Guild Wars 2 HoT expansion pack announced at PAX South 2015

<p>Ah&comma; yes&comma; it was lovely to hear the numerous puns and&sol;or semi-forced jokes from the great Jennifer Hale &lpar;voice actress extraordinaire&comma; Queen Jennah of Guild Wars 2&rpar; at ArenaNet&&num;8217&semi;s Guild Wars 2&colon; Heart of Thorns PAX South press conference&period; She mentioned a particular set of emails ablaze amongst the team with subject lines saying &&num;8220&semi;HOT&&num;8221&semi; in them&&num;8230&semi; H&period;o&period;T&&num;8230&semi; Heart of Thorns&comma; you got it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041804&sol;GW2-HeartOfThorns-screenshot-2&period;5655db74&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-71705" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041804&sol;GW2-HeartOfThorns-screenshot-2&period;5655db74-1024x405&period;jpg" alt&equals;"GW2-HeartOfThorns-screenshot-2&period;5655db74" width&equals;"712" height&equals;"282" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Heart of Thorns is the name of the newly announced Guild Wars 2 expansion pack&comma; and it looks beautiful&comma; in a semi-dark and rugged kind of way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The new HoT expansion pack will bring players into the Heart of Maguuma&comma; a vast jungle with great&comma; new content&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>New open world jungle maps&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Experience new events and storylines&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Face off in new boss battles&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>One thing that was emphasized in PAX South&&num;8217&semi;s HoT press conference was that the &&num;8220&semi;journey is the goal&period;&&num;8221&semi; The new Maguuma Jungle will continue on with this tradition that fans of the series know and love&period; And we were all informed that Maguuma has multiple levels of height&semi; really&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be climbing extremely high to reach the top&period; And what do Guild Wars fans do when they reach the top of a really high level&quest;<br &sol;>&NewLine;They jump off&comma; why not&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This brings us to another fun component of Guild Wars 2&colon; Heart of Thorns&colon; The Mastery System&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;Explore new training opportunities for your character beyond level 80 and master abilities like hang gliding in the jungle&comma; tearing the bark off of heavily armored Mordrem&comma; or building new collections that earn precursors to a legendary weapon&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>So when you&&num;8217&semi;re ready to jump from the apex of Maguuma&&num;8230&semi; try hang-gliding instead&comma; and find new areas that were never possible to reach before&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Specializations will also evolve your character&&num;8217&semi;s profession in new ways&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>New traits&comma; new skills&comma; and new weapons that were previously unavailable to your profession&period; Some examples of how specializations will change the way you play include Rangers now having the ability to become druids&comma; and Necromancers will be able to use fabulous&comma; big greatswords&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041733&sol;Screen-Shot-2015-01-24-at-11&period;02&period;48-PM&period;png"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-71712 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041733&sol;Screen-Shot-2015-01-24-at-11&period;02&period;48-PM&period;png" alt&equals;"Screen Shot 2015-01-24 at 11&period;02&period;48 PM" width&equals;"712" height&equals;"520" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And speaking of professions&comma; HoT introduces a new profession&colon; The Revenant&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Channel legendary powers to slaughter foes and unleash chaos on the battlefield with our brand new profession&colon; the revenant&period; Enter the field of battle heavily armored and equipped with the otherworldly powers of the Mists&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The game is now balanced with 3 light armor characters&comma; 3 medium&comma; and the Revenant now brings the tally up to 3 heavies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fans at PAX South &lpar;and surely on the interwebz&rpar; were especially excited at the announcement of new &&num;8220&semi;Guild Halls&comma;&&num;8221&semi; where you and your guild will be able to grow and claim your own space right in Maguuma&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Other highlights announced for HoT include a new WvW map for players to do battle&comma; and a new PvP &&num;8220&semi;Stronghold&&num;8221&semi; mode that allows for an entirely new way to competitively play some Guild Wars 2 PVP&period; Use a new guild team feature and defend your stronghold&comma; while storming the enemy gates to defeat the guild lord&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041749&sol;GW2-HeartOfThorns-screenshot-4&period;4f626f12&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-71706" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041749&sol;GW2-HeartOfThorns-screenshot-4&period;4f626f12&period;jpg" alt&equals;"GW2-HeartOfThorns-screenshot-4&period;4f626f12" width&equals;"712" height&equals;"419" &sol;><&sol;a><br &sol;>&NewLine;While we were not given a price and&sol;or release date on the HoT new expansion yet&comma; ArenaNet did inform us that there will be a playable demo at PAX East this year&excl; So please check it out if you&&num;8217&semi;re attending&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>See the trailer from the press conference here &&num;8211&semi; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;youtu&period;be&sol;54ucC9jIiWE" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">http&colon;&sol;&sol;youtu&period;be&sol;54ucC9jIiWE<&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;