Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

I completely agree with your assessment. But let’s not pretend before HoT there were so many satisfied WvW players by percentage. Many of them walked away over the years for other problems as well. The complaints about the format were endless.

HoT sure didn’t help matters that much is true, but it has major issues long before HoT.

Issues or not, people WERE playing wvw before HoT. There were three way fights EVERY evening in our borderland. Roaming parties were everywhere. Our server, in NA T4 was pretty active.

Now? New BL are dead. EB has one blob at best, abusing pirate ship and hammer #2 rev BS ( that won’t be fixed with next balance patch, proving again how Anet cares about wvw). Commanders gave up. People looking for fights left wvw. I see more and more wvw’ers in pvp.

Myself, I couldn’t even imagine putting a foot into pvp before HoT. Wvw was my GW2 life, as same as my guild mates and a lot of people I used to play with prior HoT.

Anet ruined it. They didn’t listen to beta testers feedback, they pushed stupid things like automatic upgrades, more pve events, banners kitten, stupid map gimmicks. Balance is out of control.

HoT destroyed WvW.

Maybe WvW players are playing something else in the expansion? For how long has there been no meaningful changes made in WvW? It’s not unreasonable to think that WvW could of shifted their attention to something else with the expansion which is newer and the new WvW map wasn’t enough to hold their interest.

HoT is nowhere close to failure. If you even need an argument as to why, it’s clearly not worth the time to explain it to you.

Ayrilana.1396:

Maybe WvW players are playing something else in the expansion? For how long has there been no meaningful changes made in WvW? It’s not unreasonable to think that WvW could of shifted their attention to something else with the expansion which is newer and the new WvW map wasn’t enough to hold their interest.

WvW is sagging for the same reason it generally sagged in DAoC.

Tactics don’t win a three-way server bout, population and 24-hour coverage do. Until WvW forces zergs to split up to claim and retain their territory, and until smaller populations can do specific things to win over larger ones, WvW won’t be close to even or fun.

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

Maybe WvW players are playing something else in the expansion? For how long has there been no meaningful changes made in WvW? It’s not unreasonable to think that WvW could of shifted their attention to something else with the expansion which is newer and the new WvW map wasn’t enough to hold their interest.

WvW is sagging for the same reason it generally sagged in DAoC.

Tactics don’t win a three-way server bout, population and 24-hour coverage do. Until WvW forces zergs to split up to claim and retain their territory, and until smaller populations can do specific things to win over larger ones, WvW won’t be close to even or fun.

Yep. Which really has nothing to do with the expansion as it has been like that since release over 3 years ago.

Hot failed epicly. That’ s why I still haven’ t bought it. Look at ranger status. They still haven t fixed it. Look at the pets, spirits, traps.

The analysis the guy made on his video is perfect.
Nothing to add.

I finally took the time to watch the video and I mainly agree with what was said. However, this thread title is misleading. HoT obviously did not fail, but I do find it underwhelming and I am skeptical that it will remain engaging for the general population for an extended period of time.

So not a failure, but not an overwhelming success either. One thing he hits in the video is the feeling that it was unfinished and that is one of the things I most strongly agree with.

HoT has nothing to do with the sudden death of WvW. Not directly, at the very least, and this is why:
The hardcore raiding crews are needed to face the Mordrem in open field fights to help out the pact. The roamers who have given up in the mists are actually roaming the Tangled Depths, because ganking the Mordrem is essential to win the war against the jungle dragon. The borderland defense crews which have left are actually in the jungle to back up the pact with their valuable knowledge on how to defend towers and keeps against all odds.

If you want to join the fun, just listen to the Reyana’s interviews with veteran commanders and read the WvW forums. We’re always hiring! Mordremoth must die! Then we can go back to WvW as we know it.

Rauderi.8706:

WvW is sagging for the same reason it generally sagged in DAoC.

Tactics don’t win a three-way server bout, population and 24-hour coverage do. Until WvW forces zergs to split up to claim and retain their territory, and until smaller populations can do specific things to win over larger ones, WvW won’t be close to even or fun.

They don’t win the overall match but tactics certainly win individual fights and even sometimes the overall PPT during a particular timezone hence why WvW focus for a lot of people moved away from the overall result.

The issues with pop spread are exacerbated more with GW2 than they were with DAOC due to the server system as opposed to a faction/alliance system with flexible campaigns.

The decline has been further affected dramatically by HOT and the changes in it which have been received almost universally poorly. There was a decline before HOT but it got way way worse with HOT.

Why did they actually REPLACE the map though? I coudl see a place for it as an additional map, but why get rid of the Vanilla one? So much content has been removed from thsi game. Weird.

HoT did not fail.

Mitch.4781:

Why did they actually REPLACE the map though? I coudl see a place for it as an additional map, but why get rid of the Vanilla one? So much content has been removed from thsi game. Weird.

I believe the map will eventually rotate with the original map. But ANet figured it was best to let the new map be the only map available for a while. Whether so people could try it out at their convenience rather than only on the weeks its out, or to better catch glitches in the map, or a combination, we’ll never know specifics.

When they’ll start that rotation is anyone’s guess.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Andulias.9516:

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

cthaeh.2168:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Going Free To Play devalued my purchase to zero

No it didn’t.

Aidenwolf.5964:

I have every right to have a problem with that.

No you don’t. Read 4.C of the User Agreement.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Expansion drops and more gem store items have been released than were added to the game with the xpac.

No they haven’t. Your statement is empirically false.

Aidenwolf.5964:

They have only released 3 legendary weapons but had gem skins ready to go, that’s interfering.

No it isn’t. I’m sure the amount of time to create just the skin itself is comparable, but the systems for obtaining legendary weapons are vastly more complex than those for BLTC skins.

Well since you say so…..

I bought a Buy To Play game, fact.
That game is now Free To Play, fact.
HoT removed systems from core, fact.
I paid the same price for HoT as a new player, fact.
HoT broke WvW, fact.
HoT broke PvP balance, fact.

And yes, I have every right to be upset, fact.

Actually the game isn’t free to play. If you look at the restrictions it’s still buy to play. It’s just that you buy to play HoT now. Most people that say it’s free to play were never free to play customers. Free to play ios more like an unlimited demo.

HoT broke WvW is not a fact, because people were complaining WvW was broken long before HoT. If you want I can find the posts. PPT is broken, night capping is broken, server imbalance is broken, there have been tons of issues with WvW long before HoT. WvW was already broken. I suppose you could argue HoT broke it more, but that’s a different statement.

Guild Wars 1 was also a buy to play game, it also sold expansions and those expansions included skills you could get only by owning those expansions and professions you could get only by owning those expansions.

Buy to play has never meant there wouldn’t be expansions to buy.

I started as a free-to-play account in early September. one of the reasons I bought HoT was precisely because I NEVER felt constricted by the game. Ever. In my opinion GW2 has one of the best free-to-play systems on the market.

Why would anyone spend money to buy if they never felt constricted, ever? Seems like a waste of money if the game offers everything without any constrictions.

Or, perhaps you missed his point where HoT was the constriction that makes the game b2p.

I could have played the game for months without ever getting to HoT. I bought it because the developers obviously respected me and my time enough to implement reasonable restrictions. I commend that and voted with my wallet.

I think HoT if fun it’s a bit harder then the core game but all in all its all good. Over all GuildWar2 has to be the best game out there right now I have tried other games but nothing does it for me. The game is still getting high ratings. It’s still number 1 on MMORPG and is still in every top 10 list out there for PC games and that’s not bad for a going on 4 year old game.

i know it did not fail for everyone but it did fail for me. for most it is probably a stupid reason but a reason none the less i hate gliding. the only thing i do now is pvp.if another expansion comes out. with normal maps i will not buy it unless i can get to it without going in the HoT maps

The only thing that didn’t fail are elite specs in pve & the music.

If they fix pvp & wvw this game is just gw2 again with a few extra jungle maps with timed meta’s tied to them.

No immersion, no engagement, nothing of that is what I feel when exploring HoT maps. Just a big clusterkitten of “what the kitten is going on here”

Scarlet’s lore did the job so much better in every way .

alwinp.2791:

The only thing that didn’t fail are elite specs in pve & the music.

If they fix pvp & wvw this game is just gw2 again with a few extra jungle maps with timed meta’s tied to them.

No immersion, no engagement, nothing of that is what I feel when exploring HoT maps. Just a big clusterkitten of “what the kitten is going on here”

Scarlet’s lore did the job so much better in every way .

And I feel more immersed in the new maps than core Tyria maps, because I have to at least pay attention there. There’s less immersion when you can walk through the map and just press 1 and everything is dead.

If I’m in a war zone, I want to feel like I’m in a war zone. HoT does that for me.

vesica tempestas.1563:

Agree, clear the game is a success, it made money, it is good quality, compared to ANY othger AAA mmo the amount on content is comparable while not destroying the playabilit of old content.

For me the next area they should focus on is getting wvw improved while balancing and also working on the next expansion – thats moving the game on nicely.

While not destroying the playability of old content? Clearly you dont play WvW. Perhaps going to the subforum and find out why that game mode dying, and all because Anet teased about WvW before HOT release and decided to delay it until later of 2016 for a “beta” release.

This video echoed a lot of my sentiments. For all the great features that HoT has added it is equally combated by poor implementations that make the entirety of it a love/hate relationship for me. While I wouldn’t call HoT a failure, I’m not sure if I’d call it a success either.

HoT is very polarizing. The same feature that many love, many hated and vice versa.

One problem for casuals like myself is I’m now forced to play my character well if I want to solo the zones. Since HoT is only level 80, I can’t retreat to a sub level area when things get too tough. So for the first time I’m paying attention to the synergy of traits, stats and skills in PvE. HoT forces you out of JV builds, your college division one now (US collegiate sports tiers in terms of ability). I’m up for a challenge but it quickly become tiresome to always being on your toes. Few places where you could AFK for bio and return to a non-dead character.

Behellagh.1468:

HoT is very polarizing. The same feature that many love, many hated and vice versa.

One problem for casuals like myself is I’m now forced to play my character well if I want to solo the zones. Since HoT is only level 80, I can’t retreat to a sub level area when things get too tough. So for the first time I’m paying attention to the synergy of traits, stats and skills in PvE. HoT forces you out of JV builds, your college division one now (US collegiate sports tiers in terms of ability). I’m up for a challenge but it quickly become tiresome to always being on your toes. Few places where you could AFK for bio and return to a non-dead character.

I think this describes it best. Hot is polarizing. There’s always been kitten and them in this player base, but HoT really separates out people who love to just log in and bang around and do their own thing from people who wanted harder, more organized, more challenging content.

On one hand, I can see the logic of the company. We have tons of easy zones, but hardly anything for people who want something harder. There’s very little of that content in the game. I believe Anet over compensated and went too far toward the people who want that experience.

Because a lot of people who don’t also spent the same money on the expansion and those people are going to feel, rightly, disenfranchised.

The video posted by OP was great. I found myself nodding to most of it.

I agree that many wanted increased difficulty of game-play offered by HoT. But, many wanted more exploration in the style the game started with. We were told many times in the press-releases “The journey is the destination”, but the new game content offers extended grind time to access the ‘very brief’ extended journeys.

keenedge.9675:

The video posted by OP was great. I found myself nodding to most of it.

I agree that many wanted increased difficulty of game-play offered by HoT. But, many wanted more exploration in the style the game started with. We were told many times in the press-releases “The journey is the destination”, but the new game content offers extended grind time to access the ‘very brief’ extended journeys.

ANet was great with communication & design in GW1, but in GW2 they really feel disconnected at the very core of their team. Like they got too big too fast and no one really knows wtf is going on over there.

They have this vision, and are vocal about it, but the implementations never really align with it imo. It’s easier to communicate with a smaller team simply put.

I think ANet is too big of a company now, I felt more quality in GW1 that had much MUCH fewer people, but they were really awesome and totally delivered the best pvp, a good story with excellent lore, and some decent pve.

I wouldn’t call it a failure but I will say that I haven’t had the drive or care to go into a HoT map in over 3 weeks. The repetitive nature of doing the same 4 maps over and over on a boring timer has made it pointless. Not to mention the fact that the entire expansion appears to be a giant gold sink with no real way to earn. At the end of the day I’m not satisfied but I’m also not completely upset with the expansion. It did add a lot of good features that I am just going to hope help make the next expansion/future content better.

i think hot is part of the experiment of gw2 and i think gw2 has been an experiment. they had a vision of what they wanted somewhat but i think along the way they have changed that vision trying to deliver something different that what was out there previous but the community being as vocal as they were they had to change stuff up as they went along. they havent quite filled the vision and will continue to experiment til they can get as close to their vision that they can. hot in my mind is what a lot of us asked for harder content new maps more skill options expansion linked with new dynamics like gliding and mushroom hopping. its not perfect but i dont think it failed. i think expansions in the future and content in future will get better. i personally like enough about hot to consider it somewhat of a success

It’s a process.

True success is one percent iteration, ninety-nine percent more iteration.

— Researcher Irkz

We need to look into the real numbers (that ncsoft will release soon i guess), but to me, when someone needs to launch a new product just right after the last one, only means 2 things : you have a lot of money and you can invest on whatever, whenever, or you didnt win too much money with that last product and you need a new one that generates income.

The answer: when we see the real numbers of sells and money generated.

Silicato.4603:

We need to look into the real numbers (that ncsoft will release soon i guess), but to me, when someone needs to launch a new product just right after the last one, only means 2 things : you have a lot of money and you can invest on whatever, whenever, or you didnt win too much money with that last product and you need a new one that generates income.

The answer: when we see the real numbers of sells and money generated.

Who’s launching a new product right after the last one?

In Guild Wars 1, they started working on the first expansion before launch, and the third expansion before the second one launched. Not too many people are saying Guild Wars 1 was a failure.

No, the reality of the industry is you start working on your expansion as soon as you launch one because they take a couple of years to make.

Silicato.4603:

We need to look into the real numbers (that ncsoft will release soon i guess), but to me, when someone needs to launch a new product just right after the last one, only means 2 things : you have a lot of money and you can invest on whatever, whenever, or you didnt win too much money with that last product and you need a new one that generates income.

The answer: when we see the real numbers of sells and money generated.

You didn’t think it through to what happens if they don’t start making the next expansion right after the first. If an expansion takes a year or two years to make then the time to start working on the next expansion is shortly after the previous one has been launched. Waiting longer than that means that much more time before its ready to be sold and make more money for the company. Waiting longer to start means long content droughts for your players and a resulting drop in playing population and gemstore income.

Gold sink all the way.
Pour mastery’s like the vendors… if u want to buy from them.
Adventures gated by events.
Legendary fake journey( if u make a legendary journey il expect to be a sort of questing line like the living story… that are unique on every weapon.. not to redo all past content over and over again.. especially to fail ).
Scribe gold sink all the way(putting and entire guild behind one man … good luck if he decide not to play anymore or leave the guild).
Guild halls i have no reason to step in that area, most of the joy that i have was we are conquering the guild hall.
WWW desertland
Fractals when they launch was in a pour state( now they are better i admit) again u do an xpac whit out adding a single new fractal.
Douneons are dead( again instead to make more doungeons u kill them).
But the cry of frustration is the collections and the vendors “trophy-es” use currency of the map to buy a tab full of trophy-es( and let me tell u they are some trophies that cost 1000 currency .. that u need to play at least 4 -6 hourst to get.. for what for a non value item?.
All the collections require only junks and non valuable items.
Legendary fractal back piece in stil on work in progres.. and a lot of thing are in progres.. they advertize a lot of stuff just to sell xpac and when u are in u see the true, that in fact are all in work in progres.
If they think that in may case will keep me in game whit the raid ( which looks nice) they are wrong.
Im not sorry that i buy Hot.. but again at t his time finally they are writing on forums/reddid theirs plans.. but we all now that all is on the table and when is ready.
Im wating for black desert.. and im gone.
All of this makes ppl to be farmers for gold, and not enjoy the game.
Daily routine in game fractals all 3 tiers farm my house and im off.
Nightfury.. and the other skin fro Christmas i dont know his name gold sinks just to make ppl finally buy from store.
All this is happening that they let the conversion the gold i mean in gems, for them it ruins the business model( ant this is the ONLY TRUTH).
English is not may primarily language.
I think i can write at least 2 more pages whit what is this xpac really.

Ohoni.6057:

HoT did not fail.

It did totally fail.

Shen Slayer.3058:

Ohoni.6057:

HoT did not fail.

It did totally fail.

Source?

Shen Slayer.3058:

Ohoni.6057:

HoT did not fail.

It did totally fail.

Prove it.

vesica tempestas.1563:

typical example : wow – compulsary $120 a year + expansion costs just to be allowed to logon to the server, if you dont pay, you fall behind the power curve.

GW2 $0-anything you want + expansion cost.

GW2 is 99% gem shop updates, 1% player updates. skill/trait balancing is bottom of the barrel priority.

WOW is almost all player content & skills/talents are better and more regularly balanced.

scerevisiae.1972:

vesica tempestas.1563:

typical example : wow – compulsary $120 a year + expansion costs just to be allowed to logon to the server, if you dont pay, you fall behind the power curve.

GW2 $0-anything you want + expansion cost.

GW2 is 99% gem shop updates, 1% player updates. skill/trait balancing is bottom of the barrel priority.

WOW is almost all player content & skills/talents are better and more regularly balanced.

.. plus wow have at least 6 months – year content worth of doing and at least interesting pvp and arenas and somewhat balanced and interesting different classes.
…Gw2 have 4 maps with same rotating stuff to do every 2h with barely no rewards whatsoever, wvw that is dying, unbalanced broken pvp, only updates are in gem shop, classes becoming more and more similar…
I don’t like the road this game is going….

I must say WoW legion looks impressive, especially legendary weapons.

Ragnarox.9601:

scerevisiae.1972:

vesica tempestas.1563:

typical example : wow – compulsary $120 a year + expansion costs just to be allowed to logon to the server, if you dont pay, you fall behind the power curve.

GW2 $0-anything you want + expansion cost.

GW2 is 99% gem shop updates, 1% player updates. skill/trait balancing is bottom of the barrel priority.

WOW is almost all player content & skills/talents are better and more regularly balanced.

.. plus wow have at least 6 months – year content worth of doing and at least interesting pvp and arenas and somewhat balanced and interesting different classes.
…Gw2 have 4 maps with same rotating stuff to do every 2h with barely no rewards whatsoever, wvw that is dying, unbalanced broken pvp, only updates are in gem shop, classes becoming more and more similar…
I don’t like the road this game is going….

I must say WoW legion looks impressive, especially legendary weapons.

WoW’s doing that great?

I just saw on a thread on that forum how they’ve had only two content patches (and one of those content patches was the addition of a selfie camera) and one expansion in about a year and there won’t be another content update until Legion, which is another year. The people on that forum don’t seem too happy with the loss of millions of subscribers since WoD launched and how the new expansion is reportedly removing a lot of skills, and the forum posters there have threads debating if WoD is the worse expansion that game has ever had or if another one is worse.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ragnarox.9601:

scerevisiae.1972:

vesica tempestas.1563:

typical example : wow – compulsary $120 a year + expansion costs just to be allowed to logon to the server, if you dont pay, you fall behind the power curve.

GW2 $0-anything you want + expansion cost.

GW2 is 99% gem shop updates, 1% player updates. skill/trait balancing is bottom of the barrel priority.

WOW is almost all player content & skills/talents are better and more regularly balanced.

.. plus wow have at least 6 months – year content worth of doing and at least interesting pvp and arenas and somewhat balanced and interesting different classes.
…Gw2 have 4 maps with same rotating stuff to do every 2h with barely no rewards whatsoever, wvw that is dying, unbalanced broken pvp, only updates are in gem shop, classes becoming more and more similar…
I don’t like the road this game is going….

I must say WoW legion looks impressive, especially legendary weapons.

WoW’s doing that great?

I just saw on a thread on that forum how they’ve had only two content patches (and one of those content patches was the addition of a selfie camera) and one expansion in about a year and there won’t be another content update until Legion, which is another year. The people on that forum don’t seem too happy with the loss of millions of subscribers since WoD launched and how the new expansion is reportedly removing a lot of skills, and the forum posters there have threads debating if WoD is the worse expansion that game has ever had or if another one is worse.

Well transition from Wotlk to cata was fine but from cata to mop was bad, I didn’t liked MoP at all and after that never played WoD. But I have faith in Legion cause they are revamping classes, like Shaman (that I adore) into something new and fresh. Plus they are adding lots of dungeons and raids, legendary weapons, … I think legion will bring back few million subs thats for sure (me one of those).

On the other hand I don’t have faith in Anet anymore, this game (expansion HoT) become dull and borring grindfest with zero rewards. Lots of ppl saying “hey its not borring and I don’t need rewards to play it”, and thats a lie. I am sorry but gem store content for 45€ is just bad. For me original GW2 was fun and great , totally worth my money and even more. PvP is broken, hell their balancing does not look good, they removed cele amulet that was cancer of pvp like forever but they did not work on basic problem of all classes. WvW is bad atm. I do like maps, but they are too big (its suitable for mounts), automatic and to pve oriented. They killed dungeons and I cant forgive them that. Dungeons were fun and rewarding. Raiding is ok but rewards again are bad (getting same amulets, rings for the 100x time is bad enough). They are planning to add new legendary weapons later on, but if this content through out a year is only new legendary weapons than I am not interested. They buffed fractals – giving 10gold daily, but same problems persisted – ppl tend to do same 3 easy fast fractals for faster dailies (swamp,swamp,swamp…). And that is your fault Anet, you made this grindy community, player base or whatever are they called. Lack of liquid rewards made this.

Morfedel.4165:

Shen Slayer.3058:

Ohoni.6057:

HoT did not fail.

It did totally fail.

Prove it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/KDB-Daewoo-sales-warning-for-HoT/first#post5931906

My guild is stronger than its ever been in terms of number of active players. It is almost always possible to find an active map for any of the new zones, Dry Top, Silverwastes, Southsun and Orr. The world boss events are well attended. It is simple to find fractal groups. WvW is starting to pick back up now that people are getting their bearings in the new maps.

I guess it depends on how you define failure.

Sicarius.4639:

Morfedel.4165:

Shen Slayer.3058:

Ohoni.6057:

HoT did not fail.

It did totally fail.

Prove it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/KDB-Daewoo-sales-warning-for-HoT/first#post5931906

Quoting a stock company that has no actual inside knowledge that makes its own predictions is proof of absolutely nothing. This same company has been predicting an expansion every year pretty much since launch and none of that ever came to pass.

Security companies guestimate what they believe a game will sell and based on that belief they make recommendations to clients. But that belief has nothing to do with anything except their belief.

Somewhere, there is a business plan that requires a certain amount of return. The people who have that plan is Anet and NCSoft. Daewoo Securities doesn’t have that plan.

At the next quarter stock call, NcSoft will say whether or not sales were below expectations or not, as as they have done for other products in the past. Until then, this means nothing except that a security company unaffiliated with the game in any way thought it should have made more.

HoT for me is boring and stressful.

Boring in the sense that there is not much do to. I have maxed out all mastered fairly quickly, I have all the new armour sets, all elite specs unlocked, all HoT achievements done and all in the first month of release without any real effort in farming for those things. I am left with nothing to do when I log in. I am waiting for new legendary that I like and when they are released I have pretty much got most of the materials for the core gifts ready.

My guild cleared the raid with Eternal titles and collection complete what seems like a long time ago now and the guild is dead. Repeating raids is pointless when the rewards are garbage so they are off playing different games while I am now looking for a new guild.

HoT is also stressful because of the timers the maps are on. If you log on during a meta that you want to take part in well good luck trying to get into a full map. That leaves you with 2 hours to wait for it to start over again and at that point it’s stressful because the taxi war begins. Which leads to boredom again, what do you do for 2 hours? The meta event chain, well why would anyone bother doing that and get 200% participation when you will most likely have to taxi therefor losing it.

While I am here ranting might as well add WvW is dead. Since GW2 launch I have been in WvW, after HoT I have probably only set foot in WvW three times. Why if Anet have been working on a WvW overhaul for a year have we not heard about it till a week ago.

Ragnarox.9601:

classes becoming more and more similar…

This is actualy the saddest part of HoT.
I can’t find any elite spec I really enjoy like I did with my shatter mesmer ( prior june patch) or my rifle engie.
It’s all about passive procs, boon farting, and power creep. It’s fun in pve, not in pvp or wvw.

Nausicca.6038:

Ragnarox.9601:

classes becoming more and more similar…

This is actualy the saddest part of HoT.
I can’t find any elite spec I really enjoy like I did with my shatter mesmer ( prior june patch) or my rifle engie.
It’s all about passive procs, boon farting, and power creep. It’s fun in pve, not in pvp or wvw.

It was easy to see this coming, with the changes made to Traits last summer.

This was driven by Anet’s 100% commitment to eSport/PvP. It’s much easier to balance 10 builds than 50. I’m sure that any new Trait Lines issued in further expansions will only narrow build diversity even more.

Soon.5240:

Nausicca.6038:

Ragnarox.9601:

classes becoming more and more similar…

This is actualy the saddest part of HoT.
I can’t find any elite spec I really enjoy like I did with my shatter mesmer ( prior june patch) or my rifle engie.
It’s all about passive procs, boon farting, and power creep. It’s fun in pve, not in pvp or wvw.

It was easy to see this coming, with the changes made to Traits last summer.

This was driven by Anet’s 100% commitment to eSport/PvP. It’s much easier to balance 10 builds than 50. I’m sure that any new Trait Lines issued in further expansions will only narrow build diversity even more.

That’s a little backwards unless you’re referring to optimal builds rather than builds in general. But then, optimal builds were always limited to begin with because they were optimal.

HoT is not a failure, I´m having a blast with it

Raids are super awesome, and better done than any mmo i have played before, and i believe i´ve played most of them

HoT failed for me for the following reasons:

1- The Mac client was an unmitigated disaster. It absolutely doesn’t work with any group content. They released the game and sold it to Mac users fully knowing it was completely broken. Anet barely acknowledged the issue and ignores a 500+ post thread about it. So, we installed Bootcamp and bought windows (which was much more than the game) just to play it. This experience has really eroded my goodwill for the game and the company.

2- Once we could play the game, we found it only had three maps plus one meta event map. We did those a bit, finished the story, tried the raid a little. Outside of trying to get a spot in a random raid group (which was its own toxic and unpleasant eperience), there was nothing much to do but grind events for masteries. Essentially, there was nothing to do but grind the same events on the same few maps over and over to get points for mastery lines we really didn’t care about.

There were some good features, though. Gliding was fun. The enhanced challenge of the creatures around the maps was nice. The new elite for necromancer was a lot of fun if I had something to do with it besides grind.

Nausicca.6038:

Vayne.8563:

I completely agree with your assessment. But let’s not pretend before HoT there were so many satisfied WvW players by percentage. Many of them walked away over the years for other problems as well. The complaints about the format were endless.

HoT sure didn’t help matters that much is true, but it has major issues long before HoT.

Issues or not, people WERE playing wvw before HoT. There were three way fights EVERY evening in our borderland. Roaming parties were everywhere. Our server, in NA T4 was pretty active.

Now? New BL are dead. EB has one blob at best, abusing pirate ship and hammer #2 rev BS ( that won’t be fixed with next balance patch, proving again how Anet cares about wvw). Commanders gave up. People looking for fights left wvw. I see more and more wvw’ers in pvp.

Myself, I couldn’t even imagine putting a foot into pvp before HoT. Wvw was my GW2 life, as same as my guild mates and a lot of people I used to play with prior HoT.

Anet ruined it. They didn’t listen to beta testers feedback, they pushed stupid things like automatic upgrades, more pve events, banners kitten, stupid map gimmicks. Balance is out of control.

HoT destroyed WvW.

Yep, I think that much is certain. Participation on the BLs dropped like a stone after HOT. It’s clear Anet doesn’t understand WVW.

Darkness.9732:

Hot failed epicly. That’ s why I still haven’ t bought it. Look at ranger status. They still haven t fixed it. Look at the pets, spirits, traps.

The analysis the guy made on his video is perfect.
Nothing to add.

This comment blew my mind, I did not play xxx but it is an rpice fail because other people on forum said so. LOGIC

my vote, it’s not a fail.

I think what happened is, the marketing hype caused an expectation that created an image larger than what was visibly released. I mean, anet was advertising for what, like 1 year about the expansion, that was exhausting, at least for me. so i’m quite sure that marketing backfired as it created an illusion of bigger than what the expac was. Not that the expac was bad imo, but a years worth of hype is well…too much. I don’t think there was anything big enough to be made to live up to 1 years worth of hype lol.

The whole mechanics of flying alone is really well done. The new areas are very rich, i’m particularly a fan of the gw2 artwork. The new stories, were delivered different than prior gw games, no cut scenes, so it naturally had less of an impact, but i’m more into the environment than the stories to be honest. Not that the stories are bad, but as primarily a pvp’r at heart, i’m more into strategy and technique than the in depth story side of things. so while I didn’t miss it, i noticed it wasn’t there …and again, it didn’t match the level of 1 years worth of marketing hype.

I do get the complaints though, the hype was big, so people wanted to “See” more…further, the npcs and areas are harder, and you can’t walk around with just any build…this is a more hard core area, but as a strategist, i kind of enjoy that.

What I’m sure will bug me to tears though, which i haven’t gotten to, are places that “You need to wait 15 hours and get criticized by every fanboi ocd brat in gw who plans to boot you from the 5 man team when we get to the end, before you can visit the next area”
those 5 man areas are elitist breeding ground, and I stay away from them. I’ve come to accept that there are simply some places in gw 1, 2 and now hot that I will never see, simply because the elitist community is not fun to be around. Don’t get me wrong, I can be a bit of elitist myself, but i play for fun win or lose.

I’m casual as in, I’m not into scheduling events, I play when i have time. But when I have time, I like dishing pain lol.
so I’m not looking forward to the “Tolerate the morons so you can see new places” mechanics, and I wont complain, but I just wont play those areas either, I havent see that part yet, most of the group events I’ve seen are open world…..and that’s a pug players home field, and everyone is friendly.

I find HoT mediocre. The map graphics look stunning but the game play has changed. I have been playing GW1 and GW2 for over 10 years. If this was how the game was from the beginning I would probably have stopped playing long ago. I find the central focus of the game has become grinding out one thing or another. Either legendries or other skins. People rush from one meta event to another and that’s it. You ask people if they are having fun on the metas and they tell you it is more like work. The atmosphere of the game has changed because of this. I don’t know if it is my imagination but it seems since HoT, the community has become less helpful and friendly. The focus is so much on the grind that I think people that just enjoyed playing the game have left. It also seems like the audience is getting younger. Probably after I finish playing the HoT story line I will take a hiatus for a while too.