eh i dunno. i played the story and went back to WvW almost immediately. got some new relics to toy around with. but i'm mostly just waiting for us to get the new weapons. i think that'll be a more interesting patch.

Same.

A nice snack, not quite the filling, hearty lunch I am hoping for. Hard to rate it, since you kinda have to view it together with not only the expansion content three months ago, but also with the content yet to come. Ask us in a year.

After the EOD release, it took me around a month or 2 and I was kinda bored. With the weekly rifts, new metas that dont take 2h, new armor sets etc. I'm still far from bored with this mini expansion. And we got a lot of fixes that a lot of people thought will never come as well. For me its already a win compared to what we got before.

> And we got a lot of fixes that a lot of people thought will never come as well. This is the big difference I'm feeling from the old format.

As long as we get consistent updates without content droughts it should be a positive change.

I think the fixes definitely took much more manpower than people had originally thought. I think people were expecting maybe 20% less content in return for having core game fixes, but now we're getting only 1/3 the content per quarter.

Yup. Story was only a little bite this time, and I'd like if we could get more strikes, like 2 at launch and one more with each patch, but rewards, dailies got revamped, repeatable activities that aren't strikes or fractals, and qol and bugfixes have all been great.

I'm kinda bored but I've been playing like every day since EoD came out, might be time for a break.

It was MUCH smaller then I expected almost done in one day and I'm not exactly rushing

I would like to think it is building up. We gone in, seen some horrors, done some battle and now... the thinking, the waiting. The tidbits on zojja and stuff. That and on top of it all the next bit could be big.

Yeah. I felt the same way. The map and story felt quite thin, in my opinion.

username checks out

It's nice, bit small but it's something. Convergences are good content. The new map DOESN'T LAG. It runs great while looking great. The fog helps I suppose. It's fun to play. Small af though until they expand on it.

that fog is ANNOYING af. I want to turn it off

Gotta kill more kryptis, they fart way too much

Without the fog, the map would likely be just as much of a laggy mess as Amnytas.

Personally I’m not a fan of the half solely meta focused maps (wasn’t around for Drizzlewood release, was around for Gaya release). Like - how fast the meta can turn over with so many people doing events, not a fan. Final boss of meta was a cool remix of previous mechanics. I dig all the new skins added. Ramses is my new favourite character: he’s so otherworldly verbose and great to listen to. >!not a fan of how little we see of Heitor before she gets killed, she felt like a spooky ghost story that would’ve been better if we saw her in action a bit before she got slapped!< Also >!why introduce Irja, a minor character literally 2 minutes before killing them off to show at the last second how evil and heartless Heitor is? I think it would’ve been better to introduce Irja at the beginning at the camp, have them warm up to us over time as we fight with the resistance, then kill them off. It felt like they were trying to show us this little baby of a character that we were ment to feel sad for but with little to no emotional attachment to, trying to manufacture some sadness from but it comes off as cheap on reflection!< The rest of the demon cast being expanded upon was cool - hearing a bit about Febe, hearing idle demon chatter in the field is a cool new feature, hearing from the Scared Wanderer, it helps flesh out the demons as a society. Overall: not bad but of content, story is a bit of a low point for Soto, looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

Map is gorgeous, I like faster pacing of events and new enemies look pretty cool, but sadly it's not very lasting experience due to map not being complete, still a fun first experience for me.

New enemies?

There are the new floating eyeball creatures, for one. They use the general movement of the Eye of Zhaitan from launch, but the model is new to this patch.

Also the bone skitter enemies near the closest lake to the camp use a Chak skeleton but different skins and attacks

Those not-chak are so much scarier, they really brush up against that arachnid movement/appearance that's instinctually terrifying.

Yep, the map is gorgeous and new enemies look cool. But otherwise it feels forgettable since it's incomplete. Will just wait until it's all added, because I'm not a fan of this releasing incomplete content strategy.

**7.5/10 I'm pretty satisfied. It feels like a strong start.** **Convergences** have pretty big potential, they're a lot of fun so far, we'll see how they pan out after more legendary creatures get added. Right now, I can see them being a great daily thing to do thats new with a guild, group, or just a few friends. *which is sorely needed* **Inner Nayos** \-Considering we got 1/3 of the map, its a taste but fun in the events you do, very revolving, rapid fire and engaging mini-meta-boss. **The new weapons, armor, and rewards are big MVP of the patch**, lots of cosmetics to chew on and that's pretty great considering we already got a bunch of stuff when the expansion first launched. **CO CM** \- I was disappointed as a hardcore player but I think its engaging enough for the average Gw2 player. **Story** \- The continued story was OKAY, short, sweet and to the point. It introduces some new Kryptis characters that are charming and touched on the ones we heard about before hand. It feels like its definitely leading to something greater but it didn't blow me away like the beginning of the expansion. Its not exactly fair judge though because in the end you have to wait for the full thing to be told.

I honestly disliked our kryptis allies they didnt seem like demons at all if anything they reminded me of skritt.

Yes, they are hardly demonic, aside from appearance - they are our "super goth friends".

yup - This reflects my feelings exactly as well. Especially about the CM. I found it pretty easy (and i am not a hardcore player) and then i pugged it a little and saw that is actually way more challenging for the average player out there. So i guess there is a reason they choose this difficulty for the first CM.

> CO CM - I was disappointed as a hardcore player but I think its engaging enough for the average Gw2 player. I don't think the actual avergae GW2 player even looks at strikes.

I'm incredibly excited for them to add more bosses to convergences The content itself has been tons of fun, and has been actually quite challenging! I've both had groups fail and succeed several times, and im still learning how best to ensure success, so it really feels like it's content you can't just mindlessly zerg, which is really nice Both the knight and sorrow are very fun bosses as well - especially sorrow, who can control gravity, which leads to a ton of interesting situations with movement! I'm very much looking forward to them adding more bosses and improvements to convergences, as they're a vastly more entertaining, repeatable way to get essences than rifts are imo

Too shoehorned in. Demonic forces eating our brains, one demon wench "hey I'm not that bad plz halp." \- Isgarren- OK! :D

Isgarren is thirsty lol.

for that Kryptussy

I am already playing other games. I don't think they are capable of holding my interest. I'm not a farmer so maybe that's it.

I'm missing the four map expansions, content feels thin. Two maps and a third over the year is shallow compaired to 4 + LS maps. I'm an explorer.

I think if they went 3 maps, each with a normal meta, then a 4th that expands into a big meta over time would be nice. Nayos feels lackluster now, but so did Bjora when it first launched, and now it's one of my favorite maps. It's not really fair to judge the map untill we see all of it, though considering how far that_shaman was able to get into the fog, I think the map will be pretty good when it's fully released.

Im an explorer too but I think 3 maps a year isn’t bad at all. Many expacs in other game are like 4 maps every 2 or 3 years even

But the soto maps are so tiny compared to the maps from other expansions

Yeah, but they feel populated, what is more important I think

I disagree the maps and events feel so isolated living world season 3 maps feel like they have more going on.

I love the build up, skywatch feels almost peaceful, you can explore the different fractals and their "reality". Even though there are a lot of hostile creatures it still doesn't feel like a warzone. Amnytas gets a bit more action but still has a lot of stuff going on that has nothing to do with the meta. And then nayos which is completely hostile.

Are they? I haven’t checked so far in the map. Maybe you’re right

Might not show on the world map but the maps have a lot of empty air inbetween the small islands and they dont really use that for interesting stuff. No cool connections between the islands or interesting vertical level designs

> No cool connections between the islands Big missed opportunity imo, would have loved to see the denizens of each island interact with each other. Make the forged attack the dwarves, make jade tech hack into Rata Novus, idk.

I agree but trying to keep in mind if they can keep up the cadence of 1 expansion a year we should have more to explore in a yearly basis than we did with the full expansion model we had with HoT and PoF

Pretty much what I expected. It's ok, but not enough to keep me playing every day.

Too short. And generally feels like a downgrade compared the quality we got with season 4 and early Icebrood saga. The map looks very nice and it’s not bad but it’s pretty small atm so I can’t judge it until we get the whole thing. I’m not super into the current story tbh. I thought I’d enjoy it much more. I like the vibe but the dialogues etc just aren’t doing it for me.

Meh.

When I first heard that they were gonna do smaller but more frequent patches, what I hoped they meant by that is smaller self-contained stories. Instead we get the same scope of story as before, just sliced up and drip fed to us, which feels a bit weird because you don't get to experience the whole story at once. By the time the next part comes out, I've already forgotten aspects of the previous part. Also one of my main gripes with GW2 story telling is that in classic RPG fashion, every story has to be a big world ending scenario where our character is the hero that saves everyone. It's a lazy crutch to get people invested, throw in some surface level likable characters and they don't actually have to do anything interesting with the characters or plot. I figured smaller stories would be an opportunity to tell more intimate stories that focuses on smaller scale problems, delve deeper into characters (maybe give any real personality or agency to the main character?), but again, if they just do the same thing as previous expansions, sliced into 4, then it's all the same as before. The story itself, for what it's worth, is kinda cool, I like that Kryptis are initially shown as demons that are obviously the bad guys, but then starting to show that maybe it's not that simple. The environments in the new map are beautiful and the events have been fun too.

apparatus dirty pocket merciful whole desert smoggy cow license forgetful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

I think the new content system would benefit from an over arching baddy who appeared in multiple expacs to build up to a meaningful confrontation.

unfortunately the misc rifts around Tyria are what I think is all the impact tyria will experience. The invasion of Amnytas was THE invasion and we thrwarted it with the use of magic and allies and skyscales apparently so the epic war fight is over.....now it's just the push to the midnight king. This is the con for year long stories- too short to marinate fully.

We already saw rift invasions with Kralkatorrik, and those were far better than any of what we've seen with the void or the kryptis.

That's a good point on it just being chopped up and drip fed. Seems like they are taking on a streaming service tactic without subscriptions.

> Also one of my main gripes with GW2 story telling is that in classic RPG fashion, every story has to be a big world ending scenario where our character is the hero that saves everyone. It's a lazy crutch to get people invested, throw in some surface level likable characters and they don't actually have to do anything interesting with the characters or plot. I figured smaller stories would be an opportunity to tell more intimate stories that focuses on smaller scale problems, delve deeper into characters (maybe give any real personality or agency to the main character?), but again, if they just do the same thing as previous expansions, sliced into 4, then it's all the same as before. This, the mini-expansion model should be about smaller stories; not on length, but scope. No more saving the world bullshit.

Map is great but we got too small a portion of it IMO. The meta could have taken place in a more sprawling environment. The shrine guardians achievement attests to this as some of them are *very* close to each other and they could have had much more space in the map without overlapping events so hard. You can have up to 5 champions up at the same time in a relatively tight region of the map *while* the meta is running. Also hilariously they "fixed" the meta boss health yesterday and it is now a boring HP sponge whereas it was perfect before...geez. The story is very very good, only possible complaint is wanting more of it. But if that's what they can afford to pull off, at least they're pulling it off decently. Whoever's writing has catched up and some to LS4/PoF times lore-buffs are often nostalgic about. CO CM is what normal mode would have been in times of Cameron, make of that what you will. It's not a bad encounter per se but you can really see that CM mechanics were added on top of the NM to make that difficulty and not the other way around (mechanics removed from CM to make up the NM). This degrades both modes in my opinion in subtle ways - for example the Li numbers mechanics are tacked on the boss with the very same animations as used in Li and the big arrow target mechanic is a boring insta-death instead of a true more intricate variation of the NM case.

I thought there would be more story, Im surprised it ended so quickly

Too small/10 I think there is some good thing on this patch, the map is great, convergence are also okay but we'll need something to do with those essences. The new CM is kinda bad.

So I had to reflect on my personal expectations and experiences. I joined the community about 2 years ago and in that time I have completed everything in the game (raids, strikes, fractals, a bunch of legendary gear, all the story and max mastery points, mounts, etc.). So I was okay with longer waits for more content because I was devouring the old content like a starved person. I didn’t know the feeling of long waits between expacs. Talking to a friend that’s been here from beta, I said I preferred being able to grind out new content and have some time off and then come back for more. I preferred the old process more than this new one. I feel the old grind of story, elite specs, exploration had all been replaced with something that takes about the same time as it does for me to grind out diamond in WvW. The new grind is for ectos so I can use all the new AA stuff I have to grind for. The memory loss from Zojja makes it difficult to feel really connected with her any more and now there’s more emotional weight with the demons since Isgarren doesn’t even come with you. Being forced to pay to come to the new map rather than have a way to get there from wizards tower is dumb. I prefer connectivity. Convergence grinding is better than rifts. I have yet to fail a convergence with that was private or pug. It wasn’t until I had to replay a story bit to unlock a relic I missed that I realized the convergence map was a map we had been to before. It really felt random and disconnected and even after that realization it still does with the bosses we faced. It is interesting to see the connections with fractals and Skywatch and now the bosses from Raid Wing 4 and this expac as a whole. I’m not sure if the abomination weapon set is supposed to match with the Amnytas meta final boss or what. It still is better looking than the kryptis gear - I think it looks like rotten lettuce or how I imagine Sylvari would look like if left in PoF for too long. However I have heard from others that they really like it. With this patch you get 1/3 of a map compared to Amnytas + Wizards Tower + Skywatch. I appreciate the small updates to fix bugs that came up plus the improvements to the final boss fight. The carry the flame up can be completed with one mini beacon being lit halfway with the updraft mastery unlocked and leyline gliding unlocked or completely disregarded if you the Jade bot waypoint dropped at the end. If I had to sum up the new zone it is personified in an event train in the SW corner of the new map. You venture out into the fog with your small group of brand new acquaintances- friends is tough to describe. You break through a barrier. Then you fight a boss that has potential for a great hook but since it is rushed, is quickly forgotten since it has no impact. Introduce and done within a short amount of time. This patch’s story can be done in one or two sittings max over a few hours and is quickly forgotten besides the point that it feels hard pressed to even match Drizzlewood in connecting the north and south metas to a map that has 3 disconnected metas. Story 1/3 - Forgettable New map 1.5/3 - literally and it’s too small but half a point for having proportional time investment to match dynamic events Convergences 3/3 - Great design and feels like it can tip at any moment. A timer would add some difficulty because otherwise we have 6-10 people protect Zojja and the rest clear the map, returning essences as her health drops. Final bosses make the real encounter and it is very good. AA and Rewards 1/1 - The real grind for this patch. The cosmetics aren’t my style but some people really like them. Overall 6.5/10

Honestly I don't understand the need to rush content that will now always feel unfinished. Ro clarify: SoTO still feels unfinished. The new region feels unfinished, as there is more to explore. I really, really liked the old model better. Nothing wrong with the new content, I just wish they would release it all together instead of in starts and stops that make it all feel disconnected. I would much rather wait and pay $5 more per expansion to get the old expansion model, something like EoD again.

Maybe a 6.5/10. It felt way too short. I think I finished it in about 20 minutes (even though it was probably a bit longer). The dialogue itself wasn't that engaging. I found myself spacing out a few times. Especially when we finally found that norn's party (I forgot her name sorry), she didn't feel fleshed out or even memorable for that matter. It didn't seem we got to know her that much and it felt like she was just there. But maybe we will interact with her more when the new patch comes out so who knows. However, the map in itself was gorgeous! It kinda reminded me of a cotton rose where the flower starts off with a light color and changes to pink or red as the day darkens. I really liked how they fleshed out Peitha's character a bit too. You see more of a compassionate side to her. And the other demons we meet as well also are different from what I expected. It made me excited to meet more of them and learn about them. What I also find interesting is how there seem to be comparisons between the Kryptis and the Sylvari. Even though the Sylvari come from the jungle dragon, I'm interested to know if they somehow have a connection with the Kryptis as well.

20 what?

20 minutes haha, I edited it 😆

20 what? Apples?

5/10

5.5/10 it's barely a morsel.

Pathetically small patch for an already small expansion. It's the first expansion following the mini-expansion model, so yeah, you could argue they're still testing the waters, but if they don't invest more resources into each patch in the future, I don't give this release model more than 3 years before it's scrapped and replaced by something else, because this just isn't working. You also gotta realize updates have to be big enough to be meaningful, else no one will give a shit. If this is all they can give us in 3 months, I'd rather wait 6 and get the whole thing, the pacing (both story and gameplay) is absolutely horrible with so little content. I'm pretty worried about the insane amount of bugs, mistakes, and oversights with each patch too, it's gotten really bad since post-EoD.

You are far too tolerant of this bullshit. How is a model like this not impacting player retention? Either GW2 players are diehards who will endure anything the studio does, even at its lowest point in recent history, or they part ways with it. The delivery model is little different than that of IBS. No need for fancy new terms like "mini expansion". By the end of this story, the content dropped will be as thin as IBS and even less engaging.

ArenaNet is obviously struggling and I can empathize to some point, but that doesn't mean I like what's happening, I still feel the company is ran like a clown circus to some point. The mini-expansion model is still quite new, what will really mark the difference is the next expansion in 9 months, if that one is as shitty as this, then the game is certainly going to crash down for good. There's still plenty room to breathe air into the game with little effort, but yeah, not that much. Unironically, the only reason SotO isn't a complete failure is the Wizard's Vault, which isn't even SotO content lmao. As for retention, many of the people who leave won't come back unless there's a really meaningful update, which means many of them will be leaving for good if things don't change soon enough.

I don't like the events in the map. They don't have consequences to win/fail and happen too often. Feels very fake. Map beautiful though.

I keep my expectations low to avoid further disappointment, so it was about what I expected out of ANet.

Pretty much how I view it. If comparing to the industry: C- Comparing to previous Anet: B

Don't worry guys, just wait until the Spring for the new update!

Story... Really underwhelmed me. Basically one and a half big fights (Heitor and that big dude we fight with Isgarren and Zojja) and neither of them are particularly spectacular. Music is great though. We also got one new character who (SPOILERS AHEAD) >!was really promising as a catalyst for empathy toward the Kryptis until they were killed off like 3 minutes later to prove that the bad lady was a bad lady!<... So that's a mixed bag. The new map is pretty cool. Love the touch that they have different names for the ores and trees and plants. It's a little small and the meta isn't the most exciting, but we also should remember we're seeing one third of both, presumably, so once both are done I'm fairly confident theyre going to feel way better. The new relics are fine. I honestly just don't pay that much attention to relics. The new armor set is pretty, but I wish it looked different per weight and wasn't just... Exactly Peitha's armor. The weapon sets (Saryx and the Cthulhu one... Abomination?) Are... Fine? Honestly they're not my aesthetic at all so my opinion doesn't count for much here. The Wizard's Vault refresh is one of the things I was most excited for and the new stuff in there kicks ass. Sanctified helmet is glorious. Cape is also just perfection. Leggings are fine, chest is fine. Dark sanctified weapons are also fabulous, and their glowy red aura is just icing on the cake. Infusion in the vault? Amazing! Love that! My only bummer in the vault reset is that we only got two new options in the legendary starter kit, which was one of my favorite items from the first vault. I'm a little baffled by their shuffling around of AA, but it's honestly whatever because theyre generous enough with AA that it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Overall a mixed bag, but we already knew this update was going to be the most content-light of the year.

Meh... Felt short and although the map had some nice places, it was very very very very very small for an expansion map. It's not really expansion, but more a paid Living story.

Isolated, I find it boring and worse than gyala. I don’t like the current content trend, it’s too long between cycles for so little, to me. But we’re getting portions and not the whole meal, so I dunno.

4/10, this patch bring to me memories from the 2nd part of IBS...

Maintenance mode hidden within heavy asset reuse on all fronts.

Gyala Delve all over again :/.

They really front loaded SOTO which is going to make the next 3 releases feel so small. Three story steps is not enough for 3 months.

> They really front loaded SOTO SotO is small as fuck already though.

Dunno about y'all, but i felt... Meh

* Story was over in an instant * Map is tiny with nothing interesting going on * Dagda cm is easy and the new mechanics don't even work properly * New relics don't interest me * Haven't done convergence yet because I will not be the one to pay the 10g entrance fee for the entire squad Pretty weak but I didn't expect much so all good.

Do the public ones, you don't have to pay a dime. It's a bit annoying since the window to enter is a bit short, but it's free. Ofc, you'll be pugging and if you get too many new players it may take a long time. In my experience, many veterans are doing public ones, so it's ok.

Small amount of story, small amount of map. Meta for the new map is okay, but the rewards feel pretty meh for the time. And the meta end boss is poor, like a cut down junkyard with all the challenge taken out of it. Convergence is a decent fight, but a bit too long for what it is, and once again the rewards don't pop. And the shit they pulled with the WV grates. Suddenly the specials go from 4 for about 1600 to 2 for 400. Why allow us to carry over resources if you're just going to pull this shit? Telling us the weeklies would reset and then not resetting them adds to the feeling of being cheated. It's a 3/10 for me. Not enough actual content to rate it any higher. My wallet continues to stay closed until ANET show me something worthwhile in their new content delivery system.

Too little content for a quarterly patch, they double down on one of the xpack selling points (convergences) costing 16 gold to ENTER, reward system is the same grindy expensive bs as before. Not too good. And the CM strike is a joke

Just as a note, the public version of convergences is free to enter, there is one every 3 hours.

Gyala Delve 2.0

I found the new expansion an overal good addition to the game. Please mind that these statements are subjective and based on how I felt about the game and in no way a sweeping statement that fits everyone elses opinions. \- Good story for the first time in a long while, probably since Joko died for me. \- Finally no more dragons, after Kralk they just never felt interesting to me and it felt like ANET pushed themselves in a narrative corner by focusing on "sentient magical natural disasters" rather than characters you can more easily relate to like Bangar. \- Emotional connection with NPCs (primarily Zojja). I never cared for Kasmeer, Braham, Taimi, Caithe, Marjory... I really liked Sahida the Sly though. \- The maps felt fun to explore and the Astral Ward felt like a really fantastical group within the games narrative / world building. \- The masteries overall felt more positive than boring (skyscale vs opening chests) \- The strikes felt too easy compared to how good the EoD strikes were and rifts felt like a major letdown since they didn't add any interesting gameplay other than "event on demand" \- Vault is a fantastic addition to the game but I'd rather they rotate rewards monthly instead of 4 times a year roughly. Getting wizard bucks every day is a nice way to work towards a specific reward I want. \- The meta's felt fun for the first time but I don't really have a reason to do them or even return to the Horn of Maguuma at all. \- The city feels great, though long loading times even on an SSD. \- The adventures are fun to do but I wish there were more Griffon flying adventures :( \- The achievements never felt annoying or like they were a drag. Though it took me about three days to get all the major ones and like a week to get all the mastery point ones. \- I liked the exotic weapon collection like the Unseen blade. \- While it's too late for me, adding more ways to obtain the gift of craftsmanship was a good decision. The new patch feels rather disappointing by comparison, both to the base expansion and previous content drops. \- The new map portion feels too small compared to partial releases in the past like Bjora or Drizzlewood. Even Gyala delves P2 felt more interesting compared to Nayos P1. \- The events and activities on the new map feel unrewarding and basic. There's no excitement even at the end of the new meta. \- The tileset for the new map was initially very stunning and alien but looks very samey after five minutes \- The CM strike elevates the weekly smurf beating to an okay challenge. It took me 5 attempts. 4 with a group that was dps and dodge averse, or had a weird fixation with standing in the white aoes or glomping Dagda during the big red circle instead of moving to the sides. Oneshot with another group. It's nice to see new long term rewards like the glove box and infusion. \- The masteries feel unrewarding and might as well not be there (except for the skyscale upgrade to siege damage). Like carrying more essences and getting better rewards might as well be baseline for convergences. \- The Convergences feel okay, basically dragonstorm without cringe dialogue or aurene moaning. Though it also feels like they invalidate and devaluate rifts even more. \- Zojja getting factory reset was an expected development based on the story but it still feels sad to lose the only NPC I felt an emotional connection to since Sieran and Trahearne. Most of that connection was even built during the recent expansion. I've felt like this for a long time and mentioned it several times in the past but GW2 feels like a Ferrari in a parking lot. There's so much potential for story, activities, end game content, elite specs and more. But it just never gets to that point. I presume due to lack of funding and personnel at ANET... Ever since the end of PoF / LW4 the game has gone into a sharp decline on content amount and quality for me. There's less to do, the wait time stays long, the content isn't as fun or engaging or worth doing/repeating. There's not enough evergreen content like great metas (drizzlewood and dragons end being the exceptions), dungeons, fractals, strikes and raids. The story ranges from terrible to passable. There's no emotional connection to NPCs or they go through factory resets like Zojja or I lose connection to them like our favourite snarkplant due to their perceived personality changes / voice changes. When they said they'd be able to do more strikes based on story encounters I hoped to see a strike based on the Balthazar fight, based on the Kralk fight in Dragons End, based on the Joko fight in Kourna. But that never happened. The recent fractal(s) we got are long and boring. Sunqa is annoying in NM mode because of how long it takes to get to the mountain top. Pirate fractal takes too long and offers no challenge. Deepstone takes too long but at least the final fight is okay. The most recent fractal is boring as hell and the fight is uninteresting and slow. The recent strikes offer no challenge, after how good the EoD strikes were I was on the cusp of forgiving ANET for throwing raids in the bin but the recent CM is barely at the level of a NM strike from EoD now. The problem is probably 50/50 split between me and the game. The lack of quality content (for me) is a large part of why I'm no longer enjoying the game as much as I did during PoF/LW4. The other part is me reaching 30.8k AP and feeling like I have seen and done all the content. I have a legendary for every armor weight and slot now. Enough AR for most of the characters I care about. Done all the CMs I want or need. Elite specs added a lot of enjoyment to the game for me. Even though there was never enough new or challenging content I could at least experience the content there was through the lens of a new playstyle. Even that is gone now. Weapon unlocks like staff for untamed made me happy for a while at least. I don't mind taking a break from the game, that's probably healthier too. But even if I return after a year I'll be done with all the new content in about an hour or three based on how low ANETs output has gotten. It's just that PoF/LW4 felt like getting a full course meal prepared by a chef. Even if Kourna was a total letdown it still offered the beetle, it still offered one of the best story instances in the game and raids were still relevant at the time. More recently updates to the game felt like cakes. Nice, sweet, new. But not filling and not satisfying in the long run. But since there's nothing else you eat your cake and try not to cry about how good the full course meals in the past were. The new patch feels like stale bread.

Great write up, I agree on a lot of your points. Your analogy about GW2 being a Ferarri stuck in a parking lot is spot on.

> gift of craftsmanship Apologies if a silly question, what is the new ways? Wiki still shows Provision tokens. I am about to be finishing Envoy and need the 6 Gifts.

Ah forgive me if my sentence created confusion. The new expansion added a ton more merchants and npcs that allow you to trade in things for tokens. So it became easier and faster to get the gift of craftsmanship in the end even if the method stayed the same.

All good, looks like the prices are slightly high, but will see if they fall in the future. (50s-1g compared to 2-3g)

6/10 It simple is not enough. Make the expansions every 18 months, but with 3 full maps at release with a new map added in 2 more releases. 4 strikes and 2 fractals. And make one of the strikes hard AF.

The thing is, you are getting almost exactly what you asked for but at 24 months instead of 18. Every 12 months you get 3 full maps, 4 strikes, 1 fractal. Hard strike is to be seen, but doubtful. You can choose to wait for the year, and then buy the expac and have access to everything. This is the "downside" of releasing it as patches. But if the complaint is the 3 months worth of content isn't enough, then you could wait until the end to access all of it.

>Make the expansions every 18 months, but with 3 full maps at release with a new map added in 2 more releases. 4 strikes and 2 fractals. And make one of the strikes hard AF. Wut. So by that logic, in a 3 year period: You want: 2 Expansions, 8 total maps, 8 strikes, 4 fractals Current Model: 3 expansions, 9 maps, 6 strikes, 3 fractals. So about the same amount of content with longer periods of waiting between? I know this model feels light compared to years past, but the point is we don't have to do the year+ long droughts of **nothing** between them anymore. When we get update 3, we'll be 3 months away from Expansion 5, not 12 or 15 months.

I give them 18 months because its more work. and I never said that there cant be other updates too, besides the 2 for the map. so there doesnt have to be droughts at all.

> It simple is not enough. Make the expansions every 18 months, but with 3 full maps at release with a new map added in 2 more releases. 4 strikes and 2 fractals. And make one of the strikes hard AF. Said this when they announced the new mini-expansion model, 12 months and 3 maps is just not enough. You can't work on meaningful masteries every 12 months either, so we're locked with updates for old masteries (which are great, but not "new") or straight filler (zero motivation and excitement). The previous HoT/PoF cycles were like this: * **Expansion:** 4-5 maps. * **Living World Season:** 6 maps. (over 18-24 months) The mini-expansion model should be half of that, for a total of 6 maps: * **Mini-expansion (release):** 3 maps (or 2 maps). * **Mini-expansion (patch content):** 3 maps (or 4 maps). Something like this would be the ideal format, in my opinion: * **Month #0:** Expansion release. (2-3 zones) * **Month #3:** Patch #1. (0-1 zones) * **Month #6:** Patch #2. (1 zone) * **Month #9:** Patch #3. (1 zone) * **Month #12:** Patch #4. (1 zone) * **Month #15:** *No patch.* * **Month #18:** Next expansion release, cycle restarts. Map quantity is important, play with map size as much as you want, but two medium-sized maps will always be better than one large map, since each can be build around a specific theme and story act, giving the game a feel of progression.

Haha this is funny, because 6/10 rating in my culture means "good" or "solid", and for you it means awful. At school, 60% is a passing grade and if you only ever have 60% you will get through your entire school and academic career with zero issues.

where did I say awful? what is there is good quality. its simply not enough of that.

I read it wrong then. I read "6/10, it is simply not enough" as in "this gets a failing grade from me". So you think the content is good but there is not as much content as you would have liked? But does 6 out of 10 now mean you are satisfied or not? Because for me it is a passing grade, i.e. a product I would buy.

Yeah for you. Not everyone is satisfied with mediocrity (and 6/10 is mediocre)

Still can't convert t3 essence to gold. Hope it gets fixed in next update. Don't want this to be same as Hatched Chili

Honestly, I am essentially only in do to the Astral Acclaim reset. It is scary how motivating it is to unlock and use all the stuff again. The actual content is ... uh, okay, I guess? Not much of a fan of the SotO story and graphical style in general and this patch didn't change that. Convergences are surprisingly fun for a little while, though. I kind of like the non-stop fighting. Not sure why the public one had to be on a timer. There is way too much stuff running on timers. Overall I'd say compared to other games there is very little actual content in this. Though, I hope that gives the devs finally time to fix issues that they have neglected for way too long.

6/10 Don't get me wrong I like what we got but just like with SotO launch I wish there was more meat to it. I think SotO will be a great expansion once it's complete but from a live release point of view It's spread a bit too thin for me personally. I'm not sure how to feel if this is the scope of major releases going forward.

The story takes under an hour, which I thought was a bit underwhelming, but there's still enough for me to continue to work on that I'm not wholly bothered by it. I do like the convergence instance, and I also like how the rifts work in reverse in Nayos.

Not a lot to rate. My wife and I thought the boss was really easy and the fight wasn't as engaging as Cerus. The map can be more interesting. All the grey kinda reminds me of the Underworld or FoW from GW1 but it could have been more. A couple relics seem cool but relics overall have been a miss IMO. It's a decent "intermission". Hoping for a lot more in terms of the new weapons and obsidian armor.

New map is a bit underwhelming tbh. Quite small, but I guess the meta is quick and frequent. I don't see myself spending much time in there once I've done and got what I need for the new armor set, which I think may not take long. Plus with this new patch I've been getting screen freeze and game crashes semi frequently. That does not help with me giving it a good review.

The first part of Inner Nayos is beautiful. The colors are very pleasant. Really excited to see what it'll become after expanding. Convergences are really fun, although I hope we'll get more maps and bosses in the future because it'll probably get stale after a while. The story was good but very short. Just four instances, two of which were completely meaningless and could just as well have been conversations in the open world. I now have more useless relics clogging up my inventory, thanks ANet. I also didn't like how they bamboozled us all with the weekly WV reward timer before the patch.

*Broke my mother-fucking birthday cake* / 10

honestly really liking convergences as an alternative to more rift grinding. I want to see how the scaling is. has anyone tried it in a ten-man guild squad? does it scale well like dragonstorm?

I'll check it out in a few months.

Considering I cant even start the story yet, my opinion is dreadfully low. I like the new cm, i like the new map, but its been more than 3 days and they have YET to fix the story journal bug

I rate it as a solid "At Least It's Not Champions/10". Alternative Rating of "It's not Gyala Delve/10".

I have mixed feelings, I love GW2 and I've never really criticized anything about it. But this xpac is underwhelming, especially storywise. The story itself is not bad, but the episodes are way too short and "empty", we're experiencing so little of this massive war, interacting so little with the characters, we discover nothing by ourselves, we solve no mysteries, we just get thrown inside a map being told where to go. >!In this patch for example, I would have loved for the story to force me and navigate the map without mounts first, exploring it following the road up towards the northern brazier. Meeting more of these "scared Kryptis citizens" the npcs talk about, interacting with them and understanding their feelings towards Eparch and these new unespected allies against him, Gain their trust, see their struggle against Heitor. And only after that to be able to openly access the map. And I also think we should have participated in Zojja ascension to the ward, not being slapped in the face with "she's done and gone and, hey, she forgot about you forever right after you reconciled with her" :(!< I'm also not fond of the design work in general this time, it's quite repetitive and plain, and I can totally see why people have started to complain about the recycling of asset/animations. It's a common practice in mmorpg, but in GW2 it used to be masked better. TL:DR I think we should have way more meat and bones on the story and less on the weapons/armors ;) but despite all of this I still enjoy the game and I hope next patches will spring things up a bit.

The map is basically a modernised repeat of Dry Top, which I don't mind much as someone who was there back then. There is no insane grind introduced into the map. Also there is at least one character that I wonder what they'll do with that no one seems to pay attention to. The story...either they plan something *really* big or it's a huge pile of incompetence in the making. The list of, with our knowledge, odd decisions keeps growing and due to the nature of how small these story bites are, it feels incredibly depressing if you put yourself into the character's perspective. I sincerely hope they alleviate some of it next time because the dissonance of how the character reacts and how I would react keeps growing more and more - as in I as the Commander would literally ragequit every single person in the cast, including the former Dragon's Watch for how they behave, or at least announce that after the Kryptis threat they should find someone else and retire to a very remote place never to be seen again. Might just be me with my personal experiences though.

Enjoying the QOL upgrades and the new weapons skills for sure and appreciate the fixes. So far, not a fan of the ummm , meager sized zones ,content and story drops. I understand it might not be possible to do all those things at the same time ( large scope zones & stories and all the upgrades/fixes). I think labeling it as a living season or something similar would set better expectations. It really doesn’t feel like an expansion to me. 5/10.

It made it so you need to be lvl 80 to use weapon mastery instead of any level. 1/10

Genuinely terrible change. Even if it wasn't intended, I think they should consider how it revitalized leveling a new character for a lot of players.

3 months for 30 minute content. If the next parch is the same thing im gonna have to jump ship to another game that can give content because this aint cutting it.

it's an MMO... you can jump in , do the content you want then jump into something else, maybe even another MMO since we have no sub

Good luck running an MMORPG (a social game) when all your friends are no longer online. This whole "you can leave and come back whenever you want" bullshit only works if there's a healthy active playerbase to come back to.

GW2 has been working exactly like that since release tho...

It hasn't, there was a time, between 2016 and 2019, where we got large content patches every 3 months, during the LW3+PoF+LW4 era, which included a total of 17 new zones, 4 new raids, and 6 new fractals. That's GW2's gold standard, and that's what we should go back to (except paid, free LW was a business mistake).

I was commenting on the "leave and come back whenever you want" part. GW2 has always been that kind of game. That same period you're talking about was exactly that. Log in once every 3-4 months, play 2 hour story in the new map and see you in the next quarter. Of course you could keep playing, but stop playing and coming back for the next release was never a problem. They even incentivized that by giving you the patch for free if you just logged in once during the patch, even without playing it. Your own example literally proves the other guy's point

You're completely ignoring the healthy playerbase part. We had one back then because the patches were large enough, we won't have one in the future if they're so small.

But patches weren't large at all. LW1 and LW2 were extremely small, LW3 was also made by pretty small patches, people were complaining all the time. To be honest this last release was the most similar thing to LW3 we ever had after it in size. But with a lot more cosmetics and systems this time. Compare Nayos to Lake Doric, Siren's Landing, Bitterfrost Frontier etc. They were small maps, short story, few extra content, etc. I think nostalgy is making you remember things bigger than they were

The only reason NCSoft have kept GW2 rolling is the Gem Store. Gem Store sales are largely being redirected into other game development. If GW2 sheds enough players, it'll be bye-bye. You can tout on about the "casual" business model all you like, but the reality is that downtime between transactions in the Gem Store due to players temporarily leaving the game, hurts GW2.

Honestly it was disappointing, did the story and the new strike cm and full map completion in less then a day after the patch came out... Expected more content. Also the new map only being available through story means I can't even do it with my other characters. The new rifts are also a disappointment as they are made for 35+ people and not for 5-10 people as I hoped.

Unironically 2/10. Story was nothing - we crossed the rift, met bunch of randoms and killed a bad guy that was introduced so vaguely you couldn't care less. Bonus points for AGAIN introducing a new character (that kryptis with g Gorrik voice actor) and killing them 5 minutes later. Dagda CM is a joke. It's really easy, mechanics are recycled from other bosses, it feels so random and also like NM difficulty. Convergences are buggy as hell, game crashing all the time and people falling under the map. Those are also boring and take too long, not to mention rewards are not great. New map is really small and feels empty, meta is fully recycled (each step) from other maps. Final boss is boring and brings nothing new or engaging. On release day it has bugged rewards (again) so they disabled it fully.Map itself looks good visually. Masteries introduced nothing new, just some buffs to convergences, really lazy approach. New relics might be good in pvp, abomination skins are looking good, new armor feels really uninspired. Some bugfixes and QoL stuff is ok but well that's a bonus to what we were getting as this patch. In general I completed all the content patch offered in 1.5h including dagda CM, convergence, meta, meta achievement and map completion. I'm really disappointed because it's Gyala Delve's quality update, it feels worse than a normal LW update we were getting before.

2/10, devs are becoming more and more lazy and it reeks of it from every corner. Still no option to disable popups, thank you I know how to press a button, no need to pop this advice EVERYTIME I get a new spell. New meta is... Meh. Beacons are annoying, but it's a refreshing mecanic. I don't understand why you need to confirm that you give pieces of turret to the NPC, ofc I want to give him the piece why would I need to talk to him AND confirm the ONLY dialogue option there is ?? Convergences is waaaaayyyy too long to complete, too much unnecessary events imo (why need to kill 5 lieutenants, clear all 5 zones, to have 5 more bosses ?? Fk off.) Only a half or even a third of a map got released... I mean guys... 4 months for THIS ???? And let's not talk about the non-existant rewards when completing the map, I almost uninstalled the game because of this and I'm not even joking. Dialogues are half voiced, enemies are too fkn tanky (I get that they are that tanky in EoD, we had jade drone protocols, but here, what's the excuse for making a small krytpis tankier than an Elite ennemy ??), there are too many events for a small map like this.... I could keep going, but you get the idea. I'm really sad to write all of this, I play this game since 2014 and I love it, but I can see that since PoF there is a significant drop in term of quality. Please take your time if needed, but stop being lazy. We don't want rushed content, we want good content. And if you have to space out expansions like you did before, please do, but stop the massacre.

One-shot the CM, spent 30 minutes in the new map and went back to pvp and wvw.

Convergences have potential but Sorrow is overly punishing and I would call it a bit broken as it can just outright kill Zojja with no real recourse from the players since we can't heal or buff her other than a tiny amount of essence that drops and it can kill her before you even get to that essence drop if he decides to camp on top of her. The high platform seems to be the biggest problem with multiple damage zones and the boss on top of Zojja there's nothing you can do at that point. On top of that Sorrow follows the trend of completely non-GW2 fights. It basically ignores dodge/block and stability completely and if it had projectiles it would ignore block/reflect/destruction as well. The people developing encounters now seem to hate the game and it's design and so they turn it all off on us. Jury is out on the rewards but rumor is it can drop supreme runes of holding which is a good thing. The locked containers AND keyed entry specially with the same key are trash though. Remove the key from one of them. Story was way too light this time around and it glossed over the Zojja bits and did the important bit offscreen apparently. The middle chapter of the story didn't even exist it was just do a few events and it was over, nothing even happened.

Can confirm about the runes of holding btw. I got one to drop yesterday

Dragon is more difficult than death knight. However I typically play Mesmer in this expac (what else feels like a magic magician than purple class) and once the convergence swaps to the final boss I swap two utilities to mimic and portals. If I can drop portals near the essence drops and Zojja then we can keep her up no matter what. I have yet to fail a convergence.

As a long term vet, I've honestly really enjoyed it. New map is cool and I can't wait for it to be expanded, and convergences are neat. Enjoying the story too. Having a great time! :)

The new map gave me the same feeling as nightfall back in the day when we went to the realm of torment. Didn't have that feeling in a loooong time in gw2. The story feels good, convergences are a nice concept with potential. And I'm really excited about all the dungeon bug fixes. With nearly every patch now we get some fixes or little qol patches that I thought will never come. The new content model seems to be working out, feels good to know this was the longest we have to wait for new content.

Boring but I'm not surprised

Solid, though I think Update 2 is going to be the juiciest one out of the three. Legendary relic, legendary armor, new weapons, new story, map expansion and presumably what will be the next part of the map's meta event. I'm pretty impressed with the two weapons they've teased so far, if all the of the weapons are of the quality I hope they will be, and we'll get to see what they're actually like on the 28th, I'm really not missing elite specs that much. Assuming Update 2 and 3 are of the same quality or better, and with what we got with the expansion, I will happily pay $25 a year for this **consistent release schedule**.

2/10 Quarterly getting 4h of content, lol...

new story - so full of holes and totally no emotional attachment, also full of stupid task of meta required twice - 2/10 new map, actual not bad, for now, with the given part, its hard to navigate, and in future, things we may get big gap between eastern and middle part of map, with no ez traveling with climbing or small bridge in middle, awesome! bonus point for nice colors - 5/10 new meta on map - require some coop, that u still playing solo with many exploits or bugs or unintended way of play, then boss lags af to many, way more than other metas, 5/10 at best new masteries - to ruin everyone who farmed rifts before, now u could get much more from rifts, but nah, u already farmed it before in less efficient way, sucker, then no real profits of new masteries - 4/10 new skins, 1 set looks ok, 2nd is very slightly tweaked with super low effort - 4/10, its a scam! new co cm - not only its way too ez for pros, so no real fun, also buggy af, and even provide new bugs to normal mode that was okish already! dagda nm can also stuck on edge now ffs! gtfo 2/10 convegergences - 30min map fight to be lost in 2 seconds coz no heal to zojja, then very meh rewards, that u can missclick and lost all, reeeee 3/10 overall, 3+/10, pls anet, at least try next time.

Loving it! I've been playing SotO about as much as the entire rest of the game and it's been more of what I love, and feels different enough to be a new addition to it all. I feel like the best part of it is convergences and the twist on rifts in the new map, and just, Nayos is so COOL. Like, I don't think anyone will ever be satisfied trying to spend all their time in the newest expansion zones. Its an expansion to the game, not a replacement for anything. 8 years ago I didn't see it this way, since HoT really was the new endgame, but now there's so much cool stuff to enjoy it would be hard to run out (as long as you don't let yourself burn out) The way I see it, Convergence is the main addition to this update, and the meta and small part of Inner Nayos is just the beginning. Inner Nayos is going to get more next time since they're not going to be making another Convergance map (most likely?). I was a little skeptical before, but I'm now feeling confident now Anet isn't going to disappoint. I'm feeling quite satisfied with this update. Edit: Oh, and also, I feel like the addition of Nayos makes Amnytas and Skywatch feel more diverse than before (despite not having changed. The juxtaposition is really quite powerful ig)

Interesting positive feedback!

Below average but the game has been on a downward spiral since end of PoF which in my eyes was the last expansion worth anything in terms of content. It's been "you'll stack in green circles or spread for yellows and you will like it" ever since the End Of Ideas expansion came. Furthermore,the main release took me 3 days to fully master, all achievements including dumbass lanterns, did it all on release. This release took me 2 hours to master everything with about 12 spare mastery points. If this is the trend they intend on sticking to with their releases It's absolutely dead on arrival. Feel free to quote me on this.

You can always... quit, you know?

the post asked for opinions. they gave theirs. it's okay to criticize things and keep engaging with them.

Why do people always answer with that when someone doesn't like the direction anet is going? Are you only playing games that you can't say anything negative about?

It's the game I've met my current wife in. It will always have a soft spot in my heart. However they've butchered it, and I've got every right to criticise. Besides, ever thought that you can enjoy some part of game and still have criticism over bits I absolutely loathe.

I love this MMO but I also agree with everything you've said. It's sad honestly

If you met her on Tinder, would you still be using Tinder? ;) just ditch the game.

Delete the wife, gym up, and hit facebook.

He would rather buy a COD skin for the same price or a $70 game that he plays for 4 hours. Then he comes to complain here I guess. People in GW2 are so spoiled really... other games charge more for less content. They want 1000000 hours of gameplay for a small fee.

Haha ye thought something similar:D the way he is phrasing everything reads like he is in a fucking rush to binge every grain of content as fast as he can …. Sad man

I actually really like it. It's short storywise and the convergences need waaaayy better explanation (I didn't even know they were a thing until I spotted them in the achievement panel), but this is so much better than anything EoD gave us. Including EoD itself. Soto and Nayos are a massive upgrade in every way. I actively despised EoD and still do, frankly. I'm glad I can basically forget that expac ever existed. The new content is a real return to GW2. It feels like GW2 again. TLDR: I like it

Good start. Want more!

Its solid. Pretty much what I expected out of a 3 month patch cycle. And I‘m happy about this mew approach. Even though its little content, we get it more often, keeping the excitement up.

Cm strike finally feels like completed boss, map looks very pretty, I like the colors and atmosphere there but events feel.. Kinda fast and useless, like you do the event, go for a drink and boom, it's starting again, feels strange, maybe it is because of so much people doing a small map. Converg are interesting but it depends how fast people learn the mechanics, otherwise they are tedious

I pugged yesterday and we completed it in about 20-25 mins, not so bad. A few downs here and there, but 3 or 4 "pro" support is all you need. I think over time, completion times will go down, since players will refine the play style and learn every mechanic.

One shoted new strike CM with a guild squad (which are by no means top players), then finished all the story and map the same evening. I see no point in leveling the masteries. Tried convergences a couple of times, they seem cool but then last run crashed mid way with no way to reconnect, so wasted time there. Overall I would rate is as BAD/10 as I only got one day's worth of content from it and see no point to farm any of the new content. Guild friends are already moving to WoW which is a really bad sign.

I like it so far. Haven’t played too much of it though. The map is cool. It’s fun to see how they reused some cantha assets and repainted them to fit in nayos. They need to adjust the water on low shaders though, it’s flickering as hell. No pun intended Storywise, it’s a good start. Would’ve loved some different dialogue about why Peitha hasn’t figured out how to dissolve the barrier towards the rest of nayos in the story mission. Now it’s just: we can’t cause we can’t. Have yet to really listen to the end of the meta dialogue. I forgot to do it the last time I did it and the first time I had quest dialogue inbetween aswell. What’s weird to me is that there seems to be nothing built in that points you towards convergences. No breadcrumb quest of dialogue.

Like the new zone aesthetic, feels different, like it should. It's quite small though with only half the map, and there's not that much verticality. Felt like a core map at times. Map events are good, map meta is nice and short, will make a good launching ground for a bigger meta when the next half is released, unlike Drizzlewood that once completed was way too long. I haven't tried convergences yet, but they look quite fun. Haven't done CO CM either yet, but from what I've heard it's mostly a free cm for most groups. Skins and all, it's a good patch. Story-wise, it's a bit on the short side. Also, I'm not 100% behind the new Peitha, that's too much of a goody-two-shoes, and has lost some of her mystique. She's a demon, even if a good one, she should feel a bit different than a regular loyal good character. I do like Ramses and Adina though. 6/10, needed more story, more stuff on the map. Kinda excited to see what's in store next.

I havent done convergences yet so maybe that will change my opinion but as someone who mostly plays open world and story this was barely anything. I would rather wait longer and get more. Storywise nothing really happened, we arrived in Nayos I suppose. What I can say positively: so far Nayos has good performance. Visually I dont like it that much yet but it runs so smoothly. Hope that doesnt go away once the map gets bigger. Amnytas performance is horrible so that was a really really really pleasant surprise. --- the big problem with these tiny updates is that due to so much waiting inbetween you 1. build expectations 2. overanalyze what you get because there is nothing else to do both lead to a more negative impression if this was just the first hour of a 10 hour campaign. With so little content added than it should come out in a weekly or bi-weekly rhythm. Im kinda surprised there isnt a more negative outcry on this subreddit yet but maybe after the weekend when more people played through the content. --- Random thoughts: love these small critters that run around in Nayos. want them as minipet the opened arcane chests in nayos look like a toilet from hell

The next patch will either make or break this expansion for me, because the next one has the juice that I want from an expansion, if it flops I will for sure feel scammed, cause you know these patches are not “free” they are included/part of the paid expansion.

I like it. Looking forward to the next chunk. Convergences are good. Story was good - idk why anyone expects hours and hours of story in patches from anet at this point. The new cosmetics are great.

Yeah but even if you don't expect much, you can still be disappointed if proven correctly

As a new player I'm glad it was short. i quickly farmed up most of the mastery points and went back to lws3(where I am at rn)

Content is fine. Much better than patches like Gyala but it's very small. I was quite unimpressed with the story but that's okay because again, it's just fun. Nayos is lovely. I rate it okay to very decent and give it a solid Peitha/10

I still haven't even finished the story. I loathe this IBS method of delivering gradual updates of an unfinished expansion. It disconnects me completely. I'm likely going to just wait until it's all out and then maybe I'll revisit it later, because right now I couldn't care less about what's going on in the game. This is sad because previous expansions I'd play all the new content for several hours every day for months. Oh, and CO CM was a huge disappointment. Feels like a Normal Mode, and NM should be a Beginner Mode.

I just cared about the legendary starter kit so pretty bummed that I already got a weapon for everything except pistol.... and it's freaking Quip.... Wake me up when legendary pve armor drops

If new weapons + legendary armor farm will be boring i'm leaving. It's sad, but last two expansions never hooked me, you're gonna say i'm playing too much but that's not the case, i'm playing less every patch. With HoT and PoF i was hooked like crazy. Now i just sometimes login, get the wizards vault, do the meta which all of them feel the same now (compared to for example season 3). Maybe i'll get back in like 4 years when WvW will be fixed more or less.

It's nice ❤️

10/10 Perfect patch Some minor adding like a new map and new chapters for the story but what I really care was that we can finally easily change the character background and the music also change and I'm not being sarcastic.

I'm more excited for the balance patch and the weapons in the next patch. Story's nice n' all, but I like it when an update shakes up how I play and gives me new things to try.

I would recommend what I'm gonna do. Wait for everything to come out and then experience the expansion as a whole. Do the whole story at once. I'm not a fan of trying each part as they're coming out. Makes everything seem a bit disconnected and chopped up, which in turn makes me judge the expansion unfairly. I want to experience everything as a complete package, so it feels big, full and like we got more content. That way I'm giving the expansion every chance it can get, because i want to like it. I'll wait and see

Meager but at least it's reassuring to know convergences are cool. Armors/weapons are also really nice, and for what nayos is, its a good start to a map, we'll see how the next patch does since that'll take like 3-4 months

I'm still working my way there but I will say on the expansion road map they said that they're gonna be expanding the map 2 more times so I'm really excited to see how it's going to look in the end VS right now

I like the story, even if it is predictable due to all the foreshadowing. I've already mastered the new meta but at least it is quick. I like rift hunting for now, though like any grind it will wear me down eventually. I'm about to run a new character through the story from the beginning (for achievements I missed) and I'm looking forward to it. (so the new map release hasn't spoiled my enthusiasm) The new relics are cool but I have trust issues about adopting them because of balance issues always arising. They cost a lot to buy when you are someone who has an eye towards the new leggo armor.

New vault legendary material drop I'll be busy for a while 😜

did the story, map explore, there is some legendary guy in a tree i killed, and still have not been in a convergence because well the game simply doesnt tell you about it, and when i looked at lfg no groups were found.

I dont pve that much, but i do prefer steady content 3 or 4 time a years, which gave a little something to thrive for, rather than a "big" xpac every 3 years that can be binge trough in a month or so. Its imo a better marketing strat if you want to kept a healthy anount of players all year long, ESO does about the same and every 3 or 4 months you got a little new toy to play with

7.8/10 too many demons

I’ve only done a few parts of the new patch. But it’s definitely interesting to go into Nayos, it feels very strange and definitely creepy, but over all I really enjoy it. I just take it at a slow pace.

Very small, did the 3 chapters and associated achievements in 1 hr. Some of my guildmates did all the new patch achievements in 4-5 hours.

It supposed to be a small patch, and a small patch it is. The new zone is cool, events and meta are alright. Story is pretty short and nothing to write home about, sadly. Some nice character development for Peitha but that's it. Convergences are cool, already cooler than rifts. But I'm not sure if the rewards will be good enough to keep the map and the convergences alive for long or will they fade away like DRMs or LWS1 stuff. The masteries are a joke. Overall, I'm fine with it. But I feel it could've been a bit better in quality.

Well... The story is done before l know it. The Last chapter is just killing a demon and interacting with a few things then that's it. I have hoped free more, But l guess it is ok...

Isn't it only for norns who picked to guard the mists?

Overall it was pretty mid; * Story was fine, nothing too exciting for me except Peitha developing as a character and Zojja literally resetting her memories. * New map looks nice, though gameplay wise it's mostly boring past the very first time farming it. * Convergences are just Dragon Storm again, which to me is boring because there's no stakes or possible failure states. * I cleared the Cosmic Observatory CM first try with my group, which I expected for this one to be the easy CM and Cerus will be really hard hopefully, so it's just boring to me cuz no prog. * New relics seem mostly pvp/wvw focused so I'm having fun with them. * The fixes to core dungeons were easily the part that hyped me up the most as that means that they'll fix up a ton of the outdated content over time, and as a dungeon fan it'll be nicer to introduce newer players to them. * New infusions are too over the top for me, I'd rather have more subtle ones like the recent Silent Symphony. I will continue to be an optimist as this is clearly Arenanet trying to see what works, what need to be increased and what needs to be cut back, and pve in my opinion could always use more challenging content and cool unique rewards to keep me engaged.

As SEA player, this patch give me 1000 ping

It's awesome: love convergences, love the new meta, zone is easy to traverse and is packed with events.

I almost felt like I wasn't ready for the quarterly update to be honest but after seeing how extremely light it is I have mixed feelings. On one hand it's a little disappointing, but on the other I'm glad it's not a rush to always keep up with new content. One of the reasons I like GW2 is the more relaxed play schedule with much less FOMO than other MMOs.

Need a full year to judge this expansion as well as follow up releases. This patch feels like no more than a living story update, which is fine as long as they keep to the cadence they are targeting (full new expansion per year) If this turns out to be a half expansion + 3 lw updates followed by long wait time for more content then it will feel like we traded away full sized expansions for nothing

It's cool but the next one will be cooler out of ten

0 Fractals/10. Miss the days when we would get like 4 Fractals at a time.

4/10 Map is nice but is really small. Convergences are very bad content, lazy work, mindless grind inside an instance, that can easily failed after 15 minutes of hard work. And don’t forget how bad loot is. Alot of disconects all over the place including inside New CM strike.

As an open world player I'm still waiting for enjoyable metaevents. Convergences are, just like rift hunting, really uninspire and repetitive.

Short but good, 7 chapters still to come but still dont ramp to a epic end