Guild Wars 2

I have not played Guild Wars 2 since the first week that Heart of Thorns was released. This is the first time that I can remember, than an expansion turned me off so badly, that it made me lose all interest in the game itself.

I do not know if it was the flying, or the vertical zones, or whatever but boy it was a nightmare.

Did anyone else have this experience, and if so, are you looking forward to the volcanic patch coming up? Maybe they will get back to what made GW2 great.

So…you haven’t played Guild Wars 2 in a year?

that’s 100% correct

No, I had almost the opposite experience. Played the beta weekend and for a couple of months after launch but severely lost interest after getting a character to 80 as there didn’t seem to be anything to do. Went back to GW1.

Was persuaded to give GW2 another chance earlier this year and saw someone gliding which persuaded me to buy HoT. I haven’t looked back. I love the metas, I’ve just started the storyline and I’m (slowly!) working towards Nevermore. I don’t think core GW2 would have tempted me to keep playing at all.

yeah, i think lots were turned off by the direction hot went.

so far they seem to be course correcting, hopefully they continue in this direction. bloodstone fen was a huge exp feast. i actually finished leveling masteries just using exp/bday boosters while getting the daily done in there.

jus do that, i think u may start to enjoy it again

My son and I quit at the same time. I think the difficulty in HoT and how it was so tedious is what did us in. It was not “fun”…

But isnt GW2 progrrssion horizontal? Meaning the volcanic area is just a new max level area, so I can now skip the HoT area?

Nope.
I enjoyed the majority of what HoT brought to the game.

I concur with Sparklybeast and ShinjoNaomi; HoT only added to my interest in the game. In the ‘core’ maps, I never had to use even half the skills on my bar. HoT allowed me to utilize everything at my disposal in a fantastic way.

HoT sparked my already keen interest in a great game. Gliding is awesome. I’ve enjoyed the multi-leveled and varied maps. The story could’ve been longer. Bloodstone Fen is a fun new map, and looking forward to Ember Bay.

I still enjoy the core maps , but not as much. I look forward to Tuesday and metal mayhem!

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

Nope.
I enjoyed the majority of what HoT brought to the game.

This

I think the only part of the game that was really effected, in terms of player base, was WvW. Mainly because of the Desert Borderlands.

Heart of Thorns wasn’t everything it could be, but it is certainly an improvement on vanilla GW2. The elite specializations kind of turned things upside down, but I have a feeling that once we get more than one and have a smidgen more diversity, it will become a net positive for the game. If the next expansion is targeted more towards new players, the specs are good, and it keeps its promises, I suspect another good two years out of this franchise.

Lahmia.2193:

I think the only part of the game that was really effected, in terms of player base, was WvW. Mainly because of the Desert Borderlands.

I’m not sure about that since the playerbase voted to bring back the Desert Borderlands. We have them back now.

I enjoy the new maps, and am looking forward to Ember Bay.

darkwombat.3695:

My son and I quit at the same time. I think the difficulty in HoT and how it was so tedious is what did us in. It was not “fun”…

But isnt GW2 progrrssion horizontal? Meaning the volcanic area is just a new max level area, so I can now skip the HoT area?

You might consider working on your Gliding and Ancient Magic Masteries in Bloodstone Fen; they will probably come in handy in the new map(s).

Good luck.

HoT completely renewed my interest in the game. I spent most of my time in HoT maps now.

So far I’ve finished the story on multiple characters, I’ve zoned completed every zone at least once (and VB like 14 times), I’ve finished every single HoT collection. I’ve gotten the mini and tonic from the first two zones and the minis from the last two zones. I’ve made one HoT legendary. I don’t enjoy raiding, however.

All that’s left for me to do in HoT now is getting to endless tonics, one from Auric Basin and one from Dragon Stand and I’m done with everything I wanted to do.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

darkwombat.3695:

My son and I quit at the same time. I think the difficulty in HoT and how it was so tedious is what did us in. It was not “fun”…

But isnt GW2 progrrssion horizontal? Meaning the volcanic area is just a new max level area, so I can now skip the HoT area?

You might consider working on your Gliding and Ancient Magic Masteries in Bloodstone Fen; they will probably come in handy in the new map(s).

Good luck.

Yep, I think op is going to be in for a rude awakening.

Keep in mind that HoT at launch was a little more dangerous for solo/roaming than it is now – they toned things down (I don’t know if it was numbers, distribution, or toughness of mobs) – so if that was what turned you off, it’s not a problem in Maguuma anymore – but it sounds like this “metal” area might be revisiting that level of danger.

I’d encourage you to try revisiting Verdant Brink et. all, preferably on a busy night or weekend so you can see some of the meta progress and have people to work with to get masteries / hero points. The specializations also definitely improve your survivability, but you need to get those over time of course (I’m still shy some masteries because I’ve not grinded hard on the adventures)

HoT didnt turn me off, the lack of updates did though.

It’s still annoying that we’re getting story once every 2-3months. I much preferred the 2 week system as it kept me logging in and felt like there was always something for me to do.

I was super excited when HoT was released. Then once I started playing it I absolutely hated it. I had no idea where to go or how to get there. I was dying a lot and not being able to complete events because no one was doing them it seemed. So I quit!

I just came back about three weeks ago after about an eight month break. I decided I was going to at least finish the story on one character just to give it a chance. I’m absolutely in love with the game again. The maps are well designed, the story is well done, and I enjoy the elite specs.

I think it was just the drastic change in navigation and difficulty in open world content that was off putting to me. I adapted and now really enjoy HoT. I still enjoy core ge2 as well but HoT just added more to do.

It might not be for everyone but from what I’ve seen the new map is made in the style of HoT maps and Bloodstone Fen. So if you really don’t like those I’m guessing you won’t like the new one either. Imo give it a solid run through. Finish the personal story and unlock one full elite spec and see if you still feel the same way. It did wonders for me and brought me back to what I think is hands down the best mmo on the market today.

Good Luck!

I have to say that the hype of HoT got me into the game. I bought the game as a pre-purchase and dropped it like a week after it launched. When last year my friend told me a expansion is coming and was super hyped about it I decided to play a little. Then HoT came, can’t put the game away since.

Just wanted to say you need to give the game some time

Gliding is one of the features that increased my enjoyment of the game.

Different Experience for me.
I like every feature they added with HoT (Masteries, specialisation, vertical maps) and hope they dont got back to the flat maps and grind heartquest just because some ppl cry in the forum.
That they want to add heartquest in the new map is kind of a letdown already but ill play through it before i say sth about it

I still play GW2, but not as often as I used to. I now only get real enjoyment out of playing low-level toons in Core Tyria. I think that psychologically, yes, HoT and the new LW Season have decreased my interest in the game. I have no interest at all in the Living World story or characters, and the maps are ridiculous. However, I enjoy gliding and Elite Specs.

The only thing keeping me on this game is HoT content.

TexZero.7910:

HoT didnt turn me off, the lack of updates did though.

It’s still annoying that we’re getting story once every 2-3months. I much preferred the 2 week system as it kept me logging in and felt like there was always something for me to do.

I think this summarises my thoughts quite well.

But I feel that HoT just isn’t my kind of content. I like to run around solo or duo. I like to feel like I’m in control of my goals and progress, and leaving that sort of stuff up to a 2+ hour meta just doesn’t suit my play style. I like to progress a lot of characters and would’ve loved to experience full specialisations of them, but the idea of having to run through HoT areas for Hero Points is frustrating- especially when things are locked behind gates or are difficult to complete with a very small group. (And no, doing WvW for them isn’t really that interesting for me either).

I will point out that the OP is going to be the minority in this argument though. The people who have lost interest in the game are unlikely to check the forums whereas the people who have just got back into the game (or at their peak of interest) will be checking it often.

HoT certainly didn’t kill my interest in GW2. I still play but I don’t play the HoT maps. After multiple attempts to enjoy HoT itself, even after the rework, I just don’t. So I don’t play it. I have not even messed with the new LS stuff. I do enjoy other things that HoT brought with it like gliding in core maps, auto-loot, elite specializations, and Revenant. So at least I got something out of it.

I hope the next expansion moves away from the HoT style maps and more toward core style maps, but maybe that’s just me.

Yeah, HoT really killed the game for me. Some of my complaints with it are -

• Maps: really confusing, and with no good z-axis on the mini map, meaning that I keep dying or getting lost. (this includes the desert bl) (SOOO MUCH LAGGGG) (so many zergs, not enough single player content)
• No more Legendary Weapons
• Still incomplete. Until the entire set of legendary weapons launch, it still hasn’t completely released, which is kind of hard to sell a 2nd xpac when you can’t make 1 complete one.
• Powercreep: with the new trait lines: for the small amount of play time I put in, the elite specs are WAAAAAAAAAAAAY better, in both damage and play ability.
• Maps on timers: I enjoyed the way Silverwastes did map metas, I could zone in and play whenever or map jump to one that had people, but with these new maps, i have to plan half my day around a stupid videogame.
• Raids: I’ve been with a certain guild a while and just raids coming out has caused me to grow apart. Before I could just jump in and play how I want with dungeons, fractals, openworld, pvp. Now its play this class and this build and this equipment and before you can join you must run it about 50 times and know every encounter before you have ever seen it. I enjoy playing not researching like i am writing a paper in college. If the encounters are so bad that I can’t have the time to learn in game then nty, more stuff I can’t play.

I really hope that Anet can turn this around with this new story (since that is all I have to look forward to now in gw2) but I will keep my expectations rock bottom otherwise, it will just be another turn off.

I have played GW2 more since HoT came out than I did the 3 years before it came out.

Honestly I attribute this to elite specializations and how involved the new environments seem to be. I like to explore and both those things keep me plenty occupied.

In my opinion the revamp done to HoT in the April update fixed a lot of issues with the expansion in terms of survivability, soloing and navigation. They also fixed the rewards during the longer metas so you can earn rewards along the way.

As for the timers. What’s better? Knowing when it will start or tripping over one in progress and worse, having it active on some instances but not others?

When I tried the HoT beta I told the dev that my only negative feedback was how boring and underwhelming Tempest was to play, how the skills and overloads didn’t synergize with the class mechanic, and how little impact they had.

Then I just stopped playing for 6 months, came back and played a few months. I still feel the same. HoT ruined the elementalist class. The rest of the additions are fine, I have no problems with the map. I don’t play the raids however, it’s just a painful experience to have to repeat the same fight hundreds of times for an item that hasn’t been implemented in the game yet.

HOT is OK as long as there are enuf players in the zones to do the events.
But its getting harder to find enuf players, especially if you are in a non US based time zone.
Ideally, the events should auto scale to match the available players but they dont appear too.
Last night Australian time , I tried about 5 differant events and all failed due to lack of players.

I think some people are far over-estimating the number of people who don’t like HOT and particularly the number of people who left because of HoT.

Of course there are also people who came back because of HoT. I don’t believe there are significantly less people playing…though they may not be the same people playing.

HoT neither killed nor invigorated my interest in GW2. It was a wash.

I do find the nature of HoT meta events to be outside my play time habits (too bloody long), so I did them rarely. I find needing to consult Dulfy to avoid frustration when exploring to be another negative. On the other hand, the maps look cool, and I by-and-large am OK with most of the mobs.

However, I’m not looking forward to the new map and haven’t yet played BSF. By the time I’m likely to be able to play again, they’ll be yesterday’s news.

I found that HoT -FORCED- me to upgrade my game-play. Since I play to relax, I usually pass on HoT Maps. BUT, they are a reasonable extension of game skills. There are kiosks to practice basic skills in HoT. Use them to get better. I hate the ‘GET GUD’ phrase, but that’s what HoT created for me.

For my first toon I made ascended armor, but it was overkill. Once I learned the monster patterns, I could plan on my alts with just Exotic.

Take the challenge. Bloodstone Fen offers the challenge in a fast paced form that is fun if you are up to playing at a higher energy level.

See you there . . .

HoT is like a wine for me.
When it is fresh, it is pretty bland and annoying. You can´t do anything significant, stay in front of walls and have to do minigames.
As it matures, it gets better. You understand which food is best with it, and you don´t drink from the bottom of the bottle where the leftovers collected over time.
Sadly, it is not harvested from a prime grape and stays a through and through average vintage at it´s peak, despite Anet attempting to put sugar in it over and over again.

darkwombat.3695:

I have not played Guild Wars 2 since the first week that Heart of Thorns was released. This is the first time that I can remember, than an expansion turned me off so badly, that it made me lose all interest in the game itself.

I do not know if it was the flying, or the vertical zones, or whatever but boy it was a nightmare.

Did anyone else have this experience, and if so, are you looking forward to the volcanic patch coming up? Maybe they will get back to what made GW2 great.

I signed up for GW2 earlier this year. The core game isn’t all that appealing to me, but I love HoT! It started to feel a bit aimless there for awhile with the content drought, but I was very pleased with the first installment of the new living story and especially the new map. They managed to bring something new and interesting to the table yet again! That seems to be what HoT is all about.

So, yes, I am absolutely looking forward to this new area and continuation of the storyline. If they can keep putting out amazing open world environments and reasons to play them, I will keep coming back for more. I was also pleased to hear they are working on another expansion. More please!

I didn’t like the original core game much and HoT actually made it playable for me. I am enjoying it as a casual player.

The only thing I don’t like so much is how much of a pain it is to get all the masteries together, so I can’t complete the maps either. I like to complete maps but I can’t complete the HoT maps because I need a lot of mastery points still to get the masteries needed for completing the map.

I’ll give you an example. It’s Auric Basin I believe. There’s a hero points thing where you need the adrenal mastery to be able to survive the poison. But this adrenal mastery is still 2 steps away for me and it’s a lot of mastery points still. I really don’t like what I’d have to do to get those together, so there it is. It’s very unsatisfying to not be able to complete that map but then the 2 maps after that…well let’s just say I never liked the idea of needing to do group content to get map completion. That’s the worst idea for me in HoT.

I actually did quit a little while after the expansion came out. I then went back in earlier this year, and knuckled down to it. Made myself learn the new stuff, either by following commanders/squads, or checking Dulfy/You Tube for guides. Some of the map areas can be tough and overwhelming at first. Set small goals - play x until have this amount of xp and/or this mastery, etc. It’s a little bit of grind, but if you do things in small increments, eventually it does add up. Use the wiki for event times also helps. I actually quite like it now. It’s still hard - HoT maps tend to make my computer run on the potato setting, and if I stay too long doing the stuff, my eyes dry up (although my tear ducts don’t technically work anyway, but gaming too long definitely doesn’t help!), then I get headaches, and yada yada yada. So as long as I keep aware of my health out of game, it’s all quite doable. You just have to plan a little more, and that’s something which either you’re okay with, or you’re not.

Looking forward to new stuff (Bloodstone Fen and the associated story were rather nice). Some fire stuff in GW2 can mess with my epilepsy somewhat, so I’m preparing for short bursts over long play times.

Gehenna.3625:

I’ll give you an example. It’s Auric Basin I believe. There’s a hero points thing where you need the adrenal mastery to be able to survive the poison. But this adrenal mastery is still 2 steps away for me and it’s a lot of mastery points still. I really don’t like what I’d have to do to get those together, so there it is. It’s very unsatisfying to not be able to complete that map but then the 2 maps after that...well let’s just say I never liked the idea of needing to do group content to get map completion. That’s the worst idea for me in HoT.

IIRC that changed some time back, so you don’t need that mastery for it. I don’t have adrenal (last one I’m working on right now) it and have done the evil bacon (and all the map masteries other than some gold/silver adventures). You just need mango pies and timing your health to the evil bacon heal.

Ceridwen.6703:

I actually did quit a little while after the expansion came out. I then went back in earlier this year, and knuckled down to it. Made myself learn the new stuff, either by following commanders/squads, or checking Dulfy/You Tube for guides. Some of the map areas can be tough and overwhelming at first. Set small goals – play x until have this amount of xp and/or this mastery, etc. It’s a little bit of grind, but if you do things in small increments, eventually it does add up. Use the wiki for event times also helps. I actually quite like it now. It’s still hard – HoT maps tend to make my computer run on the potato setting, and if I stay too long doing the stuff, my eyes dry up (although my tear ducts don’t technically work anyway, but gaming too long definitely doesn’t help!), then I get headaches, and yada yada yada. So as long as I keep aware of my health out of game, it’s all quite doable. You just have to plan a little more, and that’s something which either you’re okay with, or you’re not.

Looking forward to new stuff (Bloodstone Fen and the associated story were rather nice). Some fire stuff in GW2 can mess with my epilepsy somewhat, so I’m preparing for short bursts over long play times.

Gehenna.3625:

I’ll give you an example. It’s Auric Basin I believe. There’s a hero points thing where you need the adrenal mastery to be able to survive the poison. But this adrenal mastery is still 2 steps away for me and it’s a lot of mastery points still. I really don’t like what I’d have to do to get those together, so there it is. It’s very unsatisfying to not be able to complete that map but then the 2 maps after that…well let’s just say I never liked the idea of needing to do group content to get map completion. That’s the worst idea for me in HoT.

IIRC that changed some time back, so you don’t need that mastery for it. I don’t have adrenal (last one I’m working on right now) it and have done the evil bacon (and all the map masteries other than some gold/silver adventures). You just need mango pies and timing your health to the evil bacon heal.

I almost make it but just not. mango pies you say…I’ll look into that.

Gehenna.3625:

I almost make it but just not. mango pies you say…I’ll look into that.

Another useful trick is to bring a chronomancer with you who can give you alacrity, which will recharge your healing faster. If you don’t have any friend who plays a mesmer, ask around the map, surely sooner or later someone will help out.

To OP’s question: Nope, quite the contrarary. I love the new maps – the desing, how complex and varied they are and how they encourage team work to complete events and get rewards. I’ve been keeping an eye out on some MMO’s and while they seem to drift away from the idea of players co-op and trying to turn the said games into a single player experience, gw2 is doing exactly the opposite and encourage and rewards players for working together towards a common goal, which for me is the essence of any MMO game and should be kept intact. So no, I think HoT was a great success, as is also offered a very new and unique experience with maps you can’t find in any other game, while keeping what makes an MMO succesful – group content!

I had the same experience as op. I have since given it another try and have made it through about 75% of each of the new maps. I can honestly say that I am disappointed in the new content. I don’t want to devote endless time to finding some obscure point that I cannot reach and trying again and again to beat some overpowered, outnumbered area just to get some hero points when no one is around to help. It isn’t really that fun. Seems Arenanet thinks that adding a bunch of something is “new”. Yes, I know gliding is new and while I do like the new specializations, the maps themselves are annoying and often just completely frustrating. If there is no zerg, you can’t really progress. How is that fun? Yes, I do know a couple of people who have quit the game because they just didn’t care for HoT. I still love the heart of the game, so I’m not giving up yet, but I completely understand the op’s feelings about it.

No I agree that HoT stinks. I have always hopped that they would dig a big hole and throw the thing in and bury it. I’ve been doing guildwars since the original game was launched (vanilla) and I tell you I’ve never had a worse experience with the game.

I feel that with this expansion we are just going to repeat HoT and once again will loose gamers or people will just sit where they are. I fully regret Hot the maps were terrible, gliding stinks, the Mastery System is very, very terrible, and quite frankly I am tired of having to farm all the time to get anywhere in the game and play aspects of the game that are for me not fun like WVW, PVP and Fractals. I am afraid that this expansion will just drive more people away as the Developers have not really fixed any of the issue prior to HoT or the issues with HoT itself.

But I continue to hope that not only will someone wizen up but realize your punishing your gamers. We played Guildwars because we liked the system your changes are terrible and we’d like you to put it back the way it was please. Thanks

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Keep in mind, Dark Wombat, the people you are asking are also the people who stayed. So your overall responses will tilt toward that angle.

Those that would say otherwise have long since departed in most cases. And we’ve seen the statics, as far as forum activity, to prove it.

Either way, no. Your experience is not unique. Far from it.

Actually some of these people didn’t stay. Some left because they didn’t like it, gave it another chance and ended up liking it.

There’s no way to know from the responses in any thread how many people like or don’t like HOT, since the majority of people don’t even post.

It’s entirely possible that the post doesn’t reflect the bulk of the player base. It’s also entirely possible that the thread does reflect a majority. There’s simply no way to know.

Pelinal Inventius.3548:

I had the same experience as op. I have since given it another try and have made it through about 75% of each of the new maps. I can honestly say that I am disappointed in the new content. I don’t want to devote endless time to finding some obscure point that I cannot reach and trying again and again to beat some overpowered, outnumbered area just to get some hero points when no one is around to help. It isn’t really that fun. Seems Arenanet thinks that adding a bunch of something is “new”. Yes, I know gliding is new and while I do like the new specializations, the maps themselves are annoying and often just completely frustrating. If there is no zerg, you can’t really progress. How is that fun? Yes, I do know a couple of people who have quit the game because they just didn’t care for HoT. I still love the heart of the game, so I’m not giving up yet, but I completely understand the op’s feelings about it.

You really don’t need a zerg to progress. Maybe a friend or two. There are very very very few things in HoT you can’t do without two or three people.

Of course, the big metas require people but that’s true in the core game too. Temples in Orr, Tequatl, Triple Trouble all require people to show up.

But you don’t need a zerg for a huge portion of it.

I disagree with OP, HoT is a great addition to the core game because it incentivizes to play the content and it makes you care about it. I kinda feel like the vanilla game offered much less in terms of value and as a result the only thing players felt like doing was joining the big zergs for the big loots. And that is the problem: in the end, you end being surrounded by players, by effects in such a way that you stop caring about what is happening in these events, what the build you run simply because you know a zerg will carry and rez you no matter what happens, even if you run the most ineffective build that doesn’t suit the dynamic event because the core game was too much easy.

Vayne.8563:

Pelinal Inventius.3548:

I had the same experience as op. I have since given it another try and have made it through about 75% of each of the new maps. I can honestly say that I am disappointed in the new content. I don’t want to devote endless time to finding some obscure point that I cannot reach and trying again and again to beat some overpowered, outnumbered area just to get some hero points when no one is around to help. It isn’t really that fun. Seems Arenanet thinks that adding a bunch of something is “new”. Yes, I know gliding is new and while I do like the new specializations, the maps themselves are annoying and often just completely frustrating. If there is no zerg, you can’t really progress. How is that fun? Yes, I do know a couple of people who have quit the game because they just didn’t care for HoT. I still love the heart of the game, so I’m not giving up yet, but I completely understand the op’s feelings about it.

You really don’t need a zerg to progress. Maybe a friend or two. There are very very very few things in HoT you can’t do without two or three people.

Of course, the big metas require people but that’s true in the core game too. Temples in Orr, Tequatl, Triple Trouble all require people to show up.

But you don’t need a zerg for a huge portion of it.

Can I +10000 this?

Vayne.8563:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Keep in mind, Dark Wombat, the people you are asking are also the people who stayed. So your overall responses will tilt toward that angle.

Those that would say otherwise have long since departed in most cases. And we’ve seen the statics, as far as forum activity, to prove it.

Either way, no. Your experience is not unique. Far from it.

Actually some of these people didn’t stay. Some left because they didn’t like it, gave it another chance and ended up liking it.

There’s no way to know from the responses in any thread how many people like or don’t like HOT, since the majority of people don’t even post.

It’s entirely possible that the post doesn’t reflect the bulk of the player base. It’s also entirely possible that the thread does reflect a majority. There’s simply no way to know.

I’ll add to this that not only did I come and give it another bash and enjoyed it immensely, in the last fortnight I’ve had my husband playing again after several years’ absence. He always liked a challenge, and each bit of HoT has him a happy bunny!

Today, we shall be doing more events so he can continue to level up his gliding before the new content this coming week. We’re both quite looking forward to it.

macon.4065:

No I agree that HoT stinks. I have always hopped that they would dig a big hole and throw the thing in and bury it. I’ve been doing guildwars since the original game was launched (vanilla) and I tell you I’ve never had a worse experience with the game.

I feel that with this expansion we are just going to repeat HoT and once again will loose gamers or people will just sit where they are. I fully regret Hot the maps were terrible, gliding stinks, the Mastery System is very, very terrible, and quite frankly I am tired of having to farm all the time to get anywhere in the game and play aspects of the game that are for me not fun like WVW, PVP and Fractals. I am afraid that this expansion will just drive more people away as the Developers have not really fixed any of the issue prior to HoT or the issues with HoT itself.

But I continue to hope that not only will someone wizen up but realize your punishing your gamers. We played Guildwars because we liked the system your changes are terrible and we’d like you to put it back the way it was please. Thanks

You’d be punishing me by returning to flat maps and weak enemies. I would absolutely love to explore more maps like VB and TD. I also think they’ve demonstrated they can meet in the middle and design a map that is palatable to players who like vertical map design, yet not make it a nightmare for players who don’t (see BF). Moving forward, I hope we’ll see something for everyone.

AliamRationem.5172:

You’d be punishing me by returning to flat maps and weak enemies. I would absolutely love to explore more maps like VB and TD. I also think they’ve demonstrated they can meet in the middle and design a map that is palatable to players who like vertical map design, yet not make it a nightmare for players who don’t (see BF). Moving forward, I hope we’ll see something for everyone.

As long as Anet is willing to advertise the specifics of how the maps are designed or laid out in advance so that I can opt to not purchase the expansions that are built around the whole platforming/maze approach I would be totally fine with this.

My primary concern is that ANet pushes players who detest the new design approach into having to buy into the new style of maps in order to keep up with power creep that the company initially promised would not exist (at least in terms of the elite specs)