Guild Wars 2

as far as i know, A.net didn’t lie about the expansion… every single feature/content that i saw they announce made it into the game.

in the AngryJoe interview, they said loud and clear that “this is a feature focused expansion instead of a content focused one”, so everyone who bought HOT knew exactly what they were getting.

if you put it on your mind that there would be a thousand hours worth of content, a 50-hours story or 20 different maps, even though they never even hinted at anything like that, then you have nothing to complain about…

Yeah I don’t know what they were expecting.

What do people have to complain about? How about the amount of content and “features” you get simply isn’t worth the price? FFXIV offered far more content and mechanics for a lower price. WvW got a map that was absolutely terrible, its like they saw the complaints about EotM and thought they were complinents. How about when ArenaNet said that new specs wouldn’t be alpha specs, but for the most part they are. How about them taking content that was available pre-HoT and gating it behind HoT content?

I think the most frustrating thing is that people might have expected things to change after HoT released. Sadly though we are back in the same old rut, extremely slow updates that only focus on one area of the game and questionable implementations.

It also comes down to perceived value vs actual value. If you’ve spent 100hrs playing HoT content, and you went full-whammy on the expac, then you’ve spent $1/hr of play… way cheaper than most AAA titles or the theater. I feel that at that point the player has gotten their money’s worth, even if they’re no longer enjoying the content now; but that doesn’t seem to be the perception. I suspect that many of the people who’re complaining about HoT have played more than 100hrs… And, playing HoT content includes playing with elite specs (in all modes, not just in HoT maps), time spent gliding, exploring HoT maps, etc.

Those who spent only (for example) 10 hrs in HoT and then said, “kitten this kitten,” AND haven’t touched gliding, elite specs, or anything else since… then, yeah, I feel bad for ‘em. ANet can’t please everybody, but they are trying to please as many people as they can.

~EW

Distaste.4801:

What do people have to complain about? How about the amount of content and “features” you get simply isn’t worth the price?

did they announce any feature and content that didn’t make it into the game?
if you bought the game, you were fully aware of what you were going to get for your money.

idk about any content that was avaliable for players before hot, and couldn’t be played after the release unless you had the expansion… care to give me an example?

I don’t know if someone said it, but pretty sure that they said they will focus on WvW this expansion =p
Please don’t tell me they are focusing on WvW =p

I don’t hate it. I love it. I just find it funny over last summer theyd say several times that the Berserker meta will be less common and yet… No? I don’t mind I just wonder why they made their content the way they did it they wanted to change it.

Distaste.4801:

What do people have to complain about? How about the amount of content and “features” you get simply isn’t worth the price? FFXIV offered far more content and mechanics for a lower price. WvW got a map that was absolutely terrible, its like they saw the complaints about EotM and thought they were complinents. How about when ArenaNet said that new specs wouldn’t be alpha specs, but for the most part they are. How about them taking content that was available pre-HoT and gating it behind HoT content?

I think the most frustrating thing is that people might have expected things to change after HoT released. Sadly though we are back in the same old rut, extremely slow updates that only focus on one area of the game and questionable implementations.

Or the style of content in HoT being a disappointment for some.

Or that some people who paid for the expansion were told after Anet had their money that some of the features mentioned in the sales pitch would not be delivered well after the expansion.

Plenty of reasons for peope to complain, but then someone was going to complain no matter what.

Well to be fair guild upgrades (like supply capacity for WvW) that were available pre HoT were cut from the base game and were re package and heavily gated behind PvE HoT content.

In general the WvW community was hosed by HoT. They got a map that by and large many don’t like. A chasm across skill balance. More PvE content in a mode where many don’t want PvE content. Upgrades that radically unbalanced the game mode and seemed poorly implemented / shoddily tested (hello dragon banner) The laggy Oasis event that slowed gameplay to a crawl. (I had some events where I couldn’t even auto attack) Bugs on objectives that allowed enemy players to simply waypoint in and cap the objective whenever they wanted. This isn’t to mention the stability changes and skill balance that were implemented pre HoT that were leading up to and preparing for HoT. I mean I can see where those players would be disappointed in the expansion. It didn’t do much good for them.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

It also comes down to perceived value vs actual value. If you’ve spent 100hrs playing HoT content, and you went full-whammy on the expac, then you’ve spent $1/hr of play… way cheaper than most AAA titles or the theater. I feel that at that point the player has gotten their money’s worth, even if they’re no longer enjoying the content now; but that doesn’t seem to be the perception. I suspect that many of the people who’re complaining about HoT have played more than 100hrs… And, playing HoT content includes playing with elite specs (in all modes, not just in HoT maps), time spent gliding, exploring HoT maps, etc.

Those who spent only (for example) 10 hrs in HoT and then said, “kitten this kitten,” AND haven’t touched gliding, elite specs, or anything else since… then, yeah, I feel bad for ‘em. ANet can’t please everybody, but they are trying to please as many people as they can.

~EW

Different people calculate a game’s value to them in different ways. You and I do it by $/time spent and if we can get it down to $1/minute then we’re golden.

But others look at quanity of content/$. And HoT was low on quantity of content. Those players aren’t too happy because they haven’t reached the ratio that they view is worth it.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

It also comes down to perceived value vs actual value. If you’ve spent 100hrs playing HoT content, and you went full-whammy on the expac, then you’ve spent $1/hr of play… way cheaper than most AAA titles or the theater. I feel that at that point the player has gotten their money’s worth, even if they’re no longer enjoying the content now; but that doesn’t seem to be the perception. I suspect that many of the people who’re complaining about HoT have played more than 100hrs… And, playing HoT content includes playing with elite specs (in all modes, not just in HoT maps), time spent gliding, exploring HoT maps, etc.

Those who spent only (for example) 10 hrs in HoT and then said, “kitten this kitten,” AND haven’t touched gliding, elite specs, or anything else since… then, yeah, I feel bad for ‘em. ANet can’t please everybody, but they are trying to please as many people as they can.

~EW

I played maybe 3-4 hours max in Verdant Brink and then went back into the
old zones, since it simply was no fun for me.

Perhaps it is that with HoT core content was repackaged for HoT(guild boons not being available for core gw2 players, fractal rewards changed to favor those who could get fractal masteries, gutting dungeon rewards was seen as a move to goad players into raids, etc.)

The original cost of elite specs was something they didn’t advertise before release. There was a huge outcry against it. Highly gated content also didn’t sit well with a lot of players.

I don’t believe Mario style gameplay was ever advertised. Yes, I know they mentioned adventures but I don’t remember seeing a reveal of them until maybe the few days before release.

“play your way” philosophy totally wrecked by mastery points.

These are things that some players dislike about HoT. I probably left out some stuff but these are some examples.

Overhyped, overpriced, grindfest that underdelivers. That’s why.

My gripe is:
“Legendary backpack available in HoT! Legendary armor!”

Woohoo!

“Oh, its not implemented yet, or not fully yet….”

….>:(

Kyzonu.7504:

as far as i know, A.net didn’t lie about the expansion… every single feature/content that i saw they announce made it into the game.

in the AngryJoe interview, they said loud and clear that “this is a feature focused expansion instead of a content focused one”, so everyone who bought HOT knew exactly what they were getting.

if you put it on your mind that there would be a thousand hours worth of content, a 50-hours story or 20 different maps, even though they never even hinted at anything like that, then you have nothing to complain about…

HoT destroyed WvW, the rewards from dungeons, made most of core clases useless in PvP and turned PvE in a generic korean grindfest. Albeit as now I’m mainly a PvP players the leagues worth the losses…

I think the title for this thread should be “Why are Players disappointed by HoT?” we forget how strong the word Hate is these days. I suggest the title be changed.

Why are most players disappointed by HoT? Because it brought solutions that caused griefing and didn’t resolve the original issue we had. Precursor Crafting is that particular issue. I would love to craft The Colossus, The Legend; to create The Juggernaut, The Bifrost. But ArenaNet did something very wrong by basing how much currency/material is needed by using the Trading Post as an example, getting the idea on how much players put a value on items. Crafting a Precursor shouldn’t be gated behind ascended material. It should be more about the Quest it brings us on, not Meaningless-Farming & Waiting-Games. Collections are fun and a pain in the but, yet still do-able.

Even though HoT improved and brought new technology, most we’ll never notice. We have a lack of visual experience in the game which is what will grab are attention. In most games.

I say HoT has more value than a AAA title like CoD games. But It won’t feel as rich as playing something like Pillars of Eternity. Yes these aren’t MMO’s but it is fair to mention them because GW2 has other gaming elements to it, and in the past has added SAB. Something that’s just all about having fun!

Uhm, Guildhalls. Scribe. Look almost anywhere and there is most likely an issue that doesn’t have justified difficulty and still retain the fun of playing with a community.

We’ll all have are preference but there isn’t much “play the way you want” in HoT. I would love to play Tank only rolls for Raids, but the mechanics of fights doesn’t make it worth playing a defensive only roll. I’ll value saving my team mates to endure mechanics that push the limits of our builds. Also it is difficult to play with someone who doesn’t have a high level mastery, like Gliding. Playing with a friend new to HoT brings back just how not fun it was, at least for me, to do any of the Mastery’s.

The list can go on… Can also mention the Story. But anyway, there is a lot of negative feedback for HoT because most of the design choices aren’t justified: Don’t feel right for this game and for the kind of community it has grained.

Distaste.4801:

What do people have to complain about? How about the amount of content and “features” you get simply isn’t worth the price? FFXIV offered far more content and mechanics for a lower price. WvW got a map that was absolutely terrible, its like they saw the complaints about EotM and thought they were complinents. How about when ArenaNet said that new specs wouldn’t be alpha specs, but for the most part they are. How about them taking content that was available pre-HoT and gating it behind HoT content?

I think the most frustrating thing is that people might have expected things to change after HoT released. Sadly though we are back in the same old rut, extremely slow updates that only focus on one area of the game and questionable implementations.

Yeah, but remember the size of the company, Arenanet is far smaller then Square-Enix

Distaste.4801:

What do people have to complain about? How about the amount of content and “features” you get simply isn’t worth the price? FFXIV offered far more content and mechanics for a lower price. WvW got a map that was absolutely terrible, its like they saw the complaints about EotM and thought they were complinents. How about when ArenaNet said that new specs wouldn’t be alpha specs, but for the most part they are. How about them taking content that was available pre-HoT and gating it behind HoT content?

I think the most frustrating thing is that people might have expected things to change after HoT released. Sadly though we are back in the same old rut, extremely slow updates that only focus on one area of the game and questionable implementations.

FFXIV closed down for a year to relaunch their game after a terrible start. This is more akin to that than anything else. They redesigned the trait system, added in the mastery system, created systems that will allow them to expand moving forwards. Remember this game launched without plans to have an expansion and when they changed direction they needed to rewrite some core parts of the game. Likewise stuff like gliding problem required changes to the physics engines. If your’e going to use FFXIV as a shining example of gaming, you should probably cut Guild Wars 2 more slack because they didn’t have to suspend operations till they fixed their game from the start. This was more like the reboot than anything else, so of course, there’s going to be less content. And they told us this.

Tearthy Flame.1463:

I think the title for this thread should be “Why are Players disappointed by HoT?” we forget how strong the word Hate is these days. I suggest the title be changed.

Why are most players disappointed by HoT? Because it brought solutions that caused griefing and didn’t resolve the original issue we had. Precursor Crafting is that particular issue. I would love to craft The Colossus, The Legend; to create The Juggernaut, The Bifrost. But ArenaNet did something very wrong by basing how much currency/material is needed by using the Trading Post as an example, getting the idea on how much players put a value on items. Crafting a Precursor shouldn’t be gated behind ascended material. It should be more about the Quest it brings us on, not Meaningless-Farming & Waiting-Games. Collections are fun and a pain in the but, yet still do-able.

Even though HoT improved and brought new technology, most we’ll never notice. We have a lack of visual experience in the game which is what will grab are attention. In most games.

I say HoT has more value than a AAA title like CoD games. But It won’t feel as rich as playing something like Pillars of Eternity. Yes these aren’t MMO’s but it is fair to mention them because GW2 has other gaming elements to it, and in the past has added SAB. Something that’s just all about having fun!

Uhm, Guildhalls. Scribe. Look almost anywhere and there is most likely an issue that doesn’t have justified difficulty and still retain the fun of playing with a community.

We’ll all have are preference but there isn’t much “play the way you want” in HoT. I would love to play Tank only rolls for Raids, but the mechanics of fights doesn’t make it worth playing a defensive only roll. I’ll value saving my team mates to endure mechanics that push the limits of our builds. Also it is difficult to play with someone who doesn’t have a high level mastery, like Gliding. Playing with a friend new to HoT brings back just how not fun it was, at least for me, to do any of the Mastery’s.

The list can go on… Can also mention the Story. But anyway, there is a lot of negative feedback for HoT because most of the design choices aren’t justified: Don’t feel right for this game and for the kind of community it has grained.

I’m not sure most players are disappointed by HoT. In most threads, most of the topics seem to be about 50/50, and from long experience I know that more people complain than compliment.

I’m just wondering where you get your data from.

I think HoT as an expansion is decent. The problem is the problems… They are small but they chip and chip and chip away at the actual experience.

*We have the issue of Elite specs in PVP against non HoT players

*We have the marathon-maps such as dragons stand which can take, upwards of two hours to complete depending on just how good your players are.

*We had a scribing system and a timegated guild hall system that chipped away at the core of enjoyment

*We had serious grinding issues with a few of the core content pieces in HoT, the Mastereries, while an awesome system suffered from this as a base example.

*Content drought after a very quick, run-through story. HoT has suffered one of the biggest content droughts I’ve seen since WoW post pandaria. We had a quick-speedy story that one could blow through incredibly fast… Then as we were still hungry for more story it simply dropped out and now, we’re getting reports we might not have Living Story Season 3 till mid-summer… This is a very big problem for the lore buffs.

*Grindy legendaries. ((Being fixed currently)) Alot of the big draw of HoT’s endgame was new legendaries… These legendaries were found and still are very very grindy, with incredible time-gates and mat requirements to get JUST the precursor. To be fair this is being fixed and looked at by the devs, but a kick to the stones with aftercare is still a kick to the stones.

The list goes on and on with tiny things that chip away from the core experience as a whole. Again, these are tiny things in most regards… But as more and more show themselves it starts to stack up. Mountains are made from mole-hills when many many molehills are stacked on top of one another.

Kyzonu.7504:

as far as i know, A.net didn’t lie about the expansion… every single feature/content that i saw they announce made it into the game.

in the AngryJoe interview, they said loud and clear that “this is a feature focused expansion instead of a content focused one”, so everyone who bought HOT knew exactly what they were getting.

if you put it on your mind that there would be a thousand hours worth of content, a 50-hours story or 20 different maps, even though they never even hinted at anything like that, then you have nothing to complain about…

I don’t “hate” HoT – It’s a feeling I reserve for things much more important than a game expansion.
I am however, both underwhelmed and disappointed with HoT and the attached pricetag. I used to have a lot of faith in previous versions of “Arena Net”. The current version seems to mostly offer content that I feel indifferent towards.

As for lies and/or “creative” marketing: We have all seen it before. Even months after the launch of “Age of Conan” some people kept rigorously defending the game/company and often claimed that Funcom never lied, the game was fine etc. etc. In the end none of that mattered: People felt lied to, the game was not what they felt was promised and the result is painfully clear today!

While I only feel indifference/dissatisfaction about HoT, I really hope that Anet does not go the way of Funcom.
And THAT is the only reason I complain about Anet abandoning what used to be core customers in the hope of attracting new.

I don’t /hate/ HoT, just don’t play it. I quit a month after it released.

Think of it this way: Someone’s parents built a house, a GREAT house, like mansion quality, billion dollar house, but then only built 3/4s of it. Then, they decided to let their teenage kids finish it, who had very little experience in house building. To top it off, they let the crazy-drunk-mentally-challenged uncle manage the kids, while the parents decided to go out of the country for 3 years, and never check on the kids. This is Guild Wars 2.

People still play it, because i mean honestly, who doesn’t like a free MMO? People still play TERA and SWOTOR, so why not? If i was homeless, and those kids were letting random people stay at the unfinished, billion dollar home, i most certainly would.

So there ya go. Love it or leave. No one cares. The parents make phone calls every so often to tell the kids they might be back home soon, but they been doing that for the last 2 years! LOL

Edit: Just to note, this game is most certainly the next-gen MMO to follow in Mythic’s footsteps, ala Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, just as i predicted 2 years ago. I give it at least 1 more year, before the devs go completely dark, and this game goes to auto-run mode until they shut the servers down.

Srry but when I preordered they didn’t say “this is a feature focused expansion instead of a content focused one”….

Lord Kuru.3685:

Overhyped, overpriced, grindfest that underdelivers. That’s why.

You forgot to drop the microphone.

Ragnarox.9601:

Srry but when I preordered they didn’t say “this is a feature focused expansion instead of a content focused one”….

They mentioned it a couple of times and it was discussed on the forum. From an interview: O’Brien offered a similar thought when asked if players could expect future expansions following Heart of Thorns. “This expansion is about laying the groundwork,” he says. “We are building Guild Wars 2 to be the game that we want to be evolving over the long-term.”

I was aware that this was going to be a somewhat content light expansion but I can see how that information could easily be missed if someone wasn’t diligent about reading all blog posts and interviews.

Vayne.8563:

Tearthy Flame.1463:

I think the title for this thread should be “Why are Players disappointed by HoT?” we forget how strong the word Hate is these days. I suggest the title be changed.

Why are most players disappointed by HoT? Because it brought solutions that caused griefing and didn’t resolve the original issue we had. Precursor Crafting is that particular issue. I would love to craft The Colossus, The Legend; to create The Juggernaut, The Bifrost. But ArenaNet did something very wrong by basing how much currency/material is needed by using the Trading Post as an example, getting the idea on how much players put a value on items. Crafting a Precursor shouldn’t be gated behind ascended material. It should be more about the Quest it brings us on, not Meaningless-Farming & Waiting-Games. Collections are fun and a pain in the but, yet still do-able.

Even though HoT improved and brought new technology, most we’ll never notice. We have a lack of visual experience in the game which is what will grab are attention. In most games.

I say HoT has more value than a AAA title like CoD games. But It won’t feel as rich as playing something like Pillars of Eternity. Yes these aren’t MMO’s but it is fair to mention them because GW2 has other gaming elements to it, and in the past has added SAB. Something that’s just all about having fun!

Uhm, Guildhalls. Scribe. Look almost anywhere and there is most likely an issue that doesn’t have justified difficulty and still retain the fun of playing with a community.

We’ll all have are preference but there isn’t much “play the way you want” in HoT. I would love to play Tank only rolls for Raids, but the mechanics of fights doesn’t make it worth playing a defensive only roll. I’ll value saving my team mates to endure mechanics that push the limits of our builds. Also it is difficult to play with someone who doesn’t have a high level mastery, like Gliding. Playing with a friend new to HoT brings back just how not fun it was, at least for me, to do any of the Mastery’s.

The list can go on… Can also mention the Story. But anyway, there is a lot of negative feedback for HoT because most of the design choices aren’t justified: Don’t feel right for this game and for the kind of community it has grained.

I’m not sure most players are disappointed by HoT. In most threads, most of the topics seem to be about 50/50, and from long experience I know that more people complain than compliment.

I’m just wondering where you get your data from.

It’s not really collected Data, to me. I’ve witnessed many topics about these issues and more on the forums. It is me understanding the experience of the GW2 player base without deluding what they’ve posted, but I’m not trying too speak for everyone. Also, the GW2 forums were far more negative after the Expansion’s release, no doubt the topics are still around but just on another page. Yes it isn’t the opinions of all the player base, not everyone posts. But the issues are very obvious within the game anyway and should be reworked, if it is to meet the standard defining Hardcore or other. The game wasn’t originally made for Hardcore content, so there is a lot of older designs with the Professions that don’t meet that standard of difficulty for what Hardcore means.

I don’t believe most of the feedback is just based on that Player’s preference. Even though we’re use to the game now, time doesn’t make up for the design flaws being OK to have. Situations that were or still cause unnecessary grief and some that give reason for players to be more Toxic, should be reworked. GW2 had very specific guide lines to create a community looking to play together. Not cause a Fracture. – That’s what I believe, the game doesn’t do difficulty the right ways to the point it affects progression. Gating content, that shouldn’t be there in the first place, isn’t the answer to slowing down progression. As always it’s how much work has to be put into it.- The Title Light in the Darkness, Luminescent Armor, Achievements to obtain these could be done Solo with experience or with friends/community. The progression isn’t rendered by anything unnecessary it just took a lot of time to achieve, that’s how it is designed.

Some players have describe issues as Game-Breaking. For a reason! It may not be a feature totally broken, but there are obvious issues with GW2 that make the game feel like it has changed in ways that aren’t going to benefit GW2 in the long run.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Overhyped, overpriced, grindfest that underdelivers. That’s why.

I would like to add: glacially slow content release, disappointing and inadequate balancing, and it killed wvw. Megaservers try to close active maps and shuttle you off to even emptier maps, and taxing using the lfg tool is the primary method of experiencing content but it is the crudest solution to a very old problem that shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place (no ETA on a fix for that of course).

Participation percentage is a big part of the overall reward but if you swap instances you will lose all participation, even if you volunteer to leave an empty map or in the case of tangled depths you do one of the adventures that sends you to a private instance. Once again there is no ETA for a fix on this but even if they fix it that isn’t a good thing because they’re just cleaning up a mess that never should’ve been there in the first place.

Warcry.1596:

I don’t hate it. I love it. I just find it funny over last summer theyd say several times that the Berserker meta will be less common and yet… No? I don’t mind I just wonder why they made their content the way they did it they wanted to change it.

And yet, in raids, there are roles for healing, aggro management and condition damage as well as direct damage. Some people, at least, who wore berserker gear in open world PvE cannot afford to do so in HoT maps. If they in fact said exactly what you state they said, then they’ve made berserker gear less common.

Some posters seem to have gotten the idea that ANet intended to make the player-driven meta avoid optimized damage. The best they could do in that regard was to introduce different roles and make using them better in at least some fights. They did that. Clearly all they intended to do was to introduce mechanics that meant that not everyone in groups would be wearing all-direct-glass all the time. They were never going to make everyone play bunkers.

Distaste.4801:

How about the amount of content and “features” you get simply isn’t worth the price? FFXIV offered far more content and mechanics for a lower price.

FFXIV also requires an extra 12-15 bucks a month~ If Guild Wars 2 charged that, I’d have paid the price of HoT 8 times over by now. No thank you.

Heartpains.7312:

I don’t know if someone said it, but pretty sure that they said they will focus on WvW this expansion =p
Please don’t tell me they are focusing on WvW =p

I am pretty sure they said they were going to focus on WvW after they were done with the other stuff. Since LS3 is still nowhere in sight this is technically still true!

Heartpains.7312:

I don’t know if someone said it, but pretty sure that they said they will focus on WvW this expansion =p
Please don’t tell me they are focusing on WvW =p

I play about 90% WvW do you know what I got from the expansion? Elite specs that broke class balance, a map I hate, my guild upgrades that I had already earned stuck behind a huge gold sink etc. The only thing that I have really enjoyed is being able to duel in the GH.

They broke WvW before HoT and when it dropped it made it worse. I’m sure that there are plenty of devs still focusing on PvE so your turn will come again real soon.

Kheo.2504:

Distaste.4801:

How about the amount of content and “features” you get simply isn’t worth the price? FFXIV offered far more content and mechanics for a lower price.

FFXIV also requires an extra 12-15 bucks a month~ If Guild Wars 2 charged that, I’d have paid the price of HoT 8 times over by now. No thank you.

Note that i have no issues with this. I also don’t have any reason to troll the SE or FFXIV subreddit to complain or read other people’s compaints. Lemme tell, that $15 a month is COMPLETELY worth it to me. But, meh, d’ffrent strokes. d’ffrent folks.

Khisanth.2948:

Heartpains.7312:

I don’t know if someone said it, but pretty sure that they said they will focus on WvW this expansion =p
Please don’t tell me they are focusing on WvW =p

I am pretty sure they said they were going to focus on WvW after they were done with the other stuff. Since LS3 is still nowhere in sight this is technically still true!

WvW beta testing hopefully in April.

slamfunction.7462:

Kheo.2504:

Distaste.4801:

How about the amount of content and “features” you get simply isn’t worth the price? FFXIV offered far more content and mechanics for a lower price.

FFXIV also requires an extra 12-15 bucks a month~ If Guild Wars 2 charged that, I’d have paid the price of HoT 8 times over by now. No thank you.

Note that i have no issues with this. I also don’t have any reason to troll the SE or FFXIV subreddit to complain or read other people’s compaints. Lemme tell, that $15 a month is COMPLETELY worth it to me. But, meh, d’ffrent strokes. d’ffrent folks.

Plenty of complaints about that game in their forums too though.

I find that HoT is annoying. That’s all. It just didn’t bring anything good to the table. Brought overpowered, overbearing bullkitten that makes old builds worthless.

And I forgot to mention something, since that PvP season thing came (sorry pvp people) Anet balance became just over that pvp thing, not that there is balance there but I am just saying that they try to balance things around pvp and forget other things completely. PvP where you will see some people using AoE on the capping points even when you are not even standing there =p

As for HoT maps, I am not sure I haven’t played pve a lot, but isn’t it focused on having a map filled with people otherwise you can’t do much?

DGraves.3720:

I find that HoT is annoying. That’s all. It just didn’t bring anything good to the table. Brought overpowered, overbearing bullkitten that makes old builds worthless.

Yeah, and the fact that to be competitive with just about any class in pvp/wvw you have to cough up the xpac money, with some classes having existing trait lines gutted for the functionality to be moved behind the paywall (*cough*thief*cough*).

I really like HoT and I mostly knew what I was buying. Up to this date there are only two things that annoy me, the first is the unfinished underwater combat for the revenant and the second is the high amount of xp needed for the masteries. I would be totally fine with that if there were more maps to play on, but as it is currently you have to go through the same conten a few too many times. I would be really happy if they reduced the amount of xp needed for them in the Q2 update or LS3 came sooner and added another awesome map to the game.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

They mentioned it a couple of times and it was discussed on the forum. From an interview: O’Brien offered a similar thought when asked if players could expect future expansions following Heart of Thorns. “This expansion is about laying the groundwork,” he says. “We are building Guild Wars 2 to be the game that we want to be evolving over the long-term.”

I was aware that this was going to be a somewhat content light expansion but I can see how that information could easily be missed if someone wasn’t diligent about reading all blog posts and interviews.

I’m not sure that really works a defence even if you were diligent. If we take that in the way you suggest it basically says “This isn’t a proper expansion, its mainly a base for allowing us to sell you future expansions… Oh but we’re going to charge the price of the original game for it anyway.”

I think its fairer to treat it as a legit expansion. Just not a very well thought through one. As to the OP, I’ll copy my post from another thread:

I don’t think it’s fair to say they lied. It’s just that, through a combination of their marketing and hype, and customer over-optimism, expectation were much higher than delivered. Some of these expectations changed before HoT, some after. For me:

Price:
Expectation – Maybe half the cost of the base game.
Reality – The same as the base game.

New class:
Expectation – Would come with a couple of free character slots.
Reality – Came with one free character slot, after massive backlash.

WvW:
Expectation – New maps would be added.
Reality – New maps replaced current maps, and destroyed WvW. Also massive gold sinks turned up.

Legendary weapons:
Expectation – We’d get a full set of legendary weapons.
Reality – Five months later we have three legendary weapons, and no time frame on more.

Precursor crafting:
Expectation – We’d have a fun and accessible way to get precursors instead of the massive gold sink.
Reality – We have a fun and accessible way to get precursors, broken up in the middle by a massive gold sink.

Guild halls:
Expectation – We’d get a small hall we could decorate and level with our guild.
Reality – We got a massive and pretty amazing hall we could decorate and level with our guild… with an enormous gold sink. Oh and they broke guild missions for a few weeks.

Story:
Expectation – We’d get a medium length story that addressed Living World questions like where Rytlock has been, and handled a sudden anti-Sylvari climate.
Reality – Eh… It sort of did some stuff well, but was really short.

Maps:
Expectation – Intitial, loads of new maps.
Reality – Actually some pretty amazing maps, but only three you can really explore, and all of them bound to timed metas.

Rewards:
Expectation – Loads of new armours and weapons, including the Revenant weapons from beta.
Reality – Keys. So. Many. Keys.

Fractals:
Expectation – Reworked reward system, including a legendary backpiece.
Reality – Initially broken rewards system, no legendary backpiece so far.

Raids:
Expectation – Three new raids.
Reality – So far, two thirds of a raid.

Dungeons:
Expectation – Nothing really. Maybe a couple of new ones?
Reality – Actively made the ones we had worse.

Post-launch:
Expectation – The content drought would end. We’d get living story again, and maybe even things like SAB or Dragon Bash.
Reality – Unless you’re a raider or a PvPer, then it’s occasional festival repeats for about a year.

Now a lot of those expectations were absolutely my own fault, and not ANet lying. But the problem is that ANet are so tight-lipped about what they’re doing that all you can do is guess about what’s coming. Combine that with some areas where they actually did way over-hype the content that was coming, or at least the time frame it was coming in, and it just makes it very hard to justify pre-ordering the next one.

I agree with CrashTestAuto.9108 so much with their post.

• All HoT feels like is a giant time and gold sink with rewards stuck behind keys, stuck behind long boring meta events or stuck behind masteries that you have to level both with points and insane amounts of exp.

• Also story doesn’t make you feel satisfied, it makes you feel like there’s so many questions that they didn’t even touch on and if it was not for the rewards (like the guaranteed Leystone Armor box that is not found anywhere else excepted from RNGesus) that I would NEVER want to do it again (compared to the 9 times I have done the core story).

Kyzonu.7504:

as far as i know, A.net didn’t lie about the expansion… every single feature/content that i saw they announce made it into the game.

in the AngryJoe interview, they said loud and clear that “this is a feature focused expansion instead of a content focused one”, so everyone who bought HOT knew exactly what they were getting.

if you put it on your mind that there would be a thousand hours worth of content, a 50-hours story or 20 different maps, even though they never even hinted at anything like that, then you have nothing to complain about…

They spent all this time talking about the new professions. They spent absolutely no time talking about how much it would cost. Their opening big of 400 HPs was beyond insane. Even at their revised number to us altoholics is an insane grind. Sure, I will get there eventually but from what they said it sounded like I could spend that time playing with the elite skills not getting them.

The masteries is a major mass-up as well. The whole system of getting them AND the xp is just another grind. Especially getting the points in central Tyria because you are unable to get the # from your personal story as you calculate from reading the wiki and there are no ‘easy gets’ like the HOT zones where you can just commune for them.

Hmmm….I can’t play it as I keep getting killed as soon as I poke my nose in there..If this difficulty level was for something special like a raid, or a HoT frac/Dungeon I could understand the reasoning for the difficulty and be completely cool with it, but this is a whole new map. The Devs created a whole expansion geared towards only the Elite players…and then they wonder why HoT did not sell as well as they thought it could. Sad.

I didnt like the new maps, to me they’re all annoying labyrinths. I don’t play raids and I don’t like to run around the guild hall. The only thing that I like from HoT it is the revenant profession and the elite specializations. Not worth the money IMO.

Julischka Bean.7491:

Hmmm….I can’t play it as I keep getting killed as soon as I poke my nose in there

I’ve solo explored all of VB so your build maybe needs some toughness (altho I’d personally recommend more speed). You may need to join a party/zerg/guild/group/other player in order to get comfortable getting round. Or maybe stop running into the same pack of raptors every time.. dunno. The maps are really not that hard to get around as watching the videos on dulfy.net will demonstrate.

Julischka Bean.7491:

Hmmm….I can’t play it as I keep getting killed as soon as I poke my nose in there..If this difficulty level was for something special like a raid, or a HoT frac/Dungeon I could understand the reasoning for the difficulty and be completely cool with it, but this is a whole new map. The Devs created a whole expansion geared towards only the Elite players…and then they wonder why HoT did not sell as well as they thought it could. Sad.

You are not alone, matey.
Rumour has it that they plan to nerf the difficulty level in an April update. Quite what form the nerf will take is not clear but anything that makes it more fun for more players can only be a good thing imho.

And I can’t help thinking that if the future holds more HoT-style maps then they are going to need to improve the mini-map to help us work out the up/down routes. It should not be a puzzle to just get from A to B.

I paid for fractal back piece which is not in game and has taken way to long to be introduced.
I paid for WvW Borderland …….
I paid for Legendary armour which until wing 2 was released looked like a long way from being introduced as well.
I paid for new legendary weapons of which we only have 3.
I paid for content that lasts. Both raid wings cleared on reset, I have bought a house in the swampland fractal, dungeons are dead and no reason to back and visit the Maguuma maps.
I paid for the story and LS. LS won’t be released until after wing 3 and HoT story was done in a week (1 day on a rerun after poison mastery nerf).
Is Stronghold even a thing?
I paid for 4 new zones which feel smaller than Queensdale.

I enjoyed HoT for 2/3 weeks then felt empty once I had what I wanted and waited for new content.

Julischka Bean.7491:

Hmmm….I can’t play it as I keep getting killed as soon as I poke my nose in there..If this difficulty level was for something special like a raid, or a HoT frac/Dungeon I could understand the reasoning for the difficulty and be completely cool with it, but this is a whole new map. The Devs created a whole expansion geared towards only the Elite players…and then they wonder why HoT did not sell as well as they thought it could. Sad.

How is it geared towards elite players. Are you seriously having trouble with pocket raptors, mushrooms and rolling Devils? I hope they don’t nerf the mobs. Get used to the idea of using more than your auto attack and green gear to move around.

In response to the OP, I don’t hate Heart of Thorns.

Kyzonu.7504:

as far as i know, A.net didn’t lie about the expansion… every single feature/content that i saw they announce made it into the game.

in the AngryJoe interview, they said loud and clear that “this is a feature focused expansion instead of a content focused one”, so everyone who bought HOT knew exactly what they were getting.

if you put it on your mind that their would be a thousand hours worth of content, a 50-hours story or 20 different maps, even though they never even hinted at anything like that, then you have nothing to complain about…

What I was mainly upset about is they were very misleading about how it would impact small micro guilds. Their statement was “Small guilds would be respected” and in the end that was a lie because small guilds got the shaft.

Every upgrade I had invested in the guild for WvW was made useless over night, which is my preferred game mode. The other thing I hate is features we already had like auto loot suddenly became part of the expansions progression and got ripped away. Too bad if you were a pvp or WvW focused player because if you want that feature back you need to go PvE.

Players stop looking forward to expansions when investments they have made in a game get axed with expansions.

There are things I do like about HOT, but I spent real money (were talking a little over 1k in less than a yr.) pouring into this game. I spend less now thanks to those brilliant moves.

Ill just copy-paste what i wrote in other thread:
Forced 1h client restart in DS.. and also anybody that will get disconnected, won’t be able to join back (because your client has patched). Hurray for HoT timers. I’m so sick of this, you had awsome system (Silverwastes) but created such a crap for HoT.