Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

A little bit about me: I loved Guild Wars 2 when it launched and played it up until shortly after Heart of Thorns launched. Then I stopped and haven’t been back.

Let me start by saying I’m NOT trying to start an internet argument. I don’t know where else to ask about this, so I’ll try here.

How is Heart of Thorns nowadays? I play super late at night due to my schedule, and when HoT launched it seemed mega frustrating and non-solo friendly. Is this still the case? I’m sure HoT is awesome for some, but it seemed super unwelcoming to me. It’s the first expansion in a while that I regretted having bought.

Anyway, how is it? I loved playing GW2, but felt shut out by Heart of Thorns. Is there a place for solo players in GW2’s future? If not, I get it and can go elsewhere. I’ve been doing that for the past (almost) two years. I’d like to check out GW2 again though if possible, as I think it’s a unique and special game.

Thanks in advance.

inb4: git gud

I did it solo long after the masses went through… er… en masse.

That’s not to say I completed everything (every HP, etc) but rather made it through the story and moved on. There were enough people to do metas or kill champs or whatever for me.

I think the population will just keep getting thinner as more and more maps are added, plus the upcoming expansion. So if you’re interested in completing it, now’s a good time.

Certainly for the story and a very large portion of map exploration / map completion you can get it done solo, as that’s what I did. But be aware some things like certain HPs, or to get to certain masteries you probably will need to team up with others (unless you’re insanely good maybe). So for some HPs I joined a HP train on the LFG, and for one mastery point in Tangled Depths I partied up with another solo traveller through map chat to clear out a mob around it.

At the moment there still seems to be plenty of people in the maps at most times during the day and evenings up to about 12-1am (EU server), and there still seems to be groups/taxis on the LFG for HoT maps/metas. And often I still see lots of people doing HP runs or people teaming up in map chat to get HPs done. Beyond 2am I’m not sure what things are like though.

I could maybe see Dragons Stand being trickier to find a group if your looking at 2am onwards, as after the one that starts around midnight finishes I’ve occasionally asked in the map if people are up for doing the next run and often a lot tend to call it a night there (normally I do too). Maybe for that meta you might have to wait till weekends of days off to find a group if there isn’t one at night during the week.

In terms of how you found HoT difficulty wise, I think that might still be similar, as I don’t think any updates have changed difficulty of enemies etc (I could be wrong). But I’d say give it a shot again and try to power through any initial frustration, as once you get used to the map layouts / enemies etc it does get more enjoyable.

I hated HoT at first, but I powered through and after a while you just naturally adapt your playstyle to it without realising, which makes visits back to it a lot more fun. I think maybe what adds to the initial frustration (or at least it did for me) is when you haven’t got a lot of the masteries, navigation can be a real pain! But once you get those unlocked that again really helps with the enjoyment of the maps.

As for “Is there a place for solo players in GW2’s future?”, I would say yes for sure! As the LS3 maps that have come out after HoT seem to be a lot easier than HoT (though I found the last boss of the story on the Lake Doric map a real pain!), so I think they have taken into account that some people got frustrated with the challenge of HoT.

I’m mostly a solo player, so I certainly hope there’s a place for people like us! Hopefully you can get back into it and enjoy GW2 again

If you’re a decent player, you can solo 90% of HoT. I solo it all the time and I’m hardly a hard core raider, nor do I use meta builds. There are a handful of things you won’t be able to solo however. A handful of hero points and meta events. Think of the temples in Orr.

But those meta events get done at all hours of the day and night. Source? I’m in Austalia and I play all hours of the day and night myself.

If you’re on a US server, I often help people get an understanding of HOT and most of them seem to like it quite a lot aftewards.

Thank you all for the great answers!

I’ll reinstall it when I get home. I work nights, so my play time is normally after midnight on days I’m off, as I stay on a night time schedule.

I love GW2, and love the rich world ArenaNet has created. If anyone is around late at night, feel free to look me up!

Seriously, even if you only spend a couple of hours with me once, I can make HoT much much easier for you. And I’m often on at the time you’re on, assuming you’re on a US server anyway.