Guild Wars 2 - Expansion Announcement

[lokoma]

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

[Deleted]

Please add player housing!

[TriHard]

I hope there's more to it than what we saw in the leaks, new elite specialization, the crystal desert and mounts are not enough to make the game great again.
We need more features.

[Meow]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/expansion/

Join us for the announcement of the second expansion for Guild Wars 2
August 1, 2017
Tune in at 9:00 AM PDT (UTC-7)
Watch our official announcement live here.
Or on Twitch.tv, Youtube, and Facebook!

[lokoma]

I'm predicting new specialization and a level cap increase i think it's time they started following the path of traditional mmos

[Valeron]

There won't be a level cap increase

[Lotus Victoria]

As a thief, I hope that they'll give us a long range alternative. Rifle or Long Bow, please.

[Arlee]

There won't be a level cap increase

Yea... masteries have essentially taken over the role of new levels.

[Lotus Victoria]

Yea... masteries have essentially taken over the role of new levels.

And, to be fair, I like the mastery system. It may be grindy, but I'm hoping for new ways to explore the world via Masteries. I loved the mobility and verticality in HoT.

[Edge-]

Yea... masteries have essentially taken over the role of new levels.

This always bothered me, masteries even have a separate "leveling" system and everything. It's basically levels without actually adding levels, it's smoke and mirrors.

[Valeron]

Not really, only a few masteries are necessary. With levels you add gear and all of the other baggage that goes with it. Masteries you can be a little more creative such as what they did with sirens.

[Deleted]

Will they finally bring back monks? :x

[StationaryHawk]

This always bothered me, masteries even have a separate "leveling" system and everything. It's basically levels without actually adding levels, it's smoke and mirrors.

Masteries more often add utility than power, giving the player access to new ways to navigate areas and new objects to interact with. By using a separate "leveling" system, they were able to keep current gear relevant and prevent players from becoming exponentially more powerful.

It is just another form of character progression, but I feel it works for GW2.

[TriHard]

As a thief, I hope that they'll give us a long range alternative. Rifle or Long Bow, please.

Sniper is what they're getting according to the leaks.

[Edge-]

Masteries more often add utility than power, giving the player access to new ways to navigate areas and new objects to interact with. By using a separate "leveling" system, they were able to keep current gear relevant and prevent players from becoming exponentially more powerful.

It is just another form of character progression, but I feel it works for GW2.

They add both, and that's also largely irrelevant. They're used to arbitrary time-gate players, more or less, just like levels. They even have easily referenced numbers to indicate your progressing through the system.

There's literally nothing that would prevent them from simply locking item power where it is now, but just adding 5 more actual character levels instead.

I'm not shitting on it as a broken/bad system or criticizing folks that like it, but it's largely just a different coat of paint rather than an actual design departure from adding levels in an expansion.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Crystal Desert? Crystal Desert.

When I started playing GW2, I was tremendously disappointed that we didn't get to explore it. With Orr's undead and all, becoming this kind of "no man's land" makes it extremely interesting.

And now, if the hints from LWS3 are to be believed, we're heading there.

[dejec1989]

They add both, and that's also largely irrelevant. They're used to arbitrary time-gate players, more or less, just like levels. They even have easily referenced numbers to indicate your progressing through the system.

There's literally nothing that would prevent them from simply locking item power where it is now, but just adding 5 more actual character levels instead.

I'm not shitting on it as a broken/bad system or criticizing folks that like it, but it's largely just a different coat of paint rather than an actual design departure from adding levels in an expansion.

with that train of thought everything they do will be just "another coat of paint", is there an example in your eyes where a mmo games company have done it correct and given a "actual design departure from adding levels in an expansion"? I'm interested to know.

[StationaryHawk]

They add both, and that's also largely irrelevant. They're used to arbitrary time-gate players, more or less, just like levels. They even have easily referenced numbers to indicate your progressing through the system.

There's literally nothing that would prevent them from simply locking item power where it is now, but just adding 5 more actual character levels instead.

I'm not shitting on it as a broken/bad system or criticizing folks that like it, but it's largely just a different coat of paint rather than an actual design departure from adding levels in an expansion.

It is relevant. Masteries do not, that I can see, increase the player's stats. They allow us to remain at relatively the same level of power while maintaining a form of character progression. To increase the level cap while locking player or item power where it is now would just feel bad, imo.

I agree completely that the mastery system is essentially leveling, and never intended to refute that. I'm arguing in favour of their use over simply increasing the level cap.

[PACOX]

The mastery system is a type of leveling system but its more horizontal than vertical. Its a none linear system that grants the player abilities and perks without a raw power/stat increase.

[Gray_Matter]

This always bothered me, masteries even have a separate "leveling" system and everything. It's basically levels without actually adding levels, it's smoke and mirrors.

It's a progression system which is fine, IMHO. IT's a bit grindy and can be a bit annoying but what I really like about it is that it offers QoL benefits. A few of them are necessary for the story but those are all low level ones. You can get by without them for the most part. Because they are account wide they are extremely useful for alts.