Guild Wars 2

Eomunae.2814:

Given the vast amount of feedback which seems to me a bit too one-sided, I decided to pitch in my opinion.

I absolutely think the current cost is justified. Core Tyria already gives half of what you need and everybody could have done them in the months prior to the expansion. Even in the case you didn’t or rerolled a Revenant, speedrunning them solo takes about 4-6h, possibly more time efficient than the new hero challenges. At that point you have a lot of leeway to skip some of the more difficult hero challenges in Maguuma Jungle.

Another critical point to take into consideration is when the next batch of Elite Specializations are released. At that point there will be plenty new Hero challenges making it even more easy to cherrypick the hero points required for the specific Elite Spec you want.

If I had to change anything, I’d make atleast 50% of the total Hero Challenges in Maguuma easily soloable, so that the entire spec can be earned solo for those that want.

I am having a blast and love that it will take a week or so before I have my elite spec finished. Of course, it helps that I actually do enjoy the ‘grind’ in itself rather than seeing it as a requirement to have fun.

Lolwut. Everybody could have done them in the months prior… for one, you say that as if it’s something people should have done. As if preparing for an expansion so you can enjoy it properly is part of the expansion. Second, nobody in their right mind, even hardcore players, has the time to go do map completion on 6-9 characters for an expansion. And third, the fact that you are encouraging speedruns of core tyria hero points so you can get HoT elite spec… I don’t know how you don’t see what’s so messed up about that. That it’s arguably better to go do non-HoT content, so that you can enjoy HoT content.

Skolops.2604:

Frankly, I can’t rationally look at the complaints about elite specializations as anything other than entitled whining, and I am not quick to use the term. I can absolutely cut slack to those who haven’t recognized the impact of masteries being account wide. However, the truth is that the kinds of changes people are asking for about elite specialization unlocking come from a place of wanting everything for free, up front.

Sigh… no, they are not. Yes, they are some people who would have preferred to have elite specs free, from the start, but even then, it’s a case of people wanting to be able to play the new content with their elite specs, rather than having most of it done before their elite specs are unlocked. This hyperbole about wanting everything for free is so tiresome and insulting.

“Fade.5904:

Got Master Daredevil yesterday, played 3 days. Spend less time whining and more time playing – because that’s all i did, play the game (not grind)"

How many people in GW2 have that kind of time to spend “playing” ( grinding )? I’m willing to bet the real money spenders are actually the busy, middle class professinals who, you know, spend most of their week working, doing stuff with their loved ones, going out, going to the gym etc. These people are the bread and butter for Anet, the so called casuals who play for an hour at a time most days. When you market your expansion on the back of the Elite spec, make sure you go full disclosure on what exactly it would take to actually play it once it goes live. Anet did not do that and so now folks feel cheated. Pretty simple to uderstand no?

This has been a two day read. And I definitely see why.

First, a story. I been avoiding most of the hype and information about the expansion, it’s how I deal with every game. But I seen videos about the specializations, I been informed by friends what they like about what they been shown, it’s all good. But I also remain withdrawn to the hype, I want to see the expansion in action, to go on an adventure myself.

I did buy it beforehand, as an altoholic it solved two issues at once for me. A character slot for the Revenant and the satisfaction that I had the game now (I am not always sure when I have money available). The day of the expansion and I download it while making dinner, once done (both of them) I log in. Create my Revenant and tome it up as far as I can (lvl 75), the rest I do Mad King’s Labyrinth for, easy Xp (<3) and AP.

This is where my enjoyment end. At max lvl I see and realize I am unable to use the specialization, even if I finish exploring all of Old Tyria. 400 HP? I know I avoided most of the hype and information, but it must have come up, right? Nope. It’s a unpleasant surprise. I log to the only character I have world explorer on, my necro. I come short of halfway through to Reaper, and my heart sinks deeper. I look for ways to why this is, if it’s a bug (Yes, that’s my first thought), and find this thread. I read through this whole thread and cannot believe what I read, from both sides, ofcourse.

tl;dr: I am badly informed and get the 400 HP thrown in my face like a Halo Plasma Grenade, for the Elite Specializations.

Well I don’t know what to say, but I try to play. I cannot get into it, even if gliding is fun, the Masteries are a chore but I still enjoy doing them, they are my goal. But the Specializations is really far out of place for me.

I’d go with the 60-100 range of HP here, since it still demands some time in the new zones or the old to get the Specialization, but it’s done with early. Rest is fine al thou tough as Chuck Norris’s abs (I will need to change my nerves after each attempt in a future raid, I feel..).

Lastly, something I noticed while reading through it all, is that those that are fine with this all, many of them take it on themselves to try and invalidate or shame the ones being concerned with things, by calling them whiners, babies or insinuating that those players are bad. Ofcourse there’s others who are showing concerns that would refer to these players as no-lifers or such, however what I want to let you know that it’s not constructive at all, it just separates the community. Let those who like hardcore gaming do that and vice-versa.

Thing is that I believe it would be better for ANet to actually respond and change the concept of Elite Specializations here, because:

- If they do change them to a acceptable level of HP, the majority of the ones concerned would most likely take it well and ANet could start trying to build the relationship back up. The downside to this could be, as always, people who don’t want to see content they already done being “dumbed down”, complain.

- If they do not do any change to this, the subject at hand will most definitely remain in the back of the head of everyone who don’t immediately leave the game and could haunt ANet in the future as well (It has probably already reached this stage, but if they do not respond this will be much worse, I believe). There’s exclusively downsides to this option, as I doubt the players who are fine with this is going to give more money to ANet just because they choose this option.

There is however a possibility of more alternatives, but I think these are the major two that could happen.

And before I end this horrible forum post I composed, I am a 20 (Soon 21) x lvl 80 character strong player with over 5k hours in the game. I am a role-player and a PvE-player. The thought of doing the busy-work for specialization on all of them is so overwhelmingly tiring, that I’d rather write a Forum-post in a thread already full of concerns and experiences of the same kind, the kicker is that I dislike writing.

Play nice and don’t be rude, we all got concerns and lives, let’s not make it harder for others unnecessarily.

/DreaderVII

The core GW2 had 1 feature that was simply freaking awesome: You choose your own path towards glory.

I leveled chars by doing every heart on the way, by running with boss trains, by crafting, by WvWing since lvl 1, etc…

I always had the choice of doing it the way I want.

Not anymore with HoT. GW2 became another grindy MMO, similar to so many around…

ANet please keep the players options open…let players chose their path to glory.

I’ve been trying to think of why HoT is different for me. After all, I’ve played WoW, FFXIV, AoC, Archeage, TERA, WAR online, SW:ToR, TSW, Neverwinter Online, and other flashes in the pan.

These games make you level to access new abilities and content in particular areas of the game, and I couldn’t have found it too much of a slog, because (in those games I enjoyed) that’s exactly what I did.

The one difference between HoT and the others, though, is that there’s nothing to break this up besides WvW. There are no new dungeons in HoT to run when you want to take a break from the areas. In other games, when I get tired of new zones for a while, I’ll run instanced content for a ‘break.’ For a PvE player who wants their elite spec and masteries in this game, there is nothing but the jungle. It’s like being force fed chocolate cake.

It would be nice to have more ways to accomplish the same goals.

“Most games you go out and you have really fun tasks occasionally and the rest of the game is this boring grind to get to the fun stuff. I swung a sword, I swung a sword again hey! I swung it again, that’s just great. We just don’t want players to grind in GW2, no one enjoys that, no one finds it fun…” – Just remember what you told us before we began this journey Colin.

Yeah fine if some say they like the 400 HP because it worked for them. Because they “worked” all weekend for it and are already half through.

But the point still is the majority don’t want to “work” for the elite, that’s right. We want to “play”, “enjoy”, “savor”.
Why are we forced to do grind through the jungle and cannot enjoy it? Because that’s the consequence. For example, my playstile would be to play the new content bit by bit (it will take long). Do something else in between, not having that much time to playing to begin with. So to get the elite spec, to play with it, enjoy it, I can’t do that. Is that intended? Rush through the content, “work” it through, otherwise you will never see the elite specs? Yeah well congrats. Disheartened players right there.

And that’s not even taken into account the most pressing problems of many players: Champion HP (can’t do solo) and mastery locked HP.

For example for the regular trait lines and HP you just had to level. Experience comes from all kind of sources. You don’t have to “work” for it, just play the game, enjoy the ride. The old HP challenges were just a bonus to get it faster if you wanted to.

Fade.5904:

Got Master Daredevil yesterday, played 3 days. Spend less time whining and more time playing – because that’s all i did, play the game (not grind

I’ve played since friday and I haven’t unlocked anything meaningful. The difference between you and me might be that I have a life besides Guild Wars 2 and don’t play it like a 12h per day job – and don’t even try to tell me that you’ve unlocked those things with a game time of about two hours per day.
I played the games of this franchise precisely because they allowed me to stay on top of things without giving up my life for it. I’m not even a casual player, I’m actually quite wary of builds, equipment options and ways to master the game mechanics to be able to compete on a skill level above average at least.
What you arrogant white knight call “whining” is players – often long term players of this franchise – being upset about a fundamental change in design philosophy that shakes the very foundation of this franchise, the very reason many players who don’t like the standard MMO formula play Guild Wars and not WoW and other standard MMOs.

And to Colin: It’s great that ArenaNet is discussing this. And no, I’m not sarcastic about that one one bit. But let’s face it: All this didn’t happen by accident, your company isn’t composed of morons and rookies but professionals. Even if some of you may have not been happy about the shift in design philosophy, they were not able to defend the old way of doing things.
Therefore I’m not convinced that any internal discussion ArenaNet will lead will improve HoT to the point where it no longer alienates a significant amount of it’s unique player base.

But I don’t want to finish this post as the merchant of doom I never wanted to be for this franchise. I love it, I don’t want it to die, I don’t want to be driven away from it. Therefore I will preserve a beacon of hope that the HoT grind might be pushed out of anything that’s not optional.

I actually like that the specs are hard to get, it makes them more unique and you appreciate them way more than you did in the betas where you unlocked them from start. I don’t know if they should require 400 hero points though, maybe 200 points so when you have all in old world you can go play with your spec in the jungle.
That is also a big part why some people are mad, they wanted to play with their spec in the jungle from start.

Here is my experience after the weekend:

I haven’t played the game, I’ve grinded it. Sadly, I’ve spent 14h in EoTM doing karma train to get hero points, and the time needed to unlock a single elite specialization is beyond any reasonable.
For WvW the issue is BIG. There’s need to be done anything for such ridiculous amount of time needed.

But yesterday, after bored and tired from such grinding, I gave it a try in the new maps. They’re great, gorgeous, they bring new stuff, the mastery system is interesting… but all this is destroyed by the simple fact of the limitations of elite specialization unlock.
After an hour trying to do the stuff as an original mesmer, it felt what I’ve always thought. New content should be done with new elite specializations. Now it seems like you need to eat a soup with a fork to be able to use a spoon… It’s just awkward.
After that, I abandoned the idea of enjoying the new content and focus to grind hero points. But to my surprise, not only you need to upgrade the mastery system, but content can only be done in groups, which is terrible since I couldn’t do several hero challenges since I was alone.
The whole experience feels really boring and frustrating.

So now not only you need a fork to eat the soup to be able to use a spoon, but before you need to sharpen a knife and get friends to build the fork to eat the soup to use the spoon…
Why did you built such a complex and ridiculous system? Why didn’t you give us the spoon and let us enjoy the soup, which is what is supposed to be enjoyed?

I’d have loved a personal story for each class for aquiring the elite spec. That wouldn’T even hurt if you’d have to do one of them twice or thrice.
I don’t like them to be attached to hero points too. But if it HAD to stay that way, then I think 120pts in total would be fairly enough. You could even ‘grind’ your elite in Tyria, for now, if you’re not into the new jungle maps for now, and for later, when the maps aren’t that populated anymore you could go back to Tyria to get your elite too.

Arnath.2319:

All i am seeing is a mob of anger spoiled children with a mob like mentality because everything isn’t handed to them for free within the first few days of launch… over a weekend… that the devs are working overtime to keep the servers stable.

That’s all you see because that’s all you want to see.

This thread does contain a lot of venting — including your own — but it is also filled with constructive criticism. Should you choose to read the thread, then you will see why posts like yours are, ironically enough, precisely the sort of thing you’re complaining about.

Most of posts in this thread are very specific about the problem with the current state of Elite Specializations and Hero Points, and many offer suggestions about how to improve them.

If you think these game elements are fine the way they are, great! But if you resent other players giving their honest feedback in a feedback thread, then attacking them for doing so puts you in direct opposition to the point of the thread and, to the extent it includes insults, the Guild Wars 2 Rules of Conduct as well.

Arnath.2319:

No one complained when they were unlocking their character from lvl 1-80. Why should elite specs be different?

I have yet to see a single logical reason why things should be changed. All i am seeing is a mob of anger spoiled children with a mob like mentality because everything isn’t handed to them for free within the first few days of launch… over a weekend… that the devs are working overtime to keep the servers stable.

Go play the game, even the most casual of all casual players can easily unlock the full lite spec in as little as week, i’m a casual player and i have already unlocked everything, it is super mega easy, almost too easy!

You must not have read any of the posts about the issue or suggestions to fix it in this thread, like almost everyone else that thinks like you. I don’t feel like explaining them a thousandth time, but there are many reasons people are unhappy.

It’s sad to see so many posts accusing devs for stuff that aint true when they openly writes in this post.

First alot are complaining about HP and Elite Specialization and now Devs go out saying we will se if there something we can do to make HoT enjoyable for you too. I know there is a lot of information to look at and alot of work that will need to be done if they decides to change something. It is not an easy part. I bet dome Dev’s are realy sorry that so many people hate what they themself though was a good idea. Now they are going to have a look at this problem to make the players happy and some players are still bashing on the devs and mocks them. It is really sad to see.

I am not a fan of the ammount of HP needed even though we get 10 HP for some Challanges but the rest of the game is fantasic and I play a 67.5% Leveled scrapper and the experience is wonderfull.

Why the hell didn’t they give us an opportunity to convert spirit shards into hero points? It would make good sence. The ratio could be ridiculous, like 1:20, but there would be a way. Now we are stuck with spending hours trying to get people to do champion challenges or spend tens of hours trying to farm masteries. What a lovely options…

I go into a restaurant to have a meal. Before I can get throught the door, the hostess asks me to prepurchase my meal. I’ve eaten here before and thought their stuff was amazing so I go ahead and give them some money. After I sit down at a table, a waitress comes over with a dirty plate and utensils. She says, " The plate and utensils are the ones you used the last time you were here. We recently have changed to new plates and utensils but if you want to use those to enjoy the contents of your meal you will have to sweep and mop the kitchen and wash the plate and utensils you previously used." I told the waitress that this was unreasonable and that I wanted to enjoy the contents of my meal on the new plate and utensils. She shakes her head and says, “I will never understand the sense of entitlement some of these customers have.”

Ezrael.6859:

I’m sure this game is rated T for teen?

Yep, there it is at the bottom of the page.

Yet here we are, page 55 in the megathread of whiny children that spent 9 months complaining about wanting to play HoT and are now complaining about having to play HoT…
Modern gamers, I’ll never understand your sense of entitlement.

Another wonderful post from someone who did not read any of the issues presented or suggestions in the thread.

ColinJohanson.2394:

In particular, in game we’ve seen a really positive reaction to the game from folks who are busy playing, which has been really cool to see.

To be fair, I passed by someone with the ANet guild tag in HoT today, and I was really tempted to say something to them. After all, if they’re repping that guild, they want it to be known that they’re part of ANet, right?

But the game is for playing, and the forums are for discussions and opinions. So, I did the polite thing and kept my mouth shut as I moved on.

It doesn’t mean I’m happy, it just means I’m polite.

Maelstrazza.6750:

Hell, I played EQ and FFXI – I can talk grind all day.

Some may not feel this new system is a grind. Many do. Ultimately it’s up to ANet as to what sort of game they wish.

In any case, after all the volumes written – I still have yet to hear anyone discuss how having Elites upon release would destroy the game. Opinions on that are yours, truly, and we’re all allowed them, of course.. They may differ from mine. As I stated previously – I am waiting for someone to show how giving us the Elites mainly right-off would have caused so many problems that it would ruin the xpac/game.

I do kind of agree. Make them cost 200 instead of 400 and halve the value of the hero challenges in maguuma. So you can either unlock the spec through map completion of the old content or the new content.

Glad I found this thread. Avoided pre-purchasing incase of a scenario like this. Only interested in playing with new specs, not interested in grinding out for 4-5 months just to play a different build lmao. Will buy once this is fixed.

To me, the problem is not one of principle, but one of severity. Let’s face it, if it was only 100 – 150 points, nobody would be complaining that much about it.

What gripes me is that when all this started happening, Colin throws up chafe saying, “Oh, but it only costs 60 HP to buy into the elite spec”, and, “Oh, but you get 10 points per challenge, so you only need to do 40 challenges”.

Yes it’s true, you only need 60 points to wield the weapon and be called the name, but he doesn’t tell you that you need at least another 15 points just to get the base minor trait that actually supports your new class? Is daredevil viable without the endurance boost? Is tempest viable or fun without the F1-overloads? Are you a necromancer without reaper shroud?

I feel like I bought a sandwich, and I’m getting charged for two slices of bread (truly a degenerate sandwich), and now I have to pay extra just to put something in it. I understand my tempest not getting access to shouts (utility skills) right away, but paying in, and not even getting the F1 skills, what makes you a tempest, is silly.

None of the other specializations work that way – your first points into the line buy your base skill. This is why on the elite spec, it has ANOTHER little polygon, this one with a warhorn, or whatever, inside. You’re paying 60HP just to wield a warhorn/greatsword/torch/whatever.

That’s silly, and is probably the least expected thing.

Similarly, 40 challenges is one thing, 40 challenges covering most of the maps, and blocked by multiple mastery gates, is another thing entirely. I saw a ton of people this weekend running all over the old world, just to pick up HPs. If that doesn’t demonstrate something is wrong with the numbers, nothing will.

I bought the expansion for the revenant, the guild hall and the specializations. I expected fully to have a massive grind for the masteries, but since we can level them up by doing things we like i wasn’t bothered by it. I fully expect to take me 5+ monthe to get a legendary weapon (if i get it at all). I was expecting the map to be a mess (and something close to hell for me since i’m pretty bad at jumping puzzles). There’s more than enough time gating in HoT.
However i was fully expecting to be able to enjoy HoT in the new specialization, i was not expecting an abomination like i’m seeing ingame. 400 heropoints for specializations, who thought that up? who in their right mind considers this absurd amount in unlocking specializations? This just sucks any enjoyment in playing the game, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

This is not a threat of permanent quitting, simply what I’m doing right now.

I’ve been exited about this expansion ever since the first video was released regarding elite specs. For me it was finally an opportunity to spice things up and get some new abilities and ways of playing. I was one of the first to pre-purchase HoT. I bought the $100 one because I believed that strongly that this was going to be a truly awesome gaming experience based on what they said it would be and my own experiences already playing the game.

Now a couple days into the release and I’ve never been this frustrated with a game as I am with this one (system that denies our basic new specs until most content is exhausted).

A previous post of mine explains my reasoning for why I’ve now decided that for the time being I simply can’t play a game I love….only 2 days after expansion release.
————————————————————————————

We were all led to assume from when videos were first released about elites that it was a core enticement to buy the game. Who could have imagined this nutty elite gate which makes you play through the content of hot b4 you can unlock the elite for Hot.

In betas we were given immediate access to elites and no access to test the hero point system.

We weren’t told how hero points would work until only few days before and even then most were expecting something close to what we already had. Not walls within walls.

The lack of information on this essential selling point of the game was withheld and now many many people are feeling betrayed , and that this isn’t what they thought they were buying.

Let’s look at the package we are paying for here. PvE-wise.

Raid(s)
Endgame for the most dedicated and skilled.
It is what was advertised as far as I know.

Mastery System
Endgame grind for your account rather than your characters.
More or less what was advertised.

Elite Specialisations
Big end game grind to unlock basic mechanics? It wasn’t advertised this way nor was it really needed to be a big grind.

The Heart of Maguuma
New zone where you have to farm by doing all the old stuff before you can do any new stuff.

The one thing I’d like people to think about is: “What are new things I am getting when I buy HoT? What cool new toys I have?” The fact is that you get very little in the first place and then most features require heavy grind or are geared towards top players.

There is little to no reason to gate the specs. I don’t see why an opportunity to use new, but essentially base mechanics, should be seen as any sort of accomplishment. We are not talking about wanting things that really are a sign of your investment into the game – gold or materials collected, ascended armor or legendary weapons equipped, skins or achievements unlocked. We are talking about the ability to swing your weapon.

Uthrax.5740:

Sorry, I don’t see a problem with any of the issues mentioned in previous posts. I read as many as possible before eyeballs started bleeding.

If ANet makes any more changes, there soon will be another thread juxtaposed to this one of posts lamenting about how there’s ‘nothing to do’ after 2-3 weeks of the HoT release, if that.

I leveled my Revenant in literally the time it took to click on 60 tomes and the instant level 20 scroll. ~5 minutes, tops. So now I need to go farm some Hero Points to flesh out the rest of the elite spec; maybe ~10-15 hours of game time if I focus on it.

The brand new class, maxed out, casually, in less than 10-15 hours.

Way too trivial imo and I somewhat wish I never had any of the tomes to begin with. I can’t even imagine what this OP would be like if some poor soul, with a real life job no less, had to level a brand new class from 1 to 80, in a brand new expansion, with no easy mode leveling ‘tomes’…THE HORROR.

The issues I picked up on in this thread:

- Skills becoming available as you level up has been around for quite some time now. And although I admit when it was first released I didn’t much care for it, I like it now. Having all skills available after you hit a mob a few times seemed kind of silly.

-The Masteries are account bound, learn them once and all characters have access to them seems a bit, again, trivial to even a casual like me. But to each their own I guess.

-The story is fine for me, even before the recent change. Changing the terminology means nothing, ‘Gating’ will always be prevalent in digital gaming. PERIOD. GW2 had no grind or was completely an ‘open world’ previous to HoT? Really?

All games are about time invested; the vast majority of people in this post want their stuff NOW, or else they’ll demand a refund. Very interesting to me, but in a sad way.

My post is in support of ANet to counter some of these ‘interesting’ game-refunding claims, and to ask them to please not cave in too much. This coming from a loyal customer who has played since beta and spent hundreds of dollars on GW2. Others need not respond as I care very little as what you have to say and honestly wish ANet would eliminate these type of open forums in favor of a more concerted effort of personal customer support using email only. Leave these type of opinionated forums to the Fan-Based websites; PLEASE. The actual game related forums are fine, but even those get tiresome when not on topic.

/Awaits_nothingtodoalreadywhenisnextexpansion_threads

You should actually do this before coming to post about how simple it will be. I know I’ve been playing since HoT came out and I have unlocked my minor. That’s it.

Before more people keep on defending Anet, Gaile included, lets keep in mind it is the same crew that though unlocking level 36 adept skills behind killing a level 50 champ was a-ok. Or at 36 go complete a level 45 map exploration.

Considering how brutally out of touch devs can, and have shown to, be, maybe accepting the en masse complaint would be better than say ’it’s fine, the expansion has only just come out’.

It’s not like we don’t have the personal story + the masteries + exploring the whole maps + building guild halls to keep us busy.

MaJoBooOM.4851:

I dont get why you are all complaining about the 400 points .

If you don’t understand our positions, which many of us have outlined multiple times across this thread, please don’t post your nonsense of: “It worked for me, so everyone else should be just fine.”

leftyboy.9358:

tullrn.7902:

Feel like it will remain the way it is, it’s been to long into to the expansion for a change.
Now it would make the people that grindinded like crazy feel like they did it for nothing if they change it.

The group of people you speak of don’t care to compromise and relax on this one issue. That group of people have been calling us whiners, criers and babies from the get go. So sorry but I don’t feel bad when anet finally relaxes the hero point grind. If they get their feelers hurt so be it.

I’m angry that ANET isn’t closing down and infraction the rude, insulting posters who make childish attacks on the many who are unhappy with elite spec unlocks. I don’t mind being disagreed with, even strongly, but personal attacks being allowed do not make ANET look good.

I like a lot about the expansion but the one thing I just can’t get passed is the hero point cost for elite specializations. For the few that seem to think its ok let me put something in perspective. If I level to 80th I have all of my normal specializations and skills unlocked and that great. But if I then map all of central Tyria I cannot even get halfway through earning my elite specialization.

Let me repeat, if I then map ALL OF CENTRAL TYRIA, I still have my specialization less than half unlocked. Forgive me, but really? I’d like to play with them while I mapped, before I’ve finished the game and all.

Understand, I’m fine with them costing more than a normal specialization but 400 hero points is simply too high. I feel it should have been in the 120~180 range (two to three times the normal amount). After all, as I understand it, they are supposed to give you knew fun options to play and not be more powerful than any of the existing options so why make them so expensive?

In any case this I sincerely hope it changes.

MaJoBooOM.4851:

I dont get why you are all complaining about the 400 points , I started playing friday and play for 3 hours a day and have my reaper already 80% finished . No stress and ita fun unlocking everyskill. I am always thrilled to see what comes next in my specialization.

We’re complaining because we have to do all this crap 9 FREAKING TIMES to unlock elites on all our toons (for those of us with one of each class). Personally, If nothing changes, 2/3 of my toons are probably going to spend the rest of their lives sitting on rich iron or platinum nodes. GW2 was the best mmo I ever played because ( up until 2 days ago) it was not grindy. Sure, you can grind if you want to, but it completely optional. Those days are long gone. Getting hero points is grindy as hell because you have to do the same godkitten content on every toon. That actually wouldn’t be so bad, but pretty much every hero point requires a group to defeat a champ. Why are we all complaining? Because getting hero points in the new zones is essentially mandatory if you ever want to unlock elite specs, but many hero points require a group to fight a champ.

So way to go, Anet. You did it. You figured out a way to completely alienate anyone who is either A) casual, or has lots of alts. I am both A & B so am doubly screwed.

BaconofPigs.1683:

Majic.4801:

Being forced to beg people to come help kill a champion doesn’t feel very heroic.

Wait, you mean there are people who can’t solo champions in this game? Oh wait, there are people who at level 80 can’t even kill a -veteran- mob…

Apparently, there are also people who can’t even kill a level 1 straw man, but like your post, that’s beside the point.

The point is that the current regime needs modification, and hopefully that point is getting across to the people who can do something about it.