Guild Wars 2

Gonna copy and paste something I just posted in a similar thread:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:
SO basically what anet wants to do is do free living story all the way up to the climax and then put the end behind a pay wall.
Brilliant.

Me:
At no point in the announcement did they state that the expansion would conclude the living story, and the trailer didn’t hint at all that we’d be defeating Mordremoth in it.
It’s quite likely that the expansion will be a side plot involving the Mursaat and Mordremoths minions with boss battles and the like and the main story will continue in the free living story season 3.

So I would say the expansions will probably be side stories, not a paid “dragon kill” so to speak. So there’s no guarantee that there’ll be one for every dragon, but there may be one every 3 or 4 seasons or none at all.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

SO basically what anet wants to do is do free living story all the way up to the climax and then put the end behind a pay wall.

Brilliant.

At no point in the announcement did they state that the expansion would conclude the living story, and the trailer didn’t hint at all that we’d be defeating Mordremoth in it.

It’s quite likely that the expansion will be a side plot involving the Mursaat and Mordremoths minions with boss battles and the like and the main story will continue in the free living story season 3.

Zanshin.5379:

It is possible to be following the LS and still pretty much NOT be playing the game.
For instance, I come back every 2 weeks, play the LS for 30 minutes and I log out. The rest of the time I play ArcheAge.

But the key point is, you play the living story and as such this expansion would naturally cater to you since it’s got many story elements. Not to say you are guaranteed to want to play it, but it’s more likely.

AngryJoe implies in the video that he and his guild haven’t been playing at all so the expansion wouldn’t cater to him much.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Well, I love druids. As long as they are very versatile and preferably are capable of shapeshifting.

I really wished my ranger was a norn and not human, but who could have ever forseen this move.
Even though Norn shapeshifting sucks kitten, it would have fitted perfectly to the druidic theme.

I will not reroll my ranger though, not with the new trait system still active anyways. So I am hoping for some nice shapeshifting elite for druids, even though I do not really expect this to happen…

They’re redoing the trait system with HoT so it might be a good plan to do it then!

Zanshin.5379:

So because he hasn’t played for a while his opinion isn’t valid?
Veterans who have played for 2 years and ended up playing less because they were bored by the last living stories can’t have a valid opinion?

Actually if you look at games like WoW, expansions tend to bring back old players who stopped playing because they didn’t have things to do anymore.

Players who are still playing… well, there is no need to attract them. The LS is enough.

To be fair, the announcement seemed to be catered to players who have kept up with the living story, so someone who spent less time on playing the game will have less of an interest and less excitement for this expansion.

WoW is a unique comparison, that game is an addiction for many, many gamers, they release very expensive expansions regularly and whilst they bring back players, they seem to drop off again once they complete the content (or seek medical help).

I disagree that releasing expansions regularly is needed to keep an MMO active. The way they work the LS, they have more than enough content coming in to keep their playerbase happy.

It’s a little sad that he seemed to misinterpret the GvG stuff.

He stated that it’s a WvW GvG war instead of it being a new PvP gametype with a GvG leaderboard. Their excitement on a point where they completely misunderstood the point made me cringe a little…

Also, he said he wasn’t blown away by the announcement but he clearly hasn’t been playing the game for some time. They announced they’re finally releasing things that the community have been asking for for years, despite the fact that some of it should have been released ages ago, it’s still great that we’re finally getting certain things.

Bladicus.9078:

Hey,

I don’t know if this is the right thread to ask this, but I don’t know where else, so I’ll still do it. Will we get a free character slot with the expansion? The reason I wanted to know this is because with the recent discounts in the gemstore, it is cheaper for me to buy a character slot while it’s on discount (In case the expansion doesn’t give you a free character slot).

Wrong thread but you’ll get an answer either way, just not a great one.

We don’t know, I’m afraid. If they continue to work like they did in Guild Wars 1, they released a free slot for each new class. If you can afford a slot whilst they’re discounted however, I’m sure that even if you end up with an extra slot, you’ll be able to make a new character and use it eventually!

INF.8496:

Games are shared content.
You are shareing it with newcomers and other playing players.
Meal not. Its eaten by yourself.

Expansions (alias small patches) are just money makeing for me. Its microtransaction afecting gameplay = money makeing.

If you one day see some payed patch in Dota 2 let me know, and that game unlike GW is FREE !! and yes, its also permanently upgraded ! (new heroes and stuff).

DOTA 2 is an entirely different game, it’s a MOBA, not an MMO. It takes little effort to add a character and a small arena map to a game like that.

Actually, oh look http://www.dota2.com/store/itemdetails/16209?r=cd a compendium for DOTA 2 that gives players xp boosts and other in game changes and they’re charging $10. http://www.dota2.com/store/itemdetails/11110?r=cd and some more paid, game affecting items… Oh and a WHOLE page full of passes to play in tournaments http://www.dota2.com/store/#cat=3837590211.

You’ve annoyed me. The devs must have been working on this expansion under the circumstance that their bosses at NCsoft can make back the money they spent on their wages in the development time for this expansion pack. They’re charging because they spent more time on this than they would have spent just doing their regular duties.

We don’t know how much money they’re asking for yet, but shaming them for asking to be paid for doing a job that they spent time on is despicable.

Again, you don’t have to buy this expansion pack to play Guild Wars 2, you’ll continue to get the free updates, living story and more and you are a horrible person for trying to put people down for doing their job.

Einlanzer.1627:

I sort of feel like they’re going to use the expansion content to shore up the lack of good support/healing builds in the game, so I would not be at all surprised if that’s what we get with the Druid.

Looks like the specialisations will be used to help classes in places they suffer, yeah.

I’m just hoping this Druid gives the Ranger some nice, effective condition cleanses.

INF.8496:

i dont like that this “patch” will be payed, its money-makeing on players.

Talks about “one time pay” is history.

Shame on you.

What be next, new profession avaiable only for paying players? Or farming zone? Maybe paying players could switch between 3 weapons, hm?

Guess i will have to look for another game.

Good riddance, people have been trying to explain why it’s a paid expansion to you for days now and you’ve just cried about it the entire time.

The game updates are still going to be FREE. Living story, feature packs, new maps, ALL FREE.

This is a once in 3 years expansion separate to your initial purchase that the devs have worked on for years, they have every right to charge for what is essentially a different game that requires Guild Wars 2 to play, that works with Guild Wars 2, gives it some new features and story but isn’t required to play the game that you paid for initially.

You bought the base game, you “bought” the free updates for life, you did NOT buy free expansions.

Since you love strange analogies: You go to a cafe and order a hamburger meal, you start eating it and you love it, you compliment the staff there and they say, “Oh thanks, we’ve also been working on this new side dish for years, we spent a lot of time and money on it and it tends to go well with hamburgers, it costs £2” and what you’re essentially telling the staff member is “I just bought this meal here… you should give me that side dish for free, I’m entitled to it because I bought something else.” That side dish that wasn’t ever included in your meal and that they spent time working on making delicious, you feel entitled to get for free… and you see no problem with that?

Could just be a staff, there are polearm looking staff skins already in game.

[img]http://www.argos-soft.net/GW2/Img/100f43f.png[/img]
[img]http://www.argos-soft.net/GW2/Img/100f656.png[/img]
[img]http://www.argos-soft.net/GW2/Img/1089c91.png[/img]

Aretak.3826:

Polearms have been confirmed as not being added, but there has been no clarification on spears seeing terrestrial use.

Because terrestrial spears ARE polearms.

Polearms include melee spears, halberds, glaives and more long sticks with stabby-slicey bits.

Knighthonor.4061:

Well like I said. If true, I want the art team to start making Hammers and Great Swords using Great Axe skins as well since they making staffs with spear skins ….

Ninja’d it in ahead of your post, letting you know in case you don’t check the post since there won’t be a new message icon.

dsslive.8473:

Knighthonor.4061:

psizone.8437:

dsslive.8473:

I can’t really be bothered to look it up, but i’m fairly sure some interview out there states that that isnt a spear, but a staff.

So dont get your hopes up.

I was just trying to find that same interview but couldn’t find it.

Colin says something like “We thought this would be an issue and we warned the art team that it could be taken the wrong way but they went ahead with it anyway, but no, no land spear weapons”

You have link to this?

Sadly no, i dont tend to store links for “future reference” so you can choose to believe it or not i dont really care , maybe Psizone will have some luck finding it.

Think I found it, was a reddit post from someone that was apparently at the afterparty and had a little Q and A with Colin.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2tsiox/pax_afterparty_lessons_learned/

Knighthonor.4061:

You have link to this?

Like I said, I was trying to find it but didn’t have any luck. I’m still looking but I’m half asleep so it’s quite likely I overlooked it 10 web pages ago…

dsslive.8473:

I can’t really be bothered to look it up, but i’m fairly sure some interview out there states that that isnt a spear, but a staff.

So dont get your hopes up.

I was just trying to find that same interview but couldn’t find it.

Colin says something like “We thought this would be an issue and we warned the art team that it could be taken the wrong way but they went ahead with it anyway, but no, no land spear weapons”

Malediktus.9250:

psizone.8437:

How about the fact that you can get several hundred achievement points for ranking up in PvP and yet we get no points at all for ranking up in WvW?

A little love for people that spend most of their time in WvW would be nice.

+1 to +10 AP per rank tier eg. Gold-Invader would sound good to me and motivate me to go for Diamond Legend.

Yup, +10 AP per new rank and +50 per new colour.

Mo Mo.1947:

But I’m feeling $40-$45 will be the price range.

I see this number a lot and I’m positive that’s $15 too much, this is an expansion pack, not a full retail game. $30 max.

Knighthonor.4061:

You talking traits, I am talking skills. But yes it could work that way indeed as you explained.
But I dare say, that would be a bit boring for a mechanic don’t you think? Only effecting the conditions/boons applied by the skills?

I would assume that would only be a part of it, what someone said in the thread about having skills like the elementalists glyphs that completely change depending on the legend channelled could also be there.

Knighthonor.4061:

But what about skills that aren’t just stat buttons, such as a Guardian’s meditation skills, or a Warrior’s physical skills, etc. those aren’t just skills that add stats. So how will those skills change.

Guardians already have a trait that allows their meditations to also heal the guardian, it would most likely work like that. For warrior, “Use bull rush, also bleeds enemy for 5 seconds” or “Use bull rush, gain protection for 4 seconds”

Arcan Blues.5284:

So, I’m just curious about this:

A friend just bought the game (like a week ago) knowing that it was a “one time pay” game. With the expansion coming soon (something I was really excited with) this unpleasent though comes to me… the thought that I’ll have to say to my friend “I’m sry dude, it’s not a pay and play game anymore, you’ll have to pay once more, and any other time they decide to update the game and call an expansion”.

Thou, I’m not familiar with the game also, nor I watched the stream about the expansion. I just play casualy, and so I’m guessing that:
1) you can’t play the game as it is after the expansion (some games have their expansion separately, which isn’t the case here, right?)
2) there’s no ganrantee that the game will remain free after paying for this expansion, cuz they could release some future paid expansion and so on.

I appologize again, I read only some bits of info here and there, and also pretty much only the GM replies to this thread.

Thx for your time \o

You have it all wrong, this expansion is different to the living story and general updates, expansions will not come often and it is optional for your friend to buy it. If he doesn’t buy it, he’ll lose out on a new class and a large story with a few new areas but he can still play.

After the expansion it will revert back to free regular living story updates, eventually they might release another expansion, but this one is coming out almost 3 years since the release of the game so I don’t think that’ll be any time soon.

Next time please take the time to read through some more replies and the FAQ about the expansion.

Scoobaniec.9561:

That actually makes sense, yeah. But then again im worried. If we can “catch” for example 20 different legends like a pokemons, how many skills that class will offer in the end? Its a lot of skills tbh. Basically 10 skills per legend. And how many of them we will be able to use in combat?

In case of ranger we set up what pets (limited to 2 ofc) we want to use and they all have different f2, but nothing else at this point.

In my example I suggested it would be additional effects added to standard utilities, rather than replacing the utilities as a whole. Otherwise, yeah, that could get complex.

Crise.9401:

What am I thinking? Maybe legends could be acquired akin to Rangers pets (even if there is lot less of them, for obvious reasons)

Woops, I didn’t read your full post and it looks like we came to the same conclusion!

Scoobaniec.9561:

So basically f1-5 which changes not olny your skillbar, but also everything else? Aka ele+engi combo lol sounds interesing but not sure how it work out. And why i mentioned f1-5 at this point? Cause we have 5 types of utility.

I personally see it as being similar to a Ranger and an Elementalist.

Ranger because their wording suggests you get to choose which legend you channel, similar to how rangers can choose which pets they use. Perhaps we can roam the world looking for graves, statues and books to gain more legends to summon.

Elementalist because of the whole “changing legends [attunement]”. Say you channel a healer legend, your heal and skills would have a new condition cleanse or boon addition, or using Mallyx (they stated he’d have controls of conditions) would add condition damage to your heal and utilities.

For example, you use a shout utility, the shout by default gives 3 stacks of might and some fury. If you channel Mallyx, the shout gives 3 stacks of might, some fury and bleeds your target each time you hit them for kittens. Or if you channel a healer, the shout gives the boons and clears conditions from you and your allies.

Puppet.9712:

You really botched my mojo lol. I was stoked looking forward to the possibility of just playing my regular character with new utils. Oh well, maybe the specialization will be werf. We will just have to wait and see. I hope when they release more info on specializations that it’s not just “this is what it’s called and these will be your new weapon choices”. I hope we will be able to look at the new skills and traits for each, but I doubt that.

You never know, the new specialisations could remove traits and skills you didn’t use in the base class and give you something good to use! And with more specialisations coming in time after the expansions release, one of the newer, unplanned specialisations might be better still.

It sounded like they want to go deep into explaining the new specialisations so it might not be asking too much for them to explain the skills and traits of each.

Puppet.9712:

Ya, that one is worded a hell of a lot better. Mah b

No harm done, once everybody knows how the system will work (when they post the in depth information in a few weeks) it’ll be a lot easier to explain without having to find obscure news sites with interviews!

Puppet.9712:

So once druid is unlocked…the ranger can use his skills ….u must read

Again, you need to be functioning as the Druid to use the skills.

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=35650&storypage=2

“the Ranger will not be able to use anything from the Druid unless it is functioning as a Druid.”
You misread, unlocking the specialisation does unlock the skills, but you can’t use the Druid skills unless you are functioning as a Druid in which case, you will lose certain aspects of the Ranger class.

Puppet.9712:

Wrong. He said you can put Druid skills on your bar as a ranger as long as you have the specialization unlocked.

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

“And players can actually mix and match a little bit. If you are playing as a Druid you will be able to use a lot of the Ranger’s skills, and you can actually slot them in to make a lot of creative builds. But a Ranger can not use any of the stuff a Druid has unless they become a Druid.”

Sorry, I did check before I posted.

Crise.9401:

This, or any variant of it (ie. revenant instance + race intro even) would be super cool. Or even just a cutscene.

A cutscene would be lame, lets have them go all the way and blow everyones minds, it’ll be fun

Puppet.9712:

putting druid util skills on your bar while you play ranger.

Just to clarify, you can’t use Druid skills as a Ranger. You need to be using the specialisation to slot in the skills and traits, and doing to will lock certain Ranger traits and skills.

Grimwolf.7163:

There’s a huge difference between being capable of doing that, and that being the entire intended goal of the system.

That is the goal of the system, it’s their way of adding new, fresh ways to play the base classes. That could be adding new defences to a class that didn’t originally have them or just add a new way to fight in general. They’re swappable and won’t make the original class obsolete.

One of the most asked for changes to ranger is the addition of a permanent stow option for pets, with this system, they could completely change the ranger pet mechanic by removing the pet and adding something else and that would be a new specialisation.

An argument I keep hearing is “Oh, I don’t want to be a Druid but if I don’t change, I won’t stay competitive” that isn’t the case, the Ranger will still be competitive, working the same as it does now and the Druid will also be a competitive option, but in a slightly different niche category than the Ranger as a base.

Another specialisation could give the Guardian a condition weapon and condition related traits and skills so that a proper condition Guardian could be viable, but it won’t suddenly make the standard Guardian inferior.

It’ll just add new choices, it’s going to be great if they can pull it off.

Kvothe.1467:

I’m pretty sure personal story is linked to race not profession. So… I’d say it should just give you an option to start at beginning or… I guess in Lion’s Arch near the Mist gates.

Usually yes, but lore wise if Rytlock is the first then technically they could create a separate instance for the profession in place of the race starter story.

For example, choosing Revenant as a class gives you a new choice, instead of choosing a pet etc like the ranger, you choose the method in which you “died” and went to the mists. This would lead to an intro scene of, for example, a battle in which you died or you falling into a portal similar to how Rytlock went to the mists.

After the cutscene it starts you in the mists without weapons (imagine the Sylvari starter area, it being in the Dream would be similar to this) whilst in the mists, you find Rytlock in all his Revenant glory and he agrees to teach you how to use the Revenants abilities and you complete the instance by leaving the mists.

This would drop you back in Tyria before Zhaitans defeat (explainable by mists physics and reasons) and the next personal story steps include dealing with issues with being a person with an unknown power in the “past” and that’d lead you into the order arc since they want you in their orders etc and it continues as normal.

Purely theoretical and wild, but it would fix the issues with lore and be a great incentive for people to try out the class.

Grimwolf.7163:

He explicitly claimed they were not meant to be a subclass to add extra customization, but rather a niche tool you swap into under specific circumstances.
Like a Thief taking Smoke Screen against a heavily ranged boss.

But that is how it’s going to work, you can swap the specialisations out when you’re not in combat. Say you play a ranger, having terrible condition cleanse, if you’ve been fighting condition heavy opponents, you can leave combat and swap your specialisation to Druid which could theoretically have better condition cleanse so you can better combat that type of attack. It won’t give you extras per se, more like giving you a different way to fight.

Grimwolf.7163:

That’s not the part I was talking about.

[/quote]

My apologies, I missed that post!

Sounds like you’re both arguing the same point then but disagreeing on the wording. He seems to have mistook subclass and an extension of the basic class as different things where in this case they are the same thing.

Specialisations being there to change certain aspects of the basic class through utility, trait and mechanic changes are in this case considered to be a subclass.

AivenPrimus.9184:

I think some people are unable to understand concept of ’’EXPANSION’’ and ’’GAME’’

Question is about EXPANSION PRICING… not GAME PRICING

There is no way that Expansion will cost more than 20EUR

Pretty much. £20, $30, €25 is most likely the maximum they would charge.

INF.8496:

i dont know your costs, but quartal profit 32 milions seems to me enought to keep game runing and updating (without payed expansions)

If u still need more money, then i sugest to change game model – problem of the game is, thats based on fashion, and that fashion is avaiable to all players (paying or not paying) + most of it CANT be bought for money.
I recommand (in case of makeing more money) change model to 3 base skin looks for every armour type, rest skins (rares and special) avaiable only via gems (600 gems per 1 item). Events (living story) offering as meta achievment special “+5 upgrade”, which upgrade selected atribute on selected peace of armor by 5. On final event chest similar upgrade, but only +1 (and achievable only once per event). Its not such big advantage, but players will still be motivated enought to continue playing the game, and the microtransaction from skins will finance the game very well (a lot of active players + human nature to brag = profit). Present black lion offering its quite garbage (no offence), its not tending people to microtransaction as situation described above will.

I don’t know where you’re pulling your numbers from, but their current marketplace model works fine, people are buying gems and using them regularly and we’ve had no hints of them needing to change it in any way. Hell, no-one in the forums or reddit posts to complain about the gem store in general, only a select few items ever get complaints.

None of that even matters in this thread though, this expansion is separate from the main game and the gem store, they’ve said it’ll be a paid expansion and we’re discussing how much it will cost.

Suggesting that since they’re a big company and they should give you the expansion for free because charging for it, in your mind, seems to suggest that they’re failing as a company is rude and extremely entitled.

metaldude.4132:

psizone.8437:

As Gudy mentioned above, trademarks are really to stop people making money off of her and her products likeness (like making “Shake it off” T-Shirts in her songs likeness)

But even if she had Copyrighted the term, which is almost impossible to do considering it’s a fairly used term, the guild wars skill was created before her song came out so they’d be clear of any danger on that front.

So..actually ANet should have been paid by her then ? :P LOL

No, they didn’t copyright the term since it’s almost impossible to do so, it would also be expensive and hard to enforce.

As Gudy mentioned above, trademarks are really to stop people making money off of her and her products likeness (like making “Shake it off” T-Shirts in her songs likeness)

But even if she had Copyrighted the term, which is almost impossible to do considering it’s a fairly used term, the guild wars skill was created before her song came out so they’d be clear of any danger on that front.

Grimwolf.7163:

BammBamm.6719:

you can switch specializations out of combat, so basically limiting your gameplay is not possible. what they do is they give you an additional alternative to react on special circumstances. a specialization will not be a subclass, its an addition to play your existing class.

I’m pretty sure you came up with that conclusion completely on your own. You shouldn’t state it as a fact.
That actually runs counter to other things they’ve said.
It’s been said outright that the specializations are their answer to the dual-classes from GW1. They simply took the same basic goal in a less open route so it would be easier to balance.

Swapping specialisations out of combat was confirmed in multiple interviews with developers since the announcement.

“Becoming a Druid won’t be a permanent decision, as players will be able to change to and from their specializations any time they are outside of combat, similar to how players can currently change skills and traits.” http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=35650&storypage=2

That’s the newest one I found but it was also stated in other news articles.

BammBamm.6719:

my bet is the rebuilding of lions arch before the expansion

As nice as that would be, lore wise it wouldn’t work since they’ve stated that the expansion is set hours after the finale of season 2.

JUN YANG.4328:

i worry about as well. i only will wait until 29/08/15. after that i wont play this game any more. its had been 2 and a half years already. if 3 year for 1 expansion that is not acceptable.

lets just talk about NCsoft ’s game:

Aion release 3 expansion in 4 year.
Blade & Soul 2 new class in 2 year.

In fairness, there was no “plan” to release an expansion until they announced it so the players that have been here for 2.5 years are unlikely to quit because they have to wait a few months for an expansion that they weren’t expecting in the first place.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

They will however probably add some mini living stories. Perhaps the Ls team will keep us busy with a stand alone LS that doens’t impact mordremoth. After all LS is seperate team. Maybe SAB will see it’s comeback.

Launch, feature pack, all were released near augustus. It’s a date Anet likes.

I did mention I thought a 4 month gap before the expansion sounded about right, which would be the end of April or sometime in May. Hype will only keep people interested for so long.

I don’t think they could make mini LS updates since the finale of season 2 ended on such a bombshell, if HoT takes place hours after season 2 lore wise then cramming in any kind of story between it would feel clunky and out of place. Even festivals would stick out like a sore thumb as it stands now.

The only thing they can realistically add to pass the time would be a WvW tournament which would buy them 6 weeks or so.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Maybe the head office (the shop is a chain, it has shops in a lot of cities) had some date guess inserted on the computer already. But he definitely read it from his screen.

You got it there, if it’s anything like ‘Game’ here in the UK, HQ send the stores an email with the release dates and expected delivery dates ahead of time that change as time goes on.

September sounds way too late considering we won’t have a living story until the expansions release.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

He has to has some inside info. So here you go, I shared it.

It’s not inside information, it’s a guess.

Game stores regularly do this for games with no announced release date, they guess a far off date and change it when more information is released.

Dr II Evil.9326:

Christmas is a good bet on release. They said a beta is coming out for the expansion but no time for when it will start. I’m sure we will get filler content between now and the release of HoT.

Sorry, but it’ll release much sooner than that, end of April to sometime in May is a more realistic release date.

The reason for this is that since HoT is supposed to carry on from living story season 2, season 3 won’t start until after HoT is released. The longest living story gap was around 4 months, if they wait any longer than that they risk the player base losing interest in the game due to the lack of content in what is their biggest selling point, the living story.

Thaia.5146:

I love how people here say that everything is “optional”. Well buying the game was “optional” too… yet I am an active community member since 2007. Please stop with this “it’s optional” thing – I can see it all over the forums.

What are you talking about? Talking about specialisations being optional is the entire point of them being in the game.

The game has 8, soon to be 9 classes but playing each and every one of them has always been optional and a matter of preference, the specialisations are going to continue that.

It won’t backfire.

People need to understand the fact that this is an additional choice for builds in the game.

Losing traits, skills and mechanics is optional, if you don’t like what a specialisation offers, don’t use it. Some day they’ll release another specialisation that may be better suited to your play style. These specialisations are not going to somehow break your class, they’ll just offer an alternative play style.

For example, the ranger suffers from lack of decent condition removal so the druid subclass could theoretically provide traits and skills that improve the rangers condition removal, at the expense of some of their more offensive abilities such as traps. Optional but not necessary.

One of the other most called for changes to rangers is the ability to permanently stow their pet, this system will allow arenanet to add a specialisation that does that and adds some new utilities and traits to bolster the ranger in exchange for the lack of pet.

This is a good thing, try to see it in the long term. More skills, more builds, more fun.

INF.8496:

“ppl crying about the fact that they have to pay”
i bought it once, dont see a reason to be forced to buy it again.

For financing purpose u have new buyers.
For aditional financing, u have (optional) microtranstactions (not influencing gameplay). Just do your job corectly and people will apreciate it (pay or recommand to friends).
Thats my opinion.

If they were not updating game, the game will eventualy die. Updates (if good) is the key what keeps game popular and selling.

You bought the game and get regular content updates for free, that’s what they stated and that’s what you get.

This is additional content that they worked hard to create, you have the option to pay for it and play it, or you can just continue to play the content you get now and keep getting the regular living story updates. You are not entitled to this content because you think they should earn enough money to pay for staff through new players and micro-transactions.

1. There are a finite number of new players that they can get into the game, as an MMO ages, there are fewer and fewer players that will buy it so they can’t have a constant income there.
2. Micro-transactions pay for the staffs base pay and allow them to make regular content updates such as the living story.

If you want more content, such as expansion scale content with new classes, huge areas and more then they need money to invest in the time and technologies to do so, on such a large scale, having paid expansions deals with this issue in the easiest possible way.

Sending the developers happy thoughts and rainbows, whilst lovely, does not support them financially.

DeathPanel.8362:

The main problem with having an additional wvw map is that it further splits the playerbase. Howadays wvw zones are already near dead unless during peak hours. Adding an additional zone will just further dilute how many players are in each WvW zone.

I would’ve preferred if they added additional areas to existing WvW zones or something to that effect instead.

You misunderstand, the new map will replace the existing borderland maps and each week or so it will alternate between the 2 maps.

MangoMonkey.7582:

We’ll just have to wait what the expansion will bring us Specialization-wise, but looking at the druid if it doesn’t provide superior party boons to other professions like Guardian, but doesn’t pack the slightest punch it’s going to be left unused. But as I said, will just have to wait and not get overhyped.

I’m just hoping it provides better condition removal, since that’s the main shortcoming of the ranger.