Did different people write PoF and HoT?

I ask this question because while I have enjoyed what I have played of PoF so far, I am absolutely HATING going back through LW2 and HoT. The zones are difficult to travel through, and so many of the encounters seem designed to beat you just by volume of mobs, ridiculous AoE effects, and sheer sensory overload. I especially hate the part in LW2 right now where I'm having to play Caithe, whom along with Logan is one of the characters I most despise in the game. I want to play MY character, not someone else's emo weed thief.

Mind you, PoF still has its difficulties. I particularly don't like how so much is locked behind the mounts and masteries. But at least getting around in PoF, I don't feel so overwhelmed by the mobs, or by acrophobia when I just want to move around the zones and explore. I swear, Verdant Brink is just one giant jumping puzzle...

I really think some of that older content needs to be reworked and reconsidered in light of where the game is now, not what it was then. YMMV.

I don't remember LS2, but I share your feeling about HoT. You cannot see it any more, since it is forgotten with the old forum, but there were huge threads with people who expressed their dislike with HoT right from the release. You seem to have just gotten into HoT, so you might not yet have found out about what I consider the worst part of HoT: leveling the masteries, gates to content of various kinds and the feeling of being forced to some things. HoT was even worse at release and a bit changed some months after, but not substantially.

Interestingly, Arenanet seem to have picked every single of my bitter complaints and changed mechanics to my liking in PoF. I enjoyed almost every part of PoF. I cannot complain about anything besides perhaps the Serpent's Ire meta event that I still wasn't able to do successfully.I don't think different people did PoF and HoT - it's only that for HoT, the designers designed with grind and player retention in mind (what backfired, in my opinion) while PoF was more designed for players just to have fun.

It's a learning process, I suppose.

That said, some of my guildmates said, "Ye i got my money's worth with PoF, I enjoyed it." - they stopped playing PoF after that, but still play raids. In HoT, players would engage in more large scale content for months if not years on a more regular basis.

Before HoT was released people kept asking for hard "end game" content and big meta events.

After HoT was released people kept complaining it was hard and couldn't be done solo, so they made PoF easier.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think HOT maps are fantastic and extremely well designed once you realize how they work. Tangled Depths has become one of my favourite maps in the game, when I absolutely HATED it and was lost every time I went on my first run though.

@Evolute.6239 said:Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think HOT maps are fantastic and extremely well designed once you realize how they work. Tangled Depths has become one of my favourite maps in the game, when I absolutely HATED it and was lost every time I went on my first run though.

I have to agree on this. HoT maps are wonderful once you learn your way around. I like going through DS on off maps to see how many pods I might find...though sadly most do not spawn until the checkpoints are reached.

It can take a while to get used to the closed in feeling of the HoT maps, but you eventually learn your way around. The mob behavior and attacks were annoying at first because they were so different from the core mobs, but in time I learned how to handle them and it's relatively easy now. The PoF mobs annoyed me to no end until I worked out how to handle them as well, though the aggro range still seems a bit much.

I like most of HoT maps, i dislike tangled depths, not because of the actual map, but the mini-map, even after it was "improved" is still a mess that's very hard to read.

The only HoT map I like 98% of would have to be Auric Basin. 98% only because when trying to 100% it, I hate there's one PoI I can't get without doing a certain event.