Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone.

I’m a returning player from vanilla GW2, quit right around when fractals were just introduced, I need help ( or opinions) regarding if I should buy or not HoT.

Bit of background first: Like earlier, I played GW2 right at launch, I played with a friend, and we joined a awesome guild, lots of fun were had doing all kinds of content (especially WvW), fast forward until 80 and fractals, things went south fast, If memory serves, the guild did a server transfer that fragmented the group, I think I stayed behind, my friend quit and then I quit (may have been other reasons as well but they have been lost to time).

So fast forward almost 4 years, I have been keeping tabs on GW2 due to HoT announcement but I was put off initially due to the huge amounts of changes since I left and because I didn’t feel like playing and then quitting due to the same reasons again? (lol does this even make sense).
And then I came back, I think it was a week ago, Started a new class but not from scratch since I still do have my mains, been having some fun overall, just sticking to world completion and leveling for now, Haven’t really joined a guild due to the ever present stigma of guilds not wanting low levels and because I feel useless until I hit the cap and get geared.
So far I’m at 29, the world certainly feels a bit different (living story perhaps?) but I really miss the huge amount of people running around (all MMO’s go through this and because I’m in a more or less empty server (ET).)

I don’t know if anyone feels this way but GW2 and EvE, have been the only mmo’s that gave me unusually strong feelings for long past times and buddies.

So I turn to the great community of GW2 to help me with a push. Game certainly feels different enough ( I don’t remember a lot of my vanilla days and things feel somewhat different now), and the changes to the entire game feels substantial enough to make me strongly consider coming back but I I keep seeing reviews that point HoT as overpriced due to the small amount of content that one gets (Mainly not a lot of story, and events are group only therefore loners have a harder time).

My main gripe for now would be: I’m in a low pop server, I don’t know if I will like the game long enough to stay after the cap, If I buy the exp, It means I will have to do a server transfer so thats an additional fee, In the end it would be a lot of money to maybe relive my nostalgia days so not a very enticing prospect when one thinks about it.
Apologies for my monologue, but I find it quite hard to convey my feelings with just words, But I trust you people will help me make a decision

Thanks a lot in advance

You’re no longer on a low pop server… everyone is on the almighty megaserver. So effectively anyone can play with anyone else regardless of server choice (with the exception of NA vs EU servers). The game now creates extra instances of the same map if reaches population cap and culls these extra maps when there are fewer players around. There only time your server matters is in WvW now. There are still tons of players in the maps, they congregate around world bosses (who are now on universal timers now).

We are all on the “megaserver” now, so your home world is meaningless. If you’re seeing fewer players running around, that’s because there are that few players where you’re at.

Looks like there’s no hurry for an immediate decision. Before you could even get to HoT you have to go through a bunch of story stuff, plus get to level 80, so I’d say just keep playing to see how you like the current changes. Once you get there, maybe the price will drop (I don’t know how much you play or how quickly you advance).

I think many guilds are open to newbs, I know ours is, so don’t be afraid to join one being advertised. It doesn’t cost anything, you can join up to five, and can quit without any loss – assuming you don’t join one that has any stupid requirements.

Regarding whether HoT is overpriced or if you should get it, that’s a matter of personal opinion. The story is short… around the length of a living world season, but better written. And the general difficulty level is higher, which a lot of people complain about, but prior to the expansion, many were complaining that core Tyria wasn’t difficult enough… guess Anet can’t win.

Since HoT has come out, I’ve completed the new story, completed the 4 new map events multiple times, got the elite specs on 7 classes, equipped 1 toon with full ascended, crafted 1 legendary weapon, got almost all the new masteries, attempted the raids, played in the ranked sPvP season, got my fractal level from 20s to 70s, and helped my guild set up the guild hall. I got my $50 worth.

Edit: DeanBB is right about holding off until level cap. You can enter HoT maps at low levels but mobs hit hard in HoT, so survival is questionable. You need to finish a short story instance to enter (don’t even need any personal story completion). Being level 80 is also required before you can gain mastery XP and start your elite spec.

Servers do only matter if you are doing wvw, everything else is mega server and you get placed with all servers in pve. When a map get full a new open and so on.

Thing with this is that in maps were there are big events, which is many maps, people join when the event starts and leave when the event is done. This means that maps opens and closes very frequently, and very often if you are in the area to level you will a lot of times end up on maps that are active but then turn inactive when the people leave for next world event on another map.

What you do need to know is that each region mostly have a lot a lot people just wondering around in it for reasons. Some have gathering trips, other levels, some make map completions, others do achievement hunts and so on. There are more people in this game and in low level areas then there are in any other mmo out there with low level areas and vanilla versions. This due to the way GW2 is made. There are reasons to come back to it even when you reach lvl 80 and with mega servers the regions never really go empty.

As for expansion. I can’t tell you what is worth and what is not. I can tell you though and i have 7000 hours of playtime in gw2 that it defiantly is worth it for me.

GW2 have issues for sure and most and for all in wvw which they pretty much wrecked for us veteran wvw players. This is a sad story and wvw is bleeding players. But this do not mean that there are no wvw to talk about. I don’t know what server you are on so i can not tell you the state of your wvw, but the top 10 servers in EU and top 6 in NA have a ever on going wvw still. The lower down you go the less players are in wvw and it gets pretty empty at the bottom. So if you want to aim for wvw you should consider moving server or wvw will not be fun for you.

As for the rest of the game, pvp have issues right now if you are a veteran player, this will probably get better, or so i hope. At this point they have removed ranked pvp and playing unranked with new players who don’t have much clue is to much of a gap that makes veterans unhappy, and they have all the right to feel so. How ever this will most probably go away when ranked are back and new players get on pair with the rest of the players.

PvE have changed, old pve is still viable, but the new content have deffo added a very much harder content which made most of us happy. The HoT maps can for sure overwhelm you until you understand how they work, understand the mobs and use gliding. Dungeons are still a thing, but not something you farm gold in anymore, but for fun. GW2 made a misstake with the dungeons and they need a bit more love then they got, but they are still fun to do.
Fractals is also very much worth doing and you should really consider getting in to them as well.

So yes overall you will have many hours of fun until you might run in to a wall and it is worth getting the expansion and to play it. But remember that the game is not only about HoT it is about everything, so get in to all gamemodes.