Guild Wars 2

So I played only a little into heart of thorns, But Path of Fire looks pretty sweet and I would like to come back. With experience that you currently have would it be logical to come back and not really play through Heart of THorns and go straight to Path of fire? Thanks for any input.

My experience is when people come back they leave again. They obviously have a game they enjoy and this game doesn’t fit them but “looks good”. I started playing about 2 months after GW2 launched with about 7 people….they all left and went back to other games. A couple came back for HoT but left again.

Though I do not want to try and discourage you or anyone, as it is your choice but if you come back hopefully you play with the investment you make.

Good luck on your decision.

If story is something that drives you, then HoT + LS3 is essential.

If not, you can dive straight into PoF. HoT was fun for me, but you wont be gated out of anything.

Necrossis.6318:

So I played only a little into heart of thorns, But Path of Fire looks pretty sweet and I would like to come back. With experience that you currently have would it be logical to come back and not really play through Heart of THorns and go straight to Path of fire? Thanks for any input.

Don’t play HOT, its probably one of the wort expansions i’ve ever seen for an MMO. It almost single handidly killed GW2.

Half the community hated it so much they basically gave up on the game until the next expansion and thus why POF is nothing like the Titanic disaster that was HOT.

wrathmagik.3518:

Necrossis.6318:

So I played only a little into heart of thorns, But Path of Fire looks pretty sweet and I would like to come back. With experience that you currently have would it be logical to come back and not really play through Heart of THorns and go straight to Path of fire? Thanks for any input.

Don’t play HOT, its probably one of the wort expansions i’ve ever seen for an MMO. It almost single handidly killed GW2.

Half the community hated it so much they basically gave up on the game until the next expansion and thus why POF is nothing like the Titanic disaster that was HOT.

I didn’t kill Guild Wars 2, because Guild Wars 2 is still very much alive. And some of us, including me, think HoT is the best part of this game.

Telling someone not to play HoT based on your own personal tastes is sort of silly. Maybe he’s like more challenging open world content, more complex maps, more interesting meta events.

HoT revitalized this game for me. Without it I might not be playing myself.

Necrossis.6318:

So I played only a little into heart of thorns, But Path of Fire looks pretty sweet and I would like to come back. With experience that you currently have would it be logical to come back and not really play through Heart of THorns and go straight to Path of fire? Thanks for any input.

Like you, I did not enjoy HoT at all, and came back for the beta Weekend, and From what I seen PoF does not look like it needs HoT to be played, and enjoyed.

It also does not look or feel anything like HoT, which, if you did not like HoT, then maybe PoF might be more your flavor, however, I have not bought PoF yet, because, well, HoT was such a let down to me that I stopped playing GW2 because of it, and while the sampling I saw was more my liking, it was also a small sampling, as such I am going to take a wait and see approach to this X-pac.

@OP
If you don’t want to play all of HoT, just play enough to unlock a few tiers of gliding. The maps aren’t built specifically for it, but you can still glide in PoF.

HoT is fine. The problems that existed (past tense) with the expansion have less to do with the expansion itself than how it was rolled out and how much they charged for the content they provided.

That’s less of an issue now, because HoT + LS3 is a massive chunk of content with plenty to do any lots of pretty items to lust after. Also, the raids are a good time if you have a group for them.

Don’t let the naysayers grind you down: GW2 is a fantastic game with a large community that is doing just fine.

I think PoF is for people who enjoyed HoT. If you didn’t enjoy Hot or gw2 in general, i dont see why you would enjoy PoF (though it’s prob too early to say).

But from what I see from the bigger picture, gw2 as a game, its enjoyment (for me) comes from the elite specializations, the raids, the new fractals, the new legendary items as my goals (warbringer, aurora, 2nd gen weapons). if you didn’t enjoy any of that, why would you enjoy pof? which is just an extension of the above ideas?

I highly doubt they will add anything new? or groundbreaking… if you get what i mean. See i enjoy hot, i obviously will enjoy Pof cuz it will give me 9 new specs to look forward to trying and playing.

HoT is fun. PoF seems to be too.

usnedward.9023:

My experience is when people come back they leave again. They obviously have a game they enjoy and this game doesn’t fit them but “looks good”. I started playing about 2 months after GW2 launched with about 7 people….they all left and went back to other games. A couple came back for HoT but left again.

So unless a player is a 5-year veteran or completely new to the game, they’re not likely to stay for a longer time?

I think this is very untrue, and the most loyal population to the game in fact are these ‘comebackers’. It’s much more likely for someone that has played frequently from the beginning to burn out/get bored and quit or go on a longer break than someone who still has much of the newer content to discover. Same goes for new players, there’s a good chance they won’t deep enough in the game to stay for a longer term. I’d estimate half of the new players starting today will be gone forever in 2 weeks, and 70% of them in a month.

Personally I played on and off after launch after completely forgetting the game for many years. Almost a year after HoT I came back and have stayed ever since, and won’t be quitting anytime soon. I’m guessing this is the case for most other people, as well. We all remember how good the game was in the beginning, but feel like it lacked something to keep us interested. Then one day we log in, see all the improvements and new content and get hooked.

So in my experience, most of those who come back are the most likely people to stay.

Quick spoiler for Heart of Thorns: we killed Mordremoth. That, and possibly improving the gliding mastery, is all you should need to enjoy Path of Fire from what press we’ve seen released.

To properly navigate the new maps, we’ll only need the mounts and their masteries, which is entirely contained in PoF. Gliding will help, but I’d be surprised if there were any bouncing mushrooms or Nuhoch wallows down in the south-east. Story-wise, if you were confused during the intro and first instance of HoT, that’s going to carry on into PoF unless the first scene of the first chapter is us in Ellen Kiel’s office, getting briefed on what’s going on in Elona.

Basically, PoF is stand alone enough that you can jump right into it, but you’ll understand much more if you have the backstory from all the Living World content you can get through (specifically the Season 3 stuff).

I skipped HoT and now came back for PoF. What i did was i watched whole HoT story + Season 3 gameplay on youtube. So now at least i have some clue what was going on and who died (was glad and sad at same time). But anyway PoF is not connected to HoT and will be completely enjoyable without it.
Only thing is maybe there will be some minor spoilers along the way, like some npc will mention who died in HoT or such or maybe not, just a speculation.

I returned to gw2 about two months ago, after a 2 year break.
I bought HoT, played the story, leveled the necessary masteries, and after a few days I tasted blood and really started to enjoy it.
Even almost 2 years after HoT’s release, I didn’t have any problems at catching up with everyone else, since there are still daily MP- and HP-trains, Meta-Maps, etc.

To answer OPs question:
If you already bought HoT: The least you should do is play the story of HoT + LS3.
Everything else you do in HoT doesn’t matter for PoF.

Overall, right now would be the best time to jump into the game again.
I’m sure it won’t be a problem to catch up even 1 year from now. But I think you’ll have the most fun exploring the new expansion with everyone else.