At PAX Prime, several questions were answered regarding the upcoming expansion of Guild Wars 2, Heart of Thorns. Among other things, it was about raids and attunement quests.
Raidfinder: Not planned so far
With the upcoming expansion Heart of Thorns, the world of Guild Wars 2 will be expanded with raids – a new feature for the game. With this announcement, many players are also wondering what kind of groups will tackle the 10-player instances. And here it was clearly stated: There is no raid finder planned, and it will probably never come. The raids are intended to be challenging and difficult – so nothing that can be done with 9 strangers without communication and gameplay skill casually.
Raid-Attunement? Not really, but …
When it was announced that there would be no access quest for the raids of Guild Wars 2, many players breathed a sigh of relief. Particularly, WildStar served as a negative example of a cumbersome quest line that lost a large portion of players willing to raid on the way.
However, some fears resurfaced when it was stated that for certain fights, the mastery system from HoT will be required – and that is indeed associated with some farming.
For certain bosses, players will need to utilize the new “gliding” mechanic – which is basically just a hidden requirement, i.e., an attunement. As a clarification, it is stated that there is no intention to “keep returning players from raiding through extensive rep farming”.
Those who want to see the raids should be able to do so soon – but they will still have to complete at least a bit of the add-on’s PvE beforehand.
The old world will be neglected – at least a little
Although it was emphasized that many events, such as Halloween, will still take place in the old world, one has to settle for rather negative statements here. Future content, such as the living world, will primarily take place in Maguuma, the setting of Heart of Thorns. This is only logical since the story revolves around this area.
Nevertheless, there is no intention to stir unrest among the “free-to-play” players: Patches and changes will of course still have an impact on the base game. However, those who wish to enjoy all features and also future storylines will have to purchase the expansion.
For more about Guild Wars 2 and the expansion Heart of Thorns, you can visit our game topic page.


