Would you recommend Path of Fire?

[fluffdragon.1523]

So we're four days into the expansion and it seems like a lot of people on the forums have been playing. Considering the price-point ($30 USD or equivalent) and everything that was shipped with the expansion, as well as *your own personal enjoyment of it*, would you recommend getting Path of Fire to a friend or returning player?

 

Regardless of how you answer, please consider providing a brief explanation as to why.

[Silent The Gray.3091]

Story 9/10 - I appreciate the structure and consistency in the format of the story as well as the little details they scatter throughout, overall a huge improvement over previous stories.

 

Gameplay/Mechanics - 7/10 - some interesting new mechanics I've come across so far, I really appreciate what they are trying to do, some of it still seems a bit bugged on fights, once all that is fixed this gets an 8/10 - really great work on this.

 

Mounts - 8/10 - Epic! I'm not disappointed by these at all, I had a lot of reservations going in, but I'm so glad they delivered.

 

Loot/Farming/Replayability - ?/10 - I cannot say how I rate this yet because I haven't yet seen what it is like, there are a few meta chains which spawn frequently and can be farmed for some very good loot, however I don't think that fits the classification people are used to for "Meta Map" that we saw with HoT, but overall I'm okay with that personally, I'm not sure that everyone else is however.

 

Group Engagement/Partying - 9/10 - I respect how easy it is to just group up with friends and go knock out some of this stuff. I am not sure how to resolve the bounties being an issue down the road if you don't have enough people to do them, I did notice the daily bounty hunter however and that will help.

 

Achievements - 7/10 - This is a tough one for me, I love to hunt achievements, but they hand them out like hot cakes in this expansion, I'm okay with some of them being fairly easy to obtain, but then they don't hold much worth as an "achievement".

[paintpixie.7398]

The price was much better than when they released HoT.

And I am really enjoying myself a lot. I haven't personally gotten this much enjoyment out of a video game since I started playing the original GW2 game years ago.

I'm having an absolute blast.

 

I would definitely recommend it to a friend or a player who hasn't gotten it yet. But everybody has their own tastes, and some have been disappointed with it, too, I know.

But for me, personally, I love it. I'm very happy with my purchase (even with the disconnects last weekend).

[PzTnT.7198]

The story is nice, mounts are interesting and the amount of frustrating mechanics in the story instances is far lower than before. So easily worth the money and a far better expansion than HoT in my opinion.

[nosleepdemon.1368]

Why not yes, but only for existing players? It doesn't have the same wow factor as HoT. The maps are expansive, but feel small and cramped due to the mounts and their requirement for traversing different obstacles. For example, quick sand pits may as well be solid walls until you get the skimmer. You also suffer constant harassment from mobs without HoT's verticality and jump shrooms to let you jump up / off a ledge to avoid attack. In general, I curiously feel more hemmed in with mounts in PoF's large levels than I ever did in HoT with its winding pathways and multiple layers. I really think ANet were onto something with HoT, the level design there was far ahead of its time. PoF is pretty, but pretty so-so in comparison. Thus, I would only recommend PoF to existing fans of the franchise.

[Fallesafe.5932]

> @fluffdragon.1523 said:

> So we're four days into the expansion and it seems like a lot of people on the forums have been playing. Considering the price-point ($30 USD or equivalent) and everything that was shipped with the expansion, as well as *your own personal enjoyment of it*, would you recommend getting Path of Fire to a friend or returning player?

>

> Regardless of how you answer, please consider providing a brief explanation as to why.

 

This expansion just rocks. I had more fun in PoF than I've ever had in this game before. The mounts are amazingly well done. There's practically nothing to complain about.

[Zaltys.7649]

Yes, but only for old players.

Too hard for newbies, especially for ones that use the boost. And learning to play without using mounts as a crutch is useful. Not to mention that the story spoils previous storylines.

[alceste.8712]

This expansion has been a lot of fun. I find the mounts to be very well done. I think the new zones are great. I am working my way through the story still because I have limited time to play.

[killermanjaro.5670]

I'm generally disappointed in it, but I would still recommend it as it's still great value for money.

[Chickenooble.5014]

> @fluffdragon.1523 said:

> ...there are a few meta chains which spawn frequently and can be farmed for some very good loot

Where? I haven't found a single chained event yet. Granted I've only played for a total of 6 hours...

[fluffdragon.1523]

I'd like to thank everyone for their responses. This has been very heartening to read after near exclusively negative reviews since launch. I think I'll give the ANet team another week or two to polish the last of the rough edges of the release and then join you all.

[Sartharina.3542]

We finally have enemies that are engaging to fight against in the open world!

[Danikat.8537]

This answer isn't completely accurate for me, but it's the most accurate of those available. I'd say it depends on the person.

 

For example I have one acquaintance who loves MMOs but I've explicitly told him he should never played GW2 at all? Why? Because what he likes about MMOs is competitive PvE - being the top level player on his server, being on top of the leaderboards, getting officially acknowledged worlds 1st kill/completion, having items no one else can have and so on and there's very, very little of that in this game. I think he'd quickly get bored and frustrated and end up leaving.

 

Likewise if someone said they played HoT and loved the big map-wide meta events and the tougher enemies and they're looking for more of the same I'd tell them...not exactly not to get PoF but to read reviews, watch videos and find out exactly what they're getting before they make a decision.

 

On the other hand I know people who loved the base game but were scared off by the increased difficulty in HoT (particularly the mob density) or the verticality of the maps and I'd tell them PoF may be exactly what they've been hoping for.

[mnpksage.4290]

I had high expectations and it still blew me away, I would absolutely recommend PoF to anyone who enjoys good combat and exploration.

[Arden.7480]

Obviously yes! Beside some disappointments in the story it was really good, the chapters are long and the mechanics astounding. Also there is less childish dialogues and it feels like the war, the problems we must deal with are serious and the secrets we learned are mind blowing.

 

The mount journey is awesome and movement is just amazing! I've not tried any of them in Core Tyria but I am looking forward to it.

 

Events are really fun, design is great.

 

And the music... Without it this expansion wouldn't be the same. Such an amazing job! All 5 maps have their themes, battle music is epic and wow. Totally worth of buying it even only for it!

 

I recommend buying!

 

Path of Fire deserves 8/10. Great journey. :)

[blambidy.3216]

Think POF is a good add on, and anyone should buy if you like MMOs. POF adding mounts and things to do since hot makes me happy that there's much more tasks to do. New people if they buy hot and POF they wouldn't need to buy any other game cause there's so much.

[Auralae.7482]

Imo, yes. The price point is good and it's worth it just for the mounts alone, providing you have interest in the mounts. I didn't buy HoT for about 2 years because the price was too high for the content that interested me (mostly solo player who plays in short sessions with frequent afk). I bought PoF before release and have no regrets.

[notebene.3190]

Well, so far it's less than the doctor who doesn't know jack about toothpaste. :#

[iAimToPlease.7304]

Sure, if they like GW2 then it's definitely worth buying, I actually think PoF is better than HoT and HoT was good too.

 

Some people here I've seen saying that PoF content might be too hard for newbies but tbh I don't think it's that hard, I mean yeah it's tougher than what you get from the base game, but it's not like HoT, I think a newbie could handle this just fine.

 

If you care about the story though, I do think that if you haven't bought HoT that you should probably buy that first, because PoF contains spoilers.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Beautiful environments and fast-paced combat, made even better by the music! PoF has a lot going for it!

 

Prior to PoF release, I worried that I would miss gliding. But mounts are so much better than I anticipated, I haven't missed gliding one bit so far! Mounts are so good, in fact, that I must admit that I've already been spoiled by them! You start to really notice the mob density when dismounting and entering combat comes at a relatively high cost in time that was never a factor previously.

 

The map layouts are very good. This is another area where I thought I would miss HoT, but the terrain makes the perfect playground for the new mounts.

 

The one major downside for me is that there are no meta maps. I'm really disappointed with this.