[Since season 1 is finished, anet will soon start releasing season 6 content. What do you want to see?]

Would like to see some of the old plot threads from GW1 also taken care of alongside many of the threads still open in GW2.  Personally, given that Cantha used to be renowned for its associations with the gods (and subsequently the mists, via the Envoys and Wei No Su among other things) and I would love to see how the gods react to the death of balthazar and how a group of mortals was able to take care of problems that the gods themselves could not.  I'd figure Raisu palace would have many historical documents (a secret or restricted library of sorts) that would explain a bit more about such subjects, and I wouldn't be surprised if that would be part of what kicks off the next story arc.

With Dragon Void still having the potential to be a problem, and it's indirect association with the mists, I would be surprised if we DIDN'T move into the Gods of Tyria/Mists arc, perhaps even getting the opportunity to visit the original world humans hail from, perhaps even finding out what happened to Razah (tbh, I thought Kanaxai and his inexplicable demonic corruption might make a return at some point, and the fact that Dragon magic is compatable with Shiro's/Abaddon's death wail magic had me thinking that the dragon void has connections to both why Kanaxai appeared and why Urgoz and the Wardens were corrupted after the jade wail, since such corruption seems similar to that of what elder dragons have done so far).  Between Razah, Demons, the Mursaat, the Gods themselves, and many other creatures, they have several plot lines that could lead us through the mists.

Likewise, I would like to find out more about the rest of the world at large, like what dwells beyond the places where humans primarily set up shop, being Tyria, Elona, and Cantha.  What about the underground holds of the Asura and Dwarves, which should now be free to explore with Primordus' defeat, or the wilds to the east of Ascalon and Elona?  Or perhaps a westward continent that we've yet to visit (A New World Exploration Arc, but y'know, without the crimes against humanity, where we find new variants of the five main races, such as asura that surfaced elsewhere?). 

Some minor plots I'd like to revisit is what happened to the rest of the bloodstones, and how Joko obtained lichdom (Praise Joko) and how he was able to circumvent the mists.  Where has Zojja/Malyck been all this time?  Is Blish still alive somewhere, floating in the mists (half expected him to make a reappearance with the Aetherblades in EoD)?  Where do the Largos hail from?  Echovald Amber Tech?  How many of the other members of Critical Role can we convince to VA for GW2?  What about Sung-Won?  MOAR Guild Halls and Guild-based activities/missions/organizations/buildings/levels, etc.

[Looking Ahead to Spring, Summer, and the Future]

@ErickDntn.1847 said:Thank you for sharing this wonderful news, even if it's this early and you guys don't have any detail to share yet!

Human for me has always been the most interesting race in the game, which usually is not the case for me when it comes to other video games. I love the fact that the game lore can take inspirations from irl cultures that are non-western, flesh them out, and make unique adaptations yet still relatable without turning the human-centered elements into something else, for example, a bunch of walking talking pandas :tongue: .

But in all seriousness, even though Cantha is largely based on East Asia, as a Southeast Asian I can't wait to see what the Cantha-themed expansion will bring. I hope this will be a great opportunity for the dev teams to diversify human character creations similar to that before PoF released, as well as armor sets that look, and music that sounds native to Cantha. And obviously, one thing that I like about PoF was that the elite specs that are so well integrated to the lore then, and hopefully will be the case with the next expac.

So good luck and have fun for the devs working on the expac!

EDIT:

Feature Wishlist

Aaaand, though it's probably too early to talk about feature, that makes now a good time to chip in some ideas and aspiration no? Read sometimes Anet devs read through the post as well? what's wrong with dreaming anyway right? Right, so here goes nothing! :smiley:

Assuming the next expac will open up access to Cantha as well as free access to previous expansions (for players who don't already have them), I thought trading, trade route, sailing, ports, and caravansaries (basically trade expeditions) would be a neat addition. Lore wise, since many of the threats and constraints that had disturbed trade connection globally has been eliminated, intercontinental trading began to become popular again as each continent have developed their own specialties. Basically, move goods from one place and sell it to NPC in another place. Not gonna lie, I like the trading skills when playing BDO. It's a chill and immersive way to make money with minimum combat, but still allow you to interact with the world. I came up with a few features that might complement the idea:

• Craft continent-specific products: crafting stations in each continent will have access to different recipes and trade goods. These trade goods can only be moved via transportations. This will also give crafting more opportunities to be a means of making bucks and maybe more cross-discipline production chains (e.g. wooden crates from huntsman to safely store your chef trade goods).
• Life skills: life skills usually refer to fishing, botany, animal husbandry, cooking etc. Already got cooking, so maybe anet can add some other varieties of these skills. I've seen some discussion about these skills being part of mastery as well. Regardless these can complement the production chains towards crafting trade goods, or just crafting in general. I mean, we got garden plots, spear and swimming, and mini-games already. Maybe this is also more the case for player housing too? :lol:
• Caravan and mounts: since we learn about the domestication of large animals as mounts, and physics :lol: , caravans will be a mean of moving trade goods through the land. You can't waypoint while on a caravan, but you can map-to-map travel through the border portals.
• Sailing: Since different continents are disconnected in terms of land connections, the sea trade route would an option. That means there will be ocean-only maps that connects between one port to another to sail your ship, and perhaps some pirates roaming around. You can only embark/disembark trade goods on designated port and similar to the caravan, can't waypoint around on with your ship. If you don't properly dock your ship, after a certain time or when the map closes, your ship will be transferred to the last port it's docked. Why not airship you ask to begin with? Well, uuh, it's beacuse..., airship leaves too much carbon footprint and according to the Grove Convention, its uses other than for martial and emergency purposes are banned. Yes. That's canon.
• Ports: where players dock their ships. Places like Lion's Arch, Amnoon, Kaineng etc. Items stored inside the ships docked here will never lost. Maybe allowing other players to sell/buy the goods stored as well idk.
• Caravansaries: caravansaries are basically trading outposts that are located somewhere in various maps, new or existing. These caravansaries have top 10 requested trade goods based on megaserver-wide-based supply-demand and it's updated every 10-15 mins maybe. So it's possible for players to stack up certain imported goods in their ships on a port and deliver it with caravans when the time is right. These caravansaries can be an existing PoI like Eldvin Monastery but with trade goods officer NPCs. They are the ones who buy trade goods. When you sell imported goods, you might also have the options to trade them with 'local trade goods' with fewer liquid gold payment. These local goods can be sold to other trading outposts within the region with price based on the said supply/demand, or even just straight artificial one.
• Trade routes: basically gps system. You can pre-plan your trade expedition, sequencing routes for your caravansary and port destinations.
• Bandit/pirates: the higher the value of your trade routes, the higher the chance and more powerful bandits that might attack you.
• Escort contract: Not really good at combat? You can create a contract with other players to escort your caravan (with gold as payments). The escort will be able to inspect the trade value. The contract ideally have some requirements like the escort have to be within the range of the caravan and cannot be further away for a certain time limit, otherwise the contract is nullified. Once the caravan made it to the destination, the contract will be honored.

The reward for the trade expedition don't always have to be gold, could even be a currency for furniture or whatever. But the goal really is to add more variation into players' rotation, and while we have tp flipping, I thought trade expedition like this is more engaging and immersive because you get to travel and interact with the world again since waypointing is not possible during the expedition.

Phew, these definitely stuffs that I just pulled out of my mind and not something that I've been thought of since the announcement that has been keeping me from sleeping :lol:

I REALLY like this trading idea, like, this would make for an awesome new mastery mechanic throughout the game if they implemented it, and it would give excuses to older players to revisit older content, similar to how Zaishan Bounties were in GW1, and I think it would play very well for re-introducing Cantha (or even Tengu, should they decide to make them a new race) into the world of GW2. The deep sea dragons minions would be something that you'd have to fight on trade routes, and Luxon or other pirates might also be a problem to face as well, so it offers for some interesting interactions with the world we don't otherwise have at the moment, and it also allows newer players an easier introduction to getting some gold (I'd say not too much, maybe like 1-2 gold per route, given that much higher would probably disrupt the economy by quite a bit). I would love to see that implemented with some ties to Guilds as well, perhaps as part of the Guild Market, maybe providing a guild ship or something of that nature.

[Looking Ahead to Spring, Summer, and the Future]

@Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

@Zinchmwah.2067 said:No one's going to read this, but I just wanted the devs and the rest of the staff to know that I wish them good luck. Take your time and have fun with it. You guys do an awesome job at releasing story content to the game.

I just wanted to mention that we (more than one employee) read your posts :)

I haven't posted in a while, but seeing this got me motivated to get on and participate in the discussion, haha. Thanks for all you do.

Cantha is probably one of the places I've looked forward to revisiting the most, as it was my favorite place to explore in GW1 (even if it was a bit difficult for my younger, inexperienced self to get through without help). I often talk and speculate with my Guildmates about what Cantha would be like should we return, and what features we'd like to see, as well as what pros and cons might come with those features. To help organize things, I've organized this so as to make for easier reading that's straight to the point.

Roses (My favorite parts of Cantha)

• The unique culture existing in Cantha in GW1 is something I enjoyed greatly, as it was unlike any other culture found in the game. The lore behind Ritualists' origin of magic was particularly interesting as well, as was the political interactions between the Empire, the Kurzicks, and the Luxons, and later the addition of the Ministry of Purity and their dealings with the other parts of the Celestial ministry.
• The monsters faced here were also quite engaging to learn about, particularly when GW2 was announced and speculation began upon the link between Sylvari and the Wardens of the Echovald forest, as well as the implementation of the Tengu as a playable race. My personal favorite thing to speculate about was whether Kanaxai and the outcasts had any relation to the Deep Sea Dragon, given that you find them deep within the Jade Sea along with many other Lovecraftian-like creatures.
• The scenery and architecture of every part you could visit in Cantha was unique and fantastical, in that you could tell at a glance just what part of the continent you were currently at, something that you can somewhat feel in GW2 and other parts of GW1, but not as distinctly as you could in Cantha.

Buds (What I hope for and look forward to in the upcoming expansion)

• I've longed hoped for the Tengu to be added as a new playable race, but I understand that would mean thousands of new voice lines, animations, and armor skins would need to be developed just for that, which would take up the majority of the time and effort of any teams designated to the expansion. Even still, revisiting the Tengu and their lore-ties with Cantha would be quite the treat.
• Elite specs have been something my guildmates and I particularly speculated on. We've considered that a new profession/weapon might be added, but know that it would be almost as significant an undertaking as creating a new playable race might be, but we all loved the idea of oriental themed specializations entering into the game and have spent countless hours working out what profession might get what, how they would play, and why.
• Oriental Armor sets. I have long hoped to give some of my characters have a more samurai/ronin or xiaolin monk type feel to them, and although we get outfits that fulfill that dream to some extent, the lack of customization outfits have in that regard have made me a sad panda at times. Belinda's greatsword is one of my favorite skins in the game.
• A completely new mastery mechanic aside from mounts. I see a lot of people hoping for new mounts to be added with the expansion, but I consider that to be what made PoF stand out. Although I don't have any suggestions as to what the new mechanic could be, I would love to see something that has an effect on all aspects of the game, similarly to how gliders in HoT effected the core game, and how mounts in PoF effected both HoT and core. Being able to revisit areas of the game with newly acquired skills that change how we approach age old situations brings some pride to me as a player for having put the effort in to obtain it.
• Guild Halls, Guild updates, GvG, and Alliances. I would love to see a faction based pvp system be reintroduced into a PvE setting as we saw in GW1, more so as I've seen discussion on the forums about the next episode in Woodland Cascades introducing a similar effect, akin to Silverwastes. Guilds have also not seen much love since the addition of the Windswept Haven in PoF, so seeing some additions (perhaps pertaining to an alliance or faction-based system) would be well appreciated. Structured GvG would also be an awesome way to make guild halls feel a bit more relevant as they did in GW1, though understandably, decorations are probably what have kept us from being able to visit that idea.
• Finally finding out what has happened to Cantha after the Winds of Change, the departure of the gods, and how the deep sea dragon plays into it. I have a mighty need to know, haha.

Thorns (Least favorite things of Cantha or the current game)

• There isn't a whole lot I can put here, but I'd probably say the likelihood that we won't get a new race or profession due to restraints in budget and time are one of the things that saddens me a bit. I can also see that being applied to GvG, Guild halls, new guild mechanics, and even the alliance system that was announced several years ago. A lot has happened in the last year or so that definitely makes it seem like those are out of reach, and most of it beyond your control to do anything about except adapt and adjust to fit NCsoft's needs.
• The current story doesn't give us many different choices for our own story, which has taken us away (imo) from what core guild wars 2 was all about. Understandably, this also has to do with time and budget constraints I'm sure, but my characters haven't felt quite as tailored as they used to be with being able to decide which course of action I would want to take for the next mission, although there are instances within some post-core story missions that do opt for some in-mission choices to be made, but it still feels somewhat like we've diverted from the original picture GW2 had when it launched.
• Similarly to the above, I feel balance-wise, y'all have backed yourselves into a corner somewhat in not having defined roles for every profession. Not that I'm complaining, but it would be cool if specializations felt a bit more specialized haha. We can see it somewhat with Druids being the designated healer or the Chronomancer being the tank/buffer in most raiding situations, but the lack of competition those professions have due to how dominant they are in that role compared to what other professions bring to the table is what prompts me to say this, and I think would have a strong effect on new elite specs/professions/weapons, but this would probably take things off topic if I pursued it much further.

Thanks again for all you do Anet. We're rooting for you, we're excited to see what you're working on, and we (particularly me and my guildmates) want to know what we can do to help support you! Can't wait to hear more about the expansion soon!

[Whisper in the Dark]

Man, some people get real bitter about a free release not being on time.

Thank you Rubi and all the devs who are working so hard on quality content you’ve made freely available to us. If it needed to be delayed for a week just to iron out a few bugs, then all the better for when it does release. Programming and game design can be downright frustrating sometimes, but know that many of us (particularly some of us who don’t use the forums as often) truly appreciate all that you do!

[Let's Talk About WvW Balance]

Don't want to post a long monologue, as I tend to get lost in the point I'm trying to make, but to state simply, I feel that in regards to WvW skill balance, every profession should have viable playstyles that offer enough counter-play options so as not to have one profession/specialization completely dominate a particular role, (or one profession spec dominating several roles, like we see in raiding) which shoves out other playstyles that could compete in that role. As has been mentioned, boons and condis being so prevalent on top of many singular skills being too frontloaded leads to difficulty in balancing a competitive environment, and I feel that's what make it feel like a desired playstyle is great to play.

Stated differently, I'd like to see profession specs fulfill certain roles (dps, bunker, bomber, etc.) differently in a way that doesn't lead to one spec being the only go to choice for a particular role, while each having sufficient trade-offs to allow for skillful counter-play. One thing I also saw mentioned that I agree with is determining the "time-to-kill".

In regards to WvW itself as just some things to bring up; I feel - as has also been stated earlier in this thread - that there needs to be more reward incentives that are more centered around actual meaningful participation as a player, rather than participation only for pips and reward tracks. While the rewards we have are nice, I recall that originally, winning objectives in WvW translated to bonuses earned for one's server or "world". It'd be cool to have both, especially once the Alliance system rolls out.

Edge of the Mist has also fallen by the wayside due to the pip reward system, as there isn't much reason to play when you aren't getting as much rewards for doing nearly the same thing you would be in normal WvW. I hardly see anyone on it when I play, although it does make for a good environment to teach other players the basics of playing in WvW as a result.

Sorry if what I said was either vague or convoluted, but thanks for reading! Looking forward to see what changes are to come!