Guild Wars 2

The map is beautiful. Kudos to the artists. Overall I’m enjoying this episode except for a few things that are annoying (to the point of distraction.)

1. We’re seeing an increase in inventory clutter. Having the non-depositable berries is bad enough, but having the twigs, shiny ice, etc. along with the Tarir portal stone and other things is getting pretty bad.

2. The thermal tubes and ley lines don’t seem as useful for map travel here as they were in Ember Bay. Having only two waypoints in Bitterfrost Frontier would be okay if the thermal tubes and ley lines made up for it, but currently they do not.

The Great:

Many enemies in this chapter have high health (veteran or elite status) and no breakbars, which has been a phenomenal experience for utilizing CC and keeping illusions going. For the first time in my four years of GW2, playing open world content as a Mesmer feels fun, and it’s nice to bring life back to skills and effects that have fallen by the wayside. HoT introduced some sigils that proc on interrupt, but because of the overabundance of breakbars they felt clunky to use. Interrupts feel like they have real value in this map and in story instances, and intentionally or not, I hope Anet continues this trend.

Winterberries are a great way to keep players motivated to return to the new map, and having specialty food as a reward is a good method to introduce progression without bloating it with too many ascended choices or RNG pouches.

I’m a sucker for snowy environments, and the new map looks remarkable. It’s also nice to find little hidden areas off the beaten path.

The So-So:

Traversing the map, on the other hand, feels tedious largely due to the high density of enemies and the lack of significant travel options. Thermal tubes behaving strangely is a nice touch given the environment, but they only really lead to specific goals. The new mastery is a bit clunky to use, doesn’t gel well in combat, and feels insignificant compared to travel masteries before it. Adding a waypoint to the southeastern portion of the map, say in the valley before the hot springs, would be a welcome addition.

GW2’s story never caught my attention that much, but adding Braham to the list of condescending travel companions is a touch overboard. Norn are taught to revere heroes of great skill, and it’s weird how he just glosses over the PC’s accomplishments.

The Bad:

The hot springs area needs some kind of revamp because the event cycles too quickly, and having the heart quest NPC function as a necessary part of story progression just leaves a sour taste.

Map completion, like Ember Bay, is a bit frustrating because of how daily renown hearts function. It’s a big departure from the core game and it effectively forces a player to explore on Anet’s time and not their own.

The Ugly (Real Ugly):

I felt the story instances were the weakest out of Season 3, largely because Anet somehow overlooked features, which players praised in previous living story quests: there’s no way to track achievements and no restart nodes. Did you misstep a single pixel while dodging red rings and ice projectiles? Too bad. It’s another 30 minutes of slow walking, whining, and waves for you.

I didn’t have a lot trouble with the final boss in this chapter, though I can see why people say the directions are unclear. There’s little warm up time to get used to your surroundings or take in the mechanics by looking at status boxes (even then, “immune to normal damage” doesn’t say much), and as someone who relies on action camera, I had about a millisecond to see this information before the area became suffused with orange and ice blue.

I miraculously managed to get the “don’t get frozen” achievement on my first go (“don’t get hit” achievements are merciless for disabled gamers like myself), felt encouraged to get the five-minute one, and tried again. Braham and Garm ran into a corner of the room and I could do nothing to lure the ice beast to where it needed to go. I looked at my clock, estimated my five minutes had been up (again, no way to track achievement eligibility in the status bar), and just left, vowing to never to return again.

Which leads me to my biggest gripe: how unrewarding the meta achievement is for the effort it takes. Kicking a chicken numerous times gives you a title while completing every single achievement (bugs included) gets you a mote of AP and gloves that don’t really match with anything. Previous living story installments allowed you to complete the meta achievement with a few extra to spare – choice is always a good thing.

All in all, I enjoyed this living story content, especially the open world sections. However, I strongly believe Anet needs to put more effort into providing quality of life in instanced content and should try their absolute best to avoiding repeating situations like this.

I’ve really liked season 3 so far, this episode is no different. Especially the part with Aurene was just adorable. But when Braham appeared it went downhill.

I like the new map and the hearts & events there, but there were too many items for my inventory. The spawn rate/speed of enemies was through the roof and the distance at which some veterans were able to detect and attack was unreal.

OK I’m leaving the last episode unfinished… There isn’t the slightest clue what to do and I dislike dying to wave after wave of invulnerable beasts. This is really pretty lame.

I’m guessing I’m supposed to be under the influence of the elixlir and therefore able to withstand cold, but I’m not. That may mean the episode is unwinnable.

I’ll re-up the elixir and try again later.

my opinion of Episode 3…

BEST part of Crack in the Ice: the snow griffon hatchlings!

WORST part of Crack in the Ice:

so after playing this got to say i am just not feeling this at all . and the costs from the

vendors not feeling that at all !! maybe after another updated patch or something

maybe i might but idk

For me the storyline is being drawn out and filled in with cutesy stuff. I can take some but this seems like a bit much. It feels like the writers are catering to 6 year olds. . The conversations are so boring and painful. Who cares about the imaginary scientific details and minutia of magic? Sum it up in a line or two and call it good. I think that is what good writing should do. Drawing it out does not make it better. Its not cool its bothersome. I also don’t want anymore stacks of useless stuff that takes up slots in my backpack!. Could we please put it in the wallet or something? I am also tired of junk piling up that I have to constantly salvage. I know that’s part of the game but again this is a bit overkill and cumbersome. It does not add value to the game it slows you down. It feels like a punishment not fun.

I can sum up my thoughts on this episode in three words; too much padding.

Makai.3429:

The Bad:

The hot springs area needs some kind of revamp because the event cycles too quickly, and having the heart quest NPC function as a necessary part of story progression just leaves a sour taste.

Map completion, like Ember Bay, is a bit frustrating because of how daily renown hearts function. It’s a big departure from the core game and it effectively forces a player to explore on Anet’s time and not their own.

Anet fixed the problem with the hearts and map completion. Once you complete a heart it permanently counts towards map completion of the map. This isn’t a problem anymore

Thank you for the karma refund from overspending on Winterberry bundles! Unexpected and appreciated!

Hellooooo.when will delicious desserts be fixed?

It already is fixed. It’s in the patch notes.

The much more serious issue is the broken Elixir. The entire Bitter Cold area is inaccessible right now. Having this as a repeatable task was a stupid idea in the first place, but now it is actively broken too.

Well, all in all I felt it was alright by comparison to my overall experience to the living story stuff over the past 4 or so years since it started, it was definitely the low-point of this season.

The bloodstone fen release was great, and I still found the ember bay release to be pretty close behind (due to a give and take of problems with the story – mainly that you go to the island, get a sample for taimi, and then suddenly get whisked off on a map-spanning detour that fills up the entire time till aurene hatches) offset by the otherwise enjoyable map design) to be pretty close. But both the story and map fell short this time however.

Map:
Unlike in the previous two maps, there is no super-convenient way of getting around the map, and even running to place to place isnt convenient due to the enemy placement and density around various points (And during the storm phase of the map). It also felt like the map overdid the quaggans by a lot, and a bunch of the stuff kept getting interrupted by overly frequent events. Definitely needed more thermal tubes and a bigger leyline transit loop (As well as easier points of accessing said loop).
HOWEVER – I was pleasantly surprised by the map being not a bland white mass of snow like the original set of maps in the shiverpeaks biome. However, ‘reaching an acceptable level of visual quality’ for a biome type doesn’t count as a pro, its just something that escapes being on the cons list. The requirement to redo the elixer and spend a non-insignificant amount of time each day running around re-farming mob-drops is super annoying, since if you want to access that area, you have to either stock up in advance, or end up having ‘interrupted/wasted’ playtime grinding out a ‘ticket’ to access the area every day.
Best part was the cute gryphons and some of the things to explore off in the corners of the map, nothing even remotely central to the map, but none-the-less nicely done for what they were.
In short, I really enjoyed the other two maps of season 3 a lot more. This one felt decidedly mediocre

Story:
The concept of the first part – teaching aurene – I felt was a nice touch, though a bit poorly implemented (mainly during the ooze phase, which didnt really feel like it conveyed or taught anything valuable other than ‘this is how to fight’ – in fact, it could have been better if said test was introduced as ‘teach aurene how to fight’ without any pretense) – the first test with the fish I felt was the best-done of the 3. An issue with the final ‘boss’ of that sequence was that if a pet-heavy necro goes along, the pets can cause the boss to heal absurdly fast, regardless of the damage they do. Its actually better if that player sits out and gets carried.
The filler ‘explore the map’ portion played worse (much more grindy) than the Ember bay filler, but at least the filler was better justified and sort-of flowed.
The hybridized minion was very underwhelming, for all the build-up that happened.

Braham:
The last part of the story was by far the low point, so much so that it gets its own section in this review. The waves upon waves of veterans and elites was obnoxiously and pointlessly grindy, and I can’t imagine why any of it was needed other than to… have the player do something? They could have been normal mobs, or heck, no mobs at all, and the story would have been better for it, since it would have flowed better, and not repeatedly saving brahams’s rear while he gets more and more irate with the player. Like, I could have seen his temper tantrum being a bit more justified if I hadn’t carried him for the 10th time or something – and through an unnecessarily grindy tunnel. But instead of at least thanking me for my help, he blames me or something pretty much out of the left field. Really? Not to mention alllllll the other things the player does in the story to help carry him and the rest of the NPCs along to slay both prior dragons the he conveniently forgets and drops by the wayside while on his self-righteous and delusional tantrum of misplaced blame. And annoyingly I couldn’t say to Rox ‘Nah, lets ditch him’ and then add braham to my block list. I’ve met three people IRL who exhibited the sorts of behavior pattern braham was showing all have serious mental disorders, and it was just healthier for everyone else to not be around those people. While character development is usually appreciated, now I read Braham as someone who’d probably be better going to court-ordered counseling and therapy twice a week rather than someone who could be heroic but ‘just needs to cool off’.

- Not enough WP’s, or usefull Ley Lines and Tubes.
- Daily reset of Cold resistance is irritating.
- Running around with a big torch is silly.
- If u drop under water, that torch is gone, annoying.
- Solo unfriendly in places (to many foes close together), really annoying.

Still broken, still stuck in the no fun zone. Thanx for nothing Anet.

Quoting from above comment
“- Not enough WP’s, or useful Ley Lines and Tubes.
- Daily reset of Cold resistance is irritating.
- Running around with a big torch is silly.
- If u drop under water, that torch is gone, annoying.
- Solo unfriendly in places (to many foes close together), really annoying.”

The “elixir” only lasts for a short time. “Cooking?” it in a large steam bath after collecting all sorts of stuff that clogs up my bags each and every time I want to go out there makes no sense at all. Sell it from a vendor. It doesn’t contribute to anything but annoyance in any way to have to do this over and over again. The artwork is great in this zone. Unfortunately, everything else in it isn’t. I won’t finish it. I love the story line and that is why I played but its not worth it, isn’t fun, and is a bunch of unnecessary frustration.

The last instance with Braham is really boring: You guys could have spawned ONE wave of mobs at each location, that would suffice.

The brewing of the elixir seems complicated to me: give me a recipe, a list, anything. I don’t want to track all the ingredients myself every time I have to brew the elixir.

The hot springs events are really over the top.

Just now, I arrived there during the liberation event. Killing a lot of stuff, and I mean a lot, the heart was only half-filled. I set out to kill some mushrooms and grab some herbs to complete the heart. I was only gone 2 or 3 minutes, but when I came back, the springs were under assault again, dead people all over the place, the event guaranteed to fail at that point, with level 82 veterans all over the place. I had to sit that out and wait for the liberation event.

It certainly doesn’t help that it all happens around a heart NPC. People gravitate toward that and let their guard down, resulting in a huge initial spawns that the 2 or 3 people actually paying attention can’t deal with.

I have an issue with the Elixir in regards to when you make and use it. I was going through the story again with another character and made the elixir this afternoon. It only showed 4 hours remaining (it was roughly 4 hours before reset). Not cool for this much effort to get a shorter time because I made and used it close to reset. Elixir should have a 12 or 24 hour timer. If I had not gotten the other Bitter Cold achieves done this might not have been enough time to get through stuff.

I would have been really upset to make this a half an hour before reset to find my efforts wasted…..

Aerinndis.2730:

I have an issue with the Elixir in regards to when you make and use it. I was going through the story again with another character and made the elixir this afternoon. It only showed 4 hours remaining (it was roughly 4 hours before reset). Not cool for this much effort to get a shorter time because I made and used it close to reset. Elixir should have a 12 or 24 hour timer. If I had not gotten the other Bitter Cold achieves done this might not have been enough time to get through stuff.

I would have been really upset to make this a half an hour before reset to find my efforts wasted…..

I can see going through this making it once but we should have another way to get the cold resistance if we would want to go back into that area. I wanted to go back in to get the frozen cub near the mastery point and finish the part of the story in there which is why I did this on a second character.

Map is interesting to explore. But needs more waypoints.

The story this time is pretty weak. And the last battle achievements is terrible. Muck through a bunch of veteran and elite trash mobs only to fail at the end achievement and need to repeat.

If i beat it without the achievement do I have to replay the entire kittening story again to try again?

Let’s see!

+ I actually quite enjoyed the story itself! We got to interact more with Aurene, learned a lot about Kodan and met a grawl tribe worshipping seemingly the statue of Jora! I didn’t personally mind making the elixir for the story. Taimi’s plan seemed too good to be true though, which is why I assume they put the Braham drama in. However, I am not all too concerned about him using the Commander as a doormat, considering we’re far away from any civilization and the Commander does not have much power in Bitterfrost Frontier. Braham considers the place his homeland and probably doesn’t give a kitten about anything else than his own goals right now. Of course our PC could have been more fierce with Braham but we’re not really all too sure how our PC feels about this situation anyway.

+ ENDLESS KODAN TONIC

+ The new map! I think the new assets look great and I loved the new abilities and how the chests and torches work. The cycle between day and night feels nice, as well as the hot spring event cycle.

+ I found the boss mechanics fine. Sure they were frustrating at start when you didn’t know what to do but in the end figuring them out wasn’t too bad. I didnt mind the mob waves either.

- Mushroom mobs seemed out of place

- I don’t like how the elixir items and pieces of the Svanir armor clog your inventory

- Oozes are really hard to defeat on some classes.

Last update (4th if i remember correct from Ep3 launch) broke something with game client. Now it crash/hangs each several minutes by turning into black screen with only cursor visible and background music.
I did thread with detailed information in a tech support subforum too.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Crashes-after-last-update/first#post6411578
Things i seen before game client went crazy with latest updates –
Map looks really nice and i liked that it had some underwater areas. Most latest maps lack any underwater combat.
Story instances really annoying with uberhealthy elite mobs. Even with full ascended zerk they take a lot of really boring time to kill.

I really like where the story took us, but I think Braham is being set up to die, so I’m hoping somebody else dies.

Overall, it’s pretty good. The new zone has some interesting mechanics, and while some may think “Training Your Dragon” is cutesy, the idea of eventually having a kick-kitten dragon to fight beside is something to anticipate.

I do not feel, however, that the instances are reasonable for all professions. The elite oozes along with other multiple oozes is overkill. Too many lock downs, without enough stun/immobilize removal, Aurene getting distracted, and my light armor classes (mesmer and ele) are just giving up and asking for help from guildmates.

Bitter Cold has the same results. Trying to kite the boss near the other mobs and get them defeated so they cripple the boss with light armor classes is not fun either. Why does everything have to knockback or immobilize these days, it’s just sort of lame. Again, I give up and ask for help.

I’m just frustrated because I understand the mechanics of the instances, and do them easily on other professions, but the squishies don’t fare well.

Edited to add: Oh yea, the elixir. For crying out loud, let us just buy it from someone or something, or get rid of us needing it after we’ve gotten it the first time. Seriously annoying that it resets daily when I can only play a few hours right after reset. Get the story done, and then screw that area.

By far my favorite post launch content.

The whole issue with Brahm has kept me awake tonight. It evokes bad memories associated with the Gulf War.

This child, and “child” fits him very well, is going to call the Norn to war to satisfy his own self pity, his inadequacy and guilt over his relationship with his mother and general anger. He can’t see that he’s as twigged with himself as he is with the dragon.

Will he be twisted into a dragon minion? No, I don’t think the team will take it in that direction. On the other hand it would be a parallel to the Jora story. The player characters would then have to hunt him down and destroy him as they helped Jora hunt her brother.

How many Norn will die to feed this vendetta? Will more Spirits of the Wild be forced to sacrifice themselves? They won’t win, that’s foreshadowed clearly enough.

I can only hope a visit from his mother from the spirit realm or perhaps cooler heads in Hoelbraak will prevent this train wreck. May I send an assassin, please?

This episode hurts, ANET. On the upside, I’m definitely emotionally involved and immersed in the story. GG on storytelling

As a gw1 player – and I still have many screenshots of Gaile’s Farewell Party with the green frog to prove it – it took me a long while to adjust and adapt to gw2. Understanding and accepting that gw2 is a different game, with its own strengths and flaws when compared to the original one was the key to finally enjoy it to its full scope.

That being said, I took a chance by spending gems on the ls2 package, loved every single moment of it, took on some of the challenges for mastery (work in progress) on several of my characters. It was the best pile of gold I ever spent in the game, on a high quality story with well developed characters and situations, the raison d’etre for maps like the Silverwastes and Dry Top, a few very interesting fights and a totally refurbished Glint’s lair. And of course I became a Taimi fan (kudoz to Debi as her human vocalizer, and the life giving writers), arguably the best developed and defined character in the game in my opinion.

Then comes season 3, with its promise of the Fire Islands, Mursaat, and jade constructs which were the end game aspects of Prophecies. The first chapter cements the deal with Heart of Thorns and all the hard work put into collecting the mastery points there e.g., leyline gliding and yes, we do get a glimpse of the (only remaining?) Mursaat. Seeing old enemies back after 200+ years felt much like meeting old friends. Stockholm syndrome ? Who thought that Verdant Brink was a bit harsh on newly arrivals is in for a slightly bigger shock in this LS3 map. The wildlife is everywhere and deliciously hostile.

The second chapter drops us on the doorstep of the Fire Islands, and the place is every bit as foreboding and lethal as it used to be, with a beautiful graphical update of the environment. Ancient Magic mastery replaces the need for infused armor (a pity, ascension and infusion were the coolest features in gw1, surpassing just about any story accomplishments in gw2 I’m sorry to say), but the jade constructs are a lot tougher than they used to be (or is that because there are no heroes and henchmen following, lol). Yummy.

And now, the third chapter, leading us north into snow and ice, and Braham with a big icicle on his shoulder, hiding his face behind a newly found, iron clad attitude. More character and plot developments, a mad cycle of events (at least one of them on a six minute timer), wildlife that is a bit tamer except of course in the fights that really matter, and a gorgeous map with a user friendly roundabout leyline for fast travel.

By now we are accustomed to the aspects of LS3, the chapters appear shorter because we appear to be adapting to the new aspects. But every chapter is a small jewel in gw2’s crown, especially if one pays attention to the details and the sometimes lengthy conversations. The additional mastery points, ascended items for very affordable prices, new home instance nodes, these are more than just cherries on the cake. And Aurene is simply adorable, especially when she throws back the ball.
The GW2 team has done an outstanding job, and the next expansion is bound to be of the same quality. Trust them to be top story developers. Yes, wanting more.

Which leaves me with a few questions for the team:
- when, oh when, will you rebuild LS1 and release it as a package. It’s like a chapter torn from a book
- when (not if, mind you) can I get my obsidian necromancer armor back please ? austere and no-frills to the pointedness, also helps with the tan
- crystal desert, crystal desert !! some of my old characters’ ghosts are still wandering there in their favourite maps (others are still fighting the four horsemen in the underworld, or snooping around tombs of long forgotten kings)
- non-holo Taimi mini … although, full size is probably mini, okay full size ?
- Cantha !! Cantha !! there be dragons there too, yes ? please say yes, look at Taimi’s leyline map again, you see ?
- obsi necro armor reminder… got ectos and obsi a plenty … will travel to FoW or wherever

Over and Awesome

I haven’t ready over all posts here, so forgive me if I repeat things, but here’s my good/bad review in short:

I’m not a fan of the snow/ice maps in general but I thought the map was pretty decent for a snow/ice map. Having two WP’s didn’t both me much since it’s easy to run anywhere. The map doesn’t have the navigational PITA’s that other maps have (cliffs to get up to, chasms to cross, etc).

I wasn’t really ‘feeling’ the Kodan flame stuff. Maybe I’m just jaded but it seemed to be put out there like an “oh, by the way…” for the new map. The Kodan and Quaggan have obviously been doing this for some time right through the northern wall of a map we’ve all adventured in for quote some time. It’s like discovering you have someone living next door to you that you didn’t know about for the last 10 years. Ember Bay at least had some distance and separation that Tiami and others had to work to connect to in the story.

I’m still not sure if I’ve done the meta on this map. I’m pretty sure I have but it always seems like a very disjointed headless chicken dance and I don’t recall a big old treasure chest at the end. Or maybe I did. I’m finding myself trying to clear my inventory as much as possible, especially since I’ve lost use of four or five slots due to un-depositable ingredients.

I like the creatures. I like the integration of the Quaggan. They needed some sort of place in all of this that wasn’t on someone’s dinner table. Hot springs was a nice way to add some variety to the landscape and they do have such things in icy areas like Iceland, etc. I liked the bosses for the most part.

I was disappointed in the Griffin Hatchling Pet. The icon for it shows the Hatchling flying but the pet does no such thing, not even if you run far away and it has to catch up to you. I was a little put out by that, but it’s no biggie.

Last fight is actually fun, but my issue is with the achievement. I really can’t stand achievements like this one, where you’re avoiding falling rocks or a certain attack, etc. I recall “Dodgy Crowd” was hell. A ton of people have issues with this due to age/ability/connection speeds. However, you can let the NPCs do the whole thing and get the Unfrosty achievement. I think that a mechanic that lets you initiate the fight and have the NPCs do the work might have been unintentional. I’m not complaining about it being super easy once you realized the NPCs do the work, because I got the achievement without tearing my hair out. But I also think it might not be intentional…

Boss fights with mind numbing trash mobs need reset motes.

Meta achievements should allow the player to skip at least one lesser achievement so that if a player has real difficulty due to ability or connection speed it’s possible to do. I realize three of the lesser achieves didn’t count to meta, but you should be able to do 20/21 of the ones that count. I think.

I do hope that Aurene’s little spot turns into another Hall of Monuments for GW2. It’s nice to see a collection of your ingame achievements.

I liked having an NPC telling the player to shove it. I’m “ok” with Braham because that’s really how some people are… but in real life you get to ignore them or tell them what they can do with their attitude. In this game you have to suffer through his whining and don’t get the options to either throw him up against the wall and beat some sense into him or to tie him up and present him as a gift to the Svanir (I think Braham would be less of a threat to us all as an enemy than an ally at this point!)

Just a few thoughts ~
~ Lys

Played The episode.
Love the map art however feel that it is a very broken episode everything on map seems to be broken or bugged not happy with this at all first and foremost I think it could have been done better, I understand that there is a whole lot of work that went into the beautiful map. But events that spawn or don’t when the spawn less then a minute from when you completed it there is a problem. Story bugs from start to finish not a way I want to play. Been thru with other Guildies and some refuse to play it because it is so buggy they have just left the map completely and refuse to come back until things are fixed. Not to mention we go from Bloodstone with a nice amount of things to do that is working not cluttered fun map to Ember bay a bit larger and seems to be to cluttered with updrafts ley lines then to Bitter frost that is a larger map with only 2 waypoints a few Thermal tubes just a couple up drafts that send you into a circular ley line that does nothing mainly lets just say all in all not happy with what it is as far as how it is put out there.

After playing for a bit, I decided I liked the more aggressive and skilled mobs.

Next time I log in, I will start a group for clearing the area and events. Almost everything is soloable but Bitterfrost offers just barely enough challenge to encourage grouping.

My thoughts on the episode.

-I liked the new map. However, the meta event was weak and felt disappointing. Defending the fires was WAY too easy, and the champs felt way underpowered (was using a condi necro).

-The story was great! Although the Ice Beast fight was initially confusing as heck. It took me a bit to realize that it was essentially the Mai Trin cannon fight all over, and that all you needed to do was dodge. Once you were able to actually hurt him, he went down super fast. What really confused me, was how randomly the scroll just appeared in the middle of the fight… In the end though it was still a great chapter

OK, as mentioned in passing in a previous post, this is my favorite post launch content. Upon reflection I can state that I enjoyed it more than most vanilla content as well.

I love the map. It has eclipsed Orr as my favorite. I am not fond of the bouncing mushrooms and the like but their role in this zone has been toned down. Thank you.

The mobs are fun to fight. Having a reason to dodge or use mobility rather than just spamming aoe is nice. It feels great to see positioning matter more.

I loved the fight against the beast. Felt dangerous. Kept me on my toes.

In fact all of the individual fights in the story chain were enjoyable. Not super hard, but felt like paying attention mattered more than is the case in much of the game.

Aurene bugged out a bit during the destroy the generators maze, but I was able to push through eventually. To be honest I would have preferred more challenge during the combat portions of the bonding section, but it was cute without being too long. Cant say I actually enjoyed this section, but it was not horrible either.

I like ember bay more than bloodstone fen, and the new map better than either of the previous 2. I like the direction the game is going.

Deleted old feedback, since I’ve changed opinion after few days extra play. Map has really grown on me and has a real ‘cold’ feel to it. Apologies it is over the 50 word count..

Negatives

- Far too much inventory clogging stuff. Elixir stuff, costume stuff, physical currencies. Oh boy was this overkill.

- Maybe a larger map with a boss, like a Claw of Jormag could bring an extra depth to the map? How did the Kodan ships ever reach Frostgorge? Seems like the geographical lore was overlooked a bit here.

- Story was too short and really didn’t explore enough lore. Needed to be about more than one mob and Braham’s hissy fit (which actually I didn’t object to). The open world story was just bland a-b, pick up stuff. I preferred it when S2 used dynamic events to aid progression.

- No new music? Re-using starter area music for what is supposed to be a battleground map and Dragon Minion heartland is very inappropriate. You have produced stunning scores sine launch, but S3 is lacking in comparison and most noticeably here where the score no longer matches the surroundings.

- Mastery again felt too quick to fill. I can understand not wanting the grind, so maybe it is time to add multiple tiers to an episode.

- We seem to be building lots of new threads each episode, but not really tying anything up. This is contrary to specific dev comments about loose ends and we still have huge numbers from HoT to deal with. Needs better focus.

- Instances are just waves of mobs. And often with elites which just slow things down rather than add much difficulty.

- I hope this is building to actually something epic and longer term with 2 Dragons and not just a quick dispatch this season. With such a huge abundance of lore underground with the dwarves and all that space and potential up North, it is vital we explore every bit we can. HoT wasted so much which was sad for a franchise with such a rich lore.

- I’m sure the fractal was amazing, but was a shame it wasn lvl25+. Meant my guild were locked out until we levelled up our fractal rank. A temp “0” level may have worked better or something like how Thaumanova was implemented

- Elixir isn’t clear it resets at daily reset time. Remaking is quite a cumbersome process and doesn’t really fit with how GW2 generally works to make life more streamlined in gameplay. Better to hand in ingredients one time to an NPC who sells us the elixir on demand.

Positives

- Kodan lore fab. Love all the little titbits.

- Originally I criticised a lack of collectibles. I was wrong. The Stanzas and the chests are spot on and a bit different from the previous maps.

- Some areas of the map were stunning, especially the forest. The map needed to be bigger and allow various geographics to breathe. Was a little crammed, but was at least crammed with some great scenery. At last, proper trees! (outside of Maguuma ofc). Loved the UW area and some of the quaggan in the houses we could talk to. Maybe needed an event or 2 though, but if the intention was a respite area, it worked really well.

- I found after multiple plays, the meta quite refreshing. Neither fail or success dependant that was a bit weird at first, but it is in fact quite organic. Event rewards were numerous and made staying around worthwhile for me.

- Nice to see older masteries being re-used like bouncing mushrooms and leyline gliding. They weren’t used to any real potential, but it’s encouraging to see them beyond Maguuma.

- I thought Braham at least showed more character than he has previously. He may have come across as petulant, but it worked better for him than how he has been prior.

- Great job making the night time feel like night time. That was something I’be hoped for since HoT beta and is the first time I’ve felt you got it right. I would have liked to have seen the blizaard more like the Dry Top sandstorm effect, but 1 out of 2 is still good!

- The Zelda chicken reference was cool

Overall, some nice bits, but for the episode I was looking forward to the most, it was by far the weakest for me storywise and felt very rushed. I was not a fan of the map at first, but it’s actually fun to play in and rewarding as well. Looking forward to the fractal!

I encountered only one odd problem: During the new short story instance with one champ and a bunch of grubs, my ability bars stopped responding entirely. This is the first time I experienced such an issue, and my keyboard is new and works perfectly fine outside of that, so I’m suspecting a bug.

Can we PLEASE get a challenge mote for the last boss? Having t go through the talk/walk and fights 4 times is exhausting to get to a less than 5 min fight.

I don’t usually post feedback but I think I have to post this after playing the third LW Episodes,

1. too much open world to progress the story, like in the second episode there is too much objective involving open world, we dont get as much story/dialogue as in Instanced Story so this is kind of bothering me, Story instance is the best part of story, the story instance in the first episodes eventhough there were only 3 instances, but it was well made and the dialogue were well written, especially the one where we met Caithe at white mantle stronghold, the instance in this third episode seems rushed, especially the last two instances, we only fought abnormal icebrood goliath and then the story finished, no dialogue? and the last instance are quite good but the mobs appear to be too strong, too tanky, and hit like a truck and there are endless of them, not to mention the last boss also the story are too short unlike the first and second episodes. overall I am dissapointed with this 3rd episode, the previous two episodes were quite good, but the second episode also kind of bothered me with too much open world involvment but it wasnt as annoying as in this 3rd episode

2. Too much items cluttering our inventory, my finger hurts to always right click, destroy runes, right click destroy twigs, right click destroy shiny ice.

3. I love the new maps, especially the giant forest part, and grassy part of shiverpeak southeast.

loved the new map. I was sick of fire, lava and crazy blood magic on the air.
the story was a bit of a letdown to be honest. the whole elixir thing was really short and could have been done in just 1 part instead of like 3-4.
I did really enjoy the Braham part though, even if he was very rude, conflict is what makes things and a story interesting. got me hooked in there at the end.
Haven’t got the mastery yet so I can’t comment on that.
but I did really enjoy the map. Now I can’t wait to know what’s coming next!

I really enjoyed it. It’s one of my favorite LS. Aurene and some of her achievements were fun. The new zone had some interesting elements and in places is quite striking. Really appreciate the little touches like the friend you can get for your home instance.

Nice job!

May not finish all the achievements. I have most but not sure the gloves are going to motivate me enough to get the two boss achievements (mostly due to the time consuming trash to get to the boss).

We are one hit for veteran svanir brute? Really?
I do like content to be hard but this is annoying sometimes.
I’m not one shot even from a legendary boss and i’m from a veteran?

Here I go:

-Aurene mission and quality time
-how the pc talked with her
-how she gave them visions- as if the pc was truly her minion/champ (I hope people will question the pc for this and possibly distrust him further)
-how she still gives a vision when you are downed is the best touch ever
-how the commander is starting to talk as if he/she was intelligent too
-the commander has emotions and showed clear concern and sadness over Braham
-how the commander cooed and scolded aurene (already said but i gotta repeat)
-the overall way commander acte and did stuff

-so much quality dialogue! And so much of it! it was amazing! Please do continue like this!
-how Braham was accoused of a thing the commander did.. CONSEQUENCES
-how we keep disguising ourselves, Rox and Garm were fun.
-how the pc was called on for disguising themselves as if he was a lowly spy
-I did not like how braham changed at first, but that argument was the best thing ever-how the commanders ways were questioned? How Braham did not listen and accused him of things and distrusted him?
-that last part of what braham told to the commander- the drama! The dark themes approaching!

-the overall humor in the story
-the names of some things cracked me up
-COMMANDER IS STARTING TO HAVE PERSONALITY
-the new outfit and glider.
-the new map

Only bad things about this patch: Too strong enemies, Caithe still needs to die.

This is all of my head. I must be forgetting a lot of things. But Anet! 9000/10!
Thank you so much!

Edit: Aurene portal stone and the mini…. Anet, you finished me.
If your aim is to make the commander end up going against the other races alongside dragons, I am so ready, and more than willing.

Biggest negatives: Inventory damage. Please, guys, 10 slots for map stuff? (3 pcs. svanir disguise, sticks, feathers, shiny ice, eggshells, firestone, suet, plus map currency— berries.) That’s half of a max-slot bag. Is all this really necessary just to play in a map?

Waves of mobs. Everything in this map and in the story can be summed up with that. It makes events boring, even with the improved mob AI.

Wasted mastery. I wish I hadn’t spent those points. I would have been just as happy without ever uncovering those abilities. They’re largely pointless, don’t do better damage than my own skills and only have five charges. By the time you need a recharge, you have to defend and re-light the brazier anyway. Utterly useless.

Biggest positives: Aurene stuff. I thought the first part of the story and the aurene interactions were fun. I even liked collecting the region trophies for her home space.

Cool map. It looks great and the rewards feel good. I like the heart merchant offerings, particularly the minis.

Other: Map movement is tiresome. It seems as if very mob chills or slows you and they’re everywhere. The lack of waypoints forces slow travel. Even if it’s not a huge map, it feels cumbersome. Several of the vents could be replaced with bouncing mushrooms and others just work like a very specific teleport to get to a tiny special area. They’re just too limited to be useful for traveling, IMO.

The elixer. Thank you for fixing the bugs. I’m glad it doesn’t cause more inventory damage, but a pop-up message saying it’s applied to your buffs would be good. Also, it is not a 24 hour application. It should not say it is. If someone applied this right before reset, they’ve just wasted a lot of time and effort. You guys could make it a 24 hour buff, like boosters. Why you chose to make it a day-reset is your choice but the buff should kitten well reflect that.

Story. Braham sucks. I dread the necessity of working with him in the future, as I fear he’s going to be completely intractable. I hope this is going somewhere… like a historic lesson of a pyrrhic victory.

Clues for the last boss fight would be good.

I’ll try to make it short…

+ I loved the map. Since 2012 i wanted to go to the north, it was…. beautiful, wild <3 GG for the design of it
+ The first part of the story. I really liked the instance with Aurene. It was a nice thing to train her. I hope it will be enough for her to be a good dragon.
+ Kodan lore.

Well…….. A lot of “-” for me… It hurts me to say that cuz i’m a huge fan of the game, but…. i didnt enjoy the story, and so, this episode.
It had a lot of weaknesses :-/

- The instances were short and pretty boring, cuz we always had to fight some mobs, and they were horribly long to kill.
All those long fights…. : IT IS NOT a good way to fill your instances. Same as : find this, this and this on the map (you did the same on Ember Bay).
- The last boss was annoying and the TWO last boss had… weird game mechanics. Not really enjoyable. In LS2, you had NPCs to help you to understand what to do. Here ? Nothing.

- Braham… Why is he so angry against US ? It felt rushed. I understand he is sad cuz of his mother’s death (and i really was too…) but why did he act like that ?
As a Norn lover, and a Norn player, i just wanted to slap him.
I felt more friend with his mother than he ever could be (we know her since the book kitten , and she was our mentor as norn players) and he just acts like a stupid child.

- The thing irritating me the most : I’m a Norn. I’m supposed to be the hero of the story. I WANTED TO BREAK the tooth when the time would be come to kill Jormag.
I waited this moment since the launch of the game, even since the book when Eir failed to breack it, and all i could see in this ep was this stupid idiot ruin everything.

I dont want Norn to follow this silly dude to Jormag >_>

I noticed how some people complain about how annoying it is to move across the map as well as how the new mastery is pointless.

Here’s a clue: skill 1. Channel it to completion. It’s a rush similar to skill 5 of the Bloodstone Fen flying skills, but with only a second of cooldown. Just don’t bump into monsters, it’ll end the skill and damage them. It one-hit kills ice storms, which is nice.

Aurene training was great and fun.

Bitterfrost Frontier is a beautiful map and fun to play in.

However I must be honest – the story and missions in Bitterfrost Frontier were in my opinion quite boring and uneventful. I felt like I was simply doing fetch quests for most of this episode until accessing the Bitter Cold and then finding Braham and Rox. Not as exciting as I had hoped.

Thankfully some Taimi witticism gems kept me smiling. As long as Anet make sure to keep paying her voice actor for every episode then I’m happy!

The good: Design is as good as ever.

The bad: Yet another copy paste of the two previous maps. The core system is more or less the same. A major downgrade when it comes to quality compared to vanilla game in all aspects. Did you run out of new ideas?

I’m okay with the map, a tad bit less with some of the story instances (final boss encounter missing retry mote).

The crowded inventory because of course we have to have new stuff, which cannot go into bank is a bit irritating, but I can throw them out of my inventory.

If I’ve finished the story, and started over for some of the achievements, and surprise-surprise, my character forgets the recipe for the elixir —-— can’t get the warming stone from the heart vendor anymore, neither from the grawl. Upsetting.

But my main problem with the whole map, are quaggans. Crying, whining quaggans especially SE hotsrpings part of the map. Really, really annoying if you are playing with game sounds on. After 20-30 mins spent just exploring on the map, doing the jp, searching for chests and the dead quaggans, I’m ready to kill off all the quaggans in Tyria (pretty please, make this happen) —>"Quaggan is not dead?", plus add the “FoooOOOOOOooo, TaDaaaaaaaaa” kittened sounding voice acting to it from the griffon heart quest. I’m sorry, but this is just waaaay too much. I was neutral towards quaggans before this map came in, but now I hate them with passion.

All in all I’m going back to Ember Bay instead, the skritts are more entertaining – and at least not trying to be über-cute.

A certain level of cuteness has its place in a game, but this is just stupid. I have a choice if I want to aquire cute kittens for my home instance, but I’m forced to listen to kittened conversations with swimming cows on the map while doing events, exploring etc. (((

Now that I’ve replayed the story for achievements, battling the ice beast in the last instance is terrible. Because it depends on both the ice beast AI and the idiotic pathing of the elementals, it is not enjoyable in the slightest given the emphasis on moving around caused by the aoe knockdowns.

For some reason, I am facing some performance issues in some spots on the map, specifically in the area around Sorrow’s Eclipse and the frozen lake surrounding it. Reducing the game’s resolution and toning down other graphics options does not seem to increase performance.

It’s not as bad under water and I have no performance problems around the rest of the map or the game in general (excluding crowded areas).