End of Dragons is a disappointing mess

[Doctor Hide.6345]

58 minutes ago, Jaunty.6018 said:

Yeah, if this is the new standard that Anet wants to set then I'm not interested.  It really does seem like a different studio, and unfortunately they don't know how to, or don't care to make a quality product.  And all the apologists are wearing me out.  Like...is this really what they want the game to be?  This is acceptable?  Because when they shoot down all the wealth of constructive criticism that keeps popping up, that's exactly what they're saying.

You think you are worn out? Try dealing with all the negative people who haven't stopped since they announced the expansion. I am glad more positive people are speaking out fighting back this wave of pure negativity. Not every person who complains is very constructive either. There are some who just want it their way not caring about those who do like it as is.

I am sorry, but that is how games work. Not everyone views things to your standards, so if people liking the expansion bugs you that much. Then all I have to say is tough crap and get over it because that is how the world works. It will always be a flow like this. And not all of us are saying the game is perfect since we know the bugs need to be fixed and such with some balance changes. But we can at least acknowledge the work the team put it even if some don't want to recognize it.

[Jaunty.6018]

18 minutes ago, Doctor Hide.6345 said:

You think you are worn out? Try dealing with all the negative people who haven't stopped since they announced the expansion. I am glad more positive people are speaking out fighting back this wave of pure negativity. Not every person who complains is very constructive either. There are some who just want it their way not caring about those who do like it as is.

I am sorry, but that is how games work. Not everyone views things to your standards, so if people liking the expansion bugs you that much. Then all I have to say is tough crap and get over it because that is how the world works. It will always be a flow like this. And not all of us are saying the game is perfect since we know the bugs need to be fixed and such with some balance changes. But we can at least acknowledge the work the team put it even if some don't want to recognize it.

Sorry, but the people who like it as is and try to silence the "wave of negativity" are going to run this company into the ground.  When so many people are unhappy and complaining, the company has to make changes in order to survive.  FFXIV, No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk 2077 are great examples of why constructive criticism is essential.  Those games were improved dramatically from listening to player feedback.  If you don't like that people are voicing their opinions about a largely disappointing product, all I have to say is "tough crap and get over it because that is how the world works."

Edited March 8, 2022 by Jaunty.6018

[Doctor Hide.6345]

1 minute ago, Jaunty.6018 said:

Sorry, but the people who like it as and try to silence the "wave of negativity" are going to run this company into the ground.  When so many people are unhappy and complaining, the company has to make changes in order to survive.  FFXIV, No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk 2077 are great examples of why constructive criticism is essential.  Those games were improved dramatically from listening to player feedback.  If you don't like that people are voicing their opinions about a largely disappointing product, all I have to say is "tough crap and get over it because that is how the world works."

 

And I am fine with people voicing it. But it doesn't mean I can't fight back though and state my own opinions on it. The way you made it sound is you just wanted all negative comments with no positive because your are tired of apologist which is in fact silencing the people that like it. I refuse to make this place an echo chamber of just negative comments. Nor do I want all positive. I want both even if that means their is constant debates. That is my stance on it.

[Jaunty.6018]

1 hour ago, Doctor Hide.6345 said:

 

And I am fine with people voicing it. But it doesn't mean I can't fight back though and state my own opinions on it. The way you made it sound is you just wanted all negative comments with no positive because your are tired of apologist which is in fact silencing the people that like it. I refuse to make this place an echo chamber of just negative comments. Nor do I want all positive. I want both even if that means their is constant debates. That is my stance on it.

I don't know where you got that idea that all I want are negative comments.  Despite how disappointed I am with the expansion, I still had a few nice things to say about it, and I stated at the end that I want people to have fun.  Plenty of people have been posting balanced comments here.  I love that!  What I don't love are apologist fanboys who don't want to hear a single negative thing about the game, have every excuse for why it is the way it is and try to defend blatantly lazy design, and call you "toxic" for pointing it out.  Those are the players who ruin games.

[Doctor Hide.6345]

12 minutes ago, Jaunty.6018 said:

I don't know where you got that idea that all I want are negative comments.  Despite how disappointed I am with the expansion, I still had a few nice things to say about it, and I stated at the end that I want people to have fun.  Plenty of people have been posting balanced comments here.  I love that!  What I don't love are apologist fanboys who don't want to hear a single negative thing about the game, have every excuse for why it is the way it is and try to defend blatantly lazy design, and call you "toxic" for pointing it out.  Those are the players who ruin games.

Ah, ok. That was my bad then with what I thought. I do apologize for that. It's just there is a lot of pure negative ones here which I have spotted(not this thread as a focus, but in general), so that was my bad then.

[Jaunty.6018]

On 3/8/2022 at 2:45 AM, Doctor Hide.6345 said:

Ah, ok. That was my bad then with what I thought. I do apologize for that. It's just there is a lot of pure negative ones here which I have spotted(not this thread as a focus, but in general), so that was my bad then.

No worries!

Edit: And then this guy reported me in another thread and had me banned from posting.  Hilarious!  Last time I give you the time of day, buddy.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Jaunty.6018

[Jaunty.6018]

The more I play End of Dragons, the more I see that it's just a real mixed bag of ideas and talent.  I can see that a lot of work was put into it from certain team members, while other members did not do their job well.  Lots of talent went into creating the visual assets, but whoever placed them didn't know what they were doing or just didn't care.  Some of the missions are designed well aesthetically, but the activities inside them are dull.  The music is nice, but the voiceover audio quality is mixed.  The cinematics have some of the best animation yet, while the writing can be utterly cringeworthy.  The skiffs are well designed, but using them is cumbersome.  Etc, etc.

Current Arenanet seem to be a team of some people operating on all cylinders, and some lagging behind.  I'm not used to it.  I don't like it.  But at least there's some hope that, with enough player feedback, maybe they can get everyone working together at the same level--for future content. 

Although I'm not so sure they can ever really go back from what they did in the story.  Which, again, is something I can't talk about here because I've seen mods delete such posts.  Suffice it to say, it was shocking and completely soured my opinion of the writers.  Whoever thought that was a good idea has got to go. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Jaunty.6018

[NOneWarhead.7205]

I'm genuinely bored of these maps - can't hardly find any events, when I do they are far and few between, metas give the trashiest loot I've ever seen (legit all I EVER get are Gear bags and trophy's), same as any other event. Saddens me really, but really i've done multiple meta's including beating DE a few times and I saw yay a Hero Chest hoping to get an Amalgamated Gemstone choice - nope, even they have trash loot.

 

I'll just go back to the same old content we've had for years because the new stuff is legitimately oppressively boring.

 

New strikes are at least fun.

I feel this expansion was just rushed like crazy, at least HOT maps had life to the maps. The big city map is big just to be big, hardly anything whatsoever going on in it.

 

But yeah, there's literally no point in even doing the meta's for any kind of gold making because it's all trash trophy and junk items. I literally never make more than 30-60 silver for a meta on EOD maps.

 

I hate to say this kind of stuff, because GW2 is the only game I play, and this just feels like a content patch for the sake of having content to try and stay relevant.

 

I do like the Turtle though, it's super fun to play with.

[Blue D Phoenix.7260]

Have you not seen an housing build around a pillar? Most of these screenshots are roofs build around a pillar, IRL it works the same.

 

And i been telling people the same about fishing and skiffs, they are just for achievements/mats nothing fun about it like mounts or gliding. Jade bots are nothing to be missed, except the WP, which is just a "fail-safe" feature. Turtle mount is not great either,if u play solo, but as a party its good. EoD is not an expansion, but a dlc. You won't miss any QoL ingame if u dont buy EoD (unlike PoF and HoT). That being said, its not entirely bad (except for the over bright maps), still fun to play.

 

And the story of EoD isnt great,not bad either. Nothing can beat PoF+LWS4 story tho.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Blue D Phoenix.7260

[Zok.4956]

5 hours ago, Doctor Hide.6345 said:

 

And I am fine with people voicing it. But it doesn't mean I can't fight back though and state my own opinions on it.

Your opinions are valid, too. But there is no need to "fight back".  This is not forum-PVP. 

[Obliviscaris.6937]

New Kaineng feels like an empty void, there's no atmosphere to it. It breaks my heart. There's so much open, empty space with nothing filling it. 

I understand they're proud of making a really large city, but empty space is empty space. It doesn't do the concept art justice. It feels unfinished. The expansion feels unfinished.

I kind of had this impression during their stream pre-relese, I just thought "that's okay, there are just missing assets". 😥

Edited March 8, 2022 by Obliviscaris.6937

[Gregg.3970]

On 3/4/2022 at 7:11 PM, Jaunty.6018 said:

First off, the environmental design is awful.  After playing EoD for hours I had to go visit old cities from 9 years ago to remind myself that the game is still beautiful.  New Kaineng in particular is a massive eyesore...I can't even begin to understand their design philosophy here.  All the copy/pasted windows, textures and other assets are almost deliberately lazy, and you've got these unfinished looking concrete buildings surrounding everything, overlapping/clipping assets galore, and architecture that makes zero sense aesthetically or functionally with a mess of zip lines and jade bot interactive objects littered throughout.  Some of the assets themselves look great, but they're thrown together in a way that has no regard for scene composition.  And that's if you can actually see them through the blinding post processing during the day.  I cannot believe people think this city is beautiful.  It is large for the sake of being large, a chore to navigate, and feels empty despite having so much housing.  Where is everyone?  Quarantine?

 

And why aren't the areas built around mounts, with PoF-style challenges, puzzles, or at the very least some architecture that acknowledges you have a skyscale?  Many of us have had these things for a long time now, and did so much to earn them -- I was hoping for some real content specifically designed for them.  Yet, the areas are also not built for the enjoyment of people without mounts.  The raptor taxis are cool, but the ziplines are so lazily implemented and placed (especially in Kaineng) that I just can't imagine having to suffer this expansion without mounts, or wanting to.  Especially in the Echovald Wilds, a monotonous cluster of vines.

 

Getting back to aesthetics, there's also the green screen colored jade material showered all over the continent with complete disregard for surrounding colors.  I understand it is central to the plot, but they just dump it on everything.  Across the whole expansion the lighting, shadowing, colors, architecture, and camera work are so unbelievably amateurish, and that extends to the elite class skills as well.  My new ranger spec looks like everything's covered in snot, complete with exploding booger skills.  Yum!

 

Some have argued "Well it's an old game, what do you expect?"  Really?  Go revisit Black Citadel, Divinity's Reach, The Grove, Hoelbrak, or Rata Sum.  They are still gorgeously designed.  All the vanilla leveling areas are still a joy to look at and play in.  I still never get tired of hanging around Queensdale.  It's not about the graphical technology; it's about art design.  I seriously don't understand how Anet can put out an expansion that looks more dated, and yet performs worse, than the 9-year-old base content.  Even GW1 had far better art design.  There's also a distinct lack of shadows.  If you go through various areas and turn on/off shadows you'll see what I mean.  What happened there?

 

As for the new features, the fishing is basically ripped from Stardew Valley and is too involving and annoying to be the relaxing social activity it was supposed to be.  How are you supposed to have a conversation with someone fishing next to you when you're too busy staring at two bars and typing "232323232323232232323"?  The skiffs are only there to allow you to fish, which again, is not very enjoyable; otherwise, their usability is surpassed by the skimmer.  Tying the skiffs and fishing together with one button, and having to switch between them from that tiny panel was also a mistake, making fishing on a skiff more cumbersome than it aught to be.  Moving on, the jade bots are mostly useless because most of us have griffons or skyscales.  Those who don't, again, are going to suffer.  I can't speak for the other elite specs but untamed booger hammer is absolutely the worst one yet for the ranger and I'm already back to Soulbeast.  And the turtle?  Well, I guess he's good for Ubering your SO around or walking slowly on the bottom of the ocean floor, if you're into that sort of thing.  Not at all worth the trouble to try to get one.

 

I won't comment on the story because, based on what I've observed here, I'd like this post to survive more than five minutes without a mod nuking it.  Omitting that, it might survive 20.  Maybe.

 

No actual guild wars, still.  No player housing.  No new race.  No new PvP/WvW content despite being Factions-inspired.  Lack of interesting events.  Lack of maps.  No addressing issues that players have been complaining about for years.  No anything that is remotely interesting or exciting.  Hell, they couldn't even get "Cat Island" right.  Just a few copy / pasted cats on a rock.  I expected to be assaulted with cuteness.  What a missed opportunity.

 

Lastly, I've had the game crash on me SO MANY TIMES during missions, causing me to have to repeat them from the beginning.  What in the world is going on?  I never had this issue during PoF or HoT or any of the living story content.  A crash once in a blue moon, yeah, but not over and over again.  Nothing like having a mission crash right at the end after you've done a bunch of highly intellectually stimulating Simon Says mini-games, only to do it all over again. 

 

*sigh*

 

The music is nice, at least, and it's great to have the same voice actors reprising their roles after all these years.  I will give them points for that.  The audio department did their jobs well.  But what a huge letdown overall this expansion is otherwise. 

 

I know this post will be absolutely crapped on by most everyone in this forum, and that's fine.  Many of you are happy that we're even getting new content at all.  I get that, and I'm not here to ruin your fun.  I'm not going to try to tell you that the fun you are having right now is not, in fact, fun.  I want you to have fun.  In this covid-infested war-ridden world, we all need a little escapism.  In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty silly to complain so much about a video game.  But also, we paid Anet -- they have our money, under the assumption that they would provide a quality product reminiscent of their previous work.  In my eyes, and many I've seen on this forum and elsewhere, they did not deliver.  I'm not even sure who they are anymore.  Much like Blizzard with WoW, most of the key original Arenanet devs are gone, and what we have now is a new studio with a new vision, and what appears to be either a clear disregard for the old one, or the lack of expertise to continue it.  I don't know what they're trying to accomplish here, but it's not the Guild Wars I know.  And yet still, without supporting them we get nothing new, the story doesn't continue, and the future of GW becomes uncertain.  I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that decision.  I guess they can keep my money, in hopes that they'll learn and do better next time.  But once I'm done with EoD, if I even decide to keep playing it, I'm not looking back.

 

Edit: I posted some screenshots later on down the thread demonstrating the careless environmental design.  Figured I'd edit them into my original post.  Only took me about 15 minutes to find these -- you don't have to have a keen eye or go off the beaten path to encounter them.  They're everywhere. 

 

https://ibb.co/0YPcrFy
https://ibb.co/zNgxNVq
https://ibb.co/0Y0yRLC
https://ibb.co/PG2wBZ0
https://ibb.co/j5JMByp
https://ibb.co/k6C7vXd
https://ibb.co/42JbTQR
https://ibb.co/p1wNGxB
https://ibb.co/YZxnf5N
https://ibb.co/JnM7D2C
https://ibb.co/9ZBQbFX

@Jaunty.6018 you're wrong mate since you said your post will be crapped on by most on forum.  Those Hearts don't lie!

You hit the nail on the head with your post. 

I asked some of my guild mates yesterday:

What will you do when you've done EoD storyline, done all map completion, new achievements, Mastery to 455, got Turtle? 

Their answers were all the same:

"Go back to the content I was doing before EoD".

^^ In that one unanimous answer sums up all that is wrong with EoD: Where is the longevity of gameplay ?

 

Edited March 15, 2022 by Gregg.3970

[Mungrul.9358]

There's another aspect of New Kaineng that indicates the expansion was rushed; the amount of invisible walls where what's beyond them looks like it should be explorable. Multiple times I found myself banging against an invisible wall where what lay beyond looked interesting and as though it was going to be unveiled. It's most noticeable at the edges of the map, and I suspect it wasn't even necessary to slap these invisible walls in, given that three sides of the city appear to be surrounded by open ocean.

 

But that technical snafu aside, it doesn't feel like Kaineng. Kaineng from GW1 had layers, and as you got deeper, it really felt like you were getting lost in ancient and dangerous slums, populated by ne'er-do-wells and monsters.

I know EoD is supposed to be all about technology and progress, but there's still value in showing the seedy underbelly.

 

And unfortunately, while being large and difficult to navigate, it still manages to feel smaller than the Kaineng from Factions, which sprawled across multiple maps.

But this highlights another stark difference with GW2 expacs when compared to GW1's expandalone model.

Factions and Nightfall were at the very least equal in size to Prophecies' "Core Tyria".

 

Yet in GW2, Core Tyria has 31 maps (well, 26 if you discount cities), where HoT had 4, PoF had 5 and EoD has 4. Oh, and no separate city maps.

 

I get the feeling that they toyed with the idea of having Shing Jea be a new starter area, in the same way it was in Factions, hence the presence of so many tutorials, but scaled back due to lack of resources.

 

And that's how the whole thing has felt to me so far; a slew of missed opportunities. No Fort Aspenwood, no Jade Quarry, no Alliance battles, no Ritualist...

 

This is a new Guild Wars expansion. I should be struggling to tear myself away from it of an evening.

Instead, I find myself struggling to find a reason to play.

 

On the bright side, improved general encounter design in the open world means control builds are getting their moment in the sun, and Spellbreaker in particular really shines.

Bladesworn though?

LOL.

Great idea having a new espec where its main mechanic roots it for extended periods of time, then improve encounter design to punish those players who don't move.

*SERIOUSLY LOUD GOLF CLAP*

 

If you've ever watched an Angry Joe review where he pans a game, you know what I'm thinking:

"ANET, you done kittened it up!"

[Jaunty.6018]

1 hour ago, Gregg.3970 said:

@Jaunty.6018 you're wrong mate since you said your post will be crapped on by most on forum.  Those Hearts don't lie!

 

It was initially, but now I think more and more people have gotten past their honeymoon phase and are now being hit with the unfortunate realization: this is it?

Edited March 8, 2022 by Jaunty.6018

[Teratus.2859]

Guess I can give my take to now that i've beaten what I wanted to beat.

So to get it out of the way first.

The Story!
Without going into spoilers, I really enjoyed it.
There were some moments where I felt like I was being ran around a lot to bloat it out, but whenever it was trying to deliver those big moments where it wanted me to be awestruck by something or blown away by a big epic moment they absolutely succeeded, every single time.

Only advise I will give regarding the story is to do it before you explore the maps, because a lot of that running around it makes you do does involve completing hearts and hero points and stuff so if like me you are used to exploring maps before doing the story you should probably consider doing it the other way around this time and save yourself some time.

The big Meta Event!
I've made my views on that very clear in other threads, the TLDR of it is I liked it, it's fun but it needs improvements in a few areas.
I am still 100% against this event being nerfed.

The Turtle Mount!
I don't have it yet, and tbh I don't really care about it.
I'm a solo player, I rarely play with others so the appeal of a multiplayer mount is significantly low for me.
It's a turtle.. turtles are cool so that's a plus for it at least.
But I have a Raptor, a Skimmer, a Griffon, a Rollar Beetle and a Skyscale.. The turtle will never be able to compete with those.
So I am in absolutely no rush to get this mount, and when I do have it I will rarely ever use it.
Unless they add it to WvW of course, then I will have far more reason to use it.

The Skiff!
You know im kinda torn on this one, it's actually won me over a little bit since the expansion dropped.
Sure it's no Skimmer and it can't go underwater but it's still fun to drive one of these things around.
I like the Skiff, I like that I can summon it into the world as an object I can interact with.
It makes me wonder what else we can have with that kind of system in future.
Personally I would love to be able to place my mount in the world and interact with it in other ways besides just riding it around.
Let me play with it, train it, feed it treats to boost it's health, damage, speed, stamina recovery etc.. I'm a Ranger main, I'd get a huge kick out of something like that XD

Fishing!
It's ok.. it's pretty relaxing and can be fun.
I like that is something I can work on over a long period of time casually.
But as pointed out it's not so much of a social thing when you can't really talk to random people when doing it... You're either fishing or talking not both.
Unless you are all on Discord or something it's not really that social.
It's not so much a problem for me personally but I can see why it is for others.

Jade Bots!
Guess i'm mixed on this one too, I like the gliding boost.. so there's that but other than that I haven't much to say on this one.
The Vitality boost I guess is nice for glassier builds, though doesn't really feel necessary.
I also hope it doesn't impact any future content development either, assuming we all have maxed out cores.
I've not played around with the upgrades so much though so I can't speak for anything like the Karma converter and Treasure Hunter stuff.
Guess the best thing I can say about it is this, I neither like nor dislike the Jade Bot.

Maps!
Lastly the maps.
Honestly I don't think they quite lived up to my expectations.
They are pretty, at least most of them are.

Seitung Province is the clear winner, it's a nice looking map that holds true to old Gw1 Cantha in many ways.
It's got plenty of water to play around in, a Leviathan to fight and is generally just a real nice place to explore and relax in.

New Kaineng City.. this one is by far the worst for me.
It's certainly an impressive sight when you first see it, but once you start exploring it, it quickly starts to loose that appeal.
This map is a vertical nightmare, navigating it was not a fun experience due to the repetitive design/architecture and completing it felt very tedious.
There is probably a lot going on in this map that I simply never saw nor had any idea even existed because it's just that awkward to get around in it.
The one saving grace is that this city thankfully wasn't a hardcore cyberpunk eyesore like some of us were expecting so that's thankfully a plus.
But yea overall didn't like this map very much.

Echovald Wilds.
Quite the maze this one, not so much for generally getting around but for specifically grabbing POI's and stuff this one could get quite frustrating.
At times it also felt quite empty with not much to do, plenty of mobs running around but maybe it's just me and my experience but outside of the meta it felt like there were almost no events to do.. 
I was excited for this map but I don't think it quite hit the spot for me.
Completing it was quite a pain due to some PoI's and stuff being awkward to get to and 2 of the hearts here involve disguises and infiltrating enemy locations where you can't mount and get around like normal and you have to mess around without being seen and uhh.. Sorry this kind of thing is very boring to me in MMO's and I don't enjoy it, and you guys put it on this map twice!

The meta on this map is.. well, it's not bad but it is annoying.
If there are two things I hate in games it's cheap one hit kill mechanics and "gravity" mechanics.. and this boss has both of them.
I hate being excessively pulled around and this boss does it constantly through the whole fight.. it's not fun, it's annoying and it affects the entire arena not just those localised to the gravity well.
And then there is the one shot mechanic.. you have to get behind a pile of junk to avoid this hit, yeah that's fine.
But what isn't fine is when only one pile of junk spawns and it's on the opposite side of the arena and everyone just got pulled to the other side by the last gravity well and only a handful of players are able to make to the pile while the rest of the zerg gets completely obliterated in a single attack.
That right there is what I would call BS deaths.. and it has happened for me at least once or twice in every run of this boss.
Because of that, I can only describe this boss as annoying and unlikable.

The Jade Sea, I know it's not the official name but that's what I'll call it.
It's a pretty map i'll give it that but it's clearly designed around one main purpose so there isn't really much else to say about it.
Most of the problems with this map are associated with the big meta event here so there isn't much else to say.
I like the map and I like the meta.
But I do hope that when new living world content starts coming we do get another location in the Jade Sea to explore that is more focused on the region rather than a big meta event chain.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Teratus.2859

[Reflex.5286]

Couldn't agree more, Just felt like a lame living story, and once again 0 updates to any sort of competitiveness...

[curtegg.5216]

Waypoints lacking in new maps especially frustrating because even with mounts you come up late rushing to events that disappear way too fast far away from the waypoints.   That is what annoys me the most.

[ugrakarma.9416]

On 3/4/2022 at 10:05 PM, Einsof.1457 said:

The story felt a bit rushed, and the writing was quite poor, but besides that I love everything about it. Environments are awesome.  I would rather have more raid wings than strikes, but meh. 

the gutted IBS because they need "rush to make EoD".

and the EoD seems rushed for "something else".

and the next something else will be rushed for another something else.....

 

Anet seems like experimenting new things, inst wrong by itself, but sometimes its seems love experiment with obvious disasters.

 

LS1 itself was error. unrepeatable content, because we will "make a permanently chaging world", whoa who comes with this that unrepeatable content will be great? Now the obvios result: the weird gap between personal history and LS2. the poor noob that still like this game after Personal History will have a surprise, he can buy a "living world season 2". and  if he ask where are season 1, he wil have to watch a youtube or ella macckay npc lmao.

Edited March 12, 2022 by ugrakarma.9416

[Opun.3824]

On 3/4/2022 at 8:11 PM, Jaunty.6018 said:

First off, the environmental design is awful.  After playing EoD for hours I had to go visit old cities from 9 years ago to remind myself that the game is still beautiful.  New Kaineng in particular is a massive eyesore...I can't even begin to understand their design philosophy here.  All the copy/pasted windows, textures and other assets are almost deliberately lazy, and you've got these unfinished looking concrete buildings surrounding everything, overlapping/clipping assets galore, and architecture that makes zero sense aesthetically or functionally with a mess of zip lines and jade bot interactive objects littered throughout.  Some of the assets themselves look great, but they're thrown together in a way that has no regard for scene composition.  And that's if you can actually see them through the blinding post processing during the day.  I cannot believe people think this city is beautiful.  It is large for the sake of being large, a chore to navigate, and feels empty despite having so much housing.  Where is everyone?  Quarantine?

 

And why aren't the areas built around mounts, with PoF-style challenges, puzzles, or at the very least some architecture that acknowledges you have a skyscale?  Many of us have had these things for a long time now, and did so much to earn them -- I was hoping for some real content specifically designed for them.  Yet, the areas are also not built for the enjoyment of people without mounts.  The raptor taxis are cool, but the ziplines are so lazily implemented and placed (especially in Kaineng) that I just can't imagine having to suffer this expansion without mounts, or wanting to.  Especially in the Echovald Wilds, a monotonous cluster of vines.

 

Getting back to aesthetics, there's also the green screen colored jade material showered all over the continent with complete disregard for surrounding colors.  I understand it is central to the plot, but they just dump it on everything.  Across the whole expansion the lighting, shadowing, colors, architecture, and camera work are so unbelievably amateurish, and that extends to the elite class skills as well.  My new ranger spec looks like everything's covered in snot, complete with exploding booger skills.  Yum!

 

Some have argued "Well it's an old game, what do you expect?"  Really?  Go revisit Black Citadel, Divinity's Reach, The Grove, Hoelbrak, or Rata Sum.  They are still gorgeously designed.  All the vanilla leveling areas are still a joy to look at and play in.  I still never get tired of hanging around Queensdale.  It's not about the graphical technology; it's about art design.  I seriously don't understand how Anet can put out an expansion that looks more dated, and yet performs worse, than the 9-year-old base content.  Even GW1 had far better art design.  There's also a distinct lack of shadows.  If you go through various areas and turn on/off shadows you'll see what I mean.  What happened there?

 

As for the new features, the fishing is basically ripped from Stardew Valley and is too involving and annoying to be the relaxing social activity it was supposed to be.  How are you supposed to have a conversation with someone fishing next to you when you're too busy staring at two bars and typing "232323232323232232323"?  The skiffs are only there to allow you to fish, which again, is not very enjoyable; otherwise, their usability is surpassed by the skimmer.  Tying the skiffs and fishing together with one button, and having to switch between them from that tiny panel was also a mistake, making fishing on a skiff more cumbersome than it aught to be.  Moving on, the jade bots are mostly useless because most of us have griffons or skyscales.  Those who don't, again, are going to suffer.  I can't speak for the other elite specs but untamed booger hammer is absolutely the worst one yet for the ranger and I'm already back to Soulbeast.  And the turtle?  Well, I guess he's good for Ubering your SO around or walking slowly on the bottom of the ocean floor, if you're into that sort of thing.  Not at all worth the trouble to try to get one.

 

I won't comment on the story because, based on what I've observed here, I'd like this post to survive more than five minutes without a mod nuking it.  Omitting that, it might survive 20.  Maybe.

 

No actual guild wars, still.  No player housing.  No new race.  No new PvP/WvW content despite being Factions-inspired.  Lack of interesting events.  Lack of maps.  No addressing issues that players have been complaining about for years.  No anything that is remotely interesting or exciting.  Hell, they couldn't even get "Cat Island" right.  Just a few copy / pasted cats on a rock.  I expected to be assaulted with cuteness.  What a missed opportunity.

 

Lastly, I've had the game crash on me SO MANY TIMES during missions, causing me to have to repeat them from the beginning.  What in the world is going on?  I never had this issue during PoF or HoT or any of the living story content.  A crash once in a blue moon, yeah, but not over and over again.  Nothing like having a mission crash right at the end after you've done a bunch of highly intellectually stimulating Simon Says mini-games, only to do it all over again. 

 

*sigh*

 

The music is nice, at least, and it's great to have the same voice actors reprising their roles after all these years.  I will give them points for that.  The audio department did their jobs well.  But what a huge letdown overall this expansion is otherwise. 

 

I know this post will be absolutely crapped on by most everyone in this forum, and that's fine.  Many of you are happy that we're even getting new content at all.  I get that, and I'm not here to ruin your fun.  I'm not going to try to tell you that the fun you are having right now is not, in fact, fun.  I want you to have fun.  In this covid-infested war-ridden world, we all need a little escapism.  In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty silly to complain so much about a video game.  But also, we paid Anet -- they have our money, under the assumption that they would provide a quality product reminiscent of their previous work.  In my eyes, and many I've seen on this forum and elsewhere, they did not deliver.  I'm not even sure who they are anymore.  Much like Blizzard with WoW, most of the key original Arenanet devs are gone, and what we have now is a new studio with a new vision, and what appears to be either a clear disregard for the old one, or the lack of expertise to continue it.  I don't know what they're trying to accomplish here, but it's not the Guild Wars I know.  And yet still, without supporting them we get nothing new, the story doesn't continue, and the future of GW becomes uncertain.  I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that decision.  I guess they can keep my money, in hopes that they'll learn and do better next time.  But once I'm done with EoD, if I even decide to keep playing it, I'm not looking back.

 

Edit: I posted some screenshots later on down the thread demonstrating the careless environmental design.  Figured I'd edit them into my original post.  Only took me about 15 minutes to find these -- you don't have to have a keen eye or go off the beaten path to encounter them.  They're everywhere. 

 

https://ibb.co/0YPcrFy
https://ibb.co/zNgxNVq
https://ibb.co/0Y0yRLC
https://ibb.co/PG2wBZ0
https://ibb.co/j5JMByp
https://ibb.co/k6C7vXd
https://ibb.co/42JbTQR
https://ibb.co/p1wNGxB
https://ibb.co/YZxnf5N
https://ibb.co/JnM7D2C
https://ibb.co/9ZBQbFX

 

I start with that i was rly rly Hyped for this expnsion, and with sadness i must agree in 100% what u wrote here.

 

I would also add that this expansion also have small amount of rewards and skins(GW2 is pretty much only about skin so should be lot more), and skins quality is rather low.

Post processing on maps is not rly good, too much contrast, too exposed, green is too saturated. The only nice map is Arborstone but it looks like it doesnt fit rest of cantha, gothic cathedral in asia??

 

Also the vendor for Writs of Dragons End is missing o0, each map have vendor u can spend writs (small amount of rewards but at least there is something), so by doing this hard time consuming DE META u would expect to have some nice reward, some npc u can spend hard earned Writs, but no, nothing, u get turtle egg, and after this nothin, it just looks like they forgot to add npc to dragons end.

 

Whole expansion looks rly rushed and should be in development for next year probably 😞

 

I wont write about story and voice acting coz i never rly liked it in GW2.

 

No ascended backpack with Ritualist stats o0.

 

On good things - i was waiting for Specter and i am glad what they made (would change a few traits but thats it).

 

Even tho Specter is cool, thief can finally have some form of support after finishing story, masteries, crafting few armor parts i like (monastery, simple but nice), there is nothing much to do.

 

WvWvW, well nothing changed here, no new maps, nothing, even just some refreshed new looking map with same layout would be nice, running for 9 years on same maps is rather boring.

 

ALSO teleporting from cantha to rest of the world is just soo expensive that my wallet soon wont handle it... cheap move from anet side to make casual player buy gems... i rather buy outfit for gems not gold for teleporting around...

 

I am just hoping that maybe in coming weeks we will see the rest of expansion in small updates 🙂

Edited March 12, 2022 by Opun.3824

[twizzy.2837]

Agreed, this is a dreadful expansion. The developers just went mad and completely over-the-top with just about every aspect of this Xpac. I've slogged my way to the last zone in this Xpac, just so I can complete the story. Once done, I am never coming back to EoD (End of Dross).

[Rendalmj.3152]

After 2 weeks of play new expansion . I have full mastery new mount i am burnout from fishing. I find myself go back to old map and meta and did not play new map for days with not realizing. I like old maps meta pof pinata. Hot map octovine and chak more funner and simpler than cantha map. I see now what people say.. and loot is very terrible so sad

[Jaunty.6018]

17 minutes ago, twizzy.2837 said:

Agreed, this is a dreadful expansion. The developers just went mad and completely over-the-top with just about every aspect of this Xpac. I've slogged my way to the last zone in this Xpac, just so I can complete the story. Once done, I am never coming back to EoD (End of Dross).

Yeah.  It's been absolutely puzzling watching people vehemently defend it.  I can't tell you how many times I've been bullied, reported, etc for speaking my mind.  As someone who has been playing since the beta of GW1, no less.  Far longer than most of them, or the devs for that matter.  One slight mention of the expansion being a letdown in mapchat and everyone gangs up on you and insults / belittles you.  So much for preaching against intolerance.  I was just silenced on here for 3 days and had my posts deleted for criticizing the story and the team for writing it.  The writing is about as bad as it gets.  Aside from the actual narrative being bonkers, any more forced modern politics and you might as well give us a political questionnaire when we create a character and boot us to desktop if we aren't woke enough.

 

I sincerely hope Anet's okay with having a small niche group of fanboys playing their game because that's what it's going to become.  Already seeing it.  I have half a mind to delete my characters, uninstall, and never look back.  That's what they're forcing us to do with their attitude and absolute carelessness towards the game's original vision.  It makes me feel kind of sick inside, knowing I'll lose so much I've worked for and having it all amount to nothing.  But I guess that's life.  The alternative is taking whatever they feed us, lowering our standards, and have them make us feel like we don't belong in their bubble.  Everyone should belong in a MMORPG.  Especially one that preaches tolerance.

[ixon.2496]

After finishing the story i just felt deflated. No real motivation to explore more, completed all the other maps except exhovault because getting around it was so tedious. Strikes don't really interest me and i have a feeling they'll be as empty as dungeons are after a year if that. 

 

I mainly played PvP and WvW since 2012, it was only the past couple years i really got into the PvE side and immensely enjoyed my time through HoT and PoF story, the latter a lot more. It felt grand and engaging. EoD just feels hollow, as if lots of little things put together like living world.  I started playing guild wars during factions, and had hopes this would fill me with nostalgia. But it more feels like the history was all but steamrolled and skimmed over for a writer to tell their fanfic. 

 

Don't get me wrong, i've had more than a decade of guild wars i've enjoyed. And i thank Anet for the work they put in, even if this misses the mark for me. I dont regret my purchase, i'd love the franchise to succeed and continue. But Anet has changed so much from what i fell in love with in 2006, writing/design philosophy/content, it might just not be for me anymore. I hope they make changes and build the expansion into something better, but if not, thanks for what i enjoyed.

[Gorem.8104]

On 3/8/2022 at 3:47 PM, Doctor Hide.6345 said:

You think you are worn out? Try dealing with all the negative people who haven't stopped since they announced the expansion. I am glad more positive people are speaking out fighting back this wave of pure negativity. Not every person who complains is very constructive either. There are some who just want it their way not caring about those who do like it as is.

I am sorry, but that is how games work. Not everyone views things to your standards, so if people liking the expansion bugs you that much. Then all I have to say is tough crap and get over it because that is how the world works. It will always be a flow like this. And not all of us are saying the game is perfect since we know the bugs need to be fixed and such with some balance changes. But we can at least acknowledge the work the team put it even if some don't want to recognize it.

 

Here's the thing, if you are positive over the game going downhill, that means you essentially want the game to die. People are negative cause they love the game and want it to improve and get better. Would you have said the same about Electricity? Oh people have lived for ages without it, we don't need power be positive! 

 

Anet has taken something people love and spat all over it with EoD. It needed another year of work. The E-specs are not finished. The zones are empty. When EoD launched there was like a thousand people in Lornars pass doing the first quest. Yet when you go to Cantha? Empty. The events reward is congrats you just wasted your time doing this event. The Quests are Strike missions then Hearts then wait and listen while afk. Way to much green. Jade bot batteries are just scattered all over the place for no reason, I've seen hundreds of better suggestions to how the batteries could have worked, amongst a few it could have just gathered power over time. The Jade Bot itself is the most Alt-Unfriendly mechanic the game has EVER seen. It needs a bench to change its effects of which you can only have 2 of? Why not scavenge with Recycle with the others? why limit it so? Gem store upgrades later? 

Why make your expansions main mechanic we are taking outside of Cantha, so weak? Mounts still worked in HoT. Gliding works everywhere yet the Jade Bot? Oh we gonna get more money slowly and a balance of extra health that could have just been added to our pools without this useless bot? Obviously every content released now that it does effect will have the level 10 bot in mind. And then they make the final mastery for its track meaningless as it goes over your revive skill. Weakest Expansion upgrade ever. And lets not get started on locking the Turtle behind group content and saying its as easy as the Beetle. Also not to mention the story which is terrible and filled with bugs but that's another multi paragraph. 

We negative because Anet has done better in the past. HoT meta's are awesome and still done to this day, mounts are incredible and epic, gliding is awesome. Mounts are awesome, Lw4 to me has the best writing the game has ever seen and feels like the true end. Previous E-specs launched better then this. And the game was more open minded when it came to the casual gamer. Nine years its been a different game then what EoD wants it to be. 

[Doctor Hide.6345]

43 minutes ago, Gorem.8104 said:

 

Here's the thing, if you are positive over the game going downhill, that means you essentially want the game to die. People are negative cause they love the game and want it to improve and get better. Would you have said the same about Electricity? Oh people have lived for ages without it, we don't need power be positive! 

*Snip for ease of read*

I will just say this. I am tired of dealing with people who think negativity to this level helps in all situations. Not referring to Jaunty here since we already covered that in this thread, but when there is out of 10 threads lets say 7 bad and 3 good like it was then I say the balance is off and good threads should become stronger to make it 5 good and 5 bad. And no, that is your take that being positive is ruining the game and making it die. It is not a fact. People like me being positive for the most part is not killing the game. I am just bringing balance back.

As for the turtle mount one, I don't comment on that because well I don't care for open world metas here much. I only recently commented on some threads about it once they said A-net is adding in the 200 scripts at the vendor which is fine for me. But on the actual difficulty I don't really have sides since I never plan to do it.