Guild Wars 2

If you already own HoT, and you’re happy with it… this post is not for you. If you are on the fence about whether or not to buy HoT… this post is for YOU.

Now, first off… I own HoT. I believe it has pros and cons, but I’ve made my peace with it. For new players, however, there are some things you should know before diving in.

HoT comes with the original Guild Wars 2 game, plus the expansion. Now, you’re thinking that’s cool. I’ll play it from the very beginning, finish the original Guild Wars 2 game, then jump onto the expansion storyline… well and good.

Here’s the curve ball. After finishing the original Guild Wars 2 game, the storyline will cease to make sense. Imagine watching your favorite TV show, missing an entire season, then jumping back in without knowing what happened in between. This is essentially what will happen to you.

Why is that? Well… because you ARE missing a season. What you are not told is that upon jumping in… you must shell out ANOTHER $20 in order to buy the “Living World Season 2” storyline. This segment basically connects the original Guild Wars 2 story to the expansion story. Now I know what you’re thinking… “is it an optional story?”

No. The Living World Season 2, in fact, is the DRIVING FORCE behind the HoT storyline. Without it. You would be lost.

This is not a debate about the justifications or merits as to why this “Season 2” is not included with your HoT purchase… it is merely informational… to tell you that it is NOT in your HoT purchase.

Some people will tell you that Anet created some sort of “summary” to catch you up to speed… about some NPC who recites the story to you in Lion’s Arch. Realize that this NPC in fact is NOT talking about the missing Season 2. The NPC is talking about the Scarlet war. You have to understand that Anet will not create an NPC that reveals to you an entire storyline that is available for purchase.

Now veteran players will tell you several options to get around this… you have to decide if any of these options are viable (or acceptable) for you considering how much you just paid for your HoT:

Option 1: Youtube the story you’re missing.

Option 2: Find a player who owns the story, and ask them to replay the entire thing while you tag along. Keep in mind that they will most likely NOT make the choices YOU wish to make in said storyline… you’re just along for the ride (unless it’s a friend and you specifically ask them to make certain choices).

Option 3: (My personal favorite suggestion from other players) – Ignore the storyline and just play HoT.

Option 4: Each episode costs about 200 gems. You cannot buy them with in-game gold straight. You can, however, grind for the gold then convert your gold into gems. The CURRENT cost in gold for the entire season is about 370 gold. I believe this cost fluctuates depending on the exchange rate. You can do your own research as to how much grind you’ll have to do in order to get this storyline. Or if you believe you should be made to grind in order to understand what is going on with the expansion story you just bought for around $50.

Now, you’re going to get some justifications from other players as to why it is only right that Living World Season 2 should (or should not) be included with your purchase of HoT. But I’m not here to debate those points… I’m merely telling you that it is not included in your purchase, and that you have to decide if you’re willing to either shell out an extra $20 for it… or utilize one of the options I mentioned above.

So there you have it. I was blind sided by this big time, and I was not too happy with it. I just wanted to share with others so you know what you’re getting into before buying HoT.

Or buy it with gold.

Turamarth.3248:

Or buy it with gold.

This. Despite the drama I’ve seen about it (and it’s not much drama) you can farm some gold, turn it into gems and buy the story that way. That’s perfectly reasonable. It’s not like you have to spend cash.

This seriously needs to be a stickie..

And for future reference Anet i would never do this form of expac again… I have purchased both the HoT then the LS 2 because i had no choice after finding out the above… but honestly i regret doing so, What Anet did here is just disgusting practices and masteries are not worth the hassles that came with hot expansion..

Turamarth.3248:

Turamarth.3248:

Or buy it with gold.

This. Despite the drama I’ve seen about it (and it’s not much drama) you can farm some gold, turn it into gems and buy the story that way. That’s perfectly reasonable. It’s not like you have to spend cash.

And as returning customers we all have that much gold to turn into 2000 gems right?

I was all set for some total kitten from the OP as is usually the case with threads with these sorts of titles, however, it makes a lot of sense. I skipped a portion of the living world story because I didn’t log in when it came out, and was a bit confused by the events in Heart of Thorns. I do have the fortune of having come back right in time to catch the living world finale, which works in my favour. I also happen to not give a good god kitten about 90% of the story and lore in GW2 because it seems to have been written for 15 year olds. I would not be surprised if the next addition to Destiny’s Edge was an exchange student with an uncanny ability to pilot mechas. Nevertheless, for a fan of the lore, this would be potentially very, very off putting! To the point where I would fight for a refund, in all honesty. It’s probably not something ANet have thought about too much, but good point, OP.

Yeah I was getting ready to call out some BS on OP about power creep or lack of legendary weapons but it’s actually a good post

Great post, OP!

I also never understood why they chose to not include LS2 in HoT. Did they ever let people play test through the vanilla + HoT story and look for consistency errors before release? Because there is a huge gaping hole between the two if you don’t own LS2.

Sure, they had a LS2 “sale” at 960 gems for a while after HoT released and I can imagine that they do like the income it generated. I also don’t regret purchasing it, it’s an awesome story with great characters. I just find it weird that they would kitten the consistency of their storytelling like that for some extra income. I would have at least expected an optional bundle of HoT + LS2 for some 5 extra $/€.

Just a fyi, if you have very little interest in the story, and say only want to max tyrian masteries for things like auto loot, legendary crafting, and getting max rewards from fractals, that’s basically gated behind purchasing LWS2 as well, so spend your mastery points wisely because unless you have thousands of gold or enjoy massive amounts of grind, you won’t be able to max everything.

chances are if you want to max tyrian masteries for legendary crafting and max level fractals, $20 isn’t a lot either in rl money or in game money.

It’s not about being cheap, it’s about expectation versus what you actually get. HoT is touted as GW2’s first expansion and traditionally, one would expect a coherent story from the base game leading to its expansion. This is the case with nearly every game… Except that in GW2 in terms of lore, HoT is more like the third expansion!

I’ve been playing for 6 months and I managed to accumulate enough gold to purchase the entire LS2, and that was on top of powerleveling a crafting profession and adding another bag slot.

I think the key to it is like anything else – resource management.

My only complaint with it is the characters don’t do anything for me.

I can’t explain why, but the interaction between Marjorie and Kasmeer just annoyed the hell out of me and I find Brahm just flat out annoying.

To me, as a new player post HoT, it really felt like getting a series of books, except I got book 1 and 3 and have to pay extra for the second half of book 2 – sorry first half is out of print, here’s a recap that doesn’t actually tell you much of anything.

I’m ok with LS2 being an extra purchase, but it really would have made more sence to include it with HoT. What I’m still completely baffled by is that anyone approved progressing the main story of the game in a fashion that completely lacks futureproofing! How could anyone think “Let’s move the story along in a way that no future player, or anyone on hiatus, will ever be able to experience!” was a good idea?

The simple question is, would you rather have been forced to buy season 2? Instead, you’re given the option to buy it if you want it. They could have bundled season 2 with the core game for example and made it ~$15. When purchasing HoT, you’re given the option to add additional items, such as season 2, or you could go with the ultimate edition to get it.

The living world was originally intended to be the alternative to expansions. If you were an active player, you got it for free, otherwise it was sold as optional DLC. Keep that in mind for season 3 if you own HoT.

Tanner Blackfeather.6509:

How could anyone think “Let’s move the story along in a way that no future player, or anyone on hiatus, will ever be able to experience!” was a good idea?

Just like real life. That’s the cost of being unique and trying to feature a living story told in pseudo real time that actually tried to change the world. They could have always destroyed the world to reset the cycle. Personally, I would have rather had it continue like season 1 where the game was continuously active, which was the only time a game kept me legitimately active for more than a few weeks.

It’s one of the things I’ve sat on the fence on for a while since it doesn’t really affect me having been here through all seasons, but the issue is when others ask me about the game and the story. It’s very hard to put a positive gloss on the fact that one story is gone and another you have to pay for and that story is really only half a story you are paying for, since the lead in has gone. Then all that leads into HoT. It’s messy and needs a clearer presentation to new players.

Any story driven player will be put off.

This will be a fairly significant problem until they decide to re-do LS1. LS1 has to be re-done, there is no ifs and buts – it is a huge, glaring hole in the game and impacts on the rest of the game, since GW2 insists on trying to be like some TV show series, rather than traditional campaign.

I’m not against paying for the seasons per se, but when the situation is;
- Buy GW2 and get the PS
- Season 1 story not accessible for new players
- Season 2 free when you logged in at the time, but available for purchase only now, but it still wont make sense since the previous story is missing.
- Buy GW2/HoT and get story free
- LS3 – free with HoT??

It’s not a good business model for an rpg imo.

Einlanzer.1627:

Vayne.8563:

Turamarth.3248:

Or buy it with gold.

This. Despite the drama I’ve seen about it (and it’s not much drama) you can farm some gold, turn it into gems and buy the story that way. That’s perfectly reasonable. It’s not like you have to spend cash.

It actually is not very reasonable, Vayne, and arguing otherwise cannot be construed as anything but white knighting. Buying the $60 expansion should include LW2 if it includes the HoT story after it, rather than giving you the beginning and the ending then requiring additional money or action on your part to get a section of the middle, while the other section of the middle is unavailable.

It’s actually completely preposterous and shows how their management of the expansion was very amateur and unpolished. They really need to do better next time.

Actually if they sold the Season 2 already it’s paid for DLC already. Why should paid for DLC automatically included in an Expansion. I mean people are already complaining the core game is included in the expansion. Wouldn’t this just engender more complaints.

Veterans are already complaining about how much new people get. Why should they get this too?

Saying something is white knighting because you don’t agree with it, is just a way to say I don’t have valid arguments, so I’ll try to discredit you.

There are good and bad points to not including it. It was a decision. It’s not automatically white knight to support it. But once you charged people for it seperately, including it in the expansion would have opened an even bigger can of worms than had already been opened.

I think the main thing people should know before buying HoT is that is really DLC, not an expansion.

Anet got our money this year with this DLC, but now they claim to be working on another “expansion” to be released next year. Wonder how many will buy that?

If you logged in while it was going on then it was free. Most of the time it was 2 weeks and a few times up to a month to log on to get it free. If you did not log in then you have to pay for it. It was advertised as thus and this is how it is. How hard is it to understand?

Vayne.8563:

Einlanzer.1627:

Vayne.8563:

Turamarth.3248:

Or buy it with gold.

This. Despite the drama I’ve seen about it (and it’s not much drama) you can farm some gold, turn it into gems and buy the story that way. That’s perfectly reasonable. It’s not like you have to spend cash.

It actually is not very reasonable, Vayne, and arguing otherwise cannot be construed as anything but white knighting. Buying the $60 expansion should include LW2 if it includes the HoT story after it, rather than giving you the beginning and the ending then requiring additional money or action on your part to get a section of the middle, while the other section of the middle is unavailable.

It’s actually completely preposterous and shows how their management of the expansion was very amateur and unpolished. They really need to do better next time.

Actually if they sold the Season 2 already it’s paid for DLC already. Why should paid for DLC automatically included in an Expansion. I mean people are already complaining the core game is included in the expansion. Wouldn’t this just engender more complaints.

Veterans are already complaining about how much new people get. Why should they get this too?

Saying something is white knighting because you don’t agree with it, is just a way to say I don’t have valid arguments, so I’ll try to discredit you.

There are good and bad points to not including it. It was a decision. It’s not automatically white knight to support it. But once you charged people for it seperately, including it in the expansion would have opened an even bigger can of worms than had already been opened.

I don’t think your argument is valid, for obvious reasons. I’m just calling it like I see it. I’m not saying everyone should get everything for free. That has never been my argument. They just need to do a much better job than they have been doing of packaging the game and handling its presentation to people so that what they’re getting and not getting makes intuitive sense and has a certain cohesion and continuity around it.

For example, the fact that we still don’t have LW season 1 in the game is completely ridiculous. It ruins the game’s presentation to such a degree that getting it in should be their #1 priority, when it clearly isn’t.

For all the new guys who think this decision doesn’t make sense, you’re not getting the whole picture.
A few months back, when Anet announced that the new expansion comes with base game for free, big kittenstorm hit the forums and people complained. A lot. Most of them were unhappy with the price and thought the expansion should be sold separately and be cheaper. The storm was so big that for the first time I’ve seen Anet come out publicly and explain their thinking, justify their decision and come to a compromise (giving veteran players a free char slot). This settled the conflict for the most part.
Nevertheless, old players showed that they’re unhappy when others get for free what they had to pay for. It is reasonable? Maybe. Not gonna judge that, I’m just saying what happened. Think of it whatever you want.
From the very beginning all living world was designed just as a temporary thing. It was around for 2 weeks, then new stuff came. I’m glad Anet does that, most developers don’t even bother to push the story any further. At some point during development, they came to the decision it would be cool if players could replay past events. It took them an incredible amount of effort, but finally story journal was introduced. And who owned the game by that time, could log in every 2 weeks to get a record in his journal and could replay it any time.
From new guy’s perspective, this may seem unfair. But you should know that it’s way more than we had originally when the game came out. Anet went a long way to allow players this. What you ask for is another step further. Maybe, if a lot of players want it, Anet may allow all players to replay all the story at any time, but it will take more effort.
Also, if you’re a story focused person, keep in mind that all that stuff is the past. Forming Pact, Zhaitan, Destiny’s Edge 2.0, Scarlet, all that stuff has already happened and being able to replay some of it is only an added bonus. If you buy the expansion, you’re able to experience what’s happening in the game now. And if you enjoy the story so much that you just cannot miss some replayable past events, it’s only right that you give developers some money as a token of appreciation. That will allow them to keep working on the story and pump out steady stream of new and amazing content.

Season 1 was designed as dynamic ‘live’ content that if you where not there for it, you missed it, just like Mad King and Wintersday, which unfortunately also had a story line which is now only accessible through an NPC. Season 2 was done right with some events in old areas leading to entire new areas that are now permanent and you get for free without doing the story. They advertised in advance the stories where free now, pay later so if you bought the game later you still need to pay for the stories. (Not sure if you need the stories to open the new areas the first time.)

I don’t think an uber bundle would have been a bad idea, they just didn’t bother with it.

Starbreaker.6507:

I’ve been playing for 6 months and I managed to accumulate enough gold to purchase the entire LS2, and that was on top of powerleveling a crafting profession and adding another bag slot.

I think the key to it is like anything else – resource management.

My only complaint with it is the characters don’t do anything for me.

I can’t explain why, but the interaction between Marjorie and Kasmeer just annoyed the hell out of me and I find Brahm just flat out annoying.

he keeps pushing mobs away when you are trying to kill them

The Ventari Ele.5812:

I think the main thing people should know before buying HoT is that is really DLC, not an expansion.

Anet got our money this year with this DLC, but now they claim to be working on another “expansion” to be released next year. Wonder how many will buy that?

Tough question.

1) they screwed up HoT
2) they fixed most of the problems with the recent patch
3) HoT is still a bit light on content

LS3 could theoretically fix 3)

So, I would like to add my personal experience to this topic. I’m fairly new to the game (about 200 hours into it) and neither played season1 nor 2 of ls. However, I don’t even see why I would want to.
Here’s why: I, personally, was absolutely bored by the main story. Like, seriously, after playing games like Witcher 3, Life is Strange and other story heavy titles, i found the story of GW2 to be…not very good.
The writing was terrible, the voice actors cringeworthy (Trahearne seems to be very bored in the story, i’ve never heard a more emotionless voice in another video game) and I generally don’t care at all about the characters because there is (at least for me)no connection to them.
While this might not have been a problem when the game came out, the recent amount of very well written and greatly acted games have set the bar a lot higher.
So I wonder how someone like me, a new player, who has been bored out by the main story, should be convinced to put another 20$ into another story, that may be as boring as the main story. Sadly, I don’t even think that the HoT Storyline, on its own, is convincing enough.
While certainly better than the main story, it’s still, at least for me, not enough to put 20 bucks into the LS2.
Maybe someone can convince me, but that person remains to be found.

And for the GW2 Fanboys: Don’t think that I don’t like the game. I do. Just not for it’s story.

Niraseth.8360:

So, I would like to add my personal experience to this topic. I’m fairly new to the game (about 200 hours into it) and neither played season1 nor 2 of ls. However, I don’t even see why I would want to.
Here’s why: I, personally, was absolutely bored by the main story. Like, seriously, after playing games like Witcher 3, Life is Strange and other story heavy titles, i found the story of GW2 to be…not very good.
The writing was terrible, the voice actors cringeworthy (Trahearne seems to be very bored in the story, i’ve never heard a more emotionless voice in another video game) and I generally don’t care at all about the characters because there is (at least for me)no connection to them.
While this might not have been a problem when the game came out, the recent amount of very well written and greatly acted games have set the bar a lot higher.
So I wonder how someone like me, a new player, who has been bored out by the main story, should be convinced to put another 20$ into another story, that may be as boring as the main story. Sadly, I don’t even think that the HoT Storyline, on its own, is convincing enough.
While certainly better than the main story, it’s still, at least for me, not enough to put 20 bucks into the LS2.
Maybe someone can convince me, but that person remains to be found.

And for the GW2 Fanboys: Don’t think that I don’t like the game. I do. Just not for it’s story.

For pure storytelling, dialogue and character building you are right and it’s been that way since GW1, which was extremely poor until Nightfall when it started to improve. But, GW has never had the same level of storytelling a fully single player campaign and it probably never will imo (sorry, no offence Anet).

What LS does have though is interesting lore and some of the better gameplay – all vastly superior to the Personal Story. This was where they developed better gameplay mechanics to challenge solo players.

Season 1’s story was dire. Cliched with very little story progression and a villain that would make a comic book writer cringe. But, the a lot of the gameplay was by and large fondly remembered.

Season 2 improvd all areas and Taimi imo was an example of them finally getting an NPC right in dialogue and VA. It was let down by ridiculous cliffhangers, loose threads, unfinished plot points, but there were some terrific fights against the Shadow of the Dragon and the whole Glints Lair chapter was outstanding, including exploring the Priory vaults for lore.

It’s the gameplay and lore which is new players will miss. And whilst the story is sub par, it is better than the PS imo and it doesn’t mean the continuity aspect should be dismissed.

p.s I’ve been playing Witcher 3 and yes the story is great, but so far the gameplay has been largely a poor experience for me. I’m oping it improves, otherwise I’ll ditch it since there are vastly better open world games out there (Xenoblade)

I don’t think it really matters in the end…….

Why do I say this? Well I do have both HOT and the LS2 and for new players having both it will still have a huge gap in the story because LS1 is missing. LS1 is what introduces most or our allies (Braham, Rox etc) unless I am confused. I have ran all my alts through LS2, yes I admit I may have skipped a lot of the scenes but I don’t recall any of our allies joining during it except for maybe Canach.

So to new players considering buying HOT: do so more for the features and content, less so for the story because you are only going to disappoint yourself. 1 because of the confusing story and 2 because it’s super short.

So to me I guess it just really comes down to weather or not LS2 should have been included with HOT? I can’t see why not tbh, no reason really not to. I mean you give the core game away with it so why not a part of the story between both?

I’d say LS2 should have been included by the same logic that they’ll include HoT with any future expansions, and I consider it quite likely that it WILL be included with the next expansion.

Guild wars 2 story
Theirs a Dragon

HoT Story

Theirs another Dragon.

Its not that hard to follow.

femalehumanmeta.8351:

Just a fyi, if you have very little interest in the story, and say only want to max tyrian masteries for things like auto loot, legendary crafting, and getting max rewards from fractals, that’s basically gated behind purchasing LWS2 as well, so spend your mastery points wisely because unless you have thousands of gold or enjoy massive amounts of grind, you won’t be able to max everything.

You can’t unlock any masteries unless you buy HoT, even Tyrian ones.

Guild wars 2 story
Theirs a Dragon

HoT Story

Theirs another Dragon.

Its not that hard to follow.

Um you’re wrong its the same dragon

Dante.1508:

femalehumanmeta.8351:

Just a fyi, if you have very little interest in the story, and say only want to max tyrian masteries for things like auto loot, legendary crafting, and getting max rewards from fractals, that’s basically gated behind purchasing LWS2 as well, so spend your mastery points wisely because unless you have thousands of gold or enjoy massive amounts of grind, you won’t be able to max everything.

You can’t unlock any masteries unless you buy HoT, even Tyrian ones.

Guild wars 2 story
Theirs a Dragon

HoT Story

Theirs another Dragon.

Its not that hard to follow.

Um you’re wrong its the same dragon

No he/she is right it is a different dragon, but the grammar/spelling is wrong. :P

Idk why the op is so upset bc I ended up bleeding eyes and haven’t completed one story yet on one 80…….despite all the hype there is some churned out stuff here with mob spam too. You can’t ignore it.

This has been quite informative for me. Thanks for the heads up OP! Still, I may buy HoT before LS2 and not for the story right away but just for the level 80 boost :p (and to finally get some gliders!)

Paulytnz.7619:

Dante.1508:

femalehumanmeta.8351:

Just a fyi, if you have very little interest in the story, and say only want to max tyrian masteries for things like auto loot, legendary crafting, and getting max rewards from fractals, that’s basically gated behind purchasing LWS2 as well, so spend your mastery points wisely because unless you have thousands of gold or enjoy massive amounts of grind, you won’t be able to max everything.

You can’t unlock any masteries unless you buy HoT, even Tyrian ones.

Guild wars 2 story
Theirs a Dragon

HoT Story

Theirs another Dragon.

Its not that hard to follow.

Um you’re wrong its the same dragon

No he/she is right it is a different dragon, but the grammar/spelling is wrong. :P

Depends on what we are talking about. Seems we are talking about LS2 and HoT so yes it is the same dragon.

Update: I’ve also found a lot of new players have no idea where to go or what to do to access the new HoT maps since I don’t believe there is anything outside the Living World Season 2 elements that provide direction.

Just read the storyline online. It’s pretty poor and likely not worth the money.

Instinct.7513

Update: I’ve also found a lot of new players have no idea where to go or what to do to access the new HoT maps since I don’t believe there is anything outside the Living World Season 2 elements that provide direction.

No, just set HoT as the story you want to play in your journal, and the way becomes clear. Still, that may not be intuitive.

I get why LS1 is still the way it is, but honestly, LS2 should be part of the HoT purchase, LS3 should be part of the next expansion, etc.

I get that the LS patches are meant to encourage logins, and thus exposure to the gem store to drive sales, but the whole reasoning behind making the core game free to play was to break down barriers between new players and established ones.

I can even see a logical argument for selling LS2 episodes before HoT released. It’s additional funds because you’re in a bit of a content desert while the expansion is released, and it encourages existing players to log in during peak sales to hopefully throw some money at the gem store. Similarly, I can see an argument for selling LS3 episodes before the next expansion. It encourages people to buy the current expansion so they can get the most up to date story for free, encourages them to log in during peak gem store sales to hopefully sell them some microtransactions, and recoups some of the content’s cost from new players that start playing between expansions that may have missed a few episodes.

However, imagine a player four expansions down the line.

They’ll be thinking “awesome, the game is only 50 bucks and I have all the content since release!” only to find out they need to pony up 80 bucks because they’re missing like half of that content.

Kind of makes the whole idea of giving away the non-current expansions to give new players an attractive deal pointless.

PopeUrban.2578:

I get why LS1 is still the way it is, but honestly, LS2 should be part of the HoT purchase, LS3 should be part of the next expansion, etc.

I get that the LS patches are meant to encourage logins, and thus exposure to the gem store to drive sales, but the whole reasoning behind making the core game free to play was to break down barriers between new players and established ones.

I can even see a logical argument for selling LS2 episodes before HoT released. It’s additional funds because you’re in a bit of a content desert while the expansion is released, and it encourages existing players to log in during peak sales to hopefully throw some money at the gem store. Similarly, I can see an argument for selling LS3 episodes before the next expansion. It encourages people to buy the current expansion so they can get the most up to date story for free, encourages them to log in during peak gem store sales to hopefully sell them some microtransactions, and recoups some of the content’s cost from new players that start playing between expansions that may have missed a few episodes.

However, imagine a player four expansions down the line.

They’ll be thinking “awesome, the game is only 50 bucks and I have all the content since release!” only to find out they need to pony up 80 bucks because they’re missing like half of that content.

Kind of makes the whole idea of giving away the non-current expansions to give new players an attractive deal pointless.

I am willing to participate in necromancy to agree with your point (s).

ya i had no idea who anyone was or what was going on when i jumped into the hot story. I remembered destiny’s edge and most of the dragon stuff and most of the ending and all that….then im bombarded from the getgo with 1 unfamiliar face after another (and these people are pretty much ur party the entire story) it was weird. I didn’t recognize anyone until rytlok came on the 2nd episode or end of the first episode and even then he had went through some crazy transformation and personality change somehow from the last time i saw him. Rytlok used to be a mean mofo wearing heavy armour and being uncooperative and arguing all the time…..now he’s …like an emo brat, im sorry but its really the best way to describe how he changed and how he looks (skintight armour and all that).

Then all sylvari are now horrible people that even my character treats badly, and caithe is a weak treacherous plant that is helpless in a fight and tries to screw everyone over. Then other destiny’s edge people don’t even show up or have like any lines at all or any screentime….i wanted to play with logan again lol.

Dasefex.4810:

Guild wars 2 story
Theirs a Dragon

HoT Story

Theirs another Dragon.

Its not that hard to follow.

lol, that’s how I took it.

Honestly, I didn’t play LS2 chapter 5-8 until after I did the HoT story; it was fine anyways. The later half of LS2 was significantly lower quality and I say you didn’t miss much.

And other stuff you don’t need the LS. Even without it, you know the pact is advancing into Dry Top, and SW so it was really no big surprise we ended up deeper in the jungle and some bad stuff happened.

I would like to note that if you buy individual chapters from the story tab on the Hero panel, yes it’s 200 gems for each of the 8 episodes. However if you buy the package deal, which prorates depending how many of the episodes you already have is 20% off. Just recently it was 40% off.

Now do I think it should have come with HoT, heck yes. Is it worth $16€/1280 for the bundle? Hmm, I can go both ways. I thought it was more personal/engaging than LWS1 which is more a cog in the events. It’s necessary to get the mats to craft Mawdrey/Mawdrey II and the two “precursor” back pieces/skins. If you are into “Lore” then maybe but the bombs dropped during the LWS2 doesn’t have the impact now that HoT is out. Even if you don’t get it you do have access to the two small maps that came with it, Dry Top and Silverwastes so you aren’t missing any of the open world events and rewards from the maps introduced with LWS2.

Your call.

Instinct.7513:

If you already own HoT, and you’re happy with it… this post is not for you. If you are on the fence about whether or not to buy HoT… this post is for YOU.

Now, first off… I own HoT. I believe it has pros and cons, but I’ve made my peace with it. For new players, however, there are some things you should know before diving in.

HoT comes with the original Guild Wars 2 game, plus the expansion. Now, you’re thinking that’s cool. I’ll play it from the very beginning, finish the original Guild Wars 2 game, then jump onto the expansion storyline… well and good.

Here’s the curve ball. After finishing the original Guild Wars 2 game, the storyline will cease to make sense. Imagine watching your favorite TV show, missing an entire season, then jumping back in without knowing what happened in between. This is essentially what will happen to you.

Why is that? Well… because you ARE missing a season. What you are not told is that upon jumping in… you must shell out ANOTHER $20 in order to buy the “Living World Season 2” storyline. This segment basically connects the original Guild Wars 2 story to the expansion story. Now I know what you’re thinking… “is it an optional story?”

No. The Living World Season 2, in fact, is the DRIVING FORCE behind the HoT storyline. Without it. You would be lost.

This is not a debate about the justifications or merits as to why this “Season 2” is not included with your HoT purchase… it is merely informational… to tell you that it is NOT in your HoT purchase.

Some people will tell you that Anet created some sort of “summary” to catch you up to speed… about some NPC who recites the story to you in Lion’s Arch. Realize that this NPC in fact is NOT talking about the missing Season 2. The NPC is talking about the Scarlet war. You have to understand that Anet will not create an NPC that reveals to you an entire storyline that is available for purchase.

Now veteran players will tell you several options to get around this… you have to decide if any of these options are viable (or acceptable) for you considering how much you just paid for your HoT:

Option 1: Youtube the story you’re missing.

Option 2: Find a player who owns the story, and ask them to replay the entire thing while you tag along. Keep in mind that they will most likely NOT make the choices YOU wish to make in said storyline… you’re just along for the ride (unless it’s a friend and you specifically ask them to make certain choices).

Option 3: (My personal favorite suggestion from other players) – Ignore the storyline and just play HoT.

Option 4: Each episode costs about 200 gems. You cannot buy them with in-game gold straight. You can, however, grind for the gold then convert your gold into gems. The CURRENT cost in gold for the entire season is about 370 gold. I believe this cost fluctuates depending on the exchange rate. You can do your own research as to how much grind you’ll have to do in order to get this storyline. Or if you believe you should be made to grind in order to understand what is going on with the expansion story you just bought for around $50.

Now, you’re going to get some justifications from other players as to why it is only right that Living World Season 2 should (or should not) be included with your purchase of HoT. But I’m not here to debate those points… I’m merely telling you that it is not included in your purchase, and that you have to decide if you’re willing to either shell out an extra $20 for it… or utilize one of the options I mentioned above.

So there you have it. I was blind sided by this big time, and I was not too happy with it. I just wanted to share with others so you know what you’re getting into before buying HoT.

Very good summary. This highlights rock and hard place the producers and writers behind HoT willingly placed themselves in. They could have easily formed a new story for the expansion that didn’t require a play-through of Season 2. I’ve always found the second cast of characters to be weak anyways.

PopeUrban.2578

the whole reasoning behind making the core game free to play was to break down barriers between new players and established ones.

I would have to disagree. I see a FTP account as more of a trial account, “try before you buy,” which then encourages game sales.

DeanBB.4268:

PopeUrban.2578

the whole reasoning behind making the core game free to play was to break down barriers between new players and established ones.

Its not a question of how you or I see it, but what ArenaNet actually said, on stage, when F2P was released.

I would have to disagree. I see a FTP account as more of a trial account, “try before you buy,” which then encourages game sales.

You must have missed the bit where everything but the current expansion is free to play. When the next expansion hits, HoT is free to play. The exact reason they gave was that this makes it a better deal for new players to start without massive costs.

This exact strategy was the thing a lot of people thought was unfair to existing players (which was silly, given the length of time between release and expansion, or this expansion and the next)

Thus, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that the LS episodes don’t work on the same model, as it actively undoes the very thing ArenaNet Actually Said was the reason they set it up this way.

They want people to buy the game, new people, every expansion, that was athe reason given for FTP. Make the cost the same for new players now, and four expansions from now. The limitations exist primarily to keep FTP from becoming a network of bots that ruin the economy. I know a lot of people that came to GW2 after FTP, and they find no trouble playing the game like a “real game” and many of them do in fact buy their accounts when they’ve completed the massive amount of content in their free core experience.

I’m not sure that Heart of Thorns will become part of Play4Free. What the developers stated was that each previous expansion will be included in the price of the current expansion, as well as the core game.

Very different things.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I’m not sure that Heart of Thorns will become part of Play4Free. What the developers stated was that each previous expansion will be included in the price of the current expansion, as well as the core game.

Very different things.

This matches my recall of what the development said as well.

By principle I think it’s wrong to make part of the main story line have a separate cost. The main story should be part of the core game and expansions.

At the same time, I’m a returning player and I completely missed season 2 as such but it didn’t hamper me in anyway of playing HoT. Why not?

Because GW2 stories aren’t that great and very predictable and don’t really have an underlying story line that you can’t miss parts of.

I haven’t completed HoT yet but there is a part where you plant an egg and then you get a cut scene. That cut scene was pretty amazing actually. But beyond that I haven’t seen anything worth worrying about.

Dante.1508:

Vayne.8563:

Turamarth.3248:

Or buy it with gold.

This. Despite the drama I’ve seen about it (and it’s not much drama) you can farm some gold, turn it into gems and buy the story that way. That’s perfectly reasonable. It’s not like you have to spend cash.

And as returning customers we all have that much gold to turn into 2000 gems right?

That’s disingenuous … you can get it EITHER way, a rare gesture of giving a player CHOICE for purchasing content on the part of a game developer. It’s very generous as well … I’m pretty sure Anet can’t pay their hydro bill with gems converted from ingame gold. It’s in fact, a very inclusive approach to appeal to a wide range of demographics.

If a player can’t do either option … well, I suggest they re-evaluate their real life priorities.

After seeing all the negative feedback, I recently bought it readying myself to be angry and disappointed. So far the only complaints I have are:

1. Newbies/casuals like myself can easily get lost in many ways. Constant going back and forth between the game and Wiki/YT isn’t my definition of fun.
2. The new professions or whatever they are called tend to suck a huge one.
3. The maps are kitten to complete due to all the jumpy-puzzly nature.
4. World boss fights are brain-numbingly boring and long.

With just those subjective cons, I don’t feel like I lost out. The story, well, I never really paid attention to it, but the PC voice actors are amazing for sure.

PopeUrban.2578:

You must have missed the bit where everything but the current expansion is free to play.

You must have misunderstood what they said about their expac policy. No, HoT will not become free when next expac hits. It will only be “free” inasmuch as it will be bundled with the next expac (and the core) at no additional price. You’d still need to buy that next expac to get it.

¹ This is a good post including new information, I’m glad I have.

² It is insanely annoying, especially considering that this games strength is not PvP and it’s definitely not end game so if they botch the narrative up with something like this…what exactly is the strength of this game?

³ I’d hold off on debating the ins and outs of the Anet’s expac policy concerning what will happen to HoT content and living world. They have certainly been willing to change these things in the past. I wouldn’t assume what they are saying now is what’s going to happen, so you don’t really need to jump on each other over it.