Coming back

[Kryxsis.5401]

I haven't really played this game since Open Beta and am looking to rejoin the fight. Do I need both Heart of Thorns AND Path of Fire? Or can I get away with only purchasing POF?

[senki.1046]

You don't need any expansion if you don't want to buy them. But it depends on what game mode you would like to focus on. Some elite specialisations are superior in certain game modes.

[dobbeh.7382]

Heart of Thorns will give you access to gliding. Path of Fire will give you access to mounts. I'd suggest holding off on any purchases until you've decided that you'll be sticking around for the long haul. The core game is pretty hefty if it's gonna be your first time playing through it. Additionally, the game's anniversary is coming up. I think people are expecting discounts (maybe there will be a discount on the expansions then).

[Kryxsis.5401]

I have 2 level 80 characters and played quite a bit at release but I just haven't played since. So this is not my first play through at all. As for the expansions, is that really the only benefit to having them; Glide & Mounts? Do I really need an elite specialization? And when is the anniversary again?

[Fenella.2634]

@Kryxsis.5401 said:As for the expansions, is that really the only benefit to having them; Glide & Mounts?That would be quite thin. :lol: You get access to new maps, new story content, the elite specializations of course, new stat cominations and surely a few other things I forgot. Also, you need to have HoT if you want to play Living World Season 3. For LWS 4 and most likely Season 5 as well, you need PoF. So that's more maps, achievements and story locked behind the expansions.You can still play the game without them, of course.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

The expansions give you access to the elite specs that came with each, the maps that come with each (4 HoT, 5 PoF) and access to the Living World Season and associated maps and story (HoT for Season 3 and PoF for Season 4 - 6 episodes and 6 maps each). Plus access to all of the utilities of the guild halls, the raids, and the mastery system. Plus you will get an extra character slot and a level 80 boost with the purchase of one of the expansions - both expacs give you the level 80 boost, not sure about the extra character slot. The level 80 boost will give you exotic soldier's gear for your boosted character, except thief gets valkyries and necro gets a condi set (carrion I think). There are also some stat selections that aren't available without expansion specific stuff - like HoT is required for Marauder's and Viper's stats.

As for do you need an elite spec...no it isn't necessarily required, but, they add a lot of options for how you want to play. Right now Guardian is the only profession I still run core on. I may switch my chronomancer back to core mes because of the shatter balance disaster. And that's out of 13 or 14 level 80's on 2 accounts.

Oh, and gliding == livesaver.

[Lexi.1398]

If you intend to get into WvW, heart of thorns is a must. Though, with the warclaw PoF kinda is too, but technically you'll (mostly) be fine with perma swiftness, only time you'll struggle to catch up to people is if a zerg runs out of targets or any desire to take guarded targets, else you'll constantly have time to make the little distance when people are placing seige. Not having HoT on the other hand will mean you can't use a couple seige machines, plus gliding is better than mounts for wvw if you have to chose.

If you want to get into raiding, HoT is also preferable over PoF purely because PoF raids only have a legendary trinket attached, while HoT has full sets of legendary armor, WvW and PvP is your only option for legendary armor without HoT. Of course, if you don't care about legendary armor, then either one is fine (though PoF only has 3 raid wings while HoT has 4).

You cannot claim guild halls without HoT, though you can still access any guild hall once it has been claimed; you just can't help a guild in getting a hall.

On the other hand, PoF is associated with more recent content. We do not know yet what season 5 will require expansion wise, but it is quite likely it will need at least PoF.

[Randulf.7614]

Depends what you want. The releases are as followed

• Core game
• Season 1 (gone for good)
• Season 2 (paid dlc)
• Heart of Thorns expansion
• Season 3 (paid dlc)
• Path of Fire expansion
• Season 4 (paid dlc)

If you care about continuity, then buy and play in order since it is one continuous story. If not expansions are needed to access the subsequent season which you buy on top. Path of fire has mounts so that tends to be the one people gravitate to, but obviously will start midway through the story

[Tinker.6924]

@"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:Oh, and gliding == livesaver.

Yes. Yes it is. While you can glide in combat and you can't mount up while flagged in combat I would still say PoF mounts >>> HoT Gliding for overall utility.

Personally I would follow the suggestions of hold off buying any extra's until you're sure you want to play Gw2. And in my opinion start with PoF. Getting just a Raptor mount makes other stuff soooo much easier and convenient. You can get a flying* mount from PoF too as well as the Springer (super jump ability). I found the HoT zones to be way too much "Player vs. Environment" (Verdan Brink is like a zone-sized Jumping Puzzle on Steroids) and too little "Player vs. Enemy" and having mounts like the Springer and Griffon eliminated a lot of my Environment frustrations. However, the content from HoT is still very interesting and each of the seasons are really worth it too.

* Griffon isn't a "true" flyer like skyscale but it nearly qualifies as such and its much easier to get than the skyscale. Also, and you just need PoF and not LW4 to get it.

[Danikat.8537]

I agree with the advice to wait a bit before buying anything. You can play the entire of the base game for free and Season 2 of the Living Story without buying an expansion (you will need to buy Season 2 if you weren't around for the promotional period for each episode though) and although you might have played a lot of the content before a lot has changed since - like the entire trait and skill system.

And as other people have said it's likely there will be a sale on one or both expansions at the end of August. (There's also a discount for buying them together.) So you'll be able to play for a bit to determine if you want to commit to the game enough to buy the expansions and get an idea of which one/s you'd like to buy - then get them cheaper. :)

[Kryxsis.5401]

Am I correct in assuming that in order to play any new dungeons then I would need the exp packs?New trait and skill system? hmmmm... sounds like I should find a guild and jump into the game to see what all this talk is about then. Obviously a lot has changed just wasn't sure if the core game was enough to experience anything new or if I'd need exp packs to see the new stuff; armor, weapons, dungeons, events, crafts, etc

[TheAgedGnome.7520]

You'll want both expacs. It wouldn't make sense to get only one or the other.

[Linken.6345]

@Kryxsis.5401 said:Am I correct in assuming that in order to play any new dungeons then I would need the exp packs?New trait and skill system? hmmmm... sounds like I should find a guild and jump into the game to see what all this talk is about then. Obviously a lot has changed just wasn't sure if the core game was enough to experience anything new or if I'd need exp packs to see the new stuff; armor, weapons, dungeons, events, crafts, etc

No new 5 man dungeons there is 10 player raids tho that you need both hot and pof to play all 7 of em.

[Danikat.8537]

@Linken.6345 said:

@Kryxsis.5401 said:Am I correct in assuming that in order to play any new

dungeons

then I would need the exp packs?New trait and skill system? hmmmm... sounds like I should find a guild and jump into the game to see what all this talk is about then. Obviously a lot has changed just wasn't sure if the core game was enough to experience anything new or if I'd need exp packs to see the new stuff; armor, weapons, dungeons, events, crafts, etc

No new 5 man dungeons there is 10 player raids tho that you need both hot and pof to play all 7 of em.

Depending on when you left the Fractals of the Mists dungeon might be new too. That's a series of short 5-man dungeons which can be chained together and which have increasing difficulty and rewards as you progress through them. Fractals is core game content, so you don't need the expansions to play it, but at higher levels you might find the expansion-only stat combinations come in useful.

[Kryxsis.5401]

@TheAgedGnome.7520 said:You'll want both expacs. It wouldn't make sense to get only one or the other.

Obviously but I didn't want to drop the money for both right now. I'm glad I posted though because I forgot about the anniversary and potential discounts. I pre-purchased the Digital Deluxe for $79.99 in 2012 and now the new deluxe is $54.99 :s So I think I'll wait to see if the combo price for HOT and POF will drop when the anniversary hits. Gives me time to fart around until then.

Thanks all.

[Tekneeq.4302]

hey kryxsis.. just wanted to say i came back recently as well.. the game is 50 times more fun than it was in the past,, IMO PoF destroys HoT,, theyre def worth buying,, hope to see you online sometime brotha!

[Mouse.7382]

@Tekneeq.4302 said:hey kryxsis.. just wanted to say i came back recently as well.. the game is 50 times more fun than it was in the past,, IMO PoF destroys HoT,, theyre def worth buying,, hope to see you online sometime brotha!

I LOVED HOT, and still do. POF was a 'one and done' kinda huge zone. No repeat value. But skyscale/vision changed that. The need for the laaaaarge amount of mats has all those LS4 zones booming with people, either solo questing, doing legendary bounty runs/METAs most of the time. I LOVE POF now, its alive! And for the people that don't like to used their credit card and buy gem/gold for materials on the TP, the new DS zone, has arguably, imo, (due to ANET nerfing other zones efficient farmable stuff), the best group farming.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

I would strongly suggest you buy HoT. There is a wealth of content is HoT exclusive and you will want/need it.

• HoT specializations. PoF has it's own set, but lack of things like Reaper, Chornomancer, Herald etc can hurt.
• Gear stat combos. HoT introduced a lot more gear stat sets then PoF and some of them are very crucial (Viper, Trailblazer) or fun (Crusader, Wanderer)
• Gilder - don't miss out on the fun, especially in HoT zones that are glider oriented.
• Tons of weapon skins and collections. This is the fabled HoT replay value and it holds to this day.
• Living Story 3 maps - the legendary Draconic Mons inside (spider-man map).
• mindblowing core maps - getting lost in beginning may suck...but their beauty and depth are amazing once you get a handle on things.

[Chyanne Waters.8719]

All I have to say is 4000gems and all the goodies you get with the deluxe in the ultra version. For 79.99 and for only 20.00 more get Heart of Thorns along with Path of Fire . Since 4000 gems is half of the 100 dollars it ends up being less than the deluxe or heroic versions and yes the expansions open up quite a few areas to play.

[Ygdrasill.9135]

@Kryxsis.5401 said:I have 2 level 80 characters and played quite a bit at release but I just haven't played since. So this is not my first play through at all. As for the expansions, is that really the only benefit to having them; Glide & Mounts? Do I really need an elite specialization? And when is the anniversary again?

The Glider is handy as it works even in combat. The mounts flat out make GW2 a new game though in some regards a much easier game (especially for the older content). Elite specializations are fun and really expand character abilities. In some cases they offer so many new abilities that it's hard to actually take full advantage of them, but it does give some new ways to play. For me personally, I really liked the Path of Fire and LW4 story line. I'm still working through HoT and am not finding it nearly as engaging as even the base story. There is obviously some continuity you'll miss if you skip HoT and LW3, but it's not that bad to figure out and really can be gone back and done as a side story later.