Guild Wars 2

Donari.5237:

I have seen some reports of people jumping off the ship and out of bounds and getting just dumped into the beginning city in the desert without finishing the story, too, but since the story leads you to getting the mount you’ll need for exploring, likely you should do the instance properly.

I didn’t jump off, but had an emergency pop up and had to log out. It does log back in within the city, however, if you go and interact with the green star, it starts the entire sequence over again.

I liked how smooth the graphics “feel”. I am experiencing zero FPS lag.

not a fan of the unidentified gear stuff, well how it currently is anyway.

Malthurius.6870:

Ever since HoT, and a little bit in season 2, they’ve been culling the density of Waypoints… which I think is a good thing. More people roaming instead of teleporting around makes for more lively maps, and more events to stumble upon while traveling.

The main benefit of waypoints is being able to get around the entire world quickly. This is a convenience that a lot of other MMOs lack that waypoints cover for.

I wouldn’t be upset if they added a few more waypoints to the map though; something around the density of HoT… because this is even more sparse than those were. Mounts still have value even if they did add more waypoints; their mobility features, like long jump, make sure of that.

I bet when mounts go live you see a lot of people riding mounts in the old content even if their are a lot of waypoints. I know I intend to. You really don’t have to force people to ride mounts. A lot of MMO’s have a good distribution of waypoints and people still enjoy riding mounts in them.

SuperduperMLGbsns.9345:

The thread is there to post your first impressions and not about to argue about.

The thread is not about arguing you say… by arguing with someone who replied to you. >.>

SuperduperMLGbsns.9345:

I sometimes have no words when I look down at this community.

There’s the problem. You’re looking down on the rest of us from your high horse. And you said you don’t like mounts.

Donari.5237:

Noa.7490:

Can someone please tell me how to access the Crystal Desert? There’s nothing in-game about it, no email, no notification. I asked on the Facebook page and no one answered me.

In your character select screen look to the lower right and click the Create DEMO button. Then make a character. Once you name the character and click next, you will be tossed into a cinematic of travel to the desert and find yourself at the start of the story instance. Play through that and you’ll be there! (Note — take your time on arrival before you leave the ship and reset your traits and weapons and stats to what you prefer, using the gear from one of the provided boxes. The other two boxes are duplicates to let you rework at need).

I have seen some reports of people jumping off the ship and out of bounds and getting just dumped into the beginning city in the desert without finishing the story, too, but since the story leads you to getting the mount you’ll need for exploring, likely you should do the instance properly.

Many, many thanks!

I think any people who are airing their thoughts in here should also give this thread on unidentified gear a read and add any feedback specific to that there, as that system is something I completely forgot to mention in my post but was also very worried/confused by. we don’t have as many beta/trial weekends to interact with/report on the new content as we did with HoT, so… yeah I’m feeling a little concerned about all this stuff. :/

this is my feedback on path of fire . at least they got that much right about it . after I told some one I was going to buy the game . I made the choice to wait till this beta weekend to go over the demo its self and make my mind up on it that way . instead of going right out and pre buying the new pack .

that said I had to change my mind now and not buy the new pack . till I see changes and if I do not see some of the need changes when the game comes out then I will not be buying it .

here is some of my reasons for not buying path of fire . instanced content right out of the gate. the story its self is hap hashed together tossed in with a boss fight .

next Unidentified gear had that in the first guild wars it was ok for that game . but it is not ok for this game guild wars2 even tho its a nice flash back to guild wars its self .honestly truth be told in guild wars 2 its a major turn off for me .

next mini games another major turn off for me . and makes me not want to play guild wars2 even

mounts are ok and fine giving this is just a demo . honestly that was the only second thing I could find I liked about the new pack . next to how the map is laid out unlike hot maps which I really hate them

in the words of a good friend of mine bloody god in hell what have they done now to this poor game I even ask that even more so after seeing the bounty boards with yet again another pop up telling me about another yet again mini game

after seeing this honestly glad I did not say a word at all to any of my friends . as I already knew they would never ever come back to this game after they got burned with hot .

Something I forgot: Right now if I want to jump while riding of a cliff and glide I must do it by attacking from the edge of the mountain (or whatever) because you just cant do it with the space-bar.

While I think that the space-bar limitation may be intended to “not break the immersion by making the mount fall to its death” not only it can be overcome with other actual mechanics but its IMHO a realism is-not-fun situation.

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

this is my feedback on path of fire . at least they got that much right about it . after I told some one I was going to buy the game . I made the choice to wait till this beta weekend to go over the demo its self and make my mind up on it that way . instead of going right out and pre buying the new pack .

that said I had to change my mind now and not buy the new pack . till I see changes and if I do not see some of the need changes when the game comes out then I will not be buying it .

here is some of my reasons for not buying path of fire . instanced content right out of the gate. the story its self is hap hashed together tossed in with a boss fight .

next Unidentified gear had that in the first guild wars it was ok for that game . but it is not ok for this game guild wars2 even tho its a nice flash back to guild wars its self .honestly truth be told in guild wars 2 its a major turn off for me .

next mini games another major turn off for me . and makes me not want to play guild wars2 even

mounts are ok and fine giving this is just a demo . honestly that was the only second thing I could find I liked about the new pack . next to how the map is laid out unlike hot maps which I really hate them

in the words of a good friend of mine bloody god in hell what have they done now to this poor game I even ask that even more so after seeing the bounty boards with yet again another pop up telling me about another yet again mini game

after seeing this honestly glad I did not say a word at all to any of my friends . as I already knew they would never ever come back to this game after they got burned with hot .

Thank you—- unidentified gear, mounts, mini games you got it, never mind Anet won’’t ban and suspend players that use use DPS meters( I know not relevant to the demo—just another example of poor decisions on their or maybe inability to deal with it).

Blude.6812:

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

this is my feedback on path of fire . at least they got that much right about it . after I told some one I was going to buy the game . I made the choice to wait till this beta weekend to go over the demo its self and make my mind up on it that way . instead of going right out and pre buying the new pack .

that said I had to change my mind now and not buy the new pack . till I see changes and if I do not see some of the need changes when the game comes out then I will not be buying it .

here is some of my reasons for not buying path of fire . instanced content right out of the gate. the story its self is hap hashed together tossed in with a boss fight .

next Unidentified gear had that in the first guild wars it was ok for that game . but it is not ok for this game guild wars2 even tho its a nice flash back to guild wars its self .honestly truth be told in guild wars 2 its a major turn off for me .

next mini games another major turn off for me . and makes me not want to play guild wars2 even

mounts are ok and fine giving this is just a demo . honestly that was the only second thing I could find I liked about the new pack . next to how the map is laid out unlike hot maps which I really hate them

in the words of a good friend of mine bloody god in hell what have they done now to this poor game I even ask that even more so after seeing the bounty boards with yet again another pop up telling me about another yet again mini game

after seeing this honestly glad I did not say a word at all to any of my friends . as I already knew they would never ever come back to this game after they got burned with hot .

Thank you—- unidentified gear, mounts, mini games you got it, never mind Anet won’’t ban and suspend players that use use DPS meters( I know not relevant to the demo—just another example of poor decisions on their or maybe inability to deal with it).

There are definitely people who can’t stand mounts. I seriously doubt they’re greater in number than the people who enjoy mounts, or who might start playing because they game now has mounts. Every game has to make design choices, and this choice is a good one..in my opinion Losing 15% sales to gain 20% sales is a good call, again in my opinion.

If the racing is anything to go by, a lot of people do like mini games As long as they’re not locking mastery points behind them, I’m not sure I see a problem.

It’s okay not to like the new stuff. It’s simply no longer the game for you. Fortunately it’s even more of the game for me.

Blockhead Magee.3092:

A minor annoyance – the wind blows the sand one way, but the flags wave another and smoke on campfires a third.

How can the wind be real if our eyes aren’t even real?

Naurgalen.2374:

Something I forgot: Right now if I want to jump while riding of a cliff and glide I must do it by attacking from the edge of the mountain (or whatever) because you just cant do it with the space-bar.

While I think that the space-bar limitation may be intended to “not break the immersion by making the mount fall to its death” not only it can be overcome with other actual mechanics but its IMHO a realism is-not-fun situation.

Check your options. Under “Mounts” (Last category on the wrench tab), check the box “Disable Conditional Mount Movement Ability Input”. This will take mount jump off spacebar. When testing, I couldn’t figure out how to do a long jump with this option in effect, but you can disconnect mount movement from your spacebar this way.

Edit: long jump uses the dodge key instead of spacebar with the box option checked.

octagon.6504:

A lot of MMO’s have a good distribution of waypoints and people still enjoy riding mounts in them.

The thing about most MMO’s is that teleporting is usually a costly process that makes you pay (often steeply) for the convenience.

It’s often a mechanism that is also limited to porting to central town hubs, not to locations all over a map. You port to a town and then ride out to where you need to get to for an event/quest/ect.

Porting in Gw2 is trivial in cost unless you do it dozens of times in an hour and waypoints are so abundant that walking anywhere in vanilla Gw2 usually isn’t something you do for more than a few minutes at a time unless you’re doing a node circuit.

People will still use mounts just because it is a speed boost but they are likely still going to port everywhere and only mount up for the parts they absolutely have to go on foot.

SuperduperMLGbsns.9345:

Malthurius.6870:

It’s a non-issue, because the mounts feel great, imo. Oddly enough, they’d be a lot more generic if they controlled 1:1 like characters do on foot.

The thread is there to post your first impressions and not about to argue about.
I ordered the deluxe edition Im kittening kittened off about what Im about to get here. And I dont give a kitten if you dont like it or not because its my money that I want to have back and not yours. Get it.

I hope they give you your money back, because you’re precisely the kind of player this game or any game can do without.

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

this is my feedback on path of fire . at least they got that much right about it . after I told some one I was going to buy the game . I made the choice to wait till this beta weekend to go over the demo its self and make my mind up on it that way . instead of going right out and pre buying the new pack .

that said I had to change my mind now and not buy the new pack . till I see changes and if I do not see some of the need changes when the game comes out then I will not be buying it .

here is some of my reasons for not buying path of fire . instanced content right out of the gate. the story its self is hap hashed together tossed in with a boss fight .

next Unidentified gear had that in the first guild wars it was ok for that game . but it is not ok for this game guild wars2 even tho its a nice flash back to guild wars its self .honestly truth be told in guild wars 2 its a major turn off for me .

next mini games another major turn off for me . and makes me not want to play guild wars2 even

mounts are ok and fine giving this is just a demo . honestly that was the only second thing I could find I liked about the new pack . next to how the map is laid out unlike hot maps which I really hate them

in the words of a good friend of mine bloody god in hell what have they done now to this poor game I even ask that even more so after seeing the bounty boards with yet again another pop up telling me about another yet again mini game

after seeing this honestly glad I did not say a word at all to any of my friends . as I already knew they would never ever come back to this game after they got burned with hot .

1. Instances right out the gate: well you know that when you start a new game it is a story instance, every new episode introduces a new map via the story and HoT has a story to introduce the new expansion. That is kinda what makes the game go on, the story. Why would you just be thrown in to a new expansion?

2. Minigames: Well good thing is that you probably don’t have to do them, for me it wasn’t until now I started doing the HoT minigames and I still had almost all Hot masteries filled out.

3. Weird that you see bounties as aminigame, well maby then the game is a whole minigame because every event is a minigame.

No offence but most of the problems you have with the game will probably not be addressed.

lordhelmos.7623:

We play mmos to be immersed in a rich alternative world experience. For things like PvP and competitive play, the reality is that there are way way way better things to play that are designed with competition from ground up (like Overwatch, Paragons, Paladins, CS:GO, PUBG, Smite, LoL, DOTA, or even B&S -which despite being an MMO has successful tournaments overseas running for it).

YOU play MMOs for that. Don’t presume to speak for me, thank you. I play to collect loot.

Serophous.9085:

Agree with lordhelmos above.

There really is nothing “new”. Sure, a polarizing mount system, but that’s almost like copying and pasting gliding. And an ammo system that came out of nowhere.

There was no revamping of old systems that needed it (weapon skills, tokens from dungeons, for example).

The story is in shambles with the hard jerk towards Balthazar. Auriene forgotten, pale tree status unknown (last being stable), hearing about brahm but never experiencing it, rox has disappeared fom the story (I honestly don’t know when she was last mentioned after the funeral), and the now running joke of what happened to rytlock in the mists (that’s even acknowledged in game the frustration people have had for over two years now).

All for “here is a big bad from gw1! Joking! It’s the god Balthazar! But you get to kill the guy anyway in a real hurry!”

And I can already tell there will be some ‘great’ twist to who the herald is.

Seriously anet, even m. Night shyamalan is like ’whoa, too many twists

This isn’t an expansion. This is DLC

Perhaps an idea for future expansion is a story in exisiting maps and a total revamp of old content to make stuff shiny n up to par with hot pof, that could b something!

I’ve actually enjoyed the demo preview of PoF more than I enjoyed all of HoT. I had loved GW1, especially the exploration and needing to get places (running people places was a fun money maker for instance). For the first time in GW2, it felt a bit more like GW1 for exploring an area.

The maps, despite being just sand, seemed nicer and more enjoyable than PoF maps for me.

Mounts seem enjoyable, a way to make travelling without waypoint use much more interesting.

If only they’d bring back the Dervish and I’d be ecstatic…

went back last night after my first pof feedback to look around some more and see if their was something I could find to even like at all about this new pack now. the only 2 other things I could find I liked at all about the new pack besides the mounts was the map its self and the music .

from them two points on it went right back down hill again and made me help make my mind up even more .as why I will not be buying the new pack and this is why

living story map Draconis Mons map mechanics when you went into the water that was a major turn off for me. and only forced one toon to do that map for the achviment I need

this is what really as well as the other things I have already noted in my other feedback here have turned me fully off to the new pof pack and making it still a do not buy item for me

in the new pack pof they put in the living story mechanics from the map Draconis Mons with out any warning what so ever at all . I found a spot with a I thought might be a mud pit of some sort . that I could get past to the spot I wanted to go check out
as soon as I tried to do that well for get that idea just like the living story map Draconis Mons as soon as you hit the water you die and forced to spend money to way point back to life .

they put this same thing in the new pack pof which is for me another turn off as I died fast as I hit the mud pit . and was forced yet again to way point back to life and forced to spend 1 sliver and 60 copper to come back to life .

that and all the other stuff just is not what I want in a new pack at all . and why I will not be spending my hard earned money for at all . and what I do not play a mmo for at all .

Overall I liked the demo, there are good and bad things:

Good:

- The map looks amazing. I really hate sand maps, but I liked the map. Great use of color and graphics. The night looks amazing.
- Mobs have interesting design and looks. They were challenging but not cheap.
- I loved the raptor mount. I liked the feeling, the speed. It also frees up a utility spot that in open world PvE typically reserved for movement speed.
- Much better start than HoT. I loved VB, but it is unplayable without gliding and mushrooms. As a result, the beginning of HoT was extremely annoying, were you are forced to play in a verticality map without the necessary tools. The start here was much more fluid.

Bad:
- I understand this is a demo, so I cannot tell for certain, but there were no meta events. The map felt like GW2 leveling maps. They are fun, but not repeatable. I am hoping that the maps end up somewhere between HoT and LS3 maps. We want interesting massive meta events with small events and hearts.
- There was not much in terms of exploration. I was expecting more.
- The bounties are okay, but should be more frequent. Why are not there multiple active at the same time all the time? I guess that can be kinda of meta event for this map.

Worst:
- Why puzzle to obtain a mastery point?! I love jumping puzzles and navigation based efforts, but memory sequence… No, just no.

Other:
- Hero points were too easy. I honestly have not noticed how many points they provide. If they provide 10 points as HoT that will be pretty lame.
- If I jump off a cliff with mount can I use glider. It happened many times were I jumped and was like ohh crap I cannot glide!! Would be nice that you do not have to dismount if you want to glide.

I thought the visuals and the mounts were well done.
I was quite bored with the content activity though and saw no reason to return to the demo after a couple of hours. I sincerely hope the expansion looks better and is less mindlessly grindy than the demo.

Played around in the demo a bit more. The map is seeming quite full of empty space. I’m seeing events here and there, and hearts, but the events don’t feel connected and there aren’t enough of them to fill the space. Is there going to be a meta event for these maps? Do the individual events lead to something else? Or is this core Tyria all over again where we just run around bumping into events that just feel like a grab for a little experience and loot and not much else?

I liked the way HoT events tell a story and build toward a big event. I also liked the way there seem to be events happening all over the place. And the vertical maps themselves were a lot more interesting than a big open space. I realize we need to justify mounts as one of the big draws of this expansion, but I’m not convinced throwing out the amazing features that made HoT such a great expansion (for me, at least) is the way to go.

I hope the demo isn’t fully demonstrating what this expansion will offer. It feels very light on interesting features, so far.

I’m enjoying the demo. I normally don’t care for desert settings, but this one is very well done. I like the setting a lot. I was against mounts coming into this game and while I’m unhappy about the corresponding lack of waypoints, I have to say that the raptor mount is fun to use and I like its movements and animations very much.

At this point, my biggest concern is the unidentified gear. As it stands, I do not like this system at all. (Reasons detailed in other threads.)

My second biggest concern is keys. In this abbreviated demo, we got: Casino coins, Treasure Hunting Kits (aka shovels), trade contracts (click to consume for map currency), and trader’s keys. Of these, only trade contracts can be clicked so they don’t take up space. I’m not sure if there’s any benefit to not clicking, but if not, why aren’t they simply added to your wallet?

Also, we were given Small Kormir Icons which convert to karma. I only saw small ones, but I think it’s safe to assume there are other sizes. However, what was wrong with vials of liquid karma? Why did we need a new container? More inventory space! THIS is the sort of thing that should be tapered down rather than creating the ID system.

I would like to be able to dismount while in air and start gliding.
For the short while I played Archeage, movement was one of my favorite features, I could leap off of something using a mount’s ability and seamlessly dismount(mount would just vanish as they do in gw2:pof) and pull out my glider begin soaring through the air.
It feels really clunky to not be able to glide while falling just because I’m on a mount.

Simple change would be to allow dismounting to not require being on the ground.

Thank you for the cool demo, I just bought the Ultimate Edition

I was very excited about the mounts and I love the realistic movements of them. It’s great that the mounts are not just a speed-boost. The raptor race is really funny and I won second place today, yay. Sadly I got motion sickness and migraine after ran around on the raptor for 30 minutes… I really hope there will be a solution of this problem, because obviously I’m not the only one who didn’t feel well while riding on the raptor.

It’s cool that the mounts can be dyed. But I think 2 or 3 dye channels for the raptor would be better.

The Crystal Desert looks nice so far. The HoT maps had a bit too much verticality in my opinion, I don’t think every new map has to be as vertical as those maps. I didn’t have the feeling that the desert is too flat. The desert is not boring for me at all, I think it’s very atmospheric (expecially the canyon, the vegetable fields and the mine).

I didn’t like the minigame with the cook, it was too difficult for me. But as long as there will be enough other ways to get mastery points in the Crystal Desert, I don’t have a problem with such puzzles. And although I didn’t enjoy it too much, I think it’s a funny idea to throw food at the cook.

The demo was well done in my opinion and I look forward to the next demo weekend

Khezekiah Bellamy.5016:

For the short while I played Archeage, movement was one of my favorite features, I could leap off of something using a mount’s ability and seamlessly dismount(mount would just vanish as they do in gw2:pof) and pull out my glider begin soaring through the air.
It feels really clunky to not be able to glide while falling just because I’m on a mount.

I never played Archeage, but I too wanted to switch from mount to glider in mid-air in the demo a few times and was surprised, that it did not work and I made a bumpy landing. At least I did not die, because the fall-damage with mount seems drastically reduced.

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

… in the new pack pof they put in the living story mechanics from the map Draconis Mons with out any warning what so ever at all . I found a spot with a I thought might be a mud pit of some sort . that I could get past to the spot I wanted to go check out
as soon as I tried to do that well for get that idea just like the living story map Draconis Mons as soon as you hit the water you die and forced to spend money to way point back to life .

they put this same thing in the new pack pof which is for me another turn off as I died fast as I hit the mud pit . and was forced yet again to way point back to life and forced to spend 1 sliver and 60 copper to come back to life .

that and all the other stuff just is not what I want in a new pack at all . and why I will not be spending my hard earned money for at all . and what I do not play a mmo for at all .

It seems clear that there will be two ways to deal with that quicksand pit. Either get a skimmer mount (can’t do so in demo) or follow the advice of another poster and climb to the top of the pyramid atop your entry point and glide on over to the mastery point.

It’s not unusual for MMOs to have places you can’t stand without dying. That’s why “Don’t stand in the fire” is a catchphrase (sometimes rendered as “don’t stand in the stupid” given that savage literalists might say “it wasn’t fire …”). Vanilla GW2 has lava that can burn you to death. Dry Top has a quicksand river near Prosperity that you need a fire dash to cross. HoT’s Verdant Brink has instant death vines at the bottom of the chasm (there are more of them in a spot in DS too).

No warning? That quicksand pit looked lethal to me. I tried to cross it nonetheless to see if I could cheese it with Reaper auto-shroud, but it did me in. Even so, I didn’t die the second I touched it, I could have backed out when I saw yup, it’s dangerous.

As to DM’s boiling sea, it’s visibly boiling. And the first time you die in it, you get an achievement, so you get both a learning experience and a reward.

I’m not saying you have to stick around and play more PoF if you don’t want to. If the game’s not fun for you, so be it. I just hope it will be due to a more general dissatisfaction on your part than not liking an easily avoided damage spot.

It’s lovely to get one of the original GW maps back, to hear that music again, and to have the area feel as vast now as it did all those years ago.

It’s not lovely to be constantly running into sand sharks when you have a severe shark phobia, however. I can legit avoid the undead ones in the waters around Orr more easily than I can these sand abominations in the demo map. Because not only can you swim along the ocean floor in Orr, you can simply get out of the water. In the demo map, however, the blasted things will chase you up the side of a building.

I’m incredibly resentful of the way PoF has apparently been designed to force me to use a mount when I don’t want to and the story thus far is weak at best imo, but it will be my inability to navigate the maps without having a shark in my face every couple of steps that keeps me from playing the expansion.

Feedback time.

Starting with stuff I particularly liked:

• The feel and design of the raptor mount. You can tell a lot of time has been spent on the raptors. I hope this carries over to the additional mounts.
• The design of several of the forged.
• There is a satisfying amount of NPC conversations to listen into which hint at interesting things to see both in the beta, and out with. I particularly enjoy the mystery surrounding Zalambur and the pumping station sabotages.
• The sky.

Hopefully constructive criticism:

• If I’m being picky I would like more interactable NPCs. Different accounts and stories from the refugees. Insights on the running of Amnoon from the Councillors. A few randomly interractable workers and cavaliers.
• Perhaps this is something that will be worked out by release, but a number of NPCs in Amnoon seem to be ‘low res’. I don’t understand why this is the case unless it’s just because it’s a test build.
• Mount mastering. 4 tiers? I maxed out Tier 3 in a very short amount of time. Either it’s not been finalised yet, or ArenaNet have caved to players complaining about “the terrible mastery grind” of HoT. As it stands the mount mastering are not very exciting. It feels like there should be more tiers and they should require more experience per tier – else it’s just a case of collecting the mastery points.
• It feels like there should be more flavour events around the likes of the North and South outposts. Unlike a lot of people I like that there’s little going on in the dune areas. That’s how it should be. Deserts are desolate. When you reach an outpost there should be stuff going on and it would be nice to see some kind of flavour event in those locations.
• I am a bit concerned that someone having a Daredevil gives them an automatic advantage in competitive stuff such as the adventure and the race.
• There are a lot of merchants around who you can’t interact with. It would be nice if the likes of the Vase merchant would sell you decoration items for your guild hall to give them a purpose other than an NPC with occasional voice acting.

I would like to give a little feedback on my experience with PoF Demo as well.
First of all Great job overall, I really did enjoy all the time I spent, I just wanted more and more as I played. The mounts feel great, some of the bounty are interesting and challenging, please, please don’t nerf them. I know some are going to complain as they always do.
I’m also very grateful about the great amount of lore on the new specializations, please keep it up. I really can’t wait, so regrets on my pre order. Just two things I would like to see changed, if possible would be:
1- Sometimes the mounts would get stuck on the steps and stairs or little edges that your players character would normally cross, that is a little anoying sometimes, because you have to jump to get over it and if your racing it does cost you some time.
2- I found a few items, in this case crafting materials that need to have a spot on the Material storage, I only played a few hours and I was already stacking some of these items very quickly, and when the expansion is released and we start playing for real this is going to clutter our bags fast like some of the HoT items did and were recently added to the material storage, so before these become a problem maybe it would be best to fix it now. Some of the items I found that were stacking fast were:

a) Ley-infused sand
b) Eyes of Kormir
c) Congealed Putresences
d) Slivers of Twitching Forgemetal

Once again thank you so much for the great game Gw2 is and the PoF is looking out to be. Really excited to go on another adventure.

AliamRationem.5172:

Or is this core Tyria all over again where we just run around bumping into events that just feel like a grab for a little experience and loot and not much else?

Core Tyria actually has meta events for most parts that react to players succeeding or failing them. That was the big selling point of core GW2. Maps like Harathi Hinterlands or Straights of Devastation are proofs.

So that makes demo map less then core Tyrian ones in that regard:/

adventures? fail 1
unidentified items not sorting by rarity? fail 2

Well, LS4 in a few months at least.

my 2 cents – same re-hashed crap with different names, I mean really? put out fires with water buckets? hello queensdale first heart… stupid pointless mounts… been playing since 2004, I’m done, game will never be as fun as gw1 was. Maybe when it goes down to $10 I’ll buy it.

I add to my suggestions.
I have pre-purchased POF (Deluxe Edition), the technical issues of the demo did not satisfy my confidence.

My 2 cents in brief: I liked the demo. It had a lot of elements that appealed to me. I got as far as completing the starting story and exploring a bit of the open world in the time I had available, and it made me want more. I’ve been critical of anet in the past and I was dubious about the expansion but based on the preview, it’s something that I’m going to enjoy.

EDIT: Other than some issues with dialog, I didn’t noticed any other technical issues that affected my experience.

In detail:

1. I’ve always enjoyed games set in Egyptian/Middle Eastern-like settings with their wide-open spaces, massive structures of mud-brick and limestone and, of course, pyramids. It’s a nice addition to the diverse range of environments in the game and it feels like a different culture, a different place. There’s something about deserts that’s evocative of ancient mysteries and forgotten places.

2. The opening movie of flying to the Crystal Desert on the airship and spotting what regions it flew over was fun. When the game started I was tempted to jump off the airship onto the passing building, but it turns out I didn’t have to. They put out a gang-plank. LOL. Still, would have been fun to abandon ship. xD

3. I enjoyed the opening scene. It got you straight into the middle of things, and led naturally to the village with the first heart. It’s just a pity that the PC is so adversarial. There was a point where I just wanted to ask Balthazar’s agent to take me to the big B for a diplomatic chat, instead of fighting. But it’s understandable why the option isn’t there.

EDIT: There were some dialog issues in this section where my PC would speak to someone and there would be a long pause before they spoke. It was only in this section and only inside the big pyramid at the start.

4. I wasn’t a fan of repeating hearts when they came out but Ember Bay eventually won me over. In the preview, the first heart you encounter comes on so naturally it was a while before I noticed it was a heart. Yes, it’s the putting-out-fires minigame again, but this one is enjoyable for the tool you use and the use of raptors to reach places. I wouldn’t mind doing it again.

5. Mounts.. are fantastic. People talk about them being ‘immersion breaking’ but personally I always found it immersion breaking to run everywhere, and to be able to run perpetually without exhaustion. I can’t do that in real life; I can’t relate to that in the game. But riding something – I can do that in RL and I can relate to it. Mounts add to the immersion for me. And if raptors existed in RL, you can bet somebody would figure out a way to ride them sooner or later.

6. The way the raptors were introduced felt so natural. The way they move feels so realistic. They seem like they have real momentum, as you’d expect from creatures like that. And the jumping across gaps… I can’t wait to train up the raptor mastery and leap canyons!

Incidentally, I had a hilarious experience the first time I hopped on a raptor. Upon mounting, I looked around for somewhere to try out its leap. I saw a bridge between two buildings that had a gap in it obviously meant for raptor-leaping. But from where I stood, I couldn’t see how to get to it. So I figured I was meant to jump over the buildings. And I did – I jumped from rooftop to rooftop to window-ledge to rooftop… on a raptor… until I got to the bridge.. and found there was a ramp leading up to it from the ground that I hadn’t seen before. LOL.

7. One thing that disappointed was discovering that you can only mount/dismount on the ground, just like you can only bundle/unbundle on the ground. There’s nothing wrong with that – I just had this crazy desire to leap off a building on a raptor and change to glider in mid-air, or, while gliding along, to switch to my mount and ride.

8. The other little change I’d really like in my heart of hearts is for mounts to stay around when you dismount. That may be asking too much but it would be so immersive to jump off Mr Tibbles (my raptor) and leave him to graze while I do whatever I need to do, then when I need him I could whistle and he’d come running over and off we go.

9. On that note, can we name our mounts? Cause I claim Mr Tibbles.

Sorry if any of these have already been mentioned—didn’t read the whole thread.

- It would be cool to have spear as a new land weapon, especially considering the SunSPEARs of Elona.

- It would be nice to have a new forge recipe to change the stats on ascended back/trinkets (like we can change armor and weapons). If the new “barrier” mechanic builds on vitality (as WoodenPotatoes suggested) then Marauder might be the new Berserker. I’d rather change what I have than grind for new back/trinkets with different stats (yes I know Bloodstone gear can be changed).

Well, to start off, the lansdcape and all the visual quality is pretty nice in PoF. Mounts seem fun, too, and… that’s all I think.

Forcing to use your mount to reach certain elements of the game is a bad idea. Altrenative ways to reach certain points of interests on the map would be a welcome addition.

Hiding MPs or SPs behind mini games or jumping puzzles (I personally fiercely hate them both) is still not a good choice, IMO.

Events are boring and map miss metas (though I am sure some will be added after release of the expansion.)

All in all, the – for me – unwelcome game mechanics that were introduced with HoT and made me quit playing almost a year ago are still there, so I don’t feel the urge the come back right now. Will not be buying the expansion now for sure.

Only two things that bugged me during it, with both being with the raptor. Not sure if its been mentioned (but it has to have been by now) but the raptor getting stuck on ramps was kind of annoying. Having to jump to just finish getting up ramps shouldn’t need to happen.
The other is a cosmetic thing, but would be nice if we could get it changed. I wish the raptor had more dye channels. only being able to dye the top scales kinda sucked. Would love for there to be at least 3 channels, the top scales, the bottom scales (currently stays brown/tan), and the spikes. Hopefully the other mounts get enough dye channels to really let us customize them.

One other thing I forgot about, it would be nice if the unidentified items weren’t included in the salvage all. During the beta I had to avoid using salvage all until after doing a heart and having it id them. I guess it could be a personal thing, since I guess I could put it in an invisible bag so that salvage all doesn’t find them.

Positive:

• Riding the Raptor was a lot of fun (I think the attack range for its tail attack is bugged, btw).
• Helping the Sous Chef for a Mastery Point was a lot of fun. More content that doesn’t involve fighting is welcome.
• Very nice designs, but the map’s layout is lacking something. I can’t put my finger on it right now.
• Enjoyable soundtrack.

Negative:

• Not enough waypoints again. How about implementing the LWS3 Ep.6 mechanic?
• Bounties: Badly implemented idea. As there is only one waypoint and you can’t possibly defeat the Champion by yourself, you need to port to grab a bounty quickly when you happen to stumble across a mob fighting the respective champ, then hurrying back to the fight. Stressful and annoying!
• Too much action (events, enemies, tasks) cramped into small areas. It results in a rather stressful gaming experience. Also, it often leads to tasks overlapping, getting into each others’ way, making it impossible to finish them properly (like collecting fish carcasses and fighting a champ at the same time?). Blitz events are not helping the matter, either.
• Too many currencies and other means to acquire required equipment again (caches, unidentifies gear, map currency, etc.). Enough already!
• Too many movement requirements also cramped into small areas, in terms of jumping puzzles: catching casino coins, trying to get to a vista, trying to get a POI, and so on. Stop it, please.
• Got stuck in a wall again, this time when I used my S/A Revenant’s skill #4. Fix this annoying bug already, Anet!
• So much this.

Risa Aerulight.3914:

-The story is awful. Please consider some courses or workshops in creative writing and literary history. You have creativity, wonderful ideas, but no skill in communicating them in a fulfilling and engaging experience for the recipient.

The story telling in GW2 has flashes of being ok, but always turns in to a convoluted mess with poorly executed plot resolutions and contrived dialog.

Ashantara.8731:

Positive:

• Riding the Raptor was a lot of fun (I think the attack range for its tail attack is bugged, btw).
• Helping the Sous Chef for a Mastery Point was a lot of fun. More content that doesn’t involve fighting is welcome.
• Very nice designs, but the map’s layout is lacking something. I can’t put my finger on it right now.
• Enjoyable soundtrack.

Negative:

• Not enough waypoints again. How about implementing the LWS3 Ep.6 mechanic?
• Bounties: Badly implemented idea. As there is only one waypoint and you can’t possibly defeat the Champion by yourself, you need to port to grab a bounty quickly when you happen to stumble across a mob fighting the respective champ, then hurrying back to the fight. Stressful and annoying!
• Too much action (events, enemies, tasks) cramped into small areas. It results in a rather stressful gaming experience. Also, it often leads to tasks overlapping, getting into each others’ way, making it impossible to finish them properly (like collecting fish carcasses and fighting a champ at the same time?). Blitz events are not helping the matter, either.
• Too many currencies and other means to acquire required equipment again (caches, unidentifies gear, map currency, etc.). Enough already!
• Too many movement requirements also cramped into small areas, in terms of jumping puzzles: catching casino coins, trying to get to a vista, trying to get a POI, and so on. Stop it, please.
• Got stuck in a wall again, this time when I used my S/A Revenant’s skill #4. Fix this annoying bug already, Anet!

Just an FYI: You don’t need to ‘grab’ a Bounty off the board to get credit for killing one. Just join in when you come across one.

Good luck.

The raptor should have feathers.

As has been stated in two other threads: The ID system is too cost prohibitive and has a terrible ROI. Its frankly a step backwards and basically results in a net loss of both time and in game gold. Either remove it or just allow us to open unindentified packages on our own.

What I liked.
Mounts: I was firmly in the anti-mount camp, not any more. I really like how they implemented the mounts, at least the raptor. It feels weighty, a little ungainly, and not all that fast. I think it serves it’s purpose well.

Map: I really like the map, it reminds me more of the core maps. It’s not all crammed together, you find little towns and other spots along the way. Amnoon is great, it’s so visually different from the other maps. I really enjoyed the attention to detail that I haven’t seen since the core maps.

Bounties: Call up a champion at your leisure. As someone mentioned, you can’t solo them but you can defeat them with two average players.

Water: Except for an event, I wasn’t constantly attacked by everything under water (I didn’t see a single thundershrimp). I really don’t enjoy underwater combat.

Events: Again, something more like the core maps. The demo was a bit lite on events, but I suspect that’s because it was a demo. I don’t think you can run a meta, or continuing dynamic events when you can’t go that far from the city.

Doylaks: I liked how they have a completely different look, something you’d expect when on a different continent. I didn’t play GW1 enough to know if they looked the same.

No gliding? Sacrifice your mount: Gliding is nice, it’s more than nice, it’s awesome. But if you skip HoT you don’t have to climb back down that hill. Your mount will break your fall, it may even give up it’s life for you. I tried to jump across a huge canyon (I really didn’t think I would make it) and fell into a valley of hydras. My raptor didn’t make it, but came through unscathed and ready to take on some hydras. My daughter wasn’t so sure so she kind of slid down the side of the cliff.

What I didn’t care for, or have concerns over.
Unidentified Gear: Yeah, that.

Ease: I found the mobs to be somewhat easy. It could be that it was toned down since anet knew there would be boosted people playing. I played with my twin 10 y/o daughters, their max levels are 37 and 26. They both made it through the initial episode with only a little guidance, and only one of them got downed. Out in the desert they had little trouble taking on mobs with me. Even when battling two hydras, a land shark (I know it’s a sand shark, go back and watch early SNL), and those annoying sand eels (man, they sneak up on you) all at once. I’m not saying it was easy for them, it was a challenge, but not frustrating (I’m looking at you HoT).

Unidentified Gear: It deserves to be listed twice.

Overall I was really happy with the demo. That being said, I am not happy with what anet did to the ranger in the last patch. But that’s for another thread.

Reanne.5462:

my 2 cents – same re-hashed crap with different names, I mean really? put out fires with water buckets? hello queensdale first heart… stupid pointless mounts… been playing since 2004, I’m done, game will never be as fun as gw1 was. Maybe when it goes down to $10 I’ll buy it.

So you played the game for 13 years and never got “fully” entertained by it? Sorry, but that’s entirely your own fault for clinging to the past and your impulse to compare everything to GW1. GW2 was never GW1 with better graphics.

“-The story is awful. Please consider some courses or workshops in creative writing and literary history. You have creativity, wonderful ideas, but no skill in communicating them in a fulfilling and engaging experience for the recipient.”

Yes, not everything’s pefect with GW2’s story. But if you are so smart as you think, why don’t you step up your game and apply at A.Net as a story or lore writer. Afterall, there’s no doubt YOU know how to do it better and who I am to not belive you!

ZeftheWicked.3076:

I come from the group of players that vastly enjoyed HoT and it’s verticality. It had issues, sure but these were more content-creation pace and sales related then game itself.

That being said I was bored outta my skull with the demo. Firstly things i do appreciate:

1. giving my character sets of armor and trinkets to cater to my own preferred build (more or less).
2. giving me a shot to experience PoF first map first hand.
3. That sous chef mastery point – most ppl complain but whiners will wine. Put my back to it, tried couple of times and got it, was fun Especially the crying of sous-chef applicants, i could swear that was tongue in cheek to all those players whining about it being too hard

Ok enough buttering up. Now the bad parts:

1. Hardly any verticality.
Sorry but it feels like i went back in time to GW2 launch and core Tyria. I do not appreciate that. GW2 is about innovation, not taking steps back. HoT innovated, and as usual when you change something you will make enemies. But it’s worth it. Now i feel like instead of pushing for innovation you run back to core Tyria with tail between your legs.

2. No outposts.
Outposts in HoT are awesome – you get several ways to do map meta, each telling a story and guiding you through jungle’s density. Here it’s just “hearts v 2.0”.
I’m not feeling it.

3. No glider love.
Gliders are extremely popular among players, we love’em. There’s a huge gap between “you can glide in this map” and “this map has gliding sections”. The latter including gliding puzzles and places to just soar above whole map and be uncontended king of skies! Well, not in PoF sadly:/

4. Who’s Kiel’s she-dog? You are!
Excuse me, am I a freaking Pact Commander, or some lionguard janitor? Why is “Kiel said so” used as explanation why i’m landing here and now without any of my say in it? What’s next, some Vigil recruit telling me to go clear up 3 undead near a pond before i can board my own kitten ship?

Ps. Proud i voted Evon Gnashblade in election, knew i made a right choice, but majority is Kiel’s she dogs!

5. Too castrated
You blocked to much stuff, and it’s biting you in the kitten How do I know any HoT map is vertical and has lots of hidden places? Because there’s stuff in there teasing you constantly to find it! Especially Hero Points! You search up, below, around and inside, eventually discovering a kittenton of stuff!

And in demo? My new elite specs aren’t enabled, so why should i care? “Moving on.” (with who knows how much stuff undiscovered).

6. You didn’t watch your Hitchkitten
When i entered VB i got greeted by scene from jungle nightmare, then a huge vine appears threatening nearby pact camp and things only wind up from there. Plus you begin with grabbing a sniper rifle and scoring some mordrem headshots!

PoF – after your lord and master Kiel tells you what you can and cannot do via “your” subordinates, you face a normal fight with Balthazar’s herald, run around a village putting out fires and ressing ppl. Then you accidently click on Kasmeer and wish she’d shut up 5 seconds later, while Rytlock who’s supposed to actually have interesting stuff to say doesn’t care to talk longer then said 5 seconds.

And then you land in queensdale 2.0…oh the tension!

7. No elite specs!
So i run around “Queensdale 2.0 The desert strikes!” using my….core or HoT build. So feels old on the map mechanic side, feels old on the combat side….yeah, great way to get my adrenaline pumping.

8. The mounts.
So PoF’s “innovation” is basically feature of every kitten mmorpg out there. That’s the “new” that’s supposed to replace the glider. Not seeing it. GW2 = glider. That’s a strong sales point.
Mounts? That’s generally a single tick on a check-list of your standard boring WoW clone features.

9, Where’s the BIG & NEW?
Asides questionable novelty of mounts and bounties (which aren’t that strong a feature) rest of “new” seem to be item system polish (items for easier salvage and inventory stacking)….and that’s it. Rest as said something of a mix-up between core Tyria and LS3. Where’s the distinctive feature that you only get in GW2 Path of Fire?
HoT had mastery system for the first time, along with gliders and amazing vertical maps. That was fresh, that was…hot.
Here – you tell me, i can’t find a kitten thing.

10. Why am I getting less?

No matter how I look at it, demo shows me that in PoF instead of getting more as advertised i get less then in HoT.

Less masteries, less adventures (2/3 of map i saw 1 adventure, in HoT there were more), less event density, no outposts, no glider sections (updrafts, ley lines for gliding etc), less innovation, taking a huge step back to core GW2 map style.
Nothing truly new that doesn’t make you say “been there, done that” unlike vertical maps and gliders at time of HoT’s launch.

Overall i’m very underwhelmed by this demo. I don’t feel sense of purpose, encouragement to explore, feeling of GW2 only innovation waiting to pull me in and show me once again that this game dares to go where no others did!

That is my opinion from playing the demo. Dunno how full xpac will look like so can’t say. But this definitely did not get me hyped.

Your post is so salty, Zef… yet it got everything right. I’m using this quote as my own feedback now, just imagine it a lot more bland and boring.

First, on the complaints about the raptor’s movement feeling sluggish and not instant like the player’s character: Folks, YOU aren’t controlling the raptor. YOU are controlling your player character, and YOUR PC is controlling the raptor. So, yeah, there is a delay, it’s a function of reaction time and resistance to external inputs (your commands). Do you think a horse turns on a dime exactly like you do when you’re riding one? Not likely. And sometimes a horse will give you the proverbial middle finger regardless of what you do. So, IMO, the mount movement is correct.

My biggest complaint? I am the COMMANDER. I am the slayer of Zhaitan and Mordremoth. I am the chosen guardian of Aurene. I defended the Queen of Kryta during the assasination attempt. I faced down Balthazar, god of fire and war, not once but TWICE. Even in the presence of a 3rd elder dragon, Primordus, I spit in a god’s face. I am the leader of Dragon’s Watch……..WHY, in the name of the six, am I not leading the expedition into Elona and the Crystal Desert? WHY am I being met by MY guild members when I arrive in an area that has been cutoff from us for the last 250 years, instead of having those guild members at my back? Kasmeer Meade should have been behind me as the gates of Ammoon were opened to greet the Envoy of Kryta. Even if Kasmeer was appointed to be the actual negotiator for the Queen, I should have been leading the mission. THAT is how the story should have started. Instead, I show up on their doorstep as nothing more than a common mercenary that just happens to know a couple of people with diplomatic credentials.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Just an FYI: You don’t need to ‘grab’ a Bounty off the board to get credit for killing one. Just join in when you come across one.

Well, that is one less worry then in the big pool of worries.

Here are my thoughts about the PoF demo:

The good:

• The animations for the sandshark attacks are very fun.
• The Hydra’s; my beloved hatred for them was instantly back into my mind.
• The Chef mastery point. I did not get it in the first few tries i made, wich i consider to be a good thing. I should feel like a “master” when completing those mastery points.
• The reward chest on top of the pyramid guarded by the Elite Devourer. I had much fun getting on top there with the knock back mechanic hampering the climb. And then a decent fight to get hold of the contents of the chest. But i wil get back to this in The Bad part…..

The neutral:

• Map size. on foot it feels big but am not overly sure that it wil bring back the feeling of an enormous map like i had in the gw1 deserts. The higher speed of the mounts does not help giving me the feeling that the map is huge.
• Trade contracts and the other coin types. My comment would be: John Smith, we here in Europe got rid of our different country currencies for a reason. Are you sure that having so many currencies is the only way for the trading to be fair ?
• Identification of drops. Mweh never liked it in gw1, just did it because you would get more coin for your drops. ( and people knew that; so a statistical metric about popularity would be flawed there ).

The Bad:

• Are all maps once again being level 80. Why on earth did you make the scale down system for ??? Not just for those few maps in the core game i hope.
• The story telling. I partnered up with one of my guildies that came back into the demo after me. As steady partner of the commander you get utterly and totally ignored, even that stupid NPC Ryttlock has more lines then me about the commander not doing everything alone. I really felt like: hello, Hello, HELLO, HEELLLLOOOOO I AM HERE TOO!!!!
• Back to the top of the pyramid. I have climbed it; dodged the sandtwisters and i even managed to beat the Elite Devourer guarding the Elonian chest. Time to relax and have me a good look around right? Well forget about the relaxing: the sand twister mechanic can NOT be killed, is NOT turned off for a little while but wil keep on knocking you around just when you finally have managed the camera to give you a good screen shot…
  It infuriated me to a point that i had to log out take a half hour break just to cool myself down a bit. This mechanic not being turned off right after an intense fight is like having written a good and several page long story and then your boss sneaks up on you and destroying your work over a flimsy tiny spelling error. This mechnic not being turned off for a propper amount of time is very close to a deal breaker for me.

Overall, i think the demo was a pretty ecperience.