The good things about SotO

[StraightPath.3972]

I think we can all universally agree SotO is a hit and miss expansion, but while the misses are being addressed quite vocally,
I fear the "hit" parts aren't getting enough attention, posing a risk of good development and ideas being left to obscurity (pun intended).

So without further ado, the stuff I really like and appreciate about this xpac, though with some critique to make it better in the future:

SKYSCALE FIREBALL AND AERIAL COMBAT

An excellent idea all around. A breath of fresh, scorched air for many SotO events.
I always enjoyed battles where there are meaningful ways to contribute outside of just bonking stuff with your weapon,
and taking into air to snipe enemy bombers/turrets is a great way to do so!

Critique:
That being said i see two problems here.
One - core Tyrians suffer a bit from skyscale owners bombing their events before they can even get to them.
Two - Kryptis air turrets are a great opportunity to incentivize projectile hate for the grounded players.
           But Krytpis fights tend to be mobile while majority of projectile hate is not, greatly diminishing this potentially gameplay enhancing mechanic.

NEW WEAPONS

They are fun, impactful, often with their own unique mechanics and opening up new playstyles and builds.
While not equivalent to new set of e-specs they came as close as possible to providing the experience and for most parts are a big success.
And hey, unchaining elite specs weapon from their elite spec did not hurt either...

Critique:
An obvious power gap between old standard weapons and new ones from SotO as well as unlocked elite ones.
This stuff needs some adjusting. Another (albeit tiny gripe) is how some of these combos just feel off lore-wise.
Reaper pulling out a pistol feel about just as much in place for me as samurai killing his enemies with an Uzi..


EVENTS

Gotta give numerous praises here. The pacing feels just right - not too long, not to short, and they quickly and smoothly
transition into their follow up event. Also their spawn rate seems tight and the mini map is far better marked in terms of finding
something to do compared to core Tyria and some stuff from previous expansions.
Seems like in most cases they really nailed the feeling of flow here, not jerking player attention in weird and unnecessary ways.

Also big praise for solid amount of events which are non-combat or combat optional.
Even those which are purely combat sometimes feature skyscale combat opportunities, so you can pick your activity, which is great.

Critique:
Kryptis rifts tend to sour the taste here. Little is more annoying than having your hands full with an event already,
then in swoops another player, opens a rift and now you got a sea of enemies you didn't bargain for (especially on escort missions).
Happened to me during asuran professor and apprentice escort in Rata Novus - not a fun experience.

Obviously there's also a lot of reusing old events, but that's not such a big issue.
Some events however are dreadfully annoying to complete.
Protecting Rift Hunters in Primal Maguuma for example - you kill kill and kill putting you on WWF's black list.. NOPE!
Enemies respawn 3s after preventing any meaningful progression on territory capture.
Even one measely pocket raptor that spawned behind a rock prevents capture and the land capture marker is still blue, just not progressing..



 

Edited May 22 by StraightPath.3972

[DanAlcedo.3281]

I would say that SotO was a pretty meh expansion. But by far not as bad as the forum makes it out to be. 

It's just that the main features didn't effect me. 

Already had 3 Legy armors before SotO. So that entire aspect didn't bring me content. 

That means the meta events too are kinda pointless to me. 

Story was... Something. 

But a big part why I didn't really enjoy SotO is that I play Warrior. 

The weapon mastery didn't do anything. 

Staff made heal Warrior an option. But that's about it. 

If the relic of the midnight king didn't exist, I would hate playing Openworld on warrior. It carries the class there. 

Balance patched have been........... Yikes. 

Most of my enjoyment of the game is combat related. And I can personally say that SotO didn't improved my experience on that front. Quite the opposite. 

I had more fun playing Warrior Pre SotO. 

Let's pray that the next balance patch fixes things. 

Edited May 22 by DanAlcedo.3281

[b k.1648]

Skyscale add-ons were nice. I also liked seeing the alternate reality fractals, and the character writing for Isgarren.

Otherwise, this wasn't really my expansion. Hoping the next one has something I can get into.

[Player.2475]

I really have to think hard to think of something positive to say about SotO... uhh....

uhhh....

I guess it's nice that there's a new way to get Supreme Runes of Holding after Anet limited ectogambling which doubled their prices practically overnight? Too bad they are still extremely rare.

[Pifil.5193]

The character select screen is nice.

[Astralporing.1957]

The good thing about SotO? It's over. Now, the bad side to this is that the next expac will likely be even worse.

[WindBlade.8749]

I enjoy cerus cm, i can see arena net put all their budget in open world maps/achivement because they clearly don't have the team/budget yet to do a proper story + openworld + others kitten in 3-4 month of dev by episode.

Which is the best thing they can do since it's was they do the best.
Hoping they will have more budget/staff for the next expansion if that was actually their issue.

The story was not bad nor good, it's was just too rushed, too fast paced, it's like they only did a story with the main point of their scripts but not anything else.

Edited May 22 by WindBlade.8749

[Farohna.6247]

Things I've enjoyed about SotO....

Skyscale use...I like the fireball, and I've enjoyed being able to use the ley likes and updrafts for mounts now.  

No elder dragons.  I love me some dragons, but it's nice to get away from them.  

The events.  Absolutely agree the pacing of them seems great.  Just the right amount.  

Open world armor.   I've enjoyed crafting my set of heavy armor.  Guess I'll craft the medium and light too, gives me a reason to keep going back to SoTO, like revisiting EoD for Aurene legendary variants.  

The metas aren't too long or too short.  I like having the ones on timer and the others ongoing.  Makes it easy to stay busy in-between.  The rifts and convergences are plentiful with Kryptis essence and some gold and people are very willing to do them, so that's good.  

Overall, while not perfect or extraordinary, I have had my $25 worth.  I think I prefer one big expansion as opposed to small chunks releases, which feels very catered to the Steam players.  But it does keep people active in areas and keeps them from burning through all the content in a week?  I don't really have crazy high expectations for an over decade old game.  

[Ashantara.8731]

Here is my quick list of "The Good Things About SotO":

• The initial release was packed with solid content regarding maps, achievements, and an exciting and auspicious story.
• The Skyscale mastery upgrades were nice.
• The SotO expansion year has been packed with great QoL updates and features that were long overdue.
• The concept art for the Obsidian Legendary Heavy Armor looked stunning.
• (Edit) The Wizard's Vault is definitely more compelling than the previous Daily rewards system.
• (Edit #2) I really liked all the new non-Kryptis story NPCs.

Edited May 23 by Ashantara.8731

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

Hits:

• Weaponmaster Training
• Mommy Dommy

that's all.

[Ashen.2907]

 Interesting, the things listed as the good aspects of SotO would have been on my list of some of the worst.

[Randulf.7614]

- Nourys and the final boss of Nayos look awesome

- The Kryptis were a decent enemy for the first two maps before they lost their impact

- The battle music was awesome in places

- Nayos has some nice assets

- Amnytas is an ambitious looking map

- Skywatch has a very interesting flavour to it and the exploration of the ideas was well handled

- They did justice to the Wizard's Tower which I thought would be impossible to do after so many years of mystery

- Skyscale fireball is one of the most fun masteries in recent memory

- Legendary armour obtainable in open world is a plus despite any other concerns

- I liked the two Strike missions

- Lots of decent QoL updates

- I enjoyed many of the NPCs - Pietha, Isgarren, Mabon, Lyre, Rit'chik (sp), Galrath, Zojja were some of the better supporting cast of recent years

- The events in the first two maps were mostly fine, albeit on too short a timer.

- A reasonable number of achievements. Too much reliance on static books for lore instead of gameplay though, but I get people like them.

- Weeping Willow's showacse of the flight masteries was one of the best trailers the game has ever produced

 

Edited May 22 by Randulf.7614

[Ashantara.8731]

Ooooh, I forgot to mention the funniest thing about SotO:

Peitha: "The... time... to... strike... is... now. ..... We... must... not... waste.... time..." (*Zzzzzz*)

Or something along those lines. 😉 

[Omega.6801]

- Weapon Mastery
- Skyscale Mastery, even if it turns the thing into a combat mount that makes people lazy by encouraging doing the absolute smallest amount of button presses for participation.
- Some of the NPCs, almost exclusively wizards
- The Wizard Ward as a concept
- Playing the Story up until Nayos for the first time
- Lots of earnable skins in game, we even got mount skins and chairs that were in-game rewards
- Skywatch Archipelago map
- Open world Legy armor, if only for ending the "open world Legy armor plox"-threads
- Great variety of events, especially on Nayos
- The Metas get half a point, they're great and for that would probably have quite the longevity. It's just that, if you're not going for the armor, there's not much point in doing them.

[QueenKeriti.5176]

I like Amnytas/Skywatch metas way more than Seitung/Kaineng/Echovald. And they tend to be more rewarding vs PoF/EoD metas.

The QoL team is absolutely nailing it right now. I am loving all these QoL updates

Wizard's Vault has been great

Easily accessible, not super time intensive (vs PvP and WvW) legendary armor has been nice

Release story was really good

 

[nobleboivin.4102]

Things I enjoyed

Most of the new weapons

Wizard vault

Skyscale fireball 

Being able to use mounts on leylines and updrafts

Love the loading screen

Love the look of the wizard tower.

[Cyndercat.7615]

Febe cm.
Maps are nice. 
Skyscale combat
1st part of the story
Wizards vault rewards


 

[Keymaster.7362]

Yes, SotO had his flaws. But I am still convinced, its biggest strenghts is how it builds the fundation for the future.

I still am more than ready to pay 25€ a year to support my favourite Mmorpg. It is fantastic that the wizards vault kinda nerfed the Gem store and that we can earn mountskins and glider ingame.

The first expansion in a changed release system always experiences the most difficulty. The devs needed to experiment with this new system to learn and improve for the future. ArenaNet already mantioned that they want to talk about their mistakes and how fix them, when they communicate about the next expansion.

Aside from that, the thinks I liked the most about SotO are the story until Amnytas, the map design from Amnytas and Nayos, the Amnytas Meta and the skyscale updates.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Keymaster.7362 said:

Yes, SotO had his flaws. But I am still convinced, its biggest strenghts is how it builds the fundation for the future.

I still am more than ready to pay 25€ a year to support my favourite Mmorpg. It is fantastic that the wizards vault kinda nerfed the Gem store and that we can earn mountskins and glider ingame.

The first expansion in a changed release system always experiences the most difficulty. The devs needed to experiment with this new system to learn and improve for the future. ArenaNet already mantioned that they want to talk about their mistakes and how fix them, when they communicate about the next expansion.

Aside from that, the thinks I liked the most about SotO are the story until Amnytas, the map design from Amnytas and Nayos, the Amnytas Meta and the skyscale updates.

Yea we heard all that before.

Back in the day heart of thorns was the fundation expansion something they would build upon hence why it did not  have many features.

Then they reinvented the wheel again with pof and again with eod and none of them got more features then the supposedly fundation expansion.

[Keymaster.7362]

6 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

 

GW2 has tons of content in every single expansion and season. The main problem is the quality of these.

For many people PoF is still the best expansion in GW2. Mainly because of the mounts, but also because ArenaNet did listen to the feedback about difficulty, map design and immersion in HoT. Living Story season 3 improves  compared to the quality of season 2. Season 4 improves compared to the quality of season 3.

In my opinion the main issue with all the content afterwards was the lag of a long time vision. ArenaNet wanted to change the release model, tried random things, dropped them all halfway for the next best idea and wasted on this way tons of ressources.

IBS could be much better, if ArenaNet would have decided to release it as intended. But halfway through they wanted to rush to EoD. So they did cut the secound half of the season and replaced it with the awful champions system.

EoD and especially Gaya could be much better. But halfway through ArenaNet did decide to switch to the mini expansions. In preparation for that they did took away resources from Cantha.

For GW2 to have again better releases, RenaNet needs to stick on one release model.

Edited May 23 by Keymaster.7362

[Ashantara.8731]

+Gharr Leadclaw 😍

[Tuna Bandit.3786]

- New weapons, some are fun
- Fireball can be a fun concept (but semi-afk on meta's is a bit a downside)
- QoL where you can disable leyline for mounts (Honestly, Griffon never needed it, unless you cannot fly it properly)
- First release story and map were very interesting. (it went a bit down from there imho)
- Openworld Legendary
- First 2 maps had some interesting and out of the box Events and Achievements that I enjoyed.
- The addition of more Adventures is a good one in last release
- Wizard's Vault, I enjoy this system.

[Dayra.7405]

I've 2 accounts both have everything before SotO (LS1-5, HoT,PoF, EoD), one has SotO, the other one has not.

What do I (so far) really miss on my 2nd not soto account:

• Swords for necro, was a reason for me to reactivate my Nekro (as power reaper)
• Enhanced Skyskale esp. fireball, updrifts and the occasional reenergize
• Relict of the Wayfinder, I like to be permanently speeded in OW, was using traveller runes a lot for that before relicts.

For me that's all contribution of SotO to overall game play. Sometimes my 2nd acc will get it on an occasion.

Edited May 23 by Dayra.7405

[Efar.8153]

Good stufs from the “pointy hats expansion”:

- light leggie armour- sooo beautiful. It’s very gw1-ish if I’m not mistaken;

-Peitha - is… something. I still don’t trust her, but the character is nice;

- the cat chair ❤️ aaand the council chair from bl chests; 

- the achieves - which are not that difficult to get and add up to the achievement points tab;

- the wizards vault;

- the last part in the Nayos map. if only all of Nayos looked like that - awesome color palette.

Edited May 23 by Efar.8153

[Vayne.8563]

16 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

Yea we heard all that before.

Back in the day heart of thorns was the fundation expansion something they would build upon hence why it did not  have many features.

Then they reinvented the wheel again with pof and again with eod and none of them got more features then the supposedly fundation expansion.

They didn't exactly reinvent the wheel with POF. They added mounts and bounties, but that's not reinventing the wheel. What they did was take on board the many many criticisms about HoT.  HoT was my far my favorite expansion but a lot of people hated it. There were tons of complaints, including one of the longest running threads in the history of this forum. Mounts made HoT easier to get around in, which helped it a lot, but I remember what these forums were like when HoT came out. In fact, it was much worse than the reaction to Soto, and that  is pretty bad.

Anet reacted to the playerbase reacting to HoT. Everyone always says they want Anet to listen to the playerbase, but when Anet does, they complain about that too.

One of the complaints about HOT was the timer schedule. If you could only play a couple of hours a night in the same time slot, you only got to do the same two metas and could never catch the other ones. Anet answered that by making bounties, which was content on demand. I never loved bounties, but it was a response to a need.

People complained about group hero points being an issue and almost all the hero points in POF could be soloed.

People complained about having trouble navigating the maps and the maps are more navigable in POF.

People complained about the raids being too easy so they added harder raids. Probably different people than complained about the hero points needed more people. lol

POF didn't reinvent the wheel. Anet reacted to fan commentary. And there are people out there who like POF better than HOT.