So we had a 2 weeks to enjoy the new content, i think it is the time to give a verdict for what we can currently play.
I am in no way a hater or a white knight, just an average player giving his opinion on the matter, i am a student and last week was a exam heavy one, just keep that in mind.
The elite specs are nice, since the change to their cost it is much easier to unlock and you can enjoy these much sooner, nothing wrong here this is the best part so far.
The new content is challenging, you cant really solo anything but it was advertised that way so no complaints here. I will even admit that the tougher enemies and new mechanics are quite refreshing and using other stats combo for various situations can push into new play style ( and the gold vanishing from your account cause of all that new gear :p ).
So far i managed to complete the story 3 times with the fourth character currently sitting at the middle of the story. It is ok and the new narrative decisions are quite nice however there are a lot of plot holes, it is short and even tho the final fight was interesting in its mechanic it was disappointing on the epic side of things. I know the event in Dragon Stand is part of the story but even the awesomeness of that boss doesnt justify the lack of originality on the story finale.
Been around all 4 new maps, did all the meta-events and most of the bosses on these, tried most of the adventures i could find, i didnt explore every square centimeter of the new content but been around the main lines and little further.
They said the map will be big, with a lot to explore because they will have multiple layers but even with these they feel lacking, the expansion would be satisfying if there was maybe 8 zones to work on, 4 was just too little.
Compared to HoT, the core game had huge flat maps but you had quests, stuff to grab, events and the map boss at the end but HoT, even if there are much more events happening, they are always the same events over and over again, that got old very fast.
Like i said i am a student, the release was followed by exams so my play time was very limited, even with that i managed to finish the story multiple times, try most the new events and explored most content of the new maps. My adventure finished with the mega boss on Dragon Stand and after that your inner voice is asking “This is it?!”.
Overall all the gameplay additions are more then welcome and for me it is the redeeming factor for the investment.
I know there is more content supposed to arrive like the raids and maybe a new living story but overall, this expansion doesn’t worth the 50$ (67,90$ after conversion) at all.
With the original game Anet probably spoiled us with new full fledged campaigns, new professions, tons of new skills, armors, weapons and titles with Faction, Nightfall and even Eye of the North. I know a lot of players were expecting that kind of content with Heart of Thorns but the reality is, it is a sliver of what Anet used to deliver us, yes the new game is a lot more complicated then the first but i feel they missed their shot with the first expansion of GW2.
Once again this is my opinion on the game.