The team is planning to give characters new skills

Aug 30, 2015 21:08 GMT  ·  By

Developer ArenaNet has already revealed that it will offer the new Heart of Thorns expansion for Guild Wars 2 on October 23 of this year and that the core game is also set to move to a free-to-play business model.

During the PAX Prime event, the company is also giving gamers a first look at the raids that will be added to the MMO, a new feature that will introduce a major challenge even for veteran gamers.

The raids in Guild Wars 2 will welcome groups of 10 players and will ask them to use new types of abilities and teamwork in order to take out big groups of regular enemies before they reach a powerful boss.

The first of the new challenges will be introduced soon after the launch of Heart of Thorns and will be offered in three wings.

The decision allows players to obtain the new Masteries that are required to make progress, which are ways to improve the power of a character who hits the level cap at 80 and gains new contextual and skill based abilities.

Guild Wars 2 will also introduce a new profession, the Revenant, and more specializations.

Gamers can also use group progression features to make their characters more powerful in the long term.

Guild Wars 2 will continue to get free content after the launch of Heart of Thorns

Colin Johanson, the game director, working on Guild Wars 2, explains on the official site that "There will be no wasteland of forgettable raids left behind as we continue to expand the system. Once players complete a mission and beat the final boss in a Heart of Thorns raid, it will be a meaningful event that will linger for them, their guild, their friends and any player who learns that they’ve beat it."

ArenaNet has not said how many raids it plans to add to the MMO or how often they will be launched.

Heart of Thorns is a paid expansion, but the company says that other content associated with it and the Living World additions will be offered for free to all gamers who pick it up.

Those who opt to play only the core Guild Wars 2 using the free-to-play model will be able to do so without the pressure of microtransactions.