A new video and article have appeared over at IGN that give Guild Wars 2 players and fans a look at the Maguuma Jungle, the setting for the upcoming Heart of Thorns expansion. In addition to seeing the setting, the article goes into some detail about the newly-announced Mastery System that will give players new ways to advance through the game.
One of the most salient quotes is as follows:
“With combat, it’ll be more like a reveal like you might see in a game like Zelda where there’s a feeling like wow, I got this tool and now I remember when I was trying to fight this creature before I couldn't get past this one ability; this tool clearly tells me this is the key to that lock and now I'm going to open it,” adds Mastery design lead Crystin Cox. “That feeling is one of the things we're really going: now I have more power, not because a number went up but because I can actually do this thing.”
According to ArenaNet, the goal is for players to unlock Mastery in a variety of areas that can be utilized throughout the game world, not only in the highest levels of the game. In addition, with account-wide unlocks, players benefit by not being forced to continually 'grind' out skills they've acquired over and over on alts.
ArenaNet feels the Mastery System is something revolutionary and that it solves many of the issues players complain about in MMOs today:
“I think we sought out with Guild Wars 2 to solve a lot of big problems that we've seen with the MMO genre and I think some of those we successfully tackled,” says Cartwright. “But we want to seek out and solve some other problems and I think the way progression is handled is one that we've seen that creates both problems for the developer and for the player." (Isaiah Cartwright)
Read the full article at the link above and be sure to check out the video below to see Maguuma Jungle.
