Guild Wars 2

I noticed last night that over by the Precarious Ruin POI there were two Large Airship Cargo boxes. They gave extra Airship Parts when opened. It was at night when I found them, so I don’t know if they’re there during the day or if they’re random or whatnot.

I am going to attempt to offer both insight into my own experience with the expansion and also offer suggestions on how to resolve most of the issues that people are having with HoT.

I am what you would refer to as the casual GW2 player. I come home from work and log in to the game to spend a few hours to relax. What I like about GW2 is that it is ACCESSIBLE to nearly anyone. I mostly play PVE with my wife. I choose not to play other game modes because of the PVP “RAWR I KILLZ YOU ALL” mentality of it and I don’t do dungeons mostly because of the “lolz get better gear. kick.” situations. So either I play the content solo, or my wife and I play together.

I have a few alts that I use because sometimes it just feels like a thief sort of night. I do not have world completion on said thief because honestly I don’t play it very well. During the BW though, I found that the Daredevil spec for the thief was right up my alley. I was taking down mobs in Orr solo. So I pre-purchased 3 copies of the expansion for myself, my wife, and her sister so we could all enjoy it together.

Now for the actual experience. I will have to admit that i ragequit the first night playing HoT. At first I was angry with the requirements for unlocking the Daredevil spec. I purchased the expansion with the hopes of being able to do world completion with the Daredevil spec or any other spec on an alt that I like to play. In reality, I have to do world completion beforehand and then hope to make it to all the Hero Points in the new area to get them before I die on any alt that I’d like to unlock. By that time, however, I’ve already finished what I wanted the spec for in the first place.

I’ve moved on past anger into just simple disappointment. I’m disappointed in Anet’s handling of something I was looking forward to. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not feeling “entitled” to having things handed to me. I just feel like it could have been handled better.

Which brings me to suggestions on how to fix the issues.

Hero Points
Remove the 5 minute timer. I was soloing one of the champs just fine. Had him down to 1/4 health and noticed I had 30 seconds left. Without the timer, people may be able to complete a few more of them.
Also a possibility: Make the Hero Points that spawn champions have an option. You can select either to go for 5 Hero Points and it spawns some of the new veterans or go for the full 10 Hero Points if you think you can handle it.

Elite Specs
In GW1 you could buy sets of spells and skills from the game to use. Do the same for Elite Specializations. Allow people to fully unlock the Elites of their choice with Gems. I think 700 – 1000 Gems would be reasonable. Offer this as an option to the Hero Point route. Think about it. I know that I would gladly spend that in order to play the way that I want to. There’s an extra $100 to $200 just from me alone. Now some might say that is pay to win. I disagree. That is paying to play a game that I enjoy and I don’t mind spending money on.

Masteries
The XP grind is real. Anet, you did a great job on the imaginative Masteries in the new area. I don’t mind having to unlock them to be able to explore. But please let the events and other activities in the new areas give a little more XP.

All in all, I want to enjoy HoT. I really want to like it. It’s just hard when you’re frustrated over it’s implementation. I sincerely hope that Anet is considering a few tweaks to how the content is handled. With a few nudges here and there it could be a great addition to a game that I already love.