Personal Housing, A New Raid, A New Weapon, and More: Janthir Wilds launches August 20! [Merged]

[Teknomancer.4895]

2 hours ago, Nuldric.1239 said:

I think, they'll make warclaw a combat mount, using a spear as a weapon, throwing it at and poking enemies while still mounted, maybe adjust it's hp pool, speed and add a mild cc or knockback to rush through enemy lines. I can imagine warclaw cavalry already 🤣.

Well duh, Warclaw is already a combat mount; hence the "war" part of its name.

1 hour ago, Fang.2137 said:

I have a bad feeling about Warclaw. In press kit (you can see here -> https://zebrapartners.net/janthirwilds/) there is a mention - "New and improved Warclaw... using its unique double-jump ability to navigate tough terrain". Why do we need to jump when we have flying mounts? And now a description of the maps from the same document - "New maps...  tempestuous Janthir Syntri". I hope that "tempestuous" does not mean that we will not be able to use flying mounts due to the weather.

If we need to jump, I'm sure the Kangabunny would love to be pulled out of storage where it got banished after everyone got a Skyscale. Make the Springer great again! 

If Warclaw movement speed isn't improved to be at least equivalent to the Raptor, then it will basically never be chosen for PvE unless it's required for some story-specific reason. I like the Warclaw's skins better than the Raptor's, so if it could move as fast as the Raptor (or even the Kangabunny) I'd probably always use it as my go-to land mount.

If there's no Warclaw land-speed boost and no story requirement then new skills or not, why would anyone choose PvE's slowest land mount?

[WindBlade.8749]

7 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

You had me at raids.  Thanks for making this content a priority again.  Pre-purchased the ultimate package.

 

raids hype ! ultimate edition time !

[hugo.4705]

So, we gonna go to Janthir. Interesting to somehow have linked Astral Ward to it.

HOUSING

What to say about the news so far? As someone who made a few posts about Player Housing, I do have several concerns about this upcoming "Homestead" feature:

1. I hope that the decoration will be able to be placed quite freely and that there is an upgrade in placement, not only just rotating, but i expect shrinking/expanding their size and rotating on other axis too! So X, Y and Z axis. If not, it is basically the decoration system from Guild Hall without no improvement after 11 years.
2. Retro-Compatibility of decorations: Would it be new decorations, only obtainable in expansion, or, is it all the guild hall decorations made compatible with this new Homestead?
3. Variety of decorations. Let's speak frankly, having an instance, that can be decorated, if the decos are only kodan/norn like, I'm not interested. Indeed, I want to build my cozy asuran lab with Inquest banners, experiment beakers, asuran consoles, force field and lab tables; and i think players liking sylvaris will say the same with sylvian decorations, and peoples who love charrs will say the same about charr geary architecture which is kinda cool and beautiful too.
4. The content of the instance. If we speak in fact, of just an home instance apart that you can place where you want the nodes, then, I'm not in and don't even want to pre-order.
5. Player home instances (DR/ BC / RS / G / H ) already have features that can be bought on store, such as garden plots, expedition board, ressources nodes... and for services such as crafting stations or bank/trading post even fractals access, players already have Passes like Mistlock Sanctuary and Eye of the North. So, what would bring the Homestead? Could the npcs and crafting stations will be placed where we want in Homestead? Will there be upgrade for it, on Trading post?
6. Architecture and customization: Will the players be forced to have as house this bad looking barn? Isn't it more logical for it to be cultural, so you can choose between 5 types of houses representing the 5 playable races?

I can spend a lot of time in housing if correctly done, like I just pass ton of time in mine in Gensh** just to have a Japanese estate and all the rooms in the giant shogun like mansion how i want them to look, arranging the furnitures how I like. Gw2 is a great game, and I think nobody will contradict me when I say that your concept arts, loading screens and map environments are gorgeous. But this is also the case for your assets or 3D models if you prefer. They are great and make the environment welcoming, Norns homesteads are very cozy, Chars towns have a very nice industrial/steampunk vibe, when you walk in an asuran lab you are instantly in a cyberpunk setting... what I really think is that your game is very beautiful and that those Racial furniture and assets really should be put at good use by being used for housing decorating.

And a thing I haven't said too is that Housing is cool, but it would be a great plus if players would be able to place NPCS too or animals along decorations. I don't even ask you to give them dialogues! Many npcs in game have no dialogue and just look at you or say a regular hello, so I don't see how it is not possible.

---

OTHER FEATURES

After that little parenthesis about housing, I am okay with Spears usable on land, I never minded not being able to use them, but if they are added, good I guess.

Having a new raid is cool, so I can't say anything apart telling it is nice you haven't forgot about them.

The upcoming kitty- lynx? Warclaw looks really cool, I'm not hard to convince, as long you give me a feline or vulpine I am happy...  so yeah, this is a skin I look for, hoping it will be available for free, I recently finished the expensive collection to get the Kryptis Skyscale, never again.

The new PvP gamemode do intrigue me, but I never really play PvP because of toxicity basically, if I play PvP in any game I guess I would just want the chat to not be available, I prefer way more WvW which is more chill.

---

CONCLUSION

2 Maps sounds not a lot... Sure it depends of the size of map, If we speak of two maps the size of The Desolation / Harathi Hinterlands, ok, but if we speak of something like Ember bay or Southsun Cove...

So yup, so far, I think I'm not gonna pre-purchase, because I have no precisions about many things and so it is impossible to decide if it worth it or not.

PS: I just finished Secret of the Obscure, I guess it ended in a correct way, I don't see how I would have done differently the story in any case, I just find the meta boss of Inner Nayos, the very last one, meh. I got the Peitha figure recently and she looks very nice.

[Geoff Fey.1035]

3 hours ago, Kuldor.9682 said:

I get the "smaller expansions at a reduced price", but if the idea is to have a new expansion each year, you are effectively asking me for more money than before, and making the game even harder to get into for new players.

I disagree that each new expansion makes it harder for new players to get in. The Dragon Saga contains like 99% of the game, with SotO really only giving easy access to create Legendary Armour, Weapon Mastery (some builds don't require this) & Expanded Weapons (several professions seldomly use these outside of specific builds). 

I agree that a new expansion each year is questionable. They stated don't want to put on "a hat within a hat" and then noted they developed a new Crafting Discipline that is functionally Scribing except for your Home instead of the Guild. Just... why? They could have built it into literally all crafting disciplines (or better yet.... Scribing) similar to what they did for the Kryptis Motivations/Essences.

New Masteries are difficult to implement with actual bonuses because it creates power creep. For example, EoD Springer is the de facto opener to hard CC enemies, SotO Skyscale Mastery completely changed player involvement (i.e. leeching), and a lot of content in feels designed with the IBS United Legions Waystation (EMP) in mind. There's a lot of things that just stack together and make the players stronger and stronger--not necessarily a bad thing, but I think this is why we're seeing a lot of things like the Arborstone & Astral Ward Masteries where it's literally an EXP sink to time-gate content.

It doesn't seem sustainable outside of maybe a couple of years.

That all said, I'll still buy the expansion because I've been part of Guild Wars since 2009.

[Kuldor.9682]

1 hour ago, Geoff Fey.1035 said:

I disagree that each new expansion makes it harder for new players to get in. The Dragon Saga contains like 99% of the game, with SotO really only giving easy access to create Legendary Armour, Weapon Mastery (some builds don't require this) & Expanded Weapons (several professions seldomly use these outside of specific builds).

I didn't mean it made it harder because of the locked stuff, as you point out, The dragon saga is enough for most builds and mounts, although, we don't know what may be locked behind a future expansion.

But when a new player sees what he has to buy (or buy eventually), 2 30 bucks expansions sound much easier to get into than 4 25 bucks expansions (assuming Anet keeps this system from now on).

One could argue you don't HAVE to buy SoTO for example, if it's old content, and you don't want any of the extra weapons for your build, but chances are any new player won't investigate that much and will just get scared by the amount of expansions to buy.

Edited June 5 by Kuldor.9682

[LichOverlord.6329]

5 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

I sure hope they do! A proper Horse skin pack is long overdue. 👍

Related links: https://i.imgur.com/niczBVr.jpg , https://i.imgur.com/nUsVQ83.jpg

I still have no idea what this "horse" thing you're talking about is...

...is it some type of Centaur?

[Za Shaloc.3908]

Pretty excited honestly, at least based on what has been shown so far.
 

I really love housing in games and do hope it is well-implemented. I enjoy the housing system in ESO but also found a lot of the furniture there to be overly expensive. Also the furniture limit really is a bummer on bigger houses so I hope that’s not an issue in GW2.

Love spears and am very much looking forward to playing around with them all. That Ele(?) skill looked incredible. Some of the SotO weapons still feel half-baked and I do hope that the spear skills get more follow-up changes than the SotO weapons have. 

Terrain looks beautiful! Reminds me of some of my favorite places I’ve spent time in and grown up around.

Edited June 5 by Za Shaloc.3908

[SuavePuppy.2809]

I suspect guild decorations won't be usable in homesteads, hence the new crafting profession being introduced instead of scribe to avoid the inevitable "I wasted my time and gold crafting something I can't place in my homestead" threads 

[LichOverlord.6329]

34 minutes ago, Kuldor.9682 said:

I didn't mean it made it harder because of the locked stuff, as you point out, The dragon saga is enough for most builds and mounts, although, we don't know what may be locked behind a future expansion.

But when a new player sees what he has to buy (or buy eventually), 2 30 bucks expansions sound much easier to get into than 4 25 bucks expansions (assuming Anet keeps this system from now on).

One could argue you don't HAVE to buy SoTO for example, if it's old content, and you don't want any of the extra weapons for your build, but chances are any new player won't investigate that much and will just get scared by the amount of expansions to buy.

No, I totally get you - I think with the story it's a lot easier to get into post-EoD as now that the Elder Dragon Saga is over, the new expansions - especially SotO - provide a great "jump-in point" for new players

As far as the gameplay goes, though, yes, I 100% agree that if this continues, its a problem we'll definetly run into years down the road; just look at ESO, which has 31 individual standalone DLC packs to date, all of which either must be purchased separately if you're not paying a subscription - it's horrible, and I'd hate to see GW2 end up like that 5 years from now

I think this is an easy fix, though - all they really have to do is start bundling the newer expansions like they did with the Saga ones: something like an "Astral Bundle", which includes both SotO and JW for like $40 or $45 or something... having a bundle or two like that down the road would combat this problem very easily, and be less overwhelming to new players as instead of 6 expansions they'd see a bundle of 3, a bundle of 2, and them expansion 6 as a standalone for a total of 3 purchases

[Ashantara.8731]

36 minutes ago, SuavePuppy.2809 said:

I suspect guild decorations won't be usable in homesteads, hence the new crafting profession

Yet it will be the same decoration items.😄 What nonsense to create a new Crafting Profession for this.

[CelticFay.8351]

2 hours ago, hugo.4705 said:

So, we gonna go to Janthir. Interesting to somehow have linked Astral Ward to it.

HOUSING

What to say about the news so far? As someone who made a few posts about Player Housing, I do have several concerns about this upcoming "Homestead" feature:

1. I hope that the decoration will be able to be placed quite freely and that there is an upgrade in placement, not only just rotating, but i expect shrinking/expanding their size and rotating on other axis too! So X, Y and Z axis. If not, it is basically the decoration system from Guild Hall without no improvement after 11 years.
2. Retro-Compatibility of decorations: Would it be new decorations, only obtainable in expansion, or, is it all the guild hall decorations made compatible with this new Homestead?
3. Variety of decorations. Let's speak frankly, having an instance, that can be decorated, if the decos are only kodan/norn like, I'm not interested. Indeed, I want to build my cozy asuran lab with Inquest banners, experiment beakers, asuran consoles, force field and lab tables; and i think players liking sylvaris will say the same with sylvian decorations, and peoples who love charrs will say the same about charr geary architecture which is kinda cool and beautiful too.
4. The content of the instance. If we speak in fact, of just an home instance apart that you can place where you want the nodes, then, I'm not in and don't even want to pre-order.
5. Player home instances (DR/ BC / RS / G / H ) already have features that can be bought on store, such as garden plots, expedition board, ressources nodes... and for services such as crafting stations or bank/trading post even fractals access, players already have Passes like Mistlock Sanctuary and Eye of the North. So, what would bring the Homestead? Could the npcs and crafting stations will be placed where we want in Homestead? Will there be upgrade for it, on Trading post?
6. Architecture and customization: Will the players be forced to have as house this bad looking barn? Isn't it more logical for it to be cultural, so you can choose between 5 types of houses representing the 5 playable races?

I can spend a lot of time in housing if correctly done, like I just pass ton of time in mine in Gensh** just to have a Japanese estate and all the rooms in the giant shogun like mansion how i want them to look, arranging the furnitures how I like. Gw2 is a great game, and I think nobody will contradict me when I say that your concept arts, loading screens and map environments are gorgeous. But this is also the case for your assets or 3D models if you prefer. They are great and make the environment welcoming, Norns homesteads are very cozy, Chars towns have a very nice industrial/steampunk vibe, when you walk in an asuran lab you are instantly in a cyberpunk setting... what I really think is that your game is very beautiful and that those Racial furniture and assets really should be put at good use by being used for housing decorating.

And a thing I haven't said too is that Housing is cool, but it would be a great plus if players would be able to place NPCS too or animals along decorations. I don't even ask you to give them dialogues! Many npcs in game have no dialogue and just look at you or say a regular hello, so I don't see how it is not possible.

---

OTHER FEATURES

After that little parenthesis about housing, I am okay with Spears usable on land, I never minded not being able to use them, but if they are added, good I guess.

Having a new raid is cool, so I can't say anything apart telling it is nice you haven't forgot about them.

The upcoming kitty- lynx? Warclaw looks really cool, I'm not hard to convince, as long you give me a feline or vulpine I am happy...  so yeah, this is a skin I look for, hoping it will be available for free, I recently finished the expensive collection to get the Kryptis Skyscale, never again.

The new PvP gamemode do intrigue me, but I never really play PvP because of toxicity basically, if I play PvP in any game I guess I would just want the chat to not be available, I prefer way more WvW which is more chill.

---

CONCLUSION

2 Maps sounds not a lot... Sure it depends of the size of map, If we speak of two maps the size of The Desolation / Harathi Hinterlands, ok, but if we speak of something like Ember bay or Southsun Cove...

So yup, so far, I think I'm not gonna pre-purchase, because I have no precisions about many things and so it is impossible to decide if it worth it or not.

PS: I just finished Secret of the Obscure, I guess it ended in a correct way, I don't see how I would have done differently the story in any case, I just find the meta boss of Inner Nayos, the very last one, meh. I got the Peitha figure recently and she looks very nice.

Don't get your hopes too high with the homestead... I guess we'll hear more soon, but the impression the trailer gave me is that it will be EXACTLY like the guild halls, where chairs, tables, etc will go somewhere predetermined and crafting them will only "unlock" them in your house. The skins you can get for free will be very basic and if you want a decent looking decoration anet will be milking all your gems. And I don't think we'll get any other model for the building, maybe in the future... Through the gemstore $$$. If you can have crafting stations, NPCs,... It would be basically like a permanent pass so it would render them basically useless. Anyway I'm very skeptical of how will they deliver this housing system, I think people are going to be very disappointed. 

 

Instead of creating new elite specs or thinking of giving each class a new special weapon, they gave everyone land spears which is lazy asf IMO

I guess the most exciting thing will be the raid... If it's a good one and not something devs copy from somewhere else in the story and is not rushed. I think you could already use the warclaw in pve anyway. 

 

Edited June 5 by CelticFay.8351
Added more stuff

[Ashantara.8731]

3 minutes ago, CelticFay.8351 said:

but the impression the trailer gave me is that it will be EXACTLY like the guild halls, where chairs, tables, etc will go somewhere predetermined

Uhm? All of the decoration you craft for your Guild Hall goes where you place it -- there are no predetermined places for those objects.

3 minutes ago, CelticFay.8351 said:

And I don't think we'll get any other model for the building, maybe in the future...

Hopefully in the future, yes.

Edited June 5 by Ashantara.8731

[CelticFay.8351]

Just now, Ashantara.8731 said:

Uhm? All of the decoration you create for your Guild Hall goes where you place it -- there are no predetermined places for those objects.

In the case of trophies and stuff yes, but the chairs and tables and other bits of furniture I don't think it will be customisable 

[Ashantara.8731]

5 minutes ago, CelticFay.8351 said:

but the chairs and tables and other bits of furniture I don't think it will be customisable 

You can see chairs, tables, beds and other furniture in my screenshots that have all been placed by me.

Here is a full list of furniture, lamps, plants, architecture and other stuff that you can craft and place in your GH: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Decoration#Decorations (follow the links)

Edited June 5 by Ashantara.8731

[LichOverlord.6329]

2 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Yet it will be the same decoration items.😄 What nonsense to create a new Crafting Profession for this.

Do you have a source for this?

My understanding is that they've only confirmed that it will share nodes (such as krait obelisk shard, quartz crystal formation, king-sized candy corn, etc.) with your housing instance, but that we have yet to get any confirmation as to whether or not we'll be able to use guild decorations in our homesteads

If you've seen confirmation somewhere, I'd love to see it! Thanks in advance~!

[Cait Sith.4650]

On 6/4/2024 at 5:36 PM, Flowersunshine.7385 said:

Very excited! Looking forward to this story

And I'm hoping the personal housing will finally allow me to have a bookshelf to store the books I've found throughout Tyria!

Indeed.
I hope we can get something like an actual Tyrian Library System, with its own interface, upgrades, decorations, skins, gizmos, npcs, collections and quests. Perhaps taking some inspiration from something like Book of Hours. Even if it's not available at release, and might come at a later date. 🙏🏽 🤞🏽

Edited June 5 by Cait Sith.4650

[Sylvari.2953]

⭐ Dear ArenaNet, I've been casually playing this game since beta and after my disappointment in SotO, I was ready to give up on GW2 and quit for good. However, I got the expansion newsletter today and I instantly prepurchased it when I saw the magic words: player housing. 🛖 I've been asking for this since forever and I don't know the details yet but any kind of housing is appreciated! I play 3 other games because of housing, I'm totally obsessed, lol. Thank you so much! 😊 HYPE! ⭐

[Donari.5237]

19 hours ago, ParagonPaladin.7516 said:

Wait, so we aren't getting scribing fixed or made relevant? The existing system isn't getting built upon? I was really hoping with the housing reveal that we'd get some Quality of life for scribe. There's so much nonsense built into it as needless cost and bloat that makes it a horrible experience to level. Such as crafting components being split into several other components, which in turn are split into several components, many of which aren't able to be deposited to the bank. Account bound or guild bound schematics, meaning there's not even a way to craft and sell decorations. It may have been intended to prompt a "guild working together" kind of thing, but with the guild hall decoration proximity limits, and the fluctuating instance nature of the halls, it was a Sisyphean task from the start.

Since I'm one of the early sufferers of the Scribe Profession, I will complain about this vocally.

I also have suffered through scribing, and I can see why it's better to just start from scratch.  It's designed to have a guild of hundreds of members funneling resources to one or two people, so it requires unholy amounts of mats to level and to make things with (and all those nested components you discuss are a pita, especially once you've upgraded the scribe hall so the trainer is no longer next to the machines for easy buy-as-you-need mats).  Then there's the slowdown of using the Assembly Device.  It'd be great if they streamlined it as you request, but turning it into something usable by individuals in personal housing would be very difficult.

I'm a little disappointed that it will be its own profession, though.  ESO does a good job of categorizing types of furniture by profession that makes them, so woodworkers make wood tables, blacksmiths make metal grills, jewelers make gold candlesticks, etc.  GW2 could certainly have just added decoration recipes to various appropriate craft disciplines and toggled the results to account bound or tradeable as needed.  Unless the spaghetti code means a new type of item that works in a different way (like scribed items that go into guild storage) can't be generated by current craft disciplines.

As to what decor will be available, the trailer seems to show things that can go in current guild halls, and very scattered.  A random spread of stools and cushions, rather than a table with chairs and place settings, suggests there will be the same guild hall problem of not being able to put a lot of things (heck, not even a reasonable amount of things) near each other.

Other features:  I'm excited for spears, and it looks like they behave very differently for the various professions, similar to how greatsword is very different now depending on if you're a warrior, mesmer, necromancer, ranger, or guardian.  I'll be using my 80 boost to clear up my new shared slot and I'll aim for making a spear-toter of some sort.  Fingers crossed for info on those mechanics in the next week or so, I can hopefully wait that long to free up the slot, no promises though.  For warclaw, I just hope it gets a speed upgrade in PvE, it's currently designed to be nigh useless in PvE thanks to its glacial run.  The backpack?  I hope it's open world like the obsidian armor, because I stalled out long ago on making organized group instanced content dependent gear.

[Mor The Thief.9135]

@Rubi Bayer.8493 Wanted to ask if there will be updates to some existing features in the game (aside from the Warclaw), as alleged by the restrospective post, coming with Janthir Wilds (still weird that it's not called Wilds of Janthir) that weren't announced but will be coming? Not asking for any specifics, just asking for a yes or no answer... (if yes, I hope it will be to the buff/debuff bar? *wink* *wink*)

Edited June 5 by Mor The Thief.9135

[Hotride.2187]

11 hours ago, Kuldor.9682 said:

I get the "smaller expansions at a reduced price", but if the idea is to have a new expansion each year, you are effectively asking me for more money than before, and making the game even harder to get into for new players.

Guess I'll see how this expansion goes from afar and decide if I want to play it at all when it's finished, I'll be busy somewhere else when it releases anyway.

When I saw the ingame mail about yet another "expansion", I just groaned. It also made me think of that train simulator game that had a billion DLCs totalling at tens of thousands of euros.

I am fatigued honestly, moving from one story I couldnt care less about to the next. Farming worthless to me masteries, doing long and winded metas. Conquest is a perpetual clown fiesta, wvw somehow is getting worse and worse.

I dont feel like finding the time for all this anymore. Money is not an issue for me, but why buy something I'll try to minimize interaction with?

[Ashen.2907]

2 hours ago, Donari.5237 said:

categorizing types of furniture by profession that makes them, so woodworkers make wood tables, blacksmiths make metal grills, jewelers make gold candlesticks, etc.  GW2 could certainly have just added decoration recipes to various appropriate craft disciplines

That would have been nice. Adding utility to crafting disciplines, particularly for those whose legendary gear makes crafting weapons and/or armor obsolete, would be an excellent touch.

[Mistwraithe.3106]

48 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

That would have been nice. Adding utility to crafting disciplines, particularly for those whose legendary gear makes crafting weapons and/or armor obsolete, would be an excellent touch.

I suspect they aren’t doing that because you need 4 characters to have all 8 professions which would get in the way of casual players enjoying player housing (eg my wife only has 2 characters and only really plays one).

[Ashen.2907]

Just now, Mistwraithe.3106 said:

I suspect they aren’t doing that because you need 4 characters to have all 8 professions which would get in the way of casual players enjoying player housing (eg my wife only has 2 characters and only really plays one).

Could be, but by allowing crafted decorations to be traded on the TP, or given to friends, access could still be good. It's just really unfortunate that, despite declared intentions to the contrary, ANet continues to invent new systems rather than iterate on or improve existing.

[xXxNikiGoesWildxXx.3678]

So far it was very disappointing how Soto was called an expansion. Long time ago we had living world seasons with 6 maps for free, we had elite specs, and many more...it was dedicated work. Soto was rushed. It is understandable that company needs income(i bought all expansions, soto pre-purchased) but quality of the game gets worse and worse. I am considering to not even buy this new upcoming expansion. Ideologically following blizzard's way of earning is good because there will be always people who will pay. It is good for Arenanet, but it is very bad for us who experienced very profesionally designed game called guild wars 2...long time ago. I ve been playing this game for more than 8 to 9 years and it is very frustrating to see where it is going.

I read blog post about this new expansion and it will be 2 new maps only and 3. will come year later or so. I didn't see any new elite specialization or anything interesting. Story wise it is said something more will be done as writer said that soto story felt rushed as it was. 

So let's make pause there and understand point of view from veteran players who shown loyalty to this game for so long...what should we expect to get, to see?
And let's also understand point of view of new player...if there is any. Will new player buy 10 expansions just to play the game? When one expansion is providing big content and some are providing nothing much at all. 
I remember when i started i was the guy who would never pay for any game back in a day and gw2 was one of the first games i started spending money because game was so good. I loved heart of thorns and i loved path of fire....but what happened? Idk anymore....

 

[rohan king of gods.4238]

So can I have my house in the home instead?

Edited June 6 by rohan king of gods.4238