Guild Wars 2

I see it being changed permanently in the slightest. But being completely destroyed seems like its too iconic to happen. Too many memories for me personally to see it go away.

So changed yes, destroyed no.

What do you all think?

If they stay true to their statements of changing the face of Tyria and rocking it to its core, I think it’s entirely pausible they destroy a large part of Lion’s Arch, if not all.

I’m not sure any MMO has done this -attacking and completely destroying the popular hub and safe/comfort zone of players- and with Anet’s history of sticking to building a not so conventional one, it’s possible.

Personally, I’d love to see this kind of content.

Imagine all the Elder dragons having a convention in Lions Arch. Yeah, that is what I expect to happen.

“A TITAN VERSUS A TITAN!”

They could easily destroy the western side of the city up to the trading post without affecting the usability of the city or the personal story too much. This could have the added bonus of blasting open the wall to the Dominion of Winds…

i’m betting on something like recreating the thaumanova disaster, on a larger scale, in the middle of LA.

but i doubt that’s it for gameplay reasons.

Not enough will happen to LA to contradict the Personal Story instances which take place inside of it. Every order story is rooted in Lion’s Arch.

Eluveitie.1290:

If they stay true to their statements of changing the face of Tyria and rocking it to its core, I think it’s entirely pausible they destroy a large part of Lion’s Arch, if not all.

I’m not sure any MMO has done this -attacking and completely destroying the popular hub and safe/comfort zone of players- and with Anet’s history of sticking to building a not so conventional one, it’s possible.

Personally, I’d love to see this kind of content.

Perhaps this is too minor a quibble for the devs to care about, but the only objection I have is that will almost certainly wipe out background NPCs whose dialogue has not yet been properly recorded… but that, to me, is a HUGE problem, and even more so for LA then it would be for other cities. I’ve always been a huge fan of the little things ANet puts in, but so much of it falls through the cracks as it is, sometimes due to the way they implemented it (coughGARAcough), and sometimes due to player inattention. Removing any chance for it to be found down the road would be a tragedy.

Lion’s Arch will become the new Thaumanova.

After Scarlet’s defeated, we’ll have a month of people being teleported in and out randomly, elements coating different sections of it, and a nice big water djinn (Zomorros) becoming a world boss. The LW instances will be out to fix it, and we will. Then things will go back to “normal”.

Yes, I am sarcastic. Though I do think Scarlet’s plan is to make a wide-scale Thaumanova incident.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Lion’s Arch will become the new Thaumanova.

After Scarlet’s defeated, we’ll have a month of people being teleported in and out randomly, elements coating different sections of it, and a nice big water djinn (Zomorros) becoming a world boss. The LW instances will be out to fix it, and we will. Then things will go back to “normal”.

Yes, I am sarcastic. Though I do think Scarlet’s plan is to make a wide-scale Thaumanova incident.

while i think that’s possible, it would trivialize thaumanova if we eventually fixed lion’s arch. if we can clean up a large scale thaumanova, why can’t we do it to thaumanova itself? (“because i like farming rares hurr hurr” :P)

Because it’s not important. Because it’s Arcane Council jurisdiction and the Inquest have hold on them and they’re trying to keep Thaumanova chaotic for whatever reasons (see the escort event prior to the Fire Elemental event).

Or maybe it will be cleaned up at long last.

Whatever happens, I’m certain that Canach will play a part in it. That whole off-hand remark about how somebody could buy his billet and allow him to work off his debt just screams to me that somebody (either Kiel or Marjory is my guess) will be doing that very shortly.

I expect to see that Aetherblade fleet raze the city (what air defenses?) Then that drill is going to do to Lion’s what the Great Collapse did to the Canthan district.

Drill goes all the way to the Depths of Tyria; down to the leyline that Primordus is snacking on. Sea of Sorrows floods in, Primordus and Destroyers are forced up to the surface. Marionette (+improved toxin) vs Elder Dragon. Round one.

Fight.

What I personally hate is the good possibility that if anything happens it will end up in the destruction of the remains of the old Lion’s Arch below the sea. It is right next to where the “green probe” is and we might lose that forever, much like the original Lion’s Gate lighthouse. (I was really glad to get screen pics of that light house before it was destroyed.)

Kalarchis.8635:

I expect to see that Aetherblade fleet raze the city (what air defenses?) Then that drill is going to do to Lion’s what the Great Collapse did to the Canthan district.

Drill goes all the way to the Depths of Tyria; down to the leyline that Primordus is snacking on. Sea of Sorrows floods in, Primordus and Destroyers are forced up to the surface. Marionette (+improved toxin) vs Elder Dragon. Round one.

Fight.

I personally suspect this is what is happening too (although why would Mordremoth, or whoever’s in Scarlet’s head, want to attack Primordus?).

Pet wish? I’m keeping my fingers crossed that all of this chaos right on the Dominion of Winds’ doorstep finally spurs the Tengu to open their gates, shoot the Aetherblades out of the sky, and they join the world as the 5th playable race.

Think about it: if things are so dire for LA, what better way for massive reinforcements to come in in the form of an entire race of skilled fighters who have been staying behind their walls all this time?

Scarlet destroys the water fountain, because it is basically the running gag.
Divinity’s Reach 2.0 form together in a giant Asuran based Golem made by Zojja in secret.

Braham and Rox form the arms, for the Ka-bam! feeling.
Jory and Kas the legs.
Canach the body because of a sudden redemption scene (Evon paid his way out or something), and Taimi will form the head.

They’ll fight the Mecha Puppet Lady of Doom.
Lion’s Arch will be damaged, the map will change a bit.
Finally the lovely Lionguard Lyns (alliteration ahoy) will accept another token for items she’s willing to trade.

…

As a Voltron fan, I can’t bring myself to downvote that idea. XD

Thanks, I know I cheated with six instead of five but ANet does like to do things differently. Plus six is a good round holy number to the Humans of the game anyways.

Eh, I watched the lesser-known Voltron series that was comprised of 15 smaller vehicles. I’m not that attached to the 5 lion version.

After blowing up LA, it’ll set the stage for the Marionette’s Ballet Show! Tickets on sale til May.

I suspect that Scarlet is being duped by the Personal Nemesis(remember ArenaNet has stated before we were introduced to Scarlet that the Personal Nemesis would be someone we know) into attacking Primordus on the assumption that he’s the source of the voice….

There are many possibilities as to whom the Nemesis might be yet for the Nemesis to be someone we know it would have to someone we’ve seen and someone capable of shapeshifting at that if it’s the voice whispering into Scarlet’s head….

Jennah is implied to be trying to avoid direct contact with Logan. Why? Because she’s not Jennah of course! She’s the Nemesis in disguise! He/she would have to avoid Logan if he/she is to pull off his/her scheme perfectly… I also think Kasmeer might also be a candidate for one of the Nemesis’s disguises…

I’m also of the opinion that the Nemesis is the one who manipulated Zinn into creating those Golems… The Nemesis’s attempt to either remove the rulers from Tyria failed or worse…. Maybe fall of the Mursaat was the plan all along….

I believe the Nemesis could only be personal if he/She did something personal to us and what would be more personal than killing our mentors/Destiny’s Edge? We know Logan is loyal to his queen and if someone killed and impersonated her than Logan would recklessly attack the Nemesis and die thus causing the other members of Destiny’s Edge to rush in and die. That would make it personal!

I bet Mai Trin will face Marjory (responsible for her arrestation) or Canach (battle of the prisoners!!!) in a 1vs1 battle, probably in the middle of Fort Marriner.

Then High Inquisitor Scarlet will arrive. “Before this night dies, I will see this city burn to the ground!”, she will say.

Taimi and Zojja will use the Mystic Forge to create a spectral infusion or a thing like that.

This won’t end well.

On a little more serious note, I’m curious about the role that will be played by the Captain’s Council. I want to see Farth Scarclaw, Hao Luen and “Bonny” Anne Reid in action. Not only Kiel or Magnus.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

I suspect that Scarlet is being duped by the Personal Nemesis(remember ArenaNet has stated before we were introduced to Scarlet that the Personal Nemesis would be someone we know) into attacking Primordus on the assumption that he’s the source of the voice….

There are many possibilities as to whom the Nemesis might be yet for the Nemesis to be someone we know it would have to someone we’ve seen and someone capable of shapeshifting at that if it’s the voice whispering into Scarlet’s head….

Jennah is implied to be trying to avoid direct contact with Logan. Why? Because she’s not Jennah of course! She’s the Nemesis in disguise! He/she would have to avoid Logan if he/she is to pull off his/her scheme perfectly… I also think Kasmeer might also be a candidate for one of the Nemesis’s disguises…

I’m also of the opinion that the Nemesis is the one who manipulated Zinn into creating those Golems… The Nemesis’s attempt to either remove the rulers from Tyria failed or worse…. Maybe fall of the Mursaat was the plan all along….

I believe the Nemesis could only be personal if he/She did something personal to us and what would be more personal than killing our mentors/Destiny’s Edge? We know Logan is loyal to his queen and if someone killed and impersonated her than Logan would recklessly attack the Nemesis and die thus causing the other members of Destiny’s Edge to rush in and die. That would make it personal!

I believe this has been brought up before, but Colin’s quote wasn’t that we get a personal nemesis per se, a villain would be created that would be instantly recognizable(as in, has unique attributes) and could further become a personal nemesis. I think he was talking about Scarlet.

I am really hoping that LA gets wiped off the map.
Think gaping hole in the center of a giant circle of destruction spreading outward.

I don’t think that Scarlet is after LA as such- LA is just collateral damage to her.
She wants freedom from whatever she thinks is in her head.

I am hoping that all her meddling causes a dragon to surface.

Last time that happened Orr rose
So my wish would be for something of that scale- not likely but I can dream, it certainly would be world shattering.

Aside: The Nemesis has also bugged me since it was mentioned- Scarlet my foot

I’d be more than happy for them to do away with Lion’s Arch as it currently is. I like very little about it.
Perhaps if Old Lion’s Arch was raised from the depths of the bay in some form and resulted in a large portion of New Lion’s Arch being wiped out (in the theorised drilling process), that’d definitely get me enthusiastic about hanging around in Lion’s Arch again.

And on the other hand I do adore the underwater parts of Lion’s Arch, they’re just stunning. The colours of the underwater flora are breathtaking.

tl;dr: not a fan of Lion’s Arch and if they destroyed most of it I’d be pleased.

It will get damaged and some landmarks might get blown up, but ultimately the players will save it from destruction and finally kick Scarlet’s kitten .

250 years in the making… “The Battle for Lion’s Arch, the Sequel!”

Rally your forces and prepare to defend the city against a full assault from Scarlet’s forces!

As for how the encounter would go, I’d imagine that Scarlet is going to move her airship/drill to right above the probe, and then she is going to open portals all across the city to flood it with her forces. It will be the players job to move from portal to portal to help aid the defenders in closing them. Afterwards, they player will rally all the defenders (Kiel, Evon, Canach, DE 2.0, remaining Captain’s Council (because we all know the expendable captains have a chance at dying), and members of the Orders) to put an end to Scarlet once and for all.

In classic season finale cliffhanger style though, we kill/stop Scarlet just too later, and the drill fires on the probe’s location to try and kill, destroy, awaken, free, or whatever the hell she’s trying to do to whatever the hell is down there.

What’s up in the air though, is if Anet and the devs are sadistic enough to actually leave it hanging until the beginning of season two.

What I think will be destroyed:-the ruins of OLD L.A.
-the sea port
-a few buildings near the ports
-a few asura gates that are near the sea port/old L.A. zone.
The rest of the buildings will get a ruin look. And what I want to actually happen:
-the wall that leads to the Dominion of Winds to be blown up in order for us to access it and the tengu(new zone+new playable race)

Probably anything that interferes with personal story won’t be touched. And there are personal story instance entrances across the entirety of LA. And the rotating holiday events that they apparently worked so hard to create as a “buffer” would have to be redone too, if they significantly changed even a portion of the city.

Sadly, I don’t think Anet is willing to put in that kind of planning. It’ll just be more “The world changed, but only in a personal instance” type of deal.

I did like the idea of the dominion of winds being opened accidentally though. I think that would be possible. We manage to redirect some attack intended for LA and it explodes the dominion wall.

I will just grab some popcorn and hope we got some 2-3 minute long CGI fight with two elder dragons. If not, i still have popcorn, so nothing can go wrong.

I hope the old Lion’s Arch fountain underwater does not get destroyed in the process. I have too many fond memories of that place. Every single event I hosted in GW1 together with Daniel Frozenwind has always been at that fountain. Frankly, I wish they would bring it back to the surface.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I hope the old Lion’s Arch fountain underwater does not get destroyed in the process. I have too many fond memories of that place. Every single event I hosted in GW1 together with Daniel Frozenwind has always been at that fountain. Frankly, I wish they would bring it back to the surface.

Well…

If Scarlet’s attacks has a big enough explosion underwater, whatever is left might land somewhere nearby…

Honestly, I couldn’t care what happens to most of LA.

But I’m with the people hoping that the old LA ruins are left alone. Destroying those would be a huge upset to a lot of people, myself included. The less of them affected the better >.>

Maethor.2810:

Honestly, I couldn’t care what happens to most of LA.

But I’m with the people hoping that the old LA ruins are left alone. Destroying those would be a huge upset to a lot of people, myself included. The less of them affected the better >.>

They way the story’s going; I’m sorry to say that:“They’ll be the first ones to go” in either patch 3 or 4. I’m paraphrasing here, some developer said something among the lines of:“Nothing’s sacred.”
The way that probe is positioned, right in the centre of old L.A., it doesn’t leave much to the imagination. Old L.A. ruins are going bye bye.

Hmm. I think we may see something related to Tengu and Mr.E himself revealed.

What happens:

We can start a living world event that will bring our group to the mission where we run from portal to portal and close them joining the new edge of destiny. (Who will absolutely get a name by the end of this season) Then scarlet will use her mass destruction weapon to deal heavy damage to LA setting it aflame and starts digging down somewhere in the water creating a maelstrom.

And then we will travel downwards with her drilling device while her alliances fight us. In the end, she will face us herself to finally show us how we achieved nothing. And as we defeat her, the drill enters a huge underground cave that is overgrown with green poisonous plants and masses of husks. Thats where we encounter Mordremoth peacefully feeding on the lay lines. And then he flies off mysteriously leaving LA not further harmed but turning it into a lush jungle (explaining the Artwork in the developer streams). And then everybody wonder why it didn’t attack LA. And then we find out that scarlets body was never found…

And btw they can’t destroy old LA… Quaggans live there… who could…

Visteri.3821:

They could easily destroy the eastern side of the city up to the trading post without affecting the usability of the city or the personal story too much. This could have the added bonus of blasting open the wall to the Dominion of Winds…

This seems pretty logical from a marketing perspective. Would give an excuse for “expansive” material in season 2 to compete with new MMO releases.

Unfortunately I think a marketing campaign would be released to notify the public of this sort of content to generate hype. It’s been nothing but silence recently.

Rym.1469:

Hmm. I think we may see something related to Tengu and Mr.E himself revealed.

What if Mr. E is a Tengu, and he is not only hiding his identity from us, he is also hiding from the other Tengus that want to keep away from the other races.

Belzebu.3912:

Rym.1469:

Hmm. I think we may see something related to Tengu and Mr.E himself revealed.

What if Mr. E is a Tengu, and he is not only hiding his identity from us, he is also hiding from the other Tengus that want to keep away from the other races.

Wow, that makes absolutely sense since we’ll need a Tengu member for our NPC guild anyway.

My theory is (going a little bit further then only the destruction):

-LA will be completely destroyed (by Scarlet and Co).
-On the ashes a domain of evilness will emerge
-A new sown evil pale tree will grow in size and strenght under influence of magical energy (leylines anyone?)
-There will be an exodus of the survivors into the dominion of winds (which will be opened up by the tengu who finaly made up their minds who the good the bad and the ugly are.)
-Behind the scenes a certain jungle dragon orchested the whole thing (with the use of a certain stubborn narcistic sylvary who has developed a split personality under his increasing influence.
-Somewhere in between all this events the Ceara side of the well known Sylvary will see and hate what she (the Scarlet side) has done (because its not her own will) but it will be too late too far. It won’t end well for her.
-And finaly, whe will be getting a new city and a new race (Tengu).
-And ofcourse a whole bunch of newly emerged evilness to fight.
-Lateron the Whole Maguma Wastes will be added.

If Scarlet was to launch a sensible attack, which she won’t, she would deliver her refined toxins into LA, drive out the civilians, then send in her mechanical troops to mop up the Lionguard. After she’s destroyed the Asura gates she can use the krait and aetherblades to keep out pirate reinforcements. She doesn’t need to hold the city for long if she only wants to drill in the harbor, so she can destroy whatever she wants and not worry about rebuilding.

My guess is that the aftermath will see localized destruction but the personal story areas (orders, market, plaza) will be mainly in tact. The Tengu could come in. The fractal gate could be gone and rebuilt elsewhere. So could the mist war gates. Whatever is below the harbor will fly off elsewhere after it has dealt with the marionette.

Whatever happened to the cave just north of old LA that led to the EOTN campaign?

DarcShriek.5829:

Whatever happened to the cave just north of old LA that led to the EOTN campaign?

It probably doesn’t exist anymore, after the explosives the Asura and Dwarfs detonated there to kill the destroyers.

Wait a second, anyone think it will be Canach that figures out how to stop the toxin? Also if she attacks Lions Arch isn’t that where the Quaggan refugees went after the Tower of Nightmares? I have a feeling there is going to be one really ticked off Quaggan that ends up joining DE 2.0 9 (Avengers of Lions Arch)

On the other hand, if they are planning to make Zhaitan rise again in order to make a better Zhaitan 2.0 fight, the personal story for newly created characters might change as well. It could become about the second time Zhaitan was killed. That would free them up to do whatever they want with the world.

However, that idea brings a number of problems with it, first in that the part of the story that deals with the Pact would have to change significantly. We can’t have the Pact being canonically founded twice. (Though if they managed to find something better to do with Trahearne…)

Second, I’m sure a lot of players would be mad about it. Newer players because they’re part of the second group instead of the first, meaning they’d feel less important, and older players because they had to go through a less fun version of the story and now the noobs get everything handed to them on a silver platter whine whine. But there’s nothing stopping them from making it playable for older characters as well.

Still, this would also take a massive amount of work and probably wouldn’t even be worth the time and money. Better to direct their focus toward making fun new content.

I guess we’ll have to see.

I always thought the Pact might be too good a force. Three really independent orders, made up primarily of 5 nations, now with their main enemy defeated. The other dragons will see them as a threat. The other nations could see them as a threat. They have had their air ships hijacked and really have not had that much of a presence in the story since Zhaitan’s fall.

Could it be that bad of a story if it does collapse, that we would have to rebuild it a second time. Better Stronger, more unified.

So we have another massive capital city that has been built over or by a massive monstrosity? Well I hope this time it does not follow the same destructive pattern as Orr.

“And as Scarlets minions breached the gates of Lions Arch, Ritlock Brimstone saw no other way than to smash his legendary blade Sohothin and set free a wave of energy that doomed both, the attacking forces and the players within the city. Through this act, the remaining defenders where forever bound to their tasks that they were performing at the moment and thus being forced to farm and grind the same dungeon paths until the curse is lifted one day – their resolve relentless…”

I exspect large parts of LA to be trashed. And there to be a true Dragon Bash with an Elder Dragon in one corner and Gypsy Bria in the other.

So I just had a thought. It’s a little off topic, but it kind of ties into my last post here about remaking the personal story.

What if they’re planning on destroying Orr?

I’m pretty sure that Lion’s Arch isn’t Scarlet’s ultimate goal, since it seems likely that we’ll be getting the LA attack (if that really is what she’s planning) in the next update and then something else in the final update. So if the whole thing really does revolve around Zhaitan, maybe his second rise will dramatically change the appearance Orr.

It’s not a well-liked region, and they’ve said they can’t use phasing to show a restored Orr to players who have completed the personal story. But maybe they’ve found a way, and it has something to do with reworking the entire area? I can’t for the life of me figure out how they’d be able to pull it off, what with the events and Risen mobs everywhere, but…maybe?

I shouldn’t get my hopes up, but I can dream!

Aegael.6938:

Probably anything that interferes with personal story won’t be touched. And there are personal story instance entrances across the entirety of LA. And the rotating holiday events that they apparently worked so hard to create as a “buffer” would have to be redone too, if they significantly changed even a portion of the city.

Sadly, I don’t think Anet is willing to put in that kind of planning. It’ll just be more “The world changed, but only in a personal instance” type of deal.

I did like the idea of the dominion of winds being opened accidentally though. I think that would be possible. We manage to redirect some attack intended for LA and it explodes the dominion wall.

I agree with you. The center of LA I don’t see changed, but the other parts could certainly be up for grabs. That would be a lot of extra re-work and leave inconsistencies in the original story if LA is severely altered/changed. But who knows.

Glad others felt the same way about old LA being destryoed. I was not happy to see that probe there. But meh, do whatever they wish with it.

From my expereriences though, when something I like get’s a lot of hype, I usually get let down, so I am playing it collective. I’m sure it will “change” tyria, but no the way everyone expects.