Where will we go next?

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

So, a few **very** interesting new discussion points in the [Anniversary vid](

):

 

*The Sunspear Sanctuary is indeed coming back... as a "personal character instance" with "opportunities to unlock NPCs, collections, and rewards." That sounds like something that'll span more than one episode, and if it remains relevant to the main storyline, it may mean that we'll be sticking around Elona for longer than I anticipated.

 

*With Season 4, they're looking to "see how big [the] story could get" with "a more epic storyline" and "the most epic stuff we've ever done for Living World," "pushing the limits of... what we can do with the story." If they believe they're going to top burning LA to the ground... maybe Sajuuk's been right about an Elder Dragon fight being in the cards.

 

*But the biggest potential bombshell? "You can expect more great things from us as we move directly from Season Four into Season Five." If that means what it sounds like, and the last few episodes of this season aren't, in fact, constrained by needing to set up the next expansion... that blows the possibilities wide open. They might be able to take their time with things we'd thought they'd have to hurry past, or detour into all sorts of directions that aren't large enough to support an expansion on their own.

[Fenom.9457]

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> So, a few **very** interesting new discussion points in the [Anniversary vid](

):

>

> *The Sunspear Sanctuary is indeed coming back... as a "personal character instance" with "opportunities to unlock NPCs, collections, and rewards." That sounds like something that'll span more than one episode, and if it remains relevant to the main storyline, it may mean that we'll be sticking around Elona for longer than I anticipated.

>

> *With Season 4, they're looking to "see how big [the] story could get" with "a more epic storyline" and "the most epic stuff we've ever done for Living World," "pushing the limits of... what we can do with the story." If they believe they're going to top burning LA to the ground... maybe Sajuuk's been right about an Elder Dragon fight being in the cards.

>

> *But the biggest potential bombshell? "You can expect more great things from us as we move directly from Season Four into Season Five." If that means what it sounds like, and the last few episodes of this season aren't, in fact, constrained by needing to set up the next expansion... that blows the possibilities wide open. They might be able to take their time with things we'd thought they'd have to hurry past, or detour into all sorts of directions that aren't large enough to support an expansion on their own.

 

 

So do we know where on the map "Sun's Refuge" will be?

And, if xpac 3 has 2 seasons before it, will it be bigger than the last 2?

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> *But the biggest potential bombshell? "You can expect more great things from us as we move directly from Season Four into Season Five." If that means what it sounds like, and the last few episodes of this season aren't, in fact, constrained by needing to set up the next expansion... that blows the possibilities wide open. They might be able to take their time with things we'd thought they'd have to hurry past, or detour into all sorts of directions that aren't large enough to support an expansion on their own.

 

If they were taking their time with the plots, then they wouldn't have felt the need to kill Joko off so quickly or in such a gag method.

[Overlord RainyDay.2084]

My guess is the sunspear sanctuary is the headquarters of the Elonian Order of Whispers.We avoided taking Joko there in GW1, so maybe he never found it. Then again, with Lonai and Koss under his thrall I don't know how he could have overlooked it. Maybe he just never thought to ask.

 

I'm kind of hoping we'll have at least one episode elsewhere in Tyria. LS3 wasn't confined to the area around the heart of Maguuma, so I'm hoping they don't set every single season 4 map in the desert.

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

> @"Fenom.9457" said:

> > @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> > So, a few **very** interesting new discussion points in the [Anniversary vid](

):

> >

> > *The Sunspear Sanctuary is indeed coming back... as a "personal character instance" with "opportunities to unlock NPCs, collections, and rewards." That sounds like something that'll span more than one episode, and if it remains relevant to the main storyline, it may mean that we'll be sticking around Elona for longer than I anticipated.

> >

> > *With Season 4, they're looking to "see how big [the] story could get" with "a more epic storyline" and "the most epic stuff we've ever done for Living World," "pushing the limits of... what we can do with the story." If they believe they're going to top burning LA to the ground... maybe Sajuuk's been right about an Elder Dragon fight being in the cards.

> >

> > *But the biggest potential bombshell? "You can expect more great things from us as we move directly from Season Four into Season Five." If that means what it sounds like, and the last few episodes of this season aren't, in fact, constrained by needing to set up the next expansion... that blows the possibilities wide open. They might be able to take their time with things we'd thought they'd have to hurry past, or detour into all sorts of directions that aren't large enough to support an expansion on their own.

>

>

> So do we know where on the map "Sun's Refuge" will be?

 

Just north-west of Domain of Kourna.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> > *But the biggest potential bombshell? "You can expect more great things from us as we move directly from Season Four into Season Five." If that means what it sounds like, and the last few episodes of this season aren't, in fact, constrained by needing to set up the next expansion... that blows the possibilities wide open. They might be able to take their time with things we'd thought they'd have to hurry past, or detour into all sorts of directions that aren't large enough to support an expansion on their own.

>

> If they were taking their time with the plots, then they wouldn't have felt the need to kill Joko off so quickly or in such a gag method.

 

Depends. Taking their time on the things they want to does not necessarily mean that they wanted to take their time on Joko. (Or, looked at another way, it could be argued that three entire episodes- half a season- is quite a long time to take on someone who doesn't have anything to do with the main dragon plot. Either way, I think it's fairly clear that, narratively, they've approached Joko more as an impediment to be overcome rather than an element to be explored in his own right.)

[Sajuuk Khar.1509]

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> *But the biggest potential bombshell? "You can expect more great things from us as we move directly from Season Four into Season Five."n.

This is very interesting.

-On one hand, they could have us finish off Kralkatorik by the end of Season 4, and use Season 5 to set up the next expansion

-On the other, they could drag out the Kralkatorik plot throughout season 5 as well.

 

Personally, I hope its the first option, rather then the second one. Kralkatorik has already been dragged out as is IMO, trying to push it out for another season would be dreadful. And I suspect this is why they would call it Season 5, instead of just having S4 be really long. The change is seasons is to reflect a change in story.

 

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

>*The Sunspear Sanctuary is indeed coming back... as a "personal character instance" with "opportunities to unlock NPCs, collections, and rewards." That sounds like something that'll span more than one episode, and if it remains relevant to the main storyline, it may mean that we'll be sticking around Elona for longer than I anticipated.

As I predicted. There is far too much thematic paralleling in this to now make it some big base like it was in GW1.

 

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

>Depends. Taking their time on the things they want to does not necessarily mean that they wanted to take their time on Joko. (Or, looked at another way, it could be argued that three entire episodes- half a season- is quite a long time to take on someone who doesn't have anything to do with the main dragon plot. Either way, I think it's fairly clear that, narratively, they've approached Joko more as an impediment to be overcome rather than an element to be explored in his own right.)

This is the likely reason.

 

The big problem with Joko is that hes limited to Elona, and throughout Path of Fire we foiled his plans in the Crystal Desert, and messed with his support base in Vabbi, and in the Living World we had gone to Istan, and attacked his support base there, and then gone to Kourna to do the same thing. Besides having him flee to Jahai for some some historical recreation shenanigans, there really is nowhere left for Joko to flee to after a defeat at Gandara(besides the already mentioned Jahai) to have his story continue and make sense. I recall that one of the Devs said something about how the most they could have extended Joko's story was a bit into the 4th episode, and I think this is largely what they meant.

 

You can only known down a foes generals, envoys, archons, etc. before they stop being believable ,and just turn into another "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME GADGET!" type cartoon character.

[Sajuuk Khar.1509]

As someone pointed out in another thread

https://i.redd.it/nemu88qycvi11.jpg

 

The inforgraphic Anet released says "the second half of LWS4", which would indicate that LWS4 is only 6 episodes. This would fit with my predictive model from earlier, of Jahai/Sunspear Sanctuary/Mount Kralkatorik without having to deal with the pesky 7th map conundrum.