Bloodstone Fen is probably the best area that ANET has designed to the game (so far)

[Deleted]

I love the verticality in HoT, and it is one of the things that made me fall in love with the expansion (Daredevil is the other one). No other MMORPG had the balls
to make a map so vertical, and I found the exploring of the jungle to be much more challenging and interesting because of that. The only area that I didn't like was, of course, Tangled DepthS.

Bloodstone Fen is quite simple to navigate, which is also good.

You do know that HoT was hated by the majority due to this simple fact, right?

[Valeron]

I hated Bitterfrost Frontier the most. Just sooooo tedious. Kill some mobs, move a little, kill more. The disguise thing was okay, but done better in the story for Ember Bay, which was my favorite new zone. Siren's Landing was okay, as was Draconis Mons, but a lot of them made me wonder why I bothered spending Mastery on their stuff. I may just be getting old though, as I always liked JP, but the new ones are just too long and tedious for me too.

Did you like the JP in Siren's Landing? Probably my favorite in the game.

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Really? Other way around for me. The push takes 30 minutes or so, you fight through the length of the entire zone, with each lane being unique, then the blighting towers are awesome too.

Then you get to the boss. You glide over, he bites a platform , you either one phase him if your group doesn't CC, or you do CC and you two phase him. The gaps between being able to dps him take literally 3-4+ minutes where I generally just go AFK (along with most others) then arrive back to dps him again for the 2nd phase.

I agree here. I rather enjoy the push to the last part more than the final event. I still enjoy that but I like the different events in each lane.

[Svifnymr]

Really? Other way around for me. The push takes 30 minutes or so, you fight through the length of the entire zone, with each lane being unique, then the blighting towers are awesome too.

Then you get to the boss. You glide over, he bites a platform , you either one phase him if your group doesn't CC, or you do CC and you two phase him. The gaps between being able to dps him take literally 3-4+ minutes where I generally just go AFK (along with most others) then arrive back to dps him again for the 2nd phase.

I mostly do it for HP on alts, so between damage phases I hop over to grab a HP or two...

I do like the finale, it just needs some editing. Especially this late in the expac life.

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Did you like the JP in Siren's Landing? Probably my favorite in the game.

I didn't even try it. I assume it's checkpoints like the rest? It just seems like they over-estimate how important the rewards for JP's are now.

[Eleccybubb]

Really? Other way around for me. The push takes 30 minutes or so, you fight through the length of the entire zone, with each lane being unique, then the blighting towers are awesome too.

Then you get to the boss. You glide over, he bites a platform , you either one phase him if your group doesn't CC, or you do CC and you two phase him. The gaps between being able to dps him take literally 3-4+ minutes where I generally just go AFK (along with most others) then arrive back to dps him again for the 2nd phase.

Oh I don't mean the push is terrible. It's good but I prefer the finale.

[Valeron]

I didn't even try it. I assume it's checkpoints like the rest? It just seems like they over-estimate how important the rewards for JP's are now.

It has two checkpoints. I like it just for doing it, I don't do it for the rewards (but you do get a mastery point for the first completion). The JPs of Draconis Mons and Ember Bay were frustrating as hell, I hated both of those.

[Svifnymr]

It has two checkpoints. I like it just for doing it, I don't do it for the rewards (but you do get a mastery point for the first completion). The JPs of Draconis Mons and Ember Bay were frustrating as hell, I hated both of those.

I do them just to run&jump and do stuff, since the rewards are pointless really. But, since they don't want people "cheating" by porting, they require the checkpoints. Maybe the Silverwastes one just gave me a bad taste, since the real challenge of the JP was the camera and it just got irritating. In any case, letting people cheat to grab a mastery point seems better than designing puzzles that are too long.

Part of it may just be me lumping checkpoints in with the back and forth of some JP's.

[Kuax]

Maps like Tangled Depths and Draconis Mons want me to impregnate the authors and then bludgeon them to death, using their newborn babies as a club. Story achievements is the place where they should put challenge, maps like that only challenge my patience. Normal maps is what sold me next expansion. No ridiculous verticality + desert theme (Uldum is one of my favourite zones in WoW). New specs didn't impress me and mounts are a feature I'm fine with or without.

[Svifnymr]

It has two checkpoints. I like it just for doing it, I don't do it for the rewards (but you do get a mastery point for the first completion). The JPs of Draconis Mons and Ember Bay were frustrating as hell, I hated both of those.

Did the Siren's Landing one. Took too long, but otherwise was a nice puzzle. Required gliding of course, and it was easy enough to recover from some jumps without having to fully reset, even to a checkpoint. Not something I'll repeat, though is the diving spot up there also? I took the jump to grab the mastery from the boat and then looked at achievements.

[Alydael]

Maybe tone down some of the group oriented stuff but there will be plenty of people doing the maps for the Meta events. Auric Basin Tarir event is the best farming event in the game.

You don't think everyone will be doing the new events/ meta's, etc with POF?

[Zephyr Storm]

You do know that HoT was hated by the majority due to this simple fact, right?

I'll just say this. There is a reason why almost every single person in the five guilds I was a part of all stopped playing shortly after HoT launched and literally haven't touched the game since.

Guess what that reason was? Unnecessary amounts of forced verticality that they all got pissed off with.

[Eleccybubb]

You don't think everyone will be doing the new events/ meta's, etc with POF?

Unless they revamp how condi damage/duration works then Auric will still be popular for those farming their Viper set. People still do old events even in HoF because the rewards stay relevant.

[Gray_Matter]

I have to disagree.

Any map that has huge amounts of verticality is fucking retarded IMO. One of the biggest negatives for me in HoT has been the maps that are a pain in the ass to traverse (Bloodstone Fen, Verdant Brink, and Tangled Depths.....especially Tangled Depths....fuck that place).

Tangled Depths is a horrible map. The worst I have encountered in any MMO I have played. The designer should be forced to play that map 24/7 with only the first gliding mastery and nothing else. Half the time you need to run from one end of the map to another just so you can get to a place right underneath your original position.

I don't have an issue with VB or BF. While they have vertical portions, these are very limited and I don't think they adversely effect the gameplay. BF is a little bit frustrating but I would say that's all.

On the whole, I think the Living Story 3 maps are really nice and have a decent flow to them. VB and AB are fine from HoT but I don't like TD or Dragon Stand for that matter. I have the same problem with DS that I have with all of the Orr maps. You can't drop off anywhere on the map and continue playing. You need to wait for the zerg to get there. That closes the map off for general exploration. I never go to Orr except for my daily gathering from time to time. I sometimes go to TD for the daily or to get some currency and almost never go to DT.

As long as they stay away from another TD style abomination and also from the Orr style whole map meta then I will be very happy with PoF. A bit of vertical is fine.

[Valeron]

Did the Siren's Landing one. Took too long, but otherwise was a nice puzzle. Required gliding of course, and it was easy enough to recover from some jumps without having to fully reset, even to a checkpoint. Not something I'll repeat, though is the diving spot up there also? I took the jump to grab the mastery from the boat and then looked at achievements.

yes, the diving spot is on the other end of the ship where you got the chest from, run up the mast to the end and the goggles are there.

I don't mind TD. I like the cave exploration part of it. I just hate the Chak that are there

[Lotus Victoria]

yes, the diving spot is on the other end of the ship where you got the chest from, run up the mast to the end and the goggles are there.

I don't mind TD. I like the cave exploration part of it. I just hate the Chak that are there

Chaks are pests and they make strange noises. But no matter how much I love Guild Wars 2, if there is a complaint that I can't defend is the one against Tangled Depths. It was a nightmare to complete (almost impossible without HP Trains and Youtube Guides). That's why I love Bloodstone Fen: Simple, three layered map with a lot of interesting events and good loot.

[PACOX]

I quite like the vertical nature of the maps. I know some here dislike it but I really enjoyed it. TD was the only place I felt it a chore to traverse but that was mostly due to the numerous Chak more than anything. I don't know if I'd say that Bloodstone Fen is the best area, I quite like the current map in Orr (but I'm a sucker for Orrian lore).

I think TD is awesome from a design standpoint but its not playable...if that makes sense. Aesthetics, best map of core HoT imo. Playing the map? Hell. You could easily split the map into 2 parts, maybe 3. The good news about TD is that you can breeze through a lot of it if you're just trying to do the story. Bad news is if you want to craft any of the HoT legendaries. Bless those who guide TD map clears. I think the one that I followed lasted 3 hours.


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Bloodstone Fen is the only LS3 map that I've bothered to 100% because its fun to explore. Its very vertical but the "verticality" of it makes since gameplay and storywise. I had a blast just gliding around it. The other vertical map (the one with Primordus) gave me a headache. I 100% that one but only once. The rest of the LS3 maps aren't necessarily vertical.

I think the LS3 maps were all good experiments nonetheless. Seeing what works and what doesn't. The small part of the first POF map that we got to play felt good, hope that carries through the rest of the expac. I'm sad that they probably won't have anymore maps designed around a meta event because I actually like those.

[Deleted]

I didn't play trough it... but if it's half as bad as Draconis Mons, which it looks like, just with even worse visuals... then to hell with it.

[Gray_Matter]

As long as we don't get shit like TD again then fine. Dragon's Stand has the best open world event imo.

But yeah Auric is insane for farming. Few events and I had all my Viper stuff.

I liked the DS event as well but my problem with the map is that it's only the meta. There is almost nothing else about the map except the meta. The DS meta also takes a bit long.

[Alydael]

Unless they revamp how condi damage/duration works then Auric will still be popular for those farming their Viper set. People still do old events even in HoF because the rewards stay relevant.

I was just imagining there would be a whole slew of new stuff to farm with POF.

[Beazy]

I've recently started playing again. I tried to checkout Bloodstone Fen, but they want 200 gems to unlock it?

Are content patches pay to play in GW2 now ?

[Edge-]

I've recently started playing again. I tried to checkout Bloodstone Fen, but they want 200 gems to unlock it?

Are content patches pay to play in GW2 now ?

That's how it's been if you missed the living story episode since season 2. They're free while they're "active", but once the next chapter is out the previous one goes into the store for purchase. So episode 6 is free right now, but episode 1-5 are only available in the store for folks who didn't unlock them while they were "new".