HoT is the expansion I dropped Gw2 for years ....and these mastery shits but after is better HOT Is darkages of Gw2

He's FINALLY starting to get it. Guild Wars 2 is mostly for dicking around. In a very sophisticated way, but mostly you just dick around & explore.

@@user-xz9im1xx6k HoT is the most loved expansion by a majority of player, calling it the darkages seems a bit much lol.

@Preach So so happy your finally in GW2 to appreciate and have fun and yes offer your critic and point of view we all adore :)

​@@user-xz9im1xx6k I quit GW2 right before HoT when I heard about the 'features' like vertical-designed zones (which MMOs tend to mess up horribly). Learning more about HoT after its release kept me away GW2 for even longer. I'm glad I returned to GW2 after PoF and seeing how ANet has learned from their past mistakes, but I found playing through HoT to catch up to the personal story very unpleasant, and that was with the Springer and flying mounts. I never go to HoT zones if I can help it, I think they're terrible and designed to be needlessly annoying not to mention really disgusting-looking filled with rotting plants and giant roaches. But I do like how even the NPCs acknowledge the place is even worse than Orr LOL

Closest I've ever comne to quitting an MMO in terms of frustration early on in HoT

Heart of Thorns is the Vietnam experience, and the Mordrem are the Vietcong.

If I never see a pocket raptor again I'll be happy.

Even the masteries help with the atmosphere. The more player experiences the jungle, the better they will survive in it. The masteries give player tools to take shortcuts and avoid enemies. It's a bit shame that Mike has the Raptor mount which sort of takes away from that experience, but it's understandable for him to use it. Especially when doing Meta Events since others will be using their mounts too.

@@cactuscornette But they're such adorable homicidal little critters. 🤣

AB is a pleasure, VB is manageable, the map still works on DS, but good luck finding your way around in TD with or without mounts

The Tangled Depths got a bit messy and frustrating as that zone is extremely non-intuitive and the map is little help. It took a long time to figure out the layout to the point were I didn't feel trapped and going in circles which just got frustrating after a while.

I loved how difficult and confusing TD was. It’s the only zone in any MMO that I can come back to years later, and still feel lost, having forgotten some of it.

I'm playing GW2 now for 6 Years and I still get sometimes lost in TD

@@Urban93Ninja Yep, TD is a pita sometimes.

yes, because this mindset of rushing toward the endgame has people rush for raids only to be dissapointed by the loot rewards. There is no special weapon or armor set or unique mount waiting to drop from the last boss dingus. Sure, there are cosmetic infusions and the like, but those are very rare drops, usually farmed over months of weekly raid clears. But if people rush through all the endgame zones, masteries, collections into raids expecting to find something "extra" in terms of rewards, they can end up quite dissapointed. Raids (and fractals) are PART of the endgame, not THE endgame, they are part of where you can work towards a more long-term reward (legendary armor for raids, legendary backpack/other stuff for fractals) just like in maps (achievements/masteries, collections, material farming for crafting etc.). Granted the raid encounters themselves are also huge part of the content, but really, the whole mindset of "you are already at the endgame, enjoy yourself" is pretty key imo. It makes you enjoy and appreciate each new map, map meta event, little challenge or a new raid boss fight.

And what a pleasant surprise - he actually understood this and went back to VB, taking it slow. Amazing. Respect earned

That and Verdant brink and auric basin have very quick and easy meta events that still have the best farming experience for loot in the game (also has a loot drop that goes for thousands of gold but that is a very slim change)

This this this.

I came to GW2 for the first time like five months ago and this was the coolest part of the game to me. I’ve played wow for years. It’s the only MMO I’ve ever got really into. If you play wow EVERYTHING outside of the current end game zones are useless and meaningless. All the old zones are dead. All the loot you get is pointless vendor trash. Leveling is a slog through empty ghost lands to get to the end game because it’s the only content that matters. I thought this was how all mmos were. I had no idea what horizontal progression even was. When I found out that all the materials I was getting were still meaningful. That eventually I could use them to craft a legendary that came out ten years ago and have it still be powerful and relevant for all the newest content I was floored. I suddenly realized why when I was leveling I would see so many decked out max level people flying in on their dragons just to help me on my caravan in kessex hills. It’s because all the content still had meaning. All the content was still relevant in some way for whatever goals they were on. After playing this game I don’t know if I can go back to wow because horizontal progression seems like the only way it should ever be done.

Omg

That’s what so great about the game, if you start a new character it gives you a new set of eyes going through the beginning worlds again.

legendarys, mounts, masteries, materials and ach being account wide is so fucking good.

While I do like that I don't have to level masteries every character, I kind of wish I would click a button on character creation to make it so I can level them again Kind of like a iron man character or something were it don't get any of the benefits from my other characters

@@jerthon1 Although not with the masteries, I would like to repeat some of the account bound achievements. Call me crazy, but I really would like to do the skyscale unlock quests again - but without the pain of not having the skyscale and the pressure to finally get it.

When I was deciding on a skin for my Aurene axe I chose Mordremoth partially because it gave me a reason to go back there.

Here, you get something awesome in the first zone, and then you get something even better in the next, but wait, there's more. The HoT zones are just masterpieces.

i wanna see if he can make it past tangled depths :D

@@Seraphim09x Legend has it Preach is still lost in Rata Novus to this day.

I just recently did the meta there for the first time and map completion. Jesus I have been missing out.

yesss, people stumbling onto Tarir, especially badly coordinated, tend to be impressed the most. After this only Dragon's Stand and Dragon's End ever evoked iin me same feelings of sheer EPICNESS. Don't forget the music

@@zer0homer Dragon's Fall and Drizzlewood worked for me as well - at least when I did it the first time. These map metas are still the most fun and unique feature of GW2 endgame in my opinion (other endgame features are usually less unique).

@@Arrow333 Drizzlewood is a prime example of Guild Wars 2 living up to the "Wars" part of it's name

Light spoiler on that, I also loved that moment when Mordremoth speaks to you during a group fight, you start hallucinating, lose control of the character and then realize you are alone when you come to, frantically calling for your friends worried that you might have killed them. I mean, I didn't actually think anyone of the main cast would die like this but it was a cool "oh sh*t" moment. I also love the sylvari banter with Canach specifically. My prickly cactus man has some good moments throughout the entire story but HoT was *his* show character-wise.

@@chiefpurrfect8389 Aye, I loved things like that too. Little things that show what it's like to battle a dragon that can twist your mind. Heh, and Canach is my favourite character, so I was thrilled with his arc in HoT. Mind you, I loved him all through PoF too (and some of the Living Story episodes). :)

plus the constant Mordremoth talking in your head :D

Speaking as a Sylvari player still working on core completion before I (and the girlfriend, also a shrubbery) progress into this expansion... please... please tell me Trahearne doesn't come back. Please tell me that Meta-Sue of a character doesn't return and make the story all about him again.

@@NicholasBrakespear Telling you things is spoilers. I will say that he is Marshal of the Pact and since the Pact is a major player in this expansion, he does have a presence in the story. I do think that the writing overall is a lot better.

want to see him try Triple Trouble

I want to see him do Tangled Depths and Dragon Stand. I loved leading those lanes back in the day.

100% as a seasoned gw2 player it always warms my heart to see someone discover a meta event for the first time. "What is this!" This is gw2 friend, enjoy.

I really fucking hope he sticks with the game long enough to experience Dragon's End. That map is a _literal_ open world raid designed around a 50+ player squad, and is one of the best spectacles in the game IMO that also integrates itself extremely well with End of Dragons' story.

@@chilliewhk He's in the middle of Tangled Depths as of last night's stream, so you shouldn't need to wait too long.

Lol, mine was Lighfall

I mean sure the story in Shadowlands was bad, but I feel like it was very easy to follow still.

@Justin Gonzalez Colon man I'm lost every destiny expansion because I have fun in the beginning but stop pretty quickly cause I have other stuff to play

@@justingonzalezcolon8652 ThE vEiL, gUaRdIaN,

Warframe :D

💯

I thought exactly the same thing 🤣

GW2s community is great, and it's really the only MMO where cooperation is core to the game.

PogO

Thanks for the Hero Point Trains! Doing those is one of my favorite memories from this game

Love that you're still doing these, HP runs are such a comfy thing about HoT. It has that nice blend of being useful for all skill levels and having enough action not to be boring but also enough downtime for players to get to talk and connect. Great way to get new and old players to mingle

This sounds like what I had been missing. I stopped playing maybe a year ago shortly after leveling a thief. I like the class, but I really just wanted get into playing specter and deadeye. Once I discovered how many hero points it would take, that was it, I was done. Also the game never gave me any reason to meaningfully interact with other players.

Thank you for leading commander! Your services are much appreciated 👍

Aye, yet is also sucks not being on a map when trying to do a Meta and it's low pop. Learned early on show up about 30 minutes before event.

Hell nah low pop is the best! It adds an extra layer of challenge to get the meta done

@@oliverclark8460 the absolute satisfaction when you succeed in a meta event with just a small group of players

@@stramaisdead panic basin best basin

It is not phasing - it is Megaserver. Instead of having a map per server it has as few or as many as you need for the entire game (min one for Europe and one for America).

i wish i could see the game in that way... for me i felt the hard stop in the story just like preach did. you enjoy the story and then get hard stopped my a required open world grind. i could power through HoT but then at the Desert Expansion i just bounced of the required Stars, or whatever you need, to upgrade your mount jump. Just that you can only do a certain amount of points of interest to unlock it. if you try to do it at the "wrong" spot you just have to find out that you can NOT do that challenge since you didnt have the required skill unlocked yet. that just felt sooo bad after going to the third point on the map that i couldn't complete. that just feels so bad that i couldn't bring myself to log back in and try out the next few.

found myself grinning from ear to ear by the Open World Gameplay and World Bosses section

@@ThorindirNaari I know it doesn't feel great, but you only have to do it once per account. But the game basically just wants to remind you to play the maps, not just the story. Or more accurately: Playing the map is meant to be part of the story - other games would have just included the dynamic events (which don't exist there as such) directly into the story as quest steps. They also did this in season 1 and 2 with a progress bar based on events instead of a mastery or in other seasons with mandatory completion of a heart, and you have to do those on every character. Back when the expansion was new you didn't have that massive backlog of story ahead of you, so it was probably more okay to take a break from the linear story. It still exists even in End of Dragons, but they either learned to do it in a less annoying way (by filling the progress faster), or I just got used to it.

I took this to heart this time - two months back and only now am I done with Elona.

@@stramaisdead same. His recollection of his first experience with a proper Octovine raid was quite touching and nostalgic :) It will be nice to see him join a HP train, or do metas in Elona. That outrider feeling you get with the mounts and a large team is just the best feeling ever EDIT: LOL oh he saw one later in the video XD

The naked man makes 10% commission on all those sales

@@mebrandonb you'd think he would be able to afford a Faren-style loin cloth by now

And then you end up joining them! Man, that got me through Tangled Depths on my elementalist, i would have spent 69 years trying to get them all by myself

​@@daze4135doing hero points by yourself in HoT with an elementalist is suicide lol

@@BrianCheng24 celestial stats made it manageable at the time, and that was before all the elementalist buffs that exist today. It'll probably still be a challenge, though!

Sometimes the game demands the mastery directly. In these cases there is no way around it. It is rare, but it is there. Sometimes it is demanded indirectly and you can "cheat" your way around it, with the help of friends or other stuff unlocked elsewhere.

That really should be the evolution of not olymmos but rpgs in general. The leveling system is nostalgic but its a relic of when the systems couldnt handle much. We need more innovative progression thinking like this.

Yo wtf, really? That's major for me. Metroidvanias are my jam.

@@makotroid108 Yup, Yup. It's a light Metroidvania. The paths to success aren't as concrete in all places, but as you saw in Preach's initial intro to the first expansion, he was blocked from content until unlocking relevant skills ... not some arbitrary level cap like other MMOs

I also like to remind people that the events that happen on the map (some more-so than others) are actually a big part of the story context. Why rush ahead when you've still got all this story flavor right around you.

fkn A it is!

Getting mauled by pocket raptors

Big same

​@@sinistral_7th and coming back later to genocide them

Come join us! EoD has a lot of neat things

Yeah I've never played GW but I think I should start.

That is the most epic boss fight, visually/atmospherically, that I have ever experienced in any game. Can't wait for Preach to get to that.

So I have played Guild Wars 2 to like level 25or something... What are you talking about? The base game I experienced was very very "when does this get fun"?

@@plmPissekatt Depends on what you consider to be “Fun”? GW2 isn’t for everyone and maybe it’s just not the best game for you. It’s definitely different than almost every other MMORPG. If you’re not enjoying it, I recommend you join a guild and play it a little with other players and ask them your questions about anything you don’t like. If you still don’t like the game, then you probably should just move on to something else that you think you will like better. Level 25 is way too soon to judge the game IMHO.

@@plmPissekatt Doing or "farming" meta events at level 25 doesn't make sense anyway. You would get more benefit if you do them at max level by coming back, possibly also for fun, but I guess expansion meta-events are far more rewarding these days. And tbh, i think gw2 may have the best mmo design I've ever encountered and even I thought the base game was boring to put it mildly.

​@plmPissekatt its very easy to get to max level and the more fun stuff will open up later. I was just like you man, early levels in GW2 definitely sucked, but once you level up and unlock a lot of the content you'll enjoy more. Go do some world bosses to get some of that excitment and motovation going, even tho you'll do no dmg, you'll still get the drops , a lot of exp (like a full level or two) and perhaps an ascended gear for when you reach max lvl. The story is very uninteresting in the core game but maybe and hopefully it'll be different for you.

Nah don't recruit that Magnus guy to continue playing for sure he will just whine and bring toxicity to the game.

I watched further in. He's _finally_ starting to get GW2.

I agree, an expansion where they will test how good a player you are

I have to disagree here. GW2 lost me because it did not give me what I was really looking for: A good and satisfying dungeoning and raiding experience. I don't want to run around and explore what gimmicky tools I need to unlock or reach other areas. I despised Dry Top and Silverwastes... dipped then into PoF to get my first mounts and running around there, but having a grind to somehow get to the other mounts with other abilities was very off setting and I quickly put GW2 aside.

@@ArekuMizuhara Have you done the strike and raid CMs? I am going to assume not, so what do you mean by satisfying dungeon and raid experience?

Waypoints. I personally always bag as many waypoints as I can, particularly before mounts.

I can't wait for Preach to hit the final story chapter/fight. That's going to be good viewing lol

i hope he ends up in a party that actually knows not to CC the head LOL to this day you can encounter painful runs like that

It’s still entirely possible to get yourself killed, but the mounts also give you a whole bunch of new ideas for traveling through the map (except maybe the skyscale, I only have Griffon which is really fun to dive around with on Verdant Brink) Tangled depths is still confusing.

@@TheStarspire That's good to know. I had some worry that the mounts might trivialize stuff originally meant to be navigated with gliders at best.

@@matthewmay6806 The fastest navigation through HoT zones is a combination of mounts and HoT masteries (bouncing mushrooms, gliding, etc.) It really feels like you're using everything you've learned over your career.

@@TheStarspire ah fuck .. tangled depths.. Ive always been terrible with directions. TD broke my mind.

I'm addicted to Mike's VODs. I have several abandoned TV shows, but a Preach GW2 VOD comes out and I'm glued to it. Send help.

@@RobGale I think Bex is on vacation and I couldn't wait so I watched them on his twitch but I'll probably watch again when they get on the vod channel

There is something to be said of finding your way to them by yourself, like a mini puzzle, with only HoT mechanics, without any quality of life like mounts or mesmer portal help. It's frustrating trying to work it out but feels great solving the puzzles. Many of the mobs can even be solo'd (but not all).

remember that GW2 has no fees and you can stop and restart without losing progression always, the level cap is 80 and the max stats are and will be the same forever. You gear and level never 'gets old' in this game. Also the core game is totally F2P

Couldn't solo anything on launch. Felt like playing an old school MMO where venturing out of town without a party was death. The nerfs were much needed tbh.

@@cattysplat the open world itself was largely soloable if you had a good build for it and knew your class, it was Hero Points that really kicked you in the nuts. Though I'll say some classes definitely had an easier time than others and it was no joke. The nerfs were needed though, I agree with that, especially since the population on those maps is naturally lower now compared to before, where having higher difficulty was fine.

Oh mounts make HoT so much better. Even without Griffon or Skyscale just the base three help with getting to where you need to be for stuff. Some Hero Points are still a hard but if you call for help you'll usually get someone to show up.

100000% play the Season after PoF just for the story / sceptical. It’s the least skipable non expac part

Damn that'll be a treat to watch.

I think Dragon's Stand meta is way better - it feels more like an actual siege and adventure (to avoid spoiling too much). Maybe I'm a little cynical from doing Auric Basin a bunch, but to me it does feel like a bunch of busywork leading up to the serotonin injection of opening all the treasures, which really doesn't do it for me...

@@SimplyConeh dragon's stand meta is more epic, but the value of AB meta is way higher.

But I agree with you, for fun, and the grand scope of playing a video game, per Breach's game playing rules, Breach will enjoy Dragon's Stand more. You are correct. Me, personally, I enjoy AB more, and make it a normal part of my daily gaming regimen.

Octovine the best meta in the game? Dude...

Octovine kinda sucks compared to some of the other metas, but as an introduction to the concept, it's quite good in its simplicity. The varying mechanics at N/E/S/W are a good introduction to how your role can vary and how you can contribute differently, and the added aspect of simply having to kill them all within the same timeframe makes people aware that map chat is in fact a thing that exists.

Amen!

They chose to focus on more casual content like island sanctuary and instanced group content with variant dungeons and crystalline conflict. It's very obvious they want to copy WoW's content to suit that playerbase.

man wants his hand held all game

? for what reason? he ended up loving it, so you quit because you enjoyed the massive amount of content there was in each zone?

Watch the second half of the video.

It’s the only legitimate way he can enjoy the game without being spoonfed. It’s the true ‘random mmo player’ experience. If he was to play gw2 with support and friends then his reviews are biased.

I, and most of my friends go into most content like Preach does in this. 100% Blind. We enjoy the discovery aspect of it and looking everything up ruins that for us. We appreciate what Preach does with Games like this.

@@untrustingstatue Bro, a literal google search is not being spoonfed.......

@@izera193 I do too. But if I dont get a mechanic, I will at least google it?

@@oake5869 that still counts as ruining his blind and fresh gameplay. He wants to play this game just like a new player would when it released when there was no Google search for shit he’d see