Atomos.7593

In terms of the competitive modes in the game, it's definitely the least pay-to-win I have experienced in any MMORPG I have played so far.

Looks as your going through the same experience as me. You know they will tweak POF until it hits the pleasure bone. Same as they did with HOT's. One does not create another silver wastes overnight. :) I played through the PoF maps with the engineer again and most of them still don't appeal to me much. Most of it is just the map design I guess. It isn't awful, but not that great either. Other than the Elon Riverlands, the rest of the maps were forgettable to me. I happened to also being playing in Thanalan in Final Fantasy XIV around the same time and that area in FFXIV does desert-style maps much better in my opinion. The rest of the GW2 maps, generally speaking, are great though. I too am putting a few hours into FFXIV. It's a good game if not a bit of a slog. I must be some sort of MMO junkie as I have 3 going at once, GW3. FFXIV and TESO. I mostly play GW2 though. GW2 is the sort of game you can jump in and get right to the action, so that makes it perfect for long and short term sessions.Hehe I am playing all 3 of them at once too. =) They are all good in different ways. However, what makes exploring maps especially great for GW2, in my opinion, are the mounts. The mounts are something very unique in the MMO industry. You may, like me, even find yourself going back to explore through maps you like less than the others in the game again, just because the mounts are so fun to use.

Looks as your going through the same experience as me. You know they will tweak POF until it hits the pleasure bone. Same as they did with HOT's. One does not create another silver wastes overnight. :) I played through the PoF maps with the engineer again and most of them still don't appeal to me much. Most of it is just the map design I guess. It isn't awful, but not that great either. Other than the Elon Riverlands, the rest of the maps were forgettable to me. I happened to also being playing in Thanalan in Final Fantasy XIV around the same time and that area in FFXIV does desert-style maps much better in my opinion. The rest of the GW2 maps, generally speaking, are great though.

I just started HoT again on my engineer and most of the maps do feel so much better than PoF in my opinion. Exploration in the HoT maps with a skyscale that has all the masteries unlocked feels so much more fun to me than in the PoF maps. The multiple levels/layers of zones in the HoT maps means I keep discovering new areas and things that I had previously missed during my time there.

I wouldn't mind something like a sub-area in a map being dedicated to purely difficult enemies to somewhat challenge groups and zergs, perhaps with better drops/rewards from defeating them. In another MMORPG I play, sometimes certain areas of a map where dedicated to things like this while the other areas were still easy and integrated into the story. I found these small open world areas of greater difficulty in some maps to be fun to run with groups for fairly relaxed sessions. In terms of enemies that challenge zergs in the open world, in GW2 I found the bonus ley infused champions that spawn after the meta event is complete on Dragonfall fun and difficult sometimes with certain groups. In particular, the ley infused hydras can cause chaos sometimes even with large numbers due to high AoE damage and CC, so I find those battles interesting and enjoyable. It's one of the few times I think about maybe playing as support in the open world. More fights like these would be welcome for me in specific areas and situations. Claw of Jormag at the end of the Drizzlwood meta was fun and challenging until people realized that you can just stand at its feet to avoid the AoE fear from the boss haha. Now, if most of the group does this, it turns out to be a fairly easy fight.

Interesting suggestion. The dialogues in Cyberpunk work like this and I used it all the time to skip the less interesting parts of the story for me. Worked well in this regard in my opinion.

I would use this option as I'm not really that interested in much of the story any longer. Just a personal thing for me as I'm not really a big fan of stories in games in general anymore. I usually only do parts of the story now to unlock the map associated with the story chapter. So a skip option would be nice for me to be able to go straight into the map without ever having to do any of the story. At the least, a skip dialogue option would be great to be able to complete the required part of the story for the map to unlock quickly.

I feel like it's a bit too short too for the final boss in Drizzlewood relative to how many chests that spawn from defeating it. I like to revive people that get downed from the last bit of the fight with the boss, which often happens, so that everyone can open as many chests as possible before they disappear. But sometimes I have missed out by just a bit on being able to open all of the chests that spawn too after reviving others. Not a big deal as I would rather help the group that fought the boss get as much loot from it as possible than open all the chests myself, but it would be nice if the timer to remove the chests could be increased at least a little.

I certainly hope not. For me personally, DRMs have done nothing to keep me interested in the game until the next expansion. I still only play because of the same reasons before DRMs were introduced. I would rather see them save the resources for a better (even if less frequent), more content-filled update or for the next expansion itself.

I can only comment on the effects and it is indeed quite bad. All of the flashy lights and effects actually made me eyes hurt. I can't believe they made it like this when there had been many complaints about over-the-top flashy effects in the game already.

The trick with those hydras is to hit them fast and hard! If you knock 33% off their health they lose a head and become stunned, buying you a second window of time to knock another 33% off, stunning them again. If you can burst hard enough, they often die without fighting back! It also helps if you always stay in motion with hydras. Not only because some of their attacks are directional and they are slow to turn, but also because their attacks are much easier to avoid/dodge if you are already moving. May you fare better in your future attempts at lentil farming! Yeah, these are very helpful tips against hydras. Especially to always move and circle/kite the hydras while dealing damage. That way it becomes much easier to avoid their stronger attacks and crowd control abilities like when it breathes fire or summons crystals. If you do these things consistently they can even become a breeze on the squisher and high dps professions like the elementalist, after some practice.

Kind of related to this I think. The dialogues with Scholar Nimmin are some of the funniest in GW2 I found: "Excuse me. I'm in need of information. I'm scouring the Riverlands for a place of special significance. It might be related to Vlast. Anything come to mind?" Scholar Nimmin: Special significance? Well, I did have the most spectacular romantic encounter of my life on an overlook just thataway— "Not quite like that. What I mean is—" Scholar Nimmin: Let me set the scene for you! "Please don't." Scholar Nimmin: Sunset. I'm looking out over the Riverlands, brooding and pensive. A rebel with a heart of gold... If only she would notice.Scholar Nimmin: And just then: she arrives! Dressed to kill and wearing the most alluring fragrance. But why? "Please stop talking for a moment." Scholar Nimmin: Then I realize: This is no chance encounter. She's on a mission.Scholar Nimmin: And her sole objective: taming a heart that, by its very nature, must run free. "Fantastic. I need to go now." "I have a feeling I'm going to regret this, but I have another question for you. Do you know anything about a lost city located somewhere in the Riverlands?" Scholar Nimmin: Lost city? How do you lose a city?Scholar Nimmin: I mean, I'm forgetful. I've lost plenty of things. But a city? "Just...just answer the question, please." Scholar Nimmin: Once I lost my favorite journal. Looked everywhere for it. And I never did find it, but you know what I did find? "Please say "a lost city."" Scholar Nimmin: Every single left sock I had ever misplaced. I swear, if it's not in the last place you look, it's...well, elsewhere. "Fantastic. I need to go now." "I have a feeling I'm going to regret this, but I have another question for you. I'm searching for a lost city called Kesho. What do you know about it?" Scholar Nimmin: Kesho? Y'mean...oh. Wait. Kesho. I know who you're talking about. "No, Kesho's a place—" Scholar Nimmin: I met him at a krewe mixer some years ago, if memory serves. Short fellow, yes? Loud, reeking of solvent— "Please. Stop talking." Scholar Nimmin: ...And the most hideous laughter I've ever heard— (imitating laughter) "Thanks. I'm walking away now. Why did I think that'd turn out differently this time?"

I got all 20 by the end of the south meta. Not sure if there was a stealth change today or I just got lucky. I don't like the concept of needing a lot of RNG drops for dailies though.

Joining in some of the more active and fun meta events in this game is one of the best experiences of GW2 in my opinion. Even if you don't succeed in it or get to finish it, I still find it very fun.

I don't like the PoF expansion maps much either. The living world season 4 maps are much better in my opinion. The PoF maps feel too bland and empty for me, but I realize it is meant to have this feel being a desert and all. Elon Riverlands is a fairly populated area most of the time though and has some fun events.

Previously I had wondered the same thing, but now I have realized that I like the way flying mounts currently are in GW2 better. Every time I fly on my skyscale and griffon, it sort of feels like a mini-puzzle to reach greater heights on the skyscale or find the right place to launch off on the griffon to fly at a greater speed. This keeps exploration with flying mounts interesting for me. I am also over getting new mounts now as we already have a lot of variety in exploration with the mounts that we already have. I would prefer the next expansion to feature something different and refreshing.

Out of all the DRMs released so far, the Jormag ones are in my opinion much better in terms of gameplay. The Lake Doric DRM flows much more smoothly than the others and feels closer to the right length, so it doesn't seem like as much of a grind or slog as the others. Fighting the trash mobs in it doesn't feel long and repetitive and the boss fight doesn't feature too much health, crowd control and escape mechanics. I actually found the Lake Doric one somewhat fun. It's one that I would consider playing daily. Hopefully the latter DRMs and other instances in the game are more like it, instead of like the earlier DRMs.

Yeah, 1 hour feels much too short for the boon. It kind of makes me feel forced to play another DRM after completing the previous one in order to make the boon worthwhile. My main is parked in the Eye of the North exclusively to do DRMs and the Champions story because of this reason.

I just did the Lake Doric dragon response mission and interestingly the borders of that instance push you back if you try to venture out of the instanced zone instead of restarting the instance from the beginning. I can't think of any reason why they can't do this for story instances too. Perhaps this was a new change and is Anet trying something different to the previous instance out of bounds kicks?

Yeah, I was thinking that Anet may be putting the vast majority of development resources into the new expansion and would rather not spend too many resources on the content beforehand anymore. If that's actually the case I won't mind too much if the expansion turns out to be quite good. In the meantime I guess I can keep myself occupied mostly with other PvE content. Having played WvW for many years, it was clear that the devs rarely changed things from feedback, at least for that part of the game. I just wasn't expecting this to become the case in PvE too, perhaps a bit naively.

Sadly DRMs have affirmed that instanced content in GW2 is not for me. I have found them so boring that I don't think I will ever give any type of instances a go again in this game, despite having enjoyed instances and dungeons in other MMOs. I am struggling to even complete them all once to get the Champions story chapter done - not because they are difficult, but because they feel like such a mindless slog. The one in Thunderhead Keep is just urgh. If one of the intentions of DRMs was to get players to play more instanced content, they have certainly failed for me. I think I'll just stick to the open world for PvE. Edit: What's particularly concerning is that great and extensive feedback has been provided on how DRMs could easily be improved. However, from what I can see, very little has changed.

I think that the idea of soloable, repeatable content was a nice change, but the quality and implementation of the DRMs poor. It feels like it was an experiment to try to also change up the traditional new map and open world content that typically comes with living world episodes. I don't mind this experiment too much because, in my opinion, the Icebrood Saga was trending in a bad direction anyway. However now that we have had this experiment, I would like ArenaNet to go back to what has historically worked quite well again, from the new EoD expansion and onwards, in delivering a new map with the new living world episodes.

It's happened to me at least a couple of times across different story instances. One of the more annoying "features" of GW2 story instances for me. The instance introducing PoF is indeed quite long and the first time you do it may be quite difficult as it was for my elementalist, so I can understand your frustration.

An option to automatically open all bags and boxes that don't contain selectable rewards. Or make these bags and boxes directly sellable on the trading post.

Used to get a lot of unplayable lag in WvW, especially in blob fights. In recent weeks it seems like it may have gotten better, but I have mostly played during off-peak times in this period and haven't encountered many fights between large blobs, so I can't make a firm judgement.