Did I waste my money on EoD

[Sparrowspoo.8209]

I will start off by saying I'm a casual player who has been playing for 3 years and have loved the game up until eod. 

The thing is there is nothing I like about eod and feel like I wasted my money. I'm not that keen on the new maps yeah there pretty but dull, but that's my opinion. Now I can appreciate the effort that went in to it but I kind of wish I had never spent the money on it.

[Mortime.1359]

The new maps are large but pretty empty, new metas take long to complete and give barely any rewards and then there is the entire turtle thing. Honestly I don't feel like I wasted my money however I really havent been to any EoD zone for over a week now.

[Goettel.4389]

Only you can decide if you did, but consider there will be living world updates which surely will add more zones and things to do, maybe you'll find your groove.

[artcreator.4859]

I’m surprised you feel this way, while the maps are a little empty I thought that the events that are there (especially group events) are some of the best in the game. A good amount of them have real mechanics and aren’t just a hack and slash.

 

These maps are definitely slower but I’ve enjoyed them.

[Vayne.8563]

I guess it depends. Will you be hanging around for the free living story that comes out, because it's free if you log in (or always has been).

 

I seem to remember people saying PoF was a bad expansion because after a month they never went back there. But then Season 4 started coming out. I don't know about you but I was logging in and got Season 4 for free.  And most people found the Domain of Istan metas to be worth some time.  I like Sandswept Isles. I even liked the Domain of Kourna.  Some people really liked Jahai Bluffs and Thunderhead Peakes.  And a lot of people loved Dragonfall.

The point is, in this game it's not just the expansion you're buying but also access to the next living story which you can get for free if you bother logging in.  And that, to me, greatly increases the value of the expansion.  I only got five zones with POF, but I got 11 zones (and two mounts) with the living world I got for free by logging in.

Even if you didn't love Path of Fire, you might very well have loved Season 4.  So it's probably too early to tell if you wasted your money.  

 

Me? I'm happy with what I got so far.   Even a few of the elite specs are worth it for me, but I also like the maps, and fishing.  You may not like what's there today but you're also unlocking access to what will be there tomorrow.  I think it's worth remembering that. 

[Tukaram.8256]

If you feel you wasted your money - then you did.  I love the expansion and am very glad I bought it. 😎

[Sparrowspoo.8209]

I have all living world seasons and log in every day but as you say the maps are empty. Only time will tell. As it stands its just not for me, but you can't please all the people all the time.

[titje.2745]

10 minutes ago, Mortime.1359 said:

The new maps are large but pretty empty, new metas take long to complete and give barely any rewards and then there is the entire turtle thing. Honestly I don't feel like I wasted my money however I really havent been to any EoD zone for over a week now.

Me2. The new xpack looks good. I hate the forced story. I just finished the dragon response missions story (because I hate it I did it at the end) also started late on it because I didn’t know the event. And I had a study irl so was tired in the head many times. But i was not able to relax after dragon response mission because the EoD story’s are needed for mastery unlocks. 
it makes it even worse because you know the instance can crash and then you have to do all over again. With that in mind it’s pure stress. If the instances can’t crash or save progress when crashed then there is not a big problem for me. Then I just continue where it stopped because a restart of the game is not a big problem. But story parts take over 45 minutes.
The only part i enjoyed was the puzzle with the jade bot in that house. (Sorry I am not able to make a spoiler post on phone so I didn’t share to much information about it) 

i tried the soo-won meta 5 times and 5 times wasted time. This event is pure frustration. So i didn’t try again. I lost my interest for cantha and went back to tyria and working on things there. I got the raccoon mini. I completed 3 of 5 mastery tracks I think. Turtle one is still locked. I only come there daily for the writs. It’s pure trash that it’s 200 writs this made it for me to leave cantha early. (Why not just 100?)  I wanted to keep up with others but because of the end meta community got split. And yes I can do events for easy writs. But I am sure when I am doing events then I also try end boss and i don’t want to fail again so I avoid everything. 
I like fishing and I really wanted it. But that’s for later. Strikes are a fail. They feel 5 times longer then saga strikes and so have to concentrate even longer as a casual. But not better rewards. So time waste. I am a loot player. But for rewards you don’t have to do boss fights. Cantha is a nice xp farm. 

[Jukhy.2431]

If you bought the cheapest one that's 30 $/€ spent. How many hours worth of entertainment did you get out of it? That's the way I like to think about it.

Personally I'd say that I already got my money's worth and I'm still playing the new content.

[Xervite.5493]

You know I kinda question that myself. I look back to PoF release and recall how happy that period made me feel, the excitement of new stuff and exploration. Eod din't click the same way for me but it's still content at the end of day, more resources, more events and ofc new shinnies. And now with so many things on the horizon I don't really regret supporting a game I grew up with (kinda).

[LucianDK.8615]

I think pof was in general far more open and conductive to exploration, no matter what people claim about agro ranges.

 

EoD was a hit and a miss in that regard

Seitung Province have the exploration vibe, and also being the most brightest and lush of the eod zones.

Now New Kaineng City...a horrible copypasta maze that is easy to get lost in. Which is absolutely -not- conductive to exploration, about everywhere is all but empty, samey and lifeless.

Echovald forest is a great place to explore, but can be a bit disorienting like Kaining. So many places is filled with huge dark trees with colossal roots that might or might not hide an entrance to somewhere.

Dragons End.. Prettier than Kaineng City for sure. But theres pretty much only one place that rewards exploration to get below the jade sea. But in general the map is quite flat, and is easilly traversed.

 

My rating:

1: Seitung Province

2: Echovald Forest

3: Dragon's End

4: New Kaineng City

Edited March 29, 2022 by LucianDK.8615

[Cyninja.2954]

It depends on what you were expecting and what you want out of the maps/content.

 

1.) EoD added a 3rd set of elite specializations but after 2 elite specializations, a 3rd set simply does not have the same impact (omitting the re-balancing which is ongoing).

 

2.) HoT had by far the most mastery grind. PoF had far less, but highly desirable masteries in form of mounts and 2 more during the following living world season. EoD's masteries can feel lackluster to players who are not interested in them. I personally enjoy fishing occasionally to break up the monotony or while chatting with guildies. That's pretty much the only mastery your really notice tbh. The Jadebot is nice, the turtle is unqiue and can lead to some fun interactions but both are minor in regular gameplay.

 

3.) Did you enjoy the story? If so that alone should have been worth the price of entry I believe.

 

4.) The rest is basically new materials for farming the next set of legendary items, which if you are not into crafting them, will feel meaningless.

 

EoD also follows a LONG phase of anticipation and expectation build up, especially in form of the "return" achievements which can lead to a strong deflation post release. It's natural and will pass.

 

Finally, EoD is more a setup for future content in the game, new foundations and approaches to content, while delivering only small amounts of said content.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Cyninja.2954

[Hypnowulf.7403]

I think the only way to get a sense of how many agree with you is to go and see how many people are doing the events in End of Dragons, how full the zones feel. From what I've seen and heard, the pop's only been dropping since launch.

I feel that most agree with you. The thing is is that a lot of them have just moved on to other games. I know of a good few whom I talk to who're playing one of two other games instead. I think it's against the forum rule sto mention which, so I won't do that.

The big problem for ArenaNet is that they managed to alienate all groups who give them money, which is just such startling and dizzying incompetence that I don't know what to make of it.

The only group they really appealed to this time around was raiders, and they plan on having more required raids (and hardmode raids) as time goes on too. The problem is is that raiders convert gold to gems, so their cash store is going to dry up exactly the same way as it did after the release of HoTs, an expansion that almost bankrupted them.

The thing is though is that EoD, in my opinion, doesn't have nearly the imagination or intrigue to it that HoTs did, so it won't draw back the people who left even if they do fix it. So all of the disappointed people, like the OP, will stay gone when they go.

The casuals, the PvP players, and every other group who actually spent money and was alienated by this expansion? Well, they're either going or gone.

Expansion sales don't mean anything, it's all about the cash-shop sales. And frankly, going by the API, I don't even think that expansion sales are as rosy as ArenaNet makes out. Again, going by the API, I don't even buy that it sold better than PoF. It doesn't matter though because, yeah, cash-shop sales over the long-term are what matter. That's why NCSoft forced an expansion in the first place—player retention. It's had the opposite effect.

So, I'm disappointed. A lot of people are. I think ArenaNet made some really bad decisions here, and I don't think that it's going to get any better any time soon.

[Rasimir.6239]

5 hours ago, Sparrowspoo.8209 said:

I ... have loved the game up until eod. 

... there is nothing I like about eod

Can you explain what you loved about the game, and what you don't like about EoD?

 

Personally I'm having a great time in EoD. There is so much to find and explore. I'm the kind of player that loves exploring maps and figuring out stuff without guides/wikis, and I have to admit I'm not very focussed, but prefer to play and check out whatever catches my fancy. As such I'm still finding hidden chests and puzzles, figuring out how to get places without brute-forcing with mounts (especially skyscale), learning how to deal with different kinds of events and enemies, and more.

 

Without knowing what you do or don't like about different parts of the game, it's hard to pin-point where your problems may come in. One thing I'm wondering is: if you started playing three years ago, then you haven't experienced the previous expansion launches. One thing that to me sets an expansion launch apart from a living world episode is that the amount of content entering the game is huge in comparison to living world episodes. This leads to players being much more spread out, and knowledge (and especially secrets) about all the content has to offer trickling in much slower.

 

For a player like me that plays to explore, this doesn't make much of a difference, because it can take me months to explore the new content. If you are more of the kind that likes to play "popular" content, then you will have to wait until the initial chaos settles and people find the content niche they like to play. If you are reward focussed, it will take some weeks before the markets will settle and people will have a clear picture of what content will be rewarding or not.

 

Once the popularity of different maps and metas settles, it should also be easier to find groups matching your playstyle. Right now the maps are filled with players with vastly different goals, be it meta events, gathering, map exploration, fishing, story, or whatever. This can lead to maps feeling empty, because people on it simply are busy doing different things that don't necessarily interact with each other.

 

[standardFoe.2983]

I feel the same way. The aesthetics are so beautiful and the story is easy to complete but that's where my praise ends. The maps are large and mostly empty of events there are invisible walls everywhere in every map including the Guild Hall. Speaking of the GH why isn't amazing music for EoD used in the GH, it's just the regular open world music.

 

I was really excited for how easy the hero points and masteries were, but it's obvious these masteries are mostly about selling skins and I unlocked three of the new builds but don't really enjoy them. The Stardew Valley type fishing mini-game isn't my bag and I find the turtle stupid looking.

 

I have been playing GW2 for about eight years and consider myself a casual since I am disabled and can't get into instanced content because the rotations are beyond my abilities. But I have always loved open world in GW2. Heart of Thorns and LWS3 the maps are challenging and full of functional events, hidden achievements and lore. Path of Fire and LWS4 are also rich with achievements and lore, the events are a bit janky but open world randoms can still come together and get them done.

 

Having spent a few dozen hours in End of Dragons it just doesn't feel the same but that's my opinion and everyone else will have a different one.

 

I am very disappointed in the community that have made not enjoying a meta-event and criticizing the expansion into a competition for who are the 'real' GW2 players.  Complicated rotations and relying on another player's ability to upkeep boons is one of the major reasons I avoid instanced content, it's too restrictive in a game that prides itself on promoting a diversity of playing styles.

Edited March 29, 2022 by standardFoe.2983
clarificaton

[CoffeePlease.3082]

I would try to keep in mind that we have been living with fully unlocked expansions and Living World zones for a few years now. If it feels small in comparison right now then that makes sense.

 

EoD added a few systems that added a reason to re-visit some older maps through the Fishing mastery, which I think is really cool. I haven't tackled the achievements just yet outside of the EoD zones but it's definitely on my todo list.

 

The legendaries added seem to be some of the easiest ones to craft ever imo, so that is definitely a big plus for anyone who wants to make gold or build up their armory. Even if you are just fishing or gathering in Echovald you can make some decent change casually. 

 

I know a lot of people focus on the rewards vs time spent when eyeballing meta events, but I just do them for fun. They are fresh and it's a nice change of pace from the meta train loop of the last few years. I have more time to play than I am sure many people do, so I can see why thinking about what is fun vs what is profitable maybe isn't seen as realistic for some.

 

I've also enjoyed trying out the new elite specs and working on the collections for their weapon appearances. 

 

The strike missions seem like a nice step up in difficulty compared to IBS which I enjoy. Finding a set group for them so far has been a challenge (two guilds I've joined since launch that highlighted doing strikes both...do not do strikes due to lack of interest lol), but I'll get there. I've watched the guides and have learned better ways to build group comps since the launch of EoD, which has helped me be able to form pugs on my own which feels good.

 

I don't really like the turtle mount on its own, but I have gotten 3 friends to pick up the game recently so it's been nice having an option to taxi them around. 

 

Obviously what one person finds fun compared to another is subjective. I've personally been having a blast and the roadmap is exciting, so hopefully you can find your fun in it too.

[titje.2745]

6 hours ago, Jukhy.2431 said:

If you bought the cheapest one that's 30 $/€ spent. How many hours worth of entertainment did you get out of it? That's the way I like to think about it.

Personally I'd say that I already got my money's worth and I'm still playing the new content.

every expansion is worth it's money, i bought 3x the most expensive version, also for the gems. fishing alone is already worth 30 euro xD mounts are also worth 30 euro on it's own for me, and from hearth of thorns, i can't make an exsample so far. 
my game that is a money waste are crysis 3 and thats it 🙂 
cantha has nice things in it, but i am more a person who explore things on my own, i don't want to know everything before release.
i pre-ordered EoD long before release but i didn't search much about it. because then i get excited and i have to wait and thats not nice. i kept it as a surprise. i like the xp boost from training grounds for 4+ hours. it is a nice feature.

[mythical.6315]

8 hours ago, Mortime.1359 said:

new metas take long to complete

They take about 30 min to complete except for the last one which takes about 45 min. This is on par with HoT.

[Telgum.6071]

I don't share the feeling because I'm using Harbinger a lot, and I would use Vindicator a lot too if Anet didn't make this single-dodge move. But I too agree that right now the metas feel more like the PoF ones rather than HoT ones.

[Bwembo.8531]

I think the expansion is not bad overall. My main gripe right now is fishing. I think this is my fourth day in a row going to Ascalon trying to catch those stupid dusk/dawn fish. Spent at least 8 hours per day on this game each day heading to lake fish early to be ready for that whole freaking five minutes and nothing ever! Those are all I have left there to catch the last two days there but been going after them every chance I get for longer. Just decided to stop fishing since no progress can be made. Another annoying thing about fishing is food crafted seems to be for fishing only since even in the ascended fish food, the top stat is fishing power so fishing is so you can make fishing food so you can fish more so you can make more fishing food. Why can't some fish-made items not have fishing power but a different stat for fighting or something, the main point of the game, I think? And while I am whining about my fishing woes, over a bag and a half of the stuff I carry is fishing supplies, mainly bait. Given the times of  day for different fish and their preferences, I think some sort of tackle box is in order and not one to replace a bag slot either as you already did that. 

 

While I am sure others have issues with all aspects of the expansion, overall it is pretty good and glad I bought the ultimate version. And while there are other things here and there that sort of stink, the rest of the gameplay around those things make most issues more trivial. Now not catching a fish for four days with the right bait, hole, time of day is a progression issue and I really doubt even ANET wants progress to be stagnant for any parts of the game. And long before this epac was even announced, I whined about wanting to fish(among other things) and now I have it and it works well for mechanics. Dusk/dawn crap has to go, honestly. A mere five minutes with the worst RNG is a bad combo.

[hardy.7469]

I like the expansion, mostly.

I can fully understand people not liking it though.

I felt they stepped up their game on story achievements (barring the terrible UI and locked behind the terrible final meta)

I actually like the strikes and have been doing them... Well the first two. The third after getting the turtle thing is just too tedious to bother with and the harvest temple, the boss that just takes way too long and is too annoying.

And then there's that final meta which I think runs counter to the whole design of EoD and is a really sour after taste to an overall solid expansion.

BUT, like I said, I like the expansion however I can see why people don't like it.

 

Oh and as a casual GW2 player, I see no appeal in legendries, even the new ones. Every time I look on the wiki to see if I finally want to get into it, the amount of mats required, family tree looks of mats needed to make gifts and all that is just... No. lol I think how long it would take it just make a single legendary when I want at least 3-4 for a single hero, let alone alts... Nah, this end game carrot is not worth my time and this expansion did nothing to change that.

 

As for art direction and story, yeah I mean that's based on opinion and it's unfortunate you don't like it but understandable. The nice thing though about GW2 is you can just walk away and come back later having no sub!

[Borked.6824]

To speak a hard and non-conducive truth, I haven't logged in for the last week.  EoD for me has been like getting socks on Christmas morning when I was expected toys.  Stuck it out for a couple weeks and the excitement just drained out of me like an exorcism, which is really unfortunate because I had been enjoying doing catchup on the prior season stuff.  No real explanation that I can appoint.  Just don't care.  When the enjoyable content is not the current content, I inevitably have to question what I'm doing with my life playing this game.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Borked.6824

[Witch of Doom.5739]

23 hours ago, Borked.6824 said:

To speak a hard and non-conducive truth, I haven't logged in for the last week.  EoD for me has been like getting socks on Christmas morning when I was expected toys.  Stuck it out for a couple weeks and the excitement just drained out of me like an exorcism, which is really unfortunate because I had been enjoying doing catchup on the prior season stuff.  No real explanation that I can appoint.  Just don't care.  When the enjoyable content is not the current content, I inevitably have to question what I'm doing with my life playing this game.

^^^ Kind of agree with this.  To give EoD a very left-handed compliment, it has made me appreciate the core game, HoT, and PoF a whole lot more.  I've happily gone back to my previous long-term goals of crafting a few older Legendaries.  I'm hoping today's patch and future patches fix the EoD bugs, vastly improve the garbage (literal garbage) loot, and get rid of the insane requirement to do the story NINE times to complete all the Elite Spec collections.  I like having new Elite Specs but will not complete the collections as they're currently presented.  Also, zero interest in acquiring the Siege Turtle.

Edit:  Just read this in the patch notes:  "The elite specialization collection item earned from completing the End of Dragons story can now be earned from completing the Dragon's End meta-event or purchased from vendors in Dragon's End if you have finished the story with another character. The text will be adjusted to reflect this change in a separate update."  This is a great change but if you still have to do the majority of the EoD story on each of the nine professions, then nope.  I get that they want people to play the story, but ugh.

Edited March 30, 2022 by Witch of Doom.5739

[Kaiyanwan.8521]

As soon as I unlocked my turtle shortly after release, I was pretty much done with the game.

 

Elite speccs feel like a downgrade, I still got a ascended hammer for my ranger, but more for the completionist feeling. Back to soulbeast.

 

The story is as bad as expected. Rushed, no meaningfull character development and a bunch of new shallow actors I don't know why I should give a dime about. Also, god forbid the game would celebrate me instead of someone else at the end of an arch for the accomplishments...

 

Masteries are a joke, for the game that once was the mmo for ppl who hate mmos...

- Fishing? It won't get any more standard mmo than that...

- Two absolutely useless mounts (unless you want to go fishing)...

- Everything Jade bot should just be standard interactable things anyway... 

- Arborstone, clearly the Dev's ran out of ideas here...

 

Gliding alone is worth more than all those masteries together, don't even try to compare them to the mounts of PoF.

 

Four maps that lack any kind of interesting event besides the meta event. Clipping is through the roof (see what I did there) and I feel sorry for any player who tries to go anywhere without propper mounts.

 

Anyone who says you should wait for the season content must be trying to convince themselves that this cannot be all. But this is it.

[Redfeather.6401]

I don't like the EoD elites so far and even though the EoD environments are nice and big to explore, they feel empty of much to do except enemies and jade bot stuff and the odd chest.

Mounts in this game were probably the biggest best gameplay addition. The way they have roles and those skillsets help overcome specific pve obstacles can carry over to an entire suite of skills. There is no limit to what the game can do if that is applied to skills. All the skills our professions get are just plain old hurt/heal skills. Can you imagine how boring mounts would be if every skill they got was just a direct damage, condition damage, boon, or heal and nothing more.

In the past of this franchise, I loved finding a new town with a skill trainer and seeing new profession skills. Finding a quest that rewarded a skill I never had was all the motivation I needed to do whatever that quest involved. I was so hooked on going out and capturing elite skills from bosses that I'd spend my weekends preparing to capture one elite skill and then the rest of the weekend just buildcrafting what I could combine with that skill to make new builds. I really wish the franchise would go back to the idea of searching the world for abilities we could mix and match to make builds.

I am a firm believer that what would do the game a world of wonders is adding an entire suite of skills meant to interact with new environmental hazards and enemy abilities. Skills acquired from factions or captured from bosses like the first game, or maybe even brand new ways of getting skills. Similar to what mounts added, but it's new skills for our professions that don't rely on the specialization system. The world could gain new threats and new skills to overcome them. PVE/WvW areas could have a vampiric mist that drains life each second and there could be a skill that's not just another sprinting move, but a weaker one with the added effect of a holy aura that protects from that vampiric mist. Real role playing game mechanics. The devs imaginations are the limit there. They could go crazy with their ideas.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Redfeather.6401