What's the point of playing SOTO content?

[Hasmadad.4293]

I already had my Skyscale, so I don't need to farm another. I'm not farming for the legendary armor, so I have no reason to do rifts/arcane chests. Are those really the only two things this expansion has? Even the masteries are: Gather resources for legendary armor, gather resources for legendary armor, fly skyscale slightly better. I can't even use the currency I have for anything else!

And the next part of the expansion is... one third of a map and nothing new to do? At least the previous expansions had new specializations and mechanics. I feel utterly scammed.

[Cernoch.8524]

I finished story today actually, I like the maps, masteries but I was also thinking about rifts, its pretty big part of the expansion but I cant see anything why they are worth doing if I already have all legendary sets. Or am I missing something?

[Randulf.7614]

It’s an interesting point. I may well be getting the armour so for now I’m very happy doing the content and the various achievements. I might not feel the same if I did have the same goal.

I guess the question is, what carrot would you want?

[Farohna.6247]

I enjoy the maps and achievements, already have the skyscale, but don't have legendary armor.  I could see the lack of interest if you feel you already have all of this.  I guess for exploration, storyline, etc?  If you do not have anything that interests you, then I guess don't play it.  

[Danikat.8537]

Have a look through this: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2:_Secrets_of_the_Obscure#Features

It might not be complete yet because Wiki pages are written by players but it lists a lot of stuff that's in SotO.

For me the main things are the story and the meta-events on the two explorable maps, as well as the collections and other achievements (I'm not an achievement hunter, but I do ones which interest me). In terms of rewards there's 2 armour sets (not counting legendary armour or it's precursors, those aren't in yet), several weapon sets and other cosmetics. I have mixed feelings about the new minis being tradable, it means they're easier to get but also means it's not prompting me to do as many things. Oh, there's 2 new strike missions as well but I haven't done them yet.

[Hasmadad.4293]

6 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

It’s an interesting point. I may well be getting the armour so for now I’m very happy doing the content and the various achievements. I might not feel the same if I did have the same goal.

I guess the question is, what carrot would you want?

I just feel like I'm treading water. I want to feel a sense of progression with my character, of them improving. For example, EoD gave us two new mounts, a new minigame (fishing), several useful mechanics with the jade bot and a new elite spec. What SOTO has given us is... well, nothing. Two new areas with no point of playing them apart from gathering masteries. Even the storyline feels like it just stopped with EoD with SOTO having none of the characters I've been adventuring with for years and really liked. I personally miss Taimi and Canach a lot, and Hat Guy really grew on me. I feel like EoD ended way too early and Cantha had so much more to give, but instead we get SOTO that has nothing to do with anything in the game previously (apart from Gyala) with nothing much to do, areas that are either a mish-mash of previous expansions or five identical clinically white towers that mostly feel like empty walls with minimal inhabitants. I wanted to see Old Kaineng (imagine an area that improved on the underwater gameplay and new mechanics for that?) I wanted to see the Kirin Peak and to see magical mythical beings. Instead we get generic demons from every other game, going into a hell dimension and none of it has been even hinted at for the decade that GW2 has been around.

 

Phew. Sorry. Seems I had more to get off my chest than I thought.

[BlueJin.4127]

If you aren't going to get the Obsidian legendary armors, you can spare yourself from the torment of having to do thousands of rifts. XD

[Hasmadad.4293]

2 minutes ago, BlueJin.4127 said:

If you aren't going to get the Obsidian legendary armors, you can spare yourself from the torment of having to do thousands of rifts. XD

Yeah but the point was: Is there anything else to do? And the answer, sadly, is that there isn't. After looking through the link of SOTO content there's basically nothing to do. I just don't understand why I can happily run through Drizzlewood meta without getting bored of it, but even thinking of going to Amnytais makes me feel sick.

[BlueJin.4127]

5 minutes ago, Hasmadad.4293 said:

Yeah but the point was: Is there anything else to do? And the answer, sadly, is that there isn't. After looking through the link of SOTO content there's basically nothing to do. I just don't understand why I can happily run through Drizzlewood meta without getting bored of it, but even thinking of going to Amnytais makes me feel sick.

Yeah, it's a complaint a lot of players have about SotO. There's little outside of legendary armors that makes SotO worth it, and even if you're going for the legendary armor, the quality of contents for getting legendary armors (like rifts) are awful.

[kharmin.7683]

54 minutes ago, Farohna.6247 said:

 If you do not have anything that interests you, then I guess don't play it.  

This is where I am with SotO.  I'm not invested in getting the armor and I already had my skyscale.  I enjoyed running around and getting map completion, but once that was done I only trail back to these maps if a daily requires it (and even then it's hit or miss if I do them).

[Randulf.7614]

57 minutes ago, Hasmadad.4293 said:

I just feel like I'm treading water. I want to feel a sense of progression with my character, of them improving. For example, EoD gave us two new mounts, a new minigame (fishing), several useful mechanics with the jade bot and a new elite spec. What SOTO has given us is... well, nothing. Two new areas with no point of playing them apart from gathering masteries. Even the storyline feels like it just stopped with EoD with SOTO having none of the characters I've been adventuring with for years and really liked. I personally miss Taimi and Canach a lot, and Hat Guy really grew on me. I feel like EoD ended way too early and Cantha had so much more to give, but instead we get SOTO that has nothing to do with anything in the game previously (apart from Gyala) with nothing much to do, areas that are either a mish-mash of previous expansions or five identical clinically white towers that mostly feel like empty walls with minimal inhabitants. I wanted to see Old Kaineng (imagine an area that improved on the underwater gameplay and new mechanics for that?) I wanted to see the Kirin Peak and to see magical mythical beings. Instead we get generic demons from every other game, going into a hell dimension and none of it has been even hinted at for the decade that GW2 has been around.

 

Phew. Sorry. Seems I had more to get off my chest than I thought.

I agree EoD ended far, far too soon. It needed a full season before finishing off the void part.

However, I find SoTo has provided vastly superior storytelling and characters, so I don’t feel as cheated as I did.

But again the question remains unanswered - what specifically would invest people in the content? EoD and Cantha is gone, done with. It’s long overdue to move on from what should have been, just like the mess IBS descended into or the utter travesty that was part two of season 4.
 

What specifically would you wanted added into the here and now in SoTo?

[BlueJin.4127]

Going back to quality of SotO contents, I think the major contents (rifts and metas) are such a huge step backwards for the game. It's just a lazy copy and paste.

For rifts, all 3 tiers are exactly the same. For the first phase, I mindlessly kill enemies that randomly spawn all over the place until the bar fills up. Then I fight a boss for the 2nd phase. There's no variation between the 3 tiers and there's nothing engaging about the design of the rifts themselves. And we have to do several thousands of these for legendary armors?

Then when I go to Skywatch meta... I feel like I'm doing another rift. Bulk of it is the same "mindlessly kill enemies that randomly spawn all over the place until the bar fills up" phase against the exact same enemies that I fought while doing rifts. Even the champions that spawn are the same ones I fought during rifts. There are no unique enemies or major mechanics that really differentiate this from rifts.

Then when I go to Amnytas meta... it's yet another deja vu. While it's definitely an improvement over Skywatch meta with more variety, bulk of it is the same "mindlessly kill enemies that randomly spawn all over the place until the bar fills up" phase against the exact same enemies that I fought while doing rifts and Skywatch meta. Even the champions that spawn are the same ones I fought during rifts and Skywatch meta.

It's like DRM's all over again. I'm seriously worried that the GW2 devs are no longer given the budget to make proper expansions and going forth, we're just going to get low budget copy and paste like this.

Edited October 25, 2023 by BlueJin.4127

[Ashen.2907]

12 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

What specifically would you wanted added into the here and now in SoTo?

He kind of answered that question in the post you quoted.

A sense of progressing his character. New mounts. Useful new abilities such as those granted by the jade bot, and so on.

[Randulf.7614]

3 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

He kind of answered that question in the post you quoted.

A sense of progressing his character. New mounts. Useful new abilities such as those granted by the jade bot, and so on.

They didn’t really. That’s just generalisations. I’m interested to hear what specific things would interest someone related to SoTo. What new mount? What new abilities? I mean the Jade bot wasn’t exactly a popular addition and the skiff and turtle have been very mixed (I liked them though). We have had new skyscale abilities which surely fills the niche the Jade bot did - arguably in a much better way.

I’ve enjoyed SoTo don’t get me wrong, but it’s not really expanded the game by allowing them to do other things as they intended either. Since they closed the subforum done far, far too prematurely, I’m not seeing any cool ideas they could add. I mean it’s prob too late, but some actual specific ideas, well thought out would be fun to read.

What would make rifts worth doing if not after legendary armour? What would make repeat map play worthwhile?

 

[stormemperor.3745]

New skins

[FortnitemareCourt.8354]

26 minutes ago, stormemperor.3745 said:

New skins

Yeah. I really want some of the Skyscale weapons. They're gorgeous, but kitten their drop rate is low. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skyscale_weapons

[Hasmadad.4293]

1 hour ago, Randulf.7614 said:

I agree EoD ended far, far too soon. It needed a full season before finishing off the void part.

However, I find SoTo has provided vastly superior storytelling and characters, so I don’t feel as cheated as I did.

But again the question remains unanswered - what specifically would invest people in the content? EoD and Cantha is gone, done with. It’s long overdue to move on from what should have been, just like the mess IBS descended into or the utter travesty that was part two of season 4.
 

What specifically would you wanted added into the here and now in SoTo?

I tried to answer that in my earlier post, by I can get kinda rambly. 😄

What I hope for is:

- Character advancement in some way. Improving in some way. This has usually been what masteries are for, but SOTO masteries are just for opening currency content. A new class, a new race (tengu would have been amazing!), new elite specs... I mean the upcoming new weapons for classes are a great step in the right direction, but I'm worried they won't bring a new playstyle to the classes like the better elite specs did. For example, I sincerely hope Warrior getting the Staff as a weapon would be something like a war banner so they could be offensive supports and not just three flavours of DPS.

- New, exciting locations that have new mechanics and experiences. I threw in an underwater zone as one example, but there's so much that could be done with flying castles instead of just making them, well, boring. A wizard's tower should never be boring, yet it feels so dull and the only life there is from the crafters and other required NPCs. It feels like it came from the same creative team as Starfield, where it goes like "what people expect from a wizard's tower?" and then adds one of everything because that's what people expect instead of innovating and creating anything new.

-Far more new item sets and cosmetics. One measly set for completing the story (which is ugly) and one exotic one that you can grind aren't enough for me. Where are the cool-looking ascended armors?

- NPC's that I'm invested in. IBS was very hit-or-miss, but it was interesting because it had stakes that I understood. Jormagg was bad news, Charr civil war, more backgroud for Rytlock, the feeling of actual battle and urgenccy in Drizzlewood was the high point for me. I don't care about the wizards who fight demons. That's been done to death a thousand times. Every fantasy MMO has wizards who fight demons and then you have to go to Hell to fight demons and it always looks like a dark cave with organic growths, skulls and brimstone. A dragon turning out to be benevolent and powering a whole empire with magitech? That's something more interesting!

- A kitten zone-spanning meta-event that has good rewards so people actually want to do it! Not just generic pieces of unidentified rares, but something special! Opening the Wizard's Tower feels unrewarding because instead of a loot-splosion you get a few chests sprinkled around a wide courtyard. I want lootrushes like Tarir! Other great example is Verdant Brink where you could farm the Bladed set, which might not look great for everyone, but it let us pick the stats we wanted and it also included stuff that isn't in core, like Viper's or Diviner's.

- More Cantha. You asked me what I want, I want to see the rest of Cantha. 😄

[leila.7962]

2 hours ago, Farohna.6247 said:

I enjoy the maps and achievements, already have the skyscale, but don't have legendary armor.  I could see the lack of interest if you feel you already have all of this.  I guess for exploration, storyline, etc?  If you do not have anything that interests you, then I guess don't play it.  

25$ for exploration and storyline really feels like a rip off if you ask me.

I'm right there with the OP.. got my 3 legendary sets before SoTO, I had the skyscale before and the masteries didn't really add much to what the mount was prior to it. I finished the storyline, I explored the maps and well, I haven't touched this part of the game since then. Why farm rifts if I won't be doing the armors? The metas are pretty bland, very poor rewards.. back when it was released I said in the forums this should have been a 12 $ update, same price as any other episode from the previous LWS.. and it would have been fine if that's all they had to offer..

Pricing it like an expansion, but delivering stuff like a LWS is just a shady low blow move from Anet.

[Sobx.1758]

2 hours ago, Hasmadad.4293 said:

I just feel like I'm treading water. I want to feel a sense of progression with my character, of them improving. For example, EoD gave us two new mounts, a new minigame (fishing), several useful mechanics with the jade bot and a new elite spec. What SOTO has given us is... well, nothing. Two new areas with no point of playing them apart from gathering masteries. Even the storyline feels like it just stopped with EoD with SOTO having none of the characters I've been adventuring with for years and really liked. I personally miss Taimi and Canach a lot, and Hat Guy really grew on me. I feel like EoD ended way too early and Cantha had so much more to give, but instead we get SOTO that has nothing to do with anything in the game previously (apart from Gyala) with nothing much to do, areas that are either a mish-mash of previous expansions or five identical clinically white towers that mostly feel like empty walls with minimal inhabitants. I wanted to see Old Kaineng (imagine an area that improved on the underwater gameplay and new mechanics for that?) I wanted to see the Kirin Peak and to see magical mythical beings. Instead we get generic demons from every other game, going into a hell dimension and none of it has been even hinted at for the decade that GW2 has been around.

 

Phew. Sorry. Seems I had more to get off my chest than I thought.

Sounds like you should swap to more of a "classic" type of mmorpg with endlessly increasing level cap and geargrind. I couldn't care less for that type of thing.

 

2 hours ago, Hasmadad.4293 said:

After looking through the link of SOTO content there's basically nothing to do. I just don't understand why I can happily run through Drizzlewood meta without getting bored of it, but even thinking of going to Amnytais makes me feel sick.

So... it's not all about character progress? Metas should be different from each other and I wouldn't say it's a problem that you like one meta more than the other. Play through the content and pick what you want to replay. Or wait for the whole expansion, watch some streamer to see how it plays and then decide if you want to buy it. If you don't like the expansion, simply don't buy it and play what you want to play instead.

As for some progress this expansion has, at least there are new masteries, relics, "weapon mastery" and incomming new weapons for every class.

Edited October 25, 2023 by Sobx.1758

[ShadowKatt.6740]

Eh, there's already a lot of answers, but why not.

What's the point of SotO? At this point, to play more SotO. The fact is that we were given VERY little. Two new maps, great to explore but once you've done that...not much else to them. Some weapon sets to collect, some armor sets to collect, new masteries to work on, one of them that's even good. And new resources to collect: Essences. That last one is the point. Why are we here? To collect essences. Obstensibly there is going to be a use for them in the future but right now we use essences to make motivations to do rifts to gain more essences and the cycle repeats. I have to believe that when things like the Legendary Armor drop we're going to need a metric ton of these essences to craft them and so that's what we're doing now: We're grinding and stockpiling for what's to come. And maybe making friends along the way, although I'm not going to lose any sleep over that kitten mursaat.

[voltaicbore.8012]

I use SotO content to test solo builds. The roving champions have enough HP and attack power that I can really test if a build is lacking in one aspect or another. Also if you're soloing some of the events on a glassy build, it turns out swarms of Kryptis backed up by the stupid shielded floating turrets can actually be modestly challenging.

But I broadly agree with the sentiment that there's not much in SotO if you don't need/want to grind rifts. The only difference is that I'm not disappointed - I think SotO's story writing represents an improvement over what we've seen the last few years from GW2, and I like the floating-city aesthetic of the Tower and Amnytas. I'll take the SotO maps any day over another travesty like New Kaineng City.

In terms of OP's desire for character progression, the one big "this changes combat" thing was just handed out with zero work required: the weaponmaster change. A number of builds I use saw an increase in fun with the availability of elite spec weapons. Despite the impact of said change, I can see why OP (and anyone, really) would feel like there was no meaningful change in SotO - weaponmaster just kind of happens, it's not a grind or journey of any kind to unlock it.

The other significant change is the in-combat skyscale mounting mastery. That's a pretty big game-changer IMO, but ironically it allows you to just straight up ignore more of the game. A fight getting boring or you just want to avoid it? Don't even need to drop combat, just mount up and fly off.

I find myself playing a lot less SotO after capping out masteries. Like a lot of us in the thread, I had skyscale and all legendary armor weights long before SotO was even announced, so those big-ticket attractions meant nothing to me even on day one of SotO.

[Hasmadad.4293]

23 minutes ago, leila.7962 said:

25$ for exploration and storyline really feels like a rip off if you ask me.

I'm right there with the OP.. got my 3 legendary sets before SoTO, I had the skyscale before and the masteries didn't really add much to what the mount was prior to it. I finished the storyline, I explored the maps and well, I haven't touched this part of the game since then. Why farm rifts if I won't be doing the armors? The metas are pretty bland, very poor rewards.. back when it was released I said in the forums this should have been a 12 $ update, same price as any other episode from the previous LWS.. and it would have been fine if that's all they had to offer..

Pricing it like an expansion, but delivering stuff like a LWS is just a shady low blow move from Anet.

Yeah it definitely feels more like a very costly Living World than an expansion. Them releasing the last map in THREE PARTS makes me feel even worse about it.

[Farohna.6247]

2 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

This is where I am with SotO.  I'm not invested in getting the armor and I already had my skyscale.  I enjoyed running around and getting map completion, but once that was done I only trail back to these maps if a daily requires it (and even then it's hit or miss if I do them).

And that's very reasonable, when something new is added, you may go back.  I can see why OP might feel disappointed but I feel like these are things that they were upfront about being the big features.  There are some new goodies coming up, so hopefully they may find that interesting.  

[Stx.4857]

I mean yeah.. if you’re not interested in the content that’s in the expansion, then I guess that answers your question.  
 

Personally I am loving this new expansion, because I have no legendary armor yet, so I’m working on that every week.  Also I am enjoying the wizards vault so much more than the old daily system.  Just doing the daily/weekly/special tasks for astral acclaim and doing weekly rifts has been keeping me having fun.  When I’m not doing that stuff I’m working on exploration and achievements in the new zones.  Weaponmaster training hasn’t really been much fun for the classes I play, but for some classes that adds a great deal of new gameplay experience so that’s another reason you may want to try it. 

[idpersona.3810]

1 hour ago, FortnitemareCourt.8354 said:

Yeah. I really want some of the Skyscale weapons. They're gorgeous, but kitten their drop rate is low. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skyscale_weapons

I haven't gotten even one of these to drop yet. Also, it'd be nicer if these were out of a choice box, similar to Drakkar's Hoard. At least you could choose the weapon/skin you wanted then.