What is your general feeling about the activities within Open World PvE content?

[Mea.5491]

I'm a huge fan of open world content and the biggest problem is the reward imbalance (imo). There is always ONE meta event that is better than the rest and people farm it until it gets nerfed. Time investment and rewards should be balanced better. For example, the rewards for Dragon's Stand (which can last up to 60-90 minutes) are pretty crappy compared to Palawadan (about 20-25 minutes if looted with 1 character).

[Raizel.8175]

> @"Mea.5491" said:

> I'm a huge fan of open world content and the biggest problem is the reward imbalance (imo). There is always ONE meta event that is better than the rest and people farm it until it gets nerfed. Time investment and rewards should be balanced better. For example, the rewards for Dragon's Stand (which can last up to 60-90 minutes) are pretty crappy compared to Palawadan (about 20-25 minutes if looted with 1 character).

 

Istan is too OP. While it's good that the costs of certain materials are reduced, they really need to balance things here. Nerfing the brandstone-sites the way they did was a good start. They should also disable multiloot. Don't know if they also should disable the chest-respawn. The map-metas are simple enough though; at least if people would learn what defiance bars are.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

> @"AliamRationem.5172" said:

> I would have said "Average" if this were pre-LS4 PoF, but I like the new map better than the original PoF offerings and I'm assuming that's a sign of the direction we're headed in. If this were HoT, however, I would have delivered an answer closer to "perfect". I feel the HoT meta events are the best example of open world done right in any MMO I've played so far.

>

> That was my biggest disappointment with PoF. The event structure on the original maps was core Tyria all over again (read: BAD), even though I liked pretty much everything else about them. I do enjoy the bounties though. They make me feel like I never really lost those champions-on-demand from the HoT HPs I enjoyed so much.

 

While I said good I would say PoF was not even as good as "core Tyria all over again" in event structure

 

I do like core tyria better in event structure than PoF and definitely wouldnt call either bad though. They are more oriented towards exploration and "living world" rather than every map having this huge event as the main attraction that is supposed to make a map popular with cheap methods of loot loot and more loot while having a mediocre challenge. Lorewise core tyria and PoF have so much to offer. It makes for a way more entertaining map when you can go through a map and have different experiences every single time...erm... every so often.

 

Challenge or not are not as important in the open world, though not completely unimportant ofcourse. Loot could be important... I guess... but I never care for doing events in huge groups. ( I havent seen any epic encounters outside TT tequatl and Dragons stand, where DS is as such mostly because of the visuals)

 

The things I value are then also exploration, permanence of event outcomes, story driven event chains before the basic challenge loot and lots of people.

[Erasculio.2914]

* **Core Tyria**: some interesting maps here and there, mostly at the low level areas. Queensdale, which used to be my favourite map in the game, was butchered at the time of the (failed) Chinese release and has never recovered. Orr is horrible. **6 out of 10**

 

* **Living World season 2 maps**: trash. Silverwastes is the worst map in the game, highlighting all the flaws in ArenaNet's open map design. Dry Top is not as bad, but it feels like an empty and slow map. **0 out of 10**

 

* **Heart of Thorns maps**: amazing meta events, great dynamic events. Moving around is annoying in most of the maps, but mounts really help here. **8 out of 10**

 

* **Living World season 3 maps**: meh. Mostly forgetable, they feel like placeholders while waiting for the expansion. **5 out of 10**

 

* **Path of Fire maps**: amazing exploration, a lot due to the great mounts. Horrible meta events and bland dynamic events. **7 out of 10**

 

* **Livising World season 4 map**: I'm disappointed in Istan. It's mostly a grind map with an exploit that has yet to be fixed. **3 out of 10**

 

If ArenaNet managed to make maps as interesting to explore and move around as the PoF maps, with fun meta and dynamic events like HoT, it would be perfect.

[Ben K.6238]

It doesn't have very many proper quests - there are a few things that try to act as replacements but most of them are pale imitations that leave the world feeling very much like a theme park: a few perfunctory interactions with each NPC before you move along to the next activity.

 

PoF in particular does have a few NPCs you keep coming back to in order to progress their story, which finally begins to break that feeling. Definitely hoping to see more of that.

[Gabbynot.2654]

i love open world content in this game for pve. to a point . what makes it bad for me unlike guild wars is all these whole map meta events . so called mentors and commanders running all over the place. toss in group boss events that can mess up ones pve flow runs. topped off with spam chat of people need to be here people need to do this . yada yada yada . then add to that all the other meta events on pve maps . sigh times it is really more of a kitten pain in the potatoes . than it is worth the way i found to fix this at times is having to turn off all chats. from time to time.

 

other things i noticed in pve players who think you need help or escorts getting in the way which makes the kitten potatoes go booms. and if your doing map completions and come across a meta even and so forth that is right where you need to do map completion . well your forced to leave the map or try to do it. or try to change maps 2 or 4 times to get done what you need to get done.

 

but despite them problems pve is ok but can be made far more better . but knowing anet will never do it. so just keep finding work around done helps a lot of the current problems . in pve .

[Grampybone.3716]

> @"Klipso.8653" said:

> Its great that new expansions don't make old content obsolete, it just provides additional options.

 

+1!

 

There's things in a range from love to hate (jumping puzzles aaargh!) for me in GW2. PoF is not my favourite but it adds new features to the game such a s bounty hunting and the mounts. Then there's Livings Season chapters which is free extra's.

 

This game keeps growing and I do hope all aspects of the game PvE, PvP, WvW, Dungeons, Fractals, Raids will get enough attention from the devs to make it great for any player.

 

Maybe this game has alot of grinding. But tbh how many kill x mobs, collect x items quests did we play in WoW? Doesn't every MMO end up in grinding?

 

The variety in grinding in GW2 is perfect. The variety within a 'quest' is perfect. i could go kill mobs to complete the quest, or get a bucket of water to douse fires, maybe unchain a prisoner, give medicine to a sick npc. Anything counts toward quest completion.

 

I played WoW since release to 2014, although questing system got better through the years, it was still the same old story repeating.

 

GW2 was more interesting, but it wouldn't get expansions. When HoT was announced I was excited, but disappointed about no level increase.

 

We need another 10 character levels for an expansion don't we?! Every game does it! Gimme levels. I pre-ordered HoT but never played it.

Buy the time PoF was announced I was done with most MMO, so another pre-order, being curious about mounts.

 

Guild Wars 2 is the only one that keeps interesting. Simply because content doesn't really get obsolete, like Klipso.8653 says. There's often no need to organize a group, just jump into the event have fun and keep an eye on downed companions to help them up. The non level increase doesn't interest me anymore at all. Let's have the other MMO's have their lvl increases. I feel at home in GW2.

 

I'm looking forward to any expansion, I barely touched the surface of the game although I played from release untill my toons were lvl 80. It was all PvE that was interesting enough for me, and now I'm exploring PvP, WvW. I'll try bounties as soon as all my toons went through the (Living)story modes. Maybe then Dungeon and Fractals, I never tried those.

 

GW2 is like a candystore, there's simply too much to choose from, and it's only getting bigger. I love it!

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

Average.

My biggest gripe will be the progression bars on the side as they're so inconsistant.

One time it can be for example: "Kill the Awakened/Risen/Destroyers/Branded/Children trying to get away from the clowns in Divinity's Reach"

The bar will deplenish which makes sense as when they're all gone it will be emptied...

...but there's times the part will start off empty, and the more you kill the higher it goes up.

 

Why isn't it just set up one way?

 

And then there's those that has a certain amount of items it would need to progress. It's not a scaled one like those with contribution where it might need just 3 for one player but if 10 are there you might need like 100 if said item. The ones I mean is you need to turn in 5 items, and it doesn't say that you need to give in 5 items.

Wait... sorry... some of them DO show a specific number... some of them don't.

 

I really don't understand how some of the ideas behind this goes, but it's really annoying at times.

Then there's some that's at times way too tedious and sometimes unfair for a single player to do (yes, it's possible as not always is a map full of people and/or people wanting to do a certain/specific event).

Many that does not say "Group Event" seems at times impossible to do as a single character or even like 2 or 3 characters depending on the map when they throw a lot of crap at you. One example I can think of is the protecting the snow owl chicks in Bitterfrost which if I recall is not a "Group Event", but you can either be stopped by things that chill you non-stop and stack that.

But wait, you can cleanse that... just to get frozen in ice by either a walking mist of snow that sometimes show up, or from the veteran ice elementals.

Then the piles upon piles of everything else around the area that is either guarding the "precious" Winterberries and the roamers and then of course the normal Ice Brood Norns you're meant to fight.

I will say that I've beaten it alone before, but it's still felt a bit unfair and it was just an example.

 

Then there's those that seem to go on for way too long like some to protect a base/item/cannon/something for a certain amount of time. After about 3 to 5 minutes (some are 5 minutes, but some are way longer than that), it starts to overstay it's welcome as it's the same thing over and over until they stop coming.

It's even worse if you have a group of people doing it.

I've had times where it's to stop the swarm of enemies from attacking and there were so many people there that we killed off the capped amount of spawning enemies that we had to wait about 3 minutes for the event to end. This one situation I'm speaking of would be in Fireheart near the dungeon. I've seen it in other areas as well and think it might've been better if it was just a Wave event as at least you know it's based on how fast you can stop the enemies than "how long can you go on before getting a bit bored of this event."

 

There are others that are fun though, not all of them are horrible.

Some of the escort ones, the ones with waves that come, the ones that tells a story that chain from one event to the other, and many others are really nice.

Think my favourite, even though it's not a "good" event, but it is/was fun the 1st few times I've done it is when the one Awakened in Vabbi taking the mummies on a stroll and showing it formations and heading to the camp. It was cute, fun, enjoyable. Showing the mummies how to stand in formation and helping them defeat the enemies along the way.

 

It's a mixed bag. You might get to experience a cool/fun/interesting event. You might get to experience an event that the next time you see it, you go, "Um... yeah... no thanks." It's like the mount adoption license... without the cost of gems.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

> @"Erasculio.2914" said:

>

> If ArenaNet managed to make maps as interesting to explore and move around as the PoF maps, with fun meta and dynamic events like HoT, it would be perfect.

 

I agree with that.

[juhani.5361]

Average-- I guess. Some maps are brilliant and tons of fun. Others are horrid, with zero redeeming features. Some are gorgeous, but dreadful to navigate. I haven't touched LW S 3 maps, so no ratings are included.

 

Core Tyria (aside from Orr): 9/10

I've always loved the starting areas. They're full of local flavor and culture. Some of the most interesting and creative gameplay is on these maps. Queensdale, Metrica Province, and the Caledon Forest especially have interesting hearts and events. Later maps lose a little of that as they transition to the larger story, but most of them are interesting to explore. Most events scale for a solo player, which is nice.

 

Orr: 4/10

 

Some of the story in Orr is interesting, but the areas themselves are crowded with mobs that chain-stun and cripple you. No one does any of the 900 billion events that happen every second, so a good half of the waypoints are contested at any moment. None of the events scale for a solo player, so if you blunder into one or one spawns on top of your head, you're worm food.

 

Season 2 LW: 4/10

 

Drytop is almost navigable. Gameplay isn't terrible there. The Silverwastes, though, are horrid. Every time I have a daily goal pop there, I cringe. Endless events spawn everywhere, especially at night, and there's no one to do them. My rating is for the Skritt airship and Drytop.

 

PoF Crystal Desert and Desert Highlands: 8/10

 

Mob density's pretty bad, but the scenery is gorgeous and you can get most places easily. The ambient music is pretty much the definition of awesome. Event scaling's terrible. I've had to fight lvl 82 veteran elementals in the supply gathering mission in that one town on the edge of the map by Elon Riverlands just because there are two or three other people doing the heart. Ugh. I usually avoid events altogether unless I see the progress bars moving. It's a world of pain and hurt otherwise.

 

PoF Elon Riverlands: 6/10

 

The rating's for the pretty scenery which you can sometimes enjoy if your skimmer decides not to run out of endurance. It really is beautiful there :) Navigation's a pain in the butt, especially with those stupid Awakened bombs in the water.

 

PoF Desolation: 1/10

 

Miserable. If you're not getting one-shotted off your mount by pretty much everything, you'll be dismounted by invisible-until-the-last-minute spiderwebs. Blergh. You can't even take a skim in the sulfur, because there are a billion things trying to spit at you. Events happen everywhere, but most of the map's deserted. Random map chat sample: Can anyone help me with a bounty? Sorry, I don't have that part of the zone mapped. Too many mobs.

 

PoF Vabbi: 3/10

 

This vote is because the early building structures like the mausoleum and academy are completely beautiful. The rest of the map is misery, so far as I've bothered to map it. The Brandstorm is _the worst_ . Now that I have enough mastery to complete the base four mounts, I'll probably never come back once I've actually managed to down Balthazar. I don't care about the griffon.

 

HoT maps: 0/10

 

I'm never on a populated enough map to get anywhere. My gliding's stuck at level 2, I think. I have the points, but I'll never get the XP to finish unlocking it. I'm stuck forever in the Verdant Brink. The situation was just as miserable a couple of years ago, when trying to deal with the maps drove me from the game.

[Raizel.8175]

> @"juhani.5361" said:

> HoT maps: 0/10

>

> I'm never on a populated enough map to get anywhere. My gliding's stuck at level 2, I think. I have the points, but I'll never get the XP to finish unlocking it. I'm stuck forever in the Verdant Brink. The situation was just as miserable a couple of years ago, when trying to deal with the maps drove me from the game.

 

I don't get you. GW2 is a **MMORPG**. Just use the LFG and look for squads doing the meta-events. You get enough XP from them; you also can do LWS3-Dailies for fast and easy Maguuma-XP. I actually wish that there would be more maps with large meta-events like HoT, 'cause, well... it's a MMORPG, isn't it? You're supposed to do stuff with other players instead of playing solo. Not enforcing more social interaction between players is actually one of GW2's biggest weaknesses.

[Ayakaru.6583]

Bad. There needs to be more challenging events.

And i dont mean group events whose bosses are easy but just not soloable because big health bars.

Most events you CANNOT fail, like the new Palawadan Meta. You actually have to put in effort to NOT win

[juhani.5361]

> @"Raizel.8175" said:

> > @"juhani.5361" said:

> > HoT maps: 0/10

> >

> > I'm never on a populated enough map to get anywhere. My gliding's stuck at level 2, I think. I have the points, but I'll never get the XP to finish unlocking it. I'm stuck forever in the Verdant Brink. The situation was just as miserable a couple of years ago, when trying to deal with the maps drove me from the game.

>

> I don't get you. GW2 is a **MMORPG**. Just use the LFG and look for squads doing the meta-events. You get enough XP from them; you also can do LWS3-Dailies for fast and easy Maguuma-XP. I actually wish that there would be more maps with large meta-events like HoT, 'cause, well... it's a MMORPG, isn't it? You're supposed to do stuff with other players instead of playing solo. Not enforcing more social interaction between players is actually one of GW2's biggest weaknesses.

 

LOL, never heard the "it's a MMORPG" argument before ;) Anyway, I hope you'll get this. I don't mind casual grouping like smaller events, but I don't like structured, scheduled group play. I've read some of the meta events go on for a long time-- not my idea of fun. Any map that forces that on me is automatically _not fun_. Rather than doing something I find miserable to get to the parts of the game I might enjoy, I just don't do it. This is a game. It's supposed to be fun. Until HoT forced grouping, GW2 was one of the most solo-friendly experiences I've had.

 

In the case of HoT, I stopped playing GW2 completely. If that doesn't rank a 0/10, I don't know what does. If ArenaNet decides to "encourage" group play even more, I'll probably quit again like the droves I followed. Luckily, they seemed to have mostly learned that "encouraged" grouping is a mistake to their bottom line.

 

Anyway, I just recently bought season 3. We'll see what happens with that in a bit. I'm still a little irritated with PoF's maps.

[Raizel.8175]

> @"juhani.5361" said:

> > @"Raizel.8175" said:

> > > @"juhani.5361" said:

> > > HoT maps: 0/10

> > >

> > > I'm never on a populated enough map to get anywhere. My gliding's stuck at level 2, I think. I have the points, but I'll never get the XP to finish unlocking it. I'm stuck forever in the Verdant Brink. The situation was just as miserable a couple of years ago, when trying to deal with the maps drove me from the game.

> >

> > I don't get you. GW2 is a **MMORPG**. Just use the LFG and look for squads doing the meta-events. You get enough XP from them; you also can do LWS3-Dailies for fast and easy Maguuma-XP. I actually wish that there would be more maps with large meta-events like HoT, 'cause, well... it's a MMORPG, isn't it? You're supposed to do stuff with other players instead of playing solo. Not enforcing more social interaction between players is actually one of GW2's biggest weaknesses.

>

> LOL, never heard the "it's a MMORPG" argument before ;) Anyway, I hope you'll get this. I don't mind casual grouping like smaller events, but I don't like structured, scheduled group play. I've read some of the meta events go on for a long time-- not my idea of fun. Any map that forces that on me is automatically _not fun_. Rather than doing something I find miserable to get to the parts of the game I might enjoy, I just don't do it. This is a game. It's supposed to be fun. Until HoT forced grouping, GW2 was one of the most solo-friendly experiences I've had.

>

> In the case of HoT, I stopped playing GW2 completely. If that doesn't rank a 0/10, I don't know what does. If ArenaNet decides to "encourage" group play even more, I'll probably quit again like the droves I followed. Luckily, they seemed to have mostly learned that "encouraged" grouping is a mistake to their bottom line.

>

> Anyway, I just recently bought season 3. We'll see what happens with that in a bit. I'm still a little irritated with PoF's maps.

 

The argument seems to be valid though? HoT-maps are still decently populated and you always find people for meta-events through LFG. PoF-maps on the other hand feel dead. So Anet probably did something right in creating those HoT-maps. I kinda get your opinion, but maybe MMORPGs are the wrong genre for you, if you mostly want to do stuff alone? That being said, you don't have to participate in HoT's meta-events to explore the maps and do small events the only exception being Dragon's Stand. The meta-events also don't take that much time the only exception again being Dragon's Stand. Even there, 60 min with decent people is fairly ok for that kind of content. Have you at least tried out that content or have you just downright refused to ever do those meta-events?

[juhani.5361]

> @"Raizel.8175" said:

> > @"juhani.5361" said:

> > > @"Raizel.8175" said:

> > > > @"juhani.5361" said:

> > > > HoT maps: 0/10

> > > >

> > > > I'm never on a populated enough map to get anywhere. My gliding's stuck at level 2, I think. I have the points, but I'll never get the XP to finish unlocking it. I'm stuck forever in the Verdant Brink. The situation was just as miserable a couple of years ago, when trying to deal with the maps drove me from the game.

> > >

> > > I don't get you. GW2 is a **MMORPG**. Just use the LFG and look for squads doing the meta-events. You get enough XP from them; you also can do LWS3-Dailies for fast and easy Maguuma-XP. I actually wish that there would be more maps with large meta-events like HoT, 'cause, well... it's a MMORPG, isn't it? You're supposed to do stuff with other players instead of playing solo. Not enforcing more social interaction between players is actually one of GW2's biggest weaknesses.

> >

> > LOL, never heard the "it's a MMORPG" argument before ;) Anyway, I hope you'll get this. I don't mind casual grouping like smaller events, but I don't like structured, scheduled group play. I've read some of the meta events go on for a long time-- not my idea of fun. Any map that forces that on me is automatically _not fun_. Rather than doing something I find miserable to get to the parts of the game I might enjoy, I just don't do it. This is a game. It's supposed to be fun. Until HoT forced grouping, GW2 was one of the most solo-friendly experiences I've had.

> >

> > In the case of HoT, I stopped playing GW2 completely. If that doesn't rank a 0/10, I don't know what does. If ArenaNet decides to "encourage" group play even more, I'll probably quit again like the droves I followed. Luckily, they seemed to have mostly learned that "encouraged" grouping is a mistake to their bottom line.

> >

> > Anyway, I just recently bought season 3. We'll see what happens with that in a bit. I'm still a little irritated with PoF's maps.

>

> The argument seems to be valid though? HoT-maps are still decently populated and you always find people for meta-events through LFG. PoF-maps on the other hand feel dead. So Anet probably did something right in creating those HoT-maps. I kinda get your opinion, but maybe MMORPGs are the wrong genre for you, if you mostly want to do stuff alone? That being said, you don't have to participate in HoT's meta-events to explore the maps and do small events the only exception being Dragon's Stand. The meta-events also don't take that much time the only exception again being Dragon's Stand. Even there, 60 min with decent people is fairly ok for that kind of content. Have you at least tried out that content or have you just downright refused to ever do those meta-events?

 

I'm not even sure why there's an argument at all over my opinion, TBH. Guild Wars 2 was just fine for me _before_ HoT. Fine enough that I went from F2P to buying HoT because you couldn't buy the core game at the time to unlock all its features. It's fine enough for all the solo players I see roaming around the maps with me. Frankly, I've gotten royally sick of the whole solo-hostile commentary I've gotten in every single MMO forum. It's nothing new for me, or for anyone else who's a lone wolf or free spirit. I've heard it in SWL, in SWTOR, and other very solo-friendly games. So has every other solo player who tries to communicate on a forum.

 

Anyway, I'm not totally opposed to participating. I started a meta the one time I made it to a populated map. Then the group went off in a different direction using gliding skills I hadn't unlocked yet, so I kept on with the story. I'd probably try another one if I happened in at the right time, but it's not something I'm going out of my way to seek out. But I'm also going to drop out if the mood leaves me, because I like to take my time exploring or just chilling out. Chained events without a break are a bit too much up time for me if I'm not in the mood.

 

I'm a conservative player. I like to fully heal between encounters, or maybe farm something while I'm wandering around. I've grouped every once in a while, and most people tend toward more active playstyles. I'll adapt, but it wears on me after a while.

[Taygus.4571]

> @"juhani.5361" said:

> HoT maps: 0/10

>

> I'm never on a populated enough map to get anywhere. My gliding's stuck at level 2, I think. I have the points, but I'll never get the XP to finish unlocking it. I'm stuck forever in the Verdant Brink. The situation was just as miserable a couple of years ago, when trying to deal with the maps drove me from the game.

 

I don't understand this.

I bought HoT only like 3 months ago. And I keep ending up in filled meta maps. And if not, there's always a handful of people around.

 

I have almost all the maps mapped out and a few of the masteries.

 

It's also easy enough to traverse the maps solo and I've yet to have to wait long to gather a couple of extra people for the HPs

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

Average, always room for improvement, for example I want to see the Bounty system imported to the original maps.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

My concern is for the casual player with a job, family, and/or life. Their time is limited to a couple hours a day. Once the zerg moves to the next map, certain events or achievement become near impossible. Sadly, after Silverwastes, this seems to be the current trend. Not saying the map are completely deserted, but I am saying certain events aren't as easy to do once the majority has them over an done with.

 

100 spiked portals anyone?

[maddoctor.2738]

There are so many aspects of open world pve that cannot be compared and be given one rating.

For example, open world meta events were simply perfect in Heart of Thorns but Path of Fire did multiple steps backwards. I'm happy that in Daybreak they reversed some of those changes and we are back on the road to great meta events.

The general open world activities are far superior in Path of Fire than Heart of Thorns, a lot more collectibles and mini-puzzles to solve, a lot more things to do, however given the size of the Path of Fire maps, it wasn't always apparent. I'm happy that Daybreak follows the Path of Fire general open world design with loads of things to do, although the map is smaller than core maps, it has way more things to do, which is a huge plus.

Heart of Thorns open world PVE content did an excellent job at engaging most players, in Path of Fire and Daybreak we are back to a couple players engaged and fighting and the others fighting not to fall asleep. Heart of Thorns bosses like the Legendary Wyvern and Chak Gerent attacked every player simultaneously, with area denial attacks, which meant all players needed to be on their toes during those fights. Since Path of Fire, they went back to boring world bosses that are not properly designed for larger groups. Also, the light and effects are over the top, blinding players, while the Heart of Thorns meta events were visible enough.

[maddoctor.2738]

> @"Oldirtbeard.9834" said:

> Average, always room for improvement, for example I want to see the Bounty system imported to the original maps.

 

Honestly, for me, the bounty concept has failed, at least for the champions, legendary bounties aren't so bad. Nobody ever kills the champion bounties in Istan for example.

And similar to what @"Ardenwolfe.8590" said, players that just now go to Istan find it really hard to get the achievements for those bounties because nobody runs them. And it's such a shame because it's not a problem with the population, more than enough run Palawadan, but bounties are harder and more of hassle than pressing F during Palawadan.

 

Unless they find a way to make the champion bounties more accessible and more rewarding, they should never be added to any other map in the future.

[maxwelgm.4315]

> @"maddoctor.2738" said:

> There are so many aspects of open world pve that cannot be compared and be given one rating.

> For example, open world meta events were simply perfect in Heart of Thorns but Path of Fire did multiple steps backwards. I'm happy that in Daybreak they reversed some of those changes and we are back on the road to great meta events.

> The general open world activities are far superior in Path of Fire than Heart of Thorns, a lot more collectibles and mini-puzzles to solve, a lot more things to do, however given the size of the Path of Fire maps, it wasn't always apparent. I'm happy that Daybreak follows the Path of Fire general open world design with loads of things to do, although the map is smaller than core maps, it has way more things to do, which is a huge plus.

> Heart of Thorns open world PVE content did an excellent job at engaging most players, in Path of Fire and Daybreak we are back to a couple players engaged and fighting and the others fighting not to fall asleep. Heart of Thorns bosses like the Legendary Wyvern and Chak Gerent attacked every player simultaneously, with area denial attacks, which meant all players needed to be on their toes during those fights. Since Path of Fire, they went back to boring world bosses that are not properly designed for larger groups. Also, the light and effects are over the top, blinding players, while the Heart of Thorns meta events were visible enough.

 

I think PoF is working towards a good combination of Core + HoT style of maps. The main maps should remain as they are while the new LS maps get the HoT treatment and allow for bigger map wide or area wide metas. This is also in sync with LS maps naturally being a little smaller than the main maps. It's important that the bosses on main PoF maps remain "easy" for large groups if they want to keep HoT as the one expansion to go for map wide farming, as well as be prepared to the spreading of population as the number of maps increase (one map for each living world release is a lot).

[maddoctor.2738]

> @"maxwelgm.4315" said:

> I think PoF is working towards a good combination of Core + HoT style of maps. The main maps should remain as they are while the new LS maps get the HoT treatment and allow for bigger map wide or area wide metas. This is also in sync with LS maps naturally being a little smaller than the main maps. It's important that the bosses on main PoF maps remain "easy" for large groups if they want to keep HoT as the one expansion to go for map wide farming, as well as be prepared to the spreading of population as the number of maps increase (one map for each living world release is a lot).

 

My complaint against the Path of Fire meta events isn't for their lessened difficulty but for their horrible visibility.

To know that any of the meta events is even active on your map, you must be in very close proximity, in contrast, to know that the map event is about to start in Heart of Thorns or Istan, you can be in almost any area of the map. Being in a small area with no events around, with nothing fun to do, waiting for Junundu Rising to start is terrible design. At the VERY LEAST all meta event notifications should be clearly visible at the nearest waypoint. Just look at Augury Rock, that is the only meta event of Path of Fire that got it right, there is a massive notification for any event at huge distances.

And my second issue with Path of Fire is there is no clear way to know the phase of the event. For Palawadan there is a timer, for the Great Hall there is a map wide meta event that has you defeat awakened forces all over the island, with clear progress visible on the map. Augury Rock meta clearly states which phase it is on and you know if it is close to the one you need for achievements or not. In contrast the other meta events in Path of Fire state nothing.

 

Even Core maps have better meta event steps that you know clearly what is happening. Toil of the Coil in Mount Maelstrom is an excellent example, it has multiple phases that are visible on the map from a huge distance, and you can read the event state from the nearest waypoint.

[juhani.5361]

> @"Taygus.4571" said:

> > @"juhani.5361" said:

> > HoT maps: 0/10

> >

> > I'm never on a populated enough map to get anywhere. My gliding's stuck at level 2, I think. I have the points, but I'll never get the XP to finish unlocking it. I'm stuck forever in the Verdant Brink. The situation was just as miserable a couple of years ago, when trying to deal with the maps drove me from the game.

>

> I don't understand this.

> I bought HoT only like 3 months ago. And I keep ending up in filled meta maps. And if not, there's always a handful of people around.

>

> I have almost all the maps mapped out and a few of the masteries.

>

> It's also easy enough to traverse the maps solo and I've yet to have to wait long to gather a couple of extra people for the HPs

 

Weird that you say that about your map experiences. I've read a few accounts of contrasting experiences on Reddit and a going hypothesis I've read to explain the disparity is that GW2's servers use adaptive machine learning based on your in-game activities to place you in a map instance. I don't know if it's true or not, but it explains a lot.

 

My experience is totally different. Two years ago, a couple of months after launch, the maps depopulated heavily as a mass of people left the game. That was about when I'd gotten through the personal story and started in on HoT. I'd find a few players around, but not enough to make a dent in night map events.

 

I'm wondering if there's a population resurgence with PoF and mounts. Verdant Brink was _miserable_ to travel on foot. It wasn't hard, exactly, beyond trying to find anything on the maps. But it took forever with low populations, high mob density, and high respawn rates. And that was the good part ;) I suck at jumping and platforming in general. I was constantly slipping and falling to my death trying to dodge things. Or, heck, run down that first hill right out of the gate. I think I died on that ledge 100 times before I got the hang of it. Exploration was utter misery. I've gone back a couple of times to mine or forage a bit for the dailies, but the ugh returns every time I do.

 

I loathe those maps. Completely.

[Genesis.5169]

Would have rated higher but PoF is boring. Says a lot when players like me who have what they need go back to HoT for fun and gold. Anet you shouldn't have gone backwards with map difficulty. I understand you guys were afraid of the backlash you go after HoT launch but that was manly because you priced it absurdly, i'm quite positive you didn't need to tone down difficulty and teamwork for the few that complained.

 

People prefer to work together believe it or not even if they aren't talking, if they didn't they wouldn't be playing mmo they'd be playing single player games like bayonetta and dark souls, farcry etc.

 

Bring back team based map meta's.

[Ardid.7203]

During HoT, it was near perfect for me. Now is ok.