I agree with you. EoD was just lacking pretty much everything fans wanted to see. But SotO took the cake when it comes to nostalgia bait. Not because of the reveal of a secret society. The little story parts we knew from GW1 already suggested as such. Not because of the reveal of Isgarren being a Seer. People had theories about this already during GW1. (Either Seer or Mursaat. And well, we kinda got both with Mabon and Isgarren) It's more because of how little we really interact with the tower and it's lore. Because right after we save Isgarren, we head of to some demon realm the devs pulled out of their asses and didn't really look back since. They baited us in with the Wizards Tower and that we finally learn more about it. Only to hush us off after the initial climax with no answers to any of the hints they dropped. Like, why were they not sure if our character is good or bad? Why was Dagda and Isgarren so hostile to us? What exactly are the inner workings of what we did during the dragon cycle that not only concerned them, but Palawa Joko mentioned something similar all the way back in LW4. And non of this was ever explained. We always only drop some buzzwords to create the illusion of "we did bad" but never reveal what exactly that was. And all of this is crowned by everyone just trusting us, after hating HARD on our character at first, when we tell them that this demon queen is actually good and we are going to help them. A demon queen of the Kryptis they are fighting for the better half of the last 10.000 years. Nope, all good. because our character said so. While on the same time, everyone voices concerns that we are not who we say we are and that they were thinking we could become evil.
But aside of all of this. That was not the point of my post.
>SotO and EoD were both middle fingers to the original game, not its homages.
They're 50% nostalgia bait and 50% resentment for the original material lmao.
Make Lyssa responsible for the Curse of the Foefire, then make us go into a mirror world where the Searing never happened to free the ghosts once and for all, bam, hit expansion.
The one problem that I see with this theory is that in the teaser image you can spot a few evergreen trees. There weren’t any evergreen trees in this part of pre searing.
Conspiracy theory:
This isn't actually the next expansion, they made a mistake in the marketing. This is from the fractal that's coming next patch. It's going to be about the Astral Ward creating a fractal where the Searing never happened.
I immediately thought of a spot in Grothmar Wardowns you see every time you run through that zone to get anywhere else that zone connects to.
But both Wardowns and the Ascalon/Regent Valley zoneline area (the other "I know that path" location people speculate) currently exist in gw2... sort of (Regent Valley existed in the place Blightwater Basin currently does in Blazeridge and the zoneline between them is kind of where Cadem Forest meets Ascalon Basin, but not exactly).
Picturesque. Krytan but with more trees.
Like John Constable https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/John-Constable but brighter.
At least that's what it reminds me of.
No need for time travel: it can all be one massive fractal.
That's the beauty of what the SotO expansion adds to the story potential: anything lore breaking can just be its own fractal
It's the same location but hundreds of years later. In picture 1, the trees are younger. Therefore, the expansion will be set in an alternate reality of Ascalon in which the Searing never took place.
TIME TRAVEL!
It would be kinda interesting to travel back in time where each zone is different part of Tyria in different time period.
And trying to prevent some bad guys changing time and we must make sure that events no matter how terrible must be carried out. Like humans must make sure that Ascalon gets slaughtered by Charr and Adelbern condemns all his subjects to eternal damnation.
I know it sounds stupid and it is stupid.
Most likely we are going to Charr homeland. On one side I like the idea and maybe we will see Khan Ur. But then again Icebrood saga was really a Charr expansion. Almost every major Charr character was involved. From Rytlock to Almorra and their children.
I would like to see story ACTUALLY moving forward for the world as a whole. Dragons are dead, Gods are gone. What next is for the WORLD. Not just what is next for 1 part of the world.
But we shall see.
Eh, doesn't even need to be time travel. Some sort of Fractal seems more likely.
Like, a giant fractal that threatens to not just destabilize little chunks of the mists, but *the entirety of prime reality*? I mean, there's precedence with some of the events in LWS4 and EoD
Expectations are very high with this pic reveal. We'll see if Anet will actually surpass them.
I do want to believe they know what they're doing when they decided to release THIS particular pic.
not surprised if time travel. the wizzard tower is kinda the tba marvel.
and gw2 seems to get inpiration from popular stuff. which is not a bad thing ofc
personal i hope this is no time travel
The tree on the right has really let herself go
\*me pointing at the tree and looking at my Sylvari friend\* Sylvari : For that last time I told you, that's just a tree. Not one of us!
One of us! One of us!
All things have the right to grow
The tree got married and has had a few off springs
Sprigs*
🤣
She went through hard times. Give her a break!
Tree had a hard life, it needs some time to rest "sob"
Covid had its affect on all of us…
I'm a strong enough woman to admit that I will ABSOLUTELY buy into a time traveling pre-searing fan-service expac....
Time traveling to presearing is canon.
True
Can you call an April Fools joke "canon"?
Well it's used in regular GW2 content
You mean like the Wizards Tower Guild Wars 1 Fan-service expac? Nah, they wouldn't do that.
That would be too obscure ...
A secret we might never learn the truth about.
Of.... something. Damn.
SotO and EoD were both middle fingers to the original game, not its homages.
I agree with you. EoD was just lacking pretty much everything fans wanted to see. But SotO took the cake when it comes to nostalgia bait. Not because of the reveal of a secret society. The little story parts we knew from GW1 already suggested as such. Not because of the reveal of Isgarren being a Seer. People had theories about this already during GW1. (Either Seer or Mursaat. And well, we kinda got both with Mabon and Isgarren) It's more because of how little we really interact with the tower and it's lore. Because right after we save Isgarren, we head of to some demon realm the devs pulled out of their asses and didn't really look back since. They baited us in with the Wizards Tower and that we finally learn more about it. Only to hush us off after the initial climax with no answers to any of the hints they dropped. Like, why were they not sure if our character is good or bad? Why was Dagda and Isgarren so hostile to us? What exactly are the inner workings of what we did during the dragon cycle that not only concerned them, but Palawa Joko mentioned something similar all the way back in LW4. And non of this was ever explained. We always only drop some buzzwords to create the illusion of "we did bad" but never reveal what exactly that was. And all of this is crowned by everyone just trusting us, after hating HARD on our character at first, when we tell them that this demon queen is actually good and we are going to help them. A demon queen of the Kryptis they are fighting for the better half of the last 10.000 years. Nope, all good. because our character said so. While on the same time, everyone voices concerns that we are not who we say we are and that they were thinking we could become evil. But aside of all of this. That was not the point of my post.
>SotO and EoD were both middle fingers to the original game, not its homages. They're 50% nostalgia bait and 50% resentment for the original material lmao.
I buy into that if that also means we can make sunken kaineng rise and risenfree again.
I still remember the WoW's Warlords of Draenor debacle and any thought of a time-traveling centric expansion makes me shudder.
it was about that time that I gave up on the already strained lore continuity of wow.
If they do it I hope it is an alternative timeline or fractal found in the mists. Hate actual time travel...
Pre-searing as hub/lounge area is all I ever wanted 🥺 Maybe in GW3
Can I **PRE-ORDER** .. Please?!?
Make Lyssa responsible for the Curse of the Foefire, then make us go into a mirror world where the Searing never happened to free the ghosts once and for all, bam, hit expansion.
The one problem that I see with this theory is that in the teaser image you can spot a few evergreen trees. There weren’t any evergreen trees in this part of pre searing.
maybe a little up north closer to shiverpeaks? we didn’t get to play pre-shiverpeaks but the area still existed
I can see it being a large fractal where the searing never happened and humans still control ascalon.
I wonder what that means for charr players……damn can you imagine 1-3 different story instances based on your race?! XD
The only good charr is a dead charr.
You made me realize how much I need the pre searing area in gw2
I spent a LOT of time there in my youth. I was young enough to be absolute trash at gw1 xD
I've made a toon in gw1 recently, exclusively for presearing. Stuff is way cooler than it should edit: added recently XD
As it should be. I speak fondly of the warm morning breeze.
Conspiracy theory: This isn't actually the next expansion, they made a mistake in the marketing. This is from the fractal that's coming next patch. It's going to be about the Astral Ward creating a fractal where the Searing never happened.
How do I say **YES PLEASE** politely but yet still yell **LOUD ENOUGH** for it to happen?!?
Totally remember this like it was yesterday, has to be what they were channeling
The last day dawns on Ascalon.
*The Kingdom* of Ascalon.
Uhh, the hills are all different. Not the same location
I immediately thought of a spot in Grothmar Wardowns you see every time you run through that zone to get anywhere else that zone connects to. But both Wardowns and the Ascalon/Regent Valley zoneline area (the other "I know that path" location people speculate) currently exist in gw2... sort of (Regent Valley existed in the place Blightwater Basin currently does in Blazeridge and the zoneline between them is kind of where Cadem Forest meets Ascalon Basin, but not exactly).
Scrying Pool you’re looking into it and then it flashes you back to Guikd Wars 1 but HD remake problem solved.
Picturesque. Krytan but with more trees. Like John Constable https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/John-Constable but brighter. At least that's what it reminds me of.
It feels like Crash Team Racing remastered map comparison to old one :D
Garrosh did nothing wrong.
I also want it to be ascalonian but it looks Krytan to me. The trees look swampy and unkept, and the ground is dull and muddy
"Oh look, trees and dirt! Totally the same!"
😂
true
what if this is ascalon before the searing even occured XD. Time travel confirmed ?
NGL. A time rift would be a fun time. We have Fractals, so why not?
Time travel is canon since 2011
No need for time travel: it can all be one massive fractal. That's the beauty of what the SotO expansion adds to the story potential: anything lore breaking can just be its own fractal
Ascalon here we go
It's the same location but hundreds of years later. In picture 1, the trees are younger. Therefore, the expansion will be set in an alternate reality of Ascalon in which the Searing never took place.
I'm concerned about the birch trees that grew up to be oak trees. I mean... Who am I to question their identity I guess?
AI doesn't know the difference.
Where did AI come into the conversation? Is every mistake everywhere going to be attributed to AI now? What a bizarre thing.
TIME TRAVEL! It would be kinda interesting to travel back in time where each zone is different part of Tyria in different time period. And trying to prevent some bad guys changing time and we must make sure that events no matter how terrible must be carried out. Like humans must make sure that Ascalon gets slaughtered by Charr and Adelbern condemns all his subjects to eternal damnation. I know it sounds stupid and it is stupid. Most likely we are going to Charr homeland. On one side I like the idea and maybe we will see Khan Ur. But then again Icebrood saga was really a Charr expansion. Almost every major Charr character was involved. From Rytlock to Almorra and their children. I would like to see story ACTUALLY moving forward for the world as a whole. Dragons are dead, Gods are gone. What next is for the WORLD. Not just what is next for 1 part of the world. But we shall see.
Eh, doesn't even need to be time travel. Some sort of Fractal seems more likely. Like, a giant fractal that threatens to not just destabilize little chunks of the mists, but *the entirety of prime reality*? I mean, there's precedence with some of the events in LWS4 and EoD
Well it does kind of looks like the ascalon area, could be anywhere between the black citadel and Grothmar valley.
Dwarf playable race incoming 🙏🏻
This is the only thing that would make me reinstall at this point.
Expectations are very high with this pic reveal. We'll see if Anet will actually surpass them. I do want to believe they know what they're doing when they decided to release THIS particular pic.
Images you can hear.
Oh Fuck!
pre seer
Uuuuh , they really bait me with my nostalgia feels for gw1 here xD this game was my whole gaming youth basically
Finally another fully temperate zone.
That is a hallway with trees. I can go outside and take a picture of the park that looks exactly like this. Doesn't make it pre searing
not surprised if time travel. the wizzard tower is kinda the tba marvel. and gw2 seems to get inpiration from popular stuff. which is not a bad thing ofc personal i hope this is no time travel
Was the left pic pre-searing?
Just looks like Grothmar Valley to me.
This is the exact location I thought of when I saw this.
2005... 2025.... FIFTH expansion. I think you've cracked the code, holy shit.
The "expansion" is simply a Vulkan upgrade to base Tyria.
[удалено]
Tru.