GW2 Heart of Thorns 50% OFF Nov 15-22

[Deleted]

Since there have been questions about the current state of the game already, here is another one:
Did they spice up the viable builds a bit, cause when I played last it was basically Berserk (Power/Prec/Psomething) on almost every class and Power/Toughness/somethingelse for Pvp.

[Arewn]

I haven't played since 2013...tell me this: is there a lot of pve content, did they improve dungeons? Are necromancers still complete garbage? Mainly asking from a pve perspective.

Mostly what Valyrian said regarding PVE.
Fractals (essentially dungeons) have been getting continued support and additions. The fights are much better designed then the initial gw2 dungeons, and we get new fractals every once in a while (got a new one today on that note).
10 man raids have been pretty good. I've raided in several MMOs and find GW2's to be enjoyable. Middle of the line difficulty wise, though there is that initial learning curve getting use to them. Interesting part about them compared to other MMOs is that there's no gear progression, so you never "out scale" the raid and trivialize it, you just get better at the encounters.
"Living story" is like the personal story from initial launch, but with some improvements. You can repeat story instances, and there's challenge-based achievements associated with each one.
Lately, the living story updates also come packaged with a new map. Three new maps have been added since the expansion launched (the expansion itself adding 4 maps). And content updates are being delivered quarterly now a days.

My gf mains a necro, did every raid encounter on a necro, and my group has at points brought multiple necros to an encounter. They also fair well in fractals. The new elite spec makes them pretty beastly for general open world content as well. Not sure how they're doing in pvp though.

[Exerionx]

Mostly what Valyrian said regarding PVE.
Fractals (essentially dungeons) have been getting continued support and additions. The fights are much better designed then the initial gw2 dungeons, and we get new fractals every once in a while (got a new one today on that note).
10 man raids have been pretty good. I've raided in several MMOs and find GW2's to be enjoyable. Middle of the line difficulty wise, though there is that initial learning curve getting use to them. Interesting part about them compared to other MMOs is that there's no gear progression, so you never "out scale" the raid and trivialize it, you just get better at the encounters.
"Living story" is like the personal story from initial launch, but with some improvements. You can repeat story instances, and there's challenge-based achievements associated with each one.
Lately, the living story updates also come packaged with a new map. Three new maps have been added since the expansion launched (the expansion itself adding 4 maps). And content updates are being delivered quarterly now a days.

My gf mains a necro, did every raid encounter on a necro, and my group has at points brought multiple necros to an encounter. They also fair well in fractals. The new elite spec makes them pretty beastly for general open world content as well. Not sure how they're doing in pvp though.

I concur with edge, the first months were quite bad, like 5/10 bad, nowadays it feels quite more polished, 8/10 probably, certain classes are just so much improved with the specializations.

Think I'm gonna go ahead and buy it. Seems like a good deal honestly.

[Kalcheus]

I finally broke down and bought it.

Questions: Do you need to complete the My Story to start the Living World Story (any season)? Do I need to complete Heart of Thorns Acts to do the Season 3 Living Story? Do I need to go back and get Acts 1 and 2 of Season 3 before I can do Act 3(I'm guessing No, and I'm guessing I'll probably grab them anyway, but I'm curious)?

[Deleted]

My gf mains a necro, did every raid encounter on a necro, and my group has at points brought multiple necros to an encounter. They also fair well in fractals. The new elite spec makes them pretty beastly for general open world content as well. Not sure how they're doing in pvp though.

PvP If you learn how to chill opponents to kite, okay.

If you are up against only ranged and they dodge the grap, screwed.

However I really lost PvP since they introduced the "private server" thing and there is now mutual agreement daily PvP - no attack - COLOR X WINS server...

[Arewn]

I finally broke down and bought it.

Questions: Do you need to complete the My Story to start the Living World Story (any season)? Do I need to complete Heart of Thorns Acts to do the Season 3 Living Story? Do I need to go back and get Acts 1 and 2 of Season 3 before I can do Act 3(I'm guessing No, and I'm guessing I'll probably grab them anyway, but I'm curious)?

Chapters are independently available. You don't have to do one to access the other.

[Kalcheus]

Chapters are independently available. You don't have to do one to access the other.

Ok, thanks!

[barackopala]

still havent found a nice group to do fotm 100 challenge mode, some guildies were having some issues with it, some did it on the 2nd try, havent gotten any information on the encounters yet.

[Deleted]

I'm waiting to see if next expansion will be any good, if so I rather buy that one and I will get current one for free

[Valeron]

I'm waiting to see if next expansion will be any good, if so I rather buy that one and I will get current one for free

you'll probably have to wait another year at least then

[Deleted]

you'll probably have to wait another year at least then

I'm in no rush, haven't played it regulary since 6 months after vanilla launch, waiting to read that pvp improved. So far, this expansion seems to not have fixed it (elite specs being OP, unless they balanced that?) so perhaps next one has better luck. All one can do is wait and see right?=)

[Valeron]

I wouldn't say they are OP and you can never have a balanced MMO. However, some do provide a slight advantage depending on the content that you are playing.

Yeah, no rush (especially this game as it doesn't have the gear chase rat race) but just saying that ANet aren't the fastest of developers.

[barackopala]

I'm waiting to see if next expansion will be any good, if so I rather buy that one and I will get current one for free

Considering how GW1 dealt with expansions i dont think it'll be the same as WoW expansions where you got the prev expansion with vanilla game.

[Svifnymr]

Considering how GW1 dealt with expansions i dont think it'll be the same as WoW expansions where you got the prev expansion with vanilla game.

Nyah, they gave the base game with the expac, and you'll need Mastery unlocked for new expacs, so it's mostly required for future work. I guess they could tie all Masteries but Gliding to the HoT and also restrict usage of the specific elite specs, but I don't see it.

[StationaryHawk]

Considering how GW1 dealt with expansions i dont think it'll be the same as WoW expansions where you got the prev expansion with vanilla game.

I believe they stated that you'll only ever have to pay for the newest expansion, and all old content will be moved to the core game. Granted, it's been a while and their philosophy could have changed.

[Arlee]

I believe they stated that you'll only ever have to pay for the newest expansion, and all old content will be moved to the core game. Granted, it's been a while and their philosophy could have changed.

Yea I'm fairly certain that's what Mike O'Brien said during his part of the presentation at Pax West 2015 but I haven't found a video of it to double check, of course I haven't checked recently either so might be around now.

[Deleted]

Considering how GW1 dealt with expansions i dont think it'll be the same as WoW expansions where you got the prev expansion with vanilla game.

With this expansion base game came for free, and they said when people questioned it that they would follow the same approach for all upcoming expansions: buy the current expansion and get the previous ones with that.