Amnoon Oasis. Makes sense. They already have tons of art assets from Dry Top and Silverwaste. Besides going Desert is quite the opposite theme of Jungle.
Secondly, Maguuma was dense and vertical. Let's face it, there actually was a lot of gameplay in the 4 HoT maps. They were compact. We'll have to see if this means that the zones will be massive in Expansion #2. But we know the deal- you risk having more spaces with fewer places, but then again- a desert is supposed to be desolate. If they take inspiration from games like Journey they could make some beautiful large areas.
On one hand I'd say I highly doubt we'll kill an elder dragon in Living Story, those are solely for expansions but on the other, it would take YEARS to kill them all in that format. NCSoft will probably want Guild Wars 3 before the time frame it would take for enough expansions to kill off all the dragons. Although I suspected that's why they are trying to throw two dragons at us at once, one expansion could kill off two dragons and that would really speed the process up. It makes sense from a story perspective too to divide up units to take them out around the same time frame based on how the transference of power works.
I think they want to raise the stakes with living story. Also because the elder dragons just seem to be dormant when we're not focused on the one we're focused on. No elder dragons make a peep when we're fighting zhaitan, no elder dragons make a peep when we're fighting mordremoth. So what is happening is that the dragons become tools of convenience just to be beaten, and I think ArenaNet knows that the dragons have become this one trick pony.
In the original reveal trailer from 2010, the elder dragons were explained as natural disasters. Sort of like the Kyuubi from Naruto. They were so large that they'd create floods, earthquakes, climate change, tsunamis by simply moving across terrain inhabited by sentient beings.
ArenaNet has completely failed to deliver dragon antagonists that live up to that, but on the other hand, they've done something else.
Modremoth popped out of the blue as a interim dragon, and they introduced a great Shounen-´power concept. Every dead dragons transfer its power onto the next. Jormags minions now have the power of death (Zhaitan) and Nature (Mordremoth). So every dragon from here on out will be way more impossible to kill.
Here is what think will be the time frame:
1. January 2017; they announce Expansion 2, exactly 2 years after HoT was announced; Primordus and Kralkatorrik are the main dragons. Aurene will probably be key in fighting them.
2. Living World Seasons 3 ends in Q2-Q3 with the death of a dragon (Jormag?)
3. Expansion 2 is released in October 2017, 2 years after HoT was released. We defeat Primordus and Kralkatorrik
4. Living World Season 4 begins july-august 2018. It unlocks the remaining parts of Elona not covered in the expansion and sets up the fight with the mysterious Bubbles (Deep Sea Dragon).
5. Expansion 3 is announced in January 2019, pitting the final fight against the last elder dragon who has all the magic afinity of the other dragons. It takes place in Cantha and marks the last major expansion of GW2.
6. Living World Season 4 ends in Q2-Q3 2019 setting up the third expansion.
7. Expansion 3 is released in October 2019 and marks the final conclusion to GW2s story.
8. A smaller series of living story updates will follow in 2020 and beyond but it wll be to set up a Guild Wars 3, that is many years away. It took 5 years between Eye of the North and GW2s release. I wouldn't expect to wait that long for GW3 because the gem store is a revenue cash shop, but I think after Bubbles is taken care off, the live staff will be a lot smaller as most of Anet focus on a new big main project.
By the time we reach expansion 3, GW2 will be more than 7 years old.
If 2 expansions are coming it means that 2x 9 elite specs; 18 elite specializations. I'm feeling more and more confident that polearms, new races and new weapon types are not coming. When you weigh it up I think they want to fill out Tyria, deal with the dragons and give us as much content as possible. And I am okay with that.
Instead what I'd like to see added in new living world and expansion releases:
- What I would like to see is them upping their armor game. I'd like to see new and old maps have Silverwaste-style armor skins to collect in flashy and non flashy versions- The Luminescent armors take a lot of time to collect and I've gotten a lot of milage out of Silverwaste. I'm glad that it's still popular to this day.
More map specific unique back pieces/helmets/gloves would go a long way. If you would have incentive to spend dozens and dozens of hours in maps you rarely go to like Straits of Devastation.
- More skins to collect from world bosses all over the world- I think lvl 80 style metas- long term goals should be added to each map. I could imagine map specific currencies from new and old maps being key in making gifts for new legendaries. Just really go to town- Adding new world bosses to a lot of the old maps. So you really get long term community squads that run the same maps. Many lvl 25-65 maps could really use some of that.
- Better graphics and optimization - I don't know if we're ever getting DX11. I'd hope so. I'd hope it would come with new processing effects. I'd like to see longer draw distances, new water physics, I'd like to see different seasons for all the spvp maps. An added layer to GW2. A sort of makeover adding on top of the great art. new fog/fire/rain/particle/dust effects. Model updates to pets, trees, grass, foliage and such would be great.
- Server improvements- Having a new soft cap of 250 players over 200 would be nice. Particularly if future world bosses and meta events added on to new and old maps get more into the territory of splitting up the zergs into multiple groups. Dragons Stand is a great map. It might be the most well realized map ever in Guild Wars 2 in terms of what a public raid can be when 200 players are working together.
If they can take that infrastructure but also combine it in a map that has a certain segment of smaller players running normal non meta events, i'd be great.
- Game needs new guild missions, spvp maps, jumping puzzles, and many higher tiers of achievement. Just more content that extrapolates on the current systems.
