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The trailer for the expansion:

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Beautiful world, seamless cooperation with other players, WvWvW. The combat opens up in about 10 levels.

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What do you get out of a level increase that you don’t get from adding new masteries, specializations, and utility skills? Is a number really that important?

I’m honestly baffled (not in a negative poo-pooing way), so I’d love to hear your perspective.

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Very glad to hear they didn’t do a level cap increase. This is really not the kind of game that even needs levels to begin with, much less more pointless levels between the xpac and the good stuff. The xpac content will all be valid level cap content, rather than one or two leveling zones you go through once and never see again and then one or two level 90 zones you actually care about. Great choice.

No release date, very little in game footage. I’d be surprised if it came out before November and 2016 would be disappointing but not a huge shock. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Before you dump everything there is a very convenient Sell Items tab on the trading post window that shows all of the stuff in your inventory and its current selling price. Maybe do a quick scan of that just in case you have something worth selling. Otherwise salvage everything, put the crafting materials in storage and vendor the rest.

As far as getting back into it, go to a lower level zone you’ve never been to before. Do some exploring and questing. It will level you down but shouldn’t be too punishing. Should help you get back into it. After that if you’re into the story stuff check out Living World Season 2, it’s pretty cool. If not, just make your way to Dry Top and the Silverwastes and do whatever looks interesting. They’re very active zones right now with a ton of events and some cool rewards.

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Yeah, “levels” in end game MMO kinda just seem like “easy ways to give me that carrot”–a way to track my progress, because when you hit the level cap, well, you’re about a quarter of the way done with the actual leveling work that’s available.

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All those things! I’m going to do them!

EDIT: stupid bad manners. I also meant to say: Thanks!

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Levels in GW2 are just a way to gather more skill points anyway…and it’s not like those ever stop.

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Level and gear increases may be the “easy carrot” for progression, but for me they’re what keep me going. With no new level to obtain or gear power to increase, I just don’t see the point in continuing. Why beat the new bosses or do the content? For a skill point? I’ve always lost interest in MMO’s once I’ve hit the level cap. Going through that right now in WoW. There is lots to “do”, but whats the point. The new story may be ok, but without any progression I’m just not all that interested. Plus I’m just not a fan of more jungle environments and sylvari story. I have over 300 hours into my Guardian alone, but a few new skills and a new weapon type just isn’t all that enticing.

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Salvage anything green, blue, or white in your inventory. Salvage yellows that sell for less than one ectoplasm, otherwise sell them on the trading post. Keep your gold exotics until you’ve researched them.

Deposit your collectibles, sell your runes and sigils on the trading post.

Your first goal is to obtain exotic level 80 Berserker armor. This will be sufficient for any PVE content apart from fractals. Later you can upgrade to ascended armor, but it’s not really necessary.

If you have any tokens from running Citadel of Flame, Crucible of Eternity, or WvW then cash those in (for WvW, make sure you select level 80 armor since they sell lower levels too.) Then go to the trading post and buy any pieces you are still missing. You may need to grind for some gold and/or sell materials to complete your set, since it’s kind of expensive.

Once you’ve got armor, start looking for exotic level 80 Berserker weapons. By this point hopefully you’ve decided on a set or two that makes you comfortable. Again, you can later upgrade to ascended weapons but it’s not necessary.

While you’re gearing up, you should experiment with different traits, runes, and sigils. There are plenty of guides floating around that might match your style. Some runes and sigils are very expensive, so play with the cheaper ones first. No rune/sigil set is absolutely necessary in PvE.

Finally, start grinding for ascended Berserker rings/amulets/accessories. Unlike ascended armor and weapons, you can buy these from merchants.

The only time you’ll need to buy non-Berserker set is for WvW. You might also use a different set for PvP, but those are always free.

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Excellent, thanks!

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But there is progression and, no, not “get a skill point”. New abilities, specializations, and masteries. And it sounds like the latter are going to be used in order to beat the expansion content. So… that’s typically what you’d get from a level increase, isn’t it?

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Respeccing is free now, right?

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You can respec traits for free at any time.

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I don’t have much interest in trying to convince someone who’s folded his arms and announced he’s done with a game – harumph! – but have you tried the other classes? There are eight classes in Guild Wars 2, and much like the content in Diablo 3 is the character progression, I’d say a lot of the content in Guild Wars 2 is the character progression for each class. A guy with a level 80 guardian has played less than a fifth of the game. I mean, yeah, if you don’t like it, don’t play it. But to claim you’ve exhausted the game by hitting the level cap for a single class?

And don’t get me started on rob04 announcing he doesn’t like the combat based on his level 15 character. :)

I’m a bit disappointed at the announcement partly because I still have so much left to do in Guild Wars 2 as is, so without more specifics, there’s nothing terribly exciting in Heart of Thorns for me. I’m still working on season two, I only have a couple of 80s and I haven’t even spent much time with the class I’m most fascinated by (mesmer), I have barely scratched the surface of the various gear grinds, and I’m consistently pulled away from the PvP and WvW by the ease with which I get into all the PvE. Short of changing something drastically, like the way Cataclysm changed the world of WoW, I’m not sure what ArenaNet could have announced that would have gotten me pumped up. Or maybe it’s just that I already like the game so much I don’t have much room to try to like it more…

Also, I’m a bit skeptical of this mastery thing as a boondoggle specific to the new area. So I can earn points to let my characters hangglide in the new heart of Maguuma area, but I’m guessing I can’t hangglide in the wider world. And why would I spent mastery points on an ability that lets me read lore? Please. I hope they’re not expecting that to be much of a draw, because if that’s the sort of dilemma they’re presenting with masteries – do you want to hangglide better or read a paragraph of lore text? – then I’m not going to care much about masteries.

-Tom

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If that’s all masteries are, I won’t give a crap about them either.

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Don’t get me started on MMOs you have to put 80 hours into before you can decide if the combat is good or not. :)

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There’s your box quote, ArenaNet.

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Don’t get me started on MMOs. :)

It’s an important point, though. By their very nature, MMOs have to draw out their content over a long period of time. I wouldn’t say you necessarily need to put in 80 hours, but I’ve reviewed plenty of MMOs. My experience is that until you get into the middle levels of the character progression, odds are you haven’t truly seen what it’s offering. And given how much ArenaNet has accelerated the early level progression, hitting level 15 probably takes a few hours, tops. In fact, they offer these doo-dads that let you instantly jump new characters to level 20. It’s sort of as if they’re conceding everything up to level 20 is kind of a tutorial.

-Tom

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Well you’d be getting started on MMOs that aren’t GW2, since you can jump into a structured PvP game after hitting level 21 and have all class abilities and exotic equipment unlocked. Should give you a good feel for the combat at endgame.

Fortunately you only have to unlock it once, so as soon as you get one character to 21 you can just create a new level 1 character of any other class and do the same thing. Instant level 80 trial mode.

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Web site up, with a little info: https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en

I’ll definitely pick it up. Guild wars 2 and the secret world are the only mmos I ever cared for.