10-Player Raids to Be Introduced with Heart of Thorns

The Guild Wars 2 PAX Prime live stream is ongoing with the news that raids will be introduced. Notably, there is no attunement needed, no gear grind so when new raids are added, no "wasteland of gear" is left behind; players will be able to damage, control or heal and be able to play the profession they love.

Heart of Thorns will introduce the first raid with three wings. The first wing will open a few weeks after the expansion launches. Raiding will become an integral component of live updates from the launch of HoT onward.

Expansions will come with the base game and updates as they arrive. Now Guild Wars 2, the base game, will be free for everyone beginning today. "Our business model is not changing. The game experience stays the same. We're just opening it up to more players. We believe in buy to play."

Some examples of ways to protect players from abuses by F2P:

• Free accounts begin with less storage.
• Subtle but important changes to free players do not allow for map-wide chat, new whispers can only be started every 30 seconds, mail is limited
• Level restriction -- in WvW requires level 60, for instance

This weekend at PAX, we made some big announcements charting the future course of the game and starting the countdown to the launch of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™.

• Raids are coming! They’ll be a big part of our live content strategy for Heart of Thorns. This is the challenging group content that our skilled players have been waiting for—deadly encounters and epic bosses that will test your team’s skill and coordination and give you a chance to earn legendary rewards. Read more about raids here.
• Today we’re making the core Guild Wars 2 game free for everyone. With Heart of Thorns coming, it was already a great time to invite friends and guild members into the game, and now it’s an even better one. We want to make it easy for new players to try the game because we believe that players who love Guild Wars 2 will buy Heart of Thorns. Read all the details here.
• We’re starting the final countdown to launch, and we’ve finally answered the one question we get asked more than any other: when is Heart of Thorns coming? We’re happy to say that it’s less than two months away. Heart of Thorns will launch Friday, October 23!

Whether you’re a veteran or a new player, there’s no better time than now to level up your characters and get ready to enter the jungle. And now you know the date when it all becomes real.

55 days and counting…

Mike O’Brien