Yesterday evening ArenaNet released two new blog posts relating to Heart of Thorns. The first is by John Smith who talks over the changes likely to affect the economy as a result of the expansion pack. It’s quite a candid blog post and lays out some pretty harsh truths. Overall however, I think the blog post feels much like a “we’re reducing what you get from playing”, which is a little odd to read. I’ve no doubt that Heart of Thorns will bring with it new loot and new ways of obtaining that loot, but it does feel a little strange to be informed in advance that things we currently take for granted are changing, before we even know what we’re getting in its place. Interestingly and something I’ll discuss in a separate editorial, it looks like big changes are being made to the liquidity of dungeons.

Over the last couple of years, dungeons have been a major part of the game’s economy; between unique armor and liquid rewards, they’re often farmed. In the expansion, we’ll move away from this paradigm. As the game progressed, we shifted focus from dungeons to fractals and raids, and we firmly believe that fractals and raids are the content that we want to continue to support. As a part of that process, we’ll shift some rewards away from dungeons and into other pieces of content. While dungeons will remain cool experiences that’ll reward players with unique items, their liquid rewards will be reduced and other content will become more rewarding. The shift in rewards is a direct representation of our focus on raids and fractals and our commitment to make them the best they can be.

Basically and if you’re confused, you’ll get less if any gold for a run.

As for the Legendary Weapon blog post, there’s going to be three on launch (or just after) consisting of a staff, pistol and axe. The others will come along shortly afterwards. Unlike the existing system, it looks like players will truly have to play all aspects of Guild Wars 2 including sPvP.

The Gift of the Mists is where you will find the Gift of Battle, which is purchased for Badges of Honor and a special material crafted of ascended and fractal materials; the Gift of Glory, purchased with the new tradable material Shards of Glory that only comes from Player vs. Player reward tracks; and the Gift of War, purchased with a new tradeable material, Memories of Battle, that only comes from playing World vs. World.

I know some will be unhappy about that, but I think it sounds great. Legendary items with the new system will be a huge undertaking, rather than just a gold rush and I think that’s very welcome. I’m also super pleased to see that the staff is the one that was datamined quite some time ago and as stated by a developer over on Reddit, it has had a lot of graphical improvements since then. Hopefully we’ll see a Twitch session covering the new weapons very soon.

What do you think of the news from both blog posts?