Guild Wars 2

1.PVP
It’s been a long time since new PVP maps have came out and only seeing one made me very upset. I loved PVP, and having to experience the same ones I’ve been playing for the past two years, was incredibly sad for me. I was honestly hoping for at least 3 new maps, even if they were the size of Courtyard.

2. PVP League
Solo players have been hurt with this league. It’s obvious from the numerous post on the forums and on reddit. But, how?

I honestly don’t think it’s because of people in different brackets getting in lower tiers. Obviously this is an issue for some and it’s understandable. You wouldn’t want to be playing someone in a higher tier than you.

I do, however, think that a lot of frustration comes from losing experience in your bracket for things out of your control (read: other players). Even if you get 250 points in a round and your team loses, you’re punished. You may have got the most kills, top skirmisher, and whatnot, but it meant absolutely nothing. Excellent players, even though they went solo and not in a pre-made group, lose.

3. New Maps
Lots of people vent that they don’t like the maps because they are extremely grindy. It’s not what GW2 has been about until HoT. While I agree, I think it’s because it’s missing something we’ve been used to for so long: heart quests.

Heart quests give us a time to learn the area and explore many different parts and stay in parts for longer than expected. You get to learn things about the areas. You get to explore. You have something to do that’s not just the same event, over, and over.

I think this was a missed opportunity. There could have been so much lore and stories about the area through heart quests. Sure, not many people like them, but getting down to it, quests are a part of our overall gaming experience no matter what genre.

4. Raids
I love when bosses are challenging. So many bosses in GW2 are just damage sponges. You sit there, clicking 1-5, not even thinking of whats going on around you. When I saw the first video of Vale Guardian, I was hooked.

You have to move, watch whats going on around you, AND kill a boss. This is what fun is all about.

But, getting into those raids is an entirely different story. Players have made raids meta, and if you’re not one of 4 specialties, you’re basically thrown out. Sure, you can try, but it makes me sad that I can’t experience Gors or Sabetha unless I join a guild.

5 .Masteries
Masteries have been amazing. They’ve been a grind to get, but they’re uniqueness has been a great addition to Guild Wars.

My only complaint is that you shouldn’t be subjected to constantly doing the same events and killing the same monster for mastery experience. We should be able to level maguma masteries outside of it. Why? Because there’s just not that much content in the expansion to warrant only leveling in this zone. Tyria is massive, Maguma Jungle is not.

6. Fractals
There were no new fractals. Something that I figured casual/intermediate players would get since raids were supposed to be for high-level players. That didn’t happen and it’s something that’s sorely need. A lot of HoT isn’t made for casuals, and that needs to be something you think about going forward. Not casual in the sense it needs to be dumbed down to oblivion, but something that’s approachable and achievable by a team of random 5 players.

7. Inventory
Since so many new items have come into play, and old items have been moved out of inventory, you really should have thought about player inventory. This should be addressed without the requirement of purchasing more space since it was known that more new items will equal the need for them. Maybe if you bought the expansion, you automatically got a new bank slot or something.

It’s nice to see some constructive feedback amidst the rage.

I won’t touch on PvP as I haven’t touched it since HoT and wasn’t a big PvPer before either.

I don’t agree with bringing heart quests back. They were boring for me, especially repeating them on more than one character. I like that events aren’t (really) mandatory for map completion in zones in HoT, I feel it makes them feel more living even though the events just repeat. But I agree that hearts maybe added a level of story telling to a map and maybe they needed to find a different way to do this in HoT, but i don’t think heart quests were ever the way forward.

I agree levelling Maguma masteries outside of HoT content would be nice. Maybe because right now there are more Maguma masteries than core, yet there’s more content for core than Maguma. So it feels very out weighted. They should have envisioned this really, and I imagine with future content added to Maguma it will level out, unless they add more masteries (but waiting for new maps is not an excuse).

Shame there was no new fractals. And it’s worrying that each fractal number now has its own allocated fractal, meaning they may not intend to add any more any time soon. By they have a fractals team now so perhaps…

Can’t comments on raids as I haven’t tried it yet, but it’s hard to blame the meta on ANet. No matter how they balance the classes, players will always find the most efficient way to do something and the most needed aspects of certain classes. It’s very difficult to design a raid that is fair to every class. They are trying very hard to do that, I imagine. But raids are hard and so the loudest player base will want the most efficient people to do it with. I am sure you will be able to find some people willing to have a go at it with what you want to play. But when it comes down to it, there is a meta for a reason and it’s because theyve learnt how to do it and the meta is the best way to tackle it.

3. I can see why there are no hearts in Maguma. Hearts are placed in zones where the 5 races have settled. There are none in Orr, and none in Maguma. Those are basically enemy territory, with the 5 races as invaders. Also, I suspect there are as many who dislike hearts as there are who like them, specifically those who want map completion on lots of characters.

4. While I agree that raids are less accessible due to player choices, the original concept was Guild Raids.

6. Agree that HoT is mainly aimed at two demographics: those who like harder, instanced content; and those who like zone meta events. About all that’s left for small groups besides FotM is exploring — which in core is primarily a solo thing.

7. Agree that inventory management is a pain in this game. I can understand the whole, “get tons of crap to salvage” thing as the game’s economy and reward structure are based on this concept. However, it would free up some space and improve quality of play if the “key of the zone” was something that went in the wallet. Playing a character in multiple zones, each with one (or more) key/shovel/crowbar/whatnot adds up fast.