Guild Wars 2

Basically, this is a thread in which players can propose ideas for future living world updates.

Rules – Keep it within reason. Don’t throw in a new race at the same time as a dozen new features, for example. A new race may entail a new city, racial armors, personal story, etc, but you must specify whether these things will appear in the same update as them or will be added in a later update.

You can also show support for other players’ LW concepts by listing the title of their update in a post.

I’ll start with my first one, Ocean’s End

Sayeh al’Rajihd requires aid

Trahearne’s Largos contact, Sayeh, has petitioned for Pact aid in defending a Tethyos encampment on the Tarnished Coast.

New zone – Ocean’s End

Located in the Tarnished Coast below Metrica Province.
Permanent zone.
Level x. Always scales your character up to 80, even after the conclusion of the update.
Includes a world boss – a champion of the underwater dragon.

New Living World Achievements

Completing the meta event will award you with the wings of the underwater dragon champion as a back item.

A Prelude to Future Cooperation

Continue to defend the Tethyos Houses and they will send ambassadors to Lion’s Arch in a future update, allowing players eventual access to a playable Largos race.

Trahearne’s End

After years of accumulated hatred for this spotlight stealing, ratchet. hot mess, spinach head, the people have had enough. Trahearne, with nearly enough stolen thunder energy, is able to transform into Mega Trahearne, the likes of which you have never seen, a monstrous necrotic plant so large it blocks out the sky, and hogs all the sunlight, plunging Tyria into darkness.

New Area – Trahearne’s Stupid Little Island

A new hub area for the events of “Trahearnes End”, an island off the coast of Orr is available for players to do activities and venture out into the island Trahearne is located in, where new events will be available that also lead up to an epic meta event where you fight Trahearne himself.

New Instanced Content

While the open world meta event to fight Trahearne will be available, where the fight is a little more forgiving, you will also be able to gather your friends and guild mates to enter an instanced version of the fight for extra challenge and rewards. Scaling content allows you to take as little as 10 people to the instanced boss fight, and will even include a Valiant Mode for extra difficulty and skins.

New Jumping Puzzles

More jumping puzzles introduced in “Trahearne’s Stupid Little Island”, which include making it to the top of Mega Trahearne himself! No invisible traps or grinding, just participate in a fun and epic jumping puzzle!

New Achievements

Complete these new achievements for a new backpiece “Trahearne on a Stick”, a pointy stick with Trahearne’s cabbage-like head mounted on top, where it proudly and impress your friends and family!

Future Story

With the death of Trahearne, Scarlet’s boy toy and fellow attention glutton, Scarlet takes advantage of the situation to now steal the show once again, romping across Tyria, invading and never making any meaningful impact, just to have all the attention on her again.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Basically, this is a thread in which players can propose ideas for future living world updates.

Rules – Keep it within reason. Don’t throw in a new race at the same time as a dozen new features, for example. A new race may entail a new city, racial armors, personal story, etc, but you must specify whether these things will appear in the same update as them or will be added in a later update.

You can also show support for other players’ LW concepts by listing the title of their update in a post.

I’ll start with my first one, Ocean’s End

Sayeh al’Rajihd requires aid

Trahearne’s Largos contact, Sayeh, has petitioned for Pact aid in defending a Tethyos encampment on the Tarnished Coast.

New zone – Ocean’s End

Located in the Tarnished Coast below Metrica Province.
Permanent zone.
Level x. Always scales your character up to 80, even after the conclusion of the update.
Includes a world boss – a champion of the underwater dragon.

New Living World Achievements

Completing the meta event will award you with the wings of the underwater dragon champion as a back item.

A Prelude to Future Cooperation

Continue to defend the Tethyos Houses and they will send ambassadors to Lion’s Arch in a future update, allowing players eventual access to a playable Largos race.

If their camp was defend they would be honor bound to repay their debt. It could easily lead to an alliance if that is was Anet wants to do with them. Sounds good.

I saw a thread in the Lore thread line that had an interesting idea, that Queen Jennah is fake, made by Countess Anise. I would like to see a villain use that idea and target Countess Anise believing she is the real queen.

Honestly, I want to see the Mursaat and White Mantle. I know the White Mantle play a small role in GW2, but I’d like to see that something bigger is happening behind the scenes with them. It was by far one of my favorite factions from GW1, and would love to see them play out in GW2. That would probably get me to play again as well (as long as it is well done and large scale like F&F, not some small patch).

Another thing I’d like to see, is us losing. Sure everyone likes being a hero all the time and succeeding at everything we do, but I want to see us fail for once.

Not really a good example, but a decent one. For those that played Mass Effect, remember always winning? You never failed, you always won. Sure it’s great, but in the end, it was boring being unstoppable all the time and conquering everything. But then Mass Effect 3 came, and remember that feeling of failing to save Thessia? I loved it. It was nice to have a change of pace and actually lose for once instead of winning all the time.

New LS ideas are fine and all but they’re just as random as the current ones.
I’d much more prefer some kind of story continuity as, at present, LS is like trying to read a book with every other page or chapter missing.

The dragon Zhaitan is defeated and his influence and corruption is waning in Orr.

Phase 1
The Vigil pushes farther into the island, establishing outposts, while the Priory works to restore the once oppulent city. Meanwhile, the Order of Whispers is unnerved. Intel and rumors suggest something is coming. Something that senses the residual power in Orr, now unprotected by Zhaitan’s strength.

Work with your chosen order to establish outposts, explore and restore Orr, or gather intel. Still an integrel member of the Pact, you bring together the 3 Orders when the new danger becomes apparent.

Phase 2
New types of wild animals are being found throughout the areas of Orr that are healing. They are hostile and mysterious. Priory scholars have no knowledge of them. The sylvari are consulted. Strange things begin to occur, sylvari disappear, the healing of Orr begins to take on a twisted nature…

Work with the Pact to discover the truth behind the strange occurances. As it becomes more serious, you as the Commander take charge and dictate the movement of the Pact’s actions.

Phase 3
Faiolin arrives with Caithe, not as her prisoner or lover, but as an ally. She explains her vision of the Nightmare evolving. Another PaleTree (Malach’s) has become corrupt, but is not the “pure” Nightmare that Faiolin believes in. This is something must worse; something farther reaching. Enter the avatar of the Twisted Pale Tree, seeking Orr’s power and lingering corruption.

Fight the twisted Nightmare forces. With Caithe and Faiolin as advisors, you struggle to fight off the spreading disease, converted sylvari, and eventually the Twisted Pale Tree’s Avatar. A war of attrition leads to some areas of Orr being completely taken over by the New Nightmare.

I’d like to see some story development for the new characters being added.

Rox is trying to get into Rytloks warband for example. He keeps sending her out on errands, that we help with. Let’s give Rox a specific story arc to fill out her character, help give her some depth and get us ‘attached’ to her as a story component. Help her achieve her goal.

Braham and Eir are none too friendly, and we know essentially nothing about Norn culture when it comes to child rearing. We’re heroes, they’re our friends, wouldn’t it be logical that we would try to help bridge that gap between them? Give us an arc to do this, which should help flesh out Braham as a character, as well as endear us to Eir.

Marjory and Kasmeer…so many places we could go with these two, but I’d love to learn more about the issues with Caudicus, the council, and Queen Jennah. Logan pulled them into the story at Dragon Bash, which brought in the Aetherblades, and her back story from the website shows that she’s not blind to the corruption within the council. She’s a detective, let her sniff it out..further building her character, and Kasmeer’s.

There are so many potential sub plots and twists waiting to be fleshed out. I just hope that in time they do, instead of just letting them sit. Heck, I’d be more than happy to offer my ideas and my writing if they so pleased.

My living story would be Guild Oriented but still doable with pugs.

You can start it with 5 ppl like an instance or start it as a Guild Group which maxes out at 20 people.

= Zhaitan's Final Breath =
Everyone thought Zhaitan was defeated when he fell into the deep of Arah but a fierce roar was heard, the dragon was calling his minions to protect himself while restoring his wounds.

As a group of adventurer you are going back into the depths of Arah to finish off Zhaitan definitely. Each race heroes are there with you. As you enter, they give you weapons that fit your class with specific skills related to them.

Those weapons promote teamplay as they deal low damage but each ability (at least most of them) are Finishers or Combo Fields.

At first there are regular zombie mobs to make sure you “adjust” with your new weapons. Maximum health and amount of minions depends on players in the instance.

You have a Y road opening before you, each leading to a boss. But be warned, the boss you kill will unleash the minions with its type of combat. (For instance, if you choose to kill the boss that pulls people to him, you will face regular mobs that can pull heroes to themselves).

— First Path— is the Pulling Boss, he pulls up to 5 heroes to him within a limited range every 10 seconds interrupting. He is immune to damage until it reaches a 10 vulnerability stacks , but conditions deal double damage.

— Second Path — is the Pushing Boss, he channels for 3 seconds to pushing up to 5 heroes away from him. He is interrupted whenever he is weakened or blinded. Also
when blinded, he deals damage to himself when attacking.
In the boss’ pit, there are fragments of a cannon still useable from a destroyed airship that you can use to drop Poison Combo Field and Smoke Combo Field when needed.

Once you advanced, you face the new minions you “chose”. You manage to reach another Y path with another choice to do between 2 bosses. But be warned, you will face the first boss type of minions and the new one you will choose.

— First Path — is a boss made of minions, as his health drops, some minions will fall off the main boss, they will be stunned for 2 seconds, stand back up and run across the room to find an sticky substance and then go back to the main boss throwing itself it to restore its life loss. Additionally, the room has some sticky spots on the ground, if you don’t constantly move when standing on it, you will be immobilize for 1 second.

— Second Path — is an undead water djinn, it has ship wood pieces “floating” and a giant scythe made with mats of the same ship. The boss has multiple spots you can attack; his scythe, the head and the wood pieces within it. Its head is only vulnerable to lightning attacks and burning condition. The scythe will break after a short period having 25 vulnerabilities on it and the wood pieces is vulnerable to physical attacks.
Once it doesn’t have a scythe, he uses his own body to attack heroes. If that hero has stability or protection, the djinn damages itself.
In the boss pit you can rescue some elementalists of the 5 playable races that dropped from the sky on the Dragon battle, if you do, they will conjure lightning orb for you to throw them at the boss.

Congratulations, you’ve defeated 2 boss already. Now be ready to face your doom as the new minions have “spawned”.

Once you’re done with them and you’ve made your way to Zhaitan. (you’ll keep hearing its roar non-stop in the background so you know how far/near you are).

You’ll see it, the great Zhaitan in its non-glory form. He’s still trying to recover from his wounds but don’t be fooled by this, he’s still very strong.

(Continues)

— Zhaitan’s Last Stand —
Phase 1, You have to weaken him by damageing him a bit, but he keep trying to fly up, but since he has difficulties he land crashed on the ground. Make sure you’re not under him. When he’s on the ground, attack him to deal double damage. While he flies, you can aim at his wings to bring it back down faster. The pit is filled with ropes you can tie to the harpoon canons wreck around and aim his wings. Once he reaches 75% health he will be weakened and trying to fly won’t be possible anymore.

Phase 2, he will summon a wave pushing everyone to the extremities of the room. Zhaitan will then proceed to push whoever rushes to him with a water jet from his breath. The projectile is stoppable with a projectile reflector and blockable with skills. The objective is to tie him up with the ropes and chains you have access to in the room. Primary objectives is the tails which pushes you back and the head which uses the water jets. Then comes the wings which deals damage.
To tie him up you have to tie the rope/chain with a combination of skills (your skills changes from 1 to 5 and you have to make them in a specific order without being pushed back (of course and ally can protect you while you do it).
Once he is tied up, you have phase 3.

Phase 3, Zhaitan will shout his final roar calling some minions to help him out. Smaller minions will start to crawl in to keep the heroes busy. If a heroes’ health drops to 25%, a veteran will be sent going straight for a rope/chain to untie it.

While you protect, one player (or many if in a 20 player group) will have to recover the spear of the thousand lies from the race heroes and quickly reach the head of Zhaitan to pierce him with.
The wielder of the spear will have his skills changed, and he will have to charge the spear with minions’ souls in order to use #5 on zhaitan’s head. If the spear is dropped, the charges are reset.

Once Zhaitan is defeated, his minions vanishes or simply melt from the scream.

That’s it friends, you made it, you have a brand new item which is not Zhaitan’s wings. It’s 3 Black Lion Keys and a special weapon skin of your choice that adds up next to the Zenith Weapons in the Achievements Tabs.
(Reward is available only once, so choose wisely).

= Achievements =
You gain 10 Achievements per boss killed in a 5 player group.

You gain 25 Achievements per boss killed in a 20 player group.

I’d like to see a living world story that expands on the actual main content of the living world instead of diverging repeatedly into some sidequest or another.

They keep saying they want to make ‘the core world stronger’ and they’re not doing it. Sorry but stringing events across dozens of completely unrelated areas is dilluting the world story, not making it stronger. What would make it stronger, would be using the LS as a vehicle to expand on areas and stories within the game which have to be completed.

What I would like to see:

The Pale Trek

The pale tree has just asked it’s newest harvest of Sylvari, led by one of the firstborn, to expand and explore further out of the Maguuma jungles and into Magus Falls. She doesn’t say why and her children do not ask, but there is a reason kept secret for security’s sake. A certain Sylvari known as Malyck once came among her branches, lead there and protected by one of the heroes that would defeat Zhaitan. And this Malyck, was not of the pale tree, nor in any way connected to the dream or corrupted by nightmare. He claimed he would find his own people and return to join the fight against the dragons, but he never returned.

The pale tree fears for the safety and wellbeing of this sister tree and it’s children. They must be found and their safety against both the dragons and the nightmare court ensured.

The very first story step would actually begin halfway through the previous step, wherein you would accompany a Firstborn to the Asuran council, petitioning to allow the Sylvari to cross Asuran provinces and settle in the west. To which they agree, under the stipulations that the asura be allowed to set up a gate system, have free trade in these areas, and have first rights to all archaeological finds.

With the official beginning of the two week story, a new level 25-35 area would be opened north of Rata Sum and East of Metrica Province. This area would have 12 small settlements attempting to survive spread across it, 7 Sylvari, 3 Asuran, and one ballsy Charr merchant nobody can get to leave. Each settlement has it’s own challenges and enemies to deal with, be they promordius or leftover Zhaitan minions, inquest, or nightmare court. Each settlement has it’s own goals, some are very strict and militant, others are havens for artisans, the Charr merchant is of course in it for money, and most of the asuran settlements are labs and archaeological digs.

Each settlement will have their own leaders and groups of colorful characters that will fight alongside the players. While the settlements are held, there will also be events unique to each settlement for gathering, building, and accompanying NPCs as they explore and have adventures of their own throughout the area.

In the end of the story step, only four of these settlements will survive, those four which are defended the most by players across all servers. This would then be given heart tasks, PoIs, and other bits to make it a complete area. Eventually the story would continue as the trek furthered itself west…