Guild Wars 2

Total grindfest. Was excited to use my new elites specs until I realized I had to grind the hero points to use those too. Way to go A Net. After months of getting excited to use the Dare Devil, Dragon Hunter and Druid I have to grind xp in the same old specs from 3 years running just to play the new classes. Even funnier is how the first zone all these events are going on just makes it super overwhelming. It’s as if A Net jam packed too much into one zone. Complete chaos.

lol I took a long break from GW2 after I crafted my ascended gear, too. I was so burned out, it wasn’t even funny. After a break, I began playing a little here and there and then have been playing more since HoT. It’s been frustrating for me off and on.

The map locations are often confusing, I do a fair amount of waiting around on maps for people, and that one Hero Challenge in Auric Basin that is gated behind the meta event succeeding is REALLY annoying. It takes me repeating that long series of quests and fights many times before I can get one that actually succeeds since it fails A LOT.

Since I have alts, this is going to be tedious in the extreme long term.

Canakun.8031:

tl;dr the content you consider to be grind is the content i consider to be meaningful gameplay.
maybe you feel like you’re grinding because you’re not having fun, in which case: stop playing the game if it’s not fun to you.

If grinding away is your idea of meaningful gameplay, then fine. It’s not to me, and it’s not to a lot of people. Which is why they made Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 with a “no grind” philosophy. Which frustrates me that they keep adding meta-events with rewards that require you to grind those meta-events. It wouldn’t be a problem if it were a map or two out of 5 or 6 maps. But it’s every map. 3 of 3 maps. A disappointingly small amount of maps, all of which are grindy in nature.

I don’t have fun grinding meta-events. I have stopped playing, but I do love and enjoy Guild Wars 2 in its core. Hence my thread giving my opinion and criticism of the content provided.

I came here with legitimate concerns and desires, but I know how these forums work. Before anyone flames me for being “too casual,” let me tell you that I’ve been playing since the game launched. I’ve done the dungeons, I’ve run the bosses, I’ve gone through fractals. Why then don’t I have millions of achievement points? Because I don’t like grind. I do things a few times, and maybe a few times more if I really enjoy it. I made an exception when I decided I wanted ascended armor. After I finally got it, I felt really burnt out and didn’t want to play anymore. I came back a while later and decided I wanted Twilight. After I got that, I felt burnt out and I didn’t want to play anymore. Now HoT is out, and it’s as grindy and repetetive as ever. That, and it’s not a lot of content for the price, and it’s all just too difficult for the average player.

I didn’t get super duper hyped about HoT when it was announced. I purposefully avoided most of the news and hype surrounding it, in order to avoid the ultimate disappointment I would feel when the expansion failed to meet my hyped up expectations. I did the same thing for Halo 5, and I’m doing the same thing for Fallout 4, and I do the same thing for most games I love to play. My disappointments are not a result of raised expectations.

When HoT released, I bought it and played it day one. I was eager to get into the new maps, I had some fun exploring with the waves of people flooding Verdant Brink. It’s a little over a week after that now, and I’m starting to have doubts and worries.

One issue I have at the moment is the apparent need to create a meta-event for every single new map. While it is good that something is always happening, it’s also very annoying to me. There are constantly mordrem attacking this place or that place, and constantly a lack of large groups of people trying to do them, so they never get done. This is my personal experience, anyway. I have personally tried to do it, but failed because I was literally the only person trying. If you have different experiences, then I envy you and you should count yourself lucky that you somehow always end up in a populated and organized map. While it’s like this, it is impossible to explore areas with mordrem everywhere. I like to explore, and I don’t mind fighting things, but when exploration is met with constant battling the exploration loses its fun. Any fans of Final Fantasy might know the frustration of wanting to take two steps without having to fight something. I feel this a lot in the new maps.

Another issue I have is the ramped up difficulty of everything in the expansion, even outside raids. They promised difficult content, being raids. Apparently what actually happened is that they made all the new content extremely difficult, and from what I expect raids are to be nearly impossible unless your live revolves around this game and it’s all you know. This is a problem for what I believe to be the majority of players. I’ve repeatedly seen complains in HoT map chat, in my guild chat, and even in core Tyria area map chats that the new places are brutally difficult. The difficulty of the new mobs coupled with the constant meta-events are turning people off of exploring the new areas.

Lastly, despite the size of the maps, I have a problem with the lack of new areas to explore. I don’t find much appeal in having super vertical maps. It makes them more confusing to traverse for new players, ultimately turning them off. It makes things just more tedious when you do know where you’re going. It all has the same theme and looks pretty much the same everywhere. It just doesn’t feel like a lot to me. For kitten expansion I really don’t feel like that’s worth it. You could argue that there are also masteries and elite specializations. I would argue that most players have a favorite class and will ultimately stick to that one. Masteries are really just an artificial way of extending the life of HoT by requiring you to grind the meta events in the maps to level them up and unlock them.

I love Guild Wars, and I want to see it succeed. I want to find myself still playing in another 3 years time. I don’t think that will be the case if future content will be repeats of Heart of Thorns.

In summary (and TL;DR) I would argue that not everything needs to be meta, and not everything needs to be difficult to an elite level. I hope that in future patches and expansions they will releas content for the average player. Of course, there should be challenging and rewarding content as well. I feel that the challenging content should not be ALL of the content, and it shouldn’t all be super meta.

I regret prepurchasing it, I only did it for the last beta weekend to try out raids, and we all know how that turned out. My plan was to buy a boxed edition which was not only cooler since you get a shiny box, but also 10 euros cheaper here.

So I regret the prepurchase, but I would have bought the expansion anyway once it got out even though with a bitter taste since it is so small and overpriced.

Yes, but only because there’s so much jumping, I hate jumping puzzles.

Gliding and jump pads are OK.

GW2 needs something that GW had, and that’s HM (Hard Mode). In hard mode they could make every HP a champ that requires at least 3 people to be near it to even trigger, takes ten minutes to kill with a 5 minute timer unless you trigger your skills in exactly the right way, dodge to the micro second and happen to have the requisite skills to remove it’s bar so you can do significant damage- which only certain classes have on a regular basis.

Oh, and just for fun, all regen type heal skills are nerfed in hard mode so no more passive on tick heal effects, as well as all passive condi cleanse.

That would satisfy the die hards who think just because they exploited to 40 mastery points in two days, ran around the map in blob and finished it inside a week that others should suffer when the map population has died off and there is literally no one around to help out on a HP which took 10 attempts and 30 minutes to reach (not all of us have young reactions or memories any more).

Kinda wish I’d exploited to get 40 mastery points now to be able to move around the maps easier and walk through poison, etc.

saurus.8290:

all you need to do is ask on map chat (hope you know what is it)

I’ll ignore your condescension, but the simple fact is, asking for something in map chat is not a guarantee of getting help. It’s not even a guarantee of getting a response.

Tipper.6973:

Massively
Multiplayer

Means nothing if everyone is doing something else…

As a solo player of middling ability (former long time WoW player, got tired of the grind), everything I am reading tells me to wait to purchase HoT, which is a shame, as I am looking forward to it. I have a solo guild (none of my former WoW guild-mates made the transition) and would like to have a guild hall to park my toons (3 80s and another on the way). I think I get where Arena is going and hope they throw some bones out for a more or less casual player like me. I want the expansion to succeed, as GW2 has been, on the whole, an excellent experience for me and I want to both see it succeed and contribute financially by purchasing the expansion, but I don’t see anything that suits my style of play. I should note that I don’t want Nerf Central, but I also don’t want (yet another) more or less full time responsibility, which is the reason I left the other MMO that I won’t again mention. I hope that those who have suggested that Arena will adjust things to a more favorable balance are right. If so, then I’m all “shut up and take my money”. If not, well, I’ll figure something out. Thanks all for the comments. They help.

I think I’m going to park HoT for now also. I can say I had one great hour of fun with a guild mate doing events for experience but the way you have to play this expansion doesn’t compel me to want to play it :-(

I mean, empty maps mean I’m only halfway to glider 2. Story takes a few goes at working out where u need to be regarding above or below. Fail and your quite a way from nearest waypoint so have to do the same thing over and over until you get it.

I got as far as prized possessions and due to one wrong skill being used and throwing me off the ledge I now have lethal pustules to deal with that we’re not there on my first attempt. Have a boss chasing me and died about 20 times. NOT FUN at all.

It’s painful, but I fear it is so painful, it will put me off playing the game altogether, even core game.

I was so looking forward to HoT but I’ve never been a fan of jumping puzzles and I can’t stand platform games and this feels more like a platform game in HoT.

No guide, no starter area to introduce you to stuff, gates story and those mastery points are a nightmare with empty maps. You need to do 56 successful events to get 1 million xp. Not possible if no one else is doing them.

Maybe I’ll just take a break from HoT and see how it goes. Sad days, sad days indeed :-(

I don´t get eather why pll are complaining about the reduction.
400 HP complaining about being too much
250 HP complaining about being too light

It´s just Anet becomes the bad guy….no matter what they do.
I think it is good for WvW and PVP players who don´t want to do any PVE:)
So guys lets just enjoy the game and play the way we want;)
peace

I’m so tired of people creating threads for the sole purpose of telling other people to stop complaining about something. It’s really getting meta and obnoxious, and needs to stop.

Wait a second.

Oh, F-

Well, so far I’ve only seen Verdant Brink. And I’ve . . . had issues walking from point A (Maguuma Breach) to point G (Noble Cliffs) and not getting into a host of problems. However, once I learn the paths and get the opportunity to use some shortcuts it becomes much easier . . . still potentially deadly though.

(Frigging pocket raptors keeping me in combat mode too long….)

But on the other hand, tying to get back from a waypoint after dying in one of the event chains? Try to get to the last Pale Reaver event from death and Maguuma Breach. It’s really really tough. As in, pretty lethal once you get into those ruins.

Some middle ground in that case, such as not auto-Contesting the waypoint along the path?

I didn’t mind the difficulty (non-hero point) of Verdant Brink and Auric Basin. But Tangled Depths brought out a rage in me. This was all explored with a zerker thief and a zerker rev.

First, in Tangled Depths the mob density is ridiculous. In the other places there was at least some breathing room, but here around every corner it is +5 mobs. Second, the place is a gigantic labyrinth. It is full of long winding corridors that make up a 4-tiered maze, making navigating toward any goal and utter hell. Third, the map is incredibly cramped, to the point of being claustrophobic. I don’t feel like I’m exploring or discovering new places, as much as I am just perpetually lost. Combine all these three things, you get the feeling of confusion, frustration, and oppression.

If there were a map where I would like the enemy density toned down, it is there. I’m already lost and confused. I don’t want to be under attack literally all the time.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Not having an issue now since there are people in the maps. But a few weeks from now? Yeah, this map is gonna feel impossible when the numbers drop significantly.

Now this is a real concern. I don’t like rushing through areas and that is basically what I ended up doing this evening just to get the waypoints and open up the map some.

However, if the zones empty out, I fear this zone may end up being a nightmare to just traverse even using waypoints and gliding.

Not having an issue now since there are people in the maps. But a few weeks from now? Yeah, this map is gonna feel impossible when the numbers drop significantly.

I enjoy the difficulty, but in some areas the mob respawn rate is incredibly unfun, specifically some events (vinetenders…)

I am definitely book marking this page. I am seeing a lot of really good information here. And yes, I am a casual player but I did not think I was whining, just expressing my opinion.

However, I like the difficulty and I am sure I will get better at handling this, but I was mostly irritated over the fact that it felt like I had just killed that silly pocket raptor when he morphed into another one right before my eyes.

Oh, it’s hilarious to see the elites throwing their little tantrums. They always complain about casuals whining and and crying, but the minute they don’t get their way, they cry and scream louder than everyone else and are always blaming casual players for everything.

And then you wonder why you get so much hate. It’s deserved. Maybe people will respect you if you stop acting like entitled cry babies. If you can’t handle other people having a fair shot at things, go play a single player game.

I have come to the conclusion that the new HoT zones are worse than how Cursed Shore used to be with the mob density and horrific respawns of undead.

I ran through the new map (well more like I stumbled), died a few times and managed to get some way points and earn points towards my masteries. No matter which path I took, I ran into so many mobs it was difficult to even consider exploring anything that looked remotely interesting.

I actually got a chance to try out gliding…died a few times when I slammed into the side of a rock wall and when I lost the wind in my glider without being able to catch an updraft.

The new zone is so terribly overrun with mobs that it is not fun exploring. I hope Anet tones down the density and the immediate respawns so we can at least explore without getting downed every few feet.

I did this on my Ranger and used my war horn in order to keep speed up. I ended up letting my bear run blockage when I needed a quick get away and was fortunate enough to have a guildie helping me past the worst of the “mobjambs.”

I was a wreck when we finally stopped at the last waypoint (lower left corner of the middle map). I am sure my bear will be presenting me with his resignation tomorrow for the suicides he endured on my behalf.

I never did make it anywhere else.

Let’s see: why did you quit GW2? Depending on your answer, I would heavily recommend against buying HoT, because it caters to a very… let’s call it “special” audience.

Have a annoying player who’s already beat HoT final boss rambling on in map chat about how they don’t understand all the complaints about the game, etc…? Do this: Ask them to bring over an alt and play with you in Verdant Brink from the beginning of the map. After about 30-45 minutes of constant defeat due to empty events they will eventually get frustrated. If they say anything at all before departing they may suggest you map explore, do adventures or some other approach which of course they never took since they just traveled with the launch heard and blasted though the content.

They will never admit that the experience of trying to get honest XP now from events is ridiculous and broken due to lack of players and content that is largely not soloable without specific classes and builds.

Of course these players don’t give a kitten about your experience or the game in general. Their feelings towards the new content is entirely based on their experience having played from launch and went hard core for the past five days. That’s all they know or care about and now they get to be the ones who tell the world how great it is. It’s misleading of course. They may never admit it but they will probably stop talking about how amazing it is and they probably won’t play on an alt anytime soon. In the back of their mind they are probably thinking “yep, this is exactly why I blasted though everything for the past five days, sucks to be them”