Guild Wars 2

I want to make a statement that I think we should go through the Desert Gate.

However, in the wiki page, the gate was created by the order of Queen Jennah because of the dark events beyond the gate. The guard by the gate, when you talk to him, explains that passing through would condemn us to death.

However, I think that after the fact that we (as players) killed Zhaitan, a few champions, fought gigantic Karka, defeated the Molten Alliance, and stopped a mad Sylvari who scampered across Tyria (Scarlet), whatever is beyond the gate shouldn’t stand a chance against us.

What I really want to know, is why is the Queen afraid of what is beyond the gate? If we’ve defeated so many big enemies, why are we continued to be barred from adventuring into dangerous territory?

I’m ready to explore some new lands.

Kralkatorrik is beyond the gate. Or supposedly is/was. And Jennah did look directly into Kralkatorrik’s mind…

But for your last question – mechanics. Sadly, ArenaNet cannot produce content fast enough for it to make sense for how fast we go through content. I mean, arguably, the Pact should already be making improvements of reducing Risen and going after the next Elder Dragon. Instead we get Scarlet because stuff.

Plsno.

I would rather they take 10 years to open the gate than to take 1 patch and make a mess of what potential it has.

It’s probably far, far away. ANet is too busy producing this “living story” stuff.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Sadly, ArenaNet cannot produce content fast enough for it to make sense for how fast we go through content.

They could if they either stop spending all their time and effort on festivals and the super mario box, or make actual expansions to prevent players from racing through the content in a few days.

I’ve been behind it.

Elona has apparently been the target of both Mordremoth and Deep Sea Dragon, because a spore-filled stone path leading into a drop-off of water and nothingness is all that awaits you behind that gate.

An entire realm obliterated without our even knowing… What madness is this, for what purpose was this destruction wrought? There is no purpose. No meaning. It is a horrific act perpetrated by terrifying forces, forces beyond our imagining that stalk the world out there, outside our Tyria. Horrors that scoff at our achievements and stand beyond our mortal comprehension. Forces Queen Jennah has chosen to shield us from, to hold away from our fragile minds and nascent dreams, that they may bloom rather than be shattered, that they may live beneath her watchful gaze, rather than to wither under the truth.

The Queen Protects us. The Queen protects.

-Bruvva-Captain Lockseethe of the Adeptus Angelicus.

Why do we care that queen Jennah has blocked this she is not the Queen of anything other than what’s left of human lands. The gate is in Charr controlled lands. Jennah isn’t the Queen of the Asura, Charr, Norn or Sylvari. Why should she be the one to stop them from going wherever they want. If the other races want to go through they should be, just because humans are afraid shouldn’t stop everyone else.

And knowing that the Sylvari are immune to the curruption why would you stop them (or would they die immediately?)

( yes I know it’s a content issue but all we hear about is human this human that)

It’s the government man, they don’t want you to know man! Humans secretly run the world order man! It’s the man that’s putting us down man, taking away our freedom man!
Man I’ve been behind the gate man, I’ve seen the things they’ve been hiding man… UFO’s man! It’s true man, the humans are secretly aliens man!

They’re here to take all our lands man, suppressing us man, taking away our rights man!
Rise up to the power man!

Yes please, If only A-net would open those beautiful doors. WHY IS THERE NO DESERT IN THIS GAME? It’s my favorite landscape in every MMO, and GW2 failed to deliver that. Hopefully they will soon.

@Caledas: The gate’s in human-controlled lands, actually. And Jennah is not only the Queen of Kryta, but the Regent of Ascalon (aka she has ruling power until a king of Ascalon is crowned).

It swhould also be noted that Wade Samuelson, Duke of Ebonhawke and leader of the Ebon Vanguard, has also issued its orders to be sealed – either Jennah or Samuelson’s approval is needed to open the gates.

Going through the gate would mean something like “We are soooo bored, let’s find trouble”

Well, that’s good, because I’m bored, lets go through the gate!

Jim Morrison would open it for us if he were here.

Bellyboomer.3048:

It’s true man, the humans are secretly aliens man!

Secretly?

It’s explicitly in the lore that humans were brought to the world of Tyria from some other place by the gods.

draxynnic.3719:

Bellyboomer.3048:

It’s true man, the humans are secretly aliens man!

Secretly?

It’s explicitly in the lore that humans were brought to the world of Tyria from some other place by the gods.

I doubt that humanity would like to phrase it that way. Rather, they were gifted with verdant lands that happened to belong to uncultured barbarians who wouldn’t accept the benevolence of mankind.

Exosferatu.2961:

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

draxynnic.3719:

Bellyboomer.3048:

It’s true man, the humans are secretly aliens man!

Secretly?

It’s explicitly in the lore that humans were brought to the world of Tyria from some other place by the gods.

I doubt that humanity would like to phrase it that way. Rather, they were gifted with verdant lands that happened to belong to uncultured barbarians who wouldn’t accept the benevolence of mankind.

draxynnic.3719 is in fact right. Humans are not native to Tyria as they were brought there by the Human Gods.

Yes I know. My previous statement was not posted in all seriousness.
By the way, how common is that knowledge in Tyria? When was the last time you heard a human say: “yeah the Asura look like midget aliens, but we are the ones from another world.” It’s on the wiki, but how many humans actually know that?

palawa joko rules the elonian states, kralkatoik could also be in the crystal desert/elona, or further south than that, all we know is that at the end of edge of destiny he flew south in toward the crystal desert. i hope we can go there soon though, AD IT ISNT TEMPORARY CONTENT!!!!

ChaosWithin.6214:

palawa joko rules the elonian states, kralkatoik could also be in the crystal desert/elona, or further south than that, all we know is that at the end of edge of destiny he flew south in toward the crystal desert. i hope we can go there soon though, AD IT ISNT TEMPORARY CONTENT!!!!

Of course it won’t be temporary, the living story is designed to add content to the game. They are going to let us go to the desert in order to fight the crystal dragon, and they will make an entire story about it. It’s possibly an expansion.
Don’t get so upset with the temporary content.

Bellyboomer.3048:

Of course it won’t be temporary, the living story is designed to add content to the game.

Then why is everything except the structures only temporary? – even most ambient NPCs get removed.

The only permanent content we got is the Karka Queen meta and the Scarlet Invasion, plus 3 new instances of 0 value and some structural change in Southsun and Divinity’s Reach. All this over the course of 8 months. And honestly, except for promises of future story, what did June and July give us permanently? The Dragonbash stuff’s all gone, except for Mai’s imprisoned self in Fort Marriner; Bazaar of the Four Wind’s stuff is all gone, except for activity rotation and Belcher’s Bluff.

For “adding content to the game”, there’s not a lot of long-term content. Seems that the only permanent content that’s remaining are pointless instances and mini-games.

Personally, I wish they HAD removed the invasions. The thirteen needed for the achievement on the heels of the Pavilion stuff was enough of a grind-while-following-zerg fest to last me for months, and I bet there’ll be more in those months. Last thing I want is to be calmly exploring a region and BAM! Invasion.

Otherwise… what we’ve seen so far probably is still in the stuff that was designed before they pledged to add more permanent content. On the other hand, though, I am perturbed and disappointed by ArenaNet’s stance of no expansions – the Living Story just isn’t substituting, and I have doubts it ever will.

Bellyboomer.3048:

By the way, how common is that knowledge in Tyria? When was the last time you heard a human say: “yeah the Asura look like midget aliens, but we are the ones from another world.” It’s on the wiki, but how many humans actually know that?

Unknown. The Durmand Priory obviously knows, but we really don’t know much about the state of Krytan education or what they consider to be important to remember about their history. It really could be anything from “every human knows as part of their religious studies, they just don’t talk about it” to “at some point in history humanity actively tried to suppress this knowledge, and now it’s only known by dedicated scholars”.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crystal_Desert

1) Crystal Desert is now a grassland because Palawa Joko diverted the rivers from Vabbi to this region.
2) Palawa Joko’s Awakened undeads are there.
3) Zhaitan’s Risen undeads are there.
4) Kralkatorrik’s branded are there.
5) Possibly there: Undead elder dragons and undead elder Giganticus Lupicus (those huge giant bones got resurrected by the undead lords), Dhuum’s minions (from the now undefended Chaos Rift in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings) including Aatxes and Shades.
6) Possibly “still” there: Giant wurms, Junundu, Hydra, Scarabs, Forgotten, Losaru, Abbaddon’s demons (from the same Chaos Rift), masterless (or now Komir following) Margonites.

Long story short, its Total War over there. Until our level cap gets increased to 100, I won’t bother going there. :P

1) Parts of it are grassland. Much of it is still desert territory, but the lands around the Elon have come to life because of the water. I would consider it a lot like the Nile River Valley. Life can flourish in that band near the water, but travel miles in either direction and you have desolation.
2) Yes, near the southern regions is it quite possible
3) Maybe, maybe not
4) Probably a very good population there yes
5) Huh? Firstly, the chaos rift has most likely been either sealed off or cleansed. Cleansing it was the purpose of us entering it in the first place, and many people succeeded. It is a possibility, but I honestly think they could do more interesting things there than just have another area like Godslost Swamp or Reaper’s Vale.
6) I hope a lot of those creatures are still around. I got excited when I saw there was a boss fight against a Hydra Queen, then I learned it was just Taida Covington and I was vastly disappointed. Don’t forget though, many of these creatures also have the chance of having a branded variety of them As for the Abaddon’s minions, I find that unlikely, unless we learn that Kormir is still having trouble even after she had us almost literally vanquish all of her enemies within the Domain of Anguish.

I don’t honestly see it as any less total war than Ascalon with Ogre Wars, Separatists, Renegades, Ghosts, Branded, Flame Legion, and Dredge.

CHIPS.6018:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crystal_Desert

1) Crystal Desert is now a grassland because Palawa Joko diverted the rivers from Vabbi to this region.
2) Palawa Joko’s Awakened undeads are there.
3) Zhaitan’s Risen undeads are there.
4) Kralkatorrik’s branded are there.
5) Possibly there: Undead elder dragons and undead elder Giganticus Lupicus (those huge giant bones got resurrected by the undead lords), Dhuum’s minions (from the now undefended Chaos Rift in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings) including Aatxes and Shades.
6) Possibly “still” there: Giant wurms, Junundu, Hydra, Scarabs, Forgotten, Losaru, Abbaddon’s demons (from the same Chaos Rift), masterless (or now Komir following) Margonites.

Long story short, its Total War over there. Until our level cap gets increased to 100, I won’t bother going there. :P

1) Only the parts near the river, technically, as Narcemus said. In comparison to GW1, not much would have changed – in GW1 there was a canyon of water pools which made the whole canyon an oasis; this canyon is actually the same path that the Elon takes in the GW2 world map. So there’d be simply more of an oasis along that path.
2) Technically, only in the southern parts.
3) Same as before, but western. Though now, they’ve probably gotten wiped out.
4) Same as before, but northern (as far as we know) and holding no known conflict with the Risen or Joko’s undead.
5) All of those bones are of Giganticus Lupicus – in an interview between GuildMag and Jeff/Scott/Ree, they said that the term Giganticus Lupicus actually refers to a set of species, initially meant to solely be those Crystal Desert bones. No undead Elder Dragons likely to exist. The threat to the Hall of Heroes was removed as well, and was led by Abaddon’s forces (well, technically, led by Menzies’ forces following Abaddon’s orders). Dhuum’s forces were only the Banished Dream Riders and with the invasion defeated, there’s no need to believe that there was another one later on.
6) Forgotten likely are no longer there, given the lack of Forgotten in Edge of Destiny when their sole purposes in the Crystal Desert was protecting Glint and defending the tests of Ascension (for the Flameseeker Prophecies only, perhaps?). The former purpose gone, the latter possibly gone, they likely all moved into the Rift to serve the Six Gods again. Even if they remain, they’re good guys. Furthermore, the Priory has recovered artifacts from the Crystal Desert (see sylvari lvl 20-30 storyline, second split following Priory), which further implies no Forgotten otherwise they would have been bombarding them with questions about the Elder Dragons. I doubt that Margonites were left to reside when Kormir – with the help of the Forgotten and Order of Whispers – were cleaning up Abaddon’s mess (Domain of Anguish stuff is where we helped out); I highly doubt they’d go to follow Kormir, given their super fanaticism.

Caledas.5387:

Why do we care that queen Jennah has blocked this she is not the Queen of anything other than what’s left of human lands. The gate is in Charr controlled lands. Jennah isn’t the Queen of the Asura, Charr, Norn or Sylvari. Why should she be the one to stop them from going wherever they want. If the other races want to go through they should be, just because humans are afraid shouldn’t stop everyone else.

And knowing that the Sylvari are immune to the curruption why would you stop them (or would they die immediately?)

( yes I know it’s a content issue but all we hear about is human this human that)

Lol charr controlled lands…

out of lore for a sec, i think this year and maybe next ear is only the testing phase of living story, after that, hopefully there’ll be some more awesome stuff heading this way

having said that… it isnt really living… we havnt had much choice except with the politics and even then, kiel was portrayed as ‘the good guy’, if we, the players, had a choice for what happened next, that’d be awesome

fyi – it took either 5 or 6 years for us to have the ability to clear out the afflicted of cantha after guild wars 1, so i dont expect them to give us the ability to clear out the orrian undead any sooner – plus how will they seperate pplayers who defeated zhaitan with those who havent? and what if veteran players wanted to help friends who had only just gotten the game?

Thanks Konig for clearing that up. That means we will see more undead Giganticus Lupicus when we do go to the Crystal Desert. They will probably be much bigger than the one we saw in Arah.

As for Margonites, they are capable of individual thinking. Even when Abaddon was alive, the likes of The Lost and Apostate decided to ally themselves with the players. When Abaddon died, surely many more switched sides. Others joined Mallyx to continue fighting against Komir, until Mallyx too were killed.

There are probably 3 factions:
1) Masterless, but hates Komir.
2) Masterless, and doesn’t side with anyone.
3) Allied themselves with Komir, the new goddess of Water, Secret and Truth.

One correction, Kormir is never the goddess of water. I believe her titles are Spirit, Truth, and Knowledge. From what we can tell Lyssa claimed the title of Water, which seems strange to me because in GW1 she seemed unaffiliated with any element and was instead affiliated with chaos magic (which still seems to be the case).

Kormir isn’t the goddess of water. That’s Lyssa now; Kormir is the goddess of knowledge, spirit, and order (and secrets and truth).

But I honestly cannot see Margonites siding with Kormir in any way whatsoever. The Apostate did not choosingly sided with the players; he was cast out because he began to question Abaddon’s eternal life (rightfully so) – the other Margonites were so fanatic that any saying against “Abaddon has always been a god and that as a god he cannot be killed” is worthy of condemning. The Apostate merely makes a bargain with the players because he was outcasted.

In the case of the Lost, he outright lost faith in Abaddon and saw his people as a folly, so he would indeed be what you’re arguing.

However, given ArenaNet’s latest trend for enemy factions where they’re all backstabbing kittens who would sell their firstborn daughter to slavery and only 1 or 2 out of hundreds+ would dare question their ways of life… I doubt we’ll be seeing more Margonites. Especially since the entire goal of the Order of Whispers and Forgotten after Kormir’s rise was “wipe out or imprison all Margonites and demons that partook in Nightfall.”

Well, nothing’s to say that the Order of Whispers didn’t fail, much like a certain undead lich that they never were able to re-imprison (which was their first calling). I too doubt many margonites will be around either, although we cannot definitively say that ArenaNet couldn’t make them come back in some way. I personally would be disappointed if we couldn’t go back into the Mists and fight Demons again, even if they are in another realm or something because they were pushed out.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Kralkatorrik is beyond the gate. Or supposedly is/was. And Jennah did look directly into Kralkatorrik’s mind…

Out of ignorance/forgetfulness and since I couldn’t find it on wiki, when and how did she take a look into dragon’s mind?

In the Edge of Destiny book.

When Kralkatorrik flew over Ebonhawke and blasted down the walls, Jennah was present. She felt a mind in the power that just toppled humanity’s strongest fortification and thought “hm, let’s go poke that.”

Frankly, it really irritates me that there is nothing in-game to indicate that a swath of destruction had been torn through Ebonhawke. EoD is just so jarringly… disconected from the rest of the GW canon.

From my reading of the book I didn’t think he directly flew over the city. He was still at a distance when Jennah and Anise looked into his mind, and branded came from all the way back from the lines of the charr siege weaponry. I think the bolt that blasted the wall was most likely a stray.

That’s my impression as well. The comment about their being mind in the bolt suggests to me that it was deliberately aimed at Ebonhawke rather than being a stray, but probably more in the vein of swatting a fly than anything. Certainly, Kralkatorrik didn’t fly over Ebonhawke, and Ebonhawke wasn’t branded – and repairing the walls before the charr returned would certainly have been a priority afterwards.

On Lyssa – there are certain thematic connections between her portfolio of beauty and illusion and water, so it makes sense for her to claim it (while Abaddon probably had it due to secrets, which is not an element of knowledge Kormir chose to focus on). So while she didn’t have it in GW1, her taking it in the aftermath of Nightfall makes sense.

No, no, I wasn’t trying to suggest Ebonhawke should be within the Brand. I’m just saying that for the wall to be breached in two places, the top of the keep destroyed, the city stormed by a small army of branded that completely overran the defenders- and then in-game for there to be neither sign nor mention, nor any indication whatsoever that these events occured…

Which happened five years ago, to a citadel whose citizens have access to magic to make the job easier and a VERY strong incentive to repair the damage quick smart.

I think there are some indications of damage to the sections of wall between the main gate and the asura gate, which would be about where you’d expect it to be. There’s just no comment on it.

^^was thinking along the same lines. It always seemed to me that Ebonhawke and surrounding area threatened a bit more.

I wish they would introduce more Orders camps on the Fields of Ruin map. Now that Zhaitan is gone, it would be the logical place to gather for a strike against a second known ED. Obviously the branded threat did not stop by simply defeating the other dragon, and since Ebonhawke and Charr lands and in immediate danger (would a wall stop a flying dragon?), it would be in interest of both groups to move against the dragon / put in more resources to secure the area further.

ArenaNet is keeping the future plans of the Pact close to their chest. Fields of Ruin also has the issue of being a map set before the formation of the Pact (roughly speaking, you can get an idea of when a makitten et by its level range) – so if we do go through the gate we may see Pact encampments on the other side, but in the meantime I think ArenaNet wants to avoid placing level 50+ personal story spoilers in a 30-40 zone.

The prison in ebonhawke mentioned in EoD is in the game. Well, the top level. With mention of a bottom level were the most dangerous criminals are kept – top level is mainly for drunks.

hedix.1986:

……. Now that Zhaitan is gone, …….

I wish more players would understand that ANet CANNOT build content based on the above statement as it is NOT true for players that have not finished the personal story yet. This is also a major issue with the direction of the Living Story….it can’t assume or even mention Zhaitan is dead, because for many players…..he simply is not.

Technically, they can…

if they just admit that it takes place after the personal story.

And your proclamation for something they “cannot” do is already false – many players may not have reached the creation of the Pact, let alone got introduced to the airships. But yet the Aetherblades stole airships from the Pact (that’s where they got their airships from).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Technically, they can…

if they just admit that it takes place after the personal story.

And your proclamation for something they “cannot” do is already false – many players may not have reached the creation of the Pact, let alone got introduced to the airships. But yet the Aetherblades stole airships from the Pact (that’s where they got their airships from).

Step One: Create a new starting point in the Personal Story.

This step is easy. ANet should be doing this already. We call these expansions. The current story lines should all be wrapped up into nice little packages with tie-ins to the next story, and the Personal Story should restart, so that people who have played through the first Personal Story, gotten all the achieves and done all there is to do can move forward with new material to enjoy that isn’t just a single-serving rinse/repeat ad nauseum.

Step Two: Wrap up previous Personal Stories.

As stated, once the new Personal Story is ready to be rolled out, the old one, and all the Living Story bits associated with it, are wrapped up, tied up with a nice neat bow, and the hooks and tie-ins for existing characters laid out to move them to new areas. New characters will be allowed to start in new places, giving players the choice of experiencing the new Personal Story from either the old world perspective, or from the new world perspective.

Step Three: Lock off the old Personal Stories.

Once the new PS are rolled out, the old ones are locked off, deprecated, and the achievements associated with them moved to the History header in the achievements tab. Everyone will have ample warning that they are being locked down, so this part won’t come as a surprise to existing players. New players should already be started on the new Personal Story. Once the old PS are locked down, the next PS quest should be one that moves old players who haven’t finished the old PS into the new one seamlessly. It should reveal the deatails of how a brave adventurer, not unlike themselves, lead Destiny’s Edge to victory over Zhatain, and how the Pact is involved in the new story. It should also place them into the new storyline at a place commensurate with their relative place in the old story, so that they can experience roughly the same level of interaction with world events that they had been a part of previously.

It should start them at the beginning of that, so if they had done the personal quests, but were choosing their order, they should have the undead focused order quests wrapped up and be moved back to the start of the new order quests so they can get to know the new threat properly.

If players had finished the old PS fully, they should be given options of either doing the new PS from the beginning, giving them 80 levels of questing to go back through, if they want to do it all again (and I would, so yeah, it should be an option), or of just starting with the orders phase of the PS, using their old title within the order in place of the novice, etc, titles. Unless the Pact is going to be called upon again to face the new threat, in which case, they can also start from that part, since they’re already the Commander.

Anyway, that’s a simple draft of how the process of stopping the old stories and starting new ones could be implemented.

Drakkon.4782:

Step Three: Lock off the old Personal Stories.

Once the new PS are rolled out, the old ones are locked off, deprecated, and the achievements associated with them moved to the History header in the achievements tab. Everyone will have ample warning that they are being locked down, so this part won’t come as a surprise to existing players. New players should already be started on the new Personal Story.

And you block off content ArenaNet worked kitten to future players, and prevents replayability (more so than already).

I never liked removing non-bugged-to-hell content. I still don’t. I never will. There’s no point to it.

If you must have a case of “out with the old, in with the new” then have that old in a corner, just so it can still be played.

Also: issue with the “new PS replacing old PS” – what about the racial biography questions? Start a character with them, just to have no placement in the PS? Or would the old stories be “presumed done already” thus you have no experience with (for example) your charr sire or your warband members…

There is a lot of things overlooked in the personal story steps. Some of the most lore comes from them. Replayability is something heavily needed, and locking the content forever… I just can’t agree with it. Especially since the personal story is an isolated instance.

I’d rather just have a building on of old stories, rather than a replacement of them. Only time I’d see it reasonable for a replacement of the personal story, would be when new races and a new personal story series get added.

What I would rather have (and think should have been done from the get go; and think it can still be done reasonably), is to take the instances of the Living Story, expand them to be self-sustaining (perhaps requiring the creation of a new instance here and there), and place them to be post-Victory or Death; add in either an instance from Trahearne or, preferably, a mail from them telling the commanders to go get some well-deserved R&R while he leads the mop-up of the risen forces before going after the next Elder Dragon (and slap in another later on shortly before the Aetherblades’ appearance about the thievery of Pact airships), thus explaining why the Pact Second-in-Command is off doing whatever he wants, and gets dragged into the Scarlet mess. Once the Scarlet mess is cleared up, we go on to the next Elder Dragon/other threat.

With new Living Story updates, those instances and story would become available to all temporarily – afterwards, it only becomes available as a continuation of the Personal Story. Aetherblade Retreat and Molten Facility return in their old forms rebalanced for playability with any amount of players (like any other PS instance).

It would allow new players a chance to eventually catch up on the story that’s been getting utterly removed, without having to make some sad excuse of re-explaining why Scarlet hates us (and why we should view her as a “personal nemesis”) every month she shows up.

Is there dialogue actually stating that they STOLE pact airships, and not that the nearby Inquest in Orr didn’t just steal the blueprints to the airships and start creating their own armada? I would think the Pact would definitely be a bigger driving force in wiping out the Aetherblades if they physically stole half of the Pact’s fleet.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I never liked removing non-bugged-to-hell content. I still don’t. I never will. There’s no point to it.

As I said, it’s only one way to do it, and in a living world, old content is… well, old. It would be like allowing everyone born today to fight in the (U.S.) Civil War (War of Northern Aggression, if you’re from ‘the South’…), or World War I or II.

If you must have a case of “out with the old, in with the new” then have that old in a corner, just so it can still be played.

That is an option, too. Part of CG could be determining what PS the player wants to pursue. Perhaps it could be an option to start at the very beginning and play through all of it until you get to the new stuff, but there should be more PS than just ‘up to Orr’.

Also: issue with the “new PS replacing old PS” – what about the racial biography questions?

You’ll note all of my examples start AFTER the racial part of the PS. The choosing of the Orders is the farthest back into the PS I go. I don’t think that they should remo0ve the racial part of the PS, ever. That part is special and gives a new player a sense of flavor to his race.

There is a lot of things overlooked in the personal story steps. Some of the most lore comes from them. Replayability is something heavily needed, and locking the content forever… I just can’t agree with it. Especially since the personal story is an isolated instance.

I’m thinking of both old and new players with my suggestion, and it is only a suggestion. I’m not even asserting that it is the RIGHT suggestion, only A suggestion as to a way the process can be handled. I don’t like losing content, either, but, as I said above, it is getting to the point where old players have no more character progression to go through, save these ridiculous LS modules, and new players are doing content that only a few dozen people on each server are even caring about anymore, making it, in some servers, impossible to do.

I know well that Orr is nearly empty and getting completion on all of the SPs, Hearts and POIs is nearly impossible to solo at the gear level that drops. My Engineer stopped 2 zones out because there are still points he can’t finish, no one is doing Orr on my server, and the temples are making getting the zones complete nearly impossible. I believe I’m at 86% total, and I can’t get higher in the current zone because it can’t be soloed. I don’t call for nerfs often, but since no one is doing Orr anymore, they should cut down on the mob density. It’s fine if there are a lot of players running through the zone, but when it’s only a handful, all doing their own thing, it’s deadly and very discouraging. Maybe they could turn a few (hundred) spawn locations into optional locations that come online as the population levels increase. And the frequency of events should be decreased.

What I would rather have… (snipped for length, sorry)

Not an unreasonable suggestion, either. I just think that the PS should never end. Even at the top end, there should be some manner of PS for players to continue. It’s unreasonable to end the PS and then pick up the progression with these LS modules, which are usually horrible storytelling, buggy, and lack cohesion like Flora’s cake from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.

With new Living Story updates, those instances and story would become available to all temporarily – afterwards, it only becomes available as a continuation of the Personal Story. Aetherblade Retreat and Molten Facility return in their old forms rebalanced for playability with any amount of players (like any other PS instance).

Why? Why not have an NPC at them that allow you to run them in their altered states so you can re-enjoy the fun?

It would allow new players a chance to eventually catch up on the story that’s been getting utterly removed, without having to make some sad excuse of re-explaining why Scarlet hates us (and why we should view her as a “personal nemesis”) every month she shows up.

Scarlet is a personal nemesis? I really don’t see it. She’s a lunatic Mary Sue. She’s a “Look, I can do everything every other race can do, and I’m gifted among my own people. I’m special in ways no one else can ever be because I was poorly written and poorly designed. And I control an army that no one knew existed, so where di they come from? Who cares! I’m special” character.

The sooner I can ignore her and get on with my life of killing Elder Dragons, the happier I’ll be. We killed one (yes, he’s dead. Finally and fully, unless this next LS SCREWS THAT UP, TOO) and there are four (five) to go. Let’s get on with the business of killing dragons. Not, as my name implies, that I have anything against dragons, but Forces of Nature exist to be railed against, so let’s get railing.

@Narcemus The fact that the airships came from the Pact isn’t in-game- surprise surprise. It came from the article on the creation of the Aetherblades- “We figured our sky pirates, being felonious by nature, would steal their rides from the Pact, who have their own fleet of airships.”

Really, I think that was just a shoehorned effort to justify giving them airships, without thinking through the implications- there’s what you said about the Pact getting involved, there’s the laughable concept of them actually being able to steal so many, there’s the fact that if they were stolen from the Pact it’d be safe to assume that someone in Lion’s Arch would have been warned that there was a hijacked fleet floating around, and there’s the slap in the face Magnus payed to the Pact by liberating their stolen property and promptly passing it to one of his underlings.

IMO, the idea that the inquest stole the plans and built their own makes more sense, especially based on the “upgraded” appearance of these airships, their proximity to the Pact, and their alliance with the Aetherblades. But yeah…

I’d have to agree with that myself.

When the Aetherblades appeared to be a small organisation with one base and two airships… then it made a reasonable amount of sense for them to have been able to hijack a couple. Now, though, we’ve seen entire armadas of them descending on unsuspecting zones and disgorging dozens of troops each. For the Pact to have lost that many airships without the aetherblades and the Pact having ended up in a state of open war beggars belief.

What might be believable is if the Aetherblades had managed to capture a couple, and then had them reverse-engineered so they could build more themselves. Even that, though, is presenting the Aetherblades as insanely well organised and supplied for a pirate band that lost a major base not too long ago. It’s part of what makes the LS a bit difficult to swallow – the question of just how such powerful forces managed to appear without any sign of where they came from.

Hopefully, they’re planning to address that in the future… but to be honest, I’d be happy if that was reasonably distant in the future so we can focus on other things for a bit.

Guild Wars 2: the assault on Ahn’Qiraj