Season 3 Worth It?

[Tchuvan.4251]

I just finished HoT. Honestly, I almost quit.  It was so frustrating to play. The difficulty level was thru the roof compared to prior content.  Is Season 3 just as difficult, or is it more reasonable content?  Is it worth it for the storyline?

[Randin.5701]

HoT is pretty much on a pedestal by itself when it comes to difficulty. The Living World content and EoD are more on the line of core game, and PoF is a bit of a difficulty bump, but not on the same level as HoT. HoT is the only one that makes hero points into group content, for starters.

[vanfrano.1325]

I think you will have to see for yourself but there is a clear difficulty bump after Core Tyria. I'd say season 3 maps are a bit less difficult than HoT.

I know some people hate HoT, others, like myself, love these maps and metas. But I have to admit that I was annoyed by HoT at first, then when I get to learn the maps and mobs behaviour it became very enjoyable. I find the mobs in Path of Fire a whole lot more annoying for example. HoT was when I took the time to understand all my skills and build and it made a huge difference, I never felt the need to do it in Core Tyria.

About the story, it's bad overall for me (with EoD taking the crown) so again it will depend, you might like it, you might not.

You should know though that season 3 unlocks sellers with some of the easiest to get stat-selectable ascended trinkets in the game.

Edited June 11, 2022 by vanfrano.1325
format

[Tchuvan.4251]

7 minutes ago, Randin.5701 said:

HoT is pretty much on a pedestal by itself when it comes to difficulty. The Living World content and EoD are more on the line of core game, and PoF is a bit of a difficulty bump, but not on the same level as HoT. HoT is the only one that makes hero points into group content, for starters.

 

Yeah, I didn't notice that at first until I was nearly obliterated.  It's nice to be able to get 10 points at once though, honestly.  You don't have to wait long for another player to come along and help out on it too.

[Randulf.7614]

It’s a bit easier, although the game never returns to core difficulty from there onwards. Importantly has a lot of map variety (6 new maps) since it goes all over the place. I found season 4 the toughest season and that’s prob the next biggest difficulty jump

[Lucy.3728]

17 minutes ago, Tchuvan.4251 said:

I just finished HoT. Honestly, I almost quit. 

I did quit it and progressed with the rest and finished HoT months later with a team to drag me through.

 

Each s3 map is very different and more fun to play.

Can't say much about difficulty because I found other ppl to play it with and one knew what to do. One story has annoying Asura riddle codes though, but that's all annoyance I can remember. But that may be s4 though xD

[DexterousGecko.6328]

I feel for the most part, the game gets easier after HoT. Although some of the bosses get obnoxious, but they don't let you fail, you just keep respawning and chipping away at it's health, it doesn't feel difficult, just annoying. HoT could eff me up with a single pack if I didn't notice the sniper. I'm terrible though, so take that with a grain of salt.

Edited June 11, 2022 by DexterousGecko.6328
none of your business

[Turin.6921]

HoT open world is definitely tougher than all later content especially without mounts.  But if you are at a point of rage quitting then you will have issues even with the rest of the game too. HoT is tougher but not that tough - power creep has made it far easier than  people remember it from launch. Your difficulties probably mean that you need to learn a bit more about how gear and build crafting works for your class.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Turin.6921

[DeanBB.4268]

There is some difficult content there, for sure, but it is worth it. I pretty much get all my ascended trinkets from the S3 maps (map currencies + unbound magic) but you could get them from S4 or other sources.

I'd rather go to those maps than the jungle maps, but that's just me.

[Tchuvan.4251]

4 minutes ago, Turin.6921 said:

HoT open world is definitely tougher than all later content especially without mounts.  But if you are at a point of rage quitting then you will have issues even with the rest of the game too. HoT is tougher but not that tough - power creep has made it far easier than  people remember it from launch. Your difficulties probably mean that you need to learn a bit more about how gear and build crafting works for your class.

Nah, spent dozens of hours on my toon.  Like I said, the intensity of the game was like someone greatly ramped up the difficulty between the base game and HoT.

[Turin.6921]

15 minutes ago, Tchuvan.4251 said:

Nah, spent dozens of hours on my toon.  Like I said, the intensity of the game was like someone greatly ramped up the difficulty between the base game and HoT.

That does not mean much though. Game does an awful job in teaching you your class, one of the reasons being the inconsequential difficulty is on the base game. So you can play for hundreds of hours and not understand even fundamental details. None of us actually knew our classes before we hit HoT and the ramp up did force us to actually learn a few things better. Subsequent content is way less tense but still end game content.  So looking up some decent open world build for the class should help you. And make HoT way easier.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Turin.6921

[Friday.7864]

HoT becomes a much more friendly environment if you have an open world build. You can even do crazy stuff like soloing legendaries.

There might be better builds out there by now but I tried this one and had a lot of fun with it. 

 

[Einsof.1457]

2 hours ago, Tchuvan.4251 said:

I just finished HoT. Honestly, I almost quit.  It was so frustrating to play. The difficulty level was thru the roof compared to prior content.  Is Season 3 just as difficult, or is it more reasonable content?  Is it worth it for the storyline?

Maybe instead of thinking the game is hard, think about how you are playing and how the game is designed. Think about your build, your suroundings, your strategy. I just replayed HoT on a fresh character, and it was extremely easy. The story quests in general are insanely easy. I hate to say it, but try to learn to play. Also, yes, Season 3 is great. 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Einsof.1457

[Flasterko.4087]

After core Tyria I went to PoF and realised it is indeed very different in difficulty compared to what I have palyed before. I was little bit shocked as you were when coming to expansion. But if I went to HoT first I would be even more shocked since I went there after I already got mounts. 

 

Eventually I learned that for me is best to dont go anywhere without condition removal and stability.

 

Season 3 is worth it I would say. You will get new maps which are different than those labyrinth root and plants themed maps. With developing masteries maps will become easier to navigate. 

[Labjax.2465]

I can't recommend the story cause like HoT, it's a lot of walking and talking storytelling where I can't skip dialogue if I want to and I get extremely bored by that personally. But the difficulty does get somewhat easier after HoT. I wouldn't say it ever goes back down to core tyria levels, but easier for sure. HoT is just brutal with all the mechanics it throws at you at once and with it not really being intuitive how to counter them.

Hearts also return after HoT, and they are designed to be soloable, unlike a lot of HoT, so that should tell you something.

Also, if you ask for build help, I'm sure people can offer some tips. There are more robust builds these days than at HoT release that can take a beating and muddle through it. It's not gonna make content like HoT easy to solo, but you may feel a lot more empowered about what content you can take on if you get familiar with a build that has more survivability.

[Randulf.7614]

1 hour ago, Tchuvan.4251 said:

Nah, spent dozens of hours on my toon.  Like I said, the intensity of the game was like someone greatly ramped up the difficulty between the base game and HoT.

That was indeed the intention, although season 2 did help to bridge it. HoT today is the nerfed version of what it was like on launch. Not sure if that makes you feel better though!

[Tchuvan.4251]

2 hours ago, Randulf.7614 said:

That was indeed the intention, although season 2 did help to bridge it. HoT today is the nerfed version of what it was like on launch. Not sure if that makes you feel better though!

Yeah, heard the pocket raptors were somehow worse at launch.

[Lucy.3728]

8 hours ago, Labjax.2465 said:

I can't recommend the story cause like HoT, it's a lot of walking and talking storytelling where I can't skip dialogue if I want to and I get extremely bored by that personally.

But you have that in every story past the basic game... the endless talking. The interruptions for more babbling with your team.

Even Guild Wars 1 got me crazy with the endless talking from Rurik. Thank God for the stone summits.

[Labjax.2465]

1 hour ago, Lucy.3728 said:

But you have that in every story past the basic game... the endless talking. The interruptions for more babbling with your team.

Even Guild Wars 1 got me crazy with the endless talking from Rurik. Thank God for the stone summits.

If you mean every story in GW2, yeah, I wasn't trying to say it's just season 3. Just saying why I'd have a hard time recommending it, personally.

I think some of the maps are pretty cool, as are the occasional cinematic, but yeah... I can't say I play this game for the story itself.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Labjax.2465

[Blue D Phoenix.7260]

Nope but the story and map is beautiful, so go for it. 

 

Also use necro + scrounge, it's easy class and fun. 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Blue D Phoenix.7260

[Jukhy.2431]

HoT was harder when it was released and I still managed to play it. I took it as a learning experience, to tune my builds and tactics, and to move more in to group play.

I'd say season 3 is worth it. In total it unlocks six new maps: Bloodstone Fen, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier, Lake Doric, Draconis Mons and Siren's Landing. I still farm many of these for the currencies, eg. winterberries are easy way to obtain ascended ring, accessory and backpack (plus asc breathing apparatus).

[Aodlop.1907]

20 minutes ago, Jukhy.2431 said:

I took it as a learning experience, to tune my builds and tactics, and to move more in to group play.

Today's gamers are instant gratification addicts who get frustrated at the thought of not mastering everything immediately.

Blizzard understood this and decided to remove half of each class's spells and mechanics in Legion so incoming MOBA players could perform immediately with their usual 3 button rotations.

You and I are a dying breed. 

[Luthan.5236]

It is worth it. As mentioned already: 6 new maps - some players like to get currency for ascended trinkets from there. (Map vendors.) Then I think the new mastery line with one downed skill for PvE. And personally I liked the story - even a bit more than S4. It it is the stuff directly leading to PoF - if you want to play everything in order and not wonderin what happened before PoF prologue ... then S3 is needed.

It is pretty episodic though - for most of the time. While S4 seems a bit split in 2 halves (2 main enemies each for 3 episodes) this S3 jumps a lot between different things. Some nice background stories with focus on different characters. The Shining Blade and Caudecus are getting a bit story and in one instance in map 4 ... characters that did Order of Whispers in their core personal story ... will get to see an NPC side char from back then again.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[Labjax.2465]

39 minutes ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

Today's gamers are instant gratification addicts who get frustrated at the thought of not mastering everything immediately.

Blizzard understood this and decided to remove half of each class's spells and mechanics in Legion so incoming MOBA players could perform immediately with their usual 3 button rotations.

You and I are a dying breed. 

The original HoT was a huge ramp up in difficulty compared to base game. Not mastering everything immediately wasn't the issue some people did and do still take with it. It was the drastic change from a fairly low key "solo hearts and run into people in the world and help them do group events" to an intense and punishing "everything in this jungle wants you dead in creative ways and good luck finding allies because these maps are purposefully confusing and some have masteries that block your progress through the map until you get it." Orr was probably the closest thing to it in base game, but Orr was also flat maps, hard to get lost, and mobs not nearly as creatively punishing. I mean, HoT has those shadowleapers who can go invis and you need a mastery to see them. It has those mobs who can pelt you rapid fire and take out even a somewhat tankier spec quickly.

There is a lot of room between low key and expecting players to adapt to drastic change in difficulty very quickly, and HoT leapt across the chasm between the two and said if you can't jump across, that's your problem and paid in loss of players. I was one who left until this year and managed to get back into the game with a celestial build that would not have been possible back then. Now I'm able to solo content I'd never have imagined soloing back then, but it took nerfs to enemies and buffs to player power before I could stay alive long enough to even try to bridge that gap.

And I note staying alive because that's important. It's pretty hard to learn mechanics if you're on the ground or CC'd all the time, and HoT is great at putting you in the dirt, even now, still.

In fact, I'll take it a step further and say that I think mobs that spam CC on you is not an interesting form of difficulty and it's something this game depends on too much to make stuff seem hard.

[Aodlop.1907]

3 hours ago, Labjax.2465 said:

I'll take it a step further and say that I think mobs that spam CC on you is not an interesting form of difficulty

It depends. If it's telegraphed with good animations, fine. If it's instant and unavoidable then sure, it's terrible.