Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’ve been playing GW since Prophecies and I’ve barely stop since, apart few brakes. I’ve always love the universe of Tyria with the story, the world and it’s character. Few months ago I came back from a long brake of GW2, so I’ve barely experienced LS1 (only the end). I’ve been wondering since why Anet have decided leave Destiny’s Edge away from the new story for the profit of a new crew (aka DE 2.0).

I didn’t read the book (but am planing to do soon), so I don’t know in details their background, but what I learned from them in game, I thought that was a good design of a team (maybe you can prove me wrong).

To me, doing so is like not having the first heroes of Prophesies (Menhlo, Cynn, Devona and co.) continue through all the new areas.

So I’m wondering why Anet did this. Were they not happy with the character they created the first time? Did they need something “fresh” for the fans? Do they want to keep DE on standby for another story, like when we will raid Kalkatorik? What are the basics reasons behind this choice?

Probably payment to the voice actors. The ones they had were not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, no doubt. Just Steve Blum (Rytlock Brimstone’s VA) alone probably cost them an arm and a leg considering how legendary he is.

I don’t think it’s cost so much as it’s availability. They’ve tried to get Felicia Day back but can’t due to her time commitments.

I would have preferred to keep DE and change their voice actors.

And if it’s a payment issue, that’s a rather terrible planning on their part.

I never thought of that, but I agree with RedStar that it would be a poor reason for that, when you could just change voice actor, I wouldn’t have mind that much personally. There is a lot of movies with sequel that had a change of actors at some point, so I would rather not accept that argument, especially if it’s only voice actor.

RedStar.4218:

I would have preferred to keep DE and change their voice actors.

And if it’s a payment issue, that’s a rather terrible planning on their part.

I don’t think it’s a paying issue, it’s an availability issue. Voice Actors require contracts but they can only be in one place at a time.

In terms of story telling, they could kill Rox tomorrow and Rox would be dead, gone, nowhere in the world. Rytlock is in charge of a Legion, you can see him in story dungeons, and so on, so it is much more difficult to kill him off and keep continuity. Using a new set of characters allows much more freedom and we really don’t know what the future holds for them.

As time goes and LS updates comes, continuity problems keep pilling up.

We spend 7 dungeons getting them back together, and in the end for what ? To travel with a bunch of people that have absolutely no dragon fighting experience…
I hope they show up again in the future, but i really doubt they will make more than a cameo.

I know that DE have some lot of responsabilities ingame (rytlock as you mentionned or Logan guarding his precious queen), but if Anet really wanted to continue with them, they would have manage to find something. We even saw them regroup at the end of Arah, so it’s not a lost cause imo. As RedStar said, I would hope to see them again in another story.

Ive thought the same thing all Anet would have to do is change the VA’s of some of the characters and if it was a rather drastic change then just add in some excuse like with Zojja during an instance the PC gets to make a choice between giving her a well placed (and well deserved) kitten-punch or punting her like the little twerp she is and because of either the force or the pain her voice is permanently changed

She could also go the taimi route and talk through her golem in a weird distorted voice

Stooperdale.3560:

In terms of story telling, they could kill Rox tomorrow and Rox would be dead, gone, nowhere in the world. Rytlock is in charge of a Legion, you can see him in story dungeons, and so on, so it is much more difficult to kill him off and keep continuity. Using a new set of characters allows much more freedom and we really don’t know what the future holds for them.

I’ve seen this used before and I think it’s a misunderstanding. Rytlock isn’t safe simply because he’s part of Personal Story/Story Mode dungeons. Maybe last year when they had the awkward time line purity going on, but that’s done and dusted – Lion’s Arch has been destroyed and that alone would cause more confusion than any other thing they could do in the story (aside from cleansing Orr). Destiny’s Edge exist solely in instances, if one died today the world wouldn’t need to change much at all.

We had this discussion when people were speculating over the Clockwork Chaos and could Jennah die. If she died, she would only exist in historical instances (which would be less confusing than any personal story that takes place in Lion’s Arch). There are some heart quests referencing the queen, some ambient dialogue mentioning her etc but aside from removing those references (which was never done for Lion’s Arch – people still talk about LA in the open world as if nothing happened) killing the Queen is completely doable. The same goes for DE, some ambient dialogue references them (kids outside of Divinity’s Reach, random women talking about Logan) but for the most part, they could die next release and the world would keep on turning. It would just be a plot they would have to write, how is their death mourned, who replaces them etc. The truth is, Queens, Commanders, Captains of the Guard, Tribunes – all of these people die sooner or later.

I don’t know why people think the biconics are the only vulnerable characters – after the Breachmaker they seem pretty invulnerable to me. So far the only notable character killed is the one that was created solely so that she could be killed.

All of Destiny’s Edge, save Zojja, showed up at various times in the first season of Living Story. Three weeks into the second season, it’s a bit soon to be complaining that they’ve been abandoned, is it not?

@Xiahou Mao : That’s good to know, but as I said in my first post, I didn’t experience LS1 (except the ending). Even so, you could agree that DE are not the focus of the story for the last 2 LS (so far in this one they don’t look to have some kind of role at all).

So did Anet gave official statement about the role of DE in the future or if there is speculation running around?

Destiny’s Edge killed Zhaitan. That in itself is a monumental feat. What’s wrong with having a second guild tackle Mordremoth?

Shiren.9532:

We had this discussion when people were speculating over the Clockwork Chaos and could Jennah die. If she died, she would only exist in historical instances (which would be less confusing than any personal story that takes place in Lion’s Arch). There are some heart quests referencing the queen, some ambient dialogue mentioning her etc but aside from removing those references (which was never done for Lion’s Arch – people still talk about LA in the open world as if nothing happened) killing the Queen is completely doable. The same goes for DE, some ambient dialogue references them (kids outside of Divinity’s Reach, random women talking about Logan) but for the most part, they could die next release and the world would keep on turning. It would just be a plot they would have to write, how is their death mourned, who replaces them etc. The truth is, Queens, Commanders, Captains of the Guard, Tribunes – all of these people die sooner or later.

I don’t know why people think the biconics are the only vulnerable characters – after the Breachmaker they seem pretty invulnerable to me. So far the only notable character killed is the one that was created solely so that she could be killed.

Actually, if someone spends their first 30 levels saving Jennah and then finds that she’s dead in the current timeline, with no explanation, it is a “to heck with this, I’m quitting this stupid game” moment. I also think you’re massively underestimating the size of the change if Jennah died when you start thinking through Ebonhawke, the separatists, and the peace treaty. Sure it could be done, but why bother when all that time and effort could be put into new content for everyone to see? These biconics are clearly designed to be erasable.

DraconicDak.9340:

Destiny’s Edge killed Zhaitan. That in itself is a monumental feat. What’s wrong with having a second guild tackle Mordremoth?

Well, if you step back in GW1, the first heroes (Menhlo, Cynn, Devo & co.) were part of every story in the game (some time more directly in the story, otherwise you could take them with you on your journey). So I don’t see why DE should stop after defeating Zhaitan? They even did it after they tried to stop Kalkatorik and failed.

One thing that bothers me if that we put so much effort into regrouping them via the story of the dungeon just to see them disband again at the end of Arah… I mean, come on, you could put more effort into your characters, no?

Well they did just kill an elder dragon…

Bringing them back together involved convincing them to put their differences aside for this final battle, to redeem themselves after the failed attempt against Kralkatorrik. It’s a thematic storytelling point. And with that completed… well, they took time out of their existing lives to deal with a crisis. Logan had to return to his Queen. Rytlock is still Tribune of the Blood Legion. Caithe still has her personal issues with Faolain. When most of the group has more pressing matters to tend to, it kind of makes sense for them to disband until another, similarly significant threat shows up.

And with the new trailer showing Rytlock shaking things up for Ascalon, they may be stepping up now.

DraconicDak.9340:

And with the new trailer showing Rytlock shaking things up for Ascalon, they may be stepping up now.

Wow! It looks like my prayers have been answered :P. Now I’m pumped up for the next update!!!

Lytalm.5673:

DraconicDak.9340:

Destiny’s Edge killed Zhaitan. That in itself is a monumental feat. What’s wrong with having a second guild tackle Mordremoth?

Well, if you step back in GW1, the first heroes (Menhlo, Cynn, Devo & co.) were part of every story in the game (some time more directly in the story, otherwise you could take them with you on your journey). So I don’t see why DE should stop after defeating Zhaitan? They even did it after they tried to stop Kalkatorik and failed.

One thing that bothers me if that we put so much effort into regrouping them via the story of the dungeon just to see them disband again at the end of Arah… I mean, come on, you could put more effort into your characters, no?

Gotta say, as scary as a Lich and Vin Diesel x10 are, I’m reluctant to compare them to an Elder Dragon and their minions.

Lytalm.5673:

DraconicDak.9340:

Destiny’s Edge killed Zhaitan. That in itself is a monumental feat. What’s wrong with having a second guild tackle Mordremoth?

Well, if you step back in GW1, the first heroes (Menhlo, Cynn, Devo & co.) were part of every story in the game (some time more directly in the story, otherwise you could take them with you on your journey). So I don’t see why DE should stop after defeating Zhaitan? They even did it after they tried to stop Kalkatorik and failed.

One thing that bothers me if that we put so much effort into regrouping them via the story of the dungeon just to see them disband again at the end of Arah… I mean, come on, you could put more effort into your characters, no?

I always called them the Tyria Allstars and they were my favourite Teammembers who helped me through the game since the beginning

DraconicDak.9340:

Destiny’s Edge killed Zhaitan. That in itself is a monumental feat. What’s wrong with having a second guild tackle Mordremoth?

Because it can’t be easy to kill one. If it was, why didn’t any one do something for the last 250 years ?

Marjory, Rox, Braham and Taimi aren’t anything special (I’ve let out Kass because supposedly she now is special). Their feat to this day is having us as their boss. They didn’t even give a kitten about what Scarlet had to say.

DE did a bunch of stuff, killed some champions, got to talk and get advice from Glint and almost killed an ED.

RedStar.4218:

DraconicDak.9340:

Destiny’s Edge killed Zhaitan. That in itself is a monumental feat. What’s wrong with having a second guild tackle Mordremoth?

Because it can’t be easy to kill one. If it was, why didn’t any one do something for the last 250 years ?

Marjory, Rox, Braham and Taimi aren’t anything special (I’ve let out Kass because supposedly she now is special). Their feat to this day is having us as their boss. They didn’t even give a kitten about what Scarlet had to say.

DE did a bunch of stuff, killed some champions, got to talk and get advice from Glint and almost killed an ED.

None of Destiny’s Edge were special either, when they first formed. Logan had a decently cool lineage but was a lowly guard himself. Rytlock was a completely unimportant soldier. Eir was a nobody, and she became the guild leader! Caithe was Firstborn, but that’s it. And Zojja was an apprentice of an admittedly unremarkable Asura genius.

They became special by banding together to fight Dragon champions and face Kralkatorrik.

We’re seeing the same thing happen with the new guild now.

So my feeling about DE after knowing some of them will be part of the Episode 3 of the LS2, is we may not have them back together full time, but rather have them work together/alone in the story once in a while. What do you think of that?

Lytalm.5673:

So my feeling about DE after knowing some of them will be part of the Episode 3 of the LS2, is we may not have them back together full time, but rather have them work together/alone in the story once in a while. What do you think of that?

Basically cameos, yeah.

But, I’m still wondering what the breaking of Forefire’s Curse has to do with Mordremoth unless if they’re hinting that with cleansing Ascalon, the Charr could flex their forces and help focus on Mord. Seems convoluted at first glance but can’t wait to see how it all fits together.

I’m guessing that they will not be the focus of the whole story (although I won’t mind), but at least I hope it will be more then just cameos, maybe like mixing DE and DE2 characters have them be the center of different small section of the story. It looks like that will be way to go in the next episode.