Guild Wars 2's new Jade Bots could be the best feature of the next expansion

pcgamer.com:

Of all of Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons' new features, Jade Bots—revealed last week in the release date announcement trailer—could well be the most useful. Skiffs are a fun social activity, but we've already got Skimmers for water traversal. Siege Turtles are ace, but they're ultimately just another mount. Jade Bots, though, are set to enhance a variety of the things players are already doing throughout Tyria, and offer even more utility in the new maps the expansion will bring.

A few weeks ago, I got a chance to test out a build of the game with Jade Bots enabled. The first surprise was that ArenaNet is finally giving Jewelers something more to craft than just Xunlai Electrum Ingots. Your Jade Bot has its own menu in the Hero panel, where you can equip power cores—tied to the Jeweler crafting discipline. My bot was equipped with a Tier 1 core that gave a vitality boost to my character. Presumably we'll see more powerful effects at higher rarities.

In addition to power cores, Jade Bots also feature two modules: sensory arrays and service chips. While my preview character had nothing available for the latter, the former was equipped with a low-level Mount Energy Booster that—as the name suggests—enhanced my mount's energy regeneration by 10%. ArenaNet says modules will offer a variety of effects—there's also Skiff speed boost—and the studio seems excited about the versatility of the system, mentioning that they can easily add new modules in the future, as rewards for events and activities.

In addition to the passive bonuses of cores and modules, the Jade Bot also features a number of active effects tied to its Mastery track. There's a glide boost that gives players a kind of mini-updraft—propelling you upwards while