Concerns about 'Path of Fire'
I found the LS3 story to be just fine. It may help to play it again in a single playthrough as you’re likely forgetting things which are keeping it together.
I think Anet is going towards elite specs as being the core of a build similar to how elite skills were in GW1.
I found the LS3 story to be just fine. It may help to play it again in a single playthrough as you’re likely forgetting things which are keeping it together.
I think Anet is going towards elite specs as being the core of a build similar to how elite skills were in GW1.
If I have to play a story again just to comprehend it, that means that it wasn’t told in a coherent manner. The story just kept changing focus. I think it’s asking a bit much to expect players to remember key details while trying to making sense of what’s going on.
(edited by JTGuevara.9018)
I found the LS3 story to be just fine. It may help to play it again in a single playthrough as you’re likely forgetting things which are keeping it together.
I think Anet is going towards elite specs as being the core of a build similar to how elite skills were in GW1.
If I have to play a story again just to comprehend it, that means that it wasn’t told in a coherent manner. The story just kept changing focus. When a story constantly changes focus, (Laz > Balth > Dragons > Laz) it’s hard to remember those things keeping it together. I think it’s asking a bit much to expect players to remember key details while making sense of what’s going on.
No it doesn’t. It just means you forgot some things between releases and because it was released over a year’s time.
I’m having hard time enjoying season 3, as it feels like it’s written for little kids.
Glorious Human Master Race
I didn’t find it “fine” – loose ends (Braham), missing characters (Rox, Rytlock), completely butchering GW1 lore (encounter with real Lazarus) etc.
Not that it bothers me so much, as i play GW2 for gameplay, much less story (there are much better story delivering mmos out there).
But i am worried that HoT masteries will have no place in this xpac. No glider sucks:/
If I have to play a story again just to comprehend it, that means that it wasn’t told in a coherent manner. The story just kept changing focus. When a story constantly changes focus, (Laz > Balth > Dragons > Laz) it’s hard to remember those things keeping it together. I think it’s asking a bit much to expect players to remember key details while making sense of what’s going on.
No it doesn’t. It just means you forgot some things between releases and because it was released over a year’s time.
Eh, I’m with him. The Living World 3 story is pretty asinine and told poorly at that. Telling someone to play through a section again because it was all over the place the first time does not make it not all over the place the second go around.
I lost focus on the story when Prince Rurik died at the Frost Gate. /Neverforget
But i am worried that HoT masteries will have no place in this xpac. No glider sucks:/
There is gliding in PoF.
If I have to play a story again just to comprehend it, that means that it wasn’t told in a coherent manner. The story just kept changing focus. When a story constantly changes focus, (Laz > Balth > Dragons > Laz) it’s hard to remember those things keeping it together. I think it’s asking a bit much to expect players to remember key details while making sense of what’s going on.
No it doesn’t. It just means you forgot some things between releases and because it was released over a year’s time.
Eh, I’m with him. The Living World 3 story is pretty asinine and told poorly at that. Telling someone to play through a section again because it was all over the place the first time does not make it not all over the place the second go around.
It only seemed all over the place because they likely forgot pieces. That is of course they prefer very narrow stories and categorizes everything else with multiple plot lines as incohesive. I’d hate to hear their review on Lord of the Rings as I’m sure that was a mess of a story for them with even more plot lines than LS3.
Edit: Actually, what doesn’t make sense to you? Where in the story does it not feel cohesive or make sense?
(edited by Ayrilana.1396)
But i am worried that HoT masteries will have no place in this xpac. No glider sucks:/
There is gliding in PoF.
Since HoT is not required to play PoF I doubt the HoT masteries will add much aside from the convenience of gliding.
When a man lies he murders some part of the world – Paul Gerhardt
Just so we’re clear, I’m a solo player – Kirito
Live, Laugh,Love Kill Dredge – DedTreeJig
Just so we’re clear, I’m a solo player – Kirito
Live, Laugh,
It only seemed all over the place because they likely forgot pieces. That is of course they prefer very narrow stories and categorizes everything else with multiple plot lines as incohesive. I’d hate to hear their review on Lord of the Rings as I’m sure that was a mess of a story for them with even more plot lines than LS3.
I get that you like the story but the argument is less about that and more about the fact that it’s poorly written and executed. Multiple plot lines are good when they are done well and the proper literary rules of foreshadowing, climaxes, and the like are followed. LS3 doesn’t follow those rules and, to be blunt, the main NPCs in GW2 are pretty meh and can’t really carry it either. A so-so story can be saved by having good characters but if you have neither decent story nor interesting characters, your reception is going to lukewarm.
Of course, personal preference comes into play and the mileage may vary for different players.
It only seemed all over the place because they likely forgot pieces. That is of course they prefer very narrow stories and categorizes everything else with multiple plot lines as incohesive. I’d hate to hear their review on Lord of the Rings as I’m sure that was a mess of a story for them with even more plot lines than LS3.
I get that you like the story but the argument is less about that and more about the fact that it’s poorly written and executed. Multiple plot lines are good when they are done well and the proper literary rules of foreshadowing, climaxes, and the like are followed. LS3 doesn’t follow those rules and, to be blunt, the main NPCs in GW2 are pretty meh and can’t really carry it either. A so-so story can be saved by having good characters but if you have neither decent story nor interesting characters, your reception is going to lukewarm.
I thought LS3 was okay and but better than LS2. Except that I’m not arguing about that but that it wasn’t poorly written and executed which was my point. Where exactly in LS3 does it not make sense to you? Are you including the current events?
Have you read the summary for the season?
(edited by Ayrilana.1396)
It only seemed all over the place because they likely forgot pieces. That is of course they prefer very narrow stories and categorizes everything else with multiple plot lines as incohesive. I’d hate to hear their review on Lord of the Rings as I’m sure that was a mess of a story for them with even more plot lines than LS3.
I get that you like the story but the argument is less about that and more about the fact that it’s poorly written and executed. Multiple plot lines are good when they are done well and the proper literary rules of foreshadowing, climaxes, and the like are followed. LS3 doesn’t follow those rules and, to be blunt, the main NPCs in GW2 are pretty meh and can’t really carry it either. A so-so story can be saved by having good characters but if you have neither decent story nor interesting characters, your reception is going to lukewarm.
I thought LS3 was okay and but better than LS2. Except that I’m not arguing about that but that it wasn’t poorly written and executed which was my point. Where exactly in LS3 does it not make sense to you? Are you including the current events?
Have you read the summary for the season?
I think you aren’t understanding where I and other people are coming from. If you have to read the summary or replay the story to understand where the heck it’s going or have it make sense, it’s badly written and/or poorly executed.
I feel we are going to have to agree to disagree here. As I said before, mileage may vary because different players have different tastes.
I found the LS3 story to be just fine. It may help to play it again in a single playthrough as you’re likely forgetting things which are keeping it together.
I think Anet is going towards elite specs as being the core of a build similar to how elite skills were in GW1.
I’d have to say the story really wasn’t fine. In my opinion, it was going well until the last two episodes. At that point, it became completely incoherent. By the final episode I literally had to go to the forums to even discover who the major players were and why I should care.
Silly me thinking Lazarus was simply Balthazar’s disguise, used to manipulate the white mantle and throw us off the trail while he grabbed for power. Then I find the final boss of the story is…the real Lazarus? What happened to Balthazar? Who the heck is Livia and why am I swearing oaths to the Shining Blade to help her? Apparently, I needed to play GW1 to understand this plot twist…yet somehow that was a good way to finish the season?
In any event, I don’t see how they could possibly do worse than these last couple of episodes of LS3. So I expect the PoF storyline to be an improvement and I’m looking forward to it.
I will definitely be purchasing the expansion…and sooner than I expected it! Awesome! The mounts look promising. The elite specs look like they will definitely introduce a very different feel to each class. All in all, I can’t wait! It’s time for another expansion!
I agree that LS3 seemed to be all over the place BUT… Nightfall was and remains the best story from the franchise to date.
I like to think they will bring their A game for this since we are revisiting Elona.
I think the story line’s main weakness is that it’s focused on the supporting cast from the eyes of the player.
They can’t just say that Braham got pouty and stomped off. They got to do a chapter for it, and then they just drop it to go do more schtuff.
Besides, it seems like the last two chapters are basically Taimi becoming Navi; and somehow we are supposed to sympathize with Kasmeer’s crisis of faith when the God of FIRE and WAR turns out not to be a loveable rogue…..
The first four chapters of LS3 are OK (for GW2, which doesn’t exactly excel at storytelling), but then everything stops making sense the moment …
We find who is impersonating Lazarus.
Showing as Lazarus after consuming the bloodstone doesn’t seem to have any other point but to gather a small army in the form of the most fanatic faction of the White Mantle.
No matter how I look at it, I can’t get why Balthazar wouldn’t be able to gather not just a much bigger and still fairly devoted army but also to look a lot more trustworthy at the same time.
The end of Flashpoint is such a mess that at some point even Taimi admits she doesn’t know what’s happening, and the final chapter is unnecessary and terrible in too many ways.
Anyway, I’m mostly concerned about the power creep too.
IMHO class changes right before and after HoT have been overall negative. Too much spam, too many AoEs, too many CCs, too many conditions (and, of course, too many defensive tools to counter that).
GW2 PvP has always been hard to spectate, but after HoT I feel it’s hard to tell whats going one even while you’re playing. More often than not I find myself mashing buttons, playing by pure instinct. You have to be REALLY good to properly read a fight and take calculated decisions at this level of spam.
The LS3 story was awful and only got worse over time, which really does not bode well for PoF. You’d think that after the rushed, unfinished mess that was HoT and especially its nonsensical kitten pull ending, they would have switched gears and only picked up as many plot arcs and characters as they could cover well, but they did the complete opposite.
Add to that the constant crapping on the player character, the lack of reciprocative interest or support or concern from NPCs for our character instead of only ever the other way round, the lack of racial dialog options and acknowledgement of how different races may react to different situations, the lack of initiative or leadership or intelligence from the player character because being remote-controlled and (info-)dumped on via omnipresent asura deus-ex-magitech is easier to write … “this is my story” went completely out the window in favor of reducing the supposed protagonist to a bystander, cheerleader and punching bag for the NPCs and their drama. It’s making the story a complete chore to play through in my book.
I found the LS3 story to be just fine. It may help to play it again in a single playthrough as you’re likely forgetting things which are keeping it together.
I think Anet is going towards elite specs as being the core of a build similar to how elite skills were in GW1.
I’d have to say the story really wasn’t fine. In my opinion, it was going well until the last two episodes. At that point, it became completely incoherent. By the final episode I literally had to go to the forums to even discover who the major players were and why I should care.
Silly me thinking Lazarus was simply Balthazar’s disguise, used to manipulate the white mantle and throw us off the trail while he grabbed for power. Then I find the final boss of the story is…the real Lazarus? What happened to Balthazar? Who the heck is Livia and why am I swearing oaths to the Shining Blade to help her? Apparently, I needed to play GW1 to understand this plot twist…yet somehow that was a good way to finish the season?
In any event, I don’t see how they could possibly do worse than these last couple of episodes of LS3. So I expect the PoF storyline to be an improvement and I’m looking forward to it.
I will definitely be purchasing the expansion…and sooner than I expected it! Awesome! The mounts look promising. The elite specs look like they will definitely introduce a very different feel to each class. All in all, I can’t wait! It’s time for another expansion!
Surely, most of the reasons are explained in the game itself. Balthazar has been part of the human storyline since the beginning. Humans revere the gods, so it’s just as shocking as the sylvari being dragon minions. Though I did also feel that this felt more of a side story rather than something that was mainstream. Basically adding another storyline on top of our storyline just to make it more complex. A story that is completely from GW1, or is partially locked behind raid content to understand a bit more of.
But yeah, it’s not really bad story writing, it’s just so that the previous game still has alot of impact on this game. Which is great for people who played both games. Less so for those who only played gw2.
“It isn’t working!” CL4P-TP
Ingame Name: Guardian Erik
Ingame Name: Guardian Erik
Don’t agree about elite specs at all. They have definitely improved the game and made things fun. I look forward to seeing what these new ones bring.
I do agree about Season 3 story being a bloody mess. It was all over the place and just not very good. So that does have me a bit concerned about where the xpac story will go.
Besides, it seems like the last two chapters are basically Taimi becoming Navi; and somehow we are supposed to sympathize with Kasmeer’s crisis of faith when the God of FIRE and WAR turns out not to be a loveable rogue…..
Well, spending your entire life worshiping a god that is part of a religion that people have been adhering to long after the gods left, a religion that is ingrained, and was sometimes forcibly burned, into human culture since the dawn of time….yeah, I can understand Kasmeer’s crisis of faith here.
Elite specs, as we all know, are OP. HoT elite specs have ruined this game for the worse. They have destroyed PvP and WvW. They also have made some PvE content trivial although it’s not that big an issue. They changed the speed and flow of combat. These specs give you everything in one build: offense, defense, cc, condis, condi cleansing, invulns. They don’t take much skill to play. My fear with PoF is that history will repeat. PoF specs will be overturned compared to HoT and core specs, due to their design. That PvP and WvW will bleed players dry once again.
The elite specs have ruined nothing. Aside from some (understandable) balancing issues after launch, they were a great addition. Did you honestly want to play your core profession through 2 expansions with the same skills and traits, with the same meta?
I’m sure Anet has learned their lesson about balance, and the new elite specs will be as they say: more OPTIONS for your class, instead of overtuning them to be necessary in order to compete with everyone else. And any balance issues there might be, they’ll get patched soon anyway.
Now that the expansion has been officially announced, there will be a lot of hype in the upcoming months. I’d like to temper that hype for just a bit. There are two things that I’m worried about with this next expansion:
- elite specs
- storyElite specs, as we all know, are OP. HoT elite specs have ruined this game for the worse. They have destroyed PvP and WvW. They also have made some PvE content trivial although it’s not that big an issue. They changed the speed and flow of combat. These specs give you everything in one build: offense, defense, cc, condis, condi cleansing, invulns. They don’t take much skill to play. My fear with PoF is that history will repeat. PoF specs will be overturned compared to HoT and core specs, due to their design. That PvP and WvW will bleed players dry once again.
Second, the story. Season 3 was a mess. There was no cohesion in the story. It tried to tell too many things at once and its focus kept changing with each episode. My fear is that it will be the same in PoF, that the writing will overuse plot twists and that the story will be rushed. I know that this is an MMO, but let’s not forget that RPG is also in there. Every RPG needs a good story.
Apart from those, I’m good with everything else. Fractals, mounts, maps, bosses. I think those will be fine.
“Elite specs, as we all know, are OP. HoT elite specs have ruined this game for the worse. They have destroyed PvP and WvW. "
Speak for yourself please.
Also, issues with spvp and wvw have ZERO to do with elite specs… has to do with slow development in those areas… lack of revisiting core specs… not working on stuff like the condi systems and stealth mechanics and ttk… not working on professions skills for players against other players combat… poor quality roles… poor quality heal and non heal support skills and designs … Again, the huge laundry list of issues has ZERO to do with elite specs.
New Main- 80 Thief – P/P- Vault Spam Pro
221 hours over 1,581 days of bank space/hot pve/lion’s arch afk and some wvw.
221 hours over 1,581 days of bank space/hot pve/lion’s arch afk and some wvw.
(edited by Swagger.1459)
… I didn’t have to replay the story, and I followed it just fine.
That said, I am wholly hyped for the new especs.
- On Specs: How will we unlock them?
- On Story: Will ANet ever fix the issue of players DCing during the dialogue at the end of the story step?
1) is just curiosity.
2) is a deal breaker. Content releases have been story plus zone with some collecting and a few repeating events. Also, story blocks access to new zones and I’m low on TTF. If story blocks access to PoF as it did with HoT, the new XPac may end up being inaccessible for me.
I found the LS3 story to be just fine. It may help to play it again in a single playthrough as you’re likely forgetting things which are keeping it together.
I think Anet is going towards elite specs as being the core of a build similar to how elite skills were in GW1.
I’d have to say the story really wasn’t fine. In my opinion, it was going well until the last two episodes. At that point, it became completely incoherent. By the final episode I literally had to go to the forums to even discover who the major players were and why I should care.
Silly me thinking Lazarus was simply Balthazar’s disguise, used to manipulate the white mantle and throw us off the trail while he grabbed for power. Then I find the final boss of the story is…the real Lazarus? What happened to Balthazar? Who the heck is Livia and why am I swearing oaths to the Shining Blade to help her? Apparently, I needed to play GW1 to understand this plot twist…yet somehow that was a good way to finish the season?
In any event, I don’t see how they could possibly do worse than these last couple of episodes of LS3. So I expect the PoF storyline to be an improvement and I’m looking forward to it.
I will definitely be purchasing the expansion…and sooner than I expected it! Awesome! The mounts look promising. The elite specs look like they will definitely introduce a very different feel to each class. All in all, I can’t wait! It’s time for another expansion!
Surely, most of the reasons are explained in the game itself. Balthazar has been part of the human storyline since the beginning. Humans revere the gods, so it’s just as shocking as the sylvari being dragon minions. Though I did also feel that this felt more of a side story rather than something that was mainstream. Basically adding another storyline on top of our storyline just to make it more complex. A story that is completely from GW1, or is partially locked behind raid content to understand a bit more of.
But yeah, it’s not really bad story writing, it’s just so that the previous game still has alot of impact on this game. Which is great for people who played both games. Less so for those who only played gw2.
Balthazar was an awkward plot twist. The storyline was going along just fine and then Balthazar shows up out of left field as the bad guy? All of a sudden we’re pursuing Balthazar instead of Lazarus…except, oh wait! We’re fighting Lazarus now on the behalf of some relic of the past that up until now had nothing to do with the current storyline! Better yet, if you didn’t play GW1 you’ll have absolutely no idea who she is or why you’re taking oaths to help her! And then the storyline just drops you then and there with Lazarus dead: Tune in next time when maybe you’ll find out what happened to Balthazar!
Maybe that makes a coherent story to you, but I’ve really been scratching my head the past couple of episodes. Up until the random plot twists I was enjoying it. To each their own, I suppose. My friends who played GW1 seemed to like it. It just made no sense to me and I didn’t appreciate having to go searching the forums for an explanation. Poor way to end the season, in my opinion.
Elite specs, as we all know, are OP. HoT elite specs have ruined this game for the worse. They have destroyed PvP and WvW. They also have made some PvE content trivial although it’s not that big an issue. They changed the speed and flow of combat. These specs give you everything in one build: offense, defense, cc, condis, condi cleansing, invulns. They don’t take much skill to play. My fear with PoF is that history will repeat. PoF specs will be overturned compared to HoT and core specs, due to their design. That PvP and WvW will bleed players dry once again.
The elite specs have ruined nothing. Aside from some (understandable) balancing issues after launch, they were a great addition. Did you honestly want to play your core profession through 2 expansions with the same skills and traits, with the same meta?
I’m sure Anet has learned their lesson about balance, and the new elite specs will be as they say: more OPTIONS for your class, instead of overtuning them to be necessary in order to compete with everyone else. And any balance issues there might be, they’ll get patched soon anyway.
Elite specs have most certainly ruined something, they ruined the pace of this game. You can get condi’d pretty quickly in wvw/pvp. Also the amount of invulns/evades available is crazy. It’s like no thought was put into how elites were designed.
Meh…we’ll see how PoF is. I’m still skeptical.
(edited by JTGuevara.9018)
I love the elite specs, but I abhor HoT, so the less HoT there is in PoF the happier I’ll be. Also, mastery points are getting kind of crazy for new/returning players. Would like an alternative way of earning them, perhaps some way of earning items that allow you to add +1 mastery point of your choice from Core/HoT/PoF/future expacs.