We’ve been asking for this since the HoT betas so I wouldn’t hold your breath. I think the best approach would be a combination of the two. A set of core skills tied to invocation that can slot into any legend. Fill the weak spots with a stun break/condi clear or something of that sort. But like I said I wouldn’t hold your breath. They’ve not even finished underwater Rev yet.
Yeah, that could work too, and is probably the simplest approach.
Yeah, it’s not logical and it results in very clunky gameplay, and it really feels like the only reason they’re doing it this way is to force rangers to still interact with their pet when a lot of ranger players would really appreciate Arenanet not making that decision for them, especially since core Ranger and Druid are both still mandatory pet users.
This elite spec is/was the perfect opportunity to provide the option of a “petless” ranger that still utilizes the core pet mechanic, and they need to fix it and back off of their silly, emotionally-and-not-logically driven insistence that being a ranger has to always mean having and micromanaging pets.
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Gonna say it again, a measly 200+150 stat buff does not come even close to making up for the loss of dps from the pet.
200 power and 150 ferocity does not equal 2-3k DPS. This is pathetic.
Please try to get someone who knows math when designing elite specs.
How many times does it need to be repeated? You are not supposed to stay permanent in beastmode.
It is not a petless ranger. Get over it.
“My name Miellyn, and I fear options and hate when other people ask for them.”
This elite spec is the perfect opportunity to provide ranger players with a petless option. They need to fix it. Beast form needs pet swap, some minor stat improvements, and a visual noise reduction.
I don’t even main a ranger, so this isn’t an emotional topic for me. It’s just common sense.
The damage is bad and the spec is useless in PvE. Even in PvP, after your burst damage is done you will be vulnerable for 3/4 of the time. The stat bonuses are far too low to make up for the loss in damage by removing the pet. Remember that supposedly 30% of the damage comes from the pet. When you combine, you lose the pet, aka 30% of your damage not to mention the meat shield. What do you gain in return? 80 in each stat + 200 extra in 1 stat based on your pet choice and 3 mostly useless abilities or actually 2 abilities since you lose the pets special ability. It would be nice if they at least gave us the 30% damage back while in Beastmode. It wouldn’t be that hard to add it to the 1st trait.
You are not even suppose to stay in beast mode after using the skills. Watch the developer’s video. They specifically mentioned that.
Really? …Ok rangers, here’s beast mode, but don’t stay in beast mode!
Yeah, it’s idiotic. It really feels like they just have a purely emotional vendetta against ranger players that want alternates to having a pet. This was the perfect opportunity to give ranger players that option, and they hamfisted it for no good reason. Hopefully they’ll see some sense before the expansion hits.
Yeah out of all elite specs I was most excited for but dissapointed with soulbeast. I get that a lot of time was invested in developing the design and pet skills/animations etc. But it just doesn’t play very smoothly/have anything interesting to offer. It has a lot of variety I can’t disagree but it isn’t a fun style to shift in and out beastmode only to do a few underwheming skills. The stances could be strong if only they had a longer duration or shorter cooldown. Now it seems redundant to use them when there are better utility skills to choose from. The visuals aren’t really as impressive as what other elite specs too. Holosmith on the other hand.. just wow.
For starters, they need to not try to force players to stance dance between pet mode and beast mode. It feels clunky and pointless, and a lot of ranger players really want an option to not have to deal with the pet – I see no reason whatsoever to obstinately deny it to them since the dev to support it is already there, and tying it to an elite spec is the perfect way to give players the tools to utilize the pet mechanic in an alternate way like this, as opposed to just letting them perma-stow and taking the efficacy hit.
They need to just add pet swapping to beastmode and get rid of or significantly reduce the visual noise of that weird nature aura.
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Unlike some folks, I think the Rev is a great concept that only lacks some polish in the execution, which leads to gameplay that feels more static and boring than it should.
I think there are a couple of obvious reasons for this that should not be that difficult to address; the core rev needs some updates to feel a bit more fluid and dynamic. I’d recommend one of the following two approaches, if not both. This would also possibly justify removing the weapon swap, although that’s very unlikely to happen at this point.
a.) A new, versatile legend tied to the Invocation line (giving them a 5th core legend) that focuses on synergizing with other legends, providing Revenant with gameplay fluidity it currently is lacking.
b.) A 4th utility skill for each legend that can be swapped for one of the existing skills, giving players a limited ability to buildcraft and custom tailor their legends around different builds.
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I think not having pet swap in beast mode form is a design mistake. This spec will mostly appeal to Ranger players who prefer not dealing with the pet. It should not be a required gimmick to hop in and out of beast form. I would also just get rid of the silly aura.
You are not supposed to camp beastmode permanently. Can we please stop now with those suggestions? It is not a petless ranger.
No, I won’t, because it should be if the player wants it to be. It’s halfway there already; I see no purpose in forcing the player to dance in and out of it whatsoever.
I think not having pet swap in beast mode form is a design mistake. This spec will mostly appeal to Ranger players who prefer not dealing with the pet. It should not be a required gimmick to hop in and out of beast form. I would also just get rid of the silly aura.
You aren’t meant to camp beastmode. You are meant to move in and out of it. You cast your pet’s ability and then jump into beastmode and cast your skills then jump back out, etc.
I actually think this is a design mistake. This spec will appeal mostly to players who want to not have to be forced to use/interact with the pet itself. What they should do is let you swap pets while in beast mode, and also get rid of the incredibly distracting nature aura.
- Guardian should’ve been given monk\paragon
- Mesmer should’ve been given spellbreaker. (not warrior)
- Ranger should’ve been given deadeye. (not thief)
- Thief should’ve been given assassin. (complete with “You move like a dwarf!”)
- Revenant should’ve been given ritualist.
Meh. Subjective. I like most of what they went with.
Hello,
Since we have food, sigils, runes that give us healing effectiveness now.Could we maybe get a percentage under healing power stat on the hero panel to show how much total healing effectiveness we are giving out along with healing power?
and this healing effectiveness does this effect the skill tool tips for healing skills or is the extra heal applied after that?
The trouble with this is that healing power isn’t built as a fixed percentage (although it arguably should be, along with condition damage). It affects different skills in different ways. Some skills have relatively high base healing but poor scaling with healing power, while other skills have the opposite. So, displaying a % for healing power just wouldn’t be useful in determining anything with the current system.
Healing effectiveness is a separate stat from healing power, its like ferocity, expertise and concentration and boost the HPS of healing by a percentage.
In other words, its basically the real healing stat.
I guess I didn’t really know this was a thing. They should just probably just change condi damage and healing bonus to proper secondary stats that are easy to interpret anyway.
My favorite aspect of GW 2 and even in GW 1 is how you can crossover different professions on one character. I’m not sure how many other mmorpgs have that option, but GW does it really well.
At first it was just adding on another profession with GW 1, now it’s actually taking elements from different professions and creating almost an entirely new profession altogether on the same character. According to most other games, my warrior should be mostly melee focused and use heavy weapons. In GW 2 my warrior can use a longbow and make huge fire fields. My ranger who would traditionally stick to a bow can now massively heal allies and soon meld with their pet. What?!
This is what I love about Guild Wars. Every class has variety and versatility. I don’t feel limited in choices based on my preferred type of class. All the professions have something that fulfills my type of playstyle making all of them my type to play. I can’t think of any other game where I can do that and still use their new hybrid ability synergistically with the rest of their core class abilities.
I’m a fan of this, too. My only wish was that non-DPS builds were handled a little better. They’ve made progress, but the game still seems to favor sacrificing everything else for DPS in the vast majority of situations.
The shattering of the forced melee/range dichotomy based on class was one of my earliest, biggest appeals with GW2, because I can’t stand it in other MMOs. The fact is that, realistically speaking, melee and ranged weapons serve different tactical purposes and are not totally interchangeable. A real-world armor-clad warrior would be no more likely to shun ranged weapons than a scout would to shun melee weapons, since they have different tactical applications and it’s important to be at least a little bit good with both if you’re going to be out in the wild engaging in combat and huntcraft.
I believe that many of the classes have lost much of their identity, as is typical of growing moms. Heavy armor means nothing, the typical tank these days is a mesmer. Guardians guard abilities mean nothing and are stripped instantly by a piddly Condi. Rangers pets are basically meaningless and rangers age forced into healing roles that were supposed to be covered by each classes personal healing ability. Many more examples exist that I’m not going to list…
I think elite specs are nice and all, but they really should enhance the core of a class or give an alternative method to the same core of the class. My question really is how do we get back to where we need to go from the chaos that we’re at? And what do people believe is at the core if each class in their mind?I believe the problem are elite specs. They should rather have introduced new professions, like they did in GW1, then pervert the existing ones and ripping them of their identity.
Variations for existing professions could still have been established in other ways, but now it’s too late to do anything about it.
Yeah, while I don’t think elite specs are the worst idea ever, I also feel like there are better ones out there.
Hello,
Since we have food, sigils, runes that give us healing effectiveness now.Could we maybe get a percentage under healing power stat on the hero panel to show how much total healing effectiveness we are giving out along with healing power?
and this healing effectiveness does this effect the skill tool tips for healing skills or is the extra heal applied after that?
The trouble with this is that healing power isn’t built as a fixed percentage (although it arguably should be, along with condition damage). It affects different skills in different ways. Some skills have relatively high base healing but poor scaling with healing power, while other skills have the opposite. So, displaying a % for healing power just wouldn’t be useful in determining anything with the current system.
Yeah I think this would be cool.
I really think we need to get new weapon types next time. It’s something they talked about doing at launch and it’s now nearly 5 years later.
So, a lot of people will probably rip on me for stealing this from FFXIV, but I actually think there’s tremendous value in allowing players to level multiple professions on a single toon and swap between them, just like we can do with crafting skills. So far in playing the game, nothing has jumped out at me as making this an issue (the story is much more heavily influenced by your race than your profession), and it would allow commitment-phobic players to invest more heavily in a single toon (and, consequently, the game) and prevent having to play through the exhaustive story multiple times (unless the player wanted to).
Additionally, it could serve as a way to add new forms of horizontal progression in the future, such as incorporating minor elements of multi-classing by granting skills or traits based on different professions leveled, or building new elite specs off of it.
The only concern I see is related to the business of character slots, but there’s got to be some solution for that. Build a team of alternate heroes, perhaps?
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I think it’s a pretty good framework just in need of more polish and expansion. I think it beats continuing to add new levels like very other MMO.
Yeah. Slightly concerned with the strike # nerf to PW. It added a lot of tankability to Thieves with SoM, but still, interested in to see the rest.
This is one of the most ridiculously awful and pointless changes I’ve ever heard read about in the patch notes and I don’t even main guardian.
Yeah, Revenant leveling experience is awful because far too much of their usability is tied to the Herald elite spec, and even then their gameplay is too railroaded.
This is why I keep saying Revs badly need a new core weapon and a core legend tied to the Invocation line that, rather than having a specific role, both focus on versatility and synergy with other weapons & legends. That’s when Rev will be fixed, and not before. This should have been the shortbow, with the greatsword being their new elite weapon.
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I’m okay, I think, with elite specs being slightly better than core specs since your build will still be comprised of two core specs, but there was a problem with only having one available – you were pigeonholed into a single role based on your profession, which completely goes against the game’s intended design.
I think adding a new elite spec and therefore every profession having the option of two will significantly improve this status quo for this expansion relative to HoT, as long as they don’t make the new elite specs blatantly stronger than the HoT elite specs, which I hope and expect they won’t.
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I kind of expect that this is the route they’ll go down. The major appeal of mounts relates to their value as collectibles. I was a little surprised that they tried to tie them to exciting gameplay since that undermines what people like most about them by hamstringing their ability to quickly expand them. So, like I said, I suspect they’ll realize this quickly and fit mounts into archetypes instead of trying to make them all super unique.
To be clear, I wasn’t suggesting that asc./legendary have better stats than they do currently. I strongly feel like they shouldn’t. I just meant there needs to be something cooler about them than a stat boost or stat swapping to make them appealing to collect, especially as the game moves forward – Instead of adding new tiers in the future, they can add new types of asc/legendary with unique qualities to make them worth chasing.
And thats what skins are for mate instead of chasing better stats, you chase a diffrent look.
All they need to do is keep introducing dif skins on the ascended/ legendary items they put into the game going forward.
That’s not good enough for everything, IMO. For some things, there needs to be more to it than that.
the prob is ALL LS1 majority atleast was in the OPEN world as events not instanced….
This…
Is actually a common misconception. Most events were as relevant to the story as Iron Marches mordrem events are to Season 2, without the story step forcing you to do them all. Or even how relevant the Season 3 maps and their events are to the main Season 3 story – ultimately, it’s just world lore building and not “the main plot”.
There are a total of 33 instances which is the main story of Season 1, and with exception of The Lost Shores, Escape from Lion’s Arch, and Battle for Lion’s Arch, this constitutes for about 80%+ of the main storyline. Everything else was just ambient lore, really, and could be re-added without much if any continuity error (especially now that we’re “officially” in a stance of “maps are stuck in time”).
On top of that, except for the three aforementioned releases, most of the open world content that was part of the main story were in the form of idle dialogue – the only real notable exception on top of those three releases, would be the Twisted Marionette (where we first meet Taimi) and Rox’s involvement in Tequatl Rising (which is not really necessary for the main story except for a couple side comments between Rytlock and Rox about all the tasks she’s doing for him).
However, the reason why Season 1 isn’t being refurbished isn’t because of the open world status, but rather because the instances are designed fundamentally differently, and to re-implement them in the story journal would mean rebuilding them from scratch. On top of this, we’ve been told, the sound files have been changed in how they do things, so they would need to re-record all or most of the voiced lines.
Ultimately this leads ArenaNet to the perception that it’s best to keep dredging ahead heedless of the fact that new players are left lost, missing a sizable chunk of the story as well as the main reason why anyone cares about Dragon’s Watch, which has really been the primary story on the protagonist side. They’re continuously responding with “we’d rather get to the future plots, which are awesome and cool” but forgetting the very simple question to ask themselves: is it cool for them, or for the player.
And without knowing why we should care about Braham or Kasjory, the things like Braham’s emotional issues around his mother’s death falls dramatically flat, leaving these “awesome and cool” stories to feel bland, boring, contrived, and forced upon players.
I have good memory, especially when it comes to stories, and even I’m starting to forget why I ever liked Braham when he was first introduced.
Well said. I’ve been trying to address the misconception of it being mostly open world. I honestly think they need to make doing this more of a priority than they seem to be doing. As time goes on, the % of players that experienced any of season 1 shrinks, and season 1 did so much of the setup work for what we’re doing now, including introducing major NPCs and a lot of world building, that not having it be available in the story is a gaping hole that results in a lot of cognitive dissonance for anyone who cares about lore and story.
I think they need to stop making excuses and do it.
To be clear, I wasn’t suggesting that asc./legendary have better stats than they do currently. I strongly feel like they shouldn’t. I just meant there needs to be something cooler about them than a stat boost or stat swapping to make them appealing to collect, especially as the game moves forward – Instead of adding new tiers in the future, they can add new types of asc/legendary with unique qualities to make them worth chasing.
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Fixing underwater legends, new underwater weapon because we literaly can weapon swap to only the same weapon. The new elite spec has all targetted skills, does that mean we won’t be able to use kalla underwater? That’s 2/2 useless elite specs. I know they wanna do away with underwater combat but come on
Underwater is a concern, but it’s less of a concern than core gameplay. Also, Revs aren’t the only class with only one underwater weapon type.
I wanted to try to generate some thoughtful discussion on things what you like and what you think needs improvement about GW2’s handling of gear. I’ll start with a few observations that are fairly high-level:
- the wardrobe collectible system works pretty well in setting up a motivation to go after different pieces you think look cool.
- I don’t want a gear treadmill, but the progression we have now needs to somehow be more interesting. A small stat boost or stat swapping just isn’t interesting enough to make the pursuit of asc/leg motivating or rewarding. I also think it sets up a problem where they can’t introduce new asc./leg gear later on, because what’s the point if you already have a set? Opening up some form of horizontal progression with ascended and legendary would be ideal – like access to new skills or traits.
- Relative availability and value seems poorly calibrated between Rare and exotic tiers. Generally, it seems like rare is too inaccessible or expensive for its strategic value, while exotic is too accessible and cheap. Most people just go straight to exotic at 80, which seems like it was unintended (and probably why they introduced ascended), while rare gear is pretty much exclusively used for selling and salvaging. I’d like to see some changes here. It’s probably too late to make exotic rarer, so we need to see some increased availability and reduced prices on rare sets (especially vendor sets) IMO.
- The BL weapon system is pretty dubious and I think the way they handle it is bad for business. I think they focus too much on making new skins that apply the same look across all weapon types, when they should focus more on making unique weapons. It makes individual weapons feel less interesting than they should and less rewarding to obtain, and it probably gives them a disincentive for doing work on the next item below.
- We need new weapon types at this point. It’s been long enough. I feel confident they haven’t done this in part because of the system they created around BL skins, etc. with existing weapons, and that’s bad. I think we need to see less focus on creating 12 new weapon skins for each BL skin, and more focus on creating unique weapon skins and new weapons altogether.
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Revenant still feels incomplete, and all the new elite specs in the world won’t change that.
What they need –
A mid-range core weapon that is condi-capable (the new elite should have had Greatsword and shortbow should have been made baseline)
A new base legend (or, at least a set of utility skills that are legend-less) represented by the Invocation line whose role is versatility.
There’s gonna be more raids and fractals, chill guys ^-^
I honestly think that abandonment of world 5-man dungeons is bad for the game. FoTM is great but it can’t replace all other 5 man content.
Ranger has more of a ranged focus than any other class, really. I think they have plenty between shortbow, longbow, staff, and axe.
Personally, I love that rangers have decent melee options. I hate when games make fighting classes completely melee or completely ranged – they aren’t mutually exclusive playstyles and can complement each other. Besides, “ranger” means “wilderness roamer”, not “ranged weapon master” as a lot of people seem to think.
1. Customizable weapon skills. We’ve been using the same attacks for the same weapons since launch. It’s stale.
2. Additional classification for weapons. Instead of just the weapons, have weapon types (bludge, slash, Pierce) and incorporate into the skill tree for more diverse builds.
3. Weapon masteries. Instead of a line for mount masteries, why not with weapons? Unlock more abilities or enhanced bonuses.
I kind of did want mounts, but I’ve often wondered why at least the first two here haven’t been addressed at all.
I keep thinking they’ll announce new weapons and weapon skills and they just…never do. The staticness of weapons and weapon skills in the game is possibly the single biggest driver of the gameplay just becoming stale after a while. I would have thought adding new weapons and dynamic weapon skills would have been a huge priority for them.
Not doing stuff like this over balance concerns is a terrible idea.
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Definitely want a feline of some kind.
Because back porting Personal Story would be nigh impossible, time line continuity would be shot (its borderline broken with Revenant as is), and trying to use new zones wouldn’t work unless they automatically started at level 80…. which won’t happen for a myriad of reasons. From new player experience to gearing concerns.
Except there’s no reason they have to do this. A far better way to introduce new races would be with a new personal story tied to them, and it doesn’t have to have the same scope and complexity as the original did, either. And if they didn’t want to even do that, I’m sure most players would accept new races that had no personal story.
Otherwise, it’s just a matter of hooking them up with the right characters for the LW story.
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Even though the content seems really interesting, I was a little surprised that it didn’t have more – like new dungeons, new capitals/races, new weapons, or more than one new guild hall. They really, really needed to up their game from HoT and I’m feeling skeptical that they really have. It looks like they’re delivering roughly the same amount of new content (only sightly more at best) than they did for HoT, which is a little cringey.
With that said, I’ve liked the overall design trajectory of season 3 enough that there’s little question I’ll buy it.
This is a good change, and one people should have been expecting. We needed normalization on the way condi and boon duration are handled in the game.
I fail to see why new races are such a problem. They don’t need to be incorporated into the old personal story, at all. In fact, it would be far better to take the opportunity of doing an expansion to create new, simpler personal stories (the branching really isn’t that important and just becomes too much to manage) focused on new playable races in new parts of the world.
In fact, doing that would be a major priority for me if I was in charge of design on this game.
Yeah. they should have made shortbow core and made greatsword the elite spec weapon.
I don’t understand why so many people are upset over mounts. Fundamentally they are no different from any other mobility mastery we have received so far. They allow you to travel to new places in teh world that are locked behind that mounts’s upgraded ability.
If you don’t like them, then don’t use them. But just because we have mounts doesn’t mean GW2 is a generic MMO
Because they’re myopic. I’d be willing to bet quite a lot of money that lack of mounts was a huge driver behind why this game hasn’t performed better. People in general find mounts to add immersion as well as being a very desirable collectible. So, anyone with a brain pretty much knew they’d be coming at some point.
People can whine all they want about it, but the reality is that it’s always been silly and unrealistic to imagine running on foot across a vast countryside, even with waypoints.
My only concern here is that Anet (as usual) went a little over-the-top in trying too hard to make them significant to gameplay, which is not necessarily a good thing when it hamstrings your ability to create new ones easily, as most people who like mounts would want. Perhaps a little shortsighted.
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I think the problem is just lack of variety in general. Since all utility skills are static and there aren’t that many weapon sets. There just isn’t that much to play around with there. For instance to use the shortbow, we’ll have to forgo using the shield. Then we’ll get a few more non-weapon skills that we can’t mix and match with others. From a build-crafting perspective, it feels so limited at times.
Yes, true, but an additional baseline weapon could help fix this. I’ve also always been an advocate of tying their 5th core trait line to a new legend. Because, as you said, they just don’t have enough fluidity.
I like the SB elite spec concept for Revenant, but Revenant still really, really needs a new core weapon option, and arguably a new core legend too..
They just don’t have enough fluidity in their gameplay.
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PLEASE tell me this will be possible.
I pray to the gods this will be an opportunity for elementalist dual wielding swords!
Very seriously doubt it. Sword + dagger is almost as cool though.
There will likely never be another new profession. Elite specs are meant to fill that role and when they added the revenant, it was to fill out the 3 weights.
A new race can be very expensive and will forever increase costs due to the voices and multiple languages. The current episode hints at the new risen being not so dumb. They would be one of the cheapest to implement, since they’re just reskinned humans and the voice could be morphed.
They sort of hamstrung themselves with the way the original races were implemented, but that doesn’t mean that can’t work out a different way to do it.
The easiest solution is to add a new PS (a simpler one than the original) detailing a new region (such as Elona this time). They can then add a new race or two in addition to a different version of an existing race (i.e. Elonan human) that will play through that PS.
So apparently we’re getting a condi shortbow. I for one am very disappointed. Revenant has never been about condi. The playstyle is boring, you spam Unyielding Anguish and your mace skills of cooldown. Fun.
Revenant, for me has been all about being in Shiro, with swords, whacking things, dodging around the place. It’s a shame ANet has decided that rev’s future is condi, it seems very odd that a class that is predominantly played power because its playstyle is incredibly fun and unique is being ditched for something boring and mundane.
Am I the only one disappointed?
Yes, you are. Rev needs another ranged weapon and another condi-capable weapon. My only disappointment is that it’s bundled in an elite spec when it should be a core addition to the class, because the core class feels unfinished.
The problem with “hype” is most people start reading what other players are posting and getting caught up in what others are talking about without reading what the Devs posted. And in then they start getting conflicting or wrong information that they take to be true. And then they get upset that it’s not like what other players said or what they imagined what was said in between the lines of what the Devs said.
I was not disappointed in HoT. I read what the Devs said. I understood what they wrote PLUS I also understood that things may change anyway since “nothing survives first contact”
Actually, the problem with HoT is that it didn’t contain the amount of content people expect for an expansion from playing other MMOs. The fact that it took three years to come out AND was full priced AND was over-hyped by Anet just made the problem worse. I don’t think you can really put that on players.
See that’s the problem . I got exactly what I was expecting with hype due to what Anet said. They said it would be an expansion light on content and heavy on changes to the game mechanics. They went into excrutiating detail.
The real issue was less the hype and more then distance between the announcement and the launch.
Anet did promise some stuff that didn’t make it into the launch, and some stuff that’s even still coming out but that’s nothing to do with hype one way or another.
I’ve always known and have said for ages that HoT was a combination season pass and expansion. You can find me saying that even before HOT launched.
Those that argued it was just an expansion and didn’t include the upcoming LS 3 in it, well, I got the LS 3 for free, because I was here. And when you add that to HoT content it was a decent sized expansion in my opinion.
And again, I was saying this on these forums from the very beginning.
It’s ridiculous to try to blame players for HoT not meeting their expectations, and surely you know it.
The problem with “hype” is most people start reading what other players are posting and getting caught up in what others are talking about without reading what the Devs posted. And in then they start getting conflicting or wrong information that they take to be true. And then they get upset that it’s not like what other players said or what they imagined what was said in between the lines of what the Devs said.
I was not disappointed in HoT. I read what the Devs said. I understood what they wrote PLUS I also understood that things may change anyway since “nothing survives first contact”
Actually, the problem with HoT is that it didn’t contain the amount of content people expect for an expansion from playing other MMOs. The fact that it took three years to come out AND was full priced AND was over-hyped by Anet just made the problem worse. I don’t think you can really put that on players.
And that is exactly why they said, as they promoted HoT, “it is a feature expansion pack” not a content full expansion pack. And I don’t think they worked on it for three years since they had no time to deliver content between the announcement of the expac and the release date.
There’s not really a distinction between those two things, that’s just what they said to try to manage around the recognition that it didn’t have as much content as people normally expect from an xpac. Nobody should have been surprised when it didn’t really work.
The problem with “hype” is most people start reading what other players are posting and getting caught up in what others are talking about without reading what the Devs posted. And in then they start getting conflicting or wrong information that they take to be true. And then they get upset that it’s not like what other players said or what they imagined what was said in between the lines of what the Devs said.
I was not disappointed in HoT. I read what the Devs said. I understood what they wrote PLUS I also understood that things may change anyway since “nothing survives first contact”
Actually, the problem with HoT is that it didn’t contain the amount of content people expect for an expansion from playing other MMOs. The fact that it took three years to come out AND was full priced AND was over-hyped by Anet just made the problem worse. I don’t think you can really put that on players.
No we need hype. I dont like that the game is a waste land for 3 months after each update because no news. Sure overhypimg is bad but no hyping or communicating is just as bad.
This. Hype requires a happy medium. Anet seems to have trouble finding it.
There really isn’t a happy medium though. If you hype something enough to get people who don’t play the game to check the game out, it’s overhyped for us.
If you hype something the right level for us, people outside the game will never see it or be tempted if they do.
You can’t really hit both markets without disappointing someone.
I don’t think that’s strictly true. I think they got caught in this with HoT because the amount of content didn’t measure up to the hype, and they probably knew it and are now compensating by moving in the other direction. But moving to the other side of the spectrum isn’t any better. What they need to do is make sure they’re generating hype, but that the hype doesn’t represent hyperbole regarding what they’re able to actually deliver.
The new LA is better than the old one IMO, but we should still be able to access the old one in someway. I don’t know why they didn’t do a searing-style setup for it. Everyone talks like splitting the player base is a bad idea, but, honestly, I don’t really see why it matters when you’re talking about pre-80 and 80.