Guild Wars 2 - Expansion Announcement

[Black Rider]

I belive there was leak several months ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSNR-2BikpA

[StationaryHawk]

It's mostly the elite specs, yeah. The synergies possible on some classes now are insane. (Funny seeing on person capable of putting up 60+ bleed stacks now)

New HoT prefixes are also just plain better in many cases as well (Especially Minstrel) but that's not as large an issue and is mostly restricted to WvW or Raids.

Yeah, that's what I thought, which is fair. There's definitely more powerful builds that can be made with the HoT specializations that are not available to Vanilla players. I'd always thought the prefixes added in HoT could be obtained by Vanilla players but, again, it's not something I've really looked much into.

I don't really see it as an issue of time investment, however. It doesn't take long to max out the elite specialization, and masteries are almost entirely utility, so a player that buys HoT will quickly have the same capability as one who has been playing since its launch. I do agree that it's an unfortunate paywall.

[Valeron]

Viper is HoT only and is account bound and that is the only gotten through HoT content. It's arguably the best prefix set for condition based characters. So I can see where BD comes from.

[Deleted]

I hope the maps are a bit more "vanilla" in style and not all like the HoT maps. The verticality gets kind of old after a while, and the maps are kind of just a pain in the arse to navigate.

I also hope any new elites/specs they add don't invalidate the HoT ones. I really enjoy Daredevil a LOT, and so I hope the new ones are properly balanced to be a choice and not just a straight upgrade to take.

On specs; it'd be cool to see a shape-shifting elite for Ranger. IDK if it's supported in lore, but it could work something like Engineer kits where you can shift into several different animals for different types of skills.

[DrMcNinja]

I belive there was leak several months ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSNR-2BikpA

Part of me feels like this leak is looking way too legit to be true.

[Valeron]

Hopefully it will be a compromise in area design. I don't think they should go completely away from the vertical nature of the game but I do think there should be some more relaxing areas. In HoT there was no place to "rest", it was all 100 mph.

[Arlee]

I recall seeing a leak that said eles were getting 1h sword.
Can't find a link tho, the only thing I can find is a picture of the new ele spec skillbar.

Of course there was also a "leak" for HoT that claimed Ele's would get 1h sword so it could just be just as wrong as that was.

[Fencers]

I have not played the game in a year or so at this point. Really, really disliked the direction of the last expansion. If the new xpack offers more of the flavor from the vanilla game I might be curious. However, at this point I am so thoroughly put off by the shallow gameplay and action-game focus that Anet would have to do something pretty dramatic to get me to spend money on anything they ever develop again.

I think Arena.net's development over the course of Guild Wars 2 has been disgraceful at best from a player standpoint. Though fascinating from the view of game development in general.

[azurrei]

I have not played the game in a year or so at this point. Really, really disliked the direction of the last expansion. If the new xpack offers more of the flavor from the vanilla game I might be curious. However, at this point I am so thoroughly put off by the shallow gameplay and action-game focus that Anet would have to do something pretty dramatic to get me to spend money on anything they ever develop again.

I think Arena.net's development over the course of Guild Wars 2 has been disgraceful at best from a player standpoint. Though fascinating from the view of game development in general.

Wow...I could not have written this any better myself - EXACTLY how I feel (except its been more like 1.5 years since I touched it - Wintersday 2015)!

[LilSaihah]

Looking forward to it. I think if they pump a massive advertising campaign and put a lot of work into the expansion then it could be golden. They've learnt a lot from HoT and from LS3.

I have not played the game in a year or so at this point. Really, really disliked the direction of the last expansion. If the new xpack offers more of the flavor from the vanilla game I might be curious. However, at this point I am so thoroughly put off by the shallow gameplay and action-game focus that Anet would have to do something pretty dramatic to get me to spend money on anything they ever develop again.

I think Arena.net's development over the course of Guild Wars 2 has been disgraceful at best from a player standpoint. Though fascinating from the view of game development in general.

You haven't played any of the current LS, I'm guessing? It might be worth hopping in to see if you like those maps' design; I wouldn't be surprised if they take more of that kind of direction with the expansion. They're very different from both the vanilla maps and the HoT maps; they're a lot more focused than the core maps, but they aren't anywhere near as 'meta-event is everything' as the HoT maps.

[Fencers]

You haven't played any of the current LS, I'm guessing?

No. I am not sure on which part I left off last.

It might be worth hopping in to see if you like those maps' design; I wouldn't be surprised if they take more of that kind of direction with the expansion.

What kind of direction was taken in the design if you don't mind my asking?

In what way are they different from the HOT and vanilla maps?

'meta-event is everything' as the HoT maps.

That was not the issue I had with HOT maps. Actually the maps were not my issue as a singular thing- the gameplay was not to my liking. I found all the platforming and environmental navigation gameplay tiresome and not very fun.

[Valeron]

Fencers probably wouldn't like the new LS episodes then. While not as crazy as HoT there is still much more vertical navigation gameplay then the vanilla areas.

[Demoncrash]

Will they finally bring back monks? :x

Yea can't wait to play a 55 build in GW2

[LilSaihah]

What kind of direction was taken in the design if you don't mind my asking?

In what way are they different from the HOT and vanilla maps?

That was not the issue I had with HOT maps. Actually the maps were not my issue as a singular thing- the gameplay was not to my liking. I found all the platforming and environmental navigation gameplay tiresome and not very fun.

The maps are pretty compact in the way Dry Top, Silverwastes and Lab Cliffs are/were.

The only multilayered maps in LS3 are Draconis Mons and Bloodstone Fen. Lake Doric, Bitterfrost Frontier and Ember Bay are all very flat. Siren's Landing is a bit of a pain, but in the Orr sense, not the HoT sense. Draconis Mons is probably comparable in difficulty to Verdant Brink and nothing is as much of a clusterfuck as Tangled Depths. Figuring out how to get to an event on most maps is not a problem.

Masteries are only really necessary to navigate in Draconis Mons and Bloodstone Fen. I think you could probably 100% most of them without any mastery at all.

Fencers probably wouldn't like the new LS episodes then. While not as crazy as HoT there is still much more vertical navigation gameplay then the vanilla areas.

Lake Doric, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier? Nothing like HoT zones.

[Valeron]

Lake Doric, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier? Nothing like HoT zones.

Well true, not all of them. Although those mentioned still have use of gliding, updrafts, and lean mechanics (maybe not necessary though). I just don't know what Fencer's threshold is for it. Fencer certainly would not like the Chalice of Tears JP though

[StationaryHawk]

The new prefixes are all unattainable by vanilla players, sadly. (Unless there are a few exceptions from specific vendors or something)

They way they did this was by making them not drop or come from any of the typical vendors. You can only craft them, and then they're account bound on acquire. Which is another goofy bit of time and money that wasn't required in the past.

I think some might be available from WvW? Which is still a very bizarre restriction, and I don't think applies to all of them. I am definitely on board with the BoA nature of new stat prefixes which feels like, as you said, an unnecessary method of barring non-HoT players (or non-crafters) from accessing them.

I guess they're issues I've never paid much mind to, being someone that logs in at least for every new patch and so has never really been "behind" in the same sense. They won't deter me for that reason, but I can definitely understand others being put off by it. Personally, I felt there was a lot of improvement in season 3 of the Living World, so I can only hope they continue to learn from the mistakes they made in HoT.

[SirCowdog]

August 1 confirmed hype train is all set

join the fun at on August 1 on the gw2 youtube page
i for one am so hyped

I still haven't played the last expansion... >_>

[lokoma]

I still haven't played the last expansion... >_>

chances are heart of thorns will be going free to play soon so i would wait and see

[SirCowdog]

chances are heart of thorns will be going free to play soon so i would wait and see

That would be surprising if it became free, but i wouldn't complain.

[lokoma]

That would be surprising if it became free, but i wouldn't complain.

it's what happened with the base game when the heart of thorns expansion come out