least.

A nicely presented post, but I want to correct this one thing: What we saw of VB was 25% of the map (could be 25% of all of it, or 25% of just the one biome out of three, I’m not sure). But nothing said what percentage of the story we saw, just that it was only the opening bit so as to avoid further spoilers.

Just wanted to add that buying the xpac doesn’t only buy what will be at xpac’s release but all the content until next xpac. That is also one reason they can’t really tell what is included in the xpac right now.
For example the base game didn’t include several things like Southsun, Dry top and Silverwastes, new PvP maps, collections, guild missions…
It’s not that I want absolutely defend Anet but it would make sense for me that not all maps are available at release, maybe the real Mordremoth fight will happen on a new map that they are not happy with right now but will be available 4 months after HOT. Basically buying HOT will buy you this … but not at release.

Donari.5237:

Arlee.7038:

… also mentioned that what we have seen of verdant brink is about 25% of the story and zone. So that should give some feeling for that zone at least.

A nicely presented post, but I want to correct this one thing: What we saw of VB was 25% of the map (could be 25% of all of it, or 25% of just the one biome out of three, I’m not sure). But nothing said what percentage of the story we saw, just that it was only the opening bit so as to avoid further spoilers.

Ah yea that’s a totally fair point I mispoke there. My personal assumption is we have only seen at most 25% of the story that’s coming with the xpac, but Colin definitely did not say that.

Oh, I think we’ve seen far less than 25%, as we’ve seen one step of the very first part. Not that I believe we’ll have anything as long as the original PS, but I do hope it will be more than one LS2 chapter has. Then they can add LS chapters later.

Also note that we only had the help Laranthir option in the BWE. They’ve said that we’ll be able to replay each bit with different choices, and then go back later as we have more masteries so we can reach yet more options. If that applies even to the starter bit, we must have seen much less than 25% of the narrative on offer.

I kinda look at it long term too. Kinda like how the core game evolved over the 3 years it been out. The expansion will too. Yes some changes come free, but the workers on it still have to work. While Gems do help, I see buying Gem as donating to the game, since there 0 reason to spend any money after you buy the game. So the expansion, while I guess a little costly with it 50$ tag, is giving us some stuff and some future stuff too, while at the same time, keeping the game sub free and we can continue to play.

Ranael.6423:

Just wanted to add that buying the xpac doesn’t only buy what will be at xpac’s release but all the content until next xpac. That is also one reason they can’t really tell what is included in the xpac right now.
For example the base game didn’t include several things like Southsun, Dry top and Silverwastes, new PvP maps, collections, guild missions…
It’s not that I want absolutely defend Anet but it would make sense for me that not all maps are available at release, maybe the real Mordremoth fight will happen on a new map that they are not happy with right now but will be available 4 months after HOT. Basically buying HOT will buy you this … but not at release.

I would laugh so hard if they released HoT and it was that blatantly unfinished. Pretty much everyone, media and players alike, would eat them alive for that.

Test.8734:

Jinsei.5702:

I am not looking for an argument just understanding what i am spending my money on.

Sure. We will get:

• An overglorified DLC pretending to be an expansion and priced as if it were a new game
• A handful of new maps, most of which will consist of repetitive copy-&-paste events like the Silverwastes
• Half a new profession (the revenant has less skills and less customization than the other professions in the game)
• Specializations, of which only the mesmer, the necromancer and the warrior ones appear to have been well developed among those we know of
• Only 4 legendaries, despite how those have been promised since 2013. ArenaNet is promising to add more, but when, considering (again) the 2013, remains to be seen.

And little else. The other changes – like the change to WvW – are available even to those who won’t buy HoT.

Really, it’s not worth prepurchasing. Wait until after release so you know what you are paying for – the fact ArenaNet won’t tell us about it by itself is a bad sign, but worse comes to worse you can buy HoT for cheap in the recycle bin some months from now.

it leads to this EVERY TIME! people just cant be happy no matter what. anet could give you 1000g and you would still ask for more! keep in mind that they will be adding more stuff in after the expansion… but instead of thinking about that you would rather complain cause that’s all people know how to do anymore. no one is ever happy with what they have till it’s gone i suppose.

spartan.9421:

Test.8734:

Jinsei.5702:

I am not looking for an argument just understanding what i am spending my money on.

Sure. We will get:

• An overglorified DLC pretending to be an expansion and priced as if it were a new game
• A handful of new maps, most of which will consist of repetitive copy-&-paste events like the Silverwastes
• Half a new profession (the revenant has less skills and less customization than the other professions in the game)
• Specializations, of which only the mesmer, the necromancer and the warrior ones appear to have been well developed among those we know of
• Only 4 legendaries, despite how those have been promised since 2013. ArenaNet is promising to add more, but when, considering (again) the 2013, remains to be seen.

And little else. The other changes – like the change to WvW – are available even to those who won’t buy HoT.

Really, it’s not worth prepurchasing. Wait until after release so you know what you are paying for – the fact ArenaNet won’t tell us about it by itself is a bad sign, but worse comes to worse you can buy HoT for cheap in the recycle bin some months from now.

it leads to this EVERY TIME! people just cant be happy no matter what. anet could give you 1000g and you would still ask for more! keep in mind that they will be adding more stuff in after the expansion… but instead of thinking about that you would rather complain cause that’s all people know how to do anymore. no one is ever happy with what they have till it’s gone i suppose.

Test is also being extremely subjective (and incorrect) about what they are saying too:

An overglorified DLC pretending to be an expansion and priced as if it were a new game

Subjectivity bolded.

A handful of new maps, most of which will consist of repetitive copy-&-paste events like the Silverwastes

Handful is subjective (and uninformative). We actually don’t know the full number of maps and no amount of lying that you do will change that fact, yet.

Repetitive events perhaps (as this is what all GW2 events are like) but copy and paste? I saw variety in the last BWE. Not sure which are copy-pasted.

Half a new profession (the revenant has less skills and less customization than the other professions in the game)

Objectively incorrect saying “half”. It is an entire profession with weapons, traits, and elite spec. It does have less customization on the utility side, but this does not make it “half” a profession. It offers a new mechanic not yet seen before in GW2. It’s like saying Elementalist is “half” a profession because it doesn’t have weapon swap.

Specializations, of which only the mesmer, the necromancer and the warrior ones appear to have been well developed among those we know of

Aside from the name, the Dragonhunter seems to be liked well enough. We don’t know about the other 3 professions fully not yet revealed.

Only 4 legendaries, despite how those have been promised since 2013. ArenaNet is promising to add more, but when, considering (again) the 2013, remains to be seen.

This has nothing to do with 2013. We will get a full set of legendaries, just not at launch.

The answer is really simple believe it or not, do you like playing GW2 or not, if you like playing it then buy the expansion…if you dislike playing it then don’t buy it…see how simple that was?

Why haven’t anybody in this thread mention that we are getting access to BWE with Pre-Purchase and that it seems that developer are spending time to communicate with us players to change things which make us to have some degree of impact in which way the development of Revenant went (which now have weapon swap) and even on how the future development of HoT maps might turn out?

We might not be knowing everything yet, but Pre-Purchaser have at least a part in which direction this game will develop which for me as player is as important as the end result.

Chronomancer which I tried out to play in WvW and PvE more then Revenant this time during last BWE, seemed to actually be a rather good option for a Mesmer to play and Revenant had been improved with changes to both skill and how legendary and weapon swap work. Not everything is perfect, but so far we ANet seem to actually upgrade graphical setting with Ambient Occulation, SMAA support etc. and considering how old this game engine is by today’s standard that is pretty good.