Opinions on EoD?

[Kozumi.5816]

Nearly zero grinds or replay value in anything.

I capped fishing before fishing once, how is that good for an RPG?

Lack of proper progression and goals to grind for.

An expac that was a week of content, at most. Not worth the development time at all.

Post-EoD has been an exact 1:1 repeat of LS1, with the 1 year content drought included.

Strikes are the worst form of end game in a MMO, period. Flashy, repetitive, boring. Just generic FF14/WoiW square room simon says musical chairs. Not unique and interesting like fractals and even old dungeons were. Safe, sterile, boring.

Fishing isn't relaxing and is extremely stressful. It's too easy and braindead while also requiring too much user input at the same time so it just feels awful. The turtle is the worst mount in the game by a pretty large margin.

The final meta is terrible and extremely unrewarding. It's like someone thought open world needed a 2 hour long raid that can fail, and if you fail, you get zero rewards. Are they nuts?

All of the content added since EoD is extremely unrewarding and not worth doing more than once or twice. Zero replay value.

Overall the worst expac.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Kozumi.5816

[Linken.6345]

34 minutes ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

Nearly zero grinds or replay value in anything.

I capped fishing before fishing once, how is that good for an RPG?

Lack of proper progression and goals to grind for.

An expac that was a week of content, at most. Not worth the development time at all.

Post-EoD has been an exact 1:1 repeat of LS1, with the 1 year content drought included.

Strikes are the worst form of end game in a MMO, period. Flashy, repetitive, boring. Just generic FF14/WoiW square room simon says musical chairs. Not unique and interesting like fractals and even old dungeons were. Safe, sterile, boring.

Fishing isn't relaxing and is extremely stressful. It's too easy and braindead while also requiring too much user input at the same time so it just feels awful. The turtle is the worst mount in the game by a pretty large margin.

The final meta is terrible and extremely unrewarding. It's like someone thought open world needed a 2 hour long raid that can fail, and if you fail, you get zero rewards. Are they nuts?

All of the content added since EoD is extremely unrewarding and not worth doing more than once or twice. Zero replay value.

Overall the worst expac.

You do know that fishing works like any other mastery you dont have to fish to gain exp in it.

And after you mastered fishing it is time to catch all the fish and that will take you awhile since there are some that you can only catch with the right bait 5 min each hour.

[Calen.8945]

1 hour ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

Fishing isn't relaxing and is extremely stressful. It's too easy and braindead while also requiring too much user input at the same time so it just feels awful.

My god yes. I just want fishing to be something I can afk with. Maybe chill with a movie. But not this kitten system. They need to take out the mini-game and just have you catch something based on RNG.

[Jables.4659]

I enjoyed the story and I really like the atmosphere of Cantha.  They did an amazing job with the world creation aspect of the expansion, which is obviously very important for an MMO.  

Unfortunately the new mastery mechanics have no value to me and I am disappointed with the elite specs, especially the one my main received.  Chronomancer and Mirage both have a ton of depth and really made use of Core Mesmer's unique mechanics.  Virtuoso feels like the antithesis of Mesmer and took about an hour to solve.  It bores the hell out of me.

[Thefarside.2178]

deleted

Edited April 21, 2023 by Thefarside.2178

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

I liked everything about it, but there could be some notable improvements:

- Some of the elite specialisations need more tweaks, some even need a completely overhaul like Scrapper got.

- The runes and sigils are still missing.

- The dailies (which count towards the progress of other dailies) are still missing, leading to low populations.

- The hero points were too easy, and can even be pre-cleared by other players. Since the maps were a hybrid between Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire, it would've been nice to see a mixture of solo and group HPs too. A bounty-hero-point train hybrid would've been swell.

- Keining is severely lacking in events, especially group events.

- There's no skiff races to replace Roller Beetle races. This is needed especially in Keining.

- The Jade Bot flight console should'be a global mastery that you can place, like the United Legions Waystation. Many players in the game would buy the expansion just for this one feature (unlimited flight, but no combat).

- The guild hall still has major issues; there's too many clipwalls and Further Exploration does nothing, and the Canthan and Elonian music is still missing entirely.

- Cantha themed guild decorations, like the sakura tree, are missing despite just being reskins.

- The fishing party mechanic needs to be removed or a permanent buff that decays on a timer, rather than something that is lost under a variety of circumstances.

 

I love the story, the design of the maps, and how much love was put into everything. However, it clearly released only half finished and like always they don't go back and improve anything, which is why the game sadly can't retain newer players very well and bleeds them out daily.

 

The truth is, speaking as a former game developer, most of these are only small changes that would take very little developer time, but unfortunately the game suffers from an "indefinite low priority" poison.

Edited April 15, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Westenev.5289]

The story was decent (and I only experienced a game breaking bug once, which is a miracle in and of itself), but I think the strong sticking point of this expansion was the 4 strike missions. I like the E-specs too, although I do find bladesworn to be a bit difficult to justify using.

 

I can't say EoD is all good though, because fishing and skiffs are extremely niche content. I suppose it's nice that the option is there, though I would have liked to have seen more skiff-related content.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Westenev.5289

[Nymeria.1653]

On 2/27/2023 at 11:08 AM, Ashantara.8731 said:

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 😉.)

I agree with everything in this comment, especially the contemporary american teenagers way of talking (and not only talking) wich is irritating in a fantasy game context, the too much tech especially in the forest and nature and the lack of immersion like in the old Cantha, maybe also due to landscapes that are too saturated and "aggressive" or almost too aseptic like nk. 

And that's a shame imo, because I don't play much in Cantha in gw2 (even thought it was my favourite place in gw1) but I would like too. Also one positive thing is the general plot of the story (too bad it is developped in a way I don't always like, like dialogues as I said before.). Let's hope for the furute ^^.

[Myror.7521]

In my Opinion the worst Off all expansions yet. The Maps are Just looking awsome and I am tired Off maps that are looking Like a paradise.... lel. (Gimme Action gimme stuff that got crushed Just Something Like that) Masterys are hmm yea idk .... think I would not Miss them If they where Not in this Game. Story was Overall too many Dialoge. E-Specs where Bad overall (thx for gain me another melee dps spec Not Like warr already get 2 ....). No PvP/WvW/Raids/Fracs content.

 

Overall the only reason why it was wurf get buyed was Cantha cause it is a gw1 Map.

[Dr Meta.3158]

Heart of Thorns was a 4.6/5.

1. Narrative
   • The story was good. It was a drastic change from the ending of dealing with Zhaitan. The intro knocked the commander off of their high horse and put into place a vietnam war style tragedy and setting. The chosen one stuff was cliche but I do like the lead up to it with the struggle with Caithe over a misunderstanding and the conflict between duty and destiny where destiny not only won, but won in an unexpected manner, and was both a character thematic for aurene and the story going forward with another payoff in living world season 4 albeit after a very cheap and dumb plot twist... but we'll get to that. The way the Modremoth antagonized the pact tied in with how he was defeated and that was beautiful. The deaths were impactful, the character development was good. It was overall a great story. 4/5
2. Locations
   • The different maps of Heart of Thorns are all beautiful, filled with life, and there's always something interesting to look or get involved with. They all vary but stay within the theme of jungle. People get upset for getting lost in tangled depths... but that's the point, it's in the name.. its even a plot point in the story... The following design afterwards of living world season 3 wasn't as good but there was definite effort there along with memorable land marks like the chalice of tears. 5/5
3. Elite Specializations
   • Elite specs were hit or miss. As far as theme goes, they all hit the mark but the execution was shaky in some cases with the worst offender being chronomancer which was the final nail in the coffin for sPvP and a major pain point for raiding compositions and this would only go downhill from here. However most classes were good, brought new options to some struggling core classes, and it brought an entire new fan favorite class and elite specialization along with sporting the most reasonable elite specs in the game. 4/5
4. Gameplay
   • Heart of Thorns was challenging both in combat and navigation. Metas required so much coordination that entire guilds were built around running them and teaching other people how to command them. This difficulty brought the community together more than any I've seen since then. Ironically the community complained about the difficulty and as such brought upon the impending destruction of their own enjoyment of the game out of sheer ignorance. Getting the migraine achievement in a duo with a friend was the most fun I've ever had in PvE bar none. 5/5
5.  Novelty
   • Gliding was a great new addition and a mainstay in the game as a whole. The new legendary weapons were great along with the greatest designed legendary in the game, The Binding of Ipos. The usage of the bloodstone special action key also made its way past season 3 which was cool. 5/5

 

Path of Fire was a 2/5.

1. Narrative
   • The story was very generic. Balthazar was basically a saturday morning cartoon villian, Kralkatorrick was about as complex as the antagonist in Twister, and Joko was a missed opportunity for something greater. There was more character regression than progression, character development opportunies that went no where, new prominent characters that amounted to nothing, just meh. Living World season 4 was ok until the end thunderhead peaks and the beginning of dragon's fall. There was so much wrong that I just can't detail out as it will bloat this section so much. Its not included in the score since this is only about expansions and not living worlds, but yikes man. 2/5
2. Locations
   • To be honest, since the theme was desert... I wasn't expecting much and I didn't get much. But just because I wasn't expecting much, doesn't mean I'm going to skew the rating. 1/5
3. Elite Specializations
   • These elite specializations were mostly on point as far as theme and just disgusting in execution. These classes created gross balance issues far beyond what chronomancer did in its debut and wrecked balance in all three game modes for years and years to come. 2/5
4. Gameplay
   • The major new thing was bounties which were OK until the extra boss effects made them more annoying to fight rather than more challenging. Other than that, nothing really new here. The difficulty dropped, there wasn't really anything that made people sweat like the bosses, pocket raptors or especially the smokescales which terrorized all three game modes. Its like getting on a merry go round. Its something to do but only if you have nothing better to do. 2/5
5. Novelty
   • Mounts are huge in both a positive way and negative way. Mounts sped up the game a lot and allowed some new ways of traversal, sped up getting around things you've done already and added new fun stuff like beetle races that the community took and refined if you use taco/Blish/guild halls. Mounts also made it so the map quality definitely took a nosedive since their introduction. Because people can get around so fast no, there's a definite notable lack of detail and quality in map design now since less people notice from zipping around on beetles, griffons, skimmers, and skyscales. 3/5.

End of Dragons was a 1.8/5.

1. Narrative
   • Before talking about End of Dragons. I have to talk about icebrood saga. It won't be included in the scoring but it laments the overall problem with not only end of dragons but Arenanet as a company as it is now. Icebrood saga started out amazing. Grothmar Valley was beautiful, the metas were fun and diverse, the easter eggs were great, the secrets were great, the details everywhere were great, the character development was good, the change from dragons to the internal conflict of the Charr trying to reband together was great, the design and thematic drawing from The Lion King was definitely present, the music was great, good lord I felt like this episode had to have been outsourced. The segway into Jormag luring in Bangar and turning into a psychological horror was phenomenal. It had me really invested into the story for the first time since Heart of Thorns and it was just getting better and better especially with that cliff hanger... then Drakkar came out and it fell off a cliff, drilled through the earth, launched into the stratosphere and plummeted into the sun leading to just a horrible narrative travesty. And that is what Arenanet is now both as a company and in their new design philosophy. Great initial promise followed by cataclysmic plummet into the shadowlands with not even an ounce of regard or remorse, just straight gaslighting until you're ready to quit then restarting the cycle again. I imagine this is what it feels like to get lovebomb'd into a narcissitic relationship. So with that out of the way, this is End of Dragons in a nutshell. Interesting premise followed by terrible payoff on repeat to the very end. Sprinkle in some cringe social commentary (as no one seems to learn from the other media that tried this and failed miserably) and you have your lackluster narrative. 2/5
2. Locations
   • The locations are a mixed bag. Fly up into the air with your skyscale and it looks beautiful then land, dismount and walk around and its... pretty hollow. Its a definite reminder that substance is better than beauty as Nintendo is an example of having utilized this concept for a long time. Again, I think this is in part due to the introduction of mounts. Most people zip around and don't notice it because they're moving quickly from place to place. But... its not a desert with just nothing throughout lol. People years ago were speculating that one day we were going to Cantha and it is there that underwater combat would be revamped into something good and that would have the legendary waterbreather... 3/5.
3. Elite Specializations
   • The usual trend for arenanet was mostly hitting the theme and missing execution. Now its missing both. These elite specializations suck, they're lazy, a lot of them make no sense, they're filled with copy and paste, riddled with bugs, and most came in as garbage, boosted to problematic levels, and changed into a clunky mess. The introduction of mechanist under the claim to "help the disabled" only to make it functionally inept.. I said it before, its evil. That's really heinous. I mean jeez, its one thing that renegade can't use their specific legend under water but the entire mechanist class breaks under water. Who thought this was ok? Even the flesh golem was updated to have a shark form underwater. Just dastardly. Specter reminding people that having shroud means poor mobility and no active defenses and what happens when you combine the two before crucifying specter to leave pinned to the wall as a reminder to the community to becareful what they wish for. Bladesworn, I don't even know what they were thinking with this one. Staff was an obvious pick here and what they came up with instead is just dumb. I think from here, no more elite specs. Clean up the classes starting from the core nine. 1/5.
4. Gameplay
   • This is the definite turn your brain off expansion. There's no challenge at all and that's before the boon pylons everywhere. Its so boring, any failure just comes from there being no one to do the meta, especially in seijung province, because it sucks. 1/5.
5. Novelty
   • First off, lol fishing. I had to do it. Any game that uses fishing as a gimmick to draw in players is struggling. I remember when Lineage 2 did it too. They were also struggling. That's only two examples I've seen. But I'm just going to keep in mind that any time a game uses fishing in an advertisement/trailer as a motive to play the game to see if this is a universal sign of distress for the developers. Anyway, we have fishing and skiffs. I like the idea of multiple people in one mount but well water is not Guild Wars 2's strong point... well neither is Guilds nor Guild Wars... so whatever. The turtle is the only saving grace. 2/5.

 

Overall, the game has been getting worse over time and the recent announcement of the road map change and how expansions are being done going forward indicates that we are in maintenance mode. Greatest speculations from recent hirings over the past year for a new arenanet game indicates to many of the development of Guild Wars 3 but I can imagine that announcing it this early would just cause a lot of the playerbase to not want to progress any further in this game. But it could be worse... it could be a bunch of mobile games... again.

[Johje Holan.4607]

Been waiting for Cantha for 10 years so I like it. Actually came back because of Cantha. Hadn’t played the other expacs though and all the new stuff at once is a bit overwhelming. 

[Knighthonor.4061]

This poll sits well with my thread here 

 

[Knighthonor.4061]

3 hours ago, Dr Meta.3158 said:

Heart of Thorns was a 4.6/5.

1. Narrative
   • The story was good. It was a drastic change from the ending of dealing with Zhaitan. The intro knocked the commander off of their high horse and put into place a vietnam war style tragedy and setting. The chosen one stuff was cliche but I do like the lead up to it with the struggle with Caithe over a misunderstanding and the conflict between duty and destiny where destiny not only won, but won in an unexpected manner, and was both a character thematic for aurene and the story going forward with another payoff in living world season 4 albeit after a very cheap and dumb plot twist... but we'll get to that. The way the Modremoth antagonized the pact tied in with how he was defeated and that was beautiful. The deaths were impactful, the character development was good. It was overall a great story. 4/5
2. Locations
   • The different maps of Heart of Thorns are all beautiful, filled with life, and there's always something interesting to look or get involved with. They all vary but stay within the theme of jungle. People get upset for getting lost in tangled depths... but that's the point, it's in the name.. its even a plot point in the story... The following design afterwards of living world season 3 wasn't as good but there was definite effort there along with memorable land marks like the chalice of tears. 5/5
3. Elite Specializations
   • Elite specs were hit or miss. As far as theme goes, they all hit the mark but the execution was shaky in some cases with the worst offender being chronomancer which was the final nail in the coffin for sPvP and a major pain point for raiding compositions and this would only go downhill from here. However most classes were good, brought new options to some struggling core classes, and it brought an entire new fan favorite class and elite specialization along with sporting the most reasonable elite specs in the game. 4/5
4. Gameplay
   • Heart of Thorns was challenging both in combat and navigation. Metas required so much coordination that entire guilds were built around running them and teaching other people how to command them. This difficulty brought the community together more than any I've seen since then. Ironically the community complained about the difficulty and as such brought upon the impending destruction of their own enjoyment of the game out of sheer ignorance. Getting the migraine achievement in a duo with a friend was the most fun I've ever had in PvE bar none. 5/5
5.  Novelty
   • Gliding was a great new addition and a mainstay in the game as a whole. The new legendary weapons were great along with the greatest designed legendary in the game, The Binding of Ipos. The usage of the bloodstone special action key also made its way past season 3 which was cool. 5/5

 

Path of Fire was a 2/5.

1. Narrative
   • The story was very generic. Balthazar was basically a saturday morning cartoon villian, Kralkatorrick was about as complex as the antagonist in Twister, and Joko was a missed opportunity for something greater. There was more character regression than progression, character development opportunies that went no where, new prominent characters that amounted to nothing, just meh. Living World season 4 was ok until the end thunderhead peaks and the beginning of dragon's fall. There was so much wrong that I just can't detail out as it will bloat this section so much. Its not included in the score since this is only about expansions and not living worlds, but yikes man. 2/5
2. Locations
   • To be honest, since the theme was desert... I wasn't expecting much and I didn't get much. But just because I wasn't expecting much, doesn't mean I'm going to skew the rating. 1/5
3. Elite Specializations
   • These elite specializations were mostly on point as far as theme and just disgusting in execution. These classes created gross balance issues far beyond what chronomancer did in its debut and wrecked balance in all three game modes for years and years to come. 2/5
4. Gameplay
   • The major new thing was bounties which were OK until the extra boss effects made them more annoying to fight rather than more challenging. Other than that, nothing really new here. The difficulty dropped, there wasn't really anything that made people sweat like the bosses, pocket raptors or especially the smokescales which terrorized all three game modes. Its like getting on a merry go round. Its something to do but only if you have nothing better to do. 2/5
5. Novelty
   • Mounts are huge in both a positive way and negative way. Mounts sped up the game a lot and allowed some new ways of traversal, sped up getting around things you've done already and added new fun stuff like beetle races that the community took and refined if you use taco/Blish/guild halls. Mounts also made it so the map quality definitely took a nosedive since their introduction. Because people can get around so fast no, there's a definite notable lack of detail and quality in map design now since less people notice from zipping around on beetles, griffons, skimmers, and skyscales. 3/5.

End of Dragons was a 1.8/5.

1. Narrative
   • Before talking about End of Dragons. I have to talk about icebrood saga. It won't be included in the scoring but it laments the overall problem with not only end of dragons but Arenanet as a company as it is now. Icebrood saga started out amazing. Grothmar Valley was beautiful, the metas were fun and diverse, the easter eggs were great, the secrets were great, the details everywhere were great, the character development was good, the change from dragons to the internal conflict of the Charr trying to reband together was great, the design and thematic drawing from The Lion King was definitely present, the music was great, good lord I felt like this episode had to have been outsourced. The segway into Jormag luring in Bangar and turning into a psychological horror was phenomenal. It had me really invested into the story for the first time since Heart of Thorns and it was just getting better and better especially with that cliff hanger... then Drakkar came out and it fell off a cliff, drilled through the earth, launched into the stratosphere and plummeted into the sun leading to just a horrible narrative travesty. And that is what Arenanet is now both as a company and in their new design philosophy. Great initial promise followed by cataclysmic plummet into the shadowlands with not even an ounce of regard or remorse, just straight gaslighting until you're ready to quit then restarting the cycle again. I imagine this is what it feels like to get lovebomb'd into a narcissitic relationship. So with that out of the way, this is End of Dragons in a nutshell. Interesting premise followed by terrible payoff on repeat to the very end. Sprinkle in some cringe social commentary (as no one seems to learn from the other media that tried this and failed miserably) and you have your lackluster narrative. 2/5
2. Locations
   • The locations are a mixed bag. Fly up into the air with your skyscale and it looks beautiful then land, dismount and walk around and its... pretty hollow. Its a definite reminder that substance is better than beauty as Nintendo is an example of having utilized this concept for a long time. Again, I think this is in part due to the introduction of mounts. Most people zip around and don't notice it because they're moving quickly from place to place. But... its not a desert with just nothing throughout lol. People years ago were speculating that one day we were going to Cantha and it is there that underwater combat would be revamped into something good and that would have the legendary waterbreather... 3/5.
3. Elite Specializations
   • The usual trend for arenanet was mostly hitting the theme and missing execution. Now its missing both. These elite specializations suck, they're lazy, a lot of them make no sense, they're filled with copy and paste, riddled with bugs, and most came in as garbage, boosted to problematic levels, and changed into a clunky mess. The introduction of mechanist under the claim to "help the disabled" only to make it functionally inept.. I said it before, its evil. That's really heinous. I mean jeez, its one thing that renegade can't use their specific legend under water but the entire mechanist class breaks under water. Who thought this was ok? Even the flesh golem was updated to have a shark form underwater. Just dastardly. Specter reminding people that having shroud means poor mobility and no active defenses and what happens when you combine the two before crucifying specter to leave pinned to the wall as a reminder to the community to becareful what they wish for. Bladesworn, I don't even know what they were thinking with this one. Staff was an obvious pick here and what they came up with instead is just dumb. I think from here, no more elite specs. Clean up the classes starting from the core nine. 1/5.
4. Gameplay
   • This is the definite turn your brain off expansion. There's no challenge at all and that's before the boon pylons everywhere. Its so boring, any failure just comes from there being no one to do the meta, especially in seijung province, because it sucks. 1/5.
5. Novelty
   • First off, lol fishing. I had to do it. Any game that uses fishing as a gimmick to draw in players is struggling. I remember when Lineage 2 did it too. They were also struggling. That's only two examples I've seen. But I'm just going to keep in mind that any time a game uses fishing in an advertisement/trailer as a motive to play the game to see if this is a universal sign of distress for the developers. Anyway, we have fishing and skiffs. I like the idea of multiple people in one mount but well water is not Guild Wars 2's strong point... well neither is Guilds nor Guild Wars... so whatever. The turtle is the only saving grace. 2/5.

 

Overall, the game has been getting worse over time and the recent announcement of the road map change and how expansions are being done going forward indicates that we are in maintenance mode. Greatest speculations from recent hirings over the past year for a new arenanet game indicates to many of the development of Guild Wars 3 but I can imagine that announcing it this early would just cause a lot of the playerbase to not want to progress any further in this game. But it could be worse... it could be a bunch of mobile games... again.

I agree with this. And many people will be taken by your use of the term Maintenance Mode here

like in this thread 

 

 

But I know you mean it will just get small packets of content like some of the older grandfather MMOs do such as Everquest etc, that only get small pockets of upgrades from a small crew of people maintaining the game. Dont expect large scale expansions anymore that we became formularized with following WoW or GW2. 

[Knighthonor.4061]

I said it time and time again. I SUSPECT that the issue stems from a disconnect from the people at the top and the playerbase. 

 

The developers may be the fall guy in all of this. Who Knows. But the people at the top, over the years did some of the following that may rubbed people the wrong way;

 

*Refused to add larger Battleground like SPvP modes and stuck to the poorly received ESport model of 5v5 and then went smaller as if that was a good idea with their current balance issues.

 

*Refused to add new dungeons and Raids. Although I believe Strikes were a good idea on their own, but not as a replacement for the two. 

 

*Total Abandonment of WvW, which was one of their biggest selling hyped feature pre-release that they pretty much killed because the leadership at Anet had some kind of weird Anti WoW obsession, and refused to do the RIGHT THING that was needed back then. But was far too late by the time these things were added, because people moved on by that time. Now we cant even get new Maps for WvW, New Sieges, new anything. Only promise is a ill-thought-out Re-linking system called "Alliances" that wont have the positive effect many of you think it will. No new content will come from it. 

 

*Temporary Abandonment of the Expansion model for sake of these Living Story model was yet another example of the disconnect, as seen from the backlash during the reveal of Ice Blood Saga, when most people were expecting an Expansion reveal, but Anet thought outwise would be a better idea. That backlash had people ready to jump ship with cries that the game is officially in maintenance mode. You could tell EoD was rushed, but I am glad they took my advice and announced early that they were working on an expansion 4 right away, so that their wouldnt be a major fallout with the aftermath of EoD. Because I broke down why EoD would be a flop before release in a respectful manner. 

[Pifil.5193]

It was ok, it felt underwhelming especially given the content lull before and afterwards. It seems smaller and far less than HOT or especially POF given the lack of follow up content.

 

Now that they've officially canned Living World for this new "half now half later" mini expansion model it seems that we can expect expansions that contain even less than EOD in the future.

[Duglaive.5236]

On 3/1/2023 at 8:21 PM, Kozumi.5816 said:

Nearly zero grinds or replay value in anything.

I capped fishing before fishing once, how is that good for an RPG?

Lack of proper progression and goals to grind for.

An expac that was a week of content, at most. Not worth the development time at all.

Post-EoD has been an exact 1:1 repeat of LS1, with the 1 year content drought included.

Strikes are the worst form of end game in a MMO, period. Flashy, repetitive, boring. Just generic FF14/WoiW square room simon says musical chairs. Not unique and interesting like fractals and even old dungeons were. Safe, sterile, boring.

Fishing isn't relaxing and is extremely stressful. It's too easy and braindead while also requiring too much user input at the same time so it just feels awful. The turtle is the worst mount in the game by a pretty large margin.

The final meta is terrible and extremely unrewarding. It's like someone thought open world needed a 2 hour long raid that can fail, and if you fail, you get zero rewards. Are they nuts?

All of the content added since EoD is extremely unrewarding and not worth doing more than once or twice. Zero replay value.

Overall the worst expac.

 

I'm fairly certain my own feelings about EoD could not be put any better. A ginormous +1 and more to you, sir.

[rapthorne.7345]

I've been hyped and excited for every expansion released, but EoD is the one that lost my interest the fastest, and by a country mile.

[kharmin.7683]

10 minutes ago, rapthorne.7345 said:

I've been hyped and excited for every expansion released, but EoD is the one that lost my interest the fastest, and by a country mile.

Same with me.  But perhaps that's because I'm too casual of a player?

[Infinity.2876]

Other than three different villains, elite specs that don't have much identity, (catalyst, bladesworn, untamed) and portions of the maps that feel like the developers ran out of time, Eod is pretty decent.

The music was good, art was ok, metas understandable, map completion enjoyable, kung fu panda vibes awesome, etc.

[rylien.3824]

To me Guild Wars 2 : End of Dragons  is not a good extension, but it doesn’t mean everything is bad. There is no point in me fully listing the reasons, we all know them, but it is useful to point out that there has been little means and little hard work behind this extension, which many like to call "the extension of recycling". Some aspects were welcome, the artistic direction to be lowered in quality, but is not bland for all that, and sometimes still finds despite the recylage to inspire us, with a few exceptions like New-Kaineng which is a catastrophe in all respects (Fortunately, some of the corners are nice, such as the ruins, the harbour and the Monolith Square in Soo-Won).  OST are generally pretty good in reality, but all this is insufficient to make this extension exceed the average of a note, which in my opinion is very mediocre, especially when have known the golden age of a game where the artistic quality was at its maximum. Without lying too much, I can affirm that in the end the arc of ancestral dragons, the scenario of Guild Wars 2 will have been in the end a sinister joke, an old fanfiction made by turnips or at least whose decisions taken by a third party will have ruined everything.
I also have a deep respect for human rights, for all, but I found it very petty and so bad to have to propagate the culture woke up to everything on the extension itself, there are also duplicated/pasted duplicates everywhere, have is really about the culture of least effort, and it’s all this that makes this extension insipid, soporific, repellent. 

Today, it’s been over a year since their expansion came out, and this company is multiplying excuses, bad decisions, profit and malice with a now fragile community, which they have nothing to do with, so I see no future in Tyria, 

if not a short or long-term scam, which will lead us to "extensions" (Living-world hein) of nothingness, at an exhorbitant price. Their decision has been made, those who will stay can stay there, but I much prefer the quality and respect of other companies/game, than the one we have sold. And it’s not going to get better... The future of Guild Wars 2 is no longer engraved in jade, but in vaults like so many before it, where there is now no pleasure, nor the consolation of important content. 

In the end, Guild Wars 2 was bad from the beginning, until the end, there were moments of pleasure, and many moments of doubt about it which was accompanied by a continuity: because the "hope" of an improvement was felt, an improvement that has never really seen the light of day, and which today bears the weight of shame and defeat. I believe in the fact that there have been very good artists, writers perhaps qualified but constrained by the throes of decisions superior to their authority. Just as I believe in the inability of other decision-makers or artists who are bitter about common sense. That’s all I have to say, it’s useless to dwell on the ashes of those who have lost their future. 🖤

Edited April 21, 2023 by rylien.3824

[Vayne.8563]

If it weren't for the fact that I like the Aurene legendaries and some of the variants, I wouldn't spend much time in EOD. But that's how it always worked. It was the same with PoF for me. I didn't want to spend much time there either.  HOT was my favorite expansion by far. And if it wasn't for mounts, EoD would probably be my second.  I like the zones better than PoF zones. I like the story better. I like some of the boss fights and instances better.  And I like the strike missions, which I didn't really expect.

I run DE several nights a week, always successfully. I run the other metas when I have time. DE is the best farm in EoD though, except for maybe fishing.

The biggest problem is that with mounts and gliding already taken, there were very few masteries that were going to be on par with those. The only major feature we're pretty much missing is housing.

Expansions aren't supposed to be games, they're supposed to expand the game, and this one has. For me, at least. A legendary with a death animation that allows me a choice of color schemes. I'm there. 

It's not perfect, of course. The metas could be a bit more rewarding, except for DE which is very rewarding.  The achievements are relatively repetitive.  The story isn't the best to replay, considering how much down time stuff there is in the open world. But the first time I went through it I loved it, so it is that, and it does contain my favorite story instance in the game.

It's a mixed bag. I still think HOT is better.  I don't think I liked PoF better though, even though I love the mounts.

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Vayne.8563

[Batalix.2873]

Count me in the disappointed camp.

 

Some of that could improve with time: if we get enough maps to fill out Cantha with less "developed" and more culturally diverse regions, I could forgive the core EoD maps being so jade-tech heavy. Even if they are mostly just pretty sandboxes.

 

But the especs are just awful, awful design that very poorly reflect the fantasy job archetypes they could/should have been, not to mention are all converging on the same overgeneralist archetype that FB/Scourge poisoned the game with. Willbender, Catalyst, Vindicator, and Mechanist took their kernels of ideas in completely the wrong directions, and I'm starting to feel that way about Specter too. Untamed and Harbinger needed a little more polish/identity, and names that aren't meaningless garbage. Even Virtuoso feels like they tacked on "bard" flavor for no good reason, and is way too overtuned for being a braindead ranged class. The only class with an identity on par with PoF/HoT especs is Bladesworn, and even that has plenty of issues with the execution. I am extremely salty about how under considered and tasteless the EoD especs are, and subconsciously think less of people who main and enjoy them.

 

Strikes are only barely content and make the world feel smaller compared to when we had raids. Combined with fewer and sparser maps, and Cantha really does not feel like a world the way Maguuma and Crystal Desert and even the Shiverpeaks do. And speaking of maps, the enemy design is extremely disappointing--it got better with Gyala, but prior to that the non-human mobs were all copypasted from prior expacs with practically no new mechanics of their own.

 

I hope we get more Luxon flavor in upcoming content, that will help diversify the region a bit, bring some Polynesian flavor into the mix and segue into some much needed underwater revitalization. Kurzicks are dumb eurocentric faffery and Echovald is a terrible map, I would be very disappointed if we got more of that.

 

But at this point I really don't know what I feel entitled to expect, since it seems that everything since late IBS has indicated that the dev team just isn't as robust as during HoT/PoF, and that "content" now is heavily propped up by recycled character models, enemies, and bosses instead of actually designing and innovating. As someone who came into GW2 in the middle of IBS, I have been forced to reconcile the fact that GW2 basically ended with LWS4. All of the game's quality content--the maps, the raids, the legendary weapons, the useful masteries--is wrapped up in the HoT/PoF duality. That is the "game" that I am still playing through and continuing to enjoy. IBS and EoD have just been victory laps, and frankly with especs this bad EoD should not have been worked up into an expansion.

 

Very disappointed, and the fact that I am still disappointed over a year after release, that in mulling things over I still have not elucidated any underlying design philosophy that justifies these decisions, leads me to conclude that the expansion is just poor quality. The only reason I play EoD content is for the Aurene legendaries, which I think are the only solid design decision they made in the entire expac (and the turtle). But that says a lot that the only consistent, unifying goal for the entire expac is legendary weapon grinding, and that but for favor, jadestones, A*S*S* and whale poop contributing toward this singular progression track, no one would be bothering with EoD maps.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Batalix.2873

[Ashen.2907]

EoD was disappointing. Horrible aesthetic design decisions. Even worse characterization and writing. Honestly I consider your below average episode of the Smurfs to be a giant leap up.

[Keymaster.7362]

I personally believe there are two main reasons why EoD has been reviewed so mixed.

1st. The people expected a Guild Wars 1 Factions 2.0, but ArenaNet decited to change Cantha totally in the 260 years difference. You have to be okay with the cyberpunk aesthetic.

2nd. The people are spoiled  from HoT and PoF. Gliding did totally change the playstyle and our mount system is the best in the world of mmos. But you can set the bar only that high and ArenaNet simply can't outperform themself in every new Addon with innovation.

All i can say, I personaly really enjoied EoD, up to this date. Even if it is not perfect (but neither are HoT or PoF).

The story was great.

Saitung is a fantastic first map. New Kaineng is for me the prettiest of the maps, but the events are repetitive and boring. Echowald was aestheticly the most lackluster, but has by far the best events and interesting activities. Dragons End is mainly a meta map. In the past it got a lot of hate because of its difficulty. But nowadays the people know the mechanics, and as long as you join a sqad it's a no-brainer. But not everyone has the time to spend 2 hours on a single meta. Dragons stand from HoT has the same problem.

Generally every Meta in EoD is still activly done (in differnce to PoF)

EoD has by far the most after credits activities, thanks to lovely side quests in arborstone with Snargle Goldclaw, Majoris sisters, Ramas ancestors, Canachs club and so much more. But none of them has nearly as much impect as the griffon in PoF.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Keymaster.7362

[Ashen.2907]

29 minutes ago, Keymaster.7362 said:

I personally believe there are two main reasons why EoD has been reviewed so mixed.

1st. The people expected a Guild Wars 1 Factions 2.0, but ArenaNet decited to change Cantha totally in the 260 years difference. You have to be okay with the cyberpunk aesthetic.

2nd. The people are spoiled  from HoT and PoF. Gliding did totally change the playstyle and our mount system is the best in the world of mmos. But you can set the bar only that high and ArenaNet simply can't outperform themself in every new Addon with innovation.

All i can say, I personaly really enjoied EoD, up to this date. Even if it is not perfect (but neither are HoT or PoF).

The story was great.

Saitung is a fantastic first map. New Kaineng is for me the prettiest of the maps, but the events are repetitive and boring. Echowald was aestheticly the most lackluster, but has by far the best events and interesting activities. Dragons End is mainly a meta map. In the past it got a lot of hate because of its difficulty. But nowadays the people know the mechanics, and as long as you join a sqad it's a no-brainer. But not everyone has the time to spend 2 hours on a single meta. Dragons stand from HoT has the same problem.

Generally every Meta in EoD is still activly done (in differnce to PoF)

EoD has by far the most after credits activities, thanks to lovely side quests in arborstone with Snargle Goldclaw, Majoris sisters, Ramas ancestors, Canachs club and so much more. But none of them has nearly as much impect as the griffon in PoF.

As to #1: It was the abysmal implementation of the cyberpunk (one of my favorite genres) aesthetic that contributed to my dislike for EoD.  If they were going for cyberpunk they dropped the ball horribly.