Guild Wars 2

This will probably never happen, because I can’t see ArenaNet devoting resources to finished content, but here’s my two cents.

After seeing Divinity’s Reach and Lion’s Arch, Hoelbrak feels… empty.

There are five massive buildings with not much in them. I’d shrink down the five lodges and their statues by half or so. There’s so much empty space in them that is glaring.

It would be nice if each of the spirit lodges had people teaching parables and lessons from each spirit. Some appropriate animals lounging around in them might be good too. Make some actual bedrooms instead of placing beds in a row along open platforms. The places should be filled with scroll racks and statues.

For the Great Lodge, I’d remove all but the smallest balcony from it and move all the crafting stations and merchants to the boardwalk around the central pentagon. Give Knut Whitebear a proper audience chamber with a big roaring hearth near him and an impressive throne, but one that’s actually his size. His current one is scaled so big he looks like a child next to it. Have some skalds singing epic songs of heroes. Make some walled rooms for a library or armory. People could be brawling or duelling on the balcony outside or competing in some form of Nornly contests.

Hunter’s Hearth isn’t very versatile as a home instance, it’s certainly no equal to Salma District. I guess that’s why we only go in there a couple times in the Personal Story missions. Why even have it when you could put those missions in Knut’s audience chamber, where they’d make more sense.

With the lodges shrunken down, we’ll have even more space in the main snowy field. The central pentagon boardwalk would serve as Hoelbrak’s market area , with the merchants and crafting station stations arranged there. Currently there’s nothing but random NPCs standing about. The repair guy is there, but right now with no anvil or any facilities to fix armor with. You can have NPCs walking about looking at market stalls to give it some life.

Then I’d put some regular home sized lodges with closed doors in the plain around that, all facing towards the center, so that it looks like people actually live in Hoelbrak. Sprinkled among them would be taverns, NPC blacksmith shops and animal barns.

If there’s room, build a barracks for the Wolfborn city guards, with some of them sparring outside. Sigfast or Skarti could be in an office in there too, overseeing things.

Near each entrance to the valley you could have encampments from other races. Two or three Charr tents with a handful of NPCs and wagons nearby to look like a visiting caravan, for example.

All of this could be done with existing models and art assets. So nothing would need to be built from scratch.

I have to agree, the Norn really got shortchanged compared to the humans and the Char.

I have to politely disagree. Divinity’s Reach is bland and mediocre to me. The Black Citadel for the Charr is nice but can be a bit confusing and tough to navigate.

Hoelbrak is simple, absolutely beautiful, and ironically warm in my opinion. I was actually on the fence about buying this game when I was playing the BWEs as a Human. I made a Norn and explored Hoelbrak and had a conversation with a Norn woman about pickup lines in that gorgeous cave behind Bear Lodge. Finding that cave and then having that conversation made me fall in love with this game and to this day the Norn and Hoelbrak and my favorite parts about Guild Wars 2. I personally wouldn’t change a thing.

Not to mention Hoelbrak’s music is just epic.

Hoelbrak is the best looking city in the game in my opinion, and I’m a charr.

I have to agree with the last few posters, I absolutely adore Hoelbrak and like it much more than the other cities.

Hoelbrak may contrast with the other cities (especially the overly busy tight quarters nature of Divinities Reach), but it certainly fits the idea of norn.

Who (besides Norns) would like to live in a northern city? its empty cause other races dont like to freeze!

Besides, we have Kegwar!

I like the massive buildings that the Norn have made. It is a testament to the power and prowess they posses on the battle field, in my opinion. The giant halls, the huge caves. It gives you the sense that, you have a very hearty group of people, who have a great sense of honor and glory.

If Hoelbrak got changed during Wintersday, then I can foresee this as being incredibly beautiful. We could have a giant tree in the center fully decorated. The thought makes my eyes water.

I agree. While the Grove is tiny, it’s beautiful and condensed so that there’s no wasted space or needless running about. Divinity’s Reach is huge and a pain to discover all of it, but it’s beautiful and the important stuff is all together in the middle. Rata is a bit confusing at first but easily accessible and, while not to DR or Grove’s level of beautiful, still cool. Even the Black Citadel (which I haven’t spent much time in) is impressive, if complex and massive.

And then there’s Hoelbrek….covered in snow…plain…barren…spread out……I really hope (like BowmasterSol mentioned) that they make Hoelbrek the center of Wintersday & do it up huge. The spirit of Rockafeller steals Jormag’s Tooth and replaces it with a massive holiday tree lol.

I vote for Hoelbrak getting Christmas Decorations

Hoelbrak is my favourite city the worst one is the Charr city imo. I’ve haven’t been there long, but its so confusing!

They need a better ambience sound, something like people singing actual song. The thing about ppl screaming and talking loud gets annoying.

And yeah we have to be the official location for the Christmas event

I don’t know about the others, but the Wold Lodge does have someone teaching parables. Every once and a while the kids meet up by the shrine and a storyteller starts telling stories about Wolf.

I would like to see more stuff going on inside the lodges and other buildings, but I actually prefer hanging out in Hoelbrak to a lot of the other towns. Just wish there were more people there sometimes.

Oh and less “Take Heed!”

I’d have to disagree with changing anything, Hoelbrak is easily my favourite city with the Black Citadel a close second. Just because it isn’t as built up as Lion’s Arch or Divinity’s Reach doesn’t mean it isn’t grand in its own way. I think the worst cities are The Grove and Rata Sum, which others seem to love. The point is it really comes down to personal preference so changing anything would honestly be a huge mistake.

Also the entire point of Hoelbrak is that it is the first time the Norn have ever built a settlement with a population that size, of course they would want to spread out as much as possible seeing as Norn are secluded throughout most of history and not used to being close to so many others.

Hoelbrak is my favorite city in the game, but of course I may be a little biased here since I’m a Norn.

I also love it because while exploring other cities it was a pain to find alot of the poi. Black citadel was a nightmare to explore and the grove was a little better. I dislike multi-layered cities. Hoelbrak thankfully is one layered.

I also love snowy environments so Hoelbrak works perfectly
Hoelbrak is perfect the way it is and doesn’t need any changes, Leave my home alone!