Guild Wars 2

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Interesting because the times I needed to change maps and get a taxi in Silverwastes were too numerous to count. Not because there weren’t people around but because of the dreaded chest farm going on.

maddoctor.2738:

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Interesting because the times I needed to change maps and get a taxi in Silverwastes were too numerous to count. Not because there weren’t people around but because of the dreaded chest farm going on.

Agreed.

maddoctor.2738:

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Interesting because the times I needed to change maps and get a taxi in Silverwastes were too numerous to count. Not because there weren’t people around but because of the dreaded chest farm going on.

Also quoted for truth.

What Silverwastes did right:

• Player-triggered meta event.

What Silverwastes did wrong:

• Chest farm.

This is nearly inverted for all the HoT maps.
Time-based metas that are severely unfriendly to pick-up play.
Reward scheme that occasionally rewards for non-participation. (I always feel a little guilty when that happens.)

But, it does hand out rewards for participation that give access to the region’s chests. Where Silverwastes misstepped in the similar strategy was by socializing loot drops. One person with a shovel can pull 50 people out of participating in the zone.

If Silverwastes ditched shovels and made the chests strictly key-based, we would have a near-perfect zone.

maddoctor.2738:

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Interesting because the times I needed to change maps and get a taxi in Silverwastes were too numerous to count. Not because there weren’t people around but because of the dreaded chest farm going on.

I haven’t got a chest map that often but when I did I’d simply join the zerg and grab some treasure. The few times the map failed were funny especially when it was a full map. Nearly all the time the sitch goes down like this: enter map, usually halfway done or in the downtime between events, defend fort, run some caravans, defend another fort, then Vinewrath and maze.

HoT maps need to switch to those kinds of timers and they aren’t setup to have a distinction between treasure or event maps too.

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Actually you’re quoting this for truth but it’s the opposite of my experience. Most of the time I’ve done DS I didn’t taxi in. Or rather, I stayed in a map that was closing until it closed, in a group with people already organized who had just done one, and we were all in one single squad together. It’s actually easier to organize something like this yourself than it is to use the LFG tool.

Before the map ever went to the LFG tool I was already in because we all just moved to a new map.

Vayne.8563:

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Actually you’re quoting this for truth but it’s the opposite of my experience. Most of the time I’ve done DS I didn’t taxi in. Or rather, I stayed in a map that was closing until it closed, in a group with people already organized who had just done one, and we were all in one single squad together. It’s actually easier to organize something like this yourself than it is to use the LFG tool.

Before the map ever went to the LFG tool I was already in because we all just moved to a new map.

I stayed until a map closed. It killed me and banished me into Tangled Depths, forcing me to zone in again. Good on ya, game. When I finally did make the transition to the upcoming DS map, it was literally two people. Me, and the one patient sod who inhabited a camp.

So, I’m thinking an adjustment to some core philosophies is in order here.

Rauderi.8706:

Vayne.8563:

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Actually you’re quoting this for truth but it’s the opposite of my experience. Most of the time I’ve done DS I didn’t taxi in. Or rather, I stayed in a map that was closing until it closed, in a group with people already organized who had just done one, and we were all in one single squad together. It’s actually easier to organize something like this yourself than it is to use the LFG tool.

Before the map ever went to the LFG tool I was already in because we all just moved to a new map.

I stayed until a map closed. It killed me and banished me into Tangled Depths, forcing me to zone in again. Good on ya, game. When I finally did make the transition to the upcoming DS map, it was literally two people. Me, and the one patient sod who inhabited a camp.

So, I’m thinking an adjustment to some core philosophies is in order here.

I was already in a squad with people before the map closed. So even if it transfers you, and kills you it’s easy to get back in and onto the same server as everyone else.

I actually really like the new content, the maps are gorgeous and the events are fun.

foxcat.4096:

Daggos Skelito.2910:

Serious.6940:

Another issue is that increasing the power of players means mobs need increased power too, just to stay even. Central Tyria mobs were not much of a challenge before HoT but now don’t even reach cannon fodder levels. anet really needs to think before giving players even more power we don’t need.

Worse it creates balance issues between players who have HoT and those that do not.

Im really starting to feel HOT players have an advantage in WvW/EoTM. Sorry but getting insta downed alot since HOT gives me the “Pay to Win” feeling. Never rage quit before HOT and been doing alot of that lately. I’ll give it some more time before exploring other options. HOT just isnt for me.

An expansion is not “pay to win” its your decision if you buy it or not however and expansion like the name suggests is gonna expand on the base game. Which in the case of pretty much every MMO ever meant and increase in level cap. HoT had no level cap increase but introduced new specs even if it was possible that they where all in perfect balance with the exisiting pre HoT builds you are still gimping yourself by having less options.

The reality of expansions in MMOs is if you do not have the existing expansion/s you don’t have the full game and as such will be at a disadvantage. Gw2 is pretty unique in that you can still be competitive without the expansion but again you will always be limited as you do not have access to all the content. If you cant deal with that then MMOs are not for you further more if you can’t afford $30 or whatever for the expansion playing video games should not be a priority for you.

In all Pay to Win games you have the choice of paying or not, your argument does not make sense here. The actual cost doesn’t matter, it’s the fact you have to pay. If someone gets an advantage for paying money it’s still pay to win. GW2 is a triumvirate game consisting of PvE, PvP and WvW. Many players who paid at launch and only do WvW or PvP don’t want the additional HoT content – why should they pay for something they will not use? Many free to players don’t have the money available to buy HoT.

The pay to win issue isn’t in HoT but WvW and PvP. They should give the skills to all WvW and PvP players for free, or not allow them to be used there at all.

Serious.6940:

foxcat.4096:

Daggos Skelito.2910:

Serious.6940:

Another issue is that increasing the power of players means mobs need increased power too, just to stay even. Central Tyria mobs were not much of a challenge before HoT but now don’t even reach cannon fodder levels. anet really needs to think before giving players even more power we don’t need.

Worse it creates balance issues between players who have HoT and those that do not.

Im really starting to feel HOT players have an advantage in WvW/EoTM. Sorry but getting insta downed alot since HOT gives me the “Pay to Win” feeling. Never rage quit before HOT and been doing alot of that lately. I’ll give it some more time before exploring other options. HOT just isnt for me.

An expansion is not “pay to win” its your decision if you buy it or not however and expansion like the name suggests is gonna expand on the base game. Which in the case of pretty much every MMO ever meant and increase in level cap. HoT had no level cap increase but introduced new specs even if it was possible that they where all in perfect balance with the exisiting pre HoT builds you are still gimping yourself by having less options.

The reality of expansions in MMOs is if you do not have the existing expansion/s you don’t have the full game and as such will be at a disadvantage. Gw2 is pretty unique in that you can still be competitive without the expansion but again you will always be limited as you do not have access to all the content. If you cant deal with that then MMOs are not for you further more if you can’t afford $30 or whatever for the expansion playing video games should not be a priority for you.

In all Pay to Win games you have the choice of paying or not, your argument does not make sense here. The actual cost doesn’t matter, it’s the fact you have to pay. If someone gets an advantage for paying money it’s still pay to win. GW2 is a triumvirate game consisting of PvE, PvP and WvW. Many players who paid at launch and only do WvW or PvP don’t want the additional HoT content – why should they pay for something they will not use? Many free to players don’t have the money available to buy HoT.

The pay to win issue isn’t in HoT but WvW and PvP. They should give the skills to all WvW and PvP players for free, or not allow them to be used there at all.

Well then every single MMORPG is pay to win, since every one of them raises the level cap. P2W was a term meant to talk about microtransaction in relation to buying power directly and having to keep spending money to stay on top. It was never meant to apply to expansions, because expansions are the payment model.

In Guild Wars 1, you had expansions that came with skills you couldn’t access if you didn’t buy them. But no one said Guild Wars 1 was pay to win. You also had classes you couldn’t access if you didn’t buy it. In WoW they raid the level cap every expansion which means you can’t compete unless you buy the expansion. Hell in WOW You can’t even compete if you don’t pay the subscription.

The issue here is the issue of people taking language literally instead of looking at the intended usage. It only means pay to win if you’re interpreting pay to win literally. Not if you’re using the meaning it was designed to convey.

Let me ask you this. Can you name a single MMORPG that’s not pay to win by your definition?

In WoW, since it keeps being trotted out as an example of raising the level cap, can a character at the new expansion based level cap play his expanded level character in pre-expansion level PvP brackets? Can he take a newly expanded level 90 (or whatever it is) into a level 45 PvP bracket?

Ashen.2907:

In WoW, since it keeps being trotted out as an example of raising the level cap, can a character at the new expansion based level cap play his expanded level character in pre-expansion level PvP brackets? Can he take a newly expanded level 90 (or whatever it is) into a level 45 PvP bracket?

I don’t know about sPvP but one of the complaints on their forums there about world PvP is that the power creep from 10 levels per expansion has helped to wreck world PvP. The low to mid levels have no chance at all, whereas mid levels used to be able to gang up on a max level at launch and win.

It would be similar to an expansion in this game adding 10 levels to purchasers who can then play in WvW against non purchasers.

I like HoT overall. My perspective is all about PvE. I love the new maps, even TD. I enjoy the vertical nature of the maps. I enjoy the more engaging enemies and their mechanics. I enjoy the new map traversal methods (gliding, wallows, exalted teleporters). I enjoy the map meta events.

I almost enjoyed the mastery system, until I hit a brick wall in the form of mastery point gating behind content I just can’t make myself like (adventures and story achievements). I know the story achievements aren’t difficulty, but finding the motivation to actually do them has been a challenge in and of itself. Then there are the adventures…I despise mini games. I’ve been forcing myself to do them little by little….just because of the legendary collections and the mastery point barrier. I feel like I’m being forced to do menial labor or being punished when I have to do them. Definitely not something I’m enjoying…and that’s a problem since this is supposed to be a game…something you do for fun. I’m not a fan of platform gaming…especially platform gaming on a timer. I can honestly say I would never willingly do these mini games if I wasn’t being pressured into them to complete my character’s functionalities and gear progression. Its seriously affecting my desire to play the game, when my remaining goals are largely limited to these things I significantly dislike. I would love it if ANET would add more mastery points into HoT content outside of these. I will fight mobs/bosses and do events with joy, but put a mini game in front of me or some boring story achievements…and lethargy/apathy sets in.

I like the raiding addition in HoT as well, although I have barely participated so far. I missed the initial raiding rush, so I don’t have the experience that most raiding groups are looking for. Honestly, I haven’t even bothered trying to raid for the most part because I don’t really like the absence of performance measuring tools in a raiding environment. I like to see how I’m doing…more than just whether i’m passing the mechanics portion of the encounter. I’m not a fan of endless wipes due to lack of feedback in game about group performance. I’ve been in a few VG attempts when HoT first launched in pugs and in one Gorseval attempt…in another pug…just to get a feel for the fights, but I’d much rather do that type of content with a consistent guild group. Raids have been a guild breaker for me though. I’ve bailed on 3 guilds so far that initially said they would raid during my general play time, but never really even got started. The problem with general guilds wanting to raid is the lack of filters in joining a guild in this game. The same issue exists within every aspect of instanced PvE in this game. Its just more pronounced and obvious when raids are involved. Raids were designed around the premise that you would have a consistent group of players tackling this content together. The problem is that guilds are pretty much just a random social event in this game. There are no tryouts. No evaluations. Just randoms doing random things at random skill levels. Essentially most guilds are worse than most pug groups at any content that matters. That being the case, they implode when they try to bring that pug/phiw mentality into a raid. They smash against the skill requirement like bugs on a windshield. They either quit trying, form a small/elite core raiding group, or end up a ghost town. I’ve decided to just work on the legendary grind until I see if there is going to be any improvement to forming and managing raids. That’s what I think will really be necessary to opening them up more.

The only other content that I bother with is fractals. I do these on a regular basis, but only for the gold….to fund my legendary grind. I’m not a fan of farming open world content, so fractals is all that’s left for me in that respect. I really don’t like what they did regarding the single/static fractal island change. Its just as we predicted with swamp/molten non stop, but that isn’t even a problem for me. I have no issues with following the path of least resistance for quickest rewards. My issue is with how boring it is without the randomization and with the hp/toughness punching bags at higher levels. As usual, ANET is swinging and missing at fixing the actual problems of why people only do swamp/molten. Its a logical response to the hp/toughness overkill. Most players don’t want to die of old age wearing down all that hp and toughness. Then there’s the issue with craptastic instabilities at higher levels (social awkwardness, boon fumbler, enemies getting boons on crit, randon condis….mostly fear). This is why anything other than swamp past 50 is empty in LFG.

This undoubtedly seems like a lot of complaining, but ultimately I like HoT. I’m just dissatisfied with a significant number of their decisions and them holding out on QoL improvements like group performance tools. Oh yeah, fix the LFG tool while they are at it….show the specialization icons instead of just the base profession icons.

i completely agree with ODB, and with other guys that liked hot too. I will not repeat what they said, I will add that I have not read here yet:

- I liked very much the leystone armor, for the first time we have a “shining” effect armor outside gemstore.
- As big fan of map exploration, i liked the new maps design. Each one of the 4 maps is unique.
- Im near complete all Hot Content after 4 months, i didnt do any kind of CoF/Spider. My “exp farm” was Dragon Stand meta.
- For now I returned to Central Tyria to complete masteries. Im searching for some legends colletions items too. I like the lore behind some items, and coming back to places I had not seen a long time. After some Central Tyria, i will back to HoT to work for “the great reformer” title.

I don’t hate the game post HoT, but I’m playing significantly less, and I’ve also stopped buying gems.

I’d probably play more regularly if they add new fractals and revamp the fractal system… again, assuming I haven’t lost interest in the game entirely by then.

fluxy.1203:

i agree with you .. and do not understand why people keep playing and paying .. O_o time to find an new game …

“Why do people continue to play MMO’s?” That’s an interesting question. Probably because it fills some emotional desire/need on their part. Taken on that level, people who dislike/hate HOT likely find that playing that content detracts from their sense of fulfillment rather than contributes to it.

I find it interesting that ANet thought to hire an economist so that the in-game economy would function as they wished, but apparently did not see the need to have a psychologist on hand to analyze the meta-needs of their player-base. By all accounts, they rely on metrics, which can be deceiving.

IndigoSundown.5419:

“Why do people continue to play MMO’s?” That’s an interesting question. Probably because it fills some emotional desire/need on their part. Taken on that level, people who dislike/hate HOT likely find that playing that content detracts from their sense of fulfillment rather than contributes to it.

I find it interesting that ANet thought to hire an economist so that the in-game economy would function as they wished, but apparently did not see the need to have a psychologist on hand to analyze the meta-needs of their player-base. By all accounts, they rely on metrics, which can be deceiving.

Cited for likely truth.

In my casual study of games and game design, I’ve spotted a legion of mistakes that anyone with a degree should have caught and corrected:

Short iteration time after failure – Not present in Living Story releases. Jumping puzzles like Not So Secret are equally frustrating sinners. The reset button on Adventures was actually well executed, even if the Adventures themselves were not.

Conveyance – Not present in ..90% of enemy attacks? Jumping puzzles and general map navigation art both poor for the same reason. Too little information being given over available ‘channels’ of communication. Meta-events are also prone to this. (It’s as if ANet has a problem with communication~)

Reward schedules – …’nuff said. I love a stable economy, but some decisions are made without polite consideration to how rewarding our experiences are.

Balancing – …We mostly agree there’s a problem. The solution isn’t so easy, so I cut the team a lot of slack. (Except for the current state of Warrior. Grr.)

Engaging encounter design – Hit and miss. HoT did add some enemies that require attention and counter-play. It also added literally one-skill enemies that lean on ANet’s frustrating CC durations. Bring the stragglers up to snuff and I’d actually be lauding encounter design overall.

I don’t hate it, I’m just disappointed.

IndigoSundown.5419:

fluxy.1203:

i agree with you .. and do not understand why people keep playing and paying .. O_o time to find an new game …

“Why do people continue to play MMO’s?” That’s an interesting question. Probably because it fills some emotional desire/need on their part. Taken on that level, people who dislike/hate HOT likely find that playing that content detracts from their sense of fulfillment rather than contributes to it.

I find it interesting that ANet thought to hire an economist so that the in-game economy would function as they wished, but apparently did not see the need to have a psychologist on hand to analyze the meta-needs of their player-base. By all accounts, they rely on metrics, which can be deceiving.

I think metrics are complete bullkitten 80% of the time – at least that’s the amount of time anything I do that contributes to a metric is only done because I have been pointed into a particular style of gameplay that I wouldn’t have chosen normally.

If you make A look unappetising and people flocked to B that doesn’t mean people want more B….

Im past being annoyed with Hot and have just moved onto ‘meh’ currently – there is talk apparently of them rejigging the way Hot map Meta’s force you into blocks of gameplay ( on their timetable not yours) but I cant see it being anything other that a slight re parcelling out of rewards through the whole meta period – we will still be locked into the godkitten 2 hour timetables, because they would have to rebuild from the groundup I suspect to get rid of those.

There is an interesting thread on Reddit about people being locked out of LFG and how rubbish it is for those fighting their way through taxi wars at the start of a new map – a rubbish conflation of two manky systems – LFG open world and map timers – making the game just way to tiring to feel bothered before you even get started…

I pretty much have a similar agreement with the OP-

I’m too am kinda a casual player these days (I don’t invest too long in a single map unless I’m waiting for Teq or I’m on EotM) so I really hate how the expansion maps are just a longer version of the Silverwaste (1+ hour for a big event). Yeah I’m not a gold farmer if I don’t like the Silverwaste in general.

I also dislike how much the grind it is like the masteries and those item achievements too. Also I missed how stable and flat the enviroment the maps were in Centural Tyria. It doesn’t help that I need to max out some of the materies in order to complete one of the maps or two.

Heck the reason why I love doing fractual now is due to how FAST it is now! Doing 40+ mins before the expansion was a huge gamble for me incase if the team quit on a hard map like Mai Trin and how much it can messed you up on how random it is.

Also YES I know no one is forcing me to do the achievements but still I end up doing them one way or the another. However right now I am competely put off from playing HOT when I know I should be playing it like I was when GW2 was release like doing map complection with all my char (only my ranger just beat the story and only got VB map complected).

Other than the new Fractual is a plus, I do love playing as a Revenant.

It’s mostly the time gated new content. The fixed 2 hour rotations mean you have to plan your life around the game if you want to get in a map. Outside of those time periods, LFG is just dead besides old content which I am exhausted on.

Historically, GW2 had a lot of time gated materials, but like the cycles on World Bosses worked so there was pretty always a world boss about to be up whenever you logged in. And if you didn’t want to wait, you could do other forms of open content, dungeons and or fractals.

That variety isn’t in HoT outside of raids which is also content that requires a lot of organization and time investment. No new dungeons or fractals.

I kind of spent $60 on basically a bunch of fluffy new features I can use to play old content.

Other issues, too. The new grinds are ridicoulous and being done to try and extend the life on the little bit of content we paid for. They are even worse than traditional grinds, because the end result of the grind is something that is either purely cosmetic or of equal power to stuff you have. It’s one thing to grind to develop a character; it’s another thing to grind just for the sake of grinding and to help fix a broken economy.

Balance in PvP is also really kittened up and WvW has gone stale.

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

This.

I love my Dragonhunter. I love gliding in Tyria.

I hate the HOT zones and HOT content.

I dont hate hot… but i sure do hate certain parts of it like
- that im the only one left of my guild cause the rest left the game
- that it botched wvw now that i started to love it
- that i waited one year for armor skins and got only a handfull of them
- that they nerfed the dungeons
- that they made the engi spec once again an a.i spec
- that the story was short and obviosly cut
- that i had traherne not as a boss fight like i wanted
- that they now only balance each quarter and exlusive for pvp
so yeh… quite salty atm… but im still here… a bit

if by hate you mean continue to love than yes

Hate is indeed a strong word, one should not just throw it around. That being said my once great enthusiasm for online rpgs have long been burned to the ground by grind and imbalances in the many games I’ve been through. I got GW2 back when it released, played then stopped and then came back to it a few months before HoT – it was the game where grind and gear didnt really matter. I bought into the marketing hype of HoT even tho I know well enough I shouldnt have. I said to myself ‘hey, these folks at Arenanet deserve my money right’… wrong

HoT introduced several things into GW2 and the only one I actually like are the new class specs. Everything else – time gating, having to taxi into populated maps, grind, grind and more grind, reduced rewards from well established game modes, forcing people into content, mess of a new maps, artificially boosting enemy NPCs power instead of making the AI more challenging, eSport… all of that I really dont like. And I’m sure there is something else I’m forgetting but I haven’t been to the jungle since its release and I tend to forget things I dislike.

What am I gonna do about it? For now I’ll just play alts thru core Tyria, collecting and selling materials along the way, I’ve paid money for this product after all. I wont just quit but I will refrain from buying anything else. They have to win me back if they can.

I really don’t hate the game. With HoT we just got more content. But… yes there is a but..

The grinding in HoT is taking all the fun out of the game (story). I follow Woodenpotatoes on YouTube. In one video he says:

“I am going to spoil.. if you really care about the story you already played it!”.

He’s got a point there but I’m not very far in the HoT story because of the mastery grinding.. For every story mission I have to have a certain mastery to continue… This reminds me of the World of Warcraft episode of South Park..

But this is really my only complaint. I really love the setting of HoT! And common! Gliding! I only have the basic gliding (because of mastery grind) but I really love it!

I have a 100% job, play 4-5h every day and hit max mastery level (well 161, not 163 since I didn’t got to the raid) after about 1 month. It’s no different than levelling up a character. And it is even account bound.

Without this levelling people would complain there is nothing to do. Also, you really don’t need a lot in the masteries; after having ley-line gliding and mushroom jumping you’re pretty fine with it. Rest is just bonus.

My only complaint is the short and rushed story, only 4 maps and no single dungeon or fractal. The price should have been around 40€ for people who already own he original game. That said, rest is fine. I don’t play WvW and PvP so I can’t comment on this.

ProtoGunner.4953:

Without this levelling people would complain there is nothing to do.

They complain about that anyway.

ProtoGunner.4953:

My only complaint is the short and rushed story, only 4 maps and no single dungeon or fractal. The price should have been around 40€ for people who already own he original game. That said, rest is fine. I don’t play WvW and PvP so I can’t comment on this.

See, you’re making that complaint yourself.

This mastery levelling only camouflages the lack of content, it doesn’t remedy it.

I don’t hate the game because of it, in many ways it got more enjoyable to me. But that last bossfight… You’d think that by now they’d have all the bugs out, but no. Last phase a bug and this is how I still haven’t finished the kitten story.

ProtoGunner.4953:

I have a 100% job, play 4-5h every day and hit max mastery level (well 161, not 163 since I didn’t got to the raid) after about 1 month. It’s no different than levelling up a character. And it is even account bound.

Without this levelling people would complain there is nothing to do. Also, you really don’t need a lot in the masteries; after having ley-line gliding and mushroom jumping you’re pretty fine with it. Rest is just bonus.

Because leveling is like fundamental to the structure of an RPG game. Character development is, arguably, the entire point of it.

Masteries due a very poor job of replacing that, because the abilities they give don’t develop your character, but essentially, just give you abilities to access more content.

It becomes somewhat circular; you do the masteries to gain access to new content to gain more masteries. There is little incentive outside of that, because HoT lacks vertical item progression like the original game had from levels 1 – 80. There is very little reason to do the content outside of enjoyment of the content, because the rewards are either meaningless or superficial.

There is even less reason to do the content when the content is so small in variety and build largely are a model of grinding it repeatedly to gain currency for items that have little value.

Honestly I love the content of HoT and what it added, it’s just things you have to do to get to play the content.

Megaservers constantly putting you in maps without that many people is depressing, and yes I could look for a taxi but that is no guarantee either. These maps were designed to be always populated and playing, and most of the time I can’t find any even worth organizing because of no people.

Timers too long or too short. DS’s reward phase should be something like 30 minutes for you to run around and enjoy all the map has to offer. Instead you’re in an all out mad dash and if you fall or get hurt nobody is gonna stop to help you. Tangled depths has way too much downtime between lane events and the Gerent event. Tarir I think is in a good spot though as well as verdant brink.

Timegated and account bound materials for almost everything endgamewise. Charged crystals, mithrilium, etc. etc. beforehand it was ok but now we need them for a lot of things from ascended and legendaries to guild upgrades I think it’s time to get rid of the dang timegate.

Inclusion of more and more gold and crafting sinks.

I’m not a fan of Tangled Depths (so I don’t stick around there long).

I can do without some of the mini-games (so I do without them).

I get upset with myself when I can only kill 24 out of the 40 pocket raptors that swarm me after I only spotted 6 initially, but that’s happened more than a few times when I was trying to get wvw map completion prior to the change and a zerg rolled over me so /shrug. Ok that’s not entirely shrug worthy. Getting killed by something that’s half the size of the smallest asuran is embarrassing no matter how many there are.

I’m too casual to solo the Champion of Balth in Auric Basin….haha.

To sum it up, no, I don’t hate the game now. There’s certain aspects I’m not a fan of, but I can find other things in-game to do to take my mind off of the really real world for a few hours. Some in HoT. Some in core Tyria.

Kattenpootjes.4291:

It’s more the people behind it that I hate, Gw2 started so good, the betas had such amazing content and since release they kept removing more than that they added, the game slowly became just as generic as all the other mmo’s {snip}

Apologies for cutting the quote a bit short, but I’ve had a few too many infractions for honestly lately.

Still, this says something important. The things that made GW2 special are dying. They’re fading away to be replaced with generic MMO fare. And I can see why. I’m sure the common wisdom is “This is what the players want”, and “This is what works, this is what sells.”

But if you’re like the other games, then why not play the other games? GW2 offers less and less that can’t be gotten by jumping over to another game.

No, I don’t have to be level 90 to get into the raids, level 80 is still the level cap. Oh, wait. That’s level 80 PLUS several levels worth of EXP dumped into the Mastery system, so instead of being level 90, it’s level 80 + 10.

No, the gear you get in HoT isn’t numerically stronger than the gear you got in the main world, but the way the stats are assigned in the new gear may help you refine your build more, so that you still become stronger and better able to face what’s ahead of you.

No, you don’t have to raid to get that Uber Sword of Uber, or that Sparkle Pony Armor of Spar… well, I guess you DO have to raid for that one. But not for the Uber Sword! Right?

I want them to return to making Guild Wars 2, not Generic Warcraft 2.

Me.
Can’t stand it now, I have totally left for other ventures.
This game was amazing before HoT, now it pretty much stinks to holy hell. (grind, grind , grind for no skins, no new weapons (worth getting anyway), dungeons…nothing, waste of money)
All they needed to do was add things to the game, they couldnt even do that properly. They took away so much, filling the gaps with gimmicks.
Showing desperation in adding gliding to tyria, the gem store riddled with new additions, (shared inventory slot…price gouging)
Who wants to “support” a company like this?
Just log in get daily bag, log out…. check forums once in a while to see is this company decided to pull it head from is “kitten” (haha)

HoT gave GW2 new life for me, so no I do not agree. The new maps are so 3D that the rest of the game feels flat now. Why glide if there is really no reason to switch levels?

Why are so many people complaining about the size of the expansion when everything they release until the next expansion is FREE????

FREE story, FREE raids, FREE legendary weapons, FREE fractals (assuming they add more), FREE WvW rework, maybe even a FREE map or more? Who knows at this point, but since you don’t have to shell out another penny why don’t you just wait and see?

My primary complaint is the mega-servers. Something should be done to fix all the taxi service needed to build a good map. And if you crash you should be able to get back to the map you where on. In fact you should be able to zone out to another map and come back within some timeout window to the same map.

I don’t hate to the extent of quiting. But I will say certain aspects are frustrating. Map currencies. Especially in the new maps sucks. And everything feels half finished. Only 3 legandary weapon. Armor and back piece you can’t complete, yet. And the very little armor and weapon sets that shipped with the game. Even with these flaws I do enjoy it.

I am pretty new at guild wars, and I was having fun until I hit 80. Simply, as for navigation, Verdant Brink sucks! You have to have mastery points for gliding, mushrooms skills, etc, but you are not going to get very many if you are a solo player like myself. It is even tough to get around UNLESS you are moving around in a group.
And grind, grind, grind, over and over same events,= BORING. Seems like HoT is catered to big groups and told the single player to join a guild or Quit. Same thing WoW did, expanded to 40 and 80 man raids and said “forget the single person”
In my humble opinion, the first map getting into HOT should have been alittle harder then the 1-80 level maps but still give the single player places or areas to quest. Letting them still earn masteries more easily then current system so increase mobility BEFORE sending them into a triple level, twisty, winding, navigational nightmare.

I don’t hate it, I just don’t enjoy the new map and I’m not interested in the elite specializations because I’m attached to my old, perfect builds. But I’m having fun in the core game without HoT so yay! (I got a refund).

For me, HoT reignited my passion towards GW2, ive been playing almost every day since.
Before that, i only ever played from time to time, mostly to unlock the living world episodes…

MadRabbit.3179:

ProtoGunner.4953:

I have a 100% job, play 4-5h every day and hit max mastery level (well 161, not 163 since I didn’t got to the raid) after about 1 month. It’s no different than levelling up a character. And it is even account bound.

Without this levelling people would complain there is nothing to do. Also, you really don’t need a lot in the masteries; after having ley-line gliding and mushroom jumping you’re pretty fine with it. Rest is just bonus.

Because leveling is like fundamental to the structure of an RPG game. Character development is, arguably, the entire point of it.

Masteries due a very poor job of replacing that, because the abilities they give don’t develop your character, but essentially, just give you abilities to access more content.

It becomes somewhat circular; you do the masteries to gain access to new content to gain more masteries. There is little incentive outside of that, because HoT lacks vertical item progression like the original game had from levels 1 – 80. There is very little reason to do the content outside of enjoyment of the content, because the rewards are either meaningless or superficial.

There is even less reason to do the content when the content is so small in variety and build largely are a model of grinding it repeatedly to gain currency for items that have little value.

This is your interpretation. When I got the new grapple hook in Metroid I found it very rewarding to explore new areas. I didn’t get anything shiny or rare, it was rewarding in itself to just explore more of the world. See, I am an oldschool gamer, I play games since almost 30 years. Games there wasn’t about rewards, it was about accomplishments. Also, the new maps are much more interesting than the Central Tyria maps. It’s like a pony farm if you return there after a long time in HOT. But that’s my opinion.

I enjoy paying 50 dollars and getting half the content removed from the game, yay thanks anet

Stoaga.8190:

I enjoy paying 50 dollars and getting half the content removed from the game, yay thanks anet

lol

I quit because there’s nothing for me. I don’t like the grind for legendaries… so there’s no need to do raids, or those crazy grindy collections, and WVW/sPVP aren’t really for me in this game.

So the question is… what’s left? When I found the answer to be nothing, I moved on to much greener pastures.

i cant see a reason u hate the game coz of this , even if u hate hot u still have the biiig core game map and pvp and wvwv and … to play and anet working on core tyria content too , i know hot new zones feels abit unwelcoming as it should be coz its enemy territory
and it should be abit sad and dark coz of the story behind it, some people comapred gw 2 hot to darksoul XD , i bet countless number of people would want to try it if its that hard !
but seriously guys before i join gw 2 i have read some forums and redit and .. they all were complaining no real end game and things are too casual and easy and things arent skill based just dance and mobs get killed … allll those complain and tbh the only complain i saw in all those was that , so anet did what people asked. added some harder area, gw 2 hot was and is new generation of expansions ingame map depth and …. im not going to talk about it . lets say u hate jungles and u can even stand to see those trees and those frogs with long legs there r alot more things to do , and ! these zones arent the end of the road for hot im sure they will add new 1 in lw s 3 and im sure those new zones will be designed for people who dont like the current hot maps

HoT is just far too group oriented. Yes, I know, ‘but qq MMO’, but most MMO players only group up for specific content. In Magus Falls, it’s the entire friggin’ expansion that’s “group content.” And everything is locked behind it: masteries, hero progress, exploration, collections and achievements.

I’m not in a mood to herd cats into finishing objectives. (Go ahead, convince people to do Tetrad while they 1-mash at Matriarch…) Without an active guild, you might as well stop trying. And the guilds are dying from frustration and burnout.

Hate’s a pretty strong word for what I’m feeling, but frustration and disappointment are very palpable.

I don’t hate the game. I don’t even hate HoT. I do occasionally dislike what HoT has done to the game.

I do play a bit less right now, but it’s not entirely the expansion’s fault.

The game just feels lonely for me. HoT is all ‘must group, must group, follow the bouncing dorito’ content and I’m nobody anymore. Another barcode in the mob moving en mass through whatever meta event.

I still enjoy playing the core content. And I enjoy hopping into EotM or pvp, but I get bored because there’s no one to talk to or play with anymore, that I know. And apparently, I’m not very good at making new friends. (Yet I have like a mile long followers list. Very creepy) shrug

Hate is such a strong word. I reserve my hate for things that really matter, like racism, or cruelty to animals.

About HoT itself, I’m on the fence. I like some of it, I don’t like some of it. But the stuff I like I really like.

And yet the amount of little annoyances in HoT annoy the kitten out of me. Overall I’d say it’s good, but it could have been a whole lot better.

This was supposed to be the expansion that brought the old war horses back, that would re-invigorate the community and right the ship. Three months after release and the main cities look as dead as ever. Beyond logging in for daily rewards I ran out of excuses to play.

Hate is such a strong word… I don’t hate HoT at all. I just don’t enjoy playing it, at all.

What’s disappointing is that I used to love playing GW2. There was a lot that appealed and I could do whatever I wanted to without too much of a wait at any one thing.

The expansion had a few things I liked but my game experience became: try a few HoT zones to find nothing happening, try WvW to find more of nothing happening, try some pvp ( no longer any fun), try some old world to find it mostly nerfed and empty, logoff early. Soon I was just doing dailies. Soon thereafter I wasn’t even logging in.

I’ve moved on to other games but I do have fond memories of GW2 and may try it again if enough changes but I guess I just don’t really expect that to happen at this point. There seems to be zero acknowledgment from Anet that GW2 needs anything but a few tweaks here and there. Tweaks aren’t enough to bring me back.

I’m glad some folks like it. I don’t and I’m clearly not alone.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

(Yet I have like a mile long followers list. Very creepy) shrug

Lol! Me too!