[EXPANSION] Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns Discussion

[Fencers]

I am probably not going to get the expansion myself. Not unless it drops in price during one of those sale weekends or whathaveyou. Perhaps someone will buy HoT for me, who knows.

Really interesting game to see develop, Guild Wars 2, but I am having a hard time finding compelling reasons to buy this xpack right away. Not enough to personally engage me and this is not a new MMO where at the very least I get the novelty of new systems. Actually, GW2:HoT seems like a lot of the same existing play systems that I don't think are very well designed in the first place.

Though I might just say screw it and buy the xpack if there are enough interesting things to me post-launch. Price, "1 map" and so on- this is not a concern for me if the expansion proves to be interesting enough. So far I am on the fence.

[Maarius]

They have announced 4 open world maps, some with 3 biomes (Roots, Floor and Canopy).

You'll journey through four of the largest, most diverse and replayable maps ever built in the world of Guild Wars®; maps in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns are designed as three-dimensional volumes rather than traditional flat planes. You'll have more to explore as you travel through the jungle biomes, from the canopy heights to the jungle floor and deep below into the jungle roots.

http://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/game/maguuma

These are the map names that have been datamined:
Verdant Brink
Ebullient Depths
Auric Basin
Dragon's Stand

This of course does not count the Guild Hall maps or Borderlands or Stronghold maps or anything else.

Also the segment of the map we currently have unlocked for the beta is huge... and it's only 25% of the whole map according to Anet. And it's only 1 biome. Masteries really open up the map and unlock new hidden paths, it's so much fun. The map has more the feeling of a Zelda-like map imho.

The first thing I did was unlock hanggliding 1. Suddenly I got access to new parts of the map and new hidden locations for getting those mastery points. That was not the only reward for doing the flying though. I got a totally new viewpoint of the area I've fought before. The jungle is pure immersion. Then I unlocked the bouncing mushroom mastery. Before I thought those things just shoot you straight up... well no: they shoot you in all kinds of directions - in a variety of distances. It's so much fun. Did I use this mushroom before? Let's try it. --> get shot into a frog treehouse with dozens of enemies surrounding me. O_O Try fighting a toad double your size in a small freaking treehouse.

Judging on all the masteries I haven't unlocked yet, the content we get here is quite a lot.

- - - Updated - - -

this is the maguuma mastery track

[Fencers]

The map has more the feeling of a Zelda-like map imho.

This is exactly, like exactly, what I expected when reading about the expansion and beta weekend. From descriptions people were giving I thought, "This sounds a lot like an action-platformer... Zelda."

I also got a real Darksiders/Metroid-type design to the map and masteries. I half expected some one on Reddit to say they unlocked the Grappling Hook or Raft.

[Maarius]

This is exactly, like exactly, what I expected when reading about the expansion and beta weekend. From descriptions people were giving I thought, "This sounds a lot like an action-platformer... Zelda."

I also got a real Darksiders/Metroid-type design to the map and masteries. I half expected some one on Reddit to say they unlocked the Grappling Hook or Raft.

It's really good map design imho. Bouncing mushrooms not only allow access to new areas but provide welcome shortcuts as well. Feels a bit like the barrel canons in Donkey Kong Country when you get shot to a new location.

When you look at the masteries a bit closer you see what can be expected:

• areas you can only reach via glider, some of those probably farther away, so you need to unlock updrafts. Looks like a race game where you need to get all the boosters in order to make a jump. The stealth unlock suggest that there will be enemies you want to avoid up in the air in order to make it to your goal.
• the Itzel lore masteries open another dimension of the map. The existence of speed mushrooms could mean timed jumping puzzles (you need to be fast enough to make it through a closing door etc) or some escape szenarios. One of the unlocks tells us that there will be a champion you can fight daily for rewards.
• Exalted lore is about deciphering Exalted markings, it sounds like those are hidden and need to be found. With being able to gather Aurilium (with a lot of mastery points and xp required) it looks like we'll get new crafting recipes. The costs for this unlock suggest that not everyone will have those outcomes in the beginning for a long time.
• Nuhoch lore unlocks new collections. You also unlock new traders as well as access to new areas (wallows). Unlocking stealth detection could mean more than finding mobs who enter stealth in combat. It could also mean that some enemies are perma stealthed and can only be fought when having detection unlocked.

that's some of it analysed, but you notice: there's much more to it than meets the eye.

[Soul Hermit]

I just played the jungle 2 hours, completing the event in daytime that bombs the blighted tree , and man it feels AMAZING!
The gliding is just crazy fun, and it really does feel like it's a new area, while I get to see the jungle from above, or reach places I couldn't before!

Not to mention the amazing fun elites, especially the tempest, who is extremely fun, and I just might make my main now that I've seen it

[Maarius]

especially the tempest, who is extremely fun, and I just might make my main now that I've seen it

that's interesting, I haven't tried it yet but common voice is pretty brutal about this spec.

[Karizee]

Added the Scrapper to the OP (Engineer Elite spec)
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/m...pecialization/

Here's the recording of the POI showing all the Scrapper's abilities and traits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcdUMSq_mdU

Druid (the Ranger Elite Spec) will be showcased at Twitchcon this week!

[thewallofsleep]

Druid (the Ranger Elite Spec) will be showcased at Twitchcon this week!

Finally. The first spec they announced will at last be given a proper reveal. Took long enough.

[Sharci]

Looks like HoT will be getting some well known voice actors.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/des.../1100-6430811/

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Looks like HoT will be getting some well known voice actors.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/des.../1100-6430811/

What's especially interesting about Mordremoth is that the only player race who can hear him are the Sylvari characters. The game's other races only hear dragon-like noises.

The real question is: how much did Anet's VA department spend just to have only a fraction of the playerbase hear Nolan North try to roleplay a dragon?

[Djriff]

Found this out the other day. If you have ~10 hours a solid team you can just grind CoF (~70 runs with boosters) to max out your mastery for tyria.

[Arlee]

Found this out the other day. If you have ~10 hours a solid team you can just grind CoF (~70 runs with boosters) to max out your mastery for tyria.

Yea there's a bit of a debate going if it's an exploit or not... either way it sounds like a horribly boring way to max out your masteries. Of course I don't feel any pressure to get all the masteries done OMG NOW... so that also is likely part of why doing that is even less appealing to me. Plus I abhor grinding for anything in games, drives me batty.

[Djriff]

You and me both, however there are some who like grinding for the sake of grinding.

[Kazgrel]

There was a post somewhere on the official forums that stated the CoF farm is not an exploit, because the mobs being killed only reward xp. No loot or anything else.

That said, I already have pact mastery done and I've started working on precursor crafting as of last night. XP boosters (specifically kill streak boosters) are your friend. I did a mix of Harathi Hinterlands (where you kill wave after wave of centaurs) for one of the daily event completer achieves the other day and was seeing ~400k xp per event. Not to mention a truckload of loot. Cursed Shore also works well if you get in on a map with decent amount of people (although old timers may cringe at the idea of going back to CS yet again).