Recently rolled up a druid as new main and went through HoT again to unlock etc. so I thought it was a good time to give feedback, having just gone through it again on a new character.
I am a causal player. As before, I love this expansion and game overall right now. The pve is super exciting. I just did dragon’s stand meta last night and I loved it, so fun and epic. Our map struggled on the south lane, so I took my druid there and helped with the boss as the zerg went around the outside (I think it was 2nd base on way to final, not sure). Especially on my druid, healing and helping where I could, that whole meta was just an amazing experience. Yes the last fight against the actual dragon could have been a tiny bit harder, but still what an amazingly epic event, so fun to look at and just watch like a movie as a I played. It helped that I taxid into a full map and that we won, or course.
I still think it takes a tiny bit too many HP to fully unlock the elite, that was a little annoying. That is my only complaint.
Exploring the zones is awesome, if you aren’t careful you will die, which makes it epic and fun. The meta events are super epic, the HP’s and group events are all fun, the whole thing is just awesome and epic and I love playing it.
Some people complain this isn’t casual friendly, which blows my mind. I am a hard core casual in that I refuse to grind anything because I don’t have the time (stressful job, children, etc.). I never have to on GW2, because nothing feels like a grind. I just get on and play and it works out. If I need some gear, I earn decent money at work and I can buy gold when I need it (which is actually rare) and I do; the cost is a tad annoyingly high, but still cheaper than a monthly subscription. I got a full set of runes of durability just enjoying Auric Basin, which is easy because the meta is epic and awesome, and the zone is incredibly beautiful to look at.
That is as far as PvE is concerned. The world of HoT and the pve experience is just amazing and epic, I love it.
WvW, well, yeah not so much. I only play eotm now, which I enjoy a lot and that’s good, but yeah the new BL are horrible I’d say, kinda the opposite of HoT above. I stopped pvping really, not enough time and I enjoy open world and wvw (eotm) more.
The class balancing, bug fixing and general class maintenance could be better, as everyone knows. That is kind of an understatement. HoT content is great and amazing, but bugs and class mechanics issues are ignored or left waiting to be dealt with for way too long. But that isn’t HoT specific.
So overal, from a casual, I absolutely love HoT. The zones are epic and challenging and awesome, rewards are good, everything is awesome in open world pve. WvW needs attention, one good map besides eotm or EB would be nice. PvP is basically 100% dependent on state of class balance and polish, which is not good. But again, as far as the basic pve game is concerned, I love HoT.
(edited by MSFone.3026)