I actually went through all the sneak peeks and Mako’s round up and the only mention I found of scouting was in Sneak Peak III where turintuor said:
I couldn’t find any word from the devs about it.
EDIT: @Whiskeyjack (that still feels weird typing… I feel like I should be typing dddd 
) and @Draprion Looks like Scouting will be available
Can we know if scouting will be available for free for VIP players and what will be the currency to scout (gold or gems 
)?
Getting greedy!
I’m actually against scouting, it would be a good way to differentiate between the warring guilds.
aww too bad! i really hoped guild wars will be not scoutable 
I am also for NO SCOUTing in Guild Wars. We all win around 95% of the time (and rage quit 5% of the time), this would add a wild card that could increase the losses to make the matches more interesting. Remember it is only 5 matches per day, so 5 matches without scout would be increased difficulty.
I’m not in favour of scouting either, I think that it would add a slight increase in difficulty if we couldn’t. However, I really don’t think it will make a big difference. Based on the previews, the final 2 battles are worth 1150 points but will only include 3 possible teams (1 Paragon and 2 Champions). The middle battle is worth 200 points with only 4 possible Herald teams. And the first 2 battles are only worth 150 points (with all the remaining teams). So 77% of the points have 3 teams, or 90% of the points have 7 teams if you include the third battle. So even if the game didn’t provide scouting, you’d just have a few of your teammates fight first and report back. So this likely won’t really affect much, since organized guilds will likely share information with their teammates anyway.
Thanks for the official answer, @Saltypatra 
I’m glad that scouting will still be included. Now, you’ll actually be able to use some strategy instead of just bringing in a faceroll meta offense to fight an unknown defense.
Honestly, no scouting would just mean “assume Bone Dragon”
I don’t see Bone Dragon hardly at all anymore. I actually see Gorgotha more than anything. Him and Famine.
Unfortunately I still see way to much. Which means I can’t play with my new favorite troop (Tesla) and am putting Sylvanimora on every damn team again. Boooooooooring
You could always try a 1-troop defense (if you aren’t already).
Id like no scouting too, and the 1 troop defense is pretty lame. That should be stopped too, or at least where its not any benefit.
The 1-troop defense is the only avenue we have to reduce the repetition in PVP. Until they introduce some proper mechanisms to do that, taking away the 1-troop defense would be inexcusable.
Guild Wars has enough restrictions if you want to maximize the amount of points you earn. The only thing removing scouting would accomplish is requiring the attacker to attempt everything using the most broadly effective team, which in turn severely limits your options for what you would actually use.
There is no extra “difficulty” if you can’t scout. Having occasionally unwinnable matches because you guessed wrong with troop selection doesn’t make the match itself more difficult. There are simply far too many gimmick instakill type troops to cover all bases with a team of a single color that is still fast enough to not be completely rolled by just brute force and versalitle enough not to run into the occasional gimmick that will beat you because you also had a bad starting board. This, in turn, largely diminishes the necessity to actually use a variety of teams, or tweak your teams depending on the situation.
When you lose, specifically in a mode like guild wars where it is set up for every win and the degree of how much you won to count, it needs to be able to be traced back to an informed decision. Either through choosing the wrong troops when you know what you are facing, risking using all of a single color knowing a bad starting board can screw you, choosing the wrong gem to swipe or the wrong ability to cast to give your enemy a drop, even sky drops giving a 4/5 match ligament spawned from your primary move, are all calculated risk assessments you can make. Not scouting and not seeing that deathknight, or that maw/mercy, or that valk/justice/mab, or that forest guardian/kerberos, or that bombot team, or that bone dragon courage, or that stacked famines, (etc etc etc) or just not caring and then getting the subsequent “bad luck” that causes you to lose would be on you. Not being able to scout period turns guild wars into a round of “guess the gimmick” to the point where I highly doubt anyone would willingly use mono color team and always bring their swiss army knife which would largely invalidate pretty much the most unique thing guild wars had to it, active counter-team building with heavy restrictions if you want to still win and be able to maximize your points.
Unfortunately, I’m still predicting the defense meta will be mana-drain heavy, which will also run this entire concept straight into the ground by leaving very few viable options for any given color.
if scouting is allowed my win percentage in GW is going to go way the heck up. IMO, ppl shouldn’t be winning every match each day. Variance in this case is a good thing. Not having scouting would have made it more exciting, yes you are definitely going to win fewer matches but that just makes it more interesting. Personally I hate that PVP rewards winning %90+ of the time. Shouldn’t it be a lot lower? If you win nearly every time…its just a grind…
Mana-drain will not make you win a battle… Or do you mean Famine-based teams?
I think it will be more something around Devour/Death Mark because of the points we will get (or not) for our troops alive at the end of the fight…
That’s wrong, according to the previews. Losing any battle - even the first one - is going to cost you the points of the last battle, since you’ll never get to fight it then (you fight the same opponent level again if you lost).
Sure, that’ll help. Except any Paragon with a brain will switch their defense teams around a few times every day, making it more of a trap than actual help.
Famine and a couple others. Mana drain is already popular in normal PvP defense over the myriad of instakill and RNG gimmicks available available but becomes even more effective if the entire invade team shares a single color.