Disappointed with Bound by Blood

[ProtoGunner.4953]

I don't know as a gw1 veteran there was a lot of nostalgia. On the other hand it is typical gw2 fluff content with no meat on the bone. They made two of the iconic gw1 dungeons - Ooze Pit and Cathedral of Flames - two visual clutter meta events like everything else in the game. They could have really shown something and made them - guess what - one of the new features: strike misssiooon. But no. It's meta crap...

On the other hand I really had a LOT of fun with the Metal Concert. As a metal head myself I found this extremely funny and well done.

[Gop.8713]

I could see some legitimate complaints about the release. Some rewards choices are pretty odd and the strike mission really is just absurdly easy would be the main ones I think. But 'there's nothing to do' is just baffling to me . . .

[Omega.6801]

Players: Give us nostalgia plox. Pre searing Ascalon, Cantha, capes, anything. gw1 was such a great game, I wish gw2 was more like if not an exact copy of gw1...ANet: Sure, let's do that, it will make ppl happy I guess.Players: This map is the same as gw1, it's boring. Where's the new stuff ANet plox u serious?!?!?

Looks like you can't please anyone these days. ;)

[Mouse.7382]

I have 'high' standards for "expansion like content." This is just a prologue, so the 'scope' of the area (it was small), was to be expected on my part.

The lay of the land was nice to look at the concert event was the most enjoyable part. I actually had a smile on my face, whilst listening to Anets version of metal concert .

The worst part was the loot (lack thereof) for the amount of time/effort--as well as the VERY LACKLUSTER Strike Mission.

I personally will not be sending my alts thru here. I also spent the last few days doing nothing but farming the Strike Mission (to see if myself or others would get these 'rare' loot items), with no worthy drops. I will just be sticking to JUST doing 1 Strike Mission a day and NOT be doing Meta events. The RNG is like always, SUPER SUPER rare (just view the amount of these items on the TP).

[Josiah.2967]

(Newer players perspective) No replay ability, PVE emote gated way more than PVP (this isn't a dragon), and poor rewards.

Story was good. As soon as my friends and I did the story, we were done with this location. We tried the event one night...were disappointing...then the lack of reward happened. Now we treat this patch like it never happened.

[Julischka Bean.7491]

On the whole, I liked this Prologue. I loved that I was able to do the story with no problem. I love the way the map looks. I am not crazy about finding and doing all the events, but, one day I will be smart and sit down with Wiki and read up on these events.

Because, at the present moment, I am unsure about the events, I find myself wishing for the stability of Hearts. By stability I mean easy to find and the requirements are spelled out for you.

The addition of a sprinkling of Hearts here and there, not too many, would be like a cherry on top of this wonderful map.

But, that is just me.

-Lisa

[Infusion.7149]

Other than the inability of some players to properly do the Flame Legion torch passing this week (a better explanation would have been nice) and the people burning after the Flame Effigy meta (a bug), I haven't seen anything that is deserving of negative feedback content-wise. There's things that are certainly harder than normal unless you like that particular type of content (the Ash Legion maze and the torch jump puzzle which has many mesmers portaling through it).

Ooze pit was ok. People sometimes don't use the colored circles to make sure they aren't doing 0 damage to the ooze.

Doomlore was ok , players like to stand in poison though.

Concert was probably most well liked. Fireworks crosshairs could be larger for visibility, but once you know it is pretty seamless event.

Strike Missions after the invisible pads were fixed aren't particularly hard at all. Barriers/heals allow you to just power through it. Feels like a T1 fractal, to be honest.

The chef helper event isn't bad and neither is the bartending one. Kasmeer illusion event isn't difficult and neither is the demolition derby. The race events are standard fare , the charr helipad shooting range, and so is the magic orb collection adventure/activity on skyscale.

The reward structure could use some tweaking (the Ebon Legion shoulders are at ~250g on the TP now but aren't part of the Merchandise collection, the Khan-Ur headgear is ridiculous) but that's my main observation. I managed to get 2 chili nodes as part of metas (and have seen people mention in chat as well) so that is a rather lucky drop or the drop rate isn't that low.

For people saying the map is too big, it's map completable in less than an hour (done it 5x) and you can use raptor or roller beetle mounts. That is coming from someone that usually WvW instead of PVE...

P.S. I'm not quite sure what Festival VIP title does, probably just a vanity title.

[Fueki.4753]

map completable in less than an hour

The tree puzzle alone took me longer than that.

[Orthonen.9470]

General discussion forums seems to be the wrong approach, Arenanet can give people undercooked food here and they would tell you it's good.

[Dami.5046]

I just hope people get a stack of chili's when a few years down the line they will be needed and there's no cries of 'a stacks too much please nerf'Hearts were good for that and I actually miss them TBH.

[RyuDragnier.9476]

@Dami.5046 said:I just hope people get a stack of chili's when a few years down the line they will be needed and there's no cries of 'a stacks too much please nerf'Hearts were good for that and I actually miss them TBH.Watch the chili be found and used in Chapter 1 as well. If we're going into such cold temperatures, we're going to need to keep warm.

[Big Red Candle.5186]

seems like you are just looking for something to bitch about

[zealex.9410]

Imho i only see the lack of hearts as a positive

[Knighthonor.4061]

@FrigginPaco.4178 said:I'll sum my general reaction to OP quickly:

You're more than welcome to take or leave the new content, however, it doesn't stop it from being new content. That said, your post isn't an empty criticism, just an admission from someone for whom the new content didn't resonate.

My take:

I was genuinely surprised at my enjoyment of the mini-game centric events. However, my criticism comes from how long they will hold me over till the next drop. That's what I'm worried about above anything else. It's good, but is it 2-3 months good? #DangerTime

So what kind of non Expansion content can hold you over for longer?

[Knighthonor.4061]

for me, I would like it if they added more events to the map. More minigames to play and all that.

[FrigginPaco.4178]

@Knighthonor.4061 said:

@"FrigginPaco.4178" said:I'll sum my general reaction to OP quickly:

You're more than welcome to take or leave the new content, however, it doesn't stop it from being new content. That said, your post isn't an empty criticism, just an admission from someone for whom the new content didn't resonate.

My take:

I was genuinely surprised at my enjoyment of the mini-game centric events. However, my criticism comes from how long they will hold me over till the next drop. That's what I'm worried about above anything else. It's good, but is it 2-3 months good? #DangerTime

So what kind of non Expansion content can hold you over for longer?

"The skill gap between average and hardcore players is about ten times damage output." - Mike Z, https://pcgamesn.com/guild-wars-2/pvp-raids-world-restructuring

Harder content.

To me there is no difference between "Expansion" or "Non-expansion" content aside from the volume of content we get. I'm an easier target for that since I play PvE, PvP, and WvW, or at least I would be if the content wasn't so little per drop. I simply want "more" - failing that, I... well demand open world be harder and ask more from the player's ability to surpass obstacles. It needs to be more challenging for a start - and in any capacity. I've sunk 5600 hours or so into this game over the past 7 years and about as many in its predecessor. This one doesn't ask the players to be curious about their own capabilities, it rarely says "maybe this isn't the right build for the task" and in all Vanilla gameplay that's fine. But this is 2019. We're 2 expansions deep.

Overworld PvP arenas: These are not as highly competitive when compared to sPvP Ranked Conquest matches and frankly, might be the better way to get newer players interested in PvP since they could have much more freedom and design that's more favorable to one camp or the other depending on what team you choose to represent. Things like this is where I found my love of PvP and there's nothing of it's kind in GW2 and it could be so very entertaining.https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fort_Aspenwood

GW2's own version of PvE Hard Mode would also be a good start. https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hard_mode

Elite Zones would be nice, especially since they can fulfill the role of "Hard Mode" without implementing game-wide changes. Imagine a big zone where the players have to do a Dragon's Stand-like meta push but with much greater rewards/difficulty. https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Underworld

Guild oriented challenges would be a good start. That part of the game has been largely neglected, and the next person who says that "Guild Wars" is only referring to the in-game historic event can look for another comment to break down, because it ought to mean more than just that. Guild mission revamp would be good, as would additional guild content that isn't chasing down materials for an ultra fancy decoration. If more things were integrated into guilds that would make me reevaluate our recruiting standards, etc.

Last thing: more diverse rewards that mean something. Most of the time we get loot boxes that hold items and materials that we just hoard until we need them. I don't know what they'd need to add to the drop tables but... we need something "more" than what we have, and there are a lot of other MMOs that do this sort of thing better. Profession-locked earnable mount skins are an example, but I fear the gemstore gets in the way of that too much to be a possibility.

There are only a few things that came to mind.

[Ayakaru.6583]

This map is more alive than most of the previous maps, and your claim there's nothing to do?There's constantly all to do all over the place.No masteries, of course, it's a prologue episode.No hearts, everyone's happy with that for a change. Most of the hearts are boring grinds anyway

[Ashantara.8731]

@Eloc Freidon.5692 said:The problem I see with the map is that its too big and takes too long to get to the events.

Woot?! :o What do we have mounts for? :) Also, there are waypoints.

[Diak Atoli.2085]

@Aridon.8362 said:General discussion forums seems to be the wrong approach, Arenanet can give people undercooked food here and they would tell you it's good.

Or ANet can serve a five-star meal and forum goers will still think it's something the cat dragged in.

That pendulum swings both ways.

[Randulf.7614]

@"Konrad Curze.5130" said:Some people have high standards and aren't easily wooed.Others are the opposite and "ohh" and "ahh" at anything and everything.

This thread has a bit of each

[Rauderi.8706]

Well, I thought this was going to be a spiffy release, but then I got to the "tee hee, we're devs and sneaky" part of it.Please stop hiding map completion behind obnoxious things like the Zero Clue Ash Legion Scratch Test or event metas like the Khan-Ur keys. It's super irritating and makes me want to log off.

[Gop.8713]

@Infusion.7149 said:Strike Missions after the invisible pads were fixed aren't particularly hard at all. Barriers/heals allow you to just power through it. Feels like a T1 fractal, to be honest.

I play t1 fractals, and the strike mission is far easier than a t1 fractal. It's literally just stand there and deeps . . .

I don't think it's fair to beat anet up too much about that though. If they had made it harder there would have been players complaining about the introduction of more 'elitist', 'exclusionary' content. So I'm not sure anet could really win. It definitely needed to be easier than raids, and raids aren't really any harder than t4 fractals so it's not like they could be a 'bridge' between the two as I've seen some suggest. I'd say give anet some time and see how they develop strike missions over several releases. They may eventually turn out to be worth it . . .

[Rasimir.6239]

@Gop.8713 said:

@Infusion.7149 said:Strike Missions after the invisible pads were fixed aren't particularly hard at all. Barriers/heals allow you to just power through it. Feels like a T1 fractal, to be honest.I play t1 fractals, and the strike mission is far easier than a t1 fractal. It's literally just stand there and deeps . . .You might be on to something here. I have seen people try the Strike Mission that wouldn't dare to go into a t1 fractal or even one of the easier dungeon paths. I've been in pugs that came close to wiping on this boss. It's not the majority, but it happens.

If Strike Missions with their random join setup introduce people to instanced group content that didn't dare try what we had so far, then that's a positive in my book.

[Fueki.4753]

@Rasimir.6239 said:If Strike Missions with their random join setup introduce people to instanced group content that didn't dare try what we had so far, then that's a positive in my book.If that happens it might be good.But that change also has downsides.Imagine those players who can't beat the Strike Mission try and enter T2+ fractals and drag all their parties down.And then there are the people who have the potential to be good in group content, but don't want to pug or form groups at all.Anet also should change the public Strike Missions to forming a group inside, so trolling players can be kicked.

[Tukaram.8256]

@"Rauderi.8706" said:Well, I thought this was going to be a spiffy release, but then I got to the "tee hee, we're devs and sneaky" part of it.Please stop hiding map completion behind obnoxious things like the Zero Clue Ash Legion Scratch Test or event metas like the Khan-Ur keys. It's super irritating and makes me want to log off.

I am loving the new area... but yeah, I only got one character teleported to the Khan-Ur. I have full sets of keys... but hate jumping puzzles. Can I just open the door and swim over for the vista? The tree thing was pretty daft, too. Now you just look for the guild markers for trees, so that is better. :)