Poll: Favourite XPAC

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  1. #1
    Herald of the Titans Lotus Victoria's Avatar
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    [Discussion] Heart of Thorns vs Path of Fire

    Greetings champions, good to see you, as always!

    Today I'd like to discuss with you which expansion is the "better" one. As I've discussed in one of my previous threads, "best" is subjective, so please explain your point of view.

    So, which expansion did you like more? We're talking about the basic expansions here, so Living Story chapters and maps are not included.

    --

    Personally, I'll always love Heart of Thorns. It is one of my favourite video-game expansions of all time - yeah, it was a bit overpriced, but I loved almost everything that I got. I love the concept of Masteries, I love gliding, the areas were big and fun to explore, I felt underpowered in the jungle (in a good sense, like I was exploring something way beyond my comprehension), and even the storyline was quite interesting, at least for ANET standards.

    Path of Fire is great as well, but I feel that we got way less interesting things to do. Mounts are super super sweet and I can't live without them, and masteries have been mastered (more interesting masteries with a less focus on grinding), but maps felt less interesting to explore, and there weren't enough stuff to play around. Most people that I play with went back to HoT metas, or just to the basic world. I also think that the storyline was less interesting. The final battle was epic, though, and the price tag for the xpac was a lot more fair.

    So, that is my point of view. I'd like to hear your opinion: Which is your favourite expansion?


    See you soon, champions!


  2. #2
    Voted heart of thorns (though I didn't really play it much until about 2 months before PoF). I like the meta events. I like most the maps (TD is rough lol). And I like my Reaper.

  3. #3
    I just recently bought the expansions and enjoyed my trek through the vanilla story/ game so much I went ahead and bought the Living World Seasons 2 and 3 as well to get as much lore out of my play time as possible. I pushed one of boosted 80s through enough of the PoF story to get the Raptor mount for easy travel but no farther.

    I am only just now at the level 50 quests on my 80 Guardian (not going to push into the expansion content until I experience all the story leading up to it) so don't have much to go on for which expansion was better, but based on what I have played so far and what I know was added in each expansion I'd have to say Heart of Thorns is the "better" expansion as far as quality of life and amount of content.

  4. #4
    Hard to say, Heart of Thorns was great after like 6 months. At launch it was fairly irritating. I don't think we should include LW Season 3 in that either.

    Tarir is nice, but Verdant Brink? Tangled Depths? Meh. Dragon Stand is a great event, but so damn tedious at times.

    By contrast, there's only a couple meta events in PoF, but the zones are all around better IMO. Mob density can impair exploration, and it seems combat has gotten even brighter... The meta events don't have loot that scales well with the time/effort and folks just don't do them that much.

    Elite Spec's, HoT had some nice stuff, and I like Reaper and Chronomancer. Dragonhunter is cool, Daredevil fun. Holosmith, Mirage, Firebrand, they really made me play some classes I didn't normally play and I think that's great. Like Daredevil is great, and Marksman is great, but both are still "Thief" to me.

    Gliding is great, Mounts are great, but the rest of HoT's Masteries are just stupid, IMO. "See stealthed enemies", bleh, "resist that abritrary poison field in some zones", ugh. The Nuhock Wallows or the volcano flingers, meh. Mounts adding evasion or falling, much nicer.

    Story, both were good and bad, HoT was too long, PoF was too short.

    Overall, I'd give it to PoF, but the two expansions really do complement each other well, I think. Meta events in one, exploration in the other.
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  5. #5
    Elemental Lord Spl4sh3r's Avatar
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    I voted Heart of Thorns because of Masteries being new and interesting and the areas going up and down was nice and all that. Now they are just tied to mounts which is kind of boring. With that said I played Heart of Thorns more at launch than I did with Path of Fire now. There is too much focus on mounts to get around.

  6. #6
    Herald of the Titans Lotus Victoria's Avatar
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    I also forgot to say two things: HoT changed the way GW2 worked. I think it changed for the better, while some people think GW2 changed to a worse state.

    And the second thing is...

    My favourite elite spec and probably my favourite MMORPG class ever to exist.


  7. #7
    Field Marshal Nips's Avatar
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    Voted in favor of Heart of Thorns as well. My personal reasons are, mainly:

    - I loved the vertical design of HoT maps. Yes, they were a pain to navigate at times, mostly because the UI map did not represent the vertical structure very well, but navigating difficult terrain made them feel challenging. Jumping and climbing has been a core part of GW2 for me since launch, and gliding/vertical design just fit that picture very well. To me, verdant brink is the best map to date. It felt dark ambientwise and was exciting to explore.
    - In PoF, everything is back to running around the map clockwise (or whatever) hoping you don't miss to many Poi/Vista/etc. Just doesn't feel meaningful to me.
    - Switching between mounts is not fun at all.
    - PoF maps feel bland. In part because of the desert theme, in part because I don't feel immersed at all. This is maybe because of the lack of meaningful meta events, maybe because the story is only superficially tied to the actual locations on the maps.
    - Jungle > Desert (I like trees, I don't like sand)

    I wonder why they did not opt for something in between. Maps that have a flat "ground floor" holding the majority of stuff and partial "HoT-like" layers above. Well, probably didn't fit the desert theme..
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  8. #8
    WTB third option of Both I really like each xpac for very different reasons so it's hard to pick a favorite for me.

  9. #9
    Path of Fire, HoT was aweful for me. I really hated all the multi-tier zones. Getting lost trying to get something done in an mmo is a huge turnoff for me.
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  10. #10
    HOT for me.

    Im allready sick and tired of POF. The META events are boring and the rewards for the effort you put in is just meh and the Ascended back pack and weapons are just to easy to get. In HOT atleast there where some grinding in it and you had to do Drangon Stand to get them

    I hope it will get better in the next couple of months. Right now im back at playing HOT maps and playing around with my newly made Daredevil
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  11. #11
    The Lightbringer barackopala's Avatar
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    Design Philosophy in expansions:

    I liked both but for different reasons, HoT with the meta felt like something meaningful was going to happen every now and then even if it was just a timer ticking down, sadly that same thing made evident the problems with multimaps and how grouping was rather tedious on joining other maps.

    PoF tried to fix this with bounties and more avalability in terms of content that wasn't mandated by the timer, it is a more controllable experience for the players rather than playing the map timers, at the same time that was its curse, no metas meant no big meaningful situations that would make players desire to come back (yes there are certain events like vabbi's branded zone meta or the doppelganger thing, but they were too separated and not rewarding enough.


    Elite specs:
    Imo HoT did a bit of a better job introducing elites that were pretty interesting or rather desirable to use whereas PoF got us 2 specs that rarely see any play at the moment (both scourge and deadeye) despite me loving the ideas behind those two specs, heck i also like the warrior's elite here but it is way too focused on PvP for me to give much of a glance at it.


    Content wise:
    IMO PoF edges a bit due to the design choises and how the personal story ties it all up compared to HoT, map design in PoF is a bit better tailored for the explorer style that can roam solo, HoT was rather reliant on the availability of the map on event progression and also due to high mob density in certain areas.
    Still waiting on the new raid content to come out, sadly i dont have a static group anymore, so i'll just wait to pug it with guildies.
    Cod has a new campaign, new weapons, new multiplayer levels every year. Zelda has been recycling the same weapons, villains, and dungeons since the 80's. Zelda recycles enough to make cod blush. The same weapons, villains, dungeons, and princess in every single Zelda for the most part. It's almost as cheesy as bowser vs Mario round 35

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by barackopala View Post
    Design Philosophy in expansions:

    I liked both but for different reasons, HoT with the meta felt like something meaningful was going to happen every now and then even if it was just a timer ticking down, sadly that same thing made evident the problems with multimaps and how grouping was rather tedious on joining other maps.

    PoF tried to fix this with bounties and more avalability in terms of content that wasn't mandated by the timer, it is a more controllable experience for the players rather than playing the map timers, at the same time that was its curse, no metas meant no big meaningful situations that would make players desire to come back (yes there are certain events like vabbi's branded zone meta or the doppelganger thing, but they were too separated and not rewarding enough.


    Elite specs:
    Imo HoT did a bit of a better job introducing elites that were pretty interesting or rather desirable to use whereas PoF got us 2 specs that rarely see any play at the moment (both scourge and deadeye) despite me loving the ideas behind those two specs, heck i also like the warrior's elite here but it is way too focused on PvP for me to give much of a glance at it.


    Content wise:
    IMO PoF edges a bit due to the design choises and how the personal story ties it all up compared to HoT, map design in PoF is a bit better tailored for the explorer style that can roam solo, HoT was rather reliant on the availability of the map on event progression and also due to high mob density in certain areas.
    Still waiting on the new raid content to come out, sadly i dont have a static group anymore, so i'll just wait to pug it with guildies.
    Scourge is one of the most played spec in POF. The DPS in the scourge spec is just insane
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  13. #13
    Herald of the Titans Lotus Victoria's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pansertjald View Post
    Scourge is one of the most played spec in POF. The DPS in the scourge spec is just insane
    Apparently the nerf hammer is coming, so watch out Scourges!


  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Lotus Victoria View Post
    Apparently the nerf hammer is coming, so watch out Scourges!
    Nerf hammer already came, though I think it was mostly pvp. A friend of mine that pvp's regularly said it was horrible before the nerf.
    "I only feel two things Gary, nothing, and nothingness."

  15. #15
    The Lightbringer barackopala's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lotus Victoria View Post
    Apparently the nerf hammer is coming, so watch out Scourges!
    is coming? dude where you two guys have been at! scourge is quite fucking low on dps after the first changes on it, dhuumfire got dumpsterfire on their build, qtfy is not even showing their guides due to their lower dmg potential, they are capable in pvp, but in pve? they dont work that well, they do have nice burst but their dps is really really low atm


    Scourge was a fucking beast on pvp before tho, his dmg potential was inmense, now it's on a good pvp spot but on a wonky pve one.
    Cod has a new campaign, new weapons, new multiplayer levels every year. Zelda has been recycling the same weapons, villains, and dungeons since the 80's. Zelda recycles enough to make cod blush. The same weapons, villains, dungeons, and princess in every single Zelda for the most part. It's almost as cheesy as bowser vs Mario round 35

  16. #16
    The Lightbringer Shakadam's Avatar
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    Heart of Thorns lasted for a few months before I started feeling like I'd seen it all, and I still haven't completed all the weapon and armor collections.


    Path of Fire lasted less than a week before I got that same feeling and there are no meaningful collections to complete.

    Enough said.

  17. #17
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    HoT, I must confess I actually loved that xpac =) With the new xpac, I've played the story, unlocked the gryphon and then stopped playing. The lack of meta events or even any decent possibility to make gold in new xpac made me return to HoT. But since I've already been farming Octovine and so for so long, it felt boring to start with it again. Since the xpac didn't bring anything new to the table in terms of pvp, that wasn't any exciting option to play either. Perhaps I return if Living season brings map with some nice meta events, or if there is an awesome update to wvwvw.

  18. #18
    The Lightbringer barackopala's Avatar
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    actually the current metas (Desolation and vabii) are quite the money makers, it's really ez to farm the events to be honest!
    Cod has a new campaign, new weapons, new multiplayer levels every year. Zelda has been recycling the same weapons, villains, and dungeons since the 80's. Zelda recycles enough to make cod blush. The same weapons, villains, dungeons, and princess in every single Zelda for the most part. It's almost as cheesy as bowser vs Mario round 35

  19. #19
    PoF feels like it has VERY little to do by comparison.

    HoT had so many large scale and rewarding events. The maps all took a considerable amount of time to explore, PoF feels more like a one-and-done, and mounts trivialise a lot of other content in the game.

  20. #20
    Moderator Malthanis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Arlee View Post
    WTB third option of Both I really like each xpac for very different reasons so it's hard to pick a favorite for me.
    Going to echo this statement.

    Specifically, the meta-events for HoT are things that keep you going back to those maps over and over, because they continually feel rewarding. Not to mention Dragon's Stand is probably one of the largest scale boss fights I've ever experienced. My quibble with HoT is that the maps are kinda terrible for people that want to do anything other than the meta event, and how certain areas (looking at you, Tangled Depths) are completely locked away unless you progress the local events far enough.

    PoF has absolutely gorgeous maps, with enough going on across all of them to make it memorable. The replayability of those maps, however...

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