Guild Wars 2

Vix.6730:

This was supposed to be the expansion that brought the old war horses back, that would re-invigorate the community and right the ship. Three months after release and the main cities look as dead as ever. Beyond logging in for daily rewards I ran out of excuses to play.

The main cities were always dead to my recollection. Now with merchants and banks in the mists lobby and merchants and banks in the guild halls (if you have a scribing station), less people hang in main cities. Only real reason to go there is to craft.

ProtoGunner.4953:

This is your interpretation.

All right, fair enough. My interpretation. Can you list all the RPG games that don’t have any kind of leveling or character development and just give you all the skills and items you need at the start? If we can come up with a fair sized list of such games that are still classified as RPGs, we can chalk up the leveling and character development process as not being fundamental to the genre.

See, I am an oldschool gamer, I play games since almost 30 years. Games there wasn’t about rewards, it was about accomplishments.

And back in the good old days, we used to eat green, leafy vegetables filled with vitamins, but these days all the new school people are just obsessed with eating spinach.

Completing harder content that provides better items and more levels to develop your character is a form of accomplishment; just one that’s integral to RPGs and MMORPGs.

Being an “old school” gamer doesn’t change this. Even the classic dungeon crawler “Rogue” in the 1980s had this same model of leveling a character and getting new more powerful items as you completed levels.

It’s not interpretation; you can’t call your game an RPG without that model of character development.

I don’t get all these HoT-specific qualms. HoT made the game better. It was fun getting everything done. Raids, and fractal journey are fun. WvW is pretty bad now, but pips in spvp added to the game. Flying in Tyria makes getting world completion more fun.

It’s a little died down now that people have sperged through a lot of the content already. I’d like to see more player vs players stuff, and guild halls worked on more than anything else. More bosses in the raid would be cool, too.

So, no. I don’t hate the game. At all.

“I don’t get all these HoT-specific qualms.”
There’s nothing wrong with it and despite “our” complaints, don’t let anyone ruin your personal fun with HoT. I think that should be emphasised as some (not necessary in this thread) seem to think that “we” are actively out to ruin someone’s fun with our “rants”.

Despite my misgivings with HoT, I’ve found my repetetive way of getting what I want: Grabbing as much HPs as I can in core-Tyria and grab the remaining HPs in Verdant Brink. The only challenge from that “checklist” I need help with (and usually others as well) is the one near the exit to Auric Basin. After that I could take my time to try some events in AB, progress the story and rush through Tangled Depths thanks to Nuhoch Wallows mastery, which helped a LOT with navigating through the map + finding the juvenile Smokescale. Not really interested in any of the big final meta events à la octovine etc. I switch between my characters a lot because I can’t find a profession where I feel the most comfortable with.

katniss.6735:

I don’t get all these HoT-specific qualms. HoT made the game better. It was fun getting everything done. Raids, and fractal journey are fun. WvW is pretty bad now, but pips in spvp added to the game. Flying in Tyria makes getting world completion more fun.

It’s a little died down now that people have sperged through a lot of the content already. I’d like to see more player vs players stuff, and guild halls worked on more than anything else. More bosses in the raid would be cool, too.

So, no. I don’t hate the game. At all.

I’m a little bemused, but I notice you mentioned only one bit of actual HoT content that was fun: Raids. (Maybe gliding, but that’s paired with ‘in Tyria’)

I’m also enjoying the secondary benefits of HoT: elite specs, gliding (so nice), and the other little benefits that come along with the devs improving the UI and such.

But Magus Falls? Everything in it is built to annoy, not enjoy And that’s just sad.

It’s supposed to challenge you to get things done. That was probably the leading method they were going for. It’s satisfying finally getting each thing. The only zone I found annoying was Tangled Depths, because it was too hard to find out where each group of people were at, even while grouped with them, if you were on another part/level of the map.

What exactly is annoying? Are you just impatient in nature?

Rauderi.8706:

katniss.6735:

I don’t get all these HoT-specific qualms. HoT made the game better. It was fun getting everything done. Raids, and fractal journey are fun. WvW is pretty bad now, but pips in spvp added to the game. Flying in Tyria makes getting world completion more fun.

It’s a little died down now that people have sperged through a lot of the content already. I’d like to see more player vs players stuff, and guild halls worked on more than anything else. More bosses in the raid would be cool, too.

So, no. I don’t hate the game. At all.

I’m a little bemused, but I notice you mentioned only one bit of actual HoT content that was fun: Raids. (Maybe gliding, but that’s paired with ‘in Tyria’)

I’m also enjoying the secondary benefits of HoT: elite specs, gliding (so nice), and the other little benefits that come along with the devs improving the UI and such.

But Magus Falls? Everything in it is built to annoy, not enjoy And that’s just sad.

I really enjoy Magus Falls. There are annoying things there, for sure, but then, there are annoying things all over the game. It annoys me that I have no idea when a temple event in Orr is going on and I just have to wait for it. The treasure hunter collection annoys the hell out of me. I can’t see myself ever finishing it. Trying to PvE dailies on a map and teleporting to one that someone linked in map chat only to just miss it, annoys me. MMOs have always been full of annoyances.

I don’t like HoT being on timers. That annoys me. And some of the frog dudes with the poison really annoy me. but I’m loving the maps. And I even like the metas. And I didn’t find leveling masteries all that difficult.

On the other hand that bat guano hero point can go to hell.

I bought HoT to support Anet even if wvw new borderlands were free. And what did they do to the only special thing this game ever had over all the other MMO’s? The very unique feature that was wvw? They pooped on it. Get rekt wvw’ers, you gotta move to esports spvp failure or 1111 pve spamming if you want any support from Colin. Oh I heard spvp is kitten too. Well you can still 1111 in pve, such a great alternative. Thank you Anet for this. HoT definitly made GW2 better than ever.

I wouldn’t say “hate” but I’ve been unmotivated to play for month+. Before I would take brakes but would still usually manage to get my dailies completed. Now I can’t even bother. I get most of my log-in rewards but not all. After completing 2 of the new legendaries I’m burnt out. If I was rewarded map currency for event completion instead of “map participation %” I probably wouldn’t be as bored. A lot of time is spent standing around waiting. For example TD can reach 100% very quickly (usually <30mins) which leaves 1.5 hours of nothing. There’s plenty of events but no reward. So it’s either switch maps and lose all participation or be bored and when you’re grinding for sparks map swapping is the last thing you want to do. I miss dungeons.

I hate this game now because of HoT.

Mahou.3924:

I switch between my characters a lot because I can’t find a profession where I feel the most comfortable with.

I wonder if that’s at the bottom of it: those who like a lot of characters (like me) may find all the HP acquisition and time gates very daunting on multiple toons. If you are doing it more “one time” on a single toon, it may be a different experience entirely.

I left GW2 some year ago when I stopped having fun with my herd of characters and came back when they made account wide wallets, dyes and outfits. Maybe some similar change in the future might make it altoholic friendlier. The masteries are already account wide but the map exploration and HP are certainly not.

Anyway, something for me to keep an eye on in the updates. If they do something that seems to make running lots of toons friendlier again, I may give it a try.

BTW for those who say each character should go with the full effort, what difference does it make to you or the game company on what toon I’m spending my time if I supporting the game through my money and my presence? Why is 20 hours on one toon better than 5 hours on each of 4 toons?

qbalrog.8017:

Mahou.3924:

I switch between my characters a lot because I can’t find a profession where I feel the most comfortable with.

I wonder if that’s at the bottom of it: those who like a lot of characters (like me) may find all the HP acquisition and time gates very daunting on multiple toons. If you are doing it more “one time” on a single toon, it may be a different experience entirely.

I left GW2 some year ago when I stopped having fun with my herd of characters and came back when they made account wide wallets, dyes and outfits. Maybe some similar change in the future might make it altoholic friendlier. The masteries are already account wide but the map exploration and HP are certainly not.

Anyway, something for me to keep an eye on in the updates. If they do something that seems to make running lots of toons friendlier again, I may give it a try.

BTW for those who say each character should go with the full effort, what difference does it make to you or the game company on what toon I’m spending my time if I supporting the game through my money and my presence? Why is 20 hours on one toon better than 5 hours on each of 4 toons?

Because if you make everything account bound for a guy like you, you take away the little bit left of character bound for guys like me. I’m an altoholic but unlike you, each of my characters, in my head, are individuals. I LIKE doing the story on different alts. I LIKE completeing maps on different alts. That’s a lot of content to for me.

And I know I’m not the only altoholic to feel this way because even when the wallet came out, which I wholeheartedly embraced, others were saying that they wanted separate wallets for different characters. They were even more like me than I was. lol

So it may not make a different to you, but let’s not pretend that all altoholics are unanimous that the changes you suggest would be better.

Besides with how much Rev is getting destroyed by pvp based nerfs for pve , my personal dislike is the DS Map Design (or i guess the maps meta) , unless you use the lfg tool around a certain time frame , you will ALWAYS get an empty map , and for the current end map (equivalent to core games Orr) , thats sad to always see it empty , why should i have to use LFG just to join in on a map event? It needs to be redesigned and maybe more rewarding somehow? <smh> its sad to see a map so devoid of players like that , every other map i can just enter and , whether there are ppl doing those maps meta events , there are still ppl there , doing the HCs and all the stuff.DS? Nope , dead and empty.

Still like the game. loathe every HoT brought BUT elite spec. HP grind, masteries, HoT maps, PVP changes, lack of love for WvW, gated gear, raid only gear, raids ect ect.

Ive been gone most of hot, came back for tyria gliding thinking ok i paid 100 bucks for elite specs and gliding not a TOTAL rip off. Then i had to unlock my 3rd spekitten

il A-Net officially says they are done with this new direction and going back to what made GW2 different, im done spending money.

Masteries are reputations. Raids are raids.

If i wanted either i would have stayed with world of warcraft.

The biggest problem with HoT is that it’s an expansion. I felt before and more so now, that expansions are the wrong way to add content. It’s too much at once for a game with as vast amount of content as GW2. If they gave us HoT as the living story did, in pieces, it would have been far better received.

There are things I like about HoT. I like Gliding, my Revenant and Reaper, Stronghold, and Autoloot. Other than that though, I was happier playing before Hot. I don’t know if I’m happy playing now really. It’s more just trudging thru task’s I set for myself.

Rauderi.8706:

HoT is just far too group oriented.

It is group-oriented ..but, these days, I don’t feel like it’s too far anymore.

The jungle didn’t appeal to me when it first came out. It was hard, especially for a solo explorer, and there were many other things to play with that had greater appeal: Halloween, the tempest spec on my ele with its warhorn and overloads…
I popped into the jungle occasionally since then to remind myself of what it was like, and didn’t stay long. It was still a strain.

But last week I got back into it and I’m finding myself spending most of my time there. And ..surviving, even on my glass cannon tempest. I think what helped me was separating the various aspects of HOT – practicing the tempest and warhorn in central Tyria which I was already familiar with allowed me to get the hang of them without the distraction of the jungle.

I still explore solo most of the time as I work on completing the various achievements (just got my Herta!!) Sometimes I come across a group and join them for a bit, then run off in my own direction. I’ve had my gripes but with time and practice I think there’s nothing about HOT that bothers me much anymore. It encourages group play but it still supports single play. Anyway, that’s just my two coppers.

The best part is how about 50% of the time you spend 1-3 hours on a map working towards the meta event you just wind up getting dced or client crash at some point in the last 10 minutes. This alone would make the expansion a complete failure. Who’s gonna put over an hour into a meta when there’s a good chance they’ll get booted for no reason and get virtually no progress? The 6 people still playing…..

I think HoT was an improvement but didn’t live up to the hype. I went in with low expectations and have been having a blast.

HoT got me back into the game because it’s cool, different and overall higher quality content compared to the previous.

I acctualy love HoT Maps, especially AB.
I was a bit tired of it before Christmas so i took a break. Came back a few days ago and now i can’t wait to get home from work again

Boom third time in a row crashing on Auric Basin last ten minutes of meta in a full map… This game just doesn’t actually work.

HipposWild.7185:

Boom third time in a row crashing on Auric Basin last ten minutes of meta in a full map… This game just doesn’t actually work.

Are you using the 64 bit cliient?

I love the game far more now after HoT than before. The addition of HoT content has been welcomed and I enjoy all of it.

Vayne.8563:

So it may not make a different to you, but let’s not pretend that all altoholics are unanimous that the changes you suggest would be better.

Thought I was pretty specific about some changes that might get me back in but if you want to read it as demanding the changes for all altoholics, enjoy the strawman.

ok, i figured out why hot is the way it is!! – or at least came up with a great idea for a movie!! ^.^

anet hooked up with the military, and designed the game to search for talent to fly drones!! they are looking for the people that just don’t quit no matter how insane and unreasonable the scenario!

watch! if the draft comes back, the people who have more than one legendary will be the first to get shipped out!

it’s a step up from my game insurance theory!

I went from about 5 hours a day before HOT too 3 hours when HOT came out, then I dropped to just logging in for dailys, now I maybe log in once every 4 days, none of my friends are ever on, my guild is dead, have come to the conclusion that the game is dying. Anet really dropped the ball on HOT

At first, I was personally very optimistic for the expansion and even though some things were hard to adjust to, it all started going downhill for me.

Its not even just the actual content being presented from the expansion as people have mentioned. Its the elitist snark “on a high horse” attitude that some people in-game and on the forums start shoving down people’s throats that is becoming exhausting. People are blatantly berating players voicing concerns or opinions that don’t support the direction the game is going or A-Net’s actions and quickly verbally attack players. It happens from forum to forum and its a bit melancholy seeing what I considered the Canadians of MMO’s (Nice, Helpful, and overall pleasant bunch) start getting toxic and overly aggressive within particular members.

I agree to some extent. I play but doing Hot has not been any joy for me. The expansion has ruined many of the reasons I played. I have to play HoT if I want the new masteries on my toons. It is like in GW1 when Factions came out if factions had been the place I had started I would never had played this game. I have been here since Beta and now find doing the game somewhat of a chore, because I want to keep up, but 2 hour metas and have to be in an organized map. Have to be in a group to get anything done. Then we used to hang in dungeons, just to BS with friends now no one does dungeons. They are forcing fractals on everyone. They had said inthe beginning they were trying to structure GW2 so you did not HAVE to have this weapong, this build, yada yada, but to raid you have to have this group with these specific builds these specific groupings . It is not as much fun anymore.

I don’t enjoy gw2 anymore either. I actually quit/started a break a couple months ago, I check the forums sometimes to see if they fixed the content I care about yet, saw this thread and decided to post:

Dungeons: Killed them on purpose. Can’t blame them after 3 years of solid “support”, they must have been tired.

Fractals: killed them on accident. Tried to fix them by boosting loot rather than fixing the system. Swamp till you drop, great job anet. Still waiting on those leader boards that no body even wants from 2013. Also still waiting on the legendary back piece. All content promised with HOT. Instead of fixing them, they are more worried about cheesing mossman (BTW lupi says ‘hi’).

Raid: It was fun. But needlessly frustrating with issues like no lfg, ghostly infusion only has +5 AR instead of the new standard +7, overly restrictive ascended drops (seriously, fractals get boxes giving you at least the choice between light, medium, and heavy but RAIDS don’t?). And of course, a moderately interesting story that was hinted at but will almost certainly never be elaborated on.

Open World: The 4 new open world meta events are moderately cool, but frustratingly restrictive. Actually just about everything is frustratingly restrictive. Adventures locked behind the meta event, exploration locked behind the meta events, vendors locked behind the meta events. Even the meta event is locked behind the meta event (Chak gerrant cool down is ridiculous). I liked SW because you could just hop in and play.

Trying out Blade and Soul right now with my old guild (they all quit too ofc) to fill the MMO gap.

“Who hates this game now because of HoT?”
Yep. Logged in twice the last 2 months maybe, mainly to say hi to one remaining guildie who still plays regularly (lol)

Killed dungeons, kittened up fractals – those mistlock instabilities. Were they TRYING to sabotage fun gameplay?? No new fractals… seemingly ever?

4 (four) new maps where simply getting around is the main challenge, each with a Triple Wurm event (yeah cos that was so popular in vanilla GW2 ). On a timer and not much else to do.

Artificial content gates (oh sorry: “masteries”).

It’s pretty clear why it only sold ~300,000 copies. GW2 is not the MMO darling it used to be.

I loved this game so much. So sad.

*Edit. Remembered the real reason I hate fractals now, and it ain’t the rewards.

I just bought it lol. its on sale at locate game shop. get it for $39.

JUN YANG.4328:

I just bought it lol. its on sale at locate game shop. get it for $39.

Gratz, go play it and DO NOT read posts like this!

well. truly when HOT come out, i hate it the most. not many new stuff, less map, price real high..etc
but after i bought the game on sale. i think $39, its worth it . lots to play.

however i think gw2 need to get better. cause will have a big competitor release the game on this march. its the best mmorpg i ever seen.

gw2 need to catch up. or will lost big number of player again.

JUN YANG.4328:

well. truly when HOT come out, i hate it the most. not many new stuff, less map, price real high..etc
but after i bought the game on sale. i think $39, its worth it . lots to play.

however i think gw2 need to get better. cause will have a big competitor release the game on this march. its the best mmorpg i ever seen.

gw2 need to catch up. or will lost big number of player again.

Another big competitor, launches another big game. I’m sure Anet is quaking in their boots. Do you know how many big games have come out so far that people have said the same thing about?

If it’s the game I’m thinking of it’s not going to take the bulk of the playerbase anyway.

slimike.1693:

I went from about 5 hours a day before HOT too 3 hours when HOT came out, then I dropped to just logging in for dailys, now I maybe log in once every 4 days, none of my friends are ever on, my guild is dead, have come to the conclusion that the game is dying. Anet really dropped the ball on HOT

I went from 0 before HOT to 3h pre-HOT to 6-8h during HOT. I have constantly about 10 friends online and our guild has 80 people online every day. It really is a matter of perspective and personal experience.

People who stopped playing at least once before are likely to leave again when they had their fill. People returning for new content is indicative of nothing except there being new content.

I disliked how they handled unlocking elite specializations. You spend almost the entire time unlocking traits instead of just enjoying the new spec. It made me enjoy the content much less because my focus was mostly just HP.

Also, the mastery grind is unreasonable because of how mastery points are handed out. Would like to see a mastery point xp bar to earn mastery points as well, and more mastery points given for achievements.

Did you ever get so mad that you bought a game out of rage?

That was me last night after wasting well over a half hour trying to keep Nobles camp from dying so I could access Axemaster G. There was a total of 4 people that ever appeared and only one helping out.

So, finally, choppers down, and boss time. Axemaster G has me and the one guy asking for help in chat. The rest of the map was busy failmashing on Matriarch, taking a solid 16 minutes to down a single boss. With 4 minutes left, there was no way Axemaster was going down. Nevermind that Axemaster is a horribly designed boss that no one will ever do a second time because of insta-kills and constantly spawning adds. Why bother?

Rauderi.8706:

Did you ever get so mad that you bought a game out of rage?

That was me last night after wasting well over a half hour trying to keep Nobles camp from dying so I could access Axemaster G. There was a total of 4 people that ever appeared and only one helping out.

So, finally, choppers down, and boss time. Axemaster G has me and the one guy asking for help in chat. The rest of the map was busy failmashing on Matriarch, taking a solid 16 minutes to down a single boss. With 4 minutes left, there was no way Axemaster was going down. Nevermind that Axemaster is a horribly designed boss that no one will ever do a second time because of insta-kills and constantly spawning adds. Why bother?

I’ve done it half a dozen times easy. Not sure what you’re on about. Seriously get into an organized map. That’s the only thing that really works. If you can’t help organize a map, find a guild that does VB.

Meta events of 2 hours long, are killing the pve game.

I am a PvP player. I play this game (mostly PvP) since release in 2012.

@ArenaNet
I hate Heart of Thorns. It’s ugly, it’s dark, it shows lack of imagination. Above above above above, below below below below – seriously: not all players like to spend hours just to get a skill point or a waypoint. As a PvP player, I newly tried to check these new maps (since there is no active PvP season, and PvP is… as it is). Ater 2 hours of struggle in HoT PvE maps, I hate them from all my heart, not because of their complexity in killing creatures, but because of how they are arranged, tunnels, jumpings and paths, all layered one above the other. It’s a whole labyrinth where all information is wrong and even the minimap lies to me.
I hereby promise never to prepurchase any of your expansions from now on (because even beta testing requires me to actually buy it first).

@PvE players
I know you love these maps. Feel free to comment, but please respect my opinion as I respect yours. Be happy and enjoy the content you love.

Respect, with hope for better PvE content to try in future.

I actually like them, but dont worry, i respect and actually understand your complaint ^^.

It is true that there are zones or maps where minimap is just useless. For that moments we just need to use our inner explorer, and practice and fail and learn. it just requires practice and know where to move, to reach the point we are trying to reach. For that you need time, practice as i said.
And due there are only 4 maps, i think the challenge is achieveble enough. you cant expect to go for just 2 hours and know perfectly how to reach to that hiden hero point. The same way you cant expect to win your first ever 1v1 pvp match or how to enter the first time on that wvw tower. all need practice, fails and learning.

My advice is that you should give it another tries at some point. when you do it a few more times, you will learn how the maps work and you wont see that as an issue. In fact your problem will be then that there are just 4 maps.

But the better advice i can give you is that never play something you dont like. If you really dont like the new maps or pve, dont play them. is a game. do another things in your free time. It doesnt worth to “suffer” in your spare time

Feedback: I love Heart of Thorns

I had those same feelings once upon a time. Had them in Factions with Kaineng and again when I first ventured into the HoT maps. It just takes some time to get used to. Once you “learn” your way around, its not quite so bad anymore.

I really like the layout of the new zones. I understand they’re confusing to people at first, but there are all sorts of aspect of games that people have to learn to get better at. Navigating is one of the skills heart of thorns requires.

PvPers don’t have to navigate quite so much, so yeah, I can see how HoT would be overwhelming. Me, I find it challenging and fun.

I can live with all the pros & cons about the pve content. But paying full price for only 1 boring spvp map,……. Never again!

Vieux P.1238:

I can live with all the pros & cons about the pve content. But paying full price for only 1 boring spvp map,……. Never again!

I did not pay for 1 sPvP map. I payed mostly for the chance to play everything in PvP, otherwise I would not have access to new traits, weapons and skills. I considered PvE content something like a bonus for some free time, to chill between PvP games.

As I see it, PvE it’s not that interesting at all, because it’s not made for me, one trying to enjoy a few moments of PvE reaching a target. It’s a labyrinth in my opinion and requires a lot of time and exploring just to adapt to it. It’s hard, it’s ugly, I don’t like it, I hate it.

Thank you for your feedback so far. I knew most of you love that map, because if not you would not have bought HoT at all. I wish you all to enjoy those dark labyrinths, without me. Have fun.

You spent 2 hours in the new maps lol. Spend some more time and get used to them instead of coming here and complaining.

Noone is making themselves elite.
The fact that the OP has to learn new stuff makes him a newcomer, someone’s lack of ability does not make others elite. You should acknowledge your faults and improve upon them instead of whining in the forums and blaming the game.

Raziel.4216:

Noone is making themselves elite.
The fact that the OP has to learn new stuff makes him a newcomer, someone’s lack of ability does not make others elite. You should acknowledge your faults and improve upon them instead of whining in the forums and blaming the game.

Give me a break the way Zeonis.1962: responded was nothing but what I called. Your 1st sentence I agree with and part of your 2nd sentence then off you go too. Improving your faults LOL, may improve your skills. But there is plenty of things in HoT that could do with a major revamp as noted in many other threads.

Raziel.4216:

Noone is making themselves elite.
The fact that the OP has to learn new stuff makes him a newcomer, someone’s lack of ability does not make others elite. You should acknowledge your faults and improve upon them instead of whining in the forums and blaming the game.

Blude said feel elite. There’s a difference between feeling elite and being elite. Zeonis’s reply to the OP could be taken as Zeonis wanting to feel elite in knowing that they are better at the game than someone else just because the OP can’t easily navigate the map.

Whether Zeonis meant.to come across that way, I do not know, but that’s why word choice and phrasing are important. Especially on the internet where tone is lost.