Guild Wars 2

7/10 before

8/10 now

….just need to fix berserker!

Zoid.2568:

9.5/10 pre.
6.5/10 post.

They nerfed and ruined the expansion. Some players on the forums and reddit is all it takes, and then the nerfs are coming.

8 posts in the last 5 hrs saying whiners ruined the game simply bc we can play our elites through the new content.

Before 7 now 7.

I didn’t minded the grind since I had 0 interest in unlocking the berserker elite spec. I dont like the new BL/upgrade system but I like the new PvE map visually and the verticality.

I honestly don’t mind a bit of grind I come from EQ/FFXI.

8-9 pre (would be higher but they had to put champs at HPs, which screws us solo players)
5-6 post. Seems really easy to get now.

2/10 before.

8/10 now.

Still wouldn’t give it a 10/10 because I still think the masteries are a bit too much of a grind just to reach the hp challenges. But… I’m mature enough to understand that you have to have a bit of everything in your MMO to appeal to as broad a base of gamers as you possibly can, and obviously that sense of “progression” that Masteries give is important to a large segment of the population. :-)

Its a start, 250 is still a chore but at least its not a mountain.

Alt friendly players like myself will be a little happier with this change as it gives some longevity but allows room for progression with other toons not just your main.

As to the entire expansion:

The Zones: 3 out of 10
They are too group friendly and lack any solo content and practically force you to do them to progress the main storyline, A-net managed to create 4 seperate silverwastes which dont conjoin at all in any way or form.

The Storyline: 4 out of 10
In a spoiler free opinion Mass Effect 3 would be on par with the dissapointment I felt in this after the hype that was Season 2’s storyline. While it does have an epic moment or two that are memorable it ignores so many plot points S2 left us that HoT, as a massive expansion should have answered but instead blatantly paves the way for a Season 3 in a very shameless manner.

The Revenant: 4 Out of 10
Its a new class that kittenises itself off other classes, and kind of lacks “alot” in terms of personal uniquness because of that factor.

The Specializations: 6 Out of 10
Druid is by far the most needed thing Rangers ever had and some of the others are fairly fun to play when you do get to unlock them, its just the tediousness of doing it at all that can be annoying.

New WvW: No Comment, havent had enough time to really explore it yet.

New PvP: Beta tested Stronghold, it showed promise then it still does now, honestly it would be a far better replacement to the current PvP type conquest.

New Gear Asthetic and Maps: 8 Out of 10
Visually the gear is stunning and the graphics team did an amazing job of making some truly stand-outish gear, cant add more to it, its nice, only gripe, its a little limited when it comes to armor sets.

The Music: 9 out of 10
Musically the game has some absoleutley memorably amazing tracks this time round but my critism ironcially comes from the theme, an example is Tarir that kind of feels odd and out of place and too “hopeful” after the Verdant Brink regions darker ambient tracks. Still, amazing job, loved it absoleutley loved it.

The Character VA’s: 8 Out of 10
Voice acting definatley was an up to the stories down, emotions were running in actors performances and layers were added that were not there before in vanillia GW2 and Season 1 (season 2 was better). It did show that A-net can at least make a Meh and forgettable storyline quite deep with some memorable dialogue, especially from the PC character voices.

Over All?: 5 Out of 10
A promising expansion but short of many things, it tried too hard to eliminate its casual friendly focus and left a bad taste for casuals but at least A-net is working to fix that and stick to their guns, maybe in time that may ramp it up to a 7, but its not quite good enough, and seriously lacks layers despite being what could be considered a monumental project for A-net.

Content is good when it shines but too sparce and too unrewarding when its done, the gating was just a terrible idea from the start and a lesson learned which im thankful for.

The main story sadly revealed little and left more questions and paved the way for what is likley going to be Season 3.

But over all, the game is decent, passable, just not as good as it could have been.

8/10 pre.
3/10 post.

HP challenge no longer challenge, thanks

6/10 pre patch —> 9/10 post patch.

People need to chill out. The change gives average players a chance to play through the new maps as your elite spec. I work long days as an attorney and this change has made it much more accessible for me to actually use my elite spec in my limited playtime.

What they should have done in the first place was require 250 or 300 pts to unlock the spec and then allocate the last 100+ points to unlocking a special skin or something.

The story of HoT is a good deal more compelling than the Zaitan one. A great improvement.

Gliding is fantastic. It is so fantastic that I die almost always at least once the minute I leave Maguuma new section.

The maps are beautiful and well designed and the content very challenging. I would have like to have 1 or 2 more such maps but those we got are awesome.

The music, as always, is awesome.

The mobs are much more interesting and intelligent in the way they fight. Specially the snipers.

I’m among those who are disappointed about the decision to go from 400 to 250 HP since it essentially make the bulk of the hero challenges for long time players essentially irrelevant and lessen the progression experience I like in that kind of game. ANET made the mistake of giving Elite spec without making it clear that what players are trying will have to be earned after release and people assumed they would have it all for free right now…

Mastery is a fun and interesting way to provide a different progression. Let’s hope it resist to the nerf syndicate.

The pvp will have to balance itself out in time and I’m really not sold on the WvW new maps but, overall, I’d give the expansion a solid 8/10.

I would give HoT 8/10

The Elite Specialization being reduced to 250 was a good move.

To the people whining about it not being 400 anymore, the big issue was not so much the grind but the sustainability. It would mean EVERY new expansion with Elite Spec (which sounds like the path they are going) would need 400 skill points to allow for the unlock. That is a LOT of skill points to force into an expansion. 250 is sustainable because that means you can easily add the capacity for people to play the expansion and get the Elite. I am sorry you feel like you want to have some “progression” but that’s not progression, that was just a silly amount of hero points necessary for something a lot folks wanted. Now people could get enough hero points to unlock their elite by doing World Completion and a LITTLE HOT and have points left for the next XPAC to unlock their next Elite and then explore there for the next expansion.

The downsides I still see are as follows:

Lots of new map currencies and keys. This was really unnecessary and is just bloating our inventories.

Breakbar madness. Why are there a bunch of Vets running around with breakbars? I understand the new breakbars but I feel you guys may have gone a little over board with this idea.

Lots of new crafting materials for scribe….with no bank slots. I am SURE you guys are looking into this but we are all a bit confused why we have these crafting materials with no home.

Most of these are just simply QoL though. For the vast majority of HoT, it has been a blast, and I think now with the 250 HP it is in a good place. It doe snot feel like Grind, it feels like progression. The only necessary Masteries are easy to get to. The others will come with time which is what is supposed to happen.

its still just a grind fest. features that should have came included with our purchase of hot like auto loot and gliding ect being passed of as masterys we need grind millions of xp to unlock.maybe they will add mounts next expansion and we can grind out the mastery to use them. 2/10