Reviewing and Ranking the Heart of Thorns Zones

SBFord

Reviewing and Ranking the Heart of Thorns Zones

It's been two months since Heart of Thorns launched with four new zones, and, like many of you, I've spent countless hours exploring the jungle, taking down wyverns, running for my life, getting knocked on my ass, and plunging to my death.

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SubHero

The big issue with all of HoT is empty maps. I literally CANNOT complete most of the events that require large groups without standing around for sometimes hours, having to taxi people in, and waiting for the events themselves to start and run their course.

This is so alien from the core GW2 philosophy where you could generally show up and find events and people to run them.

HoT is a lot of waiting to get ready to get ready to run events...and if you get DC'd during the event forget it- you're getting dumped into a new empty version of the map.

RoadNoctis

I do TD, then Octovine(AB) and finally DS all in a sequence hoping from one to another (when the meta events are starting) couple of days a week and i never have any problem on finding an organized map, it tooks less that 2 mins eachtime to get a good map. And TD meta event, the chack gerent is super easy and simple to organize, pugs do it all the time (after the nerf) before only really good organzied pugs or guilds can do it, now is super easy

Kaneth

SubHero said:
The big issue with all of HoT is empty maps. I literally CANNOT complete most of the events that require large groups without standing around for sometimes hours, having to taxi people in, and waiting for the events themselves to start and run their course.



This is so alien from the core GW2 philosophy where you could generally show up and find events and people to run them.



HoT is a lot of waiting to get ready to get ready to run events...and if you get DC'd during the event forget it- you're getting dumped into a new empty version of the map.

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You need to use the LFG system to find organized maps. I find it more difficult to actually get into some of the event maps because of them filling up too quickly. I find myself waiting very little for the events, but then again I am also using the web timer that other sites provide.

Those I see who are complaining about empty maps are also the same people not utilizing tools that are available to them.

Kilmaul

I completely agree with everything stated about those zones and the order listed. Although I've completed the TD Meta a few times now, the layout and feel of that zone is a bit extreme.

meonthissite

Sounds like once again the forced group mechanics have failed, too bad they didn't listen to the community when we pointed out the large number of historical precedents of companies trying to use that design in the past which you guessed it also failed.

claytonfm

+1


meonthissite said:
Sounds like once again the forced group mechanics have failed, too bad they didn't listen to the community when we pointed out the large number of historical precedents of companies trying to use that design in the past which you guessed it also failed.

Octagon7711

Went there to get my Elites. Haven't been back to even pickup the tiger and EW for my ranger. May never get them, thanks for putting them at the end of a two hour event, for 15 mins.

nimander99

They killed the fun of being able to log on by myself and play mostly with others that happened to be in the area...

Loke666

meonthissite said:
Sounds like once again the forced group mechanics have failed, too bad they didn't listen to the community when we pointed out the large number of historical precedents of companies trying to use that design in the past which you guessed it also failed.


The problem is more that the mega server technology works badly in the new zones (possibly besides Verdant brink, never seen few players there). Many zones require that there are a lot of players in them, some like Dragons stand that all work together while others is fine if a few players do one thing and the others do other things so that all the events get done.

There are many really popular larger events in the old part of GW2 as well, Claw for example always have loads of players no matter what time or day you play. A lot of the games focusing on solo-mechanics have failed badly as well, most of them really.

MindTricked

Auric Basin is, by far, my favorite zone of the four, and perhaps it's by no small coincidence that it's the only zone I've fully completed. VB? Still need three difficult-to-get-to PoIs, and the whole place has become annoying. I honestly haven't spent much time in Dragon's Stand - once I got there, I focused on the story and finishing it. TD? That place is a mess - I don't think I've even gotten any Vistas there.

My only complaint with HoT, though, is that it's extremely unsafe to attempt to solo, which is my natural way of playing the game. Forcing group content is off-putting, but other than that, I've really enjoyed the experience.

Loke666

MindTricked said:

Auric Basin is, by far, my favorite zone of the four, and perhaps it's by no small coincidence that it's the only zone I've fully completed. VB? Still need three difficult-to-get-to PoIs, and the whole place has become annoying. I honestly haven't spent much time in Dragon's Stand - once I got there, I focused on the story and finishing it. TD? That place is a mess - I don't think I've even gotten any Vistas there.

My only complaint with HoT, though, is that it's extremely unsafe to attempt to solo, which is my natural way of playing the game. Forcing group content is off-putting, but other than that, I've really enjoyed the experience.

Certain things can't be soloed no. You can easily get all Pois and Vistas in VB by yourself though, I got most of them in an hour when I was bored and my guildies were offline. A few heroics are hard to take yourself, particularly the ones with veteran mobs hanging around before you activate them since they tend to respawn during the heroic fight, it is really hard to solo down those tough mobs alone.

Anyways, as long as you get at least Glider: updrafts getting the rest of the things are easy (jumping mushrooms and Nunoch wallows makes it easier). Just set a personal waypoint where you want to go and see if there is a wallow before your trying to glide to them. Use the updrafts as much as you can.

The exploration parts of figuring out where Pois are is actually more fun by myself, the rest of the content I prefer with friends. Oh, and stealth helps. Thieves, mesmers, norns (the snowleopard elite is great for exploration) and any one who can stealth just fast to get rid of aggro have it easier. A single stealth thing like the rangers longbow stealth arrow is far more helpful then many people realize if you use it right.

Soloexploration is dangerous and challenging. There are few ingame events you can do but you get get almost everything else besides in the last zone but it might take some training if you didn't play Orr when the game just released or have some issues with gliding. You also need to be good on kiting massive hero challenging bosses while avoiding damage and certain classes have it harder then others. In my opinion have thieves and rangers it easiest but a norn warrior with a good exploring build can be pretty awesome as well (as I said, the snow leopard elite skill is very helpful for explorers).

I think that part is awesome myself, i never really liked soloing events or similar content but exploration is a great thing at odd hours or when I am feeling unsocial.

Dr_Binks

Well for me I really can't agree with you. I really don't find the new maps all that much fun. I even really don't know many peeps that like the maps that much and that includes my guildies. Also every time I log into the maps there aren't many peeps there, and yes you can use LFG to get into a map only to find it's full. It's all time spent standing waiting for events to start that have a 2 hour spawn timer. But that's the same thing with other events like teq that good maps fill up a hour before the event. And as always the loot is really poor.

I do go into the new maps but only to get flax for my guild which is why most of the peeps that I know go into the maps.... just to get mats that are only in those maps and really that's sad, and as others have said forced mechanics is not the best way to get peeps to play.

Octagon7711

Most people use the timers to know exactly when to login before the events because the maps fill up fast and you could easily find yourself in empty overflow. Also a lot of the big guilds sponsor events on the harder content, just find out when it's scheduled for what you want to do.

I still prefer doing Teq, Claw, and a few other world bosses and mostly stay away from HoT.

Thupli

Octagon7711 said:

Most people use the timers to know exactly when to login before the events because the maps fill up fast and you could easily find yourself in empty overflow. Also a lot of the big guilds sponsor events on the harder content, just find out when it's scheduled for what you want to do.

I still prefer doing Teq, Claw, and a few other world bosses and mostly stay away from HoT.

WOW!  What a sad comment for a brand new expansion that has just dropped!!  I keep thinking about getting it, but... with comments like this, why bother?