Guild Wars 2

Pretty much all the zones have “personality”. That is, specific elements that span across the zone, and give it a distinct feeling.

For example, in Brisban Wildlands it’s the skritt capital and the alliance between the 3 evil factions. In Mount Maelstrom it’s the volcano and the Inquest operations.

All zones have something that shines above the rest of the zone, something big or spectacular that makes you remember the zone. Sometimes, even some sort of ultimate goal.

Timberline Falls is just… Too simple? There’s no “big event”, no “storyline across the map”… All the zones have big memorable things, Timberline Falls doesn’t, and it’s a pity because it could have its own special stuff easily.

For example, some kind of hylek+quaggan alliance against krait, assaulting their base, or some mysterious beast at the mountains.

I just feel the zone has no deep story or important moments. What do you think?

Yeah, there are a couple zones where I feel this way. Weirdly, i feel this way about the final, level 80 zone. There are a couple meta events there, but it’s the most uninteresting of the zones, imho.

Totally agree on the point about most zones having a “personality” though.

I thought Timberline has lots of personality. It was this sort of spring-ish mix between high mountains and lowlands, a lot of beautiful, yet fitting opposites in atmosphere that come together in a truly artistic way. The dwarven ruins in particular will tug at the heartstrings of players who remember escorting Ascalonian refugees across the Shiverpeaks in the first game.

It could have a meta event, yeah, I’m always down for some additional big meta events, but as it stands, I actually quite like the zone.

I agree with DusK, partly.
I do enjoy the zone (well, on my second pass through it on my alt i enjoyed it. The first time the zone was, for lack of better explanation, broken), it has beautiful scenery and it is a joy to play through. The skritt city where you help them bunker in, to defend themselves until things have ‘calmed down’ was enjoyable.

But i do agree with the OP on one point, the zone does lack a major story across the zone. There’s Norn’s in the north drinking, dredge in the centre north digging, krait attacking quaggan in the southeast, inquest messing with grawl in the east, the Pact attacking risen in the southwest and asura being…asura in the west. The place is a clash of different events, story’s and ideas, with nothing linking them together for a coherent storyline.

I loved Timberline Falls! Beautiful water, landscapes, with a mixture of an ice mountain!

With all that water there could be something, I don’t know. All the Shiverpeak Mountains zones had something unique:

-Wayfarer Foothills: Norn homeland, hunting grounds, shaman stuff and sanctuaries.
-Snowden Drifts: Kodan refugees, heavy snow, forests, norn camps (Probably the most simple after Timberline Falls, but the terrain is somewhat unique).
-Lornar’s Pass: High mountains, snow north, green valleys south, Durmand Priory activities.
-Dredgehaunt Cliffs: Lot of dwarven history, dredge country with their capital, more Durmand.
-Frostgorge Sound: Icebrood armies, deep waters, kodan iceberg cities, Claw of Jormag ruling over the place, dredge revolution.

Timberline Falls doesn’t have anything special. Skritt city? Typical, and Brisban Wildlands beats any other zone. Same for the rest of the stuff.

Part of it, I think, is about groupal renown hearts. Most zones have a series of renown hearts that are somehow linked between them, that share a “story”. Timberline Falls’ hearts have nothing to do with each other, except some dredge kicking north and defending from krait south.

In the end, when they ask you “What’s this zone about”, unlike the rest, you can’t give a simple and straightforward answer, because the zone has no personality.

I like that it is not connected with anything.

I thought it had this fantastic wilderness feel to it. It almost reminded me of times in Skyrim when I would be out in the middle of no where. I feeling so far from civilisation.

As for lore its one of the main corridors for the Pact’s movements south. Several of the hearts along that route are related.

This is one of my favorite zones actually. Not saying there is a story I could make out, but the lack of a story made it feel (to me at least) it was a frontier zone. An area that is still being carved out, if you will.
Almost as if it’s North America in the early 1800’s. A clash of everyone trying to stake their claim.

I’d agree that there isn’t much dynamic about it, but I love the zone. The first time this game took my breath away was stumbling upon that massive 180d view from the snowy cliff of the huge falls, the “evil face” keep, and what looked like the Canadian Rockies spread out at my feet. My roommate came in and we just went, “Wow!” I was like, you better be able to fight into that keep! Then we did. Perfect! That said, most of friends didn’t like it and said it was boring zone. I think it’s for the outdoorsy types lol.

Timberline has Oouo! Hard to forget, seriously. Generally, all the Asura parts of the zone are hilarious.
It does seem to be a sort of ‘intersection’ zone where all kinds of things get combined… but personally, I find that far more striking than themed zones. It actually makes me feel like I’m part of a diverse, lively world.

I like that it’s not themed around another world-changing conflict. Gives a break from what’s present on every other 15+ zone, and has a nice wilderness feel.

I think it has plenty of personality, not to mention there’s dwarven ruins everywhere! And i can’t even forget the giant Grawl Head in the cliff side!!

I agree and disagree. It’s true that the zone doesn’t have anything that distinguishes it from the rest of the zones, but when I was trying to get 100% on it (which I couldn’t because of bugged stuff) I found it to be so stunning and thought to myself, this is my favourite area in the entire game (and I’m at 93% completion). I just love the scenery and the map layout.

The level 60-70 zones are horrible which is why they are often empty. People don’t want to be there doing the boring events available, they clear and move on. Travel cost only help them justify not going back to help others. Level 60-70 you realize the game isn’t all you thought it was, just sayin’

I respect your opinion, but Timberline is my favorite zone. I wasted a lot of time just starring a the scenery. And there is an event where the entire zones weather starts to change and you have to stop mass kidnapping on top of the giant stone face which has some funny events to it.

Lots to see here.

It’s a pretty neat zone IMO. It felt like taking the last breath of fresh air before starting to dive into the hellish areas of ORR. There’s no specific theme attached to it, maybe, but I didn’t really feel it needs one. If the events in the south are fixed, and some of the performance issues addressed, I can’t wait to visit it again with my second char.