So I’ve been browsing the forums since the HoT launch and noticed that there’s a lot of arguing over the definition of grinding AND whether this applies to the expansion.
I’m wondering then, if you feel that HoT is a grind, what do you mean by that? If you don’t feel that the game is a grind, what’s keeping it from feeling like a grind? Where are you finding variety and what are you enjoying about the expansion?
I’m hoping that this will NOT devolve into yet another flame war. Please be constructive. Please be civil. Please avoid generalizations, but tell your experience. I’d hope that we all want the game to be good. Perhaps we can give Anet some useful feedback.
For myself, I do feel disappointed in the expansion. I’m having fun, but I feel that it’s not living up to the original game. Sorry, I’m going to be wordy.
Variety
The game used to have a feature that I really liked. The reputation. In almost every zone of a map, you’d find someone needing help. The tasks were varied and usually pretty fun. Occasionally they were boring and you could easily skip past it and move on. If you ran out, there’s AT LEAST one other map to visit. Usually, many more than that (as you could viably progress in a low-level zone). Adding spice, events would pop up giving you the option of assisting someone that needs IMMEDIATE help. Get tired of escorting someone to their destination? There’s always something else interesting nearby. The game had variety.
Now that there are few maps and events have taken over, it feels like event chains are tracks that you choose and must follow to the end. If you’re bored, you usually stick with it because by the time you find a new event, this one would be done…and the new event might get completed before you even reach it – you don’t know. So you stay on the track. Often, that slow escort mission. The game feels lacking in variety. You CAN explore and kill things, but those aren’t rewarding. If you want to progress your character, you do the events or you grind what feels like ten times slower on everything else.
Freedom
Simply put, until this expansion, you could go nearly anywhere that your level allowed. Now, content is gated. No amount of effort or skill will allow you to progress until you unlock the new ability or some kind group does the event you need (because events are tuned such that soloing is nigh impossible). It feels like my freedom is severely limited now. I hate that certain vendors, teleportation points, and adventures can only be accessed when a group has recently completed the appropriate event chain…which usually takes a LONG time. I hate that if no one does the event chain, I’m powerless to do it myself.
Further, hero points. If you want to experience a new style of gameplay, you must either weaken yourself (not able to use a full specialization) or you must collect a TON of them. Most hero points require completing a group event. I honestly don’t believe that soloing is possible, regardless of skill. Even with two people, I haven’t been able to come close. Get three, it’s usually easy enough. More than 3 and it’s cake. They no longer seem to adjust to available players. Then as most hero points are difficult to reach, finding a group, shouting from the rooftops, is often difficult to impossible. I shudder to think how this will go once there are fewer people playing.
Grinding
When the game feels lacking in freedom and variety, everything feels like a grind. I’m still enjoying things a bit, but once complete, I have to ask myself…would I do it again? Would I have another character do this? I don’t think I would (nor would I need to in the case of mastery – I understand that it’s account-based). So if I say that the game feels like a grind, you know what I mean.
The Good
Personally, I LOVE a lot of the new platforming gimmicks. They’re fun once you unlock them…but I’m of two minds about them as they’re also part of my problem with the game – limiting freedom.
Adventures, love ’em. They add back some of the lost variety…but I usually find them locked and inaccessible due to environment. (Time of day in the first zone, event in progress, or what have you.)
New recipes! Crafting gets expanded. I like that…though my favorite part of crafting was experimenting and discovering recipes (particularly in cooking). It’s too bad that didn’t continue.
I’m having SOME fun with the expansion, but it feels lacking compared to how things used to be. I don’t like the new feel. The old game was VERY good in my book. Now, it feels wrong. Still kind of fun…but not what I had been hoping for. Not at all. =/