Secrets of the Obscure Retrospect - On-Land SPEARS Coming? | Next Expac Teaser & More

🫘So here comes the post about what the studio is changing for the next expansion. There might also be a hint about raids (or something?) coming back next expansion. Oh and spears! Let's dive in.
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[@WoodenPotatoes]

My temptation to call this video the "retrospective retrospective" was rather high.

[@lucashuart6908]

I think the "something leaving the water" are in fact, the underwater weapons

[@MD-ee2fq]

I agree. The question is how many underwater weapons do we get. Is it only the spear and maybe everyone unlocks it or is it actually all three. Im curious how they might solve the issue with similar weapon types like rifle and speargun

[@GrayveStone]

Was about to say the same thing. Not sure how to feel about more reuse rather than new stuff, but it is what it is.

[@LLPTV]

what are they reusing? weapon models? so elite specs were reusing existing weapon models? ofc they'll work differently on land.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Oh. Duh. Lol

[@Andrew-po8nt]

mind = blown

[@Nebuli2]

When we see them describe the story as overly complex, I think it's worth keeping in mind that there's a difference between the story that they wanted to tell, and then what they had to pare it down to in order to actually release it as they did. I'm fully willing to believe that they had plenty more complex ideas for the story that they just never had the time to properly flesh out in game, leaving us with basically the Cliffnotes version of their original story.

[@RedNuii]

Exactly me thought

[@davidmorris2234]

How many expansion and Living World/Icebrood Saga stories have been cut short in your opinion? I feel that almost all of them have not been "fleshed out", and Arenanet is perpetually under staffed, and always forced into cutting things short, which is hurting their reputation, as the quality and quantity of their releases continues to degrade. We know that Arenanet was once capable of doing outstanding, top shelf work, but they have not been allowed to continue that quality over the last several expansions, and some of the players (including myself) have started to doubt that Arenanet still has the original staff that is committed to producing the "best in class" MMORPG content any longer. I truly wish this was not the case, as I really want GW2 to grow, and succeed, for many years into the future.

[@HalfLifeHalfDead]

@@davidmorris2234 This is a load of bull. ArenaNet never delivered "best in class" story, and there hasn't been a single storyline since Season 1 that didn't feel rushed and not fully fleshed out. Hell, if anything HoT was the worst in that regard.

[@empty-voiid]

It kinda feels like they had a ton of ideas at the start of SotO and then... Got bored. This is how it felt like.

[@davidmorris2234]

@@HalfLifeHalfDead Liking the story is highly subjective. I’ve read plenty of comments from players who love the story and many others who hate it, so it depends on who you’re talking to. I personally think that they could have done better, but none of the MMORPG games have great storytelling and I think Arenanet has provided storylines that are about average when compared to the other studios, but they could have been much better. When I said “best in class” I meant the game overall, and I stand by that opinion.

[@GirlPainting]

"there is soething leaving the water" is obviously teasing about the underwaterweapons "leaving the water" ;-P

[@windingtwilight]

Who else has been checking WP.s channel and live tab for the last few days waiting for this video?

[@henrylauer5402]

Totally

[@banditoincognito8950]

Woodland Cascades then Janthir bay. That's my prediction. Those tufts floating in the air can only be found in Kryta.

[@hardy83]

It's 3 maps, but given the size of the SotO maps. I would wager your right in that the first map is the bay, then another on the eastern side of Janthir, then the 3rd in the center area expanding up. I SUPPOSE it could be North of Brisban or Doric, the bay, then Janthir, but I'm going to assume the maps will be the same size as SotO and not say PoF or LWS4.

[@CainOrdamoth]

My theory/hope is that those huts in the background belong to a new subrace/culture of Kodan, land-based, lowland bear people (maybe based on brown or black bears instead of polar bears), and that might finally lead into a story about Waiting Sorrow, the big mystery character from SotO. The Olmakhan show they're not afraid to do something different with an established race. I think expanding on the Kodan would be great. I personally think that the Kryptis and Nayos should not have been anywhere near SotO. That xpac should have focussed on the Ancient Races (Seers, Mursaat, Dwarves, Jotun, and even the Forgotten, maybe). Maybe its the GW1 fan in me, but they already went hard on the GW1 stuff in SotO, that's where they should've stayed. Bring back the Mursaat as villains - now the dragons are dead, they return to Tyria with the intention of taking over again. Give a lot more screen time to Mabon, and his inner conflict between his kinship with the "badguys", and protecting Tyria from them - that would've made his sacrifice all the more powerful. Delve into the Mursaat's feud with the Seers. SotO should've taken us to Janthir. And it would've given a lot more time to spend with the Wizard's Court/Astral Ward. As I was playing through the Nayos stuff, I didn't give any effs about the characters or story, but then in the epilogue, speaking to Isgarren, Galrath, Zojja... I realized I did actually miss them, strange as it sounds. I'd have loved to have a whole xpac with them. I know its pointless going on about this now, but it would've been so perfect that it's baffling to me that they took such a hard turn into Nayos - a turn which ultimately fell completely flat. Hopefully the next xpac lives up to what I hoped SotO was...

[@EagorOfCarim]

Grizzly Kodan is not something I realized I wanted but now I'll be disappointed if it isn't that haha. Norn don't transform into polar bears so if there's a "missing link" between them and the Kodan I imagine it'd be brown bear people :)

[@DemethVLK]

Okay I never thought of that but now I want a new Kodan subculture so bad

[@hardy83]

Yeah looking back, I think SotO going to Janthir THEN the next expansion focusing solely on the Kryptis would've worked better. If the Mursaat are from Nayos, they could've expanded that lore more before going there and it wouldn't have felt as rushed, but then you'd probably have the issue of Janthir feeling rushed and that probably would've pissed more people off since that's a place many have wanted to go to. I do really love the idea of non-wintered Kodan. It's clear they are going to deal with the Kodan at some point and Waiting Sorrow since that was the other big hint at future story in SotO.

[@drackaris_]

The Spear is leaving the water!

[@petepablogaming243]

Raid / Fractal / Strike Hub Area. Or just a must have to strikes. Currently if you want to do a strike full run you have to go to the eye of the north loading screen > mission loading screen > out of mission loading screen > lions arch loading screen > mission loading screen > out of mission loading screen > EOD loading screen > mission loading screen > out of mission loading screen > IBS loading screen > mission loading screen > out of mission loading screen > soto loading screen > mission loading screen > out of mission loading screen. Then add every future expack. Also paying tp fees and scrolling over a map thats so big they have shortcuts for it.

[@martindokken160]

Maybe I missed something but I don’t see why a story can’t be split into two expansions or something. Personally I prefer the stories with interesting characters and I feel like this structure of expansions is a bit thin to introduce and flesh out a character whilst presenting an intriguing narrative. Especially if the story patches is as short as they are in Soto. I understand not making a 10 year long narrative like the dragon saga, but I would really love something like a two part story where we get introduced to a cast of characters and (both good and bad) with their own motivations and arc setups. Maybe a cliffhanger? And then a second part the following year where the story concludes and we say goodbye to the characters we met. That way we can get a good story AND have some stakes as the cast actually can be killed off. Maybe this is wishful thinking but I think it would be cool. Also I think its funny how this teaser reminded me of that wierd live action release trailer of the norn lady swimming from back in the day. 😂

[@BlackSkyZ2]

Unfortunately fantasy. This is the only thing that would actually allow an interesting and fleshed out story. However, as we all know ArenaNet is terrible at pacing and maintaining focus. It will probably be on par with SoTo, a bit smaller in scope, rushed non the less.

[@hardy83]

Speaking of refining existing systems. Maybe theyll finally use that damn portal in Northern Brisban Wildlands!

[@christmascactus1882]

Isnt the whole point of saying that the 'plot was too complex [[to deliver in an annual expansion]]' that it came out as flat and one-dimensional? I think it clearly implying that the story that was written was much too for complex to tell within the confines of SotO, hence what actually ended up in the game. The story they are talking about in that paragraph is probably from different than what we got.

[@YourGirlNepNep]

Yea WP has a bit of a habit of reading one or two sentences of a paragraph and then making a bunch of commentary that is then immediately expanded on in the next couple sentences, and never really seems to walk anything back when that happens lol

[@nocchi.9589]

Tridents leaving the water gives me hope for a Siren-like play style for Mesmer. Using songs and music to deal conditions to enemies and buff allies.

[@shongueesha7875]

Keep dreaming lol.

[@juliasophical]

Spears! Spears are what's leaving the water! 😀

[@niclastname]

7:10 I could be the one misunderstanding, but to me the things you say here _are_ the kinds of things they're talking about. The fact that they did a story that had so much more that they wanted to do, but they were only able to sort of imply a lot of it due to the limits on what they could deliver within their schedule and resources. Not so much them saying that the story that they delivered was complex, but that they wanted it to be complex and ran into the issues you're describing because they aimed for something they couldn't do in the "content budget" that they had.

[@emilymalkieri]

Come on WP! It's the spear! The spear is what's leaving that water 😂 Love how you went to "huh this doesn't seem related to Tequatl" instead. Also pretty sure that's a female norn character, perhaps this expansion's Commander stand-in? Fits with what I assume is norn architecture in the background. Looks very ranger-y which also fits the aesthetic.

[@_Banjo_]

To be fair the first thing i thought was the tequatl quote. Maybe theyre just meming on the name but yeah youre right...its the spear

[@Eskers32]

He knows? I think right after that he mentioned it was the spear

[@DemethVLK]

I felt like... he was kinda disconnected partly.. idk how to describe it

[@Feaniel]

About learning scopes from Soto vs season 3, for example. It wasn't the same people in charge. How can they learn from when MO and Mike Z were responsible for GW2? The question is more: why didn't they know it from God? My take is that they were used to not being as contained as this Xpac for delivering a story, so they overshot. Also, many of the writers from Eod left after the Xpac launch, so they also had a greener team.

[@SoulCasta]

We are getting Spears (and slightly less exciting for me... harpoon gun) for land use! Hope it means some new attack animations too🤞🏾.

[@whyisthisathingnow...]

If they bring more than spear and also the other two weapons, I hope my ele can rock their kraitkin trident at last.

[@Techstriker1]

Am I too jaded? I feel like we get one of these "We can do better!" posts every two years or so, and they never do better.

[@tylerhopkins3970]

The innovative maps you sort of refer to is what they did with IBS. Drizzlewood is one of my favorite maps and I know people like the variety offered with the other two as well. Also there’s nothing better than a new 30 min WP video

[@somederp8915]

There could still be large scale stories in the background, like how the next expansions tie back to the Astral Ward and what goes on behind their scenes.

[@dragonite774]

I think SotO's biggest strength is how farmable the map metas/currencies/rifts are cause of legendary armor. For me the last xpac that felt that way was HoT

[@ElfTaleFilms]

The next expansion will be Truth of the Reality and then we get Tears of Sorrow and then Laugh of Happiness

[@maxi0_0b]

Had a hunch that landspears might be coming ever since I saw the retro forged skins in this years SAB. I wondered why they added spears and harpoon guns before completing the set for the current land weapons. Glad to see they will get to see some use.

[@strawberrired]

As a very casual player playing SOTO has been nice. I loved the new cast and the beginning of the story where you don't know if Peita is on your side or just trying to manipulate you, but then to me it fell a bit flat once you got into Nayos and it devolved into your typical siege (also I can't imagine grinding stuff there one third of the map at a time

[@DanielSalava]

I have to say the mount idea is really really cool. I began to think that the skyscale sort of trivialises all map design, then I thought they could completely remove mounts but then that feels really bad. So focusing on another mount, giving it some more functionality again like in SotO, would make so much sense.

[@whyisthisathingnow...]

Who even counts as the new gang though? Were were mostly a one man army for soto anyways just following random people's orders. Character development was unfortunately lacking once again.

[@_Banjo_]

25:50 Guild halls / Scribing / player housing / collections overhauls ?

[@RedNuii]

Honesty a revamp of the achievements system or housing would be huge

[@_Banjo_]

@@RedNuii Not sure how exactly. But its a bit of a mess regarding the "quests" etc. Though i'd LOVE them add more collections. Use the Tiered rewards system etc. Collections for all armor types etc might incentivise people to play content

[@niclastname]

Lmao I love the "presearing?" image.

[@drachenaura]

Prices for legendary Underwater Weapons skyrocket. Hilarious.

[@Moinsen15]

What SotO will stay in my mind for is the Wizards Vault. Honestly, such a great system. I have never done dailies before and that changed it. Also it keeps me coming back to the game to finish the tasks to get the AA. And it is great to see mount skins being accessible via gameplay!

[@DEWilliams77]

What they should do is remake each zone, but so many years in the future after the end of the dragons, and make it so that when you zone into the maps you choose between old or new. They would only need to do adjustments to each map, rather than making entire new maps, and we'd get to see the end results of what we fought for. Just an idea.

[@Nooctae]

I know people are really hyped about the idea of the underwater weapons.. but really, beside spear, do any of them really do anything on land we haven't seen before ? Speargun ? Harpoon ?

[@whyisthisathingnow...]

Trident, my kraitkin waits. If I can't have ele longbow, I'll take a trident.

[@samunstein]

Yes, yes, yes, please make the story utilize just generally all maps better. IMO Skywatch Archipelago would be a fantastic map for placing many small stories on the different fractal islets, exploring how some things could've turned out differently than in our main timeline, but instead the story in the map is just kind of... fly through it to reach the wizards' tower. It obviously wouldn't have fit into soto story, but now the fractal islands were rather wasted. A map could be a story itself, instead of just a plate for an external story.

[@neurotoksyn]

It's IoJ. If you zoom in close on the world map in the area you can see a straight line demarking a zone on the western delta and a fuzzy outline in the ocean further west that stands out from the rest of the map texture. My guess is a total rework of water combat, one zone in the ocean north of that northern maguuma peninsula, and the second map partially on western IoJ

[@dieselsandwich42]

They really should have had Soto hard focus on defending Tyria from the Kryptis, short forays for boss fights into Nayos (without an actual map for it). All 3 new maps in the Horn of Maguuma, all new pals in the Astral Ward. A big conclusion taking out the main invader boss with Peitha whispering in your ear. Then the next year's expansion should have been the demon war with Nayos and the Kryptis. We could have had 3 Nayos demon maps, explored unique aspects of it, maybe had masteries around being able to survive being in Nayos (since the 1st release had Nayos hurting and debuffing the bejesus out of us), seen and explored stuff outside of the war and fleshed (heh) out the Kryptis complexity and Peitha more.

[@mikedsps]

Yeah, and that way they could have left the whole "will she betray us or won't she?" thing as a cliffhanger for the next expansion.

[@dieselsandwich42]

@@mikedsps yeah that possession deal with the will she/won't she stuff was so good and her whispers were like honestly better than Jormag's creepiness. I would have liked a whole expansion of that. Hell they could have started the next expansion with the Ward hunting you as a possessed person at first until Peitha pops out with you unharmed to prove she came for aid. So many missed opportunities.

[@TheRetifox]

I hope they will change stance of that Land Spear. Holding it like Scepter is kinda goofy

[@UCEBuster]

When that norn lady finds you, she's goning poke you onto her spear and roast you over a fire for mistaking her for a guy.

[@urushii7765]

Seen the trailer yesterday - so I am rewatching your Bastion of the Penitent lore among others :D I think the link to Janthir will be Dagda maybe? Being a stargazer, strong in magic and so on? I can't wait for another lore video after we get to explore Janthir some more :D

[@luckypeanut9943]

Im still weary but to me the biggest good sign on the post is going back to older maps, yea DRM's are cursed content but seeing frozen lake doric ? A burning ebonhawke ? Those are really fun ideas

[@jaus0911]

Can’t tell how much I’ve been waiting for WP to comment on the patch and this comments from the game director! Always happy to hear your takes on these matters

[@violetbliss4399]

Really agree with you WP about the Soto setting, I honestly still haven't played it beyond just the one playthrough because it's just not enticing me. I genuinely love the open world that they have in the game, and this is like Starfield's limited exploration in a sense; "What if we just don't design to our strengths and make a more lobby experience?" I don't think that was the intention - in either case even - but it's how it kind of played out in my opinion. Anyway, hope that they work on stuff that they already have, they really don't need to reinvent the wheel multiple times each time.

[@richarduhrincat9351]

"there will be plenty of new content to keep you busy" ....anyone else getting a DRM PTSD flashback?

[@_xolari]

New video, let’s go!

[@jelloz7316]

As always - it was a wonder to hear from you WP.

[@bladerunner2006]

Hey WP! You should really do more tier list content, I loved the one with the classes! For example you could make one for open world maps 😊 Did enjoy this one too though, I was curious what you'd think of the article. I definitely think "There's something leaving the water" was referring to spears.

[@naryktaryk225]

On the topic of raids i would love if it add new area/map that would be reused as part of the new map in next update. I know next expact isnt old kaineng and raisu palace but i would like to use it as example why this concept would be cool. If in the raid you are first group that is pushing in this extremly deadly area fighting really dangerous monsters and securing the places for less hardened explorers like priory scholars. It would be great to that next patch shows what happen in the area after the big battle when it is safer and people start to research and repair the place. Not saying that there wouldnt be any remaning dangers to mop up and new parts to explore for example because now ariving scholars dig up collapsed corridors or something like that. This way you would get both ultra chalenging content for raiders, integrate the raid story to main story not make it side story like raids use to be, give chance to casual players to explore the place without story mode and have efective content reuse of map designe.

[@kyleclerc8099]

They said at the beginning of EoD that strikes were to train people to get into raids. If metrics show that to be true, i wouldn't be surprised if raids are a thing again.

[@Kyimo]

Will be interesting to see where GW2 goes next. I haven't played since before SoTo was announced. didn't even get that far into End of Dragons, even though it was a return to a part of the world I loved in GW1. In fact I ended up finally deleting GW2 today, I just don't have the drive to get back into it, and like many other games that are at or hitting the "10 year story wrap-up" I'm just not interested in what comes after the story that had me so engaged. (FFXIV, WOW, GW2, soon Destiny 2)

[@OneMorePotion]

Arena Net releases a Video named "There's something leaving the water" that shows a spear being used above water (as in, a water weapon leaving the water) and WP is like: "No Idea what that could mean. We have to wait and see until next week". My dude, this gave me such a big laugh while listening to your commentary. :D I also wasn't sure if we are just so done with Arena Net, that the obvious thing can't be whatever the devs are up for anyways. And it's probably some obscure thing nobody ever talk about again. But nooooo. This time it's real. This time, we get underwater weapons outside of water!

[@sonny5974]

In terms of future systems I would like more cooperativeness in story missions when playing with friends. A lot of the time they don’t get to do anything important and makes the story a solo experience. I want the story to be more like dungeons and fractals.

[@secondhandfurious]

The thing players have been requesting for 5 years could also be jewel crafting 500, and they could intend for legendary pve rings to be the main reward of the expansion.

[@luckypeanut9943]

A good chunk of folks in the spud discord say legendary pve rings are coming next but if the 'big thing' is jeweling... let's just say it won't be well received 😅

[@tomlarder280]

Ah WP, you're such a great content creator. In all honesty I've dropped off your channel pre-EoD mostly owing to having finally fallen out of love with GW2 (so many promising prospects never quite reaching the quality bar). But hearing that LBA2 soundtrack play at the outro now delivers me a double dose of nostalgia of all the hours spent enjoying your content. Thought I'd tune in to see if the trend had been bucked, but sounds as though Anet have stayed true to form sadly. I'll have to keep an eye out for your other series, always appreciated your other Let's Plays as well. ❤️

[@luistomas2938]

Ive been waiting for this wp😊

[@ovojayledge]

Appreciate your dedication to GW2 videos WP!

[@corpsestarch8869]

I hope they talk about the elder dragons and their effects in these unexplored zones, or were they just untouched from the dragons?

[@stevenmcg1986]

It would be very unbelievable as far as world building and lore is concerned if the elder dragons did not in some way effect all areas of the world, even if some areas lesser than others. But to completely ignore the effects of the dragons and suggest other yet-to-be explored areas were somehow not effected would be poor story telling in my option. There needs to be some suggestion of them everywhere. There was some in SOTO as far as lore books were concerned, so hopefully they'll keep some elder dragon story beats in somewhere. I do miss the epic feeling with the dragons that fell so flat with EoD...

[@corpsestarch8869]

@stevenmcg1986 Well said, i feel the same way about it.

[@Moinsen15]

I want a BIG feature for some of the xpacs though. Something like housing pls.

[@jamesa1807]

With the talk about rewriting old systems, and the reference to things being asked for from 5 years ago I wonder if some sort of unification of strikes and raids might be be what they are considering?

[@Nebuli2]

"There's something leaving the water" is probably a reference to the underwater weapons.

[@lashonawaldmeister1111]

Give ele a throwing spear with a focus on burning and support, then call it para

[@jaredjensen1418]

I think they touched on a lot of points that were high on my priority list. Would I have liked them to go into more depth? Absolutely. But at least they're recognizing the broad strokes. I'm excited to see what they have for this next one. I've lowered my expectations in general with the mini expacs but I think this sounds like a good start.

[@iwrathg1122]

Bring World Bosses back in place of Map Metas. Kind of like how Shatterer 2.0 in Jahai worked. Imagine Shadow Behemoth 2.0!

[@Fenrasulfr]

What I liked about the season 3 was the globe trotting feel it had with a relatively small and grounded story. There is something leaving the water -> reference to some of the underwater weapons being able to be used on land. I must say that one of the systems they could refresh is having the "side quests" in their own tab and maybe do something with the guild events.

[@bobbo8u]

the thing leaving the water is the underwater weapon

[@RainDropUp]

Did definitely seem like the "something leaving the water" was indeed the spear. That... stance though, what was that about? Hopefully it was just early/placeholder; that's no way to brandish a polearm properly! lol Will be curious to see if this is indeed true!

[@bloomins8088]

Oh, and also, I know you pondered what it'd be like if someone would wait and play the patches all at once. I basically did that, and it was... okay. Still felt small and the story did not engage me at all. **spoilers** I was most interested in Mabon, and they killed him off so soon. I think I would have been more engaged if the story had killed him off further into these patches. Like maybe when Labris died, Eparch then killed Mabon in retaliation or something. But I felt nothing when Labris died. Felt nothing when that little Erja character died (what a throw away character). Eparch himself was visually excellent, but nothing else. Also, minor nitpick, but I was annoyed with how Labris and Peitha were BABES, and then everyone else is just a nasty flesh monster. I want a nasty main lady flesh monster. please.

[@asur1194]

Finally i will be able to use more my kamohoali kotaki? would be nice because i think it is one of the best skins in the game

[@mawixation5631]

Would really love for them to at least add new weapon types such as an actual Scythe weapon and maybe Gauntlets? Idk. If they do not have plans of adding new classes and not specs.

[@ozirus3344]

I truly believe they did SOTO in such an isolated manner so if it imploded they could cleanly separate. Problem is they introduced God-Wizards... But I fully agree, we should be reusing maps or locations when we can. Keeps the world feeling alive and (hopefully) allows for less reused assets in the actually new stuff.

[@Einulf_]

Maybe we can finally got to the dominion of winds?

[@jsyndownfall7829]

Based on what I’ve been reading , I have to go and do hours worth of repeating story lines in already played regions , even to be able to access the story line and exploitable regions . Nothing cramps my style more than side quest do overs in places I’ve already completed .

[@dargalador3951]

I think we are going to see player housing. that would defiantly keep players busy building their upgrading their own home and area. :)

[@RhinoBarbarian]

About 1 minute per second of trailer. Little shorter than I thought it would be.

[@jeffherdle2814]

Hey WP! Love your work!! Watch you all the time!! Keep killing it!! 5th comment! Yay!

[@perisemiotics3204]

I think spears (and possibly the other UW weapons) will be in a weird spot since they have stopped making skins for them a long time ago. Or maybe that was intentional? thinking ahead when they would make them usable on land, they'd have new skins only for the three of them, which in turn would alleviate their workload as well... I know I'm being salty but I can't let go of this trend they have had to shortcut development anyway they can for a while now. (And by new skins I mean premium skins, like legendaries.) Or maybe I completely missed the reason why they essentially abandoned underwater weapons years ago.

[@Tomrom52]

going through the video, for the first section, theres this underlying, "i dont want to talk about this, i just want to vent about what I hate" I do think getting to do a video focusing on that would be great, if for no other reason than you would of gotten it out.

[@LucashhLima]

Honestly, they could do a 2 year cycle, but with a BIG first patch with actual content and HOT/EOD/POF level of story and 5 small patches expanding the story and adding fractals/strikes/raids expanding the existing maps and story, just like FF XIV

[@_Banjo_]

At first i was a bit hesitant about continuing the same story but at the same time, are they really going to recreate the same cast of characters every year? I hope they do manage to do some kind of recap for people who start on t he next expansion. I really wonder if theyre falling for the same "trap" as you said. Editted this after you said. Perhaps they should be doing arcs over 3 mini expansions? Im intrigued, i do feel like they potentially dropped the ball with Frode and had something else in mind. Also when they mentioned the people who live inthe fractals; they mentioned this again with zojja in the final instance. Really curious where they were trying to go with that stuff. And the whole fractal thing in general considering they were hinting that fractals of reality also found their way into Nayos (yet...we never saw this...or Krlogan). I do really feel they hit the nail on the head there . Easy with hindsight but i that would have been better to not venture to nayos, give the release story more breathing room and padding. Revisit and actually explore parts of maps as story. The patches being all in nayos was a massive mistake to me especially when coupled with very little story. It was kinda whiplash, we simulatenously spent such a long time in nayos... but also not at all. I do like the idea that the next expansion will fill in some of our gaps. They did have some cool ideas hinted at in the lore that they skirted over. Putting the eye in the instance was clever because it does really take us back to t hat reliquary but also wing 4 which had a couple of nods (including the latest fractal having deimos). I feel theres just... a minor thing not tying it all together.

[@BetaAceX]

I'd love a bespoke story review video, fyi. I'd love your thoughts on SOTO and the patches as a whole now that it's over.

[@Noobieswede]

Wohoo another WP video, perfect with a coffee! :D

[@TheWolfLucifersAngel]

Love you woodens

[@KalSpiro]

My concern is that it is not, and never was a spear, but is actually a staff

[@ThomasSimmelink]

End of the movie showed 4th of June for more information on the 5th Expac!

[@raquetdude]

Wonder if they could make those maps that are only for Storymode into dungeons of sorts? The map is already made and would just need enemies/allies and new models.

[@emilymalkieri]

Do different professions have different weapon stances right now? I don't believe they do, which would mean all professions hold the spear like they do underwater 😞 _sighs in Elonian_

[@KecalMilenium]

I agree they had too many characters cooking in the living releases. I think episode 1 was fine for allies, I think I would have gotten rid of Haitor and maybe capture Labrys then, so that we could have a bit more of her and A LOT more of Epoch in Episode 2. I think the general should have been combined with Ramzes or joined us as a result of our open world activities.

[@Avenrise]

With regards to ANET not being able to tell an larger story anymore I don't think that's entirely true provided they're smart and are always thinking ahead. I get that they want each expac to be smaller and self-contained going forward but they've never said there won't be crossover links between them. If they're smart about reminding players of previous events via the new storyline (NOT with cut scenes mind you) then they can set up larger feeling events. An example (just off the top of my head, not that I'd necessarily want it) would be bringing back some form of the Void for instance. Do a good job showing what it's currently capable of and where it came from. Pop in lots of written NPC dialogue about their experiences of it in the past and the new players will be clued in enough. Us EoD players will be even more clued in, having more backstory for it. It enables ANET to 'skip to the good stuff' as they just point newer players towards EoD if they want a little more juice. On an unrelated note, we don't need a Hub per expac IMO. The Wizards Tower can literally float around, just keep adding new NPCs in there and open up some new rooms to explore and we're good. Did we ever get into the Hidden Library?

[@joshuahng1]

Its a good day wp gw video!!

[@Cereen0]

"entirely reworking existing features to make room for more modernized solutions" > Relic system

[@GrayveStone]

My guess was not a new RAID, but rather open old raids up to solo/story/explorable mode. Map 'exploration' of the zones as instances, reusing them. IDK, just seems raids don't equal the causal mindset they seem to aim for in SOTO.

[@Aereton]

hell just a 5 ppl variation would be dope as 5 ppl are more easily to get together as a casual

[@RedNuii]

I doubt it, the evidence for a new raid is too strong. It will be exactly 5 years in less than 2 weeks. I think people have been asking for difficultly settings for way longer.

[@flobro6768]

They should do it like the patch in Icebrood saga where you role play as the three Charrs. A nice instanced new map, an easy solo able story mode where you can group up with casually and a tuned up fight to the level Cerus CM.

[@rathalos1522]

Unlikely, they do need to add new content in a release, especially since that one will not have any map addition. What seems more likely is a raid that is also used as a (solo) story step.

[@asgarzigel]

One thing I also disliked in SOTO was the lack of variety. Fighting the Kryptis over and over simply gets old after a while and they are very clearly mostly existing models with a new skin. It just felt very similar to the Void enemies in EoD. Nayos also doesn't look very appealing, all gray and red and foggy and there is no visual variety. For our first excursion to a different world it fell really flat I think. I also expected a bit more of an actual retrospective, but they barely scratched the surface here. If they bring back Raids I could see the new feature they mentioned be a unification between the strike and raid systems and rewards, but who knows.

[@windingtwilight]

IMHO I liked the demon idea, but didn’t feel demonic in execution as the npcs felt bland. The direction of the story didn’t feel tied into overall world events and I felt like my character was dragged into a a war that they didn’t deserve to be fighting a part of. I didn’t feel like I earned the title of wayfinder for how short of an expac it was. In addition to that, I feel that with all the hinting towards vampires they did in EOD, if SOTO was tied to vampires and demons, and having an entire secret society of magic ‘feeding’ vampire people in the background now finding new footing with the end of dragons present, that would have been an interesting expac! Perhaps with the current scope of development a more low key detective versus a vampire society who stumbles into something over their head, has to help stop a friend from becoming a magic dependent vampire, must help stop (rather than being the chosen one) a vampire society, etc would work I get that they shot more for atmosphere over character, but the characters create atmosphere. In retrospect, that’s what I loved most about POF.

[@aeroblizz1987]

Lol WP did you record this when you just woke up 🤣 what could be leaving the water, maybe the spears 😅

[@Runeify00]

Livia

[@schultzy450]

they fired the key people of season 3 who learned these lessons, and now have to learn it all over again.

[@DdavidoffC]

For me, SotO's big failing was in the details. I've been spending a lot of time running around LWS4 maps for Vision and EoD maps for fun, and those maps are just *packed* with stuff to do -- not just fun events, but side-stories, collections, etc. -- stuff that's missing from SotO, especially Nayos (and Amnytas, to a lesser extent). It's stuff you don't really think about your first time through the maps, but you appreciate when you go back and spend time in the maps. There was basically no innovation in the dynamic event system at all, with most events boiling down to "kill Kryptis." Some decent events making use of the Skyscale, which I applaud. But very few interesting side-stories, or even NPC chatter/conversations. It's not fun to just *be* in the new maps, which is crucial for GW2, IMO: it is, at its heart, the best open-world experience in the genre, and they need to really lean into that. The Heart of the Obscure giving access to on-demand events is great, and a thing I hope they bring to the future. I think it's time to add new weapon types to the game -- if that's bringing underwater weapons onto land, cool; if it's entirely new weapon types, great -- but we need a serious combat shakeup that's not necessarily new elite specs. Worth noting that I don't blame the development or narrative team for SotO's...middling quality. They're trying something new, I think it's basically a given at this point that at least part of the team is working on another project at the same time, and the games industry in general is notoriously shitty. We don't know how much pressure they were under to deliver. I'm happy to hear that they're open about having learned some hard lessons, and I'm always excited for what comes next. An open-world legendary ring is almost a given. A new raid would be incredible. Also, I want Detective Rama back, damn it. Love that guy.

[@DdavidoffC]

Also, you kinda chuckled at the "who is this meant to be greasing up" paragraph -- it's probably quite sincere. I used to be in game development a long time ago, and it's really uplifting and helps to take a lot of the sting out of the crappiness of the industry when you get positive feedback from fans. Having made something that other people enjoy is incredibly fulfilling.

[@CallumTWalker]

Will you be doing a walkthrough of the final chapter?

[@23bcx]

I dropped the game halfway through the last eod xpac. I want to get back in but nothing they have added seems worth it

[@paradachshund]

I didn't find the overly complex plot comment strange. I do think it was overly complex, and you can see that in how much was told, not shown, or implied, and the massive time scales they were talking about. The end result we got was pretty simple and boring, but I think they likely did have a very complicated idea behind it all. Think about how many demon royals there were coming in at the end of the final battle. So many interestingly named characters that had no place in the story whatsoever. So many characters in general across the whole thing, WAY too many, and I'm sure they had at least some ideas for all of those, too, or they wouldn't have been created at all. It takes a lot of coordinated work from multiple teams to get a single new major character into the game, and I can't imagine they do it flippantly. I would love to know at what point in development they realized it was too grandiose, and if at that point they scrambled to simplify it so they could actually get it out the door. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of hacking and slashing had to happen somewhere in there to get us where we ended up. All speculation on my part, but that's my guess as a game dev myself.

[@williamhawkins542]

I see I haven't missed much since quitting the game a couple years ago

[@nasedoart3596]

Instead of a new raid wing, this feature we are waiting for since over 5 years could also be a Raid „Story“ mode. Back in the days, there were a ton of requests for this feature, cause casual players who don’t raid still wanted to experience the raids environment and story. Now that we most likely will go to the Isle of Janthir, and the story eventually is again mursaat and white mantle centric, it would be great timing to introduce a story mode for the related raid wings from back then. That wouldn’t be my feature to choose, but you never know…

[@MY_Forge]

I think what most people forget is that SotO is $25 USD. For what we got, I think that is very much worth the price.

[@caraelfo]

For $25 its fine but HOT and POF where $30 and offer a lot more content, and if u buy them at the time you get living world for free as it releases.

[@flobro6768]

Nah you are wrong. On launch HoT cost 45 $ (you are are right about PoF though). But frankly HoT and did not offer that much content honestly. When it comes to content to replay, skins to acquire and collections, you got a lot more with EoD and SotO than with PoF and HoT.

[@niclastname]

Yeah. People can say they don't like soto etc, but to say that the amount of content isn't worth the price is delusional lol.

[@shikishiki]

Lavish meal for $45 or stale bread for $1. Idk about you, but I dont want the stale bread.