Guild Wars 2

Zaklex.6308:

Auralae.7482:

~Snip~
the lack of solo & casual content and delays on raids & legendaries (not that I’ll do raids or get the legendaries, but I just don’t like that they delayed things they advertised as part of the xpac), bugs, and this feeling that the focus on the game is to manipulate things into gem store purchases. All in all, I’m glad I’ve passed on buying because I still feel like Anet did some shady and manipulative things with this xpac.
~Snip~

None of the above statements are true, there is plenty of solo/casual content in the HoT maps, and your statements about them delaying Raids and Legendaries is also blatantly false. As a matter of fact they stated before the release date was announced that Raids would be released at a minimum of 2 weeks after HoT went live, in order to give people the chance to actually play the new content first. As for the legendaries, it’s a long process an anyone that expected to be able to get them right away was just dreaming…you have to remember that not only are you getting the content that was released on 10/23, but all future content as well(at least until the next Xpac), that will include the 3 – 6 new Raid wings per year(I’m going on the low to high side to be safe) as well as all Living Story 3(maybe even 4)…and other things(I believe there will be another Guild Hall as well). You’re not only paying for HoT itself(the Magus Falls maps), but also future content that leads into future expansions, so you need to look at the cost from that point of view(at least that is how you should be looking at it).

As for my own personal opinion: Absolutely not, and this is my reasoning behind paying for what I bought, not only am I going to get what is(was) released on 10/23, but also all content updates for the forseeeable future or until the next expansion comes out(should they do another one), that is what my purchase gets me, not just the content that was released on 10/23, but also all content being released after 10/23, for which I need to spend nothing more.

Raids were promoted to be “released shortly after launch” and we have yet to see it at 2 weeks past launch. Legendaries were confirmed to start at HoT release. Let’s not even get into the track record of how long “coming soon” things take. These ARE things they advertised as being part of Heart of Thorns and they are delayed. What about my statement is false? http://dulfy.net/2015/08/06/gw2-three-legendary-weapons-coming-with-heart-of-thorns/

There is a lack of solo and casual content in HoT, particularly compared to the core game, which was a comparable price at release. This expansion has a significant amount of content for larger guilds, larger groups, and progression. Even the open world content has quite a bit of feedback about not being easily solo’d and to take a lot of time to move across the map, get hero points, and complete event chains. Keep in mind that I do have 3 copies of HoT in my home currently that other family members have bought. I’m not speaking from a vacuum. Your opinion is different from mine. I could just as easily say your statement is false.

Are you saying there haven’t been bugs? Again, how is that statement “not true?”

“…this feeling that the focus on the game is to manipulate things into gem store purchases.” So a feeling is false? It’s a subjective statement that was related to why I personally don’t want to purchase HoT. Legendaries aren’t out, but new gem store outfits are. Means of earning gold have been nerfed, but you can always buy it with gems. More items in game and some buffs limited, but there’s bank/bag slots and boosters for you. Key farm was limited, but drops were increased…just not as much as as chest rate increases. Again, that’s okay because keys can be bought with cash too. It’s good to know that you can tell my that my perceptions are false. Again, I could just as easily say yours are false.

And yes, I DO feel like there were shady and manipulative things done. The biggest being their taking away of things like guild upgrades and putting them in HoT. Again, you are free to disagree with it, but it doesn’t make the fact that I feel that way false (which is what I clearly stated "I’ve passed on buying because I still feel like Anet did some shady and manipulative things with this xpac).

I’m sorry, but just because you may like certain things or find value in them doesn’t make all my statements false, nor does it cause me to find equal value in the content produced. I’m well aware that buying the xpac is paying for future content, and, if at a later date, I view enough content to be worth the price for me, then I will consider buying it. However, at this time, I don’t see it there.

You really don’t need to tell me how I should be looking at it. Here’s how I look at it. I have other games I can play, other businesses that can benefit from my money, and other things that can take up my time. Right now, HoT isn’t worth it for me.

Addendum: I would like it to be worth it for me. I would like to feel like the expansion offers more content that works for me as a mostly solo player who often gets on at off-peak times in 15-30 minute bursts or who often has to go afk. I would also like to feel like Anet offers things for small guilds and feel like they aren’t removing content simply to put it where they can get more money for it. I don’t have issues with gem store purchases. I’ve made several. I just don’t like to feel like I have to buy HoT to even continue getting the same things I have had since launch. I check the forum every day to see what changes might happen simply because I DO want to feel like it’s worth it for me to buy.

As far as the amount of content goes, I’ll take a good amount of great, over a great amount of good. Personally, I don’t need every expansion to be a campaign, in fact, I’d almost prefer each expansion to offer different things.

Just taking GW1 as an example, I played all of the expansions, and by Elona I was just like why bother? I mean really? I’m playing the same guys, largely the same spells, largely the same way, and it’s just new scenery. Largely the same old mechanics, the same basic plotline. (Stuff’s going down, who you gonna call?) It gets so stale after the third time.

Dont regret it at all, and ive barely gotten through the second new zone (not that i dont like it, just dont have time). Sure its not a massive amount of content for 50 bucks, but if you count 2 years worth of updates its plenty

I guess if i was the kind of person who jumps from game to game every week and only judges them by the content available NOW, then yea, it would be a little overpriced, but if youre going to judge games like that you might as well stick to single player stuff where they get released fully polished and complete (even though they dont, since most games nowadays come with dlc)

Auralae.7482:

There is a lack of solo and casual content in HoT, particularly compared to the core game, which was a comparable price at release. This expansion has a significant amount of content for larger guilds, larger groups, and progression. Even the open world content has quite a bit of feedback about not being easily solo’d and to take a lot of time to move across the map, get hero points, and complete event chains. Keep in mind that I do have 3 copies of HoT in my home currently that other family members have bought. I’m not speaking from a vacuum. Your opinion is different from mine. I could just as easily say your statement is false.

I’ll say that i respect your opinion, but what you say is not realistic fully.

GW2 HoT was announced as non-casual content, but to be fair, what is non-casual here in Maguuma? The only thing non-casual are Raids, which are not even released yet?

Maguuma content is solo content, you can randomly come to map and tag along the random group of people trying to finish events, but then again IF you want events. In HoT there is tons of solo content that does not require groups, but it’s true you have to shift up with your game play, and i LOVE IT. If you want to go in maguuma as it was stated, you should be a little bit more experienced then a regular GW2 core beginner, so if people are new, Tyria is first place to start, like every game should have end game, and this is the end game that millions of players wanted, I personally hope GW2 will never get back to Tyria CORE content, where 99% of the time people afk, example shatterer afk kill, teq. afk kill, they even made FoTM for casual.. nothing “challenging” in there any more.

What I could read out of your post is, that you want to run through continent without doing any events, just poke mob here and there, and log off. Well to millions of GW1 players CORE game was night mare, to easy, to low intelligence required, no mechanics required, no effort required, builds didn’t matter, no passion required nothing. Your action as player never did any matter, now with HoT they do. I can assure you, that even casual people that gave honest opinion stated: “this made me dance, and i feel for the first time that I actually play GW2”.. Sad but true.

Auralae.7482:

Addendum: I would like it to be worth it for me. I would like to feel like the expansion offers more content that works for me as a mostly solo player who often gets on at off-peak times in 15-30 minute bursts or who often has to go afk. I would also like to feel like Anet offers things for small guilds and feel like they aren’t removing content simply to put it where they can get more money for it. I don’t have issues with gem store purchases. I’ve made several. I just don’t like to feel like I have to buy HoT to even continue getting the same things I have had since launch. I check the forum every day to see what changes might happen simply because I DO want to feel like it’s worth it for me to buy.

My peprsonal opinion doesn’t matter, but i thin Gem store is taking away enjoyable content for the price of subscription and in return we get nothing but virtual object. Sorry, but Gem store is the worst content, HoT did deliver on 3 different skins for weapons which all look JUNK-RUSHED (sorry designers you did bad job). And hand full of armors which had no effort either, bladed looks ok but then again is that all?

• I’m not PvE person and i feel lack of content for 50€. All though the content is so much better that i’m actually doing something in PvE because it’s a little bit more challenging.
• I’m not a PvP person and i feel lack of content for 50€. New map is disaster, to clustered, no real mechanics, 99% obstructed in favour of melee or very close ranged classes. People also call this “Similar to GvG in GW1” and i say “Did those people even play GW1?”.. Where are death match maps with bigged maps? And by that i mean REAL deathmatch? Like kill and don’t respawn, once you’re dead you are done, last man stand??? *Where is REAL PvP, conquest is another MOBA junk way of enforcing “eSports”.
• I’m a WvW player, and i feel lack of content for 50€ specially when New Borders destroyed WvW entirely. They are beautiful maps I can’t deny that, but they are to big, and because there is nothing to do there and objectives are to far away, we are not able to enjoy the content. I can call this Walk Simulator 2.0, old borders were better, now you have so many options to come around that even if you want to fight the enemy you cannot.. we have maybe 10 minute fight every 2-3 hours.. which is plain BORING and there is no point defending.

And yes sorry anet, i would like to call that content worth 50€ but it’s simply not, but still i’ve paid it to support you that maybe in future we get something more enjoyable in WvW.

First of all, I like some of the content of the expansion, and I won’t refund it, but I can’t justify the price if someone would ask me.

I see a lot of people justifying the 50$ as “We will have 2-3 years of free content updates!”. But you have no idea what content you will get and how much. They might aswell add a raid and that’s it. And that’s not enough. Balancing patches and mechanic changes is not classified as content.

At this very moment, if someone would ask me if they should buy HoT, I would tell them to buy Witcher 3 instead.

I bought HoT for two accounts. I don’t regret it…. yet.

I say that because the Devs have always found ways to fix the game before.

But HoT is a disaster, they may not be able to fix it. If that ends up being true then I will regret paying for it.

Absolutely regret buying it. It takes the game in a direction I’m extremely unhappy with, and I’ve made my displeasure known here and to friends. I have gone from being an avid supporter and telling people how great the game is, to telling people that it is trying to become another failed WoW clone: raids, content that nobody enjoys, content locked behind massive grind, content locked behind time gates… Not the game I supported for years, not the game I bought originally, and not an expansion I would have bought if they had been up-front about all the changes they were making.

Lakanna.2073:

content that nobody enjoys

Don’t speak for everyone. I know a lot of people, including myself, who love it.

I have found that HoT is beautiful. But I can’t enjoy much of the rest of the content since most is locked behind events. Example, I thought I would causally get the new pets but no…I have to wait until events have finished and hope some finished with a good outcome like in the case of tigers. The other person I convinced to purchase HoT is now very upset with me because the new areas are not causally friendly. Thus he and I will not be purchasing any further from Anet until we feel the content is fun and not a head to run.

I think I still stand by my original post. This content is impressive. I enjoy it for the most part. I think it added a real dimension to the game that it needed, but I’m very concerned how much it is upsetting people.

The Grind is there and it most of the content. That’s new for this game. It isn’t flying well with people. I think this could lead to some sort of major backlash in the future. I’m a pretty veteran MMO player so for me all of this is pretty basic yet. I’m still finding it less of a chore than older MMOs, but it does feel like an older MMO in some ways now. I’m just not sure how that is going to turn out.

In general I am finding that I took the right track in getting as much of the mobility skills and Tyrian – Pact Commander skills as I could. That’s really allowed me to rez others faster and keep up with my friends doing Fractals.

The Fractal change from multiple fractals per run to just one is a real improvement. I think it takes the stress out of them, but it takes some of the challenge, too.

The one real fear I have with this expansion is they’ve got too much content going right now. They stuck with the old Tyria always-running-always-killing design. My girl friends hate it. Most have quit over that. If I was just starting out I’d feel the same way. I want to spend time with my friends and family on here, not run around trying to do everything for I’m not sure why nor care.

I like Heart of Thorns, but I think it isn’t going to win a lot of new female players.

Eirdyne.9843:

I think I still stand by my original post. This content is impressive. I enjoy it for the most part. I think it added a real dimension to the game that it needed, but I’m very concerned how much it is upsetting people.

The Grind is there and it most of the content. That’s new for this game. It isn’t flying well with people. I think this could lead to some sort of major backlash in the future. I’m a pretty veteran MMO player so for me all of this is pretty basic yet. I’m still finding it less of a chore than older MMOs, but it does feel like an older MMO in some ways now. I’m just not sure how that is going to turn out.

In general I am finding that I took the right track in getting as much of the mobility skills and Tyrian – Pact Commander skills as I could. That’s really allowed me to rez others faster and keep up with my friends doing Fractals.

The Fractal change from multiple fractals per run to just one is a real improvement. I think it takes the stress out of them, but it takes some of the challenge, too.

The one real fear I have with this expansion is they’ve got too much content going right now. They stuck with the old Tyria always-running-always-killing design. My girl friends hate it. Most have quit over that. If I was just starting out I’d feel the same way. I want to spend time with my friends and family on here, not run around trying to do everything for I’m not sure why nor care.

I like Heart of Thorns, but I think it isn’t going to win a lot of new female players.

Someone that’s just starting out isn’t going to be able to play heart of thorns for a while. So that part shouldn’t be a concern.

Yes and no. If I was offered a refund I would say no. I LOVE gw2, honestly it has a real place in my heart and will do for years. For all the days of joy in the past it has brought me and I am sure still will, I am happy they have my money.

That however does not mean to say I am happy with the content. The maps are too complex, far too difficult to navigate and there are far too little waypoints. I am aware of the right to an opinion, but if you disagree with this, I have no idea why you enjoyed the game previously.

The original maps, man, playing this game in BETA I was in love. They simply flowed so well from heart to heart, from POI to vista, the challenges balanced to the player well and it was enjoyable. The new maps don’t feel as welcoming, they feel more like they don’t want you there, unlike the originals that begged you to adventure and dig deep in to them. Maybe just give the ability to travel the maps rather than unlock them through mastery.

I do like the extra challenge, but its everywhere, and too hard to navigate to if you want to get to a com, you have to wade through a sea of difficult mobs, lucky for me I used soldiers gear, would hate to do it on zerker.

Community seems to have changed, maybe its just the blind race for new content, but even in story events, say like the toxic tower, players were always helping each other out. Well at least more so than now. Simple requests like “how do I do this” mostly go unanswered. Due to the scale and amount of stuff going on, players dont seem to interact as much. And reviving downed players is now apparently a lost art, almost every time I am at an event, I feel like the only player doing this and I rarely get picked up myself.

If you take SW for example, as much as I dislike the amount of stuff going on with mobs (red circles following you around for ages)(OP spike damages)(way too much CC) and a lack of WP, it was so well laid out if you ask for help at say amber, people got there, now you ask for help at a hero point, if you are lucky you get a couple of players, if they can even get there!

This makes me dread raids. The one part of the game I have avoided unless no longer possible is Fractals and dungeons. Almost entirely because that community is so toxic, I think these same players will be the ones you cosy up to at raids, ever ready to kick you for the slightest mistake.

WvW, well just what others have said.

I can honestly see the new maps becoming ghost maps.

So all in all I regret the pre purchase, but I dont regret the purchase as I love the game, and will remain active most likely, that is until Tuesday.

why would i regret buying something i have already had 40-60 hrs of enjoyment out of? that alone more than makes it worth the purchase price, add to that the promise of more to come between now and whenever the next expansion is (s3 of the living world and multiple raid wings for example) and i dont see why anyone would regret buying

cupcakesandcatnomz.3924:

Do you regret pre-purchasing HoT?

Not even slightly.

I bought the Ultimate version for myself
2 copies of HoT for 2 of my friends.
$200 spent and I can tell that it worths it!

Kinda
The new weapon requires level 80 + 250 hero points (the old skill point). That’s so low, i felt cheated. The expansion site says “Each profession can learn a new skill that unlocks a new weapon, new traits, new skills, and unique mechanics that will transform your profession.” It doesn’t say anything of level requirement
The obligatory use of the new specialization to use these new skills, what should be a more diverse builds they made it less diverse.
If you wanna try the weapon and see if you like it, you need to become level 80.

Making group was almost useless, now with the Influence points removed, there is no use at all, … okay, they can help you see your friends on the map (sighs)
Make a guild grow with my 2 other friends became impossible with the weekly missions. Ps. We don’t like PvP.

The Skill Point became Hero Point and it’s icon acquired and not aquired it’s almost the same. ArenaNet was such a brillance in terms of user interface, this is so kick in the my squirrels.

The bad things overshines the good ones

I really hope they hear us.
REMOVE THE LEVEL REQUIREMENT FOR THE WEAPONS AND THE SPECIALIZATION REQUIREMENT FOR THE THE SKILLS! please \ u_u \

Ugh, I kind of do and I kind of don’t.

I like the first two maps, visually – they’re very pretty.

…and I love my tiger pet (even though it was a bit stressful to get).

I also really like the new WvW maps.

Problem is, almost no one else seems to…

Which has led to two problems:

1. I can’t play the new maps, as much as I would like, as there is normally no one there.

2. Level 80s are joining EOTM, in guild groups, to “farm” uplevels far more than they used to, due to not liking the new WvW maps.

As someone who was doing a lot of EOTM prior to HoT (but in a more karma-train type way – not to farm uplevels), I don’t like this development, at all.

Also, there are just fewer people doing EOTM/WvW, in general, ATM.

Very often, there isn’t a commander running, at all.

Which leads me on to another problem, which is that making gold since HoT hit has been far harder than it was pre-HoT.

I don’t play for loot, but I have already spent a lot of real money on this game, so I do need to get at least some gold back from playing normally.

Gathering flax might get you some gold, but is that really what we have been reduced to?

Flax farmers?

I’m also having problems with my glider not deploying in a dependable fashion – sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.

This is very off-putting and makes it pretty much impossible to do any kind of map completion that requires very accurate gliding “skills”.

Also, I just feel kind of pointless on the new maps.

Most of the time, I’m just wandering around aimlessly, killing random things and gathering.

It’s kind of like I have been transported back to pre-LFR Cata WoW…

Not good.

Oh yeah and my bank guild, which was progressing slowly (with just me in it) is now at a complete standstill.

Firelysm.4967:

your opinion, but what you say is not realistic fully.

GW2 HoT was announced as non-casual content, but to be fair, what is non-casual here in Maguuma? The only thing non-casual are Raids, which are not even released yet?

Maguuma content is solo content, you can randomly come to map and tag along the random group of people trying to finish events, but then again IF you want events. In HoT there is tons of solo content that does not require groups, but it’s true you have to shift up with your game play, and i LOVE IT. If you want to go in maguuma as it was stated, you should be a little bit more experienced then a regular GW2 core beginner, so if people are new, Tyria is first place to start, like every game should have end game, and this is the end game that millions of players wanted, I personally hope GW2 will never get back to Tyria CORE content, where 99% of the time people afk, example shatterer afk kill, teq. afk kill, they even made FoTM for casual.. nothing “challenging” in there any more.

What I could read out of your post is, that you want to run through continent without doing any events, just poke mob here and there, and log off. Well to millions of GW1 players CORE game was night mare, to easy, to low intelligence required, no mechanics required, no effort required, builds didn’t matter, no passion required nothing. Your action as player never did any matter, now with HoT they do. I can assure you, that even casual people that gave honest opinion stated: “this made me dance, and i feel for the first time that I actually play GW2”.. Sad but true.

Yeah, but what people need to realise, is that there is nothing really casual to do, anywhere, in Maguuma.

That is the problem.

In something like WoW (and OK, WoD has been a complete travesty, in pretty much every way, but think of MoP, or before, here) there is an easy openworld, then harder dungeons and LFR (until they’re outgeared, obviously) and then hardest still, raids.

So, there is, or was, something for (almost) everyone.

Whereas, in this game, especially as it is so openworld oriented, if you make openworld harder, where do casual players, or players who just want to relax, have to go?

Answer? Nowhere.

Old Tyria isn’t a valid answer, either, as then there is no need for these players to even buy HoT, in the first place.

no

Kal Spiro.9745:

Mahou.3924:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Tumult.2578:

Bought it,
tried it,
tried it more,
tried it a lot,
regret buying it.
Nothing for solo players there.

Soloing is incredibly easy in the open world, all the adventures are completely solo content and the personal story is solo content.

Good for you, I guess?

What is good for me? I’m refuting a claim that there is nothing for a solo player when there clearly are things specifically for solo players. Let alone that you don’t need to be in a group to do group content, and much of the “group content” can still be soloed.

He, or she, meant “good for you” that you find soloing, in the Maguuma openworld, “incredibly easy”.

I think it’s fair to say, from what I have read anyway, that many (most?) people don’t.

Even though I’m not struggling with it, personally (although, it can be a little intense, at times), I don’t consider it “incredibly easy” and I play far too much and even did some “real” raiding, in WoW.

I wish people would try to stay objective and look at things from other people’s points of view, occasionally.

Not everyone is the same in terms of natural ability, time spent playing, reaction time and so on.

Let alone other things that may affect people, like disabilities, or other real life distractions.

Even things like lag and people’s type and age of hardware and stuff will obviously play a major part in all this.

Not everyone is a totally fit and healthy 17 year old boy, at the peak of their reaction time, with a squandered youth playing games 8 hours a day, on a top PC, with unrivalled speed broadband access, on the same continent as the server they use, with plenty of 17 year old friends who can help them if need be, in a bedroom all by themselves, with a permanently locked door…

i wouldn’t say INCREDIBLY easy or even necessarily easy but i don’t think that’s a bad thing. These zones are endgame, and i think it entirely appropriate that they be difficult.

Some tuning is needed, ofc, but i don’t feel that a solid nerf to the difficulty would benefit anyone.

i was promised more, and im not talking about the soon to come raids and that’s very annoying, next time i will wait longer to see if its worth it, or atleast tell the truth
but not at all, i love the expension

I do not regret buying HoT multiple times for our family. With guild halls it really brings home the feeling of guild wars 1 only better. True, there are things to be worked out still. But it seems more like a complete game now than before HoT. I can say it has improved or guild with more on line regularly than the last 6 months before HoT. Not to happy about the guild missions losing some time for completion, and yes it is harder for smaller guilds to compete against larger ones. But they are still able to get everything the larger ones get only slightly slow. Then again as pointed out by a guild member “This other guild I belong to has 469 members and they are no where as far along as we are in the guild hall”

Yeah, love’n HoT!

No — because I didn’t buy it.

From everything I’ve read about the choices they’ve made with the expansion (huge grinds added, artificial content/skill barriers, paywalls, removal of ‘play your way’ philosophy), I don’t regret not buying it for 1 second.

danielrjones.8759:

Everyone has their opinion and each is entitled to it. Mine is if you don’t like it, you are either doing something wrong or simply not good enough to get through it.

That’s not an opinion, that’s just a snap judgement.

Another possibility, for example, is that some people find it (or parts of it) not very fun and/or arduous.

Doesn’t, necessarily, mean they couldn’t do it if they had to.

Just that they don’t want to, as it’s not sufficiently enjoyable enough for them to bother.

If I’m generous, I guess HoT provided me with a weekends worth of gliding/jumping around fun, before the feeling of being a grindy, offensively noninclusive (GUILDS!), poor value mess, set in.

Still, it’s hard to say I regret purchasing, because I think I needed to see it with my own eyes. It’s likely my last ANet purchase, though.

I really was troubled when the expansion came out. Big maps, chaos, no clear objectives, over the top difficult hero points, difficulty navigating…. The feeling much was bugged or impossible to solo…

After a week or 2 I now feel most of my problems have been adjusted some of the worst bugs have been adressed, most mechanics have been discovered and I already finished verdant rink twice and auric basin once.

The only 3 things I really do not like are

• Dungeon nerfs, I used to do dungeons daily… Since HoT launch I didn’t check 1 except for CoF, and I didn’t even run it to the end. (you’ll know why by now)
• The changes in condition duration, shifting duration from food to armor, I rebuild 2 of my 6 hybrids only to notice most armors are now multiple times the cost they once were… I wanted to make a viper exotic armor… problem is the cost of the oil… the EXOTIC armors went up (at least for the new sets) from 6-20 gold to 60+ gold….
  No to mention the rise in costs for ascneded armors
• The fact everything which would have been a reward isn’t a reward but a gemstore item…. I can earn armors, but corresponding back items are gem store tems 0.0 -> -.-

I don’t really regret it, but I can’t honestly say I’m impressed by it either. I’ve liked most of the features so far, but there’s always some flaw about it that really irritates me and detracts from my enjoyment:

Masteries
I like the idea of horizontal progression, I don’t mind how much I have to do to unlock HoT masteries… but the experience wall for core masteries was ridiculous; I’ve played for a little less than two years, but I already have 10 characters with world completion (and one at 60%), I leveled up past 80 at least 4,000 times across all characters, locking features behind a long grind of content I’ve already done to death doesn’t make that content any fresher. I imagine a lot of people who have played longer and have more characters than me share the same sentiment, which is odd because you’d expect that to be the same demographic most eager for the expansion.

Elite Specializations
I thought that learning an elite specialization would require us embarking on a side story, complete with its own instances and unique challenges tailored to each class, so our characters could actually learn the specialization. I did not expect it to be a HP grind that seemed to contradict the reason why the Mastery system was made an account unlock. How does one look at Mastery and say “Oh, let’s not have players repeat the same kitten over and over again for each character because that’s tedious”, but then turn around, look at Elite Specializations, and say “Oh, let’s have players repeat the same kitten over and over again for each character because that’s not tedious”? Thanks for lowering the HP requirement, still pretty lackluster execution of an interesting idea.

Guild Halls
I thought this was pretty much perfect until I tried Scribing. I can understand if you have to put that kind of time and resources into upgrading an NPC that will be a permanent addition to the guild hall (and will be accessible by all members at all times), but loading that onto a single player? What purpose does this serve other than a blatant gold and material sink that forces guilds to train multiple scribes to guarantee you always have someone available to consume even more resources to scribe things? What was the reasoning behind tying a guild hall function to a character that can disappear if the player stops playing or the character gets deleted?

New Maps
Having fun, except when I’m suddenly kicked to character select and log back in to find I’ve been rolled back a few minutes and wind up in a different IP, so I’ve also lost all participation credit. Before anyone suggests the 64-bit client, this is not a client crash, client crashes do not cause rollbacks unless the game stores data on the client side (which absolutely no decent MMO would do, because that’s how rampant duping happens).

darkace.8925:

Vayne.8563:

I think until raids are in and until fractal rewards are changed, and the new raid/commander UI is in, it’s still premature.

What an absurd thing to say. “You can’t judge the item for which you’ve already paid full price because there is a promise that more is to come.”

That stuff is coming in 4 days. It’s like saying you can judge a meal based on the appetizer alone. It’s all part of the meal even if it doesn’t come at once.

We were told raids would be coming after launch well before launch, because they wanted to give people time to level their masteries. And the raid UI is being worked on because of stuff the community asked for.

So it’s not absurd at all. It’s like judging the original Guild Wars 2 before guesting came out. It came out delayed and when it was put it it did what they said it was going to do.

MMOs aren’t racing games. It’s not just what you get in the box, but what it becomes.

I once bought a coral reef salt water tank. I paid a huge amount of money for it, and it was nothing but living rock in salt water for quite some time. But it grew and become worth the money.

I’m pretty sure that most MMOs and even most expansions at launch need improvement before they get to where they’re going.

Only the least experienced MMO players would say other wise, or people who are just generally disenfranchised and want to vent. Which are you?

I do, a little bit. Might be too early to tell, but I probably should have been happy with my first 3 years.

On launch, I regretted pre-purchasing. I found map content very confusing, too much of it group-based and the difficulty level a little too harsh.

Now, I’ve almost done a complete 180 on my impression of HoT. After going back into it two weeks after launch, I find if I take my time (the key here being don’t rush) and enjoy each little area for its events, it’s really not so bad. The difficulty has been scaled down to a reasonable level for me and I’m actually able to navigate pretty well. Granted, I’m still in the first zone and haven’t moved on from there, but it’s going pretty good. I’m looking forward to see what happens in the story.

I’d suggest anyone who had difficulty with the expansion at launch go back now and give it another go. The big key here is don’t rush through the content. I find that helped me extremely.

So a few weeks into launch, I’d now give HoT a pretty good review. I don’t regret buying it anymore and feel like I will get my money’s worth of enjoyment out of it.

Give it another go – if you’re like me and take your time, you’ll enjoy it.

Yup

This is the worst expac I’ve ever purchased a handful of skins gated behind merchants and forcing people into old content is something I’ve never seen in an expansion.

Masteries that force you to grind exp in old content, new titles and achieves that are tied to killing old bosses(Killer Queen), fluff launch by releasing next to holiday event, and artificially extending by a raw exp.

There were no new dungeons, no raids, or drops from mobs of any consequence. They nerfed the old dungeons tweeked the old fractals and world bosses and loaded the cash shop with new skins that should have been included with HoT. The story can be beaten in less than 2 hours more so when you calculate grinding for the mastery gates but that’s a one time deal so your alts will have it done faster than even Orr or a few dungeon runs. The gave a great big middle finger to vets with things like mentor tag V CMD tag and then they gave a great big middle finger to new players by increasing the costs of old mats and making old recipes harder to craft.

I play quite a deal less than I did prior to the expac and I even come to these boards less much to the delight of the Troll Knights who both have the same goal of watching this game die and delight in people leaving.

Nope.

I had a love/hate relationship with the core game, with the scales slowly tipping in favour of the latter as the months went by, particularly due to the LS (even though the Zephyrite Bazaar was my favourite content update). For every thing I liked, there were two I disliked. Eventually, I moved on to other games.

There are definitely things I dislike about HoT, but of the many, many hours I’ve played it for by now, I’ve spent more of those enjoying the game than disliking it, enough to justify the price tag. Combined with QoL improvements the game has seen over these years, pre-purchasing the expansion revitalised the game for me. The future-proof nature of specialisations and the masteries, the new profession and specialisations themselves, the new and (usually enjoyably) challenging enemies. It’s been fun.

I think my greatest concern re: HoT is long-term. ArenaNet try to be transparent with their plans, more so these days than the first year of GW2, but they’ve released an expansion pack after saying they were satisfied enough with LS to have no plans for one for the foreseeable future. If I sub to XIV, I know exactly what to expect – major content patches every 3 months, with the team explicitly stating decade-long support if the finances hold up. If I sub to WoW, I know exactly what to expect as well, although that’s a little less fair of a comparison, considering WoW is 10+ years old.

With ArenaNet, they can’t even tell their community the exact time a seasonal update will end, and when I consider purchasing an expansion for an MMO, I see it as an investment in the future of the game. The future of this game has not been made clear to customers, but I made the purchase anyway. I don’t regret it, but I do worry a little.

Tigaseye.2047:

Even things like lag and people’s type and age of hardware and stuff will obviously play a major part in all this.

Not everyone is a totally fit and healthy 17 year old boy, at the peak of their reaction time, with a squandered youth playing games 8 hours a day, on a top PC, with unrivalled speed broadband access, on the same continent as the server they use, with plenty of 17 year old friends who can help them if need be, in a bedroom all by themselves, with a permanently locked door…

I want to add to this point. While I do think the new systems added in HoT are grindy, the main reason I regret purchasing HoT is this:

Previous to HoT I could run GW2 (on the lowest graphical settings) and get 55 fps. With all the new HoT maps—jungle maps, WvW borderlands, and even sPvP Stronghold—I max out at 15-20 fps. It makes challenging play impossible. I can’t read animations clearly enough to react, and my camera control lags like hell.

I bought this expansion just to play the elite specs. For all intents and purposes, I can’t unlock the elites via PvE, and I can only rank up in WvW when my team is in EBG. This expansion has taken away more than it has given.

danielrjones.8759:

@Tigaseye, and that is your opinion. I have mine, and like anyone else here I’m entitled to it. If you don’t like what I have to say next time you see my name skip past the post. Just like I will never know nor care what your response to this post will be. Here is snap judgement for you….. Your comment about the game being arduous, to me means you want Anet to hand everything to you on a silver platter and if you don’t get it, then well its just not good enough.

No, it’s not my opinion, it is a fact that that could be another reason why someone doesn’t like the xpac.

There are lots of possibilities…

Some people have actually said that they don’t like it, because it’s like a giant jumping puzzle, for another example.

Your “opinion” was both incorrect (or incomplete) and judgemenal of other people.

As such, I had every right to comment.

…and I didn’t say that was my personal opinion of the xpac – although, actually, I am finding parts of it a little unnecessarily arduous, actually.

I also find it somewhat wishy washy and indistinct (for what has essentially turned into a platformer) and the story pretty non-engaging, if I’m being totally honest, here.

I don’t even care what happens very much.

You may like putting yourself through unnecessary drudgery, in a game; but, fortunately, we’re not all like that.

Another fortunate thing is that, however rude and judgemental they are, I think posts like yours will act as a warning sign for people who haven’t already bought the xpac.

Almost certainly not your original intention, but still.

Don’t regret it… They gave us a new class, plus 9 new elite specialisations… I’m not going to complain. I play 7/9 classes, so I have fun experimenting with all of them.

And the 4 new maps are amazing, yes I get frustrated by the complexity of the map… but aren’t gamers in love with complex map designs? I thought gamers don’t like linear maps… isn’t that why most people hate Final Fantasy 13? Because it’s too linear?

I actually prefer linear maps, but if I can tolerate the complex HoT maps… I don’t understand why so many are not able to tolerate it… lol. It takes a while to get used to, but everything becomes easier with repetition :/

And I can’t believe someone said Silverwastes is more fun than HoT maps lol… Silverwaste, in my opinion, is boring as anything… there’s no challenge whatsoever… just autoattack with 1… no need for strategies.

I suppose my mentality is different to a lot of people… I like things that are challenging… I don’t mind dying several times to beat a boss. I like strategies and teamwork.

I already can’t imagine a life without the elite specs or gliding. (oh the many deaths from jumping off cliffs in old maps…)

Totally worth in my opinion and i’m very glad i pre-purchased the ultimate edition.

Even though i do feel like once people got the rewards they want from HoT content, there won’t be anything else to do at all.

Dungeon rewards nerfed, Fractal rewards feel worse too and the ways to make money seem to be very limited now.

Samnang.1879:

but aren’t gamers in love with complex map designs?

Two things:

1. Don’t believe everything you read, or that the people who say a lot about their, supposed, preferences in games represent the entire (or even most of the) gaming “community”.

2. Even if someone enjoys a complex, natural looking map, to run around exploring in, it doesn’t mean they, necessarily, also enjoy jumping puzzles on a map like that (or jumping puzzles, at all, for that matter).

There are a lot of variables and a lot of subtly different preferences going on, here.

Because, guess what?

We’re all different.

No…. I just want all the bugs to be fixed and some not very- well working stuff revisited

Regret? No. Am I happy with what we got? not the most part yes, but a lot of the game is annoying, and just not implemented well. not to mention the empty maps.

Fractals got nerfed, both reward-wise and difficulty-wise. Dungeon rewards got nerfed. No new instances have been added. Everything locked behind a terrible grind on SW-type maps or even CoF.

There’s nothing worthwhile to do. Play time reduced to 1 hour a day. I’m bored as hell.

Yeah I was laughing about how horribly easy fractals are….this defiance bar shouldn’t been applied on those bosses. Gold rewards are almost non-existant and if you want to run more than one fractals at once, expect at least 1 person to leave after the first one….actually last time I was playing dredge and people were entering and leaving without saying a single word….very rude

cupcakesandcatnomz.3924:

HoT isn’t bad, gliding is fun and I really like the revenant gameplay as long as they don’t nerf it but I’ve pretty much seen it all now and nothing of the little amount of actual content is engaging enough to keep me playing, SW is still the most fun and rewarding map, dungeons even tho nerfed to death are more rewarding than any of the new maps and events, and I know that raids are coming but they’ll probably be bugged for the first few weeks and the crashes and dc’s are still a thing with the 64bit client still in beta so I can’t really say anything about that.

I’m not really feeling the 50 bucks worth of expansion here, ofc I really don’t have a choice if I want to continue playing with friends and guildies but it’s really biting at me.

Am I too sour?

Although I don’t care for HoT, I don’t regret pre purchasing it. From watching some of the POIs, I understood BEFORE I pre purchased, that the content would be a bit too difficult for me and would need help getting through it.
I will get through the content eventually with help from family and guidies.

No I don’t regret my purchase. I love playing the Revenant.

I still say, for what you get, the best value was the pre-order of the $99 one (collectors or something?). 2 character slots and $50 worth of gems brings the price of the xpac down to reasonable.

I bought a physical copy because i like the artwork on the box.Do i regret it?No.Because its b2p.

Worth every penny. Also more stuff incoming.

Absolutely not – I’ve profited from the changing economy mained Revenant since release and just started looking forward to unlocking the next elite spec.

I love it for Elite Specs and the Revenant – everything else is the icing on the cake.

I don’t regret buying it, but I don’t see myself still playing this game in 3 months unless they have a massive WvW server and scoring/reward system overhaul.

Even after an expansion there is still no end game content…

Also Tempest is the worse class design I have ever seen in this game. Completely boring and unrewarding to play.

Not at all. I’m not rushing anything so I got A LOT of things to do for god knows how many months.

I regretted pre-purchasing the $250 Collector’s Edition of vanilla three years ago. Don’t regret pre-purchasing Standard Edition of HoT one bit.

I am not regretting it at all, I am just sad that the actual story we got was mediocre at best.