of 2014. This content was not designed to be repeatable, with the added content only being accessible until the next living world patch. The content is now mostly inaccessible, though some instanced content and permanent changes to the game world remain. As the story content of these patches is no longer playable, a cinematic has been created to convey its story to new players. One of the most notable changes brought by this series of patches was the destruction of Lion's Arch, one of the game's major cities. The old version of the city can still be seen in base game personal story instances, which take place before the city's destruction. The lack of permanence and repeatability of the content brought by Living World led ArenaNet to change its approach in the summer of 2014, launching a new series of patches which introduced new maps to the game world, as well as repeatable story instances similar to those included in the base game. Patches before this change were retroactively rebranded as "Season 1" of the Living World, while the new series was referred to as "Season 2". While Season 1 brought biweekly patches that ranged wildly in size, Season 2 brought a more focused and consistent set of eight patches between March 2014 and January 2015, bridging the story between Season 1 and the Heart of Thorns expansion. Season 2's format of larger releases were referred to as "episodes" in keeping with the television metaphor of "seasons". Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns and Season 3 Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns was the first expansion pack for Guild Wars 2, released on October 23, 2015. Heart of Thorns introduced the Revenant profession to the game, four new open world maps with three distinct biomes, 10-man instanced raids, the mastery system, "elite specializations" for each of the game's now nine professions that substantially change the way they play, the new 'Stronghold' player-versus-player game format, and a new borderland map for the World versus World game mode. Players who owned the Heart of Thorns expansion were also provided with access to a set of six living world patches released between July 2016 to July 2017, referred to as Season 3 of the Living World. The size of Living World patches grew with this season, as each patch introduced a large new explorable map, new masteries, and repeatable story instances. Season 3