Guild Wars 2

Daddicus.6128:

I won’t buy it at all until after players get a look and comment. And even then:

• It can’t as hard to play as HoT was.
• Gating cannot exist beyond a small amount. LS S3 has gating about where it needs to be. HoT was and still is gross as regards gating.
• The maps need to be not as disgustingly hard to navigate. Some kind of clear method of showing up and down needs to exist. Similar to how nodes are now, except for passages (once they’ve been discovered, of course).

Those are deal-breakers for me. It needs to be much more casual-friendly (than HoT was) for me. If it’s clear they listened only to the tiny minority of players who want things harder, I won’t buy it.

I agree Daddicus, in fact I have no faith that anet can produce a game as exciting as the core game. For me, it will depend upon whether there is a good mix of differing game styles or just more of the same of poor mastery and hero point collections and platforming of HoT.

I agree Slayer, I took a break and found out I missed them while away.

Labjax.2465:

In response to the point about learning maps:

1) If the go-to defense for the maps being complicated is “you eventually learn them,” that’s not a defense that would fly in any design meeting I could respectfully be a part of. There’s a reason that complex features often have tutorials to go along with them; to use the reading analogy that Vayne brought up, you don’t just hand a child a book and tell them to learn how to read. Reading is also a poor analogy as a defense because reading can take years to learn and that’s with heavy guidance and instruction. So if learning the maps is like learning to read, it’s way too difficult.

2) Some people have a poor sense of direction. Even with a map, they can get turned around easily. I am one of those people. No amount of playing the maps changes this fact. Instead of instinctively navigating spaces, I more or less have to memorize parts of them. This takes time.

3) The difference between navigating the HoT maps with most-to-all gliding mastery (and some non-gliding, like nunoch wallows) unlocked versus navigating it with no gliding mastery unlocked is night and day. And once again, this takes time to do. Meanwhile, you’re trying to unlock the masteries in the very maps that would be less confusing and difficult to navigate if you had the masteries. It’s a bit like having you play in the NBA, so that you can qualify for college basketball.

You might be inclined to skim over these points and go, “Well see, it all comes back to if you spend enough time, you’ll learn.” If so, you’re missing how poor of a design philosophy that is. You have to assume that people are going to misunderstand things, get confused, get frustrated, and that many will silently leave if they can’t figure out what to do. Because that’s what a lot of people naturally do when faced with an optional piece of recreation for which there is no obligation to stick with it.

As a contrary example, some will keep going as a matter of pride, or because they want the challenge. But many won’t and I guarantee you the many that won’t make up the majority of the gaming population. The gaming population isn’t a small, devoted crowd anymore. It’s a monstrous behemoth of a spectrum, with wildly varying skill levels.

But more important than that is the fact that… good design makes the player feel smart for doing virtually nothing; good design teaches the player how to be smart and instills confidence in them; good design is like an invisible mentor that stays with you, no matter how good you get. The point being, if you’re going to get defensive about how something is designed, you better have an argument that’s stronger than “people will get over it.” Because if your hope is that people will get over it, you’re about saying, “Yes, the car is on fire, but it will burn itself out eventually and then I can drive home.”

By the time the problem has resolved itself, it’s too late to fix the issue.

That being said, arguments over design choices I welcome and I’m not right about everything when it comes to games. But this stuff about “you eventually learn” is not a good argument. If I’m a filmmaker and release a movie, I don’t want it to “eventually” become a box office hit; it needs to be one now and it’s got a small window in which it can pull that off.

MMOs do have a learning curve a lot of the time. I get that kind of defense. But it isn’t a carte blanche excuse for complexity or confusing design. It’s possible to make something too complicated or too confusing.

Awesome post!

Zeft, I have a guildee that can’t stay on longer than 30 mins before getting the black screen of death in GW2. What is your pc setup?

Welcome Sceylan. And thanks all for the headsup about these restrictions. I have a new guildee that bought HoT last week and is in the same boat, and I was unaware of these.

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

Feanor.2358:

Like The Ascension isn’t tied to PvP and Ad Infinitum isn’t tied to Fractals of the Mists? Both require you to play a LOT in their respective modes.

The point is, I have an option if I want a back item between two very different game modes. Not so for armour.

bingo!

It’s relevant because if you wanted a legendary backpiece then you found one of the ways to get one, whereas with leggie armor, there is only one way to obtain one. The original founding principle of this game, was to be able to obtain any goal however you wanted to.

Being able to turn them off is a blessing when your stacking in dungeons and fractals. I gladly turn them off so that peeps can see their own skill effects and not my “wings” in their face. That would be great if the leggie armors could also turn off any visuals.

Feanor.2358:

On a different side note, I likely won’t ever get The Ascension because I dislike PvP, but I’m not complaining about it.

There’s also Ad Infinitum you can get, and you can turn off the backpacks….

Game designing is not done in a complete vacuum, I enjoy when there is a quick nod to another game. I’m sure there’s more examples, but off the top of my head I can think of a Hoth map in swtor named Aurek Base, and now there’s an Auric Basin in HoT. And while there’s a female baddie in GW2 named Faolain, there’s now a female baddie in swtor named Veylin [sounds the same ]. Swtor has had dungeons named flashpoints for a number of years, it’s good to see a LS episode also named that.

Djinn.9245:

Feanor.2358:

Djinn.9245:

I think its funny how so many people put words in others’ mouths. I don’t recall anyone in this thread saying “I can’t play in HoT.” What I do see is people saying “I don’t like it.”

Now here’s an interesting thought: you literally can’t create content that everyone would like. People are different and so are their tastes. Try to appease one and you’ll upset another.

Creating different content aimed at different players is ultimately good for the game – it expands its potential player base.

My comment was about people putting words in others’ mouths. But I’ll bite – it’s a universal adage that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. So: “of course.”

But I disagree that adding different content to a game is ultimately good. GW2 started as a game that encouraged exploring, play your own way, and was fairly easy ramping up to difficult in Orr / Southsun (talking about my standards). Truly challenging content was relegated to Dungeons (talking about the past), Fractals, and some Story boss fights. (Sad that I have to put disclaimers that this is my POV in my own post. And people will probably still argue with it.)

The player base for GW2 obviously enjoyed the game or they would not have played it from 9/2012 to 10/2015. When a new expansion was announced, I assumed it would be on the same level as what was already proved a success and enjoyed by the players. Instead I got platforming, 3D maps that I could not find my way around, and packed with deadly mobs with cc (remember, this is my POV). I had been introduced to a more 3D map with Drytop and I didn’t even like that. HoT is an order of magnitude worse. I was stunned that Anet created an entire expansion that was so completely different from the core game. And very disappointed that there wasn’t more of what I already was enjoying.

There is also an old adage: “jack of all trades, master of none”. As you said, you can’t please all of the people. In trying to appeal to everyone, GW2 doesn’t have enough content that any particular player base enjoys. Why would players that are looking for a challenging MMO come to GW2 which was comparatively easy for 3 years? On the other hand, GW2 had a good player base which enjoyed what it already was doing. But has now provided those players with no expansion to date that they enjoy.

At this point, I only go back to HoT for a daily or because I need something for a collection. I did a Tarir meta last night that actually failed the first try (3 wings were slow while one burned blindly away) – something I had never seen before. I actually left Tarir at that point because I didn’t know there was a recovery from that. Luckily there were a couple of vets who knew what to do and we eventually succeeded (at the last possible second). I see people in Map chat begging for help with various HP. In that same map there was only 1 person attempting to do the pylons for one of the directions. Etc. Apparently there aren’t enough people who actually enjoy the HoT maps to keep them populated on a regular basis. Wasted content – so no, I don’t think it was good for Anet to add this different content.

Well said!

Ardenwolfe.8590:

It also told a lot of those people not to bother with Justice League and Wonder Woman. Especially given their experience with Dawn of Justice. Heart of Thorns also sold a lot of expansions. But does anyone seriously believe ANet will sell as many with the next expansion given our past experience?

That’s kind of the point of the Suicide Squad reference.

Ha! And I went straight to a reference to Highlander 2 a month after HoT came out, lol.

The map chat “community” took a big hit with HoT, plus the new players to the game are F2P and can’t chat in map chat, so it further brings down the chatter.

Free to play players get the best part of the game, and cant post here on the forums. HoT is continuing to bleed players and so posts here are down.

You rejoin the story instance and get credit for having kilt Mordy, even though you waited one or two phases standing in the penalty box watching the other players take it down. It is not a hard fight at all, except for missing an updraft to keep you off the burning floor.

mari.6394:

Vayne.8563:

MMOs are like homes. We live in them. We spend hours, days, weeks and months in these places. We adopt them to become ours. This game used to be “my game”. That is, the decisions the devs made in releasing the game on launch was about 90% of everything I wanted in an MMO (with a few small omissions).

But as time goes on and the game starts to drift from that initial game, this game becomes less my home. I’m no longer the guy who does everything in the game, I do less. And as they add more and provide less of the other stuff, I do even less.

As there’s less for me to do, I’ll just move to the next game that comes out,. eventually, when I’ve done everything I want to do. For me that won’t be this year, or next year. Hell it might be never.

But I’ve moved on from MMOs before and I move on from them because their focus changes. What they offer changes.

And I’m a guy that puts up with a lot of change before I move. I promise you there are a lot of people who walked away from the game because it’s become less casual than it was…probably more people than people who are raiding now…in my opinion.

Games like this are a comfort zone for some people. You take them too far out of their comfort zone and you force them to rethink their bound with the game.

This isn’t about raids being too difficult. I CAN do raids. I can join a raiding guild and beat every boss, just like I beat every elite area in Guild Wars 1. Being a raid isn’t my issue.

Not enjoying raids, and seeing rewards I want locked behind them, that’s my issue.

110% this

Yes, so much this! I wrote about a year ago much too succinctly to explain the issues with HoT to as adequately convey this very message. Way to go Vayne!

I’ve never done it solo, as I am usually helping out guildees that call out for help on the story. I was in the penalty box once and that was horrible. All I could do was organize the remaining players bar breaks. Usually I have to ask the other players to bear with it in order for them to get the credit for the story. I can’t believe this idea even passed quality control….

The changes sound perfectly fine to me, although I haven’t finished either yet, but I do look forward to them eventually.

MelGT.8326:

slashlizardy.9167:

I have no knowledge of what was supposed to be good about GW1, I played it for one weekend last year, and it was sooo slow and the graphics seemed like the 1990’s were gonna call and ask for their graphics back.

I can’t tell if you’re joking or trolling or just plain ignorant, but GW1 wasn’t even in the same genre as GW2. It was released in 2005, a year after World of Warcraft, so was probably being developed in the ‘90s or at least the very early part of the 21st century. It was a co-op RPG, definitely not an MMO. Whether or not you enjoyed it was completely up to you, but you’re comment about 1990’s graphics made me laugh.

Ha! But I was being serious. I had never played an mmo before, so my prior experience with graphics before gw2 and that one weekend with gw1, is from games like Mass Effects and Crysis. I do enjoy the graphics from GW2 but when I went back to look at GW1 my eyes wanted to bleed….thusly, I only stayed in it for one weekend.

No I dont raid and i’m not interested in raiding. The poll requires google account login, not interested in doing that either…. I don’t enjoy working through the attitudes of 10 players who are only in it for the leggie armor. I did try it with my guild, but most were already burned out on the HoT grind before wing 1 came out, and when it did, and the first successful guild run took about 5 or 6 nights of trying, the guild members went and started playing other mmos and found something else to do than show up on guild raid nights.

This would be fixed if there was a different legendary armor that was obtained in PVE/PVP/or Fractals.

I started after LS1 so yes, I would have had better gear before I got to Orr or Southsun, so I didn’t notice any challenge. In fact, I don’t think I found Orr till much later when I was finally getting around to map completing for first leggie.

Anet may have “addressed” the difficulty with each update, but it wasnt as steep as HoT.

I have no knowledge of what was supposed to be good about GW1, I played it for one weekend last year, and it was sooo slow and the graphics seemed like the 1990’s were gonna call and ask for their graphics back.

That’s true too Runiir, I run my main build, with maybe one change in skills.. I know the way I like to play and I chose my armor and weapons based upon that.

It took me just 5 secs in VB to generate my opinion of HoT maps, I understand some players like the vertical maps and the mastery system, and personally I don’t care for either. I hear that the newer maps are more to my flavor, but I’ve already given up doing anything but dailies when I’m online. The game is not beyond hope, I was in Silverwastes last night for the daily harvest and an unbound magic creature appeared right dead on top of me. That was fun being in a map I enjoy and watching 25 peeps arrive to take it down. I was glad of the opportunity to earn unbound magic in a map I enjoy. It was frustrating to purchase the deluxe version of HoT and really only want gliding and the Tyrian masteries, so I am glad that anet is expanding the events out to the Tyrian maps i enjoy and still chuckle at when I see 400 people at the daily Golem Mk 2. So stick with the game, ride it out and hope that the next expac has enough for all the players.

Blaeys.3102:

Been a fan of most of what HOT has added to the game. The new zones and the new living world release model are both well done in my opinion.

However, a combination of extremely poor balance between professions in PVE (compare a scrapper to a tempest wearing the same stats as an example) and the shortsighted/restrictive raid model have tempered my enthusiasm for the game 50 fold. As a result, I cant really bring myself to support the game financially (buying gems) the way I used to (probably spent more than 5K in the first 3.5 years of the game).

I don’t think the game is irredeemable however. They just need to remember who their core customers really are.

Thanks for supporting the game so well before HoT, it is a shame it’s come to this.

In my opinion HoT is more work than necessary for the rewards you get. Basically outside of gliding, nothing else in HoT was of any interest for me. I did not mind supporting GW2 core and buying gems when I wanted to for things, but for anything HoT I will not spend a penny in the gem store.

darkace.8925:

You can blame a lack of content if you want, but I believe Heart of Thorns gave this game a mortal wound from which it won’t recover. Asking an industry-high $50 for an expansion that delivered an egregiously low amount of content, not fully delivering on advertised content, and the stark shift in design philosophy to appeal to a more hardcore but less numerous group of players really hurt this game in a time when Guild Wars 2 needed all the good will and good publicity it could get.

I have thought this myself while I took the last 6 months off of GW2 for burnout, so I agree with Darkface. But, in addition, while I took a self imposed sabbatical to take some time away to figure out what I loved out GW2 and what was causing the burnout, I am also wondering if part of the problem, which is discussed on another forum post, is why is the endgame so underwhelming? I think for me, it is because GW2 Core itself provided for me all that I really needed in the game, and I did it to ad-infinitum. 14 toons at 80th level, 3 with the elite specs, 10 legendaries, 6 more Dungeon legendary gifts should I ever feel like world completing again, 2 spare Gifts of Battle, and all of that was done by the 3rd month of HoT(2.5 years of game time overall). HoT itself really didnt add anything but gliding, the 3 elite specs, and completing Scribing by March 2016, of interest to me. With Core GW2 you could chat with guildmates and do guild missions, dungeons, or fractals and cut the fool or roleplay sometimes, but now with the excess grind in HoT and everyone off doing their own thing cause everything is account bound. Now it’s really hard to get people to congregate on TS or Discord and do things together, unless everyone happens to be waiting on the same map event, which now you can almost fall asleep waiting on. It is almost as if it would have been better if we only got 40 levels to work with on GW2 and each expac opening up 10 more levels.

Serophous.9085:

Ashen.2907:

Moira Shalaar.5620:

I will concede from the beginning that I am a tad obsessive, so bear with me, I am going to try and address these comments line by line.

Then you haven’t been paying attention. Like, at all. Or worse, you have but you’ve deluded yourself into thinking what’s been very clear, very obvious to everyone for years isn’t actually so. If you had been paying attention, or if you’d been capable of being honest with yourself, these are some of the changes in direction you would have noticed:
– “everyone should have the best statistical gear by the time they hit level 80” -> ascended gear

Colin straight up acknowledged that they were changing from idea of having the best gear by lvl 80. He explained their logic in an interview post. I would be hard pressed to find it now but I certainly remember it. That goal is no longer the case with ascended gear

darkace.8925:

- “cosmetic skins are the end game” -> more and more weapon and outfit skins added to the cash shop

This game is still very much about cosmetics, and the fact that ANET has in the past and continues to add outfits and various skins in the gemstone does not detract from that. It is part of their business model and if the game is going to continue, they have to be able to make a profit off the gem store. However they continue to release A LOT of various skins available by playing and completing various content.

As for skins being end game, I will address that in the following comment.

darkace.8925:

- “we don’t make grindy games” -> masteries and gates in HOT
– “have fun now, not later” -> masteries and gates in HOT
– “we’re fine if you take breaks from our game” -> limited availability of LS season 1

The community was very vocal about needing additional endgame content & progression. The frequency that I see these kinds of comments makes me wonder if most people either don’t know about the CDI or have already forgotten about it. I would suggest you go reread them but there are collectively over 20k posts so a comprehensive read through is prohibitive at this point. But you might try skimming them to get a feel for what we as a community asked for. So much of the design in HoT progression (i.e. masteries and elite specs) is exactly what was discussed in those CDI regarding endgame progression. Some (like me) like it, others hate it but either way I think it is unfair to lay this entirely on ANET when they were very intentionally trying to provide what the community asked for, much in the way that it was requested.

darkace.8925:

- “the only criteria for our content is ‘is it fun?’” -> run around a zone in a giant zerg auto-attacking for stacks of bags of loot

If you don’t find it fun, don’t do it! Fun is an exceptionally difficult target because of such a diverse population of players. They do what they can with mechanics to keep game encounters diverse but collective gamer ingenuity supersedes that of developers simply because of the absolute numbers. I will make a generalization here and apologize if it offends. Overall Gamers are lazy, we prefer the easiest/most effective way to do things which is how metas evolve and game mechanics devolve, some gamer finds the easiest way to do something and it catches on. Hence Zerging.

However some of this is also learned from the community. In part this goes back to the LS1 and the map wide events that were popular. Part of developing HoT was providing more map wide events in hopes that they would be similarly enjoyed.

darkace.8925:

- “we want our players to work together in DEs” -> those of you who want Legendaries must compete with players who just want to complete DEs as intended

They have aid repeatedly that they DON’T want dynamic events to be the cause of discord and competition among players. The event complete vs. event fail conflict is an unintentional flaw in the design that they work to fix where it is brought up.

darkace.8925:

There are more examples, of course (many of them), but I suspect this has illustrated the point adequately enough.

Yes the game has changed over the past 4 years. Yes there are plenty of changes from the original implementation that you have not mentioned here. However I do think you have entirely neglected the role of the community on that process. That almost certainly will not appease those who hate the changes, but I think that ANET should not be on the receiving end of inflammatory rhetoric about changes as if they had enacted those changes entirely one sided.

As someone else mentioned previously, the game has to change over time. Whether one considers that a change in direction and vision of the game is subjective.

Anet did, “enact those changes entirely one sided.” Unless you can provide an example of a non-dev enacting the changes. “What the community asked for,” means, “what a relatively few people asked for.” Anet made decisions, acted on them, and the results are a mixed bag.

Yes, like when everyone was crying for the old capture system for skills to come back. Constant forum posts on it, supporting it.

We got it and it was horrible.

Don’t think the community is perfect. If any makes a decision based on feedback, is any 100% at fault? Really?

Yes we need the next expac to be fully tested

Vayne.8563:

slashlizardy.9167:

Come on Vayne, you know I never said to DELETE HoT maps…..

Look the game had a bad quarter after a 9 month content drought. You can say all you want about the downturn due to people not liking the new stuff, but until we have more new stuff, there’s no real way to know that’s the case. Your assumptions are premature, at the very least. And that’s all they are…assumptions.

I’m guessing that there are some people that really don’t like the new zones. I’m also guessing there are some people who came back because of those new zones.

But you know, 9 months passes and if you don’t raid or PvP, you’re going to take a break again. And if you’re taking a break, you’re probably not spending much money in the gem store.

Before I get all doom and gloomy I’m going to wait to see what transpires. This is the only reasonable course of action I can see.

So instead of fixing the inherent problems, we should just take a break and wait the game out and expect good things to happen by themselves, why not just work with us some?

Come on Vayne, you know I never said to DELETE HoT maps…..

Ashen.2907:

A significant drop in revenue, even for a single quarter, is never meaningless. If it led to a sale then it was not seen as meaningless to NCsoft or Anet. Something that drives a need (or perceived need) for response has meaning.

But, again, not cause for undue alarm IMO.

Hear Hear!

Vayne.8563:

slashlizardy.9167:

Dude, help us fix the terrible game, the numbers are starting to roll in, and as expected it is looking bad, real bad.

I’ll wait for a trend thanks. Because if they fix this game and make it the game you want, I’ll likely leave anyway.

Dude, it will be fun, trust me, and if you need any help with the new improved version of the game, I will do all I can to make it work for you.

Dude, help us fix the terrible game, the numbers are starting to roll in, and as expected it is looking bad, real bad.

Sciva.4865:

DOOOM DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Nah, its not all doom and gloom just yet, LOL. If only anet fixes HoT and makes the game good again, it will be fine.

HoT – maps. I hate, and I mean HATE with a passion platformers, platforming and vertical puzzles, and they forced me to do maps like TD ….. Not much else to say about this one. If I wanted this sort of gameplay I’d be playing some of the jumping games available on consoles which are 100x better.

Tongu, you are so right! Whenever I am in a HoT map, I still feel like I am playing SAB.

Chyanne Waters.8719:

Why is everyone so worried about GW2 being at only 15 Billion Won? I think its great and I am sure that Nc Soft would agree with me. One dollar is equal to a little over 1000 Won. In one quarter of a year GW2 raked in profits alone over 13 million dollars (American) That is not small chump change that’s A lot of money for only a quarter year.

So stop worrying GW2 is not designed to bring in a sub fee so it will always be lower than other games. The ability to buy gems with in game gold also has an affect. Anet as long as they hover around or higher than the 15 billion Won will be able to expand GW2 easily.

Only making 13 million in a quarter is a bad sign that as horrible as HoT is, it is killing the fan base, thats why people are worried. It is the worst quarter on record for GW2.

I haven’t had to craft since i finished scribing in February. hopefully this website is still up-to-date. http://gw2crafts.net/. But I would advise you to join a big casual guild that likes to help people, as there are lots to do that you might not even think of or know about. Running in a fractal or dungeon with a good casual guild is alot of fun.

Tagging up before HoT used to be less work. But now that just about everyone has a tag or apple and all the rewards are account bound, it just doubly encourages the selfishness of people and it is too much work for the effort.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Malediktus.9250:

The raid are not hardcore, they are what dungeons are supposed to be difficultyy wise imho. If you consider these raids hardcores already you barely played other games

And yet the game is losing revenue. The game shifted away from casual to “challenging group content” in every aspect with HoT. Raids are not dungeons.

No these raids aren’t as hardcore as the other MMOs I raided in but I left all of those to play Guild Wars.

Look at the results of pandering to hardcores.

There is zero evidence that the game is suffering lower revenue because of raids. The game does not pander to hardcore players.

ANet made a mistake in how they structured the HoT maps, as we can partially see with Bloodstone Fen. It’s more challenging than core, but nothing as crazy to navigate or play as HoT is for those who don’t worry about min-maxing their DPS.

ANet made mistakes in allocating resources to the expac, at the expense of the rest of the game. The were too ambitious in the Legendary collections and couldn’t keep up with QA for the events required to complete them. They didn’t take into account people’s reaction to a dearth of new PvE content. They didn’t change direction fast enough, based on the criticism that HoT was too much new infrastructure and not enough stuff to do. They goofed on the popularity of adventures (and how many people would repeat them).

tl;dr sales went down and to the extent we have any evidence about how or why, raids probably contributed to more income, not less.

They made 99 problems, but challenging group content was not one of them — that was perhaps the only thing they got completely correct. Raiding is incredibly popular among its target audience and some people have tried it and become hooked.

They pandered to a more “hardcore” gamer and they make less money than they did pandering to casuals, this is fact.

The complete and total focus of the xpac was on challenging group content. They are bleeding money because of it. I said that raids aren’t dungeons that is a fact. “Some people have tried it and become hooked” is accurate I’m sure but the game’s losing income and that’s fact as well.

So True Aidan, and it shows, this is the worst quarter yet…

Thanks Ardid, now that was an interesting read! hahaha

^^ Exactly my point, thank you!

HoT is quickly turning into this decades Highlander 2….

Khisanth.2948:

slashlizardy.9167:

Yes, that is HoT sadly. If you’ve already got your Ascended gear, you already have the best in the game, and there is nothing else in HoT worth farming for.

Well there are the new HoT stats but on the other hand anyone looking for a gear treadmill game is looking in the wrong place.

And if you’re looking for a FUN reason to grind, grind, grind away in HoT maps, the you’re looking in the wrong place too

I am worried about the state of the game now. Because if we got HoT due to MOB instead of CJ, and now CJ is gone, and we would be left with MOB’s vision of the game. And HoT has been a serious disappointment.

The blame is for not having an option besides the much maligned HoT maps.

^^ To Ori, no, it seems she has no INTEREST in HoT maps, which is not surprising, as it is a constant theme on the HoT forums.. —- edited

Qtin.6940:

I haven’t explored half of the new content yet and I’m seriously thinking about just uninstalling.

-New maps are a nightmare for solo players. Veterans mobs everywhere, champions for skill points, not to mention how poorly designed they are, half of the time I was running in circle trying to get to a point that was either above or below me. I had to google a guide to find skillpoints…

-You’re forced into an extremmely grindy mastery system right in the middle of the story. Great design.
I can’t comment on the story, I keep getting stoped by the mastery system.
This morning I had to stop my story progression just so I can jump on 2 mushrooms at the start of the mission.
IS THAT REALLY NECESSARY ?
I get it, you created a new system, let me enjoy the story, put a ramp there instead of 2 mushrooms, i’ll grind your kitten later.

-Ascended craft is still limited by daily cooldowns. It’s been out for so long and it hasn’t changed.
I’d like to reroll and enjoy some WvW in between the event grind but I don’t want to pvp with weaker items for weeks. I thought we were supposed to all be equal in PVP.

At least sPVP feels better now, they seem to have removed most of siege damage and water maps. Good job !

I’m just gonna stop with the new content for now and stick to sPVP as it’s the only thing that seems enjoyable =/

I’d like to know if anything later on is worth the struggle that you have to go through in this new expansion.

Thanks for reading

Yes, that is HoT sadly. If you’ve already got your Ascended gear, you already have the best in the game, and there is nothing else in HoT worth farming for.

Ayrilana.1396:

Nikal.4921:

Menadena.7482:

Frustratingly, if you have HOT you get punished in the PVE dailies. At rollover I usually have both my HOT account and my non-HOT account logged in at the same time. For the HOT one: 4 events in DS. Well, that is a wash since I have yet to even get to the zone (if the event to get there from TD will succeed I will crash). My non-hot account? It replaces the HOT events with a low-level zone instead.

This is one reason I haven’t purchased HoT and probably won’t unless they start offering non-HoT events instead or in addition to.

If you own HoT, HoT events are added into the cycle of maps. You are not stuck doing only HoT events for the dailies.

Yes HoT events are mixed in with the dailies. I think Nikal meant that when an HoT map is chosen, there is not a core Tyria option to do instead. But don’t get hung up too bad on dailies, it is a super long AP progression, without any real return on investment. You can get the dailies done fairly quick in pvp daily rooms, harvesting, and sometimes when needed, an easy WvW daily.