Guild Wars 2

Just remove the elite gating already. Make it baseline at lvl 80 and get over with obviously fail ideas, before more people progress it.

Nexterror.7180:

Just remove the elite gating already. Make it baseline at lvl 80 and get over with obviously fail ideas, before more people progress it.

^THIS.

Its not fun. It is making me rush the game. I want to experience the game with the elite specialization.

David.5974:

400hp is not horrible… problem is if you have alts. After 6 hours playing I unlock 7 skills. (And I also focus masteries). So, if i image my 6 alts.. 6×400= 2400hp… phew.. Please nerf elite hp req for alts.

You’re telling me. I have 27 characters, all geared, all level 80. If I wanted the option of giving them all their elite spec so I can play whichever char I want for added flavour? I’m looking at 10,800 hero points worth of grind. It won’t happen, I can guarantee that. So I’ll have to grind for my favourite chars, and even then it’s too much.

Nexterror.7180:

Just remove the elite gating already. Make it baseline at lvl 80 and get over with obviously fail ideas, before more people progress it.

So much this. You have such an easy fix ahead of you, anet. This is the majority of people’s troubles. The grind that prevents any fun to be had and causes you to exit the game on release weekend of all times, play another game, and rage on the forums like I did.

Nexterror.7180:

Just remove the elite gating already. Make it baseline at lvl 80 and get over with obviously fail ideas, before more people progress it.

no doubt. gating such a core aspect of the game that effects everyone was a terrible idea, just get rid of it for the elites. Those who want huge grinds can still have mastery’s, legendary ‘s, achievements, pretty armor, the list goes on and on. We just want to play through Hot content with our new specs. I don’t think that’s asking too much.

As far as the new hero points are concerned – I love it. They take work to get to, and they can be challenging which require small groups. I actually like the gate behind some because it’s great motivation to explore more areas and unlock more masteries.

The only major problem is with challenge hero points, where there is no indication of the mob that appears is a champion (usually). This threw me off the first time I accepted a challenge and got wrecked. I’d make it more clear, such as adding (group recommended) in the text before you accept the challenge. And in the event of a wipe, it can be annoying sitting around and watching the time tick down on the event, knowing that with only 2 people, killing him within the time left will be borderline impossible.

If it is true that one can use gems to get HPs, this begins make a lot of sense in a way. Have not seen this but if true, it could be a gold mine for them in the Gem Store.[/quote]

If so, Anet just set themselves up for massive people looking elsewhere for a game that isn’t totally " pay for play to be HIGHER than the rest " .

What a heinous thing if true.

Xytor.1267:

As far as the new hero points are concerned – I love it. They take work to get to, and they can be challenging which require small groups. I actually like the gate behind some because it’s great motivation to explore more areas and unlock more masteries.

I’m not a fan of PvE, I play this game for WvW. Having said that, I actually like trying to get these hero points, and working with others to kill the champs. It’s fun, though I imagine a few months down the line it will be impossible without a guild group to help you.

HOWEVER, they should have other rewards, not “hero points” which gate my specialization. I want to defeat these things with my specialization.

Is the desired player experience that I have to repeatedly and futilely suicide into champion hero point challenges – which are actually classified by the game as [Group Events] for reasons I will never understand – because there is absolutely no one around? Who thought that making hero point challenges, which ideally the player should be able to find and complete organically, as they come across them, completely impossible to solo? This makes no sense whatsoever.

There should be no gates on specializations.

If people want to play the jungle content, they should be allowed to use the elite spec to clear it. If they don’t, they shouldn’t be punished for not doing so. It’s not like elite specs are integral to the story at all.

Arguing for the spec gating is the same as arguing for WvW being required for map completion.

maybe it would be an idea that if you unlock ONE elite spec fully that you get some kind of account wide buff that increases hero point gain by xx% (i’d say 50) so that you can unlock further ones faster?

gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate…

So you level up to rank 2 to get into the tunnels thinking your going to get that hero point… Guess again folks, you have to level that bar up to three lol…

Why are you wasting players time devs? Ya know, sometimes ya gotta say to yourself this would be stupid to do… Be reasonable anet, stop being stupid with this stuff honestly.

This is infuriating. I’m not even mad about how long it takes to get the masteries up, I was prepared for that and believe that it should remain, but full map completion+maguuma PER CHARACTER you want to elite spec? I HAVE SEVEN LV80’S, I also have school, a girlfriend and a social life. Why do I need to repeatedly grind it again and again just to get a traitline? I’ve been playing GW2 for 3 years and I’ve only fully completed the map once on my main because I did not find it enjoyable or entertaining to repeat this content, why am I being forced to spend what seems to be about 30-40hrs per character to get these specs? I sincerely hope that you guys come to your senses and realize that most of your audience is not into that stuff and make a more reasonable way to unlock it.

So, no updates? The lack of communication on this issue is making me upset.

Guys, dont farm HP in new maps, go to Eotm and join some commander train. I spent 15 hours in new maps, only did 3 hero challenges. In eotm in 5 hours I am almost finished, need 2 last skills. Thats like 1 hour of farming there. Dont waste time in maguuma jungle.

Zhemos.6290:

So, no updates? The lack of communication on this issue is making me upset.

oh but they just fixed a portion of the story that was gated, because that’s what was driving the masses crazy /sarcasm

I swear to god please just give us elite sec for free without needing 400 hero points and i’ll love you Anet. I can’t stand grinding in Maguuma to level up mastery and running around maps desperately trying to find where the hell these pesky SP are and then gathering a group of people to do it. It’s just way too time consuming and all i want is my elite spec so i can go back to my casual gameplay of 3-5 dungeons a day and doing daily then log off routine.

Nemesis.6938:

maybe it would be an idea that if you unlock ONE elite spec fully that you get some kind of account wide buff that increases hero point gain by xx% (i’d say 50) so that you can unlock further ones faster?

All they need to do is make it cost as much as any other trait line. Not more than all of them together.

The Maguma HP’s should be a way for people to unlock the elite spec on an alt that might have very little map completion while playing HoT.

Never a necessity for everyone regardless of completion status.

So, I have no problem with needing to do more work to get my hero’s elite spec completely unlocked, I’m just unhappy with how long it will take me. I feel like after I have all the work done to finish unlocking my elite spec there won’t be any more exploring for me to do. That’s what I find distasteful about how many hero pointsI need to fully unlock my Elite :/

Substance E.4852:

Nemesis.6938:

maybe it would be an idea that if you unlock ONE elite spec fully that you get some kind of account wide buff that increases hero point gain by xx% (i’d say 50) so that you can unlock further ones faster?

All they need to do is make it cost as much as any other trait line. Not more than all of them together.

The Maguma HP’s should be a way for people to unlock the elite spec on an alt that might have very little map completion while playing HoT.

Never a necessity for everyone regardless of completion status.

Would also let them release more elite specs during HoT’s future without worrying about more map markers/challenges. Not like elite specs are a framework or anything to be expanded upon in the future.

51 pages
2k+ Posts
Anet
Get it
RIGHT.
CHANGE IT NOW

I suppose this is no longer the game for me. When gw2 launched, one could truly play whatever content one wanted and get your traits etc. The game was 100% fun for me. It was my favorite game by far, despite my affinity for trinity based games.

Now, it is unquestionably “play what you’re told to play”. My disappointment is that the game has become almost the polar opposite of what it was. had it been this way from the start, I would not have begun playing.

I have no interest in mushroom jumping and the like. Thus, no, I will be not getting one of the new specializations as they are locked behind these “masteries” I have no interest in.

So, they’re just going for a totally different demographic now I suppose. While there are some new specs that I am interested in, they are dead to me since I have no interest in mushroom jumping and all the rest.

People’s concerns were warranted. The elite spec grind is indeed terrible. I’ll say that I love HoT expansion, I’m even ok with the way masteries are since it’s account based. But there’s no way I’ll grind hero points on more than 1 elite spec.

The way it is now, even though I’m having a fun time going through the content, I’m only 50% way through getting Reaper unlocked. Halfway through, though I can’t play him because he doesn’t have the essential skills and traits to make the Reaper effective. It just makes no sense the way unlocks work, you’re giving people a fraction of a fully working character and think people should play them?

Things have really slowed down due to the hero point difficulties past the 3rd map. And I’m a WvW player, I haven’t touched WvW because I’m burried head deep in PvE trying to get the elite specs I want unlocked.

It’s time to change it to allow easier elite spec unlocks. If I can play the new elite specs, I’ll have no problems playing HoT content and grind masteries and whatever else I choose to do. Without elite specs, I know for sure I’m not doing this for more than 1 character. That means 11 of my other characters will not see play time because of this.

Again, this is coming from someone that likes HoT expansion, love the guild hall, ok with masteries grind. I just want to be able to play the elite specs for my characters.

See the thing is about this Hero Point grind is most people have been playing the same 1-3 viable builds for the core classes for the past 3 or so years. Game play by this point has gotten stale; so of course people are going to be infuriated grinding out that 400 or so hero points (which a good 80% are gated behind masteries, and I’m being modest) just to do something new with their class they have been playing for 3 years.

Anet should at least give multiple ways of getting hero points like spirit shards, karma, pvp, dungeon tokens, etc. Because having to get 400 hero points per alt is absurd, that’s quite the grind per character. You would have to get 100 WvW ranks plus 2,000 badges PER CHARACTER to max out your elite specialization, that’s a good month or so work. Then if you want to get it in PVE you would have to grind out the masteries because Hero points are gated behind them, and for those who loathe doing pve would drive them to rage quit. Hero Points dropped to at least a max of 250 per elite specialization that’s a fair amount considering these elite spec are supposed to be on-par with the core specializations.

Anet, why don’t you just revert the skill point system to what it was? The old system was good because it rewarded you for doing whatever you liked doing. I understand the reason why you changed to this new system is because you didn’t want people to unlock everything on day 1. But what you could have instead done is just separate skill points between expansions, so you can’t spend Tyria skill points on Heart of Thorns skills. Then let people convert their spare skill points to spirit shards, kind of like before. That would fix the problem. Then you could also balance new content around everyone having a fresh start rather than half your playerbase having an instant 200 hero point head start and the other half lagging behind.

I have to say, all the elitists bragging about how “it isn’t much grind, just suck it up” are most likely the ones who started with a massive hero point advantage. Having half of the 400 required to full unlock is an even bigger deal than it sounds – you’ll take far less than half the time to unlock your elite specialization compared to people starting from scratch – since you can just cherrypick the easy and obtainable hero challenges rather than the rest of us who get shafted on every other challenge whether it be due to ridiculous champion tuning or any of the numerous mastery lockouts. I’d really like to a see something more like the old skill system to be implemented so this kind of disparity doesn’t pop up again. 400 points is far too much, whereas 200 points is almost reasonable – and everyone had a different number going into the expansion, so it was impossible to balance around everyone. That combined with the “no more skill points from just playing the game” really sucks.

At first I was baffled about the 400 points, but after I found out ever Skill challenge actually gives 10 points… All its fine

mazut.4296:

At first I was baffled about the 400 points, but after I found out ever Skill challenge actually gives 10 points… All its fine

Only problem is getting to them and clearing them…I’m seeing too many group challenges. :/

I paid for the expansion so I can enjoy the specializations. Now its plain suffering.

Oh no… This is just too much for me… I have limited time for gaming, but whenever I do, so far I’ve really enjoyed it. I have one level80 char of each and every profession, and love to play around with different build setups, exploring casually here and there. I’ve never been interested in map completion, so I’ve just casually wondered around after unlockin the core skills.

Now, for the first time ever, I must grrrrind each of the characters through the same content… over and over and over… As a casual player, this is way too difficult for me. The new hero challenges are so bloody difficult, at least for me, as well. I spent an hour trying to get to one of them, finally managing the jump, only to die in the hands of the Champ.

I do have a lot of challenges undone in the Core as well, but awarding one point each, they are simply too arduous to find and do.

Btw, my total WwW experience consists of maybe 2 hours of play, so that’s not really an option either.

Please give me a way to buy the hero points in the Gem store, or do whatever, so I can actually enjoy the new skills with my characters. This, more than any new content, is what I signed and paid for.

I’ve been a GW player since day one, with every game plus expansion. Congratulations, you’ve succeeded in something I didn’t think possible…an expansion and opening weekend that has left me with zero enthusiasm to actually log in to play, at all.

After logging in with my BY FAR most experienced char of the existing 8 (9 with my newly rolled new profession), I get about half of the new elite spec done. Knowing how much time I have in the game on my main, and logging in to my other alts to spend their pts, and on several not even having enough to unlock the first part of the elite spec, simply crushed it right there. Honestly, the grind / time requirement that implies KILLS me from wanting to play. I’m a casual player. I have a life. I haven’t even had an interest in getting to the new areas / content, honestly.

Frustrated, disappointed…those words don’t even begin to describe it. The game is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be open to casual players. I guess that’s not true anymore.

I was a huge Blizzard fan and dumped them when they started making bad decisions / abandoned what made me such a fan in the first place. GW2 has been going that way with the changes to force people to spend at the gem shop if they want to enjoy aspects / rewards in the game (I can’t remember the last time I got a black lion chest key dropped in game, but I get chests fairly regularly). Now you’re taking a further step down that road by trying to kill casual play in order to even play how I want to in the first place. And I’m that much closer to looking for my next game / gaming company.

This is absurd; just remove the elite specializations gating. As of current, I have been recommending friends NOT to buy HoT because of the grindfest.

My problem isn’t the amount of points, its how the points are…. 90% or more are group challenges. Yeah thats cool right now, but when the game gets old, how are new players going to get their hero points when vets don’t want to be bothered with them? I’m having a hard enough time finding help in map chat as it is right now.

Ahrian Do Ramas.2394:

Please give me a way to buy the hero points in the Gem store, or do whatever, so I can actually enjoy the new skills with my characters. This, more than any new content, is what I signed and paid for.

If THAT’S the solution they implement, wanting me to pay more money on top of the price of the expansion to reasonably have access to the new specializations, then you WILL lose me and I dare say a hefty amount of other people as the Gem Store will have then fulfilled every nightmare GW1 players had about it before GW2 release.

Not sure how they have missed their target market so badly in this expansion. GW2 was advertised as “grind free”, they even said it themselves, they HATE grinding. Yet they release this.. Baffling

I’ll throw in my two cents as a long time Guild Wars player.

I’m really just struggling to understand why my personal class progression requires GROUP content. Set the HP challenges to scale with the number of players in range and I’ll be happy.

I absolutely love the story so far. The zones are tedious but beautiful. I’ve died a lot more than I’d like to admit but I’m still enjoying myself overall. I can even get past the mastery gating since they’re account-wide.

But I can’t get past this weird idea that content requires 10 participants in order for it to be considered challenging. I thought that was what the raids were for.

Snorcha.7586:

Not sure how they have missed their target market so badly in this expansion. GW2 was advertised as “grind free”, they even said it themselves, they HATE grinding. Yet they release this.. Baffling

They missed it because as far as I know they never asked us. We were all led to assume from when videos were first released about elites that it was a core enticement to buy the game. Who could have imagined this nutty elite gate which makes you play through the content of hot b4 you can unlock the elite for Hot.

In betas we were given immediate access to elites and no access to test the hero point system.

We weren’t told how hero points would work until only few days before and even then most were expecting something close to what we already had. Not walls within walls.

The lack of information on this essential selling point of the game was withheld and now many many people are feeling betrayed , and that this isn’t what they thought they were buying.

leftyboy.9358:

Snorcha.7586:

Not sure how they have missed their target market so badly in this expansion. GW2 was advertised as “grind free”, they even said it themselves, they HATE grinding. Yet they release this.. Baffling

They missed it because as far as I know they never asked us. We were all led to assume from when videos were first released about elites that it was a core enticement to buy the game. Who could have imagined this nutty elite gate which makes you play through the content of hot b4 you can unlock the elite for Hot.

In betas we were given immediate access to elites and no access to test the hero point system.

We weren’t told how hero points would work until only few days before and even then most were expecting something close to what we already had. Not walls within walls.

The lack of information on this essential selling point of the game was withheld and now many many people are feeling betrayed , and that this isn’t what they thought they were buying.

BUT we are getting immediate access to elite specializations! Only not to maxed out ones. Just don´t see where the problem is with needing some time to maxing it out. That´s just part of the progression plan and I believe it is working as intended.

Harlekin.2981:

leftyboy.9358:

Snorcha.7586:

Not sure how they have missed their target market so badly in this expansion. GW2 was advertised as “grind free”, they even said it themselves, they HATE grinding. Yet they release this.. Baffling

They missed it because as far as I know they never asked us. We were all led to assume from when videos were first released about elites that it was a core enticement to buy the game. Who could have imagined this nutty elite gate which makes you play through the content of hot b4 you can unlock the elite for Hot.

In betas we were given immediate access to elites and no access to test the hero point system.

We weren’t told how hero points would work until only few days before and even then most were expecting something close to what we already had. Not walls within walls.

The lack of information on this essential selling point of the game was withheld and now many many people are feeling betrayed , and that this isn’t what they thought they were buying.

BUT we are getting immediate access to elite specializations! Only not to maxed out ones. Just don´t see where the problem is with needing some time to maxing it out. That´s just part of the progression plan and I believe it is working as intended.

We’re getting immediate access to half complete elites and then only if you’ve full explored before release.

Once again…. Elite traits and utilities should cost exactly the same as the regular traits and utilities…. the elite traits should be on their own upgrade circle and the elite utilities should be on their own upgrade circle just like the normal traits and utilities… Why? Because there is nothing “elite” about these specializations… They aren’t any better than the normal professions… I think they chose to add the word elite to these specializations to justify a ludicrous amount of hero points….. Terrible decision. Please change this Anet

Please fix this for us casuals, ok? Getting new specializations was what we were waiting for.

Anet also informed there would be more elite specializations in the future. Do you really -really- expect us to go through this over again???

I play 3-4 hours a day during weekends (that is if i can) i played alot since HoT released. But all of that play time is wasted on trying to get my hero points and mastery points. Took me an hour to finally get my gliding and that is without updraft. Then grind is too much i i finally gave up on even trying to play my new specs.

Thanks anet. You bath in our money and we get rubbishm worst overpriced expansion experience ever. -1

I’d like to contribute to the anti-grind movement that is arising (thanks to everyone who posted).
Here’s whats wrong for me in addition to the acquisition mechanic itself : i have 150 spare points on Guardian, 100ish on Elementalist while all other classes have less than 10 but i dont want to play neither Dragonhunter or Tempest(at least not now).
What i’d like is to play Druid for my guild and i feel sadly FORCED to commit to my Ranger(6 hero points). Something feel wrong to me.
As many stated, in order to enjoy the new maps i would really like to play them with elite specs… being a www player only upset me more and make me want to push my keyboard in my ears (sideways)…

+1

Its grind of the north all over again

Some people are doing a mess in this discussion.
Let’s put something in order.
The large majority of the people is nice with Hot, is enthusiastic for some Elite Spec and has nothing to complain with Mastery system (that seems really far better then the previous one, so, please, don’t ask to go back neither for joke).
The only serious issues are the totally crazy amount of hero points needed to unlock the Elite Spec and the mechanics to gather them.
I’m sure that Anet will fix it, increasing the opportunities to gather a far richer amount of HP or dramatically lowering the request of them (please no more than 120).
We have other ways to strive to gather a result, i.e. legendary, masteries, etc…., and we’d like to do it with our Elite alts

51 pages of 99% truth about the grind needed for this elite spec’s (for loyal players who play this game for 3 years it’s not fun RLY !) & all the gated group needed , master’s you need for anything & just the absurd location these ‘’hero points’’ are is absurd .

pls arenanet listend to your player base , bcuz there will be manny more pages added to this prolly, witch comes to show that HoT is just let’s say ‘’ not working’’ , it just doesn’t feel FUN to me & to 99% here to have to do all this mess for things we already di & or should have got from the start , ELITE SPECS everyone was looking to play since day 1 , well for me & a whole lot of other players it’l take weeks , months of yes idd grinding & repetative gameplay OveR & OVeR again this is not what i call FUN , i’m sorry .

so pls Anet listend to your loyal , casual , hardcore & who’ever plays this game & change this mess for the bether ! i’ serious , i’m even thinking about just NOT doing the new content @ all , bcuz i trully dont feel like to have myself pushed to grinding it over & over again all all my toons i would want an elite spec on it’s sad … the world is so pretty in HoT … but you take away all the fun , is this what you wanted Anet ? no seriously , is this what you wanted ?

I look at elite specs as a long term progression path instead of what the majority here seems to see them as. I have no problem with their current iteration. Then again, i’m old school and could work on certain missions for years without calling them a “grind”.

Perhaps Anet should have done a better job explaining that instead of making them seem like something that “came” with the expansion and could immediately be played. I could see that argument for sure.

Ald.9418:

I look at elite specs as a long term progression path instead of what the majority here seems to see them as. I have no problem with their current iteration. Then again, i’m old school and could work on certain missions for years without calling them a “grind”.

Perhaps Anet should have done a better job explaining that instead of making them seem like something that “came” with the expansion and could immediately be played. I could see that argument for sure.

That doesn’t fit the GW2 design philosophy. Equipment, skills, classes, etc… are not supposed to be behind a grind wall.

lmaogg.7325:

I paid for the expansion so I can enjoy the specializations. Now its plain suffering.

Exactly this! I’m not enjoying the game at all since the release. I want to but I can’t even play the elite specs. Much less grind them all over again for my other 12 toons.

RyuDragnier.9476:

mazut.4296:

At first I was baffled about the 400 points, but after I found out ever Skill challenge actually gives 10 points… All its fine

Only problem is getting to them and clearing them…I’m seeing too many group challenges. :/

Good news, just tonight I’ve run into two of them that are bugged. They’re each supposed to spawn a champion and 2 additional targets. The 2 additional targets don’t spawn, and killing just the champ doesn’t satisfy the challenge.

Ald.9418:

I look at elite specs as a long term progression path instead of what the majority here seems to see them as. I have no problem with their current iteration. Then again, i’m old school and could work on certain missions for years without calling them a “grind”.

Perhaps Anet should have done a better job explaining that instead of making them seem like something that “came” with the expansion and could immediately be played. I could see that argument for sure.

I completely agree with you, so do a lot of others. Just need them posting. But this thread…has become a bit toxic and angry so folks stay away from it. Thanks for voicing your opinion.

I was ganged up on in my guild for expressing negative opinions in GC yesterday, which is a shame, as I was always very positive about this game. Luckily there seem to be lots of kindred spirits here so I’ll freely express my opinions.

In my mind (and as many have said) fixing the three things below will make a massive difference.

1) Drastically reduce the number of hero points needed to unlock elites. While I am not especially bothered about my elite spec I know how much others were looking forward to them. It was only in a post literally a day or two before the expansion that it was explicitly stated that these would be ‘unlocked’ – not helped by the beta weekends making them instantly available. This gave a lot of people the wrong impression and I can understand their frustrations. I would reduce this to around 60 points or so.

2) Half the XP needed for each mastery. Although these are account-bound (which is good) I still feel they’re too grindy. I find myself looking at my XP bar a lot. I never did in the base game.

3) When people are not around hero points (often because they’re mastery gated or very hard to get to) stop with the unsoloable champions with time limits! Downscale them to veteran mobs so that soloers can have a chance. This will become even more obvious once fewer players are on the map and people are attempting to get hero points for their alts. Implementing point 1 would massively reduce this issue also!

ANet made a good move by getting rid of the story requirement to have Itzel 4 mastered.

Come on ANet – if you sort these three things out, the majority will be a lot happier.