HoT vs PoF

[maddoctor.2738]

No it's not a poll.We see comments asking "where is the content?". The developers said that Path of Fire is a content expansion while Heart of Thorns was a feature expansion. In an objective (as much as it can be) way, let's compare the two expansions. Only features that can be objectively compared will be given here.

Let's begin with the maps. Heart of Thorns gave us 4 maps to explore, Path of Fire gave us 5 maps.

Map / Waypoint / Point of Interest / Hero Challenge / VistaVerdant Brink: 7 / 26 / 11 / 6Auric Basin: 7 / 23 / 11 / 6Tangled Depths: 7 / 20 / 11 / 6Dragon's Stand: 11 / 24 / 7 / 7Total: 32 / 93 / 40 / 25Average: 8 / 23.25 / 10 / 6.25

Crystal Oasis: 3 / 30 / 5 / 10Desert Highlands: 5 / 31 / 7 / 11Elon Riverlands: 3 / 30 / 8 / 10The Desolation: 6 / 43 / 6 / 10Domain of Vabbi: 6 / 32 / 3 / 10Total: 23 / 166 / 29 / 51Average: 4.6 / 33.2 / 5.8 / 10.2

Heart of Thorns has more Waypoints and more Hero Challenges but both were expected, Mounts make Waypoints less important while the reduction in Hero Challenges is probably because most Path of Fire HC are solo content. Path of Fire has double the amount of Vistas and close to double the amount of Points of Interest. I included the Average to see that on average the Path of Fire zones have more to explore than Heart of Thorns zones, even if they had the same amount of zones.

Mastery InsightsHeart of Thorns: 22Path of Fire: 40

Map AchievementsVerdant Brink: 157Auric Basin: 145Tangled Depths: 139Dragon's Stand: 83Total: 524

Crystal Oasis: 78Desert Highlands: 104Elon Riverlands: 126The Desolation: 147Domain of Vabbi: 107Crystal Desert: 86Total: 648

Other AchievementsHeart of Thorns added 4 new Explorer AchievementsPath of Fire added 6 new Slayer Achievements, 1 new Tradesman Achievement and 5 new Explorer Achievements

Story JournalHeart of Thorns has 4 ActsAct 1: 6Act 2: 4Act 3: 4Act 4: 2Total: 16 steps

Path of Fire has 3 ActsAct 1: 4Act 2: 4Act 3: 5Total: 13 steps

Path of Fire has slightly less story steps

Collections:Basic CollectionsHeart of Thorns (27)Auric WeaponsHivemaster (Chak Weapons)Leystone ArmorBladed ArmorMachined Weapons x16Crusader's PackLightbringer's PackMagister's PackWarmaster's PackAgent's PackScholar's PackZinn's Prize Student

Path of Fire (6)Tip of the Spear (Elonian Weapon)Dress Rehearsal (Elonian Armor)Raise the Banners x4

Rare CollectionsHeart of Thorns (4)Luminate's BackplatePact ReformerMachined WeaponsUzolan's Mechanical Orchestra

Path of Fire (18)Exaltation of the GuardiansRecitation of the Litany of DeedsGlorify the Golden HeartTriumph of ConquestsOpen Skies x6Dwarven Weapon x5Royal Funerary x3

Heart of Thorns has more basic/rare collections (31) but half of them (16) is the Machined Weapon collection. Path of Fire has more general item gathering collections available.

There are 9 Elite Specializations on both Expansions but Heart of Thorns added 1 extra profession

Heart of Thorns added 2 Guilds Halls, Path of Fire added 1 Guild Hall

Aside from the last two points, I think it's fair to say that judging by the numbers, Path of Fire has more content than Heart of Thorns (and remember at half the price)Just my 2 cents on the topic of HoT vs PoF content

I'll make another comparison when the actual number of Path of Fire events are counted and available on the wiki so we can see which expansion has more dynamic events per map and total.

[Tekey.7946]

@maddoctor.2738 said:We see comments asking "where is the content?". The developers said that Path of Fire is a content expansion while Heart of Thorns was a feature expansion. In an objective (as much as it can be) way, let's compare the two expansions. Only features that can be objectively compared will be given here.

I mean, we've already seen how hard it is to compare raw numbers in my thread - which you're obviously referring to in the introduction. How are we supposed to compare the story - you've listed a number of story steps - does it really tell us anything about how long it is? A story step can take 1 minute or 10 minutes.

@maddoctor.2738 said:Aside from the last two points, I think it's fair to say that judging by the numbers, Path of Fire has more content than Heart of Thorns (and remember at half the price)Just my 2 cents on the topic of HoT vs PoF content

And in your list, you forgot about HoT including Legendary Weapons, Legendary Armor (belated/incomplete, but still part of the expansion) while PoF will certainly never provide that. Also PvP and WvW content - again nothing in PoF. What about masteries? Itzel, Exalted, Nuhoch lore, gliding, fractal attunement and pact commander in HoT compared to mounts only in PoF.These are all features that could be objectively compared, yet you skipped them and quickly jumped to the conclusion PoF had more content than HoT.

[WARIORSCHARGEING.2637]

can not under stand op point for this post . already know what both packs have got and do not have got. but will say for the price the pof in my book gives more. with the no metas and no world boss events on them maps . as well as pof maps very easy to do buy yourself and get them done in a very short time compared to the hot maps that is gated behind meta and world boss events . the extra bonus for pof pack is the mounts . and being able to take them all over the place. and go to back to old core maps and find new things on the old core maps you never been able to see before.

[Klowdy.3126]

@Tekey.7946 said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:We see comments asking "where is the content?". The developers said that Path of Fire is a content expansion while Heart of Thorns was a feature expansion. In an objective (as much as it can be) way, let's compare the two expansions. Only features that can be objectively compared will be given here.

I mean, we've already seen how hard it is to compare raw numbers in my thread - which you're obviously referring to in the introduction. How are we supposed to compare the story - you've listed a number of story steps - does it really tell us anything about how long it is? A story step can take 1 minute or 10 minutes.

@maddoctor.2738 said:Aside from the last two points, I think it's fair to say that judging by the numbers, Path of Fire has more content than Heart of Thorns (and remember at half the price)Just my 2 cents on the topic of HoT vs PoF content

And in your list, you forgot about

HoT

including

Legendary Weapons, Legendary Armor

(belated/incomplete, but still part of the expansion) while

PoF

will

certainly never provide that

. Also PvP and WvW content - again nothing in PoF. What about masteries? Itzel, Exalted, Nuhoch lore, gliding, fractal attunement and pact commander in

HoT

compared to mounts only in

PoF

.These are all features that could be objectively compared, yet you skipped them and quickly jumped to the conclusion PoF had more content than HoT.

To be fair, PoF masteries are more useful in the rest of the game than most of the HoT masteries, barring gliding. There may be slightly less of them, but they will get more use than any of the other masteries.

[maddoctor.2738]

@Tekey.7946 said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:We see comments asking "where is the content?". The developers said that Path of Fire is a content expansion while Heart of Thorns was a feature expansion. In an objective (as much as it can be) way, let's compare the two expansions. Only features that can be objectively compared will be given here.

I mean, we've already seen how hard it is to compare raw numbers in my thread - which you're obviously referring to in the introduction. How are we supposed to compare the story - you've listed a number of story steps - does it really tell us anything about how long it is? A story step can take 1 minute or 10 minutes.

@maddoctor.2738 said:Aside from the last two points, I think it's fair to say that judging by the numbers, Path of Fire has more content than Heart of Thorns (and remember at half the price)Just my 2 cents on the topic of HoT vs PoF content

And in your list, you forgot about

HoT

including

Legendary Weapons, Legendary Armor

(belated/incomplete, but still part of the expansion) while

PoF

will

certainly never provide that

. Also PvP and WvW content - again nothing in PoF. What about masteries? Itzel, Exalted, Nuhoch lore, gliding, fractal attunement and pact commander in

HoT

compared to mounts only in

PoF

.These are all features that could be objectively compared, yet you skipped them and quickly jumped to the conclusion PoF had more content than HoT.

I compared story steps because time for completion depends on so many factors like build, skill, if you are listening to all the dialogue or rush through, doing achievements or not and so on. It's impossible to compare time for completion. You might finish the story of Path of Fire faster than Heart of Thorns on one character, and take more time with another character.

For the other points:Fair point about Legendary Weapons, although most of them were released with LS4 and not Heart of Thorns, and some are still under development.

There is a new Raid coming with Path of Fire which will have new rewards. Will it be something as grand as Legendary Armor or something else entirely? I guess we'll see soon enough.

The Itzel, Exalted and Nuhoch lore masteries have no usage outside of their maps, while the mounts are being used in older content, including Heart of Thorns maps.