Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns was rather disappointing as far as MMO expansions go, not because the content on offer was bad but rather because a lot of it ended up in the mystical realm of "coming soon".

However, as you can see in the recent State of the Game blog post they seem to be trying to make amends and I do appreciate them keeping us in the loop as far as upcoming features are concerned. Here's what you can expect from Guild Wars 2 in Q1 2016:

The first of many updates will hit the game on January 26th and bring with it gliding to central Tyria as well as a much needed rework of the Shatterer boss fight. Besides simply upping the difficulty he will have a bunch of new mechanics for players to deal with, possibly making him the hardest open-world boss. Naturally, with increased difficulty come increased rewards, including a unique back piece for completing the entire set of Shatterer achievements so don't get discouraged if you receive a proper trashing.

Another important change is the fact that healing, reviving and supporting your allies in general will count towards event participation. This doesn't mean you can go afk while spamming heals however, you still need to do a bit of damage to the enemies in order to be eligible for rewards but this will go a long way towards making support play styles much more enjoyable.

Healing focused Druids will finally be able to do their thing without worry of not getting rewarded for their efforts

The Fractals of the Mist are getting a couple of quality of life changes. You will be able to change the Fractal level without leaving the observatory itself so no more running in and out for no reason. The Looking For Group ranges for higher level fractals will also be expanded so it should, in theory, be a lot easier to find groups for those. Now all they need to do is give you some sort of reason to ever do the highest tiers more often than once in a lifetime.

World vs World is also getting a few small updates with a bigger patch planned for the future. As of the January 26th patch however, locations and bases will be upgraded through Dolyak caravan deliveries rather than a simple timer thus promoting a more active play style among the community instead of having a bunch of people AFK under a flag.

Speaking of active play styles  the number of times a player can rally off a single kill in WvW will be reduced from 5 to 1. In other words you can only go in to the downed state once before you're dead which should result in much more dynamic battles as they will no longer be a large-scale recreation of the whack-a-mole game.

There are a lot more changes incoming in the January 29 patch, including a sizable balance overhaul, so if you're interested in all of the details I'd suggest you head over there.

The Chronomancer's Alacrity buff is finally getting toned down a bit

As far as the long term is concerned you can expect plenty of Living World updates in the form of Season 3. While its hard to describe what exactly it will be about without spoiling the Heart of Thorns storyline allow me to just say you'll be able to see how your companions and the world around them deals with the consequences of actions and discoveries done throughout HoT.

The big WvW update is on the horizon and will attempt to fix issues such as population balance, scoring, rewards and the need for 24-hour coverage. They weren't willing to reveal much but given the rather sad state WvW is in right now I do hope this patch ends up coming as soon as possible or it might end up simply being too late.

Speaking of late, Fractals of the Mist will finally be getting new fractals! After two bloody years of nothing and a whole expansion "focused on improving Fractals" bringing further nothingness it seems that Fractals, my favorite part of Guild Wars 2, will be getting some much needed love and I couldn't be more excited.

And there you have it, these are all of the features and updates planned for Q1 2016 though keep in mind that software development can be pretty volatile so don't be surprised if some of these get postponed. Once more information rolls out on any of the big features I'll make sure to update you.