Guild Wars 2

12:01 am pasific time (i.e. 9:01 am central european time).

Trairan.3267:

Now HoT is comming out this friday and even after reading forums and looking at the wiki it all looks really confusing, as far as I understand the expansion includes:

- Heart of Maguuma (Storilyne + new zones).
- New mastery system (the old trait system reworked).
- Specializations (no idea what is this, like unlocking radically different gameplay skills and mechanics for your class after level 80?).
- New class (revenant, just one?).
- New pvp and wvw maps.
- New guild stuff (after so much time without playing I don’t really carea bout this).

For a complete list of features and content see here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2:_Heart_of_Thorns

To correct you: Masteries have nothing to do with traits. In addition, the term specialization is the new name for ‘trait line’ and every profession is basically getting a new trait line (alongside a new weapon type and new utility skills).

- Core game goes free, and veterans (ppl who bought the base game so understand I’m a veteran lol) get a character slot if prepurchase expansion, nothing more.

The free version is not the same as the bought non-expansion version. You can see the differences here: https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157-Account-types-Free-Core-HoT

I’d be much appreciated if someone can comment this and tell me if I’m getting a moderately correct picture of what this expansion is about, also something that I can’t find anywhere is what happens if I don’t buy the expansion. What content is locked? new class? new maps? I’ll be using the trait system we had the last time I played or the new one? and what about the specializations, I’ll be stuck at level 80 while other people progresses further with specializations?

Things coming this friday for which you will need the expansion: New areas, new story, living story updates coming after HoT’s release, elite specializations, masteries, revenant, adventures, pvp leagues, raids, any new item skins that are coming, any new runes or sigils coming etc.

New things coming that all players get: The new pvp mode, the new wvw borderlands, the various wvw changes, cross-guild chat, guild leaderboards for pvp, updated fractals, the new map reward bonuses, the new camera options.

Things you get limited access to without the expansion: Guild halls. To unlock a guild hall, at least 5 members need to go to the guild hall to liberate it from modrem. Those players need to have HoT. After it is liberated, all players (even those without HoT) can go to the guild hall. However, I think the features you can use as a non-HoT player in the guild hall are limited.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Kulvar.1239:

The elite specialization should only unlock the new class mechanics and associated traits
New weapon and new spells should go “baseline” for accounts with HoT.

You’re currently saying to waste a whole trait line slot for the sole purpose of taking a spell or a weapon.

This. Makes much more sense.

See my last post in this thread for why Anet decided not to do that.

Neox.3497:

I also don’t like this system completely. However what you are saying there seems really weird and not better.

I simply think locking weapons and utilities behind one spec is not that good. This will make interesting builds in the future impossible where you want the weapon of spec 1 and the traits or utilities of spec 2 for example. Or maybe you just want the new weapon and not the new profession mechanic. This seems very “forced” IMO.

It works that way exactly because of the future. If you can use skills of one spec with the mechanic of another spec then that would mean that with the introduction of each spec the number of builds you can make (i.e. the number of combinations of traits, weapons and skills) grows exponentially which would make balancing exponentially difficult (this is essentially what happened with GW1 and something that Anet explicitly wants to avoid with GW2). This is something they avoid by tightly connecting the traits to the weapons and the skills.

Morfedel.4165:

How many of you have a poor class you like that plan to not use the corresponding elite specialization?

I think initially people will be running mostly with elite specs for their ‘newness’ and ‘coolness’. However, once people are again playing what they really like to play or what is optimal to play the number of elite specs will decline quite a bit.

FinalEmbrace.2847:

Chances are they will probably add agony into raids like they do with fractals. Also, maybe they will add something to ascended gear that we don’t know of yet.

No, they already said ascended gear won’t be a hard gate. What they probably meant was that raids are balanced around the whole team being entirely in ascended gear. Which in turn probably means that for most people ascended gear is a requirement but for some players (i.e. the absolute best and expierenced players) part or even most of their gear could be exotic.

Kalriostraz.6819:

Necro/Reaper.

That last one is very doubful. What does a reaper bring that other professions do not do better? Especially in dungeons/fractals/raids?

Central European time it’s 9:01 a.m.

Scipion.7548:

Some of you will said that this system will create a skill number inflation, but on the contrary it prevents it :
When the next new elite specs will appear, the new skills will each time replace the “replaceable skills” (the venom skills on my ranger example).

That’s still the case since you can only have one elite spec at a time so in that sense your idea is not better than Anet’s implementation. While your idea would mean a lot more work and a lote more new skills thus requiring more resources and more causing potentially more balance problems. Calling that a ‘lack of vision’ is a misnomer.

What happens when, like a kind of 80% of the guardians, you are absolutely not interested by the new elite classe counterpart ? Answer : the xpac brings 0 new skills for you.

This is basically like saying: “If I don’t use any of the new options, what new options are there for me?”

Kodama.6453:

Diovid.9506:

I think they will be more like: “when using shouts x happens” or “when placing a trap y happens” so they can be used by the elite specs but also by other professions.

That would be some kind of unfair for scrapper, because scrappers just have unique utility skill types and wouldn’t be able to use any of those runes effectively….

True I guess. Perhaps the scrapper could have something like “when stomping an enemy or rezzing an ally x happens” though that wouldn’t be very exciting.

Edit: What about scrapper runes that focus on summonable allies? That could work.

Sizer.3987:

There will be new runes but somehow i doubt there will be ones similar to the runes of the elementalist/mesmer/ect (it would be really cool, although something so specific as “+% damage in reaper shroud” would be bad since other classes wouldnt get any use out of them)

If anything I hope the old class specific runes are made a lot better. Some of them arent that bad, but some of them are just awful.

I think they will be more like: “when using shouts x happens” or “when placing a trap y happens” so they can be used by the elite specs but also by other professions.

Pre-purchasing can only be done on the official website (I’m pretty sure). What you have probably done is pre-ordering, which is something different. Regardless, even if you pre-purchased, it can take up to a week for the slot to be added.

Anet doesn’t really do a lot of ‘real world’ marketing. Their marketing goes mostly via gaming websites, youtube, twitch and so on.

OneKlicKill.4285:

If you get a lv 1 to mag and level it there do you get 80 levels of track experience?

No. You only start to gain mastery experience when you are level 80.

Gryffenne.8639:

My first one, my explorer, will probably go: Glide >>Bounce >rest of glider skills so that she can get around. From that I will decide what my alts need most.

From your post it seems like you assume masteries are character-bound, though I can’t tell for sure. Just in case: Masteries are not character-bound, they are account-bound.

Cakemeister.5792:

I wonder if the mastery for stealth detection will work in PvP and WvW.

The jungle masteries only work in the jungle areas. Besides, they would never let masteries influence PvP.

Bazooka.3590:

Why Anet reduces build options constantly since GW1?

You and I remember GW1 very differently. GW1 had more build options than GW2, yes, but in top PvP or in speed-runs in PvE, there was a very restrictive meta. In fact, in all games with build options there is a meta.

Why celestial amulet is still in pvp? At least get this thing out of the game and dont force everybody to use it. Let ppl be creative.

No one is forcing you.

Liet Talen.7284:

I’m certain ANET has said that any legendary crafted using the new system will be account-bound.

There is no new system for crafting legendaries, there is only a new system for getting precursors. Precursors that one gets through the new system are account-bound but as far as I know, nothing will change about legendaries themselves.

Note that both the points and the progression is seperate for jungle masteries and core tyria masteries.

Getting the first level of gliding and getting bouncing mushrooms is pretty much mendatory in the jungle. After that I’m a bit torn between more gliding and lore-based masteries.

Only you can decide whether the expansion is worth it. That said, a lot of people here will consider it to be worth it to them.

A full list of features can be found here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2:_Heart_of_Thorns

In addition, there a lot of videos and reviews of the expansion because of the 3 betas so have a look at that.

Mor The Thief.9135:

So with the recent blog post: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/its-the-final-countdown/

I’ve noticed a certain line regarding Elite Specilizations: “overcoming challenges in the jungle to unlock your elite specialization”.

Does this line implies we won’t be unlocking our elite specs with hero points?

That is curious. I think at the most, it will mean that for PvE (and for PvE only) you need to do something in addition to spending hero points.

Ark.6839:

Adding Sinister stats to backpieces would be awesome too. So far none that I’ve seen have that option.

That’s part of a more general problem I think. Equipment (not just backpieces) that allows you to choose the stats have a limited range of choices (this problem was also present with the beta equipment).

Of the 26 stat sets the wiki has listed, only 10 are selectable on craftable backpieces.

Forum bug squashed.

Josh Davis.6015:

Hmmm, new amulets. Aside from zealots, anything else you folks think would be interesting?

If zealot’s amulets become a thing in PvP, could zealot’s stats also become less hard to acquire in PvE?

As for what stat set I’d want in PvP: Forsaken i.e. Power main stat / Healing Power / Toughness (which the wiki claims is a thing but which I haven’t seen in game anywhere).

Likewise I’d want a stat set consisting of Power main stat / Healing Power / Vitality.

Because there is a huge difference between skill and organization as a requirement on the one hand and grind as a requirement on the other? Not that I am one of the people who complains about ascended equipment, mind you, but I can see where those people are coming from.

AdaephonDelat.3890:

Gliding – it’s like falling. With style!

Glding – it’s aiming at the ground and missing!

Requirements of unlocking elite specializations are:

- You must own HoT.
- Your character must be level 80.
- You must spent hero points (there is no official word on the amount).

Lascax.2163:

Will Heart of Thorns content be available to download prior to the unlock of the content? Or is it already into our client?

Part is already in our client but I suspect we also have to download some more files.

Also, is the Halloween Update coming at the exact time of the HoT content unlock?

We know it’s coming on the same day, we don’t know anything more than that. However, I suspect that both will go live at the same moment.

Here we go again..

Khadez.4958:

It seems to be like it fixes the largest flaw of necros on PvE, direct damage. Through Reaper they can now deal significant direct damage. Isnt that correct?

Support and utility (things like stealth, water fields, might stacking, spotter, banners, spirits etc) are just as important as damage and necro’s are still quite lacking there, even if the kost recent changes to blood magic did help a little.

By the way, as sinister engineers show, damage doesn’t have to be direct damage to optimal in PvE.

Reaper was not meant to be and should not be the fix to the position of necro’s in PvE. That problem is a core necro problem and thus should be solved by changing the core necro (which would then also impact reaper of course).

Linken.6345:

Diovid.9506:

sirjarros.4107:

I have heard/read/seen very little about whether there is any connection between Mastery Tracks/Points and WvW play and I have a few clarifying questions about it.

That’s because masteries are a PvE thing.

1. Will we be able to train any Mastery Tracks by playing WvW as a level 80?
For example: training the Legendary Precursor Crafting Mastery. It would be grossly negligent and hugely disappointing if this track was unaffected by WvW play.

Unknown at this time. However, I think it’s likely that it will be possible to train core tyria masteries in WvW.

sirjarros.4107:

2. Will we be able to earn any Master Points in WvW?
For example: would be rather odd if WvWers could train, say the Precursor Crafting masteries, but not earn mastery points to unlock them.

Unknown, though considering masteries are a PvE thing I think it is unlikely.

sirjarros.4107:

3. What Masteries will and won’t work in WvW?
For example: will Advanced Logistics from the Pact Commander track work? I heard a passing loose reference to it working in WvW during one of the twitch casts, but no real details. (Obviously the HoT masteries won’t work, as those are specific to the new content).

Advanced Logistics is literally the only one that could potentially work in WvW. Coincidentially it is also the only one Anet talked about in relation to WvW. I can’t remember what they said about it though.

4. Will there be any WvW only Mastery tracks?
I don’t personally see the need for it, as we have the WxP ranks and abilities. But I figured I’d ask anyways because it could be really fun and rewarding.

No. WvW has it’s own progression system which already sort-of functions like the mastery system. Besides, we already know exactly which masteries we will get (at the release of HoT anyway).

Since its in the mists Id say none of the masteries excluding fractals should work, but then you have to be able to train that one in spvp aswell since they all share the mists and i dubt that will be implemented

It’s not about the lore, it’s about the mechanics. None of the masteries (including fractal masteries probably) could mechanically work in WvW except for Advanced Logistics.

If you have seen any videos about the raid you would have seen that agro-management actually has a place there. The boss mainly follows the character with the highest toughness so one person influences to what extent the boss moves around and where he moves to. This person is also subject to more attacks from the boss and thus not only needs stats to hold agro but also skills to keep alive.

However, this doesn’t mean that the person should wear Nomad’s gear or anything crazy like that. Knight’s is probably fine. The rage timer means that all character should contribute enough damage that the boss dies before the timer reaches 0, this includes the ‘tank’ so going full defensive is not an option.

sirjarros.4107:

I have heard/read/seen very little about whether there is any connection between Mastery Tracks/Points and WvW play and I have a few clarifying questions about it.

That’s because masteries are a PvE thing.

1. Will we be able to train any Mastery Tracks by playing WvW as a level 80?
For example: training the Legendary Precursor Crafting Mastery. It would be grossly negligent and hugely disappointing if this track was unaffected by WvW play.

Unknown at this time. However, I think it’s likely that it will be possible to train core tyria masteries in WvW.

sirjarros.4107:

2. Will we be able to earn any Master Points in WvW?
For example: would be rather odd if WvWers could train, say the Precursor Crafting masteries, but not earn mastery points to unlock them.

Unknown, though considering masteries are a PvE thing I think it is unlikely.

sirjarros.4107:

3. What Masteries will and won’t work in WvW?
For example: will Advanced Logistics from the Pact Commander track work? I heard a passing loose reference to it working in WvW during one of the twitch casts, but no real details. (Obviously the HoT masteries won’t work, as those are specific to the new content).

Advanced Logistics is literally the only one that could potentially work in WvW. Coincidentially it is also the only one Anet talked about in relation to WvW. I can’t remember what they said about it though.

4. Will there be any WvW only Mastery tracks?
I don’t personally see the need for it, as we have the WxP ranks and abilities. But I figured I’d ask anyways because it could be really fun and rewarding.

No. WvW has it’s own progression system which already sort-of functions like the mastery system. Besides, we already know exactly which masteries we will get (at the release of HoT anyway).

I think the tankiest sets you’ll see in optimal pve runs are sets like rabid’s, knight’s, zealot’s and valkyrie’s i.e. sets with 2 offensive stats and 1 defensive stat.

F2P players and core-only players will make sure that old zones don’t become empty I’d think.

Berserker’s and Knight’s seem to fit Scrappers a lot more than Sinister’s. Scrappers do not offer condi builds a lot.

It is a reward track like the ones for core specializations except that it includes not only traits but also skills, runes and skins (all in one big track).

Edit: It was datamined that it will be over 200 hero points per full track (170 for just the traits and skills) but there is no official confirmation on that.

You mean gear like this?
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Benevolence
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Monk

Or do you mean it should be a stat like healing power and ferocity?

Before GW2’s launch Anet had a team looking into a console version of GW2 but for one reason or another they decided that the benefits would not outweigh the resources required. If that was the decision then, I doubt Anet will make a different decision now.

gamerinachair.4057:

4: Will LS Season 2 Complete Pack ever be bundled with Heart of Thorns? It would make sense, seeming as HoT takes place after LS S2, plus it might boost sales a little. I personally know a few friends who are holding off on buying HoT simply because they can’t currently get LS S2 and don’t want the story to be spoiled for them.

They can just play the story instances for free with someone who has LS2 unlocked. They won’t get any rewards though. Alternatively they can trade gold for gems to buy LS2.

I think it’s unlikely that LS2 will ever be bundled with HoT since people who had LS2 before buying HoT will feel cheated.

Rise is amazing on MM reapers.

We’ve already downloaded a lot of HoT files. The betas were played on live accounts so everything that was in the beta is already in our client. Even more than what was playable in fact since various things that weren’t in the beta were datamined.

They pretty much revealed everything that I expected them to reveal before launch.

Dantert.1803:

From what I’ve heard about the beta the difficulty of the mobs was nerfed down…why is that so?

Anet has said that that wasn’t intentional. The difficulty in the 2nd beta was quite high (for open world content that is) and Anet has said that that difficulty is what they are happy with.

Crusic.6531:

I"m not into the idea of being locked into water, and I know it was not intended but I feel that Tempest elite should not be paired with water as they are both support based, and if you did you should be a support god.

Personally I like the idea of a tempest/water auramancer.

already mentions many times is the lack of condi removal via shouts and existing skill without the support of Cleansing Water,

You can use Trooper runes for that.

I also constantly see that Tempests are meh, healers even with water added in to the mix. Are the skill/utility coefficients just too low? are the base heal output too low?
or do we move more the mitigation like frost aura, protection, Aegis, Weakness or even boon stripping?

The latter. Good support is about utility and boons, not about healing itself.

we know that currently based off the first boss and trash that 70% of our Auras are useless in Raid are completely useless. fire, earth and air’s effects have no effect. in PvP we know that they can be alright, but more often are on cooldown than doing anything of relevance. should aura’s be able to apply to up to 10 allies? should they be innately stronger all across the board? what do Aura’s need to be wanted?

They are not going to let aura’s apply to 10 allies, while all other skills have a cap of 5 allies. And they already said, they are not changing the cap.

Auras are not useless, at least, water aura isn’t. The other auras were useless on the first boss of the first raid wing, that doesn’t mean they will be useless in all raids.

I think the primary thing that needs to happen is that auras should stack, at least to a limited extent. Although it might not be a good idea to have auras stack infinitely, I think having auras stack up to maximum of 10 seconds or something similar has to happen.

The max speed is ‘out-of-combat speed’ + 33%. In combat, superspeed does ‘in-combat speed’ + 50% and thus functions correctly. However, outside combat, superspeed is indeed the same as swiftness due to the cap.

Kodama.6453:

Diovid.9506:

They are not capped in the same way though. All other minions are capped due to the number of minion skills you can slot, the duration of those minions and the cooldown time of the skills/traits. These caps already exist for minion masters. The cap that is discussed here, is creating a cap on top of the cap imposed by those other things.

Sry but that is wrong.
Phantasmals and illusions. Mesmers aren’t able to have more than 3 of them at the same time. That’s an example for an already existing hard cap for minions which is discussed in this thread. And I think the same should be for Rise!
Make it that way you are able to just have 6 of them at the same time.

I know. That is the only case though.

Kodama.6453:

And why shouldn’t there be a minion cap? All other professions (with exception of warrior and revenant) have minion like skills too. They all are capped.

They are not capped in the same way though. All other minions are capped due to the number of minion skills you can slot, the duration of those minions and the cooldown time of the skills/traits. These caps already exist for minion masters. The cap that is discussed here, is creating a cap on top of the cap imposed by those other things.

I understand that it is a fun thing to someone but I think there should be a cap because necromancer is a profession which can improve their minions very far and it is kind of ridiculous to have so many minions at the same time. Even in the old days of gw1 there wasn’t something like this able to do. And these minions had a larger requirement to get them.

That’s only true if it turns out to be unbalanced. So far, most people do not seem to expect it to be unbalanced. Putting a cap on it ‘just in case’ is weird.

Bishop.6120:

Personally, I love the amount of work Anet put into the detailed storylines, artwork, voice-acting and such. I don’t really need it though. I have the basic game without the Living Story 1 or 2. I do, however, need Maudrey II to dig me out of this pile of Bloodstone Dust I am drowning in. After considerable time and expense, I realize that I need 2 items from quests only found in LS2. I noticed a previous post mentioned that I can participate in quests if I am in a group with someone who has LS2. Is this accurate? From other posts, it looks like the consensus is that Maudrey II will be off-limits to everyone who buys HoT only.

You can participate in the story instances of LS2, which is great for those who want to experience the story without wanting to buy LS2. However, you only get the rewards for those instances if you own LS2.