EoD is the Best Expansion and Content For GW 2 EVER! - A Review

[Novah.2510]

So I just finished the story and I wanted to give a review of almost everything. Many spoilers included!

 

I tried out most of the new content except some of the masteries that I'm still working on and the meta event which I haven't been able to get into yet. Every map is always full when I try but eventually it may be open.

*First I want to list the things I love most and there are A LOT:

- New character screen background is the best
- Colors and atmosphere of everything throughout the expansion
- Every part from the writing to the technical stuff has come a long way. Quality of direction, storytelling, visual/audio, editing, ect are the best they have ever been. It feels cinematic like we're in a movie. The whole experience is very immersive and exciting
- Story is well-told and the most interesting of them all IMO. All the ideas, conversations, relationships, developments, nuances, lessons, meanings, and how it all culminated
- I like that the final antagonist isn't an Elder Dragon but what Gorrik described as an error from what they created that they needed to fix. From where the story all started to this ending it has been the most incredible journey and a fitting conclusion
- Opening and closing credits and of course the credits song!
- Length of story is long (in a satisfying way) and rich and not rushed. You can just feel all the care, attention, and love the designers put into this as the conclusion. Not just to the elder dragon story but to all their work from the beginning to now
- Elite specs are some of the most clever and interesting in GW 2 and all very impressive
- Music is brilliant at every moment especially in the final battle it was so epic without sounding cheesy
- The humor. It wasn't excessive or forced and worked with the situation
- Love Taimi. She has some of the best lines in this. I liked the nod about "Where the heck is Zojja!?" Something many of us have been wondering
- The dialogue is well-written and acted. There were a lot of funny moments outside of the story as well from random NPCs around the maps. Bonnie Kunderah is hilarious
- Characters and plot. The reveal of Soo-Won's name and that she is the Mother of all the dragons and how she created them. The last scene with her is so beautiful visually but also in saying goodbye to her
- The finale fight was the most exciting battle I've ever had in this game. And to see all the Elder Dragons again in nearly full form was so cool
- How we became like a god with all the Elder Dragon power and got to use the Aurene legendries! I really can't wait to make them
- Getting to spend time with Jory again and working along side her as she does her detective work. I love her focus and her determination like when she called out Gorrik for spending too much time on a device while she was anxious to get going
- The surprise wedding and in our first meet up spot, all our friends there, and finally seeing Jory and Kas propose to each other
- Asian themes and culture. I also like the moments of ordering food at food carts and restaurants
- The focus on the future and the use of drones and new technology. The drone control aspect is really cool. It's also like an out-of-body experience being able to do things and see your character from a different perspective
- The featuring of female characters and female themes
- The maps and visual aesthetic are my favorite part of this expansion. So much work and design went into each of these maps. They are intricate, detailed, deep, and vast and have so much character and charm to them
- Maps have the perfect balance of horizontal and vertical range and scope. Plenty of room for Skyscale to ascend and explore and gives the best use of the skycale in the game
- In Kaineng, the size makes it feel like being in a real city and it's easily my favorite map and place to be. I love that you can be high-up on a building rooftop and see some people or kids just sitting on their roofs
- HoT has mostly jungle areas and PoF has mostly desert areas, but EoD has a lot of variety and finally a large-scale modern city with buildings and rooftops to hang out on
- The style and vibe of every map is distinct and memorable. Jade Sea map is a dream. I love how you can be on a house that survived the event there and it's surrounded by jade. Walking on the jade waves is just like it was in GW Factions. The secluded building areas at Southern Bluff are so beautiful especially in the shaded lighting. All the architecture, designs, and art
- There's little areas and pockets in all the maps that are so nice to be in
- The lighting of the maps especially in daylight look amazing. In the afternoon in some parts of Kaineng the water is a shiny bright green and it glows white around you
- Every angle is a great screenshot. I couldn't stop taking screenshots
- HPs are fun and able to solo just as good as the PoF ones. Not too hard or too easy
- Skiffs/Boats are such a pleasure to be on. The whole serene vibe with the music and the ocean waves and sky while being on your boat is relaxing. Controlling them feels like a real boat and I tried it out on different areas like really shallow spots and the boat can keep going over them it just slows down and speeds up when you get back into deeper water. Sometimes it gets stuck but you can usually back up
- The theme of the elder dragons throughout, finale to the story, and celebration of the dragons that started GW 2
- Underwater sequences with Soo-Won and just love her design and colors
- The ocean and water themes. Boats and fishing
- Fishing is well-designed and I like the progression system
- Arborstone is the most gorgeous place and so huge! Its masteries I'm still working on but they all sound good
- Jade Bot animations are polished and the abilities are clever and useful
- 3rd Generation Legendries are by far my favorite new addition other than the maps. The Aurene set is the most breathtaking I've ever seen and making these legendries will be the perfect endgame for me
- I am just so beyond happy with the Catalyst and Virtuoso elite specs. They are everything I wanted for these professions. The whole design, all their skill animations, and the variety and balance of abilities
The details like the 5 blades that hover over the Virtuoso all the time and how the Catalyst Jade Sphere button has elemental visual effects around the icon for each attunement
- Many other little things like being returned to a platform if you fall or launch yourself off. Teleporting you back if you walk past instance barriers as well as being able to restart close to where you were if you leave a story instance. All of this makes the experience even better
- Being in Joon's house and seeing all the different types of settings, furniture, ect makes me excited for a personal housing feature in GW 2 sometime in the future. Especially when you place your boat in the water it's similar to how you place furniture and items in other games that have housing

*Next I list just some things I kind of wished were different but overall are not a big deal at all:

- Not many re-doable HPs to do for experience like in PoF which was more efficient and fun than doing random events
- Personal Waypoint has many drawbacks like the 10-minute recharge to set a new spot and only being able to use once
- The keys to control the ascend and descend of the jade bot isn't as easy as it is for mounts and you can't really re-bind the keys without it changing something you have set
- There isn't an option to key-bind each specific mastery so it's a little clunky to activate different masteries. Like if you want to take out your skiff and then fishing pole quickly, it's not as smooth as if they were all key-bound and you being able to do it in 2 easy steps
- The slowness effect on movement speed in missions
- The "find item" and maze-type tasks were a bit repetitive
- The voice-acting of the the Void antagonist in the personal story instance was a little flat
- Was hoping for more water content or even an update to the underwater interface and weapons/skills, and abilities. Not many underwater monsters, battles, races, NPCs, locations, ect. Hopefully one day if we get to explore the Unending Ocean there will be more content and new features like this

*Finally I want to say that I am so grateful and happy to have GW 2 to play and that you made this amazing game that we love.

This was such a perfect ending to Guild Wars even if this isn't the last expansion or story. No matter what happens in the future this was the most satisfying installment for me.

As always Anet raises the bar. HoT and PoF were amazing and EoD just brings everything to a whole new level. GW 2 is once again an incredible experience unlike any other game I've experienced💗

Edited April 3, 2022 by Novah.2510

[Exxcalibur.6203]

Or not, but im pleased youre happy.

[Hoover.6394]

Amazing expansion! Love the story and maps

[Rendalmj.3152]

Best MMO expansion launch ever !! No Que just smooth like Michael Jackson smooth criminal

 

[vectorfox.6894]

Cinematics are definitely a welcome step-up though the story was a mess in many respects but mostly the pacing and the conclusion.

[Arnox.5128]

The story and characters are definitely some of the best work ANet has ever done.

But in the features and gameplay department... EoD fails in that regard. The expansion did not fix ANY of the major problem points GW2 has had for years and still has. Skiffs don't really add a lot of options to gameplay at all, and fishing is... A thing I guess. The jade bots were a cool concept, but they're also too heavily limited. And the siege turtle is a cool mount I guess, but it's just another land mount at the end of the day. Normally these things would be fine if we got a feature pack along with it or a feature overhaul to a much needed area of the game, but we didn't.

Dat story though... So good. It's really REALLY hard to be mad about the above when EoD just presents itself sooo well with a beautiful world and great cast of characters and an incredible plot. I still haven't finished it yet, but kitten.

Edited March 5, 2022 by Arnox.5128

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

This is great to read, thank you all for taking the time to share the things you like! As I've mentioned elsewhere, we are looking at feedback carefully. Constructive criticism is necessary, but it's also great to know what you feel we did well! 

[Ashantara.8731]

Review

Story

When Rubi mentioned repeatedly that players would be "blown away" by this and that, I was skeptical - because of how disappointing the Icebrood Saga felt and because they didn't show anything during the livestreams that convinced me otherwise.

Now that I have finished, I am indeed blown away. The pace and the quality we saw in terms of story-telling and dialogue were top-notch in my book. The best GW2 has delivered to date. I liked the pace, because you got caught up not only in the excellent narrative but also in the beautiful visuals (underwater facility - 'nuff said).

Most importantly, however, as I think this deserves mention, are the newly introduced mechanics which were absolutely a fresh breeze of air - one that was long overdue. I don't want to spoil too much, but I don't recall the last time I had this much fun doing story mission, if ever. Finally some stimulation of the brain in this expansion!
 

Exploration

I was skeptical at the quality of maps, too, as the livestreams barely showed anything, and what they showed didn't feel pleasant to the eye. Jade-tech in particular isn't my cup of tea, or so I thought. While I still don't like their aesthetics and am not a fan of high-tech in my fantasy games, I can appreciate what the devs did here for the simple fact that they managed to make it blend in so well (the tech part, that is - we can still argue about the mechs' aesthetics and the choice of color for dragon jade). The mechanics of jade-tech are a lot of fun, actually. At least I had fun with them, and their implementation into the story missions was top-notch ("The Turing Test", anyone?).

In general, all aspects of a map, the story, the events, the different locations (e.g., the haunted graveyard and spooky dungeons), the mood projection achieved through design, lighting, music, ambient dialogue, discoveries, historical references etc, the Heart quests, felt perfectly woven together to create a beautiful fabric instead of feeling disjointed. I don't think GW2 ever managed to get this right before as most of the time exploration felt more "mechanical" than like a true adventure. So I did take my time to explore everything on my own pace and let the mood sink in instead of rushing through it in order to complete each map and continue with the next story mission. It was totally worth it.
 

Enemy Spawns

The only criticism I have regarding exploration is about the respawn times of enemies in the Echovald Wilds. I was continuously attacked while talking to some heart or story NPC. I always had to either fight with the dialogue window open (as some of the dialogue cannot be initiated again, so you don't want to miss anything - thankfully, my Guardian has proper skills to pull enemies close, especially all the range-attacking ones, and fight them on the spot) or end the dialogue in order to fight, only to see the same group of enemies respawn during my next attempt on finishing the dialogue in peace.

Perhaps this needs to be looked into by the devs? Create some "safe spots" around such NPCs?
 

Fishing

A lot more fun than I'd expected! I thought it would be boring, but here I am, catching myself frequently pursuing said activity, heh. I like the mechanics, and I'm not even mad if I fail every once in a while when the moving cursor speeds up like crazy.
 

Rewards

I think that EoD is doing everything right this time. I feel like playing through the story and doing events feels a lot more rewarding, and the change in Magic Find has already shown results (at least in my case).

In general, it feels a lot more rewarding to participate in events or replay the story etc, which is always an incentive for players.

The crafting aspects of this expansion are another thumbs-up in my book. It's an additional aspect that keeps players engaged in the content.
 

Narrative Quality

One more display of superior writing compared to most of the old content (the Icebrood Saga in particular).

Though I am not much of a fan of modern speech and tongue-in-cheek dialogue in a fantasy game, as that usually breaks immersion for me, it is definitely less obnoxious when it is well done, i.e. when the characters don't come across as dimwits and the humorous remarks are on-point. And this was definitely achieved here (hell, to me, even all of Dragon's Watch were fully redeemed in the end, and that says a lot 😄).

The new characters were all super well written as well, villains and allies alike, and the plot with its twists and turns had the perfect pace to make everything that happened plausible. I loved every bit!
 

Soundtrack

Previously to EoD's release, I was on board with the criticism of EoD's soundtrack being somewhat inferior to the grand compositions of Jemery and Julian Soule, which always used catchy motifs that had a high recognition value.

However, after playing through EoD, I must revise my point of view: the background music in particular (e.g. the eerie music we hear in Echovald) is often more pleasant when it is less "in your face" (or ear, in this case). EoD's music totally sucked me right into the mood of each map, so goal achieved I'd say.

Also, the main themes we hear at the character selection screen are quite beautiful and catchy after all. So, thank you to the composers.
 

Strike Missions

I can't say anything about the new Strike Missions yet, but I have noticed a lot of Raid mechanics being used in the final map's meta. It looks like ANet is eager to train their players properly this time 😉 , which suggests that the Strike Missions are challenging. I am looking forward to playing them!
 

Character Selection Screen

While the ambient is beautiful (and the music as well, as mentioned above), there are two things that still need fixing:

1. The size of characters. It's been clear for years that characters are scaled in the CSS by width instead of height. This causes severe display issues, for Charr characters in particular, which are so oversized that they don't even fit the screen. Please fix this, ANet (perhaps implement a set display height per race?).
    
2. The lighting. While it is a lot better than PoF's, there is still the issue of the lighting source: when it shines from above, it puts unpleasant shadows on the characters' faces, making most of them look either extremely old (mostly the asura) or like thugs (mostly my male humans). Perhaps the lighting source can be changed back to how it was in the HoT CSS? 🙂
    

QoL Additions

Last, but not least, these deserve an honorary mention. Some minor things got added that make life as a Tyrian adventurer a lot easier (more loadouts, being able to deactivate name tags in squads, etc).

Thank you for that, too!
 

7 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

This is great to read, thank you all for taking the time to share the things you like! As I've mentioned elsewhere, we are looking at feedback carefully. Constructive criticism is necessary, but it's also great to know what you feel we did well! 

👍

Edited March 5, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[b k.1648]

I'd say it's pretty close to being my favourite as well, to my surprise. I think PoF is more of a must-have due to the mounts, but I much prefer EoD's story.

 

The only thing that's letting it down is the lack of other players in the maps. Lots of group events that just cannot be completed because no-one else is there, which is a bit bizarre to see in the first week after launch.

[Ashantara.8731]

19 minutes ago, Ben K.6238 said:

The only thing that's letting it down is the lack of other players in the maps. Lots of group events that just cannot be completed because no-one else is there, which is a bit bizarre to see in the first week after launch.

Hm, to my experience, LFG groups always fill up quickly - so fast, in fact, that new instances are created and joining a particular one is often impossible.

[vectorfox.6894]

1 hour ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

This is great to read, thank you all for taking the time to share the things you like! As I've mentioned elsewhere, we are looking at feedback carefully. Constructive criticism is necessary, but it's also great to know what you feel we did well! 

Fantastic to hear Rubi, there are moments of this expac that show real growth within the Arenanet team and many of the parts that i think fell short were likely from outside factors like time or project restraints so this will be an amazing period for the game going forward.
sending my best wishes.

 

 

[Flowersunshine.7385]

I'd like to say that I agree with lots of this, BUT I liked the slowed movement speed in stories most of the time. Too often my hastiness has cut dialogue short because I landed too early at the next dialogue trigger. Automatically keeping pace with the NPCs (instead of having to run-stop-run-stop/walk-run-walk-run) really improves the experience.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

My First Blush (EOD MIXED REACTION)

 

ZONE DESIGN

- the usual amazing locale designs that the game has had fairly consistently since launch.  This time, though, they seem to be even a cut above GW2's usual quality.  Stunning.

- the initial part of the story was quite fun, though the oft-encountered DC occurred during the scene where Detective Rama found "me" on the beach.

- mob difficulty, so far at least, seems matched to character capabilities.

- exploration is fun.

 

META EVENT

 

- I have participated in one map meta event.

- it felt typical in one way -- the boss was a large, vaguely humanoid figure wreathed in special effects throughout, making it very difficult to see the model's quality, or identify tells, despite having chosen options to supposedly reduce the eyestrain.

- the map-wide notification was useful, and I was able to navigate to the event because there was a tag, though I had just gotten to the map.

- I expect the event difficulty would be greatly mitigated by being in a group with a pocket healer.  Not being in a group meant that the damage was very hard to stay on top of.  This was exacerbated by unfamiliarity with the event itself, coupled with the reduced ability to see what was going on due to the visual effects.

 

ELITE SPECS

 

- I find Harbinger, Specter, Virtuoso and Mechanist to be a lot of fun.

- Willbender might be OK, but I will probably end up not using much of the utilities in favor of the more varied options in the core skills.

- Catalyst is better than in the first beta, but the jury is still out.

- Untamed feels clunky and my results with it have been decidedly underwhelming 

- I've not tried the Vindicator nor the warrior spec yet, and I suppose my not remembering the warrior spec's name is telling.

 

SPECIALIZATION WEAPONS

 

- To get all of them, I have to do the story nine times, in addition to all the other requirements?  That's a lot to ask for a few skins that are reskinned versions of the starter spec skins, imo.  ommv.

[Zero.3871]

can just agree to OP. great expansion.

especs in my opinion have interesting designs and its fun to explore the designs and mechanisms, learning how to play them.

story is exciting and great designed.

maps are stunning, just awesome. 

and also the technical execution was great as weell. bugs get fixed fast.

i enjoy it a lot. big congratz to to everyone at anet. 

[Cameryn.5310]

My Review

 

Pros:

1. I love the maps, they're absolutely stunning.  I had a great time exploring them.  I think New Kaineng is my favorite.  Can't wait for the next season's additions.
2. Story was magnificent.  The climax in Dragon's End was so fun, it reminded me of the Balthazar stuff at the end of PoF.  (Bonus points for the amazing epilogue in Divinity's Reach.  Thank you for going all in on the you-know-what-that-I-won't-spoil with M & K... haters be damned, it was beautiful.)
3. I really like the Jade Bot addition.  Still getting the hang of the fishing & skiff stuff (and I haven't figured out how to unlock the turtle yet, but I'm sure I will.)
4. The opening chapter was much more exciting than the one in PoF or HoT.
5. The Dragon's End meta is a lot of fun, with a caveat (see below).
6. ANet, you guys knocked it out of the park on communications this time... all the streams and previews and releases.  Don't ever stop doing this, please.  It was perfect.

Cons (only a couple):

1. As I said, I love the Dragon's End meta, but it's too punishing for open world groups... and, far more importantly, the lack of rewards for a failure (and let's face it, they're almost all failures right now) after over an hour of prep work is really disappointing.  Tone down the open world requirements a bit because right now it just doesn't feel fun to spend a bunch of time doing this and walking away with bitter disappointment and nothing to show for it.
2. I remember in IBS that there was a way to sign up for a strike mission at the portal and get matched with random people... is this gone?  I loathe finding my own groups for things like this and I bet a lot of people (including me) won't bother because of it.  (Please don't point to the LFG tool, that's the same thing as finding my own groups.)
3. Finally... I understand some of the nerfs, but the ones that killed survivability in the open world are really hurting.  On my P/P thief, that one talent that constantly gave me back health was the main reason I loved playing it, and now it's just decimated.  I don't want to do another build/elite spec.  Because I'm primarily an open world/meta person, that survivability didn't hurt anyone, but the lack of has hurt me quite severely in what I enjoy doing in GW2.  Please consider reverting these nerfs because they don't help anyone and they make the game less fun.

Overall, a great job with the expansion!  Just these couple of issues that are taking down the fun level, which should be at 100%.  Thanks for listening.

•  

Edited March 5, 2022 by Cameryn.5310

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

Well, it is more buggy than HoT was for me for sure.

[HotDelirium.7984]

19 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

This is great to read, thank you all for taking the time to share the things you like! As I've mentioned elsewhere, we are looking at feedback carefully. Constructive criticism is necessary, but it's also great to know what you feel we did well! 

Some of us in the community were a little overly critical about the elite specs and the lack of notes and balances etc etc etc and I certainly apologize for the impatience and frustration. You have said it and even CMC has said it that things are being worked on per feedback and maybe the timing wasn't super optimal? I just wonder why the small changes weren't in the release notes with an added "more balance changes still coming" as a reminder to curtail some expectations. I'm definitely trying to be more constructive moving forward.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

well, there was a lot of feedback after the betas, and nothing substantial was changed. So allow the people to be a bit disappointed, no?

[Lottie.5370]

It's my favourite expansion by far, the maps and content make me *want* to spend time in it. I enjoy the whole thematic of it.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Definitely love the music, the aesthetic, and the story!  All beautifully done and among the best work the game has ever seen.  I wish I were as impressed with the rest of it, but there are some pretty glaring issues with the events in terms of design and structure, the prevalence of copy/paste and low-value one-off events, etc.  The masteries were also rather unimpressive compared to previous offerings and the way jade bots were implemented with these objects all over the game world seemed very unnecessary to me.

[Flori.2194]

On 3/5/2022 at 12:30 AM, Novah.2510 said:

- Elite specs are some of the most clever and interesting in GW 2 and all very impressive

That's bold and a lot of people beg to differ, some of the e-specs are clearly still in beta. But yeah, anything not gameplay-related is phenomenal: story, music, characters. Other than that? 

 

And while we're at it: Where are my new runes?

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

4 minutes ago, Flori.2194 said:

That's bold and a lot of people beg to differ, some of the e-specs are clearly still in beta. But yeah, anything not gameplay-related is phenomenal: story, music, characters.

That's bold and I do agree to that as a Fashion Warrior I don't mind the low prowess of the new elites. They are flashy and quite useful for fashion photoshooting! All but you, Mechanist (which has only reused animation for the character itself).

Edited March 8, 2022 by KurokouNekoki.7891

[Witch of Doom.5739]

HI Rubi!  I'm glad people love the new expansion.  I preordered it and have no regrets whatsoever for doing so; however, after a week of EoD play I'm pulling back a little until more bugs are fixed.  Yes, I expected a new release to be buggy, so no hair-pulling rage from me, just stepping back.

Pros:

Music -- amazing, stupendous, all those superlative words.

Fishing -- the collections part is fun.

Skins -- love the new armor and weapon skins.  Whoever designed "Skoll and Hati" deserves a raise.

Elite specs -- the actual new Elite Specs are cool, not so much the collections.

Story -- the first part where you

Spoiler

jump from ship to ship and end up in prison was really interesting.

Maps -- pretty, lots of places to see, varied environments

Mastery points -- lots of them, easy to get.

 

Cons:

Fishing -- watching a Pong-style bouncing bar isn't fun.  We need a "Tackle Box" type of container or bag or something to keep all the bait organized.  My inventory is a mess.

Raids, strikes, PvP type content -- I HATE this type of toxic content and refuse to do it so anything locked behind it is a no-go for me (yes, I realize it's my choice).

Skiffs -- seem meh to me except for fishing.  I prefer the Skimmer for travel.

Elite specs -- having to do the story nine times for the collections makes me want to give up.  Give us skippable dialog and maybe I'll reconsider.  I literally get up and leave my computer and go do chores while some of the dialog goes on and on for the umpteenth time.

Final meta -- I have not done it but it sounds so awful for my playstyle that I dread doing it.  Dread is not a good feeling in a game that's supposed to be fun.

Maps -- seem so empty of other players that I can't complete many fights.  New Kaineng City looks and sounds particularly empty.

QoL -- no banks, no trading posts, no crafting stations in the first two maps?  Bummer.

 

Neutral:

Jade Bots -- have acquired one but haven't really used it

New Legendary weapons -- I love the sparkly Aurene look in general but prefer the uniqueness of earlier Legendaries such as The Bifrost, Meteorlogicus, etc.  Just my personal taste so not criticism; however, instead of making one of the new Gen 3 Legendaries I'm going back to work on earlier ones.

 

If you read this, thanks.  I hope it's constructive.

[sergiomasako.2906]

My very brief opinion. Story 9, open world 4.

[Imba.9451]

Icebrood Saga was bad. But looking bad, only the end was bad. It was promising up to that point.

 

EoD's writing is consistenly bad. Rushed, poor character development, telling us when to be sad rather than actually putting in the work for that emotional payoff. Wasted characters (Mai Trin, Ankka), rehashed Kurzick/Luxon rivalry, except discount version and not really Kurzick or Luxon.

 

I seriously lost my trust in Anet. I preordered the expansion in good faith. I didn't expect much, yet was still disappointed. I stuck around GW2 because of Nostalgia. because I like the world. But to me, those bridges are pretty much burned.