Guild Wars 2

Gw2 used to be my favourite game. I used to spend thousands of hours on it, wondering how a game could be so good. I was thinking the ‘casual mmo’ idealogy was probably the reason. I could slowly spend my time enjoying this game, without fearing i would miss out on anything important if i didnt play.

Which was also why i was so hyped for the expansion. I had great hopes for hot. ‘If anet was so brilliant at creating the core game, the expansion would definitely be better.’ Was what i thought. Im a very skeptical person when it comes to buying games (college student supporting himself, not much to spare), but i instantly shelled out 100 USD after first bwe.

Then the expansion hit. Everything changed. For the worse. Even remnants of the word ‘casual’ were non-existent in hot content. Everything is a rush. Everything is gated. Everything is extremely expensive. Rewards were all over the place. Balance too. Anet tried too hard to go ‘esports’ without fixing the fundementals of spvp. Everything is just so much of a mess now it’s tiring and exhausting.

It’s no longer fun playing the game. It’s like they abandoned the whole idea of what makes gw2 fun and decided, let’s change everything, we need more sales. Devs dont communicate with their players as much as they used to. Some dont at all (hint hint a specific class). I had faith that anet would fix these issues after hot was released, but after so long in, ive given up.

Im sick and tired of this game. Done with it. Treat this as a useless rant post or whatever, i dont really care. I just think it’s sad to see a great game become so bad.

In your whole rant, I can’t find any specific argument or aspect of the game you don’t like. All you say is that you don’t enjoy it adn the game is no fun anymore…Why? What don’t you like?

The closest thing to an aspect of the game you mention is that since HoT everything is a rush. And to this I say the same thing I say to everyone complaining about HoT being grindy/farmy. That’s YOUR problem. Most of the new content (legy crafting, masteries, specializations etc) can be unlocked by playing the entire content of the game. You don’t have to repeat a single part of the game until the end of time to unlock it. And also you don’t have to do it in a week.

IMO, HoT gave me a LOT of end-game content. I now have a LOT to do in game and I will take my sweet time doing it, ensuring that I’ll still be playing months from now on the same content instead of crying about the game being grindy and farmy now and then crying about having no end-game content next month…

Here is what you do:

- take a deep breath
- accept that you don’t HAVE to get every reward there is in 1 week time
- do a check list of what you think would be fun to work towards
- then start playing the game again in a relaxed way and stop worrying about getting everything done asap and be frustrated over no new content coming for the next 6-9 months.

Problem solved.

Oh and having a guild and friends to chat and play with helps too.

I’m with the OP.

The game has changed and not for the better. It’s a matter of degree and rate of progress. Across the board, everything does feel both more expensive and too time consuming to attain.

I liked in the pre-HoT world the feeling that I could do what I wanted here and there and still feel like I was getting something. Now, I pop into a new zone and I’m hitting at the wrong time or there’s not enough people around to do events and I can’t do anything on my own anyway. Plus when I can find events, they quickly get repetitive. The time-in-zone rewards are actually a disincentive for me: what I need to hang around for an hour doing the same things before loot picks up? No thanks.

I am amazed at how quickly things flipped from being an enjoyable game with many things to do, as suited my mood, to it being too much time between ‘fun’. This is a game after all, not a job.

I guess it was a sign a few weeks ago when I decided to sell all my horded mats and just farm gold since the precursor path seemed too tedious and expensive and I wasn’t going to raid. But farming for gold when I don’t really see anything I want to buy got old pretty quickly as well.

I’ll peek in from time to time to see if they fixed things. But obviously there are plenty who like it so I won’t hold my breath.

Cyninja.2954:

- accept that you don’t HAVE to get every reward there is in 1 week time

It feels more like I can’t get any reward with a week’s time.

Cyninja.2954:

Oh and having a guild and friends to chat and play with helps too.

What? Chatting? And have my participation level slip down? Nooooooooooooooo!

Yeah .. i also bought the 100 € version, and have spent maybe 4-5 hours max in the
new areas, and have absolutely no interest to go there ever again.

So what did i got for that ? A (not even full skilled) Reaper and Dragonhunter and
Tyria mastery. Heck .. not even some new armor skins, and that in a skin based
game. Oh forgot .. its now all about raiding like in every other MMO.

Beldin.5498:

Yeah .. i also bought the 100 € version, and have spent maybe 4-5 hours max in the
new areas, and have absolutely no interest to go there ever again.

So what did i got for that ? A (not even full skilled) Reaper and Dragonhunter and
Tyria mastery. Heck .. not even some new armor skins, and that in a skin based
game. Oh forgot .. its now all about raiding like in every other MMO.

Ok, I said this so many times just because it’s raiding does not mean it’s like other mmo raiding, first it’s skill based some may argue ascended gear but if you are good at what you doing and has good communication with your team your 2~3% dps doesn’t matter, other mmo raiding are gear based they introduce higher gear tier with every raid and gw2 doesn’t. It’s hardcore content community always wanted, so I don’t get what you complaining about.

Beldin.5498:

Yeah .. i also bought the 100 € version, and have spent maybe 4-5 hours max in the
new areas, and have absolutely no interest to go there ever again.

So what did i got for that ? A (not even full skilled) Reaper and Dragonhunter and
Tyria mastery. Heck .. not even some new armor skins, and that in a skin based
game. Oh forgot .. its now all about raiding like in every other MMO.

Yeah stuff on HoT does take a while to get. It’s unfortunate that you actually have to WORK for the things you want. People have been complaining for a long time that the game is too easy and that GW2 lacks any kind of end-game content. But, now that content is here, they complain that it’s too hard because they can’t grind it out in the first week.

I’ve been playing somewhat regularly since launch, and I still don’t have scrapper fully unlocked, I haven’t trained any of my mysteries all the way, and I got two alts (which I actually care about leveling) where I haven’t even begun to unlock their elite specs.

I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on it yet, but something is certainly different about the game. I dunno if its the atmosphere or community feel, or just the game design in general. All I know is, it isn’t the same, and its not what I like. Things feel pressured, urgent but at the same time it feels like its going to take forever to accomplish things too. Maybe that’s it by design, just seems like everything is long term with nothing to sustain it in the meantime. I dunno, I been trying to work on things slowly, but feel I have no sense of accomplishment. It just feels like “long haul or bust” if you know what I mean.

The OP does have a point. When GW2 was first released I sat in wonder at what would come next. The festivals were a thing to behold, the world wide events were, albeit zergfests, a way to get together with the community to defeat the “evil” of the week.

The whole philosophy in the game’s designs seems to have been lost now, and in it’s place we have forced co-operation, gold sinks (with less gold), and all-in-all a less friendly atmosphere.

I could disregard this as just seeing the first year through “rose colored glasses” but when I read the wiki of the first year it becomes clear just how much we have lost to this new meta.

Beldin.5498:

Yeah .. i also bought the 100 € version, and have spent maybe 4-5 hours max in the
new areas, and have absolutely no interest to go there ever again.

So what did i got for that ? A (not even full skilled) Reaper and Dragonhunter and
Tyria mastery. Heck .. not even some new armor skins, and that in a skin based
game. Oh forgot .. its now all about raiding like in every other MMO.

Oh but you are wrong there are actually TWO sets per weight class and… i hope you are sitting cause there are actually THREE for the heavies… also guess what… there are backpiece skins and now comes the best part. Each specialisation gets one single freaking armor piece! Yes you heard it right! One piece, dont worry you dont need more then that in a 50 bucks expansion! Also dont worry.. the day HoT was released you also right away could buy another stupid outfit and a nice glider skin…yea.. wouldnt want some of these to earn in game…or more armor skins since i dont even can buy these anymore in the gem store either, only through the power of “balance between game rewards and gem store stuff” this was made possible. Thanks… dev who wrote the blogpost back then..forgot your name and cant find it for the quote, hope you arent offended…and if you are im honestly out of kittens in my litter sorry to say.

Also a-net really did react quickly and gave us an exalted glider cause it sure felt like it was missing…ya know, some prestige glider for doing the meta or finishing a collection related to the exalted… IN THE GEM STORE.

HoT made me quite mad…cause i waited for almost a year for new armor skins, i expected atleast a set of specialisation armors…ya know a nice full skin set for the spec you just unlocked, but nope.. no such luck. I personally wouldnt even care if i atleast could buy more skin packs in the gem store…but not even that is an option anymore.

Beldin.5498:

Yeah .. i also bought the 100 € version, and have spent maybe 4-5 hours max in the
new areas, and have absolutely no interest to go there ever again.

Serious question. Do you really think you have given the new areas a fair shake if that’s all the time you have spent there?

There seems to be a significant contingent of players (and you may or may not be in this category) that want everything to be exactly as it was, with little willingness to even attempt to adapt to the new content. I find it challenging, but it also feels more rewarding when I succeed at something. Sometimes I get caught unprepared for a fight and get demolished, even by normal mobs, but there have also been amazing moments where I truly felt I had done something awesome.

I understand if people find navigating a challenge, especially at first, or are taken aback when they get destroyed by a group of enemies when we have gotten so accustomed to most not posing a threat, or can’t solo some of the hero points. What I don’t get is the number of people that seem to have dipped their toe into the water, declared it too hard, and decided they have had enough. I wonder how many of those people, if they give it a bit longer, might grow to like it.

For me personally the masteries didn’t quite deliver what I expected. This bleeds into content.

When I heard about unlocking Itzel language I expected that whole new storylines/dynamic events would get unlocked. When I heard about gliding mastery I expected reaching new areas with new dynamic events.

Instead masteries are mainly good for one thing: unlocking more masteries. The Itzel doesn’t tell you interesting things about his culture, he doesn’t start a new event… he just gives you a one liner and a hero point. Gliding mostly helps you taking shortcuts or unlocking more points.

TLDR: Masteries don’t unlock new content/ interesting stories but more hero / mastery points.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

For me personally the masteries didn’t quite deliver what I expected. This bleeds into content.

When I heard about unlocking Itzel language I expected that whole new storylines/dynamic events would get unlocked. When I heard about gliding mastery I expected reaching new areas with new dynamic events.

Instead masteries are mainly good for one thing: unlocking more masteries. The Itzel doesn’t tell you interesting things about his culture, he doesn’t start a new event… he just gives you a one liner and a hero point. Gliding mostly helps you taking shortcuts or unlocking more points.

TLDR: Masteries don’t unlock new content/ interesting stories but more hero / mastery points.

Can you imagine how mad Official forum would be if they lock Events behind mastery, riot 24/7 of course. #gating content #this expansion is too small #gw2 is dead

I can tell you what HoT is and isn’t :

1. masteries are an exellent way to push players to explore more (at least towards the hero points) and level them up to attain new items/benefits. The downside is that you need a lot of exping and doing events (or farm CoF for hours on end) in order to level them.

2. Raids are fun to do for those who like that kind of gameplay, but for most casual players they set the bar pretty high or you need to spend a lot of hours learning the mechanics of the bosses on a timer. Fun for some, a big letdown for the ‘casuals’, of which , no one can deny, are a lot of. Most don’t even get past the first one.

3. fractal levels increased by adding some ‘counter’ to the usual setups, pushing players, once again, to invest in more AR in order to do those higher levels. Imo, fracs are quite fun, even with pugs, but most just want to do dailies, collect reward, and get out.
Not a big change there.

4. The new maps. I think most will agree that Verdant Brink and Auric Basin are extremely well designed and gliding is, after the big hype, still fun, so much so that players want (and sometimes expect, with a fail death) it in the old maps as well.
I think most will also agree that Tangled depths is one of the worst maps ever designed because either it is confusing or there are so many mobs in there that exploring it isn’t fun at all. Not after the first time.
Dragons stand is not worth mentioning because ppl just want to finish it and be done with it. Hard to find an organized meta in there on the right time.

5. New crafting. This is one thing that has gone downhill :
- Scribe : do the devs really believe that a guild will invest a lot of mats/gold into someone going for scribe ? There is nothing preventing someone levelling scribe and quit playing later or leaving the guild. So basically NO guild with common sense will do that. That leaves players pay a LOT of money into a craft that is not only costly but also pretty pointless. Crafting a buff that gives LESS benefit then a food from Chef ? Seriuosly ? Who had that bright idea ?
- New precursor and legendary craft. Costly, longwinded, and for the most part not needed. Most people will already have gotten their ascended gear, and now they need to salvage asc stuff in order to craft the ‘new’ legendaries which are, to be honest, not worth it since they have the same stats as the asc.
The only incentive behind it is to obtain the skins or stroke the Ego.

So, is HoT fun ? 80% yes, 20% is frikkin annoying and pointless. Would i personally buy it again ? No. Am i disappointed that i bought it ? A little bit, but not enough to make me regret it. The 80% is still fun, even if of that 80%, 50% is not situated in HoT.

The game has changed a lot , for the better or for worse ? Thats up to each and everyone themselves. Safe to say, it’s not the only game i play, otherwise i’d jump out of the 20th floor window whilst shooting myself. Just to make sure.

GW2 still has my interest, but here are some of my concerns that may be shared by others.

Guilds Halls: All grind for what exactly? A huge grind for aesthetics in an area that really to me looks like one huge waste of time. Restricted to the point you can’t even duel openly? No personal/mini dungeons, no free portals, nothing special. Yay we went from tents to structure…big deal. Anet should have taken a page from Wildstar.

New Zones: I get off work and want to wind down with some GW2, login, off to DS…nope not ready for another 30-45m. Well according to Dulfy timer TD just started, show up nobody doing events. Check timer and lfg, rinse and repeat…

New Zones & lfg: Play whack-a-mole with lfg, instance full, instance not full but not enough to do meta even when I help taxi.

Map Completion/Solo: I give up on any map meta and decide to solo/do some map completion…zones closed off that only open w/meta events, zones closed off w/o a certain mastery…gained through map meta events…

Collections! Nope, locked out due to zones/mastery points lock out…see map completion/solo (above).

Gem Store: Bundles 2k…I have no problem dropping $10-20/1-2x a month gem store sub fee for what I want, but these bundles don’t fit that criteria.

WvW: Dead w/lousy (I’m sure the WvW forums have exhausted this topic in detail) new maps.

Daily: Do them and logout.

This is my scenario, not all the time, but common enough that it becomes defeating in the fact w/o a good 3-5+ hours play time available, with a 1 hour average wait time to do anything I sit at a wall.

edit for clarity:

To sum this up, I enjoy the content and challenge, but those tiresome walls everywhere drive me nuts. Fixing/updating timers, tedious walls, lfg tab, bundles, and wvw would be updates I look forward to.

I still enjoy this game a lot, though i prefere the much more easy old world than the expansion. If i wanted a challenge i would do WvW.

I dont mind more difficult contend, but i am a rather casual player and actually finishing a raid seems pretty undoable for me. Compare this GW2 to ESO. eso is way worse than GW 2 but they did a great job with raiding/trials. Its all about mechanics and people could do it even with not the best possible gear in game.

Furthermore you were rewarded way faster with nice looking armor drops. That takes forever in GW2.

I am currently still working on my first ascended items and a legendary weapon, which will take quite some time still. I like that legendarys take very long to make but since ascended is pretty much a must have for ANY HOT CONTENT (including open world) this is why maps are really empty.

I love the specializations but its not worth the buying price of an expansion only veterans, so called “pro players” that stream and have played basically 24/7 can truly play and therefore enjoy.

HoT is a letdown for me. I may not be the majority but i know plenty who share my point of view.

archmagus.7249:

Beldin.5498:

Yeah .. i also bought the 100 € version, and have spent maybe 4-5 hours max in the
new areas, and have absolutely no interest to go there ever again.

So what did i got for that ? A (not even full skilled) Reaper and Dragonhunter and
Tyria mastery. Heck .. not even some new armor skins, and that in a skin based
game. Oh forgot .. its now all about raiding like in every other MMO.

Yeah stuff on HoT does take a while to get. It’s unfortunate that you actually have to WORK for the things you want. People have been complaining for a long time that the game is too easy and that GW2 lacks any kind of end-game content. But, now that content is here, they complain that it’s too hard because they can’t grind it out in the first week.

When i work i normally get paid for .. fine if other people like to pay for doing “work”
but thats not what all people like.

And the complainers that wanted harder content, firstly wanted that as instanced
content, and for that are the raids, and not as open world stuff, and especially
have i never heared for having masses of harder open world mobs packed up all
in a maze where nobody really stops to fight them, but just trains trough and
hopes that you get somewhere alive. There is no real fun in explorig, its just
“run Forest run !!!

And secondly those people were just a fraction of 1% (only 1% of the player post
actually in the forum according to the german CM) of the GW2 players.

Misguided.5139:

Beldin.5498:

Yeah .. i also bought the 100 € version, and have spent maybe 4-5 hours max in the
new areas, and have absolutely no interest to go there ever again.

Serious question. Do you really think you have given the new areas a fair shake if that’s all the time you have spent there?

There seems to be a significant contingent of players (and you may or may not be in this category) that want everything to be exactly as it was, with little willingness to even attempt to adapt to the new content. I find it challenging, but it also feels more rewarding when I succeed at something. Sometimes I get caught unprepared for a fight and get demolished, even by normal mobs, but there have also been amazing moments where I truly felt I had done something awesome.

I understand if people find navigating a challenge, especially at first, or are taken aback when they get destroyed by a group of enemies when we have gotten so accustomed to most not posing a threat, or can’t solo some of the hero points. What I don’t get is the number of people that seem to have dipped their toe into the water, declared it too hard, and decided they have had enough. I wonder how many of those people, if they give it a bit longer, might grow to like it.

I’m with Beldin. I spent a little more time in the jungle than he, but it certainly won’t be more than 10 hours.

I don’t find it too challenging. I completed VB without breaking a sweat, and was very close to completing AB. And suddenly it struck me. I wasn’t having fun.

The emphasis on navigation? Boring at best, annoying the rest of the time. It doesn’t challenge me, it wastes my time. The emptiness of the maps and the map change request every 15 minutes, that can only be remedied with wasting time on the LFG tool? Beyond annoying, crossing right into the insufferable. Every map running on the real-life clock? Not a chance. That’s not how I play games. And what’s there to motivate me to stick with it? Dreadful weapon and armor skins I wouldn’t buy for 2 coppers, all hidden behind collections that require rubbish minigames and endless repetitions of content I have to synchronize my watch for?

The new content is an atrocity, its only redeeming feature the terrain aesthetics, and that’s not enough to keep me around.

Instead, I’ll just play the parts of the game I do like, and will be vocal about how I hate HoT on these forums until someone stops me.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Instead, I’ll just play the parts of the game I do like, and will be vocal about how I hate HoT on these forums until someone stops me.

Just to be clear, I wouldn’t dream of asking you to stop expressing displeasure, though I do think that the way some (speaking strictly generally, not directed at you) have chosen to do that (i.e. not in a manner that could be remotely considered constructive) leaves something to be desired.

If you have really given it a shot, and it sounds like you have, then more power to you. Thanks for sharing your experience with it.

Well, I’m of the school of thought that criticism doesn’t have to be constructive. It just has to be sincere.

If the players stop criticizing things they encounter ingame and they don’t like, then no changes would ever be made.

Let me come back to this example :

The current cost and availability of the materials needed to level the craft scribe are way to high for what players expected it to be.
One can reason that it’s a guild oriented craft where guild members contribute to that “crafter”, but this, sadly, is never the case.
It’s only when you look at something up close, that you see the failed reasoning behind that specifing thing. I’m sure the dev who designed it thought that guild based crafting would be handled by a guild, but they forgot that there is NO real incentive to take up that craft.
It’s not personally rewarding, it requires a lot of investment (in both time and gold) and the end result is something no one needs ingame. It has been said multiple times on the forums, and even ingame and in guildchat, so there is no denying it.

We can only hope that the dev(s) will realize they brought out a completely pointless non-rewarding (esp on personal level) and very expensive craft that needs to be changed. Either by adding items that can be used by the crafter or sold by them, or by changing the requirements for that craft.

My greatest fear is that it is a hope in vain. And this is like several other complaints from players on the forums and ingame, the designers will justify their decisions by saying “it’s supposed to be like that, it must take time and it should be challenging” instead of saying “it should be fun”.

Adding more ‘regular’ mobs to a confusing map and giving them different mechanics so that you get halted at every corner isn’t good game design or challenging. It’s a patchwork gone wrong.

If you wanted to give players more challenging content you didn’t need new maps and mobs. Just double the HP of the existing mobs, give them different “tactics” and voila. Instant coffee. Soz, instant “challenge”.

I don’t want to finish the game in a week, i don’t want that craft or item immediately. But i want it to be fun and not just another waste of my time and resources with an end result that leaves me saying “well, that was a bummer. is that what we payed for ? a bunch of hoolahoop’s to jump through and nothing worthwile to show for it ?”

Sure, the new armors and stats are great. But seriously, outside of try-outs, who is going to use them ? The meta still exists and is even forced somehow because the objectives will still remain the same : kill mob as fast as possible by doing the most dps while trying not to die. So get ascended (cause you ‘needed’ it (not really)) or work your butt off to farm for the new legendaries (at least for those who care now).

I didn’t use to do fractals. But now i do them every day. Not because of the rewards, but because it’s more fun then just running around like a headless chicken trying to find an event that i need or a HP i haven’t taken on the character i’m playing at that moment.

So far i’ve made a Druid, Berserker, Scrapper, Herald and Tempest , i’ve done 3 VB map completions and unlocked every zone on 3 characters, levelled scribe up and by now i know what’s out there to see : more of the same but “harder” or more annoying.

Everyone has things they like and dislike in GW2. My dislikes are like most players. My dislike is that dev’s shouldn’t put their heads in the sand and pretend nothing’s wrong.
You want my money ? I’ll gladly pay it IF it’s not just on another outfit but on something i can actually obtain in my lifetime. And i’m over halfway expiration date.

I’m still finding the game fun. Old content, new content it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t even be coming to the forums if I didn’t think the game was fun and worth playing.

I drop a fair bit of money on this game. Too much to mention without getting embarased… But that is ending as of today. Been forcing myself to plod on thru boring events, endless farming of metas to open other achievements etc etc. Its just not as fun anymore. I think they focused the rewards a little to far out, and gave nothing to the short to mid term reward areas. I’m not saying we need the best rewards now, but what they currently offer doesn’t hold a candle to how it should be. Filling my inventory with crap isn’t the way to reward players. Nothing in HoT really draws you into the story or atmosphere. It feels rushed and detached

I dont understand the OPs post.
If the game was so much fun prior to HOT, and now playing HOT isnt fun , then just dont play HOT.
Play the part of the game that was fun before HOT.
In an MMO its not compulsory to do everything.

mauried.5608:

I dont understand the OPs post.
If the game was so much fun prior to HOT, and now playing HOT isnt fun , then just dont play HOT.
Play the part of the game that was fun before HOT.
In an MMO its not compulsory to do everything.

True, except they nerfed or completely changed/removed/destroyed/ignored many aspects of the core game that were fun prior to the introduction of the expac.

mauried.5608:

I dont understand the OPs post.
If the game was so much fun prior to HOT, and now playing HOT isnt fun , then just dont play HOT.
Play the part of the game that was fun before HOT.
In an MMO its not compulsory to do everything.

Thats what i do .. but it still also sometimes simply sucks the fun out of that if you
know that you payed for an expansion and you simply dont play it because it
is no fun for you.

It simply often makes me feel torn that i on the one hand think i really should do
some of the HoT stuff, but on the other hand feel absolutely no motivation to
ever go there again.

qbalrog.8017:

Cyninja.2954:

- accept that you don’t HAVE to get every reward there is in 1 week time

It feels more like I can’t get any reward with a week’s time.

Not true – you can get several inventories full of fine/masterwork equipment! Cool, right? =)

Beldin.5498:

mauried.5608:

I dont understand the OPs post.
If the game was so much fun prior to HOT, and now playing HOT isnt fun , then just dont play HOT.
Play the part of the game that was fun before HOT.
In an MMO its not compulsory to do everything.

Thats what i do .. but it still also sometimes simply sucks the fun out of that if you
know that you payed for an expansion and you simply dont play it because it
is no fun for you.

It simply often makes me feel torn that i on the one hand think i really should do
some of the HoT stuff, but on the other hand feel absolutely no motivation to
ever go there again.

Not to mention the fact that the HoT update completely upended WvW (which housed something like 30% of the playerbase) and changed a number of other core features. Even people who never paid for the expansion were hit by those changes.

@Skyline – pretty sure you missed my post (the one directly above yours). HoT changed core elements for people who never even planned to buy the expansion.

This is not a b2p mmo much no more, yea you buy the hot client but it only gives you access to 4 maps and bunch of other worthless content; the REAL content is now in the cash shop. Just look at that Raider Pack they put up in the CS and tell me they are not trying to go all korean cash shop heavy with game mechanics designed to push you to it. Did NCsoflt finally take over? Looks like it, they do same baloney in their other titles…GW2 up until HoT was the exception…well, not no more. Welcome to GW2, just another lame Cash shop centric f2p. Yay?

Swift.1930:

@Skyline – pretty sure you missed my post (the one directly above yours). HoT changed core elements for people who never even planned to buy the expansion.

Okay, list exactly what changed.

fixit.7189:

This is not a b2p mmo much no more, yea you buy the hot client but it only gives you access to 4 maps and bunch of other worthless content; the REAL content is now in the cash shop. Just look at that Raider Pack they put up in the CS and tell me they are not trying to go all korean cash shop heavy with game mechanics designed to push you to it. Did NCsoflt finally take over? Looks like it, they do same baloney in their other titles…GW2 up until HoT was the exception…well, not no more. Welcome to GW2, just another lame Cash shop centric f2p. Yay?

to be fair, you literally dont need ANYTHING in the cash shop. dont like what you see? dont buy it. dont like the pricing? dont buy it.

also, please tell me how you can expect them to make money if they don’t invest heavily into the cash shop. seriously, please tell me, they cant pay their worker’s salaries with the player base’s satisfaction

this game could have been like WoW, charging 15 bucks a month (180 DOLLARS A YEAR) for a kittening game. but nope, its buy once, play and pay at your own leisure.

Skyline Crash.6254:

Swift.1930:

@Skyline – pretty sure you missed my post (the one directly above yours). HoT changed core elements for people who never even planned to buy the expansion.

Okay, list exactly what changed.

Haven’t got the full list on hand, but two of the biggest changes:
World vs World (upended); people who were happy with things how they stood (and that was their reason for not paying for the expansion) weren’t looking for their primary game mode to change completely.
Guild upgrades (specifically, banners and siege weapons); completely reset and re-gated. Small WvW guilds will be handicapped for many many months – assuming they even try to rebuild.

Can’t immediately think of all the changes that affected those who only have vanilla, because I have the expansion myself.

mauried.5608:

I dont understand the OPs post.
If the game was so much fun prior to HOT, and now playing HOT isnt fun , then just dont play HOT.
Play the part of the game that was fun before HOT.

Dungeons are nerfed and empty, PvP is a joke and WvW is a empty confused maze now. Besides the fact that the OP paid the same hundred bucks that you did for the new content he’s SOL on the old stuff too.

While I personally like running through the new zones i’m sure soon I will grow tired of the instagib trash mobs so I can understand why players don’t want to play the new coontent. It’s like the OP said, “It’s not fun” but he should have added “it’s more like a chore than a game”.

Skyline Crash.6254:

Swift.1930:

@Skyline – pretty sure you missed my post (the one directly above yours). HoT changed core elements for people who never even planned to buy the expansion.

Okay, list exactly what changed.

I answered a few of the things that changed above. There’s nothing that can be done about it the OP was just making the point that the game isn’t fun for them anymore.

My HoT experience has been nothing but grind. Just by “playing the game” you can not unlock masteries. You are forced to farm maps for EXP to unlock your masteries, and that is pretty much the only thing to do in HoT. Grind to unlock masteries. What do masteries do? Not much. Collections (more grind – but could be so much better) are unlocked after you get your masteries I guess…. What makes it worse is that you need to be completing meta events that are on 2-hour timers and require you to log in at the right time and be lucky enough to find an organized map of other players to complete. (Psst – this sounds like raids to me. All of HoT is pretty much raids.)

SirDerp.3520:

My HoT experience has been nothing but grind. Just by “playing the game” you can not unlock masteries. You are forced to farm maps for EXP to unlock your masteries, and that is pretty much the only thing to do in HoT. Grind to unlock masteries. What do masteries do? Not much. Collections (more grind – but could be so much better) are unlocked after you get your masteries I guess…. What makes it worse is that you need to be completing meta events that are on 2-hour timers and require you to log in at the right time and be lucky enough to find an organized map of other players to complete. (Psst – this sounds like raids to me. All of HoT is pretty much raids.)

I think players need to not focus on HoT that much, its an expansion, not a campaign. I think HoT should be just something you do to get whatever you want out of it (skins, elite specs, achievements, raids, etc, etc) but core tyria needs to remain the main place to be.

This is arena net’s fault. They have 3 forms of end game:

sPvP
PvE
WvW

For spvp, they need to add even more game.modes and even more reasons to play it.

For pve, they seriously need to start doing living story soon (many people beat HoT and that risks pve-ers getting bored of pve)

Wvw. We all know wvw needs an overhaul. From rewards to they way they are played (encourage small group and solo play more). Also they seriously need to merge some servers. A lot of the time in wvw, it can be pretty empty.

Anet failed to capitalize on these things. Players thought HoT was the answer, especially since they are nearly paying a full games price (when HoT doesn’t have a full games content). They though HoT would provide everything they wanted. Anet is making steps in the right direction, but still have some ways to go. (Though I do understand living story will continue soon enough)

Moopy.7908:

That’s YOUR problem.

What I genuinely wonder, is if people who say things like this, actually, think it is helpful, in any way?

Tigaseye.2047:

Moopy.7908:

That’s YOUR problem.

What I genuinely wonder, is if people who say things like this, actually, think it is helpful, in any way?

Nope. They’re just enjoying a false sense of superiority and being smug about it. It’s a ‘geek’ thing. Something I’ve observed guys of various races, ages and backgrounds do in this culture for over twenty years. Comes with the territory.

JaddynnStarr.5201:

It just feels like “long haul or bust” if you know what I mean.

Man, I know exactly what you mean. There used to be more short and medium-term goals in this game. A lot more player autonomy. The nerfs, gating and busy-work are becoming tedious.

I’m still having a blast, as I am still somewhat willing to adapt, but the changes can be frustrating at times.

Jahroots.6791:

Nope. They’re just enjoying a JUSTIFIED sense of superiority.

FIFY. Because in the relevant field, they are superior (lying about their own prowess excluded).

Anet has abondoned the casual player who just wanna quickly come on and have fun. I mean really:

PvP is garbage #OPReapers #CheeseDragonHunters Anet should’ve had something called “beta-tests”, the unbalancedness is rediculious. Every balance “update” they just nerf one thing and make another thing OP. Can’t they just make PvP balanced and leave it alone? There is no tanks (not viable at all, unless you play unkillable druid, try tanking longer with a warrior or gaurdian than a druid can), just DPS. PvP is now “Who can hit first and the hardest”

WvW is literaly a waste land, to big, rarely see anyone. And servers are unbalanced aswell oh yea… Anet know, but doesn’t care.

PvE is a drag, just a real grind fest really.

Yo Anet, check a game called: Dota 2, you might learn a thing or two from them.

To conclude, why should we spend countless of hours to grind for something that ultimately doesn’t mean anything?

SirDerp.3520:

You are forced to farm maps for EXP to unlock your masteries, and that is pretty much the only thing to do in HoT. Grind to unlock masteries.

^^^^^ huge expac fail.

Algreg.3629:

Jahroots.6791:

Nope. They’re just enjoying a JUSTIFIED sense of superiority.

FIFY. Because in the relevant field, they are superior (lying about their own prowess excluded).

You didn’t fix anything.

Most of the time these people are barely literate, average at the game (and most other things in life) at best and lying through their teeth.

They wish they were superior to anyone, or anything, in any field, but they clearly aren’t.

Or, it’s in such an obscure and irrelevant “field” that no one cares.

People who really are “superior” in their relevant fields normally have more dignity and self respect than to go around shouting about it, or putting other people down.

A notable exception would be someone with a personality disorder, such as the Sheldon Cooper type; but most people who act like this in games are, very obviously, nowhere near his character’s intellectual equal.

What was fun about spam 1 and win everything in core game?

warbignime.4610:

What was fun about spam 1 and win everything in core game?

That wasn’t fun. So it’s not what I did. Or do.

You seem to have a very low opinion of the core game. Why on earth did you stick around for the expansion?

Or is it just that you get your kicks posting useless patronizing rubbish on forums because you lack any real arguments?

I can do that too, you know!

Look:

“And in HoT, you still spam 1 to win except you have to wait 2 hours for the reward.”

Manasa Devi.7958:

warbignime.4610:

What was fun about spam 1 and win everything in core game?

That wasn’t fun. So it’s not what I did. Or do.

You seem to have a very low opinion of the core game. Why on earth did you stick around for the expansion?

Or is it just that you get your kicks posting useless patronizing rubbish on forums because you lack any real arguments?

I can do that too, you know!

Look:

“And in HoT, you still spam 1 to win except you have to wait 2 hours for the reward.”

I do have a low opinion on core game, but it’s still the best mmorpg out there because all other mmo sucks so much. HoT on the other hand is the challanging content I always wanted, I fell completely in love with it becaude I finally my skill meant something in pve.

I’ve yet to find challenge in HoT. Just annoying time-consuming hindrances.

warbignime.4610:

Manasa Devi.7958:

warbignime.4610:

What was fun about spam 1 and win everything in core game?

That wasn’t fun. So it’s not what I did. Or do.

You seem to have a very low opinion of the core game. Why on earth did you stick around for the expansion?

Or is it just that you get your kicks posting useless patronizing rubbish on forums because you lack any real arguments?

I can do that too, you know!

Look:

“And in HoT, you still spam 1 to win except you have to wait 2 hours for the reward.”

I do have a low opinion on core game, but it’s still the best mmorpg out there because all other mmo sucks so much. HoT on the other hand is the challanging content I always wanted, I fell completely in love with it becaude I finally my skill meant something in pve.

You clearly have a limited experience of MMOs if HOT is the first time you’ve seen ‘challenging’ (whatever “my skill meant something” means to you) content.

What are you babbling all in this forum? What has changed, what got expensive…?
Are you serious? All old content is there, the new is there and there’s not a thing that is EXPENSIVE. There’s even literally 0 stuff that you would absolutely need to get in order to be able to play any other content.
Did some people fell on their heads recently?
Don’t play the expansion if you don’t like it…nothing else change and even the new expansion to me, apart from some UI changes and tweaks, is nothing more than a new Living Story Season and 4 maps with events, which you don’t even have to finish if you don’t like, that’s it.
What’s the problem?