zawiasfx: yeah, raid flop is sad. they had chance to make em popular (aka pug-friendly) with difficulty settings, week after release it was nonexistent in lfg...

Tillionz: Great video! I really enjoyed your thoughts and it got me thinking about my own experience with this expansion. The launch was pretty hyped, and overall, I'm happy with it. However, the first two quarterly patches were quite underwhelming, and the third wasn't much better. Over the past few months, my daily hour in the game dwindled to just a few hours with my raid static. Now, I'm back to playing regularly for story and achievements.

As someone who loves open-world content, raids, and fractals (and isn't a huge PvP player), expansions are where I get most of my new content. So, I'd really love to see more focus on open-world elements, perhaps even reusing that content for new raids and fractals with fresh mechanics and stories. I completely understand the community's frustration, as I feel it too, but I'll keep hoping for positive changes.

In my opinion, they should scrap the yearly expansion model for now and launch 'Expansion 6' as more of a GW2 remaster/remake. They could rebuild the game on the current codebase, remove what isn't working, and remake dungeons under the fractal system for better integration. A complete rebalance of the game would also create design space for new specs and classes. The moment-to-moment gameplay is already great and could be even better; I'd hate to see it dragged down further by ArenaNet. Though, I know this is probably just 'copium' and won't actually happen.

cherylp714: A kind way of expressing the community’s disappointment. If they would just be honest about it. I actually enjoyed Lowland Shores and had high hopes for the rest but ended up scratching my head and saying “was that all?” The thing that was most upsetting was the lack of complete voice overs, so sloppy and uncaring. All in all GW2 has given me a lot of enjoyment and I am sad at the sloppy ending and lack of truthful communication from the studio. I think it will hurt them in the long run and their future endeavors. Appreciate all the content creators like you.

SILKYSMOOTH30FPS: And not reworking the reward system in ALL endgame content for 13 years is an insult to humankind. Anet is lost, and have no idea what the fuck they're doing in game development.

fozz3498: GW2 combat is spam. There is a saying that GW2 players do not read their skills (makes alot of sense). We need GW3 or a big rework to the combat which we aren't getting.

I thought Janthir started strong but was very weak for Updates 2, 3 and 4. The Janthir Story was terrible. It is too bad because the Janthir music is very good.

GW1 just a better game brother.

GG

jamenba1: If they ever want to grow again gw3 is a must for them, this is what happens on the long run when you foster a bootlicking everything is fine they can do no wrong community, god forbid if these ppl have to put more then 1% effort into doing shit on the game that is not hitting different skinned training dummies around the world, but it will never happen they rather be a good boy farming company then delivering a good product, like the recent voice strike stuff example

Webz-r4y: Homestead is such a flop. I remember it was their main selling point at launch.

SILKYSMOOTH30FPS: I absolutely LOVE to hate follow this game. This company does nothing else but fumble, and offers content that is worse than AI generated slop. And you know what? I don't want it to change, like ever. This game is like an experiment, and instead of experimenting on rats, they do so on humans.

Never change, Anet. And please NCSoft, do not fire 70% of the studio next year. They must continue fumbling, and offer us free entertainment

Nuh: I am on the other side. As someone who hops between FF14, Albion Online and GW2, Janthir Wilds stands out more than SOTO to me.

The core release of Janthir Wilds (First 2 maps) combined with Spears alone, is well worth what you're paying for. Not counting the other additions.

However, if I had to rate it, the core release gets a B for me. But patches that came after all get a C or less. With Mistburned Barrens honestly going as low as an F for me (This was the lowest point of this expansion).

As for raids... I already have full legendary gear and have no desire to find/join a static or go through the trouble. So you are 100% correct, this content, is not for me. I would argue it hasn't been since 2015 or so, when I used to raid in WOW. Raids feel old and outdated to me as a gamer but I also have noticed, most of my younger friends, do not even consider them either. I don't think raid content has a future if newer generations are rejecting them as well, but thats my observation.

Dabuddah: Love that all the modern MMOs are just in an ass phase

WoW? Ass

GW2? Ass

FFXIV? Ass

Damn

tinybird2413: Things haven't been well since Secrets of the Obscure. I was in a discord and tumblr community with a few artists who were a part of the partner program. Due to an NDA they couldn't tell us what was wrong but they said something was wrong and many either dropped out of the program or opted to post less Guild Wars 2 content. These people were pillars of the Tumblr community and their art often inspired continued excitement for the content. In the Tumblr Guild Wars 2 community people used to love speculating, making their own theories, especially roleplayers, going in to depth about npcs or making their own fan stories but even that seems to have slowed to a trickle. The revelations of SoTo disappointed quite a few people. Most unanimously enjoyed Lowland Shores, and loved the new bears - my boyfriend who was growing to dislike the game even said he enjoyed Lowland and Sintri. However the story just builds up something great and then finishes in a way that makes it feel like half the staff left and that's without the missing voice acted sections. I did not enjoy the last chapter of this update. I feel like they need 1 or 2 people on the development team to check consistency in story telling across the board. The new features like housing was a boon to roleplayers and I know there's a niche for it. Despite my desire for it, I haven't engaged with it much myself. I've been a diehard fan since Gw 1 Factions, and I have found myself taking longer and longer breaks. This latest update disappointed me. My boyfriend refuses to play anymore.

opz.3920: Kinda Sucks that at the end of the day.. we use to get More Content and Lore ... for Free..

Now that we are Paying for a yearly Battle Pass. with WAY less content. xD

awakenedBanana: It's painful how low effort the last two expansions felt like. And it is obvious how they try to add little features to every expansion that all kinds of players will want(instanced PvE, PvP and openworld PvE players). It just shows that they are trying to milk us now that they are slowly drifting away from the the game. Whatever the new project is, I hope it was worth dissapointing your audience over it. The amount of content is not a lot, but I don't have a problem with that, I'm mostly dissapointed with the quality and I just hope Anet is taking the additional time to increase the quality instead of quantity.

minakatahizuru: WoW is in same place devs abandoned game imo doing maintenance since Dragonflight,TWW .

86Corvus: The spear i dont care for because i dont use it

borislavangelov3697: One of the bigger problems of GW2 is that they spread too wide and contend gets too thin in the end. This is especially valid in instanced contend - Dungeons, fractals, raids, strikes, DRM, convergences. On paper, it looks so cool - all these modes with all that variety, but in reality almost all of them are completely forgotten or rarely updated . And they try to reinvent the wheel over and over and over again... And that is just one problem...

nd6886: The most fun we have with this update is debating its merit against the most fervent of defenders.

Somebody374-bv8cd: Also here is an extremely cynical take from me, but they've already gotten your money from buying the expansion. They don't really have a strong motive to make the subsequent patches that substantial. For the old free LS model they had incentive to put in effort since it didn't cost anything, so they had to make it good enough so people stuck around to possibly spend money on gemstore items. Now they don't have to - everyone paid upfront already, if they get gemstore sales, its just a bonus.

funnyvideos-funnyoutloud2618: My main concern is this:

after having the game for 12 years, I decided to play it regularly now and build my legendary armory, although, I too have that feeling that they are working on something else (probably GW3, or maybe Aion 2 and NCSoft doesn't want it's subdivision to compete with the main division, hence kills the game/title slowly). I simply want to be able to enjoy the game at its fullest and reap the fruits of my $ and time investment, but I am more and more convinced it's not the case due to the above-mentioned feeling, which btw comes from the lackluster quality of recent releases.

TL DR: Either invest in your project more so I can see that my time and $ are not being wasted, or properly announce GW3 so I can save the $ and time to invest in it, because, I promise, much like me, the majority will simply say "f@ck it, I can't do that 4000-10000 hrs run anymore" and will completely abandon the game.

Beriorn: I was kind of surprised that they thought about adding an honest-to-God jumping puzzle into the mix. It's not a particularly hard or annoying one, but we haven't seen a proper, full length jumping puzzle since the pair in Cantha. And yes, I know about the bee and the brazier ones in Janthir, but one's more of a minigame and the other's so short it might very well not be a jumping puzzle.

But honestly, the final boss reeks of them having big plans but cutting them out because of time constraints. At least SotO had a proper final boss.

Movezzzzzz: i read the opinion that, in essence, the reason behind the homesteads was a method to milk the playerbase a bit, done in this manner as they cannot do the traditional p2w milk other mmos can do.

shogenx: overall I really loved 3 of the 4 maps that last ones meta was kinda just meh, homestead needed the wildstar treatment its crazy that we were robbed from that game

gealgain2420: I see Janthir wilds story as the other half of the same bridge that SOtO started. All of the previous story was centered around the dragon cycle. At the end of EoD I was left thinking "ok, where to now?"

If the next expansions doesn't deliver, I'll start cheering for GW3.

I want to see where the human gods went.

I want to see actual guild wars in guild wars 2.

I'll wait another year for an actual, proper expansion, instead of another paid living world expansion.

StarStalkerGaming: only reason to get Janthir is for using spear, and SOTO for using non useable weapons on classes. Both of these expansion are so bad, there is almost no reason to go to those maps.

joeannamal: I watched this video as a player who bought the complete addition over this past sales weekend. As i chew through the game on a fresh account, do veteran players here think its worth the time investment to start playing gw2 now mid 2025?

La.máquina.de.los.sueños: I like to chill with my friends but I'm a bit asocial outside city hubs, if not soloable, I avoid it. So no fractals, no raids. Instead of the initial release including very well done maps and the homestead... I did almost nothing during the rest of the year...logging in only to get the ""new"" decorations. However, once satisfied and fully decorated...there's nothing else to do. As I was religiously logging in 6 hts everyday, now I skip weeks or months without missing A N Y T H I N G. They're killing the game and alienating the community. I've been loyal and played to GW1 and 2 for the last 15ish years... and now the only thing I think it's to move away from anything Anet-related.

Jun 11 2025

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