So glad that you put this out and i thoroughly enjoyed it. I do hope you will continue to make gw2 videos. You have talent and a great take on things. Well done friend.
Locking content behind raid stile missions is killing the game. We told them when they did it and blocked so many from getting the turtle. Now they did it more and many can't finish the current end game. So many will quit, some will just not return to that map and so many who want to finish will again be left behind to languish behind raid content most don't care to or don't have the time to learn how to get past. WTG Anet.
Hey, I'm really curious about what you mean about "locking content behind raid style missions." As far as I'm aware, only skins are locked behind that type of content now, and SOTO didn't change that. Turtle also doesn't require you to do KO to acquire it anymore. Would love to hear your perspective.
This video is really well made, editing experience not being an issue for sure. Would love to see more constructive criticism videos like these, that propose solutions and highlights/pinpoints the things that can be improved! Hope to see some more in the future if you feel like sharing your opinions 😉
Fast forward to the World First race, where it's very clear that the new challenge mode strike is tuned around DPS benchmarks, then the powercreep is absolutely here to stay and going to get worse in the future.
I wouldnt say that, Virtuoso dps is not the reason it was used for Cerus CM, it was used for its ability to maintain decently high dps while staying at range and having high survival and utilities that compliment the group. If dps was the only reason, then everyone and their mom would be using Axe Condi Deadeye for that encounter. SC and Teapot did not wipe to enrage, they wiped to failed mechanics, that alone tells you its not a dps race. That said, there is some weapons that do need toning down and up.
Tbh my biggest motivation to buy soto has been the vault special unlock I love the game as a casual but this feels more like a living world than and exp
same but the feelings I got from all their explanatios pre-soto was that now expacs = living world + extras so i dont even mind that. I dont own soto for purely money reasons atm
Finally, someone pointed out the problems this expansion faces. I agree with many of the pros and cons. In particular, I like the close comparison between the expansions that have been released so far. SotO does not exist in a vacuum, only in a game that has been operating for a long time, and the price of this expansion, although lower, is only slightly lower so it should be assessed accordingly.
Since no one asked I'll share my two cents (for perspective, a 9 year player who's loved this game so much I've never even really taken a break lol) Everything in SOTO is ultimately fine, good, great even I dare say... except the maps. Those are just.. good. And I don't mean they aren't fun, really my only grievance is that it doesn't feel like enough. When you open the world map and look at it, it just feels small. Two is a fine number for launch, but they're only about HoT size rather than PoF, EoD, all the post-mount maps that we've become accustomed to. Reverting back to a medium size map feels jarring to me. But hey, two full ones for launch is still alright even at that size, what bothers me the most is that we're supposed to make it 9 months on only a single one, that's also that size?! If I was say, a Seitung sized block, I'd be happy with it. Or if we got two of ANY size, I'd be very pleased! But even though the map doesn't lack content by any means, it just feels small looking again at the map and seeing not much was extended. Which brings me to point out, I really genuinely am just talking about the size here. The content feels more densely packed and probably has as many events as other recent maps in former full sized expansions. It kinda feels *too* dense, like they could spread the same number of events over a 25% bigger map, and have people essentially get almost no further content beside the assets it takes to add the more map filling, and people would feel like they're getting more. And that's the crux of the problem I think: how it FEELS. The maps are dense with events, I'm not bored of them I still have achievements to go after many months later! But every. Single. Time. I open the map, I feel like the maps are small and we were just slightly robbed. Every time I hope the future expansions give us either a fourth map or have the three we get be PoF-EoD sized. Genuinely this is my only real serious pain, the expansion adds an admirable number of features, legendaries, skins, story length, weapons for every single class, and so on, it's great! Just more map, please
There will always be a best choice. Always. SotO didn't reduce the choice of builds viable, it has increased it a lot. Also, there is already a in-engine setting that makes models far away with less polygons and low textures, as well as pop-in (even though it could be improved) Amnytas indeed had low framerate Also, I wonder when did you make this video? It seems not up to date
Where I was talking about build diversity, I was moreso commenting on lack of diversity among weapon choice for meta builds. I'm honestly not sure if there are more or less actual builds comparing pre and post SOTO. Sorry if that was unclear! I recorded most of the footage while playing through SOTO at launch, some clips I recorded later to match up with whatever I was talking about in the video. The script I wrote about a month or two after launch, and it took me a long time to edit, so yes it is incredibly outdated at this point! Thanks for your comment :)
Interesting video, thank you for all the effort put into it :D If you plan on doing a follow up video, for the final content update or the next expansion, I'd love to hear more details at the end. If you say 6/10 that's a statement one can throw into the mix for sure, maybe consider listing some bullet points of what exactly is missing, which aspects brought the score up/down, what did or didn't you like in particular. What could ArenaNet do to release a better expansion next time? It's certainly hard to aim for 10/10 for a broad and diverse playerbase, but 6 seems to me to have a lot to be desired and missed potential and I would doubt any dev could look at that and say yeah good enough. On a sidenote a score out of ten does muddy the waters if one would recommend the purchase of an expac. Because I've had the impression it's a good bang for your buck, being not the most expensive thing ever.
Thank you so much for your feedback! This is super helpful, and I agree. If I do another review video similar to this, I'll definitely be sure to explain my rating in more depth. I do feel like I should have clarified why I felt this way better at the end with bullet points and pros and cons. I will be honest though, I think the expansion is good if you are a casual player, but I personally feel as though the price point is not worth the content we are getting overall. That being said, I don't regret buying the expansion or anything. I'm still having fun with the game! Price is definitely something I should have talked about in the video though... Perhaps a subject for another time? 👀
What's worse than masteries that don't do anything or are just gatekeeping you from full content? Masteries that are just copy pasted old ones. Rifts are a slog from not only being so far apart, but from how the enemies scale up so high that normal enemies have more hp than elites anywhere else in the game. There are a lot of flaws in the new expansion, but at least the game play loop is working. It's just that there isn't much content that creates immersion, beyond the Isgarren collection after you complete the story that was available after initial release.
I am fine with salt, I do SPVP every single day but it almost feels like you and I played two entirely different expansions, Lol. Anyway, liked the video regardless. That was a very high quality editing, too.
I do not think gw2 is a dead game. Gameplay wise it holds its ground better than the rest thanks to a functionning non gcd approach ta makes people monitor distances and timing like any other mmo currently on the market; it also has a superior execution ceiling for a mmo and an engaging and pretty meta shaky pvp scene that has no entry cost. Best pve encounters are actually imho in those games, gl finding more engaging and dynamic than cm fractals and others raids that mix quality of life, social experience and sense of progression this well to this day, on some regards it is even better than wow for high end pve. Now about the population, it is stable at 180K daily players, those players often buy gems and even at the worst periods the economy is working. Speaking about the economy it is at a all time high, with ectoplasm prices being ridiculous, playing the game has rarely been as rewarding as right now. And then about the expansion scope: all those new weapons per class is literally crazy, in terms of complexity and variety added per class it is more than what ff xiv adds every 3 years per job. Then 2 months from now a end to the story with probably a big juicy meta event and some intanced content then another expansion for this year, likely in august or september, with even more new weapons and new maps. Compared to what the game had relatively speaking even at release, it is massive. If they keep this pace, the game will actually start growing back and at the end of the day they still can inovate. They are pretty attached to the formula but they can really inovate with 1 year expansions, tinkering with scalling or revisiting older content.
I was unsure wheter to buy SotO, and honestly as much as I like this game and I like to have access to as much content as possible I don't think this expansion is worth for the price it is being sold, anet is asking basically the same price as for EoD. There's nothing particular that calls my attention other than convenience perks, such as extra objectives in the wizard's vault or exclusive skins... And that in my opinion isn't worth the price of a full expansion. I agree with someone else's comment that SotO feels more like a living world season than a full expansion. Personally I'd rather get big content every now and then than mini expansions every year that will get rushed
Biggest frustration I have is the Skyscale that comes with both lead and crazy glue embedded into its feet. What damn flying dragon sinks like a hole riddled ship? At times, I miss events because I am trying to get up to the damn plateau where the action is taking place. Also, ArenaNet has never fired the creatively inept developer/designer of the Quaggan including its most aggravating and infantile voice over. Surely high on meth played a part in this? For new comers, many maps are like vacant parking lots. What is worse is when newcomers who do not have flying yet loose out on events because everyone flies to the destination and destroys the boss or completes the event before the new dude even gets to the place. Another HUGE pet peeve is that you have to buy the story with gems/cash if you were not playing at the time. That is like buying a game without quests because it is a separate purchase. Like seriously? It's a cash cow classic! Then you have this annoying push to change maps, change maps, aaaand change maps to have more players. Many players enjoy the game as is with a few grievances but far more have been frustrated, saddened, and utterly disappointed with this game's direction and development and graphical stagnation. I can go on a lot more but while I do like the game, I find myself logging off more than logging in.
PS: Rifts are dam boring, relic system would be very cool if not messed with all runes( still don't know what drug they used to make that decision ) and totally agree with the weapon master system - they should rebalance other weapons for not restrict the options for meta. I love to play ranger greatsword, but it doesn't run good in PVP or PVE.
I'm currently catching up on the 2nd and 3rd part of the story. From that I just don't like the fact that the problems you face in it could have been solved with the Commanders literal army.
I personlly think the Living World 4 had a storyline and maps much more better than the entire SoTO. I loved Zojja coming back to us, but the content felt rushed. Nayos is the worst map I have seen in the entire game, bland, small, too much flat. Liked a lot the new weapons especialization and the legendary armor colletction. The new characters, totally disconnected with the world felt weird. I would give a 6/10, the 3 first expansions gave much better content to us in terms of expansion.
I assumed you had like 10k subs from the quality of the video until I actually checked 😳 well done
So glad that you put this out and i thoroughly enjoyed it. I do hope you will continue to make gw2 videos. You have talent and a great take on things. Well done friend.
Is GW2 worse than it used to be? Perhaps 🤷♂
Is it still the only MMORPG worth playing? Definitely YES 😁👍💫
This feels like the only honest review unlike other youtubers who praise this DLC like it was on par to HoT, PoF and EoD. Thanks for the honesty.
Totally agree with you. Even with the good stuff, to me that was they worst expansion.
Locking content behind raid stile missions is killing the game. We told them when they did it and blocked so many from getting the turtle. Now they did it more and many can't finish the current end game. So many will quit, some will just not return to that map and so many who want to finish will again be left behind to languish behind raid content most don't care to or don't have the time to learn how to get past. WTG Anet.
Hey, I'm really curious about what you mean about "locking content behind raid style missions." As far as I'm aware, only skins are locked behind that type of content now, and SOTO didn't change that. Turtle also doesn't require you to do KO to acquire it anymore. Would love to hear your perspective.
This video is really well made, editing experience not being an issue for sure. Would love to see more constructive criticism videos like these, that propose solutions and highlights/pinpoints the things that can be improved! Hope to see some more in the future if you feel like sharing your opinions 😉
Fast forward to the World First race, where it's very clear that the new challenge mode strike is tuned around DPS benchmarks, then the powercreep is absolutely here to stay and going to get worse in the future.
I wouldnt say that, Virtuoso dps is not the reason it was used for Cerus CM, it was used for its ability to maintain decently high dps while staying at range and having high survival and utilities that compliment the group. If dps was the only reason, then everyone and their mom would be using Axe Condi Deadeye for that encounter. SC and Teapot did not wipe to enrage, they wiped to failed mechanics, that alone tells you its not a dps race. That said, there is some weapons that do need toning down and up.
Love the video, and amazing voice over :)
1st time hearing this amazing lady content creator, excellent analysis i subscribed , your content is very good ⭐⭐⭐
Randomly came across this video. Nice job! kinda makes me want to try the game out, never played b4.
Honestly, the game is super fun, especially if you are a new player! Base game is free, so give it a try :)
Great review, I've pretty much quit the game a few years ago but considering buying this, going through it and laying the game off again.
Tbh my biggest motivation to buy soto has been the vault special unlock
I love the game as a casual but this feels more like a living world than and exp
same
but the feelings I got from all their explanatios pre-soto was that now expacs = living world + extras
so i dont even mind that. I dont own soto for purely money reasons atm
Finally, someone pointed out the problems this expansion faces. I agree with many of the pros and cons. In particular, I like the close comparison between the expansions that have been released so far. SotO does not exist in a vacuum, only in a game that has been operating for a long time, and the price of this expansion, although lower, is only slightly lower so it should be assessed accordingly.
So glad you also said maps are laggy! I just assumed it was my potato computer. It I don’t that issue anywhere else so I was confused
Since no one asked I'll share my two cents (for perspective, a 9 year player who's loved this game so much I've never even really taken a break lol)
Everything in SOTO is ultimately fine, good, great even I dare say... except the maps. Those are just.. good. And I don't mean they aren't fun, really my only grievance is that it doesn't feel like enough. When you open the world map and look at it, it just feels small. Two is a fine number for launch, but they're only about HoT size rather than PoF, EoD, all the post-mount maps that we've become accustomed to. Reverting back to a medium size map feels jarring to me. But hey, two full ones for launch is still alright even at that size, what bothers me the most is that we're supposed to make it 9 months on only a single one, that's also that size?! If I was say, a Seitung sized block, I'd be happy with it. Or if we got two of ANY size, I'd be very pleased! But even though the map doesn't lack content by any means, it just feels small looking again at the map and seeing not much was extended. Which brings me to point out, I really genuinely am just talking about the size here. The content feels more densely packed and probably has as many events as other recent maps in former full sized expansions. It kinda feels *too* dense, like they could spread the same number of events over a 25% bigger map, and have people essentially get almost no further content beside the assets it takes to add the more map filling, and people would feel like they're getting more.
And that's the crux of the problem I think: how it FEELS. The maps are dense with events, I'm not bored of them I still have achievements to go after many months later! But every. Single. Time. I open the map, I feel like the maps are small and we were just slightly robbed. Every time I hope the future expansions give us either a fourth map or have the three we get be PoF-EoD sized. Genuinely this is my only real serious pain, the expansion adds an admirable number of features, legendaries, skins, story length, weapons for every single class, and so on, it's great! Just more map, please
Soto honestly feels a little more shallow than i prefer tbh. I hope they put more into gw2 in the future.
A well done video, nice overview of soto so far!
There will always be a best choice. Always. SotO didn't reduce the choice of builds viable, it has increased it a lot.
Also, there is already a in-engine setting that makes models far away with less polygons and low textures, as well as pop-in (even though it could be improved)
Amnytas indeed had low framerate
Also, I wonder when did you make this video? It seems not up to date
Where I was talking about build diversity, I was moreso commenting on lack of diversity among weapon choice for meta builds. I'm honestly not sure if there are more or less actual builds comparing pre and post SOTO. Sorry if that was unclear!
I recorded most of the footage while playing through SOTO at launch, some clips I recorded later to match up with whatever I was talking about in the video. The script I wrote about a month or two after launch, and it took me a long time to edit, so yes it is incredibly outdated at this point!
Thanks for your comment :)
Great video!
Funny how some people say you've been playing a different game than them, because this is exactly the game I'VE been playing, down to the 6/10 score 😆
Interesting video, thank you for all the effort put into it :D
If you plan on doing a follow up video, for the final content update or the next expansion, I'd love to hear more details at the end. If you say 6/10 that's a statement one can throw into the mix for sure, maybe consider listing some bullet points of what exactly is missing, which aspects brought the score up/down, what did or didn't you like in particular. What could ArenaNet do to release a better expansion next time? It's certainly hard to aim for 10/10 for a broad and diverse playerbase, but 6 seems to me to have a lot to be desired and missed potential and I would doubt any dev could look at that and say yeah good enough.
On a sidenote a score out of ten does muddy the waters if one would recommend the purchase of an expac. Because I've had the impression it's a good bang for your buck, being not the most expensive thing ever.
Thank you so much for your feedback! This is super helpful, and I agree. If I do another review video similar to this, I'll definitely be sure to explain my rating in more depth. I do feel like I should have clarified why I felt this way better at the end with bullet points and pros and cons.
I will be honest though, I think the expansion is good if you are a casual player, but I personally feel as though the price point is not worth the content we are getting overall. That being said, I don't regret buying the expansion or anything. I'm still having fun with the game! Price is definitely something I should have talked about in the video though... Perhaps a subject for another time? 👀
I also miss the bouncy chests for dailies :(
Video is pretty well made
A fine video. Can we have more please? 👍🏼
guild wa
What's worse than masteries that don't do anything or are just gatekeeping you from full content? Masteries that are just copy pasted old ones.
Rifts are a slog from not only being so far apart, but from how the enemies scale up so high that normal enemies have more hp than elites anywhere else in the game.
There are a lot of flaws in the new expansion, but at least the game play loop is working. It's just that there isn't much content that creates immersion, beyond the Isgarren collection after you complete the story that was available after initial release.
I am fine with salt, I do SPVP every single day but it almost feels like you and I played two entirely different expansions, Lol. Anyway, liked the video regardless. That was a very high quality editing, too.
I do not think gw2 is a dead game. Gameplay wise it holds its ground better than the rest thanks to a functionning non gcd approach ta makes people monitor distances and timing like any other mmo currently on the market; it also has a superior execution ceiling for a mmo and an engaging and pretty meta shaky pvp scene that has no entry cost. Best pve encounters are actually imho in those games, gl finding more engaging and dynamic than cm fractals and others raids that mix quality of life, social experience and sense of progression this well to this day, on some regards it is even better than wow for high end pve. Now about the population, it is stable at 180K daily players, those players often buy gems and even at the worst periods the economy is working. Speaking about the economy it is at a all time high, with ectoplasm prices being ridiculous, playing the game has rarely been as rewarding as right now.
And then about the expansion scope: all those new weapons per class is literally crazy, in terms of complexity and variety added per class it is more than what ff xiv adds every 3 years per job. Then 2 months from now a end to the story with probably a big juicy meta event and some intanced content then another expansion for this year, likely in august or september, with even more new weapons and new maps. Compared to what the game had relatively speaking even at release, it is massive.
If they keep this pace, the game will actually start growing back and at the end of the day they still can inovate. They are pretty attached to the formula but they can really inovate with 1 year expansions, tinkering with scalling or revisiting older content.
This is a really high quality video. I don't even play this game.
I dont think being old is an excuse for being mediocre...
I was unsure wheter to buy SotO, and honestly as much as I like this game and I like to have access to as much content as possible I don't think this expansion is worth for the price it is being sold, anet is asking basically the same price as for EoD. There's nothing particular that calls my attention other than convenience perks, such as extra objectives in the wizard's vault or exclusive skins... And that in my opinion isn't worth the price of a full expansion. I agree with someone else's comment that SotO feels more like a living world season than a full expansion. Personally I'd rather get big content every now and then than mini expansions every year that will get rushed
Biggest frustration I have is the Skyscale that comes with both lead and crazy glue embedded into its feet. What damn flying dragon sinks like a hole riddled ship? At times, I miss events because I am trying to get up to the damn plateau where the action is taking place. Also, ArenaNet has never fired the creatively inept developer/designer of the Quaggan including its most aggravating and infantile voice over. Surely high on meth played a part in this? For new comers, many maps are like vacant parking lots. What is worse is when newcomers who do not have flying yet loose out on events because everyone flies to the destination and destroys the boss or completes the event before the new dude even gets to the place.
Another HUGE pet peeve is that you have to buy the story with gems/cash if you were not playing at the time. That is like buying a game without quests because it is a separate purchase. Like seriously? It's a cash cow classic!
Then you have this annoying push to change maps, change maps, aaaand change maps to have more players. Many players enjoy the game as is with a few grievances but far more have been frustrated, saddened, and utterly disappointed with this game's direction and development and graphical stagnation. I can go on a lot more but while I do like the game, I find myself logging off more than logging in.
PS: Rifts are dam boring, relic system would be very cool if not messed with all runes( still don't know what drug they used to make that decision ) and totally agree with the weapon master system - they should rebalance other weapons for not restrict the options for meta. I love to play ranger greatsword, but it doesn't run good in PVP or PVE.
I'm currently catching up on the 2nd and 3rd part of the story. From that I just don't like the fact that the problems you face in it could have been solved with the Commanders literal army.
first :3 miss ya
Myrrh here
Miss you too! We will game again some day!
Damn, what a bleak outlook.....lol
I personlly think the Living World 4 had a storyline and maps much more better than the entire SoTO. I loved Zojja coming back to us, but the content felt rushed. Nayos is the worst map I have seen in the entire game, bland, small, too much flat. Liked a lot the new weapons especialization and the legendary armor colletction. The new characters, totally disconnected with the world felt weird. I would give a 6/10, the 3 first expansions gave much better content to us in terms of expansion.
Amnytas needs touch up fps lag usless design
After listening to this i have the feeling you played a very different game than my gf and i have...
WAY to harsh on soooo many points.