The way SotO was released was terrible - it's actually good and a real expac now

[Pifil.5193]

1 hour ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

They might be for some people, but to me they were both two of many disappointments in the Inner Nayos realization. And I know I am not the only one feeling this way.

I sincerely hope Janthir Wilds won't have any such "major features". 😉 Though they've already threatened to implement new Convergences there, didn't they? 😳

That's fair enough, there were certainly enough disappointments to go around in SotO. 

Hmmmm yeah, there's new Convergences coming. I wonder how they'll shoehorn those in to Janthir.

Edited July 21 by Pifil.5193

[Ashantara.8731]

9 hours ago, Randulf.7614 said:

What was wrong with the armour? 

https://i.imgur.com/NeYcMOQ.jpg

The implementation of those sets has been plain awful. The concept art looked fantastic, but the actual thing has totally messed up bodily proportions (shrunk head, shrunk torso, bloated chest, fat hips and legs). Also, all the extra stuff (like the blades and the collar on medium) seems completely out of proportion compared to the cool concept art images.

The only set that matched the concept art at all is the light one.

9 hours ago, Pifil.5193 said:

Hmmmm yeah, there's new Convergences coming. I wonder how they'll shoehorn those in to Janthir.

Hopefully, those will have some actual mechanics other than "Run around and mindlessly bash the same mobs over and over" and "Avoid the bosses' AoE fields". That was such an uninspired design, which is why I consider SotO Convergences only slightly better than Rifts. Both are boring in my book.

Edited July 22 by Ashantara.8731

[Pifil.5193]

3 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Hopefully, those will have some actual mechanics other than "Run around and mindlessly bash the same mobs over and over" and "Avoid the bosses' AoE fields". That was such an uninspired design, which is why I consider SotO Convergences only slightly better than Rifts. Both are boring in my book.

C'mon now, that's crazy! 😂 All squad based content is basically like tossing a number of footballs onto a pitch and watching the players go nuts!

I'm just waiting to find out that the Titans just want to raise their little Titanlings in peace and mutual respect if only the big bad, power mad, King Titan would let them. Thankfully, here comes the Commander/Wayfinder to fix everything with the twin Powers of Friendship and Murder!

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, Pifil.5193 said:

C'mon now, that's crazy! 😂 All squad based content is basically like tossing a number of footballs onto a pitch and watching the players go nuts!

Raids, Strikes, HoT meta events. None of those fit your discription.

[Astralporing.1957]

9 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Hopefully, those will have some actual mechanics other than "Run around and mindlessly bash the same mobs over and over" and "Avoid the bosses' AoE fields". That was such an uninspired design, which is why I consider SotO Convergences only slightly better than Rifts. Both are boring in my book.

I'm not hopeful myself. Lately their idea of "interesting mechanics" is "make players do stuff that will keep them away from attacking the boss". Which would have been completely fine, had it not been always coupled with their other favourite "mechanic" - massive HP bloat. With said boss itself usually playing the part of the golem, standing still in the very middle of the platform.

[Ashen.2907]

6 hours ago, Pifil.5193 said:

fix everything with the twin Powers of Friendship and Murder!

My favorite Carebear was always Bloodlust Bear.

[Pifil.5193]

4 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Raids, Strikes, HoT meta events. None of those fit your discription.

I was just kidding and was only thinking about the 50 man squad stuff but yeah, they have done more interesting metas, hopefully they do something interesting with the Convergences in JW. I really hope they don't just change the mobs from Kryptis to Titans but keep the same dull format.

[ShatteredStars.6548]

SotO was anet's first mini expac with the new release model, there was always going to be issues that they had to learn from, they even said it in a blog a month or ago or so.

[ShatteredStars.6548]

And regarding the bugs, i watched the devs on teapots stream today and i agree with what he said, when you have an old game and have all this stuff in it, there's going to be bugs,  some people think it's easy to test things and find bugs, it's not that simple.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

I think SotO was fine except for the releases after launch didn't have the polish of the others. There wasn't even a cut scene in the final battle. All the epic moments happened in Skywatch and Amnytas.

[keyokku.5412]

On 7/21/2024 at 7:49 AM, Kranlor Greyhelm.8417 said:

"Don't base your opinion on an MMO on how it plays with other people" is certainly a take. Not sure it's a great one.

I said don't base your BIAS. there's a difference. if you've only interacted with one specific situation (i.e. zerging) that does not define the whole gameplay experience bc guess what, there is a variety of things and situations. playing with a small group or solo is also part of the game too. what I said is limiting yourself to one particular niche of the game and then using that to define the entire expansion experience? like literally have never played in a map with less people after a meta? or some time after its release when the crowds have settled down? it's very common.

Edited July 23 by keyokku.5412

[Ashantara.8731]

I just finished EoD on my alt account and was reminded what makes an expansion a great expansion. The story had the perfect length and flow, and the story missions were extremely well designed and so much fun to play through. Even the meta events had real highlights (see Dragon's End). While EoD had its flaws (mostly that map assets, like in New Kaineng City, show in what a hurry the devs must have been to finish the expac in time), it was nonetheless a pretty excellent expac overall regarding quality and quantity.

You cannot say the same about SotO in good conscience. 3/4 of the story (namely Nayos) were half-baked and rushed, the story missions were a bad joke in comparison, the map events - especially in Nayos - were monotonous, as were its enemies (the Kryptis), and the meta events consisted only of crazy AoE spam and mob bashing with no fun mechanics to them.

How any of that would leave SotO to qualify as an "actually good and real expansion" is beyond me.

[Pifil.5193]

2 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

I just finished EoD on my alt account and was reminded what makes an expansion a great expansion. The story had the perfect length and flow, and the story missions were extremely well designed and so much fun to play through. Even the meta events had real highlights (see Dragon's End). While EoD had its flaws (mostly that map assets, like in New Kaineng City, show in what a hurry the devs must have been to finish the expac in time), it was nonetheless a pretty excellent expac overall regarding quality and quantity.

You cannot say the same about SotO in good conscience. 3/4 of the story (namely Nayos) were half-baked and rushed, the story missions were a bad joke in comparison, the map events - especially in Nayos - were monotonous, as were its enemies (the Kryptis), and the meta events consisted only of crazy AoE spam and mob bashing with no fun mechanics to them.

How any of that would leave SotO to qualify as an "actually good and real expansion" is beyond me.

Yep, completely agree, recently I played through the SotO story as well as playing a bit of the PoF story and and I was struck by just how poorly presented the story is in Inner Nayos.

Leaving side the actual storyline so much of the story for the three releases involves standing around listening to people talking before being dumped onto the map to fill event bars by doing any old random event. The most blatant and pathetic padding I've seen so far in this game and so painful of you're playing through the expansion now. 

SotO is the worst expansion they've done by far, in my opinion. I hope they turn it around.

[Astralporing.1957]

9 hours ago, ShatteredStars.6548 said:

SotO was anet's first mini expac with the new release model, there was always going to be issues that they had to learn from, they even said it in a blog a month or ago or so.

The main issues with SotO might have been made more visible due to repackaging, but in truth are primarily consequences of design choices Anet should have known for years to avoid. This expansion would have been bad even if it was released in a single package.

[Kozumi.5816]

13 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

The story had the perfect length and flow, and the story missions were extremely well designed and so much fun to play through

EoD story is god awful and just sitting around afking 95% of the time.

By far the worst story, terrible writing, just FF14 wannabe trash.

Story missions don't matter, it's good they're spending less time on content you do for 15m then never again and putting it all into content you do daily for years instead.

  

13 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

and the meta events consisted only of crazy AoE spam and mob bashing with no fun mechanics to them.

This makes no sense. Bosses being able to kill you is bad? You prefer zero mechanics zero outgoing damage and loot pinatas made for zombies?

Nayos metas are great, they can kill you, healers and buffers are NEEDED, and they are super rewarding and fun to replay.

There's events everywhere, all over, in nayos, it's so fun!

The people who hate late-SoTo literally don't like GW2 and their opinions are hopefully ignored by the devs.

Edited July 23 by Kozumi.5816

[Smol.7985]

On 7/20/2024 at 2:06 AM, Kozumi.5816 said:

Is this same mistake going to happen with janthir?

You bet .

[Ashen.2907]

55 minutes ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

EoD story is god awful and just sitting around afking 95% of the time.

By far the worst story, terrible writing, just FF14 wannabe trash.

Story missions don't matter, it's good they're spending less time on content you do for 15m then never again and putting it all into content you do daily for years instead.

  

This makes no sense. Bosses being able to kill you is bad? You prefer zero mechanics zero outgoing damage and loot pinatas made for zombies?

Nayos metas are great, they can kill you, healers and buffers are NEEDED, and they are super rewarding and fun to replay.

There's events everywhere, all over, in nayos, it's so fun!

The people who hate late-SoTo literally don't like GW2 and their opinions are hopefully ignored by the devs.

Agreed that EoD writing was bad.

SotO was at least as bad.

Edited July 23 by Ashen.2907

[Kranlor Greyhelm.8417]

12 hours ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

The people who hate late-SoTo literally don't like GW2 and their opinions are hopefully ignored by the devs.

We'll see what happens when the next expansion drops, shall we? My prediction is that the SOTO metas will be closer to the POF ones than they are the HOT ones.  A LOT closer.

As for ignoring people that thought SOTO was kitten? They can obviously do that if they want, but I don't think it will turn out well for the game if they do. I suspect for a lot of people the new expansion is going to be ANETs last chance.

[Kozumi.5816]

12 hours ago, Kranlor Greyhelm.8417 said:

My prediction is that the SOTO metas will be closer to the POF ones

 You mean Janthir, not soto, right?

PoF metas are not done by anyone and have been dead for years and are all terrible.

[Pifil.5193]

46 minutes ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

 You mean Janthir, not soto, right?

PoF metas are not done by anyone and have been dead for years and are all terrible.

I think that was exactly their point. The PoF metas are no worse than the SotO metas but people don't bother with them much as they aren't profitable and they've moved on. People will move on to the JW metas. Then they will probably move on from the JW metas to whatever comes next. SotO will become a hell of a lot quieter until there's a "Return to SotO events" Bonus Event.

At least the bosses in the PoF metas move about. Why anyone would think that, for example, Eparch was better than Serpent's Ire or Ignaxous was better than Maws of Torment is beyond me.

[Kranlor Greyhelm.8417]

1 hour ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

 You mean Janthir, not soto, right?

PoF metas are not done by anyone and have been dead for years and are all terrible.

I mean that the SOTO metas will be played about as much as the POF ones are now. Because the SOTO metas have terrible rewards for the time investments if you aren't going for legendary armour.

Even adding the chance of the bag upgrades to the convergences doesn't make them worth it. They drop so infrequently that they don't move the needle much.

[Kozumi.5816]

5 hours ago, Pifil.5193 said:

I think that was exactly their point. The PoF metas are no worse than the SotO metas but people don't bother with them much as they aren't profitable and they've moved on.

The two release ones are god awful and worse gold than farming queensdale, i've been saying that since release while fast farming lied to everyone saying it's the best gold/hr and everyone blindly believed it.

Nayos is great, though. Fast, requires buffers/healers, interactive, and rewards are solid.

Edited July 25 by Kozumi.5816

[Nash.2681]

Didn't get SotO on release because I strongly dislike the way it got rolled out (and still do). Got weak few weeks ago when it got a discount, so I'm currently right in the middle of it. And what can I say? I'm glad I didn't payed the full price. The story is an inflated mess. Most story instances are mainly just dialogues. On the first play through it's already getting anoying as kitten, but just thinking about repeating story instances, be it for achievements or on other characters gives me the creeps. And in between it's just the same boring "do enough events to progress the bar" filler stuff. Boring as hell, especially if one explored the maps a bit before continuing the story and has seen most of the events already. tl;dr: worst story presentation of the game so far.

And the rest? Can't comment on leggy armor since I already got leggy raid armor before and won't go for it just for the skins. Might be nice for people who love excessive grind and don't raid for whatever reason. Haven't touched the new weapons yet, will check some one day probably. Gotta try the strikes, but I have little hope for them to give me long time motivation.

So all in all, I'm glad I didn't pay the full price for SotO, since for me it's definetly not worth it. Also makes me worry for Janthir. Couldn't care less for housing and spears and after SotO, I have little hope for the story. Only tempting content left would be the new raid, but I have serious quality concerns.

[Pifil.5193]

5 hours ago, Kozumi.5816 said:

The two release ones are god awful and worse gold than farming queensdale, i've been saying that since release while fast farming lied to everyone saying it's the best gold/hr and everyone blindly believed it.

Nayos is great, though. Fast, requires buffers/healers, interactive, and rewards are solid.

Yeah, people didn't "blindly believe" fast farming, you can go to their site and see where the profits are. I suspect you don't understand their site.

Your claim that the rewards for the launch metas is "god awful and worse gold than farming queensdale" while Inner Nayo's rewards are "solid" is complete and utter nonsense. You need to ease up on the hyperbole if you expect to be taken seriously.

For those who are wondering, the profit for all the SotO metas is in turning the map currencies into Weapons or Minis that can be sold on the TP. Currently the max profit (if you post a sell order (listing) and don't fulfill a buy order (instant sell) for Eparch is 24g, Amnytas is 19g , Skywatch Archipelago is 15g, Knaelbaleg is 14g and Ignaxious 13g (but you if you do both Knaelbaleg and Ignaxious then the profit for both is 18g becauses you only get a single Clot of Congealed Screams if you do both of them and a clot of Congealed Screams can be turned into a Grieving Consecrated Saryx Greatsword for about a 9g profit if it's sold at the listing price or 12g, if you sell at the buy price 6g then it's about a 3g profit.)

Edit: see https://fast.farming-community.eu/open-world/meta for the details if you wish.

Edited July 25 by Pifil.5193

[Kozumi.5816]

10 hours ago, Pifil.5193 said:

Yeah, people didn't "blindly believe" fast farming, you can go to their site and see where the profits are. I suspect you don't understand their site.

Yes they did.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/949078163437273140/1265872107540320257/image.png?ex=66a316c5&is=66a1c545&hm=bb8e039e779719b3c204498dfdd5195d5777e5d36239f3e2a8f5556ec5fd1084&

 

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/949078163437273140/1265872107905093705/image.png?ex=66a316c5&is=66a1c545&hm=d8c294befda68ed80ca77238413e21bd02768ceda6c4f083dcfa4b637f41d67d&

Spoilers: selling minis isn't some untapped gold mine.