Lack of PoF HP Trains

Something I’ve noticed about PoF maps: A lack of HP trains. They still seem pretty regular in HoT areas (at least on weekends), but the frequent absence in PoF means that it’s difficult to obtain both elite specializations on the same character by soloing with non-ascended gear/weapons. Wondering if other players have observed this and how they’ve dealt with it. Is the general consensus just to have 2 characters of the same profession?

Every hero point is extremely easy to solo, and many can be instantly done in a few seconds with some builds (I basically oneshot the dustdevil HP in Highlands for example on DH lol)

There is little point to a hero point train in POF areas since everything can be done alone and people have varied mount access, compared to HOT where many things are/were very hard to effectively solo and some things were hard mastery locked.

Plus getting all HOT points + some basic tyria points pretty much pays for your POF specs already, you can ignore POF HPs technically!

What evolute said. There are very few PoF HP trains because PoF HPs are pretty much all soloable (even with no real gear). A few can require some extra help, but usually someone else comes along before you even really have to ask around in map chat too much.

I think its because a big change of PoF after HoT complaints is that the HoT HPs were rarely soloable due to champ fights.In PoF these were all replaced with minichallenges or regilar veterans, making nearly all HPs soloable.With that in mind there was no incentive for the playerbase to group up.As a result, i believe anet only know how to swing wildly instead of making adjustments.Core was too easy, then they made it too hard, and then they made it too easy again.What anet needs to do is variate.There are more HPs than you need.So make a few channelable, a few locked behind events, a few locked behind veteran fights, elite fights, and champion fights. Get a bit of everything.

a few locked behind eventsPlease, never again.

In my experience, part of the HoT HP train appeal is getting to the HP in the first place. Some are not trivial to get to, especially if you're new to the area, or the area is Tangled Depths. PoF is far easier in that regard: see the HP challenge, take 0.5 seconds to determine the mount you need to get there, get there, and done.

Agreed. The biggest reason for the HP trains was because parts of the map were a maze-like nightmare. That's definitely not the case in Path of Fire. Thank God.

HoT HPs are a fucking nightmare to get to without a train. I sincerely thank ANet that PoF HPs are much more playable.

Lack of raid in order to kill veterans

:lol:

@"Ouija.1684" said:Something I’ve noticed about PoF maps: A lack of HP trains. They still seem pretty regular in HoT areas (at least on weekends), but the frequent absence in PoF means that it’s difficult to obtain both elite specializations on the same character with just regular gear/weapons. Wondering if other players have observed this and how they’ve dealt with it. Is the general consensus just to have 2 characters of the same profession?Reason for a "lack of HP trains" in PoF might be- they're simply not needed. Just unlocked Holosmith and Weaver this weekend, simply by going to Elona, doing the HPs in Crystal Desert, Elona Riverlands, Desolation and finally in Desert Highland. That's enough to fully unlock an elite spec from 0. Granted, having access to extended mount masteries speeds the process up a lot. After you've done the tour once and recall the locations of the HPs, it's done pretty fast.I don't understand you're last part. I have 1 character of each profession and since changing traits and gear can be done whenever I'm ooc, I don't feel the need to get additional ones. I can see why some people have multiple chars of one class, e. g. 1 for PvE, 1 for WvW, but I don't see why it's an issue concerning HPs?

Even a sword weaver who doesn't attunement swap can solo all PoF HPs. They simply don't require groups, thats all.

There was enough hero points in HoT that people fully unlocked their PoF elite specs literally minutes after PoF was released. If anyone ever did map completion in HoT, a character already has more than enough hero points to unlock both specs. There are somewhere around 300+ extra hero points in the game more than you need, even after unlocking both elite specs - thats 30+ hero points in both expansion packs you can miss.

In all of PoF, I can only remember 4 hero points that I can't solo on a character with at least half rares* of near any stat combo - Sulfur-crazed Harpy (desolation), Veteran Awakened something or other (elon riverlands), the three fighters of vehtendi academy arena (domain of vabbi), Confused Djinn (or something to that effect) (crystal oasis). For me, these all require a second person of similar or worse gear to complete, and I can solo that last one if i'm super aware of where the hydras are, and I can solo the harpy if i'm paying attention and actually conserving my dodges for when I need them the most.

In all of HoT, I can remember the majority of the hero points being behind champion/elites that I don't have the gear, ability or inclination to solo on any character.*as a side note if you're playing the game, every character at level 80 should have at least half rares if not better just by dropping from enemies/unidentified gear/etc, even if you don't do the personal story which will provide you with at least half exotics.

You can max out both elite specs on the commune hero points of the first three maps in HoT + a majority of the hero points in PoF from memory, may be wrong but if i am it's only a couple more hp than that anyway. majority = you can still avoid those hp difficult to solo in PoF, few that there are.

I can only think of one HP where you might need a group depending on your character. There was one with one of those forged that moves really fast and does a lot of damage, I forgot the name but I remember having some trouble with that HP on my Ventari Healing Revenant, maybe I should've swapped to something more offensive :P

But on EU Servers there is at least 1 HP train for all PoF maps every day (or just coincidentally whenever I check the lfg).

I don't understand you're last part. I have 1 character of each profession and since changing traits and gear can be done whenever I'm ooc, I don't feel the need to get additional ones. I can see why some people have multiple chars of one class, e. g. 1 for PvE, 1 for WvW, but I don't see why it's an issue concerning HPs?

To clarify: 2 characters because once you earn HPs, e.g., in HoT, you can’t re-earn them. So if you’ve already unlocked 1 elite spec on a character but aren’t able to solo enough HPs in PoF to get another 250, that leaves you with trying to acquire them via the core game, which only grants a single point per challenge ... sort of seems like it’d just be easier to create a new character and get all the HPs via a HoT HP train, but that leaves you with only 1 elite spec per character.

Because there doesn't need to be. I much prefer running my characters through the PoF HPs as they're much quicker and easier than HoT.

Update: So I recently ran my second character through PoF — the first time was on my main, with a PoF HP train right after the expansion came out — and was able to get the 250 points needed to unlock the additional elite spec. I could solo some of the non-commune HPs, but had help with most of the others, as fellow players just happened to be nearby, which I hope will generally be the case (otherwise I’ll be out of luck in the future).

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

a few locked behind eventsPlease, never again.

a few like.. one a map.. max.. you'll get triple the necessary anyway

If I look at the maps, atleast half of them are very easily solo-able. 25% are soloable with a decent build and if you know how to dodge. the last 25% needs some specific skills or a player extra.You can always start your own train. The route is pretty easy and the fights too.

1) I recommend trying to solo PoF Hero Challenges. A lot of them are much easier than you might expect if you're used to HoT and can be done solo. They're also not locked behind events or in hard to reach areas, which is the main reason for the HoT HP trains.

2) If you can't do it solo try asking your guild to help, or ask in map chat or in the LFG tool. (If you do please remember to say which HP you want help with, and/or where it is - it makes it much easier for people to work out whether they can help without annoying you by offering to help, asking where it is, and then having to say they can't get there for whatever reason.)

3) Alternatively HoT + the base game maps will give you more than enough HPs to unlock both elite specs. I hadn't even gotten all the ones in HoT on my main character and I could unlock the new one the day PoF came out.

4) Another option is to play WvW and use Proof of Heroics to buy completion of Hero Challenges from the vendor in your world's base.

They are easy to do solo, so no group needed, but if you really need help just ask in map chat and/or tag up your mentor thingy. It should take 2-3 minutes til you have a bunch of players.

its not hard to unlock both elite specs at all on my warrior i still miss some HoT hps and i unlocked both elite specs and still have 370 points left like in this pic

i have 100% world map 100% on PoF matches 100% verdant brink 100% dragon stand and miss hp on the others 2 maps in HoT so there are tons of hero points to earn in guild wars and tons of teams are super easy to or just need 1-2 other players to help with but most are solo able