Guild Wars 2

So from what i gathered HOT missed the mark badly.

Its been over a year and you see the complaints and they are legit. In PvP you use to get complaints about builds like spirit ranger op or turret engy is broken, Fix hambow warrior etc etc. Same thing for WvW, asking for certain things to a set ups.

Well HOT comes out and people are screaming about how OP the HOT specs and how they are destroying diversity. Mesmer wells in zerg fights, Guardian traps and rifle warrior piercing threw multiple targets 1 hit KO 4-5 people at a time. WvW asked for a new map with a bunch of different ways to fight other such as more choke points and abilites to defend. Anet threw out a new map no one liked. This was just WvW.

Recently Grouch posted that he has moved on. Finally a ESL had posted a complaint about how Anet has destroyed the PvP scene since the release of HOT. Anet made a ESL push in Season 1 and it was embarrassing to say the least. The players didnt like playing it and nobody liked watching it. Anet has taken us to the other side where instant deaths are a norm and the snowball effect is stronger then ever. A serious lack of build diversity and its almost become a joke that Anet has starter build templates.

Which brings us to build diversity in the HOT areas, Verdint Brink to me is a master piece. Solo areas, up and down maps, bosses that you can fight with or without a zerg.

Then you have AB-TD-DS which are all zerg based events. I found these areas fun at times but infuriating when trying to do the meta event and getting a bad map. DS especially since the WPS and mastery points are based around the event. The lack of diversity in these maps is insane. It had great intentions of course but for someone who doesnt wait for GW2 timers it feels a little copy and paste.

So we come to the big one, GW2 raids. The recent patch has created a meta where the mirror comp is what Elite teams suggest and what alot of pugs will run. 5 builds for 3-4 classes. Yes elite groups can break the meta but when raids have 1 real style of play its hard to argue it. Raids is basically dps as much as possible with 1-2 healers. Yes you need a tank but nothing beats mesmer because it gives more damage. Nothing beats ele especially for AOE damage and ranger gives heals and huge bursts of damage for team groups. If this was suppose to be the end game, it would of been nice to not have to play every boss the with same com/build/stats and then simply learn new mechanics.

Which brings me to the future of the game. I still play it for some PvE things i wish to get done as well as playing with friends. From what i can see as threads in WvW, PvP, Raids, is that people are not happy. Of course there are many that are but it feels different now. People are complaining about HOT so much and before HOT people were complaining about certain aspects of the game and how to make it better.

I can say that after $175 + invested in the game i definitely got my moneys worth. Yet im sitting back saying what happened. I love the mechanics of this game. Seriously 10x better then any game ive ever played. Yet with the HOT expansion i feel it ruined WvW and PvP for me. I can understand that maybe raids are not for me as well as most of the new maps but now that we are 1 year + into HOT.

I can say that i will not purchase any expansion put forward simply. The original minds of the game are gone. The direction of the game doesnt seem to be for me or the people i play with. I will not quit the game but i think the time is coming soon to move on for good and i want to say thank you for such a good game in GW2. And so much unfulfilled potential left on the table imo.

well i will simply examine the next expansion to see if it looks like something i will like, no drama needed really.

The way I see it, raids are very time consuming and not that great in any aspect, it’s a good thing for guilds who wanna test their limits but otherwise it’s really obnoxious for people who don’t wanna wait for 2-3 hours.

The last update for fractals made me enjoy the game again, stuff like Nightmare Fractal is what should’ve been added in HoT as Dungeons, people love 5 man content because it’s easy to build a group for it, and you have challenge motes to make these harder, and the rewards are fair aswell.

Anet tested EOTM with top WvWvW leaders. They did not just throw out a new map.

I do not know what to feel when I read people complain post and whatever they are suggesting have the same problems they are describing.

I realize normal players are not game designers.

What i want for meta events is more active scaling. Where bosses dont become trivially easy with big zergs or impossibly hard with 5 people

The expac should have released more than 1 elite per class. Essentially it’s like the game cements a trait line into slot 3 the second you unlock it, if you want to do anything besides solo pve.

loseridoit.2756:

Anet tested EOTM with top WvWvW leaders. They did not just throw out a new map.

I do not know what to feel when I read people complain post and whatever they are suggesting have the same problems they are describing.

I realize normal players are not game designers.

He isn’t talking about EOTM he is talking about the Desert Borderland Map and he is right many people hated the Desert Borderland myself included and if by chance I do go and go into WvW if I feel like doing dailies that day I stick to Alpine and avoid Desert.

As for the topic at hand I’m not per-ordering the next expansion either the last one felt like they spent more time promoting the expansion than actually trying to make an expansion. What with all those Youtube vids and whatnot I’ll instead wait till after the release and see what they decide to do.

The good new is I don’t think my expectations can actually get any lower.

Doam.8305:

loseridoit.2756:

Anet tested EOTM with top WvWvW leaders. They did not just throw out a new map.

I do not know what to feel when I read people complain post and whatever they are suggesting have the same problems they are describing.

I realize normal players are not game designers.

He isn’t talking about EOTM he is talking about the Desert Borderland Map and he is right many people hated the Desert Borderland myself included and if by chance I do go and go into WvW if I feel like doing dailies that day I stick to Alpine and avoid Desert.

As for the topic at hand I’m not per-ordering the next expansion either the last one felt like they spent more time promoting the expansion than actually trying to make an expansion. What with all those Youtube vids and whatnot I’ll instead wait till after the release and see what they decide to do.

The good new is I don’t think my expectations can actually get any lower.

oh that map. I never bother to even play it. The promotion videos could not make me interested

I’m sorry, but it’s hard to look at the original HoT maps and call them “zerg” maps. Certainly some of the events can be a handful for a solo player, but very few of them are “zerg” events until you reach the boss meta. Only DS really deviates as nearly every event is designed for a large group.

I do agree that VB is an excellent map and easily one of my favorites. But I fail to see what is so different about the events in that map vs. TD, for instance. These are my two favorite maps in the game to just play around solo, so you really have me scratching my head here.

I hope whatever they come up with in the next expansion they will at least have a couple of maps in the VB/TD vertical style. They really are a joy for many of us to play and I’d be disappointed if every new map followed the Ember Bay/Bitterfrost Frontier style. Those events are just boring and the maps themselves just aren’t as interesting to me.

I agree there, ember bay in particular is what the naysayers about AB talked about, much less verticality, and its very very dull in comparison.

I don’t like any of the HOTlands. I guess VB is okay-ish. I do have to run every character at least part of it to get the needed HP’s, so I can stomach it. But AB I don’t like. I strongly dislike TD. I can’t figure out how to get from point A to point B there. And as for DS, I absolutely hate it. I never intend to go into there ever again. I don’t plan on going into TD ever again, either, except perhaps when I am feeling particularly masochistic.

I may run the storyline (a big ‘maybe’) through the end of VB, but I will abandon it after that and go straight to the Bloodstone Fens.

Yes, seems like Desert map BL is what WvW’ers wanted “they asked for a new map with a bunch of different ways to fight others such as more choke points and abilites to defend. Anet threw out a new map no one liked.” kinda funny, though lots of people like myself do love it, but the majority of big zerg spammers don’t like it. i pref roaming to big zergs, and it seems like big zerg want easy, no brainer content then difficult which is the opposite of what they said?? Too bad they couldn’t figure out a way to have gliding in wvw that desert map, that would be awesome with gliding. Of course then people would get shot down like in the bloodfen map b4 they fixed it and kitten about that too probably. I don’t see why that can’t just throw invisibile walls everywhere so people can’t glide over a Keeps wall easily.
I could see a massive vertical wvw map with tons of updrafts and floating islands above and below with things you have to take for points. Gliding in wvw seems like limitless possibilities. If you can glide, target and attack in bloodfen, why not WvW? but looks like that’s never happening.

For end game content fractals, Raids, i’d like to see other possible solo content? If people don’t like waiting around or spending hours in a raid why not difficult solo content that could yield similar rewards.
Now people probs hate questing. and since legendary quests kinda failed big time. i don’t see Questing making any big come back any time soon.
but something similar to archeology or indian jones style solo adventures instead of raiding, hmmmm?

Another idea many want for endgame content that was promised at launch of game but hasn’t happened yet. PERSONAL HOUSING.
I like the idea of “instanced village” housing. kind of a mix of open world(which probs wont happen) and instances but with the ability to show off your home to other people. think of it this way; multiple maps that are dedicated to housing. anyone can enter the different areas, parties are not needed. Portals to these maps in cap cities. People can decorate their homes how every they want , another gold sink(much less then guild decs prefferably) I can already see the circle wall around Divinitys Reach, the houses high up that are unreachable could be broken up into multiple map sections for housing. Styles of house to be built are based on that section of the wall like Salma vs another district. (many possibilites here and this is just for DR) I’ve seen other cap cities that also look like they have space around the edges that could be rezoned into housing spots.
Now depending on size/ amount of players/ they could be instanced by home server, but all you’d have to do is party with some one from another server to visit, you couldn’t build a home there less you transfered. idk. i can see this still being a design problem maybe. but hey MANY many want this!
Community JPS! if you could hop from one home zone to another easily(should be able to)and are friendly with your neighbors you could make a massive village community jp!
The asthetics of designing your own living space would be fun. and being able to bring your nodes there would be great. I already spend hours in the guild hall building things, jps, scavenger hunts, glider obstacle courses: weekly! I could see exploring this more somehow. mindcraft inside gw2?hehe
plus bring back being able to use guild decs in arena areapls. I always thought verticality would be a basic part of the guild arena set up, but that option didn’t seem to be thought about.

There is so much potentially with HoT, but it does seem like those choices were put on the back burner and haven’t been much thought about since.

You’re not the only one, OP.

Recently bought on sale and I agree with the general tone that it missed the mark. I’m not even going to get as far as trying raids, but I’ll play the story. I’ve made peace with the fact that I am just going to through a lot of ascended mats and map specific quest items in the garbage. NOT. WORTH. THE. EFFORT.

What really irks me though…the things that might stop from even bothering to finish the story on one character is just the absolute cluster-kitten of grinding tossed onto a game originally sold as grind-free.

I die in Verdant Brink because the game doesn’t think I’ve grind-ed enough to stay alive by using a updraft.

I can’t progress in the story because the game doesn’t think I’ve grind-ed enough to use a bounce-shroom.

I can’t walk 5 kitten steps without passing something literally exploding with over the top particle effects without a literal POPUP popping up and telling me I haven’t grind-ed enough!!!

I can’t really play the game because the Elite Specs are mandatory for all classes, but I haven’t grind-ed enough to have them fully unlocked! I can go on and on and on and on and on…

Meanwhile…really simple UI fixes…really kitten freshman-year design crap (You could very easily make it so that after repairing my armor, I don’t need to close the dialog box and reopen it to vend items…like really really really easily!!!!) that any dummy should be able to spot are STILL in the game.

It’s really the lack of professionalism and next-level polish that are going to kill this thing off. Things that make it clear that Anet has never hired a competent UX designer to work on this game a probably never will.

Unskippable cut scenes for kittens sake!

Meanwhile, they’ve got a whole narrative TEAM giving me fan-fic after fan-fic after fan-fic. Ugh…

How are the masteries grind?

I played with a friend most of the time, we did some Events, bam, got a Mastery.
Oh look, an adventure, lets try that a bit, bam Mastery Points.
Hey, we got this Mastery, maybe we can now do that Mastery Point?

I honestly don’t get the hate for the, in my eyes, small ep-barrier and the fact that you have to earn your Mastery Points.

Honestly, what system would you prefer?
I’m glad it didn’t go the WoW route with the higher and higher item spiral and yes, i did enjoy the adventures, hell, i still play them when i am near one and there isn’t an event to be done close by.

The Map-Design complaint i don’t understand either.
Oh no, some verticality? And mostly on one map? Outrageous.
What? We have a map thats a bit harder to navigate? Let’s complain all the time instead of learning where what is exactly.

I’m glad we finally have a map like Tangled Depths where navigation is a bit harder, it should be, we’re in a freakin jungler after all, in a war nontheless.

LouWolfskin.3492:

How are the masteries grind?

I played with a friend most of the time, we did some Events, bam, got a Mastery.
Oh look, an adventure, lets try that a bit, bam Mastery Points.
Hey, we got this Mastery, maybe we can now do that Mastery Point?

I honestly don’t get the hate for the, in my eyes, small ep-barrier and the fact that you have to earn your Mastery Points.

Honestly, what system would you prefer?
I’m glad it didn’t go the WoW route with the higher and higher item spiral and yes, i did enjoy the adventures, hell, i still play them when i am near one and there isn’t an event to be done close by.

The Map-Design complaint i don’t understand either.
Oh no, some verticality? And mostly on one map? Outrageous.
What? We have a map thats a bit harder to navigate? Let’s complain all the time instead of learning where what is exactly.

I’m glad we finally have a map like Tangled Depths where navigation is a bit harder, it should be, we’re in a freakin jungler after all, in a war nontheless.

They can be frustrating, when HOT first came out i couldnt join my guild mates in VB/AB because i didnt have masterys as i was playing with the HOT PvP builds.

I actually used teleport to a friend to fight the dragons/bosses in VB to join them.

I have 133 MP and i have filled the XP bar of 2 mastery lines and almost done with a third. I havent unlocked the new skills because im not a fan of DS or TD.

So yes they can be grinds especially when people are starting out with different levels and you want to do things together.

The map design was good but lets look at AB,TD,DS. They are all zerg maps. Yes you can do the events with 2-3 people. But what if the people you play with are not on or didnt have a good experience and dont want to do those events again?

I have friends who dont play DS because they crash. So this eliminates 1 of 4 areas that came with HOT.

I can understand your place because you enjoy the creativity of the expansion.

My complaint is that when they came up with this great idea, they did it for everything. All HOT specs are OP in a way, 3 out of 4 maps in HOT are nearly the same with some really annoying factors for people who dont want to play in the zerg, as well as the other things i brought up.

When GW2 was a very creative and top notched mechanics game when it came out. Other MMOs took what GW2 did and they are now changing there systems. Now HOT has been out for over a year and it has many things that turn people off for legitimate reasons.

I, too, do not understand people deriding masteries as a grind. My xp bar fills reliably, but I also do a variety of content (dungeons, spvp, wvw when I can stomach it, world bosses, etc). Mastery points were the choke point for me, and I never had to “grind” those. I just looked at the map and explored until I got some. When I felt impatient, I would Dulfy 2-3 more mastery points to just finish out the amount I needed.

So honest question, lukejoe – what do you do mostly? I’d be glad to run you through some dungeons to get Frequenter credit and 60K xp a pop, or some other stuff.

The Elite-Specs are an entirely different story.

If anything HoT should have brought a gigantic balance patch that reworked a lot of traits, turned the class mechanic line into an Elite Spec in it’s own right (some of the balance issues are based on the fact that you can equip two lines having influence over your mechanic cough chronomancer cough), and reworked some weapons.

But the mastery system in itself is a good way to go forward.
I enjoy it a lot more than having to equip every character again to a new hight in the item spiral with each expansion.

“So yes they can be grinds especially when people are starting out with different levels and you want to do things together.”

Y’all act like this is a brand new thing to the mmo universe. How about other games where you have to gain 10 levels to get to the endgame maps and join your friends? How about in this game where new chars have to gain 80 levels to reach where their friends are playing at endgame? In this game you need to level Mastery lines. It’s the equivalent of gaining levels without having to also completely re-gear your chars.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

“So yes they can be grinds especially when people are starting out with different levels and you want to do things together.”

Y’all act like this is a brand new thing to the mmo universe. How about other games where you have to gain 10 levels to get to the endgame maps and join your friends? How about in this game where new chars have to gain 80 levels to reach where their friends are playing at endgame? In this game you need to level Mastery lines. It’s the equivalent of gaining levels without having to also completely re-gear your chars.

One thing i want to Point out though:

While it still isn’t prefect in toning down lvl 80 characters i can still join my friend while he’s leveling his character up so he’s not really excluded, if anything, playing with others will help him learn more about the game.

I wouldn’t take forum posts as a good way to read the temperature of the entire community. Most people I know are 90% happy with the game whereas if you look at the forums and only the forums you’d think the game was utter trash and completely dead.

Also as a side note Anet polled players about whether or not to remove the Desert Borderlands and a majority of people (believe 60+%) wanted to keep it, so they did not remove it.