What are your overall positive + negative thoughts regarding EOD?

[Doctor Hide.6345]

You know. I can see them doing that actually with Abaddon not dead. Kormir didn't absorb all his power, so he is the new (old) villain.

[Tungsten Monarch.6058]

the problem with giving negative feedback is the risk of perma ban's, so I'll refrain from it. .. On the positive, I enjoy the new specs, Mechanist,... and that's about it.

[Lampshade.7569]

The new maps are absolutely beautiful, except for the one where they imprisoned all the Tangled Depths creators so that they couldn't hurt any other map, but they once again failed to fill them with stuff, including players. Density of enemies and events is abysmal, everything is long and on a timer, and I'm either trying to join a full map or getting wheedled and ping-ponged by volunteer. Kaineng could use map indicators of stairs and zips.

 

The Battle for the Jade Sea is fine in the context of other meta events, including the learning curve, but it was clearly designed for 25 or 30 minutes and then someone decided to get "clever" to make it "hard" for the first few weeks. RNG feels like deliberate sabotage at times.

 

Elite specializations? What elite specializations? Whirling Blades go BRRRRR.

 

Fractal God is now a fishing title. I don't hate it. 60g per collection, easy.

[AliamRationem.5172]

A little update.  I finally got around to trying the Kaineng Blackout meta.  I like this event!  There's nothing really special about it, but it was enjoyable.  I just wish there were more going on with this map the rest of the time.  I think it's my favorite aesthetically.  It's just a cool place!  It deserves more life and more reasons to be there!

[Sernius Alathar.6538]

21 hours ago, Doctor Hide.6345 said:

You know. I can see them doing that actually with Abaddon not dead. Kormir didn't absorb all his power, so he is the new (old) villain.

Well I have been running it through my head about what we know from GW1 and 2. Razah is alive still somewhere and he was created to house Abaddon's essence, If Kormir had absorbed all of his powers why does the statue to him still resonate in the Durmand Priory (beyond just infused artifacts of course), The Lagos (who in my opinion are probably current or former priests and priestesses of Abaddon) and their culture in the depths (remember that Abaddon was not just the god of secrets but of water) They have an interesting knowledge of Abaddon and his temples including the one in Arah that was struck off all records and they follow a mantra akin to his own "Act with magic, act within reason, act without mercy." Importantly if Soo-Won isn't responsible for the problems in the deep sea, what is? (Kanaxai or Abaddon perhaps). The Krait got an orb from Soo-Won, that keeps dragon minions away, its the same as the one in Fort Trinity and used around Kaineng City to keep unchained risen out. So whatever it is, isn't dragon related. I just can't rule out him just dying, he was always too clever for that, machinations within machinations. The Dragons are gone, the gods are gone, that's quite the power vacuum.

[Firebeard.1746]

I liked the elite specs. I think Anet forgot the reason people enjoy this game to begin with was that it was so casual. And the worst part to me, is all of the OW difficulty they're packing into the game orbits timers. So it's artificial difficulty in a game that's testing DPS where you can literally choose traits gear, etc that don't give DPS. 

 

The OW is supposed to be relaxing, it doesn't feel that way. Even HoT metas are more enjoyable, so it's 50 man RNGesus. And I would have thought they'd known better after seeing how terribly twisted marionette feels and how abandoned it became despite all the try hards pining over it. So right now, i feel very tempted to quit. There are some projects I'd like to finish, but I'm not so sure. if I can't count on the devs to deliver content that feels worth my time, there's no point in investing more time into this game. I'd already started questioning them during IB saga. It felt crappy that underpopulated drakkar maps failed just cuz. 

Also tying jade bot mastery to items on your character ruins the entire feeling of the game. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Firebeard.1746

[tekfan.3179]

Another snippet of feedback, but spoilers, so beware: The characters and some aspects of the story.

Spoiler

EoD starts out pretty good, honestly. Gorrik gets captured by aetherblades and you follow together with Aurene on an epic fight where the Mists are used like some kind of hyperspace for traveling by the pirate fleet. You hop from ship to ship, beating the crap out of the pirates. Sadly, the pirates are nerfed so people can feel all powerful and what not.

Things happen, you crash land in Cantha and end up in prison with Gorrik.

You are released eventually, thanks to the grace of the all important over-ambassador, her magnificence Lady Kasmeer.

As you might have gathered, here is where I think writing and characters deteriorate quickly.

Yeah, so the stuff with Kasmeer. I think it's only natural that nobody in Cantha knows the Commander at first and that Kasmeer as an ambassador of Divinity's Reach gets some pull.

What I don't find natural is how the game shows you that: By Kasmeer constantly complaining what a drag it was to get you out, how you must act diplomatic to not embarrass her as ambassador(no matter whether you're actually human) and how stressed out she is by that all important role. Mind you, people know by some point that you're the champion of an elder dragon and Kasmeer still acts like that.

If the characters in Path of Fire had given her half as much complaints about her turning tail at the sight of Balthazar and leaving her lover behind while gravely injured, the wimpy "lady" would have hiccuped herself to death. Why can't we keep strong female characters like General Soulkeeper and have to deal with characters who behave like insecure teenagers?

 

Moving on. We meet Joon. The brilliant mind behind Jade-tech.

The secret sister of the empress, raised by a poor man, invented Jade-tech and founded a company with it to go and transform Cantha while constantly looked down upon by the nobles. A woman who is smart, calculating and gets what she wants.

Unless she doesn't and she thinks you're guilty of it.

Then she hides in her inventor-room, sends her private police force and army of mechs and finally resorts to throw tools at people when she thinks she doesn't get her way. Then Taimi has to tell her how smart and brave she is and how hard she had it to get where she was.

Soulkeeper...I miss you. Or Sieran...she was more mature.

 

MaiTrin, the murderous captain of the Aetherblades who followed Scarlett to bomb Lions Arch, had a change of heart after being utterly destroyed when she witnessed you taking down Scarlett. While trapped in the mists, she changed. While Ankka went bonkers as she killed her alternative selves, MaiTrin wanted to make more of herself and once they got out close to Cantha, infiltrated Xunlai Jade Tech where Juun gave her a chance. There she became a cat-lady with a messy apartment and finally a drunk when Ankka takes over the Aetherblades after MaiTrin turned traitor on Juun and has nowhere left to go.

She also becomes a Revenant who has Scarlet as a legend and a tragic hero-figure in the end. Overall, I find her character probably the best in EoD. Maybe because she manages to change on her own and follow her new path, flawed as she is, without needing positive reinforcement-sessions.

 

Let's move on to the next, important character who was all over the promo-material for EoD:

Engineer Yao. One of the "brilliant and hardworking minds at Xunlai Jade Tech".

You meet them at the docks of New Kaineng, where they try to stop a crazed jade mech.

Other than this encounter, you meet them only once as a hologram and talk with them one or two times through your communicator. Because they are so busy and important, they don't have more time for you.

They also give you your jade bot and point you towards the person who talks about them, the jade bot and registers you for jade bot use.

Oh yeah, and they and MaiTrin seemed to have been friends at some point, but now Yao is understandably angry with her.

As far as it goes, Yao does what Juun could have done with a short sentence: "Here's your new jade bot. Go to this person to get more info."

After you got your jade bot, Yao only makes an appearance at the very end. Not the final battle, mind you, no the big get-together with all your allies in Arborstone.

I was actually a little offended to have them show up there, given how little you interact with them in the story. You buy noodles at one point to help MaiTrin get over a hangover, still the noodle lady doesn't get her place in Arborstone. So why should Yao?

You can talk with Yao and they tell you that they helped with logistics during the battle, but kept out of the fight since that isn't something they do. The person who we literally meet while they are engaging with hostile jade mechs, tells you that they don't do fighting? They do logistics.

There literally is an achievement to talk with your allies before the last story instance, enough room for "show, don't tell".

 

Then there is the main antagonist for the most part of the story: Ankka.

Starts out as an ok-ish villain with no morals whatsoever but has nothing going for her than being successful by default and being a reason why Gorrik is invested in the fight, what with her having used their old friendship. Ends up as a boss-encounter where she just dies.

Anet shows how the life fades from her eyes, which I suppose is meant to be dramatic, but ends up being just meh if you name a character "Ankka" and let her die with the words "I just wanted a little stimulation...".

 

Finally a character I find actually sympathetic: Detective Rama.

A laid back but dutiful police detective who finds himself in the paperwork-heck of having to deal with your arrival in Cantha and quite happily delegates that to his intern at first.

He gradually warms up and follows you on your travels.

After you deal with Ankka, he helps you to meet Minister Li of the Ministry of Security who can help you to meet Juun in order to set things right with her. It turns out that Minister Li is a high ranking member of a racist gang and just wants to capture you, despite evidence that you're innocent, because well, racism come before duty for him. And as it happens, Li is also Rama's old mentor.

The whole thing with Li would be way more interesting if it wasn't shoehorned in one open world mission and an instance, but stretched out a little more naturally.

 

Then there is Kuunavang. Quite the nice character actually. My only beef with her is how suddenly she is cut from your entourage, just to suddenly appear again in the big battle at the end.

 

Oh yeah...Canach also suddenly shows up. Wearing a suit from John Travoltas disco-career while hosting his own nightclub in one of Sairas airships. He feels strangely out of character with his party-mood.

 

All in all EoD suffers from too many characters for not enough missions. Especially since the game tries to tell you how important each and everyone of them is supposed to be. It feels like driving through a neighborhood and everybody who waves at your car is suddenly supposed to be your most trusted companion.

My biggest problems lie with Kasmeer, Juun and Yao.

Kasmeer seems to have forgotten everything the commander has done for her and everything she failed them at. While I enjoy that the people around the commander find their own important roles in Tyria, could they at least remain level-headed?

Juun is just...ugh. A grown woman who managed to work herself to the top of a nation but ends up behaving like a teenager who locks herself in her room and throws a tantrum, is not something I find particularly interesting or sympathetic.

Yao feels absolutely shoehorned into the story. Barely appearing but supposedly important enough to show up at the big ending celebration in Cantha. To make them work as they are, they should have had their own little story-arc inside Xunlai Jade to hunt down Aetherblade infiltrators or something along those lines.

Make the characters important, Anet, don't just tell us that they supposedly are.

 

Then there is the absolute last get together in Marjory's bar.

The occasion being the marriage of Kasmeer and Marjory.

Braham now has an actual norn haircut, a beard and PTSD, for which he visits the psych...err, sorry, I meant shamans. He didn't even think his invitation was real, given what he has done in the past. Honestly, I'm no fan of Braham and his emo-path after HoT, but to put him there as a shambling wreck of a man isn't fun to look at either.

Rytlock is now under Crecias orders so to speak and begs you for a mission where you need his help so he can get away from his obligations for once. For a charr who ignored standing orders from the imperators to stand at our side instead, I find that a little too timid.

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by tekfan.3179

[Ultima.5280]

After writing my post with most of my thoughts being negatives, I just realized how I disliked EoD. I quit GW2 after season4 and I got hype by EoD because I felt lost in my life, I just wanted to evade in a game. It makes me more depressed to see the current status of the game. I feel angry wasting my time on this rushed conclusion for a game I loved. I feel angry about myself because playing it made some friends come back on the game and buying EoD.

 

I don’t want to say to dev «you made sheet*» but that’s what I deeply think. I’m happy to see some people enjoying it and wish them to have fun but for me this is a really cheap extension that took far too long for this result.

 

And during the last scene, I just sit and pet the devourer, wishing the tyria desappears. Praying the void to come back.

Not because i’m anti-lgbt, just because ending a story like that is a joke. The cherry on top of bad story telling and rushed narrative. No one remember half of the characters because they are generic and flat or because story is rushed/bad. PvE is mostly bus meta-bus HP-bus bounty and there is no interest a accomplishement and solo hard content.

 

Edit: I’m really sad that post is my first on the gw2 forum.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Ultima.5280

[franzi.8513]

Things that I like:
> skiffs & fishing (it's very relaxing)
> the maps are beautiful, especially New Kaineng City
> the jade bot & battery mechanic
> the specialisations, my favorite is the Mechanist
> the new armor skins
> the music
> the heart quests
> the new ranger pets! 😚
 

Things that I don't like:
As much as I like the design of Kaineng City, most of the events there are sooo boring and many of them are just copy/pasted. And that's kind of sad, because it would have been the perfect map for fun and creative events: skiff races, festivals, a concert, food delivery, bounty boards, getting mugged etc. ...

But overall I really enjoy the new expansion!

Edited March 11, 2022 by franzi.8513

[Daywalker.9710]

Overall it has been pleasantly fun.

 

So what aspects do I really enjoy and look for in a game? 

 

Maps - I find that all the maps are very well designed and each brings something different and new to gw2. I also love the Canthan appearance and the new assets. The Jade tech I also find interesting but it something I prefer in small doses personally. Overall id say maps are a solid 8/10.

 

Story- The story is great. I am enjoying the new characters and the VA alot. I also like the conclusion to the dragon saga which makes me think what new suprises await us for the story. Overall a 7.5/10. I also really like the idea of making some of the boss encounters in the story a strike mission  (I thought this was smart) . However, I don't like how I have to replay the story for collections unless its made easier after fully completing it on one character. Replayability can be good but only when done right 😉

 

Music- The music is BEEAUTIFUL period. Definitely a 10/10. Keep it up.

 

Specs- Okay, so I think specs are a really important feature for a new expansion. Especially since PoF was years ago now so most players are likely getting tired and bored of the existing ones, me included. I've played virtuoso the most. It has great animations, interesting new blade spells to replace the shatters, and it isn't overly complicated or finger snapping like catalyst. Its fairly simple to play but is still appealing because it feels new and somewhat flashy for a mesmer. Some of the other specs however have something that completely puts me off from playing them personally, but this is subjective. Improvement wise, maybe do more research in what type of specs and weapons players are interested in the most and work from there with the ideas. My score is 6/10. Definitely room for improvement.

 

Gameplay- Gameplay is pretty much the same as before. I think the jade bots add a few interesting utilities which are always nice. Events are pretty decent too, however some events I never see anyone try to complete like the gathering ones (ngl not a big fan of these aha). Not sure if this is because of map populations, not too sure. Maybe adding a further incentive for EoD map currencies could help with this, like making it somewhat profitable, or tieing it to a mastery/crafting etc. Metas on the other hand theres usually always a lfg and I do enjoy all of them! I give gameplay 7/10.

 

Whats missing?

 

Dungeons - I actually miss this aspec. Whilst strike missions are similar to some degree with its boss fights. I do enjoy fighting my way through a dungeon which can have different difficulties for replayability/rewards. 

 

New fractal- I really enjoy fractals too so I'm a tad sad we didn't get a new one. 

 

 Pvp/wvw- no new battleground or game mode. Developers need to remember some of the audience might prefer pvp over pve so it would be beneficial to appeal to them somehow.

 

My score for EoD overall -  7/10. 

[Aerensiniac.3584]

Hmm, the first actually unique moment we had with my mates was on the second map. The city map.
Somebody literally went to town (hue hue hue) with the map editor, thats for sure. It was a no expenses spared kind of thing and it was a beauty to behold in every aspect. Its unique, it pushes limits, its a nightmare to navigate, and we loved every moment of it.
Everything else was up to expectation. We overall enjoyed the content. And before i say any negatives, i will underline that overall we agreed that it was a good experience.

Negatives were:
- After the second map where you could climb and scale basically every and anything, it was very jarring to end up on the third one where you have mountains that extend above the atmosphere "lol you cant fly here" style, invisible walls everywhere and playing hide and seek with traversable paths.

- The politically correct over representation in the game's every pore with npcs arguing about jade tech pollution, about inappropriate war jokes of gramps, making politically correct remarks, near every romantic facet being LGBTQ.... sorry. Inclusivity'n all is fine, but its only so long before your players start to feel like they are on TWITTER instead of inside a fantasy world.
Thankfully this was not present in the main storyline and was mostly a back seat experience.

- and well... finally: the stupidity of the dragon's end map.
This one i cannot comprehend. Not on the developers side and not on the side of the absolutely toxic trash players who are in favor of it.
Those who are in favor of difficult content fall back 100% of the time on the same argument: Its good to have something that requires organizing, that challenges, that requires inspirational speech, morale, good times and what not.
Yeah. Its true. And there is nothing wrong with any of that. Except:
There was always such content. Its called raids and/or strike missions. Now here is a trick question for you: What is polar opposite of raid content in terms of difficulty?

Correct. Its called open world map content. The content which requires the least difficulty because thats how mmos work.
So please do tell why two completely polar opposite ends of the difficulty scale are mixed together.
You can have as much challenging content as you like with raids, but that content does not belong in the open world which is accessible to everyone regardless of skill level, and especially not in a setting which makes personal contribution totally insignificant.
I can be the best player of the entire god ****'n game but i would still fail this event cause im doing it with 20 people who are bad at it, and no: There is absolutely nothing i can change about it, nor anything i should change about it, because nothing positive comes from locking out players from open world content, unless you are literally making an argument for screwing up the community.

The last event of Dragon's End is nothing short of a brain fart, created by someone in the dev team who has no idea about how mmos are structured, and its supported by eccentric, narcissistic, elitist trash to whom their ego matters more than the game's health, community and/or integrity.
Its by far the most disgraceful part of the entire expansion, especially after having moved the spot light on all the trash pro-difficulty trash who afterwards went onto maps, intentionally sabotaging other people's runs for the giggles.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Aerensiniac.3584

[Altonese.6542]

Oh boy.

End of Dragons. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. No Swimsuits in an expansion focused on water oft times.

But I actually am far more impressed with a lot of it than I expected it to be, though it definitely has flaws that should be addressed.

I just want to address the specific point about 'Agendas' and 'Woke' in the story.

There actually some parts I do agree seem a bit odd. Specifically the use of the term 'Fascist'. The reason I single out this term is because, it's especially jarring to hear it from either a Human character or a Charr character. It's weird to hear it from Canthans in general.

You live in an Empire if you're Canthan, and you're still mired in bureaucracy that borders on the Minority Report. If you play a human, you're from a Monarchy. Yes, it has representative government in a limited form, but the concept of a ruler by divine right and a ruler by divine strength really have little distance between them. Queen Jennah is very much an unlikely fantasy one-off in the real world's history of mostly awful people ruling by birthright. Which is why the modern world has shifted away from such systems, or pushed them to the side as a tourist point like the Brits did to the Old Bird.

If you're a Charr, you're a soldier from a military junta with a history of brutal conquest and in-fighting calling someone else a fascist. It feels very... Well, just odd. That said, themes about Imperialism aren't 'inserting an agenda' and have a long part of Guild Wars history. It's the specific terminology used that makes me scratch my head at times.

The LGBT 'Agenda' theories though, I'm sorry, ridiculous. If Marjory had said 'Theo had a wife and child!' you wouldn't have been like 'well she should have just said family.' Also, the reason she specified is to put it through to Mai Trin exactly who she harmed through her actions. She wasn't trying to shout out 'the gays'.

The end scene in Arborstone is the End of Dragons. The scene in DR is supposed to just be a relaxing scene among friends, where two people propose to each-other in a move that shocks no one. Why did they wait until after End of Dragons? Well because generally you'd like to see if the world is still going to be around before you get married. Just a thought.

ArenaNet didn't make End of Dragons to subvert the American Way with radical Gay Jade Tech. It's about dragons, and I guess now, robots. Still no swimsuits. THAT is the real Agenda of ArenaNet. Give me a kittening swimsuit outfit.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Altonese.6542

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, Altonese.6542 said:

 

There actually some parts I do agree seem a bit odd. Specifically the use of the term 'Fascist'. The reason I single out this term is because, it's especially jarring to hear it from either a Human character or a Charr character. It's weird to hear it from Canthans in general.

 

Good points about the Human monarchies and Char military junta. Grove Sylvari even function as a sort of Theocracy with their entire society deffering to their demi-god mother and her high priesthood of firstborn. For as left leaning as the game's writing trends, their depictions of governments tend more Ayn Rand. Heroic gifted individuals follow their internal moral compass and the rest of society is beneifited and grateful.

One thing I've been noticing is a tendency to good authority in the game, with corrupt authority playing out as rogue elements. While it is generally refreshing, given the tendency of Western culture to idolize rebels and distrust all authority, it's getting a little repetitive to have every society be one misfit group away from a benevolent government.

It may be asking too much of this game's storytelling to really get leaders who might have once been idealists, but have been become slaves to a sometimes cruel pragmatism. Neither good nor evil, but trying to keep things going with sometimes questionable means. I expect that was what they were going for with Joon, but she mostly came across as still noble in intent and our conflict with her arising mostly from misunderstanding.

It'd be nice to run across a thoroughly corrupt goverment for a change, and help the resistance, rather than helping a mostly good goverment against rogue elements. That wouldn't require the subtlety of a pragmatic ruler, and would be well within the scope of GW2 storytelling.

Canthan bureaucracy is mostly played as a joke, and a very thinly veiled excuse why the world famous commander has to repeatedly do menial tasks. But why is Canthan so mired in red tape? In the real world this would point to an entrenched bureaucracy carving out power for itself in countless small ways, and likely broad, if not deep, corruption.

I think they went to the "fascist" thing due to the recent rise of populist movements in many places around the world,  and the fact that they tend toward fascism when they are able to take power. So the purists, who are nationalist populists, would be the ones who install a fascist government if they ever get control. It's a bit of current real-world thought leaking into the game right along with more contemporary sounding dialogue and increased swearing.

1 hour ago, Altonese.6542 said:

No Swimsuits in an expansion focused on water oft times.

...

. Still no swimsuits. THAT is the real Agenda of ArenaNet. Give me a kittening swimsuit outfit.

Your persistence and focus is legendary. Keep fighting the good fight! 😄

Edited March 16, 2022 by Gibson.4036
Cut a few unnecessary words. So much verbosity!

[Bast.7253]

On 3/7/2022 at 12:05 PM, Syndro.7389 said:

To be honest... I decided to uninstall this game after ending a story.

 

New maps were the only positive aspect of EoD. I was really disappointed... I don't understand the deeper sense of skiffs and fishing. These provides nothing unusual to future gameplay. Both HoT and PoF  brought some significiant changes. EoD gave nothing special. Elites, strikes etc. - these are just cosmetics. To little to make this game better.

 

Some word about the storyline. Since Icebrood Saga I was really worried about the plot. IS showed that devs had completely no idea how to conduct the story. The ending was completely infantile and completely destroyed a majesty of HoT and PoF.  EoD continues these trends. I still don't understand the concept of the balance and all what happened in the final battle. The beginning gave me hope to great story of traveling through fractals to the past, to restore the cycle... No words how has it ended. I don't understand the whole dragon's magic. There is no good explanation for it...

 

Oh, and the last scene in Divinity's Reach... I was hope games were last shelter to avoid 'political correctness' and being politics-free. Forget it.

 

Never more this game. 

 

 

 

I don't mind the whole wedding epilogue thing, but I find Kasmeer and Marjory absolutely intolerable when they're being all lovey-dovey. It's not because they're lesbians as I'm gay myself, it's just that as characters, they're so much more interesting on their own without making it about their relationship. I guess it's kind of ALWAYS about their relationship but I feel like living season... 3?... handled them very well. They each had their own thing going on, their own motives. They were strong independent working women! And one had her faith completely shattered. 

Much more compelling to me than watching them make-out in front of a fireplace. I get why they chose to do it at the end, but I don't know that pushing it to the front or leaving it as a current event post-story and dedicating that development time to the larger story would have made the scene less impactful. 

As far as political correctness, I don't want to make assumptions but I believe there are a lot of lgbt people working at the studio and I personally think that's amazing. I think their decisions to constantly include these ideals in games to help break the stigma and create a virtual world where gender and orientation aren't an issue makes them really brave. I liked the reveal about Theo and his husband and children. I personally find "Simon" or whatever in Lion's Arch a bit more interesting than Yao but I suspect Yao will get more development in the living world and his kind of... seemingly tossed in for the sake of "political correctness" presence will make a lot more sense. 

Personally, as far as couples and romance goes I think it's kind of difficult to pull off in this setting. But I think that's the one part of the story I actually really liked - Taimi, Gorrik, and Ankka's little love triangle dynamic. It was cutesy but I'm bias towards Gorrik anyway. I like Taimi, and I liked Aurene at first and still don't want her killed off but I feel like her writing since becoming an elder dragon is all over the place and her dialogue is borderline cringe, especially in Dragon's End.  Specifically during the meta like:

Quick, collect that magical energy! (But to me the delivery of this line seems almost... erotic? Maybe that's just me being twisted.)

Then, "We'll always find a reason for what you do Soo Won" or whatever. Like, wtf is she even talking about? 

Gorrik, Taimi, and Canach episodes (when he feels like gracing us with his presence) are definitely my crew though. And Marjory or Kas if they're like... in bad moods or busy focusing on somekind of goal or having an existential crisis or just like.. past the honeymoon phase, settled in, and are just vibing off each other without sounding like they're about to break out in song. Otherwise I'll be screaming like woman in the Dragon's End meta song. 

[mythical.6315]

The legendary weapons don't feel like they're worth getting because of how much imperial favor you have to grind and that they're so stingy with how much you get.  I was going to craft them all to collect them but I'm going to make a hard pass on this set.  Having to put in two to three times more effort than the previous two tiers just isn't worth it.

[Zabi Zabi.3561]

3 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

The legendary weapons don't feel like they're worth getting because of how much imperial favor you have to grind and that they're so stingy with how much you get.  I was going to craft them all to collect them but I'm going to make a hard pass on this set.  Having to put in two to three times more effort than the previous two tiers just isn't worth it.

Seems to be a running theme with this expansion... "please like our stuff even though the players know it just isn't worth the price" Just like the expansion... a lot of people feel ripped off...  like it... "wasn't worth it" It being the price they marketed...

[Ashantara.8731]

POSITIVE (initial) THOUGHTS:

On 3/4/2022 at 7:17 AM, Ashantara.8731 said:

Thank you. 😍 I just played through the grand finale, and I have to admit I am teary-eyed.* The directing work and cinematography blew me away.

The whole expansion was technically and artistically the best GW2 has ever delivered. You have delivered a truly beautiful piece of art.

I can't wait for the next one - or whatever content you have planned for us! (Personally, I hope we will see the Cantha story extended as there surely is potential for a sequel on this rich continent. But with such excellent writing, you can send us anywhere! Just don't overdo the tech stuff, please; I've had my maximum dose with EoD. 😉)

Please keep up the good work, and again, thank you.
 

*) After waiting for the credits to end and talking to everyone, I just played through the epilogue. Awww, that was quite lovely...😁
 

(source)
 

On 3/2/2022 at 7:41 AM, Ashantara.8731 said:

Seriously, the city is more diverse than any other place in Tyria. I am in awe with every new location I discover.

It is truly mind-blowingly beautiful (especially the Eastern parts of the map), and I am saying this as a player who is not a fan of modern tech in a fantasy game (but the jade-tech does blend in surprisingly well, despite its color - just please, don't make all future content this technologically advanced). Also, everything seems so well thought-out.

The people who designed the city, the events, the different locations, the hearts, the achievements, as well as the writers who are responsible for the ambient dialogue and the composers who wrote the background music for each location which captures the specific mood of the area and the day/night cycle: you did a marvelous job there!

Edit: Holy crap! I just entered the underwater facility in the story mission - whoever came up with the design: you must have read Jules Verne! 😃

(source)

Additional positive thoughts:

• love the DE meta
• love the new Strike Missions
• love all the hidden places, mini-dungeons, and JPs
• fishing is fun

NEGATIVE THOUGHTS (after two weeks of playtime):

6 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

• Lack of Waypoints:
  Others already noted that there simply aren't enough of them. And while it was fun to explore every corner of each map on mounts and using the new tech on my first playthrough, I have to agree that the lack of waypoints becomes more noticeable the more characters you guide through Cantha. Especially doing some of the achievements like Lighting the Lanterns quickly grows into a very tedious task since the maps have a lot of verticality.
   
• ZIP Lines:
  While they were fun at first, they simply can't replace waypoints. They are also sparse and often it is impossible to tell where they lead unless you land, dismount and approach them on foot. It quickly becomes a disruptive chore which in most cases makes you favor your mount(s) over the use of this new tech.
   
• Jade Batteries:
  It becomes quite the annoyance (i.e., disruption of gameplay) after a while to have to reload battery charges for a variety of tasks, like opening chests, and it is even more painful that you lose all charges when you log out of a character. After the initial enthusiasm, I now hope to never see this tech again in future content, along with ZIP lines -- tiresome to use, plus disrupting the beauty of the environment.
   
• Bug Fiesta:
  As somebody wrote on another thread, the more content (especially achievements) you want to tackle in EoD, the more bugs you run into. At some point, you are starting to get frustrated, because your list of postponed tasks becomes longer and longer. I don't recall any previous content releases having such a massive problem like this.
  • To name a few bugs: enemies get pushed into walls and get stuck so you cannot complete an event; event NPCs get stuck or stop moving/progressing, and certain enemies required for collections don't spawn (forcing you to sometimes spend hours looking for a working instance of the map); other collections stall due to some bug (like the Blanket crafting option never popping up in Mori Village); story missions have to be restarted due to some bug (like enemies that need to be killed becoming invulnerable); mini-dungeons bug out when more than one player enters, and so on. It can truly kill the whole fun.
     
• Questionable Visual Design Choices:
  Besides the specific color of dragon jade used in jade tech and the weirdly shaped, plastic-like jade mechs, my only other issue is with certain aspects of the environment:
  • The sky lighting on all maps (except Echovald Wilds) is off. It is way too bright, even during night-time.
  • The fog color doesn't look like fog. Instead, it just adds a weird, depressing aura to maps in combination with the aforementioned sky lighting. I assume you were trying to go for a "noire" or "mystery" feel, but missed the mark.
  • The newly added flora glows (even in shadowy spots and the dark). Why?
     
• Kurzick/Luxon Culture:
  In general, there was not enough emphasis on the Luxons, only the Kurzicks got a tribute with the cemetery and other locations as well as events troughout the Echovald Wilds. The Luxons were basically reduced to all-things turtles.
  At the very least, you could have added classic Kurzick and Luxon armor sets to the list of available skins in EoD. I get that those cultures have been suppressed for generations, but many people would have loved to get those classy heritage looks ([ex.1], [ex.2]).

(source)

Edited March 17, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[Rendalmj.3152]

My overall Positivy and Negativity :

 Positive :

1. Story 9/10 - amazing better than Hot and Pof

2. New maps 9/10 - better and bigger than Hot map

3. Fishing and Skiff  - 9/10 we can fish while for meta or world boss

4. Collection 10/10 best addition expansion

 

Negative :

1. First day experience in new map bad. im only person in map sometime see 2 people. so 1+2 = 3/10

2. Loot is not that bad, but very terrible. i do 2 hours meta and u give me terrible loot? i sad. give me my 2 hours back. 2/10

3. Alot bugs. i dono why some bugs need to wait a long time to fix. hero point bug in seitung still fresh for me, we need wait 2-3 days for it to be fixed. wow 2/10

4. New elite spec 5/10 . Some good ,but older elite spec for me is funner to play and simple

[lrdmilano.8746]

So, the whole reason I play this game, was to avoid the cartoon(ish), exaggerated, and commercial parasite the World Of Warcraft had sadly, become. Now this game introduces cartoonish giant war turtles and gigantic not to scale boats that look like Chinese party rafts, into what used to be an artistically beautiful game. (Ironically, Blizzard literally bled memberships after this king of mistake with the ever hokey, Panda's) In this path lies madness...

[Neo Mortem.3627]

Second Playthrough:

I still stand by my previous post where the wokeness agenda is tiresome and drags down the potential of great characters and a wonderful story, but I think in this post I'll focus more on some observations made about the characters we interact with in the story, buit breifly considering it's like 3 AM for me and my brain is so fried... It would take forever for me to write this out in a more coherant post, or perhaps just impossible because my thoughts are everywhere, just like this story.

 

Mai Trin: Being a character I've never met until now, I actually kind of enjoyed Mai Trin. She was one character that didn't need someone else to give her a pep-talk to try to be better or think she was worthy of something. In fact, everyone hates her. The people around her, including the Commander, don't believe she is capable of change or a second chance despite having characters like Canach (former criminal), Gorrick (former Inquest), Zafirah (Zaishen/Balthazar Follower), or Valette Wi (former White Mantle). Each of these character has some sort of connection to either a past of horrible deeds or association with some "evil" organization. She wanted to be better, but nobody allowed her because why? She had to serve her time? You don't think traveling the Mists and killing herself, or even watching herself die over and over and over isn't punishment enough? It's a shame she went out the way she did honestly... I wanted more of her.

Ankaa: She's really just a boring villain with depression or suicidal death wish. Started out interesting, ended up being cut too short with little meat to her character and goals.

Kasmeer: Ah... the useless lesbian mesmer... Only now she has some use, but now complains about her duties and expects you, the Commander, to not embarrass her and Kryta. Forget everything you, the Commander, has ever done for her without complaining.... Did the Commander complain about picking up her slack after she froze before Balthazar? No. Did the Commander complain about her being the one to speak to Kormir despite her being absent and uninvolved through our campaign across the Crystal Desert? Even if you were a follower of Kormir? No. So, shut up Kasmeer and do your dang job.

Gorrick: Annoying, honestly. He's only really used for comedic relief in this expansion, which I don't know if that's supposed to be insulting or not given the fact he's supposed to be a smart Asura or because of his voice actor. He ruins the moment of Mai Trin's death, and his voice just rings in my ears...

Rama: Favorite new character introduced in the expansion. He's more down to earth and relatable. Reminds me a bit of Canach, though not as harsh. It's like he's just tired of people being stupid or not thinking things through before asking.

Li: Ahh.... the fascist, racist bigot... The evil man known as "White Falcon"... He shouldn't have been so stupid to expose himself as he did considering we didn't even suspect him, nor were we after him. We just needed his help to get in contact with Joon, and what does he do? Attack us, exposes himself, loses, and gets arrested. Like why? It doesn't make any sense.

Joon: The "strong, independent woman". Oh boy... More like teenager throwing a tantrum and ignoring reality. We don't want her near Aurene because we don't trust her, but she goes there anyway without our consent? Hypocrite considering what happens later. We tried to go for her to help, but she ignores us. Even after explaining our story, she accepts our innocence and then tries to kill us? Yet she's somehow better than Li, the man who tried to kill us not too long ago? Taimi has to give her a pep-talk about how underestimated they are because they're smart, how it's so hard for people like them and blah blah blah..... Seriously? Boring, and ultimately just stokes her ego even more apparently cause she still thinks there's no possible way she could ever be wrong, or her inventions could ever fail... It's so unrealistic and annoying to deal with that she comes across as one of the most unlikable characters despite ANet trying to make it seem like we're supposed to like her because she's a woman, smart, or because she alone came up with an idea to make her country so great (incorrect because it all came from Soo-Won anyway).

Yao: Not even relevant. For somebody put into so much promotional material for your expansion, shouldn't this character have had as much screen-time as Rama, the detective you paired him with? Nope. One map, one meta, and you are only around the character depending on which lane you choose for the meta. This character also isn't even a fighter, which was why he wasn't there for Soo-Won, but could fight Jade Bots? Talk about inconsistent.

Navan: Wasn't expecting her. I'm not angry, but I don't feel moved by her. there really isn't much to say seeing as how more could have been done.

Taimi: Still dying from her disease, but at least she feels no pain. We have no need to worry about her dying, and we shall continue to keep getting foolproof, last minute solutions to our problems. Great... 

Rytlock: A charr being put in his place by a female charr... That really doesn't sound like Rytlock. Since when did he care? He did what he wanted without the approval of anyone else, and now he needs his lady's permission? Get out of here with that crap.

Braham: From emo boy to PTSD norn needing shrinks... Is he really a norn at this point? I just don't get him anymore, and he should have died in Dragon Storm. Least then he'd be spared the guilt and trauma... oh, and it would have made more sense seeing as his Legend would be sung throughout the Shiverpeaks for saving the world, ending Jormag at the cost of his own life. Even better than he would have helped kill Primordus too. But nah... too Norn for ANet.

Soo-Won: You expect me to care about this Elder Dragon because Aurene does, but you don't give us time to connect with her or even learn more about her. Really don't care... and really wished she was done better for me to care.

[Angelissa.8409]

It may be a mix of EoD zones being the new hype, as well as new zone player caps, but old maps from season 3 and 4 feel absolutely empty. Regardless of the time zone, whether that said zone is the daily or not, etc... Can't complete any group events to complete older achievements. Trying to get Aurora feels barren after the 4th failed attempt to find people for a group boss.

New zones, while looking cool, absolutely did not charm me the same way s3/4 maps did. Once you do 100% them, there's not too much going on around. Also the metas are extremely dull, with the exception of Dragon's End, but pugging that is just not worth it.

Played almost all new elite specs, and they are all performing worse than HoT/PoF elite specs. Maybe that says more about the previous elite specs being broken, but none of them have me going like "Oh man I'm having a blast".

Overall, this feels like a new living world episode rather than an expansion. The story - while generic - was great, the voice acting was absolutely stellar and I cared about every single one of the characters. It's just that after the story is done, there isn't much to do.

But that's OK. That's the beauty of GW2. I can just return in 6 months and I'll have (hopefully) tons of new content to experience, and I won't be massively behind anyone else. I just wanted to play this expansion a lot more.

Edited March 18, 2022 by Angelissa.8409

[VPK.1796]

Negative:

Catalyst