April Update: Review + community rating.

Equipment Pack: ** (2/5)
To much grind. I'll just wait for someone else to do it and by off them. Still, guess its a nice concept and there's always the 5 slotters

Xunlai Storage: ***** (5/5)
Free storage is free storage. Plus I need the space for all the new minis/consumables/items etc

Zaishen Challenge Quests: *** (3/5)
I nice touch though the z-coins rewarded need to be increased

Zaishen Coins: *** (3/5)
Good concept but costs are imba. Also, need to fix the stacking bug


Zaishen Menagerie: ***** (5/5)
Fav thing out of the whole update. I could run around here all day. Any chance I could stick my guild hall in the middle of this place or something? Be cool if you could take friends in with you, though I guess they did it so you couldn't just give your buddies spiders...

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (4/5)
Interesting, nice hunting for him. Though now we need storage to hold all sorts of drops incase he want's them...

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (4/5)
Should have been like this in the first place. Now if only it actually held all my mini's/destroyer weaps/armours


New character customisation: *** (3/5)
It's good they brought the option in. May or may not be the right price

Miscellanious ***** (5/5)
Love the new items. Being a bunny is just fun, and a gwenchan is just cute. Tonics are good too.

Equipment Pack: I don’t have a main character, I have ten characters (one for each class), each have four sets of armor, each armor setup for a different build. Think 7,500 coins is bad try 75,000 coins, that is grind (optional grind but grind) I don’t do grind. (1/5).

Xunlai Storage: I got the free one, $10 for 20 slots for a game that has no new content. Sorry no, I would have rather gotten one in another expansion that actually provided game play. The one is free the others I have no interest in getting. (3/5)

Zaishen Challenge Quests: I have completed all 4 campaigns on 10 characters and I have very little desire to play through those missions again. Farming I like – thrill of the drop kind of thing. Learning how to play 10 different classes I like – challenge kind of thing. I have no desire to pug. (1/5)

Zaishen Coins: I believe nothing is customized after you get the stuff and can be traded so this may actually encourage people to buy gold because of the large amount of grind required to get the bags. Gold sellers hurt the game (due to the method gold sellers use to get the gold, never understood why people that buy gold online or do drugs can not make the connection that what they do actually hurts other people). (1/5)

Zaishen Menagerie: I don’t have a single useful build that includes a pet anymore. I used to have some but they basically got nerfed to oblivion and have not been fixed since the separation of PvE from Pvp. What is the point of this thing? If there is ever a use for a pet it is nice to know I will not have to actually work my butt off to get the dire form I wanted. (2/5)

Nicolas the Traveler: Great another collector that doesn’t want the stuff in the instance he is in and unless he starts dropping equipment bags has nothing I want or need. (3/5)

Hall of Monuments: I don’t do titles, I don’t have a main character, so I will never get a GWAM. The fact that you can pick what is displayed in what is not is a major improvement. The fact that you can not display what you actually play with is still an issue for me. (4/5)

New character customization: Isn’t deleting and re-roll cheaper. The ability to use all campaign options for core characters is nice. I am never going to purchase it but could see how it added something to the game. (4/5)

Equipment Pack: **** (5/5)
Pack is awesome and truely useful. Having long term goal is good. Being able to buy 10 and 15 slotters in a few months from other players with my accumulated gold will be quite nice as well.

Xunlai Storage: *** (3/5)
Too expensive. I bought a 10 dollar GotY Proph account on newegg instead. However, the free pane keeps me from complaining too much.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: *****(5/5)
Excellent way to breathe new life into forgotten content.

Zaishen Coins: ***** (5/5)
Not sure why this is separate from the Z Quests and equipment packs in this thread. I suppose you could see it as a way to prevent gold and ecto wealthy from instantly getting the new stuff without playing. From that standpoint, it is fine.

Zaishen Menagerie: * (1/5)
With all the work that went into that zone, I can't help but think they could have created a new area with legitimate playable content instead. I would have preferred that much, much more.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Accomplishes two things I've felt GW has needed more of: 1) Community solvable problems. Something too hard for one person, but doable collectively. 2) Something that is not predictable. Accomplishes both goals nicely. More please.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: *** (3/5)
I spent a few minutes looking around. Many players have wanted this, so I'm glad they got it. Doesn't do much for me.

New character customisation:: *** (3/5)
On the plus side, other people will contribute money to Anet helping to finance the game. Those people will also get to fix things they've wanted to for a long time. That said, the idea of changing your name, sex and facial features somehow doesn't sit right with me in an RPG. I personally feel you should live with your choice or delete and start over. I would have implemented a hairstyle and skin tone changer only - if I was going to do anything at all. Not a feature I will ever use.

Miscellaneous: ***** (5/5)
Pre-searing collector is very nice.

Overall, achieved many useful goals.
- Free stuff for active players.
- enhancements that have been the subject of community desire for a long time (although not by me personally).
- new reasons to continue playing the game and to continue grouping.
- a way for Anet to get money out of the game in a way does not allow those paying to get any advantage over me.

All said, a big win. Next time, let's go for more playable content.

Equipment Pack: (1/5)
It requires an excessive amount of time to acquire. At the rate (not doing quests every day and not doing all the quests each day) I'm going at now, it would take me 15 weeks to get one heavy pack. I have collected a lot of armor over the years and 20 more slots isn't really going to help out my storage characters. Its faster to buy another character slot or to leave the armor on my characters that are already being used for storage.

I would have also prefered if the pack was perchasable via in an in-game merchant.

Xunlai Storage: 2/5
I loved the free tab, but the four remaining tabs are way overpriced. I dont see how they though they'd sale them for $10 each. I ended up buying the Platinum edition (GW+EoTn) for $15. Money well spent.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: (2/5)
The quest rewards aren't that useful to me. I've already got all the title points (norn pts, sunspear pts) and experience points I'll ever need. The only incentitive to do the quests is so that you can get a heavy equipment pack. Its less time consuming to buy another character slot to hold all of my excessive armors, etc. I've stopped bothering trying to do the quests for the pack. Now I stick to doing quests that involve a mission I haven't done in HM. I think of the rewards as a little pocket change for doing the mission. Also, I would like to point out that I have been hero/henching the PvE quests

Zaishen Coins: (1/5)
I like the fact that the coins are not tradeable. The rewards are neat (I like the tonics and summoning stones) but the time required to get some of them is ridiculous. Example: Look at the amount of time it would take to acquire an Elite Tome. Ridiculous to waste gold coins on that when you could run to Kamadan and buy one in five minutes.

I'd like to see ZCoin rewards be something that can't be traded. Examples:

1. Inscribable& Customized Weapon Skins - Include items that can't be found with inscriptions on them in the game. Example: Echovald Shields

2. Untradeable minipets - They become dedicated and can't be sold (become permanently customized).

The ZCoin rewards need to be adjusted as well. People would use more things like the summoning stones if the costs were more reasonable. I wish Linsey had spent more time working on the rewards.

Zaishen Menagerie: (2/5)
This was implemented too late in the game. If I had a Menagerie four years ago then I may have actually used it to store pets. Also, I'm peeved it doesn't keep track of pets I've "unlocked" (used) already on my account. It would have been nice if the Menagerie had recognized that I had put certain pets (spider, black moa, imperial phoenix) in my HoM and then gave me credit for doing so.

Nicholas the Traveler: (4/5)
I like Nicholas, but I hate the fact that Mini Yakkington and Gwen-Doll have such terribly low drop-rates.

I did not like the fact that Nicholas contained rare materials (linen) as a "collectible" drop. It literally took me two hours to get all the plant fibers I needed to go visit Nicholas. I don't horde everything and I know not all other players do either. :[ Unfortunately, Linsey has confirmed he will want other rare materials in the future as well. Time to stock up on everything now.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: (4/5)
I'm glad the Hall was finally made account-based. However, I'm disappointed that weapons I've placed in the hall under my mesmer (Placed on her long before we knew the monument would become Account based) can not be used by my warrior on my account. It would have been nice for them to include some type of feature that works similar to the way Minipets in the Monument were setup. A way to undedicate the weapons so they could be used by everyone on the account.

New character customisation: (4/5)
I love ability to change my characters, but again I feel some of it is a bit overpriced. Package deals should be created. Example: If I get a sex change, chances are I'm going to need a name change too. A package containing all of that for a price less than $25 would be quite nice.

Miscellaneous --
Bugs come and go. Anet isn't perfect. No point in penalizing them points for bugs they somehow didn't see.

Ok, sounds fun...


Equipment Pack: ***** (5/5)
I don't see this as grind like you all do. Grind to me is doing the same thing repeatedly. Not doing something again once. If you do the grind the quests across your account, that's your deal. They are expensive, but the better things are, the more expensive. Common sense.

Xunlai Storage: **** (4/5)
Price, meh. The Live Team needs an income somehow but could be cheaper. Lose a star on the site though - even though the only hassle is the bother of having to figure out my account on there again.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (4/5)
Nothing different from the OP on this. Would of loved for them to change things in the missions like they did for the Bounties.

Zaishen Coins: **** (4/5)
Bug got fixed, no issues there. Prices are reasonable based on amount of copper zcoins you are given from the quests, but some of the copper stuff should be reduced just a tad.... one star down.

Zaishen Menagerie: **** (4/5)
Nice area, very well put together. Not fond of getting the pets but I can deal, and love the animal lore. One star down just to not give it a perfect 5/5 <_< Yes, I'm stingy like that.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
There is nothing wrong with this. Occasional lore, random locations (yay scavenger hunts!) and random items. Just don't tell me where he is and I'm happy.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: **** (4/5)
Love the duplication statues. Yay multiple statues of Grenth. However, saddened with minipets, I want to put JUST the ones I want up... Not force either 20 random or go by "groups".... one star down.

New character customisation: **** (4/5)
Also features that the players were asking for. Not free but they gotta get cash some how... However, the expansion characters cannot get looks that are not-native to them like the core professions can... boo, I want my sin to look Tyrian. Lose a star.

Miscellanious **** (4/5)
Don't care much about this spot. Bugs come and go, they did well in getting them cleared out *mostly* before a week came. 4/5 just because I'm stingy ^_^



My final rating: 38/45 stars or 4.2/5.

Conclusion:
All in all, a great update. Everything included were play-asked, including price on storage. Some things were not - such as price on the stylist and the introduction of Nicholas. So, yeah, great!

Equipment Pack: ***** (5/5)
Pure Awesome. Well priced. Great job here.

Xunlai Storage: *** (3/5)
3 stars for the free one. $10 ones deserve none for the absurridic price which is a hard slap in the face.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: ***** (5/5)
Best thing of the whole update - PUGGING is back again!

Zaishen Coins: **** (4/5)
Good good, losing a star only because rewards other than Equip Packs are TOTALLY not worth getting for ZCoins.

Zaishen Menagerie: **** (4/5)
It's a good addition and was much needed - pvp IWAY warriors can now use low level pets of many kinds, enough of those wolves :S. Losing a star only because Pets are almost useless in PvE - This whole thing is of no use for me.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
PUREAWESOMESAUCE. Can't wait to see if he's got a real story to tell us along his travels or if it's just random, like ZQuests or Nicholas in Presearing. 5/5 if random, 6/5 if it's a well designed story, which it seems now it is.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: **** (4/5)
This is made of full win, should have been like that from the very beginning. But losing a star because it's still unclear what unlocks matter, when a monument is considered 'full' and when you're already over the top with the unlocks.

New character customisation: *** (3/5)
Much wanted features but coming at sick prices, costs per use not unlimited after paying $$ and much more expensive for sex change, which is definately not costing them more to perform.

Miscellanious ** (2/5)
Lack of skill balancing, both PvE and PvP need that desperately. New introduced bugs, like the no ZCoins in storage took very long to fix.

My final rating: 35/45 stars or 3.8/5.

Conclusion:
Overall, whole update was better than expected. Best one in a very very long long time.

Equipment Pack: **** (4/5)
Good job on the idea of having 4 types of bags, good job on making the biggest bag rather expensive. Lost a star because the bags can't grow so people buy the small one and then save for the expensive big one without the middle ones. It would have been great if the bags could be upgraded to the next size

Xunlai Storage: **** (4/5)
Good job on having people using the ncsoft account. While it took me some time figuring out what i used to register some years ago. Its good cause of inactive accounts not getting it.
People who got trouble with the ncsoft account, i got a strong feeling that the ncsoft account will be used to transfer our hom to gw2.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: ***** (5/5)
Very nice to see people playing again together. Well thought of, hope it lasts or simular things will arrive with later updates, when the effect of this wears down.
New content is hard to impliment, so kuddo's for making the current content more appealing to play.

Zaishen Coins: **** (4/5)
Great idea of having them not tradable.
Some of the rewards seems a bit poor though so i fear the effect of them will wear off once people get there bags.
Great that there is a daily way of getting party items.

Zaishen Menagerie: ***** (5/5)
Not something i wanted or gonna use a lot but great to have around nontheless. Good update for those role players and collectors.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
In short: Great. Good story, limited so not overfarmable, easy access to him.
I was considering a -1 for having it travelling so not always available to all players (those who don't own proph for example) but i refrained from it. Its again something that can be used to lure them over to buy parts of this game.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (6/5)
No bugs, everything like everyone wanted it. Great job.

New character customisation: ** (2/5)
Having to have to pay for it at such prices is steep. I can understand that money got to be made, but having to pay to be able to customise, transform or rename your character each time is a bit to much.
I'd rather saw options you could pay for:
- accountwide able to customise chars
- accountwide able to use to transform your char
- lower price for a name change

Miscellanious ?
To bad there was so much lag getting the free pane
Unfourtinate bug with the Z-coins
Though i'm a pve-player: pvp could use something new: perhaps in next update?

My final rating: 4.5/5
I love the update, it offers something for almost every type of player. It can be tweaked but its hard to please everyone. I do feel that the pvp community is left a bit out of this update.

Equipment Pack: ***** (5/5)
Finally armour storage, and for each character I don't care that it's going to take me a while to get, I'm not that much of an armour hog anyway. But it will be nice to have.


Xunlai Storage: ***** (5/5)
Finally more storage, and we get a free one The free one is enough for me, and tbh if you really need that much more storage you need to be clearing some of your stuff out. Or not, and pay for the convenience.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: ****(4/5)
Lots of fun to do missions and pvp again with guildies and friends. Lost one star for the repeatable PvP chars - should implement a minimum age for characters able to pick up these quests. Also some of the rewards seem to be a bit buggy - didn't get the full reward for all the bonuses last night..

Zaishen Coins: ***** (5/5)
Dont really care too much about them, but I'm glad they found a different way to pay for the new stuff so it'll keep people involved for a bit longer. Decent rewards for the quests for those who don't think the quests themselves are enough of a reward. I love that they're not tradable, and would not mind if the current bug with storage stayed.

Zaishen Menagerie: ***** (5/5)
Really good idea and I love that we can now leave our pets there without "loosing" them forever. My first char (E/R) can now finally give up her pre-sear Melandru's stalker ^^

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Finding Nicolas every week adds a little more fun to the game and so far he's not asking for a *lot* of items which means you shouldn't have to farm for them. Also, I love that they implemented a max amount for each location.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
Haven't used it much since I pretty much stick to my main, but it was an eagerly awaited feature from others and looks good

New character customisation:: ***** (5/5)
Love it! I'll probably only get one makeover thingie at some point as I'm perfectly happy with the sex and names of my chars. But it's nice to finally have the choice to change things. And yes, it costs money - if you want it that badly you'll pay for it. If you won't, you don't want it that badly, and its not like you're worse off than you were before anyway. Just ignore its existence.

Miscellaneous: ***** (5/5)
Great update and so much bigger and better than expected! Don't mind that some of it isn't free, that's just the way things work. It's all about implementing choice. And nothing's better than having more options to choose from

You know, there is nothing stopping Anet to reward silver coins from time to time.

I'm not sure why simply playing the game is now considered "grinding". I agree that the amount of coins you need is a little ridiculous, but if you don't enjoy playing the game, then there doesn't seem like much point in actually gong for them anyway.

It's not like you're having to repeat the same thing over and over to get the coins. You're doing different missions, defeating bosses OR PVP matches each day, and they're always different. By the time you start repeating them, you should have enough.

That is not grinding.

I'm going to revise some of my opinions after last night's playing session.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: ** (2/5)
In just 4 days I've come to think of these as incompatible with my playing style, and probably with the playing style of many players who aren't at or near burn-out status with the game. When I log on, I log on with a plan, usually to advance a character. These quests, for no other reason than for their unique rewards (Zcoins) try to lead me by the nose to do stuff I have no intention or inclination to play. Why the hell would I want to go and play random mission A in random continent B with character C who can get there when what I want to do is play my Mesmer through Eye of the North?

I guess these quests are fine when you haven't a blazing idea what else to do anymore in this game, but when you have places to go, they're pointless.

Zaishen Coins: * (1/5)
So, the only way I can score some of these is by doing random stuff that doesn't jibe with what I still want to accomplish in the game? What a great addition! I guess I'll get a few once in a while when the randomness coincides with my own plans. Because with the time I have available to play, I can either spend all my time being led by the nose, or progress a character a little bit. I'm chosing the latter.

On the plus side, I'll have no bloody use for the things except for equipment packs which I'll buy off players, so I won't miss anything I care about.

Equipment Pack: * (1/5)
So, if we want to buy anything bigger than a 5 slot pack, we need to do random stuff, cutting into the usual objectives a player may have? If I want to spend the few hours I have on finishing the game with a character, I'm out of luck, no bags for me?

Conclusion:

All of this seems to be very nice at first glance, but in reality, it's only targeted at players who don't have anything left to do in the game other than to ask 'how high?' when the Zaishen quest announcement noticeboards tell them to jump. Players not yet deeply enough entrenched into the game to pop into the Great Temple of Balthazar first thing when they log on, are completely cut off from equipment packs, which is a serious oversight in my opinion.

"They didn't do it earlier, so they shouldn't have done it at all" is basically your argument. That is why it is stupid.

Funny to note how Nicholas comes out on top almost across the board.

Is this because he is the one smidgen of NEW content with a hint of story behind him?

Is it because he offers some NEW items that you can achieve with a reasonable amount of effort.

Is it because he has a different requirement weekly with a actual story to justify getting the item.

I have not seen many complaints about how his rewards are limited to once a week(per account?).

Is it all these things and maybe a few more?

Lesson Learned: More NEW content ANET!!! Even this tiny bit of new content has generated the most positive feedback and enjoyment from the community.

@Apollo Smile, yes I do. And I did. Doesn't change my comment, though.

@EPO Bot, While I recognize you have a right to your opinion, I truly wish you'd keep your personal judgements about my psyche to yourself until and unless you know me. I have spent quite a bit of money on this game, especially when adding on the multiple copies of the rest of the family here and character slots, BMP, etc. Getting something for nothing is not the issue.

Yes it is. You wanted the HEQP on all your toons immediatly and for free and you are complaining about the fact that you actually have to play for a month or so (casually) to get one.

*sigh* You are mistaken. I do not want the equipment pack(s) because, quite frankly, I do not need them although they would certainly be convenient. My issue with them is the amount of time and grind it takes to secure them - not that I actually want, need or covet one (or more) for my very own.

There is a vast difference in the two concepts.

Equipment Pack: ** (2/5)
Won't bother getting anything over the light pack. Just too much time investment for the larger ones. Been waiting for more storage for months, not really interested in putting in even more time waiting. Gonna set up my mules more efficiently instead. So the big packs are pretty much non-existent for me.

Xunlai Storage: ** (2/5)
Not going to go through NCsoft to get it so pretty much non-existent update also.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: *** (3/5)
Meh. They are ok if they are something you plan to do anyway - might as well get a little extra something. But beyond that, nothing new added to game.

Zaishen Coins: ** (3/5)
Well, I suppose they are useful if you want to unlock a pet or something but given the cost of what they buy I'll probably trash most of what I get rather than use an inventory slot saving them.

Zaishen Menagerie: **** (4/5)
Not really into pets but for those who want a variety, good idea. Not sure I like the idea of unlocking pets you have not charmed though.

Nicolas the Traveler: **** (4/5)
Nice touch, but I can see it's going to cause problems if they keep asking for rare mats. Plus, where am I supposed to keep the junk?

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
Finally

New character customization: *** (3/5)
Good for those who wish to buy them. Irrelevant for the many of us who won't.

Overall, I don't mind that they are charging for some things. They need the cash. But for those of us who won't be buying, those things don't really exist and can't be counted as part of the game.

So, realistically speaking, the only 2 actual additions from this update were the account wide HoM and Nicholas.

**' 2.5 of 5 would be my overall rating.

Equipment Pack: 4/5:handy don't mind the grind

Xunlai Storage 3/5:free 1 cool the others cost 2 much if they were half the price i would buy them

Zaishen Challenge Quests 3/5:same old quests nothing new

Zaishen Coins 3/5:meh

Zaishen Menagerie 5/5: good idea,i like chilling out with my pets

Nicolas the Traveler 5/5:free stuff always good

Hall of Monuments: now account wide 4/5:very good but should have been account wide when they introduced it

New character customization 4/5:changed my monks hair,skin and face well worth the £1.20 but now have 4 left with nothing to change

over all 3.5 out of 5

Equipment Pack: 4/5
7500 Z-coins is too much for the 20-bag. I think 1000 would have been fair.

Xunlai Storage: 5/5
A nice alternative to buying extra char slots for more inventory. I also appreciate the single free Xunlai tab.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: 5/5
I never get tired of playing GW's content, so I really love these quests (even though sometimes I can't do them all). There are already so many different types of things in GW PvE, that if they tried to make something new, it would still be pretty similar to what we already have.

Zaishen Coins: 4/5
Don't really care for them, to be honest... but more rewards are always nice. The random tonics are pretty cool too.

Zaishen Menagerie: 1/5
A completely new and big area to satisfy the Rangers who bother to invest in Beastmastery? Waste of time, imo.

Nicolas the Traveler: 5/5
Come on, who doesn't love him?

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: 5/5
Yey.

New character customization: 5/5
The ability to change your character's appearance or name is very nice. I understand that it would not have been reasonable to give these for free.

Miscellaneous: 4/5
The minipets are nice. Idk what else would have fit in this category.

Overall: 38/45 or 4.2 out of 5 stars.

Equipment Pack **** 4/5.
I think it is good, I was able to get the 10 slotted one without any grind, took me about 4 days with 1 character doing most of the challenges and a couple others doing 1 or 2 quests from them. But the 20 pack one requires a bit too much time, at least for right now. Overall I think they were helpful additions, at least for me.

Xulani Storage *****4/5
I like the free storage pane we got, I think it's kind of silly that you can buy an account for a little bit more than the storage costs and you are better off that way. Anet should drop the price to $5.

Zaishen Challenge *****5/5
Renews life in the game, I've seen people all over the place doing the quests, which makes it easy to do some of the PvP quests. This addition really brought the community back. I like the daily factor.

Zaishen Coins ****4/5
I think some of the prices of things could be adjusted a bit, other than that not much to say on this addition. It's just another way to get stuff.

Zaishen Menagerie ***** 5/5
Fun addition. Collect pets place them here, be able to go and capture what you want, not bad. Not much use outside of that. It's like a pool in the back yard of a house.

Nicolas the Traveler *****5/5
Good addition in both pre and post. Post even more so because of the work involved. I like another way to pick up party/sweet/drunk items as well. The other things he has are pretty awesome too.

HoM *****5/5
Been waiting for it, much easier to add things now.

New character customization ***3/5
I like the idea, but we should have gotten 1-5 points for free at first then had to pay for every point after that. But $5 only.

Overall 36/40. Good update I enjoyed it and probably will for a couple months.

Oh and its' lose not loose. What's up with people spelling it loose more now n days?

Just as a side note, I was reading feedback(and QQing) about this bug on the wiki and in a quick reply Linsey said that they DID test it extensively on their test servers before going live and it worked fine, they didn't know why the bug was there till 3 hours later and then they didn't have enough time to do a build and get it out, bug free, until after the weekend. She also went berserk on one person because he demanded an answer on when it would be fixed. that was awesome.

Ok then, now me:

Equipment Pack (3/5)
I have 2 main characters, my Ele, where 10 slot bag is enough, and my Monk, with shit-load of shields, so 20 would be nice. I dont myself grinding for that so long. But the fact, that it will be available to buy from players given 2 stars

Xunlai Storage: (3/5)
The extra free tab is okay, as long as its free. Mine is actually full, but the price for a tab is too high. I am wondering about buying of those - new account, or tab of storage. I will probably buy the first one

Zaishen Challenge Quests: 2/5
PUG-ing is back! Yay, thats really cool! Those zquest are really cool! But the rewards are too high. Win 2-3 battles and get 6 k fb reward? Ok then! Either lower the prices, or multiple every FB in game by 5, so it will be balanced.

Zaishen Coins: 2/5
Pretty much same as qeusts. Now they will be overfarmed. People stop caring when heavy eq bags will come to the players' marketplace. They will be forgotten soon. Theres absolutely no reason to collect them, but EQ pack. Maybe 5 zaishen points for each quest completed?

Zaishen Menagerie: 4/5
Pretty cool thing Looking forward to unlock them all.

Nicolas the Traveler: 5/5
Pretty much BEST thing in that update. Thing, that requies teamwork (all playerbase!). We are looking forward to it every week. I only hope that he has MANY spawn locations, not like 10-20, because it will be boring routine every week. I hope Anet will create another guy like that With unique rewards.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: 5/5
Well, i actually started caring about my Hom! I will make it cool this weekend, i promise.

Miscellaneous: 4/5
New tonics, new minipets. We want moar that kind-of-useless stuff. Why? Because its so freaking nice to go to LA and see a bone dragon there. Really, its epic.

Overall: 3/5
Fix rewards of zqeusts, and it will be pretty much 4/5-5/5.

The Rings + Yak.
5/5


Everything else - I don't care for in it's current form.

Equipment Pack: **** (3/5)
1 star lost to grind factor and 1 star lost to the timing of the feature.

Xunlai Storage: *** (4/5)
1 star lost because of the timing of the storage update; 2 years too late. But, it is well done. I am excited to see how ANET is testing their business model.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (4/5)
2 stars lost to grind factor but, 1 star was won back because it brought PuGs (Argh!) back in the game, somewhat.

Zaishen Coins: *** (N/A)
Can't rate as I have never bothered to see another kind of storage devourer.

Zaishen Menagerie: **** (5/5)
Must be great. Yet to see. Rating based on what friends' said.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Absolutely a great addition.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
Hmm...I like it. Not a big fan of it anyway.

New character customisation: **** (5/5)
1 star lost to timeliness and 1 star won back because of the surprise factor. Well done indeed. Again, ANET is testing the customerbase.

Linsey and her team: **** (5/5)
When you like what you do, it shows. Good job as always. Sarcasms, rants and whining will always be there as long as internet exists. But, looking beyond that, it's all cool. Well done indeed.

** Thanks to OP for the structured post that I could C&P from.

Equipment Pack: **** (4/5)
I love it. Don't really care how much they cost, because more space is still more space than I used to have.

Xunlai Storage: * (1/5)
I have to pay for this crap? I have 5 accounts, so absolutely zero incentive.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (4/5)
I LOVE THESE! They have given me a reason to go back and enjoy the content that I otherwise couldn't be arsed to do. The only thing that makes them not a perfect 5/5 is the slightly unbalanced rewards. 5 mins for 70copper with Molotov and 35 for 25 mins with the Coldstones? Ugh.

Zaishen Coins: **** (4/5)
Again, I don't really care how much the stuff costs. They are new, useful and fun items, and I would go for them no matter what. (Though the biggest bag really is a bit too expensive ) Yay for allowing them in storage now!

Zaishen Menagerie: *** (3/5)
Meh, I don't especially care. It is nice.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Awesome in every sense of the word.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: **** (4/5)
Yay! It is a bit disappointing that I can't see which item belongs to which character etc.

New character customisation: ** (2/5)
Again, I have to pay real money for this crap? No thanks. Ill keep my old names and looks and my $15 thanks. (Mostly I don't care for this one because I took great care in character creation)

Miscellanious *** (3/5)
Meh.



My final rating: 30/45 stars or 3.3/5.

Nicholas The Traveler 5/5
Zaishen Daily Quests 5/5


Everything else isnt worth my attention.

Equipment Pack: **** (4/5)
They are there if you need them, I probably won't but I'm not going to complain about it.

Xunlai Storage: *** (3/5)
This doesn't bother me much.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: ***** (5/5)
GREAT, it encourages people to go back and do those things they never did before, with additional rewards for going the extra mile. Good for those trying to get Guardian titles. Nice one Anet

Zaishen Coins: **** (4/5)
Useful things, -1 start for requiring GOLD to use them

Zaishen Menagerie: ***** (5/5)
I had GREAT fun filling this place up.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Give me my Gwen!

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5)
Now it feels like a real hall of me

New character customisation: *** (3/5)
Good if I need it, but I took care during creation. Anet's gotta make money somehow



All in all, an update you'd have to be a baby to look for bad things in.

Equipment Pack: *** (3/5)
Really neat, except for the insanely high cost. Drop it and it'd be 5 stars, easy.

Xunlai Storage: ** (2/5)
2 stars for the freebie. Pity stars, really. At least I didn't have to make a whole stupid PlayNC account just for that.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (4/5)
Fun, Bounty goes well with my skill capping, Combat got me back into PvP, Mish is, well, I need Master's on a lot of things. -1 star for really crummy rewards for Bounties. 10 zoins is just not worth the effort.

Zaishen Coins: *** (3/5)
Good idea - SOOOO happy I can get tomes more easily now (converted a PvP mez to PvE, still trying to get her all her old skills), but the big gaps in value are annoying. As with the equip packs, price needs to go down a little.

Zaishen Menagerie: ***** (5/5)
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. My Para finally got to cap her crane, even though she isn't supposed to have left Istan yet. I'd love to just explore there a bit. Also, this is tempting me to make that new Ranger a beastmaster, just to have a little fun (since I have heroes for the rest, and it's not like I haven't made much-derided-yet-reasonably-effective builds before - MoR/Hundred Blades + FDS before the functionality change, whoo).

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
NICE. Now I can afford a bigger commish. Also, it's fun to track him down. Best part of the update, IMO. Except maybe the menagerie.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: **** (4/5)
Nice to see how my armors look on my other charas. I'm kind of bugged by the little black mannequins they've got if you can't get the armor on that prof, though. Maybe it's time we had those... *hint hint*

New character customization: * (1/5)
Very cool... except for that tiny little thing about how changing my ele's hair the slightest shade costs more than a bus ride on the local public transit. KEEEERfail. Were it a pay-to-unlock-permanently rather than pay-for-credits thing, though, I'd buy this in a heartbeat.

Miscellanious ***** (5/5)
Eh, it's misc. I've got nothing to complain about it, really (okay okay I do think the VDS looks like some kind of plastic PlaySkool My First Dragon Sword thing, but whatever). Kudos to ANet for implementing the Merch summon stones.

My final rating: 32/45 stars or 71% (C-). Would be better, except for the microtransactions of doom and the zoin grind. Make the store costs smaller, or make the Stylist an unlock-once purchase, and reduce the zoin costs/make getting them easier, and I'll revise the gradebook.

Equipment Packs: 2/5. great concept, but the ridiculous cost in Z-coins really hurts it...

Xunlai Storage: 4/5. Should have made the free panel available via the ingame store.

Zaishen Quests: 3/5.

Zaishen Coins: 3/5. Everything costs too damn much.

Zaishen Menagerie: 5/5. One of the best things in ages! I wish they'd introduced this years ago!

Nicholas the Traveler: 5/5. Never bothered with him so far, but the rewards sound pretty sweet.

HoM Changes: Account-wide is great, but the real spotlight-stealer here is finally being able to arrange the damn monuments!

New Character Customization: 4/5 (makeover) 3/5 (name). The intercampaign makeovers are something I've wanted for a while (a little broke at the moment, though, so I haven't actually used it), but the name change costs far too much for my taste...

Equipment Packs 4.5/5 - Like this one. Wish there was something for tomes too, but this was great - buy in game with gold small and work for bigger - ok with me.
Please have f9 open this too.

Xunlai Storage: 4.5/5. Should have made the free panel available via the ingame store.

Zaishen Quests: 5/5. Good stuff - something for PVE and PVP. I enjoy these challenges even though some I will never probably pull off.

Zaishen Coins: 5/5. I actually have to work to accomplish something - wow that means I have to play the game....! Good job - quit whining.

Zaishen Menagerie: 5/5. Great! I wish they'd introduced this earlier!

Nicholas the Traveler: 5/5. Fun, but can be grindy in presear. I like the concept and hey - grind happens in MMOPGs. I won't ding the devs for that little bit with the fun rewards there are. I want mini-Gwen!

HoM Changes: Account-wide is great, and very cool to see the armor previews - good job. Several tweaks here that are welcome.

New Character Customization: n/a - I will not rate this since I will not participate. Really overpriced for a single 'fix' of a name or tweak of a look. If it was one buy to unlock the ability maybe... But even then I am mostly happy with my names and looks.

Overall I like this update.

Good job.

There were bugs, but this was a major update and go live often has something pop up. Disappointing for all, but not going to blow up about it.

Equipment Pack:
Eh... 3/5. It would have been a good idea but the amount of grind needed for it is ridiculous.

Xunlai Storage:
2/5. It's nice that they're finally listening to players (after 4 years?) but it was implemented horribly. The "Free panel" needs an NC store account, and it's totally overpriced as well.

Zaishen Challenge Quests:
4/5. It's a pretty nice take on the repeatable quest idea, but make them change a lot sooner... like every 12 hours. And have more options available, too - like for the PvP challenge, you could have win 10 battles in Random Arena OR win 3 battles in Heroes Ascent... the more choices, the better.

Zaishen Coins:
2.5/5. They're just like the random tokens you get from festivals, nothing special. Although I wish that the useful rewards weren't so overpriced.

Zaishen Menagerie:
3/5. It's an excellent idea. Although I fail to see why they made it so big and so empty...

Nicolas the Traveler:
3/5. So he's like a "bring me some stuff and I give you loot?" I dunno.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide:
4/5. Grinding is boring. Grinding the same thing for 8 different characters is worse.

New character customization:
1/5. Epic fail there. If GW is going down the route of microtransactions, they should take a page out of Perfect World's book and instead have it so that players can buy "Makeover Scrolls" or something. That way, people who can't/won't buy stuff through the ingame store don't get totally ripped off.

But a better idea would have been to make the character makeovers require ingame gold.

Miscellaneous
2/5. I heard this update glitched quite a few things to hell... oh, and skill update plz.


My final rating: 24.5 out of 45 (unless I screwed up somewhere, I'm tired as hell)

Conclusion: Too little, too late. And hell, for the hell of it.

I give em 100/100,

Everything, to include having to wait a whole 2-3 days to transfer z-coins was worth the wait.

As for parts i may not have any interest? well i just wont use them, everything else is gravy.

Equipment Pack: ** (2/5)
More attempts to coerce people into playing with those they have already chosen not to. If I could count on a higher level of maturity, I would play with more than those I have learned to trust.

Xunlai Storage: * (1/5)
This rating could have been higher if it had not been costing people their accounts due to glitches and hang-ups at NC Soft. Lack of preparation for this kind of thing is normal in GW and unfortunate. Further, using this as a way to force people into NC Accounts was not acceptable.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: **** (4/5)
No huge complaints here. Don't care for the extensive farm-fest foisted on us when there is already too much to get done by GW2.

Zaishen Coins: *** (3/5)
It's obvious there is no bug preventing the coins from going into storage. They don't want people to be able to farm them with multiple characters and make the waste of time unnecessary for others.

Zaishen Menagerie: N/A
Cant rate this one yet. I have opened it but I have not tried it.

Nicolas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
This one is amusing, but I am not giving up my flowers - need them for tapestry shreds.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: **** (4/5)
I never understood why the change to cartoon characters to display the armor. They could have simply had the correct armor appear in the bronze statue look appropriate to the monument.

New character customisation: ***** (5/5)
A fair amount of man hours and nice adherence to fan interest. Only thing I would have liked is more hair, hair color, face, skin color options for the non-Core character classes. That would have been nice, but I suppose the man-hours are already too much.



My final rating: 24/35 stars or 68% = D+.

Conclusion:
Sometimes the line between pass and fail is not enough, especially when they can do better. But some good things.

Haha, whoops I guess this kid missed the memo.

Equipment Pack: * (1/5) There shouldn't be different types and obtaining them should be in sync with previous forms of storage (NOT expensive and NO grind). Very angry about the implementation of this part of the storage update - I'd award 0, because I'm not grinding or buying any of them, but I assume 1 star is usually the minimum in a 5 star system.

Xunlai Storage: *** (3/5) Not bad. It's nice to have a free tab and I'm going to assume the others are priced high for future 2for1 promotions.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: ** (2/5) Great idea for PuGs. They shouldn't have tried to force the concept, though. Doesn't suit me, because I like to take newer toons through the whole game, not replay bits here and there on my main. AND I DON'T PUG!

Zaishen Coins: * (1/5) Horribly convoluted - why 3 types? Stingy awards for PvE and apparently easily farmed if you happen to like PvP (or playing the how to decide who resigns in PvP meta-game). Binned them, because they're a waste of precious storage at the rate I was getting them.

Zaishen Menagerie: *** (3/5) Not terribly interested. Haven't found reason to visit yet.

Nicolas the Traveler: **** (4/5) Cute and weekly is better than daily. I soon tired of the Huntsman.

Hall of Monuments: now account wide: ***** (5/5) Much needed. Shame it didn't happen a week after EotN and kinda got burried in the rest of this update.

New character customisation: *** (3/5) Probably wouldn't use it anyway, but was a bit dissappointed they didn't extend the range of options for non-core classes. Even hair/skin tones would have been something.

Conclusion:
Deeply disappointed by the rather forced connection between more storage and Z-quests. Can feel a rage-quit coming on.

Equipment Pack: ** (2/5)
Good idea, but awful idea to tie this to the Zaishen Coins.

Xunlai Storage: * (1/5)
Nothing against more storage, it is very useful and GW was always struggling with the limited storage. The idea to sell it in the shop is piss poor.

Zaishen Challenge Quests: *** (3/5)
Channels people to do something together, but the rewards suck and are basically the equipment packs and nothing else. The balance of points given for certain quests is also way off, and this quest is just a reward to roll new pvp chars and do the same HB/RA/TA/HA thing over and over. And people will not do it because they think the quests themselves are so much fun, but for a silly bag. Again, add some better Zaishen Rewards and not bags as the ultimate goal for gods sake.

Zaishen Coins: ** (2/5)
Token System that works, but lacks proper rewards and as I already mentioned, the balance of the quests and the coins you get for them and the number of coins needed for the only worthwhile stuff, the bags, is out of whack.

Zaishen Menagerie: **** (4/5)
Best idea ever. Makes it easier to equip heroes with pets, the general gripe is that pets are not that useful on anything but a ranger anyways. I also miss that I cannot invite other players to show them my pet collection.

Nicholas the Traveler: ***** (5/5)
Good humored stories, nice lottery, no grind, interesting stuff you can get. Simple and fun idea! Actually, Nicholas has the stuff that the Zaishen Coin traders should offer!

Hall of Monuments: now account wide - NO COMMENT
Seriously, this was so long overdue, what do you expect, 5 stars or what?

New character customisation: *** (3/5)
Pretty on the "macro" side of "micro transactions", but it is pretty optional and the interface is well done. I just do not like the RMT trend in GW.