Guild Wars 2

The reintroduction of hearts gives me a touch of nostalgia. The flame mechanic in a frosty area with its warm glow makes me feel kind of cozy. And I’ve gotten some relaxed fun out of the events.

Of the maps released since HoT, it is the fastest way to get ascended trinkets and backpiece. (referring to map currency acquisition only)

I played it a lot for winterberries, but after enough time spent there I realized it’s actually a really fun and relaxing “farm” map. The chests are mindless relaxation with no stupid keys required, the champs are plentiful, and every enemy on the map drops UM.

All the new maps after bloodstone fen have hearts…and repeatable hearts at that. Bitterfrost is actually my least favorite of the new maps. That’s because of the annoying things that freeze you for two seconds. Not a fan. I’ve farmed berries on the map, like everyone else, but I much prefer Ember Bay for farming karma and doing dailies and such.

Obviously if you need unbound magic fast, Bitterfrost is the way to go.

Vayne.8563:

All the new maps after bloodstone fen have hearts…and repeatable hearts at that. Bitterfrost is actually my least favorite of the new maps. That’s because of the annoying things that freeze you for two seconds. Not a fan. I’ve farmed berries on the map, like everyone else, but I much prefer Ember Bay for farming karma and doing dailies and such.

Obviously if you need unbound magic fast, Bitterfrost is the way to go.

I haven’t been in bloodstone fen or ember bay yet. I think I might need to use a Teleport to Friend, since I don’t have ch1 or 2 unlocked of the next part. Apparently I logged in at some point to get ch3 and then more recently, ch4, but I missed the other two. I thought I read somewhere that you need the story to get there.

Labjax.2465:

Vayne.8563:

All the new maps after bloodstone fen have hearts…and repeatable hearts at that. Bitterfrost is actually my least favorite of the new maps. That’s because of the annoying things that freeze you for two seconds. Not a fan. I’ve farmed berries on the map, like everyone else, but I much prefer Ember Bay for farming karma and doing dailies and such.

Obviously if you need unbound magic fast, Bitterfrost is the way to go.

I haven’t been in bloodstone fen or ember bay yet. I think I might need to use a Teleport to Friend, since I don’t have ch1 or 2 unlocked of the next part. Apparently I logged in at some point to get ch3 and then more recently, ch4, but I missed the other two. I thought I read somewhere that you need the story to get there.

I’m pretty sure you can’t teleport to a friend if you don’t have it unlocked. It would be like teleporting to HoT if you didn’t buy HOT. Those zones are only free if you unlocked them while they were live.

If I recall when the bloodstone fen was introduced one of my guildies used “Teleport to Friend” to access it. But that only means he was able to skip on the related living story, as of course that chapter was free for anyone who logged in.
It still might work to access the map, since as far as I can tell only the story chapter is locked.

Hubal.8571:

If I recall when the bloodstone fen was introduced one of my guildies used “Teleport to Friend” to access it. But that only means he was able to skip on the related living story, as of course that chapter was free for anyone who logged in.
It still might work to access the map, since as far as I can tell only the story chapter is locked.

We’ve tested it. If you try to use a TP to a friend without the story unlocked you end up in Lion’s Arch. You can not get to the new zone unless you have the story unlocked.

Hmm. Well that’s disappointing. Don’t really understand how that’s supposed to work for map population, locking new zones completely behind story chapters. HoT maps are one thing; it’s a paid expansion, like when you pay for the base game. But the story chapters are something you get for free just for being logged in at the right time. It’s a different setup.

It seems to me that they are dooming said maps to being well and truly dead in six months to a year. With the way turnaround of players works, they’ll steadily lose some of the people who had access at all and some who do have access will, by then, have no desire to go back.

I realize you can unlock chapters you missed with gems, but if they’re going for forcing you to spend gems (or save up your gold for buying the gems), then they can expletive my expletive. I just won’t visit those maps and the people who would benefit from some extra players around, like myself, will suffer for it.

I still have a fond perception of Bitterfrost Frontier though.

But this system of map unlocking, well… different kind of Bitter going on there. Bad taste in my mouth.

Labjax.2465:

Hmm. Well that’s disappointing. Don’t really understand how that’s supposed to work for map population, locking new zones completely behind story chapters. HoT maps are one thing; it’s a paid expansion, like when you pay for the base game. But the story chapters are something you get for free just for being logged in at the right time. It’s a different setup.

It seems to me that they are dooming said maps to being well and truly dead in six months to a year. With the way turnaround of players works, they’ll steadily lose some of the people who had access at all and some who do have access will, by then, have no desire to go back.

I realize you can unlock chapters you missed with gems, but if they’re going for forcing you to spend gems (or save up your gold for buying the gems), then they can expletive my expletive. I just won’t visit those maps and the people who would benefit from some extra players around, like myself, will suffer for it.

I still have a fond perception of Bitterfrost Frontier though.

But this system of map unlocking, well… different kind of Bitter going on there. Bad taste in my mouth.

i also was missing some chapters, but i just sold some stuff i had saved and bought them, currently the cost is about 55 gold, which isnt horrible, but if i didnt have old materials that were newly expensive, i dont know if id have done it.

that said, you are right about limiting the map buy in in the long term though. They should probably just include LS episodes in the associated expansion cost, the current system kind of works against people returning, and newbies. Since i returned, my primary purpose has been story, so id imagine not having access to that would essentially diminish my incentive to re invest in the game.

tldr, 55 gold for story and zone isnt crazy, but most people wont bother, so less and less people will experience this content.

Labjax.2465:

Hmm. Well that’s disappointing. Don’t really understand how that’s supposed to work for map population, locking new zones completely behind story chapters. HoT maps are one thing; it’s a paid expansion, like when you pay for the base game. But the story chapters are something you get for free just for being logged in at the right time. It’s a different setup.

It seems to me that they are dooming said maps to being well and truly dead in six months to a year. With the way turnaround of players works, they’ll steadily lose some of the people who had access at all and some who do have access will, by then, have no desire to go back.

I realize you can unlock chapters you missed with gems, but if they’re going for forcing you to spend gems (or save up your gold for buying the gems), then they can expletive my expletive. I just won’t visit those maps and the people who would benefit from some extra players around, like myself, will suffer for it.

I still have a fond perception of Bitterfrost Frontier though.

But this system of map unlocking, well… different kind of Bitter going on there. Bad taste in my mouth.

It works because I play those zones often and there are plenty of people around. The fact that the core playerbase does log in every two months, which is all you have to do to unlock the story means most paid players probably have it.

And other people simply have the gold to convert to gems to not spend any real money. Others are used to downloading DLC and paying for it.

It’s not like all the zones dont’ have traffic, because they do.

phys.7689:

Labjax.2465:

Hmm. Well that’s disappointing. Don’t really understand how that’s supposed to work for map population, locking new zones completely behind story chapters. HoT maps are one thing; it’s a paid expansion, like when you pay for the base game. But the story chapters are something you get for free just for being logged in at the right time. It’s a different setup.

It seems to me that they are dooming said maps to being well and truly dead in six months to a year. With the way turnaround of players works, they’ll steadily lose some of the people who had access at all and some who do have access will, by then, have no desire to go back.

I realize you can unlock chapters you missed with gems, but if they’re going for forcing you to spend gems (or save up your gold for buying the gems), then they can expletive my expletive. I just won’t visit those maps and the people who would benefit from some extra players around, like myself, will suffer for it.

I still have a fond perception of Bitterfrost Frontier though.

But this system of map unlocking, well… different kind of Bitter going on there. Bad taste in my mouth.

i also was missing some chapters, but i just sold some stuff i had saved and bought them, currently the cost is about 55 gold, which isnt horrible, but if i didnt have old materials that were newly expensive, i dont know if id have done it.

that said, you are right about limiting the map buy in in the long term though. They should probably just include LS episodes in the associated expansion cost, the current system kind of works against people returning, and newbies. Since i returned, my primary purpose has been story, so id imagine not having access to that would essentially diminish my incentive to re invest in the game.

tldr, 55 gold for story and zone isnt crazy, but most people wont bother, so less and less people will experience this content.

Exactly, thanks for understanding. Not everyone will do as I do and I get that (like yourself, you sold some stuff and bought them) but in my case, it just gives me one less reason to log in. I don’t feel any great attachment to story in this game right now, so the idea of investing a lot of time/currency in unlocking the chapters I missed just to get the zones doesn’t appeal to me.

Vayne.8563:

It works because I play those zones often and there are plenty of people around. The fact that the core playerbase does log in every two months, which is all you have to do to unlock the story means most paid players probably have it.

And other people simply have the gold to convert to gems to not spend any real money. Others are used to downloading DLC and paying for it.

It’s not like all the zones dont’ have traffic, because they do.

I’m sure they have traffic now. As far as I’m aware, most of them are pretty fresh. I’m talking down the road, long-term activity. The argument I’m making is not outlining a dire scenario. They could probably wait 6 months or so from now, then let anyone with HoT access those zones, and it’d be fine. Too bad for me that way, but in terms of activity concerns, they could probably do it that way and avoid the long-term issue of it.

Labjax.2465:

Vayne.8563:

It works because I play those zones often and there are plenty of people around. The fact that the core playerbase does log in every two months, which is all you have to do to unlock the story means most paid players probably have it.

And other people simply have the gold to convert to gems to not spend any real money. Others are used to downloading DLC and paying for it.

It’s not like all the zones dont’ have traffic, because they do.

I’m sure they have traffic now. As far as I’m aware, most of them are pretty fresh. I’m talking down the road, long-term activity. The argument I’m making is not outlining a dire scenario. They could probably wait 6 months or so from now, then let anyone with HoT access those zones, and it’d be fine. Too bad for me that way, but in terms of activity concerns, they could probably do it that way and avoid the long-term issue of it.

That’s the whole point behind a megaserver. You don’t need five hundred people. A hundred people in a zone is plenty. So is 50 in most cases.

If 10,000 people are playing at once, the odds are you can get 50 in a zone.

The fact that these maps also provide an inexpensive path to ascended pieces that can be easily solo farmed makes them more attractive than most maps. The karma, experience, and unbound magic farm only enhances their appeal. I imagine many players will find them worth the price.

Vayne.8563:

Labjax.2465:

Hmm. Well that’s disappointing. Don’t really understand how that’s supposed to work for map population, locking new zones completely behind story chapters. HoT maps are one thing; it’s a paid expansion, like when you pay for the base game. But the story chapters are something you get for free just for being logged in at the right time. It’s a different setup.

It seems to me that they are dooming said maps to being well and truly dead in six months to a year. With the way turnaround of players works, they’ll steadily lose some of the people who had access at all and some who do have access will, by then, have no desire to go back.

I realize you can unlock chapters you missed with gems, but if they’re going for forcing you to spend gems (or save up your gold for buying the gems), then they can expletive my expletive. I just won’t visit those maps and the people who would benefit from some extra players around, like myself, will suffer for it.

I still have a fond perception of Bitterfrost Frontier though.

But this system of map unlocking, well… different kind of Bitter going on there. Bad taste in my mouth.

It works because I play those zones often and there are plenty of people around. The fact that the core playerbase does log in every two months, which is all you have to do to unlock the story means most paid players probably have it.

And other people simply have the gold to convert to gems to not spend any real money. Others are used to downloading DLC and paying for it.

It’s not like all the zones dont’ have traffic, because they do.

yeah but they are recent right now, will people buy these things in 3 or 4 months? will old players still be trying to go there when expansion drops?

Vayne.8563:

That’s the whole point behind a megaserver. You don’t need five hundred people. A hundred people in a zone is plenty. So is 50 in most cases.

If 10,000 people are playing at once, the odds are you can get 50 in a zone.

That’s not how odds work. It is dependent not only on who has access, but whether there are incentives to go there. Anet will not want people spending all of their time in old zones if they release another expansion, so any existing extra incentive in those partitioned off areas will likely be nerfed or trivialized in some way, along with expansion release.

50 might sound like an easy number to get ahold of when you pit it against a number like 10,000, but this game has a lot of different places for people to be spread out in. And that spreading out problem gets slightly more problematic in the long-term every time a new zone is added. In theory, you could alleviate said problem by maintaining steady playerbase growth and retention, but seeing as how aging MMOs typically go in the opposite direction (steady playerbase decline) the problematic nature of it is likely only doubled over time.

GW2’s megaservers are possibly the most effective approach I’ve seen in MMOs, in terms of making the most out of playerbase size, but they aren’t magic and they can only absorb some of the damage from a declining playerbase and spread out population, not avoid problems forever.

Oh sure, but 10,000 is probably very very low for it.

As an example, I farm Ember Bay every day because I need karma. There are two zones right now that offer the karma buff I need.

There are also dailies in all those zones and people do them. That will keep SOME people there.

Will those zones empty out when the expansion first comes out. No doubt.

But just like HOT, the new living story comes out, people leave HOT for a couple of days, a week later, HoT was as busy as it was.

But even at the emptiest, I always find people in those zones. Even on the day of the new content.

I don’t really believe there are times when only 10,000 people are playing. I find it more likely that the number is higher even at off hours, and much much higher at peak hours. Even if only 300,000 people play this game, I’d expect there to be more than 10,000 people at any give time, and even if only 10% of them do what they want, that leaves a lot of people divided between a lot of zones.

Some people will go there for the dailies, some to farm karma, or XP or whatever currency. Some will go do the jumping puzzle, because they like it, some will just be doing stories on an alt, but people will be there.

Not hundreds of people, maybe, but you don’t need hundreds of people.

If anything the core zones would have been more likely to be deserted, but then free to play players can only access core zones.

I strongly suspect even when the new expansion launches, there’ll be people on those zones to do content, perhaps after an initial dropoff.

By the same token I’m sure Anet would rather have people in the expansion than those zones. I think they’re designed to hold us over.

Well they can’t very well hold us over if we can’t access them, ya know.

AliamRationem.5172:

The fact that these maps also provide an inexpensive path to ascended pieces that can be easily solo farmed makes them more attractive than most maps. The karma, experience, and unbound magic farm only enhances their appeal. I imagine many players will find them worth the price.

Yeah, 55 gold (as mentioned by Phys) for access to a zone that allows me to get ascended backpack or trinkets? Would be worth it to me.

Best night time in all of GW2 maps.
They should change the name though.
Botterfrost Frontier seems more appropriate.

Something that hasn’t been specifically discussed yet but I think bears mentioning is that in bloodstone fen you can purchase the only amulet/ring/back piece that have changeable stats. That alone to me makes the map worth replaying for months to come simply for the flexibility that provides in changing builds without a whole lot of fuss.

What remains to be seen is whether those trinkets will also have access to any new stats from the upcoming xpac or if they will be limited to Core/HoT only.

My friend started playing recently again, and he couldn’t unlock the oakheart essence because that mastery line requires you to go to either Ember Bay or Bloodstone Fen. He was able to TP to friend to me both of the times, which actually also unlocked the masteries. You can TP to friend to the other maps as well, but they don’t unlock the masteries, which is stupid as hell.

I often use Bitterfrost as a cheap and more fun alternative to AB. It drops everything I need to make those daily gated asc materials and as a bonus I farm karma + UB. Atm have more asc gear then I have resonating slivers so I can just spend it on the warped bundles, which gives me mats for another legendary.

Ember bay is.. nice. But I don’t go there alot. Bloodstone Fen looks good, but I rather not be there for a long time either. Draconis is a bit too big, but I like that there is always something to do. Lake doric has the most White Mantle clerics and mesmers, so kitten that map. Hearts take years to complete as well.

Also Lolled at Botterfrost Frontier. I don’t mind them. They get rid of the annoying mobs near the winterberries.