Guild Wars 2

I just finished cleansing Orr for the first time on my second account. As always, there are tears in my eyes. Great storytelling ANET. I’m reminded why I love this game.

I’m ashamed to admit I’ve got a level 80 of each class and played since release yet I’ve never finished a personal story, after claw island I usually give up. After seeing this i must pull my finger out.

Napo.1230:

I’m ashamed to admit I’ve got a level 80 of each class and played since release yet I’ve never finished a personal story, after claw island I usually give up. After seeing this i must pull my finger out.

Since you mention that, there’s something I’ve noticed. Levelling up to around L30 feels fast, and levelling up at level 65+ feels fast. That level range in between always felt slower to me. What you say about stopping the personal story at Claw Island resonates a bit with me, because I’ll get to L30 and usually feel like I’m ready to catch up with my personal story.

The Claw Island stuff tends to top me up to L65, and then I often decide to test myself against mobs 5 levels higher in early Straits of Devastation. After that I find myself pushing further into Orr up until a point where I get total toybox syndrome and decide it would be cool to go explore Dry Top / Silverwastes at L72 or so. This generally leads me to levelling through those last 15 levels super quick, and then I realised I’ve totally missed the rest of the story on my way through too.

Napo.1230:

I’m ashamed to admit I’ve got a level 80 of each class and played since release yet I’ve never finished a personal story, after claw island I usually give up. After seeing this i must pull my finger out.

my main stops just at the last mission before killing zaithan, i did do the mission half way but it takes frikin 2 hours just to get to him….

sorudo.9054:

Napo.1230:

I’m ashamed to admit I’ve got a level 80 of each class and played since release yet I’ve never finished a personal story, after claw island I usually give up. After seeing this i must pull my finger out.

my main stops just at the last mission before killing zaithan, i did do the mission half way but it takes frikin 2 hours just to get to him….

Two hours?!

Not sure what gear you were wearing or what profession you were playing but even an hour is way overkill for the entire instance. 40 minutes is probably closer to the time it would take most people.

I thought this would be negative too.

But now I know what it’s about I completely agree. I actually like the personal story (no it’s not the most amazing writing, even within a game, but I still found it enjoyable) and I really like this instance. The ending to it is really wonderful and the music is perfect.

I also like the impact of having everyone we’ve met throughout the invasion of Orr (and before in some cases) there to share the moment.

The one thing that bothers me is that Season 2/HoT has put a whole new spin on it.

Danikat.8537:

MAJOR story spoiler.

hide spoiler

We now know that the cleansing ritual consisted of a minion of Mordremoth (Trahearne) using a thorn from a champion of Mordremoth (The Pale Tree), in a ritual created by those two to create something that looks a lot like Mordremoth’s vines and/or the plant structures the sylvari create, which we now know is a modified version of dragon corruption. So did it actually cleanse Orr, or did it just replace one form of corruption with a prettier one?

THAT is one of the few little pieces of magic that HoT brought to the game for me. I loved it when it dawned on me, whilst playing GW1, that … maybe the Mursaat’s weren’t all that evil, and maybe their motives were just… but hang on, they were killing my race.

It’s those kind of thought provoking tugs that really makes the story in this game for me.

Just came back after a break and finished the HoT story. I found it to be very well done with a nice ending. Going to start LS3 tonight!

Dam I also haven’t played HoT story nor the living story bar season 1.
I feel like I’m missing so much but I can’t seem to leave wvw.

Sarie.1630:

Danikat.8537:

MAJOR story spoiler.

hide spoiler

We now know that the cleansing ritual consisted of a minion of Mordremoth (Trahearne) using a thorn from a champion of Mordremoth (The Pale Tree), in a ritual created by those two to create something that looks a lot like Mordremoth’s vines and/or the plant structures the sylvari create, which we now know is a modified version of dragon corruption. So did it actually cleanse Orr, or did it just replace one form of corruption with a prettier one?

THAT is one of the few little pieces of magic that HoT brought to the game for me. I loved it when it dawned on me, whilst playing GW1, that … maybe the Mursaat’s weren’t all that evil, and maybe their motives were just… but hang on, they were killing my race.

Your spoiler is a similar revelation.

hide spoiler

Hang on… did Trahearne do it because it was a minion of an elder dragon, or did he do it because he had free will at the time, even if he didn’t fully understand the tools at his disposal?

It’s those kind of thought provoking tugs that really makes the story in this game for me.

What if the Pale Tree is really the avatar of Mordremoth and we only did battle with a decoy?

Napo.1230:

Dam I also haven’t played HoT story nor the living story bar season 1.
I feel like I’m missing so much but I can’t seem to leave wvw.

The nice thing about HoT and the Living Story after Season 1 is that it’s up to you when you play it.

When Season 2 came out I deliberately didn’t play it for the first week, even though I was excited for the story, just because I liked knowing I didn’t have to drop everything and play it on Anet’s schedule any more (which is what I was doing all through Season 1).

Danikat.8537:

I thought this would be negative too.

But now I know what it’s about I completely agree. I actually like the personal story (no it’s not the most amazing writing, even within a game, but I still found it enjoyable) and I really like this instance. The ending to it is really wonderful and the music is perfect.

I also like the impact of having everyone we’ve met throughout the invasion of Orr (and before in some cases) there to share the moment.

The one thing that bothers me is that Season 2/HoT has put a whole new spin on it.

MAJOR story spoiler.

hide spoiler

We now know that the cleansing ritual consisted of a minion of Mordremoth (Trahearne) using a thorn from a champion of Mordremoth (The Pale Tree), in a ritual created by those two to create something that looks a lot like Mordremoth’s vines and/or the plant structures the sylvari create, which we now know is a modified version of dragon corruption. So did it actually cleanse Orr, or did it just replace one form of corruption with a prettier one?

Woah never made that connection before.

I have about fourteen characters and I’ve only run the entire first story through about half of them, but each time I’ve truly enjoyed the story, and seeing the different variants by trying different choices each time. Living World 2 and HoT were also truly enjoyable, though I’ve run through them only once each (with my main)….and I’m happy to say that I’m already enjoying the first chapter of Living World 3 and can’t wait to see chapter 2. Exceptional storytelling, ANet, though I’d love to see more fully animated cinematic cut scenes, like we had in HoT.

Yeah, I loved core story and didn’t really like HoT one. I heard there were different writers?

I think the story has been changed – maybe I just never adjusted to the new version? I really wish the game would reduce the level of each step by 10, though, to re-align it with the content (And have the story drive instead of trail exploration).

But as for the writing itself – It starts good, then I find it completely tanks during the Orders (Especially for Charr – you go in as an accomplished officer, and never recover from “Naive Newcomer”) However – once you actually hit Orr’s shores, the writing becomes… a bit more passable? I was gonna say good, but then I remember the idiocy of the sacrifices of the characters in the Vigil-suggested path.

Anet’s writers have a serious problem with having their characters stop to yammer on and on about how urgent their situation is and how quickly they must act, and I’m just sitting there like “SO SHUT UP AND GO DO THE THING!”

I agree with you, OP. “The Source of Orr” is one of the highlights of the Personal Story for me because of all the emotion it has in it. Sure, it has its flaws (the fickle actions of the Sovereign Eye never made much sense to me unless it was Zhaitan suddenly realizing what an error the Sovereign Eye had made with its arrogance and forced it to revert its decision but writers have never clarified what exactly happened there) but overall the experience is very nice. Hearing Trahearne’s speech while listening to the music that really heightens the moment is quite memorable, leading to what I consider one of Trahearne’s most touching lines that truly highlights the friendship he and the PC share on this uncertain and dangerous mission:

Trahearne: Here, at the end, I am glad that it’s just you and me. We will cleanse Orr together—as we were meant to do.

And that, of course, leads to the ultimate payoff which pays tribute to all the choices you’ve made throughout the Personal Story with all those character references, which is like a cherry on top of a cake.

Danikat.8537:

MAJOR story spoiler.

hide spoiler

We now know that the cleansing ritual consisted of a minion of Mordremoth (Trahearne) using a thorn from a champion of Mordremoth (The Pale Tree), in a ritual created by those two to create something that looks a lot like Mordremoth’s vines and/or the plant structures the sylvari create, which we now know is a modified version of dragon corruption. So did it actually cleanse Orr, or did it just replace one form of corruption with a prettier one?