Guild Wars 2

Iason Evan.3806:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

I don’t want to kill the brainstorming….. but, there are no new weapon types being added in Heart of Thorns. Though, specializations will allow professions to use existing weapon types which they currently cannot use.

I think it’s worth clearing up the “Spears as land weapons” discussion for a few reasons. “No new weapon types” wouldn’t technically eliminate land spears on a class. Also, in the trailer at the end of S2, a Sylvari impales someone on a spear, on land. It’s gonna stink for players hoping to get land spears and they wouldn’t be wrong to get excited for them after seeing the reasons I left above. If you don’t comment, I will figure land spears will be a thing that you guys want to surprise us with. If you do comment, I will figure it’s to dispel the land spear myth, which would be a good thing. No one wants to get hyped about something that isn’t making its way into the game.

Please stop reading as you want to read and put it into the context of what’s said:

-NO NEW WEAPONS/TYPES IN THE EXPANSION!

This means that an of the water weapons will remain water weapons as that is their type. There are no animations for those weapons to be used on land for any of the game’s races, so it’s logical to know that the developers aren’t redesigning the weapon’s mechanics, animations and skills to make them land; because that’s basically making a whole new weapon.

And an impaling spike is not the same as a spear. It’s a spike or stake. A spear is a more nimble weapon compared that is not meant to support a body’s weight in suspension for display. Just the same these large stakes were not used as weapons, but as both torture devices and means of displaying acts against enemies to instill fear onto the people. The same kind of methods are used in smaller scale on castle keeps with just spiking the heads of traitors (see Ned Stark of Game of Thrones). But still not the weapon of combat or execution.

Ashen.2907:

The new PvP mode will include NPCs. Seems like a lot of them really. OP might be referring to that

Might be, sure. But I think he’s more or less referring to spawned NPC’s such as the Ranger, Necromancer, and the Elementalist each have as well as the Engineer’s turrets. At least that’s what I got out of context from the comparison to the ArcheAge arenas with pets. However the OP neglects to understand that those minions are factored into the damage output of those classes and are specifically balanced as such as well. To remove them would be to essentially kitten those classes in a PvP situation and would not work.

I’ll hop back to the topic of the new PvP map & mode just to point out that it is purposely designed like a MOBA. In fact it looks like the developers took some factors in from when they had a similar mechanic game during the 2012 Halloween event (although that map was significantly smaller and had stealth corn instead of siege features). I’m really looking forward to a MOBA style PvP game within GW2, and that’s because my character that I’ve invested in, built up, and created uniquely to be my own is not just a random pick of 12 same-faced champions that’s in every other MOBA. It’ll be interesting for sure.

segman.3560:

Last year at this time the game wasn’t released in china yet so there was no point for them to do this. Now we’re blessed with china second hand festival and gem store shinies. CELEBRATE!

What a load of hooey you have there. Yes it is because the game launched last year in China that we now have a Chinese New Year celebration. It would not really have made sense to have it from the beginning and not have the game available in that region (like celebrating Boxing Day and not being available in Canada: odd). But the developers still added in an extra minor event with a game -Dragon Ball-, extra luck, and decorations too. Sure there are Gem Store items, but there are also many free ones like the goat firework. It’s still good to have content patches, however minor, right now when we’re between the end of Season #2 and whenever the expansion HoT releases.

tekfan.3179:

Lux.7491:

so guys im newer to guildwars do you think they will have a collectors edition for the new expansion ? if so guessing how much will it cost?

The one for GuildWars 2 did cost around 150€. But I think that was an extreme with that handpainted, large figurine of Rytlock in it.

More than just the statue. Here, read:

Siphaed.9235:

Now, let’s take a look at what was in the original Collector’s Edition of GW2:

Physical Items:
*-Guild Wars 2 Game
*-Collectable Metal Box
*-10 inch Rytlock Figurine
*-112 page Make of Guild Wars 2 Book
*-Custom Art Frame
*-Art Portfolio and 5 Prints
*-Best of Guild Wars 2 Soundtrack CD

Digital Items:
*-Summon Mistfire Wolf Elite Skill
*-Miniture Rytlock
*-Chalice of Glory (A Boost for PvP Glory)
*-Tome of Influence (+1,000 Guild Influence)
*-Golem Banker (week long bank anywhere item)

That’s a lot of goodies for the $150 cost. Went out and got some nice shadowbox frames for the rest of the prints besides the 1 pre-framed with the provided one. Hope they do something very similar to it again.

Nope. Sorry, but you’ll have to reform a new guild. This happened to a guild I was in within the first year of the game. GM went silent, off the grid, no word. Had to reform, lost 1,000’s of Influence and days worth of trained perks and unlocks.

Blaeys.3102:

First, the obvious ones:

• Polymock
• Bar Brawl
• Archery Contest
• Musical Bells (with the dynamic addition of new songs to play and master)

Archery Contest, sure.
Polymock, most definitely.

Musical Bells….I can say “meh” to this because the latest Wintersday provided nearly everyone with an unlimited Bell Toy as well as a near infinite amount of the limited use ones are on the AH.

But the Drunken Brawling? No. Please just no. We have our Drinking Bluff game and that’s as much as drinking games this game needs. The whole concept of Drunken Brawling, while sounding cool, belongs in a game much becoming that of Age of Conan instead of Guild Wars 2. It’s just not a good idea.

But yes, Polymock, so much yes that it hurts. Nobody cares that WoW introduced it’s Pokemon feature in Mists of Pandaria. It’s not the first. GW1 did it first with Polymock first. It wins. GW2 must have Polymock. Heart of Thorns is adding in so many more creatures and models that can be used in the Polymock arena. Besides I’m pretty sure that Asuran has been working on that gate for far too long, ……2.5 years to be exact! We already know that the Polymock arena is done because guilds and players jumped the cube (found a way to get outside of Rata Sum) in 2012 and found the completed arena [and filmed it too]. It’s a matter of making the mechanics work for the pet fights, which I’m sure shouldn’t be too big of a problem.

psizone.8437:

JLHiggs.6258:

psizone.8437:

Whilst it’ll be a small number of players that don’t buy the expansion and play WvW, it’ll be extremely bad publicity for them if they shut out even a small number of players from a game mode they’d been playing for years.

No, it won’t be bad publicity, because this is standard across all MMOs. Ultimately, there won’t be players without the expansion who continue playing this game (at least not more than 1-2%). It’s a myth. It’s a nice theoretical exercise but ultimately every active player in GW2 will buy HoT or quit.

HoT, if it’s like any major expansion any other major MMO has put out, will also create interest and bring in new players who buy the bundle. The game will have a larger unified player base post-HoT than we do now, even if we lose a few folks who want more free content.

They’ve stated that you won’t need the expansion to keep playing the base game, if this new map is on a rotation, if it isn’t free for everyone, it would contradict that.

I don’t doubt the majority will buy the expansion or quit, but even if it’s an extremely small number of players that just want to play the base game, they’ll need to make sure they don’t prevent them from doing so.

I don’t understand why people are being so aggressive about one map in the most neglected game mode in the game being free.

1) With the many updates WvW has gotten -EotM, WvW “masteries”, borderland map revisions with the lakes, ect- it is by far NOT the most negelcted game mode in the game.

2) Because we’re talking about ‘freeloaders’ wanting, nay DEMANDING, that a feature listed in a paid expansion be free to them because of some sense of self entitlement.

FACT: There is nothing in the developer’s announcement or the interviews that follow that indicates that they will remove old maps.

The word “rotation” doesn’t just mean changing out maps every few weeks and there is no underlying context to support that assumption either. The word “rotation” can just refer to the teamup rotations that go on every two weeks as they have been since forever ago. That means who takes starting control of which keeps based on which spawn they are at “rotates” based on ranking, just as their team color also “rotates”. Understand? Nothing doing about completely changing WvW so only 1-2 maps is available in rotation every few weeks as that would be a complete flip to what the current design of WvW is now.

So please stop with the twisting of words to convey your own desires for free content from this expansion. I’m pretty sure and hoping as much that the new WvW map will be EXPANSION ONLY as will all the other features. A.Net is a business, not a charity. They need to sell a product and won’t do so by giving away it for free.

psizone.8437:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Siphaed.9235:

BrunoBRS.5178:

^ having the new borderland as expansion-only would effectively kill WvW for good. imagine if every few weeks, all of tyria except orr was completely locked out from PvE players, for an entire week, maybe even several weeks, unless they had the expansion.

that’s pretty much what would happen in WvW terms if the new borderland was expansion-gated.

Why are you assuming that it’s going to be only available every few weeks? Right now I’m pretty sure that all 5 maps -Borderlands x3, Edge of the Mists, and Eternal Battlegrounds- are accessible right now. The only limitation to them is the # of players that are able to get into the map, which leaves a queuing system. [EotM being the exception with the infinite map numbers generated through population balance for overflow.]

So they add a 6th map that is Expansion Only, how does that kill WvW? Sure there will be like a 90min+ queue to get into it, but that is really nothing new to GW2 players. Remember the 4-6hr queues during the game’s 1st season? How it was nearly impossible for people to get into EB because the popularity due to it being the only map with a giant castle in it? Players will still play the other maps while waiting in queue to get into that other map too.

because they confirmed they’ll replace the current borderlands with the new map, as part of a rotation system. so there would be weeks where the only thing non-expansion players can do is EotM and EB (and if they make a new EB in another expansion, not even that).

This. This is the reason I said that.

Tell me where they mentioned this? I recall him specifically stating “will be added to the Borderland rotation”. No mention of replacement, no mention of making maps a weekly thing (such as they did with sPvP and it’s “main maps”).

http://youtu.be/gxLkfXwxLTs?t=43m16s

If anything I read the word “rotation” in that sentence as meaning how which map is your team’s ‘home world’map changes and how your color equally changes. Because this map has “3 unique keeps”, I’m sure it rotates through as to which team starts at which location to which main keeps. That’s the way I read rotation as fitting into the current setting of the game.

If anything what they MIGHT do is remove a single Boarderland, leave 2 of the 3 clones, and replace it with the new one. They’d still rotate out which map has which team starting at which keep primarily. But there’s an issue with that and the “3 worlds” match up: the spawning pavilion. You know that big thing up north of the Northern Keep? Right now because there are 3 clones, each world gets ownership of 1 pavilion on one of the 3 maps. If they were to remove one map for replacement with this new one it would leave 1 of the 3 worlds without a pavilion spawning map. But that might be a minor issue at best because it is mainly a spawn and the whole of having an AH/Bank/things up there is more or less convenience rather than just going to Divinity’s Reach.

Still, out of all the interviews and details to come out of the announcements post-PAX South, I’ve yet to see anything where they mention removal of anything from WvW. Could you please provide proof/link info to where they said that features/maps will be removed from WvW with the HoT expansion and by doing so it would “kill WvW” to make the new map Expansion Only? I honestly think people are only reading into what they want to instead of contemplating and analyzing what was actually said.

BrunoBRS.5178:

^ having the new borderland as expansion-only would effectively kill WvW for good. imagine if every few weeks, all of tyria except orr was completely locked out from PvE players, for an entire week, maybe even several weeks, unless they had the expansion.

that’s pretty much what would happen in WvW terms if the new borderland was expansion-gated.

Why are you assuming that it’s going to be only available every few weeks? Right now I’m pretty sure that all 5 maps -Borderlands x3, Edge of the Mists, and Eternal Battlegrounds- are accessible right now. The only limitation to them is the # of players that are able to get into the map, which leaves a queuing system. [EotM being the exception with the infinite map numbers generated through population balance for overflow.]

So they add a 6th map that is Expansion Only, how does that kill WvW? Sure there will be like a 90min+ queue to get into it, but that is really nothing new to GW2 players. Remember the 4-6hr queues during the game’s 1st season? How it was nearly impossible for people to get into EB because the popularity due to it being the only map with a giant castle in it? Players will still play the other maps while waiting in queue to get into that other map too.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Mastery points acquired from Old zones can only be used for Old zone Mastery Tracks. New Zone Mastery Tracks require New Zone Mastery Points, so no your concern is unfounded.

Even if it wasn’t your concern is still unfounded. You play the way you play, not the way someone else plays. It doesn’t matter how someone else plays. If someone else is only going to play the new content through, then yes, they would level up the new content faster than you while only using their points on new content.

You don’t play that way, so you will progress on new content tracks slower, while also progressing on old content tracks. You will both have the same potential amount of total progress, just with different focus. You’re not at a disadvantage, per se.

This, this, and this so much so.

The value of the individual to themselves is greater than that of the value of others to them. Your progression is yours alone based on how YOU play the game, not on how someone else plays the game. Someone who does 99% combat and 1% exploration will have inferior gliding skills to someone that does 50% combat and 50% exploration; however that same person will have far superior combat skills.

In fact this is exactly like WvWvW points. Both Player A and Player B have 100 points. Player A is someone can spend all their points into arrow carts and be awesome at that. Good for them for being a well defender. However there’s Player B that’s following the Blue PIN Comm from gate to gate with rams because he spent all his points in Ram mastery. Their spending of points, although the same amount through the same time spent, is based on their preferential gameplay desires.

psizone.8437:

(they can’t expansion lock this new map, I refuse to believe they’d break WvW like that).

And why can’t they? Many other games of the genre have locked out new maps related to PvP in expansions away from those who haven’t purchased it. By providing it free, they’re not promoting enticement to purchase their product; therefore it’s bad business. I’m pretty sure…about 78.9% sure, that they will have this new map as Expansion Only.

To address the OP:

the expansion is cool and all but what will happen to those who dont buy the expansion will they be left out with nothing not even precursor crafting? or how will wvw work as there ll be new profession and such?

Those that don’t purchase the Expansion will be left out of the features included in the Expansion. Those features of the Expansion are listed here: https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en/

-New Map(s): Maguuma Jungle
-New WvW map
-New PvP mode: Strongholds
-New progression #1: Masteries (yes, including Precurser crafting)
-New progression #2: Specialities
-New Profession: Revenant
-Guild Halls

All of these are features listed to be included with the Heart of Thorns expansion. It’s safe to assume with common sense that they’re not going to give those features away. Doing so is bad business on their part because it would give no reason for people to purchase the expansion.

Take this made up example:
-Guild Halls free for guildmembers. Guild Leader must have HoT to unlock the feature to purchase. But once guild owns a Guild Hall, all members can access.
-Guild of 100 has Guild Leader purchase HoT to make a Guild Hall, but the other 99 members don’t purchase HoT and still have access to the magnificent hall. Feature free for the other 99 because of the 1.

Is it fair for the guild members? Yes.
Is that example fair for Arena Net? No.
In this, is it fair to all the other players around the world that forked over the money for the Heart of Thorns expansion to have non-purchasers get features for free? No.

Now life is not fair, I get that and others do to. But in this case is that those that do not purchase the game’s expansion will see it as “unfair” to them that they’ll not have access to it’s many features. But such is the nature of the MMO genre and it is justly fair to the developers who want….no, not want but NEED to get paid for the work that they do in developing this content.

Mike Flavaz.2635:

I realize that many here are against raiding but truth is, the lack of it is what’s holding this game back. And, the developers are fighting that all the way to the games grave.

Yes because CLEARLY this game -GW2- is going to the grave while it’kittenting up it’s 3 year Anniversary and releasing an expansion. That is a 100% surefire indicator that this game is dying…..

I don’t think this OP ever participated in a Te’Quatl or Marionette fight at all. Those things could not and would not be “zerged down”. It’s do your part and don’t screw up; auto-attackers go home to their mommies in a body bag.

So THAT explains her Sniper Shot against forum trolls….

They took them out of WvW because it became a “distracting activity that doesn’t relate to WvW main objectives as well as makes players participating take up queue positions”.

These things can be done in cities, in areas waiting for boss spawns (like the swamp), and just about everywhere in Tyria. And coming soon I’m sure they can be done in Guild Halls as well. I see no issue with them not being in WvW, a part of the game with a strict point of being about 80% PvP (yes, I know there are the PvE objectives in the maps).

Vix.6730:

With all due respect to Anatoli, the Flameseeker Chronicles took a nose dive after Rubi Bayer left. Where Rubi wasn’t afraid to critique GW2 for its shortcomings and praise its strengths, Anatoli’s writing sounded more like an Anet press release with some first person reporting sprinkled in.

Um, not at all. He’s been very critical of GW2 in the past year. I feel that you either missed the reading or choose to ignore it entirely.

Cynical spite of Halloween 2014 rehash: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/10/28/flameseeker-chronicles-gem-store-scares-and-lore-treats-in-guil/

And then there’s this one on the “sexy armors”: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/30/flameseeker-chronicles-guild-wars-2s-gender-divide/

One about the “Mystic Toilet” too: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/08/05/flameseeker-chronicles-the-curse-of-guild-wars-2s-precursor-we/

Lots of despise for poor mechanics and designs in this game, BEYOND the love for teh game as a whole. It’s a matter of not selectively reading only the pieces that praise the game.

Kaleban.9834:

I’m sorry, but I LOL’d hard when I read the post today.

Specifically, the part about Pact survivors building up their defenses during the day, to survive the onslaught of Mordrem at night.

Do we have any chance of seeing dinosaur sized Creepers?

Why does this just have to be a “Minecraft thing”? I recall nights being pretty harsh in The Oregon Trail on the ol’ floppy disc…oh God why did you remind me I’m so old?! Anyways, it’s in many games both old and past, as well as books of long ago. Boogeymen, vampires and werewolves of fright only come with the bumps in the night.

JLHiggs.6258:

If you wouldn’t, you’re not pertinent to this discussion. Other people spending money would in no way obligate you to spend money.

That’s a snarky assumption, don’t you think?

I think my opinion is very pertinent to this discussion. See what you’re talking about is essentially bribing the developers into a specific design structure for your own gain. To say “I’ll give you money to make X for the game”, that is what you’re doing. It effects me in such a way as it takes time and resources away from core structure of this game’s already set design path.

The developers are working their tails off making the design of group content to be as open as possible by making it within the game’s world. To try to pigeonhole that into a design structured ground small groups of 5 within an enclosed instanced system is absurd. It takes away from everything GW2 has been aspiring to be since the game launched back in 2012.

The Marionette? Lion’s Arch Invasion? Tower of Nightmares? Giant plant worm? Te’Quatl’s revamp. All these things are group content that they pushed for large scale participation and organization.

Dungeons are not what this game is about and shouldn’t be the focus of development; whether or not you’re willing to pay is moot to that matter.

JakeG.9620:

I’m going to make my revenant a Male Sylvari, with the name Aconitum Mistgrown. Aconitum is Wolf’s bane, a poisonous plant. The story behind him is that when his pod fell from the tree, the Mother opened a portal to the mists under him. He had to rely on the Dream and the voice of his Mother to find his way out. like this his connection to the dream is unbreakable and Mordremoth has no influence over him. (sorry, I like to make these stories about my characters :p )

That may not be possible. Just think about how traitorous the Sylvari are. It’d be really cool -and hoping- that they can not be played in HoT. Here’s hoping….

If you’re that impatient, then you’re in for a longhaul as the expansion doesn’t release until……I’m guessing August. That’s 6 months from now.

Speculative Question:
~Will the Heart of Thorns expansion include a boost to level 80 for new characters?

• 1) Would you, the players, want such a boost?
• ~1b) With restrictions?

• 2) Will the Revenant be auto-boosted to level 80 as a “post Zhaitan” class?

My main question on this related more to the 2nd question than the 1st. When the Revenant was revealed and detailed, many questions become of it. The class is very much similar to that of the Death Knight in WoW based on it’s introduction style. That class was introduced as close-to-cap-level with a backstory relevant to it’s design.

Rytlock got sucked jumped into the Mists chasing his sword POST Zhaitan and POST Scarlet Briar. Arena Net has already spoken to the fact that Rytlock is the very first Revenant that obtained the powers from the Mists.

To keep story in line with both future events and past ones, it would be illogical (*Revenant channeling of the great hero Spock!) to have the class start at level 1 and proceed through all the events that existed before it did. So far Arena Net’s writers have been very good at setting events up months to even years ahead of what is going to happen. There has to be some major foresight on these kinds of conflicts in lore with the new class being introduced.

And as for the just a generic level 80 boost, it’s kind of a hit and miss thing. I highly doubt they’d do it, but seeing as how it has become a popular thing in recent years for other games to provide such ease-of-access for expanded upon products.

Rem.9627:

Its got to be in the mists….

I mean its got to be… You awaken as a newly undead…

and maybe just maybe Rytlock is there to help you out of the mists….and back to Tyria.

I have been thinking that this would be the angle anet would approach from..seeing as how it cant be a slap on to the old story without continuity errors…..

Discuss please.

Starting areas are based around which RACE you choose, not which class. The Revenant is a class based on channeling the spirits of past heroes and it’s starting area won’t be any different than that of current ones. Don’t expect more than that.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

What will happen to players who do not buy this expansion? They probably will not be able to do any future Living Story after the expansion is released.

There will be a huge separation between players. People who buy the expansion will have a clear advantage over those who don’t because of specializations(unless this is for everyone).

Will core players get access to the new WvW map, the stronghold pvp mode, guild halls? How about crafting precursors?

This expansion is practically mandatory if one doesn’t want to feel left behind. I am surprised that this expansion has a price tag when it seems like all of this stuff could have been included in a free feature update. Not making enough money from the gem store I guess.

This expansion’s major features explained at the panel seem to be only slightly larger in comparison to what we have been getting through the living story and feature updates for 2 years.

If it has to cost anything I wouldn’t price it over $20

This is your 4th thread on this topic. One was so trollishly short that it was ignored (thankfully) and the other so trollish in nature that the moderators closed it. This one just the same is kind of trollish, if a bit longer than the other one.

Here’s the first one found: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/I-see-what-Anet-s-strategy-is/first

Here’s another: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/who-gets-access-to-what

Here’s the closed one: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Teeny-Tiny-Expansion/first

Please stop them. They haven’t released ANY information beyond what was in the interviews and the PAX presentation. They will be releasing more information at the CONs coming up as well as weekly sneak peaks into the expansion itself.

As for the question: Yes, you’ll be left behind in story and content if you don’t get an expansion for the game. Welcome to MMOs? That is how it has always been as an expansion expands content of the game. To not get so means you don’t expand content and don’t get more options to the game. It’s the most basics of expansions for games.

Just stop, please stop. Guild Wars 2 is it’s own game, it is NOT Guild Wars 1. They share the same universe setting, but not the same storyline or location setting by far (Lion’s Arch is different from the Lion’s Arch in GW1).

Elona won’t happen this expansion or maybe the next due to it being blocked off by the Crystal Desert where Krawlkatoric resides. Until that Elder Dragon is faced and defeated, lore wise we cannot reach Elona; and that isn’t happening with HoT at all.

Cantha is far more xenophobic than the Tengu are thanks in part to it’s overly paranoid Emporer. They reached near 100% isolation when Zhiatan rose with Orr out of the ocean. With the races of Tyria being so interwoven together against the Elder Dragons and the looming doom of yet another one growing in strength, it would easy to understand them staying hidden in their lands still today.

I don’t ever see Cantha as being part of Guild Wars 2 in the next 2-3 expansions beyond HoT. Elona might based on what’s said earlier, but only after the dealing with the Crystal Dragon of the Branded. It’s just a matter that GW2’s entire story plot line revolves around the Elder Dragons and not a one of them is located in or around Cantha. Basically it’s a location unrelated to the rest of the game and would be incomplete “filler” content that doesn’t really work.

#noCantha

This thread is just a list of both generic requests that everyone wants for their MMO and things that would make GW2 not be GW2. You’re asking fruitlessly for raids, mounts, and individual player housing, amongst other things like non-player “hero” bots to follow players.

Here’s the deal: The expansion is already made and will be demoed in just a little over a month. It will be in Beta shortly after that too. And it will launch with it’s listed features in Q3 2015 as was presented at PAX South. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Tough luck to you. But your “wish list” is nothing more than smoke that will fade away into oblivion eventually.

The website Massively.com is closing it’s doors this upcoming Tuesday on the 3rd. It is a decade old website that is/was the go-to site for MMO news and a subsidiary of Joystiq (also going away). This is thanks in part to AOL’s corporate overlords killing off websites -profit or not- to try to streamline their company structure.

Why is this related to Guild Wars 2?
Flameseeker Chronicles was a weekly article started years before Guild Wars 2’s launch and has stuck with the game through good and bad times.
http://massively.joystiq.com/category/flameseeker-chronicles

It’s dead now.

Bog Otter got featured there quite a lot, which helped spread his video’s fame with extra hits. He was even picked up and hired by the company, sadly only to be laid off last year when AOL did a huge hack job against them.

Rubi Bayer, GW2’s Content Marketing Manager, used to write for Massively and was picked up from there by Arena Net.

The website will be missed. Here’s hoping that they’ll find a way to get their own site running with the same team of writers. I say a tip of the hat to all of Massively’s team from GW2’s community.

As I suggested here (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Specialization-Trinity/first#post4738182)a few days ago, I think that they’re going to be introducing a Trinity system in HoT. Why? Because it would rid the game of the current Berserker standard as well as set up for more challenging fights.

Ranor.5261:

Fingers crossed for expansion!

Don’t bother. They mentioned it already that the city will be in it’s poor state at the expansion’s launch. Maybe 6 months to a year later? It took 4 months just for the city to rebuilt the Lion Statue water fountain after Mad King Thorn destroyed it the first time.

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

I see it as this:

-Dragon bash for summer for June-July (1.5 months). Re-release and sale on Southsun, Jade, and Zodiac weapons return sale on Zodiac armor.

Dragon Bash will most likely NOT be returning at all based on the lore surrounding it. The event did not show itself in 2014 at all and for good reason. The event was a sponsored celebration of the people of Tyria’s resilience against the Elder Dragons, provided by the Captain’s Council of Lion’s Arch. During the festivities, someone -Mai Trin- murdered a Captain of Lion’s Arch and put in a partial invasion with Aetherblade pirates (Sky Pirate of Tyria).

So that bloodstain soaks the memories of the event very much, but isn’t even the main reason why it shall not return. Lion’s Arch is still in ruins! Let’s not forget that prior to last summer Scarlet Briar took a giant drill to the heart of the bay and destroyed the rest of the surrounding city. It’s just not possible physically or financially to try to support such an event. And if that’s not enough, the Dragons are getting worse as more people have died, so a celebration of laughter about them as holograms of them fill the sky and effigies burn is not something that many would cheer for. Marjory is rather kittened at the dragons right now for killing her sister at Fort Salma. So, there’s that too.

I too am curious if there’s going to be a “content drought” or not. Tomorrow on the 27th is the Balance patch that’s going to happen post Season 2. There is more than likely going to be a patch released right before the expansion to update the content for it (such as the WvW overhaul).

However, what’s in between and for how long?

There’s many guesses that the game will launch directly in line with Guild Wars 2’s 3rd Year Anniversary. That’s in August.

Let us assume that they’re going to bring back S.A.B. World #3 in April this year. So that’s a 2 month gap already between the end of January and the beginning of April. Then there is an additional gap of 4 months between April and August. Right now that’s a singular content patch between now and the expansion; assuming that’s the actual release date of said expansion.

Okay, try to bear with me for a moment.

When I think of Druid, I think of “nature healer”. From EQ to WoW to DAoC and many others, Druids have been a class of being a backup or primary healer beyond other magical abilities. When I think Ranger….well, first I think of Ranger Rick, then I think of someone who is a forest tracker, hunter, and so on.

From the video shown, a Ranger is using a Staff to cast what looks to be a vine root on an enemy creature in front of it. And the Ranger still has his loyal pet out attacking the same creature. Vines are an indication of a nature based CC.

An Engineer with mobile turret pets and a massive hammer. Having a “summon Steam armor” ability as part of their Specialization doesn’t seem too far off for tanking.**

When the developers hit the stage, as well as many of the interviews from the media, they mentioned how they wanted to bring group based challenge to Guild Wars 2.

I really see the developers sinking in tons of healing, tanking, and support abilities through Specialization on top of the plethora of DPS abilities already in the game. This would make a perfect situation to add in a trinity system without actually calling it such. Is that such a bad thing, though?

My paranoia is solid.

**Edited because Engineer mistake thanks to video using armor that looks very much Heavy.

Hmm….3 years in August will GW2 have been running.

And if you’re truly a fan of the Guild Wars universe, you would have hopped onto the bandwagon back in 2012 when the game launched.

The problem is that you WAITED. You missed out on the Season 1 events and memories as well as missed out on Season 2. Lion’s Arch was an amazing city that got invaded by Karka, haunted by Mad King Thorn, became a murder scene for a Pirate Lord, center point for an invasion by Scarlet, and completely obliterated just the same. Giant marionette puppets, invisible tower of poisonous plants, evil mole people with fire cats, and so much more. These are the things that were missed by those who waited. And they were one time events at that.

They said it’s a full retail boxed product. Sure there’s going to be a Digital version, but that will be with cash only off the website. Only thing that MIGHT be on the Gem Store will be a Digital Deluxe Upgrade from just the regular expansion. That’s it. Don’t expect more than that.

From the reveal, it would seem so. Specialization is a type of end-game progression for top level characters. What it looks like is that after you level your Hunter to 80, only then can you develop him/her into a Druid.

Jade Arkadian.9280:

So, it is very likely that alongside the expansion, we will have also some special limited edition at sale :P

So if paying more than 60$ is not a real concern to you, what would you like to see in a deluxe boxed edition of HoT.

On my behalf I would like to see:

Digital stuff

• The game
• Exclusive mini quaggan jungle explorer
• A 800 gem card
• An exclusive HoT mailer
• A cooler glider skin
• Open beta code and headstart

Physical goodies

• A mordrem Terragliph 30cm resin figure
• An awesome artbook revealing some of the secrets about the making of
• A GW2 mouse pad
• A replica of Glint’s hourglass

So, let’s do some daytime dreaming! What’s your wishlist!?

To address the digital stuff:

1) An exclusive mini shouldn’t be a Quaggan, of which there are plenty from different events from Season 1 and 2. It should be something a bit…unique. A mini Mursat?

2)800 gems? So slapping $10 extra into the box to increase it by $10 so that you HAVE to get more gold or digital store items? That shouldn’t be in there really.

3) Mailer,…maybe. I rather enjoy the original pidgin.

4) Only if the Glider is of Asuran design.

5) Headstart on an expansion? No. Absolutely not. No reason to divide the community more on this game. Midnight release for everyone, no matter what. Open Beta for an expansion? Again…no.

Now the physical stuff:

1) Nope. The first CE didn’t include a statue of Zhaitan. We don’t idolize or immortalize the Dragons; we fear, hate, and despise them to a point of trying to kill them just as much as they try to kill us. That’s why the first one game with Rytlock as a hero.

2) An artbook is a given, just as the first one has one as well.

3) No need for a mouse pad. Why have one? It’s basically slapping extra artwork on something that players most like don’t use because every other expansion under the sun had one as well. Take for example my Rift CE mouse pad, it has a ceramic dragon sitting on it on a shelf; ergonomic mouse pads are far better for long game sessions anyways.

4) A secondary physical item that’s not all that remarkable. An hourglass is not all that remarkable.

Now, let’s take a look at what was in the original Collector’s Edition of GW2:

Physical Items:
*-Guild Wars 2 Game
*-Collectable Metal Box
*-10 inch Rytlock Figurine
*-112 page Make of Guild Wars 2 Book
*-Custom Art Frame
*-Art Portfolio and 5 Prints
*-Best of Guild Wars 2 Soundtrack CD

Digital Items:
*-Summon Mistfire Wolf Elite Skill
*-Miniture Rytlock
*-Chalice of Glory (A Boost for PvP Glory)
*-Tome of Influence (+1,000 Guild Influence)
*-Golem Banker (week long bank anywhere item)

The CE of Heart of Thorns should reflectively mirror that of the original game’s CE, which emphasized the art and sound of Guild Wars 2.

My “wishlist” is as follows:

Physical:
~Game DVD
~Soundtrack work of top 10 songs
~Art prints (of the Mursaat, the General of Mordremoth, Bram/Rox/Taimi, a few temples, and the ruined Pact ships strung up in Mordremoth’s vines)
~10 inch figurine of Scruffy with Taimi on his shoulders.

Digital:
~Mini Mursaat
~10 levels Tome
~1,000 Guild Influence
~Unique CE Finisher for PvP
~Unique CE gathering tools
~CE backpack skin.

Well, that’s my feedback based on educated guesses, assumptions, previous versions, and some crazy hallucinations.

As cool as that is, I doubt that A.Net/NCSoft will do any commercials. They didn’t do any for GW2’s launch outside the normal Google ads and a single in-theater thingy during the first Hobbit movie.

I would really like to see A.Net use some power advertisements similar to what Blizzard did with their WoW commercials staring the out-of-date Mr. T, Chuck Norris, and others. If they’d just step up their advertisement brigade instead of doing tacky stuff then they’d have a larger pool of customers.

It exactly means player created events. The developers make the world, the players provide the entertainment. It’s a simple concept that goes way back to the original first MUDS and MMOs to follow. They don’t do EVERYTHING for you, sometimes there’s something called RP. If you think it’s nerdy to RP, then you’re in the wrong genre.

Slayerdemise.8305:

Hey everyone! I’m completely new to Guild Wars but saw it was on sale and I jumped onto getting it. I’m an old-school World of WarCraft player but got tired of it and the direction that franchise is going in.

Any tips for a beginner? I’m playing with my girlfriend as she is new too and we’re excited to play this game together. How are the raids and end-game content? Thanks for all the help and info, heard great things about the GW community :-)

Take everything you’ve learned about World of Warcraft and throw it out the window. You and your girlfriend are in for a bold awakening of a different experience all together playing this game compared to that.

There are no raids.

There is no trinity.

There is no never-ending gear grind treadmill.

Players work together questing (people cannot still your kill, so work together is a good thing!).

Questing is guided via hearts in the first …1-70ish zones, after that you’re on your own to just go about the Dynamic events.

Ask for help, the community is mighty friendly.

Abilities are partially tab-targeted, but also action based (a skill can miss if the enemy moves while it travels, projectile programmed).

Try to play the same race if at all possible so the stories kind of…go together and the questing is more together.

For the simple reason that it’s on sale for REAL MONEY while the Gem Store one is available for Gold-to-Gem conversion, making it a no-sale for A.Net. So you’re asking them to discount the cost of ….nothing, for them to make more $0 sales? That makes no logical business sense.

The whole reason the game is on sale right now is because they announced the expansion of the game and want to get new customers to start up the game before the expansion hits sometime later this year. This way people find this the best time to join the game before getting caught behind everyone else in progress.

That’s going to be the announcement at PAX South:

Super Adventure Box #3!!!!!

:P

jokke.6239:

I’m curious if Living Story was meant in the beginning to be the “expansion”.
Or maybe not?
They have said a long time ago that they people working on a “big project” in the background.
If we find out this saturday that we will get a expansion with loads of new content, enough to be worthy to be compared with GW1 xpacs, then I think I will begin to appreciate the LS much more.
The worst thing about LS so far for me have been the thoughts in my head “is this all we will get”?
But in the future if I know that an xpac will be released later on, I think I will be able to enjoy those small 2 weekly patches much more

So basicly my question I guess is:

Do you think that they came to the conclusion that LS wasn’t the way to go, and decided to release an xpac instead?

Or do you think that LS was always just meant to fill the gap untill they released the “big project” ?

Do you not realize that the Living Story has be absolutely, 100% free of charge. Just log in and “bam! free content!”. There’s no subscription or anything, just 2 years of holiday events, new expanded story, new weapons, and more. That’s more than you’ll get out of a single player game, which will charge out the wazoo for DLC.

And honestly I’m seeing GW2 getting more QUALITY updates than some other games that are either subscription based or have ridiculous P2W cash shops.

An expansion would be an okay thing, but don’t just completely dismiss the Living Story. It’s an excellent experiment of game design that I’d like to see repeated in other games (although I like the original “???” discovery of steps and puzzle clues to find steps of progress instead of just map markers).

Gaile Gray.6029:

The pictured shirt looks as if it’s our staff member shirt. But I do think we’re looking into making shirts in the future! I’ll let folks know on the forums when they’re available.

Thanks for asking.

(You could make one for yourself because it would be for private, non-profit use. The same would not be true of a third-party manufacturer doing the same or of a site using a template that a player made up for him- or herself and the company then used to sell additional shirts. Those companies would be a breach of copyright law and we do pursue such matters to protect our copyrights and trademarks.)

Gaile, do you not recall the game’s Beta and up to launch? During such time there was even a Poll on the official Facebook page about selecting the best design to purchase. It went ….nowhere. Why? It was very popular and I know I’d have ordered 3 myself.

Here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150977371249209.432299.114036714208&type=3

See, you guys already have them designed!

I’d have -and still want to- purchase the Zojja one, the Eir+Zojja one, and the Lifestyle Logo one. Seems your art department still should have the mockups for it, right? Just get together with Jinx and pump them out for a %; there’s no lose at all!

Vayne.8563:

If it’s even an expansion in the traditional sense.

They wouldn’t have copyrighted if it was nothing more than a Living Story section. To put to copyright means that there’s going to be extra physical and digital distribution involved (as well as most likely extra marketing).

With that said, of course it’s going to be a Paid expansion. Do not expect it to be bundled/free for players who own the original [base] game, but rather possibly that the base game comes free with the expansion for new players (similar to how Blizzard provides it’s older stuff bundled for new players, but not the other way around).

I’m throwing out a guess (complete speculation only!) here, but this is what’s going to come out of PAX South:

~~Heart of Thorns expansion announced (official acknowledgement)

~~New levels

~~New Legendary weapons

~~New PvP maps and modes

~~New weapons+Skills

~~Cross-class weapon usage (Elemental with a mace, anyone?)

~~New maps

~~A blended story continuation of The Living Story and Personal Story leading to the face of the 2nd Eldar Dragon to “die” (really I think they’re just forced back into a 1,000 year slumber before magic feeds them awake once again).

~~Actual Launch Date of said expansion.

~~Price point of $40-50

~~Collector’s Edition details (maybe statue of Mordremoth, although that would be cheesy and easily comparable to the dragon provided in the CE of Skyrim….I’d much rather have a statue of Taimi on her Golem to set it right next to Rytlock from the original CE oddly enough).

~~Gameplay (maybe…..I hope?)

Khisanth.2948:

Is “more Scarlet” no longer a valid response?

Personally not really expecting much. Hopes were high pre launch/beta and look where we are now. Not saying the game is terrible but there are some big let downs in various areas.

Care to give an example of the “big let downs in various areas”. I honestly cannot find any. Minor issues there are, sure, but they’re minor at best, with things like balance being #1 (but what MMO doesn’t have balance issues?).

morrolan.9608:

The idea of S2 of WvW is enough to send most WvW players screaming to the other game given how badly the first season worked out.

I found the WvW Season #1 to rejuvenate WvW on my server and others. Queue time became huge because thousands wanted into the maps to participate (whether or not it can be argued that many were “achievement hunters”). In some people’s perspective it was ‘bad’, but most of those complaints either boil down to not being able to get into the map (something that Edge of the Mists should fix in the next season), or issues with GvG players (something that the revamped BG JP fixed, hopefully). Team play and tactical movements became an enjoyable norm to replace the keep-flipping that happened prior to the season.

What can a player of GW2 expect in April 2014 that’ll make the base collectively say “oooo, ahhhhh, wow!”?

January 21st is the start of the last four (4) sections of the Living Story [according to the developers]. That makes January 21st, February 4th, February 18th, and March 4th as the last dates for the LS. After that the game will be in a time-out on patches until their “feature only” patches, which may be longer than 4 weeks.

“But,” you say, “why is April 2014 so important?”
I’ll tell you why. Because that’s launch month of a significant contender for GW2. I’m not going to name names, but you all know which one.

That particular contender has features such as movement based combat and a 3-Faction PvP system that is similar to WvWvW. The game also has a very well established IP that is older than the Guild Wars IP.

So we have here a speculation thread. A thread of what players assume the developers have planned to deliver in April 2014 to sway the consumer to choose GW2 over the competition.

My List of Speculations:

• S.A.B. (Super Adventure Box) World #3: now with more story about the genie in the box.

• A few more Fractals are born, because…ya…

• WvWvW Season #2 starts (best that the game has the 3.5 months off between seasons, plus gives time for the Edge of the Mists to get player adjusted).

• Reveal about something with the [other] Elder Dragons going to be happening within 6 months (please?!)

Hello,

Here’s my “Top 3” for Horizontal Progression:

1) Transforming the ‘home instance’ into a legit, customizable form of player housing. That would mean taking the player’s earned mining nodes and hooking them up into a personalized player house location that’s an instanced offset of their home city (of choice, maybe?). So, like for the Asura it wouldn’t be Snaff’s lab but instead a separate gated zone that could get visual things showing player achievements/skins earned/Living Story completions.

2) Wardrobe. Wardrobe. Wardrobe. To be more specific…you know how the Achievement Skins are unlocked by account with as many copies as you want too? Okay, now consider flinging that out there for the $10-15 skins that are purchased. Even having them as unlocked by having them 1-per-account active, so for example if your Warlock has Grenth’s mask, you cannot put it on your Elementalist unless it’s unequipped off your Warlock.

3) Um….I don’t know. Honestly with those 2 things above it’s enough for me.

Tadz.2870:

You guys finally added a decent back skin, then made it RNG based which has now completely kitten ed me off, ( Yes I will be sour about it all month )3k gifts opened so far with no dwayna drop, yet my guildie who also got his precursor doing dailies gets it within 3 gifts. kitten you all, I was also going to stick money in this month for the stack expansions, but nope not again till you make decent non RNG involving content.

Devs should read LA map chat more often, you might actually hear what you know, your paying customers want, instead of you know, being the gods of RNG. You guys want constructive threads etc then just ignore them and their advice, so from now on its full on in your face kitten you.

1) You’re not a “paying customer”, as you yourself said you refused to purchase gem store items. [I know you purchased to boxed game, but you got out of it was the boxed game and anything extra is just that, extra. Not paid for, but basically free, whether random or not. Only stuff purchased in the gem store makes you a “paying customer”.]

2) The backpack item is an extra surprise ‘gift’ out of all the random stuff you can get too. Heck, they didn’t have to make and add anything at all and could have made the event 100% the exact same as last years. You’d have had issues with that too, right?

3) How does not instantly getting something on Day #1 out of the over 40-day event “ruin” it for you? I’m sorry ,but that seems like taking INSTANT GRATIFICATION to the super extremes. I’m guessing that 100,000’s of gifts will be opened over the month’s period and many more of those pack pieces will go up for sale on the trading post at a decreasing price throughout the event. Patience is a virtue that many people need to start to learn and use.

4) Please don’t curse out the developers just because you don’t get something that you want. It rude, a kittenildish (the act, not you directly), and highly against the rule of the forums.

Healix.5819:

~snip~

I must basically ask, as a player, “Why should I purchase Gem Store cloths when I cannot wear them in the holiday events?” You should have your financial people look at that question and have them demand you swap it back to PvE instead of PvP basically because you’re losing money on this swap. Just throwing that out there, based on my own perspective….

They already have plans to remove the distinction between PvP and PvE gear. PvE gear will be useable in PvP and vice versa.

The PvP format is used for activities as a blanket removal for unintended things found in PvE which people use to get an advantage. Class abilities still work however, so the system isn’t perfect.

And when will these “plans” became reality? There’s no mention of these plans going into effect on this patch, the one that has this issue and is of matter currently. But, even if it were to be this patch, that just does the PvE/PvP gear split, nothing about the Town Cloths.

So what if a player’s PvE gear look can be transferred to PvP? It’s of no matter if you’re still unable to wear town cloths in certain events that you’re wanting to, such as the Wintersday clothing during the Bell Choir, the Jumping Puzzle, or anything else other than in Lion’s Arch.

As for exploits, that would be understandable if there were very many. But the only ones that I was aware of last Wintersday was the snowflake scandal (oh the many bans that got handed out on that spiel) and the teleport hack (the same one that was reasoning for the Orbs’ removal in WvW that’s not been seen in over 8 months). Both of those got fixed by A.Net and wouldn’t/shouldn’t have repeat incident.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

There’s a couple of new bits about the Winter Wonderland jumping puzzle this year that you may find refreshing. The largest improvement is that you no longer have to wait until all of the players complete the puzzle in-between your attempts.

Not so.

Take a look at the original version….

First of all, the original version had the piles of snowballs that allowed players to basically have a fun snowball fight while waiting for reset of the puzzle. As “pointless time fillers”, it was still a matter of FUN for the players.

Another issue is that the checkpoint kind of weakens the challenge of the original one. Sure it was longer than that of the Mad King’s Clocktower (about 1.5x the length), but it was much less clustered with multiple paths with wider ranges. The puzzle was fair enough that it still boiled down to skill for completion.

The last issue I want to bring up is clothing. Yet again we’re having this transformed from a PvE-event to a PvP-event. Why? I’m not sure, honestly. The engine clearly supported the PvE version that was originally in, so why change it? Players who either have made in-game cloths set or purchase Gem Store based sets (remember last years Wintersday cloths?) cannot wear such sets. I must basically ask, as a player, “Why should I purchase Gem Store cloths when I cannot wear them in the holiday events?” You should have your financial people look at that question and have them demand you swap it back to PvE instead of PvP basically because you’re losing money on this swap. Just throwing that out there, based on my own perspective….

What happened to the voiced character between the Wintersday videos? Why is the 2012 one so nice and sweet, while the 2013 one sounds so deep and dark (like the same voice from the Tequatl video)?

Wintersday 2013:

Wintersday 2012:

See the HUGE difference between them? First, I think the person that did the voice for 2012 was British/English (based on accent), and was either a child or was voice-edited to sound as such. The music fit the tone of a happy, glee-filled time. And they added words like “gayety” to help exasperate that tone.

P.S. If I recall, I think the same voice that did the 2012 video also did the video for the NPC that was gathering money to rebuild the Lion’s Arch fountain. I swear it’s the same voice actress, which I haven’t heard since that NPC/video nearly a year ago. What ever happened to her, and what ever happened to that NPC returning (I still have the tokens in my bank).