Do we have any information on the next expansion?

[Alistera]

Hi guys,

Know this is rather early since we only got Heavensward about 10 months ago, though me and the person I mainly play with tend to take long breaks from the game and then come back for about 3 month intervals to see all the new content then go off again to avoid burn out and too much grinding.

Due to these playing patterns, we are wondering if we have any knowledge about when the next expansion is due because we don't want to miss all the endgame stuff available in Heavensward but don't want to start a three month session if there's a big patch due shortly.

How often are major patches these days? When are we due the next one and do we have any information on the next expansion?

[Belhi]

Major patches are every 3.5 months or so. The next one should come late May-early June. There should be about 5 patches total so 3.5 will be the last major patch probably.

As for the expansion we have no official information but many assume it will be focused on Ala Mhigo and probably have Garleans as the major antagonists. Its expected its announcement will be in October at the first of the fan fests with the expansion itself launching in probably around may or june 2017.

That's pretty much all we know so far, at least that Im aware of.

[LadyVal]

I can't even remember where it was originally said (I think in a Live Letter?) by Yoshi-P that 4.0 was going to be a separate storyline from Heavensward (but still based off the 2.0 main story) and that you wouldn't need to own Heavensward to play 4.0. That's as much as I know that has been officially stated.

Belhi is right though, major patches normally around every 3.5 months, and 2.0 went until 2.5 but the devs said if they feel they need to expand to 3.6+ then they will.

[Reinha]

I can't even remember where it was originally said (I think in a Live Letter?) by Yoshi-P that 4.0 was going to be a separate storyline from Heavensward (but still based off the 2.0 main story) and that you wouldn't need to own Heavensward to play 4.0. That's as much as I know that has been officially stated.

I wonder how they are going to handle the issue that new players start 4.0 at level 50 and low gear and others are level 60 with 250+ item level. :0

[ElHeggunte]

I wonder how they are going to handle the issue that new players start 4.0 at level 50 and low gear and others are level 60 with 250+ item level. :0

The same way they helped late-comers with the transition from ARR to HW: by adding high ilvl gear to old quest rewards and increasing the amount of EXP the quests gave.

[swiss_Momo]

I wonder how they are going to handle the issue that new players start 4.0 at level 50 and low gear and others are level 60 with 250+ item level. :0

or with how all of the level 50-60 job quest lead into Heavensward areas at some points

[Belhi]

I don't think they will remove the need for HW. They just won't require people to play through the entire story to start on the new 4.0 story. On top of that they did say at the same time that they would need to develop some form of 'the story so far' summary to catch people up on where the story starts at 4.0 so that people who chose to skip all the story content can still have some idea what the situation is so I think 4.0 will build of 3.X.

I wouldn't be surprised if they lower the cost of the HW expansion though to make it easier to access. That or just make the ARR/HW bundle the default version of the original game people buy.

[HakuroDK]

While not confirmed, the story has been very heavy-handed with hinting that the next locale we'll be visiting is Ala Mhigo.

[Black_Wing]

or with how all of the level 50-60 job quest lead into Heavensward areas at some points

Well sounds like 2.X content will still need to be completed so they WOULD have access to HW areas. Could always adjust job quests as well for those that don't have HW. It wouldn't be the first time they've changed them.

[Belhi]

To be honest, I would imagine most people will do the story anyway since its probably the best source of EXP for levelling, particularly if the HW ones get buffed like the ARR ones were.