Guild Wars 2

I started playing ‘Guild Wars 2’ during the early days of it’s release, until the day we all find out that we have to pay for it all over again, just to be able to fully experience what the game has to offer. So, to my question(s)…

Is ‘Guild Wars 2’ really worth the extra money, just to be playing the ‘Heart of Thorns’ expansion? How much better has ‘GW2’ got since ‘HoT’ has been introduced? Has the game died down? or has it become more exciting and packed with tons of adventure?

Give me all your Pros and Cons from your experiences & adventures with the ‘Heart of Thorns’ expansion. Help me rid of this confusion, and thanks in advance!

Whether or not you feel it’s worth the cost is probably going to depend a lot on what you enjoy doing.

There are still lots of people playing, the game is by no means dying. Conversely, the megaserver system for the HoT maps seems to be a bit borked presently, so you may need to spend a few minutes finding a taxi into an active map at times.

Personally, I do enjoy the open world HoT maps though they can be very confusing to navigate at first and take a bit to get used to. The downside (for me) is that each map is essentially just one big meta event on a timer, and if you can’t sync up with that timer, doing some of the tasks/achievements might get a bit frustrating.

HoT introduced raids into the game, which, I have not attempted yet. I’ve watched people do them on twitch and they look fun, although there seems to be a mix bag regarding pug-ability of them. Although, from the sounds of it, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a raiding guild if you want to do that content. Just have to find a group that meshes with your schedule.

Masteries are a mixed bag as well. People seem to either love them or hate them, will either tell you to rush through them as quickly as possible (which would be a slog, I won’t sugar coat that) or to just play and take your time with them. Personally, I don’t mind masteries, they remind me a lot of the rep grind from GW:EN, and I’m just playing through normally. On the up side, they are account bound, so I can work on progressing them on any character I choose to play.

Revenant still seems to be the golden child of the devs. Like the elite specs, it’s gotten some nerfs, so they are all slowly coming back in line, but (as always) balance is still a work in progress. Rev and (most of) the elite specs are super fun to play though imo.

The story is..on the short side. It’s not bad, but they could definitely have done better on it. Some of the instances still have a couple of bugs (to be expected I should think), but I think people can typically work around them. I’m not aware of any that stop progression (doesn’t mean there aren’t though).

In summation, I found the expac worth it’s price tag without an issue, but I’m also relatively causal in my play style.

The games population is very high still. Just with more maps out feels not as populated at times.

Personally in my opinion get HoT if you want elite specizalations. Otherwise core tyria is still fun

I was one of those in the “no” to HoT camp for quite a while. I’d heard about the “buying it again”, the difficulty levels, the verticality… and gliding? No way, thought I!

But, y’know, it’s really good and I stand corrected. There’s always something to do and people grouping up – if that’s your bag. I’m not a big grouper and there’s a load of stuff you can do solo.

One thing I don’t like though, is running across something that makes you think “this is impossible”. Had that a couple of times.

I have to say that your first forum post smells slightly trollish but I’ll bite anyway.
HoT brings you a new prof, Revenant, 4 new large multi-level maps with a story line, raids, mini-games, masteries and elite specialisations. The difficulty level is higher. Some players like it, some do not. We’re expecting it to grow with a new living story.

There seem to be plenty of players playing on HoT maps.

Guild Wars 2 is by no means dying. Plenty of people still playing.

If you really want to play the game, you’ll eventually get HoT, because that’s how the game moves forwards. It’s the only way to get elite specializations. It’s the only way to get the new story. It’s the only way to get access to the new living story. It’s the only way to get full access to guild halls. It’s the only way to get access to the 9th profession. It’s the only way to get access to gliding. It’s the only way you can access raids.

You can play all the old content and it’s still fun. You can jump in, see if the game is for you and if it’s not, you don’t spend the money.

But anyone who hangs around for any length of time is going to end up getting HoT eventually.

Oh to add – there is one aspect I’m not too keen on. And that is how quickly I fill my bag slots. So many salvage kit usages

Thanks to everyone that has responded to this topic! I am definitely tempted to get myself a copy of ‘Heart of Thorns’, it’s just a matter of waiting and saving up some cash. But i’ll have to get myself back into the GW world and see if i still feel the same way i did about it back then. Peace bros!

I’d personally value HoT at about 35e, it is fun but having people buy the core game again does suck.

Do you still get a free char slot with it? That’s another 10e worth of value though.

Vayne.8563:

Guild Wars 2 is by no means dying. Plenty of people still playing.

If you really want to play the game, you’ll eventually get HoT, because that’s how the game moves forwards. It’s the only way to get elite specializations. It’s the only way to get the new story. It’s the only way to get access to the new living story. It’s the only way to get full access to guild halls. It’s the only way to get access to the 9th profession. It’s the only way to get access to gliding. It’s the only way you can access raids.

You can play all the old content and it’s still fun. You can jump in, see if the game is for you and if it’s not, you don’t spend the money.

But anyone who hangs around for any length of time is going to end up getting HoT eventually.

nope, most will just enjoy the free part, and skip town, when theyre done
AFAIK the general conversion rate from F2P is roughly at 6%
here it will be even worse, because the core game has been down to 10 bucks
if they had bundled HoT with the core game for 40 or 50 bucks, , they could had made
a decent buck
this one will cost them a lot of players and a lot of money

Another reason that you might want to buy HoT is that there is no other MMORPG that is better right now… all the other seem to be hype and die in a month. WoW being the one that lasts longer, but stays dead longer (1 year no content).

GW2 is much more stable and persistent. If you like MMORPG you don’t have other choice.

battledrone.8315:

Vayne.8563:

Guild Wars 2 is by no means dying. Plenty of people still playing.

If you really want to play the game, you’ll eventually get HoT, because that’s how the game moves forwards. It’s the only way to get elite specializations. It’s the only way to get the new story. It’s the only way to get access to the new living story. It’s the only way to get full access to guild halls. It’s the only way to get access to the 9th profession. It’s the only way to get access to gliding. It’s the only way you can access raids.

You can play all the old content and it’s still fun. You can jump in, see if the game is for you and if it’s not, you don’t spend the money.

But anyone who hangs around for any length of time is going to end up getting HoT eventually.

nope, most will just enjoy the free part, and skip town, when theyre done
AFAIK the general conversion rate from F2P is roughly at 6%
here it will be even worse, because the core game has been down to 10 bucks
if they had bundled HoT with the core game for 40 or 50 bucks, , they could had made
a decent buck
this one will cost them a lot of players and a lot of money

Business much? Obviously games go high when they launch and then they come down. Some people buy them at launch and some people wait until they’re cheaper. GW2 is more dependent on gem store sales than boxed sales, so all they need is an influx of new players from time to time.

So when the new expansion comes out, and Anet drops the price on HoT to much cheaper, or they run a sale, people will pick up HoT too.

The company makes changes based on sales realities. That’s how business works in general.

If you think you know more about running a business than Anet..we’ll you’re entitled to think that, but I’m not so convinced.

There are tons of things companies can do to get people back to the game and it doesn’t have to work for everyone.

For example, WvW has improved and now some people have come back to play WvW, because they found it fun. SPvP will continue to have tournaments. The new season of the Living World will start probably over the summer and I’m sure people will come back for that (because that always happens).

And then a new expansion will show up, and based on what’s in that you’ll see some people buy it.

HoT had a ton of bad publicity up front, before it launched so of course it didn’t sell the copies expected. But Anet now has a bit more of an idea of what can go wrong, so they won’t repeat the same mistakes with the next expansion (one would hope). As a result, it may sell more.

You make it sound very easy, but it’s really not.

And I can’t think of many MMOs that are this successful 3.5 years from launch. Maybe Anet does know a thing or two about running a business.

My advice:

if you can get a 33% or more discount on official a-net price give it a go. If you have to shell out full 50$ i’d pass and wait for opportunity.

ogesw.9381:

I started playing ‘Guild Wars 2’ during the early days of it’s release, until the day we all find out that we have to pay for it all over again, just to be able to fully experience what the game has to offer. So, to my question(s)…

Is ‘Guild Wars 2’ really worth the extra money, just to be playing the ‘Heart of Thorns’ expansion? How much better has ‘GW2’ got since ‘HoT’ has been introduced? Has the game died down? or has it become more exciting and packed with tons of adventure?

Give me all your Pros and Cons from your experiences & adventures with the ‘Heart of Thorns’ expansion. Help me rid of this confusion, and thanks in advance!

The question is not whether you think the HOT content is worth it, the question is whether you think playing gw2 with friends and supporting the game is worth fourty bucks.

As for HOT itself:

- Raids, are worth it.
- Elite specs are worth it
- New zones are great

As long as you don’t mind broken promises and major grinds then you’ll love HoT

cosmicegg.8502:

As long as you don’t mind broken promises and major grinds then you’ll love HoT

What you mean 3 broken “promises” (people really need to learn what that word actually means) vs the hundreds of kept promises.

The grind that been significantly adjusted in the last patch.

Okay then.

The most valuable thing in HoT to me was the elite specializations. If you like to have a lot of alternate playstyles(I’m an altoholic), I would say buy it for that reason alone.

Most of what HoT brings is not entertaining to me(collections galore, horizontal leveling that squelches player freedom, one map is an openworld maze, verticality and Nintendo playstyle, gold sinks everywhere……)

PROS

- Maps and Events-

The first 3 maps are usually active. The first 2 are the best ones by far, IMO, Verdant Brink being my favorite. There’s ALWAYS an event and there’s usually people doing them. I like the whole meta thing because it’s more engaging than central tyria. There are whole maps in central tyria still devoid of events for a looong time. That almost never happens on the first 3 HoT maps. It kinda sucks its teh same story on a loop instead of an actual plausible repeatable situation, but that’s not the end of the world. It’s the best use of dynamic events since launch imo. Less maps but more work put into their events.

- Elite Specs
Most of them are fun. i won’t get into balance and build viability here because I think that ship has sailed a long time ago. But nevertheless, all classes are at least a little bit more fun with them, and they’re one of my favorite parts of the expac.

- Revenant
All skills are pretty fun, the animations, everything. I really like my revenant.

-Gliding
I think gliding is great fun, even in central Tyria, but especially in the first HoT map. It’s the only map with real wind currents and vertical navigation, though. you won’t be gliding much anywhere else, which is a shame. Still, gliding is fun

CONS
- Maps and Events-

-Tangled Depths is a freaking nightmare to navigate still, very annoying, the map makes it harder instead of helping sometimes. At any rate it still have fun events WHEN YOU GET THERE before it ends.

- (edited) Dragon Stand is always empty if you just walk in there, but joining a squad and teleporting to their map works fine enough as a workaround.

- Currencies and Collections :they annoy the kitten out of me to the point I just play casually and don’t really pay attention, because i can’t afford to keep track of all the bullkitten nonsensical collections and the currency they require. It’s just so boring, uninspired and make no intrinsical sense whatsoever in relation to the item you’re “getting” from it or whatever. ugh.

- Crap Loot and Chest Keys. Bags within bags, zillion blue worthless crap you have to salvage/sell instead of just flat good loot. More ascended ‘materials’ you have to deal with. More kitten you have to move around. More keys to more chest for each zone. They’re either clogging up or missing, always trying to make you feel bad to keep you playing (which actually makes me play waaay less, because it’s kittening annoying). You spend 1/4 of your play time clicking your inventory. Good luck with your carpal tunnels.

-Raids: kitten raids. Same boring preparing, consumables, stat crunching, grinding kitten. Only a lite version of it. if you enjoy them, go for it. If not, that’s a lot of content you’re gonna pay for and never play. And if you ever decide to, you’ll only get viable parties if you grind the ascended crap and eventually the masteries.

-Gear. I suppose you can just go to teh wiki and see them for themselves. They’re sparse and all fugly imo and there’s the same old lame addition of another craft-only stat combination at higher costs, recipes bought with map-specific currency on top of that. Yawn.

-Story. Same old fanfic-level teenage writing. If you liked it before, you’ll still like it now, I suppose. Blergh. Being short is actually a pro. On the other hand, the gameplay inside the story instances has improved dramatically (remember Zhaitan’s final instance? good lord wtf was that!? Nothing of that level.)

SUMMING UP

I just bought HoT because i had this crazy MMO itch when it was launching and MMO-land has never sucked so hard (if i’m missing something PLEASE PM me with a good non quest-based MMO). Definitely not worth the full game price they were asking, but I had money to burn at the time so kitten it. If it’s cheap now and you want to keep it as a secondary/tertiary game to scratch your MMO itch, it’s definitely worth it.

The part being made by real game designers is still good, and the one being made by behavior conditioners still sucks.

Hope that helped.

Vayne.8563:

cosmicegg.8502:

As long as you don’t mind broken promises and major grinds then you’ll love HoT

What you mean 3 broken “promises” (people really need to learn what that word actually means) vs the hundreds of kept promises.

The grind that been significantly adjusted in the last patch.

Okay then.

now that’s funny

cosmicegg.8502:

Vayne.8563:

cosmicegg.8502:

As long as you don’t mind broken promises and major grinds then you’ll love HoT

What you mean 3 broken “promises” (people really need to learn what that word actually means) vs the hundreds of kept promises.

The grind that been significantly adjusted in the last patch.

Okay then.

now that’s funny

I know! That guy has the best GW2 jokes ever. <3

LoL NooBs.5076:

cosmicegg.8502:

Vayne.8563:

cosmicegg.8502:

As long as you don’t mind broken promises and major grinds then you’ll love HoT

What you mean 3 broken “promises” (people really need to learn what that word actually means) vs the hundreds of kept promises.

The grind that been significantly adjusted in the last patch.

Okay then.

now that’s funny

I know! That guy has the best GW2 jokes ever. <3

The truth will set you free. People who are claiming Anet broke many and numerous promises (most of which weren’t promises anyway) are simple wrong. People who say that the grind hasn’t been significantly affected have obviously not bothered trying the expansion after the big April patch.

The difference is night and day (no pun intended).

If you want to play WvW and be anything but a staff guard, you can’t afford not to buy this “expansion”. It is so heavily steeped in pay2win that without farming the elites and all the broken runes and sigils hidden behind a paywall, you are going to have a bad time.

msalakka.4653:

If you want to play WvW and be anything but a staff guard, you can’t afford not to buy this “expansion”. It is so heavily steeped in pay2win that without farming the elites and all the broken runes and sigils hidden behind a paywall, you are going to have a bad time.

WvW is just “biggest zerg wins”, that’s one area where as long as you have some range anything will get you by in my experience.

Shinzan.2908:

WvW is just “biggest zerg wins”, that’s one area where as long as you have some range anything will get you by in my experience.

Do you have any other WvW noob tips you can share? That looks like the only kind you can provide.

If you enjoy solo play, or are casual in any way, then no its not worth the money at all.

The grind is painful the resource collection are over the top and the maps just make you dizzy..

Dante.1508:

If you enjoy solo play, or are casual in any way, then no its not worth the money at all.

The grind is painful the resource collection are over the top and the maps just make you dizzy..

I don’t think I ever identified myself as a casual in it’s true definition, but what is actually a casual? A dumb noob, somebody who hasn’t got much time on his hands, or a combination as both? Because I really don’t see what casual has to do with this.

I’m a casual – as in I can’t take this game seriously. I’ve done half of my raids wasted beyond the legal limit, I’ve facerolled HoT on 5 toons in zerk glass canon gear so far and beside raids I never group up with anybody – I’m not even in a guild. The game has more to do with your skill level than anything gear or group related.

About not being solo friendly
-) are you a bad player? Yes, it’s hell in HoT
-) are you a bad player rocking full tank gear? You’ll do fine
-) are you a decent player? You’ll manage HoT with no problem
-) are you a great player? HoT will pose no challenge whatsoever.

Dante.1508:

If you enjoy solo play, or are casual in any way, then no its not worth the money at all.

The grind is painful the resource collection are over the top and the maps just make you dizzy..

Many self-identified casuals in my guild would disagree with you. You don’t get to be spoke persons for all casuals. And you don’t get to define casual either. Casual doesn’t mean you’re not good at the game.

The fact is, I even offered to show you around and teach you and you’d rather just complain. But I’ve taught many people how to get through the jungle. It’s not about casual. It’s about playing smart.

Contrary to popular belief that’s something some casuals do.