Which expansion do you prefer...?

[Alanar.9854]

I have two HoT legendaries. My opinion is skewed because of all the gametime I spent in HoT and actually didn't hate it that bad.

[Opopanax.1803]

It's easy to say PoF when you are only 2 weeks in to it as a new xpac.

My concerns are about longevity: I don't think PoF is going to hold up to HoT imo. And that is not to say I don't like PoF! I do, but I see little replay value once explored.

[Supz.9836]

Have to give it to path of fire by a long shot, I think Heart of Thrones was taking GW2 in the wrong direction and PoF bought it back (at lot more than I was expecting) to the right direction.

Heart of Thrones was an expansion that made me take a very long break (come back for PoF) and a lot of my friends quit the game, Path of Fire has me trying to get a lot of them back to GW2.

I feel heart of thrones gated a lot of what should've been core content behind grind and unnecessary difficulty. It also divided the community into 'elites' and casuals which was something I didn't see pre-heart of thrones.

I like that GW2 is going back to the MMO without a grind philosophy in this expansion (what I mean by this is there is still alot of things to do in GW2, but you can access the story and a lot of the core features i.e mounts etc. without silly grind we saw in HoT.)

[AliamRationem.5172]

I was pleasantly surprised by PoF. Mounts were a lot better than I expected and the maps make a great playground for them. The music and visuals were top notch as well. Unfortunately, where PoF falls flat is the event structure. Bounties and random events simply aren't as engaging as HoT's outpost chain events and big boss battles. If I simply loved everything else about PoF, this would still be a major issue for me.

[Flaka.4651]

Both are good and fun to me.

Guildwars 2 story has always been pretty childish so PoF story is not really better than HoT 's one, however the narration get better at each expansion since Vanilla.

HoT

• Revenant.
• Glider.
• New specs. Some I like (Tempest, Reaper, Daredevil...), some I don't (Druid).
• Maps are beautiful, vertical and for some, complex. I had good time to explore it. TD was irratating me at first, but then now I'm used to it, I like it.
• Unlocking all masteries took me some time.
• New mobs and bosses mechanics, which I have to be used to cause a group of mobs can be deadly.
• Meta-events. Some are fun to me, but some are also pretty weird like DS' one.
• Replayability.
• Raids, for ppl who like it. And I like... BUT... I'm not a fan of the tank/heal mechanics it brings. Not that I don't like the trinity gameplay, but it's not well designed to me. I love healing in MMO, but it is too messy and I expected the druid to be way better designed than it is. Basically, GW gameplay can maybe not provide something better, but that is still the old debate about trinity.
• HoT has multiplayer content.

PoF

• PoF intro is better than HoT's one. It's more linear at the beginning so a new player is not lost.
• Mounts. Both are very pleasant, griffon is not essential.
• New specs. I didn't try all atm, but I guess it may be like HoT, mixed feeling depending of the class.
• Maps are beautiful, not as complex as HoT maps making me feel like there aren't a lot of interesting things hidden to discover.
• I like their egyptian / oriental style.
• PoF looks shorter than HoT, and with not a lot of multiplayer content except bounties.
• PoF is less expensive (-10€/$ ?) with logically less content.
• Story achievements are not as painful as in HoT. It was damn boring to have to do each chapter twice to even be able to unlock them.

Overall

Overall, if both are fun to me, the main flaw of PoF for now is its lack of replayability and content. PoF also does not take as much risks as HoT, so it will obvioulsy not divide opinions as much as HoT.I agree with the fact that it is in some way unfair to compare them that early though.

[Danikat.8537]

I like both, but overall I think I prefer HoT.

And as weird as it will sound it's because of the map design. PoF maps look nice enough and they're certainly easier to navigate, but I find them less exciting. I get far less of a sense of exploring the unknown walking across a flat plain between villages than scrambling over/between/under huge trees and vines, poking into every corner and checking above and below as well as all around me because who knows what could be hidden there? PoF certainly has it's share of hidden things (it is GW2 after all) but the more open map design makes it more obvious where things are hidden, which removes part of the fun for me.

(Although I really like the north west of the Highlands map - it reminds me of Tenerife with the rapid change from arid desert to alpine forest as you go up.)

It may also just be asthetics. The Maguuma Jungle has always been one of my favourite places in Tyria. I think I just prefer jungles in general, considering I always insist my khajiit in Elder Scrolls games is from the southern jungles, not the desert part of their province.

[Ohoni.6057]

I did like both, but Path of Fire was better. The story was more involved, the maps were better oriented, and the Mounts were a better mastery system (although I love Gliding too). The only major let-down is that the HoT elite specs were MILES better than the PoF ones, and I'll end up sticking with most of them through to the next expansion unless the PoF ones see major overhauls.

[TwilightSoul.9048]

PoF by an unexpressable large margin.HoT was like a nightmare to me, now I can finally play GW2 again.

[Zedek.8932]

Excelsior.

So far I like PoF more.While I got to admire the 50-storey level design of tangled depths (from a game designing viewpoint), I stopped to care for the HoT story right now.When I want to get to places there it's virtually impossible to me. When I see something, I switch back and forth the layer in the map. "Ah, it's above me current position", so I try to find the same level of elevation. Fine. Oh wait, there is a huge cliff. Okay, so let's figure out how to go around... Impossible. Okay, so let's get there by using that path below.. No. Fine, let's go deep into the hole there to underpass the ambient obstacle. Oh wait, there is a narrow hallway, 4 veterans, 1 elite, 26 random mobs of different kinds and none of them I can actually kill with my preferred profession/weapon choice (Yes, I use the Rifle, blame me as much as you wish).

EDIT: Maybe it's gated behind some mastery, I totally forgot about them.

Me: Scratches head...Opens Quest LogClicks on "CONTINUE STORY" in PoF chapter

I am on my way to Rata Novus since months and each time I feel good enough to try I am getting heavily annoyed after 30 minutes of running to dead ends in a deep cave just because the map is useless and the actual map is confusing as heck.

Also, since I am using Rifle, I feel PoF way, WAY better due to the more plain lands. Finally I can actually use my professions (not-so special) strength and not being forced to fight in tunnel-like caves.

Story-wise I don't care. I feel myself being some sort of mercenary that is doing stuff I am getting told and not like a hero that has an epic quest line going on - this way I can easily switch back and forth in the chapters of my log. Music is turned off, I like the ambient sound, so I can't make a point either.

The only thing I wish is to fight more "real" enemies. I know many game designers are afraid of the step of fighting and killing regular humans or other sentient beings, but "Zombies" and "Machines" are becoming stupid. I'd like to kill bad desert bandits and such.. Not worms, swarms of mosquitos and robots.

Design-wise, I like both, but both expansions are heavilly themed and can lead to a burn out. Older gamers might remember Tomb Raider 2 - "40 Fathoms", the hated underwater levels. It had two colours: Brown and Blue. DooM 2 had been critized in 1994 by gaming magazines for being "too brown". HoT is too green, PoF often too yellow. But both are still fine colours.

In the end, it's PoF, because the Deadeye is extremely my taste and it's PoF's elite for the thief after all, but HoT was beautiful as well, but for my taste a bit too hindering gameflow-wise. Also, I play 100% alone, so I give zero flicks about meta events.Now get PvE rifle in the right spot and I am a happy Asura.

[Sylvari.2953]

So, after nearly 2 weeks I've notived that tons of people do HoT meta events but I barely meet people in the desert. It's obvious that HoT is better because PoF has no replayability and Bounties are boring.

[Draknar.5748]

@Hokeypokey.2135 said:Pof hands down. Even after all this time I still haven't 100% all of HoT maps because I hate them so much

Same, but now with these mounts I'm going back to finish them! Thank you PoF!

[nosleepdemon.1368]

Absolutely 100% Heart of Thorns. PoF is just trifling in comparison. HoT introduced a travel mechanic that required skill, and introduced a new style of map design that has never been superceded. PoF introduced mounts, which pidgeon hole designers, require large maps, and require the player to switch between three mounts constantly to achieve the SAME THING as pressing space and aiming at up-drafts did in HoT. PoF is so generic it's almost painful. Compare the opening scene of HoT vs PoF if you dare. HoT immediately throws you into a seemingly hopeless situation, with major characters missing, possibly dead. Your armarda is doomed and your soldiers are dying all around you. What happens in PoF? You stop for a fucking picnic. And then you help some refugees because omgpoliticalstatement. Jesus.

[Ardid.7203]

HoT is vastly superior. Frankly, while PoF has been more polished and has added a lot of great QoL stuff, HoT DID changed the game, introduced real innovation, and made a true, risky, courageous impact in the MMORPG culture. Replayability, the very idea of changing exploration, horizontal progression, elite specs, meta events... etc. The maps and mobs are hard, but because they are truly bold, challenging and creative. It was a troubled, but amazing expansion.PoF depends on mounts for everything: they are beautiful, well crafted and innovative in themselves... but in the end they are just a gimmick. Everything else is a) adjusted to make mounts relevant, or b) basic tyria style bland. It is a safe and dull addon for the game.

[Khisanth.2948]

This feels like a Presidential election ...

[penelopehannibal.8947]

I like different aspects of both. I like doing the Meta events of HoT, but when it comes to doing the maps, PoF hands down wins it for me. Don't have to rely on events and/or other players' help to get map completion done (especially when it comes to hero challenges).

[morsdood.1987]

PoF, so much better than HoT.

[glenndevis.8327]

Kind of a hard decision. I think I prefer PoF over HoT though.HoT had imo more well rounded elite specs, gliding is cool but the main thing it has over PoF is more replayable content (meta events.)PoF has ok elite specs, mounts are amazing (even though im not a fan of how you unlock them.), maps are cooler, story is better (still not amazing though.) but lacks a bit when it comes to replayable content. And the big maps feel a bit empty sometimes.

I feel like Anet needs to find the balance in replayable content in the maps. HoT was all about the meta events but PoF lacks a little.In the end they're still missing out on a LOT of replayable content in dungeons. It still blows my mind that Anet scrapped dungeons & didn't even give us a single new fractal in the expansion either (yeah I know fractals are separated from whats going on in the story but thats why I think dungeons would have been great.)

[Slowpokeking.8720]

PoF overall.

HoT was too unfriendly to casual players. Way too hard to go across the map. The TD meta was too tough to pugs for a long while. Introducing Raid=BAD BAD.Also the final encounter was bugged for years.

[Zaltys.7649]

Well... The addition of mounts made HoT more enjoyable. So I'm not quite sure how to vote. I guess I'll go with HoT, since I loved the sense of exploration. Even though I could never figure out the layout of TD, and only get around that zone by stumbling blindly.

There's not much in PoF that I enjoy doing. Too many aggros for leisurely exploration, the bounties are boring zergs (or impossible if attempted alone), the renown hearts are especially tedious, and the story is so combat-heavy that I don't see myself repeating the missions.

As for the stories: everything in HoT felt like an actual threat, whereas the premise of PoF is so absurd (you're heading out pretty much alone to kill a GOD) that I can't take it seriously.

[Issildia.1289]

POF is great because it is a little easier on players who don't have a ton of time to play and the addition of mounts made it less arduous to navigate across the maps. You can get in and out and just enjoy the game. ( Anet also gets kudos from me for making the mounts more than just faster travel speed, I really appreciated the love they put into mount development. )However personally I really enjoyed HOT features like the meta events. I still enjoy a good Dragon Stand when I have the time. I also prefer the higher level of difficulty in the open world. Sure it could be irritating sometimes when you are trying to solo a Hero Challenge, but expansions are supposed to extend end-game content, which normally means somewhat increased difficulty. Normally you want more of a challenge when playing a new expansion, at least that's my preference.

[Fantasy.5321]

HoT because it has better open world group content: map-wide meta events and champion hero points.

[Flaka.4651]

@Ardid.7203 said:Frankly, while PoF has been more polished and has added a lot of great QoL stuff, HoT DID changed the game, introduced real innovation, and made a true, risky, courageous impact in the MMORPG culture. Replayability, the very idea of changing exploration, horizontal progression, elite specs, meta events... etc. The maps and mobs are hard, but because they are truly bold, challenging and creative. It was a troubled, but amazing expansion.PoF depends on mounts for everything: they are beautiful, well crafted and innovative in themselves... but in the end they are just a gimmick. Everything else is a) adjusted to make mounts relevant, or b) basic tyria style bland. It is a safe and dull addon for the game.

Exactly. There is a lot more innovation in HoT than in PoF, which inevitably leads to a more risky expansion.HoT = Glider + masteries + elite specs + guild hall + raids + new fight mechanics + map verticalityPoF = Mounts + bounties

[TheVindelator.8239]

Both are fun to me but, man, HoT maps are endlessly challenging to learn and get lost in.

That was annoying at first but the longer you play the more value I think you'll find in exploring them.

[Wizler.8192]

I enjoyed both. But it does seem like HoT gave me end-game things to do for a long time while PoF feels like there's not enough to do after a while.

In HoT, it took me a long time to max out my masteries--I had to hunt for those extra mastery points. In PoF they were all done in no time and I have 20 extra points!

[Blockhead Magee.3092]

HOT by far. Gliding is vastly superior to mounts.