Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet
Hello,
Today is the day for Episode 2 of Living World Season 3 to step into the spotlight! We hope that you will enjoy the new episode. After you’ve had an opportunity to play the content, we invite you to share your thoughts here on the official forums.
Here’s our gameplan:
Thanks so much for letting us know your impressions!
Fire circles that apply damage to character outside of visible indicators (very first mission) = why?
Very appealing map/visuals. Love the return of Heart quests & karma sink. Please let us cancel the lava travel mechanic? I want to stop between islands but it keeps going… same goes for mushroom jump pads…
In short words very good job from my end.
As for bugs or feedback..i just saw a player as an enemy in Caliph’s steps.
Dunno if it is a bug or feature lol.
Hey Gaile, out of game thing here. Big patches like this make something really visible, we need to find out how big the patch is and how much is left. With a percentage based on bits not # of files. It’s been so long i think the launcher needs a tiny bit of fixing if you have the manpower.
Also the in-game streaming doesn’t really download anything. I cannot proc it since portal is disabled so i cannot play the game while downloading at all.
Those aside, i think the new legendary system is GREAT. Great because you admit you cannot keep up with something and simply fall back but still remove the precursor b/s. Really nice.
Fractal instabilities that are removed were spot on.
I’ve not been on the new map so this is it from me.
prices of ascended fractal chests are too high. Crafting them from scratch is much cheaper. The Price without the liquid gold would be more fair but still too expensive imo.
Fractals:
All the changes I ever wanted, fantastic job team! The new instabilities are tons of fun, the removed ones were the frustrating and unchallenging ones so I am super happy (definitely trying to figure out whats going on with our mystery candidate though).
Changes to toughness scaling and health – FINALLY thank you!
New fractal hub design and features – it’s beautiful, I want to spend more time there even though Ember Bay is hogging my time
Swamp – I want to pause on this and express my gratitude for the team’s changes to swamp. The difficulty of the mechanics has not been impacted, but the fight has been streamlined. Love it. Thank you for not making it easier while removing the less-than-fun parts.
Elementalist mist form no longer spawns a 2nd Avenger? We are now on par with every other classes escape mechanism! Thank you!
WvW/PvP – I don’t do these so no comment other than I hope that the default builds are the precursors to build templates for PvE!
Haven’t explored the new legendary yet (don’t even own one) so I’ll leave that to others.
Ember Bay:
Love the design (I love the jungle feel but a nice rocky and molten map is right up my alley)
Love the size – Bloodstone Fen and Silverwastes size maps are nice, but there’s nothing like traversing something truly large, especially since it maintains the high-density feel of the HoT maps instead of being vast open spaces like some of the less popular Core Tyria maps.
Repeatable Hearts: Perfect. Only suggestion is moar.
New JPs – Thanks for making them actually challenging, love the aesthetic too!
Still exploring, so more comments to come.
Story: Not going to spoil anything, but great job stepping up to the plate on plot advancement Really appreciate the direction and style that y’all are taking.
The new map is awesome for people who like volcanic stuff… It felt somewhat boring to me but I prefer snow and jungle. x) Still, it’s a nice big map!
The instanced story was fun but there were too many “collect items” missions on the new map (at least for my liking).
Overall, I liked it but it won’t be my favorite episode to replay. Sorry for my bad English.
The story instances were, for some reason, brutal on my computer; thus, I could not complete even the first one.
The map, so far, is great. Two thumbs up!
Hi Gaile…
I think you guys got the balance and design just right on this one, love the new map and the fact that there are so many tucked away areas you can reach with some careful jumping/gliding/swimming.
Have to say the ‘mystery holes’ around the coast are intriguing, if they are just there for show then well done again for not just making the seabed an empty plain.
The ‘plot twist’ was unexpected and amazing, can’t wait to see how it plays out. Just what was needed to build engagement with the story.
GREAT JOB – we have diversity in mobs, Bosses, useful karma items, big map with a balanced verticality so you dont get lost and rage trying to find stuff. WP are well put and the quests are fun. GREAT JOB
Best chapter I have yet to play, think I just got a new favorite map – it looks amazing, events are fun, fun to navigate, great items, even the new musaart gemstore items are great – keep it up!
I love the new map , ley line gliding especially. I like the come back of hearts. I like the sunsets. I love the “new” feel to it and the nod to Guild Wars 1. I don’t like that I can’t find a Skritt to revive anywhere…
Awesome map and story episode!
I love the new map , ley line gliding especially. I like the come back of hearts. I like the sunsets. I love the “new” feel to it and the nod to Guild Wars 1. I don’t like that I can’t find a Skritt to revive anywhere…
Skrits are not dead, look for Passed out skrits
Map currencies/trophies were already out of control and we have yet another new one. I’m getting close to needing an entire bag just to store these things. Spending any time in new content maps is a disaster for inventories.
Hi Gaile nicely done story instances, just can we have Aurene in the open world egg-chamber if our charakter has done the last story mission?
Also why wasnt it possible to add bloodrubys and petrified wood as currencies and make the merchants sell unbound magic for them? so they just take up Space in the inventory across all characters. Wasnt that the reason you created the wallet in the first place? Not to have dungeontokens etc spread across all charakters?
Can we have some kind of summary for the mursaat tablet and research records in ember bay if you found all like them in bloodstone fen? Reading them all at once at a safe place in the right order is way more comfortable. Escpecially since the research records disappear if you once found them.
(edited by Crystal Black.8190)
3600 fractal relics for a holodancer, 10800 relics for a large holo-dancer
I had a lot of fun going through the story, though being a squishy Daredevil meant I got squished a lot. I also sidetracked to do hearts and exploration (still haven’t found my way into a couple of caldera).
I’m a bit dismayed at the plot twist we get in the final instance, but overjoyed at the overall dialogue and voice acting. I’ve done it on human male so far, I’ll repeat it on others to find variations. I belly laughed several times at lines that were delivered with impeccably comedic timing and tone.
The new Carnival weapons are perfect for my guild, but even with the discount I can get every ten days I’m not likely to spend that much on one. Also, what is with that 1K gold item? Its description does not say anything about what makes it worth that much. Heck if I’m finding 1K gold (as if I could) just to be known as a patron of the arts. .. but if it gives me a juggling animation, I’m sold!
Inventory is a problem, my squishy man has very full pockets. I’ll likely enjoy gathering loot more on the next alt.
Overall I am super pleased with this episode!
seems to be an good update so far. my only complaint is the lack of primordus’s FIRE minions in Ember Bay.
I get that the story changed it a bit but Primordus is the fire dragon! his fire minions are largely absent from ember bay nearly with nearly everything being death or plant related.
seems to be an good update so far. my only complaint is the lack of primordus’s FIRE minions in Ember Bay.
I get that the story changed it a bit but Primordus is the fire dragon! his fire minions are largely absent from ember bay nearly with nearly everything being death or plant related.
This is explained in the LS dialogues. Check out Taimi’s theorizing.
I certainly found myself on fire an awful lot and was quite glad my heal includes a burning removal.
Is Spencer a Resident Evil reference by any chance? .-.
Just something I found odd … Why are some circles that give unbound magic directly in the path of ley line gliding?
Unique. Engaging. Fun. I think this is definitely a home run of an update.
Only criticism I have is that there are still no new guild missions. This would have been a great place to add some new ones.
I love the new map , ley line gliding especially. I like the come back of hearts. I like the sunsets. I love the “new” feel to it and the nod to Guild Wars 1. I don’t like that I can’t find a Skritt to revive anywhere…
Skrits are not dead, look for Passed out skrits
Thanks to an awesome guildie I found them, after chasing around the Disillusioned Skritt for an hour or so (not getting credit for reviving them! ARGH!
seems to be an good update so far. my only complaint is the lack of primordus’s FIRE minions in Ember Bay.
I get that the story changed it a bit but Primordus is the fire dragon! his fire minions are largely absent from ember bay nearly with nearly everything being death or plant related.
This is explained in the LS dialogues. Check out Taimi’s theorizing.
I certainly found myself on fire an awful lot and was quite glad my heal includes a burning removal.
as I mentioned, I know it was said by taimi.
Primordus would have minions using all 3 types of magic. death, plant and fire. at the moment you don’t really see the old “fire” destroyers.
Mordremoth didn’t only use the dead to create his minions after Zhaitan died, he continued using his old plant minions as well so why would Primordus be any different?
(edited by Halaberd.6348)
Patron i think that is the worst archievment ever , i mean , pay 1k gold to get 5 ap and the titel “im rich , you know” i dont rly like it
Fractals: Toxic Trails: Enemies leave a trail of toxic sludge behind them as they move around.
Please hit this with the nerf bat of hell, melee is useless really.
So far the rest feels pretty awesome.
Patron i think that is the worst archievment ever , i mean , pay 1k gold to get 5 ap and the titel “im rich , you know” i dont rly like it
Where is that achievement? it doesn’t seem tied to the Story Journal. Personally – I like it. It’s something silly for the game’s wealthy to spend their money on and show off while being completely pointless.
High-level feedback;
“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeccccccccccccccstatic!”
I’m going to give some Ember Bay and story feedback because that’s all I played.
Ember Bay:
-Overall the map looks good – lighting/sky is fenomenal. The rocks and ground look too “washed out” – a stronger darker grey would be good.
-The map feels a bit too busy and not lethal enough – things just don’t feel the same as they did in GW1 – it’s no longer a deadly environment.
-Adding Skritt and a circus to the map definitely ruin most if not all of the fun for me since they destroy and I mean totally obliterate suspension of disbelief.
-Please no more hearts. They weren’t good when the game launched and they’re not good now. They’re tedious and give out little to no rewards.
Story: – SPOILERS AHEAD-
There are a lot of things wrong with it but why for the love of the 6 gods does the little dragon have to be a chibi big-eyed thing? Why can’t it look more “serious”?
I felt like leaving it for the destroyers.
Also during the final fight it really ruins immersion that you’re the only one there with just ONE exalted. Where are the rest of them?
Enjoyed it a lot! One of the best i’ve experienced so far, although i do wish you could allow us to put them into our materials tab.
during the last mission when defending the egg the amount of conditions thrown at me was unpleasant. Even tried to go for the achievements for the first time in any story haha…. Errgghh!!
(edited by PSX.9250)
Haven’t finished the story yet (still have to make it to the 4th device) but I love the update so far. Map is big and fun to play around in. Its amazing frankly. I especially love the after effects we get in it. Nice variety of enemies, storytelling is fantastic! Glad to see more achievements coming with this release than with the last one. Changes to fractals were great as well!
Things I’m not so pumped about:
I REALLY love the whole update!! My only question is about the circus peple.. how I see some of them have a new bikini top, and I think there are some new pants too.. I presume we’ll be getting these skins? PLEASE release them as standalone skins in the gemstore!!! and please, please, please, PLEASE. PLEASE! PLEASE! leave it looking the same for all armor weights! If you can do that, I’d pay pretty much whatever price…
Generally speaking, I feel it’s a great patch, as far as Living Story and the new map goes. I enjoyed playing through each section of the story, including the parts on the new map. My few complaints:
Yet another currency taking up yet another inventory slot.
While I like the lava tunnel things, I’d prefer it if we had the ability to chose Stop or Keep Going when we land in another tunnel.
At certain points of the afternoon, it seemed like the Jade Armors/Bows were spawning two-at-a-time (two different npcs standing on top of eachother), which made it particularly difficult to stay alive during fights.
I found Ember Bay to be quite fun. The mobs are very engaging, but you don’t feel like you can get overwhelmed easily. The new mastery is AWESOME, I just love the feel of it.
Episode 2 was very interesting… OMG… Very Nicely done with the first and last instance. The Veteran Destroyer of Hope was a nice touch, and very nostalgic(I think I spelled that right) to us gw1 players. It was nice and challenging, the whole instance was very well done, I just don’t how to describe how excited/pleased I was with the last instance.
I haven’t completed Ember Bay, and I still have to do episode 2 on my other 2 characters, but I only have 1 complaint, just 1. On the part of the story, “Old Foes, Old Ghosts” I think it was, where we have to find all the Mursaat armor pieces…that was a huge pain. The boots were fairly easy to get, the gloves were a bit of a challenge, but the helm was my biggest problem, every single time I went to get it, there were 3+ jade armors, and 2+ jade bows crowded around it, it might have been because someone else had pulled them to it, and they got stuck, or it was a bug, I don’t know, but it made extremely challenging to get to the helm, I had to get help to get to it because of all the knockbacks the armors have…and when they use them at the same time you pretty much get killed instantly from the damage they do and getting knocked into the lava.
But other then that, everything else was great, and I still have plenty to explore on the Ember Bay.
Ember bay is fun. cept for the 2 poi’s gated behind leyline gliding. not everybody have the skill or time to grind that mastery.
seems to be an good update so far. my only complaint is the lack of primordus’s FIRE minions in Ember Bay.
I get that the story changed it a bit but Primordus is the fire dragon! his fire minions are largely absent from ember bay nearly with nearly everything being death or plant related.
This is explained in the LS dialogues. Check out Taimi’s theorizing.
It’s not. Fire minions should be there as well, alongside two other types. It’s not like they (the real deal, not the weaksauce ones modeled after surface critters) weren’t at least equally dangerous as the new versions.
but why for the love of the 6 gods does the little dragon have to be a chibi big-eyed thing? Why can’t it look more “serious”?
They really wasted a golden opportunity there. I really hoped for the dragon to say “It is as i have foretold” in a voice known to the GW1 veterans (well, they likely couldn’t get that voice actor anymore). While looking not cute at all.
Though the other surprise of the story worked out really well, in my opinion.
So far, really liking the story. IMO S3 is the best gw2 story arc so far (and by far). Map is good as well, and seems to me that i might actually enjoy playing on it for a longer time (instead of just farming it for map currency, like i did with BF). Overall, the episode 2 looks really good – i hope the devs will manage to keep to that level further on.
That saying, there are still some things that are worth mentioning (and not in a good way)
1. The last instance of the episode is a bit overdone. You end up wanting for it to finish as fast as possible long before it ends. It’s not like anything really interesting happens during most of it – you end up just repeating the same actions over and over and over and over again.
2. Why, oh why “Old foes, Old ghost” starts right on top of a boss battle that, when up, makes doing it either downright impossible, or at least extremely irritating?
3. new pvp map could have been delayed till season’s end. That way it would not collide with remaining time for doing the achievements for the Capricorn.
4. new map currency… and still no place to put it.
5. the pricing on new fractal vendor is extremely confusing. Even with dev explanation, i just can’t understand the reasoning beyond that. It’s like devs wanted to make it completely useless – but then, why even put it there in the first place?
(edited by Astralporing.1957)
Ember bay is fun. cept for the 2 poi’s gated behind leyline gliding. not everybody have the skill or time to grind that mastery.
I have ley-line gliding and believe me, those two poi’s aren’t easy to get, in fact, I still haven’t managed it.
As for the map, it is ok, but can’t see myself spending a lot of time there, same as I didn’t in bloodstone fen, without a meta, its pointless and please get rid of the hearts..
Fantastic job, really, things are going in the right direction, no complain !
BUT I want my hydras for the next part of fire islands ! with meteor showers please! Hail Hydra, Hydras are part of the Fire Island <3 Can I has Hydras please?
#HydraWillBeBack
You made Guild Wars great again <3
GREAT episode still it has some flaws (and a big fail!).
The battle simulation and disguising as a mursaat were spot on.
The dwarf thumb thing was VERY funny also. Hilarious!
But i think you slipped in a few things like making Marjorie accept Lazarus “because she wants”. Very weak reasons to do such thing. Lazarus betrayed other races exactly like that centuries ago…
Also, the new map seems nice overall but why put skritts there? A little out of place since they like holes, tunnels and shiny things. And that circus…man….WTH was that?
When i saw it and realized it was real, i almost wanted to let the whole thing explode. Was the only heart i skipped. That was a big fail but overall it was a nice episode.
(edited by PhiLL.1746)
Why is there no collection for buying the circus weapons? I need a little incentive to buy them all. Would be a great gold sink for the game, too. Maybe 25 AP and a title? Ringmaster maybe?
Positive:
Negative:
Overall:
(edited by Ithamir.5928)
The instances were tedious, and the map based quests felt like a chore. As somebody who plays a lot of ebg, I’m already tired of destroyers, and all of the “new” destroyers are reskins with more conditions. I also disliked the hearts, because they weren’t better than most of the hearts in core tyria.
I have to hand it to the Living Story writers, they seem to have at last found their stride, the dialogue is informative without having to spout tons of exposition, it is often amusing and always entertaining. It felt like you lost your way around the time of Scarlet and focused far too much on the teenage melodrama in previous seasons. But for season three you guys have well and truly knocked it out of the park. I am really impressed with the quality of writing and am very interested in where this is all going, so many great characters, so many questions, well done! Also please bring back Cannach for the next one, he has some of the best dialogue in the game.
The map, it uses height and gliding logically rather than crowding level upon level to simply exploit gliding like the HoT maps did. I like how it does not feel enclosed like with HoT or Bloodstone Fen and as such it feels larger. I also enjoyed the variety the map has, from a Mussat Stronghold and Skritt Pirates to a strange Circus. What I do not like is that it is yet another desolate map, this map and Bloodstone Fen are ugly. Not due to the environmental artists hard work but due to the nature of where and what the map is and I am kind of tired with desolate maps. I need some rolling hills, forests, settlements, lakes, a little life and normality in a map for a change.
With regards to hearts, I am glad they are back and the karma rewards are much better this time. I would love to see some retroactive work done to central Tyria. Replayable hearts and improved rewards, I did not know I missed them till today.
I am perhaps a little disappointed we are not getting another home instance item, I loved the bloodstone reward, would have been nice to get another like it as our home instances need some love. Voice acting is superb as always, same with sound effects and music, the audio teams never let you down. Most of the rest I liked, monsters, events, jumping puzzle and such.
In all it was a great update.
Earlier this year I almost gave up on the game, maybe it was the direction the game was headed or the massive content droughts, but now it feels like everything has changed. Substantial and good updates with current events to tide us over, you guys have won me back.
New zone is interesting but tough. The storyline fights were a bit too much, this is going to lock some players out of finishing it like they should. The plot is good, up to a point.
That point? I can’t post it here, due to just how big of a spoiler it is. I’ll stick it in another thread, somewhere else and behind spoiler tags.
I love the new map , ley line gliding especially. I like the come back of hearts. I like the sunsets. I love the “new” feel to it and the nod to Guild Wars 1. I don’t like that I can’t find a Skritt to revive anywhere…
Skrits are not dead, look for Passed out skrits
Thanks to an awesome guildie I found them, after chasing around the Disillusioned Skritt for an hour or so (not getting credit for reviving them! ARGH!
Yeah, the wording and action on that is really unclear- usually revive means ‘find someone dead’, or we’re supposed to take a noticeable bucket of water to someone noticeably passed out. I could only find three passed out skritt, and then only by holding down the key to make the name show up, cause they blend into the rocks.
My sad? I miss the GW1 destroyers. Those were creepy.
Not much time to play tonight, but one thing that i found, right out of the gate, was that the effort/reward ratio on skins and heart vendor stuff seemed wicked steep. I’m assuming this is due to the new legendary mace.
What’s with the open world PvP on the west side of the island?
EDIT: What I mean is, why are other players turning red?
(edited by Endless Soul.5178)
What’s with the open world PvP on the west side of the island?
EDIT: What I mean is, why are other players turning red?
It’s part of the story stuff. No one can damage you, and you can’t attack anyone else while it’s happening.
You collect jade armor pieces, and then put them on to disguise yourself as one.
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