Back after a long time and the pain that is HoT

[Vayne.8563]

1 hour ago, LesserHellspawn.3160 said:

Thank you, I might get back to that if I get stuck for good. For now I have completed the Auric Basin, which is the most "normal" HoT map. For now I'm living in Bjora Marches to get that skyscale ASAP.

No worries mate, have fun.  But whether you can "get through" it or not, really isn't the same as learning how to play it. They're very different animals.  Anyway the offer is open.

[GoldenPants.1870]

21 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

The HoT maps are actually the best maps in the game.

Wrong, Tangled Depths can please just detonate. With a giant bloodstone. Just need to build one first.

[Alcatraznc.3869]

I'm not a real fan of the jungle theme map, in fact there were time I wish my engineer's flamethrower would become the solution to everything. Verdant brink (the very first map, dont know if I spell it right) was enjoyable back then when we only had the glider but with mount it is even more enjoyable to explore. Basin auric is....I guess it's correct. Not too bad, not too good. Tangled Depth can burn to the ground I wouldnt even care. I hate that map so much. And Dragonstance is arguably the best map of HoT due to the meta event required to explore the map. It always feel epic to be part of a task force working with other task force in coordination to bring down Mordremoth. It is easier to do now with PoF spec and mounts but I wouldnt mind another map based on that concept.

 

I think I would give HoT a 7/10. As mentioned above, I'm not a real fan of jungle theme map, Tangled Depth is horrible, some mobs in these area are a pain to fight against and some Hero point remains pretty annoying to get (though I think most of them became fairly easier to do now thanks to PoF spec and some buffs/rework of older spec).

 

If there's anything Anet should bring in EoD that comes from HoT is a Dragonstance like map or chains of event. 

[Stx.4857]

I agree, the HoT maps are the worst in the game.  The themes are cool, but I gain no enjoyment from being forced to constantly play a mini puzzle game of how not to fall to my death or find a way up to the area I need to get to.

 

Path of Fire maps are great, Core maps are great.  I haven't done icebrood yet.

[Duglaive.5236]

I remember entering Verdant Brink for the first time, looking at the nearby wreckage, surviving Pact members, and finally opening the map and realizing the sheer verticality of the place. Admittedly, it took some time to get passed the "Ah, crap" feeling when thinking about navigating the zone, and fighting the very different enemies on my terms. 

 

Now I consider HoT my in-game home, and Tangled Depths my favorite zone in the game. I never tire of that drop through the sinkhole near the Order of Whispers waypoint - especially on a griffon or skyscale ... All the way into the depths and then through an alien corridor to the Confluence. Fantastic world building and artwork. The only HoT zone I'm sorta 'meh' about is Dragonstand; great meta and, in my eyes anyway, a waste of space at any other time. Plus all the invisible walls in DS; a real turnoff for exploring.

 

As others have advised, OP, slow down a bit. The content by and large isn't going anywhere, and there's a large amount of epic to discover game wide. Including HoT 😉

[LesserHellspawn.3160]

Got my Skyscale finally and all it's skills unlocked, finally the maps are opening up for me. Slowly unlocking Verdant Brink. There are still two spots that are puzzling me, as there seems to be no way to get there, even at the correct height, but I'll get there eventually.

[jokke.6239]

On 12/28/2021 at 10:01 PM, ArchonWing.9480 said:

HoT maps were a pain at release, but they were made a lot easier. Now the only truly annoying map is Tangled Depths.

However, they definitely have more replay value. PoF maps are so boring with long stretches of nothing. At least in HoT you have to watch where you going, and heck you may even die. And even after all the years, the meta bosses are still the best. People still freak out over Octovine which is never going to stop being funny.

In the end, I haven't touched a lot of the PoF maps or even finished the story. So yea, HoT maps any day of the week.

Also HoT maps don't have those crappy hearts. All things being equal that would have been better. My first thought when reaching Cursed Shore was that the hearts were over! Well, they were, until Ember Bay came back with the awful resetting hearts that plague this game to this very day.

In the end, I have 1 HoT map compleition to my name so it was pretty good in that sense. (To compare, I only have 1 Core Tyria map completion; yea I hate map completion)

Path of Fire has the best looking maps imo.

I don't like META events, so I haven't gotten that much playtime in HoT and Living world maps as many others.

But for replay value, collections and achievements offer lots of that on all maps.

But for me best replay value maps are core maps.

I like map completion 🙂

Edited January 15, 2022 by jokke.6239

[Linken.6345]

50 minutes ago, LesserHellspawn.3160 said:

Got my Skyscale finally and all it's skills unlocked, finally the maps are opening up for me. Slowly unlocking Verdant Brink. There are still two spots that are puzzling me, as there seems to be no way to get there, even at the correct height, but I'll get there eventually.

Well before mounts we had to use the different choppers at night time to get up to those spots you have a hard time getting to bud.

[Rasimir.6239]

8 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

Well before mounts we had to use the different choppers at night time to get up to those spots you have a hard time getting to bud.

I'm pretty sure you can get everywhere in VB with just HoT masteries, but some of the paths are really out of the way if you don't know the map well. It actually is one of the reasons I had so much fun exploring the HoT maps back then, and I still try to get around without mounts some days just for fun.

[Linken.6345]

8 hours ago, Rasimir.6239 said:

I'm pretty sure you can get everywhere in VB with just HoT masteries, but some of the paths are really out of the way if you don't know the map well. It actually is one of the reasons I had so much fun exploring the HoT maps back then, and I still try to get around without mounts some days just for fun.

Show me a video of you getting up to the 2 verdant brink frogs night champions without useing mounts or chopper mate.

[AliamRationem.5172]

32 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Show me a video of you getting up to the 2 verdant brink frogs night champions without useing mounts or chopper mate.

Why not use choppers, though? It's what they're for and they require no masteries.  I think you can also reach them via updraft, but it's been years since I did HoT map complete so I don't recall for sure.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Why not use choppers, though? It's what they're for and they require no masteries.  I think you can also reach them via updraft, but it's been years since I did HoT map complete so I don't recall for sure.

Did you read the post i quoted?

Hint here is the part of the post my response is against.

I'm pretty sure you can get everywhere in VB with just HoT masteries

Edit

And they said that because I said you had to use choppers to get up to some of the canopy pois before we had mounts in the post before that.

Edit 2

Maybe read the back an forth when its litteraly no post bettwen them hu?

Edited January 15, 2022 by Linken.6345

[AliamRationem.5172]

18 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Did you read the post i quoted?

Hint here is the part of the post my response is against.

I'm pretty sure you can get everywhere in VB with just HoT masteries

Edit

And they said that because I said you had to use choppers to get up to some of the canopy pois before we had mounts in the post before that.

Edit 2

Maybe read the back an forth when its litteraly no post bettwen them hu?

Settle down, Francis.  Honest mistake.

[Vayne.8563]

6 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Why not use choppers, though? It's what they're for and they require no masteries.  I think you can also reach them via updraft, but it's been years since I did HoT map complete so I don't recall for sure.

Responded to wrong post, sorry!

Edited January 16, 2022 by Vayne.8563

[Vayne.8563]

7 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

Show me a video of you getting up to the 2 verdant brink frogs night champions without useing mounts or chopper mate.

I can show you in game. You don't need a chooper to get to the frogs. You do need long gliding and updrafts though. And bouncing mushrooms. But I can get to the Frogs without using a chopper, during the day if you like (not that the frogs are there during the day but I can get to their platform.

[Dante.1508]

Hot is still horrible. Even to this day the CC of everything drags it down.. If you have no glider or mounts avoid it like the plague it is.

[AliamRationem.5172]

11 minutes ago, Dante.1508 said:

Hot is still horrible. Even to this day the CC of everything drags it down.. If you have no glider or mounts avoid it like the plague it is.

Getting stunned repeatedly can certainly be annoying, especially if it's resulting in frequent deaths.  However, to offer an alternative perspective, I find the punishing attacks to be quite rewarding once you learn how to deal with them.  It feels pretty good to go back there and give those darn frogs a taste of their own medicine!

You're welcome to your opinion, of course, and you aren't alone in your dislike of HoT.  But for me it's my playground.  HoT is where I go to chill and relax when I'm just playing by myself and don't have a particular goal in mind.

[Dante.1508]

1 minute ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Getting stunned repeatedly can certainly be annoying, especially if it's resulting in frequent deaths.  However, to offer an alternative perspective, I find the punishing attacks to be quite rewarding once you learn how to deal with them.  It feels pretty good to go back there and give those darn frogs a taste of their own medicine!

You're welcome to your opinion, of course, and you aren't alone in your dislike of HoT.  But for me it's my playground.  HoT is where I go to chill and relax when I'm just playing by myself and don't have a particular goal in mind.

I never have found cheap mechanics rewarding myself, frustrating yes, not rewarding.

[AliamRationem.5172]

46 minutes ago, Dante.1508 said:

I never have found cheap mechanics rewarding myself, frustrating yes, not rewarding.

I can understand how it could be frustrating and unrewarding, but cheap?  I don't see how you figure that.  The game provides us with the tools to handle this stuff.  Active and passive stunbreaks, stability, CC, evasion, blocks, etc.  You have many ways to avoid or prevent enemy CC, but obviously if you don't execute properly it'll be frustrating.  On the other hand, if you build and execute well, the opposite is true. 

That seems plenty fair to me.  I guess we could play Candyland and it would also be fair.  But I'd rather play a game where the choices I make feel impactful.

 

[Ashantara.8731]

Once you are more familiar with the maps, it will get easier and you can start having fun, especially after leveling the HoT Masteries. 🙂

That won't happen after one playthrough, though. It'll take time as those maps have a more complex design than any other. To this date, there are two or three Points of Interest I still have to look up to revitalize my memory on how to get there for map completion, and I have done this before on about 15 characters.

People who claim these maps are "no different than PoF maps" have either never spent much time on map completion on them or have done it such a long time ago that they don't recall the pain it was when they were new to those maps. 😉

Edited January 16, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[AgentMoore.9453]

 

On 1/15/2022 at 10:13 PM, Vayne.8563 said:

You don't need a chooper to get to the frogs. You do need long gliding and updrafts though. And bouncing mushrooms.

Trufax. I remember a friend showing me how to climb all the way up into the sky platforms after I lamented the map not being in its night cycle. As I recall, it involves starting on the Dust Mite plateau and carefully working your way up through the vines, mushrooms, and updrafts. Once you're up there, you can get anywhere in the map that a chopper would take you, it just takes a bit more finesse.

As for the twisty nature of HoT maps, it's a valid complaint. I really enjoy Verdant Brink, but it's easy to see how someone could get lost or frustrated during their first few visits to HoT maps. Without mounts, it takes longer to get from place to place than some players are used to or comfortable with, but once you get it figured out, it's not only easier, but you're able to enjoy the scenery more as well. I'm glad to hear OP is taking another look at these maps.

Edited January 17, 2022 by AgentMoore.9453
There was an unrelated quote in here!

[Vayne.8563]

1 hour ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

 

Trufax. I remember a friend showing me how to climb all the way up into the sky platforms after I lamented the map not being in its night cycle. As I recall, it involves starting on the Dust Mite plateau and carefully working your way up through the vines, mushrooms, and updrafts. Once you're up there, you can get anywhere in the map that a chopper would take you, it just takes a bit more finesse.

As for the twisty nature of HoT maps, it's a valid complaint. I really enjoy Verdant Brink, but it's easy to see how someone could get lost or frustrated during their first few visits to HoT maps. Without mounts, it takes longer to get from place to place than some players are used to or comfortable with, but once you get it figured out, it's not only easier, but you're able to enjoy the scenery more as well. I'm glad to hear OP is taking another look at these maps.

There are at least 4 ways to get to the canopy without choppers, scattered around the zone.

1. Climbing up from the dust mite plateau.

2. From the Mellagan's Valor waypoint and climbing up the wing.

3. From the Lost Precipe Guild Hall, out the exit into VB and using updrafts

4. From Faren Flyer's Waypoint and climbing to the top, out on a vine and using updrafts.

Edit: I'll show anyone who wants to see them.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Vayne.8563

[Tukaram.8256]

On 1/15/2022 at 10:10 AM, jokke.6239 said:

Path of Fire has the best looking maps imo.

I don't like META events, so I haven't gotten that much playtime in HoT and Living world maps as many others.

But for replay value, collections and achievements offer lots of that on all maps.

But for me best replay value maps are core maps.

I like map completion 🙂

Yeah, pretty much this.  I agree very much.  

I was looking forward to HoT and hated it pretty quickly.  The beginning was alright, but all the split level junk - no thanks.  Also too many, and too high powered, critters.  I much prefer the critters in PoF. I went back to HoT recently with my mounts and did not enjoy it any more than before.  PoF was awesome from day 1, and stayed that way. But so far nothing beats the core maps. Map completion is another issue - if there are no hearts - why play the zone? 😎

[Rasimir.6239]

20 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

Show me a video of you getting up to the 2 verdant brink frogs night champions without useing mounts or chopper mate.

This old lady doesn't do such new-fangled stuff as videos 😉 .

But if you want to go there, simply glide north from the matriarch platform, and take the updraft right behind the airship. From there you can easily glide over to the frogs (if you have the appropriate gliding mastery).

 

I just did a full map completion of VB with my new guard (that hadn't been on the map before) without mounts or choppers, and the only poi that posed a problem was the patriarch one, since most of the updrafts around that platform are only available at night, and I was up there during the day 😉 .

  

5 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

There are at least 4 ways to get to the canopy without choppers, scattered around the zone.

[...]

Edit: I'll show anyone who wants to see them.

I'm available as an HoT tour guide, too (EU in my case ... Vayne is on US if I'm not mistaken)

Edited January 16, 2022 by Rasimir.6239

[Linken.6345]

2 hours ago, Rasimir.6239 said:

This old lady doesn't do such new-fangled stuff as videos 😉 .

But if you want to go there, simply glide north from the matriarch platform, and take the updraft right behind the airship. From there you can easily glide over to the frogs (if you have the appropriate gliding mastery).

 

I just did a full map completion of VB with my new guard (that hadn't been on the map before) without mounts or choppers, and the only poi that posed a problem was the patriarch one, since most of the updrafts around that platform are only available at night, and I was up there during the day 😉 .

  

I'm available as an HoT tour guide, too (EU in my case ... Vayne is on US if I'm not mistaken)

I knew you could get up on some of the platforms but not the frog one will check it out when  I got my free week from work in afew days