Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns

The new expansion is going to add some more game modes including their own version of a MOBA that you might enjoy too.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/stronghold-the-battle-of-champions-dusk/

http://www.pcgamesn.com/guild-wars-2/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-new-stronghold-mode-is-a-moba-for-mmo-players

Today at E3's PC gaming show, Anet revealed Guild Halls and announced that Heart of Thorns is available for preorder!

Man am I PUMPED!! TTS is a huge guild, and I can't wait to see what kind of guild hall we will have. I know we've been saving up for what ever may be the costs. I dropped $100 on the ultimate edition tonight. You get your 4000 gems on purchase, the rest of the stuff will unlock upon HoT's release.

EDIT: nvm I just got all the other stuff. Try switching to your oldest character. I logged back on to do something else with my main, and all the stuff was in the mail.

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Oh damn.. I wish I wasn't so broke right now.

So this pretty much confirms glider skins are a thing.... awwwe yisssss! #FashionWars2:HeartOfFashion

More on Guild Halls:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/rethinking-guilds/

This is going to be awesome.

The first full beta started today and I took a little time to play through the first story mission with Reaper, Chronomancer, Dragon Hunter, and Revenant.

-Reaper-

Greatsword isn't that great. It takes way too long to attack rendering it useless in PvP, and just as useless in the first story mission. I found myself swapping back to dagger frequently to finish off enemies. "Nothing Can Save You" is my favorite skill. The Chilled to the Bone elite is highly underwhelming making me want to stick with Lich Form. The new enemies in the Manguuma jungle have massive AoE attacks that 2 dodges can barely escape in their longest parts. Reaper lacks blocks/reflects and simply must absorb all the damage through Reaper Shroud. Reaper Shroud is one of the few impressive things about the specialization. it's fast, its deadly, and you pretty much have to stay in it as much as possible to stay alive. The only problem is that it drains super fast on top of lacking a similar 4 skill like Death Shroud to suck in more life force. The upside is that it recharges 3-4x faster than Death Shroud letting you get in a few strikes and go back into it. Hopefully Reaper will be improved upon. It has a lot of potential, and probably is beastly in the regular areas of the game, but in the new map its lacking survivability.

-Dragon Hunter-

Right now the longbow seems underwhelming. The 4 and 5 skills are great, but 1-3 don't seem to pack much punch. Spear of Justice seems to be a downgrade from Virtue of Justice, but the same can't be said for Wings of Resolve and Shield of Courage. Both of these changes to the F1-F3 skills are huge upgrades, and with Soaring Devastation traited, Wings of Resolve not only heal, but lands decent damage. Shield of Courage provide upgraded Aegis to you and your allies. While the Longbow isn't impressive the new skills are. Providing massive AoE damage, Procession of Blades and Test of Faith are my newest favorite skills out of all the classes. It gives Guardians some great offensive skills they've always lacked. The verdict is sill out on Dragon's Maw for me... I'll have to test it more in other situations. I wish Dragon Hunter would have had a speed trait while holding longbow. The traps are going to be more desirable than using Retreat. It would be nice to gain some mobility for a class that is so slow.

-Chornomancer-

I recently fell in love with the mesmer class, so I saved this one for last in case it worsened my opinions on the other two. This class is the most impressive to me. The survivability surpasses Necromancer. With Signet of the Ether as the heal skill and Chronophantasma traited you can have continuous health regeneration as long as you keep your clones up and manage your shatters. Add in the new F5 skill Continuum Shift, and you have a 100% heal if you time it right. Shield skills give you an extra block that is superior to off-hand sword. Paired with the Feedback skill and the Chaos trait line, you're outfitted with a huge amount of blocks and reflects. The wells are devastating placing damage and multiple cripple and slow conditions. The Gravity well is a much welcomed high damage elite for a class that only had defensive and support skills in that slot. The only issue is there is so many new great skills, but none of them provide stun-breaks or reflects, so you tend to have to still use a lot of the old reliable skills and mix and match the new stuff in. Playing a Chrono Wellmancer is going to require you to be pro at dodge and reflect. Meguuma baddies are stun/knockback/cripple happy.

-Revenant-

I hope Reaper gets fixed like this class has since the last mini beta. Revenant is pretty beastly now. The Shiro legend adds condi cleanse and evades. Since Rev skills work similar to Warrior and Thief, you can spam these to effectively dodge and dance around deadly mobs while laying down some decent DPS. Not to mention Impossible Odds gives you insane quickness making disengaging even more of a breeze without ever dodging. The sword skills are full of acrobatic moves that could definitely confuse opponents in PvP despite the fact that they aren't auto evades. The hammer got a huge buff and is now enjoyable to use. Large AoE damage, knockbacks, and blocks makes this the ranged weapon of choice for this class.  Swapping between legends is an automatic stun-break, and using a heal for one legend does not put the other on cool down. What is sad is that even though it takes more skill/concentration, the one advantage necromancer had is now available to Chronomancer and Revenant in some fashion.

I will note the new boss defiance bars are interesting... they are shielded in a metal coating under their HP bar... knockbacks break the shielding and you can then drain the bar with DPS, but the shielding comes back really fast. Its easier just to kill the boss than worry about the D-Bar unless you're in a group. Right now it just seems like an answer to prevent Rangers from pressing 4 in group events.

I don't know If I will test out tempest, it doesn't interest me very much. I'll add more updates when I do more than just play the first mission, and play some of the older content with the new specialized classes.

Played more Reaper and got frustrated with how much everything just gets interrupted. I even got downed because I was interrupted from entering RS. It almost feels like the AI targets Reaper first. Even running with a group during events, I just kept getting rag dolled all over the place. I'll test it more in old zones tomorrow.

I did a SW run with Dragon Hunter and was a lot more impressed with the longbow. The traps are just amazing, I'm liking it more and more with every second I play it.

Heart of Maguuma enemies are in a league of their own. They are very aggressive, and hurt almost as much as a solid PvP player. I thought it was just the ones using bows, but there is also a some that hold daggers and can burst you like a thief.

Everything sounds good except for reaper. ;_;

I probably wont spend much more time on Chronomancer because I'm sold on it. Not so much Revenant. While the weapons are cool, I only like 2 out of the four legendary stances. Ventari is by far the worse. It all focuses on your heal. You can't use any of the skills until you activate your heal, and at that point you can use your skills until your heal duration is over with. I'm sure it will be useful for players that want to master it, but its not my style.

Reaper needs a ton of tweaks done to it. I finally made a load out that works reasonably well. You really have to focus on staying in shroud as much as possible, long enough for your heal to come off cooldown.

The beta gives us access to 1/3rd of one of the new areas. This area will rival Lornar's Pass in size when the other 2/3rd are opened up. What makes this map special is that events cycles change when its day and night. Night currently lasts 45min and daytime doesn't have a timer so I don't know how long it lasts. Unfortunately most the events are bugged and cant be completed right now... The daytime chain event bugs out in stage 3 and won't advance past that. But the first two stages are very interesting. What I am noticing is that these events require a higher level of organization. Groups need to perform different tasks in different parts of the map at the same time. Its sorta like Triple Trouble, but not as hardcore where everything needs to be coordinated over TS.

Once daytime hits, pact choppers are brought down by huge vines that sprawl over the terrain. The wreckage has to be salvaged for bombs and 50 explosives need to be set at the 3 different vine bases. Once these are set off, the group must ascend to higher ground, navigating various stair cases filled with corrupted sylvari. If you have the tier 1 mushroom mastery, you can skip most of them by bouncing up 2-3 stories at a time. The catch is, somewhere on the way up a smaller group needs to break off to an area with mortars, while the other group heads to the other side to hold a capture point. The capture point is constantly under attack by mordrem trolls and wolves. There is a Colossal Vine spout similar to what you would find at the center of the SW bases when the map starts. Its also shielded, but its poison field is way more deadly to where you can't stand in it for more than a few seconds. Keeping the area held will lower the Colossal Vine's shield, allowing the mortar team to bombard it by running ammo from crates to mortars set up around it. The Colossal Vine continuously spews giant poison blobs at the mortar team and the team holding the capture point. It is impossible for 1 team to take care of both, because by the time they capped the area and ran to the mortars it would be owned by the mordrem again. The Colossal Vine's poison field is too strong to ensure a shortcut can't be taken to the mortar field. The distance is too large by going the correct path. If the team holding the area wipes, then its a long run back as there are no WP near this area. The only time limit to complete this is the day cycle, so there is no actual timer to race against and fail. Once the Colossal Vine is destroyed the next event in the chain bugs out and doesn't advance at this time. 

Thankfully there is a beta so some people will know what to do when this first comes out. Events are crucial to leveling your Mastery... unlike getting to 80, you cannot rely on EoTM to quickly acquire all your masteries. If you have a Heart of Maguuma mastery selected, once you leave the HoT maps, you will no longer receive progress towards that mastery. Instead you will see the old classic XP bar at the bottom of the map. Mastery points are earned by leveling up the mastery bar, but at the same time the mastery bar serves as your progress to unlocking the tier you have selected. Its possible to have Mastery Points with nothing to spend them on because everything is locked... That is because Mastery Poitns can also be earned through hard to reach communal places that are similar to some of the hero points in the original game.

Example

From what I've seen I'm pretty excited about what HoT will hold. The events are more dynamic and provide more incentive to complete them. I can only imagine what new World Bosses anet has designed for us to fight in a more complex fashion.

This expansion sounds better every day.. except for the horrible treatment of necromancers. :/

In a group they are a blast. I hope you get in the next beta to see how frustratingly hard some of the trash mob enemies are. No matter what class you are they hit hard and can take half your HP with one hit. I really don't want this to be nerfed overall, I just want 2 enemies in particular to be nerfed because they're just stupid OP and in a mob, you're just dead by yourself. Its just that being a damage sponge is not an options, and thats what Necro's defense has always been.... but High HP means nothing in the Heart of Maguuma. I started using Signet of Undead for the constant life force in combat, plus the revive factor in groups... I just wish it didnt have a damn near 200s cooldown... seriously wtf? I'm speced for max life force generation because as you saw today, RS is monstrous.

I got to fight the Wyvern... I hope its just one of them, because it was nothing like the one shown at E3 that took place on the platform. Regardless, the event chain was a lot of fun. The commander knew how to get past the bugged first chain in which you have to fill Itzl baskets with grubs for them to eat... bats try to eat them out of the baskets as you fill them, but because the event is bugged you cannot kill the bats or else it will stop the event from advancing. Instead you just have to quickly fill all 5 baskets around the village before the bats empty one or more out. After that successfully is accomplished you have to guide 4 Itzl hunter groups through the jungle and help them fight nasty groups of vets and champions. You really have to pay attention and stick close to the hunters to make sure they don't die. When you have successfully helped all the groups, the Wyvern attack's the village and you have to put out all the fires with water buckets while avoiding the burning trails the Wyvern's flame breath leaves. Once that has been completed you then have to stop some Itzl separatists from trying to convert others to worship Zintl the Sun god. Some of these fights take place dangerously close to cliffs that have to bottom to glide too, but thankfully the enemies don't have CC. The fights lead you to their secret layer where a Zintl Priest is talking to a group of hopeful converts... there are 6-7 baskets of rotten food that you can pick from and toss at the priest... I'm not sure if this is suppose to be done because it didn't seem to do anything, but once the fight started, you could no longer grab rotten fruit. Maybe it was a small nod to RPers, plenty of players used say chat to boooo and heckle XD . Once you kill off the priest and his champions, another NPC thanks you for saving everyone and leads you on a mission to collected Wyvern eggs.  Once you have collected these eggs the NPC leads you to the Zintl worshipers' camp where you then bury the eggs in the ground to get the Wyvern to attack them. (If it sounds confusing as to why you are doing this, I won't explain as it would spoil a mini story). While you try to bury eggs in two areas of the camp, the Zintl worshipers will constantly try to stop you by doing there frog stomp that Hylek are so know for doing. If you get stomped, your egg bursts and you have to go get another. The group must run eggs and defend egg planters by fighting these Zintl-iets. Once the two areas are filled with eggs, two more areas need to be done the same way... once that has been done the Wyvern comes down and sets the camp on fire. The fight itself is disappointing. While the Wyvern is invulnerable while its break bar is full, once it goes down he melts very fast. His attacks are interesting as they knock you back and the burning ground hurts really bad.... but they need to buff him a lot.

I'm pretty hyped for this now. And the maps looks like they'll be huge.

And a lot more vertical. I'm going to miss quick traveling to events that happen below me by jumping and gliding to them. ;_;

The one thing I forgot to mention is the new way of story telling. Gone are the repetitive dialog cut scenes with a generic background. The clicking through dialog is now limited to only mission choices. Instead your character interacts with NPCs in real time, with dialog as you play. This is a welcomed change. It was neat to see Braham run off, and you shout at him to get back here. When you walk up to pact survivors they greet you and give you a status. After doing the story so many times you can somewhat skip these interactions by going to where the mission starts. Cut scenes are now show pieces... I was treated to the return of Rytlock which was super bad ass. This new way feels more natural. I was delighted to see my character talk to my group while I was running.... it was nice to see something different than the usual skill lines I hear all the time.

Now having played every class and familiarized myself on how they work, I've come to the conclusion of what my favorite to least favorite is.

1. Mesmer - It has the best of every class. Two outstanding healing options (One that mimics what Necro CC use to be, and the other that is Warrior signet on steroids), stealth that rivals thief, great stun breakers that Warriors and Guardians would approve of, and top tier DPS if you play your cards right. Also brutal interrupts that rival Engineer, and ranged options that are almost on par with Ranger. You can play the AI and other players for fools. The only downside is how squishy you are, but as with all things Mesmer, you can make yourself seem invincible if you master the profession with all that deception. PvP offers a large variety of builds from instabursts, to longevity builds that can troll an entire team that is mediocre.

2. Guardian - Heals, Stun breaks, blocks, and condi cleanses for days. Group might, group heal, group fury, group aegis... The guardian can be near invulnerable... and carry a group through the toughest battles. Its my go to class for dungeons. Durability is unmatched and its group support is only bested by pro engineers. What it lacks in raw DPS, it makes up for in buffs and heals. It's by far the most deadly class in PvP when used correctly. Burn stacking is unrivaled and can take a whole team down when they aren't focusing you. Mobility is the biggest weakness... but in a PvE world completion environment, you can trait and set a weapons load out for permanent swiftness. Not to mention that using staff in that build is the most selfish loot tagging build in the entire game.

3. Ranger - Range, range, and more range... pew pew pew. LB is the weapon of choice for PvE. Press 2 to win, Press 4 to invoke rage. Rangers have the highest baseline ranged attacks in the game... melee weapons suffer huge flaws. Greatsword is a glorified swiftness tool and axe is... well a show piece. Sword does amazing DPS, but its auto-attack bugs out dodge ability, and its evade attacks are wonky and bugged. Despite that, Ranger has access to insane stability, and decent stealth. Condi cleanse its a weakness, but mobility and extra evades are the counter balance to this. Like Mesmer, Ranger class has high survivablity in fights that last longer than usual. The downstate abilities are by far the best of all classes in terms of the ability to rally. You can trait a heal skill to trigger, and your pet can revive you as well if you can survive the cool down. Bleed build is powerful in PvP along with power builds and the more hard to master stealth trapper.

4. Necromancer - The most neglected class in the game, but one of the most delightful in PvE. Its the most tanky class, and it needs to be because its best weapon is the dagger. Dagger is high DPS, and high life force generation. Deathshroud is a saving grace of solid DPS, and delaying the inevitable. Necromancer has unrivaled condi transfer and durability that almost rivals guardians. The downside is limited weapons types that are underwhelming and have their share of issues. Group support is limited making it a shunned class in more difficult group content. In PvP it can be outright deadly in the right situation.... the down state DPS is unmatched, and above all else, you can stall the hell out of teams from capping points.

5. Warrior - Unlimited stun breaks, huge group support, high DPS and HP. This class definitely requires the least amount of skill to operate. The class has access to the most weapons types but lacks any good condition damage. With high DPS and HP, comes limited healing. You think Necro has it bad when it comes to healing because of their "2nd life bar aka Deathshroud"? Warriors have it worse. It's kill or be killed. Despite the lack of healing, Warrior has perm swiftness abilities along with a ton of CC. In a selfish build you can be invulnerable to conditions and direct damage. Greatsword and Hammer skills are unmatched by any other class, and a pro can win outnumbered fights easily in PvP. It doesn't have the burst damage of Mesmer, or the burn DPS of guardians... but against any other class, Warrior is super deadly.

6. Engineer - Huge group support, decent DPS, amazing stuns. Engi is the most complex class in the game. Its base weapons are very bad making you rely on the tool kits for your main attacks. In PvE you have the highest DPS of any class in condi builds in extended fights... otherwise you are the middle of the road in everything. This class is the jack of all trades. You're not going to really beat anyone in PvP that has full HP... but you can delay the hell out of them. In PvE normal length fights your job is to keep everyone alive, and buff them. It's a true underdog class... but when traited right, you have unlimited swiftness.... making your delay ability in PvP valuable for decap in conquest.

7. Elementalist - Massive AoE DPS, and group heal make this class ideal for PvE and WvW. However its only for those that really enjoy non stop pounding on the keyboard. To get the most DPS out of this class, no matter what weapon you use, you have to constantly rotate your attacks between attunements. Extra dodges and healing can make this class present a problem for a lot of PvP teams... but since its DPS relies on AoE attacks and conditions, Ele can never win 1v1 against a decent Burn Guard, Mesmer, Ranger, or Thief. Their HP is too low, and while their sustain is decent, the onslaught of single target damage is too much for them... this class lacks any single target damage outside of D/F. And even then, dagger main hand is not good for classes that can block or dodge more than twice.

8. Thief - For pro players of this profession, you're nearly unbeatable... Thief has the highest single target DPS in the game... its the only class that doesn't have cool downs for its attacks... instead you have an initiative meter that regulates your attack ability... the more powerful the attack, the more initiative it consumes at the price of spamming it more than once instantly. Group stealth options make Thief desirable in dungeons for skipping mobs. It's unreal speed with shortbow along with a slew of traits, skills, and signets make it most wanted in PvP conquest. Decapping points is a specialty, and on the map Legacy of Foefire, the ability to solo kill the other team's Lord is invaluable. However, the class is super unforgiving and you will die faster than any class in the game with one wrong move.... even a good thief cannot 1v1 a good Guard, Mesmer, or Necro... these classes can either outlast our competitively stealth the class... and/or block their super deadly backstabs.

Revenant isn't finalized yet, but I'd put it under Warrior right now... the elite specs have the potential to shift these rankings.

Mesmer definitely has the best of all classes. It's quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I don't care for the thief pay style and elementalist and engineer sound like hell on my wrist pain. Its one of b the reasons I like warrior so much. It has a simple rotation of skills to maximize it's dps without killing my wrists after typing all day for work. But timing the right skills in pvp can be a bit more challenging than it looks. Of course in pve tho all you need to do is press 1 to win with greatsword. But the new enemies in HoT sound much more difficult than that.

Necro is still fun but frustrating with so little dps and with staff being the only long distance weapon it can be aggravating at times. Basic enemies can take me a minute or 2 to kill but my warrior can just hit 1 twice and kill most things in seconds. If basic necro had more stability and dps is it'd be my favorite class.. and the reaper specialization will do that. Come on expansion. :Do

Necro in gw1 was still superior tho. You had no limit on minions. With enough enemy corpses to exploit you could have an army of over 20 while syphoning hp from them and almost never dieing. That's why I'd love to see gw2 necro minions get upgraded with better ai. If we can't have a swarm of them, at least let them have as good of ai as the new hot enemies.

The problem base warrior is going to have in HoT is that Smokescales and Mordrem Snipers are going to annihilate them if they don't get reasonable nerfs. Endure Pain is going to have to be used, and Healing Signet is going to be worthless. Defiant Stance will be much more useful with how much damage these enemies put out, you could probably pull off 100% heals every time. You can't face tank anything, they all have knockbacks, gap closers, and/or high DPS. Smokescales can evade all of your attacks while downing you in seconds simultaneously. (They really have to nerf these damn things ). There are also enemies that are invulnerable to frontal attacks and can only be attacked from behind. Thankfully Berserker offers some decent mid range attacks... Shattering Blow will be a vital reflect. If it all stays the same, Phalanx Strength won't be a viable build... you could die before your banners ever hit the ground upon summoning them.

This is why I'm pumped about Reaper... with RS2 fixed and a 30% increase in GS DPS, I'm so anxious to get out there and try it again. Outside of Chronomancer, my broken Reaper had the highest survivability... it pushed me to my limits as an Engi or Ele would... but thankfully only F1 is required instead of 4 buttons. The improvements could tone down the stress level some. Being able to RS4 and follow up with RS2 for a guaranteed devastating mutli-hit is going to really crank up the DPS in ways regular shroud could only dream of. Constantly rotating between RS/Heal/Generate LF/RS is going to be a thing along with chill uptime. You'll be able to lulz your way through the old content with it, but in the new content its going to be a bit more complex to play... in a fun way that doesn't require you to get carpal tunnel.

I remember how upset I got when I first tried reaper and I kept getting rag dolled around and insta killed. It was even more discouraging when I experienced how amazing Chronomancer was, almost mockingly by using my favorite part of Necromancer... Wells. But I didn't want to give up on the elite spec I was most excited for, and I played it more than all the others until I found a build that worked. The potential is there, and the developer feedback is the best it has ever been for the Necro community. It feels like we are getting the treatment Ele's always got for our class for once.

I just tried to find a video of Smokescales on youtube, and the only ones I could find were from the first beta that only lasted a few hours.... damn those things got ultra buffed for BWE1. X_x;;;;

A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Happy anniversary! It was three years ago this weekend that we launched Guild Wars 2 and set out on this journey with you. We built Guild Wars 2 to challenge the conventions of traditional MMOs, to tear down barriers to fun, and to create the first truly social online world, a world where you’re always happy to see another player.

This weekend at PAX, we made some big announcements charting the future course of the game and starting the countdown to the launch of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™.

• Raids are coming! They’ll be a big part of our live content strategy for Heart of Thorns. This is the challenging group content that our skilled players have been waiting for—deadly encounters and epic bosses that will test your team’s skill and coordination and give you a chance to earn legendary rewards. Read more about raids here.
• Today we’re making the core Guild Wars 2 game free for everyone. With Heart of Thorns coming, it was already a great time to invite friends and guild members into the game, and now it’s an even better one. We want to make it easy for new players to try the game because we believe that players who love Guild Wars 2 will buy Heart of Thorns. Read all the details here.
• We’re starting the final countdown to launch, and we’ve finally answered the one question we get asked more than any other: when is Heart of Thorns coming? We’re happy to say that it’s less than two months away. Heart of Thorns will launch Friday, October 23!

Whether you’re a veteran or a new player, there’s no better time than now to level up your characters and get ready to enter the jungle. And now you know the date when it all becomes real.

55 days and counting…

Mike O’Brien

 

This is pretty huge. Now everyone can play Guild Wars 2 with their Free 2 play accounts..

About Raids:

Players who purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will get access to our first raid, with the first of the three associated raid wings to be activated shortly after launch. During this window, we’ll be looking at balance with our new profession and elite specializations as well as giving players some time to train the Heart of Maguuma Masteries that will be used in the first raid wing. The remaining two raid wings will follow in sequence soon after.

 

...

 

What Are Raids in Guild Wars 2?

Raids are 10-player, instanced content that will introduce very challenging bosses, epic encounters, and more! And we’re building them on top of our amazing combat and dynamic event systems to create a variety of difficult challenges that will require your raiding team to bring a high level of skill, strategy, and coordination in order to succeed.

 

Expecting to be able to just watch the UI to beat a boss? Guess again! Raiding in Guild Wars 2 is an action-oriented, engaging experience. You’ll have to actively manage your position, dodge, coordinate on objectives, and much more. You’ll have moments of anticipation where your next action could spell victory or death. And with a diverse range of difficult challenges, being able to customize your build will really pay off. You’ll be dependent on keeping yourself alive and helping support your team while playing your profession. Everyone will be expected to pitch in and execute at a high level to ensure success.

 

A Fresh Take On Raiding

Raids in Guild Wars 2 are not about waiting to have fun. You don’t need to wait for your healer to get online. Our build-customization and weapon-swapping systems allow anyone to change their build to meet a particular challenge. And while a warrior might support a group differently than an elementalist would in terms of playstyle, our systems allow you to adjust your team’s composition and strategy to overcome any challenge.

 

Raids are not about an endless gear grind to get tiers of gear to go tackle the next raid. Raids won’t become easier because a new tier of gear or a level-cap raise made them irrelevant. We think beating a raid encounter should be a big deal—not just when you beat it, but for the life of the game. It takes away the meaning of your victory when suddenly new tiers of gear or more powerful experience levels are introduced that leave a wasteland of raids in their wake. If you beat a raid in Guild Wars 2, it means something and always will.

 

I bolded that last paragraph as it seemed to be a specific reference to Destiny's raiding system. I'm pleased with what I'm reading. Raids should be great with my TTS guild.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/raids-in-guild-wars-2/

And even more important... new fashion! plenty of n00bs to admire my characters. XD

It's actually more of a reference to MMO raiding in general as most MMO's suffer from the "Do raid 1, get the phat epic lewtz, do raid 2, rinse and repeat" mentality. This is the reason most, if not all, MMO's get boring and repetitive once you hit max level. I run into the same problem in FFXIV every few months as once I gear my Ninja completely I have nothing to do unless I level another job or start gearing my other jobs that are max level (however I don't raid in FF, I'm not the raiding type which is why it's good you can gear your character without doing any of the raids/endgame content). It's the reason why so many people have quit playing WoW. 10 years of doing raids, gearing up, and then waiting for new content to do it all over again gets old real fast.

I'm actually quite curious to see how this works out for GW2. It's a complete change of the normal formula so it should be interesting to see how the user base takes to this new approach. If it works this could change MMO's for the better.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/designing-challenging-content/

It will definitely be interesting to see how this works. GW2 purposely lacks the "Holy Trinity" causing everyone to go full dps, relying on evades and group buffs provided by certain classes. It has had unintended affects like cheese stacking, and class discrimination against Necromancer. It seems Raids will not allow this type of behavior. Necromancer is the closest you can come to a "tank" class, its self sufficient, high HP, and has a "second life bar" in the form of its shroud skill. It looks like they will finally have a rightful place in group content by the description given in the link.

Pure speculation, but I also think thief stealthing will have a vital roll that actually has substance rather than mob skipping. They'll be able to remove aggro from players performing certain rolls in the event chain. If there is an escort event, they can stealth it. The Daredevil elite spec will allow them to survive dangerous encounters with limitless evades.

Likewise, Guardians will continue to provide protection, and tank if need be. Guardian HP is half of what Necro HP is.. but a good guardian player can tank just as good if not better. It just takes more skill by timing blocks and managing condi cleanse ICDs. The new signet elite heal is going to be meta

Elementalists will continue to provide devastating AoE DPS, and group heals. Tempest buffs are quite good, and I hope Ele's will realize how useful they will be despite the sour grapes they have over their elite spec. I have a feeling Tempest was designed for raids. It will force Ele players to play more of a guardian roll, rather than the world beaters they are use to being. Maybe raiding will change their tune on their spec.

Mesmers will have a lot more demanded from them. Mastering Continuum Split is going to be a given. They may have to tank, they will provide the group with unblockable attack buffs, and they will continue to boon strip and reflect. Portal skipping won't be an option in raids... although it may still have its place for niche senerios

Warriors roll will stay the same. Provide group strength, and lay down some DPS. Phalanx Strength builds may not be viable in PvE open world HoT, but I'm sure it will still have a welcomed roll for raids. Especially when bosses will enrage if they are not taken down fast enough. With Berserker self fire field, they will be able to blast finish themselves if all else fails.

Rangers will draw aggro, and can tank if the situation is desperate. I have a feeling their roll could be a lot bigger pending on the Druid reveal. Base ranger won't have a lot to bring to the table as it is. Same goes for Engineer outside of the DPS sinister build. Their elite specs will probably be meta for raids as they will be revealed last after raids were announced.

The most important thing is that every class will have a role to fill. There may be a lot of friction from some players though. Most of us hardcore players have more than one class we are fluent with (Guardian, Necro, Mesmer, Ranger for me )... and taking 5 rangers into a raid will probably be a recipe for failure going against GW2's traditional "play how you want" motto. Raid parties will need to be diverse... there probably won't be a necessary meta, but having more than 3 of anything won't be wanted. The "This is the most optimal build for a speed run" thing won't exist IMO because the raid will feature event chains that can't be rushed through, skipped, or cheesed.

It'll be nice to see a diverse group of players in a raid.. unlike most dungeons lfg.. "Warriors pls, zerk only, ping gear on join, necro get kicked" necro.. a well played necro is good in a dungeon.. as long as it isn't running axe.

It will be interesting to see how the Axe rework goes. I don't expect anything drastic. I can see a small % increase in attack speed and maybe some range. Reaper Shroud's outstanding cleave attacks pretty much negates any chance of Axe having that feature, especially when GS cleaves as well.

Axe 3 is actually pretty decent but the animation is crap. I don't know how it is on other races but my charr actually does axe 3 with the off hand weapon. If they have it 1200 range with some increase damage to skill 1 I'd be pleased. And that's not a crazy distance for a single target attack either.