Guild Wars 2

So in the last patch, it seems the “underwater” risen (the ones with shells, coral and other aquatic stuff attached to their corpses) got their animations updated. Now they look like crippled and injured, which doesn’t look too good if you ask me.

However, what I don’t understand is why the elite got this change, while pirates and peasants still walk upright.

Any lore explanation for this? Maybe this would fit general better, but it’s such a special topic I’m not sure where it belongs.

Perhaps it’s meant to suggest a weakening of the Risen with the death of Zhaitan? I have no clue. :S

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Perhaps it’s meant to suggest a weakening of the Risen with the death of Zhaitan? I have no clue. :S

That would be lame. I’d prefer Orr to stay at “before killing Zhaitan” so my new characters don’t get the story ruined. Besides, when I return I want to remember the story, the consequences can be shown in instanced areas (let us access The Source of Orr, for example).

Given that they all grew 40-100% taller, I’ve come to the conclusion Orr is actually a lost colony of the Norn.

I figured it was to show that they’re rotten bodies (due to being dead for 150 years before Zhaitan rose). You can’t stand up very well if your back muscles are rotten away.

The new height makes no sense lore wise, and I can only see it being reasonable to make them more noticeable. But you know what? kitten that. I WANT HUMAN SIZED HUMAN RISEN PLEASE. And a human-sized King Adelbern.

Though I am suspecting that Joko’s Orrian now that these risen look like him but with corals (they’re not wide enough to be norn!).

I understand why the change could be cool, but they applied it where they shouldn’t, and didn’t apply it where they should have. Underwater risen are supposed to be the elite, I know they are “rotten”, but the corals and their strong bodies should let them walk upright without problems.

Pirates, peasants and others? Those should be the ones walking weird.

Adelbern makes sense; a ghost wouldn’t be restricted by the size of the physical body. But the Risen should! Its rather silly.

I wouldn’t call the coral risen to be the “elite” – they’re just the first to be corrupted. That’s all. They do contain the elite within them, but they’re not all elite themselves.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I wouldn’t call the coral risen to be the “elite” – they’re just the first to be corrupted. That’s all. They do contain the elite within them, but they’re not all elite themselves.

Well, they sure hit harder, and show abilities and cast spells no other risen do, so they’re far above the rest of the risen, which are just zombies that try to punch or burp you to death.

The spellcasting is explained in the fact that they’re Orrians. Orrians were naturally more magical than the other nations, to the point where they don’t even need to train unlike the other nations, and use magic for liesurely things when others used it when other means didn’t work. So its presumable that as undead they’d be still.

Hitting harder seems more like a mechanical case of level to me.

I would imagine the coral risen they have been corrupted further — they act as soldiers (and are much more physically altered, including size), while the other risen usually just stand around, or mindlessly repeat the things they did when they were alive. Therefor, the coral soldiers have more intelligence, but more of their mind is directly controlled by Zhaitan, and thus they are hunched over not because of a physical weakness, but their mentality being more brutal and inhuman.

Well, if you think about it technically, the coral risen have been under the influence of Zhaitan for a much longer time than any of the fresh risen that we run into in the storyline outside of Orr. So it makes sense that their constant contact from their master eventually gave them a little more influence/corruptive magic than the newer counterparts.