Hellooooo, Giant Bomb! Not as huge a week for expansion details as the last, but with the PAX East demo coming up we can expect that to change, shortly.

First up, we got a two-in-one blog (Andrew McLeod, Lee Bledsoe) describing both a new boss creature you'll encounter in Heart of Thorns and the changes being made to the Defiance mechanic that will help define those bosses.

Here's how Defiance will affect combat, going forward:

• The boon icon that previously represented stacks of defiance, presumably along with the Unshakable effect, will no longer appear. Instead, defiance will be displayed through a secondary bar, under the target's health.
• Control effects (e.g. stun, daze, knockdown) will all contribute toward emptying this bar. Different effects will subtract different amounts depending on duration and intensity. So, for example, a 3-second stun would empty more than a 1s stun, but the 1s stun might empty more than a 3s daze.
• Because blinds can now be tuned according to their ease of application, they will contribute to defiance reduction.
• The Defiance bar will regenerate over time, meaning coordinated CC bursts are necessary to zero the bar at the optimal moment.
• When the bar depletes fully, one of a variety of control mechanics might impact the enemy, depending on the encounter.
• All enemies that currently have Defiance will, at minimum, receive a basic bar that stuns them for several seconds when emptied.

And with that new context, some information about the wyverns that we'll be running across in the Maguuma Jungle:

• A wyvern's m.o. is chiefly to flit around the jungle canopy, blowing fire at shit you'd very much prefer to be not on-fire. To face one of these creatures, you'd doubtless have to first knock it out of the sky by way of some meta event.
• When facing a wyvern, you'll likely be in an arena set in the middle of a bunch of lethal falls. As the lizard's repertoire of attacks includes blowing gusts of wind around with its wings, bringing an upgraded gliding mastery and picking out nearby airstreams would be a justifiable precaution.
• At certain points in the fight, a wyvern will attempt lift-off, and this is where Defiance comes into play. If players crush its defiance before it takes flight, the boss will crash to the ground and be totally vulnerable for several seconds.
• If the boss executes a flight phase, it will become immune to attacks while it skirts around and carpets the arena in fire AoE. These fields do intense damage, effectively rendering portions of the area inaccessible until they disperse.
• Effects artists and programmers worked together to create several new effects for the battle, with a goal of middle-grounding believability and performance optimization. This includes a new use of "material replacement" which will indicate a flame breath by lighting up sequential portions of a wyvern's anatomy with a fiery glow.

For several minutes of an in-action wyvern, check out last week's Points of Interest stream. Combat footage starts at 40:50.

Alright, time to get real, people. You know it. I know it. The camera in this game has been GARBAGE since launch. Overzealous clipping, incredibly limited range, few adjustment options. I can't even imagine how people who have actual nausea-related illness might deal with it. Well, I have good news, albeit news that isn't directly related to the expansion. On March 10th, we're getting a camera fix (thanks, Branden Gee)! Here's a run-down:

• "Rotation Speed" will do what it's done since launch.
• "Horizontal Position" will do most of what the old position slider did, but with zero impact on vertical position.
• Speaking of which, there's now a "Vertical Position" slider. This will have a greater impact at further zoom distance than at close ranges, to ensure your character remains on-screen.
• This one is undebatably the best. "Collision Sensitivity" determines how much crap has to be between your character and the camera before the damn thing snaps in and blows your eye sockets open. By default, half of your screen will have to be cluttered before it triggers.
• "Zoom Sensitivity" simply controls how much mouse scrolling you have to do between minimum and maximum zoom distance. It ranges from 7 clicks (the current amount) to 42 clicks.
• Another big one: "Field of View". While the current default is 50° vertical (~80° horizontal), we'll have a new minimum of 20° vertical (~35° horizontal) and a new maximum of 70° vertical (~100° horizontal).
• A much-requested feature returning from GW1, "Enable First-Person Camera" will do just as it says in all game modes and with zero skill or movement limitations. Your weapons and character model will not appear in first-person, but particle effects that you produce will.
• Finally, everyone's camera will by default focus to their character's head, meaning norn and charr characters will gain a bit of height and asura will get a lower perspective. By unselecting "Adjust Camera to Character Height", you can switch focus to a consistent position above every character's feet.

I recommend checking out yesterday's Ready Up to see the massive difference these fixes make in confluence.

That's it for now, folks. Expect some updates concerning the demo content during PAX East!

Not going to lie, when I first saw the collision detection stuff, I shed a small tear of joy.

It's such a huge quality-of-life improvement, and I'd just about given up hope on it ever changing.