Guild Wars 2

250 is good, most of my alts have +175 to 215 that have not entered HoT. Works great for us with one of each class at 80.

Thanks for the update. Do you know how the elite spec requirement reduction will be implemented? Will we be refunded HPs that we’ve already spent? Or will what we have not yet unlocked just cost less?

So when today will this take place?

AWESOME news, thanks for listening! I think 250 seems like a fine middleground.

Hurray! This will stir the pot a bit! Maybe I will see my Herald come to fruition in my lifetime now!

Thanks for listening Anet!

Yay!
Will we get any info on how to get the bladed armor top as well?

HP will be refunded, states it in the post. I think this is a great decision, I actually just main my War but for those who have many alts I see it was an issue. Also it does make sense doing most of the new content with the new elites.

Arenanet truly listen to their players and I want to say what a fantastic job they do and continue to do. Looking forward to finally get some more time for the content tonight

Gaile Gray.6029:

I think you’ll want to read today’s blog post for updates about the iteration on the expansion pack.

Enjoy!

Thank you ArenaNet for listening to the community! I’ve been holding out on writing any on-line reviews of this expansion to see if in the first few weeks problems would be addressed and this post tells me you are quickly addressing all of them. With these changes I’ll give the expansion a perfect 10 out of 10. The game is beautiful and this change will allow us to experience it with our old characters but with very new play mechanics. Couldn’t have asked for me. Much respect to a game developer for acting so quickly.

Fantastic, great move to all involved

I have my fingers crossed that the requirement for Mastery XP will be lowered also, but this is a step in the right direction!

Thank you for the information, and this means a lot. My old main (and now wvw character, is finished) and my new main who has only just unlocked the elite, doesn’t feel like such an uphill climb. Thanks for listening!

I really think you guys are so grateful for a change – any change – that you’re missing a few things that point to this not being much of a compromise.

1) Hero points are still account bound.
2) They are still gated behind some masteries.
3) You are still forced to spend Hero Points on ALL your skills and utilities before you can even unlock the elite spec.
4) The elite specs are all earned in a linear fashion – which means you MUST spend your hero points on traits AND SKILLS that you may never even use.

As it is, 250 HP is easier to swallow versus 400 HP, true…if you only have 1 or 2 alts to grind. But once you hit 4-5 alts and up… this is still a HUGE amount of grind.

Glad to hear it, no problem purchasing HoT now. Thanks fellas

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

I really think you guys are so grateful for a change – any change – that you’re missing a few things that point to this not being much of a compromise.

1) Hero points are still account bound.
2) They are still gated behind some masteries.
3) You are still forced to spend Hero Points on ALL your skills and utilities before you can even unlock the elite spec.
4) The elite specs are all earned in a linear fashion – which means you MUST spend your hero points on traits AND SKILLS that you may never even use.

As it is, 250 HP is easier to swallow versus 400 HP, true…if you only have 1 or 2 alts to grind. But once you hit 4-5 alts and up… this is still a HUGE amount of grind.

It’s not. With a Dulfy guide (yay for Dulfy guides), you’ll be up and running in no time for 25 challenges.

Thank you ANet! I had nearly unlocked my Chronomancer and was put off unlocking my alts…but now, I can start to work on each one in turn. This is a great compromise.

Thank you, you’ve made many of us very happy.

Well, I guess in a true compromise neither side ends up getting exactly what they wanted. I do want to thank Anet for at least extending an olive branch to those players with concerns. I really appreciate some of the marvelous work that went into this expansion and was really only concerned with the unfairness of the 400 hero point requirement. 250 is still overpriced in my opinion but a compromise is a compromise. Thank you Anet for listening to your customers on both sides of the issue.

Great move and a very quick response to the playerbase’s dissatisfaction. You guys do a great job.

IT’S A HALLOWEEN MIRACLE

Thx Anet

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

I really think you guys are so grateful for a change – any change – that you’re missing a few things that point to this not being much of a compromise.

1) Hero points are still account bound.
2) They are still gated behind some masteries.
3) You are still forced to spend Hero Points on ALL your skills and utilities before you can even unlock the elite spec.
4) The elite specs are all earned in a linear fashion – which means you MUST spend your hero points on traits AND SKILLS that you may never even use.

As it is, 250 HP is easier to swallow versus 400 HP, true…if you only have 1 or 2 alts to grind. But once you hit 4-5 alts and up… this is still a HUGE amount of grind.

That’s not what grind means.

You get enough HP for all of your skills by hitting, except for your elite. You literally have to walk around and get your 25 hero points now instead of 40 (5 if you did map completion on your alts.) Back when GW2 was released, you received NO hero points for leveling up. Consider yourself lucky.

If you gave HoT a bad review somewhere like Metacritic, and you’re happy with this update, please update your review. I just did.

Thanks Anet! While I pretty much have druid unlocked on my main, I have plenty of alts and this will make getting elites much more tolerable.

Thank you much for the change, however when will this take place?

Also when can I use all my proofs from wvw have about 220 I can’t use at the present time

Thank you so much for this change. It was the right thing to do.

The one to Rule.2593:

Meh, casuals win again

Let me fix that for you;

The majority wins again XD

Also they said they were keeping the difficulty, which I think is what the “hardcore” like most about the HOT anyway, so it’s more of a win win then anything.

So the big question now is when is it going to be implemented? Because I suspect they’re going to have to be doing a little bit of programming to make it change correctly. So it’s probably not going to happen in the next couple of days I’m assuming

And the casuals rejoice! Followed by people with 800 Alts that should never be catered to!

The one to Rule.2593:

Meh, casuals win again

the game is literally known for being a casual game by the reporters, critics, players and people that haven’t played it.
it doesn’t owe you anything and anet did really well by listening to their custumers.

also when are the changes coming?

Thank you ANet. This saves us quite a bit of grinding on multiple alts.

While I had no problem with the expansion or the work of the Hero Points at all. I must commend you for the open communication lines that you always keep with your players. Not unhealthy communication lines in terms of giving everything in a silver platter, but really trying to do what you feel is best for the game and saying “No” when it is needed.

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

I really think you guys are so grateful for a change – any change – that you’re missing a few things that point to this not being much of a compromise.

1) Hero points are still account bound.
2) They are still gated behind some masteries.
3) You are still forced to spend Hero Points on ALL your skills and utilities before you can even unlock the elite spec.
4) The elite specs are all earned in a linear fashion – which means you MUST spend your hero points on traits AND SKILLS that you may never even use.

As it is, 250 HP is easier to swallow versus 400 HP, true…if you only have 1 or 2 alts to grind. But once you hit 4-5 alts and up… this is still a HUGE amount of grind.

100% agree with this.

This works for a few characters, but when it comes down to it, it’s still 25 HP locations. I’m sorry, but the thought of grinding these out on my alts is completely offputting. I have 28 fully geared, functional level 80s that I made to add flavour to my playing experience. I mean, there is NO way I’m going to do it on all of them, but even considering every profession grinding 25 of these gated, unsoloable points makes me not want to play. Of course, nobody should change things just because of one person(arguably the majority), but bear with me here. They only cut it down by 15. And this is not factoring the amount of HPs per map, nor does it factor that many of these HPs cannot be solo’d and are mastery gated. So you STILL have to pretty much do most of the maps, just not 100%. People are so happy they were noticed, that they aren’t recognizing what they actually got. I’m not saying I don’t welcome lessening the burden, it’s just that it changes very little to the overall issue people were upset about; people waited 3 years using the same old boring builds with the same old boring skills and wanted to play the new content with the new spec. It defeats the entire purpose if you STILL have to do most all the content just to be able to unlock it, right? Am I missing something here?

250 is much more reasonable, well done and great job on such a rapid turnaround on listening to feedback.

Also glad to hear there was a bug with empty maps. Was beginning to worry…

Man, that’s the reason why we keep giving feedbacks. This is the company that listens and cater to majority players’ need.

Thank you for the change.

And that are really good news!

ty anet for this change.

my alts now are also ready to enter the jungle instead of grinding hero point for ages

chapeau

25/40 instead of 40/40 definitely makes way more sense. Now you only need to do those relatively easy to reach(only requiring like first few masteries) to unlock.

Thank you very much =)

I’m a little disappointed but at least i’ve already done most of the work we previously had to do.

I guess having multiple characters with world completion puts me at an advantage over most other people though in terms of hero points available…

With the extent to which i’ve now trained masteries even my second-class alts should have no trouble maxing out their elites (Which is what i’m disappointed about. I liked that you actually had to work for it, and that it wasn’t simply handed to you)

I’ll still be trying to max my rev’s elite before this goes live though ~

nice change can u guys also look at master point for Tyria? its hard to get any point for it.

Glad to see they are making this adjustment to help ease some peoples frustration. This won’t make the expansion any less fun for me, as I got to experience it, and now I probably would prefer a slightly easier repeat. Especially for new characters.

I hope this comes out soon, as you have partially sapped my desire to try for my elite skill on my daredevil. I think I’ll just pvp until the update. XD.

eh, I feel 275-300 would be a better middle ground, but I’ll live with 250

Geneticide.6987:

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

I really think you guys are so grateful for a change – any change – that you’re missing a few things that point to this not being much of a compromise.

1) Hero points are still account bound.
2) They are still gated behind some masteries.
3) You are still forced to spend Hero Points on ALL your skills and utilities before you can even unlock the elite spec.
4) The elite specs are all earned in a linear fashion – which means you MUST spend your hero points on traits AND SKILLS that you may never even use.

As it is, 250 HP is easier to swallow versus 400 HP, true…if you only have 1 or 2 alts to grind. But once you hit 4-5 alts and up… this is still a HUGE amount of grind.

100% agree with this.

This works for a few characters, but when it comes down to it, it’s still 25 HP locations. I’m sorry, but the thought of grinding these out on my alts is completely offputting. I have 28 fully geared, functional level 80s that I made to add flavour to my playing experience. I mean, there is NO way I’m going to do it on all of them, but even considering every profession grinding 25 of these gated, unsoloable points makes me not want to play. Of course, nobody should change things just because of one person(arguably the majority), but bear with me here. They only cut it down by 15. And this is not factoring the amount of HPs per map, nor does it factor that many of these HPs cannot be solo’d and are mastery gated. So you STILL have to pretty much do most of the maps, just not 100%. People are so happy they were noticed, that they aren’t recognizing what they actually got. I’m not saying I don’t welcome lessening the burden, it’s just that it changes very little to the overall issue people were upset about; people waited 3 years using the same old boring builds with the same old boring skills and wanted to play the new content with the new spec. It defeats the entire purpose if you STILL have to do most all the content just to be able to unlock it, right? Am I missing something here?

Now I know GW2 has historically been a VERY alt friendly game, and that is by design because it increases its longevity without having to add new content. But, you gotta admit, you are definitely on the outlier side of things with 28 level 80’s. I expect most faithful players of GW2 to have between 3-8 total level 80s that they play regularly… 28 is definitely a rounding error in terms of number of people that actually have that.

Also, this compromise will make it relatively easy to get the new spec on at least 3 characters no problem. Pick the 3 you want to play the most, get those specs, enjoy the game then go back to unlocking the specs on a few others. By then it won’t feel like a chore to unlock a few more characters.

I am more interested in the mega server bug fix because that is something that impact gameplay quite a bit.

Saga of Ilthire.6315:

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

I really think you guys are so grateful for a change – any change – that you’re missing a few things that point to this not being much of a compromise.

1) Hero points are still account bound.
2) They are still gated behind some masteries.
3) You are still forced to spend Hero Points on ALL your skills and utilities before you can even unlock the elite spec.
4) The elite specs are all earned in a linear fashion – which means you MUST spend your hero points on traits AND SKILLS that you may never even use.

As it is, 250 HP is easier to swallow versus 400 HP, true…if you only have 1 or 2 alts to grind. But once you hit 4-5 alts and up… this is still a HUGE amount of grind.

That’s not what grind means.

You get enough HP for all of your skills by hitting, except for your elite. You literally have to walk around and get your 25 hero points now instead of 40 (5 if you did map completion on your alts.) Back when GW2 was released, you received NO hero points for leveling up. Consider yourself lucky.

How long have you been playing, cuz what you just said is not true at all. I’ve Been playing for 3 years, you never did and still do not receive Hero Points for leveling up. You only received Skill Points for leveling above 80, and those were converted into Spirit Shards, not Hero Points.

So every single Hero Point I have across my 10 level 80 alts was earned by walking around, taking time to explore the map and completing a Hero/Skill Point challenge.

250HP means 25 hero challenges X number of alts (10) = 250 Hero Challenges. I have to do TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY. Think about it. Which, btw, I will have to earn the hard way for all of them, just like everyone else. Over and over. And time gated. And reliant on other players.

That is the definition of “Grind” my friend.

So I will reserve my thanks for when actual compromise is done.

ANET:

Our goal was always to have elite specializations as a part of character progression, but it’s clear that a segment of our players was so excited about the elite specialization system and abilities that they really wanted to experience most of the expansion with them unlocked.

Firstly, why would you not think people would want to play was the new specs in the new content? after you hyped them to hell?

Why did you think that people would want to grind them out in the same specs they’ve played since the game launched? Do you even remember the bits of that manifesto vid that talks about no grind, and no barriers?

Secondly, yes players were excited about elite specs. Then you shoved a kittening cliff in their way to play them, you not only caused disappointment, you virtually kicked your players in the nuts with this….why you ever thought this woudl be a good idea I dont know. it was such a predictable reaction for anyone who has any sense. I worry about the level of group think and institutionalization that seams to have crept in if this was not immediately obvious to you.

Thank you, Colin! This is one of my biggest complaints taken care of within a week of release. Seriously, this change will improve my HoT experience tenfold.

This was an excellent decision by ArenaNet. Well done,

Amazing news, exactly what was needed. Now for the big questions, when?

Glad about the hero points, that bumps this expansion up from an 8 to a 9 for me. 10 many people interpret as perfect, so if can fix some frame rate, bugs and balance issues it’ll get there.

But please, don’t lower the difficulty of this content! Some things maybe could use better explanation, like the vampire hero point in verdant brink, but I really don’t wanna go back to PvE where slamming my face in the keyboard will reward me with rares. >_<

The one to Rule.2593:

Meh, casuals win again

Go take a look at their manifesto, their marketing strategy, their stated goals through all 3 years of bas GW2…casuals are the target demographic, always has been.

The only place casuals are ignored is sPvP…that’s where you go if you don’t wanna be “casual”. Assuming you are good enough o get your MMR out of the casual pool.

Cameirus.8407:

ANET:

Our goal was always to have elite specializations as a part of character progression, but it’s clear that a segment of our players was so excited about the elite specialization system and abilities that they really wanted to experience most of the expansion with them unlocked.

This translates into: kitten it, we tried guys! We wanted to give you guys something cool to work towards in Heart of Thorns, but the 90’s kids got kittened and gave us bad reviews, so we had to nerf it!