Guild Wars 2

Is it me or has anyone else notice it?

I am serious..
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns/user-reviews

There’s no actual review, there’s no bug reports, nothing mentioned about the low experience gain, the tedious gates, and this looks just like pure fan servicing or the reviews were bought.

here’s a quote I picked out from one of the user review
"Leveling your mastery does not feel like a grind at all, instead you get immersed by all the events and story going on in the new areas. "

Are you kitten me? What immersion do I gain from grinding 5 million experience points+ just to unlock multiple gates to traverse, explore and enjoy the content?

No, I do not care about Hero points, I am already 73.8% through elite specialization, and is Mastery Rank 10. This post is in fact my actual complaint to the game developers, and I felt like I had to grind a lot of content just to play the content (what?). So the content became nothing more but dust, so I actually do not want to revisit any of the areas that I cleared. For example, Verdant Brink is somewhere I had clear by 84% and I’d rather not step back into it even if someone wants to give me 5 million dollars to go back there to grind; it’s god awful that I’d rather scream than take the 5 million just to enter the zone again to grind.

Another mention is that WvWvW and EoTM has become even bigger now because 90% of the people there does not want to go to Maguuma due to the heavy grind, and low experience points; this is a huge sign that the content is lacking and very low quality (although it has fantastic scenery and good models, without a doubt there’s a lot of glitches which I discovered and will be reporting later), so please developers, please I beg you to not kill off this game with grind gates because not only it goes against your manifesto but it is very disappointing to players who were looking to enjoy this game casually.

I’ve been stuck in eotm and I really don’t like wvw. Just better then being stuck in VB for sure.

So…what are you getting at? Do you think that people don’t actually enjoy the game in a way that it doesn’t feel like a grind? Cuz I fit in that camp. Yea, I wish I could play with all the elite stuff at the start, but I’m really enjoying the journey to unlocking everything.

And that’s why it doesn’t feel like a grind. I’m not just fixating on what I don’t have. I’m checking out all the new events, exploring all the new content, and just generally paying attention to what’s out there and available right now.

If you think the game is a grind, then either you have the wrong mindset for an MMO or maybe you just really are better off with a different game for some reason, but the GW2 content is really high quality and shouldn’t be a grind for people that like games like this.

Dahkeus.8243:

So…what are you getting at? Do you think that people don’t actually enjoy the game in a way that it doesn’t feel like a grind? Cuz I fit in that camp. Yea, I wish I could play with all the elite stuff at the start, but I’m really enjoying the journey to unlocking everything.

And that’s why it doesn’t feel like a grind. I’m not just fixating on what I don’t have. I’m checking out all the new events, exploring all the new content, and just generally paying attention to what’s out there and available right now.

If you think the game is a grind, then either you have the wrong mindset for an MMO or maybe you just really are better off with a different game for some reason, but the GW2 content is really high quality and shouldn’t be a grind for people that like games like this.

What is your take on the events/exp/gated rewards then?
Nobody has ever answer that question, instead they keep on pointing to exploration and some other vague kitten. Please answer my question.

MoonRaiden.7423:

Dahkeus.8243:

So…what are you getting at? Do you think that people don’t actually enjoy the game in a way that it doesn’t feel like a grind? Cuz I fit in that camp. Yea, I wish I could play with all the elite stuff at the start, but I’m really enjoying the journey to unlocking everything.

And that’s why it doesn’t feel like a grind. I’m not just fixating on what I don’t have. I’m checking out all the new events, exploring all the new content, and just generally paying attention to what’s out there and available right now.

If you think the game is a grind, then either you have the wrong mindset for an MMO or maybe you just really are better off with a different game for some reason, but the GW2 content is really high quality and shouldn’t be a grind for people that like games like this.

What is your take on the events/exp/gated rewards then?
Nobody has ever answer that question, instead they keep on pointing to exploration and some other vague kitten. Please answer my question.

“events/exp/gated rewards”? Can you clarify on what exactly you’re asking about?

edit Ohh, you mean about how elites are gated behind hero points and how some of those are gated behind masteries?

I already responded to that, but as I said, I like it.

The idea of having to get Y ability before you can get to X area is nothing new and what you need to do to unlock anything is far from grindy since there’s so much content to do. The new areas are huge and there’s plenty of new events to join in that keep things interesting until you can get to those areas you couldn’t reach before.

I think that elites probably should have had a lower requirement to become fully unlocked, but I love that masteries take time.

There’s no need to do anything repetitive (which is the only situation where I think the word ‘grind’ would occur). Also, feel free to check out the latest WoodenPotatoes video on youtube as an example of this. There’s events on there that the majority of the players probably haven’t even experienced yet.

I bet half of the 10 stars reviews on Metacritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

I checked some Tech-forum with active Game-sections and nobody talks about Guild Wars, nobody. If HoT flops, Anet will have to screw you even more to keep the NCsoft shareholders happy.

I have some great ideas:

Dungeons and Fractals cost 200 Gems per run.

Move all Worldbosses to the new Borderlandmap.

Players lose 1s per minute while playing game.

Complainers are complaining on the forum.
Players are playing in the game, gradually unlocking stuff and enjoying the process.

The review was probably from a player.

I don’t consider leveling masteries a grind, it just happens as you explore the jungle.
Big reveal: other people like different stuff.

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

There were also some 10-scores within the same timeframe who can just as easily be dismissed. People who gave HoT a zero or ten within the first 72 hours after launch can not be taken seriously. Those are people who already made up their mind before launch and gave their score as soon as it became possible.

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

And dont forget about the thread on reddit asking people to give it bad reviews.

Now they’re complaining we have possitive reviews, oh the irony.

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

I’ll be honest, your statement makes no sense, and is very bias. Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is. Hell, I discovered all 4 of the new maps, and is unable to explore the whole area because I am sitting behind mastery walls.

If Legend of Zelda came out tomorrow, the usual forum dwellers would go nuts about how they need to “grind” to get exp, new swords/shields, new potions etc…

If pokemon red&blue came out tomorrow, they would cry about not being given charizard/venusar and blastoise straight away, instead they are stuch with their inferior previous evolutions and they need to “grind” 30something levels to get there…

If super-mario came out tomorrow they would cry about why the princess is ALWAYS in another castle and they need to “grind” 50 different levels to finally meet her for like 5 seconds ’till the credits…

Hooray for this generation…

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

If Legend of Zelda came out tomorrow, the usual forum dwellers would go nuts about how they need to “grind” to get exp, new swords/shields, new potions etc…

If pokemon red&blue came out tomorrow, they would cry about not being given charizard/venusar and blastoise straight away, instead they are stuch with their inferior previous evolutions and they need to “grind” 30something levels to get there…

If super-mario came out tomorrow they would cry about why the princess is ALWAYS in another castle and they need to “grind” 50 different levels to finally meet her for like 5 seconds ’till the credits…

Hooray for this generation…

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

I’ll be honest, your statement makes no sense, and is very bias. Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is. Hell, I discovered all 4 of the new maps, and is unable to explore the whole area because I am sitting behind mastery walls.

Or they discovered an enjoyable gating system (because they’re not part of the “GIVE ME MY SHINY NOW!!” crowd) and decided to give it a good review.
Could it be that – wait for it ….. – people give it a good review before they like it? Oh god I hope that thought didn’t blow your mind.

Raziel.4216:

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

I’ll be honest, your statement makes no sense, and is very bias. Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is. Hell, I discovered all 4 of the new maps, and is unable to explore the whole area because I am sitting behind mastery walls.

Or they discovered an enjoyable gating system (because they’re not part of the “GIVE ME MY SHINY NOW!!” crowd) and decided to give it a good review.
Could it be that – wait for it ….. – people give it a good review before they like it? Oh god I hope that thought didn’t blow your mind.

What part of the manifesto that they posted long ago not cross your mind? It’s my world, my story; not 50 minutes later the whole events restarts.

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

I’ll be honest, your statement makes no sense, and is very bias. Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is. Hell, I discovered all 4 of the new maps, and is unable to explore the whole area because I am sitting behind mastery walls.

Then why is the quantity of positive reviews increasing? If what you say is true, then metacritic should show an increasing number of negative reviews. Yet precisely the opposite is happening.

Straylight.7529:

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

I’ll be honest, your statement makes no sense, and is very bias. Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is. Hell, I discovered all 4 of the new maps, and is unable to explore the whole area because I am sitting behind mastery walls.

Then why is the quantity of positive reviews increasing? If what you say is true, then metacritic should show an increasing number of negative reviews. Yet precisely the opposite is happening.

Have you looked at those reviews? Half of them ARE VAGUE.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

If Legend of Zelda came out tomorrow, the usual forum dwellers would go nuts about how they need to “grind” to get exp, new swords/shields, new potions etc…

If pokemon red&blue came out tomorrow, they would cry about not being given charizard/venusar and blastoise straight away, instead they are stuch with their inferior previous evolutions and they need to “grind” 30something levels to get there…

If super-mario came out tomorrow they would cry about why the princess is ALWAYS in another castle and they need to “grind” 50 different levels to finally meet her for like 5 seconds ’till the credits…

Hooray for this generation…

You do know games where like that and harder do to 1 simple fact right ?
the cart size was so small they had to extend it as much as possible .. i mean really what is the record on a Mario run ? probably a min or 2 ? long game hu ? yep ha to expend it some how

Kinda reminds you of gw2 expansion

MoonRaiden.7423:

Raziel.4216:

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

I’ll be honest, your statement makes no sense, and is very bias. Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is. Hell, I discovered all 4 of the new maps, and is unable to explore the whole area because I am sitting behind mastery walls.

Or they discovered an enjoyable gating system (because they’re not part of the “GIVE ME MY SHINY NOW!!” crowd) and decided to give it a good review.
Could it be that – wait for it ….. – people give it a good review before they like it? Oh god I hope that thought didn’t blow your mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrwtWAGGGB4

What part of the manifesto that they posted long ago not cross your mind? It’s my world, my story; not 50 minutes later the whole events restarts.

“play how you want” can mean a lot of different stuff, I play how I want and I enjoy the story and it’s mastery system.
If you don’t enjoy the product you can always get a refund.
I hope they NEVER make an expansion that you can rush and finish on day 1.

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

I’ll be honest, your statement makes no sense, and is very bias. Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is. Hell, I discovered all 4 of the new maps, and is unable to explore the whole area because I am sitting behind mastery walls.

Then why is the quantity of positive reviews increasing? If what you say is true, then metacritic should show an increasing number of negative reviews. Yet precisely the opposite is happening.

Have you looked at those reviews? Half of them ARE VAGUE.

Right back at ya
Have you looked at the negative reviews? they’re not that much better and some were out a few hours after release. There was a reddit thread asking people to give it bad reviews.

Raziel.4216:

MoonRaiden.7423:

Raziel.4216:

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

I’ll be honest, your statement makes no sense, and is very bias. Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is. Hell, I discovered all 4 of the new maps, and is unable to explore the whole area because I am sitting behind mastery walls.

Or they discovered an enjoyable gating system (because they’re not part of the “GIVE ME MY SHINY NOW!!” crowd) and decided to give it a good review.
Could it be that – wait for it ….. – people give it a good review before they like it? Oh god I hope that thought didn’t blow your mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrwtWAGGGB4

What part of the manifesto that they posted long ago not cross your mind? It’s my world, my story; not 50 minutes later the whole events restarts.

“play how you want” can mean a lot of different stuff, I play how I want and I enjoy the story and it’s mastery system.
If you don’t enjoy the product you can always get a refund.
I hope they NEVER make an expansion that you can rush and finish on day 1.

Oh yeah, I am definitely close to getting a refund like most people. Half of my friends already quit the game, and that’s a group of 7+ people. I do hope you can pay the bill for Anet by keep paying for gems, because it is people like you who drives people who paid for the game away.

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

MoonRaiden.7423:

Straylight.7529:

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half off the 10 stars reviews on Metscritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

This tells us that the better, well-thought out reviews from people who took their time to test the game tend towards giving it a better score. Most of the 0-scores HoT received on Metacritic were given within the first 72 hours after launch.

I’ll be honest, your statement makes no sense, and is very bias. Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is. Hell, I discovered all 4 of the new maps, and is unable to explore the whole area because I am sitting behind mastery walls.

Then why is the quantity of positive reviews increasing? If what you say is true, then metacritic should show an increasing number of negative reviews. Yet precisely the opposite is happening.

Have you looked at those reviews? Half of them ARE VAGUE.

So are you saying that you can’t enjoy and like something unless you have a full 20 page explanation as to why?

After reading through about 30 of those reviews it seems the negative ones are significantly more vague than the positive ones anyway.

MoonRaiden.7423:

Have you looked at those reviews? Half of them ARE VAGUE.

This counts for both: the positive and the negative ones. If you sort the scores on metacritic by date you’ll see that people tend to give HoT a better score the more time passed since release. Thus we can conclude that people who take their time reviewing/testing HoT tend to give it a better score.

But you said:

Those who took their time to test the game will realized how bad the optimization, experience gain, and how badly gated it is.

If that was true the number of negative scores on metacritic should increase the more time passes since launch. Yet the opposite is happening.

MoonRaiden.7423:

Oh yeah, I am definitely close to getting a refund like most people.

Source?
Most of the people I know enjoy it, most of the people you know will get a refund.
What’s your objective & verifiable source to make such claim?

MoonRaiden.7423:

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

If Legend of Zelda came out tomorrow, the usual forum dwellers would go nuts about how they need to “grind” to get exp, new swords/shields, new potions etc…

If pokemon red&blue came out tomorrow, they would cry about not being given charizard/venusar and blastoise straight away, instead they are stuch with their inferior previous evolutions and they need to “grind” 30something levels to get there…

If super-mario came out tomorrow they would cry about why the princess is ALWAYS in another castle and they need to “grind” 50 different levels to finally meet her for like 5 seconds ’till the credits…

Hooray for this generation…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrwtWAGGGB4

Thanks for proving my point!

Also, just a reminder that everything in an MMO is a subject to change. Anet maybe heard the complains of ALL the players during those 3 years, and chose to address them the best way they see fit. Just because you bought the core GW2 3 years ago, it didn’t mean you will be playing it until the end of times with no change. People also bought Burning Crusade and years later they ended up playing with pandas…

Here’s feedback. Someone in another thread mentioned that HoT had a metacritic rating of 4.3.

After that the votes began to rapid swing upward so it’s safe to assume that all the contrarians read that, then got together and said, ’Let’s go over to metacritic and vote 10.0 across the board. Just to show em’.’

Look Moonraider, the masterties, hero points, elite specs, feel like mysterious and powerfull, cause you gotta work for them in a challenging environment (Verdant brink). That they are not given apon release is good. Masteries are ‘grind exagerrated’ by people like you. I already have 9 million exp worth of masteries (wich i think is about 1/5 of what i totally need to farm). That is in 5 days only. That means within a month i would have done everythign but precursor crafting. Tell me what is grindy about that. What’s more you don’t need all these masteries at once, i know have speed mushroom mastery, jump mushroom mastery, gliding+updraft and almost poison resistance of Itzel. To be honest, those alone get you a very long way in the new content. And having to worked for it, makes it feel rewarding. It also gets immersed into why these Hylek clans CAN survive in Verdant brink, and that they take a while to trust you. That is IMMERSION, the thing you just said you hate. The personal story is also amazing immersive imo, with all the Sylvari politics, clan stories etc.

About hero points, while it is a bit on the hard side to get them, it doesn’t bother me. It motivates me to do the area’s more, area’s who are amazing. And no i’m not writing a review for Metacritic, no time for that, i wanna play the game xd Shouldn’t even post this, but couldn’t resist.

IF there’s one complaint: it’s the devs focus their nerf rage way to much on ranger (though i know it will shift). Druid avatar is now so timegated, it’s next to useless, not well thought out by the balance leader (Roy).

An mmo without at least a little bit of ‘grind’ (progression i rather call it), is a boring mmo. People think, getting it handed free, will give them better experience, but they don’t realize they are wrong.

Iozeph.5617:

Here’s feedback. Someone in another thread mentioned that HoT had a metacritic rating of 4.3.

After that the votes began to rapid swing upward so it’s safe to assume that all the contrarians read that, then got together and said, ’Let’s go over to metacritic and vote 10.0 across the board. Just to show em’.’

And in a previous one in reddit people asked others to go give it a bad rating, so that previous score was just as legit.

Pixelninja.6971:

I bet half of the 10 stars reviews on Metacritic are written by Anet employees.
Yesterday the score was around 5 with almost 1 to 1 positive and negative reviews.

I checked some Tech-forum with active Game-sections and nobody talks about Guild Wars, nobody. If HoT flops, Anet will have to screw you even more to keep the NCsoft shareholders happy.

I have some great ideas:

Dungeons and Fractals cost 200 Gems per run.

Move all Worldbosses to the new Borderlandmap.

Players lose 1s per minute while playing game.

The 10 stars reviewers are not strictly ANet employees…they are shills paid to do it like in Amazon, etc.

They are a group of 25-30 persons that change email addresses and keep voting…if you check the number of people who liked their comments you will see the number is always between 23-26 likes.

Iozeph.5617:

Here’s feedback. Someone in another thread mentioned that HoT had a metacritic rating of 4.3.

After that the votes began to rapid swing upward so it’s safe to assume that all the contrarians read that, then got together and said, ’Let’s go over to metacritic and vote 10.0 across the board. Just to show em’.’

Yeah, totally safe to assume that.

Iozeph.5617:

Here’s feedback. Someone in another thread mentioned that HoT had a metacritic rating of 4.3.

After that the votes began to rapid swing upward so it’s safe to assume that all the contrarians read that, then got together and said, ’Let’s go over to metacritic and vote 10.0 across the board. Just to show em’.’

WoodenPotatoes had a rant about the reviews and suddenly it crept upwards again as well.

10 guys, 10.

We think this is perfect? Come on. 0? No, it’s not the worst thing ever created in gaming.

It’s utter nonsense, just like Amazon reviews I click the 3-star ones, they always seem to be the most level headed people, talk about the real issues and positives and give a balanced outlook. 1’s are always talking about broken products on delivery and the 5’s usually tell you how amazing it is because it’s better than the last product they now hate because it broke.

Metacritic reviews mean nothing. Anyone can rally the troops and put either a ton of good or bad reviews. There’s nothing to say those reviews are genuine. There’s nothing to say they aren’t. Some fanboys will flood it with good reviews to help his favored brandname. Some haters will flood it with negative to ‘hurt’ the brandname that so offended him. Some will review good or bad before they even give something a fair play. Some will do it blind on word of mouth of others. Some will do it after in-depth playing and giving a fair chance.

These reviews literally mean nothing. I would never use metacritic as a basis for anything.

I have a full time job and will soon be a dad. I have no time to waste regarding the little free time enjoyment I can muster.

My review will be as detailed as I can be right now:

I like it.

At first I was a little disappointed. But then….well, I’m not gonna have my Herald for some time now.
But you know what? I just finished my Mawdrey after months and months of small steps. It felt glorious. To demand that we intantly get all the shinies is to devaluate them.
Do you cry in other MMOs to be max level instantly because “thats the way you want to play”?
Or get all the raid gear because you want to play it that way?

You know what? I don’t care that people got it faster and more easily/carelessly, but I earned that Mawdrey. And I will earn that Herald tree. GW2s most valued virtue has always been “enjoy the ride, the way is the goal”
They keep on giving us that.

Try earning things instead of crying for participation medals.

Wanna know why reviews have gone up? Because tons of people who were upset with decisions such as the elite unlock requirements got up in arms and posted bad reviews.

Meanwhile, people who were happy with the game played it. Now that those players have had a chance to get their fill, they’ve come back and given their honest assessment of the expansion as a whole.

You’ll see this same thing play out with other expansions. It’s the same reason why a game can be successful and run profitably while the forums for those games are full of angry, bitter posts.

People who enjoy the game play it. People who are upset about it go try to find someone to listen to their complaints.

I like, almost love the expansion. Lets see, gliding and jumping mushrooms and updrafts were the three masteries that I felt were really gating me and that took me about 5 hours of casual playing to unlock. I guess my main goal for the game was to play all my elite specs (I have 10 toons by the way, 6 of which i had atleast 170 hero points on before the expansion started.)

So I went about getting mastery experience by trying to get all the hero points in verdant brink. That was what day one was really all about. I can now easily get 10/11 in that zone. My first character took 2 days to unlock his elite spec totally. That was about 10 hours of playing. Again casually playing cause I stopped to play events and glide and explore. My next character only took me 2 hours to go from 170 hero points to 400 cause Im now pro at getting the hero points.

2 hours to unlock an elite spec feels in no way grindy to me even if i need to do it 8 more times cause the events are fun and the classes and builds i play are varied enough to keep me entertained.

One possibly big caveat. I havnt done any of the story. Ive heard that you need itzel poison unlocked to progress the story and I dont have that mastery quite yet. I am close though and I am sure Ill have it by the time I get there because I heard story gets you exp and Im about to start training it after I do the speed mushroom training.

So maybe its a goals problem for some people. People that wanted to finish the story over the weekend. Me I dont care as much about the story, cause thats one and done. I care about the content we will be playing long after the story is over. And holy heck, the events in verdant brink at night, and the big meta in auric basin are both 10/10 for me. They are super fun. Also my elites are super fun. So yeh Id give this game a great review

Texas.9547:

I like, almost love the expansion. Lets see, gliding and jumping mushrooms and updrafts were the three masteries that I felt were really gating me and that took me about 5 hours of casual playing to unlock. I guess my main goal for the game was to play all my elite specs (I have 10 toons by the way, 6 of which i had atleast 170 hero points on before the expansion started.)

So I went about getting mastery experience by trying to get all the hero points in verdant brink. That was what day one was really all about. I can now easily get 10/11 in that zone. My first character took 2 days to unlock his elite spec totally. That was about 10 hours of playing. Again casually playing cause I stopped to play events and glide and explore. My next character only took me 2 hours to go from 170 hero points to 400 cause Im now pro at getting the hero points.

2 hours to unlock an elite spec feels in no way grindy to me even if i need to do it 8 more times cause the events are fun and the classes and builds i play are varied enough to keep me entertained.

One possibly big caveat. I havnt done any of the story. Ive heard that you need itzel poison unlocked to progress the story and I dont have that mastery quite yet. I am close though and I am sure Ill have it by the time I get there because I heard story gets you exp and Im about to start training it after I do the speed mushroom training.

So maybe its a goals problem for some people. People that wanted to finish the story over the weekend. Me I dont care as much about the story, cause thats one and done. I care about the content we will be playing long after the story is over. And holy heck, the events in verdant brink at night, and the big meta in auric basin are both 10/10 for me. They are super fun. Also my elites are super fun. So yeh Id give this game a great review

What level is your gliding Mastery, Nuhoc Mastery, and Itzel mastery? You are obviously lying if you said you have finished all of your Hero points.

let me quote myself, I know words are hard. “I have 10 toons by the way, 6 of which i had atleast 170 hero points on before the expansion started”

if you had a few hero points before the expansion dropped then you dont need to get all 40 from the maguma jungle

To answer your question though let me quote myself again "gliding and jumping mushrooms and updrafts ". Those 3 masteries alone were enough for me to get hero points spread across 3 maps to unlock my elite specs

Also if you come up just short of what you need cause of some mastery you dont wanna get like updrafts cause really i only needed updraft for like 5 of the hero points, then you can go to wvw to get those few you couldnt get without updrafts

Also theres guides on dulfy.com now if you are having trouble.

Though if your trying to finish the story, none of this will really help you.

MoonRaiden.7423:

What level is your gliding Mastery, Nuhoc Mastery, and Itzel mastery? You are obviously lying if you said you have finished all of your Hero points.

Assuming, insulting and demanding. Can’t you possibly see that other people have different experiences with the game? That those flaws that you are percieving are your subjective point of view?
You expected more. Note taken, your voice has been heard. But it seems that other people’s experiences differ. They are not wrong or lying. You aren’t either.

Accept that and move on.

“Bagie
Oct 26, 2015
10
Even if ithink it need improving, not-so-smart ppl using score to get theyr way needs to stop. And this 10/10 is to help that at leats in a small way. Go ANET”

Best “objective” review ever. 14/7

Seriously, this review war is a sad joke.

I love how that site was brigaded by reddit to force positive reviews from the fanboys.

bLind.6278:

I love how that site was brigaded by reddit to force positive reviews from the fanboys.

Guess you didn’t see it a couple days ago, when the average score was like 3/10 because of all the buttmad kiddies giving 0 stars?

Andred.1087:

bLind.6278:

I love how that site was brigaded by reddit to force positive reviews from the fanboys.

Guess you didn’t see it a couple days ago, when the average score was like 3/10 because of all the buttmad kiddies giving 0 stars?

So all Reddit fan boys trying to manipulate the metric score are any better than these so called butt mad kids? There are some truths to both sides in the reviews!

Texas.9547:

let me quote myself, I know words are hard. “I have 10 toons by the way, 6 of which i had atleast 170 hero points on before the expansion started”

if you had a few hero points before the expansion dropped then you dont need to get all 40 from the maguma jungle

To answer your question though let me quote myself again "gliding and jumping mushrooms and updrafts ". Those 3 masteries alone were enough for me to get hero points spread across 3 maps to unlock my elite specs

Also if you come up just short of what you need cause of some mastery you dont wanna get like updrafts cause really i only needed updraft for like 5 of the hero points, then you can go to wvw to get those few you couldnt get without updrafts

Also theres guides on dulfy.com now if you are having trouble.

Though if your trying to finish the story, none of this will really help you.

Starting from 170 would make it quite easy to run the maps and just cap the easy ones once you had gliding, updraft and mushrooms opened- you only need 23/40 to complete.

It’s the other 17 that are gated behind masteries that will cause a lot of problems and turn the whole thing into a massive grind.

MoonRaiden.7423:

Is it me or has anyone else notice it?

I am serious..
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns/user-reviews

There’s no actual review, there’s no bug reports, nothing mentioned about the low experience gain, the tedious gates, and this looks just like pure fan servicing or the reviews were bought.

here’s a quote I picked out from one of the user review
"Leveling your mastery does not feel like a grind at all, instead you get immersed by all the events and story going on in the new areas. "

Are you kitten me? What immersion do I gain from grinding 5 million experience points+ just to unlock multiple gates to traverse, explore and enjoy the content?

No, I do not care about Hero points, I am already 73.8% through elite specialization, and is Mastery Rank 10. This post is in fact my actual complaint to the game developers, and I felt like I had to grind a lot of content just to play the content (what?). So the content became nothing more but dust, so I actually do not want to revisit any of the areas that I cleared. For example, Verdant Brink is somewhere I had clear by 84% and I’d rather not step back into it even if someone wants to give me 5 million dollars to go back there to grind; it’s god awful that I’d rather scream than take the 5 million just to enter the zone again to grind.

Another mention is that WvWvW and EoTM has become even bigger now because 90% of the people there does not want to go to Maguuma due to the heavy grind, and low experience points; this is a huge sign that the content is lacking and very low quality (although it has fantastic scenery and good models, without a doubt there’s a lot of glitches which I discovered and will be reporting later), so please developers, please I beg you to not kill off this game with grind gates because not only it goes against your manifesto but it is very disappointing to players who were looking to enjoy this game casually.

No we aren’t kittening you. Some of us really are enjoying the experience and think it’s great. Not everyone thinks the way you do. And yet your post here seems to suggest that everyone should be thinking like you. Just remember some people prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla as well, and it doesn’t make them wrong either..

So I just have to ask….have you played other games? They gate things all the time behind gaming experience or buying expansions or DLC. Take the Battlrfield series, if you want a certain gun you grind your way through it. want to unlock JDAM bombs? Hope you are ready to get shot out of the air a lot.

Games are subjective to the individual playing; for every person liking or disliking an aspect of said game an equal or greater number think the opposite. You are wanting more than vague responses and stating that MOST people, which your personal sample size is less than ten (going by what you said) which is not nearly enough to speak as to most of the player base. Yes there is large forum post with thousands of replies but that thread has been around for 7 months so a decent amount of the replies happened before the release of HOT.

In my guild, that is at member cap and has been for over a year, the consensus is overwhelmingly positive. Yes a few have complained about gating but we have had two nights already where as a guild we have basically queued a map and ran everyone through events, HP and masteries.

Apparently the expansion is not right for you and you have the right to your a opinion, but don’t ask people to justify theirs if they are enjoying it. I for one enjoy the hard content and having to come back later.

JediYoda.1275:

Andred.1087:

bLind.6278:

I love how that site was brigaded by reddit to force positive reviews from the fanboys.

Guess you didn’t see it a couple days ago, when the average score was like 3/10 because of all the buttmad kiddies giving 0 stars?

So all Reddit fan boys trying to manipulate the metric score are any better than these so called butt mad kids? There are some truths to both sides in the reviews!

Sorry, but asking for people who are generally more caught up in playing the game than raging on the forums to actually speak up and balance the conversation isn’t ‘manipulating’ the score. Manipulating the score would be asking people to register false accounts or to get friends who haven’t even played HoT to post high reviews.

I mean, that’s like saying that a politician telling people to go out and vote during a speech is ‘manipulating’ the vote. It’s not fixing the election just because they’re speaking to people that agree with them.

JediYoda.1275:

Andred.1087:

bLind.6278:

I love how that site was brigaded by reddit to force positive reviews from the fanboys.

Guess you didn’t see it a couple days ago, when the average score was like 3/10 because of all the buttmad kiddies giving 0 stars?

So all Reddit fan boys trying to manipulate the metric score are any better than these so called butt mad kids? There are some truths to both sides in the reviews!

Reddit fan boys? right because any who like the expansion and disagree with vocal minority are fan boys right? The fact is bad posts there can be downvoted to oblivion, while bad post on offical forum stays.

@Notsoperky what you say is true. I wanted to play herald but when they said 400 points, I knew then that it would be more enjoyable to play a character that had some hero points already. So when the day came I made a revenant but I chose to run through maps on my mezmer and I felt like I was working towards something that was obtainable.

Are a lot of people playing the expansion with characters that they did no map completion with? I do still have 4 characters with little to no map completion cause I leveled them through tomes and I am waiting till I have more masteries to run them through cause I know it will be super easy by then to get their elites.

I can see people who wanted to beat the story the first weekend like it was Archam Asylum or people who just had to have herald day one having the worst experience with this expansion.

Unless you can seriously call leveling your first character from 1 to 80 also a grind, I can’t seriously accept you’re complaining about this. Other MMOs expansions Required you to put some effort into gaining the new improvements and the new toys etc etc that was made available with said the new expansion, and this is no different at all. Therefore there really is nothing that you can legitimately complain about. Not until other MMOs start giving away everything for free. Otherwise, I want all the legendaries for free and I want them right now.

I signed in metacritic and gave it a 10 review since it is absurd those 0s&1s reviews.
It is not a 10 (I would rate it a 8.5), but the absurdity of people giving it a 0 because you have to play the game to get full elite spec made me give it a 10 to balance it.

And the haters are lucky most people that fun do not care about these things or it would be closer to 10:1 positive:negative.