Ok, I’ve seen a lot of negative feedback towards the supposed grindy progression of the new expansion. Considering this, I decided to put my shining armor on and defend the game by providing my experience so far.
First of all, I have earned 4th mastery and I haven’t left Verdant brinks yet. I have no elite specialization also. Even though my personal story already suggest leaving this map I can’t let myself to. At first I was like: Those events give barely any experience at all, how am I supposed to level my masteries? However, after I finished lord Faren event chain, I realized how rich the event story is. I started doing other event chains and the experience started to flow (ok, maybe not flow by I can’t say that I find leveling grindy and boring). So, how many of you haters could honestly say that you did all the content in at least one map?
It actually reminded me the first time I came from Runescape to other mmo. I used to kill mobs for a long time until I reached lvl 3 and I thought the game was boring and stupid. How stupid I felt after I realized that I was playing the wrong way…
On the mastery walls, yes, at first I felt that a lot of content was locked for me. However, it brought me back to my lovely memories of an early Gothic series. In that game starting was really hard: you meet troll – you die, you meet 3 wasps – you die, etc. It was hard, but it felt really good coming back for the content I had to skip and do it like a pro a become. I am trying to understand Anet. They just can’t let you swoop through the expansion in a few hours. They’ve build an amazing world, but some would just skip it, get shinny new stuff and say “there’s no content”. There is, start playing.
I believe that in Heart of Thorns you have to forget that you are a top level player. Hell, I, the elite ascended legendary player got my kitten kicked by two frogs. Two frogs!!! But I came back, I learned how to kill them and now I feel like a master of the jungle
In conclusion, it’s been just a few days, let the dust to settle before asking for any changes. And for the first time I’m glad I pre-purchased the game and tries it myself. Negative comments would have probably kept me away from it