What are your overall positive + negative thoughts regarding EOD?

[Ruisen.9471]

I think most people have covered the positives, so I'll just list the negatives:

- Post processing is terrible on the new maps.   Its never been great, but its almost blinding in the new maps.

- Metas are fairly unrewarding in the first 3 maps, as are other long events (like leviathon for example, which gives only 1 chest after a long fight)

- New maps seem to have no bank/TP, etc that I've found.   Really weird to not have it in New kanining since its supposed to be a metropolis...?

[Emperor Palpatine.5329]

My 2 cent feedback 🙂

- story best they ever made

- maps best they ever made

- events best they ever made

- elite specs - most horrible thing under the 6 gods!

Things worth mentioning:

- the event at the end of the story is the most lovely thing I have seen in this game! Very happy with that

- political gender fluid nonsense added - worst idea ever! Huge let down for me, even if its easy to ignore it’s sad to see anet grab a fast politic cow like that. At least other aspects from this pov have a narrative and don’t come out as cringe

I think it’s the best expansion they ever made so far from many points of view, and I would like to give Kudos to the team working on strikes because they are absolutely fantastic. I can’t wait to try out the CM ones.

Dragons End meta is also a work of art and with some minor tuning to the overall time I think it’s gonna be superbly done! 

[Sernius Alathar.6538]

I feel like adding to what others have said about the "extra ending" we all have mentioned, as someone who is a member of LGBTI+ set, it was utterly cringe worthy, and completely detracts from the ending of the game. I have no idea why they thought that was necessary, it's like, btw everyone ended the dragon cycle congrats, but this is more important so F. you guys, time to steal the limelight. The act of trying to be inclusive did the opposite and actually made it feel uncomfortable and awkward like some trite fan fiction instead of normalising relationships to the point of not making a big deal about them. This is the sort of side story for living story content, not to end the Arc of Dragon saga. 

[Jaunty.6018]

New drinking game: take a shot every time yet another powerful, intelligent, likeable female character is introduced in the story. 

RIP liver.

[suialthor.7164]

The first time through is okay.  But once starting on a second character a few things are annoying.  Would be nice if they could add the following:

• Skips for all the slow escorts and scripted speeches while doing story missions.  After having completed it once.
• Add reasonable combat options for all renown hearts. Having pacifist options is fine but it is so painfully boring after the first time. To be fair add pacifist options to the other hearts.
• Add a few more way points, especially in Echovald, after map completion on 1 character. I want to play, not spend all my time traveling or memorizing maps.

Also I don't understand why the fishing level in the starting zones (core game) are so high.

[Wintermute.5408]

54 minutes ago, Jaunty.6018 said:

New drinking game: take a shot every time yet another powerful, intelligent, likeable female character is introduced in the story. 

RIP liver.

Likeable? I'll die sober.

[Laken.9018]

Pro's:

• New maps are absolutely lovely to sit in and soak in.  Exploration is well rewarded there's lot of tiny caverns and nooks found scattered throughout the map, in particular this is what changed my mind on Echovald.
• That reveal at the End of Act 1 made me hype as all hell.
• Old Cantha and all its pettiness is still there and that vibe has been caught well.
•  I'm really enjoying Catalyst and playing my main again. It's a nice way to play and feels like the ranged blasty ele I want to be.
• A lot of the skins are fantastic.
• The tutorial at the start leading into the story which then prepared me for a strike. It did what you set out to do and worked.
• Arborstone and building it up was nice. Theres a lot hidden away in that area but I really hope you'll let us add to it moving forward. Happy for it to be my main base but right now Eye of the North is better for me (bar a lack of access to Mystic Forge) due to how close everything is to each other. Also why the blazes is the jewellers on the otherside of the map to the rest of the crafting stations and the jade bot station.

Negatives:

• I finished the end meta but for a 2 hour meta with a high risk chance I have no active desire to engage it again. I love the fight but the time to reward/risk ratio just isn't there for me. 
• The villain felt like it wasn't built up to, infact more of the expansion is given over to the initial villain group then the main one and it hurts it's introduction.
• The story starts having teething problems come Act 3, Act 4 feels pretty much redundant and fillery and the final Act well I hate the villian so by that point I was just wanted to be done.
• The elite spec ascended weapons requiring you to play through the entire story again on each char. Bear in mind theres no skip dialog option on any of the story beats. POF got this right and tied these to exploring the map not the story.
• Research Notes. The fact we have to make or buy items to break down to make other items is rough, like every recipe wants them and right now its around 1g 70s  for 250 been able to find through the TP. There needs to be a way to drip feed some of these into your inventory as I don't find this enjoyable, it feels like I'm burning money when rather "earn" them somehow.
•  Jade Bot mastery requiring a core. It's easy enough to make a new one but its not alt friendly and the faff if you forget puts me off wanting to alt Cantha
• The final storybeat. The meat of it, good about time. My issue is it was the final storybeat for nearly 8 years worth of storytelling.  The scene before felt like a nice capper, a good summation of everything. This scene felt like it should have been the first scene of the next living world release as a result I feel like I kinda just ...ended rather than going off and being like "well that was a ride".

Edited March 6, 2022 by Laken.9018

[tekfan.3179]

Here's my "two" thoughts...or wall of text to be more precise.

 

The art of the maps is beautiful, but still flawed in my opinion.

Basically I have two big gripes with the design. The first thing would be the transitions between regions, even on a single map. It doesn't feel like naturally grown areas, more like a bad themepark where one attraction is plastered to the next.

There might be an abandoned temple full of enemies next to a fishing village, but there is no interaction between them.

Likewise there is the connection between maps. Lorewise there is supposed to be a highly important transfer of materials between two maps, with one additional map between them. While the high-tech map is full of infrastructure to deal with large shipments and such, the only thing connecting both maps are unguarded dirt paths. No shipping canal, no railroad, heck, not even a cobbled street.

As beatiful as the art is, the design is disjointed.

The second thing would be that the larger maps of Path of Fire managed to feel more alive than the ones from EoD. The big metropolis which is supposed to be the heart of Cantha feels downright sterile to me.

 

As for the map-mechanics with meta-events and what not...I sadly can't say anything good about those. The rewards are a joke, and overall they are more a nuissance than something you'd like to partake in.

To unlock the turtle mount you need to succeed in the meta event on the last map. Said event was troll-able on launch with players sabotaging others in a single phase of the battle. You barely get a map with enough organized players to succeed in the event as well, so as of now the map is pretty much unbeatable if you have to rely on pugs. I decided to steer clear of it for now, after about ten failed attempts. I do like however that the glider-skills from the Bloodstone map of the third living world season are working on that map. 

 

The new masteries.

Fishing is nice and surprisingly extensive. Haven't gotten around to everything there yet. The skiff is quite relaxing, a good combo with fishing. Can't say anything about the turtle, as stated above.

The jade bot is underwhelming as can be. It boils down to some very useful buffs like more vitality and quicker mount endurance recharge, movement-mechanics on maps (which you can almost ignore with mounts) and buff-stations on cantha maps, as well as some situational skills that have huge cooldowns.  But a real companion? Nah.

Lastly one mastery track allows you to upgrade the new player-hub. That's it.

 

The new specs.

What I tried so far is mostly awful. The mechanist is ok-ish, but I admit to having more fun with the holo-smith.

[Tachenon.5270]

Well, finished the story yesterday afternoon. So, here are more of my well-thought out thoughts! Aren't you excited? I know I am. Whee!

 

Positive --

* I was for some reason very amused by Taimi's commentary during the meeting with Gorrick's auld acquaintance, particularly when she made the vomit noises. I actually LOL'd at that.

* Bladegunner (what it should have been called) is a lot of fun. Probably because I don't know what I'm doing and therefore am in no position to be upset by obvious flaws to which I remain blissfully oblivious. So.

* In a moment of madness I went ahead and converted one of my Guardians into a Willbender. Didn't hate it anywhere near as much as I hated it during the betas. Not sure why. Maybe because I left most of the previously unbent-will build intact along with the evidently more compatible gear. Still very squishy, but /e shrug.

* The NKC meta was a laggy mess but I had fun. The rewards were meh, as usual, but I've come to expect that from GW2. Did get two yellow 'jade' weapons with new skins, so yay.

 

Negative --

* For some reason as I played through the latter half or so of the story, the phrase 'pants on head' kept echoing in my mind. That usually doesn't happen.

* I very much wanted so and so to be the good guy and whats his name to be the one that was bad, because that would have been a little less 'Every day I get hungry. Every day!'

* Colorful metaphor green.

* Joon.

* Finishing up in the Jade Sea zone, I felt I needed to do what I needed to do quickly and get out lest I contribute to failure of the PANTS ON HEAD meta which was not even in progress but was hanging over the zone's figurative head like, I dunno, some kinda mythical sword. Or, ya know, pants. Or something. Who came up with that? I recommend laxatives.

* Joon's place of residence. Somebody at Anet a fan of The Secret World?

* I've not participated in the afore-mentioned Jade Sea meta, but I can preliminarily say, with conviction, to hell with the kitten turtle. I don't particularly want it anyway. So, meh.

* Fishing in RDO is kinda fun. Fishing in EOD is vaguely reminiscent of fishing in RDO, as in, you gotta sorta lead the fish, but the EOD implementation of that is not particularly fun. I suspect no one at Anet has ever fished for anything except maybe compliments. /e shrug

*The skiff. Uh. Don't see any use/need for it outside of a couple of story missions.

* Joon.

* The Jade Bot. Hated having to use the kitten thing in the missions where I had to use the kitten thing. It clips through the floor and the walls and is awkward to control and is otherwise just plain awful. Maybe it gets better with more mastery points thrown at it? I dunno. Plus those silly batteries scattered all over the place are eyesores and probably not good for the environment. Not very progressive, eh?

* Joon's pants on head 'it's just a flesh wound' attitude. Jiminy colorful metaphor Cricket.

* Getting from Point A to Point B by way of points T, Q, and Z95 -- If I hadn't had a skyscale I would have begun uttering colorful metaphors at a much earlier point in the experience.

* Joon. Annnnn-kka, too. Ankka had about as much character as any other plot device. Apart from voice overs in those holocron thingees. But mostly Joon.

* Windbags, windbags everywhere. Could some of these windbag NPCs just SHUT UP already? Blah blah blah! Oh, this would be a nice dramatic moment if not for all the colorfully metaphoric BLAH BLAH BLAH. Especially when they're blissfully talking over each other in the middle of a fight. Come on, Anet -- think how much money you could save if we could click through some of that flavorful flavor text and just get on with it. I know, I know, voice actors gotta eat.

 

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

[Neo Mortem.3627]

Story: So the story took me about four or five days to complete by mixing in some events and map completion. Each day was about 6-8 hours. It had it's moments where it's good, but, like other people have been pointing out, the wokeness or politics was... eye-rolling. I don't care about a dead character I never met or interacted with was gay and had a kid, I don't care about what your gender is, or whatever. Who are YOU? If a character only revolves around their sexuality or race, then you're flat and boring and have nothing to offer outside of that, which means no character growth or conflict. That's why Kasmeer and Marjory are so annoying cause they have little to offer individually 90% of the time and when they're together, it's only about them being super sappy with dialogue that doesn't even feel natural. That's why Taimi is annoying because she's only known for her genius and always has solutions. These character don't really struggle and any conflict they face, either with other characters or through environment, is quickly swept under the rug. If you have story steps and dialogue using words such as "fascist" or "bigot" like... why? And literally every character seems to be bisexual or have some sort of intimate relationship with others that I couldn't tell if that was the point or if it was really that kind of relationship. Why are the lines blurred? Character deaths? None that mattered. One dark moment where I thought, "Dang, stuff's about to get real..." only to find out that you aren't committed to actually killing off characters that would actually impact your consumers/audience. We have not had a death of a character close to us since Trahearne in HoT. You just kill of a new character or a returning character to not have to worry about old plots and tie the thread of stuff you don't want to deal with anymore. Where are the stakes? Where's the actual loss? And the swearing... Nice, okay, but either don't do it or grow up about it. What kind of story are you telling: a children's story some mediocre PG-13? I can't tell. Let's not forget the men are mostly side-lined by a cast that's female, and we get a stuck up, close-minded, female character that thinks she's the only person that has the right answers and solutions in the world and can't mess up. And when met with failure, she thinks it's impossible like she's some perfect being.  The finale post credit.... You wasted time on that? Seriously? I don't care!!! They could have done that off-screen, it was obvious they were gonna do it anyway, but why have it such a focal point to the end of a trilogy, the end of dragons?

Maps/Metas: Pretty good. I've noticed issues with objects clipping through each other and some annoying bits like bamboo not having collision (it's weird), but I'm happy about the maps. The metas I like as well, if they work. The final map is something I want to touch on because I've seen so many people whining about it being too difficult, but it's not garbage. Sure, it's a bit difficult and requires coordination, but it's not some brain dead meta where screwing up doesn't matter and you can just brainlessly DPS because you couldn't properly CC or do mechanics. People need to pay attention, people need to cc at the right times. Ppl need to pay attention to mechanics. If you cant do that, you're gonna fail, and that's part of life. Learn from it, don't beg for it to be easier because you don't want to learn.

Elites: PoF has the best elites in terms of design and differentiating themselves from their previous forms. EoD only does that for two or three classes (most notably the Specter, Mechanist, and Virtuoso with maybe Vindicator imo). Catalyst? Core elementalist with hammer and a new AoE field (Should have been a Spellslinger with mid-long range pistol/pistol or bow using Arcane Magic). Gunsaber: Warrior greatsword 2.0 (Should have been support with melee staff. I mean you made a bunch of staffs with blades on them and not a single EoD class uses melee staff. Only two classes uses melee staff and that's Daredevil and Revenant.)

 

Masteries: I like them, but there's one major problem: only one keybind can be used. This makes using the skills more of a hassle. Why didn't you treat it like mounts? Heck, I think even novelties can each have their own keybind. Also, why do we have to have all of the green bar in the yellow? Why not the more that's in the zone, the faster/more your fill up the bar? Kind of bugs me when it looks like all of the bar is in the zone but im still losing energy or whatever it is.

 

Music: Great. Final boss song is incredible, but I don't know if it surpasses Kralk's Thunderhead music, and Fear Not This Night just can't be beat.

 

Armor/Skins: We getting more Canthan armor? Feels a little lackluster in the armor department, and not all of them are super great...? I'm hoping there'll be  more.

 

Character Creation: WHY NO HUMAN FACE MARKINGS?!?!?!

Edited March 6, 2022 by Neo Mortem.3627

[Spiral.3724]

Fishing is a bit disappointing to me. I was hoping for more fish recipes that would provide bonuses OTHER than fishing power. You fish to get power to fish more? Circular. 🤔
There are only two fish recipes that give other bonuses: Bowl of Kimchi Tofu Stew and Fishy Rice Bowl. I would like to see some ascended feasts for these!

[Luthan.5236]

Liked the story so far - played until including chapter 4. Only chapter 5 left. The difficulty for the optional chapter boss achievements is weirdly balanced though.

Chapters 1-2 not really a big deal to avoid getting downed or finishing it within the timer. Chapter 3 the timer also easy but needed to be a bit more careful to not get downed. Chapter 4 suddenly a huge jump in difficulty. You'd usually expect small increases in difficulty. Not 1-3 pretty easy and in 4 suddenly taking almost twice the time that is allowed for the achievement (+ harder to avoid getting downed). First where a dedicated built (or help of other players) is necessary. (Need to make strong ranged build for this.)

Mechanist as elite spec (have not tried the other ones) - is pretty nice though. In most open world stuff so easy to take a ton of mobs at the same time. The map achievements ... the usual I guess. Ton of stuff wo "work" on. And when it is finished then farming for the remaining stuff and/or legendary ... and moving between the favorite map or playing a 2nd char.

Edit: The setting itself (technology) ... reminded me a bit of Deus Ex. Canach with his club and the white clothes reminded me of Lorne - a character from Angel. (Spin-off to a series called "Buffy".)

Edited March 6, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[castlemanic.3198]

story: I actually really really like the story. I think this is some of the best storytelling that the devs have made so far. the cinematics were great, the voice acting was great, overall it was a really lovely experience, so much so that i went through the story twice actually. might do it a third time if my friends join me on this adventure.

 

fishing: i think fishing is boring, but i also think fishing, both in video games and in real life, is boring too. It's just not for me.

 

skiffs: i actually really really like the skiff. I've been kinda hoping for a boat of some sorts in gw2 for a while now. I was thinking something more along the lines of boat to boat combat but maybe this is the first step in that direction? i dont know. depth charges are fun though.

 

Jade bot: i really love all the features that went with the jade bot, they are fun and really interesting. but i hate, and i do mean HATE, the battery mechanic. I get that they wanted to put limits on player interaction, but it's that whole scarcity is content thing and it just doesn't work for me. they had an entire puzzle dedicated to this battery mechanic and like the puzzle was great actually, i liked it, but i hate this stupid battery mechanic so much more than i like the puzzle. it really truly sucks to go up to a teleporter and realize you gotta go back and find batteries in order to make use of teleporters, or the offensive buff machine, or even to fight those robots in that one heart. you can tell that it was lovingly crafted to give the players a good experience with the bot, and the masteries are fun (and that recovery protocol is vital), but overall the coolness of the jade bot is hampered by the battery mechanic.

 

arborstone: i felt more in love with sun's refuge than i did either eye of the north or arborstone. I don't have the masteries for arborstone yet so take this with a grain of salt but honestly, not a huge fan of it. nothing wrong with it, but i just would have preferred the choice to use suns refuge instead. did all the achievements and everything too. suns refuge was replaced by eye of the north, and eye of the north was replaced by arborstone, arborstone is eventually going to get replaced by something else and i just don't feel motivated to improve arborstone. I'll get all the masteries when i have the chance, but as it is, i dunno, it's not fun for me.

 

siege turtle: it's fun for a little bit, but its even more fun with friends. i'll comment more once i both have all the masteries and have tried it out with a friend, but so far the turtle was fun but it's not going to be a core part of my experience. also, see every thread about siege turtle acquisition, acquisition is terrible, the worst, and should absolutely be changed to be more beginner/noob/casual friendly.

 

elite specs: the only one i've tried is vindicator so far, had a lot of fun with the greatsword and the alliance stance. i'm saving playing with my specter for when one of my friends decides to play gw2 again, really love the specter in theory and we'll see how it is in practice. the elite specs aren't really core to my experience in gw2 but from what fun i've had, i'd say they're pretty good. don't ask me for specifics though, i'm not a theorycrafter or min-maxer.

 

seitung province: i think seitung is my favourite map out of the bunch. it's a really good introduction to end of dragons and has very little of that neon jade tech vibe. it's been cool to return to it and look at things without using a mount at all, picking up even more lore clues while walking around, it's been fun.

 

new kaineng: new kaineng is confusing. i'm going to eventually take a slow walk through new kaineng and see how it looks when playing without a mount. might regret that since its so vertical and man times i've resorted to using the skyscale to just climb everywhere i wanted to go. i think the vibrancy of the jade tech combined with the naturally bright environment made it all wash out a bit. and then you get to  the areas infested with the risen and it just confuses me lore wise.

Spoiler

like okay, so we're told that soo-won turned back the tide from zhaitan raising orr, but at the same time there are parts of new kaineng that are both underwater and infested with risen, so which was it? did cantha get hit by the tidal wave or not? just seems very confusing to have contradictory elements.

 

Echovald wilds: for a place called the echovald wilds, it had a lot of infrastructure in it. maybe this is an intentional misnomer, one that the locals associate with the place because it's away from canthan governmental influence, but i dunno there was a lot of civilization in the area. echovald wilds also felt a little like heart of thorns environmentally when you weren't in the small towns. wish there was more orange, i wanted to see a ton of amber in the area. Instead there was a junkyard, which while cool and thematically appropriate wasn't the amber filled wildlands i was expecting. despite the disappointments it was intuitive to navigate for the most part.

 

jade sea: Hate the meta. hate hate hate. hate it. never want to do it again. i'm going to avoid it if at all possible, unless i need more mastery points then ugh fine i'll do it. but hopefully that won't be the case. visually i think the green of the jade sea was a bit much.

Spoiler

i do like the void creatures though who have a more established presence here. I know they're recycled enemies (apart from the saltsprays) but it's a cool idea.

the pre final boss meta events are actually pretty cool i'll be honest. playing with mechanics that were familiar so it wasn't overwhelming playing it for the first time. after several tries however, i think i'm going to avoid the jade sea for the near future, at least until i require more mastery points.

 

aetherblades: we finally got revenant enemies. honestly seeing 'haunted aetherblade' for the first time (right after killing the enemy) made my head turn, and then fighting haunted aetherblades that summoned mist-lost comrades was really great. Also cool and interesting to see scrappers, holosmiths and other non-canthan elite specs make their way into end of dragons through enemies.

 

speakers: pretty cool faction theme wise, i enjoy that there was a group of nature lovers lead by the wardens seemingly, their camp was cool to go through and i adore ritualist enemies, they're very fun to deal with mechanically. the wardens also seemed awesomely designed, especially when it comes to fights. weird that they use fireball attacks but otherwise cool enemy designs.

 

jade brotherhood: a logical group to have come out from the jade empire that is cantha, these enemies are alright. im more fond of jade bot enemies than i am of the jade brotherhood themselves, the bots are interesting to deal with and have cool looking abilities. a lot of work from the effects team overall, props to them.

 

purists: when the expansion started and we're told that the ministry of purity were overthrown via revolution, i was kinda sad. I thought they were cool lore wise (more watched lore videos than experienced myself). but then the purists kept showing up, especially around new kaineng, and they were interesting to fight. i've learned to hate purist mesmers, they are so annoying. now i know what it's like to fight against a mesmer and do not want to do that again (this isn't serious, i actually think it's neat that we fight mesmers that have phantasms and portals and other player abilities).

 

Spoiler

void enemies: like i mentioned above, they're recycled enemies from the previous 5 elder dragons we've slain. they're named in a fun way, but i also just wish we could have had void enemies that weren't part of the previous dragons armies. Saltsprays are cool though, some of my favourite mini bosses to fight against, their animations are amazing and their mechanics aren't too complex. hopefully we're going to see non-void saltsprays in the future.

 

that's about everything that i have thoughts on at the moment.

 

TL;DR: i really like this expansion, when it has new stuff that new stuff is usually brilliant. a meta on each map is actually a really good idea, i'm surprised they haven't done it before. i like most of the elite specs in theory, i like vindicator in practice, the masteries had flaws but i don't expect arenanet to keep inventing a new type of wheel with every expansion so it's okay that this expansion didn't have a huge thing. don't like fishing, skiffs are fun, love jadebots but hate batteries, don't like arborstone, like siege turtles but more fun with friends, story was great, maps were mostly great, enemy design i really liked except spoiler ones.

[Ra Ra.9423]

I've now played once through the story and done map completion in three of the maps.  Since I had enough hero points, I was able to do so with the elite specs right away, so have been playing in the new maps with Gunblade, Virtuoso, and Untamed (so far).

It's some of the best story they've done.  It has been immersive for me, and had me out-loud laughing at times, and in tears once.  Story has always been an important factor in my game enjoyment, and this story has hit the marks.  It provided good conversations giving exposition and context to what's going on.  There's been moments where explanations gave more context to things that have happened in past stories, which I really appreciated.  The conversations used quite a bit of modern idioms or slang, but, strangely, it didn't feel jarring to me; rather it felt like modern Cantha people were acting more ... modern. 😄 I also liked the periodic cinematics, and think they were well-done and used in a way that really helped develop a character or tell an important story beat.

 

The map exploration is incredible.  I think they hid things in every nook and cranny, from hidden chests with different interaction mechanics, to little caves that turn into puzzle-solving adventures.  There are a lot of things to interact with and discover.  I especially appreciated the zu Heltzer graveyard and meeting Danika's spirit there to unlock an achievement collection. (which I've not completed yet)  There are a couple of mini-dungeons in Echovald that are fun, and likely more I've not discovered yet.  I really like the Zip-lines, and how they help discover all the verticality of the maps.  Don't even get me started on the ambient conversations around all the maps!  So many great tidbits.

 

The new Elite Specs are pretty subjective, based on each players preferences.  I did enjoy playing all three of the specs I tried, from just a 'traversing the open world' perspective.  I've not done any strike missions yet, so haven't any opinion on how their builds may work in group play.  Neither have I taken them into WvW yet.

 

I don't have many negative impressions. 

I did find that in mapping Echovald there was a LOT of traversing around the map to find some of the more hidden PoI's, MP's, & HP's.  The pathways were loaded with foes, so I'd often find myself killing the same old groups of npc's over and over, which is a bit tedious.  This encouraged me to use the skyscale more to avoid things, but I was also probably missing some content by not covering the ground, so to speak.

tldr;    I think this expansion was more than worth my time and money.  I've enjoyed what I've experienced so far, and expect to continue making my way through the achievements and map-content for some time.  There's lots to do!

Edited March 6, 2022 by Ra Ra.9423
(edited out last personal opinion, don't want to sidetrack conversion)

[Athel.2076]

I'm having fun. mostly. This is such a rushjob tho.

 

Half the things aren't even finished? Here's hoping they've got a LOT planned for skiffs, jadebots and the turtle.  

Enemies: its all just mostly re-skins of old content? How many new models are in the game for this expansion? One? Two? 

New elites, I'm only playing mechanist, not going to bother with the rest. Might try harbinger a little.

Maps really do feel empty- the complainers were right!

I cannot shake the feeling that they've overtuned the metas and some other stuff just to stop people from powering through the content in the first week. Rush job. Stalling for time.

 

So, design question: for an expansion thats tailored for new players- they sure do focus a LOT of it on catering to the nostalgia of veterans from GW1, don't they? 

[fixit.7189]

some feedback on elites i have played:

Mechanist: chefs kiss. my new fav support character. 😄

harbringer: it's going to be nerfed, calling it now. lol.

catalyst: it's like core ele with a combo field adding more buttons to a prof that uh, has to many of those? if it had decent support or condi builds, i might use it. ugh.

as for the rest, i am working on that now, but so far none of them other than harbringer/mechanist interests me. but we shall see.

Edited March 7, 2022 by fixit.7189

[Allcoast.1758]

On 3/3/2022 at 2:56 AM, Tiviana.2650 said:

I like the skiffs im working on the masteries for depth charge, fishing is kinda cool reminiscent of another game I played with fishing. I actually liked the story I have not completed it yet but i made it to aborstone and it was interesting. I dont care if they want to put lovers in that are same sex or w/e but some people will take offense , I mean lets face it people get offended over everything. But the actual story was decent and sad too so far, im not going to spoil it but listen to the dialog and follow the story its not bad. Kannig city is wow!! my only gripe is no bank and TP come on anet this city needs all the amenities of a city because I rather base there than LA. The gadgets are fun as hell, love zip lines jade bots the teleporters my skiff . 

WTB Kuunavang mount pst with price! 

FYI, Depth Charges do NOTHING, so i would invest in better masteries before going to the depth charge route.

[Ashantara.8731]

Well, I've already posted my thoughts on the expansion.🙂

The only disappointing thing to me was the Dragon's End map. Why is there no sign of Luxon culture? The Echovald Wilds is full of Kurzick history, but this map? Nothing. I found exploring it quite unsatisfying. Only the final meta battle and, of course, the great story mission there are truly compelling about Dragon's End.

[Djimi.5167]

6 hours ago, Neo Mortem.3627 said:

Story: So the story took me about four or five days to complete by mixing in some events and map completion. Each day was about 6-8 hours. It had it's moments where it's good, but, like other people have been pointing out, the wokeness or politics was... eye-rolling. I don't care about a dead character I never met or interacted with was gay and had a kid, I don't care about what your gender is, or whatever. Who are YOU? If a character only revolves around their sexuality or race, then you're flat and boring and have nothing to offer outside of that, which means no character growth or conflict. That's why Kasmeer and Marjory are so annoying cause they have little to offer individually 90% of the time and when they're together, it's only about them being super sappy with dialogue that doesn't even feel natural. That's why Taimi is annoying because she's only known for her genius and always has solutions. These character don't really struggle and any conflict they face, either with other characters or through environment, is quickly swept under the rug. If you have story steps and dialogue using words such as "fascist" or "bigot" like... why? And literally every character seems to be bisexual or have some sort of intimate relationship with others that I couldn't tell if that was the point or if it was really that kind of relationship. Why are the lines blurred? Character deaths? None that mattered. One dark moment where I thought, "Dang, stuff's about to get real..." only to find out that you aren't committed to actually killing off characters that would actually impact your consumers/audience. We have not had a death of a character close to us since Trahearne in HoT. You just kill of a new character or a returning character to not have to worry about old plots and tie the thread of stuff you don't want to deal with anymore. Where are the stakes? Where's the actual loss? And the swearing... Nice, okay, but either don't do it or grow up about it. What kind of story are you telling: a children's story some mediocre PG-13? I can't tell. Let's not forget the men are mostly side-lined by a cast that's female, and we get a stuck up, close-minded, female character that thinks she's the only person that has the right answers and solutions in the world and can't mess up. And when met with failure, she thinks it's impossible like she's some perfect being.  The finale post credit.... You wasted time on that? Seriously? I don't care!!! They could have done that off-screen, it was obvious they were gonna do it anyway, but why have it such a focal point to the end of a trilogy, the end of dragons?

Hit the nail on the head here; couldn't have put it better myself.

One other thing which gets me is that everyone the commander meets seems to become absolutely fearless. "End of the world? Let's go, team!". It made sense with Destiny's Edge (being a group of tough fighters), but seeing Gorrik in the heat of battle having a conversation with the commander? Even if he manages to pluck up the courage to be in a fight, surely there would still be at least some sense of fear in his speech? Idk, for me it dampens the impact and tone of the battles...
(Remember Kasmeer's reaction when she first sees Balthazar? That's the sorta thing that was missing for me in EoD.)

[Warzog.6315]

1. Seems to have a reliance on the Break-Bar and Combo skills. Great when you're in a group, but sux if you're doing a solo story mission and aren't used to using such skills.

2. The Skiff... seems like a waste. Only useful for deep water fishing. Other mounts (and the skiff IS a mount) are better, and faster.

3. Fishing, not a fan. The mini-game aspect is terrible. Having to grind masteries, buy lures, bait, poles, etc ONLY at certain vendors is not fun, and you can buy the various fish fillets from vendors or in trading post if you need them for recipes. Unfortunately, I suspect there will be dailies for fishing.

4. Maps: The Echovald Forest is a friggin' nightmare to complete, tons of hidden paths! No banks or Trading Posts ANYWHERE! (might be one if you grind Arborstone to maximum?) I recognize the names of places on every map, but the Dragon's End map was the only one that evoked memories of Factions.

5. The Juvenile Siege Turtle is a nice new pet... Very useful.

6. The Siege Turtle was a HUGE selling point for End of Dragon's. Unfortunately, you have to succeed at a Meta to get it. I've failed twice, and heard folks complain of failing 19, 22, and 26 times. Reminds me of when GW2 first came out... The final mission Victory or Death required doing the Arah dungeon to complete, which required a group to do, so, since the game had been touted as being soloable many folks passed. (Took Anet 3 years to separate the mission and dungeon.)

7. The Jade Bot... can be useful... Heard someone, I suspect it was a dev, mentioned that you can buy a Jade Bot terminal? Nothing in the mastery descriptions mention being able to call it on demand for remote control, which would be useful.

 

Overall: I give it a C+ most maps are beautiful, story is ok but missions often require Break-Bar and Combo Skills that require reworking your tried and true build just for them. And.. it seems like there's a heavy focus on melee damage being about the only thing that works constantly.

[RyuDragnier.9476]

Positives:

- Some of the best writing this game has ever seen

- Areas are incredibly well designed and interesting to go through

- Meta events on the maps that are worth doing

- Jade Bot!

- New HQ that you can upgrade to have all the necessities of a town instance that also has a portal scroll so you can return there easily from anywhere.

- Mastery points are very plentiful

 

Negatives:

- Certain characters feel underutilized

- Siege Turtle locked behind a successful completion of the last map's meta (that has a low success rate)

- Elite Specs are very hit or miss

[Bast.7253]

Solid 4/10 for me. 

Positives - 
I admire what it took to make Kaening futuristic. The maps are all pretty for the most part. 

The music is good. 
Some of the elite specs like harbinger/specter really change the way a class feels. 

Negatives - 
Story was terrible, honestly. The individual characters were devised well and the voice acting was good apart from Ankka (who just seemed like a poorly written character overall). 

But we're concluding expansions and living world seasons worth of plot here and the vast majority of the story is political crap, dialog, and pressing f or doing combat and mount training. Think all of that could have been condensed into the first act so Kaening, Echovald, and the rest could focus on build up for the rest of the plot. Void invasion of kaening? Something to breathe some life into this map maybe? 

The maps are just pretty void. I went flying around everywhere in Echovald on my skyscale and what did I find... jade mastery interactables everywhere and maybe a few chests. 

The jade sea? A fun map to drive your roller beetle and sight see all the pointless mobs just standing in the middle of nowhere with no relation to any event the majority of the time. Just ambience I guess? 

The rewards are lackluster and the currencies feel kind of convoluted to me. No idea where I would even go to buy the new armor sets they released even if they're not overly visually appealing. 

The Dragon's End meta feels like the only worthwhile combat-oriented event in this expansion outside of the two events in Echovald. 

I think the people that love this expansion would likely be smitten even if it was a series of dragon response missions. But for someone that started playing seriously and fell in love with the game during Heart of Thorns, I feel like the general quality of this expansion from replayability to convoluted masteries... just bad design decisions all around. 

I don't know. I'm having more fun critiquing the expansion on the forums than actually playing it. I don't remember being this absolutely bored so quickly with an expansion. I feel like Dragonfall as a living world release was more engaging than half the content in this expansion. It feels like they played madlibs or drew random ideas out of a hat and said, "how can we tie this all together?" And here we are, one of the most hollow stories we've had to date with needlessly annoying masteries, fishing that's somehow more stressful than it's worth and doesn't let you relax... at all.... and it's just so bad. 

I've really tried to find things I love about it to see some semblance of why I've chosen this as pretty much the only game I've played for the past 8 years outside of very brief times catching up on wow expansions.. and at the end of the day I think it's just time to admit that the majority of this expansion is just not the quality I would expect for the talent they have at the studio. 

I really hate to bash them because I know none of this was easy to do given the circumstances in the world, within their studio, and game development in general. But it really just feels like a giant hollow rushed mess to me and I don't think delaying the expansion another year would have made that much of a difference because it feels like there's just been a general shift in design and ideas at the studio. 

Hopefully they split some people off to get started on Living World already because I don't see people sticking around longer than a month. 

[ruikarikun.9402]

Positive is DX11 works pretty near d912pxy (no stutters), did not try dxvk.

All rest is bad.

[ruikarikun.9402]

19 hours ago, Emperor Palpatine.5329 said:

story best they ever made

I am sorry maybe you can explain?

You did not see CTRL+C - CTRL+V, big scary dragon, super power, one mini angry boss in the middle, final fight, all is lost, but in the end Aurene help and wtf is this man?

Each previous stories same. Super power dragon - scary, mini boss, Taimi found how to kill it, Aurene OP, end fight, GG

Repeat?

 

[Sernius Alathar.6538]

1 hour ago, Bast.7253 said:

I've really tried to find things I love about it to see some semblance of why I've chosen this as pretty much the only game I've played for the past 8 years outside of very brief times catching up on wow expansions.. and at the end of the day I think it's just time to admit that the majority of this expansion is just not the quality I would expect for the talent they have at the studio. 

I have to say I am in the same boat, I played years of GW1, and probably more of GW2, and I love this game world, but it just makes me sad or angry, I dunno a mix of both, that they have this game we all love, and SOO much potential to make it better, but they always seem to just perform below par. My guildmate often says, "the game is the way it is, because the devs don't play it", and I have to agree, no gamer would make the choices they have made in game right? Factions was my goto continent in GW1, and as much as I like the aesthetic in the expac, they again just missed the mark on what players are actually looking for, which sucks because we are still all here playing the game even if the potential is wasted and is disappointing.