Guild Wars 2

I thought the content we got was value for money and pretty sizeable. My main point of contention was the story length. It was perhaps only half as long as I had hoped. Thoroughly enjoyable, but it skipped through things far too quickly and before then onto the next set piece.

I’m one of the few who thinks more should have been gated behind masteries or at least the final battle.

HoT seems more Grindy imo, maybe it’s just me. A grindy jungle. A grindy jungle where noone wants to cooperate to get anything because they still have a zerg mind. A grindy jungle that is a giant maze, it makes the labyrinth look like sesame street.

Selkirk.4218:

it does feel like dlc…or a f2p expansion (not a 50 buck paid expansion). there is next to nothing in the way of discoverable loot in the new areas. all arrows point directly to the gem store (new outfit anyone ^^;…).

Except for all the new unique armor and weapon skins for all of the elite specs, the four new armor sets(bladed, leyline, Mistward, Guild) that are acquired in game. The weapon sets from the new race vendors, the other new weapon skins from drops. The new legendary back skin and gold fractal weapons acquired through fractals. The new look for precursor skins which can be acquired from the new precursor crafting. The new four new legendaries added at HoT launch and the other 12 that will continue to be released until all 16 are out. Oh and the legendary armor that will becoming from raids once those are released(probably some weapon sets there too). Also the new Halloween weapon skins from ToT bags, armor skins from vendors, recipe for Nightfury, and finally those invisible boot skins.

Sooooo, there is actually quite a sizable amount of skins added which you can obtain ingame.

Kuruk.8472:

Except for all the new unique armor and weapon skins for all of the elite specs

ArenaNet says:

• Two new armor sets

• Five new weapon sets

No no, not really that many new skins.

Meanwhile, the Gem Store continues to burst with new skins; at the release of HoT they just added a full new weapon set and a new outfit with some other new skins, which you could buy in a pack for “just” 2000 gems.

Kuruk.8472:

Sooooo, there is actually quite a sizable amount of skins added which you can obtain ingame.

As described above, nope.

And there are far, far more skins that you can get in the Gem Store.

ArenaNet didn’t release even the 3 new legendary weapons that they had promised, much less the full set, yet they had enough resources to make A LOT of content for the Gem Store and are still making more as we speak.

Clearly, they could have added more to HoT for the $50,00 people paid, but they simply chose not to.

Test.8734:

Kuruk.8472:

Except for all the new unique armor and weapon skins for all of the elite specs

ArenaNet says:

• Two new armor sets

• Five new weapon sets

No no, not really that many new skins.

Meanwhile, the Gem Store continues to burst with new skins; at the release of HoT they just added a full new weapon set and a new outfit with some other new skins, which you could buy in a pack for “just” 2000 gems.

Kuruk.8472:

Sooooo, there is actually quite a sizable amount of skins added which you can obtain ingame.

As described above, nope.

And there are far, far more skins that you can get in the Gem Store.

ArenaNet didn’t release even the 3 new legendary weapons that they had promised, much less the full set, yet they had enough resources to make A LOT of content for the Gem Store and are still making more as we speak.

Clearly, they could have added more to HoT for the $50,00 people paid, but they simply chose not to.

You’re also ignoring

“60 UNIQUE ADDITIONAL ITEM SKINS, MINIATURES, AND MORE”

Yes legendary crafting for the legendaries isn’t in the game yet, but that doesn’t mean the precursors are not available as drops. Link me showing where Anet said they didn’t get the new legendaries in yet.

Also Anet doesn’t sell armor sets on the gemstore anymore(do they still unique pieces either? Not sure). So you can’t compare ingame armor sets with outfits since the two aren’t the same.

A customer believes they should have been given the product for free?

Where’s my surprised face? I left it here somewhere…

I personally feel it is dlc when discussing the content. I still do not agree with the price tag it makes no sense. The core game was 59.99 and the expansion 49.99. How exactly does that make any sense? There is nowhere near the amount of content to justify that price. I was expecting 39.99 at most. I had to basically pay 70 bucks because there are 0 Canadian resellers of the expansion.

Also think about this though. In most games lol WOW you get an expansion that they spent a year or two developing and that’s it for a year or two until the next expansion drops.

GW2 has been doing living world updates like every month until they started major work on the expansion. Maybe they are going to release more content spread out over the months as part of the expansion? Perhaps the story line will be opening new zones and what not?

You have to look at the price point another way though. You no longer have to buy the base game, so that’s 49.99 for Core and HoT. It doesn’t mean much to people who paid for the core game but moving forward that price is a very noticeable drop for players moving forward. There is enough content for that price because it includes the core game. Most companies still force you to buy the original game (at a lower price point usually) before buying the xpac, and that still ends up costing more than HoT. It does mean that this expansion is geared towards pulling new players in while at the same time rewarding veteran players. If it works, this expansion should benefit us in ways that extend beyond adding content (which will come, in an orderly fashion) by making it much easier for new players to acquire the game, and providing a long lasting incentive for new players to stick around.

I dunno. Prepurchased the Expansion for 33€ and I think it was worth it. But I don’t think I would have paid much more for it, although its Content is much fun. I still hate how we haven’t heard about the Mursaat, since Anet said they had great Plans for them prior GW2-Launch…

But well, I didn’t play enough of it yet, because I returned to Wildstar in August. RP is so much fun there. :P

haters gonna hate

important thing is im happy with the xpac

yeah they made a game and forgot the loot…i know the long term plan is to impoverish the player base but man we just bought this thing and we got nothing in terms of loot (armor/dyes/weapons).

the environments are unique yet there is nothing of interest in them. there is a huge city for the exalted (a very strange culture) and yet most of the loot you find in the battles near it could just as easily be found in queensdale ! .

2 new armor sets is not enough…not even close. adding insult to injury are the endless amount of new items being offered in gem store-based on the expansion we just paid for.

anet fix this…put the artists and designers to work making armor/weapons/dyes/qol changes.

Selkirk.4218:

yeah they made a game and forgot the loot…i know the long term plan is to impoverish the player base but man we just bought this thing and we got nothing in terms of loot (armor/dyes/weapons).

the environments are unique yet there is nothing of interest in them. there is a huge city for the exalted (a very strange culture) and yet most of the loot you find in the battles near it could just as easily be found in queensdale ! .

2 new armor sets is not enough…not even close. adding insult to injury are the endless amount of new items being offered in gem store-based on the expansion we just paid for.

anet fix this…put the artists and designers to work making armor/weapons/dyes/qol changes.

What? That’s not even true like at all.

It is a bit small for the price when you look at the world map, but it’s well made. We got beautiful large guild halls and a new WvW map too.

I would have expected 2-3 more PvE zones and 3-4 more pvp maps.

I think a lot of work went into the little details, like the new guild crafting and the Guild Hall interface, instead of going into the quantity of areas to explore.

So far I would rate it a 7/10, removing 3 points for the lack of pvp content and because the elite for my main’s elite profession, Tempest, feels rushed out and isn’t good at all for anything else than bunkering in pvp.

Dengar.1785:

Harper.4173:

We knew about what? They never told us for example how many new skins there would be.

I expected many sets – I was wrong. They never said HoT will release with very few armor skins.

They never mentioned anything about tons of skins. O_o You just assumed something, and now that your assumption turned out to be off, you feel like they’ve been lying?

Because in a cosmetically driven game we should get skins – right? They’re the core thing that keep people playing.

Also – if you look at Anet’s other expansion EoTN – it brought tons of skins compared to the core game ( fewer – but still many).

Kuruk.8472:

Test.8734:

Kuruk.8472:

Except for all the new unique armor and weapon skins for all of the elite specs

ArenaNet says:

• Two new armor sets

• Five new weapon sets

No no, not really that many new skins.

Meanwhile, the Gem Store continues to burst with new skins; at the release of HoT they just added a full new weapon set and a new outfit with some other new skins, which you could buy in a pack for “just” 2000 gems.

Kuruk.8472:

Sooooo, there is actually quite a sizable amount of skins added which you can obtain ingame.

As described above, nope.

And there are far, far more skins that you can get in the Gem Store.

ArenaNet didn’t release even the 3 new legendary weapons that they had promised, much less the full set, yet they had enough resources to make A LOT of content for the Gem Store and are still making more as we speak.

Clearly, they could have added more to HoT for the $50,00 people paid, but they simply chose not to.

You’re also ignoring

“60 UNIQUE ADDITIONAL ITEM SKINS, MINIATURES, AND MORE”

Yes legendary crafting for the legendaries isn’t in the game yet, but that doesn’t mean the precursors are not available as drops. Link me showing where Anet said they didn’t get the new legendaries in yet.

Also Anet doesn’t sell armor sets on the gemstore anymore(do they still unique pieces either? Not sure). So you can’t compare ingame armor sets with outfits since the two aren’t the same.

The problem is two new armor sets – TWO – for an expansion – how can people consider this acceptable?

Also Anet doesn’t sell armor sets on the gemstore anymore(do they still unique pieces either? Not sure). So you can’t compare ingame armor sets with outfits since the two aren’t the same.

That’s not the point – the stuff that’s on the gem store takes development time – time they obviously spent making gem-store things and not in-game armor.
And I wouldn’t even be mad if the gem store actually sold us ARMOR PIECES AND SETS instead of outfits.

At this point I wouldn’t care if it cost 1000 gems per set – I just want more armor. I’ve been stuck in cultural T3 human since the game basically begun.

Can I please get some acknowledgment for the argument that most MMOs with so-called “cheaper” xpacs still have that monthly fee thing going on?

Nike.2631:

A customer believes they should have been given the product for free?

Where’s my surprised face? I left it here somewhere…

Must have lost it while you were not actually reading this topic and passing judgment when wanting something for free wasn’t even the issue here or what’s being discussed.

Oh I read. Its absurd on too many levels to detail.

Fine. I’ll play. How many jump puzzles were there in Nightfall?

Crinn.7864:

Harper.4173:

There is very, very little content in the new expansion – and it forces you to stretch it out even more to make it appear as if there was more content.

Compare the amount of content in HoT to the full game – remember you paid full price for both.

Now leave aside the map size – some might argue the new maps are more content rich – concentrate on the other things.

HoT brings fewer new skins, fewer events, fewer instances, fewer story instances, fewer new enemies, fewer mechanics – fewer everything than the core game did on release.
I wouldn’t even be upset if they at least did 60-80% of what we had on Core release – but this is absurd.

And no – core Tyria masteries are not content – they are features – you can’t take old content and present it as new.

I’ve never seen a MMO expac have as much content as the original core game did. You realize they literally spend years developing the core game right?

HoT has more than enough content to warrant the title of “expac.” Also note that expac size vary by game.

That comment seems to conveniently overlook what seems to be one of his main points:

Compare the amount of content in HoT to the full game – remember you paid full price for both.

There’s also elite specs, masteries, new wvw map, raids. There’s content yet to come. It might be a bit expensive for an expansion but for all they’ve done before for free it’s worth it.

Nykravis.8342:

GW2 has been doing living world updates like every month until they started major work on the expansion. Maybe they are going to release more content spread out over the months as part of the expansion? Perhaps the story line will be opening new zones and what not?

Other companies do this….it’s called DLC. Spread out, downloadable content. A lot of times this content is charged for. The difference is that most companies don’t charge $50 for an “expansion” that lacks major features that were promised to be in it that were put off until “later” and also expect this $50 to cover additional content that may or may not come later – with no indication of how much or what that content will even be. Paying for theoretical content that I may never see or even like is a waste. Finish making the content and if it is good, I will pay for it. It’s not supposed to work the other way where I pay for something and hope you make it….let alone make it good and something I like.
A lower price point for HOT would have been better and I would even have preferred a small fee for additional DLC…..like how pretty well every other game developer does it. Like how the living story became. You paid for the additional content. Yeah, it would probably cost more in the end, but that’s not the issue, at least not for me. Because at least then you’d know what you’re paying for.

Then don’t buy the game and let us people who did buy the game enjoy our new content.

I think here’s more than enough content in HoT to make it worth my money.

The only thing I could argue with is that some of the masteries and collections make you replay old content. That gives us more to do yes, but its not new content.

Not a dlc. More like a beta test, with all the bugs still in game. “when its ready” lol

wasichu.7524:

I remember when the first guild wars Nightfall expansion came out we got a whole new continent to explore and quest (ELONA) which had 4 regions with multiple sub-regions.
We got new PVP environments, (2) new classes to play and race. A true expansion.

For the cost of the vastness of guildwars 2 we bought HoT. Which included one new class, no new race, for PVP there is supposed to be the new Battle of Champion’s Dusk don’t know much about it if that’s live for all to play yet or not.

In guild wars 1 Maguuma was huge with places like bloodstone fen and reed bog, we only got 3 sub-regions in maguuma, are more regions to unlock in soon weeks to come?

I just feel shortchanged

You really must not understand everything that’s in this expansion.

I’ve been playing the Guild Wars series before the first expansion in GW1 and none of their expansions has really matched this one. You may have seen more land space in the expanded contents of GW1, but they didn’t have nearly as much in any of those maps as we have in these new zones.

People really conflate number of maps with actual content a whole lot in this thread. Loving the comparisons to linear corridors from GW to the vast volumetric maps of HoT. Seriously its like pretending that FF13 had HUGE MAPS because you could see out past your little tunnel, but you couldn’t actually do anything in those maps.

Additionally, if you actually bother to COUNT the new skills they added you will find they are around 100 PLUS traits.

I think some people need to take their nostalgia glasses off, take a deep breath, look around at what you ACTUALLY get in other XPacks for the same price (or engage your brains and think about sub fees) and realize HoT is a totally fine value.

kitten in FF14 Heavensward had much less content but people will try to spin the “it had 3 new classes and we only got 1” while ignoring the fact that not only does Rev alone have more skills than all three of those combined but we also got more skills on each of the elite specs than those entire new classes.

wasichu.7524:

I remember when the first guild wars Nightfall expansion came out we got a whole new continent to explore and quest (ELONA) which had 4 regions with multiple sub-regions.
We got new PVP environments, (2) new classes to play and race. A true expansion.

For the cost of the vastness of guildwars 2 we bought HoT. Which included one new class, no new race, for PVP there is supposed to be the new Battle of Champion’s Dusk don’t know much about it if that’s live for all to play yet or not.

In guild wars 1 Maguuma was huge with places like bloodstone fen and reed bog, we only got 3 sub-regions in maguuma, are more regions to unlock in soon weeks to come?

I just feel shortchanged

Look at it this way. There are techinically 3 maps in one. Canopy, Ground, Below ground.

Kayberz.5346:

phys.7689:

Skyline Crash.6254:

nightfall was a campaign, not an expansion

HoT is more akin to EotN expansion for GW1

people keep saying this, but EotN actually also smashes hot fairly easily content wise

Not really, considering 1 area like verdant brink is essentially equal to AT LEAST 10 gw1 zones. The zones in gw1 were extremely basic. And the gw1 games never rrally added significant gameplay changes, they were essentially the same game in a new place

Verdant Brink = 10 GW1 maps?
You’re clueless.

I’m assuming that the living story 3 and any new maps it adds will be for hot owners only. If not, then hot really doesn’t feel like a full fledged 50 dollar expansion to me.

i guess people just really love monthly fees as long as the xpac is only $30!

People acting like GW1 zones were good lol. GW1 zones were basically vast wastelands all filled with either Devourers,Centaurs,dwarves, destroyers, Depending on where you were, the dungeons were all bland and basically the same. The story was all over the place and half the time you felt like you had no idea what was going on. To get any cool armor took far more unrealistic grind than Gw2 has ever had. Money was far more annoying/hard to come by.

I mean I remember rurik dying, then me ending up in Lions Arch and somehow getting thrown into a story about the shining blade and white mantle that had absolutely nothing to do with the war in ascalon which felt like it was never really resolved.

To people saying Guild Wars 1 maps had more content, yall have nostalgia goggles on. Lanes with unclimbable hills on either side led you from place to place. While the missions were repeatable, the green exclamation mark quests from NPCs were mostly once and done. My Ritualist that I did everything on, goes into a Guild Wars 1 map now and it’s a wasteland. Nothing is happening, just mobs walking from here to there. The main thing that made Guild Wars 1 feel like a lot of content per campaign/expansion was the need to repeat the same missions to get the bonuses. And grinding to get faction or clearing out maps or raise skill levels or zoning in and out of maps to get the boss for an elite skill.

It does feel like DLC, but a large meaty chunk of DLC at least. I feel that I’m going to get my money’s worth out of it as long as they continue to put in LS elements and upgrades as time goes on without additional cost (until the next substantial xpac). As per that line about all future LS updates requiring HoT, I see the $50 as a season pass.

That said, I’m not going to buy any more gems for the game (and haven’t since they announced HoT). I’ll use my game budget to pay for the expansions instead.

Lysander Freeman.4186:

It does feel like DLC, but a large meaty chunk of DLC at least. I feel that I’m going to get my money’s worth out of it as long as they continue to put in LS elements and upgrades as time goes on without additional cost (until the next substantial xpac). As per that line about all future LS updates requiring HoT, I see the $50 as a season pass.

That said, I’m not going to buy any more gems for the game (and haven’t since they announced HoT). I’ll use my game budget to pay for the expansions instead.

Btw, the living world season 2 was completely free if you were playing when it released so if you’re playing when future LW episodes come out, it’ll most likely be free for you =)

Blackanthem.1603:

Btw, the living world season 2 was completely free if you were playing when it released so if you’re playing when future LW episodes come out, it’ll most likely be free for you =)

Been true in the past, but whether or not it remains true in the future will depend on whether or not someone upstairs changes their mind again. We’ll see.

As much as I enjoy Heart of Thorns, I think it feels more like a big update than an expansion.

It’s a little sad to see a whole expansion centered around events. I was kind of hoping for new hearts/quests. Places like the Silver Wastes and now this, Verdant Brink, is a map that I probably won’t come back to once my alts are level 80. Just like the Silver Wastes. I’d like a new map that feels worth coming back to with my other alts.

I wish we got some cool maps that we could take our time to explore without crashing into crazy events now and then. I do like the masteries though. But just as many of the other stuff in this expansion, it’s something I’ll level up once and never again, cause it’s not really useful outside Verdant Brink.

Ankittenhe only one that’s very disappointed with the guild halls? Why didn’t they just make like a cozy, but big building? Like those big halls in Hoelbrak! With fireplaces, mounts on the walls etc. Those we got now are so big and “cold”.

Reading OP: Very confused. Nightfall was a campaign, not an expansion. Also, those bazillion maps were hella empty. There’s more to do in Verdant Brink alone than in all of Vabbi.

^

Icewolf.3245:

As much as I enjoy Heart of Thorns, I think it feels more like a big update than an expansion.

It’s a little sad to see a whole expansion centered around events. I was kind of hoping for new hearts/quests. Places like the Silver Wastes and now this, Verdant Brink, is a map that I probably won’t come back to once my alts are level 80. Just like the Silver Wastes. I’d like a new map that feels worth coming back to with my other alts.

I wish we got some cool maps that we could take our time to explore without crashing into crazy events now and then. I do like the masteries though. But just as many of the other stuff in this expansion, it’s something I’ll level up once and never again, cause it’s not really useful outside Verdant Brink.

Ankittenhe only one that’s very disappointed with the guild halls? Why didn’t they just make like a cozy, but big building? Like those big halls in Hoelbrak! With fireplaces, mounts on the walls etc. Those we got now are so big and “cold”.

You wanted to see more hearts and quests? However, Anet never wanted the Renown Hearts to be in the future of the game. Why do you think they dwindle as you go up in zone level? And eventually disappear? Because it was supposed to be centered around events with other people.

It seems like the type of expansion you would see from a F2P game, certainly not B2P.

I haven’t bought HoT, as there doesn’t seem to be anything in it that interests me. It does give the impression of being light on content, or rather, of being a couple of Living World patches squished together with a price tag stapled on.

displacedTitan.6897:

kitten in FF14 Heavensward had much less content but people will try to spin the “it had 3 new classes and we only got 1” while ignoring the fact that not only does Rev alone have more skills than all three of those combined but we also got more skills on each of the elite specs than those entire new classes.

I’m not invested in the debate here at all, but I have to respond to this… uhh… optimistic claim that Heavensward has less content than HoT. Might want to check that …

Personally I’m pretty happy with HoT. Auric Basin alone is by far my favourite map, and I’ll bet you anything if you go there enough times you’ll see me commanding. The exalted mask collection, while frustrating at times, was awesome as well!

I look back on all the expansions I’ve played and this one is right about on par, except the music is much better than most. I have some complaints about a feature or two and I’m not entirely happy, but that has more to due with the game mode I like to play, I can’t claim the expansion is less than good based on that. This is actually a pretty good expansion comparatively.

Substatic.6958:

It seems like the type of expansion you would see from a F2P game, certainly not B2P.

Truth be said, GW2 is now a free to play game. It’s not uncommon for FtP MMOs to have paid expansions, either.

I guess HoT is setting the low content bar that marks GW2’s transition from BtP to FtP.

Dengar.1785:

Can I please get some acknowledgment for the argument that most MMOs with so-called “cheaper” xpacs still have that monthly fee thing going on?

WoW offers many amenities for that sub cost that GW2 doesn’t. Things like free hair/face changes, 50 character slots on as many different servers as you want. Every single armor/weapon set is released through the game. There are a lot of things offered in sub games that b2p and f2p games don’t offer.

I think it would have been nice to have more armor sets, weapon sets and glider/backpiece sets that were earnable in the game just by playing. I think it’s light on content in a major way in that area. I also think there should have been new earnable dyes just like there were tons of dyes in the base game. I think they should have made earning upgrades for guild halls a content thing(missions to do as a guild etc.) instead of a gold/time sink that favored larger guilds.

I don’t think anyone is questioning the quality of what is there. I think it’s the quantity that could have used a little work.

Fernling.1729:

Dengar.1785:

Can I please get some acknowledgment for the argument that most MMOs with so-called “cheaper” xpacs still have that monthly fee thing going on?

WoW offers many amenities for that sub cost that GW2 doesn’t. Things like free hair/face changes, 50 character slots on as many different servers as you want. Every single armor/weapon set is released through the game. There are a lot of things offered in sub games that b2p and f2p games don’t offer.

Solid point.

There are advantages and disadvantages to any of the common business models used for MMOs.

Yea, bored already. I have all three maps unlocked and more or less explored now and franky I don’t want to go back so now I am farming in cursed shore yet again…content I have done 1000s of times before. The new HoT maps is just a glorified jump puzzle with grind walls along with really crappy rewards. Other than elites there isn’t much to this expansion at all that I find interesting. The handful of really ugly as sin armor skins you can get for free playing the game are certainly not some thing I will be working for. Amusingly, the good weapon/armor skins seem to be popping up exclusively in only the CS. Coincidence? I think not.

I miss the days when expansions were really expansions like TBC, WotLK, or heck MoP. At least those had a lots of things to do and kept me going for years unlike HoT which is less than a week. This most certainly feels like a DLC labeled an ‘expansion’. But w/e, each their own opinion on that.

Dengar.1785:

Can I please get some acknowledgment for the argument that most MMOs with so-called “cheaper” xpacs still have that monthly fee thing going on?

I’m honestly tired of this argument.

Games with fees offer better services than Gw2 do. If Anet would have support as good as Blizzard i would be wanting to pay even 30$ subscription.

In WoW when i’ve encountered acc related bug or any other problem – response was extremely fast. In-game chat with GM, they even had GM that talked in my national language.

Here in GW2 my ticket from 3 years back is still open and i got no proper response to it. What i call proper response is not sending me mindless stupid CTRL+C, CTRL+V mail which just proves that GM didn’t even bother to read one line of my ticket, he/she just assumed what is in there by reading the title.

Just don’t act like Gw2 = WoW with no fees. I love Gw2. I love Gw1. I quit WoW long time ago, but holy crap i do miss their support and instant responses.