Least favourite Guild Wars campaign, and why.

This is a close one.

Nightfall is horrible. I hate it. The areas are all just variations of a desert theme ranging from "nice" to "absoluteley bloody awful" (the desolation). Playing through the NF campaign feels like a long, drawn out chore that I hate. The desolation is also unforgivable and I blame the Junundu wurms for lots of it.
NF also requires me to bring certain heroes for certain missions. Mostly it's Koss or Dunkoro. I never want those two heroes on my team when I'm trying for a HM mission. I rarely want Zhed or Margrid either (but I can usually make them work better).
The powercreep and PvE skills NF brought along were horrible to.

NF also in my view, started to introduce the more absurd enemies. The tormented creatures are a bloody nightmare (and the desolation undead mobs are stupid at times too). Prophecies did have the Mursaat, but that was fitting with the storyline and you were provided with a means of protection before you were required to actually fight them. NF gave you the Lightbringer title - bloody grind that you'll do after the campaign.


EotN however, did some of the above but worse.
There was no excuse for the PvE skills. None.
Title grinds linked to the power of these skills? That's even worse. Especially since you'll probably only have Rank 5 in one title (after handing a book in) after completing the NM campaign.
The mobs are also absurd and after reading through some of the posts in this thread, I think Carinae summed it up best:

I will forgive EotN on several fronts however.
It has far superior locales. The explorable areas are much nicer to walk around in.
It doesn't require me to bring certain heroes for certain missions. That, is absolutely wonderful.
And at least parts of it are fun. With a strong human team.

Nightfall- It turned GW into a single player game with heroes. Terrible imo. Not to mention you are required to have a hero in party for missions. That should of been removed via updated.

Factions beginning mainland hands-down for me. The design of all the paths of the same color of all the stupid buildings is one of the most flawed pieces of map I have ever encountered in an MMO,ORPG,ARPG,etc. I'll finally get to my quest location....only to find that the actual portal/NPC is ABOVE or BELOW me.

Indeed... environment effects like the frozen lake Drakkar and the blind spam in Orr are annoying. I still think they are innovative and fun at the same time. There needs to be some incentive to adapt, think and improve your build.

Yet you are right that these areas were designed with PvE skills and consumables in mind, to be somewhat challenging to fully developed chars. These areas were designed for veterans like you are one. Have you become lazy over the years, taking easy victory for granted?

I totally support the notion that consumables AND just too good PvE skills should never have happened. PvE skills are okay in the observation that PvE and PvP gameplay are vastly different, but the implementation is not. It started out nicely with a few (some of them just too good already at that time), but then it got totally out of hand in EOTN.


It is hard to separate the bad parts of an expansion from the good ones, in some regards EOTN was a failure, in other parts it was awesome and really made me sad that this was it, no more Utopia campaign to come and so on.

I agree, they should make it like factions where togo and mhenlo are already in your party window following you around. AND THAT THEY REVIVE IF THEY DIE, yes they can be morons!

I would argue that the PvE skills should never have been introduced. Particularly with their power level. There are several that totally displace profession specific elites.

Having the same skill sets as you have in PvE in PvP is I think, an important aspect of GW. The PvE/PvP split should have allowed that much more reasonably (with PvP versions being toned down, but with very similar functionalities).
Obviously A-Net didn't like this idea at all.
But here is not the place to go into that.

Heh, well I am lazy, but I don't think that's why I hate EotN and some HM design decisions.

I hate things I cannot counter (weather at all, or for all intents and purposes)...

Trample chains (KD Lock is fun?)
Jotun Stomp chains (KD Lock is fun?)
Drakkar Lake freeze (Perma snare is fun?)
Cathedral Collapse
Twisting Jaws
and on and on.....

I did Arborstone HM yesterday and wanted to go on a shooting rampage after my 4th failure in a row. The monsters aren't hard. The stupid Cathedral Collapse effect is awful, especially when they lay into you with a good sized mob.

Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse Cathedral Collapse

Awww, you died, too bad.

Then on the 5th try, after succeeding through the mission.... Danika decides to WALK all the way back to where the Urn is stored EVEN THOUGH I'M HOLDING THE URN. Mission Time: 30:10


6th try
Mission Time: 21:18


Fix bugs. STOP trying to piss me off. Challenge =/= Asshat design. If they are going to do that, they might as well get it over with and auto-kill your party as soon as you enter a zone.

Nightfall.

The Heroes were a great addition, but beyond that the lands are so desolate and boring, IMHO. I also don't particularly like having to be swallowed by giant worms, heh.

Indeed the Centaur KDs are just annoying.

As usual in GW, good idea in general, bad implementation. I wonder if they manage to create meaningful environment effects for GW2 that have certain implications without being too annoying. Or monster skills that are a bit more creative than a super bite or KD spam.

I hate that. The other one is when she's supposed to use Blood of Zu Heltzer to open the doors, but is hanging back because she's trying to heal you or your minions.

The Drakkar Lake environment effects can be negotiated through - I mean, you have to watch your positioning, that's it - but heaven forfend you try that with a PUG, as I found out during the Myish bounty. Groups perpetually wander smack into the middle of the ice, then wonder why they can't run away when a horde of wisps starts chasing them. ARGH.

I do like the way GWEN managed to implement heroes in the storyline without making you bring them along. The Wintersday quest where you make a present for Gwen actually required you to not bring her along, which is quite a change from the "Dunkoro must be in your party". I mean, Dunkoro isn't so bad for me, but when it comes to heroes I almost never touch, like Margrid...

Nightfall gets to dark, dreary, depressing, and repetitive once you hit Undead-Land.

Nightfall, not a big fan of being in dry, sandy deserts for most of the game. Realm of torment is a very cool place, but you only arrive there when your a few hours from beating the game.

Just an observation:

Post-Searing Ascalon
Desolation
Kaineng City areas

brownish, desolate areas. The brownish-yellowish theme is especially true for the Desolation and the mobs, even the mobs there are brownish.

Maybe the artists are just too good at their job - the Desolation is so depressing that I tried to leave it behind me asap. But the dark "Torment" theme was not so much better. On the other hand I wonder why brownish area textures are so ever popular in video games.


This reminds me why I love Far Cry, Crysis and Unreal Tournament so much more than the Quake games, "brownish area design" is a major turnoff to me.

This.

basically heros and inscriptions made the game a joke.

I can sympathise. I got through it first time in HM on my Ranger (when I wasn't using any of these hyper-powerful builds but a homebrew uneducated shitty one), but the amount of times "Cathedral Collapse" happens, I lost a survivor I was doing it in Normal Mode, and it took me several times to complete... in Normal Mode, all kitted out and with the builds that have some offensive and defensive substance to them. Hey look, I can't even get a 1/4 skill off!

factions..

i dunno why?
maybe coz i love proph and like nf ;P

also factions made ppl that never knew each other start fights and call each other names just becoz the one is luxon and the other one is kurzick..
and h8ing someone for his gw alliance is simply stupid and it indicates how obsessed u are with the game xP

These both things. inscription + heros. eww.

Factions.

Hate time limits for the bonus portions on missions. Did not like the locked gates. The voice over acting for the cut scenes was just awful (Elder Rhea, Shiro, Danika, pretty much everyone...), I found the story to be cliche and predictable, and aside from the Jade sea area's, the chapter is not nearly as pretty as the others.

I like Prophecies the most, but I'll never start a character there again.

And I least like Factions because the areas are so annoying to navigate through.

All of the campaigns have issues that I don't really enjoy.

Prophecies: Some very poorly designed missions. That mission where Rurik gets himself killed in the end is absolutely unforgivable for a supposedly "beginner" mission. I very nearly gave up on Guild Wars entirely because of that mission. Aurora Glade is also badly designed. If you didn't have wiki to guide you through it, you would have no clue what to do in the end. Also the random boss spawns make elite captures a total grind. Otherwise I think the gradually increase in difficulty for the missions is very well done. For a new player, the Ring of Fire missions were HARD (great!).

Factions: I actually like Factions. Very beautiful artwork. But the map designs are an absolute maze. Also requiring 100k faction just to get a LEVEL ONE PvE skill is lame. Arborstone is a badly designed mission. Vizunah Square annoys me because you never know who is going to be paired with you on the other side. Otherwise I would consider this a fairly easy campaign overall. It is also very short for a stand alone campaign.

Nightfall: The desert theme gets a little old. I'm totally anti-social, so I LOVE heroes. The worm missions are terrible. I also hate that I am required to take particular heroes for particular missions. Otherwise I think the mission design is actually pretty good. Probably the hardest missions for me to figure out was the Grand Court of Seb. mission (the one with the Blasphemy) and the next to the end mission where you go through hell only to have Shiro wipe your party (that's terrible design).

EoTN - I LOVE this expansion. The art is stunning. Lots of different types of foes. Great dungeons. Unique skills. Yeah, some of the monster skills are pretty annoying and title grinding used to be a pain (glad they fixed it so you really don't have to stress getting much past level 6-7 or so).

Prophecies, trying to cap skills really stinks. you run the same area trying get an Elite skil and the guy doesn't spawn. then you to zone and do it again. In Factions and Nightfall at least you know the skill will be there when you to the area.

Nightfall by far. Screwed PVP with the power creep, I still haven't completed the campaign because it's that boring to go through, and worst of all the professions are crap.

Paragon - A class that relies on partywide buffs can never be perfectly balanced. Not to mention it takes little to no skill.

Dervish - 9-40 damage??? Lottery cannon FAIL. Healing, buffs, melee range? Dervish class is basically wammo.

Although Prophecies is long and tedious, it's a pretty game once you reach Yak's Bend. The missions aren't too hard either even for a new player starting out - well, except for maybe that last one.

I liked how Factions looked when I got it and, for the most part, it was a cool game to play. I didn't like the two-party missions that put you at the mercy of whoever you end up with on the other team - like Vizunah Square. I'm not the best player so ending up with me is no prize either Most of the missions in Factions lean towards having you attacked by waves of enemies so having to baby-sit fairly useless NPCs was also not particularly fun. Factions gets my vote for least favorite campaign even though it's pretty short and the scenery in the Jade Sea and Echovald is nice.

What I didn't like about Nigthfall was being forced to use certain heroes for some of the missions. That may be why I dislike most of the primary heroes - especially Dunkoro. However, I did like the mechanics of most of the missions - I thought they were fun and some even had bits of humor. Ruins of Morah still stumps me and Gate of Pain, for me, is truly a pain.

Eye of the North is a mixed bag. I got EotN because I wanted a Charr hero but I found out that he's too big and makes too much noise. A few of the Bosses are over the top as are some of the dungeons but they seem to get easier after you've improved various reputations and skills. The artwork is pretty and I like the music.

What I liked most about NF was that the hard missions were HAAAARRRRRDDDDD. That was even before doing HM. I do appreciate when ANet make things difficult instead of the usual easy nonsense, or timed rubbish (timing Factions missions was the worst idea ever, and yet the only ones WITHOUT timers are the hardest, nice fail ANet).

Factions was pretty terribad.

Prophecies is/was the bestest <3

EOTN...good idea, bad in practice. Destroyers are the biggest joke enemy ever. End boss was even more so. Norn was annoying, Charr was easy and silly (although HM Charr are difficult, and the skill bars are a good idea, missions are very easy to beat), Asura was huge and stupid (I blame dinosaurs - oh sorry, Saurians). Dungeons were a huge let down, only a couple are worth playing, and only 1-2 are fun enough to warrant re-playing. Legendary Master of the North was the most unimaginably boring grindy shit I've ever done (H&H mind you).

I disliked Factions the most because of the same reason that other people have said they liked it; you can move through it faster. The campaign is too short, and downright monotonous in the city where I'm not really that motivated to see what the next cluttered slum-like area looks like when the last 5 have looked the same. There really isn't enough content in that campaign compared to Prophecies or Nightfall, and what is there gives me a slight feeling of blasé monotony.
On the other hand, I loved Nightfall for its balanced learning curve and how it forces you to do side quests and enjoy those before continuing in certain areas (I never did understand why one would grind to get level 12 or whatever when all those side quests give so much experience). Even the Realm of Torment was enjoyable for its increased difficulty and radical change from the rest of the campaign. Forcing the players to ride Junundu was downright stupid, however, because the experience of playing your character was severely handicapped by jumping into a 3,000 hp clone of everyone else in your party.
Prophecies seemed to have a severe learning curve that was too long, but it was otherwise enjoyable if played by a character from another campaign who didn't have to do all those beginning quests. Eye of the North encourages grinding, which I don't enjoy for any number of reasons, it has title-based skills which break the game in more than one way, but the dungeon content can be quite fun.
My apologies for deviating from the original question.

Nightfall - Improved AI killed the pug for everything but trick builds, Power Creep, plus while factions had the locked gates, at least it was shorter, and looking back the gates just aren't as annoying as the run around you have to do in nightfall to "unlock" a mission. Sure, I liked the length of nightfall, and its "epic" story was alright, but if I wanted to play it again, (Which I did) got real boring real fast.

LOL! Togo has a proclivity for dieing?? Obviously you haven't done any proph mission with Prince Rurik...

I hate factions too cuz i get lost in the city most of the time...

I think factions was my least favorite. I like all the games, but this one was just kidna boring, most of the city irks me and the jade sea bores me.

However I love the dark theme of the echovald forest. I'm a true kurzick at heart... I also loved the twist on the ending, the idea that shiro needed to draw blood of the royal family, the emperor almost killed and takes togo instead. But I don't quite understand why he would want to be mortal.. I mean, then we could kill him...

I have a lot of nice nostalgia feelings for prophecies. Compared to other things nowadays, it IS slow and boring. But I very much love to explore, I don't care how long it took but it was huge and very fun. There were many parts you didn't have to go through and could discover later.

I think, if you took any of the main three campaigns and everyone played it as only that single campaign existed (only skills and aspects from that game) prophecies has the best feel. As a noob, it was great. I loved it when missions were challenging because we either played with pugs back when everybody pug'd or had to use lame henchies. I (being a noob as well) had to try many missions multiple times and beating them I felt a sense of accomplishment. Not knowing where the story was going was great- like reading a good book (I still could understand it though it surprised me). I did a lot of side quests.

Having the slow character developement was fun when you were new and you didn't have many skills. I played a necro/ele on my first character and I used a lot of fire magic. When I got to my first elite in the desert it was the coolest thing. it was a true adventure, I remember going through the last mission on my necro with a combination of blood and water magic, since the enemies were fire. Lol.


But in present times, the campaign I'd most likely replay is Nightfall. I like the story aspects and many choices you make, and the character developement between the heroes, mostly melonni, koss, thalkora, and dunk, but also morgahn's change of heart and interesting aspects of others.

Though I can resent the campaign for its game breakingness (grind, heroes killing pugs, ect.) I still like it.

I am not one to discriminate. I hate all Guild Wars campaigns equally.

That said, EOTN is the worst expansion.

Nice one DE. Nice one.

EOTN was pretty bad rofl. I'll have to find Sha's post about how awful it was.

I liked all campaigns, especially Nightfall which I found fascinating; however, I shall list the cons of each campaign.

Prophecies: I loved this campaign. Everybody did on their first, second, and even third character. However after all those times making a new character and stuff it just got old. Especially when I'm wasting an hour and a half running around a small island just to get one elite skill which just so happened to be at the end of my run. Also, when you started to actually look at the plot, it was actually quite stupid. I mean sure you want the people you live for to live to see the next day, so you prepare an exodus to a region - the only problem is the high altitude, freezing mountains with a large race in the middle of a civil war. Why don't you just go up north to seek refuge in the Vanguard and even *gasp* create a new Kingdom in a place where it is actually peaceful..

Factions: I hate the city. I hate the Afflicted. I hate Master Togo. I hate assassins. I hate ritualists. The only thing I loved about Factions were the scenery and the missions. After reading this thread, I think I'm the only Guild Wars player who loved the timed missions, lol.

Nightfall: Scenery, plot, and characters were the best part in this campaign. The only downside? Those RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing missions. Especially the Gate of ______ ones. Sure, I'm one of those people who say "PvE is easy, blah blah blah" and don't get me wrong the last three missions are easy; atleast the direct object of the mission. I remember I thought those Terrorweb things were so easy until I aggroed one - congrats for it for wiping my entire team to bits with it's 600+ Liquid Flame. Remember Shiro Tagachi? I thought he was some badass character until I met his real pissed off side. He wiped my team multiple times when I first got there. And to this day it's still annoying. Kormir became a God too which was gay since she stole everybody's credit... I mean at least let Rurik or Togo become a God - they did more heroic deeds to the world even if they aggroed every single foe and boss in the area.

Eye of the North: Expansion of the Prophecies campaign was genius, but the storyline was pathetic. I mean at least let us do something involving the dragons more; not killing one of Primodorus' (spelling?) General who was so god damn easy to kill. I was hoping to kill a God when I first heard about it - and yes I'm setting my sights on Kormir, God of Truth... She took our credit and was rewarded as a RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing God.

End of my post. Oh and one last thing - let us kill Kormir in GW2 please.

If you were the 1st batch of players who played GW during the days when Prophecies was the only campaign no one would be grumbling about anything.

Your character "grow" at every outpost. New skills trainers and/or armourers available at almost every outpost *very useful unless you paid for a DROKES ARMOUR run*. If one really followed the quest path in Prophecies it would be a guided tour to level 20 where u eventually own the boss.

By comparison factions and nightfall are of a new concept, level 1 to 20 at a "noob area" leaving one to venture 65% of the game as a fully developed character. This is aimed at giving players the freedom of developing a campaign unique profession (Rit, Sin factions)(Para, Derv nightfall) and allowing one to play his/her favourite campaign.

As for EOTN it is for continuity. Allowing players to bring GW to GW2 via HOM.

Reguarding Pve skills and Heros, use them if you love them, trash them if you loathe them. I believe GW is such an open ended games that no one could force you to use a fixed hero set or pve skill to complete the mission. Except for the missions in NF where you will be forced to use 1 specific hero.

Back to the question of which campaign i like most, I would give all campaigns the thumbs up having brought me 45 months of fun.

EoTN is my least favorite. Yet more grind, dev sandbox sort of activities, and didn't look finished to me.

Prophecies: My very favorite, but keep in mind I started playing when it went live at retail release and it was all there was.

Nightfall and Factions: Each favorites in their own unique way. I never did understand the map penalties in Nightfall, though. And I hated the coop missions in Factions.

EoTN is not a campaign, so it shouldn't count. In terms of missions, though, I enjoyed it the most (it tried some different mission designs, decent goals, nice voice acting).

I hated Nightfall Campaign the most, I think it's just too long. I remember being so excited about the "worm mount", then I got to the Desolation and was like "This is it?"

Got out of there as fast as I could. The Realm of Torment was a interesting concept, but again, maybe too big?

Whatever the reason, it took me 2 1/2 years to finish Nightfall (not continous playing, obviously, just stopping and picking up again years later).

Oddly enough, I HATED Factions when it first came out. The city is bland, Assassins LFG, the horrible "re-trace your steps" mission order. (Not to mention all the bugs in missions like Vizunah Square). It just felt like a small area made artificially long by the designers. Which is a real shame, because the Jade Sea and Forest are some of my favorite areas in Guild Wars.

Now, though, I love the fact you can easily get a character to 20 with all attribute point quests very fast. Plus, easiest campaign to finish with only 12 required missions.

Prophecy is great the first time. Terrible for repeat characters, most annoying attribute quests ever, the whole Ascension thing (although you do feel like to earn it).

Yet, pre-searing calls me like a siren, I must have started over 20 characters in Prophecy, only to delete them after they leave pre.

nightfall is the worst it is dragged out and stupid
i just didint feel it

Nightfall: I love some armors on some professions but it's the most tedious game to go through. I can easily blast through Proph, and be amused, but going through Nf is a chore. So far I only have 2/10 characters that have beat it and one in the process. I like DoA, but I don't do it often. I like the Nightfallen areas, but I hate going through them.

I usually get my toons through Eotn and Factions more then anything. So far 3/10 characters have beat Proph, and soon that number will climb, since it's my favourite campaign.

I don't really care for NF. Derv is a profession I have to be in the mood to play. I haven't played my Derv since I made her and capped all her Avatar skills. My Paragon is the least favourite profession. I don't find any attraction in either prof.

i dont know, all the game's have things that suck and things that make them cool.
i like prophecies overall, but It just takes too long time to get to lvl 20, and its hard to play it through since no one plays it anymore.
Factions is kinda cool as well. The thing that sucks about it is just the whole Kaineng area.. the city sucks, and its way too hard to find your way around there....
Nightfall got some cool new proffesions, but the storyline never really got me

Nightfall.

I don't like the scenery and the story is complete crap. (You kill a god, who btw allies with the previous two main villians who you, apparently, HAVEN'T defeated..)

I'm not super-fond of Prophecies.
It just takes too long, I think.
>__o¿
Low output quests, nowhere to really sit down and level a little before moving on.

I absolutely hate Nightfall. The heroes are nice but I hate the actual gameplay for some reason. The storyline isn't insteresting to me and I hate the desert-ish setting of the game (I hated the desert missions in Proph, too). It was a struggle for me to even finish the campaign in normal mode.