Guild Wars 2

With previous living story releases, there has been a game mail or a cinematic that provides a brief synopsis of the living story content as well as direction for the achievements. However, that seems to be lacking in this content. Am I missing something or is the only direction we are given contained in the achievements panel with no story whatsoever?

There was a mail sent that had “story” in it

Rox is trying to impress Rytlock again.
Let’s go help her.

Yes, yes, I got that game mail. Let me be a bit more clear in my inquiry. Is there any story that sets up or provides any direction for the achievements?

Not that I’ve been able to see so far. Has anyone else found it or are we just wandering anywhere all over those areas to find one charr?

Talk to Rox, ask her if she wants your help. She will agree and off you go to find the dragon’s clues, because that’s how you will help her.
She is camping Teq’s spawn, not far from the Waypoint.

Why Rox of all people? Why not a hylek or a sylvari seeing as they are the primary races involved? I don’t understand why Rox is here… it seems like they just created a character, had a separate event going on and decided to use her again regardless of whether it made sense. Has anyone done anything with the story that explains why Rytlock specifically cares about Tequatl or is the story just attaching characters to content now simply because they didn’t have anyone else?

hah gw2 ‘story’
that’s funny

I talked to Trahearne, but sadly, the authority on things Risen knew nothing….

Rox and Braham are easy to put anywhere because of their reasons to do everything.
Rox wants to impress Rytlock.
Braham is building his legend.
There is no need for a new character, for an obscure motive or anything new at all. Rox and Braham will simply fit any kind of plot that involves a fight. It works.

I’m not complaining, I like them. Sure, I would like to see different characters, but as long as it is not about Kiel, I’m fine with it.

I am surprised Braham is not with her this time.

Because the only thing Teq got was a new coat of paint, why else should there be story?

pokemon

/15 chars

Kind of interesting that the story takes in the fact that players have been constantly beating him back over and over again. I always wondered if story-wise we’re just beating these things once, and subsequent times are just non-canon.

Still. I’m wondering where this really fits in the timeline for beating Zhaitan.

Anyway, the story mostly involves the Pact/Vigil trying to research how to kill Tequatl, and Rox trying to earn her way into Rytlock’s warband.

The Living Story takes place after Personal Story and Zhatian’s death, Rox recognises you from Flame and Frost, so Zhaitan is dead and Tequatl has somehow gotten stronger. That alone is an interesting point to take in. Maybe this is the beginning of the Living Story dealing with the Elder Dragons and a plot involving an increased threat from them?

There was mention of Elder Dragons absorbing magic, maybe with his death Zhaitan’s power is going back into the world and making the undead stronger than when he was alive.

Honestly I hardly ever know what’s going on these days. I need people on the forums to clear things up for me because I have trouble making sense of the narrative in the game. The time line alone confuses me.

I’m interested in the direction this is headed.

For one thing, I’m really glad ANet hasn’t forgotten about the Pact. There had been so little about that outside of the personal story that I was afraid the original plotline had been quietly dropped. Good to hear the Pact is still active, even if mainly behind the scenes at this point.

I really hope we get to discover the reasons Tequatl has been gaining power after its master’s death. It’ll make me happy if that actually gets resolved.

Hey Bobby, since Rox is alone this time, will we see something that is only about Braham anytime soon?

Shiren.9532:

Has anyone done anything with the story that explains why Rytlock specifically cares about Tequatl or is the story just attaching characters to content now simply because they didn’t have anyone else?

Because Rytlock already has plenty of interest in the elder dragons and their minions. The fact that Tequatl is gaining power after Zhaitan’s defeat is something that concerns him. What if that happens whenever an elder dragon falls; one of their minions start gathering strength and ends up being just as powerful as their old master?

I can see it now, Rox EdgeynameStone and others save Tyria by defeating Taco. She goes down in history as a hero while the player is forgotten in the annuls of history.

BobbyStein.2315:

The story component for the Tequatl Rising LW update primarily deals with helping Rox fight Tequatl and finding dragon minion clues. You can also interact with Warmaster Narru to get a few more details.

Narru will remain behind, though Rox will leave the area with the next Living World release.

Oh my god. Really? I don’t care about Tequatl, loot or difficult content. I just want story and lore content. You know story and lore content from Guild Wars 1? When are we going to get lore content?

If this update is part one of a season two story arc then you need to setup the story so we know what is going on. Every Single Game I’ve played has done this. Even Guild Wars did this. You always see some opening cinematic that establishes the plot so that the goal is identified. When GW2 launched everyone knew who the goal was. It was Zhaitain and his death. This was established from the concept art trailer!

I’m starting to get more and more jaded by what you guys are doing. Don’t get me wrong. I love GW2 but it feels like you guys want to keep releasing random living world content. I’m okay with this as long as your honest and upfront with us.

At least tell us the direction the story is going. You don’t have to give away big details. It can be something vague like: “With the assassination attempt on Queen Jennah’s life the Seraph and Shining Blade are joining forces to find the real power behind Scarlet Briar.” Something like that would be more than awesome. It would give me something to look forward to from each release and it give me some idea where the story is going.

P.S. I’m not playing GW2 for any other reason than the ongoing story. If the story dies what reason do I have to keep playing?

To be honest, I feel that this tequatl’s release makes for an excellent build up for something “dangerous” to come in the future. But based on your post, BobbyStein, it feels like there’s no story planned for this, and that the new details behind the new Tequatl are just marketing hype.

EDIT: A villain is more scary, intimidating or worthy of respect when the gameplay makes us feel that. In Tequatl’s case, with him being nigh-unbeatable, and when an entire server beating him is worthy of a celebration in-game or on forums, I think Anet’s writers should capitalize on that.

This is useful info Bobby, but again, finding out this is part of the story through a forum shows something is going wrong in game.

There could have been an intro for this at black citAdel with rytlock or more importantly the pact leaders. Finding the dragon clues could set up convos with priory npcs that then teases the connection to what is happening in Tyria. Right now, theres nothing tieing this to a story except your above post. Its just a boss fight and nothing else.

Saying more will come later is great….but how do in game players currently know this until the UI is ready?

Can you tell us at which point of the Personal Story is the Living Story taking place, Bobby?
It seems to be after the Pact was formed but before Zhaitan’s death right now. Is that so?

It’s not JUST a boss fight. There’s also achievements. But, yes, there’s no lore at all to tell us why we’re looking for these clues…

BobbyStein.2315:

The story component for the Tequatl Rising LW update primarily deals with helping Rox fight Tequatl and finding dragon minion clues. You can also interact with Warmaster Narru to get a few more details.

Narru will remain behind, though Rox will leave the area with the next Living World release.

No offense but that’s not really told well.

Narru’s the one who tells us to go face Tequatl, not Rox. We just “run into her” and us helping her seems to be limited to fighting Tequatl itself – not hunting for clues. There’s no story that I’ve seen whatsoever for why we’re hunting for dragon champ pieces in Blazeridge or Frostgorge.

BobbyStein.2315:

I realize that, for a lot of people, the LW release stories don’t feel connected. They are, but we’re not always making that clear to players. It’s something we’re always looking to improve. That stated, we have deliberately held back some story details for pacing reasons. More dots will be connected in the coming months, so I will continue to encourage folks to let us know what they think with each release. We appreciate the feedback.

Personally, I don’t want the living world releases to all be interconnected. It makes me feel like “all the problems are caused by Scarlet” is going to be the main theme of things. Which is bland and depthless, IMO. Rather different than “Abaddon was behind everything” in GW1 because though he was the main antagonist behind the first three campaigns and behind 2 major demonic invasions (Tomb of the Primeval Kings and Dragon Festival 2006), he wasn’t behind everything – charr hated humans and he just took advantage; mursaat were fighting him in a “enemy (Abaddon) of my enemy (Chosen) is still my enemy” situation; Stone Summit unrelated; Naga, Warden, Kanaxai, pirates/gangs, and Dredge hostilities in Cantha only a side-effect at best; Joko unrelated (even enemies); etc.

With the LS, if it turns out that the SAB and Tequatl’s boost in power is somehow related to Scarlet, who’s behind or the cause of all other LS updates… that’s just going to be boring because she has her hands in everything literally when it comes to the LS and even some things before hand (as we “learn” post-defacto).

But most importantly, if everything was connected, it’s just a progressional story. That’s not a living world. It’s just a single story in a static world that’s given to us step by step and one step at a time only. To make a real living world you need things that aren’t connected happening, to show to us that the world isn’t really revolving around Scarlet like she believes it is.

To me, the feel of “randomness” is a good thing. But it would be better if these “random events” are happening simultaneously and not divided by actions of Scarlet.

Gabby.3205:

Can you tell us at which point of the Personal Story is the Living Story taking place, Bobby?
It seems to be after the Pact was formed but before Zhaitan’s death right now. Is that so?

Yes, clarification on this and no “they happen at any time in each others’ timelines” like Angel gave in an interview with TowerTalk. That just makes things confusing.

The Living World outright confirms the Pact’s existence by now – has since the Airships. Is this before or after Zhaitan’s death.

And if before… are we really to believe it took over a year when in The Source of Orr, Occam says it’s been several weeks since he joined the Pact (thus Forging the Pact → The Source of Orr’s second instance = several weeks passage).

And if it’s after… why did Logan return to Queen Jennah’s side when he told his friends (Destiny’s Edge and the PC) that he wouldn’t until all dragons are killed? Furthermore, what’s the Pact up to exactly that we haven’t heard from?

The fact we have heard nothing from the Pact is why I say the so-called “living story” isn’t “random” or a “living world” because it’s just forgetting the rest of the world that it’s not focused on, and its focus is always on Scarlet’s actions and the reprecussions of such (exception being Shadow of the Mad King to Wintersday).

I would have liked to see a cutscene bringing the story aspect of this update out a bit more. Personally, if I had been running this update I would have done the following:

Last week I would have made the laser have less effect on Tequatl and added some flavor commentary on an NPC saying that the laser is not as useful on Tequatl as it used to be. Perhaps Warmaster Narru? Then when the update went live, I would have instead of linking to the map, had a cutscene taking place in Rytlock’s office with Rox and Rytlock present. Narru (or some other Vigil NPC) would be there telling Rytlock that the megalaser isn’t as effective as it used to be and that Tequatl is much stronger than before and that they need more Charr Legionaires to reinforce them. At this point, Rytlock tells Rox to investigate the dragons and find evidence of what they are doing. Cutscene then ends.

At this point, Rox sends you a mail telling the player that they need help finding samples of the dragons (with hints as to where said samples might be located). Then, when we have found all the samples, we can talk to another NPC about ways to improve the weapons effectiveness.

I just feel that the story wasn’t told well enough and left people wondering what, if anything that it had to do with it. Many players who I spoke with considered this just a content update with some minor living story stuff tacked on. If that really is what it is, then that’s cool, but if a story is there to be told, then it needs to be told a little better. If Warmaster Narru is going to play a bigger role in the future, then they should have been a little more than just a minor NPC who says “At least this isn’t southsun” and have a little flavor text when you interact with them. If Rox is involved, then it would have been better to throw some more dialogue her way as well.

BobbyStein.2315:

We’re planning to put Living World story summaries into game UI, but I can’t say when that system is coming online just yet. (It’s a more complicated system than that, by the way, but one component of it will include some of these story details.) Regarding something that bridges the releases more clearly, Design will have to continue to work closely with Marketing to hit that sweet spot. Inside the game, we’ll continue to explore ways to do this in various forms (cinematics, conversations, lore bits, etc.).

I realize that, for a lot of people, the LW release stories don’t feel connected. They are, but we’re not always making that clear to players.

It’s been 12 months, Bobby. No one cares about getting a ‘system online’, or other excuses. I have not seen one post from the player community where the someone finds the story cohesive and/or compelling. It’s a giant mess. Get on the keyboard, put at least some of the pieces of the story together and hit the ‘reply’ button.

Fish or cut bait.

Is Zhaitan considered dead in this Living story?

Oolune.4357:

Randulf.7614:

This is useful info Bobby, but again, finding out this is part of the story through a forum shows something is going wrong in game.

There could have been an intro for this at black citAdel with rytlock or more importantly the pact leaders. Finding the dragon clues could set up convos with priory npcs that then teases the connection to what is happening in Tyria. Right now, theres nothing tieing this to a story except your above post. Its just a boss fight and nothing else.

Saying more will come later is great….but how do in game players currently know this until the UI is ready?

You didn’t need to find out via the forum. You were just too busy being angry and flaunting your entitlement complex to work it out on your own.

Much like the entitlement complex of the likely overgrown kid above my post.

eh? I think you replied to the wrong post there I’m not angry at all, although I am entitled to express my opinion..with ideas..exactly as I did… Also, the writers have even said they haven’t put enough story communication. Not sure what constructive point your reply was attempting here..

Randulf.7614:

Oolune.4357:

Randulf.7614:

This is useful info Bobby, but again, finding out this is part of the story through a forum shows something is going wrong in game.

There could have been an intro for this at black citAdel with rytlock or more importantly the pact leaders. Finding the dragon clues could set up convos with priory npcs that then teases the connection to what is happening in Tyria. Right now, theres nothing tieing this to a story except your above post. Its just a boss fight and nothing else.

Saying more will come later is great….but how do in game players currently know this until the UI is ready?

You didn’t need to find out via the forum. You were just too busy being angry and flaunting your entitlement complex to work it out on your own.

Much like the entitlement complex of the likely overgrown kid above my post.

eh? I think you replied to the wrong post there I’m not angry at all, although I am entitled to express my opinion..with ideas..exactly as I did… Also, the writers have even said they haven’t put enough story communication. Not sure what constructive point your reply was attempting here..

I think the point is that you can catch the simpler, superficial version of what is going on in game. You know, by talking to NPCs, watching idle conversations, reading mails.

If you only do that, you won’t be completely confused, but you won’t know much about the character’s personalities and stories. It is not possible right now to find any depth in game. For example, we knew who Canach was (if we participated on the first Southsun event), but we needed a forum post to know why his appearance was so drastically changed (lore-wise. For the game play reasons, I am sure that it was because “evil people can’t be pretty” =/ ). We knew already that sylvari’s appearance can change based on their experiences, emotions and the surroundings, but we never knew before that they could change so drastically. I would like to see something about that in the game. I mean, Kiel knew him, she could have said something about it. That would be way better than a forum post.

fritanga.1623:

I would have liked to see a cutscene bringing the story aspect of this update out a bit more. Personally, if I had been running this update I would have done the following:

Last week I would have made the laser have less effect on Tequatl and added some flavor commentary on an NPC saying that the laser is not as useful on Tequatl as it used to be. Perhaps Warmaster Narru? Then when the update went live, I would have instead of linking to the map, had a cutscene taking place in Rytlock’s office with Rox and Rytlock present. Narru (or some other Vigil NPC) would be there telling Rytlock that the megalaser isn’t as effective as it used to be and that Tequatl is much stronger than before and that they need more Charr Legionaires to reinforce them. At this point, Rytlock tells Rox to investigate the dragons and find evidence of what they are doing. Cutscene then ends.

At this point, Rox sends you a mail telling the player that they need help finding samples of the dragons (with hints as to where said samples might be located). Then, when we have found all the samples, we can talk to another NPC about ways to improve the weapons effectiveness.

Great suggestions. More living story needs to be told this way. As it is now, and has been the past several releases; the actual story behind the Living Story is presented poorly and indicates that it is being rushed out and not carefully crafted. Two weeks between releases does not seem to be enough time for the Living Story. Content updates like these need not be tied to the Living Story and are fine on their own without exposition, unless it really was intended to be a crucial Living Story step. If that is the case, then they need to take more time with the releases and provide adequate exposition and events surrounding the story.

The open world content we had at release was well crafted and had so much potential for a Living World. However, to me, that potential keeps getting squandered with what appears to be rushed low-quality, but high quantity content updates.

I just feel that the story wasn’t told well enough and left people wondering what, if anything that it had to do with it. Many players who I spoke with considered this just a content update with some minor living story stuff tacked on. If that really is what it is, then that’s cool, but if a story is there to be told, then it needs to be told a little better. If Warmaster Narru is going to play a bigger role in the future, then they should have been a little more than just a minor NPC who says “At least this isn’t southsun” and have a little flavor text when you interact with them. If Rox is involved, then it would have been better to throw some more dialogue her way as well.

This is exactly how I felt after seeing the minimal amount of exposition given to the Tequatl encounter. I really do love the encounter as a whole and think the game needs more challenging encounters like this, just a better scaling system for them ¹. These improvements to existing world bosses do not need to be explained through the living story. The only story that needs to be improved is through the lead up to the encounters and subsequent results given failure/success. It would be nice if the world boss presence was not purely based on a timer, but through player actions on the world.

For example, Tequatl should appear only when the Pact controls his shores. This could be accomplished through a series of meta-events that include, purifying the corruption on the shores and building the megalaser/turrets. Once accomplished Tequatl would appear. If successful, they continue to control the shores and events eventually start with repowering the megalaser and delivering potions for the turrets from nearby Hylek villages. Once those are accomplished, Tequatl will make another attack. If Tequatl wins the Pact gets pushed back and Tequatl starts an invasion of Sparkfly Fen, starting from its, now protected, location and pushing outward. once the invasion is halted, the events to purify the shore and rebuild the laser start, and players get another crack at Tequatl. At every step during this process the NPCs should have conversations discussing the significance of the lore, or dialogue interactions. The game at launch was pretty good about this latter point.

¹ – https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Scale-Dynamic-Event-Difficulty-on-Success/first

BobbyStein.2315:

The story component for the Tequatl Rising LW update primarily deals with helping Rox fight Tequatl and finding dragon minion clues. You can also interact with Warmaster Narru to get a few more details.

Narru will remain behind, though Rox will leave the area with the next Living World release.

But as far as know fight with Tequatl was about helping hyleks to get their help for fight agains Zaitan. Am i wrong? I am sure i could find pre-release video where its officialy said.
But all living story happen after Zaitans death. So how can there be Rox hoping Brahem (?) will help him? All living story with Rox and other happen after Zaitans death and now there is Rox knowing player, Brahem..fighting Tequatl before Zaitans death. How?
It is really confusing. Could you make it clear please?

http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t375/OtakuModeEngage/gw007_zps684ce83f.jpg

This proves that the battle against Tequatl is during the campaign in Orr, or in other words, towards the latter half of Personal Story. However, previous Living Story chapters were dated after the defeat of Zhiatain; such as the dragon bash celebrating Zhiatains death and the Aetherblades stealling Pact Airships that were not developed until the offensive on Zhaitain(which took place well after the pact pushed past Tequatl to build operations at fort Trenity). Accompanied with this, Personal Story is fast paced, dragging the player from one mission to the other; one can’t simply take a hiatus mid campaign in Orr to run back and play tag with scarlet, and then return to the army to find it waiting with nothing changed. Also, I believe in an interview at one point, the developers stated that Living Story was taking place after Personal Story, so this development shatters GW2 Lore.

The only thing is remember is, that (afaik) the Pact offensive (as ref in that screenshot) does continue post-Zhaitan in Orr. It could be construed from that message that becuase of the offesnive and defeating zhaitan teq has eveolved. But, again as stated, it’s unclear.

Randulf.7614:

The only thing is remember is, that (afaik) the Pact offensive (as ref in that screenshot) does continue post-Zhaitan in Orr. It could be construed from that message that becuase of the offesnive and defeating zhaitan teq has eveolved. But, again as stated, it’s unclear.

not quite, after the defeat of Zhiatain, it is no longer an offensive, but rather an occupation. An offensive is an invasion, but that stage has passed, the troops that remain in orr, are simply on clean up duty, which can hardly be called an offensive.

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

Randulf.7614:

The only thing is remember is, that (afaik) the Pact offensive (as ref in that screenshot) does continue post-Zhaitan in Orr. It could be construed from that message that becuase of the offesnive and defeating zhaitan teq has eveolved. But, again as stated, it’s unclear.

not quite, after the defeat of Zhiatain, it is no longer an offensive, but rather an occupation. An offensive is an invasion, but that stage has passed, the troops that remain in orr, are simply on clean up duty, which can hardly be called an offensive.

Arah explorable is after zhaitan’s death, and that certainly isn’t just a clean up

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

Randulf.7614:

The only thing is remember is, that (afaik) the Pact offensive (as ref in that screenshot) does continue post-Zhaitan in Orr. It could be construed from that message that becuase of the offesnive and defeating zhaitan teq has eveolved. But, again as stated, it’s unclear.

not quite, after the defeat of Zhiatain, it is no longer an offensive, but rather an occupation. An offensive is an invasion, but that stage has passed, the troops that remain in orr, are simply on clean up duty, which can hardly be called an offensive.

I know what you mean, but by their definition, it could be what they refer to

Melfice.5091:

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

Randulf.7614:

The only thing is remember is, that (afaik) the Pact offensive (as ref in that screenshot) does continue post-Zhaitan in Orr. It could be construed from that message that becuase of the offesnive and defeating zhaitan teq has eveolved. But, again as stated, it’s unclear.

not quite, after the defeat of Zhiatain, it is no longer an offensive, but rather an occupation. An offensive is an invasion, but that stage has passed, the troops that remain in orr, are simply on clean up duty, which can hardly be called an offensive.

Arah explorable is after zhaitan’s death, and that certainly isn’t just a clean up

Technically it is. There are still threats, but the Pact has established permanent bases in Orr, they’ve eliminated the Elder Dragon. It’s now an occupation by definition. And what the Pact is doing – per the final personal story cinematic – is wiping out the remaining Risen since they (as one would expect) don’t simply drop dead with Zhaitan’s defeat.

I just want to add that I think connecting all living stories together feels fake and artificial. Sure pick up this event here later on when its relevant how dragon minions grow stronger without their master – but theres no need to connect that with everything else. just the bits that make sense.

I think Scarlet is the worst thing that has happened to the GW2 story (worse then Trahearne), and she single-handedly diminished the molten alliance and the aetherblades from “potentially interesting re-occuring groups” to “the joker goons”. Each of those groups had more potential before they were thrown under one roof, so to say. It would be great if you can fix that, or at least not keep going that direction more then needed.

does he have to spell it out for you? …. dragon’s get stronger when _______ …

Let’s have a look at some history … the destroyers for example … get stronger when ______ (the ending of the eye of the north?)

When dragon’s rise and grow in power it’s because of ______________ … (hint: it’s not lemmings)

They are building the story. The story includes “which” dragons or “minions” of dragons… so … jormag’s champion is not in fact Jormag.

hmmm.. Shatterer will get stronger … but who is the strongest dragon Zhaitan – nope killed him at 80 personal story.

… K r a (edit) L (close edit)… couldn’t be.

Get a lore master in here to spell it out. Or someone that may have read a book. Teach us please.

… K r a (edit) L (close edit)… couldn’t be.

Get a lore master in here to spell it out. Or someone that may have read a book. Teach us please.

Kralkatorrik~~~<3

BobbyStein.2315:

We’re planning to put Living World story summaries into game UI, but I can’t say when that system is coming online just yet. (It’s a more complicated system than that, by the way, but one component of it will include some of these story details.) Regarding something that bridges the releases more clearly, Design will have to continue to work closely with Marketing to hit that sweet spot. Inside the game, we’ll continue to explore ways to do this in various forms (cinematics, conversations, lore bits, etc.).

I realize that, for a lot of people, the LW release stories don’t feel connected. They are, but we’re not always making that clear to players. It’s something we’re always looking to improve. That stated, we have deliberately held back some story details for pacing reasons. More dots will be connected in the coming months, so I will continue to encourage folks to let us know what they think with each release. We appreciate the feedback.

Thank you so much. You guys, and I know there’s a lot of you developing the story, are the dungeon masters. The ones telling us the story. So to read this puts my mind at ease to know that the story is going somewhere. But it would be nice to have some clue as to where it is going.

Even when I pick up a book, the cover art gives a clue as to what the story is about and where it will head. But I trust you guys are moving in the right directions. Just bear in mind that for many of us we don’t play GW2 for the “physical” stuff (e.g. loot, gear, Tequatl’s difficulty). We play because we love the world and characters you’ve crafted and want to see how it all unfolds.

Keep on keeping on as they say… but please let us occasionally know where the story is headed.

Another point I’d like to add is that the time frame of that map; its quest, events, enemies, and boss in question; are all pre Orr campaign. If this event is truly post Zhiatain, as it would have to be for continuity, then how is Tequatl alive when we killed him pre Zhaitain? As I recall, only Zhaitain, can raise the dead, but he is no longer among us. I can understand them wanting to make the fight more complex/enjoyable, but to involve LS was a big mistake; it should have been a random update with no connection to the current living world, players would have been fine if they had simply made the boss encounter better without having to add a plot to it. Because as it is, they disrupted the current existing plot for Tequatl and thus shattered the timeline.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Melfice.5091:

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

Randulf.7614:

The only thing is remember is, that (afaik) the Pact offensive (as ref in that screenshot) does continue post-Zhaitan in Orr. It could be construed from that message that becuase of the offesnive and defeating zhaitan teq has eveolved. But, again as stated, it’s unclear.

not quite, after the defeat of Zhiatain, it is no longer an offensive, but rather an occupation. An offensive is an invasion, but that stage has passed, the troops that remain in orr, are simply on clean up duty, which can hardly be called an offensive.

Arah explorable is after zhaitan’s death, and that certainly isn’t just a clean up

Technically it is. There are still threats, but the Pact has established permanent bases in Orr, they’ve eliminated the Elder Dragon. It’s now an occupation by definition. And what the Pact is doing – per the final personal story cinematic – is wiping out the remaining Risen since they (as one would expect) don’t simply drop dead with Zhaitan’s defeat.

Exactly; occupational forces are tasked not only with administering a temporary government and pseudo recovery, but also putting down guerrilla forces and rebellions; that’s why occupational forces have soldiers to keep the peace. In the case of GW2, the shambles of Zhaitain’s army -including the few, but powerful, remaining generals- are the guerrilla force.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Shiren.9532:

Has anyone done anything with the story that explains why Rytlock specifically cares about Tequatl or is the story just attaching characters to content now simply because they didn’t have anyone else?

Because Rytlock already has plenty of interest in the elder dragons and their minions. The fact that Tequatl is gaining power after Zhaitan’s defeat is something that concerns him. What if that happens whenever an elder dragon falls; one of their minions start gathering strength and ends up being just as powerful as their old master?

IMO we can’t defeat dragons.
Glint was very wise. Still, she preferred to hide other races before dragons. She could say: “Together, you can defeat them” but she didn’t do that. Why?

I’d like to echo others’ sentiments on the lackluster story at the moment. It’s grinding to a halt, I swear. Or, at the very least, ArenaNet is hiding so much that they want to reveal later that it feels like it’s going nowhere.

If, whenever this might conclude, if it turns out “Tequatl is stronger now ’cause Scarlet guise” I shall be very, very…. very disappointed. Just saying. Seems to me that Scarlet could be made the scapegoat for everything just ‘cause she’s apparently unkillable if the invasions and playhouse instance are anything to go by.

I’m just going to sit here, hope I’m not disappointed, and fantasize about Tequatl having changed allegiance to Bubbles. Y’know, a story that sounds a bit legit.

There’s something in the waaaaterrrrrrrrrrr.

BobbyStein.2315:

I realize that, for a lot of people, the LW release stories don’t feel connected. They are, but we’re not always making that clear to players. It’s something we’re always looking to improve.

Great goal. Looking forward to it!