Opinions on EoD?

[jcH.7109]

I preordered EoD but I literally haven’t played any part of EoD besides using new elite specs in PvP. 
I’ve been playing mostly pvp for a while, but I’m planning on returning to some PvE content (I’m doing the skyscale collection at the moment, haven’t done IBS yet either)

Just wanted to make a poll and see how everyone else likes EoD now that it has had time to settle

[Randulf.7614]

I’ve long maintained it’s amongst their weakest content, but reception has been very mixed. You won’t get a definite answer since a lot of people have really liked it a lot and lots have really hated it judging by previous feedback threads/polls and there have been plenty.

Id say do IBS. The first half is pretty good and well populated. The final chapters of IBS are so bad anything you play after will look amazing in comparison and it will help appreciate EoD more.

[vicky.9751]

The maps were beautiful, but that's about it. I refunded before finishing arborstone. I have been a forum lurker since last year.

Mastery tracks were weak.  Fishing should not have been a selling point for an expansion.. i don't know how the classes feel to play but some of the new specs are meta right now.

[cyberzombie.7348]

For me it was pretty mid. Yeah it has beautiful maps but it lacks the interaction and dynamics compared to HoT's and PoF's. The story started out strong but made less sense as I dug deeper. The cheap fake death scene and Marjory's seething only made me care less and spedrun the rest of the chapters. 

Some elite specs were solid, the rest didn't add up. Both in lore and mechanics. Plus this is the first expansion that didn't get profession a specific runes. Skiff and fishing is a nice addition, no complaints personally. 

TL; DR It was mid, some things good, the rest felt like wasted potential.

[Poormany.4507]

It was generally good for me with some awesome features (Jade Bots) and fishing/skiffs are nice QOL additions, although lacking in purpose outside of the fishing achievements. Some of the maps are strong and event-packed (Shing-Jea and Dragon's End) while the other two are pretty underutilized (New Kaineng clearly seems unfinished/rushed out, like they were 3/4 of the way done making it, but then got abruptly cut off).

Storywise - Overall good (I loved Ankka's character), but the void stuff could have had a better explanation/lead in, and felt kind of tacked on as a plot device (Hopefully we'll get some more on it in the update this week).

[Blue D Phoenix.7260]

They ran out of idean/features to implement (without huge costs), so they cramped whatever they could think off in this expansion. Probably the reason why there won't be big expansions next time.

 

The story felt rushed and not indulging like lws4/pof, and the script was meh.

 

The music and map was good, would've been more great if it didn't feel empty in big cities like new k, even dummy npcs would've been better.

[Tashigi.3159]

It was a very good expansion in my eyes and I continue to enjoy it.

That said, I do play casually and while I've completed all strikes and all other content introduced, I have not completed many of the hidden content (Such as lanterns) nor any of the CM Strikes. Even so, to me this has been on par with my Endwalker experience but with more repeatable content/enjoyable zones and a bit shorter story (EoD made some questionable moves on that regard).

[Cronospere.8143]

The story was great in my opinion. 

The maps were beautiful. 

I liked the various achievements, which felt like side quests. Which i think could stand out better if they are actual side quests, instead of kind of hidden content.

I was never really interested in elite specs. Soo also this time it wasnt something i cared for. 

Fishing was fun for a few hours, but after that it felt like something that i still have to do and finish. Too much rng on that one. 

I really like the skiff and jad bots. 

But all in all. I cant seem to find the interest to return to the maps and the game in general for a while. Could be me, but i'm not sure why. 

I feel like they underdelivered for guild content. A weird new guild hall with invisible barriers on too much places. No guild decorations. And that is something i normally liked to do a lot. 

[circuitnerd.5863]

It's pretty bad in my opinion. The story has continued it's convoluted trend and is pretty boring at this point. The bureaucracy that occurs for about 90% of the story is just... makes it feel like the DMV. Fishing is ok at best but pretty boring and not rewarding. Skiff is fine but not too much of a point to it beyond fishing. Jade bot is decent but needs more implementation into core maps. There's a huge lack of events and npcs in general. Also, no adventures at all. Nor any mini games. There's not really any incentive to return to the EoD maps. The lack of new runes is really odd too. Some of the new elite specs are decent, others feel really copy/paste and lazy. The maps are decent looking. Navigating Echovald though is a nightmare. Some of the Jade Brotherhood are just annoying to fight since they constantly give themselves protection no matter how many times you boon rip. Overall, the expansion just doesn't feel like GW. It feels... off. Like it doesn't belong somehow. 

[vares.8457]

I overall like it. The maps are beautiful, the new specs are fun, the new legendaries and variants look great and DE meta is the best meta event in the game. 

[Hotride.2187]

Fine for me at this point. A lot of blah blah in the story but you do it only once. The open world maps are good, their metas are mostly worth doing and are interesting. Plenty of strikes too.

It was released in a bad state but at this point its good.

[Daniyyel.3428]

I really like the aurene weps and the variants.  A lot more options for theme base type ideas when setting up a character.  Same as many others,  I really like the looks of the maps.  Was  a smaller xpac than HoT/PoF  still worth the money I spent.  As far as the elite skills,  I haven't played all yet but the ones I have tried I  enjoy over the other elite skills.   For me it made mesmer an easier class to play which I like.

 

 

[Doctor Hide.6345]

     I am overall "it is ok" at this point with it. It's not bad nor is it great. The strong points for me from it are some of the elite specs since I love my Harbinger and Virtuoso, and I love the fishing it introduced as well. Some of the maps are ok enough for me along with the story being just ok. Overall, it is an average expansion in my eyes.

[Calen.8945]

It's nice to look at but I have no reason to go there. There is simply a lack of loot. HoT's maps are still some of the best because they give us loot. The loot from the area chest my not be that great but I still love opening each cheat I run across while exploring the map.

 

The story is one of the weakness one's so far, from the in your face political stuff, to the lack luster villains that desperately needed more fleshing out.

I like fishing and skiffs, and Jade Bots is a nice form of vertical progression. However, I don't like the new buff station, it adds unneeded level of tedium that I don't want to deal with.

[Ashantara.8731]

I was thrilled at first, because... A NEW EXPANSION! 😄 I went in with the most positive attitude (after having had time to adjust to the thought of jade-tech all around, which was known months before release).

However, the more of my characters ventured through the content, the faster my rose-colored glasses' tint faded.

While I liked the story realization, the dramatic movie sequences, the story fights and their related achievements, and the breath-taking underwater facility where Soo-Won was being held, there were several things that I disliked (or started to notice more) the longer I spent time on each map:

• An unhomogeneous mix of different designs:
  • We got a Blade Runner meets BioShock (two designs that do not match well at all)
  • We got boring grey concrete (and tons of it) paired with traditional, colorful buildings
  • We got the beautiful frozen Jade Sea that, for some unknown reason, when processed, turned into an ugly, toxic neon green substance that looks like atomic goo from some comic book
• Weird color compositions:
  • Cantha was sporting many old assets of plants and trees, and then we got those new additions specifically designed for Cantha. For a reason unknown to me, those new plants and trees were designed to strangely radiate light, some even had an almost blinding bloom effects attached to them. Also, the newly designed flora was completely oversaturated compared to the beautiful old assets.
  • Each map is tinted in a blue, green or purple haze (depending on the time of day), of which none fits the colors of the environment. The result is an insult to the eye.
• Missing the feel of good ol' fantasy
  • There was just too much tech all over the place. I found it especially irritating in the Echovald Forest.
  • Those "gang wars" were more like kindergarden than an exciting adventure for a Tyrian hero.
  • A lot of the "tongue-in-cheek" language also fit the aforementioned impression. For some reason modern Canthans sound even more like contemporary American teenagers that want to sound especially "cool" than what we had before. (Must be all the toxic dragon jade poisoning the air 😉.)

Edited February 27, 2023 by Ashantara.8731

[Gibson.4036]

All in all it feels half done.

I like several of the characters, but they almost universally don’t get developed past their initial outline.

I don’t enjoy any of the especs as much as previous ones.

Research notes are a completely unfun mechanic.

I don’t like ArenaNet’s attempt to push players into strikes by locking features used in the open world behind them.

Some of the Korean inspired art direction and music is beautiful.

I like having Arborstone as my new hub.

Some jade bot features are moderately useful.

[Fueki.4753]

The story is bad.

The elite specializations are mostly uninteresting. I'd Willbender if it was tuned better and I'd like Virtuoso, if I could get rid of the floating particle waste out of combat or when weapons are sheathed. The rest are either "meh, whatever" or actively making the game worse visually.

There's not a single mastery I care for. The HP creep via the Junk Bot might even be harmful to the game in the long run, if they link even more attributes to future masteries.

Visually, Cantha is the worst place in the game yet. All that Jade Junk is just displeasing and completely defaces what could have been one of the better areas in the game.

Arenanet didn't even give us elite specialization runes with EoD.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Fueki.4753

[Hashberry.4510]

I enjoyed most of the elite specs. The open world buffs trashed the old OW, the bot terminal stuff is just annoying and garish. Putting this out wildly unfinished just confirmed that the studio can’t escape the same old poor management. 

[DarcShriek.5829]

The new legendaries will keep the metas in EOD active for a long time.  However, the final meta needs to be looked at as participation is declining rapidly. 

[Ultramex.1506]

It was ok

+ Great music, fun elite specs (after many many patches), fun meta (yes i've said it) but could have some changes imo

- Map design is a bit disappointing (New Kaineng smh), Story is hit or miss, questionable masteries design

[Mara.6782]

EOD have more elite specs that i like than others, but story and maps are worse. Void creatures could use unique models and not those same dragon minions with black infusion on. EOD is like mix of every expansion and living story put together and nothing new. Fishing is only new thing we have, boats are just skimmers. I was waiting deep sea dragon for the beginning of the game and was really disappointed of how the story goes. Where was the big dragon minion that the inquest was talking about. All that forgotten. That is the problem. Writers change and new ones don't know anything what others were doing, so there will be many plot holes. 

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

I do not want to spoil too much. EoD is a typical pandemic-product. The teams worked remotely on their own. Unification of the different elements could have been done better. That means the product as a whole looks a little lose. In addition, it seems like they ran out of time once again. This is visible in the story and with the polishing of certain elements. The maps disappoint in 'depth' in terms of immersion and appear to be rather empty, given the enormous scale - both content- and player-wise.

If you take a look at the different elements separately, it is actually not that bad. The Masteries are in most cases good and in some cases absolutely overpowered. It requires a 'creative mind' to unlock the true potential of them. Difficulty is by far the best, except for that one meta-event. A good balance between HoT and PoF. The strike-missions are one of a kind, cannot compare them to the IBS ones properly. I highly recommend playing them, even if you are not into this content. The classes and builds have been adjusted to make the content accessible for a wider variety of players, including casual players. 

Something that was well done with this expansion is the aftermath. After completing the story, there is a massive list of tasks and quests to complete. Some of them have more lore & story-depth than the original story. 
-
I would consider End of Dragons average. It cannot reach both the previous expansions, but it solved a couple of problems from the past. It used some innovative/risky approaches for new elements - some paid off, some did not. It is definitely worth playing through the story and exploring Cantha - both as a GW1 veteran and a regular player. 

[Cuks.8241]

It was worth my money. I never expect Hot or Pof level.

It does seem some parts are somewhat unfinished. New Kaineng is just lacking, the new mob variety seems low with lots of rehashed void mobs and lack of good, long event chains. 

Jade bots are just needles busy work and huge power creep. I hate silly time sinks like that. I think they should remove the buffs outside of Cantha again.

I am enjoying new elites though. Some more than others, but that was the same with previous expansions. New strikes are good and if they continue in this direction, great. Maps while not as immersive are still fun to explore and offer a few mini dungeons with 2 good metas (Seitung and DE).

I am just afraid the new content seems a bit uninspired. Both Hot and Pof were such great expansions with great amount of details, atmosphere that just made it into a world you immerse into. Eod maps are just that, maps. More like living world maps and LS4 even surpasses them. 

I don't really play for story, hardly follow it and almost never repeat it. But in Hot and Pof I still felt that I have a goal, an enemy to conquer, people to save and everything ties into it. Even outside of story instances, on the maps themselves. In EOD I am just killing some humanoid factions that maybe are more interesting for gw1 players but not fo rme and THE VOID (completely non relatable enemy). 

[Vayne.8563]

16 hours ago, Hotride.2187 said:

A lot of blah blah in the story but you do it only once.

Speak for yourself. lol

I've done the story on a number of characters. I think I'm up to 12.  

[Valfar.3761]

It's the expansion with the least amount of value yet. The only thing EoD offers are:

 

1. New elite specs (most of which were broken upon release, some still are in a bad spot a year after release)
2. 4 new maps. Visually, the maps lack polish. There is a lot of clipping in New Kaineng, and Kaineng has a lot of open space that brings attention to the engine's short draw distance. The maps do not have HoT level design and feel lackluster to play through. Seitung Province and New Kaineng are aesthetically the best looking maps, whereas Echovald does not have an identity and feels like an inferior rehash of HoT assets, and Dragon's End isa hodgepodge of three different biomes (pretty mountainous area in the North, the surface of the Jade Sea, and the underground tunnels) and the execution feels messy. There is also a 60 player per map limit that makes it very frustrating to play in EoD maps as your stacks and event progress is constantly being reset as you are forced into new maps, and it is difficult for groups to get into the same instance together. The Dragon's End meta also has design issues with the first hour being boring, the final boss fight is often ruined by RNG because the boss decides to become invulnerable too many times, and you don't get anything to show for your time invested if the meta fails.
3. An 11 hour long story. The worst expansion story yet. HoT's story was 4 hours long, but almost all of it was exciting adventure. Bushwacking through the jungle, liberating prison camps, running from evil spider ladies while carrying a dragon egg, and so on. The only meh part about HoT's story was the Rata Novus detour that amounted to nothing, but that was only 30 minutes. PoF's story was worse, being 6 hours long but the first 4 hours spent bumming around the desert, with the only exciting adventure stuff starting during the last 2 hours when you discover the lost city and infiltrate Joko's army. EoD is far and away the worst, being an 11 hour long story, but with only 2 hours of exciting adventure stuff with the airship setpiece at the start and the final battle at the end. The 9 hours in between is a soap opera about detestable characters, with some truly awful dialogue (and a lot of cursing out of nowhere). The player gets character assassinate and has some really bizzare dialogue at points. The conclusion to the storyline of the game is disappointing.

The expansion has nothing else going for it outside of those three points. No new instanced PvE content like fractals or raids (you get asset reused story boss fights but with the numbers cranked up). No new PvP maps or gamemodes. No new WvW maps and WvW hasn't been fixed. No new transformative features like gliding or mounts.

Also, as aforementioned, there is also a lot of conspicuous asset reuse, the most damning being the story final boss, which reuses the exact same model and attack animations of the DE meta final boss you just beat 30 minutes prior. Really should've been it's own, unique hydra model.

I overall prefer the look of EoD to PoF's boring deserts, but I wasn't into the futuristic sci fi aesthetic of Cantha. Maybe if it had less holograms, less 24/7 news cycles, less electrical blackouts, less megacorporations, etc, and had more of a romantic steampunk or silkpunk aesthetic, like Sakura Wars, I would have been more into it.

Some of the music was good. Parabellum is the highlight track.

 

There is some fun to be had in EoD. If you've made it through IBS then you mind as well finish the storyline, but the expansion is the lowest point in GW2's history, and as a box purchase it simply doesn't hold a candle to HoT, or even PoF.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Valfar.3761