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Heart of Maguuma

Gliding
1 Mastery Point: Glider Basics - Gain access to the glider so that you can glide like a squirrel across the highest point of the Heart of Thorns
1 Mastery Point: Thick Wings - With practice, you learn to treat the wings of your glider, strengthening the flaps, allowing you to stay in the air longer
2 Mastery Points: Updraft Use - Improved design to your glider handles and slits in the wings let you confidently fly into updrafts, allowing a boost to your flight height and the ability to travel to never-before-reachable locations
5 Mastery Points: Stronger Bindings - You learn to bind the wings of your glider with stronger binding straps. The result is longer glide times without tearing apart your wings!
7 Mastery Points: Fast Deploy Wings - Through a series of high-tension springs and quick-release levers, you've rigged your glider to be able to deploy its wings more frequently.
10 Mastery Points: Powerful Leap - After intensive leg training, you have learned to boost yourself into your glide with far greater force.

Exalted Lore
1 Mastery Point: Mordremoth's Bane - The Exalted introduce you to the basics of combatting the Mordrem. Their conditions affect you far less.
3 Mastery Points: Exalted Acceptance - Gain the trust of the strange and mysterious Exalted, giving you access to their services in the Golden City.
5 Mastery Points: Exalted Honing - Learn how to pierce through Tough Bark - which makes some of the more powerful Mordrem otherwise invulnerable now weak to your attacks.
7 Mastery Points: Exalted Markings - Gain the knowledge to read Exalted Markings. You can now decipher their words and gain access to secrets of their civilization.
10 Mastery Points: Exalted Purification - You've become honored among the Exalted. You can now challenge their Champion each day and unlock their finest treasures within the Golden City.
12 Mastery Points: Wyvern Defiance - The Exalted have taught you to stand in defiance of wyverns. They can no longer knock you down with their wing buffets.

Itzel Lore
1 Mastery Point: Itzel Language - The spry Itzel speak a very different dialect from the hylek of old Tyria. Through trial and error you learn to communicate, marking the first steps towards earning their trust. This opens up vendors and trade with the Itzel.
2 Mastery Points: Itzel Writings - You discover the glyphs and pictographs you've seen around the Heart of Maguuma are the Itzel tribe's written language. With practice and conversations, you've learned to decipher them and discover the hidden treasures they conceal.
6 Mastery Points: Itzel Herbicides - The Itzel have taught you to use the various extracts around Maguuma to create poisons. These poisons allow you to deal bonus damage against poisoned or burning Mordrem.
7 Mastery Points: Itzel Leadership - Through careful study of the Itzel language and society, you've earned the right to challenge their champion and claim rewards in Verdant Brink.
10 Mastery Points: Itzel Hunting - Through dedicated teaching, the Itzel train you how to take special trophies from foes in Maguuma, unlocking rare collections.
13 Mastery Points: Itzel Stalking - The Itzel teach you how to operate their harpoon cannons scattered throughout Maguuma, letting you pull wyverns down to your level to hunt.

Nuhoch Lore
1 Mastery Point: Nuhoch Language - The brutish Nuhoch tribe's language is a difficult series of tones, but with some practice you learn to communicate. You are able to trade and converse with the bullish Nuhoch tribe members now.
3 Mastery Points: Nuhoch Proving - The Nuhoch tribe give gifts based on trials of strength. Unlocking the mastery of proving gives you the right to enter the trials.
5 Mastery Points: Nuhoch Energies - The Nuhoch tribe teach you the ways of surviving chak energy. By absorbing a powerful chak energy discharge, you're available to create orbs that you and others with this ability can use to break through impenetrable champion chak energy shields.
7 Mastery Points: Nuhoch Alchemy - Masterful fighters rely not only on brute strength, but also tactics. The Nuhoch train you to remove the chak's powerful acid with your healing skill.
10 Mastery Points: Nuhoch Trail Signs - Master the art of reading Nuhoch trail signs, allowing you to gater information in the field. The Nuhoch trail signs reveal that which was hidden before.

Mushroom Lore
1 Mastery Point: Bouncing Mushrooms - Learn how to land precisely and use the bouncing mushrooms found around the Hearts of Maguuma to get to places previously impossible to reach.
3 Mastery Points: Blazing Speed Mushrooms - With stomach training, you can ingest the speed-increasing mushrooms found scatted in the Heart of Maguuma. Run at blazing speeds with the help of nature!
5 Mastery Points: Adrenal Mushrooms - Learning to eat the mushrooms tweaks your adrenal glands, giving you a surge of adrenaline and instantly refreshing your skills.
7 Mastery Points: Recovery Mushrooms - Gain the ability to consume these multifaceted healing mushrooms, healing you instantly and curing some conditions.
10 Mastery Points: Master Forager - With training, you've learned to spot the mushrooms in the Heart of Maguuma even faster. They're now more visible on your map.
13 Mastery Points: Massive Bouncing Mushrooms - After much practice and core strength training, you can use massive bouncing mushrooms to fly even further through the air.

Pact Tyria

Fractal Attunement Mastery
1 Mastery Point: Follows Advice - Details are obscured by the Mists
2 Mastery Points: Agony Channeler - Details are obscured by the Mists
3 Mastery Points: Mistlock Singularities - Details are obscured by the Mists
5 Mastery Points: Recursive Resourcing - Details are obscured by the Mists
8 Mastery Points: Essential Singularities - Details are obscured by the Mists
10 Mastery Points: Hyperactive Singularities - Details are obscured by the Mists

Legendary Precusor Crafting Guide
1 Mastery Point: Revered Antiquarian - Grants Access to the First Tier of Precursor Collections
4 Mastery Points: Magister of Legends - Contributes to the Second Tier of Precursor Collections
5 Mastery Points: Historian of the Armaments - Contributes to the Third Tier of Precursor Collections
10 Mastery Points: Scholar of Maguuma's Secrets - Grants acces to Heart of Maguuma Precursor Collections

There will be a sudden inundation of all things Guild Wars 2 from here on out. ArenaNet recently gave several news outlets the opportunity to visit their studio and get their hands on Guild Wars 2's first expansion, Heart of Thorns. The demo sessions were followed with an interview with one of several developers, I was lucky enough to be paired with Kristen Bornemann, the Guild Wars 2 Development Director and Regina Buenaobra, the Content Marketing Team Lead at ArenaNet -- I have a hypothesis that she was there to make sure we there weren't any leaks.

The full interview is below, to get a better picture of who was in the room you can check out the info below:
• Kristen Bornemann | Guild Wars 2 Development Director
• Regina Buenaobra | Content Marketing Team Lead
• Tatiana Morris | Gamezone

The interview covers how Heart of Thorns will expand the living world, how the expansions plot affects the previous story, whether the expansion will create a division in the community between non-purchasers and purchasers and more (like capes and polymock).

Guild Wars 2 is a living world, constantly updated with random dungeons and events -- How will Heart of Thorns expand on that feature?

The best way to think about how we landed on an expansion for the living world, we had over 40 releases, and this is something I am deeply and intimately aware of -- all 40 releases. we have been doing this living world and now the baton is getting handed to the new expansion. That carries through in story, that carries through in all of the features, we are just handing over the baton.

The next major step in GW2 is this huge expansion, that’s really what we landed on that makes sense for the game right now.

We will be supporting the game after expansion, but we will detail what that looks like...closer...to that.

At the end of current GW2 story, the Sylvari turned evil through mind control from Mordremoth, will that affect older content like starting zones?

I will say that is a huge major component of the story that we are telling. The story will take place mostly in the heart of Meguuma, so that’s worth keeping in mind.

Will living world updates focus on HoT content and what does that mean for players that haven’t purchased the content? Will there be a huge division between purchasers and non-purchasers?

All of the expansion features, or most of the expansion features, that we detailed will lead you to purchase the expansion.

We will get into what stuff lies outside of that later, but even the content that lies outside of that will be experienced in a more powerful way if you have the expansion.

So, it still gives something to the players that have yet to purchase HoT?

Yes, and we will talk about that soon.

Is there going to be small group instanced content -- basically, are there going to be dungeons?

We will be detailing more of the hard challenging content.

The Wyvern fight is a good example of what we are looking for and doing more of in the future. That Wyvern fight, if you think about it, that’s just in the open world potentially - well it was in our demo and that’s more of the stuff that will be in the open world.

If you take that even further, you can see, sort of, what you can extrapolate out and see what we are thinking about for challenging hard group content in the future.

We will talk about it as we get closer to the launch date.

Precursors are rare, hard to find and expensive on trading post - even if you were to go to the Mystic Forge crafting there’s a .79% drop rate… You guys [ArenaNet] are going to be bringing a scavenger hunt like challenge will help players build legendaries with precursors. Will this challenge promise players a precursor or is will it give you a higher drop rate for the items?

It’s going to be a journey and a scavenger hunt that will lead you to a precursor, and that is pretty much all that we are saying.

What that journey looks like... We have a specific plan to talk about that in the future.

In GW2 you can play with friends and access most areas because the games scales with the sidekick mechanic, will mastery limit what you can do with other players - how much content will be blocked if someone doesn't have a certain level of mastery?

So, the best way to think about masteries is that it is context specific. and it is an alternative to leveling that allows you to be stronger in the areas in that you are in, or more proficient in the areas that you are in.

For gliding, you will get access to some areas in the jungle region that you wouldn’t previously have access without it.

That’s a good example. I mean, you’re not blocked off. If you’re playing in the jungle, you will be able to level up the mastery system in order to experience all the areas you want to see. But it’s context specific, so in the jungle region you will just be stronger there.

Can you glide in non-Meguuma areas?

I don’t know if we’ve said anything about that yet...

With the knowledge and hindsight you now have, with regards to content production/design what would you guys have done differently?

Heres the thing, we have an amazing team of people that work really, really hard on this game and have worked really hard -- not only leading up to launch, but in the past few games -- developed an amazing, amazing game and support it throughout the lifespan.

It’s easy to have hindsight on these, but we are proud of the game we have built and proud, honestly, of the way we have supported it. We have a great opportunity with GW2 to support it with the way we have in the past and we are going to continue.

In a lot of ways it’s an unfair question, it’s like asking a painter if they are ever done with a painting. We are certainly always looking to improve the game, but we are very very proud of it here.

Oh yeah, I see you guys on forums across the internet answering questions. Someone’s like ‘well, I work there so I can help you out!’ You guys notice these things that it’s almost like you guys are like, ‘maybe we should consider implementing this somehow.”

It’s amazing. I think that out of any other place I’ve worked, people here still play the game the most out of anyone. I’ve worked on other games and after you ship something it’s like, I don’t ever want to touch it again!

I am logging in every day just to do my dailies and I’ve never experienced that with a previous game.

Yeah, that’s a tell-tale sign of a great creation and the living world just keeps the game evolving and interesting.

Yeah.

My last question: What’s coming first, capes or Polymock?

[Laughter] Um, yeah...

Maybe in the next expansion?

The answer to that is, we are full focused on HoT. We detailed all the expansion features, that is hilarious though.

Few MMOs have dedicated themselves to growth with the gusto that Guild Wars 2 has. The game launched with a strong narrative-led campaign, but has continued to grow in the two-and-a-half years since. The ‘Living World’ system has been expanding the world and lore of Tyria each fortnight, and as Season 2 concluded earlier this year, some genuinely shocking revelations shook the game’s community.

Heart of Thorns is the next step. More than just an extra chapter of story, it’s a full expansion pack. It opens up the jungle land of Maguuma, lays the foundations for a whole new levelling system, offers a MOBA-like PvP mode, and introduces a brand new profession that’s the game’s most ambitious by far. It’s the gateway to Guild Wars 2’s future, and it’s really rather exciting.

Developer Arenanet is creating Heart of Thorns a little differently to what we normally expect from an MMO expansion. The main absentee is a new level cap; 80 remains the ceiling. “It’s really important to recognise the work players put into their characters. To invalidate that and say ‘Well now you’ve got to reach this new goal’, we don’t think that’s fair,” explained Heart of Thorns’ competitive QA lead Jessica Boettiger. “We really like to think of Guild Wars 2 as the journey being the goal, not the level cap.”

Without a level cap increase, Heart of Thorns has to offer progression in another form. You’ll find it in Masteries; a new set of skills that can be learned and developed using points rewarded by quests. They’re skills that are focused on adventuring: one allows you to learn how to glide across the map and ride on air currents. Another teaches you new languages which allow you to learn about other cultures, unlock new potion recipes, trade with new races, and improve key combat skills. “These are tools that give players the ability to build upon what they’ve already established, the foundation that they’ve possibly put two-and-a-half years of work into,” said Boettiger.

You can drop points into the Masteries system however you feel, either focusing on a specific trait or gaining a broad but limited knowledge of all of them. “It allows the player the agency to figure out how they want to level themselves up in ways that work with their own playing style, that meet the needs of the kind of things they want to explore,” said Leah Hoyer, Arenanet’s Head of Narrative. 

Some Masteries, like being able to bounce on mushrooms, feel a little unnecessary. Yet the majority appear to enable players to take new and interesting journeys. They’re also just the start: as the Living World continues, updates will be able to add new masteries to ensure it’s a continually growing progression system. It’s an unusual trade-off for a raised level-cap, but one that looks to offer some genuinely meaningful, lasting choices.

Talking of choices, they’re a key element of Heart of Thorns’ new profession: the blindfolded Revenant. Arguably the game’s most exciting class, it’s a heavily-armoured mystical warrior with the ability to channel the spirits of legendary personalities from Guild Wars’ history. In the demo I played the Revenant could choose to call upon two spirits: that of Dwarven king Jalis Ironhammer, and demonic nasty Mallyx the Unyielding. For anyone who’s played the original Guild Wars games, these names will be familiar; the Revenant is a real fan-service class. When channeling these spirits, you’ll be granted five new skills based on the powers of the character, in addition to your existing weapon skills. Not only that, but the spirit’s personality will become a kind of ‘sidekick’, chatting to you as you battle.

“With [the Revenant] you get a spectrum of complexity,” explains Hoyer. “Jalis is a much more straightforward kind of character, and Mallyx has more intricacy.” When channeling Jalis, you’re able to use several hefty Dwarven themed attacks, such as wrapping enemies in a chain to slow and taunt them, or hurling hammers around you in a cyclone. Swap out to Mallyx and things are a little different. As an enemy boss from the original games, he’s less happy that you’re using his abilities, and punishes you for doing so. Whilst powerful, using them will always have a trade-off: they’ll cripple, blind, or torment you with every cast. It makes combat exciting, and being able to swap between them at any time keeps battle significantly more fluid; with all your skills on cooldown you can simply swap to another spirit to continue casting.

Jalis and Mallyx won’t be the only Legendary spirits to summon, either. Each of the Revenant’s available spirits will offer new skills and challenges. “There’s real reason each of these characters were chosen, because they represent different kinds of gameplay. It’s a really nice merging of gameplay and characters together,” said Hoyer. “It’s not only interesting gameplay, but also the overall experience and vibe they bring to it.” 

The Guild Wars series has seen several expansion packs in its time. Factions and Nightfall felt like a distinctly different way of doing them: standalone experiences that also threaded into the previous games if you were a veteran. Heart of Thorns is more traditional in that it’s a continuation of Guild Wars 2’s ongoing narrative, but the accessibility of the first game’s expansions will still be woven in. “It’s important to all of us that a person who’s never played at all can come into the game and pick up at the start of Heart of Thorns and be up to date,” said Hoyer. “We need to make sure it’s not something that’s going to make you feel ostracised, to be removed from an experience you should have started long ago.”

“You’re going to be given the necessary pieces, whether you haven’t played in six months, or a year, or if you’ve never played. Because Guild Wars 2 is always a game we’ve encouraged community and cooperation in. We want die-hard Guild Wars 2 fans to be able to go to their best friend, their spouse, their kids, and say ‘I know you’ve never played it before, but now’s the perfect time for you to come in and start playing it with me’ “.

Hoyer is right: it does seem to be the right time to get into Guild Wars 2. The opening of the Heart of Thorns demo saw helicopters crashing into jungle canopies, snipers firing on walking trees, and an epic battle with a dragon that set the jungle floor ablaze. The world of Tyria is at an exciting branch; and even if you’ve no idea what’s been going on there’s no denying the thrill of marching into battle on a new foe. Whether you’re a veteran equipped with new Masteries, a returning player picking up their sword again, or a fresh recruit looking to channel some spirits, Heart of Thorns seems dedicated to offering an exceptionally strong experience.

It’s easy to question why this new experience couldn’t be just another set of free fortnightly updates, but that would be a result of looking too closely at the surface. “The kind of changes that we’re making to some of the core systems in Heart of Thorns is setting us up for where we want to take it next,” said Hoyer. Essentially, this expansion is the scaffolding framework that will let Arenanet continue to build Guild Wars 2 higher and more intricate. And if that allows another two-and-a-half years of Tyria’s evolving world, then I think that’s a worthy reason.

It’s no secret I’m a fan of ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2. But, like many of you, I’ve been dying for something meatier to chew on than the Living World for some time now. There seem to be so many features and additions we’ve all be waiting for ages to see added. With Heart of Thorns, the first full expansion to Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet seems poised to offer us all those things and more.

By now we know the bulk of the features we can expect in Heart of Thorns: Masteries, Specializations, the Revenant, Maguuma as a region, Guild Halls, Stronghold PVP, and a new WvW Borderland. During an invite only hands-on demo last week we got our mitts on the Revenant, got a taste of the Masteries system, saw a tiny glimpse of Maguuma, and played the hell out of the new Stronghold PVP map.

For those wanting lots of info on Guild Halls, the new WvW additions, Specializations, and deeper looks at Maguuma and the Masteries, you’re going to have to wait a bit more. ANet wasn’t quite ready to pull back the curtains on everything yet (though you can get some hints from Jon Peters in the interview embedded here).  For instance, you can pretty much bet there’s going to be a Hammer-wielding Engineer of some sort, but they’re not confirming anything yet.

Our exclusive interview with Jon Peters
Nota : 17min12s "From Precursor to Legendary it will be same; the important thing is there will be a reasonable way to get your precursor"

For now, let’s go over what we did play, one by one.

The Revenant

As one of the biggest features of the expansion, the Rev has a lot riding on his shoulders. Thankfully, the new profession is an absolute blast to play and a beast on the battlefield. Though my capture card crapped out and you won’t see me own face with my mustachioed human Revenant, the footage in the demo and the PVP gameplay are enough to highlight the versatility of the Rev.

I started the demo wielding the Hammer, which is pretty unique as it’s more of a ranged weapon on the Revenant than a melee bruiser. As you see in the video, having the Hammer as an option on the Wyvern boss is absolutely essential as the thing’s fire is pretty gnarly. As highlighted back in our skills reveal a couple weeks back, Drop the Hammer is an absolutely vital skill to use when you want to knock down a whole gaggle of enemies. I can’t tell you how fun it was to use in Stronghold PVP too.

Switching between Legends, where you basically equip the spirits of legendary characters from Tyrian lore, is a lot like changing kits on the Engineer or elements on the Elementalist. You can’t swap weapons in combat, instead your Legends determine what role or skills you have available. Jalis Ironhammer is more tanky with a lot of control options while Mallyx deals insane amounts of conditions and has some serious anti-condition and support skills as well. The elite on Mallyx we got to play with basically spread any conditions you had on yourself to all nearby opponents, effectively turning the tables against everyone around you. It worked wonders when the opposing forces in PVP tried to snare us too, as it works on that status effect as well.

Overall the Revenant felt a little strong in PVP, but that’s only because the other Professions didn’t have their skills and abilities updated in our demo build to have proper counters to the Rev’s unique brand of combat.  In PVE, he really felt like he had a role to play in the Maguuma content, as the control abilities worked wonders to keep the Wyvern grounded and the conditions of Mallyx were a godsend against the Mordrem invading the open world.

The Mace and Axe combo was something altogether different. While Jalis and Mallyx directly affect the 6-10 skills you have access to, the weapons you’re using change your playstyle just as much. While with the Hammer I could do a lot of ranged attacks, the Mace and Axe are more about bringing enemies into a line and then cutting through them. It felt really good, especially in PVP, to use Temportal Rift to bring a mass of players together and then use Frigid Blitz to cut through them all and wind up behind them while they’re all slowed.

It’s early to tell how they’ll play out in the long run, but from a sheer uniqueness standpoint, the Revenant definitely holds his own.

The Masteries

Upon completing the initial story quest and getting into the world itself, the demo granted us with two Mastery points to spend. Right near the bottom right of the UI by the end of your XP bar is a little Masteries button which brings up a (placeholder) UI where you can track your progress and spend earned points. The bummer? Most were locked and “shrouded by the mists” during the demo, but the Glider Basics and Mushroom Lore basics were both available so we popped points into each.  Doing so gives you the beginning ability to use your glider, but looking down the path shows that by spending more points you can fly longer, higher, do tricks and more. All of which plays into ArenaNet’s idea that the Glider itself will be something that needs advancing in order to fully explore all the reaches of Maguuma.

As for the Mushrooms? I put the point into them, and they’re supposed to be all over Maguuma to jump off of and use for different modes of transportation, but our area of Maguuma was really small and I didn’t run across one.

What’s interesting to me is that the UI for the Masteries (while not complete) shows a lot of room for growth. That “Pact Tyria” tab along the top is where the Precursor Mastery path is, along with others, and the Heart of Maguuma tab is where all the Maguuma content Masteries are. This leads one to believe that there will be many more tabs in time as the Masteries system is added onto. In fact, Jon Peters all but confirmed to me in our interview that this whole expansion is all about creating the new systems that will continue to grow Guild Wars 2 and its character progression for the foreseeable future.

Gliders are fun to use, but limited in the demo.

We only got a little taste of the system, but the Mastery Globes littered around the map in unreachable places seemed reminiscent of Vistas and Jumping Puzzles. The difference being that you’ll really want to reach these for more than a checkmark off of Map Completion or an RNG treasure chest.  And as though they were teasing us for what’s to come, the one and only mastery globe we could see on our small map was unreachable without some progression in the Glider or Mushroom mastery paths.

And yes, it sure felt like Zelda or Metroid where you know you’re going to come back and get it somehow at a later date.

Stronghold PVP

Oddly enough, this seemed to be the darling of the event, as everyone wanted to just keep playing more of the new Stronghold PVP map.  As John Corpening tells us in the interview, Stronghold is something they’ve long wanted to try with SPVP, and it’s definitely a way to take some of the intimidation factor off of direct competition in PVP. Players can spend entire portions of the game on defense killing the enemy minions that are sent out from the opposing base, or grabbing supply and sending out their own. Stronghold is like a gateway drug to what you will find in WvW, without having to roam about looking for a fight.

Gameplay of Stronghold with John Corpening Interview

Players on each team start off with 1 supply and can carry a maximum of two. In the middle of the map is a supply depot where the two teams will often come together and fight over getting more supply. You need supply because the ultimate goal of the game is to break down the gates of the enemy base and defeat their keep lord. How do you do that? You send out archers and door-breakers using the supply from your own base to march down the lane, break down the gates, and take out the enemy guards. It’s very much like a 2-lane MOBA, with the supply depot and two trebuchets serving as a sort of mini-jungle. You don’t need to farm creeps or gear up though, and matches last about 10 minutes with a max of 15 before time runs out and the winner is the team with the most points.

There are two trebs on the map two, one for each team, and frankly we didn’t use them much in our fights. But also frankly? We were all noobs with the map. Trebs could easily be used to knock out the team holding the supply depot, or even clearing the lane of archers and door-breakers being sent out by the enemy.  I jokingly told John Corpening that they should make the center of the supply depot destroyable once per match, with sharks and jellies waiting below the water underneath the spot. Could make the trebs much more sought after.

During my multiple matches (read: all wins) in Stronghold, several different strategies arose. Sometimes we went all turtle and just kept to defense while sending out door breakers when we could, thereby preventing our enemy from ever getting at our lord. Other times we went nuts unleashing tons of archers that the enemy just couldn’t defend against while we took out the doors and the keep lord. And yet, we also found that holding down the supply depot so the enemy couldn’t get any for themselves was just as viable. Even at an early stage Stronghold seems to have a lot of different tactics on hand, which is something that’s long been lacking in other PVP game modes.

Overall Thoughts

I’m impressed. Can’t you tell? 2,000 words later, two interviews, a full gameplay demo, and I could probably go on talking. It’s just a small taste of what’s to come from Heart of Thorns, with so many more questions left unanswered. It does feel like we’ve been waiting forever for this expansion to come, but if this first taste is anything to go by it’ll definitely be worth the wait.

Be sure to check out our video interviews with Jon and Corp, as well as our full uncut gameplay of the demo. We’ll have more Heart of Thorns coverage this week from PAX, so stay tuned.

Last week, I got a chance to play Heart of Thorns, Guild Wars 2's first expansion. The demo featured both a small chunk of the new PvE area and the Strongholds PvP game mode. Here are my impressions of the MMO's upcoming jungle excursion.

What's happening?

The demo begins with the cutscene from the end of "Season 2". To recap, this:

The pact fleet, on journeying deep into the jungle to take down Mordremoth, find themselves under attack. Mordy's a jungle dragon, and that gives him control over Syvari, the game's playable race of plant people. The Sylvari turn on their companions, and the fleet's airships crash into the jungle canopy. Their leaders—Trahearne and Destiny's Edge—are captured. Into this scene of devastation enters the player, and the Living World crew of Marjorie, Kasmeer, Rox et al.

In the opening story instance, I meet up with Pact soldier Laranthir—a Sylvari. He tells us that soldiers are being kidnapped by Mordremoth's forces, and requests that we rescue them. Another Pact soldier tells us that Sylvari can't be trusted, and that instead of walking into Laranthir's probable trap, I should go and do something else. This is going to be a key tension in the expansion. Are some Sylvari immune to Mordremoth's influence? If so, which, and why? Laranthir seems trustworthy, and agreeing to his mission reveals that Mordremoth is particularly interested in capturing Sylvari, but what does that mean?

A bigger question is what happens if the player is Sylvari? It's one thing choosing to help Laranthir as a human, but how would the same scenario play out if the player was equally suspicious? ArenaNet is staying tight-lipped over the exact details, and the demo build wouldn't let me create a Sylvari character. My hope is that the story extends beyond some alternative dialogue. It's unlikely decisions will be too drastic—with no open-world PvP it's not as if players could decide to join the dragon's forces—but it will be a waste if the expansion can't explore that tension in some new and interesting ways.

Welcome to the jungle

After the instance, I'm let loose in a new zone. At least, I'm let loose in a tiny section of the bottom-left of a new zone. Immediately, stuff is happening. I spawn by what the game calls an 'Outpost,' a series of public events centred around a single area that players must protect. First up, killing things. Five huge Mordrem Breechers are roaming around a rocky outcrop. Above us, a parallel event encourages supporting players to grab sniper rifles and provide covering fire. They can't hurt the main targets, but can do huge damage to additionally spawned enemies.

As the last Breecher is downed, a cutscene plays. Helicopters attempt to fly away, but are cut down by a massive vine that weaves through the rock. Our new job is to grab explosives from the downed choppers to lay at the base of the vine. It's fun, in a chaotic way. A lot of the events channel encounters that will be familiar in the Silverwastes—the zone introduced during the second half of Season 2. We're beset by Mordrem Wolves, Husks and Trolls, and helped out by a supporting cast of Pact soldiers.

Once the vine is cleared, the remaining helicopters can transport us to the final event of the cycle. It's a boss fight against a Legendary tier Wyvern on a large metal platform suspended by vines. We spawn above the platform, and use hang-gliders to drift into the fight.

Who, what and wyvern

The Wyvern is a challenging boss fight, and all the better for it. There are no special systems in play—this isn't another Twisted Marionette or Tequatl—but I'm frequently forced to dodge its napalm-life flame breath. The fire sticks to the metal platforms and continues to burn, reducing the safe space we have to move through. Periodically, the Wyvern takes off and lays down strips of fire, dividing us into sections and making it harder to resurrect downed allies. If that wasn't enough, it will flap its wings—knocking down players and pushing them back. More than once, I'm caught by this attack too close to the edge and knocked off the platform.

Through a combined effort (and after more than a couple of deaths) we take the Wyvern down. A helicopter arrives, and I can return to the main map by speaking to either of two NPCs. One is Laranthir, the other the anti-Sylvari soldier. It's hard to say if this decision has any lasting impact, but it seems as if ArenaNet is trying to bring story threads out of the instances and into the open world. Speaking to either Pact member has the same effect, so the choice is a statement of player intent. Do you stand with the Sylvari or not?

Jungle is massive

Back in the demo area, I take to wandering around. ArenaNet has talked about the three biomes of the jungle, and it's possible to get a sense of how this will manifest. Above me is the canopy, filled with the wreckage of Pact airships. Below, thick vegetation hides ruins and small angry lizards. Both lead to areas outside of the demo area, and so there was only the suggestion of how they might look.

It's likely that each layer will become more distinct the further players get into the zone. Hopefully that'll give the hang-glider some more use. In the demo, it provided little more than a showy entrance—a choice between gliding a small distance or running around an only slightly longer path. In fact, the only place in the demo that necessitated its use—the jump down to the Wyvern's platform—gave all players a hang-glider prompt whether they'd unlocked it or not.

Completing the Outpost event chain unlocks an "Adventure" challenge. These are new, but can be thought of as a solo version of Guild Missions. On activating the adventure, I'm equipped with a flamethrower and asked to torch a number of tendrils before the timer runs out. It's a basic challenge mode, but one that makes for a passable diversion.

Mastery and Commander

The other icon on the map is for a Mastery Point. I can't find it, which suggests these are the map's new collectibles—a sort of Vista mixed with Skill Point. In Heart of Thorns, clicking on the XP bar opens up the mastery menu. Here, players can select their desired upgrade, and any XP gained from that moment goes towards filling its unlock bar. Once unlocked, it can be bought with Mastery points.

This, ArenaNet says, is GW2's new end game system. Masteries are divided between Heart of Thorns specific unlocks—hang-gliders, mushroom jumping and bonuses against the jungle's enemies—and more general game-wide upgrades. Each mastery is divided up into multiple stages, each providing additional bonuses but costing more points. In this sense, it functions a little like the existing world-versus-world skills.

Only two game-wide masteries are in the demo build: Fractal Attunement Mastery and Legendary Precursor Crafting. The latter will allow players to work towards specific precursors—exotic weapons that form the basis for legendaries. The final stage on that line unlocks the new precursor weapons being introduced for Heart of Thorns.

Misty eyed

Heart of Thorns' new profession is the Revenant—a heavy-armoured class that works a bit like the elementalist, only with history instead of magic. Like the elementalist, Revenants can't weapon-swap during combat. Instead, they equip and swap between "legends" of the past. Two legends can be equipped at a time, and in the demo I had access to both Mallyx the Unyielding and Jalis Ironhammer.

With a press of F1 I'm able to switch the currently active legend. Legends define the last five positions on the hotbar—healing, utility and elite skills. With Jalis, that means hammer stuff. He's a dwarf king, and his stone-based attacks let me channel a pair of hammers to continuously circle around me, smacking everything in their way. He's simple, fun and offers options that can increase the survivability of me and my allies.

Mallyx is a more complicated legend. To play him effectively, I need to collect conditions. He's not very powerful in and of himself, but his healing skill is more potent if I'm loaded with negative status effects. All of his skills work in a similar way—providing extra bonuses the more debuffs I've accrued. It's a high-risk style, and one that could lead to some dramatic turnarounds for those who learn to play it well.

The other legends weren't available, but if they can provide additional systems as divergent as the two on offer, the Revenant should offer lots of scope for tailoring builds to specific play styles. Put another way, I may be about to make my first heavy character.

Home of Champions

My final stop was Champion's Dusk, the new PvP map. It's Guild Wars 2's first Strongholds map—a mode I detailed last month. Each team's objective is to break into their opponent's stronghold and kill their lord. To do this, they need to collect supply from the centre of the map, and spend it on NPC units back at their barracks. It's tactical, and also somewhat chaotic. The action moves much faster than I expected—even our longest matches only take ten minutes or so.

In one game, the enemy goes fully on the offensive. They spawn multiple doorbreakers, and babysit them to our gate. It's over quickly, our team too spread out and focused on individual objectives to mount a coordinated defence. It becomes clear that the mode rewards group play—either of existing parties or the planned Guild-versus-Guild matchmaking. Our less organised team is destroyed.

We find more success in our other game. This one goes on longer, and we're able to control the middle supply line, preventing our opponents from calling in NPCs. I play a roaming Thief, and help out by picking off lone enemy players and protecting allies while they channel the hero summon that spawns periodically throughout the map. If there's one thing I'm unsure about, it's the team size. Five players per team is too few to utilise all of the map's systems, and while planning around that is a key part of a team's tactics, it makes it difficult to rally from a weak early game.

What I've played is a promising sign that Heart of Thorns will be a meaningful expansion. The small demo area felt like a continuation of the design lessons learned over the last two years of updates. If ArenaNet continue to expand and escalate the available events throughout the new area, Heart of Thorns should be an expansion that provides plenty of difficult content for players to tackle. There are still questions—of the full size of the expansion, of how much its challenge will progress beyond what players have previously experienced, and of whether the new events hold up to repetition in any meaningful sense. If these concerns are answered, Heart of Thorns will be a great showcase for this new phase of Guild Wars 2's life.

pas de nouveaux donjons prévues mais des "challenges", etc...).

Salut tout le monde ! Je m’appelle Anatoli Ingram et certains d’entre vous me connaissent peut-être grâce à mes chroniques Guild Wars 2 sur le site Massively Overpowered. ArenaNet m’a offert l’opportunité de vous présenter les coulisses du développement et du test de Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™. Je vais vous faire découvrir tout ce qu’il y a à savoir : de sa conception aux personnes responsables de sa création. Si vous vous êtes déjà demandé comment vos personnages préférés prennent vie, restez à l’écoute !

Dans la jungle, terrible jungle

La semaine dernière, j’étais dans les studios d’ArenaNet à Bellevue, dans l’état de Washington, pour jouer à la première démo de Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. La presse et les membres de la communauté du monde entier s’étaient rassemblés autour d’un repas avec les développeurs pour discuter de la session de jeu du lendemain. J’ai eu la chance de discuter avec Mike Zadorojny, concepteur de jeu en chef, qui m’a fait part de l’importance pour ArenaNet de rendre le contenu de l’extension disponible aux joueurs. « Il est aussi difficile pour les développeurs de garder leur travail secret, que pour les joueurs d’attendre sa sortie, expliquait-il. Les développeurs comptent sur les commentaires des joueurs pour améliorer leur travail et sont toujours impatients de connaître leurs avis sur le nouveau contenu. »

La démo JcE nous a donné un bon avant-goût de l’histoire à venir. Nous avions à peine eu le temps de découvrir ce qu’il était advenu des membres du Pacte après l’attaque de Mordremoth (spoiler : ils ne jouaient pas à cache-cache dans les arbres) que nous avons été envoyés affronter les forces du dragon. Après avoir terrassé tous les mordrems en vue, nous avons réquisitionné un hélico du Pacte pour nous rendre vers notre prochaine cible : une vouivre cracheuse de feu qui avait visiblement décidé de s’approprier ce qu’il restait d’un d’aéronef. Nous n’étions pas prêts à la laisser faire, alors nous avons sauté sur nos deltaplanes pour aller nous en occuper.

On pourrait penser qu’un groupe de revenants capables de manipuler la puissance des Brumes viendrait rapidement à bout de cette satanée vouivre. C’était loin d’être le cas, notre valeureuse équipe n’a pas tardé à connaître un sort funeste. La vouivre ressemble plus à un boss de la saison 2 du Monde vivant qu’à un boss de monde de Guild Wars 2, mais elle est bien plus meurtrière, et la combattre en groupe s’avère bien plus difficile. Chaque joueur peut apporter sa propre contribution : de la ranimation des alliés qui ont succombé à son souffle de feu dévastateur, à l’application d’avantages comme Stabilité pour résister aux effets de Repoussement. Si la vouivre vous projette hors de son perchoir, jetez-vous dans un courant ascendant pour revenir au cœur du combat, à condition toutefois que vous sachiez voler en deltaplane.

Le ravitaillement, c’est la vie

Nous avons fini par terrasser la bête, mais au lieu de nous reposer sur nos lauriers, nous nous sommes plongés dans le nouveau mode de jeu JcJ : Bastion. En règle générale, je ne joue que très peu en JcJ structuré, mais même en tant que débutant, je dois dire que ce nouveau mode est vraiment sympa. Chaque camp sait à tout moment les actions qu’il peut entreprendre, il est donc très facile de savoir qui a l’avantage et comment retourner la situation. Fidèle à ma profession préférée, le nécromant, je me suis consacré aux ravitaillements et à l’invocation de précieux PNJ. Je ne vous cacherai pas que certains de ces ravitaillements ont été volés sur les cadavres des mes ennemis, mais c’est parfois le prix à payer pour atteindre un objectif au plus vite.

J’ai aussi eu la chance de discuter de la création du mode Bastion avec Hugh Norfolk, le concepteur de jeu, et Josh Davis, le responsable des événements compétitifs. Les origines de ce mode sont diverses (du mode guilde contre guilde à la mission du Fort Trembleforêt du premier Guild Wars, en passant par les MOBA), mais l’équipe de conception voulait avant tout que ce nouveau mode s’adapte aux mécaniques de combat uniques de Guild Wars 2. Grâce au mode Bastion, ArenaNet entend impliquer dans le JcJ structuré les joueurs qui, comme moi, ne s’intéressent pas beaucoup au JcJ de type conquête. Alors que le mode Conquête intègre un méta-jeu particulier au sein duquel chaque profession tend à avoir un rôle spécifique, le mode Bastion introduit des rôles basés sur la carte, encourageant ainsi la diversité des archétypes. C’est une des raisons pour lesquelles les développeurs suivront avec intérêt tous les commentaires portant sur la place du mode Bastion au sein de la file JcJ normale pendant la phase de bêta test.

Hugh et Josh m’ont expliqué que même si les employés d’ArenaNet passent un temps considérable à tester les nouveaux contenus, la véritable phase de test ne débute qu’au moment où des joueurs extérieurs y accèdent. Ces mêmes joueurs que l’on pouvait entendre pousser des cris de joie et de colère au gré de leurs victoires et de leurs défaites, et qui mettaient à l’épreuve les capacités du revenant. Contrôle des foules, Dégâts par altération et armure lourde font du revenant une profession à ne pas négliger en JcJ, mais les autres sont tout à fait capables de lui tenir tête, et ce sans même avoir accès aux nouvelles spécialisations !

C’est une question d’équilibre

J’ai demandé au concepteur en chef, Colin Johanson, ce qui avait mené à la création d’une extension pour GW2 et il m’a expliqué qu’ArenaNet avait longuement réfléchi à la meilleure manière d’apporter du nouveau contenu pour le jeu. Bien que le Monde vivant soit un très bon moyen de le faire, il semblait évident que les joueurs attendaient quelque chose de plus : de grands moments narratifs, ainsi que d’importantes améliorations en matière de gameplay. Ce sont les commentaires des joueurs qui ont mené à cette solution permettant de garder le meilleur des deux mondes : une extension complétée par le contenu du Monde vivant.

Si vous êtes impatient de mettre la main sur la démo de Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, venez à la PAX East de Boston et à l’EGX Rezzed de Londres. N’hésitez pas à laisser des commentaires constructifs lorsque vous jouez car ils sont lus avec la plus grande attention.

Bonne chasse au dragon, et à bientôt dans les Brumes !

• La spécialisation de l'envouteur redistribuera les cartes en sPvP.