Poormany.4507

When they said they would be making mini-expansions, me (and many other players) assumed it would be the same amount/quality of content as regular expacs, just spread out over multiple releases so that we don't get expacs every 2 or 3 years with long wait periods between. Instead we're currently getting less/lower quality content than Living World with only one or two expac-quality maps in the whole expac. SotO maps so far: Skywatch Archipelago (~Living World quality, mostly reused assets), Wizards Tower (Expac or LW hub quality), Amnytas (Expac quality meta map), Nayos (< Living World quality, mostly filler content). If they released 2 expac-quality maps and 1 LW-quality map per expac cycle, I think that would be enough imo. The problem with the new model, as myself and other predicted, is that they're rushing the content/maps to start work on the next expac, resulting in a drastic drop in quality compared to before when most of the PvE team was working on one or (maybe) two LW or expac patches at a time.

The picture also looks just as similar to the opening shot of Prophecies as it does the Verdant Cascades one. Many players, including myself, immediately thought of that Prophecies shot when first seeing the image. Given that it's GW1's 20th anniversary soon, I could easily see them doing a Prophecies-based map or plotline (Such as finally dealing with the Foefire/ghosts).

I don't really see the point of this, given that mount stealth already exists as given in Icebrood Saga. Making a dismount stealth skill or a new mount just for this purpose wouldn't really benefit most players except those who want to optimize gathering down to the second (a small minority, I'd guess) and I'd prefer the time/resources to be spent elsewhere.

Horn of Maguuma is just paid Living World, maps are nowhere near other expac levels... 😉

If they go back to cancelled Utopia ideas for future expacs, we still haven't seen anything like The Hub of Time in GW2, which may involve some kind of time travel/alternate timelines. Could be tied in with the likely Gods/Mists expac they've been teasing for so long.

Itzel mount when?

[Deleted]

As a primarily PvE ele ranged staff player, I have mixed feelings about the arcane wave rework. It's nice to finally have a decent breakbar skill on my bar that also does decent damage, but the leap effect is very wonky and feels blatantly copy-pasted (i.e., it is!). Why would you force a melee skill on staff ele (which doesn't even make sense - My first thought on seeing the new skill was "Why is my staff ele jumping around and whacking the ground with his hands?")? They could at least add the shockwave animation from boss fights. I would love if they had added the stun without the leap (and maybe decreasing damage/range slightly to compensate).

I fully agree with this! There's too many characters so we're left doing missions with one character and then not seeing them for several chapters (if ever) for so many characters to the point that I lose interest in their stories. Add in interesting characters that players want to see more of and learn about their backgrounds and stories (Mabon, Dagda, Galrath) not being given nearly enough screentime combined with forgettable characters with no personality that honestly, could have been entirely cut from the story and/or merged into others (Irja, Zizel, Arina), a lot of players, including myself, lose interest in the characters that are introduced because chances are, they'll be in one of the above categories. It is not a good thing when I have to look up multiple characters during story missions to remember who they even are and SotO is one of the few times I've had to do so. I also hope the next stories involves a smaller, but closer character group where we actually get to know and connect with each character.

I think that it being the middle of a 3 part map also makes the short event respawn timers more noticeable and opening up the 3rd part will help with the issue.

After playing the last story part, I would not be surprised if there will be a reason revealed at the end for why Eparch went mad and started consuming his own people (Maybe tied into the Elder Dragons and/or a future Gods/Mists storyline?), which seems to be out of necessity rather than simple power hunger/greed based on Labris' statements (assuming those can be trusted...) Queen Labris: Is there no limited to your arrogance? You believe yourself savior? Queen Labris: You have no idea the commitment required to ensure the survival of our people. ... Peitha: Tell me, Labris. Do you also share his appetites? Queen Labris: We do that which must be done. That which the common— However, given we only have one third of a chapter left in Nayos, most of which will probably be fighting our way into Eparch's fortress, before we go back to wrapping up unsolved Tyrian mysteries, I highly highly doubt "Peitha was evil all along!!!" will be a twist we'll get.

As long as I can look like Kestrel Zuru and complain about dens of iniquity and dragging Uncle Viri's name straight through guano - Sure!

Plenty of players would argue otherwise. Look up the countless players complaining about being able to complete most combat encounters in the main game (excluding raids, strikes, and other side content etc.) by bashing 1. If combat were made more difficult, players who do play by bashing 1 would complain, if it's made easier, hardcore players with 15-25 step rotations and optimal DPS would complain. There's no way to satisfy everyone by making drastic changes to the combat system as proposed this late in the game's development, which imo is a good thing, as it allows for a more diverse playerbase.

The vast majority of GW2 players (definitely not an "extremely small group of self-deluding gamers") are causals who primarily play PvE (hence why it gets almost all dev attention). While I do agree that WvW and PvP do deserve more dev focus than what they're getting, essentially remaking the combat system to suit PvPers is simply not going to happen in GW2 because most players aren't hardcore PvPers. Comparing GW2 PvP to sub games like WoW with huge time/money investments or games that are primarily PvP-focused like LoL is comparing apples to oranges and doesn't have much merit.

After finishing the latest story chapter, I do agree that SotO is a step in the right direction and the dialogue in general feels more consistent in the tone they're trying to convey (Peitha in particular felt very well written in Through the Veil). Much, much fewer cringey jokes in serious dialogue that previously took me out of the story and overall better conveyed emotions by characters. Looking forward to the new story releases! 🙂