IYield.1204

I have this bug/glitch as well. Bodies of water in both shiver peaks areas and Cantha.

Goodness…I hope one day they start focusing on releasing some actually appealing cosmetic items appropriate for the Guild Wars setting and not things ripped from Korean MMOs. It won’t be long before characters start looking like they are from Lost Ark 😅

I must say I JUST discovered the truth of this post yesterday. The post processing of this game more often then not, obscures detail, unnecessarily brightens things like the ground and plants making all of them neon green in color, and especially noticeable on EoD maps is a seeming ‘overlay’ of a specific colored fog effect. Kaineng and Arborstone is yellow, Echovald and Jade Sea is blue and Shing Jea is green. After I noticed it, I started comparing and contrasting in many locations. I highly recommend trying with it turned OFF. It makes the world in general have more detail and more realistic in terms of darkness. Color saturation is down, making the landscapes and assets blend better. Things like jade machines don’t glow as much, yet it doesn’t get rid of the glow. Light sources produce realistic ambience yet still retain directional lighting and a glow on objects nearby. Definitely give it a try!

I agree that Heart of Thorns was a master stroke as far as that feeling of traversing an almost alien world with unknown danger around every corner, the sense of not knowing how to traverse the area at all encouraging exploration and a dark and foreboding narrative. It was really the only expansion so far in GW2 that wasn’t retreading previously visited cultures and areas from the original game and it shows. I would say now more than ever, ANET has the opportunity to tread entirely new ground and stories. They covered ‘current events’ with all the previous GW1 areas and the Elder Dragons are gone. Now is the time for something far more alien. Just like HoT. Wholeheartedly agree with this post!

In my opinion, there were a few things that made this expansion a far more shallow experience that I feel could have been avoided if they spent more time on it. With the precedent of HoT and PoF, which built off each other in many ways, this expansion felt like a wide ocean and only a foot deep. - Big maps with mostly appealing aesthetics, yet very ‘little’ to do in them. What is available is a few gold nuggets of dynamic quests tied to Factions lore, and the rest is very unoriginal filler. No adventures, bounties, races, collections, guild missions or activities that flesh out the maps at any point. No quests that expand the lore meaningfully on the Naga, the Wardens, the Void, the Brotherhood, the Speakers, malfunctioning Jade technology, Luxons and Kuricks, Old Kaineng and the Zhaitan disaster, and so much more. So many cool old and new story beats explained away by a generic dynamic quest or an interactive object. So much wasted potential to flesh out this lore rich part of the world. - Featuring the new mount at the END of the expansion was such a bad call. This was an awesome opportunity for not only a story beat, but a cool mechanic where we could’ve received our hatchling siege turtle at the beginning. Watching it grow, training it, feed it, etc all while exploring and playing through the story. It would’ve been awesome to see a scenario in the story where we encounter a desperate situation only our now fully grown and decked out Siege turtle could handle, turning from a companion to our new fully upgraded combat mount. - Introducing the amazing skiffs and fun fishing, only to provide so little content related to water. How was this opportunity missed? We are literally taking on the final Elder Dragon who is tied to water and all we do is plink around in the canals. Only Naga, Kapa, and a leviathan to deal with. No eldritch tentacled dragon minions, no realm of the water dragon and exploring it. Perhaps being on a skiff would be the only way to explore the area effectively as the Dragon minions could have been like a shark to blood in the water and an inanimate breathless boat would help us traverse safely without getting attacked constantly. Also revamped water combat or the beginnings of such and a mastery track tied to that and dealing with dragon minions or even underwater void if that’s really the way you wanted to go. - Should not have catered every map to mounts and their one linear meta event. There is a place for wide open spots or vertically challenging areas where mounts are advantageous but if these maps were condensed, maybe each one have its areas ‘squished’ together, the sparse NPCs and the unrealistic sizes would feel more lived in and dense. What we have is wide paths, a theme park jungle and a lifeless city. Kaineng and Echovald are the worst offenders. Not only very little to do, but very little to see. I miss the every nook and cranny having that hand-crafted feel that PoF and HoT have. These EOD areas felt rushed and focused on the lane metas and mounts rather than exploration through dense forests and sprawling crowded cities. - The story was rushed and should’ve been given room to breath and expand. The Canthans and their culture felt more like an exhibit, like what a Canthan district would feel like in Divinitys Reach, rather than the center of Canthan culture and beliefs. The homogenization of everything that made Cantha so mysterious and fun in Factions was a bad move and really made this area of Tyria the least interesting so far. There is more I could nitpick like the mobs or rewards but those subjects have been discussed before many times. All in all my wife and I did have a lot of fun running through EoD the first time. But right after we got our turtle, we have found ourselves going back to the other expansions and their well crafted zones STILL working on the sheer amount of content, achievements, rewards and unlocks they have to this day. Whereas EoD feels like the adventure is already over…

Though it is very true you can specifically cull away character model limits and quality, the unfortunate downside is it also removes NPCs at certain distances, making certain areas like cities feel lifeless until you approach at a very small range. It would be awesome if there was a distinction implemented in the graphics settings. Better yet, for those that can handle higher model count, but don’t want to see angel wings and rainbow auras, a default model more akin to NPCs and not that pink faceless blob they have now, would be stupendous in my personal opinion. The default model could represent race, gender, weapon and profession. Kind of like how you can switch them on in SPVP.

In my opinion, Guild Wars 2 has always been very hit or miss. You’ll have the greats like Bengar where you realize…wow I believe he is an old, hateful Charr with a lot of background and motivation. The writing and voice actor blend perfectly. Then you have a character like Braham who comes up with catchphrases and talks like an edgy teenage human in the modern day. Doesn’t at all talk or come across as a Norn and what the game sets up for them as a race lore-wise. Both have great voice actors, but the writing is so different. All that said, there are times (more often then not) where the characters and the established world don’t mix and it comes across as the writers don’t take their own setting or characters seriously.

I personally think it’s highly illogical that they are working on GW3. Much more likely to be a new game entirely such as a single player rpg. Based on how difficult it can be in the MMO market to get a solid footing, if you already have a successful product, the last thing you want to do is divide your fan base and spend so much time and resources on something that may potentially fail due to the previous version being better and having a more dedicated player base. There are older MMOs then GW2 such as FFXIV and WoW that are still going. One is even more popular then it has ever been and they have another decade at least left in its tanks. ESO is only 2 years younger then GW2 and it just released a new expansion. All in all MMOs are basically timeless and new graphics are nice but in general have very little effect on the average MMO player.

I completely agree. So many things get released that clash heavily with this setting. In a world of medieval fantasy, war torn and nearly obliterated landscapes, giant feline war forged races…there is a random soldier with a plush mount, an eyesore confetti infusion and fluffy cat jade bot. To each their own, but it seems to me personally that the artistic integrity of a game world would come first…I guess they have no choice if this is the kind of stuff that sells…

I do agree with you. While I love player expression and creativity, there has to be a line. That line should be the visual style and integrity of the lore. Having players run around with Aurene legendaries? Makes sense, difficult to acquire, Dragon themed, perfect. What doesn’t make sense are things like Angel wings, Demon Wings, confetti, bees, plush mounts, and just over the top glowing effects from all kinds of sources. At some point the visual style and themes lose their identity and GW2 has begun to look more and more like any other MMO as far as player characters are concerned.

Completely agree with this. ANET went all out and made big features like gliding and mounts already. At this point, with the exception of housing, there are only so many features you can add that will feel ‘Game Changing’. I think it’s unfair to developers to expect that every single expansion. What we should expect is new ways to experience the world. Yes, the skimmer already existed, but I adore the Skiff. It is far more immersive in my opinion and the game is better for it. Yes fishing maybe should have been treated as a gathering skill as opposed to a mastery line, but the game is better for having it. All that said, unless you can come up with something you personally think would be as game changing as gliding or mounts or housing, then we should be excited for when they expand the world and produce new ways of exploring it. PS- If you genuinely have an awesome idea for some big feature that would be equivalent to gliding, mounts or housing share it on the forums!

If you love the gameplay and story of GW2, I can nearly guarantee you will enjoy this expansion. There is no such thing as a flawless game and a new release of any game is expected to have bugs and contain things that need tuning. Also the ratio of constructive criticism vs just complaining is very warped. There are way more people in game and content ; then those who are posting paragraphs of text. Some highlights of this expansion: * Music * Story presentation / humor / voice acting * Map design with meta events that engage the whole area * Skiffs and Fishing add a new and immersive way to traverse and explore Tyria. * EoD makes me excited for what they will do next with GW2.

Belinda’s Greatsword in preparation for Cantha! 😁

Agreed. Great game. I have personally played from launch to today with occasional breaks in between. Like was said, mostly everything I want in a game and mmo is found in GW2. There have been times where I thought, ‘Hey, this other mmo is way more popular, I wonder if it is doing something better!’ I play it for a little while and certainly appreciate things about it, but every time I have come back to GW2, I get drawn back in and realize it is the pinnacle, especially for casual players who can only play a few hours. There are of course many things that could be improved and implemented, but no game is perfect.

I agree, and while getting the Living World Episodes for free initially has been awesome, GW2 is already a very economic game and relatively cheap to get into. Im not certain of the mechanics of what they could do going forward, but if there was ever an opportunity to change how content is released and maybe make more money in the process, I think it’s soon! It would also provide some clarity on where the franchise is currently and then where they go in the future.