Guild Wars 2 | Five Not so Hot Things About Heart of Thorns | MMORPG

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Guild Wars 2 | Five Not so Hot Things About Heart of Thorns | MMORPG

Next week we’ll cast a final score on Guild Wars 2’s first expansion, Heart of Thorns, and in many regards the experience of playing through this content has been a positive episode in our grander Tyrian adventure. But that doesn’t mean that Heart of Thorns is without fault. Today, we’re pulling up five issues we have with the expansion…

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Margrave

Yes

Archlyte

Lol @3. "Can't solo whole game, nyehh "

orbitxo

"3.) It’s Rough for the Solo Adventurer This is a divisive issue, but one of the chief complaints against all of Heart of Thorns. A lot of Guild Wars 2’s many fans play the game solo in the open world. The 1-80 campaign allows this beautifully, while still offering open world group events throughout the maps. Heart of Thorns essentially requires you to follow the commander tags around the maps to get anything done. While it works, and yes can be fun, the ability to run around and just explore Maguuma at your own pace is severely lacking....." this was what i feared- although it is called GUILD wars...i still feel that the old days of mmos with guilds is diminishing...and its more casual solo play- sad but true, and devs need to realize this when developing new content.

Maelzrael

I'm still enjoying it but I only play a couple hours a night at most. Still on story step 7 and only in Auric Basin. Training legendary crafting as well but I haven't been in central tyria at all to do so. My only complaint so far is that doing fractals gives like NO xp at all and therefore you cannot progress Fractal Mastery by doing fractals... that's odd.

mnemic666

Point 2 and 3 so hard. They're some of the main reasons I haven't picked up the game since launch weekend. Just feels like massive whiplash to go from a game that was very welcoming to both solo/group play and allowed for a /ton/ of freedom in choosing you you progress to what essentially amounts to a corridor of forced progression and a zone where you're pretty actively punished if you're alone and there doesn't happen to be a friendly zerg around clearing events. Really have no idea what they were thinking with this expansion, but it's been a massive disappointment. One of the few times I've allowed myself to get hyped for a game/expansion and it's a good reminder for why I need to continue to not do that.

Archlyte said:

Lol @3. "Can't solo whole game, nyehh "

When they've presented a game for the past 3 years that actively supported solo play and made it a very viable mode of play, yeah. This is a radical change. But feel free to snark away.

meonthissite

Forcing people to group has never worked in MMORPGs. We all warned folks that they really didn't spend enough time to put out enough content for the price of the expansion in the first place but folks didn't listen.

But there's another problem that you didn't mention. Loot restriction. Once again instead of fixing the issues they put a bandaid on it. John Smith made it so that certain types of loot is only available in special circumstances. Instead of removing DR they made it so that in order to get loot that matters in the game you have to have the expansion and you have to do basically the same things you've done in dry top's storm. It's really sad, this game had so much potential.

saurus123

Torval said:

Point 3 is the big one for me, but I think they'll balance that out soon enough. If not I think they won't see numbers go the direction they want. This is especially true when their major competition in the market, ESO and SWTOR, seem to finally get this.

Point 2 is still out for me, but it is a concern I have.

theres nothing to balance you can solo almost anything, few HP bosses req 2 ppl (in case your bad) to finish all the QQ about "solo play" is from ppl that trying to faceroll content with zerker gear

eye_m

meonthissite said:

Forcing people to group has never worked in MMORPGs. We all warned folks that they really didn't spend enough time to put out enough content for the price of the expansion in the first place but folks didn't listen.



But there's another problem that you didn't mention. Loot restriction. Once again instead of fixing the issues they put a bandaid on it. John Smith made it so that certain types of loot is only available in special circumstances. Instead of removing DR they made it so that in order to get loot that matters in the game you have to have the expansion and you have to do basically the same things you've done in dry top's storm. It's really sad, this game had so much potential.

It might be better if you actually knew something about the game or genre even before you comment. Just FYI

Gaia_Hunter

Torval said:

Point 3 is the big one for me, but I think they'll balance that out soon enough. If not I think they won't see numbers go the direction they want. This is especially true when their major competition in the market, ESO and SWTOR, seem to finally get this.

Point 2 is still out for me, but it is a concern I have.

Didn't change my gameplay that much. Still go around doing stuff. Other people pop around. Stuff die. Bags get full of loot. Yes, it is easier to get killed but it only slightly more than in a place like silverwastes or Orr. And you can always jump down a cliff.

Octagon7711

Good article. Looking forward to gliding more in the open world and I sometimes miss it a lot. Solo, I love to explore and solo, but the way the new area is set up for groups, death comes fast in solo play in a lot of areas, taking a lot of the fun out of exploring. It's even hard to return to some areas because you have to fight your way back.

nimander99

Yup

robert154e

#1) as a WvW player, I have spent 3 years in WvW with crappy loot and no rewards... Lots of gold sinks, and worse, bad population balancing. I was hoping these new maps would make WvW more fun, however they have done the opposite. The PVE Event once an hour to destroy all the gates of enemy towers / keeps on the map is not fun at all. The travel time to return to the battle is even worse since Gliding was not included on the new WvW map. Also, the mastery system heavily favors CoF exploiters and people who have hours on end to grind OR those who have an abundance of gems to buy exp boosters. This is just the tip of the iceberg as I am waiting on class to start, but I feel it explains a bit of how I feel.

pinktailz

We have more constructive complains in map chat than this article tries to put on table, should be named "what I don't like in GW2 HoT".

FelixMajor

I cannot comment on #5 as I have been taking my sweet time playing both old and new content as well as multiple characters. I completely disagree with #3 Bill. I have no problems with my thief or guard roaming the new content solo. Yes, it is difficult but it is a nice change of pace and challenge. You can't just run around and mash 1. The rest, I do agree with. However, I do like what the mastery system opens us up to, and what it can and hopefully will bring in the future.

rojoArcueid

I agree with #4. Considering gliding != flying, we should be able to glide anywhere we can get on higher ground. #3 is not a problem to me. I like to play solo in the open world, but i join other people to do bigger scale content even in the open world so being tough for the solo adventurer is actually fine in an mmorpg. Cant talk about the rest because i havent played the expansion to comment on actual content.

Viper482

They screwed WvW players royally since release. This was supposed to be THE selling point of the game and it flopped big time. Not including a major revamp of it in this expansion was just a slap in the face. No I will not buy this expansion. And no I will not come back when they release this alledged WvW update. Why? Because everyone will have these advanced masteries and whatever by then and I will am not going to grind pve for wvw. Screw Arenanet.

TheDarkrayne

There are builds for every class that can solo the new content.. either people are trying to stick to their guns and refuse to adapt or they are rubbish at dodging, kiting when needed and strafing.

rojoArcueid

Viper482 said:

They screwed WvW players royally since release. This was supposed to be THE selling point of the game and it flopped big time. Not including a major revamp of it in this expansion was just a slap in the face. No I will not buy this expansion. And no I will not come back when they release this alledged WvW update. Why? Because everyone will have these advanced masteries and whatever by then and I will am not going to grind pve for wvw. Screw Arenanet.

Cant help but wonder what "overhaul" do you want? saying a system needs a major revamp yet not saying what exactly needs to be changed and how it can be improved... not sure if serious or just trolling. Constructive feedback get things done, trolling gets ignored.

Katriz

@rojoArcueis How about you go visit official WvW forum and look at suggestions? i am pretty sure you can find sugestions hot to fix things from 3 YEARS AGO, but sadly everything was ignored. Here is a nice thread how to fix current desert borderland: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/wuv/Some-suggestions-for-improving-WvW-since-HoT What needs to be changed? PPT system, population balance, rewards, night-capping, skill lags during big fights, brining back competition so there is any point of winning match-up and much more. How to fix population balance? There is a thread from 1 year ago suggesting to remove current server system and adding alliances, guilds could create alliances. What about players without guild? they could still join any alliance if it is not full. There would be alliance pride. WvW was dead even before expansion, WvW was ignored for 3 years. We got Eotm map which is being used by pve karma trains, instead of fixing real core issues which are in game since launch. "though ArenaNet’s own Colin Johanson told us they have big plans for that part of the game in the coming months." coming months? Anet is totally out of touch with WvW community, before releasing any changes they should ask community, because simply their ideas for WvW are wrong.

Leon1e

I died so many times in central tyria and WvW thinking my glider would open but it didn't T_T +1000 for this point x.x

UgUgUg

Bill I think you may find if the new content is hard to solo now, when its less populated again it will be a nightmare in a few months time at the latest. I dont see myself going back to the game because I have new game now which I enjoy but also because I believe if I go back to do HoT in my own time in the future it will be too difficult and frustrating.

Gralius

mnemic666 said:

Point 2 and 3 so hard. They're some of the main reasons I haven't picked up the game since launch weekend. Just feels like massive whiplash to go from a game that was very welcoming to both solo/group play and allowed for a /ton/ of freedom in choosing you you progress to what essentially amounts to a corridor of forced progression and a zone where you're pretty actively punished if you're alone and there doesn't happen to be a friendly zerg around clearing events. Really have no idea what they were thinking with this expansion, but it's been a massive disappointment. One of the few times I've allowed myself to get hyped for a game/expansion and it's a good reminder for why I need to continue to not do that.

Archlyte said:

Lol @3. "Can't solo whole game, nyehh "

When they've presented a game for the past 3 years that actively supported solo play and made it a very viable mode of play, yeah. This is a radical change. But feel free to snark away.

I agree 100%, couldn't have said it better myself.

Dr_Binks

Well not sure where to start.... but I wouldn't get my hopes up for gliders on all maps..... just way to much re-coding to make it work. I agree with all 5 and there are a lot more. The story really is not that good and the voice acting is really bad, but I haven't finished the story yet because it has not really got my interest. As far a running solo in the new maps.... yes you can but there is a lot of the content you can do with out a small zerk and the maps are getting empty. I have only been in the new wvw maps 1 time and I miss the old maps already.... yes change is good but change for the sake of change is not. They made a lot of changes that were not needed, yes they could of added things to make it better but to change it the way they did was a mistake in my view. As far as the loot goes ..... it still sucks and the amount of xp needed has just made the game a grind feast. The new specializations are neat and fun to play, but that's where it ends..... they just really aren't needed or maybe it's just that they don't fit.... not sure what it is about them but I have found myself dropping it on my main and going back to my power/shroud necro.... just seems to be more useful... I do like the Druid, BUT the healing really does not scale right.... The game mechanics are not set up for healers and the amount of healing the Druid puts out is not really enough to make a big difference. I don't know... maybe I'm being to critical but I feel they missed the mark.... I have only completed 2 of the new maps and I really don't want to complete the rest.... they just all feel the same... You go from one map to the other and it's really all the same to me....... I'm just disappointed in it..... I'm sure glad I did not get the deluxe package......

Haralin

And the bug where a charakter that already have map completion in old tyra didnt get rewarded for map completion on the new maps and after over 14 days no fix A-Net at its best . WvW is nearly dead now.

Octagon7711

FelixMajor said:

I cannot comment on #5 as I have been taking my sweet time playing both old and new content as well as multiple characters. I completely disagree with #3 Bill. I have no problems with my thief or guard roaming the new content solo. Yes, it is difficult but it is a nice change of pace and challenge. You can't just run around and mash 1. The rest, I do agree with. However, I do like what the mastery system opens us up to, and what it can and hopefully will bring in the future.

I expected my thief to die a lot but his stealth abilities came in really handy and saved me a lot of time getting to places. A few hero points allow you to stealth acquire them.