You mentioned something that always bugs me, this game, somehow looks way better when playing than when watching videos or livestreams. Somehow this art style looks really old in videos but it's totally fine when playing and specially in this expansion is outright gorgeous!

I'll have to completely agree about Arborstone and Echovalds. I was completely floored when I saw them. I always had a specific image in mind of how they'd look in Gw2 with proper scaling, a camera that lets me look upward, proper elevation and they just completely nailed. I was so happy that my favourite Guild Wars Factions areas had come to life in this way. There may have been some happy tears. Strikes... I was sceptical at first, but so far it feels like they just nailed them. I did them all yesterday with a random assortment of guildies. Took a few tries on them and it was done. I think there's a nice balance and I can't wait to see them kick our asses in challenge modes. The music is just... I just can't cope with how good and how fitting it is. I dare say the creative direction to focus on Korean instruments and traditions was the right call. It really makes it feel like you're in this strange new, yet little bit familiar, place, and it just elevates the expansion so much. It makes the maps so good and they accentuate the kind of theme they go for. Kaineng has some tracks that really sound like a busy metropolis, and then you go to the lower areas and have some darker tunes that really give that feeling that gangs and thugs are hanging out here. I just love all of it. Then there's meta. What a trip. I love the difficulty of it, and I hope they won't adjust it too much more. I think they hit the sweetspot with the patch the other day. Great review though. I more or less agree with it all, and think Anet is definitely going in the right direction now.

When I arrived to Cantha and you have the view of Shing Jea with the music, I got chills. I got chills for every single character. I really like the fact they didn't add a lot of character but actually work on development of each of them.

MY ADVICE to both newcomers and returned players: * Bittefrost Frontier map: provides ascended gear with selectable stats at amost no cost with the map currency; fast to farm (~50 units of currency x each character x ~8 min farm DAILY. Delivers: rings (one, but you can infuse the second one to wield 2 of the same kind), one earring, backpiece AND underwater respirator (the only way to have one aside from crafting it). * Dragonfall map: same as Bitterfrost but not as fast to farm (not gathering, but doing events). Use the map currency to get ascended amulet, ring, earring. * Bjora Marches map: with the local currency + karma you can farm the ascended amulets and the second earring (you first need to finish two achievements). * Exotic armor with selectable stats: you can get them from two PvP and one WvW tracks. FOR EVERYTHING ELSE: focus of getting the legendary armor of your main class ASAP; PvP is easy and cheap but slow (1.4 years), PvE can be fast but hard (~2-3 months), WvW is a middle terms (~6 months). Also: once you have the armor focus on getting ascended weapons and trinkets instead of ascended ones. Now that the legenday wardrobe is running no need to focus on other things.

Realy nice review. Lots of context, very wholesome. much appreciated^^

Can j buy end of dragons from steam if i bought the other expansions from thier website? Will steam recognize i have the other 2 expansions?

I also started to tear up during the final fight, especially on the Zhaitan platform with Caithe and Logan, and then the final platform with everyone together. I was going through a lot of memories throughout the whole fight.

Hey, can you share you camera option setup?

What class are you playing? Im downloading guildwars2 right now. This expansion made me too it. And class looks amazing!

Love the 3D Scens. Will the Dev Make A remake Cut Scean for the Beginner Region?

just subbed, i enjoyed your review so much and your voice is very soothing! really looking forward to your GW2 videos from here on ps. your character looks awesome

Here because I love how hard you fought on the SkillUp channel to get this game & franchise some coverage it always seems to lack! Trust me, been following ArenaNet since 2003. It never seems to get any coverage, except maybe 1 month around the 2012 launch.

Great review 👌 I definitely think this is a great expansion and hope they can fix the instancing issue soon so Kaineng feels like the bustling city it's meant to be. And I absolutely love that they brought some of the more interesting mechanics from instanced content into the open world (like jade maw). It's not easy to do this in a way that's intuitive for the players but they seem to get better and better at it and I think those events just need some minor tweaking now edit: As a fellow software engineer I have to give major props to the infrastructure and backend teams. Ever since GW1 they have been best in class when it comes to zero-downtime maintenance and buttery smooth launches. It's an achievement that doesn't get enough praise!

I'm very happy with the new explorable areas and all the hidden gems and lore smothered through every map everywhere. I only wish that the Jade Sea looked more..... vast....

After the changes Anet did in the last patch it really helped a lot. Having someone placing waystations and in say chat call short words like tail, cc, green circle and so on also helps for players who dont pay much attention and just follows what is said. Add those two things and ask people in your squad to really be on their toes and bring cc and be sure to use their large damage when the breakbar is gone made my first success ful run with a random comander in a random group in the lfg-tool without any requirements or requests of builds and such and we killed with 2 min left. So people go over there and just do your best and make sure to add the things you need to make it better for your squad. I also belive that as soon as players unlock the Turtles the preevents will go faster since several of them are made for the Siege turtles. So it is a waiting game i guess.

Just curious, what heavy armor skins are you using? I've been having trouble finding something I like with the primeval helm and your gear looks great. xD

Nice video, got me to reinstall and try the new stuff.

The whole expansion is really good except when you arrived at dragon's end and realize you need to "complete" the meta event to get the turtle

wow, your review convinced me to buy the game, nice, thanks man

Could you tell me what armor set you have in the thumbnail?

I didnt rush through the game when it launched like most did. By the time i got to the last map for the story, they already patched the turtle egg issue. Got it the first try doing the meta. Easily beat the meta.

Great video, thx

I miss those little painting cutscenes. This pre rendered stuff just doesn't sit well with my old ass

Fantastic editing with the review. Practically ign and GameSpot quality if not better

I just found you through SkillUp, what’s your twitch?

Just got home from college for the weekend. Got 3 days to grind as much as I can before leaving. Downloading the game atm

What class are you playing with the duel wielding swords?

If Specter was able to provide permanent protection I would rate it SS If Specter was able to provide 25might I would rate it S Specter in my opinion is A tier Healer and S tier DPS with A tier Alacrity. for reference Mirage would be the SS and Renegade S tier Alacrity. Mirage is 25might and alacrity with no concentration from items in theory. Renegade with Heal Firebrand is 25might together while also giving the Alacrity. Specter lacks Might generation. You have might generation on F1 (whopping 3) as well Specter 2 but that is hard to use and unable to upkeep 25 might on subgroup alone. Add to this Qucikness builds which are Harbinger, Firebrand, Catalyst, Chronomancer and Scrapper don't generate Might beside Heal Firebrand and you using Specter 2 is huge DPS loss ;) so that makes Specter Alacrity A tier :D This is my current opinion of Specter.

Meh i might get it in the future I got so bored waiting for something to do in game i dont miss playing it.

Why shillup editor video appear on my recom list? 🧐

great video

The environment art team has been quietly carrying this game ever since release! Their approach of treating the environments like characters themselves is really paying off in the long-term.

Anyone know how it compares to FFXIV's story?

Nice review, I am thinking about buying GW2. How is it for newbies for the game? Also, lol @ "I went to bed at 8am the night before hoping to wake up at 3am"

they need to patch the dragons end meta again rng can still kill runs its impossible to win if she flips every 10 seconds

I love you Austin!

Great review! Now go get that turtle!

He says lvl design is top notch as always easy to navigate as always, H.o.T looking at him "am I a joke to u?" , KEKW, sorry I couldn't hold it

This is the perfect review in my eyes. That's exactly how I would summarize things. I also have no idea what to do with the elite specs, but the expansion is incredible!

What is that dragon's armor

I been playing this for 2 days...Definately getting the DLC....Reminds me of BDO, a mmo I like...

That armor looks good, what’s it called?

Well I did not see the whole review to reduce my spoilers but you mentioned only getting 4 hours of sleep in 32 hours. Don't do that to yourself, it's not healthy. Thanks for the review though :)

Mist of pandaria ? lol

Funny to hear about the jade sea.. that was my exact thoughts and feelings from the jade sea from GW1. Very meh. When in my imagination could have been one of the coolest areas.

it kinda bothers me that guild wars has such a big world and there is still "so much" undiscovered even on the current map not to speak about entire tyria but arenanet is kinda out of tune with their community

I’ve been forced to go thru slowly as I promised my bestie we would go at it together and he can only feasible play once a week so I’ve been keeping myself busy getting alts ready and of course fishing and skiffing. Holy crap what a great time it’s been.

WAHEEYYY An Austin only channel

idk why their cutscenes are always so low res

I completed Dragons End meta after about a week and ~15 tries, and i literally screamed i was so euphoric

A huge thing is a lot of this expansion was made during COVID restrictions. It's remarkable to see what they pulled off with so many disruptions, although it's a shame the Icebrood Saga suffered due to Anet prioritising End of Dragons.

I won’t say is the best Guild Wars expansion, but it is pretty much tied with Nightfall and the original Cantha expansion Factions. I personally loved Living World season 4 but that was free! Editing: because you seem popular and made a good video. Anet please create Jade Sea WvW maps. Even you literally remaster stuff from Alliance Battles and GW1 it would still be epic. The expansion and the music was fire 🔥 The original story links back okay btw but too much time as passed for it really to

yes finally a launch which did not end as a shit show like for so many other AAA games recently

I didn't know GW2 had healers.

so what is the storyline? All dragons died and yu have to fight "Dragonvoid " which is the disaster they were talking about if the dragons would die?

There are only 2 things I don't like about end of dragons and the rest is amazing in my opinion. ¹ my mounts get stuck a lot in the particular map section (uncertain as to why it happens more often in the particular map) ² the choice of words used in story line as well as some U.S. political positions ( such as anti-capitalism push). the others would be the hypocrisy behind texting blocks and what is said in story line ( example: ass ). A lot more vulgar compared to all the other words chosen in the previous story line's. Not a major issue but a turn off sound moment for me. There are some funny parts but it seems there was a new writer involved with end of dragons.

With this expansion GW2 is better than WoW blizzard ,100procent

about the queue, you know that Lost ark just released right? 1.4Mil people. Wow new patch as well :S Its a big hit in GW2s player numbers

Downsides for me as an explorer type player. Just four maps compared to Path of Fire's five. EoD maps feel smaller and the story shorter than PoF. New Kaineng looks beautiful but feels so empty, lifeless, nothing at all like the loading screen, where are all its citizens ? No sign of Living World 6 .... Living World 4 launched just two months after Path of Fire debuted. Just about all rewards are geared towards making legendaries. I don't mind the Dragon's End meta being hard but there's zero incentive to do it again, even with an infusion drop. To replay it just for the latter would be soul destroying as in my six years of playing I've never seen an infusion drop from meta events such as Tarir, Tangled Depths, Silverwastes, etc. or even Khan-Ur.

The main enemy of the factions was the guy with two swords, but I can’t remember his name

Content is good but the bugs and lack of balancing is absolutely inexcusable. The dragons end meta especially. They recently broke it with their last patch. It’s now nigh unplayable again.

No queue times usually means the game pop isn’t very big…😬

SkillUp brought me here. 😉

agreed! Have done all 4 new strikes, got turtle, finished story. Still so much to do! Loving it. My only dislike is the shoe-horned wokeism (Do I really need reminded that captain ashford is gay 3+ times?) but besides that it's pretty great.

welp i didn't like EOD at all, i used the teleport to friend thing to teleport myself into kaineng city from a random squad leader i found on lfg. The cityscape was a instant turn off, i flew around on my griffon for half a hour and alt+f4ed and hasn't opened gw2 launcher since.

ah don't forget to mention spoilers i had to skip some parts

What really prevented me from finding the expansion excellent was (surprise, surprise !) the politics. Everything else is superbly made, from the visuals to the soundtrack, except that they just had to get a woke writer instead of a good writer. 250 years later and Canthan society just feels like a real-world Westernized parody of Asian culture, injected with embarassing, bigoted modern politics that have no need to be there and just break immersion. The use of lingo and swearing is also very far removed from the spirit of Guild Wars.

Good story in gw2? Lmao. The writing in the core campaign was jut filler, at best, but after HoT it took a nose dive and never pulled up. It was some of the most cringiest highchool fanfic level trash you would find on timblr. That rainbow lizard was the worst part, some un-paid interns my little pony/dragon self insert. I don't give a rat's ass about story in mmos, but when it's THIS bad....sweet mother of mercy.

game looks like absolute shit, but some how this garbage ass looking game is quite fun when you actually play it.

Im starting to hate this game cuz when im looking for videos on garden warfare 2 this trashy D&D clone

It is full of bugs. There have been over 2 dozen bug fixes so far in less than a week. Yet another prime example of the sloppy programming that customers allow these days. :(