Feedback: Eesh. Requiring metagaming mastery unlocks sucks all the joy out of it.

[krvutami.8761]

@battledrone.8315 said:HoT cost them a lot of players and goodwill. it is also one of the few things, that other mmos havent copied from this game.they even tried to nerf it several times, but you cant nerf bad maps. and the story is awful, they threw away eir stegalkin like a broken toyif they had made a PROPER expansion, they could easily had beaten wow

I must disagree. As Cyninja said above, HoT contains some of the best designed maps in MMO I have ever seen. And I`ve seen a ton in 20 years playing the genre. I am sorry for bringing it up again, but expansion gave me so much of that FromSoft vibe that I am addicted to. At first you are nothing, little lost nothing. Dreading every new corner and tunnel. Getting lost trying to figure out how to reach that PoI, dying and giving up. And then coming back again for some more butcheek slapping. But after some time and learning you are a commando. You master the level/map and you are a God in the jungle, slicing through the NPCs and gliding between the trees like a fucking bird. Going from that lost, useless thing to a jungle God without any gear upgrade whatsoever is pure gaming for me.

In short: if all GW2 maps shared the same philosophy it would be a masterpiece of the game even as a single player experience. I totally see what devs and designers tried to do there. Shame people weren't accepting.

[Daddicus.6128]

@krvutami.8761 said:

@battledrone.8315 said:HoT cost them a lot of players and goodwill. it is also one of the few things, that other mmos havent copied from this game.they even tried to nerf it several times, but you cant nerf bad maps. and the story is awful, they threw away eir stegalkin like a broken toyif they had made a PROPER expansion, they could easily had beaten wow

I must disagree. As Cyninja said above, HoT contains some of the best designed maps in MMO I have ever seen. And I`ve seen a ton in 20 years playing the genre. I am sorry for bringing it up again, but expansion gave me so much of that FromSoft vibe that I am addicted to. At first you are nothing, little lost nothing. Dreading every new corner and tunnel. Getting lost trying to figure out how to reach that PoI, dying and giving up. And then coming back again for some more butcheek slapping. But after some time and learning you are a commando. You master the level/map and you are a God in the jungle, slicing through the NPCs and gliding between the trees like a kitten bird. Going from that lost, useless thing to a jungle God without any gear upgrade whatsoever is pure gaming for me.

In short: if all GW2 maps shared the same philosophy it would be a masterpiece of the game even as a single player experience. I totally see what devs and designers tried to do there. Shame people weren't accepting.

And ... it wouldn't have enough players to stay afloat.

[Rainshine.5493]

@coso.9173 said:This is part of horizontal progression, one if few strong points.To prevent each new expansion and living world season making us stronger and stronger into power creep territory, we have this. each new content update comes with new things to unlock and train, useful for those specific maps.

That's not at all my complaint -- horizontal progression is one of this game's strong suits. I'd just like to know if points of interest/vistas/etc. are reachable in my current state, or require certain masteries to reach.

I think the HoT maps are absolutely gorgeous -- not my complaint at all. I do enjoy wandering around and poking in corners, as well, and puzzling things out for myself as much as possible. Maybe that's my problem -- I just need to ask for help more :P

[kharmin.7683]

@Rainshine.5493 said:I'd just like to know if points of interest/vistas/etc. are reachable in my current state, or require certain masteries to reach.

To me, that's the exploration part of the game/map.

[Astyrah.4015]

@Rainshine.5493 said:I think the HoT maps are absolutely gorgeous -- not my complaint at all. I do enjoy wandering around and poking in corners, as well, and puzzling things out for myself as much as possible. Maybe that's my problem -- I just need to ask for help more :P

the only things you probably can't solo in HoT are half/most of the hero points. as for the rest: pois/vistas/insights/etc. you just need to level up and get the required masteries required to explore the HoT maps conveniently

also aside from insights and story quests, a lot of mastery points can be had from strongboxes and adventures too so be sure to keep an eye out for these (assuming you're not willing to look at the wiki/guides)

[Manasa Devi.7958]

When HoT first came out, I hated the maps. Now, they're my favorite. What I hated about them was the reliance on masteries to explore small corners of the map. I absolutely resented having to advance further and further into the jungle just to unlock masteries I needed to finish the first area. It ran counter to how I want to play. I stopped playing HoT for months before picking it up again, that's how much I hated it. But I got back to it, bit the bullet, and got it done.

After that, with all masteries unlocked, HoT became really good for me and I ran a dozen characters through it.

[Bingus.4236]

I have just finished the Heart of Thorns story. I did the meta events once or twice on each map to get the required XP to unlock the mastery points. So it wasn't too much of a gate. The Hero Points on the expansions give out stuff for repeating them, which encourages people to help others doing them whether they've done themselves or not.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

Just imagine now that things like HoT Mastery were character bound, not ACCOUNT WIDE...and that was what it was like to play an MMO back in the mid/late 2000's =)

[Rainshine.5493]

@kharmin.7683 said:

@Rainshine.5493 said:I'd just like to know if points of interest/vistas/etc. are reachable in my current state, or require certain masteries to reach.

To me, that's the exploration part of the game/map.

You must have a much better sense of direction than I then :p Usually in games I rely on the husband for navigation since he has great spacial awareness (think 3D modeling ... watching him work on wire frames still makes my head spin), while I do the puzzles and the reading requirements. Alas, I am alone and out of my element on this one. I will say once I did finally get to all the story triggers I needed, the rest of the exploration was less frustrating since the maps are so pretty -- but still, have pity on the directionally challenged ANet. :) EDIT: I do see your point though. I suppose I just hate feeling stupid, lol.

@Manasa Devi.7958 said:When HoT first came out, I hated the maps. Now, they're my favorite. What I hated about them was the reliance on masteries to explore small corners of the map. I absolutely resented having to advance further and further into the jungle just to unlock masteries I needed to finish the first area. It ran counter to how I want to play. I stopped playing HoT for months before picking it up again, that's how much I hated it. But I got back to it, bit the bullet, and got it done.

After that, with all masteries unlocked, HoT became really good for me and I ran a dozen characters through it.

I am very much looking forward to running through the DLC with my sylvari druid, both for story reasons and pet acquiring reasons (I like to stumble across them), so here's hoping I have a similar experience. My poor main (human ele) is the one going through the crucible for her lol.