Heart of Thorns ruined this game

[Kongajinken.3182]

I'm an avid fan of GW2, I have 7 of the available classes at 80, I had them there 4 years ago. I stopped playing this game after HoT came out. I came back because I missed playing this game, and replaying it again made me realize why I left in the first place. The gimmicks, o mother of whale supreme the gimmicks. Holy crap. Did you know you need level 4 of frog retardation in order to eat this mushroom in order to survive posion? Did you know you need level 2 hand holding in order to food deflect people's hunger hands in order to go on the next story mission? O darn I forgot how to dig holes across the map so know I'm stuck again.

 

Which all of this would maybe be cute if there was more content to explore. Its 4 zones of poor level design that requires you to climb in the air on the other side of the next zone, and navigate the wind zones to get this single point of interest, now do that 100 more times for every single other location on your map. Did I mention every single map icon requires you to grind a specific gimmick in order to do that icon? Don't want to do that? Well thats all the content there is folks!.....

 

But wait you say! There's zone events going on! WOwzers! Now I only have 20 minutes in order for it to start, and no one's here, guess I'll just wait for the next event that starts in 30 minutes. What should I do in the mean time? I guess I'll do story quests. O wait I need to grind another gimmick mastery in order to proceed with the story!.... YAYAYYAYAakjdalkjtgahjf atiaaj fajtiajrkafaFUN FUNNU !u fhN!! ! FUnnnnnnnn......l. GRIND more SCRUMB arujng agrind more SCRUB GRIND MOre GRIND MORE GRIND MORE GRIND MORE GRIND MORE GRIND MROE GRIND MORE IONGRIMND GMORE INGRIMD NGMORE ANGRIND MORENO GRINM ORMOE INGRD IMNERM ORE NOJAK A. PAY 5 dollars to teleport between events so you don't have to find where to grind!.

 

Guess I'll just sit here and do taris for the 9th time as wonder where to get enough XP to play the game again. Rember when you had the freedom to walk into a zone, fully enjoy exploring all it had to offer, and than you could either go to another one, go do the story mode as you've leveled a couple times, or maybe tried you hand at a dungeon that didn't require you to wait 30 minutes for it to start? Pepgrid farm remembers, o god it rembers, I remember loving this game so much.

 

I just want to love this game again, but there's no new content thats like how the game used to be, this game used to be phenominal. Nots its a gimmick locked grind fest. I'd rather run on a skinner gox treadmill that go through this "horizontal" progression system. Even though they kindly forget to tell you that ALL of this gimmicks you're leveling through is only relevant for you're current area, so in the next zone, you get to grind for more gimmicks so you can gimmick grind for you gimmicks so that you can progres the story for your gimmicks so you can finally play th grimmikcks ofor you can finally playing the game again john. You can play the game again john, gimmicks john gtheres gimmicks jowhn, don't you want to grind the gimmicks john, did ou want to lay the game hohn? Don't you love playing the game john? Grimmcs john, you can play the gimmicks john, don't forget ot grind so you can do the gimmicks john...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

 

Once again I'll be retelling my friends that buying HoT was a mistake and to never come back, its a trap.

Good night my fellow GW2 enthusiasts.

[Miss Lana.5276]

Dibs on your stuff

[Kongajinken.3182]

I'm not giving you anything. I'm saving it for when they make this game good again, and finally realize that horizontal gimmicks aren't fun.

[Faaris.8013]

You are stuck in the past. But hey, that shouldn't be a problem, you can still play the game like you did 4 years ago. Nobody forces you to enter HoT zones.

[yoni.7015]

HoT was a great expansion. I still play the maps often

[PervMonk.4891]

cool story bro

[phs.6089]

It always makes me smile, when people that never grind anything in other games, call something in GW2 "A GRIND", a grind, Carl!

[Westenev.5289]

Sure, because the Berserker/scholar lv 80 5k AP or kick dungeon meta, kamakaze Staff Ele and full warrior parties weren't gimmicks in and of themselves. Wear rose tinted glasses all you like, but pre-hot had its fair share of problems.

 

Personally? I like the HoT maps. They're rewarding, sometimes challenging and the "gimmicks" aren't compulsary for map completion.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

If you don’t like HoT then play PoF or stay in vanilla gw2, whichever.

 

By the way, they’re not going to change from horizontal progression to vertical progression because horizontal progression is what the game is sold for.

[Razor.6392]

Can I have some gold?

[VDAC.2137]

To each their own. I really liked the HoT story and love the maps, although Tangled Depths less so, but I’m finally starting to figure that one out too! I can see how it would be frustrating to keep running into road blocks; I actually experienced the first three maps via HP trains first so I already had basic masteries when I did the story. Gliding is really fun, especially once you get endless gliding unlocked and that makes Verdant Brink really fun to explore! :)

[Jski.6180]

I would have to agree with HoT elite spec and the balance that happens to the core classes to force the game into something it was not made for raids. Every thing else is very pve locked i am not sure that why HoT messed up the game.

[BlueJin.4127]

HoT can be extremely frustrating at first. However, I recommend that once you have at least the raptor and springer, give HoT a chance. :smile: No need to pressure yourself to stay in HoT for lengthy periods. You can just jump in for a few minutes here and there. With all masteries (both HoT and PoF mount masteries), HoT is simply amazing. It’s probably one of the most unique level designs I’ve experienced in any game. A LOT of players hated HoT at first, but loved it after sticking with it.

[sarbonn.7182]

I, on the other hand, really like HOT and POF, but my one problem is that they're extremely difficult and I'm really tired of dying all of the time. I keep trying to learn the gimmicks that are required to survive, but I don't seem to get the hang of it. And I really want to play through this area. Last night, I reached a new part of HOT and went forward, literally about ten feet, and I was seriously overwhelmed by some elite that was rushing through the area. Dead again.

 

I keep trying to get information to help me at least create builds, but I keep finding opposing information, and whenever I ask for help in game, I get the inevitable: "Just play whatever you want. All builds are great." But they're not, and it's really frustrating.

 

And keep in mind, this is coming from someone who actually loves the game, not someone who comes here to complain.

[Irreverent.3594]

HoT gets muuuuuch better when you get Griffon and complete easy mode when you get Skyscale.

[LucianDK.8615]

Pof is far easier than Hot, almost to a ridiculous degree. So many hero points you need groups for in HoT, whereas you can solo the majority in pof on your own.

 

And even hot has been nerfed plenty, it started too hard for the casuals because of the vocal minority wanting harder content. Infact ill suggest starting in pof over hot, as mounts will make the confusing layout of hot far more bearable.

[Kongajinken.3182]

> @"LucianDK.8615" said:

> Pof is far easier than Hot, almost to a ridiculous degree. So many hero points you need groups for in HoT, whereas you can solo the majority in pof on your own.

>

> And even hot has been nerfed plenty, it started too hard for the casuals because of the vocal minority wanting harder content. Infact ill suggest starting in pof over hot, as mounts will make the confusing layout of hot far more bearable.

 

I picked it up in hope that its better than HoT, which is a pretty low bar so I'm pretty sure it can't get any worse.

[Kongajinken.3182]

> @"Westenev.5289" said:

> Sure, because the Berserker/scholar lv 80 5k AP or kick dungeon meta, kamakaze Staff Ele and full warrior parties weren't gimmicks in and of themselves. Wear rose tinted glasses all you like, but pre-hot had its fair share of problems.

>

> Personally? I like the HoT maps. They're rewarding, sometimes challenging and the "gimmicks" aren't compulsary for map completion.

 

There was more groups than just 5k ap or kick, I frequently hosted them and much enjoyment was had.

 

How can I wear rose tinted glasses when I hate what the game as become to the point that I stopped playing it for 4 years? Thats not rose tinted glasses, thats just the game being bad.

 

Yes those gimmicks ARE compulsary for map completion, maybe if you've grinded out all the masters already you've forgotten, but as someone that hasn't. I'm running my face against the wall repeatedly just running map events over and over so I can finally do the maps.

[Sirius.4510]

The HoT story stuff is probably still gated on getting specific masteries, but a lot of the map navigation is bypassed by PoF mounts. Particularly the second one you get.

 

Gliding doesn't become obsoleted without a lot more effort, unfortunately. But you probably won't need to use it as much.

 

I don't want to promise you'll like PoF more, but it seems safe to say it was much more popular.

[Randulf.7614]

I found hot maps to be some of the best in the game. The improvement over core is significant.

 

I loved core, but it’s bland in comparison.

 

I agree some masteries were too niche and gimmicky, but it was a minor issue to me. And there was little no grind to them given the amount of xp thrown at us

 

Overall, the innovations and map design hit a home run for the game

[aspirine.6852]

HoT is love and hate for me. I sometimes love how good the maps look and sometimes play as good too. But also I hate navigating in the maps, maze in a mze and forcing you into areas you do not want to go in. Frustrating group events for mastery that nobody ever does makes it that I still have unfinished stuff in the maps, but anet never looks back to see hmmm perhaps these events are too hard to solo...

[Goettel.4389]

Heart of Thorns *saved this game, /fixed

Still the best zones.

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

I agree that the mastery system wasn't very well utilised in HoT. It feels to me like they came up with the system without knowing what the masteries would actually be, and then struggled to think of ideas for things to fill it with. The result is that the gliding masteries are pretty good, but basically every other mastery is a gating mechanism. Added to which, the types of things it gates are similar to things that weren't gated in earlier maps (e.g. Zephyrite aspects and skritt tunnels).

 

I think they did a much better job of using the mastery system in PoF, with each mastery line focussed around a different mount, basic use of that mount just requiring the mastery line to be unlocked, and the mastery levels enhancing its abilities. It really is vertical rather than horizontal progression though (very literally so, with some of the mounts).

[Airdive.2613]

It's nowhere near "poor level design", quite the opposite, actually. HoT featured some of the best maps/environments I've ever seen in videogames, combining adventure game with platforming.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

A time shift must have happened because this thread is straight out of 2015.

 

On a more serious note there is a discussion to be had about how the game changed with its first xpac and their effect on subsequent content. But the way OP does it, will probably result in a short lived thread.