Guild Wars 2

1) Is it important for you to know and understand your character lore going into the Heart of Thorns story or living seasons in general, or does it not matter.

2) Do I need to play through Heart of Thorns to understand Living World Season 3?

Thank You!

It’s like jumping into a TV series in season four — you are gonna see references to historical events, character development, etc, that you have no context for, but everyone talks like you do.

How much that bothers you is up to you, but … you can definitely do it. Just accept there are backstory reasons for everything that make sense, and you should be OK.

Personally, I found doing the available story components in order improved my enjoyment of the whole thing, but I don’t think it is necessary. Nothing requires the knowledge other than the question, “why is X doing this thing now?!?”

In my opinion:
1) Yes. Is important.
2) Yes. You need to.

Played/playing GW1 and never paid attention to the story and had loads of fun playing
Playing GW2 and still have never paid attention to the story and still having loads of fun playing.

So the story is only as important as you want it to be.