Guild Wars 2

So , I’m trying hard to grind xps doing events but since the raids came out , maps (even VB) are quite empty.
Yesterday I ran around VB trying to find a small group to do events and we were 3 people (from 8pm till 11pm).
Normally when I find no people in maps I go do some crafting ….come back after 1/2hour and than map is full again……but really lately no one doing events , so how I’m supposed to level up my mastery ?
Another thing I disagree with HoT is that now became almost impossible play solo and the only way to do meta-events and gain some good amount of xps , is to play with big group of player …..I really miss the old quest system , at least you can play solo and progress anyway.

Don’t get me wrong , I still love the game and the map design is great , is just that Anet seems more focus only to make a game for players that only play in groups and not for casual players.

Maybe I’m wrong….what’s your opinion ?

You’re not wrong. What can we do?

Yup sometimes they are dead.

VB is full… with raiders waiting for their party to fill up.

That is until Anet dev’s figure out that that aint the place to put the raid entrance.

And IF they only want guilds to do it and NOT random pugs like someone claimed,
then they’d better put the access INSIDE the Guildhall.
You know, so only guilds can do it.

But wouldn’t that be unfair to HoT players who don’t have acess to a guildhall …?

All weird stuff going on, and strange decisions from the dev’s. Add more armor options, but force ppl into a meta again for the raids. I still can’t wrap my head around some of their views. Weird stuff indeed.

People wanted difficult content like Underworld, Deep, FoW, Sorrow, and so forth
Instead they put it on the world map and it’s no wonder why people don’t casually walk through HoT or why some people steer clear of it.

It’s an expansion with no loot aside reclaimed weap set and you can farm mobs for hours and get nothing of value so its no wonder the farmers have left.

The rewards are horrible as in SW you can get the Queen Bee worth 900g and in DT you can get Kites and geodes. Worse offender is DS when it comes to rewards so it’s no wonder those seeking a bounty don’t stay in HoT.

Map completion and Masteries are why people are in HoT and for all those wondering why Masteries are gated to a specific location than this is why because it makes no sense for Pact Mastery not to include maps with official pact business like HoT.

This game has overflows and even the overflows have all dried up these days your lucky to find and org map in Lfg.

Raids will just get worse as they add more in and more HoT maps turn in to LFR zones or simply afk. The sheer fact this expac can’t retain people in it’s zones is proof enough of it being a bust and the main way to fix it is through proper rewards and openeing up greater avenues of choice. However that will no doubt nerf the difficulty of the maps which is bad and part of the reason I was so upset about them making the difficulty a feature of core maps instead of some off the path map.

Exotrax.4207:

So , I’m trying hard to grind xps doing events but since the raids came out , maps (even VB) are quite empty.
Yesterday I ran around VB trying to find a small group to do events and we were 3 people (from 8pm till 11pm).
Normally when I find no people in maps I go do some crafting ….come back after 1/2hour and than map is full again……but really lately no one doing events , so how I’m supposed to level up my mastery ?
Another thing I disagree with HoT is that now became almost impossible play solo and the only way to do meta-events and gain some good amount of xps , is to play with big group of player …..I really miss the old quest system , at least you can play solo and progress anyway.

Don’t get me wrong , I still love the game and the map design is great , is just that Anet seems more focus only to make a game for players that only play in groups and not for casual players.

Maybe I’m wrong….what’s your opinion ?

Depends on time of day you play and what other meta events are going on in the game but in general the maps have been dead (compared to first two weeks after lunch) for a while now. Now that raids are here everyone is trying them with pug groups, that will soon go away as people realize “no you really can’t pug these”. In general the maps will continue to decline, though. People will return to WvW, PvP, Fractals and now organized Raids so that’s population not in PvE.

As time passes ArenaNet will nerf the content to accommodate smaller populations (this started two weeks after launch and continues) but sadly that wonderful rush of full PvE maps with players everywhere is gone from HoT and not likely to return. Same story with every MMO.

With the few that are on your map, there is the problem of aligned incentives. Outside meta’s you’ll all likely be focused on different hero challenges, etc… The answer to solving this problem is player paying player (ANet has no policy against this). I have offered gold in change for help with runs (Tangled Depths is horrid) and also for partying up for hero challenges. This is effective. It’s a tool you can use to give other players incentive to help you, because as it stands the game design doesn’t really do a great job at that when the map population is low.

I noticed it too. Everyone is gone…and WvW borderlands are empty too.

Well raids did come out on Tuesday.

I knew it would happen eventually. Verticallity and multilevel events may sound like fun, but they honestly just confuse many players; myself included.

The events are not clearly shown on the entire map, although the entire map needs to work in unison in order to complete the meta. If I go the tangled depths and an event is not shown on the map I have no idea where and what to do in order to help the map.

Not that it will help much now, but I would offer the following as suggestions to ANet.

1) Make all the events on the map shown once you enter the map.
2) Make all the events show the elevation you need to be on in order to find it.
3) Let it be known if it is a group or solo even so as players will not face a champ solo.
4) Give clear arrows similar to the first map that can be followed for chains
(this may happen on other maps or chains but I have not seen it as of yet).
5) Let us know if the event is a part of the meta or just a normal event (coloring maybe)

Even these few changes would make the map(s) much more accessible to me, as no matter when I enter a map I would have a clear direction to help the map. As it sits now I, and many others I have seen lurking at the WP, have no way of knowing where and for what we are needed.

Exotrax.4207:

So , I’m trying hard to grind xps doing events but since the raids came out , maps (even VB) are quite empty.
Yesterday I ran around VB trying to find a small group to do events and we were 3 people (from 8pm till 11pm).
Normally when I find no people in maps I go do some crafting ….come back after 1/2hour and than map is full again……but really lately no one doing events , so how I’m supposed to level up my mastery ?
Another thing I disagree with HoT is that now became almost impossible play solo and the only way to do meta-events and gain some good amount of xps , is to play with big group of player …..I really miss the old quest system , at least you can play solo and progress anyway.

Don’t get me wrong , I still love the game and the map design is great , is just that Anet seems more focus only to make a game for players that only play in groups and not for casual players.

Maybe I’m wrong….what’s your opinion ?

You are wrong.

1) Raids are new and exciting and brand new content. EVERY single time new content comes out, everything else empties. It always happens with every single content update for ANY game out there. So, give it time, people will come back. Rewards will eventually get fixed.

2) I’m sorry, whenever I hear people complain about the lack of “solo” content in an MMORPG makes me want to smack them. I solo’d all of the content (meaning map completion, specializations, and Story) in HoT. Not impossible, it’s a l2p issue for most. To further my points, the story does not make sense for you to solo the “Meta” event of the map. In fact, in any of the maps in the game, you can not solo the Meta Boss, but you are just now complaining because it is probably too hard. News flash, you can’t faceroll in HoT.

You can solo content in HoT. The small missions of getting the supplies, rescuing some scouts, all solo’able.

But in reality, you are wanting to play a Massively *MULTIPLAYER" Online Roleplaying Game solo. The content is going to be geared towards working with others. Always will be. If you want to play a solo game, go play Skyrim. It’s really that simple.

Also, you don’t need a “big” group. 10 people are suggested for an “group event”.

So quick crying, get better at the game, and make some friends to play with.

tluv.5821:

But in reality, you are wanting to play a Massively *MULTIPLAYER" Online Roleplaying Game solo. The content is going to be geared towards working with others. Always will be. If you want to play a solo game, go play Skyrim. It’s really that simple.

No, he’s not saying that at all .. many of us expected HOT to be an addition to GW2 in the same playstyle, meaning loose groups and character progress (leveling) NOT GATED BY GROUP-ONLY EVENTS!

What we got was GW3 with its 1990s group-or-die playstyle instead where Masteries gate the Story and map exploration, and can only be obtained largely by group-only content.

Trust me it’s not dead do to raids and it’s not just VB it’s all H.O.T zones

They deserve to be dead.

tluv.5821:

Exotrax.4207:

So , I’m trying hard to grind xps doing events but since the raids came out , maps (even VB) are quite empty.
Yesterday I ran around VB trying to find a small group to do events and we were 3 people (from 8pm till 11pm).
Normally when I find no people in maps I go do some crafting ….come back after 1/2hour and than map is full again……but really lately no one doing events , so how I’m supposed to level up my mastery ?
Another thing I disagree with HoT is that now became almost impossible play solo and the only way to do meta-events and gain some good amount of xps , is to play with big group of player …..I really miss the old quest system , at least you can play solo and progress anyway.

Don’t get me wrong , I still love the game and the map design is great , is just that Anet seems more focus only to make a game for players that only play in groups and not for casual players.

Maybe I’m wrong….what’s your opinion ?

You are wrong.

1) Raids are new and exciting and brand new content. EVERY single time new content comes out, everything else empties. It always happens with every single content update for ANY game out there. So, give it time, people will come back. Rewards will eventually get fixed.

2) I’m sorry, whenever I hear people complain about the lack of “solo” content in an MMORPG makes me want to smack them. I solo’d all of the content (meaning map completion, specializations, and Story) in HoT. Not impossible, it’s a l2p issue for most. To further my points, the story does not make sense for you to solo the “Meta” event of the map. In fact, in any of the maps in the game, you can not solo the Meta Boss, but you are just now complaining because it is probably too hard. News flash, you can’t faceroll in HoT.

You can solo content in HoT. The small missions of getting the supplies, rescuing some scouts, all solo’able.

But in reality, you are wanting to play a Massively *MULTIPLAYER" Online Roleplaying Game solo. The content is going to be geared towards working with others. Always will be. If you want to play a solo game, go play Skyrim. It’s really that simple.

Also, you don’t need a “big” group. 10 people are suggested for an “group event”.

So quick crying, get better at the game, and make some friends to play with.

Sorry man but most that stuff is so wrong it’s not even funny
ppl are not flocking to raids that’s not why hot zones are dead
MMORPG dose not mean what you think it means in no way dose it mean GROUP
just means you are playing in a world with other players not that you have to play with them heck where have you been for the last 3 years of gw2 ?

tluv.5821:

You are wrong.

1) Raids are new and exciting and brand new content. EVERY single time new content comes out, everything else empties. It always happens with every single content update for ANY game out there. So, give it time, people will come back. Rewards will eventually get fixed.

2) I’m sorry, whenever I hear people complain about the lack of “solo” content in an MMORPG makes me want to smack them. I solo’d all of the content (meaning map completion, specializations, and Story) in HoT. Not impossible, it’s a l2p issue for most. To further my points, the story does not make sense for you to solo the “Meta” event of the map. In fact, in any of the maps in the game, you can not solo the Meta Boss, but you are just now complaining because it is probably too hard. News flash, you can’t faceroll in HoT.

You can solo content in HoT. The small missions of getting the supplies, rescuing some scouts, all solo’able.

But in reality, you are wanting to play a Massively *MULTIPLAYER" Online Roleplaying Game solo. The content is going to be geared towards working with others. Always will be. If you want to play a solo game, go play Skyrim. It’s really that simple.

Also, you don’t need a “big” group. 10 people are suggested for an “group event”.

So quick crying, get better at the game, and make some friends to play with.

I get what you saying, but you are exaggerating more than Ronda Rousey in her pre-fight press conferences. You cannot ‘solo’ map completion in HoT.

First, map completion requires you to complete all the HPs. A few are soloable, but many are not. Granted I have soloed most HP on a reaper and ranger, but other classes do not have that luxury. And there are a few that are completely and utterly unsoloable (the frog one in VB and mushroom in tangled come to mind). Speaking of map completion, you also need to do the meta in AB to complete that map (and get it to t4). Also, you cannot complete DS zone map without meta either.

Now granted, you can beg, plead, get lucky and have folks wandering by to help with these HPs/metas, but its still not technically ‘solo-able’.

Lastly, your experience will vary depending on your class. I breezed through HoT zones on a reaper, it was ridiculusly easy to solo most (but not all) content. Almost as easy on a DH/ranger. But thief, warrior, mez, etc its alot more challenging and less soloable than reaper is. So you have to take class into perspective as well..

1. i agree that the content is more aimed towards groups then solo.

2. i agree that completing a map requires some group interaction and event completion

3. i disagree however that certain classes cannot solo certain events or even HP points.
I did a few HP points where you need to kill a champ solo on my Chrono mesmer, but indeed others you can’t because of their mechanics.

Trust me it’s not dead do to raids and it’s not just VB it’s all H.O.T zones

- VB is either full with ppl wanting to do raids, making it seem filled but it isn’t active at all, or it’s void of any activity.
- Auric is only filled on a few maps where you have at least 1-2 commanders guiding ppl.
- TD is for most a badly designed and confusing map and only very very rare you find a complete meta going on.
- DS isn’t even funny. Mobs are nearly always in groups of 3 (or more) and there is really nothing to see that’s remotely interesting let alone ‘rewarding’.

Once i have map completion on VB, i only do the HP points for my other characters combined with the waypoints in case i want to do an event on one of those. other then that, why waste time there, it’s surely not for the rewards. (besides exping)

Unfortunately, I get into more maps that are sparsely populated than I do ones that are full or even mostly full.

Even using LFG doesn’t usually help me get a meta done sadly. It helps sometimes, if I hop enough maps, but it doesn’t work most of the time.

And this is happening less than a full month since launch. That downward slide happened very quickly.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Unfortunately, I get into more maps that are sparsely populated than I do ones that are full or even mostly full.

Even using LFG doesn’t usually help me get a meta done sadly. It helps sometimes, if I hop enough maps, but it doesn’t work most of the time.

And this is happening less than a full month since launch. That downward slide happened very quickly.

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps. I find them easy when the zone is starting up. From there I just stick with the zone, and help people taxi in.

It is always interesting to read threads of how people expect everything to be handed to them without ever trying. If your map is empty, tag up and start to organize it. Taxi people in find others to help tag up. Yes if you try to start a DS map with 45min left to the timer you may not find a lot of people joining. But start it at anything above hour and half and you should have no time getting people in to the zone.

I agree with the l2p issue coming up, stop trying to get everything handed to you then blaming Arena Net. Use the tools available and you will have plenty of people on the map.

Zypher.7609:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Unfortunately, I get into more maps that are sparsely populated than I do ones that are full or even mostly full.

Even using LFG doesn’t usually help me get a meta done sadly. It helps sometimes, if I hop enough maps, but it doesn’t work most of the time.

And this is happening less than a full month since launch. That downward slide happened very quickly.

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps. I find them easy when the zone is starting up. From there I just stick with the zone, and help people taxi in.

It is always interesting to read threads of how people expect everything to be handed to them without ever trying.

…

What are you on about?

I use my commander tag regularly in meta events. I taxi and attempt to taxi people into maps regularly. Having a commander tag and taxiing people into a map is not a magic bullet for anything.

Many times, people simply don’t join up or answer ads in LFG. Maps that fill up don’t often succeed in the metas regardless of those of us attempting organization and explaining to people what to do.

You might want to try not making false assumptions about people from your high horse.

Celtic Lady.3729:

You might want to try not making false assumptions about people from your high horse.

My response was a mix between responding to you and the OP. Also when you say LFG does not usually work, I pointed out that it has always worked for me since release. I use it daily, for about 2 meta events each day. When a map is struggling I tag up and help out.

As for the OP, he/she should use the tools available to find full maps. Yes there are dead maps, but it makes no sense to stay on that map. Use LFG or start a map yourself and taxi people in.

Zypher.7609:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Unfortunately, I get into more maps that are sparsely populated than I do ones that are full or even mostly full.

Even using LFG doesn’t usually help me get a meta done sadly. It helps sometimes, if I hop enough maps, but it doesn’t work most of the time.

And this is happening less than a full month since launch. That downward slide happened very quickly.

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps. I find them easy when the zone is starting up. From there I just stick with the zone, and help people taxi in.

It is always interesting to read threads of how people expect everything to be handed to them without ever trying. If your map is empty, tag up and start to organize it. Taxi people in find others to help tag up. Yes if you try to start a DS map with 45min left to the timer you may not find a lot of people joining. But start it at anything above hour and half and you should have no time getting people in to the zone.

I agree with the l2p issue coming up, stop trying to get everything handed to you then blaming Arena Net. Use the tools available and you will have plenty of people on the map.

So if some one has 1hr to play a night – not me but some do- heck not even every night
and if that time dose not mix with the timer’s then what ? to bad so sad ?
I think you and anet is gonna get a wake up call on who pays the bills around here
PS it’s not the hardcore / raiders they will only log in once or twice a week on raid days once a good amount of raids are out they wont be buying fluff

Zypher.7609:

As for the OP, he/she should use the tools available to find full maps. Yes there are dead maps, but it makes no sense to stay on that map. Use LFG or start a map yourself and taxi people in.

Sounds like a plan. It would probably work if only I had a time machine.

Zypher.7609:

Celtic Lady.3729:

You might want to try not making false assumptions about people from your high horse.

My response was a mix between responding to you and the OP. Also when you say LFG does not usually work, I pointed out that it has always worked for me since release. I use it daily, for about 2 meta events each day. When a map is struggling I tag up and help out.

As for the OP, he/she should use the tools available to find full maps. Yes there are dead maps, but it makes no sense to stay on that map. Use LFG or start a map yourself and taxi people in.

The point is, I’ve attempted many times to fill a map and it just didn’t happen despite the attempts. Again, taxiing people into a map works sometimes to fill it, but sometimes it doesn’t work. If you’re saying you have a 100% success rate of fully filling every map you enter, that’s great. But that isn’t the experience of a lot of us.

And constant map hopping when you don’t have the time to tag up and run everyone through the whole show carries its own frustrations that are not easily solved by the pat answer of “just taxi people in.”

tluv.5821:

You are wrong.

1) Raids are new and exciting and brand new content. EVERY single time new content comes out, everything else empties. It always happens with every single content update for ANY game out there. So, give it time, people will come back. Rewards will eventually get fixed.

Not so. When fractals where re done the first time, everyone did not flock to them, DT and SW, where the same, the entire time you could still find people to do other things.

2) I’m sorry, whenever I hear people complain about the lack of “solo” content in an MMORPG makes me want to smack them. I solo’d all of the content (meaning map completion, specializations, and Story) in HoT. Not impossible, it’s a l2p issue for most. To further my points, the story does not make sense for you to solo the “Meta” event of the map. In fact, in any of the maps in the game, you can not solo the Meta Boss, but you are just now complaining because it is probably too hard. News flash, you can’t faceroll in HoT.

That depends on what you call face roll. So far playing through with a zerker ranger, HoT is easy mode. It was a lot harder for my warrior.

You can solo content in HoT. The small missions of getting the supplies, rescuing some scouts, all solo’able.

You are not wrong.

But in reality, you are wanting to play a Massively *MULTIPLAYER" Online Roleplaying Game solo. The content is going to be geared towards working with others. Always will be. If you want to play a solo game, go play Skyrim. It’s really that simple.

Have you not been playing GW2 for the last 3 years? Most content is geared for solo play. You group up on the fly, there is zero need to play with others out side instanced content.

Also, you don’t need a “big” group. 10 people are suggested for an “group event”.

So quick crying, get better at the game, and make some friends to play with.

Good luck with killing a meta boss with 10 people, it’s not a l2p issue.

Had 2 Dragon Stand fails today because we lacked people and no one joined taxis,inability to find good and populated maps intensifies.
Today was the worst day I ever had in gw2,I’m filled with negative emotions i can’t describe.

They should change these event chains to be like how they implemented the Silverwastes. Throw out the fixed-time cycles and make the meta advance based on progress made. The day/night cycle sounds cool, but it doesn’t work, throw it out.

Silverwastes style, there will always be maps in various stages. Keep the personal contribution counter, and make it so you need to be on a map for most of a cycle to get good rewards, to prevent “event hopping”. It’s not rocket science, they got it right once before, whatever possesses them to get it so very, very wrong now? Salvage this uninviting mess, we paid good money for it.

I find Orr maps being a lot more active than HoT’s ones. And it’s 3 years old content.
And if I had to do meta events now, I’d chose Silverwastes without hesitation.

Why? It’s a lot faster and gives better rewards for the time invested. There are events EVERYWHERE on the map ( protect/upgrade keeps, escort yaks, random vet, ppl digging here and there, then breach and VW + maze).

Exotrax.4207:

So , I’m trying hard to grind xps doing events but since the raids came out , maps (even VB) are quite empty.

Maybe I’m wrong….what’s your opinion ?

Use lfg, most players are going over to more populated maps. There are HP farm maps, meta events maps, and more in LFG. Which normally leaves to initially map you load on with less people.

Zypher.7609:

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps.

Ask yourself why you have to use LFG everyday….

Soon.5240:

Zypher.7609:

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps.

Ask yourself why you have to use LFG everyday….

Because you need an organized group to complete the meta events.

saturn.4810:

Soon.5240:

Zypher.7609:

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps.

Ask yourself why you have to use LFG everyday….

Because you need an organized group to complete the meta events.

No. It’s because the maps are empty. Why aren’t there queues to get into the new maps of the first expansion to be issued in 3 years? Why hasn’t Anet needed to create new servers to handle all the traffic from new customers?

tluv.5821:

Exotrax.4207:

So , I’m trying hard to grind xps doing events but since the raids came out , maps (even VB) are quite empty.
Yesterday I ran around VB trying to find a small group to do events and we were 3 people (from 8pm till 11pm).
Normally when I find no people in maps I go do some crafting ….come back after 1/2hour and than map is full again……but really lately no one doing events , so how I’m supposed to level up my mastery ?
Another thing I disagree with HoT is that now became almost impossible play solo and the only way to do meta-events and gain some good amount of xps , is to play with big group of player …..I really miss the old quest system , at least you can play solo and progress anyway.

Don’t get me wrong , I still love the game and the map design is great , is just that Anet seems more focus only to make a game for players that only play in groups and not for casual players.

Maybe I’m wrong….what’s your opinion ?

You are wrong.

1) Raids are new and exciting and brand new content. EVERY single time new content comes out, everything else empties. It always happens with every single content update for ANY game out there. So, give it time, people will come back. Rewards will eventually get fixed.

2) I’m sorry, whenever I hear people complain about the lack of “solo” content in an MMORPG makes me want to smack them. I solo’d all of the content (meaning map completion, specializations, and Story) in HoT. Not impossible, it’s a l2p issue for most. To further my points, the story does not make sense for you to solo the “Meta” event of the map. In fact, in any of the maps in the game, you can not solo the Meta Boss, but you are just now complaining because it is probably too hard. News flash, you can’t faceroll in HoT.

You can solo content in HoT. The small missions of getting the supplies, rescuing some scouts, all solo’able.

But in reality, you are wanting to play a Massively *MULTIPLAYER" Online Roleplaying Game solo. The content is going to be geared towards working with others. Always will be. If you want to play a solo game, go play Skyrim. It’s really that simple.

Also, you don’t need a “big” group. 10 people are suggested for an “group event”.

So quick crying, get better at the game, and make some friends to play with.

Fun thoughts, but overall abusive. If you wanted a co-op MMO (also known as a CORPG) you’d be playing Guild Wars 1. Pretty much everything was overhauled in the Guild Wars 2 release; synchronization is rare (except very specific combos), skills are no longer directly supportive unless you stack tons of boons on people, heal skills are very personal (not to mention limited to one each for non-guardians), etc, etc, etc. Nearly everything was soloable until HoT released, but even though difficulty has been raised, strong support skills haven’t been implemented. You’re still essentially on your own (when fighting a champion, for instance, you can be focused and there’s nothing anyone around you can do to save you unless they’re in your party and have thirty aegis skills equipped to use after each other). Fields/combos are okay, so long as you’re one of the five people affected.

I personally don’t feel that HoT is too hard, but there are several problems some of us have noticed. The biggest one is that, as the OP said, maps are getting empty. Map meta events (along with their achievements) will be hard or impossible to complete when population thins out; the expansion added four further meta-event maps, and it was hard enough sustaining one or two – now that the expansion hype is fading, meta success will occur less and less often. For people like me who have been loaded up with problems with regular client crashes after the HoT update, when the problems are finally ironed out, the maps will likely be ghost towns.

Soon.5240:

Why aren’t there queues to get into the new maps of the first expansion to be issued in 3 years? Why hasn’t Anet needed to create new servers to handle all the traffic from new customers?

Good questions. Usually when a popular MMORPG releases a highly successful xpac, several new servers have to be created to handle the population. However, all we heard about launch day was how “smooth” it was. It would certainly be smooth when there were fewer players than expected.

When vanilla GW2 was released, it was sold for 2 million copies within 2 weeks. However, more than two weeks has passed since HOT release, and no sales figure was disclosed. At the same time, we have news coming in regarding how successful other games are. For example, Legacy of the Void was sold for over 1 million copies within 24 hours of its release, and this number does not even include pre-orders or pre-purchases.

This is really a wake-up call for Anet. They should think hard about whether it is a good idea to change game directions.

Soon.5240:

saturn.4810:

Soon.5240:

Zypher.7609:

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps.

Ask yourself why you have to use LFG everyday….

Because you need an organized group to complete the meta events.

No. It’s because the maps are empty. Why aren’t there queues to get into the new maps of the first expansion to be issued in 3 years? Why hasn’t Anet needed to create new servers to handle all the traffic from new customers?

Megaserver won’t let you in the populated map most of the time…..unless you LFG :/.

Takoyakii.2146:

Soon.5240:

saturn.4810:

Soon.5240:

Zypher.7609:

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps.

Ask yourself why you have to use LFG everyday….

Because you need an organized group to complete the meta events.

No. It’s because the maps are empty. Why aren’t there queues to get into the new maps of the first expansion to be issued in 3 years? Why hasn’t Anet needed to create new servers to handle all the traffic from new customers?

Megaserver won’t let you in the populated map most of the time…..unless you LFG :/.

But Megaserver was only created after it became apparent that customers were not continuing to play, and PvE maps on low tier servers (such as the one I was on at the time, Ferguson Crossing) were empty.

If the game/expansion were wildly successful, Megaserver would not be needed.

Exotrax.4207:

So , I’m trying hard to grind xps doing events but since the raids came out , maps (even VB) are quite empty.
Yesterday I ran around VB trying to find a small group to do events and we were 3 people (from 8pm till 11pm).
Normally when I find no people in maps I go do some crafting ….come back after 1/2hour and than map is full again……but really lately no one doing events , so how I’m supposed to level up my mastery ?
Another thing I disagree with HoT is that now became almost impossible play solo and the only way to do meta-events and gain some good amount of xps , is to play with big group of player …..I really miss the old quest system , at least you can play solo and progress anyway.

Don’t get me wrong , I still love the game and the map design is great , is just that Anet seems more focus only to make a game for players that only play in groups and not for casual players.

Maybe I’m wrong….what’s your opinion ?

I do not believe raids are that popular to detract from maps. I believe that most players got what they wanted from these maps and events so you have stragglers, alts and newbies going through now. Lots of plates are in DS and doing other stuff, not wvw though lol.

People said wvw was dead cause of the HoT maps and it’d get better after a few weeks, it didn’t People are now saying HoT maps are empty cause of raids, this is even less likely.

There’s a bigger issue here.

It’s almost like some new, long-waited-for content just suddenly appeared!

Seriously, its mostly because of raids. One of a couple of things will happen, I suspect:

1. As the newness of raids wears off, and pugs give up trying to pug it, more people will come back to the HoT maps,

or

2. Anet will realize this is harming the maps (VB anyway), and change how access is gained in some fashion. Maybe the Raid portals will appear in TD after the Chak Gerent is beaten! =-]

Kraggy.4169:

tluv.5821:

But in reality, you are wanting to play a Massively *MULTIPLAYER" Online Roleplaying Game solo. The content is going to be geared towards working with others. Always will be. If you want to play a solo game, go play Skyrim. It’s really that simple.

No, he’s not saying that at all .. many of us expected HOT to be an addition to GW2 in the same playstyle, meaning loose groups and character progress (leveling) NOT GATED BY GROUP-ONLY EVENTS!

What we got was GW3 with its 1990s group-or-die playstyle instead where Masteries gate the Story and map exploration, and can only be obtained largely by group-only content.

Sorry but Orr and Southsun are gated by Group only events. Even Silverwastes is gated by group only events. How do you get the meta in Dry Top solo. Answer. You don’t. You get an organized group, with many commanders, preferably on voice chat. The Sands guild runs T6 organized maps sometimes. You don’t see them when you’re pugging I guess.

You can play many of the events in the new zones without an organized group, but you do need groups to get the metas, just like pretty much everywhere in end game.

Just came here to give my support. Kinda dissapointing that CORE game mode is like graveyard.

I get it that people could have a choice to do raiding and stuff but making that the only and best choice to do in game destroy everything else. And it’s kittening me off. What if i don’t want to do them? Am i gonna be punished for this?

It’s like they threw everything for sake of raids and don’t care about anything else.

silverek.2984:

I get it that people could have a choice to do raiding and stuff but making that the only and best choice to do in game destroy everything else. And it’s kittening me off. What if i don’t want to do them? Am i gonna be punished for this?

Most likely, yes. Problem with raids is that it gives to elitists (which is a lot in gw community) one more thing to discriminate people and they already had enough of those. You made raids? Ok, give something equal for casual players who is your main playerbase. But all I get is silence from anet and eletists who says that game is fine and I just playing it wrong. Also making raids takes a lot of resources, so most likely this is their main focus for near future.

Well. The irony is that some meta-events like Dragon Stand and Tangled Depths or even Auric Basin are even more complicated for cooperation and teach you some mechanics. They could do just some extreme or hardcore version for more rewards or just make more tiers.

Now people just don’t see a point for doing anything in world cuz raid’s give them more with less work to do. They will just afk waiting for raid groups. That was the most annoying thing in World of Warcraft. People actually stopped playing beside raiding and it felt like facebook platform.

Major problem with the last map is the 2 hours it takes to get the meta done. Having to use LFG and taxing people in then trying to organise it and then spending two hours for it to probably fail isn’t possible for most people for don’t live and breathe GW2.

Major problem with the other maps is you have to try and find the map that has a chance of completion in order to be able to finish a lot of weird bits of the map- so tough luck if you have limited play time or aren’t on when a map completes (ever).

Masteries locked behind timed hand/eye co ordination tests called ‘adventures’ is also off putting- I’ve figured out it’s unlikely I will ever get enough mastery points to complete the masteries in H0T.

Notsoperky.2348:

Major problem with the last map is the 2 hours it takes to get the meta done.

Yeah, and I’ve spent 2 hours trying to do the same thing in TD many times. A lot of waiting around, coordination, explanations, and it almost always fails.

VB and AB aren’t quite so bad for time as the last two, but there’s still failure in both of those more often than not on the maps I’ve been in.

Kraggy.4169:

tluv.5821:

But in reality, you are wanting to play a Massively *MULTIPLAYER" Online Roleplaying Game solo. The content is going to be geared towards working with others. Always will be. If you want to play a solo game, go play Skyrim. It’s really that simple.

No, he’s not saying that at all .. many of us expected HOT to be an addition to GW2 in the same playstyle, meaning loose groups and character progress (leveling) NOT GATED BY GROUP-ONLY EVENTS!

What we got was GW3 with its 1990s group-or-die playstyle instead where Masteries gate the Story and map exploration, and can only be obtained largely by group-only content.

Exactly this.

After spending a couple of for me wasted Saturdays in the new maps I just gave up. Not sure where these fabled full maps, plenty of players, use lfg etc etc actually are. Maybe there is a secret handshake or special password to access them? :P

I have gone back to the core game, a few things I would still like to complete and I enjoy the Wintersday events, after that its time to move onto something else I think.

Hopefully Anet will remember its promise that GW2 is for players to play how they want and provide some content changes, but if they really have made the 180 degree turn in the way GW2 is going forward then I doubt I will be back any time soon.

Exotrax.4207:

So , I’m trying hard to grind xps doing events but since the raids came out , maps (even VB) are quite empty.
Yesterday I ran around VB trying to find a small group to do events and we were 3 people (from 8pm till 11pm).

I know, ran VB a few times yesterday and we just barely kept missing T4-day.

Sthenith.5196:

That is until Anet dev’s figure out that that aint the place to put the raid entrance.

And IF they only want guilds to do it and NOT random pugs like someone claimed,
then they’d better put the access INSIDE the Guildhall.
You know, so only guilds can do it.

But wouldn’t that be unfair to HoT players who don’t have acess to a guildhall …?

All weird stuff going on, and strange decisions from the dev’s. Add more armor options, but force ppl into a meta again for the raids. I still can’t wrap my head around some of their views. Weird stuff indeed.

Nah, just add a lobby area. People are going to try and pug it, no matter what and would only get upset if ANet limited access to Guild Halls. So rather add a lobby area for each raid so people can stand in there and spam LFR-condiengi, healer, tank, and leave open world alone.

Doam.8305:

It’s an expansion with no loot aside reclaimed weap set and you can farm mobs for hours and get nothing of value so its no wonder the farmers have left.

Wait what? No, no, no, no. Maybe there isn’t enough loot for sum but saying the only loot is reclaimed weapons is a lie.

Doam.8305:

This game has overflows and even the overflows have all dried up these days your lucky to find and org map in Lfg.

It hasn’t had overflows since the megaserver was implemented.

Mortifer.2946:

I noticed it too. Everyone is gone…and WvW borderlands are empty too.

Noticed that too. Yesterday my guild with a total of 4 players and two random people on the map captured a keep in wvw and held it for the guild mission… Seriously no one even tried to stop us, or noticed. But it does seem that a lot of players are still doing EB.

Ayrilana.1396:

Well raids did come out on Tuesday.

Yeah it is the new shiny thing. Once everyone has tried it they’ll go back to their usual.

Valky.2574:

Trust me it’s not dead do to raids and it’s not just VB it’s all H.O.T zones

Really I did DS like twice in a row yesterday, one map I came late and we were able to fill it up and push the meta. Finally got my last Ley-stone chest… now for those Bladed skins chest skins…

Manasa Devi.7958:

They should change these event chains to be like how they implemented the Silverwastes. Throw out the fixed-time cycles and make the meta advance based on progress made. The day/night cycle sounds cool, but it doesn’t work, throw it out.

Well the problem there is you then have people jumping from map to map (in the case of SW it was from Vinewrath to Vinewrath), so you might end up with people not pushing the meta but waiting in LFG.

Nausicca.6038:

I find Orr maps being a lot more active than HoT’s ones. And it’s 3 years old content.
And if I had to do meta events now, I’d chose Silverwastes without hesitation.

Why? It’s a lot faster and gives better rewards for the time invested. There are events EVERYWHERE on the map ( protect/upgrade keeps, escort yaks, random vet, ppl digging here and there, then breach and VW + maze).

The outpost system is fine and all but yeah the lack of more widely dispersed short quick events isn’t ideal. Having the big event chains is fine, but having a few small events here and their allows for more exploration, a bit of variety.

Soon.5240:

No. It’s because the maps are empty. Why aren’t there queues to get into the new maps of the first expansion to be issued in 3 years? Why hasn’t Anet needed to create new servers to handle all the traffic from new customers?

Queues? Are you even a player? Probably not. Ok so ANet has the Megaserver system, as far as I can tell using virtualisation and cloud-y stuff, is able to dynamically create instances of a given map, and of course close unnecessary instances (so it’s a bit more efficient than the old system where there was always a active primary map instance open. In this old system they had the overflow and queue system but that was years ago). So this is why there is no queue, because as a map fills up a new instance is created (although I still think the algorithm is iffy, I think it not so much filling maps but distributing players over current instances). This solution is also pretty nice because it allows for easier scaling of the physical architecture. Undoubtedly ANet did increase their server capacity (although I’m not sure if they host their own servers or if they’ve built GW2 ontop of some other cloud platform. If it is the later then that’s even better since most cloud providers allow for dynamic scaling of resource, so if you need more you can get more… for a higher price usually but that’s another topic).
So actually I think the lack of queues and need to get more servers is not a bad thing, it rather indicates that they’ve got a solid system there.

MyriadStars.5679:

Good questions. Usually when a popular MMORPG releases a highly successful xpac, several new servers have to be created to handle the population. However, all we heard about launch day was how “smooth” it was. It would certainly be smooth when there were fewer players than expected.

So if the launch was not smooth I imagine it would be ‘oh look how buggy and broken hot is’ but if it is smooth ‘oh look no one is playing the game, the game is dead’. Do you see how that reasoning could be… well very odd. I mean you’re clearly looking for fault here. Now now I know confirmation bias and all, but it seems you’ve set up a scenario where the only success is failure. No literally the implication is that a bad launch is a good thing.

Takoyakii.2146:

Megaserver won’t let you in the populated map most of the time…..unless you LFG :/.

I’m telling you the algorithm man it’s the algorithm. Lets say you have two servers one is 90/100 and one is 20/100, seems like the algorithm is putting you into the 20/100 server…

Soon.5240:

But Megaserver was only created after it became apparent that customers were not continuing to play, and PvE maps on low tier servers (such as the one I was on at the time, Ferguson Crossing) were empty.

Or maybe because it’s (ideally) a long term scalable solution which has the benefit of ensuring more efficient resource usage? But yeah low pop servers did benefit from it.

Cletus Van Damme.2795:

People said wvw was dead cause of the HoT maps and it’d get better after a few weeks, it didn’t People are now saying HoT maps are empty cause of raids, this is even less likely.

There’s a bigger issue here.

Yeah I know, I call it Fallout 4, and Legacy of the Void. Of course that was to be expected I guess.

CureForLiving.5360:

Manasa Devi.7958:

They should change these event chains to be like how they implemented the Silverwastes. Throw out the fixed-time cycles and make the meta advance based on progress made. The day/night cycle sounds cool, but it doesn’t work, throw it out.

Well the problem there is you then have people jumping from map to map (in the case of SW it was from Vinewrath to Vinewrath), so you might end up with people not pushing the meta but waiting in LFG.

Personal participation levels tied to rewards is already in place to solve that problem.

If its the algorithm then they need to find a way to make it have a standard deviation of sorts. They should make it so maps only switch to another server when there is a main map that is either over/above 80-120% full.

They also need to merge some worlds together so that lower tier wvw servers aren’t so dead.