Being a solo/duo player myself, I am honestly surprised at how many open world fights (looking at you champions) are much more difficult than previous expacs. I am not fond of failing events because there are not enough people around, but I like that there is 'harder' stuff that needs a bit of coordination and communication in the open world in Janthir.
That has been an issue with GW2 since inception. This game is not meant to be solo'd. Every ounce of account progression requires you complete events with groups. You want the return to amulet? Have fun finding 20 people to play a 5 year old map for a single event where they will literally get nothing in return. They keep creating account defining content that requires group based activities. Thats the way its been and its the way it always will be unfortunately. In every step of the way there is an achievement that requires you to complete some bs group event or world boss on a map that no one has touched for years.
There are a few events that might be fully impossible solo, but in my experience, most events including champions are soloable with good mechanics and an appropriate build. I kinda appreciate that feeling of skill expression in open world. Alternatively, you can get events done with the power of friendship - or asking in map chat. I've failed to solo the warclaw derby twice - a little disappointing, but I like to challenge myself, and I think I'll just ask for help on it from now on.
Yesssss this exactly. There are so, so many well-written, tiny little stories and NPCs in these maps, especially the first. The second has so many neat little bits of world building scattered throughout. It feels just like exploring the core maps for the first time.
I love these new maps, and the NPC flavor is quite high, but I still have to give Drizzlewood the gold medal on this aspect. The side convos and "flavor" is through the roof, especially if you are a military vet. The main story of LW4 was peak, but the side stories of IBS are absolutely amazing.
I'd say calling it "unfinished" is going to far and i disagree about it feeling dead, the first map feels more alive definently but theres still lots of events and stuff to do in the second one. The Hearts definently needs more objectives tho.
@@nielsjensen4185 That's all nice and good, but there needs to be a balance between "feeling dead" and actual fun gameplay. No one enjoys sitting and waiting for events to spawn.
@@Jmvars The last is a universal problem that applies to all maps. What's more correct to say is that no one enjoys bugged event timers. I sat and waited for Rising Bloom's Garden event for nearly two hours. If it needs a trigger then that must be explained.
This expac really fits my playstyle, love the exploration of beautifully crafted maps, the music, the ambiance, a slowly built-up story, and lots of things to do. The side stories are a lot of fun, kinda wishing The Heist would get a sequel that takes place in Lion's Arch in a next patch. What everyone else calls yapping in the story, I find it a much more ingestible story exposition that was lacking in SotO, and it feels nice to know that we're taking things slower and more consistent. One main complaint would be that Janthir Sintri has too few events happening around its renown hearts, finding myself taking ages to progress them. Some events fall just out of the boundaries of certain renown hearts and that makes me wish Anet would expand said boundaries, just so it'll be easier to find events that add renown heart progression.
For the heist. The devs cleary had fun with it, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's more side stories for it in one of the updates, no way they leave some of those side stories alone as more than one was left on a cliffhanger, like this and A History Most Violent.
I actually miss having the story dialogue as a separate cut scene. The first play thru, yes, I want to listen to everything, talk to everyone, but not the second time. After the first time, I want to be able to skip the dialogue, either line by line or the whole friggin' thing, like I could in the core story.
Agreed, I usually like finishing the story with different classes, this time I'm not looking up to repeat that first hour. At least we can get alts in the new maps using the homestead.
Regarding the story and it's structure: I was surprised by how much I like the main 3 bears. It's a rare, positive depiction of a father son relationship, without the son being annoyingly eager to prove himself, and getting into trouble. I really resonated with the widow talk at the homestead too. I was happy to see that the nations aren't playing best friends, like it can feel like sometimes. I was always annoyed at the lack of tension between all the world leaders and races. It gives a bit more identity to who you play. Structure: I liked how they just talked, without me having to do busywork, cause whenever I choose to bang out a chapter: I don't want to do a unique, weidly balanced bossfight or whatever. I did my Blue Archive dailies on the phone while they were talking, and it was a nice experience. I had an easy time concentrating on it, with it being so tightly packed and linear. I understand it might be annoying for a streamer tho.
The repeatable hearts need to have their radius doubled. less than half of all the events on both maps fall into their radius, and 2 of the hearts can only be completed by the small (2-3 each) number of events nearby on 20-minute respawns.
I don't have much problems with the hearts in the first map, but that heart in the beginning of the second map is purely event dependent. One of those events is still bugged and the rest don't show up enough in my opinion. Also the one to the west in the second map is kinda annoying and slow
I can't help but notice the obscene amount of buffs above Teapot's skill bar (Food, Utility, Celebration buff, etc). - something must be done to clean up the UI here, especially during large combat encounters. There's just no reason a ba-jillion different little tiny icons need to be smushed together like that. Focusing on cleaning up & updating the UI would help new and existing players understand and engage with the GW2's systems better.
fortunately what you're describing is pretty much a one off. Teapot was clearly focused on power levelling the masteries to smash through the XP grind as quickly as possible, stockpiled literally every XP buff that could be juiced out of the game and then ended up with full combat buffs added to that. A new player simply wouldn't have that many XP boosters. Teapot in any other week wouldn't have that many buffs. but yes GW2 is a complicated game at this point almost groaning under gameplay systems and currencies. Some explaination of what they are beyond the wiki would be nice. Not sure how you would go about simplifying the ui but I wouldn't be against it in principle.
@@neutralentr0py Even if Anet just unlocked the UI, and allowed us to move/resize/adjust their existing UI elements, that would go a long way to help improving things and improving visibility. If they allow Blish and Arc, why not allow that?
As a primarily solo player, I agree with most of what you said. Tho i dont have nearly as much need for the group content you do, as the majority of my play time occurs late at night, in a time zone where there are typically very few players on the map with me. I very much appreciate being able to get things done by myself and not just be helplessly locked out of completing things because theres literally no one online when I'm online. The spears are cool, the maps are beautiful and the music is great. I totally agree about how there are much more events occuring which makes it feel like there is more to do. I DO wish we had the option to skip the dialogue in the story because OH MY GOD they talk so much and so sloooow. Please just let me move on. I also agree i want way more combat elements in the story and way less exposition. THE COMMUNICATOR. OMG you said my thoughts perfectly. Its gotta go. I can't stand the chatter and the fact that it literally just starts talking right over the top of the NPC im currently trying to talk to is F'ing out of control. Fix this now, Anet. One complaint about the maps is I do think theres a WIDE margin of difficulty between the majority of mobs in the world, and the Champions on the maps. While its nice that there are multiple Champion spawns on the map they are quite tough and i have yet to be able to solo one on these maps, where as i have soloed many on previous maps. On the other end of the spectrum the base mobs are so completely weak and harmless that even jusy trying to test out the new spears was kind of tough because you literally just kill everything in like 2 or 3 skills. You dont even begin to have the opportunity to start even a single loop through a rotation. I ended up going back to Dragonfall where i could have groups of multiple mobs and veterans that actually have the potential to kill me if i dont execute correctly, just to get a feel for the weapons. I wish there were more middle difficulty mobs on the maps. I.E. more Elites and Veterans. One of the things i really like on Dragonfall is when the meta is going on and you get these packs of mobs spawning that have a combination of regular, veteran, and Elite mobs in an area and you do have to work a little and not just mindlessly 2 shot everything on the map. I need more of this type of stuff on the map as a solo player. Its far more satisfying to fight something that could kill me, but i dont necessarily need a healer or support player to come over and help give me boons and heals to survive through. Something between being one or two shot by them, and one or two shotting them is what im looking for. Overall it feels really good so far. Looking forward to the leggy spear drop. I really hope its a cool one and I'd love some variable skin options, a la Gen 3 legendaries, since I think everyone will want to be able play the Fashion Wars across all their characters since all professions can use the weapons.
Thing to keep in mind with the 2nd map, is that Anet have already stated that with the first quaterly patch they will be adding more events to the maps in addition to the new chapters of the story. Janthir Sintri is sparce currently, but it will likely be just as packed with events once the first post-launch patch is here :)
@@TriddyYT It's in the blog post where they talk about deciding to do map 3 (which is now maps 3 and 4) over the last 2 patches instead of splitting it over 3 releases like SotO did. They explain in that post that release two will bring with it additional story content utilising maps 1 and 2 (unlike SotO which basically forgot the previous maps' existence with the later story) and that new events will be added also.
Trash. Too many games releasing half baked shit just to reach some arbitrary deadline. Players need to stop letting them off with shit takes like "they'll add it later". Their thing was charging money for living world maps now, at least they can come with a complete map.
I don't remember reading or hearing that, but I assumed that would be the case. While it's a great idea the hearts are going to be incredibly tedious for 3 months unless they do something to address it now.
@@sunnydlite-t8b You could also wait a year longer if you want the complete package, it's not like Anet hides the fact that the expansion is incomplete on launch.
I just looked it up. East final heart mastery offers 381k worth of mastery xp. So you're right it's worth waiting for that last day for new masteries. Not sure if that's affected by xp boosts but if it is...
Hot take: Personally i actually liked the slower content output as a casual player. 1-2 year a new expansion i would join the hype and finish more or less the most of it (achievements etc.) in 5 -6 chill months maybe longer. Now every 3 months and to me its feels like catching up only to catch up. Am I the only one feeling like this?
Returning player here. Playing gw since head start, with a couple of breaks over the years. Always back for the expacs. Always buy them. This expac feels more like a living story episode from a content density perspective. No new profession unlocks, nothing fresh to be excited about on these 2 maps (design is nice but thats about it). Event density doesnt matter if I have to repeat drag and drop type of events 5 times in an hour. Ofc you can pick a couple of nice additions here and there, like warclaw (which was already in the game) or homestead (which is just a crafting grinding fest without any impact on the gameplay) but in general. There's nothing to do 5 days in. We've got no new fotm, no raid, no profession, no new mount, no impactful challenges to go fo.... Essentially nothing that will keep me in this expac. If i want to grind events, I can do previous ones where I actually use skills, not just pick items and drop them at the target location... Last but not least, the story in this expac is boring and slow af, just standing in each episode, waiting until NPCs finish the voiceovers. I didn't have any expectations, but if I had, I'd be disappointed.
Housing gives me a Skyrim vibe, its a time sink and wasting time grinding mats, fabricating and then placing (also the time gating on top of it) feels pretty useless eventually.
true! shit expac... anet payed few streamers for good reviews but the expac doesnt add nothing new! i didnt even log in my account to play it even tho i bought it!
I really like the overall quality of content, and with xpac 4 I would want and expect to see the same quality of content, but 1.3-1.5x in density increase. That would genuinely make them perfect even with the fact it is spread across 9 months. I expect xpac 3 to be a further improvement in processes, less bugs and faster content then we have seen since soto and janthir wilds, I fully expect they are now well adjusted to the system so lets see how good they can make next expansion. Now I do hope next 3 patches aren't a dud
I think some of the side stories will be expanded down the line. It would be rather anti-climactic if they were done instantly once you completed them. As an example, "Cryptid Chase" has strong "To be continued" vibes with the last step saying "The end?" I think it'll be the same with the heist since this collection is about gathering the crew. I think it follows the three-act structure of heist movies. First, you gather the crew, then you pull off the heist, and then something goes wrong that has to be fixed. It would also fit well into the patch cycle with the next two patches having additional content for the heist and then in the fourth it's sorted so the story can focus solely on the real big bad who seem to have restarted The Forge of Failed Creations.
I can't handle the dialogue. Even now, as I type this comment, it just keeps going and going. ENOUGH! LET ME PLAY THE GAME!! I've already been burned out on GW2 and haven't played in months. I got myself hyped to try spears out. Now I want a refund. Personally, I feel the expansions have been giving us less and less over the years since we no longer get elite specs, and I'm losing all interest in playing this game anymore. Teapot feels the same way, and he's been playing wow. The War Within seems great so far. I guess it's back to wow I go, again.
@@AMVmushroom Fortunatly wow's The War Within has been fantastic so far. And other games like Granblue Fantasy Relink are great RPG's as well. Sadly, I'm moving on from GW2, fortunately there are other RPG's out there to play. Also looking forward to the upcoming Dragon Age game.
@@artrayus3 Good list of games. We are headed in different directions. I just quit WoW for your reasons for not liking GW2 and am loving GW2 so far. GL on your choice
All my homies hate the communicator (you're not alone). I think NPCs for some of the events need to flag you from much closer, too. It's really weird to be getting talked to about an event that you don't even know where it is yet.
Its so funny, as you especially call out the weaver-spear build, but I think the spears are really the first weapon that feels really intuitive while playing weaver. I like it and it has such a cool flow to it and the rotation is really intuitive to me. I really like the skills that refresh the element switch, it makes it really fast paced and simply just fun. Also the switches to earth/water feels better than for example a sword/dagger combo. AND: The CC is so strong. I like it an it will be my #1 Build at the moment for ele in open world as its just fun
love GW2, came back to the game after a couple of months and loving this JW expansion... spears I didnt care for when they announced it, but now that i have it its actually kinda fun cos there is no meta builds for it, and I'm just runing round experimenting haha. plus maps are really nice too.
I haven’t played through everything yet but so far I really liked the expac. Definitely MUCH better than Soto for me. I’m looking forward to Wing 8 too, hope the new raid hits well and players love it. Also hope Anet does something about killproof items that the dumb community uses
You are so right about the heist. I was hoping that it didn't just end there. I needed a mini dungeon for the heist. maybe, hopefully, next major update with map will include part 2 of the story, and you get Ms Jeeves mini
they missed the opportunity to make a dual boss battle spawning in diferente places and make the player chase them on the warclaw to avoid a final phase in wich you fight both of them in the bloodstone crater.
I dispute the fact that the open world is easier this time - I think the champion events and some timed events NEED more than 1 person to compete ( Lord Hizen about to disprove this theory).
As a pretty casual player, I agree that there could be more challenging content for those that like to go hard. Even if I don’t engage with it that much. A strike at least? Anything that required a little more coordination for players.
My favorite expansion of all and I especially love Lowland Shore map... So much fun on that one. The events on Syntri don't seem to spawn often enough and those hearts are killer to finish. Not a fan of the meta there but overall this is the best expac yet.
I can't say i don't regret the earlier bigger expansions but Janthir Wilds is for sure better than Soto for now. Also, i'm the kind of guy who does strikes and fractals when i'm really into the game but i never took my chance at raids so i'm glad a new raid is coming!
I have been worried about the professions getting a bit bloated in the future due to Anet feeling they need to add a new elite spec or weap every expansion. That being said I don't think the addition of spear has caused an issue and fits neatly into the classes arsenal.
You are absolutely on point with the communicator. My personal hate is when the communicator chat bubbles appear over my character and mechanics while in a fight. I can't even see what I'm doing.
im having a blast but i agree with teapot that we may not visit this maps much after this initial entry and it pains me a bit teapot doesn't have much more to do...
For 25 dollars I’m enjoying the content. There are lots of events active back to back and you don’t have long periods in between events like you do in the past. For the price tag I’ve already put a good amount of time into it and I’m only half way through the story but doing plenty of side achievements and warclaw treasure hunting. I feel like their coulda been some better events as a lot of stuff is light hearted and a lot of simple gathering / kill these enemy events which does get old after a short bit
The communicator complaint is peaking to my soul. I can't even remember how many times I was listening to NPC dialogue or the music and ambiance, only for some muppet to suddenly give me an unsolicited status report on max volume.
It does feel like a missed opportunity that they aren't bookending the expac with the two legendaries. With SotO the prevailing idea was that they probably wanted to keep the legendary armor as something for us to look forward to throughout the cycle, but with two legendaries they could leave the one for us to look forward to and give us the other first. I long for the glory days of organizing groups for Tequatl, The Shatterer, or Triple Trouble. It feels like there was a magic touch that ANet had but lost with some of their meta/world boss design. Those maps are hybrid maps- there's tons of room to explore, do hearts, do events, and not even know there's a boss up because the map wasn't designed exclusively around the boss encounter. But when you did stumble onto the boss it was a 10/10 experience with mechanics and roles and phases to learn. But like you said, these days it might be for the best that they don't try to do too much in any one map given how that has gone in more recent years...
My best time at the Salmon race upwards (without superspeed grps etc -.-) was 2:30,920 well, that was hard tbh :D Ofc it doesn't count for Gold. I than needed a break of the race even though I think it is one of the most funny content :D
Yeh the communicator can really interrupt the flow of the game sometimes. I think story related dialogue should be like voice mails where you have to click on the message to play the audio. That way you can choose when to play it. Should be able to toggle dynamic event related dialogue off to.
2/3 hearts of the 2nd map are a pain in the ass to complete, since there so few events around em, compared to the one surrounded by 3-4 events at all times... Even the one where you gotta pick up animal shit & feed the warclaws is less tedious...
I think it's super important to point out that MT is very much in the minority regarding the longevity of the expansion. 2 weeks later the maps are still super populated and there are a number of things that do take multiple days to complete, the hearts being one of them. It's also not accurate to state that you can get the entirety of the expansion explored in 24hrs of a normal playthrough, this would mean rushing through and not accurately exploring the new maps, failing to feel the vibe of the area and getting to know the new world youve been thrust into. What MT is looking for is a grind. It's an old-school, outdated MMO mentality that you have to no-life new content for a specific reward instead of working slowly towards it over time and I'm glad ANET aren't facilitating that playstyle on the launch of an expansion where the vast majority of players are there for the exploration of and participation in the new maps. It's right that it comes later (if at all IMO).
I like that, the story shows you how to fight and the mechanics of fighting devina and the meta champs. But if you dont play the story and learn that - when you go into the public groups on maps - a player can be super lost in what to do. I wonder is it too early to find on you tube a how to?
I think your point about elite specs being given away is fair. If I were to piggy back off that, the HoT ones should be free since that expansion itself is free with PoF.
What really matters! Fashion wars! Have anet mentioned something about adding spear skins to previous BLT sets and other? Most importantly, would we see a dragon themed 3rd generation leg spear??? That's the one I would really want to craft.
One thing i do like about homestead i fixed it up a lil to fit my untamed mains style. However i have a full home instance. Now rather then traveling to rata after raiding with my friends we step outside aerodrome i summon a door and me and my friends go and loot the full home.
Wish we had metas. I dont know how many times ill be back to pick pomegranates and farm hogs for meat. Most the hearts suck. Story was a lot of talking. Dont care about housing. The world boss is ok. I think these maps will be like the season 3 maps with time.
Ehhh... May sound selfish, but good Lord it's really hard to keep up with amount of metas one has to run if you're less up to date player. It's.. a lot.
Lowland Shore is definitely one of the best maps added to the game in years. Syntri, not so much, but a big factor has been bugs with some of the events and the decision to have events that only spawn when the meta event starts. Hell even that meta event was bugged the first couple of days. I definitely like Janthir more than I did SotO at this point, so hopefully Anet can stick the landing, so to speak, with the content to come via patches, because that's where SotO was very lacking (other than the introduction of convergences, I suppose)
What if the heist was somehow called connected with the pve instanced content in the subsequent patches like the fractal (Im pretty sure reddit mentioned there's info out there about the fractal setting but one can dream)
I haven't seen the leaked spear collection, but I predict it'll have variants like the gen 3 legendary. Except instead of a different skin for each dragon, its a different skin for each titan. Or maybe they could do something similar to falling star where the look of the spear changes if you use a certain armor skin/infusion
One of the hearts on the second map is so boring to do because of the huge downtime of events. They should add more heart progression things to do at the first heart (Support the kodan as they maintain their camp) because people are litterally wandering around the heart and have to wait till events are starting. The first map is a cake walk to do the hearts but the second map just goes downhill in progress speed and it really needs a bit more love to do these hearts efficiently.
Just spit-balling thoughts here. Pay it no mind. I actually find the community to have some really bizarre imaginary problems. A big thing is....if people don't like pre-grinding....then don't pre-grind???? We ought to treat it as the game it is, and not a chore. On the recommendations sidebar, right now, a video popped up: "EVERYTHING you should be doing daily in Janthir Wilds". Below it: "Don't waste your time! I made 26,000g in a year". Heck even the community dialogue that you "should" be using blish hud, aka "you must do map completion/gathering/whatev by following this EXACT path that's optimized by....who the hell knows." That's.....a job, not a video game. That's an autopilot. Let me mention though that yes, some of that is clickbait, obviously. But the community's "optimization fetish" with regards to playtime is......concerning.....for a game....where you have agency over your actions. It's something I would understand for a monthly sub like FFXIV, but for a buy-to-play like gw2.......shrug??????? By definition, you can't waste your money. And time is only wasted if you're not enjoying yourself. Say my DE meta didn't work out.....am I gonna feel FOMO that I didn't get the loot "I deserve" or smth? Hell no. I'm gonna do what I wanna do, and not do the things I don't wanna. Next, ultimately I'm not gonna bash anyone for pre-grinding (heck, you could say I personally pre-grinded the relic before SOTO. I also recently made Kamohoali in about a day because I REALLY wanted it). But nothing forces you to floor the accelerator like that. It's a choice. That's a good thing. You can choose to grind....or choose not to. For some reason the community feels pressure to ALWAYS grind grind grind, 24/7. Meanwhile, I went WAY laid back last year. I only played like 2 or 3 times a week on average, and still managed to finish fractal god after a multi-year journey. In the end, a lot of the community's issues with the game......are self-owns. They are problems created by players making these imaginary guardrails to restrict how they play. People tell me that I should do dragonstorm daily, or never miss my fractal cms, or that I'm wasting my time if I spend more than X minutes doing this or that. Guys......play what you want when you want to, folks. You don't have to spend your time the way someone else tells you to. Leave the chores and jobs....for actual chores and jobs (and don't neglect those either). For the record, the above "play how you want" does not apply to contributing in group content. When you join a group, you are making an informal unspoken contract to do your job and pull some manner of weight. If you're a boon, provide at least 80% of your boon. If you're a DPS, make an earnest effort to beat your boon-providers in damage, please. As Folding Ideas once said, "it's rude to suck at [mmo group content]"
I also hate the communicator, completely takes me out of being in a grounded world. Literally just make me go to an NPC. I'd rather go to a hub and talk to someone in the open world when I want to talk to them.
maybe with more developement time they should split addons into 2 instead of 4 parts. with more content, all the special events and festivals in between there is enough to do while waiting for part 2.
Skipped to Warclaw segment; not a word about the WvW Warclaw calamity with the rush controls being reassigned so that it now needs a keybind which then carries over to PVE and in the process, breaking the Skyscale flight. Total joke implementation.
I thought I was having a seizure or something. I haven't seen anything about this other than my key binds being screwed. I really thought it was just me.
Or just make the current ones on the same level as elite. Making core specs playable is basically like adding a new elite spec for each class. Except Guardian. Core Guardian is already playable.
The second map feels like it's going to be expanded. In the North West there's two open areas that lead West you can't pass and looks like the usual map expansion areas. But we know there's 3 maps and was upgraded to 4. So I don't know if maybe these areas are suppose to be portals or their plans changed after making the map.
I spent 10 minutes with a commander waiting on an event chain on Janthir syntri that spawns while the world bosses is up for a specific achievement. It was just after a patch. The patch notes detailed how Anet had fixed their s**t and got it working. We did the first event just fine as we all had several times previously... and the bugged one still didn't fire. It was definitely a rough launch. The green bar phase to do rifts at the start of the expac? T1's completely bugged for 2 days and everyone forced to do T2's and 3's. Oh how about the new doorway for player housing? Anet completely haven't implemented the option to keybind it. You're far more likely to have the heart or personal waypoint on as default and then have to remember to manually set the action key every time. then when your done, set it back to the content you use that for.
At some point Anet just has to package all of the older content together and stop selling them individually. The fact that you can't be sure players will have access to certain features creates so many limitations on future design.
I think that Anet is showing already they're getting into the swing with this knew xpac production cadence. A couple more years like this? They're really going to nail down the pipeline. As that happens, I could see them starting to front load launch a bit more. Even further down the line, if they're financially successful enough to grow the team by 50+%, they could conceivably shift into annual releases of xpacs w/ 2 year dev cycles. Kinda splitting the team and leapfrogging releases. So one xpac would launch as the other is mid-way in its dev cycle. Pure speculative hopium, I know, but a girl can dream.
The 2nd map feels a little empty compared to the first, to the point where I'd liken it to NKC. Its not at all bad, but it doesnt feel very relevant outside of the meta. It doesnt help that the hearts are a slog, and quite a few events are buggy. I will say though, the event where you help the kodan prepare for the expedition where you can give the kodan food and water made me lol. You give the one kodan water and he says, "Hydration is key." They knew what they were doing 😂
2nd map has too little events. Especially the first heart. I almost felt like it was WoW or Lineage 2 - grinding boars for animal meat for event that doesn't have 100% chance to drop.
This one delivered such a small amount of content that I will not be purchasing another. The price/content value is extremely low compared to the Living World seasons which cost less yet had so much more. The game is becoming a money grab and the design choices are turning toward the way worse. The one single meta is stupid with yet ANOTHER increase to bosses health and increases in AOE spam making the metas yet again...longer. the time/reward has been in a continual spiral downward since EoD and even trash mobs are taking longer AGAIN with another health increase and now with an increased aggro range while almost all of them being given ranged attacks. The game is becoming annoying. This "expansion" which I will say in quotes because it isnt, is basically $30 for a better Warclaw and a terrible new house...oh, and a spear.
@@tmkdesigner .. any veteran has a bajilion characters... different game modes, pvp, wvw, raids, open world, i'm just saying your question was very vague, but you got your answer hope that's okay with you too?
Lowland Shores - feels good - I think map wide treasure event should occur, using warclaw, after the death of Bog Queen, etc. Something similar to Silverwastes perhaps. Janthir Syntri -alright visually but feels empty most of the time -Maybe have a few build up events to the large meta boss fights. Perhaps a less on the rails version than Dragon's Stand.
I just dont understand GW2 decision to gate new weapons/elite specs behind the story. I want to play the new content AS the new thing, not AFTER. Makes no sense to me at all, so I passed on the expansion.
Behind the story is actually acquired much sooner than behind 25 hero points, since the spears and such are first tier masteries that you can get after the first story instance 😅 If in 30 minutes isn't fast enough idk what would be?
@@pantheraleo2 picked up war within and a month sub for WoW and immediately had access to dracthyr. They were never gated, I am now playing through the story AS the character I want to play, no hoops or old content to jump through. When I came back to GW2 a few months ago to prep for Janthir, I had to unlock every single elite spec and weapon one at a time for each of my characters just to START playing the classes I wanted to play. Then I had to go through the same struggle with the mounts, as some of the HP were gated behind mount grinds. It has taken me less time to catch up to the War Within content on a fresh Dracthyr on a brand new wow account, than it did just to get my engineer Mechanist with hammer and mounts unlocked, starting on a fully geared HOTs level 80. AND i had to buy every expansion. Defend it all you want, Im glad youre having fun, but thats absolutely insane.
One of the early early story objectives after stepping into Janthir is literally "Unlock the spear mastery" which is also the FIRST one you can choose in the track. I don't understand why some people complain SO much about having to PLAY the game to get to the parts they want.
@@pantheraleo2 I responded but it got deleted and I have no idea why. Not my jam. Bought WW instead, it came with the last 3 expansions I didn't buy and I was able to start a drakthyr immediately. No HP grinding for elite specs, gated behind mounts, gated behind masteries. I want to play AS a character , not skip content. Do you, not sure why you're trying to convince me, it's silly and I'm out , gl
Remember just because content is not super challenging does not mean it’s not fun. Lots of content and story telling can be great without having it be souls like difficulty.
Im gonna be that guy and say - you don’t have to pregrind. You could just play normally and do whatever else you want to do then grind once it’s released. But I get it. It is different, the discovery and rush and mystery is gone
what if they did a smaller optional boss with more mechanics, that is not going to be essencial for any collection, just a challenge eastere egg on a corner of the map
I get why you don’t like pre-grinding for the spear, but doesn’t that in itself add to the launch replayability for you? Like yes ideally there will be a collection too, but you can grind toward the goal already with the payoff the same (albeit delayed) - especially when considering you’ll be blasting the combat features in subsequent releases.
I'm not to fond of most heart quests. I gone around for 10 years killing dragons and now I have to manage the temperature of 3 pools? come on... Also i feel most maps are empty. The quests fail to often because people not playing them or not enough players around. Also even trash mobs drop 1000 ground effects in one second. Bosses plaster ground attacks everywhere. you have to learn what attack to sty in and what to go out. Damage telegraphing is just useless here
Being a solo/duo player myself, I am honestly surprised at how many open world fights (looking at you champions) are much more difficult than previous expacs. I am not fond of failing events because there are not enough people around, but I like that there is 'harder' stuff that needs a bit of coordination and communication in the open world in Janthir.
exactly, some events too hard to solo, and nobody to play with, probably thanks to streamers, he seems doesnt have the problem, 50 people team :)
@@ChasseurTueur
There is no such thing as not enough people.
There is no such thing as event is too hard to solo.
There is only... weakness.
That has been an issue with GW2 since inception. This game is not meant to be solo'd. Every ounce of account progression requires you complete events with groups. You want the return to amulet? Have fun finding 20 people to play a 5 year old map for a single event where they will literally get nothing in return. They keep creating account defining content that requires group based activities. Thats the way its been and its the way it always will be unfortunately. In every step of the way there is an achievement that requires you to complete some bs group event or world boss on a map that no one has touched for years.
@@ChasseurTueur yeah, when you are followed around by 50 people no matter what you are doing, it makes most content pretty inconsequential.
There are a few events that might be fully impossible solo, but in my experience, most events including champions are soloable with good mechanics and an appropriate build. I kinda appreciate that feeling of skill expression in open world. Alternatively, you can get events done with the power of friendship - or asking in map chat. I've failed to solo the warclaw derby twice - a little disappointing, but I like to challenge myself, and I think I'll just ask for help on it from now on.
I get a huge core GW2 vibe from the maps. There is just so much flavor in the NPC events.
Yesssss this exactly. There are so, so many well-written, tiny little stories and NPCs in these maps, especially the first. The second has so many neat little bits of world building scattered throughout. It feels just like exploring the core maps for the first time.
THIS, it feels like I'm back playing gw2 and I love it.
@@shomagravityI have finally found my people.
I love these new maps, and the NPC flavor is quite high, but I still have to give Drizzlewood the gold medal on this aspect. The side convos and "flavor" is through the roof, especially if you are a military vet. The main story of LW4 was peak, but the side stories of IBS are absolutely amazing.
The second map DEFINITELY needs more events, and more golden heart tokens. It feels completely dead (and unfinished) compared to the first map.
It's supposed to feel dead though. There could be more ways to get Renown Hearts though.
I'd say calling it "unfinished" is going to far and i disagree about it feeling dead, the first map feels more alive definently but theres still lots of events and stuff to do in the second one.
The Hearts definently needs more objectives tho.
@@nielsjensen4185 That's all nice and good, but there needs to be a balance between "feeling dead" and actual fun gameplay. No one enjoys sitting and waiting for events to spawn.
@@Jmvars The last is a universal problem that applies to all maps. What's more correct to say is that no one enjoys bugged event timers. I sat and waited for Rising Bloom's Garden event for nearly two hours. If it needs a trigger then that must be explained.
@@Mannetasi second map has a heavy use of "Clear these elementals" event in different places which becomes boring very quickly.
This expac really fits my playstyle, love the exploration of beautifully crafted maps, the music, the ambiance, a slowly built-up story, and lots of things to do.
The side stories are a lot of fun, kinda wishing The Heist would get a sequel that takes place in Lion's Arch in a next patch.
What everyone else calls yapping in the story, I find it a much more ingestible story exposition that was lacking in SotO, and it feels nice to know that we're taking things slower and more consistent.
One main complaint would be that Janthir Sintri has too few events happening around its renown hearts, finding myself taking ages to progress them.
Some events fall just out of the boundaries of certain renown hearts and that makes me wish Anet would expand said boundaries, just so it'll be easier to find events that add renown heart progression.
For the heist. The devs cleary had fun with it, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's more side stories for it in one of the updates, no way they leave some of those side stories alone as more than one was left on a cliffhanger, like this and A History Most Violent.
Imagine next Four Winds hearing Evon Gnashblade complain that he got robbed :)
It would be great surprise to have next story update with the continuation of the heist
I actually miss having the story dialogue as a separate cut scene. The first play thru, yes, I want to listen to everything, talk to everyone, but not the second time. After the first time, I want to be able to skip the dialogue, either line by line or the whole friggin' thing, like I could in the core story.
Agreed, I usually like finishing the story with different classes, this time I'm not looking up to repeat that first hour.
At least we can get alts in the new maps using the homestead.
janthir lore = boring
frog lore = S tier
noted
Regarding the story and it's structure:
I was surprised by how much I like the main 3 bears. It's a rare, positive depiction of a father son relationship, without the son being annoyingly eager to prove himself, and getting into trouble. I really resonated with the widow talk at the homestead too.
I was happy to see that the nations aren't playing best friends, like it can feel like sometimes. I was always annoyed at the lack of tension between all the world leaders and races.
It gives a bit more identity to who you play.
Structure:
I liked how they just talked, without me having to do busywork, cause whenever I choose to bang out a chapter: I don't want to do a unique, weidly balanced bossfight or whatever.
I did my Blue Archive dailies on the phone while they were talking, and it was a nice experience. I had an easy time concentrating on it, with it being so tightly packed and linear.
I understand it might be annoying for a streamer tho.
The repeatable hearts need to have their radius doubled. less than half of all the events on both maps fall into their radius, and 2 of the hearts can only be completed by the small (2-3 each) number of events nearby on 20-minute respawns.
I don't have much problems with the hearts in the first map, but that heart in the beginning of the second map is purely event dependent. One of those events is still bugged and the rest don't show up enough in my opinion. Also the one to the west in the second map is kinda annoying and slow
It's worth it to mention that it is only an issue on the second map. To me, the first map is fine regarding renown hearts.
I can't help but notice the obscene amount of buffs above Teapot's skill bar (Food, Utility, Celebration buff, etc). - something must be done to clean up the UI here, especially during large combat encounters. There's just no reason a ba-jillion different little tiny icons need to be smushed together like that. Focusing on cleaning up & updating the UI would help new and existing players understand and engage with the GW2's systems better.
fortunately what you're describing is pretty much a one off. Teapot was clearly focused on power levelling the masteries to smash through the XP grind as quickly as possible, stockpiled literally every XP buff that could be juiced out of the game and then ended up with full combat buffs added to that. A new player simply wouldn't have that many XP boosters. Teapot in any other week wouldn't have that many buffs. but yes GW2 is a complicated game at this point almost groaning under gameplay systems and currencies. Some explaination of what they are beyond the wiki would be nice. Not sure how you would go about simplifying the ui but I wouldn't be against it in principle.
@@neutralentr0py Even if Anet just unlocked the UI, and allowed us to move/resize/adjust their existing UI elements, that would go a long way to help improving things and improving visibility. If they allow Blish and Arc, why not allow that?
@@neutralentr0py I'm sorry, have you played WvW? The UI needs fixing.
@@neutralentr0py try WvW once and then rethink about your comment
Been said for years, nothing is done and it will not change
I have not had the chance to play through it all but I loved it so far
are you serious? do you even know what love means? hahahaha
They cooked with the heist quest for real. It sits at the top of my list in gw2 writing, next to the Snargle's motivation quest in End of Dragons
Master of the Spear - pinnacle of fiction :D
I actually like that the content is spaced across the year instead of having it all at once and then nothing or less after 🤷
As a primarily solo player, I agree with most of what you said. Tho i dont have nearly as much need for the group content you do, as the majority of my play time occurs late at night, in a time zone where there are typically very few players on the map with me. I very much appreciate being able to get things done by myself and not just be helplessly locked out of completing things because theres literally no one online when I'm online.
The spears are cool, the maps are beautiful and the music is great. I totally agree about how there are much more events occuring which makes it feel like there is more to do.
I DO wish we had the option to skip the dialogue in the story because OH MY GOD they talk so much and so sloooow. Please just let me move on. I also agree i want way more combat elements in the story and way less exposition.
THE COMMUNICATOR. OMG you said my thoughts perfectly. Its gotta go. I can't stand the chatter and the fact that it literally just starts talking right over the top of the NPC im currently trying to talk to is F'ing out of control. Fix this now, Anet.
One complaint about the maps is I do think theres a WIDE margin of difficulty between the majority of mobs in the world, and the Champions on the maps. While its nice that there are multiple Champion spawns on the map they are quite tough and i have yet to be able to solo one on these maps, where as i have soloed many on previous maps. On the other end of the spectrum the base mobs are so completely weak and harmless that even jusy trying to test out the new spears was kind of tough because you literally just kill everything in like 2 or 3 skills. You dont even begin to have the opportunity to start even a single loop through a rotation. I ended up going back to Dragonfall where i could have groups of multiple mobs and veterans that actually have the potential to kill me if i dont execute correctly, just to get a feel for the weapons. I wish there were more middle difficulty mobs on the maps. I.E. more Elites and Veterans. One of the things i really like on Dragonfall is when the meta is going on and you get these packs of mobs spawning that have a combination of regular, veteran, and Elite mobs in an area and you do have to work a little and not just mindlessly 2 shot everything on the map. I need more of this type of stuff on the map as a solo player. Its far more satisfying to fight something that could kill me, but i dont necessarily need a healer or support player to come over and help give me boons and heals to survive through. Something between being one or two shot by them, and one or two shotting them is what im looking for.
Overall it feels really good so far. Looking forward to the leggy spear drop. I really hope its a cool one and I'd love some variable skin options, a la Gen 3 legendaries, since I think everyone will want to be able play the Fashion Wars across all their characters since all professions can use the weapons.
Thing to keep in mind with the 2nd map, is that Anet have already stated that with the first quaterly patch they will be adding more events to the maps in addition to the new chapters of the story. Janthir Sintri is sparce currently, but it will likely be just as packed with events once the first post-launch patch is here :)
Did they say that? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just have nt seen them promise anything other than more story in the first two maps.
@@TriddyYT It's in the blog post where they talk about deciding to do map 3 (which is now maps 3 and 4) over the last 2 patches instead of splitting it over 3 releases like SotO did. They explain in that post that release two will bring with it additional story content utilising maps 1 and 2 (unlike SotO which basically forgot the previous maps' existence with the later story) and that new events will be added also.
Trash. Too many games releasing half baked shit just to reach some arbitrary deadline. Players need to stop letting them off with shit takes like "they'll add it later". Their thing was charging money for living world maps now, at least they can come with a complete map.
I don't remember reading or hearing that, but I assumed that would be the case. While it's a great idea the hearts are going to be incredibly tedious for 3 months unless they do something to address it now.
@@sunnydlite-t8b You could also wait a year longer if you want the complete package, it's not like Anet hides the fact that the expansion is incomplete on launch.
the last tier of each heart gives a huge amount of mastery xp each. save the last tier for the next expansion for a huge head start.
I just looked it up. East final heart mastery offers 381k worth of mastery xp. So you're right it's worth waiting for that last day for new masteries. Not sure if that's affected by xp boosts but if it is...
Nah no thanks
feels like a lot quited
Yep. They got what was coming to them.
A lot of negativity in the comments here. I've been really enjoying Janthir Wilds
Hot take:
Personally i actually liked the slower content output as a casual player. 1-2 year a new expansion i would join the hype and finish more or less the most of it (achievements etc.) in 5 -6 chill months maybe longer. Now every 3 months and to me its feels like catching up only to catch up.
Am I the only one feeling like this?
Same. Old expacs were much better
Every time I hear Teapot review a GW patch or expansion I think "it sounds like Wow is a better game for him".
I mean, he plays a ton of WoW as well.
Returning player here. Playing gw since head start, with a couple of breaks over the years. Always back for the expacs. Always buy them. This expac feels more like a living story episode from a content density perspective. No new profession unlocks, nothing fresh to be excited about on these 2 maps (design is nice but thats about it). Event density doesnt matter if I have to repeat drag and drop type of events 5 times in an hour. Ofc you can pick a couple of nice additions here and there, like warclaw (which was already in the game) or homestead (which is just a crafting grinding fest without any impact on the gameplay) but in general. There's nothing to do 5 days in. We've got no new fotm, no raid, no profession, no new mount, no impactful challenges to go fo.... Essentially nothing that will keep me in this expac. If i want to grind events, I can do previous ones where I actually use skills, not just pick items and drop them at the target location... Last but not least, the story in this expac is boring and slow af, just standing in each episode, waiting until NPCs finish the voiceovers. I didn't have any expectations, but if I had, I'd be disappointed.
Housing gives me a Skyrim vibe, its a time sink and wasting time grinding mats, fabricating and then placing (also the time gating on top of it) feels pretty useless eventually.
true! shit expac... anet payed few streamers for good reviews but the expac doesnt add nothing new! i didnt even log in my account to play it even tho i bought it!
I really like the overall quality of content, and with xpac 4 I would want and expect to see the same quality of content, but 1.3-1.5x in density increase. That would genuinely make them perfect even with the fact it is spread across 9 months.
I expect xpac 3 to be a further improvement in processes, less bugs and faster content then we have seen since soto and janthir wilds, I fully expect they are now well adjusted to the system so lets see how good they can make next expansion.
Now I do hope next 3 patches aren't a dud
Oh wow I haven’t looked at the expansions achievement tab…. I love that they created proper categories for everything
I think some of the side stories will be expanded down the line. It would be rather anti-climactic if they were done instantly once you completed them. As an example, "Cryptid Chase" has strong "To be continued" vibes with the last step saying "The end?"
I think it'll be the same with the heist since this collection is about gathering the crew. I think it follows the three-act structure of heist movies. First, you gather the crew, then you pull off the heist, and then something goes wrong that has to be fixed. It would also fit well into the patch cycle with the next two patches having additional content for the heist and then in the fourth it's sorted so the story can focus solely on the real big bad who seem to have restarted The Forge of Failed Creations.
I can't handle the dialogue. Even now, as I type this comment, it just keeps going and going. ENOUGH! LET ME PLAY THE GAME!! I've already been burned out on GW2 and haven't played in months. I got myself hyped to try spears out. Now I want a refund. Personally, I feel the expansions have been giving us less and less over the years since we no longer get elite specs, and I'm losing all interest in playing this game anymore. Teapot feels the same way, and he's been playing wow. The War Within seems great so far. I guess it's back to wow I go, again.
If you don't want to listen to NPC dialogue you won't like War within lol. Its worse.
@@AMVmushroom Fortunatly wow's The War Within has been fantastic so far. And other games like Granblue Fantasy Relink are great RPG's as well. Sadly, I'm moving on from GW2, fortunately there are other RPG's out there to play. Also looking forward to the upcoming Dragon Age game.
@@artrayus3 Good list of games. We are headed in different directions. I just quit WoW for your reasons for not liking GW2 and am loving GW2 so far. GL on your choice
All my homies hate the communicator (you're not alone). I think NPCs for some of the events need to flag you from much closer, too. It's really weird to be getting talked to about an event that you don't even know where it is yet.
Really worth noting how so much better optimised these maps are compared to every other map in SoTo
Its so funny, as you especially call out the weaver-spear build, but I think the spears are really the first weapon that feels really intuitive while playing weaver. I like it and it has such a cool flow to it and the rotation is really intuitive to me. I really like the skills that refresh the element switch, it makes it really fast paced and simply just fun. Also the switches to earth/water feels better than for example a sword/dagger combo. AND: The CC is so strong. I like it an it will be my #1 Build at the moment for ele in open world as its just fun
You talking what all veteran GW2 player thinks bro !! thanx for saying that.. im glad to see you like guys talking what mmo player wantt !!!
You’re spot on with the homestead being valuable for the reward structure
love GW2, came back to the game after a couple of months and loving this JW expansion... spears I didnt care for when they announced it, but now that i have it its actually kinda fun cos there is no meta builds for it, and I'm just runing round experimenting haha. plus maps are really nice too.
I haven’t played through everything yet but so far I really liked the expac. Definitely MUCH better than Soto for me.
I’m looking forward to Wing 8 too, hope the new raid hits well and players love it.
Also hope Anet does something about killproof items that the dumb community uses
You are so right about the heist. I was hoping that it didn't just end there. I needed a mini dungeon for the heist.
maybe, hopefully, next major update with map will include part 2 of the story, and you get Ms Jeeves mini
they missed the opportunity to make a dual boss battle spawning in diferente places and make the player chase them on the warclaw to avoid a final phase in wich you fight both of them in the bloodstone crater.
I dispute the fact that the open world is easier this time - I think the champion events and some timed events NEED more than 1 person to compete ( Lord Hizen about to disprove this theory).
As a pretty casual player, I agree that there could be more challenging content for those that like to go hard. Even if I don’t engage with it that much.
A strike at least? Anything that required a little more coordination for players.
My favorite expansion of all and I especially love Lowland Shore map... So much fun on that one. The events on Syntri don't seem to spawn often enough and those hearts are killer to finish. Not a fan of the meta there but overall this is the best expac yet.
Greer had sick dialogue and voice
I can't say i don't regret the earlier bigger expansions but Janthir Wilds is for sure better than Soto for now. Also, i'm the kind of guy who does strikes and fractals when i'm really into the game but i never took my chance at raids so i'm glad a new raid is coming!
I miss the old expac launches. They were so much better than the stinky doo doo that soto was
we're so back
I have been worried about the professions getting a bit bloated in the future due to Anet feeling they need to add a new elite spec or weap every expansion. That being said I don't think the addition of spear has caused an issue and fits neatly into the classes arsenal.
Great call on the specialization, give them away! Let them choose one at level 80 to revitalize them for their potential expansion purchase
You are absolutely on point with the communicator. My personal hate is when the communicator chat bubbles appear over my character and mechanics while in a fight. I can't even see what I'm doing.
im having a blast but i agree with teapot that we may not visit this maps much after this initial entry and it pains me a bit teapot doesn't have much more to do...
For 25 dollars I’m enjoying the content. There are lots of events active back to back and you don’t have long periods in between events like you do in the past. For the price tag I’ve already put a good amount of time into it and I’m only half way through the story but doing plenty of side achievements and warclaw treasure hunting. I feel like their coulda been some better events as a lot of stuff is light hearted and a lot of simple gathering / kill these enemy events which does get old after a short bit
The communicator complaint is peaking to my soul. I can't even remember how many times I was listening to NPC dialogue or the music and ambiance, only for some muppet to suddenly give me an unsolicited status report on max volume.
It does feel like a missed opportunity that they aren't bookending the expac with the two legendaries. With SotO the prevailing idea was that they probably wanted to keep the legendary armor as something for us to look forward to throughout the cycle, but with two legendaries they could leave the one for us to look forward to and give us the other first.
I long for the glory days of organizing groups for Tequatl, The Shatterer, or Triple Trouble. It feels like there was a magic touch that ANet had but lost with some of their meta/world boss design. Those maps are hybrid maps- there's tons of room to explore, do hearts, do events, and not even know there's a boss up because the map wasn't designed exclusively around the boss encounter. But when you did stumble onto the boss it was a 10/10 experience with mechanics and roles and phases to learn. But like you said, these days it might be for the best that they don't try to do too much in any one map given how that has gone in more recent years...
My best time at the Salmon race upwards (without superspeed grps etc -.-) was 2:30,920 well, that was hard tbh :D Ofc it doesn't count for Gold. I than needed a break of the race even though I think it is one of the most funny content :D
Yeh the communicator can really interrupt the flow of the game sometimes. I think story related dialogue should be like voice mails where you have to click on the message to play the audio. That way you can choose when to play it. Should be able to toggle dynamic event related dialogue off to.
2/3 hearts of the 2nd map are a pain in the ass to complete, since there so few events around em, compared to the one surrounded by 3-4 events at all times...
Even the one where you gotta pick up animal shit & feed the warclaws is less tedious...
U forgot a journey kitty's 💩there Wayfinder 😄
I think it's super important to point out that MT is very much in the minority regarding the longevity of the expansion. 2 weeks later the maps are still super populated and there are a number of things that do take multiple days to complete, the hearts being one of them. It's also not accurate to state that you can get the entirety of the expansion explored in 24hrs of a normal playthrough, this would mean rushing through and not accurately exploring the new maps, failing to feel the vibe of the area and getting to know the new world youve been thrust into.
What MT is looking for is a grind. It's an old-school, outdated MMO mentality that you have to no-life new content for a specific reward instead of working slowly towards it over time and I'm glad ANET aren't facilitating that playstyle on the launch of an expansion where the vast majority of players are there for the exploration of and participation in the new maps. It's right that it comes later (if at all IMO).
I hope we get to catch up with Mrs. Jeeves in a later update
Hold up. Second content drop I bet we get the heist I bet the Devs are listening.
ALSO YOU HEARD HIM BOYS WE NEED CHAIRS!
I like that, the story shows you how to fight and the mechanics of fighting devina and the meta champs. But if you dont play the story and learn that - when you go into the public groups on maps - a player can be super lost in what to do. I wonder is it too early to find on you tube a how to?
Uhhh maybe the heist comes in the next update. Would be fun
I think your point about elite specs being given away is fair. If I were to piggy back off that, the HoT ones should be free since that expansion itself is free with PoF.
10/10 first map.
1/10 2nd map.
What really matters! Fashion wars! Have anet mentioned something about adding spear skins to previous BLT sets and other? Most importantly, would we see a dragon themed 3rd generation leg spear??? That's the one I would really want to craft.
I love it !!!🎉❤
One thing i do like about homestead i fixed it up a lil to fit my untamed mains style. However i have a full home instance. Now rather then traveling to rata after raiding with my friends we step outside aerodrome i summon a door and me and my friends go and loot the full home.
Wish we had metas. I dont know how many times ill be back to pick pomegranates and farm hogs for meat. Most the hearts suck. Story was a lot of talking. Dont care about housing. The world boss is ok. I think these maps will be like the season 3 maps with time.
Ehhh... May sound selfish, but good Lord it's really hard to keep up with amount of metas one has to run if you're less up to date player. It's.. a lot.
Lowland Shore is definitely one of the best maps added to the game in years. Syntri, not so much, but a big factor has been bugs with some of the events and the decision to have events that only spawn when the meta event starts. Hell even that meta event was bugged the first couple of days.
I definitely like Janthir more than I did SotO at this point, so hopefully Anet can stick the landing, so to speak, with the content to come via patches, because that's where SotO was very lacking (other than the introduction of convergences, I suppose)
What if the heist was somehow called connected with the pve instanced content in the subsequent patches like the fractal (Im pretty sure reddit mentioned there's info out there about the fractal setting but one can dream)
I haven't seen the leaked spear collection, but I predict it'll have variants like the gen 3 legendary. Except instead of a different skin for each dragon, its a different skin for each titan. Or maybe they could do something similar to falling star where the look of the spear changes if you use a certain armor skin/infusion
just got it from your link
Good call
One of the hearts on the second map is so boring to do because of the huge downtime of events. They should add more heart progression things to do at the first heart (Support the kodan as they maintain their camp) because people are litterally wandering around the heart and have to wait till events are starting. The first map is a cake walk to do the hearts but the second map just goes downhill in progress speed and it really needs a bit more love to do these hearts efficiently.
Just spit-balling thoughts here. Pay it no mind. I actually find the community to have some really bizarre imaginary problems.
A big thing is....if people don't like pre-grinding....then don't pre-grind???? We ought to treat it as the game it is, and not a chore. On the recommendations sidebar, right now, a video popped up: "EVERYTHING you should be doing daily in Janthir Wilds". Below it: "Don't waste your time! I made 26,000g in a year". Heck even the community dialogue that you "should" be using blish hud, aka "you must do map completion/gathering/whatev by following this EXACT path that's optimized by....who the hell knows." That's.....a job, not a video game. That's an autopilot. Let me mention though that yes, some of that is clickbait, obviously. But the community's "optimization fetish" with regards to playtime is......concerning.....for a game....where you have agency over your actions. It's something I would understand for a monthly sub like FFXIV, but for a buy-to-play like gw2.......shrug??????? By definition, you can't waste your money. And time is only wasted if you're not enjoying yourself. Say my DE meta didn't work out.....am I gonna feel FOMO that I didn't get the loot "I deserve" or smth? Hell no. I'm gonna do what I wanna do, and not do the things I don't wanna.
Next, ultimately I'm not gonna bash anyone for pre-grinding (heck, you could say I personally pre-grinded the relic before SOTO. I also recently made Kamohoali in about a day because I REALLY wanted it). But nothing forces you to floor the accelerator like that. It's a choice. That's a good thing. You can choose to grind....or choose not to. For some reason the community feels pressure to ALWAYS grind grind grind, 24/7. Meanwhile, I went WAY laid back last year. I only played like 2 or 3 times a week on average, and still managed to finish fractal god after a multi-year journey. In the end, a lot of the community's issues with the game......are self-owns. They are problems created by players making these imaginary guardrails to restrict how they play. People tell me that I should do dragonstorm daily, or never miss my fractal cms, or that I'm wasting my time if I spend more than X minutes doing this or that. Guys......play what you want when you want to, folks. You don't have to spend your time the way someone else tells you to. Leave the chores and jobs....for actual chores and jobs (and don't neglect those either).
For the record, the above "play how you want" does not apply to contributing in group content. When you join a group, you are making an informal unspoken contract to do your job and pull some manner of weight. If you're a boon, provide at least 80% of your boon. If you're a DPS, make an earnest effort to beat your boon-providers in damage, please. As Folding Ideas once said, "it's rude to suck at [mmo group content]"
I also hate the communicator, completely takes me out of being in a grounded world. Literally just make me go to an NPC. I'd rather go to a hub and talk to someone in the open world when I want to talk to them.
launch JW is an improvement on launch SOTO
Damn it, I've been playing this game too much. I accidentally paused the video by reflexively trying to close the damn special action info popup. -_-
Agreed about pre grinding for legendary items, wish it wasnt a thing.
maybe with more developement time they should split addons into 2 instead of 4 parts. with more content, all the special events and festivals in between there is enough to do while waiting for part 2.
Both buttons do glow when a creator says "subscribe" or "like", but not always. I wonder why though.
it is like the game went back to core tyria, which I enjoyed
Glad my opinion has arrived
I reckon I give it a 7/10 forgive me for being naive but it gives core Tyria vibes visual wise anyways.
Think the Hearts system could be refined and added back to core and other older maps possibly (with the correct balance of rewards)
Skipped to Warclaw segment; not a word about the WvW Warclaw calamity with the rush controls being reassigned so that it now needs a keybind which then carries over to PVE and in the process, breaking the Skyscale flight. Total joke implementation.
I thought I was having a seizure or something. I haven't seen anything about this other than my key binds being screwed. I really thought it was just me.
They shoud realy consider adding more core trait trees in next xpacks to cover whats mising...
Or just make the current ones on the same level as elite.
Making core specs playable is basically like adding a new elite spec for each class.
Except Guardian. Core Guardian is already playable.
I disagree, the 2nd map almost feels like its still in beta.
It just lacks events. That's not the same as saying it's still in beta..
The second map feels like it's going to be expanded. In the North West there's two open areas that lead West you can't pass and looks like the usual map expansion areas. But we know there's 3 maps and was upgraded to 4. So I don't know if maybe these areas are suppose to be portals or their plans changed after making the map.
@@DemethVLK And the events we do have are mostly defeat elementals..
I spent 10 minutes with a commander waiting on an event chain on Janthir syntri that spawns while the world bosses is up for a specific achievement. It was just after a patch. The patch notes detailed how Anet had fixed their s**t and got it working. We did the first event just fine as we all had several times previously... and the bugged one still didn't fire. It was definitely a rough launch. The green bar phase to do rifts at the start of the expac? T1's completely bugged for 2 days and everyone forced to do T2's and 3's. Oh how about the new doorway for player housing? Anet completely haven't implemented the option to keybind it. You're far more likely to have the heart or personal waypoint on as default and then have to remember to manually set the action key every time. then when your done, set it back to the content you use that for.
11:08 Jayleno Fly
At some point Anet just has to package all of the older content together and stop selling them individually. The fact that you can't be sure players will have access to certain features creates so many limitations on future design.
You got a new shirt!
Woah, Rags, forgot you played Gw2
I think that Anet is showing already they're getting into the swing with this knew xpac production cadence. A couple more years like this? They're really going to nail down the pipeline. As that happens, I could see them starting to front load launch a bit more. Even further down the line, if they're financially successful enough to grow the team by 50+%, they could conceivably shift into annual releases of xpacs w/ 2 year dev cycles. Kinda splitting the team and leapfrogging releases. So one xpac would launch as the other is mid-way in its dev cycle. Pure speculative hopium, I know, but a girl can dream.
The 2nd map feels a little empty compared to the first, to the point where I'd liken it to NKC. Its not at all bad, but it doesnt feel very relevant outside of the meta. It doesnt help that the hearts are a slog, and quite a few events are buggy.
I will say though, the event where you help the kodan prepare for the expedition where you can give the kodan food and water made me lol. You give the one kodan water and he says, "Hydration is key." They knew what they were doing 😂
2nd map has too little events. Especially the first heart. I almost felt like it was WoW or Lineage 2 - grinding boars for animal meat for event that doesn't have 100% chance to drop.
This one delivered such a small amount of content that I will not be purchasing another. The price/content value is extremely low compared to the Living World seasons which cost less yet had so much more. The game is becoming a money grab and the design choices are turning toward the way worse. The one single meta is stupid with yet ANOTHER increase to bosses health and increases in AOE spam making the metas yet again...longer. the time/reward has been in a continual spiral downward since EoD and even trash mobs are taking longer AGAIN with another health increase and now with an increased aggro range while almost all of them being given ranged attacks.
The game is becoming annoying. This "expansion" which I will say in quotes because it isnt, is basically $30 for a better Warclaw and a terrible new house...oh, and a spear.
Spears are great success say no ranger
Are u still running full celestial gear?
why would that matter... also what profession.. and what build... and for what? open world? do whatever you want
@@henobani8039 what if i want to know, what gear teapot runs? Is that okay with you?
Yeah it’s the celebrand build, really nice for open world and wvw too
@@tmkdesigner .. any veteran has a bajilion characters... different game modes, pvp, wvw, raids, open world, i'm just saying your question was very vague, but you got your answer hope that's okay with you too?
Sensitive about celestial gear?
Lowland Shores
- feels good
- I think map wide treasure event should occur, using warclaw, after the death of Bog Queen, etc. Something similar to Silverwastes perhaps.
Janthir Syntri
-alright visually but feels empty most of the time
-Maybe have a few build up events to the large meta boss fights. Perhaps a less on the rails version than Dragon's Stand.
I just dont understand GW2 decision to gate new weapons/elite specs behind the story. I want to play the new content AS the new thing, not AFTER. Makes no sense to me at all, so I passed on the expansion.
Behind the story is actually acquired much sooner than behind 25 hero points, since the spears and such are first tier masteries that you can get after the first story instance 😅 If in 30 minutes isn't fast enough idk what would be?
@@pantheraleo2 picked up war within and a month sub for WoW and immediately had access to dracthyr. They were never gated, I am now playing through the story AS the character I want to play, no hoops or old content to jump through.
When I came back to GW2 a few months ago to prep for Janthir, I had to unlock every single elite spec and weapon one at a time for each of my characters just to START playing the classes I wanted to play.
Then I had to go through the same struggle with the mounts, as some of the HP were gated behind mount grinds.
It has taken me less time to catch up to the War Within content on a fresh Dracthyr on a brand new wow account, than it did just to get my engineer Mechanist with hammer and mounts unlocked, starting on a fully geared HOTs level 80.
AND i had to buy every expansion.
Defend it all you want, Im glad youre having fun, but thats absolutely insane.
One of the early early story objectives after stepping into Janthir is literally "Unlock the spear mastery" which is also the FIRST one you can choose in the track. I don't understand why some people complain SO much about having to PLAY the game to get to the parts they want.
@@pantheraleo2 I responded but it got deleted and I have no idea why.
Not my jam. Bought WW instead, it came with the last 3 expansions I didn't buy and I was able to start a drakthyr immediately.
No HP grinding for elite specs, gated behind mounts, gated behind masteries.
I want to play AS a character , not skip content.
Do you, not sure why you're trying to convince me, it's silly and I'm out , gl
Teapot looks high on the copium =)
I'm just here for the money
Remember just because content is not super challenging does not mean it’s not fun. Lots of content and story telling can be great without having it be souls like difficulty.
Definitely true, however I personally don't particularly enjoy gaming unless it's challenging, or at the very least engaging.
Im gonna be that guy and say - you don’t have to pregrind. You could just play normally and do whatever else you want to do then grind once it’s released. But I get it. It is different, the discovery and rush and mystery is gone
Yapthir Wilds pretty good, just give us an option to skip the yapping for those who want to.
what if they did a smaller optional boss with more mechanics, that is not going to be essencial for any collection, just a challenge eastere egg on a corner of the map
I get why you don’t like pre-grinding for the spear, but doesn’t that in itself add to the launch replayability for you? Like yes ideally there will be a collection too, but you can grind toward the goal already with the payoff the same (albeit delayed) - especially when considering you’ll be blasting the combat features in subsequent releases.
I'm not to fond of most heart quests. I gone around for 10 years killing dragons and now I have to manage the temperature of 3 pools? come on...
Also i feel most maps are empty. The quests fail to often because people not playing them or not enough players around.
Also even trash mobs drop 1000 ground effects in one second. Bosses plaster ground attacks everywhere. you have to learn what attack to sty in and what to go out. Damage telegraphing is just useless here
I really love GW2, put 1.5k+ hours on It but um playing wow tww, It's simply a better product atm
Wish they didn’t have so many fights and events happening concurrently, they’re quite difficult if population is to split up
just solo them then