I am kinda disappointed that Verdant Brink didnt make it, personally its my favourite map. As well as Domain of Istan, with Paladawan, Pirates, Great Hall and great Astralarium. I would drop the Silverwastes, the map might look ok but since the farming days I avoid it like a plague :D
Well... I'm playing this game for the first time in Heart of Thorns and I'm absolutely in love with Verdant Brink. I don't even want it to end. People told me it would be beneficial to do POF maps first, 'cause of mounts, but i'm doing cronological and having a total blast with all the mechanics involving the glider and the mushrooms. It's the best map in a mmo by a large margin. For me is absolutely superior to silverwastes, also.
Yeah, good call. Having a springer available in HoT zones totally changes the experience and you can't go back after unblocking mounts. Even the raptor that everyone gets nowadays makes navigating the jungle a lot less dangerous, because you can just run through and away from enemies. It's a good thing to struggle against adversity from time to time (but definitely not because of the bs "I had to suffer through it so others should too" argument). It helps to build fond memories and overcoming them fosters a strong sense of achievement.
@@Kerbezena that's It! I think Heart of Thorns have a design that is perfect for gliders, but not for mounts. So, having mounts in the start of hot experience not Just makes It way easier, but also less fun.
@@Kerbezena I enjoy to explore the zones. And for me it was a big disappointment at HoT release that in HoT zones you just can't do a single step not stepping in some pocket raptors or those bloody shadowleapers. Fighting the trash is not fun to me. So i'm glad that now the raptor allows me to just skip most part of the trash and to do what i came in the map for.
two of my faves are Bjora Marches and Verdant Brink - oh, and Bloodstone Fen. I like the more sinister and dire themes and ambience and on that note add in Siren's Landing which has a ton of variety and easter eggs. I like your picks, though! That dragon tail feature in Dragonfall is just unforgettable - as the severed wing -, I still think they should've added a hidden achieve for getting rattled off the tail =P
Seitung is such an overlooked map. One of the most beautiful maps out there and it feels exactly like a rustic city from a high fantasy Chinese martial art novel.
1. Tangled Depths 2. Verdant Brink 3. Auric Basin 4. Draconis Mons 5. Echovald Wilds 6. Drizzlewood Coast 7. Dragonfall 8. Bjora Marches 9. Seitung Province 10. Thunderhead Peaks Honorable mention: Desert Highlands for almost making this list and being my favorite PoF zone. Your list is okay. For me, the more complicated the map, the better. Thats what keeps a map interesting for the long term. Also, the LS2 and HoT maps were both massive steps forward in design. The core maps just get blown out of the water. I'm very surprised any of them were in your top 10.
Love this kind of vid ;D 2:38 I was watching Preach's stream this morning, he was trying to do the Griffon achievements so he had to run around those maps again, then he bumped into this secret(?) place. I can see him almost stunned for a moment, and then I heard him murmur "How can I miss this place before.....?" well... can't blame him actually bc he was chasing the storyline and the story didn't really lead him to this area. Then the Griffon achievement hunting plan was completely gone lol He was so intrigued by this place that he wanted to explore it right away. He noticed those doors but he thought it might relate to events until he finally found the chamber to unlock the achievement. And surprisingly, he figured out how to enter those secret rooms. He said he had never been side way like this and he had a lot of fun ;3
Oh yeah, the Rune-Locked Doors are a real rabbit hole and a lot of fun. I also like the unique weapon skins you get out of it. I use most of them on my Norn Revenant.
In the same vein as Seitung Province (chill vibes, no great danger or evil faction) Grothmar Valley is a really cool map, possibly the only Ascalonian map I enjoy
I love your videos, you need to make more! Maybe explanations about the individual map backstories? I haven‘t found anything like that on UA-cam. Btw I totally agree on Caledon being fantastic. I leveled a Sylvari Warrior there. It was so good I hadn‘t even noticed I was already severely overleveled by the time I had map completion lmao.
Great video! I skipped the ones I haven't visited myself yet, currently playing S4, but I agree with most of your picks. One reason I love Auric Basin for that you didn't mention but feature in the video is the beautiful music by Lena Chappelle. "Tarir, the Forgotten City" is one of my all-time favorite musical pieces from any game, "Auric Wilds" and "An Exalted Lullaby" are great aswell, and "Attack on Tarir" still gets my blood pumping. Meta-wise I feel like Verdant Brink even beats Auric Basin just due VB taking a higher level of coordination, whereas AB just takes a number of players to succeed, but all of the HoT zones are great. Their atmosphere and feel is greatly diminished by new players blazing through them on mounts. A sad if imperfect example of "Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game.". Mounts are amazing and I love them as much as the next person, but overcoming adversity and progression - like in learning / mastering to navigate the Heart of Maguuma - are very important for creating cherished memories and enjoyment. I 100% share your feelings for Caledon Forest. I also started playing a sylvari at launch and exploring that zone for the first time was awesome. There's so much to do, so much to see. It's sad when people only follow map markers and don't take their time to explore, because this game has just the most interesting locations and vistas. Shoutout to the cities you deliberately excluded from your video. They are criminally underused for how breathtaking they are.
Maaaan, 10 years of active playing... 10 years ! What can I say about the game, played everything, visited every corner of the game, played every build, fav game mod is WvW... One more thing, every time I see new player (judging by his AP) i send him 5-10 goldies, just for the start :)
Nice video, but I would drop Queensdale and perhaps Silverwastes, to replace them with two of many other maps that I think are more visually stunning, better for exploration, or just more fun to play the content and meta events. Of the Core game maps, I think Mount Malestrom would be higher on my list above Queensdale, for example. I'm glad you made this video, and hope that you will do more videos in the future that will help introduce many of the Living World Season 3 and 4 maps, plus Icebrood Saga maps, to new players. Many newer GW2 players don't realize that the Living World Seasons and Icebrood Saga are content equal or surpassing the quality of expansions in many other MMORPG games. It's mind blowing that Arenanet gave away all of that content for free, to any players who were actively logging in to GW2 on a somewhat regular basis, and then gave players a 2nd chance to unlock all of it for free again, just prior to the release of the End of Dragons expansion, again by just logging into GW2 at least once every couple weeks. Please continue to spread the word, and introduce GW2 to more new players, or point out to existing players just how much great content and exploration there is in this game to enjoy.
I actually have a video that is in the writing phase that, at least in my opinion, would be a great video for introducing people to some of these ideas. Like the world of Guild Wars 2 and what you can do in the open-world zones. Thank you for all of your thoughts!
@@Athis That sounds fantastic. I definitely wouldn't wanna miss it and will share with a lot of people. When people come from other MMOs they are often drawn to the stuff they know from elsewhere, like raids, dungeons, mounts etc., all great stuff. But looking at GW2 through that lens they are prone to miss a lot in the open world, because they aren't used to exploration actually holding any enjoyment.
I love this format :) It's really no point arguing about something so subjective, but that is not the point. I'm here for nice clips and nostalgic feelings :) and the "top 10" naming gives the video a nice and predictive (comfy) structure.
Orr is my no 1 by a country mile. In terms of map design & environments there is nothing like it in any other mmo. I remember it in vanilla as very hard to quest through & most people did it in groups. Now it’s story completion and some farmers - not the massive meta groups of old though
Honestly, it really grew on me … like a fungus. Make no mistake, it was very frustrating for me at first, but as I explored more and more, I came to like it a lot. It's still my last favorite zone of HoT (not sure how to rank DS, since it's so very different), but that's only because VB and AB are so ultra god-tier amazing.
good video! it was a while ago now but back when multi-map AB was a thing I ended up dropping a full summer's worth on it, around 16 hours a day. not saying it wasn't cringe, but I'm wondering why you think it was cringe, sans the VIP thing, which I actually never heard about.
I personally always find the mass optimization of a game approaching the realm of very unfun and a little cringe. I look back on multiloot fondly but the extents that people took it was definitely a little weird at times. But the main part that was cringe for me was how some people saw themselves so highly in the multiloot 'community.' Like how several commanders were super egotistical and thought they were the greatest thing that ever happened to the game because they ran a tag for multiloot. And then how commanders would demand people give them gold because they ran a tag, often times kicking people from the squad if they didn't mail gold. And to a lesser extent, the same vibe is present with people who paid for vip. With both things, it obviously falls upon what an individual likes to do and what they enjoy in the game. People love mass optimizing games, and there's nothing wrong with that and I myself enjoy to optimize stuff... but it gets to a point where it's a bit to much imo. And then same thing with the weird commanders and vips. They obviously enjoyed doing that and I am glad they found joy doing it, but they were super cringe from my point of view. Also, I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching!
@@Athis Super in-depth response. I was around 13~(?) at the time, with my sister, a couple of folks and a guy called Jerry running the [AB] guild. We'd have internal competitions for fastest kill, and certainly probably added to the ego view you saw in the groups doing multiloot. While I never personally did any of the begging for gold, I was completely insufferable in map chat. It was unironically an entire summer we spent playing, sleeping 6 hours a day and waking up to grind it for 18 hours, so delirium from pushing through burnout hit alot of us, not to excuse it. Super cool trip down memory lane, I've never actually seen anyone mention multi-map in a video. Thanks so much!
The difficult for me moment when I want to notice who has the most Gigantic and Unique Open World Landscapes, WoW or GW2. Not mention about graphics , because of course GW2 is the winner on that sector. I ve seen so many GW2 videos esepcially this period and I try to figure out which ot these 2 Epic Games has the most Wonderul Phantasy Open world scene landscapes that of course you can explore them and give nice footages or epic pictures wandering inside them.. Any Expert about that point here ? PS: I watch again your video bro and I see that GW2 may have Insane and better Graphics than WOW But they never touched and harmed the WoW style colors and this is a true Masteripece and Brother Game of WoW indeed!! Also every Map on GW2 has its own Story and Theme from Ambient Monsters around of this Phantasy World to unique places to explore and wander in not mention that GW2 has so majestic underwater maps with so much ambient monsters around in than WoW !!! I wish we had this game on phones, would be so fantastic experience..!
Bloodstone fen for me! Loved prophecies and the entire mursaat arc! But Eco Wilds has to be the worst map ever made! They just butchered this fantastic map from gw1 and made it into this…thing :))) but everyone has different tastes, right? BTW nice format. Love your gw2 and wow vids!
Thank you for the video, it's great! But I don't get it, everything in GW2 looks so dark with this dark brownish-green color absolutely everywhere, it's so depressing. The gameplay looks amazing but I can't get over how ugly and dark the world and graphics are...
Queensdale is insanely nostalgic.
I am kinda disappointed that Verdant Brink didnt make it, personally its my favourite map. As well as Domain of Istan, with Paladawan, Pirates, Great Hall and great Astralarium. I would drop the Silverwastes, the map might look ok but since the farming days I avoid it like a plague :D
Verdant Brink is a work of art. My favorite map so far.
I love Verdant Brink. Its HoT's masterpeace.
Well... I'm playing this game for the first time in Heart of Thorns and I'm absolutely in love with Verdant Brink. I don't even want it to end. People told me it would be beneficial to do POF maps first, 'cause of mounts, but i'm doing cronological and having a total blast with all the mechanics involving the glider and the mushrooms. It's the best map in a mmo by a large margin. For me is absolutely superior to silverwastes, also.
Yeah, good call. Having a springer available in HoT zones totally changes the experience and you can't go back after unblocking mounts. Even the raptor that everyone gets nowadays makes navigating the jungle a lot less dangerous, because you can just run through and away from enemies.
It's a good thing to struggle against adversity from time to time (but definitely not because of the bs "I had to suffer through it so others should too" argument). It helps to build fond memories and overcoming them fosters a strong sense of achievement.
@@Kerbezena that's It! I think Heart of Thorns have a design that is perfect for gliders, but not for mounts. So, having mounts in the start of hot experience not Just makes It way easier, but also less fun.
@@Kerbezena I enjoy to explore the zones. And for me it was a big disappointment at HoT release that in HoT zones you just can't do a single step not stepping in some pocket raptors or those bloody shadowleapers. Fighting the trash is not fun to me. So i'm glad that now the raptor allows me to just skip most part of the trash and to do what i came in the map for.
I love all the Charr zones, they seem to be in a permanent Autumn, kinda reminds me (not as bright and in your face) as Eversong Woods in WoW.
Im glad to see some people like them, I've never been a fan myself, Grothmar Valley being the exception
two of my faves are Bjora Marches and Verdant Brink - oh, and Bloodstone Fen. I like the more sinister and dire themes and ambience and on that note add in Siren's Landing which has a ton of variety and easter eggs.
I like your picks, though! That dragon tail feature in Dragonfall is just unforgettable - as the severed wing -, I still think they should've added a hidden achieve for getting rattled off the tail =P
Seitung is such an overlooked map. One of the most beautiful maps out there and it feels exactly like a rustic city from a high fantasy Chinese martial art novel.
1. Tangled Depths
2. Verdant Brink
3. Auric Basin
4. Draconis Mons
5. Echovald Wilds
6. Drizzlewood Coast
7. Dragonfall
8. Bjora Marches
9. Seitung Province
10. Thunderhead Peaks
Honorable mention: Desert Highlands for almost making this list and being my favorite PoF zone.
Your list is okay. For me, the more complicated the map, the better. Thats what keeps a map interesting for the long term. Also, the LS2 and HoT maps were both massive steps forward in design. The core maps just get blown out of the water. I'm very surprised any of them were in your top 10.
Love this kind of vid ;D
2:38 I was watching Preach's stream this morning, he was trying to do the Griffon achievements so he had to run around those maps again, then he bumped into this secret(?) place. I can see him almost stunned for a moment, and then I heard him murmur "How can I miss this place before.....?" well... can't blame him actually bc he was chasing the storyline and the story didn't really lead him to this area.
Then the Griffon achievement hunting plan was completely gone lol He was so intrigued by this place that he wanted to explore it right away. He noticed those doors but he thought it might relate to events until he finally found the chamber to unlock the achievement. And surprisingly, he figured out how to enter those secret rooms. He said he had never been side way like this and he had a lot of fun ;3
Oh yeah, the Rune-Locked Doors are a real rabbit hole and a lot of fun. I also like the unique weapon skins you get out of it. I use most of them on my Norn Revenant.
my top 1 Favorite Map in GW2 is Lornar's Pass, exploring Lornar's Pass is very therapeutic, from Depressing cold North to Warm Spring South...
Good thing you didn't write Dredgehaunt Cliffs 'cause I hate that zone, especially the Tribulation Rift area. Just bad memories for me there.
Amen
@@KerbezenaI like Tribulation rift
In the same vein as Seitung Province (chill vibes, no great danger or evil faction) Grothmar Valley is a really cool map, possibly the only Ascalonian map I enjoy
I love this map as well!
I love your videos, you need to make more!
Maybe explanations about the individual map backstories? I haven‘t found anything like that on UA-cam.
Btw I totally agree on Caledon being fantastic. I leveled a Sylvari Warrior there. It was so good I hadn‘t even noticed I was already severely overleveled by the time I had map completion lmao.
Great video! I skipped the ones I haven't visited myself yet, currently playing S4, but I agree with most of your picks. One reason I love Auric Basin for that you didn't mention but feature in the video is the beautiful music by Lena Chappelle. "Tarir, the Forgotten City" is one of my all-time favorite musical pieces from any game, "Auric Wilds" and "An Exalted Lullaby" are great aswell, and "Attack on Tarir" still gets my blood pumping. Meta-wise I feel like Verdant Brink even beats Auric Basin just due VB taking a higher level of coordination, whereas AB just takes a number of players to succeed, but all of the HoT zones are great. Their atmosphere and feel is greatly diminished by new players blazing through them on mounts. A sad if imperfect example of "Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game.". Mounts are amazing and I love them as much as the next person, but overcoming adversity and progression - like in learning / mastering to navigate the Heart of Maguuma - are very important for creating cherished memories and enjoyment.
I 100% share your feelings for Caledon Forest. I also started playing a sylvari at launch and exploring that zone for the first time was awesome. There's so much to do, so much to see. It's sad when people only follow map markers and don't take their time to explore, because this game has just the most interesting locations and vistas. Shoutout to the cities you deliberately excluded from your video. They are criminally underused for how breathtaking they are.
Maaaan, 10 years of active playing... 10 years !
What can I say about the game, played everything, visited every corner of the game, played every build, fav game mod is WvW...
One more thing, every time I see new player (judging by his AP) i send him 5-10 goldies, just for the start :)
Nice video, but I would drop Queensdale and perhaps Silverwastes, to replace them with two of many other maps that I think are more visually stunning, better for exploration, or just more fun to play the content and meta events. Of the Core game maps, I think Mount Malestrom would be higher on my list above Queensdale, for example. I'm glad you made this video, and hope that you will do more videos in the future that will help introduce many of the Living World Season 3 and 4 maps, plus Icebrood Saga maps, to new players. Many newer GW2 players don't realize that the Living World Seasons and Icebrood Saga are content equal or surpassing the quality of expansions in many other MMORPG games. It's mind blowing that Arenanet gave away all of that content for free, to any players who were actively logging in to GW2 on a somewhat regular basis, and then gave players a 2nd chance to unlock all of it for free again, just prior to the release of the End of Dragons expansion, again by just logging into GW2 at least once every couple weeks. Please continue to spread the word, and introduce GW2 to more new players, or point out to existing players just how much great content and exploration there is in this game to enjoy.
I actually have a video that is in the writing phase that, at least in my opinion, would be a great video for introducing people to some of these ideas. Like the world of Guild Wars 2 and what you can do in the open-world zones.
Thank you for all of your thoughts!
@@Athis That sounds fantastic. I definitely wouldn't wanna miss it and will share with a lot of people.
When people come from other MMOs they are often drawn to the stuff they know from elsewhere, like raids, dungeons, mounts etc., all great stuff.
But looking at GW2 through that lens they are prone to miss a lot in the open world, because they aren't used to exploration actually holding any enjoyment.
@@Kerbezena It's been a bit but I finished the video that I was talking about! ua-cam.com/video/AZnPIp05Qdw/v-deo.html
I love this format :)
It's really no point arguing about something so subjective, but that is not the point. I'm here for nice clips and nostalgic feelings :) and the "top 10" naming gives the video a nice and predictive (comfy) structure.
Orr is my no 1 by a country mile. In terms of map design & environments there is nothing like it in any other mmo. I remember it in vanilla as very hard to quest through & most people did it in groups. Now it’s story completion and some farmers - not the massive meta groups of old though
Thank you
Thank you 😀😀
Draconis mons by far for me
Tangled Depth best map, change my mind. 😂
I actually love Tangled Depths for exploring and immersion , but map completion ? nah hahahahahah!
Honestly, it really grew on me … like a fungus.
Make no mistake, it was very frustrating for me at first, but as I explored more and more, I came to like it a lot. It's still my last favorite zone of HoT (not sure how to rank DS, since it's so very different), but that's only because VB and AB are so ultra god-tier amazing.
I don't want to change your mind. You're 100% correct.
good video! it was a while ago now but back when multi-map AB was a thing I ended up dropping a full summer's worth on it, around 16 hours a day. not saying it wasn't cringe, but I'm wondering why you think it was cringe, sans the VIP thing, which I actually never heard about.
I personally always find the mass optimization of a game approaching the realm of very unfun and a little cringe. I look back on multiloot fondly but the extents that people took it was definitely a little weird at times.
But the main part that was cringe for me was how some people saw themselves so highly in the multiloot 'community.' Like how several commanders were super egotistical and thought they were the greatest thing that ever happened to the game because they ran a tag for multiloot. And then how commanders would demand people give them gold because they ran a tag, often times kicking people from the squad if they didn't mail gold. And to a lesser extent, the same vibe is present with people who paid for vip.
With both things, it obviously falls upon what an individual likes to do and what they enjoy in the game. People love mass optimizing games, and there's nothing wrong with that and I myself enjoy to optimize stuff... but it gets to a point where it's a bit to much imo. And then same thing with the weird commanders and vips. They obviously enjoyed doing that and I am glad they found joy doing it, but they were super cringe from my point of view.
Also, I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching!
@@Athis Super in-depth response. I was around 13~(?) at the time, with my sister, a couple of folks and a guy called Jerry running the [AB] guild. We'd have internal competitions for fastest kill, and certainly probably added to the ego view you saw in the groups doing multiloot. While I never personally did any of the begging for gold, I was completely insufferable in map chat. It was unironically an entire summer we spent playing, sleeping 6 hours a day and waking up to grind it for 18 hours, so delirium from pushing through burnout hit alot of us, not to excuse it. Super cool trip down memory lane, I've never actually seen anyone mention multi-map in a video. Thanks so much!
@@argon8712 Thank you so much for sharing your experience!
The difficult for me moment when I want to notice who has the most Gigantic and Unique Open World Landscapes, WoW or GW2. Not mention about graphics , because of course GW2 is the winner on that sector. I ve seen so many GW2 videos esepcially this period and I try to figure out which ot these 2 Epic Games has the most Wonderul Phantasy Open world scene landscapes that of course you can explore them and give nice footages or epic pictures wandering inside them.. Any Expert about that point here ?
PS: I watch again your video bro and I see that GW2 may have Insane and better Graphics than WOW But they never touched and harmed the WoW style colors and this is a true Masteripece and Brother Game of WoW indeed!!
Also every Map on GW2 has its own Story and Theme from Ambient Monsters around of this Phantasy World to unique places to explore and wander in not mention that GW2 has so majestic underwater maps with so much ambient monsters around in than WoW !!! I wish we had this game on phones, would be so fantastic experience..!
How can you love lake Doric? 😮 did you fight the enemies? They are a pain!
Bloodstone fen for me! Loved prophecies and the entire mursaat arc! But Eco Wilds has to be the worst map ever made! They just butchered this fantastic map from gw1 and made it into this…thing :))) but everyone has different tastes, right? BTW nice format. Love your gw2 and wow vids!
i disagree with call-a-don forest.... it's kale-don forest
Thank you for the video, it's great!
But I don't get it, everything in GW2 looks so dark with this dark brownish-green color absolutely everywhere, it's so depressing. The gameplay looks amazing but I can't get over how ugly and dark the world and graphics are...