Guild Wars 2

I know people really don’t care about my opinion but I just want to voice my opinion in hopes that maybe something will be taken for future expansions. I was so excited for this expansion and I love the elite specs. I also have enjoyed the story I have gotten through so far. I really do not like the maps though. I have tried to get better at getting around but it is beyond frustrating. I love gliding and I understand the maps were made with gliding in mind but they are so hard to get around. I absolutely despise tangled depth and still do not understand the meta event there and not even sure I have seen it happen.

I have tried for a few skill points now that seem almost impossible. I have called in map chat and sometimes a person will show up but not most of the time. I really have grown to hate the champ skill points that are also encased in veteran trash mobs. I clear them out only to have them respawn while the champ is active. I get that harder content was wanted, but why not make it so 2 people could finish these? Also, the mobs just over all in the maps just seem way too much. I like killing stuff, but it just seems excessive.

As for events why are they so long and require so many people to avoid failure? I liked silverwastes where I could jump in maybe do some defending and if I had time I could make it to vine wrath for the big chest and then do the maze if I wanted to afterwards. Every part of this event chain rewarded you and if you could not make it to the end it was not that big of deal. The event chains on the new maps seem to last forever, and most of the time they fail from lack of participation. That really does not make me want to try for more on the map. I feel like my time is wasted attempting them and the amount of time invested to see a fail is just way too much in my opinion.

Anyway, I know people don’t care, but I had to vent. This is the only game I play and I don’t even log in with new content up more than to make my daily cool downs and to get the log in bonus.

Your missing the point completely…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQvSbjjFvCY

I love the difficulty, breath of fresh air from everything else in open-world PVE that you steam roll right over.

You not alone OP, I’m in the same boat. I need a break from this mess, thank god Fallout 4 is release in a few hours.

Valiant.5078:

I love the difficulty, breath of fresh air from everything else in open-world PVE that you steam roll right over.

People wanted difficulty to be sure but what they really wanted was something akin to the underworld and other off the beaten path maps in Gw1. The great thing about those were they were optional and I can see why more casual people would have complaints having to go through more difficult maps in the core campaign rather than have them separate.

I like the difficulty myself but I know it won’t last due to that oversight and will no doubt be nerfed in time

I hear ya.

I consider myself a semi-casual player. Have 6 lvl 80’s that are well-geared (all exotics), 3 with 100% map complete and story complete, and on the side leveling 2 more in mid 40’s. Played since beta, but took a break for about 6 months until the expansion came out, and now I’m playing again my normal 2-3 hours a night.

Out of all the content I’ve tried – dungeons, fractals, puzzles, stories, 1-80 maps, etc, the HoT maps are by far the most unfriendly\painfully annoying maps I’ve ever encountered. They are literally designed to cause you the most difficultly in traveling, so if you are primarily an explorer\completionist like I am, it’s an utter nightmare and stressful as hell. I’ve almost completed the first area (currently at 92% and just missing 2 poi’s), and feel like I just played the cop in that torture scene from Reservoir Dogs.

I get the idea of course. The system is designed to make you grind out masteries first. Once you have enough masteries in HoT, travel I assume will be much, much easier. Perma-gliding, updrafts, jumping mushrooms, fast travel by tunnels, poison immunity, etc, all the stuff that is such a pain to deal with now is slightly alleviated with masteries. The problem is that until you get those masteries you are forced to deal with the blantantly difficult mob gates placed everywhere on your path. It’s like a giant jumping puzzle you can’t jump on but are forced to walk barefoot, with every corner and stair having nails and needles and broken glass thrown down on it. For the solo and casual player and explorer, HoT is a big “screw you”. There’s a big difference between challenging and annoying after all. Casuals and semi-casuals value CHOICE above most things. They want the option to take on that tough veteran on, or avoid it. They want the option to go down that shorter but scarier path filled with raptors and go toe to toe, or take a difficult jumping path over them and avoid combat completely. HoT doesn’t give choice, at least not at first.

I see why the meta\hard core players love it. If you have the patience to grind out the experience and masteries, you will have a big advantage getting around. If you enjoy maximizing every aspect of your character and learning the tells of enemies like a pro, HoT is for you. The meta\hardcore like the danger, and they like to feel elite. Casual and semi-casual’s don’t care as much about that though. They compete with themselves for the most part, and just want to enjoy the story and see new areas.

The irony of course, is that by the time you grind out all those masteries that will allow you to get to most areas and bypass the annoying mob gates, you’ve likely already brute forced your way through it all anyway. Generally by waiting for a crowd or charging into the brutal machine guns a-la WWI style, getting gunned down again and again, but eventually through by sheer attrition or luck. Not exactly a recipe for fun in my book, but then again I’m not really the target audience for this expansion I guess.

Doam.8305:

Valiant.5078:

I love the difficulty, breath of fresh air from everything else in open-world PVE that you steam roll right over.

People wanted difficulty to be sure but what they really wanted was something akin to the underworld and other off the beaten path maps in Gw1. The great thing about those were they were optional and I can see why more casual people would have complaints having to go through more difficult maps in the core campaign rather than have them separate.

I like the difficulty myself but I know it won’t last due to that oversight and will no doubt be nerfed in time

How about a compromise? That might be the best thing to cater towards casual vs elitist players.

Going off on a tangent, but since OP created suggestions for the next expansions. Perhaps Verdant Brink, or the first map in an expansion, should be nerfed to kingdom come for players who want to play casually. At the same time, for players who do want challenging open world PVE, have the next maps rise in terms of difficulty. It is kinda like that now, but only in terms of meta map events. Eg, The Verdant Brink meta events are completed often enough. Auric Basin less so. And then we have Tangled Depths even less so (if ever? Has this been successfully completed yet?). They can also apply this to the trash mobs, keep the easier mobs in VB, and as you go deeper into the jungles, encounter more frightful creatures. I actually already love the way the difficulty is at in the zones, but perhaps having difficulty incline gradually is a better way to go.

When players are required to go through the next zones, for story quests for example, I have the firm belief that as it is currently they are able to do just that. Gliding over mobs + running/evading through them works just fine even in zerker gear. Just don’t fight them if you’re not comfortable with it, and don’t mindlessly run into a thick concentration. There’s enough leeway to avoid most mobs.

As for Tangled Depths, this is one confusing map. The mini map doesn’t help as much as Tyria zones. At the same time, I think it’s great. It’s neat experiencing new things, even with map design. Picking up on visual cues rather than the mini map has been an experience new to me. Eg, I can no longer have the full screen map while running around (with the occasional jumping if I run into an obstacle). To solve this, perhaps they can implement more green arrows/waypoints. I recall earlier on in the Personal Story quest they had this aplenty. Little green arrows on the ground that guide your way to the next objective.

But NO global nerfs to everything. It will be a huge let down to many players who were waiting for open-world PVE like this. I’m having a blast going through the maps and doing the events simply because they keep me on my toes more often than say, the caravan escort in SW. Nerfs in the starting map sure! It helps with getting players to get a feel for what they’re getting into without it being dumped on them all at once. They can farm that zone(s) for their mastery exp. And as long as it’s still do-able to get from one story objective to the next in harder zones, that should be fine, right? All they would be missing are the more difficult events and meta map events in later zones.

But that’s a great way to rise to the challenge, rather than to lower the bar for everyone else.

Summary:

• Easier first zone(s) for new expansions to cater towards players who want an easy time. This grants them an area(s) to get their mastery exp.
• Rising difficulty in zones further in. Though, should still be fairly easy to get from one story objective to the next. This keeps events in these zones as ‘optional’, and are there for players who like this level of difficulty.

OP – I think your opinion is valid. They took what was largely a solo part of the game and made it group based. I’ve enjoyed plenty of Saturday afternoons doing SW events but hate the rigidness of this expansion. I often feel helpless to progress in HoT maps, which was not the case before.

I genuinely appreciated the flexibility of the old design model. The expansion changed more than the difficulty curve, it changed the way we play and feel successful in the game.

Ghostwind.4380:

Casuals and semi-casuals value CHOICE above most things. They want the option to take on that tough veteran on, or avoid it. They want the option to go down that shorter but scarier path filled with raptors and go toe to toe, or take a difficult jumping path over them and avoid combat completely.

I see why the meta\hard core players love it.

I’m not sure I agree with you on this one. If I recall, it was a lot of these “casual” or “semi-casual” voices who cried out against skipping mobs or making encounters mandatory. Now, I might be taking up the sword against the wrong person here but I really think they’re getting exactly what they’ve been asking for.

In my opinion this content is a nice reality check. It’s very doable in full glass but not by someone with poor reflexes, lack of familiarity with the game’s mechanics, or the inability to think quick on their feet. Those who are unable to do this will likely need to think about rising to the challenge or trading in some of their gear.

It is entirely possible to run through mobs and avoid the majority of the damage. You may need to swap up utilities here and there as you go but it’s doable. The choice is there but let’s not pretend this isn’t exactly what was asked for.

Give it a minute and try to figure it out.

including difficult content shouldn’t include 100% of the new open world content. almost any other mmo has special areas like raids where people can enjoy difficult content if they choose to. forcing this crap on everyone is wrong imo. especially when your community is used to easy-ish or rather “moderately difficult” open world content from the core game. 180° change in design philosophy is like asking for people to complain and get mad about this mess.

I care, if it makes you feel any better.

It is kind of gruelling content, I agree.

Even if you don’t die, it still is, frankly.

However, assuming you do still want to give it a go, you do not need to die all the time (even to HP champs).

You need to gear for survival – i.e. Vitality and Toughness gear.

If necessary/preferred throw some vit/toughness runes in there, as well.

I like to do that, just so that, if I need to, I can stop concentrating, for a few secs and talk to someone IRL, or drink some water, or whatever.

Without, immediately, having to drop everything, as soon as something respawns and attacks me, or die.

There are no pause buttons in games like this, afterall.

In other words, do what you have to do to not absolutely resent playing…

At the end of the day, there is no point in (in theory) killing things slightly quicker, if you die even some of the time and end up having to run miles back through the labyrinth, getting lost all over again on the way.

Ignore anyone who says they can do it in Zerkers and they never die.

Maybe they can and maybe they can’t, who cares?

The point is, you have tried that and it didn’t work out for you.

That is all that matters.

I’m with you OP, this wouldn’t bother me so much if the content were free, but as it is it feels like I burned kitten bill; I have not logged in for days, barely played when I did (ANet knows this since I’m sure they can follow my account activity).

In the end I just went back to the devil I’m most familiar with, $15 a month is a small price to pay for a non stressful gaming experience.

In conclusion ANet should have set the benchmark at current Orr/Drytop/SW difficulty levels.

On the bright side I’m leveling a Protection Paladin and it feels better than the Guardian ever did to me.

Doam.8305:

Your missing the point completely…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQvSbjjFvCY

I don’t even know what’s going on there… Are you suggesting the point of HoT is to play as badly as possible?

OP if you’re on a US server and want some help learning how to get around I’d be happy to help. And that goes for anyone else on US servers.

I’ve had to do this for a portion of my guild and once they get it, they like the expansion a lot better. Just hit me up in game if you want. It really looks harder than it actually is in a lot of cases.

Bad luck for you. Play another game then.

Doam.8305:

Your missing the point completely…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQvSbjjFvCY

Loved this video!

No offence to the player on the video but s/he wasn’t very good and shouldn’t play with zerker stats.

If you can’t handle the preasure don’t play zerker.

Fluffball.8307:

Doam.8305:

Your missing the point completely…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQvSbjjFvCY

I don’t even know what’s going on there… Are you suggesting the point of HoT is to play as badly as possible?

Brilliant loving these video’s, talk about being in the wrong place at the right time, great stuff.

OP I’m with you. I’m a return player and feel very frustrate with the new map\events.

I bought HoT because of the Revenant and the Truly Lonely Archer (yes f__k pets). I wish to enjoy the new map with Revenant so I rushed him to 80. When leveling Revenant I do some Halloween event and gain some golds, equipped him with full exotic gears, and bought some skins for him too!

But once I stepped in Verdant Brink, try to collect Mastery/Hero Points, and do those events on the map, I lost all my interest to play. I quite enjoy the battle in the new map, mobs are strong and challenging and this encourage me to unlock Elite Spec faster, however, I hardy earn anything.

ANET dev turn this game into a 3D Mario Bros with poor “terrain engine”, some place just too weird that you couldn’t jump on, and thats why I hate those Jumping Puzzle in core. I love Mario Bros in 2D not 3D, and I’m suppose to play an action oriented mmorpg not 3D Mario Bros.

Now, I started to login the game and quit just for the login bonus. When I press M to browse the world map, every Mastery/Hero Points are upper or lower of your current place, I hate the new map so much.

Vayne.8563:

OP if you’re on a US server and want some help learning how to get around I’d be happy to help. And that goes for anyone else on US servers.

I’ve had to do this for a portion of my guild and once they get it, they like the expansion a lot better. Just hit me up in game if you want. It really looks harder than it actually is in a lot of cases.

I just played for about 3 hours, got lucky and landed in an AB with TTS, super organized way less stressful than anything out of VB, managed to finish the meta, got a few Hero Points, restored some good will.

I’m assuming you must be in a decent guild since your one of the vocal white knights, mind if I take you up on that offer you gave to the OP?

Oldirtbeard.9834:

Vayne.8563:

OP if you’re on a US server and want some help learning how to get around I’d be happy to help. And that goes for anyone else on US servers.

I’ve had to do this for a portion of my guild and once they get it, they like the expansion a lot better. Just hit me up in game if you want. It really looks harder than it actually is in a lot of cases.

I just played for about 3 hours, got lucky and landed in an AB with TTS, super organized way less stressful than anything out of VB, managed to finish the meta, got a few Hero Points, restored some good will.

I’m assuming you must be in a decent guild since your one of the vocal white knights, mind if I take you up on that offer you gave to the OP?

The thing about 75% of the metas is that they can be commanded from map-chat. So in auric basin you just have to find a map with the meta starting, and start taxiing people in because there seems to be a shortage of new maps. If you get enough people it’s not very hard to beat the meta because of how lax the punishment for failure is.

This is not an expansion – It is a boring drawn out – Excuse – For an Expansion – The longevity in playing this – Unless you are at it’s birth it will be a dead zone – Sooner than you think – Played every GW game to date – This is not Guild Wars- And not a fun Game anymore – It’s a chore- Flame away – Don’t worry New game no problem – Enjoy your future burn out -

Thanks for all the replies. I just wanted to state is is not the difficulty of the mobs. I really do not die that often to them when I go slowly. It is the sheer amount of them everywhere! I had 3 map completion characters and was going to start another before the expansion. I like looking around. I like doing hearts. I like finding hidden jumping puzzles. I like talking to the NPC’s that will respond to me. I like getting map completion on my own- I find it relaxing.

In the new maps there is none of that. I walk a little and there is a pack of mobs. I cannot explore the areas. I kill things and they respawn very quickly. I cannot do map completion on my own. I am having some serious issues navigating the maps and if I tray to stand around to figure it out I am attacked over and over again.

There are no hearts, which was really disappointing to me. I thought it would be more of the old world just in new areas. I guess hearts are a thing of the past though and I should not expect more. I am not sure if there are new jumping puzzles, as I said I have a really hard time in the new maps just getting to look around.

I like doing events. I like event chains. I do not like trying to find these new events- it is really hard to tell where they are on the map. Many of the times I get to an event and there are not enough people there to complete it so I am killed. The event chains last way too long. I would say 30-45 mins start to end is reasonable, 2 hours is not and I am not sure why it is being expected of players.

In the end, I just wish this was a new area with the old area flair. Instead it is— I am not sure what it is. I guess a hardcore Silverwastes farm?

Thanks again for the replies. I love(d) this game. I love my characters. I just really do not care for the new content and it just really disappoints me since this is what I use to do at night to unwind after the kids went to bed.

If they would have made the meta events more SW-like and less “War and Peace”-like all of these zones would be rocking with happy people right now.

maxan.7836:

This is not an expansion – It is a boring drawn out – Excuse – For an Expansion – The longevity in playing this – Unless you are at it’s birth it will be a dead zone – Sooner than you think – Played every GW game to date – This is not Guild Wars- And not a fun Game anymore – It’s a chore- Flame away – Don’t worry New game no problem – Enjoy your future burn out -

This zone will be busy for a very long time, because some people find it fun. And free to play players will hit 80 and buy the expansion too, some of them anyway. And you don’t need thousands of people to play zones to make them fun. Drytop and Silverwastes are good examples.

The game will do fine without you. It always amazes me how people assume that they don’t like something so no one else will.

Oldirtbeard.9834:

Vayne.8563:

OP if you’re on a US server and want some help learning how to get around I’d be happy to help. And that goes for anyone else on US servers.

I’ve had to do this for a portion of my guild and once they get it, they like the expansion a lot better. Just hit me up in game if you want. It really looks harder than it actually is in a lot of cases.

I just played for about 3 hours, got lucky and landed in an AB with TTS, super organized way less stressful than anything out of VB, managed to finish the meta, got a few Hero Points, restored some good will.

I’m assuming you must be in a decent guild since your one of the vocal white knights, mind if I take you up on that offer you gave to the OP?

I’m up for helping anyone. I’m always happy to try to help. As for me guild, no we’re not a huge super organized guild. We have fun with stuff. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail, but we always have fun.

Sorry to hear you aren’t finding HoT enjoyable.

Personally, I’m loving the new maps, mobs, events, everything. I agree, though, that the metas can be confusing when you first get to a map. I’ve got Verdant Brink on farm practically, but the other maps are still a bit of a mystery as to what I should be doing and when to do it. I figure I’ll get the hang of it by spending more time in them.

Zerker gear can be more difficult to handle in these maps, but there are ways to deal with it too. I run zerker on most of my characters, including my Reaper and Revenant which are my main HoT characters right now. I’m constantly making use of dodge, shroud, blinding, reflects, the hammer evade jump, and other forms of cc. Can’t just stand still and hit things when you’re in the jungle.

As for gliding, I can’t get enough of it. I wish I could glide in all the maps haha.

Edit: I should add that one of the main reasons I love these new maps and meta events is the sheer intensity of everything. I love jumping into something hectic and dangerous and just going all out without any breaks. Maybe I’m weird that way.

HoT can be somewhat difficult at first but, hang in there, it get’s easier.
Do the following:

1. Do the Story first.
2. Get some Speed boosters/food and just run around the map unlocking area’s, picking up the Way Points.
3. Then join in on some events.
4. I’ve unlocked Hero Points to get 2 characters their new skills.
5. Don’t spend all your time in HoT or you’ll get burnt out, go back and play the content you like.
6. It get’s a lot easier when you run a second character through the same HoT map.
7. Use the LFG tool to find others to help do content.

More and more videos are being released every day on how to get things and timing of events in HoT.

Go to www.dulfy.net for help.

The HoT maps are garbage maps IMHO. They are there to make the content last longer by making you ‘Think’ out of the box to get from Point A to point C.

Just do what I am working on.

Pick your 1-2, or * characters you want the Elite Spec on and get as much as the maps discovered as you can. Farm out the HPs to complete the specs, make sure you discover the maps WP’s where the good Meta’s are.

Then never go back into HoT except for the Meta. Just.like.the.rest.of.the.game.

That is the future of GW2. Maps are there to gate you to ‘completion’ as filler until Anet can come out with something better (AKA Raids, this week supposedly).

Also, try mapping with your younger family members in HoT.

HoT’s maps are not 9 year old friendly at all…..

jazzllanna.1278:

Thanks for all the replies. I just wanted to state is is not the difficulty of the mobs. I really do not die that often to them when I go slowly. It is the sheer amount of them everywhere! I had 3 map completion characters and was going to start another before the expansion. I like looking around. I like doing hearts. I like finding hidden jumping puzzles. I like talking to the NPC’s that will respond to me. I like getting map completion on my own- I find it relaxing.

In the new maps there is none of that. I walk a little and there is a pack of mobs. I cannot explore the areas. I kill things and they respawn very quickly. I cannot do map completion on my own. I am having some serious issues navigating the maps and if I tray to stand around to figure it out I am attacked over and over again.

There are no hearts, which was really disappointing to me. I thought it would be more of the old world just in new areas. I guess hearts are a thing of the past though and I should not expect more. I am not sure if there are new jumping puzzles, as I said I have a really hard time in the new maps just getting to look around.

I like doing events. I like event chains. I do not like trying to find these new events- it is really hard to tell where they are on the map. Many of the times I get to an event and there are not enough people there to complete it so I am killed. The event chains last way too long. I would say 30-45 mins start to end is reasonable, 2 hours is not and I am not sure why it is being expected of players.

In the end, I just wish this was a new area with the old area flair. Instead it is— I am not sure what it is. I guess a hardcore Silverwastes farm?

Thanks again for the replies. I love(d) this game. I love my characters. I just really do not care for the new content and it just really disappoints me since this is what I use to do at night to unwind after the kids went to bed.

I know what you mean.

I said to my guild that the problem is, that I can either fight harder, fast-respawning mobs (which I can do pretty easily, TBH, if I’m focussed), or I can try to think about navigating a complicated map.

I can’t, easily, do both at the same time.

The skills lie in two separate parts of my brain, or something.