Guild Wars 2

softblackcarbon.1537:

HoT is fantastic. Just as mattkoko said above, people almost always voice negative opinions much more often and loudly than positive ones. If you just spend three minutes on this forum, you may get the impression that HoT is a disaster, but spend three minutes in game and you’ll see large player populations who are having a great time.

All the talk of “group or lose” in HoT baffles me. I constantly run around the world solo doing events and exploring maps (on a full zerker ele no less – 11.6k health ftw) and don’t seem to have any problems. Usually you bump into other players during event chains, but even if you don’t, essentially all of them are soloable. It’s the big meta-events that require large map participation, but they only run once every hour or two and tend to be quite fun! You are more than capable of playing the HoT content without actively looking for a group.

The map design is literally the best I have ever seen in an MMO. I actually want to get back out into the maps, rather than standing around in a major city as players in other MMOs tend to do. They’re dynamic, complex (yes, they have a slight learning curve, but after that it’s not a problem – plus the learning curve is half the fun!), rewarding, full of activity, and have beautiful artwork. Mobs actually have some depth to them now as opposed to just spamming auto-attacks on you – suddenly the combat system is able to shine.

The elite specs add a whole new dimension to each profession and are, for the most part, incredibly well designed. I’ve been playing ele for 3 years now and Tempest feels like what I’ve been missing this whole time.

There is a whole host of new achievements and collections you can work on while you play, adding tons more replayability to the new maps and content and the new rewards systems allow you to experience the content how you want to, and still reap at least something for your efforts.

The mastery system adds new long-term goals for players already at level cap, with only one or two actually being super necessary for getting around (you’ll have them within the first 2-3 hours of play, especially if you start right away on the story). Again, more replayability for the new maps, and things to work on beyond just your first day of play.

Not to mention, the raids are absolutely fantastic. I also used to raid in WoW and I’m having just as much fun (if not more – GW2’s combat system is actually amazing) as I did playing WoW back in its glory days. (Plus, not having a gear treadmill is so nice…. Don’t let anyone tell you you need ascended armor for raids – you don’t. This is confirmed.)

It’s hard to parse through a lot of the negativity on the forums, but there are a ton of players who are really enjoying the game right now and who all would definitely tell you it’s totally worth it. You can always come back to the core game for a bit and see what you think of that before deciding to buy HoT, but keep in mind, you’ll be missing out on quite a bit without the xpack.

Hope that helped!

This definitely helped a lot thank you! I’m kind of getting excited for this, I’ve been looking for some good end game that will keep me entertained for quite a while!

Deotronomio.1962:

If you are going to play with a group maybe yes the expansion was made to be played with a group, if you are going solo I say no the mobs are to fast to many slows,stuns,etc they literally one shot you It,s very frustrating specially if you play a elementalist which has the lowest and weakest health pool. I got so frustrated I quit the game and regret buying this expansion. I’m not supporting arena net anymore. Good luck.

Well that will definitely be a challenge I will consider. Thank you.

IntheCoconut.3497:

It depends on your mindset honestly. My friends and I are enjoying the game and finding plenty to keep us entertained.

Fractals have changed. They now have 5 daily reward options. You get a chest for completing any 3 levels from the 1-20 bracket, any 3 levels from 21-50, and any 3 levels from 51-100. You also will have a random level selected from level 1-20 and level 20-50 as a daily reward as well, totaling 5 chests. Luckily, you are not locked into doing 3 fractals at once in order to get credit. Completing 1 fractal will send you back to the lab, and you can do them in any order. I like this a lot because I get burnt out easily, so I just randomly do them when I get the time. The new system is much more forgiving for people who can’t commit a full hour. Rewards are pretty lack luster, but ANet has confirmed changes are in the works for how people receive rewards from Fractals.

Dungeons do not give as much gold, which has a lot of people upset. If you enjoyed dungeons, this might upset you. I found dungeons boring, and I am now happy that I don’t feel compelled to do them just to get some quick gold. I can focus on getting gold from other things that I enjoy doing more.

A lot of the new events in HoT requires a group to participate in order to be successful. If you like to lone-wolf content, then you might get frustrated with the game. I play with my husband, and we can complete most of the small events and challenges in the game with just the two of us. There are, however, some big “meta” events, which basically requires the entire map to participate in order to win. I usually find the maps to be populated enough for these events to succeed. In the instances that 1-2 people aren’t enough to complete the smaller events, there are usually enough people that help out just in passing through. If not, you can always ask /map for some help.

Guilds got a lot of new content. I am in a small (5-10 man) guild, so we are still at the early stages and so therefore I can’t really speak much about what you get from this.

New Legendaries, and other things to craft if that’s your thing.
The continued personal story is a lot more interesting than the Zhaitan chain, in my opinion. It is also very short, but that is really my only complaint with it. The events are a lot more varied, and you’ll find yourself doing more engaging things than just “kill this mob of enemies” which is a refreshing change.

Raids are fun, and challenging. They require a really coordinated team with good communication, and is definelty meant as end-game content. And by end-game I mean having mostly ascended gear equipped.

The biggest complaint from people is the amount of time and resources it takes to get a lot of the content. Guild Halls requires a LOT of materials in order to unlock new levels, buffs, and content. Ascended gear and Legendries, as per usual, take a lot of dedication, materials, gold, and time. Some items can only be crafted once per day. Specializations take time to unlock because you likely wont have enough Hero Points to unlick all traits/abilities. And some areas in the new maps will not be open to you right away because they require you to level up masteries.

A lot of people are upset about not being able to unlock all the content on day-one of playing the game. If you are impatient, are think you will get bored easily, then I’d say probably save your money.
If you are okay with not being able to experience all the content on day-one, and are okay with taking your time to experience everything, then I’d say get it.

Wow. Thank you very much for this in depth response. There is a lot to think about but I do like how the content is not just handed to me all on day one. I wanted to level a revenant anyways so It would take some time to do that, but I like how it takes time to really reach end game. I like a good challenge!

Qugi.2653:

Should wait for price to go down. My opinion not worth cost now. I regret I pay so much for it. I hate HoT map giant jump puzzle with endless trash mob can not enjoy explore. Revenant is fun to play but not worth cost of expansion for new profession.

Thanks! I think I will wait this one out as much as I want to play the revenant. Maybe the price might shrink around christmas! (although highly unlikely)

IntheCoconut.3497:

What was the reason for stopping playing, and what didn’t you like about the core game?

Mostly school. However, I was growing tired of my class and I found myself just doing fractals over and over.

Hey all, I’ve been away from gw2 for little while now(about 4-5 months) I was wondering if heart of thorns was worth picking up and if the game has improved for the better. I had a lot of fun with gw2 back when I was playing, but I have heard some mixed things about the expansion, so I thought I would go right to the forums. If you have any info share it would be greatly appreciated!