Guild Wars 2

Amaimon.7823:

Captain Prinny.6492:

1: (by a mile) old LA. I totally hate the over-the top “city of Boats-lol-more boats-lol” look – the new one isn’t that great either but at least thematiccaly sound…..and less…boat-y – good riddance!

you’re not aiming to make a lot of friends on the forum, are you

Tbh im glad i dont have to w8 as long to load in that map.

1. Tangled MessDepths – Confusing to navigate and explore. Lack of waypoints makes it difficult to reach some events during meta.

2. Dragon’s Stand – Exploration ranges from difficult to impossible due to continuous spawns and gated areas.

3. Verdant Brink – Too many map layers makes this ‘intro’ map of HoT unnecessarily confusing. Canopy layer ends up being way overboard.

4. Lake Doric – Endless spawns of white mantle don’t seem plausible. Where are they all coming from? Centaur camp needs to be addressed to either be viable farming location, or revamped to just be a ‘normal’ part of the map.

5. Snowden Drifts – Until HoT and new LS maps, this was the map I would have ranked as worst due to being boring and uninspired. For starters, it has several wide open areas without much happening. Meanwhile, most of the hearts and events are not very interesting. For Norn characters this is essentially the 2nd explorable map, but it pales in comparison to the the some of the much more interesting content available in their first explorable map, Wayfarer Hills. For example, Wayfarer Hills has 2 rather interesting meta events, one of which includes a world boss. By comparison, Snowden Drifts has a single meta, which isn’t very challenging or interesting, and many players probably never even see it since the final stages usually end so quickly. Addition of the leyline events seems to be an attempt by ANet to reinvigorate the map, but the low reward vs. high participation level needed to complete them is so far out of balance that it isn’t worth doing these.

Worst map probably one of the Orr maps, or if I can include WvW the desert homeland map. I hate that one.

Tangled Depths – For the same reasons listed repeatedly before.

Brisbane Wildlands – The whole map is dull. Even the large skritt area that is supposed to be amusing, is not.

Southsun Cove – While the Karka Queen event is good and the beach with the tiki bar is funny, there is very little to do there.

Plains of Ashford – Like Brisbane, it is dull. There are some reminders of GW1 which are hard to notice, there isn’t anything of real interest going on.

Lake Doric – Just bad design all around with little to admire in the way of aesthetics. Now that the leather farm has been nerfed because of the clever way engies set up their turrets, it really isn’t worth frequenting. I still think it was a mistake for punishing engineers because they found a clever and totally legal way to farm.

All of this is subjective however. Some maps listed above as being bad are some of my favorites, like Dry Top and Bitterfrost. It’s all in what you like I suppose.

I liked a lot of maps! Most maps were either good or amazing, or at least I got the point and could enjoy my time on the map. I haven’t played Heart of Thorns, so I can’t comment on the expansion maps.

I think Harathi Hinterlands is the only PvE map I actively dislike. The centaurs are boring and repetitive. I feel like there is so much good lore in GW2 that the centaur aren’t up to snuff and it’s not fun to run through the area, either.

I like most of the areas of Fireheart Rise but for some reason I don’t like the map as a whole. Brisbane Wildlands wasn’t very compelling. What little I played of Dry Top kinda killed my interest in PvE.

I really didn’t like Desert Borderlands. Killed my interest in WvW

Playerbase complains that they want challenging open world PvE content.
Anet gives them TD (and VB) where you can’t straight up rum from point A to point B but actually have to think about what you’re doing.
Playerbase complains they can’t half afk through the content anymore.

Tangeld Depths
While VB and AB have verticality too, you are not able to get a hint in TD how all the surface area an tunnels are connected. The meta events sometimes start at strange locations and jump around to areas you are blocked off (e.g. by a contested WP). So many foes with CCs make passing through areas annoying. An there are those watery tunnels too. One of the prime examples, why GW2 area maps are completely obsolete in conjunction with current map trends.

Dragon Stand
My main problem with the map is that it is useless to play there unless you have a full meta map. The event stages of the meta are OK, but everyone is just zerging in a huge group and in the worst case auto-attacking. It is a very long meta too, which yo can (usually) join at any stage (e.g. like Silverwastes).

Southsun Cove
The map meta is “defend against Karka” at all camps, with no variety (egg collections and golem parts aside). Young Karka are a very annoying enemy and the veterans are even worse.

Those are the easy picks

The last two spots would be reserved for things I personally don’t like, but others may find not that bad:

1. Sylvari home instance
My least favourite home instance, because unlike the human or charr one, it is tiny and really uninspiring.
2. Ember Bay
It narrows down to the insane JP volcano, being insane and holding collector tokens too.
3. Edge of the Mists
Because it was a doomed map right from the start, when ANet decided to give it better loot (from capping/flipping & rank up boxes) than the regular WvW maps. If you take a look at the “new people” after the skirmish rewards in the regular maps, you see how much they are focused on that “k-train” mind set.
4. Kessex Hills
Because I think the blown up toxic tower is too detached from the rest of the maps hearts and quest narrative. It feels like something alien on the map and not an evolved map after the LS chapters.

Dredgehaunt Cliffs – I hate the dredge and their caves + worst Vista in the whole game.
Lake Doric – Extremely boring map and lame events / Hearts.
Ember Bay – Ugly barren rocks, lava and fire spitting mobs everywhere.
Kessex Hills – It’s still in ruins, ugly as kitten + some really annoying Hearts.
Brisban Wildlands – I hate caves in general but this map has the worst Skritt cave ever.
Iron Marches, Fields of Ruin and Diessa Plateau – Rocks, rocks and more rocks, metal and even more metal, boring ruins and annoying enemies.

I actually like everything else.
(Edited typos).

Takashiro.8701:

Playerbase complains that they want challenging open world PvE content.
Anet gives them TD (and VB) where you can’t straight up rum from point A to point B but actually have to think about what you’re doing.
Playerbase complains they can’t half afk through the content anymore.

More a case of (a vocal minority?) of the playerbase asking for challenging open world PvE content, ANet deciding to use that as an excuse to go on a tangential Z-dimension map-making frenzy, and then a significant portion of the playerbase discovering that Z-dimension maps are overly confusing, annoying and not fun to play.

1-3. Orr. I dislike these maps alot, because they’re ugly, hostile and just plain annoying with hordes of mobs everywhere. Straits is almost decent though.

4. Harathi Hinterlands. Blah.

5. Tangled Depths. I’d love to play the map more and finish all those events I haven’t done yet, but jesus christ. With all the masteries unlocked the map is still impossible to navigate, and so full of mobs I don’t even bother learning.

I hate to see some of my favourite maps being shot down here. Bitterfrost especially is a very beautiful map, with fun metaevents and I don’t honestly give a kitten about AFK farming. The LS3 maps in general are the best zones Anet has ever made, in my opinion.

T.

Disessa plateau
Straits
Drytop
Southsun Cove
The new lions arch, the old one was so much better.

Menadena.7482:

VanHalenRules.5243:

3. Fields of Ruin- As I mentioned in map chat there yesterday, it’s a lvl 30-40 map that you have to go through a lvl 40-50 map (because there are no other maps attached to it), which makes it less likely for explorers to find.

I guess if you ignore the gate from DR.

Well, indeed I was not aware of that… But still, I was speaking from a new player’s perspective if they start out as a charr and wander from there.

I think southsun cove and harathi hinterlands are tied. And I didn’t even remember them until I saw them mentioned here. XD

I’m a little sad to see so many people not liking the HoT maps. I prefer all of them to all the vanilla maps.

I can’t really pick my worst 5 but the Charr and Norn maps are my least favourite when doing map completion.

I judge maps by only one factor: emotional response. Does it touch me, affect me in a positive manner, have me in awe, make me feel excited to explore?

Therefore, even though some maps might be difficult to navigate, that is not something that affects me in my overall judgment. There is a reason why I have 100% map completion on three chars and will probably do it 1-2 more times.

So, which maps made me feel “bleh” the most when I travelled them, due to sheer ugliness and/or boredom?

1. The Grove (hurts my eyes, also awful design)
2. Bloodstone Fen (boring, also hate the overall design)
3. Ember Bay (so bleak, makes me depressed)
4. Cursed Shore (boring, adventure potential wasted)
5. Dragon’s Stand (great meta, but otherwise boring design… can’t wait for the next expansion to never see another Mordrem again in my life)

The only map I probably “hate” is Straits of Devastation. I think if ANet today had designed it, it would be fun and interesting, but as an early precursor to what developed later, it just falls apart and is rather dull to play and look at when you reach the Orrian coast.

I’m not a huge fan of Dragon Stand because it feels like a waste of a map and Bitterfrost is just a mess of ideas which don’t gel properly, even though the scenery is spectacular in places.

1. Tangled Depths: Way too much “Can’t get there from here.”
2. Dry Top: See above. Also, I find the events to be among the most boring in the game.
3. Metrica Province: Too many Asura. Also, the map is large, aesthetically flat and unintersting.
4. Edge of the Mists: chasing a Dorito around this map seems designed to frustrate, and getting anything done without the zerg is a limited proposition.
5. Fireheart Rise: too much burned stuff to be aesthetically interesting, and the rewards fpr the map event chains are poor enough that no one seems to do them unless they want to open CoF or the zone is daily event task.

One mans joy is another mans sorrow.

Personally i think there are no ‘worst’ maps. If anything, each map contributes to the diversity in this game. Mob crowded maps and hard to navigate maps… its all features in an amazing game.

I’ve only been playing for a few weeks so far, so maybe i am not qualified to give an opinion on this. But i can only drop my jaw at so much imagination.

Some people and maps may not agree with eachother but that doesn’t make either of them bad or worst.

Desert Borlderlands, couldve been a great PvE map unlike silverwastes but the full potential is wasted in WvW, we just need some dinosaurs around

all of the HoT maps, the kessex hills in it’s current form (bring back the old please), new LA (a lions arch that doesn’t even have lions but shellfish in it’s decor misses the point)

1) Tangled Depths – I love multilayer maps (Verdant Brink is one of my favourite maps in the entire game), but this one is an abomination. Not only very confusing to navigate but at every corner there are plentytof mobs that can easily kill you while you try to get through it. I get it, we need some challenge, but it’s peronal opinion about which map is the worst so there you go. It’s the worst map in the entire game – in my opinion.

2. Ember bay. Despite having all the goodies in terms of LS3 mastery movement tricks, it’s a very boring map. And I just hate aesthetics. Karka, jade, greeny destroyers do not fit the map at all in terms of theme. I do understand it’s related to some extent to the story, but for a vulcanic terrain it does not cut it in terms of mobs. And it’s boring, like seriously boring. Only nice thing is the wurm event. I need to finish my apple achievement and I’ll try to never go there again.

3. Draconis Mons. After a while I grow very tired of this map. It’s a mix of Tangled Depths with Ember Bay – things I really hate in this game. Again the only good thing is the mastery, everything else… not my type of map (I enjoy snowy ones way more). Again like with EB – I’ll try to do what I can to never return there.

4. Desert Borderlands. Cus it’s so beautiful I feel like it’s a wasted opportunity for a really amazing PVE map (in terms of aesthetics it’s one of my favourite in the entire game). And… WvWes hate it anyways. It could be so great to explore it in pve mode + all the goodies in terms of meta events, story, etc…

5. Fields of Ruin. Only Stronghold of Ebonhawke saves it a little. It’s a very boring map.

1. Edge of the mists. I could live with the confusing paths if it wasn’t a floating death trap.
2. Brisbane wild lands – boring and a pain to navigate for completion.
3. Snowden drifts – boring.
4. Kessix hills – boring.
5. All of ascalon – boring.

I don’t mind places like tangled depths and draconis mons. I just hate the boring vanilla maps that take forever to complete. Leonard pass takes forever but I don’t mind it as much because it has a lot of beautiful scenery.

It’s a tough question to be honest, you can judge on gameplay, appearance or layout.. or combinations. I doubt I can come up with a proper list where I can say ‘yea those are the worst imo’. There are definetely contenders for it, I mean Southsun Cove looks amazing but the enemies are frustrating, the map has far too little going on apart from the queen meta. I can’t rate it as one of the worst because if they’d put in HoT-style rewards in a map like that and actually add a ton of fun event chains it couldbe a fairly good one purely because of the aesthetics. It’s like that with a lot of maps for me. In vanilla I ignore 90% of the maps apart from map completion simply because once you’ve seen it there’s nothing to keep you there.

I suppose I’m in the minority here but I do like Tangled Depths as a map. It’s more that some classes suffer more vs the chak than others. Navigation is not nearly as bad if you actually take your time to learn the map layout, which you will if you do 100% completion without teleports on several chars + do metas etc.

If I do really have to name one map at least, it would’ve been pre-nerf Cursed Shore.. god that was a nightmare to travel through once upon a time, but no longer case.

I feel like LS3 maps are very meh in layout, Draconis Mons is the type I enjoy the most out of those as it actually introduced an interactive way of transport and has quite a few secrets to uncover.

Kalendraf.9521:

Takashiro.8701:

Playerbase complains that they want challenging open world PvE content.
Anet gives them TD (and VB) where you can’t straight up rum from point A to point B but actually have to think about what you’re doing.
Playerbase complains they can’t half afk through the content anymore.

More a case of (a vocal minority?) of the playerbase asking for challenging open world PvE content, ANet deciding to use that as an excuse to go on a tangential Z-dimension map-making frenzy, and then a significant portion of the playerbase discovering that Z-dimension maps are overly confusing, annoying and not fun to play.

To be honest I don’t think anyone can really say with any certainty that it was a minority that complained they wanted more challenging content, or that it’s a significant amount of the player base that don’t enjoy layered maps. As no one knows numbers of how many players like this, wanted that, don’t like this etc.

Drawing conclusions that it’s a significant amount that don’t like something based on forums etc is pointless as people are only more likely to post / complain about something they don’t like (be it wanting more challenging stuff or layered maps etc), those who are fine with it will generally just carry on as normal. So even if there’s 100 threads complaining about something on a forum that could still be a tiny percentage of the overall player base.

I’d pick 5 core maps to top my list of “worst” maps, but I’m having a hard time differentiating between them. They look beautiful as all maps do in this game, but for me they simply lack personality. There are lots of them and none of them stand out to me in any way.

By comparison, the HoT maps all feel unique to me, despite sharing the same jungle setting. The only one I don’t really like is DS, but I still appreciate the unique meta there (it just isn’t my thing).

1. Tangled Depths
2. Verdant Brink
3. Dry Top

Most awful maps:
1. HoT maps, especially Tangled Depths and Dragon Stand (pve)
2. Edge of the Mists (WvWvW)
3. Dry Top (pve)
4. Desert borderlands (WvWvW)

Common features among these maps:
UGLY (for me)
too complex
too much gimmicks
too much verticality
HoT maps + Dry Top travel tied to meta events
too much like a jumping puzzle
annoying

My favorite maps are all the original maps. Sadly there hasn’t been a single really good map since the release. It seems the original map designers left the company.

Kalendraf.9521:

1. Tangled MessDepths – Confusing to navigate and explore. Lack of waypoints makes it difficult to reach some events during meta

I get that not everyone is going to enjoy a map like Tangled Depths. However, I’m noticing a trend here. Many of the complaints come with huge misconceptions about the map layout.

Lack of waypoints and contested waypoints? There is no map in the game that requires the use of waypoints less than Tangled Depths! Seriously, just LOOK at the map! I know you believe it’s useless, but at least pay attention to the wallows!

See that wallow just south of the first waypoint? That takes you northeast to the undergrowth connector. See the wallow right next to that one? It takes you straight to Teku Nuhoch waypoint (which is never contested, but reaching the waypoint literally takes less than a minute if you don’t have it yet).

Teku Nuhoch waypoint is a wallow hub. Take the wallow to confluence passage, skip across Rata Novus lane to the wallow there and in literally <30 seconds you have reached Rata Novus waypoint.

You mention the meta. LOOK at the map! SEE the wallows! All four lanes have wallows located right next to their respective waypoints and none of those waypoints will ever be contested during the meta. How did you not see this?

It isn’t your style of map. I get it. But what you’re really telling us with this is that you never gave it a chance, because you should have at least seen those wallows and understood their significance. But instead you’re complaint is about waypoints…which are barely necessary in TD.

You can literally hit all available waypoints from scratch in less than 10 minutes on this map (Did it in <7 minutes on my thief!). Use the wallows. It will make the map much more enjoyable than waiting around for waypoints to become uncontested or trying to navigate through convoluted areas you haven’t learned yet.

AliamRationem.5172:

Kalendraf.9521:

1. Tangled MessDepths – Confusing to navigate and explore. Lack of waypoints makes it difficult to reach some events during meta

I get that not everyone is going to enjoy a map like Tangled Depths. However, I’m noticing a trend here. Many of the complaints come with huge misconceptions about the map layout.

Lack of waypoints and contested waypoints? There is no map in the game that requires the use of waypoints less than Tangled Depths! Seriously, just LOOK at the map! I know you believe it’s useless, but at least pay attention to the wallows!

See that wallow just south of the first waypoint? That takes you northeast to the undergrowth connector. See the wallow right next to that one? It takes you straight to Teku Nuhoch waypoint (which is never contested, but reaching the waypoint literally takes less than a minute if you don’t have it yet).

Teku Nuhoch waypoint is a wallow hub. Take the wallow to confluence passage, skip across Rata Novus lane to the wallow there and in literally <30 seconds you have reached Rata Novus waypoint.

You mention the meta. LOOK at the map! SEE the wallows! All four lanes have wallows located right next to their respective waypoints and none of those waypoints will ever be contested during the meta. How did you not see this?

It isn’t your style of map. I get it. But what you’re really telling us with this is that you never gave it a chance, because you should have at least seen those wallows and understood their significance. But instead you’re complaint is about waypoints…which are barely necessary in TD.

You can literally hit all available waypoints from scratch in less than 10 minutes on this map (Did it in <7 minutes on my thief!). Use the wallows. It will make the map much more enjoyable than waiting around for waypoints to become uncontested or trying to navigate through convoluted areas you haven’t learned yet.

I understand what you’re saying. Once I saw the pattern of the wallows, as you say it makes navigation much easier especially for the Meta. But I still marked it as my #1 worst map because getting anywhere in between the navigation tools is still the most confusing, and the mobs are the worst for me of any map.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

… 2 Iron Marches (Ascalon)

• for not being ocnnected to diessa plateau (sounds trivial but has been a frustration since my 1st character. …

Agreed! Although, I like to hang this blame on Diessa Plateau.

Sure, they probably made Diessa a dead end because it’s a 15-25 zone and didn’t want 20-ish characters wandering into Fireheart (60-70 zone) or Iron Marches (50-60 zone). However, they didn’t wall-off Frostgorge (70-80 zone) from Wayfarer (1-15 zone)! Not sure why they didn’t connect Blazeridge (40-50 zone) to Iron Marches (50-60), either.

It would have been much better, IMO, if they allowed easy access from one map to the others and just stationed a scout NPC there to warn explorers about the potentially dangerous territories.

Worst maps? Any map from Dry Top on into HoT. They are the intrusion of the jumping puzzle into the core game, something Anet said would never happen. The new maps are nothing but advancing the core game through platforming. The context of the maps is also problematic, i.e., you do your platforming with annoying mobs densely populated…everywhere.

Raine.1394:

Worst maps? Any map from Dry Top on into HoT. They are the intrusion of the jumping puzzle into the core game, something Anet said would never happen. The new maps are nothing but advancing the core game through platforming. The context of the maps is also problematic, i.e., you do your platforming with annoying mobs densely populated…everywhere.

I think we’re using a pretty loose interpretation of the terms “platforming” and “jumping puzzle” here. Jumping off a ledge and deploying a glider or bouncing off of a mushroom that automatically sends you to the same location every time (minus some wonnkiness every now and then) doesn’t strike me as “jump puzzle” or “platforming” material. But I suppose you’re welcome to your own interpretation.

Here’s my list. Number 1 being the worst.

1. Tangled Depths – The sheer complexity of this map is overwhelming. Despite spending a good amount of time there it still is beyond me. It’s just too much. Getting lost is an understatement. The events are alright if you can actually find them. But they are a bit far and few between.

2. Dry Top – Getting around on this map is a bit annoying. Mainly because it’s all valleys so you have to take the designated path which leads to little open exploration. Also this map needs some more events. Particularly escort ones. Such as escorting refuges to the camp that are still in the crash site. Or escorting lost refuges to the nearest Centaur camp.

3. Fireheart Rise – Getting around on this map for me is difficult. I feel like there are very few distinctive markers to know where you are on the map. Everything looks the same. Just burnt wasteland everywhere. The only distinctive looking markers to me are the hero point that’s in this giant crack, the snowy area in the top left and CoF area. Events seem alright though.

4. Straits of Devastation – I’m not sure why but I’m not particularly fond of this map. The chain events are pretty good but I think a lot of it has to do with completion of this map. Getting around to some areas is a bit of a pain. It’s a huge map with many points of interest which is a bit tedious.

5. Bloodstone Fen – This map is nice to look at but getting around despite the updrafts and ley lines is kind of annoying. Getting shot down out of the sky due to a White Mantle enemy throwing a hammer is irritating as heck. Events seem pretty good although most of them require a lot of people to be around. I think there needs to be more of a mix of solo and group events. Normally I’d say map size is a bit small but since it’s mostly vertical I’m okay with that.

Malchor’s Leap and Cursed Shore are the only maps I actually can’t stand in the game. Arbitrary difficulty, every single mob has multiple chill, immob, cripple, or stun skills (and there is no reason to ever fight any of them unless you are doing events specifically), HP blocked by cathedrals. Just overall boring and annoying to map. I genuinely cannot stand having to aggro and clear 8+ mobs every time I need to look at the map for a split second.
And getting no loot for it either.

Kumion.7580:

Not sure why they didn’t connect Blazeridge (40-50 zone) to Iron Marches (50-60), either.

They did. The portal is in the northwest corner of Blazeridge.

For me, TD is the worst map of them all. Because it is so hard to navigate. And filled with Chak. And mordrem. Seriously, I disliked VB at first, but the more I played it, the more I liked it. Same for Auric Basin or Dragon Stand. But with TD the more time I spent there the more I disliked it. There is some great story telling going on. The Ogres, SCAR for example. But the map itself really sucks my will to play out of me. Draconis Mons on the other hand – I love it.

Rata Sum. It is confusing and filled with Asura. Just horrible.

Another map I wholeheartly dislike is Black Citadel. Map completion takes way longer than such a small map deserves. But at least the npc chatter is nice.

Dry Top. If I am not forced to go there, I don’t.

Bloodstone Fen could be much better, with a bit less white mantle mesmers.

On the other hand I like Lake Doric, I love Draconic Mons. The Grove and Caledon are my absolute favs. Queensdale is nice. Gendarran is lovely. Hoelbrak is my second fav. starting area.

And then there are the ‘meh’ maps. I don’t actively avoid them, but after completing whatever task is waiting there, I just don’t see a reason to waste time there. Like most of Ascalon or Orr. Not because the maps themselves are bad. It is just boring there.

Bitterfrost frontier is easily the worst. Chill for days, and the designers not only forgot all the waypoints, but couldn’t figure out how travel masteries are supposed to work.

Dry Top…I don’t like the colour scheme…lack of events… hard to farm geodes.
When the sandstorm happens, it’s even worse…

1) Tangled Depths. I still can’t believe some people even dares defend this abomination of a map. Want to see good non flat map designs? Check out Dark Souls or post Majora’s Mask Zelda, don’t even try to put this as an example… Hell to navigate and learn, full of chak swarms and veteran mobs every two steps… It’s not a challenging map, it’s unfair, you are fighting the design of this place. It’s like that horrible JP, Skip up the Volcano.

2) Dragon’s Stand. I still don’t understand how most people seem to completely ignore the problem with this map: it’s entirely based on group meta events, and sooner then later (new expansion coming), people will stop playing it. It’s extremely stupid to design maps so they can only be completed in a group, you have to be realistic and plan ahead when designing those things. I feel bad for future players who try to complete this thing…

3) Harathi Hinterlands. Depressing map, I don’t get how centaurs, who supposedly venerate the spirits of the Earth, manage to make everything so barren. Traveling through a map and seeing centaurs everywhere gets boring. The hearts are all around the place, and the Skritt heart is horribly designed, makes you run back and forth waiting for tunnels to collapse as the harpies only spawn once every ten thousand years.

4) Plains of Ashford. Besides having an awful color palette, 18 hearts for a starting area is Overkill. Navigation is annoying, with some waypoints close and others placed God knows where, plus having a PoI entirely dependant on events, which again is pretty bad considering this is a starting area.

5) Frostgorge Sound. I was gonna call Lornar’s Pass, but the combination of endless snow, Dredge, copy paste Kodan bases and the sheer amount of water terrain make this one way, way worse than Lornar’s Pass… At least I could ignore the stupid Dredge Suit there, Frostgorge forces me to pick it to do an extremely annoying heart…

AliamRationem.5172:

Raine.1394:

Worst maps? Any map from Dry Top on into HoT. They are the intrusion of the jumping puzzle into the core game, something Anet said would never happen. The new maps are nothing but advancing the core game through platforming. The context of the maps is also problematic, i.e., you do your platforming with annoying mobs densely populated…everywhere.

I think we’re using a pretty loose interpretation of the terms “platforming” and “jumping puzzle” here. Jumping off a ledge and deploying a glider or bouncing off of a mushroom that automatically sends you to the same location every time (minus some wonnkiness every now and then) doesn’t strike me as “jump puzzle” or “platforming” material. But I suppose you’re welcome to your own interpretation.

It is far more Mario (mushrooms? things that make you vanish in one place and appear in another – wallows?) than any other MMO I know of. IMO that is too much platforming. And yes you do need to jump more unless you know shortcuts to high points that you can glide down from. Not everyone knows those.

Aldath.1275:

2) Dragon’s Stand. I still don’t understand how most people seem to completely ignore the problem with this map: it’s entirely based on group meta events, and sooner then later (new expansion coming), people will stop playing it. It’s extremely stupid to design maps so they can only be completed in a group, you have to be realistic and plan ahead when designing those things. I feel bad for future players who try to complete this thing…

I think you said the problem: people ignore it. This is because it is not a valid map to do anything except the meta. So it’s not really an option as a “normal” map. People still do the meta because they still want things out of the map, but just as with the TD meta I don’t know how new players are going to complete the meta once the new expansion hits and no one wants to go back there.

HoT maps no contest

I show up for an event on any other maps and the maps I zone in on is the one that gets the event done.

I show up for an event on a HoT maps and its empty no one is there because I have to use LFG to get an active event. If I miss the train for points I’m out of luck and will have to wait for the next.

A new player can explore all they want with only a skill gap halting them from exploring higher level places. Pre-HoT I collected all the pets on my ranger before I was even lvl 10. However in HoT your gated from entering certain areas by mastieries thus gating exploration.

The runner up maps for the worse would have to be S3 maps they’re too small, zone locked masteries, and don’t have the longevity of S2 maps. Also locking legendary design to the story content has lead to some rather bad legendary designs

for me it’s like this and in this order

1. Hot maps

2. living story maps

3. Ascalon

4. dry top

5. silverwastes

1. Tangled Depths – where am I?
2. Dragon’s Stand – really hate how all WPs get contested
3. Dry Top – annoying to navigate

I can’t really hate on any of the season 3 maps. Draconis Mons is the worst of the bunch in terms of navigation but compared to some others its not bad at all.

I’m annoyed how many of the new maps only have like 2 waypoints. What is up with that? Please give us more waypoints!

1. Verdant Brink – the vertical scale of the map makes no sense. Trees are far too big, chasms are far too deep, and it looks like a platformer after the naturalistic environment of the Silverwastes.
What I would have done differently – focus on density, as far as the engine will allow, instead of size to bring the Maguuma alive. The crashed Pact airships could have been landmarks instead.

2. Alpine Borderlands – the strategic positioning of towers and forts is illogical, the landscape is dull and there are huge portions of the map with no gameplay value. You don’t even get a map completion chest for going to them anymore.
What could fix it – try to capture the aesthetic of Timberline Falls, which did a fantastic job with an alpine environment, and position towers to control the passes. Let go of symmetric layout, and allow players to recruit centaurs/skritt to assist them, patrol passes, or disrupt enemy activities. Probably bring back the quaggans, too.

3. Bloodstone Fen – quite small and visually disconnected from its GW1 spirit.
What I would have done differently – fractured the bloodstone instead of blown it up into floating pieces in the air as an excuse to have a vertically-oriented map, and I would have hidden it in an anomaly-populated jungle with rows of trees blasted to the ground around the bloodstone itself. One of the best parts of Bloodstone Fen in GW1 was the trek through the jungle to find it.

4. Bitterfrost Frontier – beautiful landscape, but gimmicky to play through and not much fun to explore.
What I would have liked to see – drop most of the collections, and instead add a couple (not-so?) mini-dungeons to bring back the delving spirit of Eye of the North from GW1. Battledepths could have been a hit.

5. Cursed Shore – ugly, and a bit anti-climactic for a Pact invasion. Feels more like an exploratory mission rather than taking back Orr.
What could fix it – replicating Dragon’s Stand. A defined front line, a few charr tanks, and the ability to cleanse the land you conquer, visually changing it as you proceed. Add in a cleared instance that you can return to via NPC dialogue, similar to Agent Zrii in Dragon’s Stand (but instead present to give you a way to “keep” the cleansed state of Orr).

Ben K.6238:

1. Verdant Brink – the vertical scale of the map makes no sense. Trees are far too big, chasms are far too deep, and it looks like a platformer after the naturalistic environment of the Silverwastes.
What I would have done differently – focus on density, as far as the engine will allow, instead of size to bring the Maguuma alive. The crashed Pact airships could have been landmarks instead.

2. Alpine Borderlands – the strategic positioning of towers and forts is illogical, the landscape is dull and there are huge portions of the map with no gameplay value. You don’t even get a map completion chest for going to them anymore.
What could fix it – try to capture the aesthetic of Timberline Falls, which did a fantastic job with an alpine environment, and position towers to control the passes. Let go of symmetric layout, and allow players to recruit centaurs/skritt to assist them, patrol passes, or disrupt enemy activities. Probably bring back the quaggans, too.

3. Bloodstone Fen – quite small and visually disconnected from its GW1 spirit.
What I would have done differently – fractured the bloodstone instead of blown it up into floating pieces in the air as an excuse to have a vertically-oriented map, and I would have hidden it in an anomaly-populated jungle with rows of trees blasted to the ground around the bloodstone itself. One of the best parts of Bloodstone Fen in GW1 was the trek through the jungle to find it.

4. Bitterfrost Frontier – beautiful landscape, but gimmicky to play through and not much fun to explore.
What I would have liked to see – drop most of the collections, and instead add a couple (not-so?) mini-dungeons to bring back the delving spirit of Eye of the North from GW1. Battledepths could have been a hit.

5. Cursed Shore – ugly, and a bit anti-climactic for a Pact invasion. Feels more like an exploratory mission rather than taking back Orr.
What could fix it – replicating Dragon’s Stand. A defined front line, a few charr tanks, and the ability to cleanse the land you conquer, visually changing it as you proceed. Add in a cleared instance that you can return to via NPC dialogue, similar to Agent Zrii in Dragon’s Stand (but instead present to give you a way to “keep” the cleansed state of Orr).

I like your ideas.

I have not gone beyond the HoT maps except for Bloodstone Fen briefly.

1. Not crazy about any of the HoT maps due to ridiculous navigation, but one I hate the absolute most is Tangled Depths.
2. Dry Top- annoying navigation gimmicks.
3. Silverwastes- just ugly, no redeeming features.
4. Black Citadel- more annoying navigation (The Grove is runner-up for racial cities).
5. Brisban Wildlands- not sure I can put my finger on why. Perhaps disjointed, as another poster put it. Just feels like a jumble of mini-zones with no cohesion.

Honorable mention: Dragon’s Stand simply because I would like to be able to explore the map at my leisure, preferably solo, like we can all other maps.

The HoT maps are just pure annoyance to me. The navigation issues along with insanely difficult mobs, it’s just an interest-killer for me.

AliamRationem.5172:

Raine.1394:

Worst maps? Any map from Dry Top on into HoT. They are the intrusion of the jumping puzzle into the core game, something Anet said would never happen. The new maps are nothing but advancing the core game through platforming. The context of the maps is also problematic, i.e., you do your platforming with annoying mobs densely populated…everywhere.

I think we’re using a pretty loose interpretation of the terms “platforming” and “jumping puzzle” here. Jumping off a ledge and deploying a glider or bouncing off of a mushroom that automatically sends you to the same location every time (minus some wonnkiness every now and then) doesn’t strike me as “jump puzzle” or “platforming” material. But I suppose you’re welcome to your own interpretation.

Google “platforming game”. Second hit for me was the wiki. “A platform game (or platformer) is a type of video game, and a subgenre of action game. It involves guiding a player character or avatar to jump between suspended platforms and/or over obstacles to traverse their environment. The player controls the jumps to avoid letting their character fall to their death or miss necessary jumps.” The key here is that you advance the game through the performance of platforming.

Sound like any games you’ve played? Maybe GW2 from Dry Top on? I think we’re using a pretty tight interpretation of platforming here.

1. Lake Doric is quite bad. Bad scaling, the sheer idiocy of the “leather farm”. Further, mobs don’t drop unbound magic and there is no karmic retribution to save it even a little bit like other LS maps.
2. Straits of Devastation – I really want to like this map, and remember liking it at the beginning of the game, but contested WPs and neglected underwater stuff are rather annoying now. And screw that lab puzzle/minidungeon with the hands and exploding fish.
3. Dragon’s Stand – complete waste of a map 95% of the time

Among the rest, there is usually only some minor gripes.

i would say the trampoline dragon fight map…. im figthing the dragon minion with trampolines … :|

Only by ANet logic. it looks action!!! man, action!!!!,… just keep spamming 1 while at it….