Initial impressions of EoD

[Eros.6801]

- So far even if i force it i can't really bring myself to like any of the new specs at all and even with all that unnecessary nerfs, the specs from PoF and HoT still feel way better.

- This is just me because my machine is old, my FPS in Cantha is pathetic, i can manage to pull 50 fps in any of the HoT, PoF, Core zones but not Cantha, constantly sitting around 20 - 25 hurts but bearable atleast.

- One a good side, i'm a RP player so i love the landscapes, vibration, colorful, music of cantha and hopefully the story because i'm still in early part of the storyline.

- Lastly i'm not try to compare two games but this is like shadowlands version of gw2, i don't like any of SL one bit from the story, system to the landscapes so i guess it's a plus for gw2, i hope the future will get brighter and Anet stop doing one-side judgement and things that nobody ask them to.

- My rating : 4/10 (if the story gets worse then this can be considered 2/10 with 2 for the beauty landscapes and music)

- Edit 1 : 5/10 due to taimi i love her 😁

Edited March 1, 2022 by Eros.6801

[Krinstin.6287]

Rama is the best character in the frachise.

[AliamRationem.5172]

23 minutes ago, Gorem.8104 said:

True that on the events, honestly they hit a gold mine with HoT maps and how each was designed. Maybe they figure it was all too rewarding? I mean unless they nerf Drizzlewood coast, are we stuck there now for the foreseeable future? 

I don't mean just the big boss events like octovine and chak gerent, just to be clear.

For example, Verdant Brink.  If you look on your map you see the waypoints for Jaka Itzel, Faren's Flyer, etc.  Then you see these orange tower icons that tell you whether the event chain is 100% complete for those areas of the map.  When you enter that part of the map the UI has a sidebar element showing how far the chain has progressed and which event is currently in progress.  The fact that they are chains and the UI guides you to them makes it easy for players to get involved instead of wandering from one disconnected event to the next.

In addition, the chains tie directly into the story.  When you do the Jaka Itzel chain, you're helping the locals because you're lost in the jungle and you need their help.  When you do Faren's Flyer you're helping to rescue the hopeless nobles who were stranded when the pact fleet was shot down.

Compare this kind of story integration to the kind of one-off events you tend to see in core, PoF, and now EoD.  How does escorting a fisherman tie into my story?  It's just not very interesting.  None of it really guides me anywhere because we've gone back to hearts.  So I'm just supposed to go find the hearts and then wander into events that don't have anything to do with me.

That's why I say they hit gold with HoT event structure.  It's not just the metas (which are also fantastic).  It's everything!  I just don't understand why they went back to the core style event structure.  It seems worse in every way to me.  Disappointing.

[Ruisen.9471]

56 minutes ago, Gorem.8104 said:

True that on the events, honestly they hit a gold mine with HoT maps and how each was designed. Maybe they figure it was all too rewarding? I mean unless they nerf Drizzlewood coast, are we stuck there now for the foreseeable future? 

They were literally talking about how PoF taught them to design maps for replayability, which they did well in LW Season 4.

Then with EoD its like they just... forgot

[Vexona.6452]

46 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

That's why I say they hit gold with HoT event structure.  It's not just the metas (which are also fantastic).  It's everything!  I just don't understand why they went back to the core style event structure.  It seems worse in every way to me.  Disappointing.

You know, this is probably why I'm not having as much fun with EoD. I gave PoF a shrug because it was a different location and the story sucked me in enough not to worry about it, but I definitely miss how much HoT felt like it all mattered. When I entered the first zone in Cantha I was like "Why do I care about bells and ghosts?" So ... I didn't participate and I still have no idea why I should care.

[AliamRationem.5172]

5 minutes ago, Vexona.6452 said:

You know, this is probably why I'm not having as much fun with EoD. I gave PoF a shrug because it was a different location and the story sucked me in enough not to worry about it, but I definitely miss how much HoT felt like it all mattered. When I entered the first zone in Cantha I was like "Why do I care about bells and ghosts?" So ... I didn't participate and I still have no idea why I should care.

That's pretty much it.  And like I said, I just plain don't get why they did it in PoF and they're doing it again now with EoD.  You had it, guys!  Totally nailed it!  Everything that was wrong with the core game's aimless, pointless maps full of escorting stupid cattle like the "incredible innovation" of dynamic events simply existing would be enough?  You figured it out and solved the problems with that when you designed HoT.  You gave us a reason to care about the events and you designed a coherent UI to funnel players to the action.  No more pointless.  No more aimless.  Fun, rewarding, fully integrated with the story.  Everything fit.

So why go back?  I get if you want to have hearts and one-off events tied to non-story-related things like fishing and flavor.  But why throw out the stuff that really worked?  Because HoT was hard to navigate?  Because the combat was tough?  People complained so let's just toss it all out and go back to core?  How did we miss on this? Were you not listening to all the complaints about PoF event structure?

I really hope it's just the first map.  I don't want to believe that they didn't listen to years of feedback about how PoF failed on this and did exactly the same thing all over again.

[Vexona.6452]

There can be a mix of chain metas and hearts, it's not like they are mutually exclusive. People still love running HoT for the metas! And... I love being Tarzan in HoT. I refuse to use a mount because it's just so much fun to run and jump everywhere.

[Chrysaliss.8720]

Biggest disappointement is that they left Specter mostly unchanged and only criticism adressed was the increase of range on wells.... feels bad

[Tukaram.8256]

I am glad to see hearts on the map, I love doing those. I just hope they are not the constant do-over hearts like PoF.  I hated those.

I did 4 parts of the story so far. That is all I can handle of that drivel in one day.  I really wish there was a skip button for all the long speeches.  That makes the story and living world so boring. I prefer just exploring and monster bashing. 

So far the exploring has been pretty good. The wandering critters are not to plentiful but are a bit overpowered. (I am on my Ranger, looking for pets, usually explore on my minion master/necro.)

After playing with the fishing a little more, I got better at it, and hate it more.  Bummer, that was what I was most looking forward to, and they ruined it by making it a mini-game. 

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

The one thing I am hoping for is that somewhere in End of Dragons, there is a new sink for Luck.  While I know I'm in the minority of players, I maxxed my Luck a couple months ago and in EoD, it keeps dropping as rewards and loot.  I haven't even salvaged blues or greens since the expansion dropped, but I keep getting Luck dropping.

[aerial.7021]

My impressions are this is probably the best expansion I've played in a long long time, maybe even since Guild Wars 1 they've really smashed it out of the park with this one, however---it feels rushed I've encountered 3 bugs so far;

 

This begin the most annoying after spending about an hour figuring out the puzzle.. 

Hopefully my replay of it in a few moments, it will fix itself (maybe I'll just trash the Jade Couriers first to ensure they are dead) don't know we'll see.

And;

Not so annoying I fixed it by going out a gate portal and re-entering again.

 

I've also experienced other bugs with the skiff where by the game crashed, was still able to complete by retrying it however.

 

[Gorem.8104]

2 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

That's pretty much it.  And like I said, I just plain don't get why they did it in PoF and they're doing it again now with EoD.  You had it, guys!  Totally nailed it!  Everything that was wrong with the core game's aimless, pointless maps full of escorting stupid cattle like the "incredible innovation" of dynamic events simply existing would be enough?  You figured it out and solved the problems with that when you designed HoT.  You gave us a reason to care about the events and you designed a coherent UI to funnel players to the action.  No more pointless.  No more aimless.  Fun, rewarding, fully integrated with the story.  Everything fit.

So why go back?  I get if you want to have hearts and one-off events tied to non-story-related things like fishing and flavor.  But why throw out the stuff that really worked?  Because HoT was hard to navigate?  Because the combat was tough?  People complained so let's just toss it all out and go back to core?  How did we miss on this? Were you not listening to all the complaints about PoF event structure?

I really hope it's just the first map.  I don't want to believe that they didn't listen to years of feedback about how PoF failed on this and did exactly the same thing all over again.

 

Ya know, that is a good point, make all the events dynamic and flow into each other, all for the point of working towards zone wide meta's, coulda made Cantha quite fun if they actually did do that. Seems to me the first zone at least will die after a while, not much point to revisit, events are skippable and its just hearts over again. I mean how cool it would have been if we could do a meta to light up the entire place, zone gets set to night and the entire sky is set alight with jade fireworks because of our achievements with all the townsfolk cheering and boats in the harbour. Honestly how great would it be to have it track like HoT meta's do with participation 

 

Could have even made it that if you do the meta daily, you also auto complete every heart daily too and get messages from the npc's so it could even act like world building. Of course I'm getting excited by something that is not even in the game now, haha

[Wintermute.5408]

Hate the story so far. Hate Gorrik in particular. Starting cutscene was bugged and had missing audio. All the implications for future story developments so far are lame beyond belief. Whoever decided that paperwork is a good starting point for an expansion was wrong. Like the aetherblade crew though, both sides of it. Hope there's more to do with them.

Love the first map. Aesthetics are beautiful, verticality is present but not overwhelming, leviathan meta event was fun. Overall events on it are somewhat basic, but I expect that to change on other maps. Shadow maze around temple was a bit underwhelming, but still nice. Giant cat was a particular highlight of the trip.

Fishing is ripped straight from Stardew valley (or wherever that game ripped it from). It's allright. Don't see much purpose in it so far, other than mat farm.

Only one functional bug so far with kirin hero point. Really smooth otherwise.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Wintermute.5408

[Flion du Nord.3058]

I didn't read the past comments to not get spoiled, so I might be a bit redundant. 

First impression was WOW. The character screen is more gorgeous than ever, the first story instance is very well written and fun. Cantha is fricking beautiful and huge (ok i've seen only Shing Jea yet, but i'm taking it slow). The client didn't crash ONCE, so kudos to the backend team because it was really a SMOOTH release. 

 

I have the chance to play with my partner who is also a GW2 fan and we very much enjoyed diving into Cantha. I'm normally not someone attracted to fishing but the activity was still fun. Boat is a great. Music is on point and very diverse. I'm a casual player so we will take it slowly, and, as always, GW2 is perfect for that. 

 

This was a release I looked forward to, and my first impression is that the hype was accurate. Love you guys, good luck for all the post-release debugging. ♥

[Orack.4825]

6 hours ago, Felipe.1807 said:

Havent notice that to be honest, I am playing some non optimal power Willbender build, but stuff still melts kind of fast, but I cant say for sure, its been almost 2 years since I last played the game...what kind of build you playing?

Doing some heart and event this morning, I think you right, it just that they're seem to have way more elite/vet than before.
I'm playing my core warrior atm, waiting to unlock and try the new spe.
 

[Zeko.6418]

3 hours ago, Tukaram.8256 said:

I am glad to see hearts on the map, I love doing those. I just hope they are not the constant do-over hearts like PoF.  I hated those.

I did 4 parts of the story so far. That is all I can handle of that drivel in one day.  I really wish there was a skip button for all the long speeches.  That makes the story and living world so boring. I prefer just exploring and monster bashing. 

So far the exploring has been pretty good. The wandering critters are not to plentiful but are a bit overpowered. (I am on my Ranger, looking for pets, usually explore on my minion master/necro.)

After playing with the fishing a little more, I got better at it, and hate it more.  Bummer, that was what I was most looking forward to, and they ruined it by making it a mini-game. 

I was going to try specter cause it’s the only spec that interested me next to mech, I still haven’t been able to decide 😞

[Lawlieth.3902]

I spend like almost an hour on a story quest and then had to reset because it wouldn't update. Considering how terribly lame the story is, I've really lost motivation.

 

Also: The requirements for the elite specs collections are pretty meh and the guy that designed the Engineers Mace should be shot.

[KeoLegend.5132]

AAAAAAWESOME

[Izzy.2951]

17 hours ago, Efar.8153 said:

It's really nice even though it feels like i am playing another game... It's not the same feeling i get when i play in the starting zones.

Anyways...

 

HoT and PoF and even every LWS feels like a different game from Core, idk why you are surprised by that. Core game had lots of problems, like showing the conversations if you were reading a manga. I think that was pretty necesary in all content from 2012 on forwards, since it has much more quality.

[Soggy Biscuit.9372]

New specs are fine. As far as the story, politics alert because Anet can't help it.

I've only just reached Cantha and listened to the dialogues with the girls. As a Westerner with some Asian roots, I'm second-hand ashamed to see all these hardcore Asian stereotypes and Anet's self-righteous Western progressivism and cultural colonialism shoved in so far.

While I don't consider myself a conservative, conservatives are conservatives for a reason and I respect different ideologies enough to not call them names they way Anet have. This is already discouraging me to go any further.

[Luthan.5236]

Tried the mechanist. Really strong + a good at staying at high health. (Used explosives + focus in power, not conditions and boons:) The jumping puzzle in Saitung - nice design. You do not lose progress. Like it.

A bit annoying (and skipping it for now): The achievement in the very first mission - to avoid cannons and stuff. After a few tries ... it is just annoying to hear the dialogue and not to just be able to the stuff required for the achievement only. (The options to replay unfortunately have one from the very beginning - small portion with dialoge delaying until the achivement section even starts and the icon pops up. And another one from much further into the mission where you aren't eligible for that achievemetn anymore.)

Edited March 1, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[ugrakarma.9416]

3 hours ago, Wintermute.5408 said:

Hate the story so far. Hate Gorrik in particular. Starting cutscene was bugged and had missing audio. All the implications for future story developments so far are lame beyond belief. Whoever decided that paperwork is a good starting point for an expansion was wrong. Like the aetherblade crew though, both sides of it. Hope there's more to do with them.

Love the first map. Aesthetics are beautiful, verticality is present but not overwhelming, leviathan meta event was fun. Overall events on it are somewhat basic, but I expect that to change on other maps. Shadow maze around temple was a bit underwhelming, but still nice. Giant cat was a particular highlight of the trip.

Fishing is ripped straight from Stardew valley (or wherever that game ripped it from). It's allright. Don't see much purpose in it so far, other than mat farm.

Only one functional bug so far with kirin hero point. Really smooth otherwise.

i hope like they seem we had enough of desert, that we had enough of tech bs.

also why wait next inquest related stuff goes mad? time to cut the evil from root.

Edited March 1, 2022 by ugrakarma.9416

[Embered.5089]

My first impression is that the story dialogue is great. Lots of humor.

While in the detention center, I wanted to wait for Gorrik to stop talking before I interacted with anything around me, for fear of cutting him off. I enjoyed hearing him talk. But then he stopped talking and my time ran out xD at least i got to read his journal!

The environment and general aesthetic feels a bit off to me. Besides the maps being empty (an issue with too many map instances being generated, according to others), the first canthan map and area feels very... pastel. Like i'm in an overly bright painting. It feels forcibly happy, and the happiness isn't quite hitting me. I'm Chinese, though I don't claim to know a lot about Chinese architecture or landscaping. All I can say is that something feels off, even knowing that EoD is trying to incorporate all Asian cultures mixed with Canthan lore.

Also, the male Canthans are hideous. Why does the first guy that you see have incredibly bushy eyebrows. Most Asian guys--or Asians in general--have a less than average amount of hair in all areas that Americans try to groom off their hair. We're blessed in this way. But this dude has EYEBROWS. Why does the second guy that you see look like his face is stringy due to overexercise and lack of nourishment? He looks like a cranky old man who takes his job too seriously and never takes care of himself. I'm sure that's intended, but I was hoping for some eye candy. On the other hand, the students in the open arena look really young. I mean, they're students, so maybe they're teenagers. I don't know, but it feels wrong to stare at them. I stopped zooming in on the characters after that.

So, good story dialogue; everything else--something doesn't feel quite right.

[Wintermute.5408]

57 minutes ago, Soggy Biscuit.9372 said:

New specs are fine. As far as the story, politics alert because Anet can't help it.

I've only just reached Cantha and listened to the dialogues with the girls. As a Westerner with some Asian roots, I'm second-hand ashamed to see all these hardcore Asian stereotypes and Anet's self-righteous Western progressivism and cultural colonialism shoved in so far.

While I don't consider myself a conservative, conservatives are conservatives for a reason and I respect different ideologies enough to not call them names they way Anet have. This is already discouraging me to go any further.

One of the first things my char did arriving into a different, sovereign, isolationist nation was infiltrating the casual party under orders of local KGB, spying on people there and then murdering discovered dissidents for not supporting the official ideology of mutual respect and friendship. That's so hilariously reflective. Of everything.

[Efar.8153]

1 hour ago, Izzy.2951 said:

 

HoT and PoF and even every LWS feels like a different game from Core, idk why you are surprised by that. Core game had lots of problems, like showing the conversations if you were reading a manga. I think that was pretty necesary in all content from 2012 on forwards, since it has much more quality.

It does make sense. We have more diversity now 😄