Guild Wars 2

I’m not trying to make this a negative post, but honestly I’m just starting to find myself being less impressed. Does anyone else feel this?

For example:

Were not getting new weapons and it looks like no new race either, both of which I assumed would be in an expansion.

While I’m glad were getting things like Guild Halls, imho I felt its something that should have been there a long time ago.

The other day I watched the poi and thought it looks similar to stuff were doing in game now but with some gliding thrown in and gliding won’t be present on the older maps we’ve been told.

Does anyone else feel unimpressed?

I don’t think we’ve seen enough of it by now to know or not know. But judging things on your own expectations is probably not the best way to know if something is good for not.

From what we know right now, we have a new profession (which means more/differently playability). A profession changes things up far more than a race does.

More to the point we have a way that changes up all other 8 professions, giving us far more diversity in what we’re doing.

Then we have masteries which we’ve only scratched the surface of.

Not having a new race is only in issue if you assumed we’d have one. And while the gliding is only usable in the new areas, we’ve been told there’d be other masteries you could use in old areas.

All disappointment is about expectations. But without knowing more, it’s impossible to judge if we should be disappointed or not.

I’m okay with it. I know a lot of people had their heart set on more races, weapons, and classes, but I’m not really sure what I’d want from a new race or how I’d want it integrated into the Personal Story, I don’t personally use all the weapons I have now, and I still haven’t finished all the current classes, or even started a Warrior.

I don’t want to make it all about me, because I know other people play differently, but as long as I’m saying whether I’m personally interested or not, I mostly want new places to go and new things to see/do with my favorite existing characters.

HoT doesn’t seem to fit a lot of expectations for a traditional expansion, but I don’t mind that. I’m glad they seem to be pretty up-front about that.

They’ve gave us minimal amounts of information in relationship to topics they have covered so far. To me it all depends on specialisations, they should bring more diversity to the game. To me this expansion feels like a start more than an end product. Hopefully there will be more specialisations added in the futures to have bit more of a choice or sacrifices if specialisations are chosen. For example ranger loses some of the skills or they get replaced. From what I understood it seems more of a progression. You are not really making any hard choice if you specialise into something.

I think them specifically mentioning a small amount of new zones being added is a little worrisome. Them not even mentioning anything about dungeons is a little scary as well. I have a feeling we won’t see new dungeons added, especially with them willing to remove the dungeon forum not so long ago.
I think this expansion will be a light expansion compared to some other mmos. I think the cost of the expansion will make up for it, though.

@Fernling

I think the game isn’t about and was never really meant to be about dungeons. It wasn’t the main thrust of the game.

Anet keeps talking about a living, breathing world. Not instances. Open world. That’s the main thrust of the game.

Not to say a dungeon will never exist, but it’s hardly fair to compare a game centered on dungeons with a game centered on say dynamic events and open world content.

Put another way, how many dynamic events did the last WoW expansion contain? Well it must not be very good then, because it only had dungeons.

I think it’s time people realized that this game was actually designed to be different and the design choices don’t necessarily favor instances.

It’s not even out yet. And was only recently announced.

FearedbytheGods.8617:

I’m not trying to make this a negative post, but honestly I’m just starting to find myself being less impressed. Does anyone else feel this?

For example:

Were not getting new weapons and it looks like no new race either, both of which I assumed would be in an expansion.

While I’m glad were getting things like Guild Halls, imho I felt its something that should have been there a long time ago.

The other day I watched the poi and thought it looks similar to stuff were doing in game now but with some gliding thrown in and gliding won’t be present on the older maps we’ve been told.

Does anyone else feel unimpressed?

I totally agree with you man.
I’ m waiting more infos about specialisation and balance feature.
If they don’ t balance or fix ranger pets I doubt i will buy the expansion. I’ m not interested in pve stuff or guild halls.
I just want to play a balanced game with my favourite class : ranger.

Darkness.9732:

FearedbytheGods.8617:

I’m not trying to make this a negative post, but honestly I’m just starting to find myself being less impressed. Does anyone else feel this?

For example:

Were not getting new weapons and it looks like no new race either, both of which I assumed would be in an expansion.

While I’m glad were getting things like Guild Halls, imho I felt its something that should have been there a long time ago.

The other day I watched the poi and thought it looks similar to stuff were doing in game now but with some gliding thrown in and gliding won’t be present on the older maps we’ve been told.

Does anyone else feel unimpressed?

I totally agree with you man.
I’ m waiting more infos about specialisation and balance feature.
If they don’ t balance or fix ranger pets I doubt i will buy the expansion. I’ m not interested in pve stuff or guild halls.
I just want to play a balanced game with my favourite class : ranger.

I find it strange that other people can play and kill these OP warriors with their rangers, maybe you need to practise more mate

Just wanted to point out that they have said this expansion was laying the ground work for the future of GW2. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect drastic changes to anything, or even a ton of content to be added. When you think about it, they are adding a good amount of content to explore. Just because there isn’t a whole lot of just pve content, or a whole lot of just pvp/wvw content, altogether it makes up a decent amount of things to do. Whether or not you choose to do everything that is added is your choice. Personally, I’m waiting for more information about specializations and about the different mastery lines. It’s nice to speculate and have high expectations for what you would like to see in the game, but in the end you may be unsatisfied. All in all i’m just happy that they are actually giving us new and exciting content.

It’s a ls season and a feature pack. They call it expansion in order to sell it, other games call it dlc. And just to remind, ls season 1 was laying ground work for the future too, ls season 2 was laying the ground work for the future too, and they say this dlc is too. So it’s always “we will work later”. In fact anrenanet seems to have abandonned his game since launch.

Ÿou know things like “new weapons” or “Increased level cap” sound really cool on paper but it dont bring that much in game. I personaly like they are focused on expanding current mechanics and making them more deep.
Ppl often complain about there wount be enough new maps and I always look how many maps orginal game have and how much time I spend there and now how much time I have in dry top and sw and how much more I enjoy less maps with bigger density of stuff and features.

Quality over quantity you know?

I feel underwhelmed that this new PvP mode etc. turns out to be just one new map thrown in into current map rotation. After announcement i thought it’s gonna be a stand alone game type with 3-4 maps in it. But noooo… The more you think about what’s been announced, the more it feels… smallish i would say, especially considering it’s unknown when it’s gonna be released. But for real, it’s too early for conclusions, we’ll see.

To OP:
“You know nothing, John Snow!”

How about we play it first, then judge?

Darkness.9732:

I totally agree with you man.
I’ m waiting more infos about specialisation and balance feature.
If they don’ t balance or fix ranger pets I doubt i will buy the expansion. I’ m not interested in pve stuff or guild halls.
I just want to play a balanced game with my favourite class : ranger.

Wake up and smell the coffee man!
Really hope you wont buy HoT… quit the game already!
Since you dislike so much every aspect of the game, offer constructive and well funded suggestions, instead of QQing all the time!

Well the old gw1 comparison again, the first expansion also did not have a new playable race, or even a new profession.
What it did gave was lots of new dungeons, lots of new pve skills with ranking(perhaps comparable to masteries). Fun minigames, like boxing, the norn tournament en the protect the dragonspawn from destroyers.

I am sceptical to say the least, and annoyed they went into maguuma instead of Elona. But I will see it when more is known about it.

I think i understand what this is about. With the bits and pieces that have been released so far, you are trying to imagine the entire experience using what we have from the current game. For instance using a rifle on thief or hammer on engi would probably feel no different from using a rifle on engi and hammer on guard or warrior.

Stronghold would probably be like something out of wvw (which it is, they really could have been more creative instead of slapping old ideas on) and a new class while really cool might feel no different from picking a new class now you haven’t used yet.

You are already associating the sense of familiarity from the game now with HoT and that is a bad idea, try looking at everything together and then remember there is more than that probably unrelated.

The price tag they try to stick on it will determine most for me whether or not I will invest in it. In short, if they try to stick the price of a full on game to this expansion then I will not take part in it as what they are delivering is not, in fact, a full on game.

I’m reasonably satisfied with what I’ve seen so far.

There are things I want for the game. I realize those things are often personal and idiosyncratic. That those things aren’t the things I’m seeing in the HoT previews doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy the things they have managed to add.

I think the problem is players are trained in this by now that expansion = must have x new playable races, x new classes, etc etc. Granted, new classes changes up the meta somewhat, and that’s what people want to happen, a meta change, something to modify or change gameplay, or add to it.

Its just been drilled into skulls that xpacs must have a new class or race.

Edit: this actually reminded me bout something Yatzhee once said in a review. Getting something you want doesn’t have the same effect as getting something you didn’t know you wanted.

ArenaNet has always been good at ideas, horrible at execution. Compare the GW2 Manifesto with what we got (“we don’t want players to grind!!!!”… Yeah).

If even the ideas are sounding underwhelming, well, that’s not a good sign.

I think its too early to make a statement like this.
I think we’re just victims of A.net not telling us everything as usual.
I’m more worried by the fact that they didnt specifically mention new dungeons. I kinda hope there will be (new profession mechanics just so we can keep running AC wooo…) but I wont doom/gloom them just yet until we get the whole picture.

I’m reserving all judgement until after I play it. Going in with pre-conceived ideas is bound to end in disappointment – things never live up to how you want them to be.

Even as a GW1 fan, I pretty much avoided all the hype on GW2 and got to approach it completely fresh. No promises were broken, no manifestos to obsess over and thus no disappointment felt since day 1.

A lack of dungeons would be disastrous. I think that several years of running through citadel of flame has moved from becoming tiresome into the realms of being just plain sad.

You assumed, that was your biggest problem. Welcome to falling off the hype train before it completely explodes…

I’ll break down what HoT effectively is.

Its an Epi Pen.

Its a shot of adrenaline in a game that has become so boxed in it can barely breath or grow in more than 1 direction (PvE / Living Story)

Its a Saving throw to a drowning man in the form of a life saver.

And i’ll be honest, no, i’m not impressed.

HoT is being sold as “the platform to build from for the future” when about two and a half years ago Gw2 was given needlessly given a grace period by kinder players.

Why did we give it a pass for being so .. lacking in content, slow to patch out bugs, slow to grow? Because Gw2 already had a great platform it could expand upon! It had promise and room already…

Anet tried, mind you, and then gave just as quickly. FoTM? The ever expanding and never ending dungeon? It was expanded once a year after its introduction, and it has a very clear end of how far you can go… WvW? Barely touched since launch.

PvP? It’s been a joke for years, injecting a small fortune into tournaments doesn’t make it anymore E sports than it was 8 months after launch when a spectator mode was finally added..

HoT is a great way to suck in a lot of returning and new players, it is not by any means a platform nor is it jesus’s second coming. Gw2 core is already the platform and there needs to be a lot more work done (in spans of time less than 3 years long) to push Gw2 onto its legs that have been waving about in the air for some time now…

I don’t care if i have to pay a bit to get 2 or 3 more specializations and a good chunk of new PvE maps and PvP game modes.. Hell i’ll Pay into a promise that anytime anyone at anet attempts to reinvent or Rehash or redo an old system that ALREADY WORKS (cough traits and dailies) and has no issues, they get hit with ice. Let’s just keep moving forward rather than revisiting last months content and tweaking it

FearedbytheGods.8617:

Were not getting new weapons and it looks like no new race either, both of which I assumed would be in an expansion.

We’re getting new profession / weapon combos, so that’s basically the same thing as new weapons, since they’ll most certainly function differently in the new combos.

FearedbytheGods.8617:

The other day I watched the poi and thought it looks similar to stuff were doing in game now but with some gliding thrown in and gliding won’t be present on the older maps we’ve been told.

Well I think you might be somewhat out of luck. The core game has already been developed, the core mechanics are already in place. If you’re looking for a completely shift in regards to the core components of the game, I’m afraid you’re not going to see it. Lets take WoW for example, no matter how many expansions they release the core mechanics are still the same, somewhat refined here and there but you’re still doing the same thing you did in vanilla. Oh sure the graphics have been tweaked and a new class or raced added but the fundamental mechanics (raids, quests, trinity etc.) are still there. Expansions don’t fundamentally change how games are played, they can add new features or refine present features though. Gliders are an example of such an addition.

FearedbytheGods.8617:

Does anyone else feel unimpressed?

Don’t know enough to be impressed, or unimpressed. I am hopeful based on what I’ve seen, but hesitant based on what I haven’t seen.

They are past due to give us some specifics and a release date. It feels like they threw some chum in the water to get reactions and information from us….to tell them what was a good idea and what was a bad idea regarding the few tidbits they did give us. That is what really makes me hesitant about HoT. Its like they are trying to tweak whatever they do have coming based on forum balancing….which is always a bad idea. Its hard not to view HoT like a paid living story + feature pack when they won’t tell us anything to make it clear that it is more than that.

Having GW2 being my first real online game to have gotten and really gotten into and playing regularly I feel compared to other games the content for the price is perfect.

Specially with the no monthly subscription fee, and from what I hear from other people it really is a different template than let’s say WOW or LOL (never played n’either of those) so obviously the expansion will be different. Personally I will see on the price, if they jack the price to almost the price of the game it would be a kitten move and I don’t have any reference from the original GW since I wasn’t around then and if it is similar tactics they might of used back then with the expansions that they released.

From what information we do have now it really is just a small extension of the already living story. Which leads me to believe it shouldn’t be that high of a price would be a smart move unless they suddenly decide to drop a news bomb and have been holding out on allot of information about the expansion which I don’t believe is the case.

“Does anyone else feel unimpressed?” How about, why do you even deserve to be impressed? If you don’t like it, you can do something else with your time. ANet doesn’t have to make you happy when they have millions of other players.

Maybe you should relax and just try to enjoy things, instead of immediately looking for all the bits you don’t like. I think you’ll find yourself much happier in life.

Andred.1087:

“Does anyone else feel unimpressed?” How about, why do you even deserve to be impressed? If you don’t like it, you can do something else with your time. ANet doesn’t have to make you happy when they have millions of other players.

Maybe you should relax and just try to enjoy things, instead of immediately looking for all the bits you don’t like. I think you’ll find yourself much happier in life.

to a certain extent I agree 100% , but it’s normal for people to just speculate on what they will possibly give there money to…specially on an online forum lol , but I agree to jump the gun to try and find everything bad or that doesn’t measure up to what they had planed if they where to design an expansion themselves is obsessing over nothing.

I just feel personally that the hype they made for HoT at the announcement was premature in a sense with out still giving to much information and that sadly that approach in the long run can kill the momentum and chances of fans buying it if hyped to far in advance.

I’m interested in the expansion and I’m 90% likely to pick it up but I think that what they’ve revealed so far is not hugely impressive – from the vague details we’ve had on masteries and how they’ll work it “feels” like a Feature Pack – but we’ll see once the details come on the number and types of masteries, the number of zones being added, the size of the zones, details on the story lines in those zones and so on.

I’m curious if they’re adding actual Story Journal content or if this’ll be just be open world maps. If there’ll be dungeons (and work done on making dungeons better). If there’ll be more guild missions and so on. Stuff “hidden” within the details of the features listed on the HoT page but I suspect there won’t be.

I think that the fact that they have answered so few questions about what’s in, and perhaps more importantly, what’s not in the upcoming expansion and what upcoming updates to expect is very telling. I don’t think this expansion is all that far along at all, it’ll be a long time coming, with little new content between now and release, IMO.

Pifil.5193:

I’m interested in the expansion and I’m 90% likely to pick it up but I think that what they’ve revealed so far is not hugely impressive – from the vague details we’ve had on masteries and how they’ll work it “feels” like a Feature Pack – but we’ll see once the details come on the number and types of masteries, the number of zones being added, the size of the zones, details on the story lines in those zones and so on.

I’m curious if they’re adding actual Story Journal content or if this’ll be just be open world maps. If there’ll be dungeons (and work done on making dungeons better). If there’ll be more guild missions and so on. Stuff “hidden” within the details of the features listed on the HoT page but I suspect there won’t be.

I think that the fact that they have answered so few questions about what’s in, and perhaps more importantly, what’s not in the upcoming expansion and what upcoming updates to expect is very telling. I don’t think this expansion is all that far along at all, it’ll be a long time coming, with little new content between now and release, IMO.

I agree, and actually discussing with my bf who got me into the game..what i’ve come to theorise about it is the actual expansion is like you mentioned going to be more of a feature pack to add to the current living story but there will be elements added from the HoT expansion that in the future will give them more elements to work with when they in the future release new chapters. For example with the masteries system will play a roll in completing new living story content.

I felt it was a bit underwhelming when they said…
“Only 1 specilization, Only 1 new weapon.”

Some classes dont even get 5 new skills, just 2 or 3 -.-

Andred.1087:

why do you even deserve to be impressed?

Whose talking about what’s ‘deserved’ here? My opening paragraph was to compensate for any people mislead by ‘entitlement’, such as yourself it would seem.

Andred.1087:

immediately looking for all the bits you don’t like.

Immediately? Now your just being argumentative. If you actually read the OP you’d know it was a build up over time that lead to the post.

Andred.1087:

Maybe you should relax and just try to enjoy things
I think you’ll find yourself much happier in life.

I really think you need to take your own advice. Your response was FAR to emotionally invested, arguing extremes that weren’t even present.

Well I hope the expansion goes beyond your expectations. No one but anet really knows how big this thing will be. There’s only do much you can explain through blog posts and interviews.

I do however think anet wouldn’t have announced an xpac without there being plenty of content. I have to have faith that they learned from the initial launch that not having enough content leaves players bitter and they will leave.

I honestly don’t know why they felt the game needed another class in the first place, given the extremely small amount of skills avaliable to existing classes.

Masteries and specializations ALONE, alongside a whole massive chunk of personal story, and the logical assumption of at least one brand new dungeon (To kill Mordy) and a giant new landmass of zones is more than enough to justify an expansion. Guild halls and stronghold are icing, but I’d gladly trade either for a solid 12 or so utility/elite skills for every existing class to go alongside the specializations.

Where do people get the idea that expansions MUST have new classes and races, or that expansions should logically revolve around rolling new characters to get to the lion’s share of the content?

That’s not how GW1 worked. They added classes, but every added class was a value addition to existing characters as well, due to the secondary class mechanics. In the GW2 setup this is not true. To get any playtime out of a new class or race you’re stuck rolling yet another character. Expansions shouldn’t overly prioritize, you know, shelving your existing characters to enjoy a disproportionate share of the content. They should expand those characters in terms of progression and story first and foremost.

TBH I think the addition of the revnant is pure fan service, and is a silly move in general that just adds bloat rather than value to the expansion. That time and effort could have been better spent adding an extra specialization to the existing classes.

I’m feeling a bit underwhelmed at the moment, but…

Ever open a box/bucket of basic Legos? There’s really nothing that stands out in it. Yes, there’s a bunch of shapes, but most of them are just variations on a theme. No part of it seems all that impressive or exciting.

And yet… Legos are awesome! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) Why? Because all of the fairly basic bits can go together in so many different ways, allowing you to do different things with them.

Will HoT have that “Lego Effect”? It’s too soon to say. But I’m not willing to judge it good or bad based off of the few parts we’ve gotten a good look at so far.

wonders if anyone brought cheese to this party

Underwhelmed? Not particularly.

I’m kind of ‘meh’ on the gliding myself, but that’s just a personal thing. I’m just big on flying in general, but otherwise, everything else has my interest. I look forward to working through masteries (ha, I was right, they are similar to EotN rep building!), and to poking at the new class.

Is anything we’re getting ground breaking? Honestly, one can’t really say yes or no to that until we get our hands on it and give it a go. Sadly too many judge the book by its cover, instead of waiting until they can actually try things in beta and then determine if it’s something they want to purchase.

Adding a bunch of skills per classes will add more complexity to already existing problems rather than solving them. GW2 Meta for each class allows for only so many skills. Regardless how many people think individually, player collective will always follow the meta. Since skills are always designed in a group across classes, it is extremely difficult to introduce new skills in a game where gameplay modes are already severely limited. Look what happened to majority of new skills that got introduced as part of living story season 1 and associated updates. How many are used actively? Antitoxin spray anyone?

Hence, before ANET could add more skill variety to the skill palette they need to make more gameplay types available. I’d expect them to introduce GW2 version of Polymock in HoT and that will add a lot of variety with so many minis already available. They are already introducing GW2 version of GW1 GvG under the name of Stronghold in HoT. It won’t be surprising if they introduce more modes as time passes.

I think ANET could have implemented the personal story a bit differently in the game. Instead of giving it a finite beginning and end, they could have made it open ended and achievement driven in similar fashion as living story episodes. That way they could have tied the personal stories to the living stories and could have enhanced it even further. Maybe in HoT they will do just that.

FearedbytheGods.8617:

I’m not trying to make this a negative post, but honestly I’m just starting to find myself being less impressed. Does anyone else feel this?

No, I have more sense then to to prejudge something I haven’t tried.

FearedbytheGods.8617:

Were not getting new weapons and it looks like no new race either, both of which I assumed would be in an expansion.

I will have access to weapons that are new to the professions I can use them on.

FearedbytheGods.8617:

While I’m glad were getting things like Guild Halls, imho I felt its something that should have been there a long time ago.

I feel it is something that never should have been put it. I feel it is a waste of dev time. I want to play the game, and thus, prefer dev time is invested in such.

It appears this is an aspect that a great deal of players desire though. So I simply look at it as something that will offer plenty of enjoyment, but likely, simply will not be for me. I am going to reserve my judgment until I experience it for myself.

FearedbytheGods.8617:

The other day I watched the poi and thought it looks similar to stuff were doing in game now but with some gliding thrown in and gliding won’t be present on the older maps we’ve been told.

It will possibly change the entire dynamic of WvW and PvP with a new profession and professional specialties. As to the PvE, it can only go so far. I for one, will be glad for some zone additions, although i have little interest in the “gliding” aspect. I suspect I may not enjoy that. I will save my judgement on that, untill I am able to experience it for myself.

As others have stated, it was just recently announced. little actual information is out on it. Personally, I think the OP has simply made a prejudgment based on existing bias, and likely made this thread more for validation of that, rather then to actually create an actual discussion, but that is just my opinion.

coglin.1867:

but that is just my opinion.

Like your whole post but it’s the case for everyone. Yet you still felt the need for “Because I say so”.

I’m just worried that the expansion is just gonna be a big bowl of what we got this year & no real innovation or real & interesting story line. With out adding no fixes, balance & ect… that would be really sad. But will see.

I used to feel like I could trust them (played every GW release ever) but something about this expansion just seems like it’s rushed. I mean where’s something like Crystal Desert for crying out loud with all the GW1 references that have been coming up. Or some return to dwarven areas with all the dwarf stuff being mentioned? I really am scared they’re just opening up something that’s the equivalent of the last few LS maps, a new prof, 1 alt-version/specialization per class, and those handful of other things… and that the main story will be the biggest letdown ever.

Only time will tell though.

I don’t agree at all. I wouldn’t say HoT is overwhelming in its coolness by any means, but it’s on my list of games I really wanna play this year, along with GTA V, Witcher 3, etc.

it seems they designed it based on every single piece of feedback we’ve given them. requests for new prof, new mechanics, new weapons, improvements/revamps in PVE, PVP and WvW. theyre also not forgetting about the foundations like events and the old world.

Vieux P.1238:

I’m just worried that the expansion is just gonna be a big bowl of what we got this year & no real innovation or real & interesting story line. With out adding no fixes, balance & ect… that would be really sad. But will see.

how is there no innovation? every single piece of info they’ve showed us has been innovative and interesting. obviously this is a very subjective thing. in other words, I couldn’t disagree with you more.

velmeister.4187:

Adding a bunch of skills per classes will add more complexity to already existing problems rather than solving them.

absolutely not. the game needs more variety and complexity. meta is stale due to LACK of complexity. this is why celestial rules pvp, this is why WvW is dominated by GWEN, and this is why we have the zerker PVE meta.

I dint say NO innovation but did say no REAL innovation. Meaning that they did do lots of improvement but despite that, they got long ways to go to impress the loyal player base.

Angry Joe reiterated many of the same concerns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG5oUKqbIVM