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f13.net General Forums => Guild Wars 2 => Topic started by: Tannhauser on October 01, 2015, 03:36:02 AM



Title: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Tannhauser on October 01, 2015, 03:36:02 AM
Is anyone buying this?  Is anyone currently doing the beta and care to share their thoughts?  I thought the best part of GW2 was the journey to max level and this promises more of the same so I am interested.  A beta weekend starts tomorrow.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Lantyssa on October 01, 2015, 06:52:55 AM
Already bought it and played in one beta weekend.  May poke at it this time, but I don't want to spoil myself too much.

There's more exploration (yay!).  A lot of verticality, which takes some getting used to, but is also kind of cool once you get the masteries to move about.  Getting to some of the points requires a bit of creative thinking.

The part of the zone they showed last time had several mega-event chains which involved everyone trying to recover from the disaster of the initial foray into the jungle.  Mobs were a bit tough if roaming around solo, but I was playing classes I wasn't familiar with, too.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Setanta on October 01, 2015, 07:15:45 AM
I've really been underwhelmed by it all and the cost is off-putting. I loved GW2 to the point of hitting fractals in the 30s for fun daily but then I burnt out on the living story. I keep logging in and then logging out after 2 minutes and that and AAnet's marketing/storytelling/promotional videos don't instill me with confidence.

With 14 capped toons I should really have another look at the expansion - someone convince me.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Threash on October 01, 2015, 08:04:35 AM
Bought it, wish i hadn't.  They just announced raids and the holy trinity are going to be part of the expansion.  Huge turn off, this is not the game i signed up for.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: tazelbain on October 01, 2015, 08:17:01 AM
Quote
this is not the game i signed up for
This is a recurring theme for them.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Fordel on October 01, 2015, 03:54:14 PM
I am skipping it, the big reveal for my Ranger is I get to be the heal bot in the new trinity.  :oh_i_see:


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Spiff on October 01, 2015, 10:36:43 PM
Bought it, wish i hadn't.  They just announced raids and the holy trinity are going to be part of the expansion.  Huge turn off, this is not the game i signed up for.

I'm in the same boat. They basically suckered me in 'cause there just isn't anything mmo'ish grabbing my attention at all atm, but from what I've seen this isn't an improvement on the base game.

The new movement stuff (hang gliders yey!) felt sort of cool and their environmental design is still top notch, but the new class is piss and most of the other class-extensions are another example of how they just have no idea how to expand on what's good about the game.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Kageru on October 02, 2015, 05:18:24 AM

Looked through some discussions and summaries of the expac content and couldn't see a single thing that tempted me. I also consider the addition of raiding an indicator of desperation and something the game I originally enjoyed had no foundation for.

I'd still be happy to hear stories of any good things they've added, since I don't follow the game that closely anymore.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: ghost on October 02, 2015, 12:43:23 PM
Are there any centaurs to kill? 


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: murdoc on October 05, 2015, 10:16:51 AM
A wild Ghost sighting appears!

I've pre-ordered and played all three betas. The new class of Revenant is a ton of fun and much improved from the first beta weekend. Overall, I like the Elites but it just continues their current trend of power creep.  The new PvE content holds not too much interest to me but gliding is a lot of fun so there's that.

The introduction of a soft trinity is interesting, but the first raid boss was killed using 8/10 in DPS (zerker) gear, one tank and one dedicated healer so I am fairly sure the DPS meta isn't quite over yet. Either way - I won't ever really check out that content (I haven't run the current fractals and dungeons anyways).


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Threash on October 23, 2015, 06:41:47 AM
So this is out now, anyone else playing?


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Tmon on October 23, 2015, 07:58:09 AM
I'm playing, it isn't too bad but I've barely got past the opening leg of the story.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Threash on October 24, 2015, 06:51:55 AM
This new zones are so incredibly vertical, wow.  Getting metroidvania vibes from this expansion.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Spiff on October 25, 2015, 12:37:28 PM
Thanks for reminding me this came out, didn't even remember the date.
I've played around with it the past few days and the story's quite good so far, the zone is interesting and looks good although the masteries (hang glider, superjump-shrooms, etc.) are of course hidden behind quite the grind.

As far as the specializations go; Reaper is a lot of fun, it feels like the class necro was always supposed to be now. Can't say the same for any other class I've tried though.
And of course levelling up the new specs takes soooo many skill points it's yet another grind.
Grind, grind, grind, ...

[fake Edit] I don't want to sound too negative, coming back to the game reminded me again how well made this actually is. It's such a smooth experience from downloading to playing it, the greatest collection of QoL tweaks in the history of gaming.
Such a smooth road to the realization that the PvE still just boils down to rinse repeat content that very superficially tries to fake an impact on the world.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Sir T on October 25, 2015, 01:22:45 PM
But the problem is that if something actually has an effect on the world people will figure out how to wreck the world just for lulz AND you will eat through the available content in about 2 weeks. And it will be... done.

GW2 had the closest thing to actually effecting the world with the world events and that simply didn't work.

Basically you want an MMO to be like the real world. The Problem is that in the real world wars are won and bad guys are wiped out, leaving your warrior with not a lot to do.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Spiff on October 26, 2015, 12:00:12 AM
That's a lot of presumption based on a single line there.
I don't mind games going a different route, SWToR's focus is completely different for instance and they do that very well, but GW2 explicitly tries to create the illusion of impact. Especially in the high level zones where the gameplay shifted to nothing but event-chains, if that is all a zone offers I find the way they did it to be too superficial yes.

Of course this is just their way of trying to make gameplay re-useable so people poopsockers don't burn through it in about 2 weeks as you say, it's an issue most MMOs put a lot of focus on, but you know what?
I don't really care, because I don't want an MMO to be like real life at all, I don't want to spend 6 hours a day or more in one burning content, so that being an important metric for what a game offers bothers me.
GW2 is good enough atm, but there's still things that annoy me or leave me wanting and another thing I enjoy doing from time to time is whinging about little flaws in my hobby, that's what I come to F13 for (well mostly to read other people doing it  :why_so_serious:).

I suppose my main gripe is I want to feel invested (isn't that what all entertainment is about?) and in SWToR for instance I felt invested in the characters, GW2 has a hard time doing that and it doesn't feel like that's their focus. It seems to me they want me to be invested in the world. They're close to doing it, but not quite there, hence my disappointment.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Kageru on October 26, 2015, 01:27:08 AM

The world events worked okay, and seeing them grow those into larger and more complicated sequences would have been wonderful. But for some reason they went into live events (that occurred only once, at one location) and later their stupid story (which likewise happened and was gone). I'd really love to know why they did a 180 after launch. I could believe the world events had technical challenges but it's hard to believe they couldn't have resolved them in time.



Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: murdoc on October 26, 2015, 04:09:46 AM
I'm playing it right now and for the most part am enjoying it. The mechanics to unlock you elite spec are terrible though, especially for someone who would much rather WvW than PvE.

I was looking forward to trying out the new content and exploring the new zones with my new elite spec - but instead I am grinding mastery xp so I can unlock abilities to get hero points (you need 400 to unlock it) and hope there's enough people to help me kill the champion mob that is guarding it.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Threash on October 26, 2015, 07:15:17 AM
Uh WvWvW is currently the fastest way to unlock elite specs atm.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: murdoc on October 29, 2015, 08:55:27 AM
Uh WvWvW is currently the fastest way to unlock elite specs atm.

Reply few days after the fact, but considering they removed the vendors for over a day and I tend to small group roam - this wasn't true. Lowering the cost to 250 Hero Points was a big change though and I managed to unlock the Revenant, Necro and Engineer elite specs.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Crumbs on January 10, 2016, 01:04:18 PM
I unlocked elite specs on all toons (I have a friggen grip of 80s), but that's about it.  Only a few had enough to get the first box, allowing me to use the new weapon. 

Tried the new zone and found it to be fun at first, but ultimately frustrating.  My late start meant that the commander tags (i.e. groups) were on parts of the map I had not yet unlocked.  The events I was able to get to were underpopulated and couldn't be completed. 

The thought of going to old zones and getting the hero points needed to complete the specs makes my brain hurt.  The thought of doing that in the new zone, less pain but pain nonetheless.  I'd love to do it all with WvW, but is this actually possible like you guys say?  I'm only seeing ways to increase the mastery stuff, not hero points.  Maybe I'm confused...


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Threash on January 10, 2016, 01:40:53 PM
There is a vendor you can buy things that auto unlock hero points with the currency from rank up chests.  Fastest way is to follow a zerg around in edge of the mist, it actually goes by extremely fast.


Title: Re: Heart of Thorns Expansion
Post by: Crumbs on January 20, 2016, 03:44:03 PM
There is a vendor you can buy things that auto unlock hero points with the currency from rank up chests.  Fastest way is to follow a zerg around in edge of the mist, it actually goes by extremely fast.

Ok wow...thanks.  I got a few of those scrolls of heroics and cashed them in, but I was thinking they only gave rep in the HoT zones.  Didn't even check to see hero points accumulating  :uhrr: :uhrr: :uhrr: