Guild Wars 2

Had my fingers crossed for the expansion waiting patiently for 2 years. Spent 4 days from launch trying my hardest to enjoy it…. I just couldn’t. My full ascended geared engi felt like a misplaced kitchen knife. I won’t harp on about the elite spec because frankly I haven’t seen any of it. So 4 days losing my mind in maguuma trying to find people to do events with to virtually giving up and going back to wvw/world boss farming cause I actually find that sort of grind funner then getting 2 hit by trash mobs. way to make me feel completely outdated in your very first expac a net! I have learnt my lesson in buying things before trying. Seriously you base half your ‘’new age’’ content around a big jumping puzzle? I’m too old for that kitten.

Here’s my feedback:

Hero pt cost too high which is HP grind gated behind mastery grind gate. Not playing till changed. Purely my opinion and preference.

To avoid this problem state the fact that it;s 400HP grind gated behind mastery before selling the game then we’d know not to buy, but hey setting expectations is counter-intuitive to sales, yeah? Because we all know sales always look out for our interests (lol).

Not going to ask for refund or anything, just know that to me it only reconfirms that ANET is a company not to be trusted, same as how the rest of the gaming industry has devolved.

63 pages……this needs fixed prettt badly.

Again anet, simply adding the option to a vendor to trade spirit shards for HP would work

By ANet standards, they will do something when this thread reaches 500 pages…so, still a few weeks to go until anything changes…

After changing something, then ANet will face another 500 pages thread of people complaining that they have done everything with the released system and find it unfair that things have been made easier…

Procrastination is the worst skill for ANet to have…

castlemanic.3198:

Redesign the hero point/elite specialisation unlock system. Number of hero points MUST go down. Difficulty of hero challenges MUST go down. Gimmicks like the boar hero challenge which require chronomancers with aoe alacrity MUST be completely removed and replaced with something else. All hero points must be attainable solo. If nothing else on that list happens, all hero points must be soloable, even the uselessly arbitrary gimmicky ones.

THIS in a nutshell. This is exactly what would fix the vast majority of what people are upset about.

So I went a bit out of my comfort zone today and gave the PVE a good hard try, to see if it would be any easier to get my spec there than in WvW. I have to say, the story kinda got me interested into wanting to complete that- seems like it can be fun climaxing with a nice boss fight against the dragon, also the cinematic cutscenes are great. I then did some open world to attempt to get my elite, well found one hero point that I killed some wyverns and communed and it was easy enough, so I thought “eh, might not be so bad,” so I struggled navigating around, falling off the edges and dying trying to use updrafts on my glider but apparently my character is too fat and just falls right through them.

Long story short, I find the next hero point, and there is this really ugly frog that just tells me, and I quote: “you are not ready.” Not ready for what? I spent the last half hour navigating around, dying, running back to try and land on your platform, and I finally get there ankitten ot ready? So I will likely be finishing the story, but the open world is still the same old nonsense to me.

Sylent.3165:

63 pages……this needs fixed prettt badly.

Again anet, simply adding the option to a vendor to trade spirit shards for HP would work

oh my god this is actually brilliant and needed. +1ed to oblivion.

All they really need to do, imo, is make all the hero points able to be done by one person alone.

Its bullkitten that we need to waste so much hero points on all the mastery’s JUST so that we can unlock the elite for 60 points, and then another 400 to complete it, kittening bull.

Same here, can’t enjoy the expansion because I am forced to grind HP and masteries (grinderies?) in order to unlock the new content.

Sylent.3165:

63 pages……this needs fixed prettt badly.

Again anet, simply adding the option to a vendor to trade spirit shards for HP would work

This sounds like a good idea. But its a bit slow for new players.

KDRG Monster.2873:

Its bullkitten that we need to waste so much hero points on all the mastery’s JUST so that we can unlock the elite for 60 points, and then another 400 to complete it, kittening bull.

Agreed. I am just hiding in the boards until they fix the problem.

I hope Anet learns how much money they just gave away.

I re-installed the demon game that stole a large chunk of everyone’s like (World of Warcraft). It was all over map chat that people just bought the most recent expansion so they could hunker down while Anet decides how long it’s gonna take them to stop being d-wads. That’s a lot of $70 donations to King Blizzard that could have gone Anets way. And it’s probably not just Blizzard reaping the benefits; plenty of other fun games to try out there too. Wildstar is free now too. Pretty much the perfect time to try other games, IMO.

Also, what about the horrid first day gem store items? There were like 2 things to buy, and both sucked. I got the combo pack with the outfit, glider skin, and whatever else it had (if anything? it turned out so lame I don’t even remember).

All they had to do was give up the elite specialization traits, make some half-decent attempt at the gem store, and they’d have had at least $70 from me and the 20+ people I personally saw (which means there are probably hundreds more), just on that server, complaining about it. Really, how god awful a job do you have to do to get people to uninstall your game and play WoW again? The elite specialization problem should have been fixed day 1.

Oh well, back to playing the warlock.

Thousands of replies already, didn’t read them all. So much was already said, so I keep it short:
People actually payed hard earned money for the expansion. Many of them looking forward to play the new elite specs right away. Then HoT goes live and they all get slapped in their face with a harsh “Kitten you! How dare you wanting to try out the new stuff without grinding first! What, you already got old Tyria complete and yet don’t want to rush in the new maps right away?! Down in the dust you filthy heretic!”

As if having to grind exp for the masteries wasn’t boring enough already (why oh why that ultra-lazy design decision? Why not some sort of skillbased challenges? E. g. to learn gilder basics, talk to an NPC who tells you how gliding works, just to give you a training glider and send you down a short training track, may be some sort of small hill with the simple task “glide down and land on the marked spot”. Once done, you have learned the glider basics. That’s a very simple example but I think you get the idea. Ofc, the more advanced a mastery progress goes, the more difficult the tasks should be.).
Right now, I so regret having spent 200 € for 2x HoT (for my wife and myself). At least I learned a lesson- good old GW1 Arena.Net is definetly and irretrievably dead and I will never ever pay a single € to them for pre-order again.

Nash.2681:

Thousands of replies already, didn’t read them all. So much was already said, so I keep it short:
People actually payed hard earned money for the expansion. Many of them looking forward to play the new elite specs right away. Then HoT goes live and they all get slapped in their face with a harsh “Kitten you! How dare you wanting to try out the new stuff without grinding first! What, you already got old Tyria complete and yet don’t want to rush in the new maps right away?! Down in the dust you filthy heretic!”

As if having to grind exp for the masteries wasn’t boring enough already (why oh why that ultra-lazy design decision? Why not some sort of skillbased challenges? E. g. to learn gilder basics, talk to an NPC who tells you how gliding works, just to give you a training glider and send you down a short training track, may be some sort of small hill with the simple task “glide down and land on the marked spot”. Once done, you have learned the glider basics. That’s a very simple example but I think you get the idea. Ofc, the more advanced a mastery progress goes, the more difficult the tasks should be.).
Right now, I so regret having spent 200 € for 2x HoT (for my wife and myself). At least I learned a lesson- good old GW1 Arena.Net is definetly and irretrievably dead and I will never ever pay a single € to them for pre-order again.

Here here!

Also, you might look into trying Wildstar until they fix this crap. It won’t cost you anything to try it, unlike this horrid expansion.

Just got my rev to 80, and was all excited to play through the maguuma area as the elite specialization, only to realize that it’s gated between a crap ton of hero points. I am so mad! This is complete bullcrap!!!!!

I spent the last hour working towards gliding to a hero point and what do you know… it’s a champion and 2 vets… ONE SHOT DEAD…

Can we please get the inevitable change to this entire system immediately please? This will change, there is no question. It’s hard enough finding groups to do these hard to reach hero points as it is, but when the expansion isn’t a few days old and everyone has already done it it will be impossible.

Hero Point feedback:

Horrible!

Elite Specialization:

Horrible!

Let me elaborate: I see a few problems with the way this has been implemented:

(a) A logical thing. If the game requires you to play through it (more or less completely) to unlock your elite spec to such a degree that it is actually useful – what are you going to do then? You’re done … do you want to redo the content to see how much it makes a difference with the elite spec? Oh – the harcore dungeon runners might find a use for one or more elite specs but since dungeons haven’t changed those elite specs better be REALLY good or else why bother to spend a month or so outside of your dungeons to get a spec that cuts a few seconds off a dungeon run? It would make way more sense to unlock the new spec as you go along so that maybe at the 50% mark you’re done with your new spec and can use it.

(b) The way hero points are done is plain stupid. Almost all of those I encounter are group event points. At the moment it is ok – have you ever considered what will happen to a new player in half a year or so? When the maps are pretty empty? Tell them: Well son, you should have bought this game a year or so ago? It’s a design that is bound to fail even mid term and I cannot understand why it was implemented … did NOONE really see that this led to people being unable to get their elite spec once the game has aged a bit? It is as bad as the NPE thing was ….

© Alts … I have tons of them … Yes, I do not have to grind for the masteries – I “inherit them” which means I can use the mushrooms and glider and whatnot right from the start. But I still have to grind the hero points – and I have to do this FAST because in a few months I will probably not be able to find people to do the group points. Does this motivate me? Well – not very much so!

Generally map completition was a thing you could solo – in GW1 and in GW2 – right until HoT hit. With all those group based hero points you cannot do this anymore – a truly bad design decision!

YOUR elite spec (it is a personal thing) should also be unlockable by YOU – not being a reaper (or whatnot) thanks to the co-operation of others. This fails hard because it takes way too many points to unlock it und most of those points are group content, not solo content.

I like the new expansion – in an overall-ish sense. But I despise the way the HP have been implemented and the gated content is poorly made as well – imagine a new player in half a year … with more or less empty maps … how long will it take for them to get the XP needed to unlock the essential masteries? Will they persever or will they quit …

I just wanted to add my opinion to this too. I love the expansion, the new maps are great. I really wish I could play through the new maps with the ‘elite’ classes, instead I can’t and felt myself torn between wanting to rush through the maps to get hero points, and enjoying/exploring the new content.

And I spent the weekend enjoying the new maps and exploring, meaning that by the time I get enough hero points for all my chars, i’d have explored everything and not played/enjoyed the elite specs at all which I feel is a big shame.

Any update about when ANet will change HoT according to all this feedback?

We need direct answers, please no more generic answers…dont feed us with empty posts.

Thanks.

RedBaron.6058:

Any update about when ANet will change HoT according to all this feedback?

If history is any guide, probably a little over a year — assuming it is changed at all.

I have never seen a game start dieing so fast. Just saying ANet needs to reply ASAP

A lot of people is waiting for the changes to purchase the HoT expansion.

ANet can make a load of money overnight if they listen to their costumers…

I’m actually pretty shocked Anet haven’t replied to this. Just days into the release of a major expansion you’d think they’d be pretty hot on the communication front for such a huge issue.

RedBaron.6058:

By ANet standards, they will do something when this thread reaches 500 pages…

Yeah. And (also based on past expeience) what they will do is lock the thread with a message that they “have all the feedback they want already”. Then promptly forget about the matter for the next year or two.

Seriously, something needs to be done about this soon. Waiting is not going to make the problem go away – quite the opposite, eventually the number of people on HoT maps will dip even lower than it is now, which will only make the situation more dire.

What’s even more needed is a dev post that addresses the problem, and tells us what they are going to do with it. If the answer is “nothing, it’s fine as it is”, that needs to be said soon too, so we can stop wasting time hoping that Anet actually cares about making a quality (as opposed to grind) content.

Bryzy.2719:

I’m actually pretty shocked Anet haven’t replied to this. Just days into the release of a major expansion you’d think they’d be pretty hot on the communication front for such a huge issue.

Colin did reply on Sunday, I believe. I believe he acknowledged that we raised a few interesting points. Nothing promised, other than they would discuss it internally.

I’m too lazy to go look for it, I’m sure you can see it in the Dev forum.

Well, Colin post here was as generic and neutral as it can be…nothing can be assessed from it…I think he just showed up after a few thousand posts to give a proof of life…nothing else.

The bottom line is that people that not buy the HoT expansion now will only buy it, if at all, when it comes with discount before Christmas.

It is a big loss of revenue but ANet knows better, for sure.

I’m pretty shocked that Anet are just throwing a deafie to everyone aswell, considering how many complaints there are.

Bit sad as well considering how much of the other stuff I kinda actually like but that I am put of from bothering with due to this 1 point.

For instance I loved the questline in GW1 to get my little black moa chick and would seriously think about actually doing some pve (instead of 100% wvw) and getting my very own “from scratch” legendary (i know theres some dubiety about whether or not you save money but i dont care about cash, i could buy one today but actually doing a worthwhile achievement, that’d be fun).

I also like the account mastery system, no idea if the xp gate levels will need tweaking since I don’t pve but its pretty nicely thought out and has some interesting bonuses

Got guild halls

Got a new Border map finally and lots of other good kitten to come

But for the most part i won’t see most of this because I’m just not that interested in grinding through playing the same old builds with the same old weapons to eventually unlock the elite specs. Stifling variety until after you have completed most of the expac and also forcing people to main toon rather than play many alts is a bad direction to go.

imo you made a lot of pretty good stuff in HoT but are also doing a lot of damage by not doing something about this, at the very least communicating with people

Just bite the bullet and make the elite spec weapon open up on 60 hps and the rest of the trait line and skills open up between 60-120 hps

lol are you guys still battling? Don’t you get it- They aren’t going to fix this quick no matter how kittened we are. Just start looking for something else to play. That’s what I’ve done and much happier again, without this frustration.

My sad tale.

I’m a bit of a tech nerd, so when engi was a pistol/shotgun thing i was " Meh, engi should use hammers, this is a blasphemy" but i give it a chance and i was “Jesus what kind of turrets are those? They look like something my great-grandfather did for a failure experiment with toasters and peashooters while that pesky annoying race have lazor beams and those big cat dudes have amazing canons and charzokas. Why the hell my turrets look so stupid? Oh well fudge you i will make a warrior”

3 years later.

Zomg they are giving Engi a fudging hammer that call lightning and project energy shields, and that sexy thing even use those dumb rocket boots to do movement combos and ZOMG they gave it fudging drones, and they are actually funny and cool, I NEED IT" – Pre-Ordering HoT RIGHT NOW-.

Finally HoT is coming out! My inner lego crafting, plastic hammer young self was bursting, i will be like Thor and Iron man in one package!"

So I leveled a Engi in one week, got this fancy ascended hammer with that Uber skin, and even a cool and awesome armor skin for him (It was 800 gems for god sake) with that gas mask i totally looked like an Engie wet dream with tools for total destruction and unlimited coolness.

But when i logged for the first time i was "400? 400 fudging points? You mean i will have to play this class that i totally hate for like ALL the expansion? That i have to grind for points in old Tyria when i’m alone in the map? OHHHHH just fudge you.

Oh well, i always loved dark, brooding warriors with some mysterious powers. Hello Revenant.

My wet dream of being an engie with a uber hammer will have to wait forever.

Today is the deadline for me.

ANet likes to announce and implement changes on Tuesdays. I will wait until the end of the day.

i dont get your point rly..
i just play like 2 hours each day in the evening and i fully unlocked the daredevil spec yesterday (4 days after release), with 210 Hp already stored.
i am unlocking the druid spec with just 40 HP stored and i began using the druid spec even with only the first trait.. just for using the staff.
i dont see this as an issue unless u want it ALL and NOW when the game just release…
take your time and relax… u can even play the spec without being fully unlocked u know?

I have nine alts that I play regularly. Now I have to earn 400 skill points for each just to enjoy the new elite. This sounds like fun. NOT! Also I don’t understand what is the purpose of this grind? (and it is a grind. 9 professions x 400 HP = 3600 HP) Only when I look at this number it makes me abandon the idea of unlocking the elite specialization. And for the people that are saying that I don’t need to play all professions all I can say its that I play as a I want because this was the slogan of GW2 and this is why I bought HoT. No were was advertised that this philosophy has changed.

Nephar.3746:

i dont get your point rly..
i just play like 2 hours each day in the evening and i fully unlocked the daredevil spec yesterday (4 days after release), with 210 Hp already stored.
i am unlocking the druid spec with just 40 HP stored and i began using the druid spec even with only the first trait.. just for using the staff.
i dont see this as an issue unless u want it ALL and NOW when the game just release…
take your time and relax… u can even play the spec without being fully unlocked u know?

Congrats on not bothering to read and understand the crux of the complaints. No one wants everything instant…..

Keep hating…

Siegdarth.6180:

So I leveled a Engi in one week, got this fancy ascended hammer with that Uber skin, and even a cool and awesome armor skin for him (It was 800 gems for god sake) with that gas mask i totally looked like an Engie wet dream with tools for total destruction and unlimited coolness.

But when i logged for the first time i was "400? 400 fudging points? You mean i will have to play this class that i totally hate for like ALL the expansion? That i have to grind for points in old Tyria when i’m alone in the map? OHHHHH just fudge you.

My wet dream of being an engie with a uber hammer will have to wait forever.

Move your “behind part”, just waypoint to hero challenges in Tyria (you already farm a week with a “totally hated class”, there you just have to waypoint and click…), unlock the easy HoT challenge (those without fight).

Long before coming to Verdant Brink you’ll have you hammer equipped…
I did that and I came to Verdant Brink with already half the traits and spells unlocked.
I’m one step away from unlocking my grandmaster trait and complete my build to its full potential. Didn’t end Verdant Brink yet.

Nephar.3746:

i dont get your point rly..
i just play like 2 hours each day in the evening and i fully unlocked the daredevil spec yesterday (4 days after release), with 210 Hp already stored.
i am unlocking the druid spec with just 40 HP stored and i began using the druid spec even with only the first trait.. just for using the staff.
i dont see this as an issue unless u want it ALL and NOW when the game just release…
take your time and relax… u can even play the spec without being fully unlocked u know?

what if i have like 5% map completion and a level 80 character and i want to try the elite in HoT? I first have to collect enough points to even activate the elite and after that i won’t be nearly as powerful as to play HoT with it. it doesn’t help that all hero points in HoT require multiple people.. what happened to “we want you to play the game the way you want to”?

Kulvar.1239:

Keep hating…

Siegdarth.6180:

So I leveled a Engi in one week, got this fancy ascended hammer with that Uber skin, and even a cool and awesome armor skin for him (It was 800 gems for god sake) with that gas mask i totally looked like an Engie wet dream with tools for total destruction and unlimited coolness.

But when i logged for the first time i was "400? 400 fudging points? You mean i will have to play this class that i totally hate for like ALL the expansion? That i have to grind for points in old Tyria when i’m alone in the map? OHHHHH just fudge you.

My wet dream of being an engie with a uber hammer will have to wait forever.

Move your “behind part”, just waypoint to hero challenges in Tyria (you already farm a week with a “totally hated class”, there you just have to waypoint and click…), unlock the easy HoT challenge (those without fight).

Long before coming to Verdant Brink you’ll have you hammer equipped…
I did that and I came to Verdant Brink with already half the traits and spells unlocked.
I’m one step away from unlocking my grandmaster trait and complete my build to its full potential. Didn’t end Verdant Brink yet.

You mean having patience? And enjoy the other awesome features and give it time and unlock as i play? Without rushing the content? Such heresy! You sir totally lacks compassion in that dead and rotten hearth of yours!

Playing the spec with only 2-3 traits unlocked is kitten, I wouldn’t have an issue with that when I’m still leveling because then it’s still character progression. By not raising the level cap it sends out the false impression that you’d be able to get the traitline from the start.

Even completely ignoring that, there should be other ways to unlock the traits beyond grinding away countless hours. Like a person here before said, spirit shards to hero points conversion sounds like a perfect idea or letting people buy them with gold.

Lastly, shameless plug for a post that passionately voices the concerns of many like in this thread.
http://creeptheprophet.be/index.php/2015/10/26/gw2-beta-bait-and-switch/

Deli.1302:

Regarding pve, the mastery/hero point system is a mess. I can get mastery points but can’t spend them without first getting a certain amount of xp?? This is just a glorified level cap increase. I thought the point of the mastery system was to be horizontal progression beyond lvl80? Forcing us to level up more is vertical progression. And you block hero points behind masteries, forcing those of us who don’t care about masteries to do meaningless grinds. Just trying to find where the hero points are on these labyrinthine maps is hard enough and what’s worse is going through the trouble of getting to a hero point and finding out we can’t do it because we don’t have a certain mastery so we gotta go back to grinding. Or the hero point is a champ. Do you really think these maps are going to be bustling with people forever?

By jove, I think you got it. Yes, we are still leveling. What did you think horizontal progression was going to cost? Ever since Trait 3.0 we knew that the XP bar would now track mastery progress and that’s how you would earn them. What they didn’t say was it would combine progress through the story/map with mastery points, sort of a super POI/Renown Heart.

But if you watch the announcement from Pax South. Colin goes out of his way to poo-poo level cap increases because it obsoletes your ultimate gear with the first trash mob drop. So we don’t get a level cap increase to keep out equipment relevant. But we are still leveling.

Same goes with the Elite Specialization. We didn’t unlock all of our healing, utility and elite skills and all the traits in a specialization at level 1. And that’s where we are all starting at (well actually 0). We had to earn them with leveling or HP challenges if we wanted them earlier. And we still have that in HoT.

We are all Level 0 again.

jozefka.7256:

Nephar.3746:

i dont get your point rly..
i just play like 2 hours each day in the evening and i fully unlocked the daredevil spec yesterday (4 days after release), with 210 Hp already stored.
i am unlocking the druid spec with just 40 HP stored and i began using the druid spec even with only the first trait.. just for using the staff.
i dont see this as an issue unless u want it ALL and NOW when the game just release…
take your time and relax… u can even play the spec without being fully unlocked u know?

what if i have like 5% map completion and a level 80 character and i want to try the elite in HoT? I first have to collect enough points to even activate the elite and after that i won’t be nearly as powerful as to play HoT with it. it doesn’t help that all hero points in HoT require multiple people.. what happened to “we want you to play the game the way you want to”?

i get your point jozefka, but i think even with a very “casual solo play” u will need less than two weeks to fully unlock a spec from 0 HP.. and regarding HP that requires multiple ppl, i usually play solo but i had no problems at all finding players around HP to help/collaborate. I still think a 2-weeks time investment isnt that bad for a newly released game to unlock an elite spec from 0 HP… and probably most of players will have some HP stored as well dont u think?

Marcusb.9013:

Playing the spec with only 2-3 traits unlocked is kitten, I wouldn’t have an issue with that when I’m still leveling because then it’s still character progression. By not raising the level cap it sends out the false impression that you’d be able to get the traitline from the start.

Even completely ignoring that, there should be other ways to unlock the traits beyond grinding away countless hours. Like a person here before said, spirit shards to hero points conversion sounds like a perfect idea or letting people buy them with gold.

Lastly, shameless plug for a post that passionately voices the concerns of many like in this thread.
http://creeptheprophet.be/index.php/2015/10/26/gw2-beta-bait-and-switch/

Awesome letter about HoT present state on your link.
Thank you.

I don’t get the argument here. If you completed map comp, like I did on several characters before HoT came out. You already had around 200 extra hero points saved up. So when HoT came out, you had a 200 point lead to blow on the specialization. So all you really needed was 200 more. I started on Reaper with only 4 HP, and in 4 days I’ve gotten up to 85% done and have 75 HP more until Elite Specialization, and truthfully I feel I can have that before Halloween. Doesn’t feel like that terrible of a grind considering the grind for XP with the mastery system and it certainly isn’t going to take a long time.

I don’t know why I said map comp, all you really needed was all the Hero Challenges done in the game.

The only class/specialization I feel sorry for is the Revanant/Herald. They have to start out crisp and from the beginning, unlike the other classes that could have an early jump on the specialization.

RedBaron.6058:

A lot of people is waiting for the changes to purchase the HoT expansion.

ANet can make a load of money overnight if they listen to their costumers…

Would you kittenING STOP with the appeals to the masses? You don’t know. You CAN’T know. AND WE kittenING KNOW YOU CAN’T KNOW.

The length of this thread doesn’t matter. Your dire predictions don’t matter.

What’s actually happening in game which they will never in a thousand years share with us matters.

RedBaron.6058:

Today is the deadline for me.

ANet likes to announce and implement changes on Tuesdays. I will wait until the end of the day.

Excellent, and when it doesn’t change by then?

HtFde.3856:

Hero Point feedback:

© Alts … I have tons of them … Yes, I do not have to grind for the masteries – I “inherit them” which means I can use the mushrooms and glider and whatnot right from the start. But I still have to grind the hero points – and I have to do this FAST because in a few months I will probably not be able to find people to do the group points. Does this motivate me? Well – not very much so!

I like the new expansion – in an overall-ish sense. But I despise the way the HP have been implemented and the gated content is poorly made as well – imagine a new player in half a year … with more or less empty maps … how long will it take for them to get the XP needed to unlock the essential masteries? Will they persever or will they quit …

First of all I do LIKE new expansion too but.. yeah. I logged all my alts.. My main had map completion so yay druid half made, half.. jesus.. ok then i went for other characters which I really like and wanted to give a try with new specs. I unlocked, just unlocked.. engie and elem..
I like my ranger but I’m almost not using druid (dungs and fractals).. So spec is nothing fun for me. I wanted to check, CHECK, reaper for example or warrior but I can’t.. I don’t wanna grind my butt off just to check it out. I ll probably play my ranger only now so I can unlock at least one spec..

Situation is even worse for my boyfriend. His main 2 years ago was thief, he did map completion on him. So yay, he unlocked half spec with him. But.. his main is now guard. He did two legendary weapons with him. Of course you know how many hero points it took, right? So now, yay expansion.. they want me to.. what?! 400 hero points which I used 2 months ago?! He couldn’t even unlock guard spec.
So maybe necro, he said. But then when he found out, he ll need to really hard grind for points. I can hardly stop him from leaving GW2..
He used to say: You know why I love GW2? I can play for few months, then have a break for 2 months. After break I can come back and nothing will force me to grind, so I can keep up with others. He hates GRIND, and he loved GW2, cause he never, NEVER had to grind. Now slap to the face. Grind if you wanna play new spec.
Haha you bought our game, now grind you naive kitten ..
Yeah.. thanks Anet :/

Sorry for long post with broken English.. I’m just mad I will never check specs of other classes, cause seriously.. Doing hero points on every character? Again.. and again… and again.. No thanks.. I ran from free MMOs cause of that and now I can see it here :<

eduardo.1436:

sigh I don’t know how to feel about this. I am a super-causal player having only 78 hero points with 44% map complete (this is not a whine just a bit of perspective).

On the positive hand I am enjoying the HoT content a 100% percent. I love the events, the masteries, the story is magnificent. I still need to do fractals whom look promising with the new changes. All of this “distracts me” from getting my elite spec.

On the negative hand I wish I could be doing all these events, masteries and story as a Scrapper. But I can’t. I will have to do all the hero points in the jungle which impossible to do solo. I’m sure A-net will “fix this” so I will wait…..or more accurate I will keep raising my masteries.

I don’t know why posters think that world completion is so common. None of my characters have world completion. My main only ever intended to do it if she got a precursor, and she never got one, so she’s about 55% world complete. Otherwise, there was really no point I could see in doing the whole map, besides the completion rewards, which weren’t enticing enough for me to attempt map completion on some maps anyway. My main is the only profession I have (Mesmer) with enough points to unlock the weapon out of the gate.

Had I known that full world completion might have made things smoother to this degree, I’d have given more thought to doing it. I believed (which is true) that you could get everything you needed in the jungle. The only issue with that is that there are only 40 points in the jungle across all maps, so you either need 100% jungle HP completion if you start without enough to unlock the spec (which leaves you with nothing new to do by then, pretty much), or you have to go back to the old world and fill out enough HPs to make it more bearable (but, as we know, they only give one point each).

I just thought I’d add my thoughts to yours, since map completion shouldn’t be taken as a given when calculating how time consuming the unlocks are.

The 400 HP are way to much.
It may be ok for the “open world explorers” which have map completion and like to explore the new maps.
But GW2 was never a only open world exploration game (ok, there might be signs for a change with the removal of skill points) and so there are many different players. So some of them only like Dungeons and PVP or such things an don´t have world completion.

And then after months after the start of pre-purchase phase, anet wrote in a little forum post, to try our new “elite” (sry there is nothing elite about this due to balancing) spec in the Content you like you have to play the open world exploration. And with the release it shows, hat you even have to “grind” masterys in the open world to be able to frm the points for your new spec.
So why should the people not be upset about this?

If that is the case. the issue really isn’t that 400 HP is too much, but rather HP are not easily attainable to other aspects of the game. A system of vendors to exchange currency for hero points seems more a viable option. Kind of like how they did with WvW players with the notarized scrolls of heriocs included in the WvW rank up chests.

I have 5 Guardians, 3 of whom I wanted to transition to Dragonhunter. None of them had map completion on the 20th (one did by the 23rd, its a pretty straight forward process). My main is done already and I’m only a tiny bit into the third map. Frankly I put it down for a little bit to work Halloween loot and make sure I had all the collections achievements started that I could.

Will my other two Guards represent some repetition? YES. Would I like it to be a little simpler the second and third time around? SURE. But it already is IS simpler since the masteries are account-wide and the guides are starting to get published that make some of the early maps even easier than I had realized. I’ve run enough alts of other professions through Verdant Brink now that getting half a dozen of the points there is becoming muscle memory. Its just not that hard with a little practice.

Some take a group. I’m not wildly gregarious but in a few weeks if the maps are dead and I am still promoting some of my 22 character slots to elite specs I’m planning to tag up and do a little shouting in Lions Arch that “I’m leading a romp through the Heart of Thorns hero challenges and the train leaves in 5 minutes.” Some folks here might even end up IN one of my excursions.

It could be made a little more casual/pleasant without throwing out the entire structure. Just shaving off 100 points would make it something you could finish without ever leaving the first HoT map. It would also reduce the time requirement for primarily WvW players.

But the thing people commenting here need to realize is every day more people who want it are getting it done, and that’s reducing the sense of urgency, not increasing it. HoT includes dozens of long-term tasks. Getting your Espec probably shouldn’t be on the level of collecting your way to a precursor, but all evidence is it already isn’t that level of demanding.

Crunk n monkey.3749:

I don’t get the argument here. If you completed map comp, like I did on several characters before HoT came out. You already had around 200 extra hero points saved up. So when HoT came out, you had a 200 point lead to blow on the specialization. So all you really needed was 200 more. I started on Reaper with only 4 HP, and in 4 days I’ve gotten up to 85% done and have 75 HP more until Elite Specialization, and truthfully I feel I can have that before Halloween. Doesn’t feel like that terrible of a grind considering the grind for XP with the mastery system and it certainly isn’t going to take a long time.

I don’t know why I said map comp, all you really needed was all the Hero Challenges done in the game.

The only class/specialization I feel sorry for is the Revanant/Herald. They have to start out crisp and from the beginning, unlike the other classes that could have an early jump on the specialization.

And those who dont or very rarely pve?

Crunk n monkey.3749:

I don’t get the argument here. If you completed map comp, like I did on several characters before HoT came out. You already had around 200 extra hero points saved up. So when HoT came out, you had a 200 point lead to blow on the specialization. So all you really needed was 200 more. I started on Reaper with only 4 HP, and in 4 days I’ve gotten up to 85% done and have 75 HP more until Elite Specialization, and truthfully I feel I can have that before Halloween. Doesn’t feel like that terrible of a grind considering the grind for XP with the mastery system and it certainly isn’t going to take a long time.

I don’t know why I said map comp, all you really needed was all the Hero Challenges done in the game.

The only class/specialization I feel sorry for is the Revanant/Herald. They have to start out crisp and from the beginning, unlike the other classes that could have an early jump on the specialization.

Well – no WvW player, are you? Because we used the surplus skill points for crafting superior siege weapons … doh, silly us.