Which expansion did you like the most, HoT or PoF?

[kettering.6823]

PoF for me, though I did also enjoy HoT. That being said, HoT was a major reason why I rage-quit GW2 when it released haha. I hated the tiered maps. I found them beyond frustrating. Of course, there were reasons beyond that (new 'management' in my guild, the state of my real life, etc), but had I not been so frustrated by the new maps I might have had more reason to stay.

 

But after coming back, I have enjoyed HoT for what it is. I still think the tiered maps were much better in theory than in practice, but the Maguuma jungle is so lush; it's wonderful to look at. I enjoy the meta events as well, especially DS. The story was okay. I do wonder what it's like playing through as a non-Sylvari, because there was so much nuance to it as a Sylvari that I feel other races must have missed. Seeing my character struggle against Mordremoth's call was fantastic. But otherwise, the storytelling was just okay.

 

One of the worst parts of HoT for me definitely has to be the enemies. Good lord are there some brutally irritating enemies in HoT. They're all manageable, but I still hate them. Bristlebacks? Terrible when running a character without a reflects. Also terrible on characters with reflects, since (ime) your reflect runs out before they're finished spewing at you, but at least it's marginally less terrible. Smokescales are annoying, but mostly just when you're trying to run past them. I'm sure everyone's beaten on the pocket raptors enough. And the tendrils, ughhh the tendrils.

 

PoF, on the other hand, rectified a lot of things I disliked about HoT. No more tiered maps, for one, and being able to solo most of the Hero Points in the new maps is a blessing. The mounts were much more captivating than the gliding system was for me, and I liked that the masteries weren't as much of a grind to complete. I will agree that there isn't quite as much replay value in the maps, but personally I just like running around them, gathering and killing things (except The Desolation. Fuck The Desolation.) I know people have (valid) complaints about the Griffon mount, but I personally really enjoyed the quest for it.

 

PoF's story was also much better than HoT's imo. I was thoroughly impressed by it, and wouldn't mind playing through it again. Can't say the same for HoT unfortunately.

 

I just wish there were more active meta events on the PoF maps. They're beautiful and well-designed; it's a shame they aren't more populated.

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

Really hard one :) I loved them both very much. PoF offers mounts and giant, very diverse maps, while HoT, though seems a bit monotonous due to its jungle theme spammed everywhere, still offers a gorgeous multi-level maps and a lot of environmental tools to navigate them (mostly ruined by mounts now, I really think they should have limited mounts on those maps, like, you first must open all native navigation options first, then you're allowed to use mounts there etc).

 

I also think that e-specs coming with HoT are more interesting and well-thought. So, let it be HoT (still they both are almost of the same value to me).

[mes.4607]

HoT since Dragonhunter

[Ashantara.8731]

:+1: PoF for the great story, NPCs, diversity, and the amazing atmosphere on the maps. I could really "feel it."

 

:-1: HoT was just Mordrem everywhere, so boring... The other species did not have much lore or interesting dialogue to offer, either (although they were interesting in design and could have been so moch more than just "decoration" along the way), except for the tiny part that was the Exalted (which were much better implemented into the story). The story was also quite mediocre, I never felt excited about the goings-on during the campaign. Not to mention the disgust blighting pods etc. gave me. Just bleh.

[zealex.9410]

Hot. Pof was ok but added close to nothing to the mmo, i liked the maps visually and the story but i see it as the expansion in a single player game.

 

Hot has amazing maps and map events and the focus on group content and squad making strenghtens the idea that gw2 is an mmo.

[phs.6089]

If there only was something with HoT metas and perks on PoF maps

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

It's hard to pick, because each expansion both get different things right and wrong. Overall I'd say HoT, because I still like their events.

[Anela.3867]

Heart of Thorns by far. The only thing I really like from PoF are the mounts. I don't care for the desert at all and there is so much more to do in HoT.

[Gop.8713]

PoF, easier to navigate . . .

[Klowdy.3126]

It depends what aspects you are talking about. I liked the PoF story and maps, I liked the meta events and the LW story in Hot. I liked the especs in HoT, but I liked mounts over gliding.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Mounts are better than HoT masteries, the story is probably better, too. More specializations are always good for keeping things fresh. But HoT wins for me because of the absolutely incredible map design and an event structure that keeps us coming back for more. PoF failed pretty badly in that sense, though I understand the design was a reaction to HoT which was not universally loved.

[Sarnax.8357]

Thats easy for me...it comes down to the replay-ability of the content. The meta's in POF are horrid. Whereas the ones in HOT, I can keep coming back to time and time again. Don't get me wrong though...mounts are AWESOME! But that along doesn't pull POF ahead of HOT, for me.

[otto.5684]

We kinda know the answer to this. When it comes to long term, well designed maps with good replay-able events is content king.

 

The other aspects, (HoT elites or PoF elites, gliding vs mounts) are about even. Surely the price tag is in favor of PoF, but especially for long term, it is not a significant point of contention.

 

Story is not the strongest point of either expansion (and is not GW2 strongest suit anyway). I think the the GW2, early one, was one of the better games that told story through lore, by integrating game history, with locations and overall story. The story now is more about industructable characters and cheesy one liners. It has been done million times before and it never is interesting.

[Cyninja.2954]

Enjoyed both, but have to go with HoT due to multiple reasons which I will try to summarize:

 

**HoT Benefits**:

- first time new elite specializations, was quite a rush and unique after years of base GW2

- difficulty which I actually enjoyed. While I get why Arenanet reduced the difficulty HoT wide, the initial difficulty did add a layer of "I can finally manage here". Getting killed by open world enemies and having to adapt builds and approach was unique and fun to me

- HoT's map design ranks among the best the MMO industry has to offer, period. When you can find new ways to get around the map years in, then you know how much work and effort went into this

- the mastery design of getting around the map was very nice. Well designed

- the HoT meta events are still among the most fun, not only because they are rewarding

- Dragon Stand was amazing the first few times I did it. Great map (which helped since I had to farm Leadership runes for my chrono back then)

- gliding and later core map gliding was and is amazing

 

**PoF Benefits**:

- the mounts of PoF see greater use game wide. That is a direct benefit over only gliding

- story in PoF seemed not as rushed as for HoT (where you can really notice how they had a ton of ideas, but had to cut a lot of content. It's even visible in some story stages and map designs for paths never used). I enjoyed both stories but I much prefer the PoF one as well as Living World Season 4 over 3 (for story, loot in LWS3 is superior)

- huge maps are nice to get around, less of a learning experience required

[AgentMoore.9453]

Mechanically, both expansions felt rushed and didn't live up to their hype, but I genuinely enjoyed Heart of Thorns much more, because I actually cared about the characters involved whereas they all felt kind of flat in Path of Fire and had to be carried by people like Canach and Zalambur. Joko was a well-crafted character, but I personally found the maps sparsely-populated and underwhelming/unsupportive of the idea that we were traveling through a kingdom of any kind - even when you go to his palace there's this weird sense of emptiness; the gravity of the situation just isn't there.

 

Also, while I like mounts, I feel like gliding is much more intuitive and I find myself using it regularly.

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

HoT for me. Main reasons (full comparison list would be too long):

- Green landscape.

- Foes are manageables and the dispatch remains fair, with places to rest (unlike PoF areas).

- Canopy or/and higher floors everywhere, allowing pleasant two levels wandering with easy crossing through and many shortcuts.

 

I return to HoT areas regularly, not to PoF areas (except Desert Highland a bit). I don't say that foes are not manageable in PoF. I find them equal to HoT foes. But they are a lot more in numbers, dispatched in every little corner of the maps, with consequences that there are close to no place to rest for one second without fighting (even at WPs...). Personally, I am rapidly bored at having to fight all the time while I am exploring. It take me the fun off. But that's lazy me! :3

[MrRuin.9740]

Initially, I did not like HoT. Initially, I did quite enjoy PoF.

Currently, HoT wins out for content. I am back to those maps far more often now than PoF. The HoT metas are fun, involve decent mechanics that aren't too complicated for a mass of random people divided into groups and have pretty decent loot. Even map completion and farming is better now (thanks in part to PoF mounts).

I don't find a lot of reason to go back to PoF maps now that I have the masteries all done. I only go back for map currency when I need and to finish up some achieves. The metas aren't nearly as fun.

Mechanics wise, though, PoF had a greater impact on the game as a whole since it's additions (mounts) are far more useful and can be used almsot everywhere and even replaced the glider in most cases, with a few exceptions, once you obtain the Griffon. A lot of HoT mechanics and masteries are limited to those maps only.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

I like both, but HoT loses out because of Tangled Depths.

 

Between my computer, my internet and ANet's instance technology, I DC a lot in those instances. As a result, story has been frustrating to the point I just don't do it anymore. I have no interest in small group instanced PvE. Persistent world PvE is plagued with effect spam to the point where I can stand one or two events and have to stop. So, my activities in this game have been exploration or small group/solo WvW.

 

I find navigating Tangled Depths to be time-consuming and frustrating. My take is that multi-tier maps would be fine if the game provided better tools for players to reliably find their way around. While I've mostly gotten around this in the other HoT maps, TD has been a bridge too far for my patience. Maybe I'll complete the thing on one character one day, but doing so on multiple characters sounds more like sitting over and over through a movie I find terrible.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

I didn't vote since I like different things about each one. In HoT I love the gliding and the metas. Hatehatehate the claustrophobic jungles, although I truly get it as being fitting. In PoF I love the mounts and the openness but hate repeatable hearts, that there aren't many good metas, and that most of the loot (IMO) is garbage.

[Solomon Darkfury.3729]

HoT because desert environment looks like crap compared to jungle...

 

Seeing sand everywhere constantly turned me into Anakin Skywalker...

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

HoT for me because

1) gliding was a major play enhancing improvement (now overshadowed by mounts, esp the griffin, but a big deal back then)

2) beautiful maps, really gorgeous. Exploring was interesting, if a bit frustrating at times (a better mini map would be helpful)

3) I loved the way the events tied together, were all related to the story, how they needed to be advanced as a group effort and how the maps ended with a big meta event

 

PoF

Mounts were an excellent addition to the game. I didn't want mounts as the ones in other games were more like riding an armchair with a speed boost than a real mount however ANet hit them out of the park with their version of mounts, so major plus for this expansion.

 

But... I dislike the PoF maps. I consider them visually boring and when I venture out I can wander around and not find events, leading to a frustrating and negative experience. I also missed not having a story related meta event with an event chain leading to it on each map. Doing events like, repair water lines and clear out mobs, I might as well been back in Queensdale

 

Combine that with the extra long agro reach of all the mobs which forces either a continuous fight or pushes you along the map and I find PoF annoying rather than fun. In addition, the respawn timer is/was too fast (I haven’t really been back to that area in some months).

Examples

1) doing a hero point that spawns a vet mob and has a nearby roaming vet with friends. I first try clearing out the roaming vet with friends so I’ll only have the hero point vet. I do this, start fighting the hero point vet and the roaming vet and friends respawn before I’m even halfway through.

2) I go through a sand portal into a cavern and right before another sand portal I get knocked off my mount. There are a number of mobs there. I fight and kill them but can’t remount because of conditions and my heal skill is on cool down. The mobs all respawn before my conditions clear. Fight, kill mobs, still have conditions. Mobs respawn. Fight, kill mobs, still have conditions. Mobs respawn. Fight, kill mobs, still have conditions. Mobs respawn. At this point I manage to climb up on some rocks and get out of range until I can mount up and go through the portal.

3) trying to do minor events solo, when the event spawns vets and friends and then more roaming vets and friends come over from the extra large agro range, join in for funsies and spew ranged attacks at you in the middle of your fight with event mobs. Not too easy when you’re solo and only so so combat wise. It didn’t encourage me to do more events if I’m going to get swamped with mobs and more mobs.

[Kylden Ar.3724]

> @"Iozeph.5617" said:

> How about a, "Neither, hate them both" option for the people who hate the power creep/over done elites both expansions ushered in and the damage they've done to both of GW2's competitive modes; PvP and WvW?

 

I feel you. Amen.

[Cuks.8241]

Hot easily. Love the vertical maps and they are also much more diverse. Pof maps just get stale after a while since it is just desert all the way and just to much flat dunes. If I have to pick a theme for expansion I pick something with more vegetation. Mobs are also more diverse in hot.

And then there are the metas. No LS or Pof meta come close to Hot metas. People still run Hot metas every reset while only the brokenly profitable Istan metas are regularly populated beyond hot.

[Erasculio.2914]

I wasn't playing GW2 when HoT was released; I remember reading about a lot of vitriol from the community about the expansion, how a lot of people didn't like it, how it didn't sell that well (there was a huge drop in sales after the HoT spike), and so on. By the time PoF was announced and I decided to return to GW2 (mostly out of nostalgia for Guild Wars: Nightfall), I though, "I may as well play through HoT, at least so I can follow the storyline".

 

And then, much to my surprise, I really liked Heart of Thorns.

 

Both gliding and mounts are nice; but the mounts are really, REALLY great (and I had always been against adding mounts to GW2). For the professions I play, there are more specializations I like in PoF than in HoT (firebrand, holosmith, weaver). Being able to do the Hero Points solo in PoF is great, unlike the HoT points that often require other players. And to me both main storylines are horribly, eye-gouging bad.

 

But the maps... The Heart of Thorns maps are _amazing_. A bit annoying to navigate until you unlock a few masteries, sure, and there are a few places in Tangled Depths I have never been able to find. But the quality of the maps is simply incredible.

 

And I'm not even talking just about the meta events, although those are massively fun. The writing of the dynamic events in those maps is above everything else in the game; you can pretty much ignore the instanced storyline and just follow the story told by the HoT events, showing how the Pact went from being nearly wiped out to defeating Mordremoth at the Dragon's Stand. The soundtrack in HoT is perfect - the battle theme in Tarir during the fight against the Octovine is amazing, and the way it follows into the also awesome normal Tarir theme after the event succeeds is great.

 

The PoF maps, in comparison, are just... Bland. I never return there, because there isn't really anything interesting to do. Exploring them once was nice, but I don't even remember finding something remarkable there.

 

While there are things PoF did better than HoT, I definitely like HoT more.

[zityz.6089]

HoT had better gameplay/maps

PoF had better story/ additions (mounts over gliders)