Let me be clear, I love GW2, and I’m a massive, massive supporter of Anet’s work. But, if you ask me, they need to kitten fire their kitten story team.
I’m going to just run through some of HoT’s major features (in no particular order) and give you my input.
1. Crafting old legendaries has been more straight forward and less reliant on RNG.
My opinion: yes yes yes, GW2 has needed this for 3 years. Though I haven’t used the new system to craft a legendary myself, I’m certain that this will improve the GW2 community.
2. Stronghold is a thing now.
My opinion: Huge fan. Changing the pace of PvP has been needed for a long time, imo. However, there needs to be more incentive for players to be aware. It’s far too easy for causal to just afk defending your lane, or attack a door they can’t break, and suddenly your team is playing with a 20% handicap. If there was some incentive to distribute players evenly around the map, I think Stronghold would be a better way to spend my time.
3. The new maps and the new event system.
My opinion: huge fan here. These events, and the experiences I’ve had with my friends/other players during these events have made my purchase worth it. I spend $150 on HoT (I bought the expensive one and I bought the standard one for my gf), and this is where I’ve found my value. Sure, killing a champion mordrem something isn’t a big deal, but laughing with everyone on the megaserver when we wipe is great. Also, rejoicing when we finally kill a legendary wyvernw with a map full of druids and scrappers is a great feeling, in a communal sense. At the same time, using my elite specialization to blow up hordes of mordrem scrubs feels awesome. 10/10, anet.
4. Elite Specializations.
My opinion: Great except for where it absolutely kitten blows. Let me preface this. I love Mesmer gameplay. It’s what encouraged me to get good at Gw2 and what kept me in the community for years. The sophistication of gameplay that Anet introduced has kept me intrigued for years. After 3 years, destroying Blackgate noobs with my Phants got old. Honestly, the announcement of the Chronomancer couldn’t have been more boring. Wells and shields, seriously? I couldn’t have been more wrong. The new strategies that come from the two new weapon skills, six new utility skills, and twelve new traits has blown the door wide up again. The last time I was this excited about Gw2 was in September of 2012. Anet, you nailed it, except for Dragon Hunter…. what in the kitten were you thinking? Sure, long bow makes sense… but traps…. wtf?
5. Masteries.
My opinion: totally awesome. ’nuff said.
6. The HoT story.
My opinion: I’ve never once been motivated by the Gw2 story. Tybalt was the best work I’ve seen Anet put into a character, and he’s been dead for years. Trust me when I say that this doesn’t change with HoT. Let me elaborate:
I was, for the very first time in my Gw2 career, excited when I started up a new story mission. On my quest to kill Zhaitan, story missions were literally nothing more than a quick level boost. Once I hit level 80, that green star on the stop right of my screen was nothing more than an annoyance. Eventually, I completed the story, but the reason why might surprise you. It was because I was kitten annoyed with that green star being there. Honestly, when Zojja showed up with that air ship and I shot the undead dragon out of the sky, my only though was “is that star gone now?”…..
Now that you understand my history with the Gw2 story, let me explain my HoT story experience. I was engaged from the start. Exploring a new part of the world was excellent. Running around Verdant Brink with my new team of NPC’s was amazing and I had a fantastic time. But, after Eir died, I was completely and utterly disappointed. Here’s what I expected: Braham would go on to retrieve his mom’s long bow and become a dragon hunter, then Eir would somehow contact Garn and return to the living as a Druid. Then, all of the other characters would go through their respective transformations to the elite specializations. BUT NOPE. Eir dies and the single consequence is that we don’t see Braham for a little bit. Literally zero effect on the story, whatsoever. Now, skipping to the end, the final fight was pathetic at best. I play a Sylvari Chronomancer running full ascended zerker everything. One would expect me to die during this story. But no, not once. I came close, twice, each time getting down to 64 hp. But that’s the hardest the story had to offer. Let me just elaborate on my final fight with Mordremoth for you. I was (and still am) so drunk that using my mouse wasn’t an option…. So I decided to just used my right hand to drink more alcohol instead. And what was the cost of this? Literally nothing… I kill Mordremoth and all of his vegitable goons with just my left hand and my right pinky…… literally. Didn’t move my hand for the whole of the last 6 missions (which I completed tonight) and I didn’t die once, as one of the glassiest classes running a full glass set. Seriously? Let me put it this way… Me in my drunken state performed as a better illusionist than an elder dragon, who was depending upon his illusions to crush your skull…… Did Anet just assume we were all no-handed losers without keyboard and with a mental handicap? How is this content challenging in any way whatsoever? Storytelling quality aside, the difficult was a 0/10…. I’ve seen the Dredge put up a MUCH stronger fight. I had a harder time fighting Issormir when I first booted the game. How is this challenging content at all?
Consensus: the story kitten blows. Everything else is acceptable or down right awesome. If you bought HoT because you want to see where the story goes, then I’m sorry.
In my mind, there’s only one saving grace for the story. Mordremoth has to still be alive. Anything short of this is pathetic in my mind. My 10 year old self could write a more compelling story after having read nothing more than the Sorcerer’s Stone and Holes.
Anet, fire your story team and hire me. I passed the SAT, I’m clearly more qualified than your current crew.
80 Sylvari Thief | 80 Human Elementalist | 80 Asura Guardian | 80 Asura Engineer |
80 Sylvari Revenant
(edited by LCV.7245)