Do People like PoF?

[KidRoleplay.3615]

I'm bored and have since taken a break for a while, and that's perfectly fine. For what it's worth, I view purchasing Path of Fire as a means of funding future content. In a sense, I've paid to be able to participate in whatever new Living Story releases will come along, and other updates exclusive to owning the expansion. You can call it optimism, but I don't feel I need to be enthralled in content 24/7 to have enjoyability, and am perfectly fine with being patient.

[X T D.6458]

There are two main problems with PoF.

 

1-No meta/world boss events hurts replay value, and takes away a big reason to revisit the maps.

2-Rewards are terrible in every way

*Would be nice if they fixed the aggro range on mobs, because that gets really annoying.

 

Other then that I pretty much loved PoF-

Maps are beautiful and fun to travel

Music is excellent

Story was epic

Mounts are implemented well and very useful

 

 

[zombyturtle.5980]

Ive complained about pof quite alot on the forums but I didnt hate it. I enjoyed the first playthrough more than any other content in the game. Just it feels like a single player game experience, you play it once then done. 0 replayability which is not what I wanted when I purchased an MMO expansion, so I complain in the hopes it will be improved.

[Ayakaru.6583]

so.. when 50 people are shouting profanities at the white house, all of america hates the government?

and when I buy icecream, is that the most loved treat by all of humanity?

 

All I'm saying is, the forum is a terrible measurement tools. Since some people are only on reddit, and most people never check either.

 

[EriskRedLemur.7153]

You're misunderstanding hate for complaints and boredom. Set aside elite class balance issues; map, story, content, mounts, HPs, everyone really loves. Beautiful maps, etc. Few people hate those things about PoF. The main issue is lack of returning. HoT for all it's hate, has tons of masteries, granted LWS3 added to this, meta events, reasons to return every day. Legendaries also, etc. It's like, okay why play PoF over HoT when trying to get legendary grind, fractals, etc. Honestly, I think the complaints are there BECAUSE PoF IS awesome, but there's no reason to come back and people WANT a reason because it's so beautiful/fun/cool. But you can only explore/look around so much...

[Ahlen.7591]

No metas or map currency or reward kind of makes it pointless to be there. As someone who didn't play GW1 I could not care less about the setting and apparent nostalgia.

 

I don't hate PoF, but I am pretty sad about how it was designed.

[aryvandar.8562]

The problem I see is a lot of people RACE through said content then complain oh there's nothing to do. Here's a clue slow down take your time. Completed map zones twice over and going for a 3rd time why, because why not, will end having done story twice in the long run. Loving the game. I don't PVP, sometimes but rarely I do WvW more PvE player with some raiding.

[CalamityO.2890]

Bro, you must be new here. PvP in game is dead. It's in the forums is where it's at. Best part is, your argumentative capabilities is your best build. And it costs you nuffin.

[Syktek.7912]

I love PoF. I just find its PvE section has low replayability and poor rewards. So I don't play that portion of it.

[Jinroh.4251]

Now this is just my observation. It seems the ones who really dislike POF are the ones who like HOT and want POF to be hard like HOT, ie having murderous mobs, hard to navigate maps etc. The only one complaint that makes sense is the lack of meta events, I agree that POF should have map wide meta events. POF is fine the way it is, it is meant to be different, not meant to be anything like HOT. Remember HOT was their first fray into expansion territory.

[Malediktus.9250]

PoF is total garbage in my opinion. Boring gone time throw away content, champ trains with annoying buffs, ugly armor and weapon skins , the tiny meta events are also not worth doing.

[zombyturtle.5980]

> @Jinroh.4251 said:

> Now this is just my observation. It seems the ones who really dislike POF are the ones who like HOT and want POF to be hard like HOT, ie having murderous mobs, hard to navigate maps etc. The only one complaint that makes sense is the lack of meta events, I agree that POF should have map wide meta events. POF is fine the way it is, it is meant to be different, not meant to be anything like HOT. Remember HOT was their first fray into expansion territory.

 

Honestly havnt seen one request for harder open world mobs. Not one. Please link if there are.

Seen a couple of people saying large flat maps are boring but they were in the minority and thats just their opinion.

 

> @aryvandar.8562 said:

> The problem I see is a lot of people RACE through said content then complain oh there's nothing to do. Here's a clue slow down take your time. Completed map zones twice over and going for a 3rd time why, because why not, will end having done story twice in the long run. Loving the game. I don't PVP, sometimes but rarely I do WvW more PvE player with some raiding.

 

I didnt race through the content. I took it at an average pace of 1-2 hours per night and I finished everything over a week ago. (minus 1 exotic wep collection) POF just doesnt have that much content in it because theres no replayability.

 

 

[ancientoak.4258]

I like it a lot more then Hot. Dont mistake the forum users with all the players btw. Only a tiny part of the playerbase. The same for reddit.

[KidRoleplay.3615]

I raced through the content, I'll admit, as that was my preference, getting right to the parts I knew I'd enjoy. For me, that was having my main participate in the story again, and anything in the story that doesn't have to do with dragons is okay in my book (I know when it's all said and done, it's back to the dragons, but still). Afterwards, I proceeded to get map completion on every map with my main, as it's the only character I dedicate getting said map/ game completion on, and then got the secret mount. Then I went back through on every other character and unlocked all elite specs. Didn't necessarily do much with them, but I got them unlocked just to have done them and if they'll be useful for later. Lastly, I started questing for Spearmarshal armor (which was the only decent looking new armor sets in my opinion) but then quickly stopped once I realized you could just buy the new skins right off the Trading Post. So I did that instead. Didn't bother with the other armor skins, like those dreadful Funerary sets. I'm lazy in my pursuits for wardrobe expanding; what can I say?

 

After doing all those things, it was back to Fractals for a bit, and then an eventual break. Nothing else really had an appeal to me (Aside from the Grieving stats for a brief moment of build brainstorming). I don't achievement hunt, farm, or grind pretty much ever, so compared to what most others would say, I've done very little. All that being said, to say that I was dissatisfied or would complain in any way would be a lie. That's just my personal experience though. I fully expect there to be content gradually added over time, content you can only witness if you've purchased the expansion.

 

I understand a lot of the arguments that go on about Path of Fire when looking at things objectively. I'm just not about to tell people how they "should" be playing the game. :)

[maddoctor.2738]

> @ancientoak.4258 said:

> Dont mistake the forum users with all the players btw. Only a tiny part of the playerbase. The same for reddit.

 

Used to say the same about HoT, I didn't have much luck giving that argument back then as the "community representatives" on the forums made it clear that HoT was terrible for the players.

 

I guess we'll see how tiny the player population that is hating PoF is when the quarterly results are available. After all the argument used against HoT back then was "HoT is terrible and is the reason the quarterly results are down". Wait and see.

[battledrone.8315]

pof is a little better, than hot was IMO

its a really weird expansion..with difficulty ranging from starter zone to instant death

some places have no mobs at all, and other places are swarming with them

it feels, like they actually tried to make the zones playable for people on both ends of the difficulty scale

i dont think it worked, but time will tell

[Tekey.7946]

> @maddoctor.2738 said:

 

> I guess we'll see how tiny the player population that is hating PoF is when the quarterly results are available. After all the argument used against HoT back then was "HoT is terrible and is the reason the quarterly results are down". Wait and see.

 

The next quarterly reports will show us how many people bought PoF. It **doesn't** tell us how many players were **disappointed by PoF afterwards**.

 

There were **lots** of people who pre purchased PoF without even knowing what to expect from the xpac. I even started a thread and asked them why, the most common answer was something like: "I want to support Anet, I'll buy the xpac anyway, no matter what" or "It's an MMORPG, you'll have to buy the newest xpac to continue playing together with your friends".

 

These statements surely didn't involve waiting for the release, thinking about it, considering whether to buy or not to buy.

 

 

You'll have to wait for the reports after that, and maybe even the next ones as well to see which impact PoF had (long-term). Did PoF provide a solid base to keep the people playing the game?

 

Personally I don't think so. After all, it was advertised to be **content heavy** compared to the feature heavy HoT. I don't really see it, looking at PoF.

[maddoctor.2738]

> @Tekey.7946 said:

> The next quarterly reports will show us how many people bought PoF. It **doesn't** tell us how many players were **disappointed by PoF afterwards**.

>

 

Well when the quarterly results appeared after the release of HoT the doom and gloom around here was evident. Blaming the design of HoT for the low performance.

But you are right, in the end what will matter are the 2018 and onward results that show how many players sticked with what they bought. That would show if players were disappointed or not.

[Einlanzer.1627]

> > @"Teofa Tsavo.9863" said:

> > > @Carighan.6758 said:

> > > Well, the annoyed minority are always the loud ones. That is because happy people don't take to the forum to violently yell about how incredibly satisfied they are. Just doesn't happen. They're busy playing.

> >

> > Always a good laugh, since John Smedley, head of SOE at the time, said basically this during the SWG NGE fiasco which was one of the biggest disasters in MMO history (actually covered by the Wall Street Journal). He freely admits now that not listening to players then was one of the worst mistakes he ever made.

> >

> > I also remember a protracted forum war here over "perceived loot issues" early in the game where Champions seemed to be on the same loot table as common trash.

> > We were called the "annoyed minority", chronic complainers, told that "happy people don't do forums" and all of the other boilerplate responses, as well as people stubbornly insisting the loot tables were "fine". We persisted, posted proofs, continued and that "annoyed minority" is one reason champs drop Chests now instead of a single porous bone. At times the "troublemakers" have a point.

>

> > @"Teofa Tsavo.9863" said:

> > > @Carighan.6758 said:

> > > Well, the annoyed minority are always the loud ones. That is because happy people don't take to the forum to violently yell about how incredibly satisfied they are. Just doesn't happen. They're busy playing.

> >

> > Always a good laugh, since , head of SOE at the time, said basically this during the SWG NGE fiasco which was one of the biggest disasters in MMO history (actually covered by the Wall Street Journal). He freely admits now that not listening to players then was one of the worst mistakes he ever made.

> >

> > I also remember a protracted forum war here over "perceived loot issues" early in the game where Champions seemed to be on the same loot table as common trash.

> > We were called the "annoyed minority", chronic complainers, told that "happy people don't do forums" and all of the other boilerplate responses, as well as people stubbornly insisting the loot tables were "fine". We persisted, posted proofs, continued and that "annoyed minority" is one reason champs drop Chests now instead of a single porous bone. At times the "troublemakers" have a point.

>

> One example out of thousands of complaints. Seem legit.

 

 

> > @"Teofa Tsavo.9863" said:

> > > @Vayne.8563 said:

> > > > @"Teofa Tsavo.9863" said:

> > > > > @Carighan.6758 said:

> > > > > Well, the annoyed minority are always the loud ones. That is because happy people don't take to the forum to violently yell about how incredibly satisfied they are. Just doesn't happen. They're busy playing.

> > > >

> > > > Always a good laugh, since John Smedley, head of SOE at the time, said basically this during the SWG NGE fiasco which was one of the biggest disasters in MMO history (actually covered by the Wall Street Journal). He freely admits now that not listening to players then was one of the worst mistakes he ever made.

> > > >

> > > > I also remember a protracted forum war here over "perceived loot issues" early in the game where Champions seemed to be on the same loot table as common trash.

> > > > We were called the "annoyed minority", chronic complainers, told that "happy people don't do forums" and all of the other boilerplate responses, as well as people stubbornly insisting the loot tables were "fine". We persisted, posted proofs, continued and that "annoyed minority" is one reason champs drop Chests now instead of a single porous bone. At times the "troublemakers" have a point.

> > >

> > > > @"Teofa Tsavo.9863" said:

> > > > > @Carighan.6758 said:

> > > > > Well, the annoyed minority are always the loud ones. That is because happy people don't take to the forum to violently yell about how incredibly satisfied they are. Just doesn't happen. They're busy playing.

> > > >

> > > > Always a good laugh, since John Smedley, head of SOE at the time, said basically this during the SWG NGE fiasco which was one of the biggest disasters in MMO history (actually covered by the Wall Street Journal). He freely admits now that not listening to players then was one of the worst mistakes he ever made.

> > > >

> > > > I also remember a protracted forum war here over "perceived loot issues" early in the game where Champions seemed to be on the same loot table as common trash.

> > > > We were called the "annoyed minority", chronic complainers, told that "happy people don't do forums" and all of the other boilerplate responses, as well as people stubbornly insisting the loot tables were "fine". We persisted, posted proofs, continued and that "annoyed minority" is one reason champs drop Chests now instead of a single porous bone. At times the "troublemakers" have a point.

> > >

> > > One example out of thousands of complaints. Seem legit.

> >

> > Ah, Vayne. I'm sure that "your guild and everyone you know" feels the same. Yes, it is a single example, not a list. Are you maintaining that no other valid issues brought up on the forums ever resulted in change? It wouldn't surprise me. And now I will return to simply not responding to you. Have a nice day.

>

> I'm saying that it's perfectly valid to assume more people complain than come to sing praises on any forum of any game. This is a valid belief. And it's possible if a bunch of people complain that they are a majority, but it's just as possible that they're a minority. Finally, listening to the playerbase is virtually impossible, since the playbase is so divided about so many things. It's very hard to find issues where the entire player base is in agreement, so listening to one side of the playerbase, in most cases, would denote not listening to other players.

>

> Even with mounts, the vocal player base was largely against them, Anet did them anyway and now the player base is largely behind them. Everyone in my guild is not really relevant to this conversation All you need is basic, simple logic to see that listening to the playerbase is hardly possible in most cases, and the most vocal complaints aren't always valid or accurate.

 

Your mount example is faulty. Mounts were a divisive topic, but always had plenty of support within the player base, which was apparent when you read any thread about them before they were announced. In fact, anyone with a brain new the game would benefit from having them, and the opposition to them was universally shallow, which can be seen by the fact that nobody is really complaining about them now.

 

Mounts were inevitably going to come at some point because there's no way the scale wasn't going to tip in their favor eventually due to the fact that the arguments in favor of having them were way more rational than the arguments opposing them. I was always surprised the game didn't launch with them, frankly.

 

Yes, players are divided, and they often don't really know what they want and ask for things without understanding them, but there's still responsibility on Arenanet's (or whomever's) part to listen to the player base and respond to feedback, especially when that feedback becomes monolithic due to widespread feelings on a particular topic. It's also important for players to be kept aware of the direction the game is headed in so the player base at large can provide feedback in such a way that the game company can react to it properly, which his SWG example shows.

[chronometria.3708]

The game forces us to farm gold. You want griffon - farm gold. You want to spend tickets from Spvp and WvW on armour and weapons - have some marks and go farm gold that almost equals their original price anyway. Etc.

 

PoF is about the worst place for getting that gold - so there is the problem.

[Nash.2681]

Well, HoT surely had it flaws, like progression gates, map design being quite confusing for many, just to name a few. But all in all, it still felt like I got what I payed for- an expansion.

PoF on the other hand, while avoiding quite some issues HoT brought up and looking good at first glance, feels more and more like not being worth the money.

**Story?** Qualitiy wise I think it's ok'ish, but when one replays it, there's a lot of dead-time filled with walls of text. If you take that away, you'd easily be done in 1 (!) evening.

**New maps?** Nice visuals, granted, really big- but only until you have your mounts ready (which doesn't take a lot of time, even for casual players).

**Mounts?** I were against mounts from the very beginning and now after 1,5 months, I feel confirmed with my concerns. Yes, there's quite few complaint about them now, but why is that so? Probably because the way they were added they're a pure gimmick and don't hurt the game overall (since the game worked without them for 5 years and most of the content was designed without mounts being present, there was probably no other way to add them without kicking 5 years of content in the bin). Yet it seems that 90% of PoF revolves around mounts. That's 90% of a full price add-on revolving around a gimmick.

**Elite specs?** Balance issues were predictable, to soon to make a final statement on this (though as a PvE necro my tendency on this is quite negative). Also, almost every new elite specs seems to be most efficient when played as condi, which isn't a bad thing by default, but looking at how tedious it is to get a full set of viper's gear (which is still optimal for most condi builds), I'm even more worried.

 

To sum it all up: even though PoF has some bright sides, I can totally understand each and everyone having major issues with it and/or feeling somewhat cheated by the overall tiny amount of real new content provided by it.

[TheRandomGuy.7246]

> @Nash.2681 said:

> **Mounts?** I were against mounts from the very beginning and now after 1,5 months, I feel confirmed with my concerns. Yes, there's quite few complaint about them now, but why is that so? Probably because the way they were added they're a pure gimmick and don't hurt the game overall (since the game worked without them for 5 years and most of the content was designed without mounts being present, there was probably no other way to add them without kicking 5 years of content in the bin). Yet it seems that 90% of PoF revolves around mounts. That's 90% of a full price add-on revolving around a gimmick.

 

All new maps were designed to make mounts feel useful. They are THAT useless.

[LightningWolfTigerBear.672]

> @Ahlen.7591 said:

> No metas or map currency or reward kind of makes it pointless to be there. As someone who didn't play GW1 I could not care less about the setting and apparent nostalgia.

>

> I don't hate PoF, but I am pretty sad about how it was designed.

 

There is map currency, the Trade Contracts. It's just that there's nothing to spend them on beyond some minis and material boxes that drop hardly a thing.

[Nemmar.8491]

I think you just never got used to the design on GW2.

 

Gw2 is not a game that guides you through the hand. The game guides you only through the story. After that you decide what you want to do.

Do YOU want to get ascended gear? Do you want to PvP? Fractals? Metas? WvW? Legendaries? Guild missions? Guild hall building? Alt's? Dungeons? Crafting?

 

Literally you decide. Don't play anymore if you don't want. What i like that anet does wich is different from what other mmo's do is that they don't string you along. You can play for fun. There's no grind you HAVE TO take part in. But only grinds you can choose to take part in.

 

I myself have progressed through the game. I havent finished PoF actually, other things threw me off path. I started doing dungeons for an exotic set and then season 2 when i returned and then went to HoT and i gotta say, even though i hate the level layout, in particular Tangled depths, i love the meta's, auric basin, and dragon's stand (at least the first time around). Have done Season 3 and loved the new maps for beeing so much fun. Did the story and grinded some ascended bits on the way. Then went and started doing fractals (i had already made some more characracters aswell and got them through HoT aswell).

Nowadays i am mostly doing Fractals, i got to tier 3 and the rewards are pretty good and its a content type i can quickly do within an hour daily. I am gearing up my characters with ascended gear because i like to be stronger and would like one day to get to tier 4 or raiding. The story of path fell through a bit but i will finish it soon.

 

I definitly don't hate PoF, but i don't think it's as epic as HoT as far as the maps go. But it's still pretty good, and theres season 4 coming aswell.

 

So, end of story, i made my own objectives and am doing what i find fun and rewarding in the game. Go and do that. Or don't if there isn't anything and just play the story as it comes out. The game doesn't force a sub on you. The game literally tells you: Do whatever you want.

I understand that that is not a clear message and many drop off there though. Anet should make a better job of at least telling you what you can do.

[Nash.2681]

> @TheRandomGuy.7246 said:

> > @Nash.2681 said:

> > **Mounts?** I were against mounts from the very beginning and now after 1,5 months, I feel confirmed with my concerns. Yes, there's quite few complaint about them now, but why is that so? Probably because the way they were added they're a pure gimmick and don't hurt the game overall (since the game worked without them for 5 years and most of the content was designed without mounts being present, there was probably no other way to add them without kicking 5 years of content in the bin). Yet it seems that 90% of PoF revolves around mounts. That's 90% of a full price add-on revolving around a gimmick.

>

> All new maps were designed to make mounts feel useful. They are THAT useless.

That's the point. They have limited use in PoF areas and are a pure gimmick or convenience thing at best anywhere else. If they'd decided to split the PoF maps into 10-15 normal sized maps and not add mounts, nothing substantial had been lost, but at least the impression would be more like "even though the story is pretty short and only on par with a LS chapter at best, at least they added quite some new areas ".