Guild Wars 2

embarbarada.2096:

What worries me is not the fact that we are here speculating how many maps we will get……….
It is the fact that Anet is reading this and they are not saying anything about this…………………….
Why the silence? Maybe we are right?

they need these infos to keep the hype train going and not to calm some paranoid people.

maddoctor.2738:

embarbarada.2096:

What worries me is not the fact that we are here speculating how many maps we will get……….
It is the fact that Anet is reading this and they are not saying anything about this…………………….
Why the silence? Maybe we are right?

Maybe because as they SAID MULTIPLE times during the PAX announcement they will create BLOG POSTS about everything regarding HoT and they are doing just that… writing the blog posts instead of posting here.

Hey, would you please stop being reasonable on this thread? I still have popcorn left.

Eye of the North was the only expansion for Guild Wars 1. The others were stand alone games. It came with no new race and no new profession. /thread.

http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-interview/

Regarding those maps:

Colin refers to ‘Heart of Maguuma’ as a region.
He also speaks about mapS.
There will be fewer of them because they will be much deeper (3 biomes filled with content).

You can adjust your expectations accordingly.
I don’t mind less maps if it means deeper. I’m excited to see what they’ve come up with in regards to the maps.

Edit: forgot the link

maddoctor.2738:

Olvendred.3027:

Nihilus.3015:

Olvendred.3027:

Nihilus.3015:

maddoctor.2738:

Nihilus.3015:

Letifer.4360:

We don’t know how many maps they will include in the expansion…

We already know its 1 new map

1 map… many zones

Its 1 zone

“Explore new open world jungle maps”

https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en

Maps. Plural.

Yeah, they will want to make it seem like there’s more, but its 1 map as Colin has said a few times.

Now I know you’re trolling.

Maybe he just doesn’t understand the difference between a map and a zone, it’s a difficult concept to grasp for some people.

“the biggest playable space we’ve made” that’s the most revealing line and what made me believe its only 1. Even though it has layers, it’s still only 1

Not sure why I need to quote this again, because looking for information on the Main Heart Of Thorn release pages isn’t that hard. Here’s a quote and link to the source for those who haven’t read it yet.

FYI, It says Maps, which is plural of map. Map being 1 map. Maps being more than 1 map. I mean, come on now. No reason to be deliberately obtuse.

New adventures await you in the heart of the Maguuma Jungle. Confront the growing hordes of Mordremoth’s minions, discover allies from ancient civilizations, and battle new enemies.

• Tackle challenging group content.
• Explore new open world jungle maps.
• Experience new events and storylines.
• Test your mettle in new boss battles.

Link: https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en/?_ga=1.251803535.767515840.1350500849#section-heartOfMaguuma

Also the main reveal has been entirely transcribed. (You who did, or is doing so: You’re insane, but thanks anyway!) Just a few quotes from that:

Now as Mo [Mike O’Brien] said earlier, the maps in the Heart of Maguuma are some of the richest, deepest content experiences that we have ever built in GW2.

====

As you complete exploring entire maps, you are rewarded with mastery points.

Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2tjxe8/pax_announcement_wordforword_transcription_of/

I can’t deny that the news of no new race has me extremely disheartened. While this indeed doesn’t add any mechanics, cosmetic changes are a huge part of Guild Wars.

That said I’ll try to keep an open mind.

Evans.6347:

I can’t deny that the news of no new race has me extremely disheartened. While this indeed doesn’t add any mechanics, cosmetic changes are a huge part of Guild Wars.

That said I’ll try to keep an open mind.

Pretty sure Guild Wars only ever had one race. And cosmetic changes were added with new professions and skins. In other words, HoT is following in its predecessors footsteps.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Not sure why I need to quote this again, because looking for information on the Main Heart Of Thorn release pages isn’t that hard. Here’s a quote and link to the source for those who haven’t read it yet.

FYI, It says Maps, which is plural of map. Map being 1 map. Maps being more than 1 map. I mean, come on now. No reason to be deliberately obtuse.

New adventures await you in the heart of the Maguuma Jungle. Confront the growing hordes of Mordremoth’s minions, discover allies from ancient civilizations, and battle new enemies.

• Tackle challenging group content.
• Explore new open world jungle maps.
• Experience new events and storylines.
• Test your mettle in new boss battles.

https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en/?_ga=1.251803535.767515840.1350500849#section-heartOfMaguuma

Come on, man. You’re expecting too much from who follow this train of thought:

“Now we’ll talk about all the new, major features in the XPac”
Shows a map
“OMG THERE’S ONLY ONE MAP DEDGAEM”

UnrepentantProcrastinator.7420:

Come on, man. You’re expecting too much from who follow this train of thought:

“Now we’ll talk about all the new, major features in the XPac”
Shows a map
“OMG THERE’S ONLY ONE MAP DEDGAEM”

Never give up! Never surrender!

~GW1 Paragon.

UnrepentantProcrastinator.7420:

Evans.6347:

I can’t deny that the news of no new race has me extremely disheartened. While this indeed doesn’t add any mechanics, cosmetic changes are a huge part of Guild Wars.

That said I’ll try to keep an open mind.

Pretty sure Guild Wars only ever had one race. And cosmetic changes were added with new professions and skins. In other words, HoT is following in its predecessors footsteps.

Irrelevant. Guild wars 2 already has 5 races right now and it’s commonly known that Tengu were at some point a playable race in development.

Also, while Guild Wars did not add races, it did in fact add nationalities with distinctive features.

Evans.6347:

UnrepentantProcrastinator.7420:

Evans.6347:

I can’t deny that the news of no new race has me extremely disheartened. While this indeed doesn’t add any mechanics, cosmetic changes are a huge part of Guild Wars.

That said I’ll try to keep an open mind.

Pretty sure Guild Wars only ever had one race. And cosmetic changes were added with new professions and skins. In other words, HoT is following in its predecessors footsteps.

Irrelevant. Guild wars 2 already has 5 races right now and it’s commonly known that Tengu were at some point a playable race in development.

Also, while Guild Wars did not add races, it did in fact add nationalities with distinctive features.

Yes gw2 has 5 races adding more doesn’t add anything important other than a waste of resources and a check mark. Also funny the majority of people play humans which makes adding new races and even bigger waste.

silvermember.8941:

Yes gw2 has 5 races adding more doesn’t add anything important other than a waste of resources and a check mark. Also funny the majority of people play humans which makes adding new races and even bigger waste.

A waste of roughly 65% being something else than human. One might say by using that as an argument against new races, because people relate the best to a human race, the creation of the 4 other races was completely a waste of time.

Adding more races isn’t just there for options as well as adding lore and background to the race in that world. It’s of course a question whether the game needs that, or if it’s just extra fancy. But it’s not a waste based on your argumentation.

Nihilus.3015:

maddoctor.2738:

Olvendred.3027:

Nihilus.3015:

Olvendred.3027:

Nihilus.3015:

maddoctor.2738:

Nihilus.3015:

Letifer.4360:

We don’t know how many maps they will include in the expansion…

We already know its 1 new map

1 map… many zones

Its 1 zone

“Explore new open world jungle maps”

https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en

Maps. Plural.

Yeah, they will want to make it seem like there’s more, but its 1 map as Colin has said a few times.

Now I know you’re trolling.

Maybe he just doesn’t understand the difference between a map and a zone, it’s a difficult concept to grasp for some people.

“the biggest playable space we’ve made” that’s the most revealing line and what made me believe its only 1. Even though it has layers, it’s still only 1

Ah, another term added: space. Which has no reference to any of the other terms at all. What does the cardinality 1 of that term tell us? Right, nothing at all. It will still be 1 game, it will still be 1 world map, it will be 1 expansion. So it will be 1 “bunch of locations” added to the world map of the game by that expansion.

There is zero information in that cardinality. You are overinterpreting things.

Anet’s reason for not adding a new race seemed like they were either lazy or did not have the time or money.

A new race = new starter zone + events, new capital city, new racial skill, new Personal Story complete with audio dialog. That’s not everything and even that looks like a lot of work. (The events, new zone, and personal story with voice acting)

Nihilus.3015:

“the biggest playable space we’ve made” that’s the most revealing line and what made me believe its only 1. Even though it has layers, it’s still only 1

“Playable space” is vague. The current map we have is ALL playable space, for perspective.
The Maguuma wastes, where this content will most likely take place, is pretty big already, and with three layers, and the possibility to expand further west, it will be a large playable area.

Besides, you’re focusing too much on the “one” by comparing it to existing zones. If the “one” map was one massive zone the size of Kryta with 3 layers? Perfectly fine due to the sheer size of it. I doubt that’ll be the case though, due to megaservers and number of players per shard.

I for one am beyond excited for this expansion. The Revenant class is almost exactly what I was hoping for from a profession. Specializations, even at only one per profession, give me a good part of the profession customization I had been hoping for since GW2’s launch. WvW and PvP improvements are a huge deal to me.

Honestly, if this is content light and feature heavy, I’d be completely okay with that. GW2 has a LOT of content, but what it has always needed was improved features. Content bloat would only spread the population further than it already is.

MrTJpwnz.4710:

Shiverpeak Mountains
Tarnished Coast…

Very nice write up and informative. But, Tarnished Coast isn’t a region. Tarnished Coast is just part of the Kryta region, and may include one or two Maguuma Jungle zones.

The simple way to identify a region is during Dailies. Gathering Dailies are always attributed to a region, while Event Completion Dailies are attributed to a zone. There has never been a Tanished Coast Miner (forager, lumberjack) Daily.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Anet’s reason for not adding a new race seemed like they were either lazy or did not have the time or money.

Or maybe it didn’t fit with the current story line?

Maybe they just feel that 5 is enough for now, or maybe we’ll never have another one. They’ve never said they would give us a new playable race, only that if they did, there is a select number of races they would pull from.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Anet’s reason for not adding a new race seemed like they were either lazy or did not have the time or money.

Or maybe it didn’t fit with the current story line?

Maybe they just feel that 5 is enough for now, or maybe we’ll never have another one. They’ve never said they would give us a new playable race, only that if they did, there is a select number of races they would pull from.

Agreed. Adding a new race would mean figuring out how to involve them in the Zhaitan personal story and Living story after that. Season 2 of Living story brought five races together in the fight against Mordremoth, so working a 6th race into that would be a problem. If they had wanted to introduce a new race, that race would have require some involvement (as a primary character, not a secondary one, like the Largos) in the personal story after level 30 to be able to introduce playable characters of the same race later on.

The alternative is to have the new race’s personal story begin with the current large story. So, if they had introduced Tengu with Heart of Thorns, they would need 2 chapters to cover the racial storyline, then have the new race join the Orders, and have a story leading up to the Maguuma jungle where they’ll join the other races to fight Mordremoth. It may even require completely different story missions, which all of the existing races would need to go through, to make it happen.

Either way, it would require a lot of resources. Would make more sense to focus on the existing races and continue their storyline without adding a new race into the mix.

Evans.6347:

I can’t deny that the news of no new race has me extremely disheartened. While this indeed doesn’t add any mechanics, cosmetic changes are a huge part of Guild Wars.

That said I’ll try to keep an open mind.

A new race really wouldnt add anything to the game right now.

Thinking about a new race, it wouldn’t really provide much in terms of high level play. Sure, early on you get to explore a new racial city and deal with some low level racial things, but after that, it’s all about elder dragons and the threats they pose. Personally, I am fine with no new playable race because in GW2, race doesn’t provide much of a bonus compared to other MMOs where a certain race + certain profession is expected due to racial bonuses.

As for the new maps, yeah, I am a bit disappointed that Anet isn’t adding a ton of new maps since exploring the same map(s) over and over again but in further depth through small nooks and crannies gets boring for me.

For the new specializations, I can only hope that they lead to faster balance patches for the base professions because many traits and utilities go unused in PvE and PvP (I’m skeptical that most players would take the “on downed” traits).

DanteZero.9736:

Thinking about a new race, it wouldn’t really provide much in terms of high level play. Sure, early on you get to explore a new racial city and deal with some low level racial things, but after that, it’s all about elder dragons and the threats they pose. Personally, I am fine with no new playable race because in GW2, race doesn’t provide much of a bonus compared to other MMOs where a certain race + certain profession is expected due to racial bonuses.

As for the new maps, yeah, I am a bit disappointed that Anet isn’t adding a ton of new maps since exploring the same map(s) over and over again but in further depth through small nooks and crannies gets boring for me.

For the new specializations, I can only hope that they lead to faster balance patches for the base professions because many traits and utilities go unused in PvE and PvP (I’m skeptical that most players would take the “on downed” traits).

WE dont have a number of maps yet so how can you be disappointment by an undefined number?

well.. do know how much it’s gonna cost us yet? If it has $50 – $60 price tag… then yes, I will agree with the OP, and say that its a bit too small for an expansion. But just from what I know currently about what we’re getting, I think $35 is a fair price. But we’ll find soon when they finally announce the release date and such.

I’m more curious if we can beta test it anytime soon.

They announced only the BIG LINES of the new expansion. They didn’t talk about any of it in details. Before you say they didn’t include much in the expansion, we don’t know if there will be new dungeons, rework of X, Y or Z, new fractals, new build templates or anything else. We only know the BIG new functionalities TIED to the new map… nothing was said about the rest of the game. Just wait and see what they say. We’ll probably know a lot more on PAX East in 1 month.

I am more concerned about the WvW aspects. For 2 years we’ve been waiting for new maps. After really bad treatment from anet, we finally get one, but only one.

If I buy this “expansion” what can I expect for future WvW updates? New maps? New events? New features? Or just more masteries and QoL fixes that take the least amount of time to do, but 2 years to add?!

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

I am more concerned about the WvW aspects. For 2 years we’ve been waiting for new maps. After really bad treatment from anet, we finally get one, but only one.

If I buy this “expansion” what can I expect for future WvW updates? New maps? New events? New features? Or just more masteries and QoL fixes that take the least amount of time to do, but 2 years to add?!

It sounds like they are looking at reworking some of the base mechanics of the mode, from what I’m hearing. Making things like defensive play more meaningful. Making holding the objective more lucrative as opposed to just repeatedly flipping them. But we’ll see what happens.

It all depends on the amount of maps we get. How can u state it’s a small expansion if u don’t even know how many maps are added. Not to mention all the other stuff.

Too many unknowns.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

I’m more curious if we can beta test it anytime soon.

ArenaNet will be at PAX East and Rezzed, which will both have playable demos. Rezzed is from March 12-14th, and the beta is supposed to follow soon after that. Depending on how long the beta testing takes, I’d wager a launch somewhere in August/September, maybe to coincide with the anniversary of GW2. Maybe sooner. April 28th would be more poetic, but it all depends on when the beta starts/ends.

i don’t know if it’s small or not. i just believe that in small words it may has surprises. just wait for more details and then we shall judge fairly

Interesting, Rashy. Thank you. Hope there’s some kind of Seasonal or events update between those months.

Nate.3927:

people really need to stop making stupid assumptions and going crazy over it, we don’t know how many specializations each class will get, so assuming that it’s only 1 is kinda stupid.

Rude and wrong.

http://www.shacknews.com/article/87848/guild-wars-2-director-discusses-heart-of-thorns-revenants-guild-halls-and-more

“Specializations is a new system that allows you to take each of the professions we have in the game and grow them almost into a new sub-profession or secondary profession. An example of this is, a Ranger can become a Druid. Once a Ranger becomes a Druid, they have the ability to use the powers of the jungle and that gives them new skills, new traits, they can use a new weapon that a Ranger could never use before, and they get new profession mechanics that fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays when they become a Druid. Each of the professions will be getting one of these Specializations and this also is a framework that we’ll use to grow the professions in the future. This will be the way we add more skills, traits, and abilities to the game moving forward. That’s how we’re growing our existing professions.”

For me, one new region should be at least 3-4 new zones, and zones with a lot more depth as they mentioned. Anything less than that will be disappointing.

Guild Wars 2 :
~
30+ maps
8+ dungeons
8 classes
4 wvw maps
5+ spvp maps
+ items, armors, weapons….

= totally worth 50€.

HoT=
~
1 area (maybe 3+ maps)
0 dungeons
1 classes
class specializations
1 wvw map
spvp map??
new armor, weapon??
= ppl say 50€?? Too much
compare gw2 content with exp content

-> 20€ max. It would be bad move to charge more than 20€ for this expansion. Sucking money from its customers is for f2p games.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Obtena.7952:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

titoroco.8049:

if u dont like dont buy it =)

How would I know if I like it if I haven’t tried it? To try this expansion I am forced to buy it. #mindblown

Did you buy this game knowing if you liked it? Generally people don’t.

Actually I did. Anet was very good at giving information on the game before it’s release. I liked the idea of dynamic events and open world no loot stealing.

I did not mind the lack of guild halls at release because I thought they would be added in some update. I did not mind the lack of structured pvp modes because I thought that those would be added in as well.

Most of these features in this “expansion” as I said before somewhere were actually supposed to be a part of the core game. Who says you ask? I says, and so do others.

It’s not really relevant if you or others SAY something should be part of the core game. I and others could use the same logic to say it’s not. There is nothing to indicate Anet won’t give you the quality and amount of information about the expansion that you did for the original release, so I don’t get the problem here. There simply isn’t enough info to claim the expansion is this or that.

Ragnarox.9601:

HoT=

1 area (maybe 3+ maps)
Yeah, we don’t know the number of zones yet; just the fact that they are extremely vertical.

0 dungeons
We’ve heard nothing about dungeons, but we’ve heard “challenging group content” over and over again… and that could honestly be referring to anything. So you can’t be sure about that.

1 classes
Yep.

class specializations
Yep, these seems like pretty substantial framework and 1 per class is still a lot of extra abilities, traits, and mechanics.

1 wvw map
When they say “new borderlands” I tend to imagine that it means the entirety of borderlands. Whether each world’s borderland will be different is yet to be seen… I hope they are.

spvp map??
New spvp mode with the potential for different maps for that mode.

new armor, weapon??
Most definately.

You forgot:
Guild Halls
Masteries
Guild Leaderboards
Precursor Crafting

We don’t know everything that’s in the expansion, so your direct comparison is very bad right now. Try it again when we have better details. We also don’t even have a price, so it might be 20usd for all we know.

… not big enough to be an expansion pack? i’m sorry this made me chuckle. we don’t know every detail yet they have only revealed what they felt relevant at this moment in time. other things are sure to come if you are patient.

HoT is following the expansion philosophy of the GW1 expansions. Paid moderate content up front followed by additional rounds of free content. The cycle then repeats for the next expansion.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Anet’s reason for not adding a new race seemed like they were either lazy or did not have the time or money.

A new race = new starter zone + events, new capital city, new racial skill, new Personal Story complete with audio dialog. That’s not everything and even that looks like a lot of work. (The events, new zone, and personal story with voice acting)

Actually Colin said in an interview on Gamebreaker tv that, though they thought they’d add a new race before a new profession at one point, they realized a new race wouldn’t affect gameplay as deeply as a new profession.

I really dislike how people bandy words like lazy around. I think you should look that word up. I don’t think it means what you think it means.

embarbarada.2096:

What worries me is not the fact that we are here speculating how many maps we will get……….
It is the fact that Anet is reading this and they are not saying anything about this…………………….
Why the silence? Maybe we are right?

They’re saying nothing because this childish, entitled tantrum isn’t worth a response, lol.

You all act like we know everything there is to know about this expansion. Take a breath, dry your eyes and calm down. It’s going to be okay. I promise.

Sieg.8439:

embarbarada.2096:

What worries me is not the fact that we are here speculating how many maps we will get……….
It is the fact that Anet is reading this and they are not saying anything about this…………………….
Why the silence? Maybe we are right?

They’re saying nothing because this childish, entitled tantrum isn’t worth a response, lol.

You all act like we know everything there is to know about this expansion. Take a breath, dry your eyes and calm down. It’s going to be okay. I promise.

It might not be okay. You don’t know.

In my opinion this is all way too early to judge, and all you’re really accomplishing is working yourself up over what may or may not be something.

Wait for the blogposts to start rolling out (i beleive they’ll start next month) and judge them as they come. It’s not like you’re alrdy being asked to pay for it. Relax, take break and keep an eye on the info that will come out soon. No need to worry your pretty little head just yet

I honestly feel that the delivery of the new features was a bit lackluster. We can all agree the presentation left much to be desired. Anet didn’t WOW us with the new expansion, and this is coming from a huge Guildwars fan. Anet needs some dedicated PR people to put on a good show and excite the crowd…or teach Colin how to be exciting.

Goomba.6248:

I honestly feel that the delivery of the new features was a bit lackluster. We can all agree the presentation left much to be desired. Anet didn’t WOW us with the new expansion, and this is coming from a huge Guildwars fan. Anet needs some dedicated PR people to put on a good show and excite the crowd…or teach Colin how to be exciting.

They wowed me. Because this is about 90% of what I wanted, or at least giant steps towards things that I wanted.

I get excited by features, not Colin’s skills at crowd pleasing. And, regardless of the wealth of content in this expac, it’s feature rich, and that’s precisely what Guild Wars 2 needs.

Dr II Evil.9326:

HoT is following the expansion philosophy of the GW1 expansions. Paid moderate content up front followed by additional rounds of free content. The cycle then repeats for the next expansion.

Well we don’t know the price/content ratio. If they charge $50 for an expansion with 1/10 of the original game… i’m gonna pass.

Might I suggest watching this video I saw on Reddit? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2OW7S1bpLE

In summary, what people generally expect from an expansion is:
1) 2 or more new classes
2) New continent of new zones
3) 1 or more new races
4) 5+ Dungeons
5) New PvP / RvR maps
6) New game modes
7) New Raids
8) Lots of new skins
9) Lots of new skills

Now, disregarding the fact that MANY expansions don’t actually give ALL of that, here’s what we know HoT will give us in comparison:

1) 1 new class plus 9 new sub-classes of sorts, making it almost like 10 new classes.
2) New area, as expected.
3) No new race, as it doesn’t add anything to end-game, which is what most people want.
4) New challenging group content and boss encounters. Might include dungeons, might not. Either way, they know what people are wanting from more dungeons and I’m confident they’ll do a good job with it.
5) A new PvP map and WvW map, as well as changing existing WvW maps.
6) At least one new game mode via Stronghold.
7) Again, challenging group content.
8) New legendaries, new armor seen in trailer, and likely much more.
9) Lots of new skills via professions and new class, PLUS entirely new mechanics via masteries.

In addition to those things people expect, we’re getting guild halls with brand new progression and mechanics there, and best of all, all of this works together to form a reward/progression system that can be built on for years to come. For me, it’s everything and more that I wanted from an expansion!

embarbarada.2096:

What worries me is not the fact that we are here speculating how many maps we will get……….
It is the fact that Anet is reading this and they are not saying anything about this…………………….
Why the silence? Maybe we are right?

Wait, is this a serious complaint? Really? Why the silence? Because they have a scheduled release of information. They already told us this. They will be revealing bits and pieces over a period of time. It’s only been a week, man, calm down.

They’re going to tell us everything. We’ll definitely know a ton within a month since they’ll have a playable version at PAX East which is the first weekend in March.

Just give it a rest.

One of the things I feel like they contradicted themselves with is when they said there isn’t going to be a new race because it doesn’t add to the story, but they also said they want the original game to still be populated. What better way to populate all the old maps than to add a new race? More so when you consider that they are getting rid of the new, poorly received trait system.

New players and vets and altoholics alike would flock together to make, well, flocks of Tengu if they were the new race and the new zones would be heavily populated.

I also wonder how much new content will be added to existing zones for this x-pac. If they want the old content to keep being played they need to bolster the areas with new stuff to do. The world is supposed to be changing and if we aren’t getting myriad new maps to play, then add to the existing world!

Iason Evan.3806:

One of the things I feel like they contradicted themselves with is when they said there isn’t going to be a new race because it doesn’t add to the story,

They actually said “gameplay” not “story”. I don’t think a new race would add significantly to gameplay, but it would give useful and entertaining story perspective if the race fit the context. For example, it’d be unfortunate if Kodan didn’t become playable in an expansion that focused on Jormag.

Iason Evan.3806:

One of the things I feel like they contradicted themselves with is when they said there isn’t going to be a new race because it doesn’t add to the story, but they also said they want the original game to still be populated. What better way to populate all the old maps than to add a new race? More so when you consider that they are getting rid of the new, poorly received trait system.

New players and vets and altoholics alike would flock together to make, well, flocks of Tengu if they were the new race and the new zones would be heavily populated.

I also wonder how much new content will be added to existing zones for this x-pac. If they want the old content to keep being played they need to bolster the areas with new stuff to do. The world is supposed to be changing and if we aren’t getting myriad new maps to play, then add to the existing world!

Think carefully about what adding Tengu as a playable race would mean. Yes, they have a home city already set, but even ignoring the resources needed to include them in the personal story, where would they go after that? They wouldn’t have a starter zone, since the Dominion of Winds is surrounded by existing zones on three sides and ocean on the other.

“Oh, they’d go to Caeladon Forest.” Would they? Where the Dominion of Winds enters Caeladon Forest, it’s a level 12 area, far too high for level 2 characters. Altering that would screw up the entire map dynamic and would end up not making any sense.

So, what if there were another race added? The problem there is that they would need a home city which, funnily enough, would have to be placed in a new region, thus defeating the purpose of having players going back to the old areas.