Guild Wars 2

I just wanted to leave my feedback here, too. I’ve been playing GW2 for about two years now after coming from my first MMO The Lord of the Rings Online.

Now, i’m a massive Tolkien fan who has spent hours and hours reading his books and invested many days in learning the lore. When the LotRO game started to go downhill many of my friends started playing GW2, so I thought i’d give it a go.

I began playing, really enjoying both my personal story and exploration. From reading map chats and forums I learnt there was a lot more to Tyria than I realised. I decided to read up on its lore using the books, wiki, and asking by asking questions. I became absolutely hooked.

Needless to say, with the LS I hoped for a lot since Tyria, like Middle Earth, seemed to be the main character. It has a past, present and a future. But honestly, I have been disappointed. I began to feel like i’d missed out hugely by not playing GW1 in its prime and that all the rich, intricate, and interesting lore had been stripped away from the game.

With this patch it finally feels like i’m experiencing what i’ve longed to see for almost two years, and it feels as though my character is actually making a difference too. I got the same feeling from Glint’s Lair as I did when my LotRO character first walked into the Mines of Moria or Lothlórien.

Good job anet, please keep this up!

Review by a GW2 basher.
- Full map unlock at once, not in several stories – VERY good
- Fun map that doesn’t have mechanics like the dust cloud that even if cool it can be very irritating and heavy on the PC – VERY good
- Map also combines multiple systems from all over the game….specifically PvE with WvW style content. This not only makes wvw players feel good in a pve map but also teaches PvE players the important basic mechanics and principles behind them, from WvW. Yet they are not hard, actually fun and relaxing to do. – VERY good
- Item drops/rewards are finally at a level that make u want to do the events. Also the farm bad effect is reduced by having lots of events, happening very fast, that require a group by default to finish in general AND some that can be done solo like escorting yaks – VERY good
- Specific rewards (aka new armor set and others) are not obtained via heavy grinding + mats + 10 other things. The system ANet implemented is actually smart and finally makes use of the collectable achievement thingy + encourages you to finish the extra achievements after u do the living story – VERY good
- Specific rewards (aka new armor set) is divided and rewarded over multiple LS episodes starting with this one. This means by the end of the dragon i imagine we will have the whole set unlocked. This in my eyes is a major milestone from a reward point of view. Finally what u do matters both for the world via the events and groups AND you get rewarded with something memorable and useful (armor) that actually makes you feel good about yourself and doesn’t need biblical grinding – VERY good
- The story itself, altho most of us did predict what would happen with the egg and all that, it still was a very good implementation and i think impressed a majority of people – VERY good
- The Easter eggs found in the LS have been well planned out and just enough to make u feel nostalgic of the events that took place in GW1. Was a very nice surprise and i think i spent more time in the library reading/looking then playing the crystal thingy – VERY good
- Overall the extra LS achievements are easy to do and do not require you to group up. That is also a very big plus. They seem much more fine tuned compared to the past ones. – VERY good

Because of all the systems&tweeks above, they also indirectly made the LS seem longer because of all the “stuff” that needs to be done. Also the fact that the “stuff” is spread well, over a big map, that isn’t filled with WPs and also isn’t a heavy repetitive grind, makes the experience actually nice.

The bad that could appear:
- After some time the map can empty. Dunno how a low number of players will be able to do everything in the new map. Time will tell
- It’s EXTREMELY important, the next LS even doesn’t take place in 2-3 months from now. This LS was really beautifully made…but ANet has to deliver equal or better content compared to this at a decent time frame….aka MAX 1 month in my eyes.

*A shoutout to the designers for the beautiful map, awesome NEW mobs (finally), awesome story and events and for finally giving LS – PROPER rewards & drops that actually make me want to play the content.
*A shoutout to the composers and audio team. I dunno how many of u noticed, but the music they made for this map literally triples the good mood u have in it. Exceptional work on the audio part and hope to see more.

PS – now that u have this type of reward system (aka armor – collectable unlock) u should consider offering us the precursor scavenge hunt as soon as possible. It’s overdue 2 years almost. U have literally everything u need to put it in….and it’s working.

draxynnic.3719:

To me, the voice sounded too deep to be Glint’s. While they may not have been able to get the same voice actor, from memory Glint’s voice has always been described as feminine – so I’m fairly sure the voice is someone else.

Dunno. Like I said, either way it brings up more questions

Regarding the egg being of the same clutch – it is mentioned somewhere in an instance (did you talk to Ogden after returning to the Priory?) that the egg was kept “in stasis”. For some reason, it was prevented from hatching earlier.

Yes, I caught the line:

" It’s been in stasis since her death."

So it hasn’t been in stasis long. Still doesn’t really answer the question as to whether or not its one from the clutch which we saw in GW1 (which, we know at least one of those hatched) or a later clutch. Going to assume a later clutch, since one of the eggs from GW1 did hatch and I don’t think the rest would keep for 200+ years, and Ogden specifically says this one has only been in stasis since her death. Makes me wonder if Glint was asexual, and thus able to reproduce on her own. If so, makes you wonder how many clutches she might had laid that produced at least 1 living offspring.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

draxynnic.3719:

To me, the voice sounded too deep to be Glint’s. While they may not have been able to get the same voice actor, from memory Glint’s voice has always been described as feminine – so I’m fairly sure the voice is someone else.

Dunno. Like I said, either way it brings up more questions

Wasn’t Glint at all… Abaddon’s voice maybe? (jk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3eI0GnM8Do

Just really love this content. Fast paced, variety, challenging, bosses in the mission that are truly difficult without just adding HP and armor to them, and a tie in to gw 1 finally.

Really well done,

Now, gotta go save some cows and forts and stuff

Woot!

Gaile, give the devs some cookies.

definitely much better, loving the actually pretty unique game play additions

story was also ace, the final mission having some pretty cool scenery and bosses that actually required thought. The build up missions actually feeling like the build up to a story, like there’s actually something to think about rather than it all being spelt out blow by blow the entire way through (so there’s nothing to think or care about: original story).

Well, normally, I am here writing in the forum about things I do not like.

But now… I have to agree to all above. I really like this patch and this kind of quality of creativity and content is the reason I still like playing GW2.

Please, pretty, pretty please, A-Net, more of this. much more. :-)
You now have proven you can still do it. :-)

Greetings.

Cheers, all yelly!

Ditto Everything Rebound said:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Rebound-3409

I can’t say enough, “Thank you!”.

Ditto everything! Happiness!

So basically as long as they add a bit of GW1 lore into the episodes, they’ll all be well received.

For two years now I have been lukewarm towards the Living Story, at best. But that last mission, my God it felt like I was catapulted back in time to Guild Wars, such fond memories! It was not just the fact that I was able to experience something so familiar but also that the Facet is beautiful, the art team should be proud! The music alone almost bought a tear to my eye, please release it to Soundcloud ASAP!

Please expand the facet and add more aspects of the original so it can be included as a new fractal.

If you keep bringing back old location and lore like you have with this mission, then I might actually start becoming an actual fan of the Living Story.

it was very enjoyable, love the new map and the story was great. I think there could be more in engine sequences like the one with belinda.
I kinda missed the aspect crystals so I’m secretly hoping for another crashed airship

was great to be back in the lair, looks fantastic, really love the giant reflections in the crystals.

looking forward to the next part!

Yep loved it. Will try and talk my friend into coming back to do it.

Fantastic story and encounters. Glint’s lair was amazing, the music was amazing… all in all brilliant!

Was also good to see more of DE (and Trahearne), even if not voiced.

Somehow one of my guildies with ADHD ended up spending 40 minutes reading all the text in the library. That was interesting.

Rebound.3409:

*A shoutout to the composers and audio team. I dunno how many of u noticed, but the music they made for this map literally triples the good mood u have in it. Exceptional work on the audio part and hope to see more.

Yeah, I had noticed that actually – the opening theme for the Silverwastes was spectacular and the theme for Glint’s Lair added immensely to the atmosphere. Minimal trash mobs added to the emptiness as well.

My only disappointment is that Mamnoon Lagoon at the north of the old Silverwood seems to have dried up. Very little water left there now.

Glints lair was cool and the fights were fun. I enjoyed this incarnation of the LS but I agree with previous posters that it is important for us not to wait months for the next installment.
I am hoping in the culmination of a new repeatable dungeon, one can only hope

Love, love love it!

I love this patch! The story as a former GW1 player… wow!!! And how the reward system in the silverwhastes is working! Finally u have to suceed events to get rewarded! And the events arn’t timed/on specific times.
Also the map is Beautiful with new creatures etc!
Glints lair make u feel the “oh this is pain in the *” (in a good way) from GW1. Similar mechanics.
I’m also super curious about what happened to Rytlock (an all charr fan as I am).

Thank you for all this!!!

The only wish that I have for every time that u release new gear is that u make them not tailclip and remove bodyparts on charr (guess that goes for asura as well).
I feel punished for playing charrs only (yes, every single character i have are charr)when it comes to armour – as I refuse to wear clipping stuff… There are SO MANY things that clip… Plz do something about it. Why didn’t u make all wheightclasses not clip in this realease but just light?

100% Signed all what have been told already!
Echoes of the past was a massive success! Please keep following the same line in future updates, i beg you!

I cried in the past several times due to GW Story! Glint was always kind of a Heroin for me, and i never forget her; i still miss deeply Master Togo from Factions, and the Kormir story in Nightfall was just amazing!

Now after all that amazing adventures, after all the exiting feelings i experienced, you make me cried again in GW2…!

Thank you very much to all who made this amazing experience possible!!!
Thank you so much!!

Love. Love, love love this chapter

I just finished the Glint’s Lair instance and man, it was beautiful and it was hard and I died so much but I finally beat it and it was wonderful. Took so many screenshots.

And the new zone is simply amazing. Thanks to all who contributed, players and devs alike – you’ve all together created a spectacular experience <3

Marjory with a greatsword now. And she is a necro.. hmm
Half-Life 3 confirmed?

Yea, this chapter of LS really made me want to go back and play GW1 again. I’m slowly making my way through on a new char with my spouse, so we’re looking forward to playing through the events that led to this.

Also, please, please don’t shut down GW1 for a looooooooooong time. I know it probably doesn’t get much traffic anymore, but it’s still a great game and a lot of us are still making our way through it.

I have to agree that this update is great and I am enjoying GW2 once again. Sure, it’s a bit short compared to the others but it’s the first one, in a long time, that didn’t make me quit the game in frustration (either because of game mechanics or the writing/story/characters).

People that know me know I have been extremely critical of how ANET has handled existing lore and story in Guild Wars 2 since it went live in 2012. Primarily the absolute debacle that was living “story” season 1, and let’s be honest, Personal Story as well. To me both lacked depth, feeling shallow and felt disconnected from the rich lore that existed in the Guild Wars universe as established by GW1.

Season 2 started off well in breaking that trend, and episode 5 just brought it up to a whole new level. It’s like ANET thought “Oh yeah, remember GW1?” and then built a lore rich story episode around the old lore that still tied into what we are doing today in a way that added so much interest and depth to the story. I really felt like I was back in the true world of Tyria as it was meant to be again. Episode 5 really took me back.

Learn from this ANET. This is exactly the kind of direction this game needed, and take it from an absolute GW1 nut that you are finally starting to live up to the legacy GW1 left behind. Keep going that way and GW2 has a bright future.

This is the kind of story us Gw1 veterans been waiting for!!! teary eyes inside Glints lair!!

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

" It’s been in stasis since her death."

So it hasn’t been in stasis long.

That, or there’s an unspoken ‘at least’ before the ‘since her death’ part – it could have been put in stasis long ago, but all Ogden knew for certain was that it’s been in stasis at least since she died.

Incidentally, regarding comparing the hatching times of the eggs… that’s assuming that all the eggs in the nest will hatch at the same time and that they develop the same way as normal eggs. Bird and reptile eggs in real life behave that way, but do dragon eggs? Maybe, with such a long lifespan, dragon eggs hatching centuries apart is equivalent to bird or reptile eggs hatching minutes apart. Maybe the eggs we saw were the result of multiple matings which each produced a single egg, and the gestation time is so long that a dragon might mate multiple times before the first egg hatches? Or could each egg actually require being infused with a certain amount of magic before it can hatch, and Glint had to infuse each with magic in turn rather than having them all hatch at once?

That said, asexual reproduction does strike me as likely (or, Konig might say, not really reproduction at all, more a form of budding) – Glint produced crystal spider and guardian minions, after all, the eggs may well have been produced in a similar fashion. Ogden speculates that Glint might have been on her way to becoming an Elder Dragon herself – it’s possible that the eggs were essentially baby dragonform Champions of Glint, with a similar relationship to Glint as entities like Tequatl, the Shatterer and the Claw have to their respective elder dragons.

Finally finished the story, and I agree with the OP. Best PS/LS update ever, well done!

The more interesting question is who gave the egg to the Peace guy. Either someone/thing other then the dragon gave the egg to the Master of Peace guy, or that dude is over 200 years old.

That’s why the last question of the LS was “did u see who gave it to him?”

I’ll add another positive note to the mix, that hasn’t been brought up yet: the performance. The new zones run a lot better on my pc than anything before. Kudos to the art department for smoothing that out.

Rebound.3409:

The more interesting question is who gave the egg to the Peace guy. Either someone/thing other then the dragon gave the egg to the Master of Peace guy, or that dude is over 200 years old.

That’s why the last question of the LS was “did u see who gave it to him?”

Glint only died 7 years ago. It’s not out of the question for him to have received the egg before she died and be nothing special in the terms of lifespan.

Yup, i misunderstood the timings. Read about it on the wiki after. Dunno why i had the impression it was 200y ago. My bad

Like so many others I wanted to voice my approval of this patch and add to the chorus of praise. I hadn’t really enjoyed Season 2 much up until this point (despite some improvements over season 1) but this patch was great. The writing quality feels like it has improved in the LS.
The nods to GW1 lore were great, especially all the white mantle clues scattered around Silverwastes. Look forward to seeing what direction all of this goes.

draxynnic.3719:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

" It’s been in stasis since her death."

So it hasn’t been in stasis long.

That, or there’s an unspoken ‘at least’ before the ‘since her death’ part – it could have been put in stasis long ago, but all Ogden knew for certain was that it’s been in stasis at least since she died.

Incidentally, regarding comparing the hatching times of the eggs… that’s assuming that all the eggs in the nest will hatch at the same time and that they develop the same way as normal eggs. Bird and reptile eggs in real life behave that way, but do dragon eggs? Maybe, with such a long lifespan, dragon eggs hatching centuries apart is equivalent to bird or reptile eggs hatching minutes apart. Maybe the eggs we saw were the result of multiple matings which each produced a single egg, and the gestation time is so long that a dragon might mate multiple times before the first egg hatches? Or could each egg actually require being infused with a certain amount of magic before it can hatch, and Glint had to infuse each with magic in turn rather than having them all hatch at once?

That said, asexual reproduction does strike me as likely (or, Konig might say, not really reproduction at all, more a form of budding) – Glint produced crystal spider and guardian minions, after all, the eggs may well have been produced in a similar fashion. Ogden speculates that Glint might have been on her way to becoming an Elder Dragon herself – it’s possible that the eggs were essentially baby dragonform Champions of Glint, with a similar relationship to Glint as entities like Tequatl, the Shatterer and the Claw have to their respective elder dragons.

True… too many unknowns when dealing with the general story revolving around the eggs and babies in general.

I’d had the ‘budding’ thought too, later in the day, since Glint did retain her crystalline form as opposed to returning to her ‘normal’ form after the Forgotten freed her mind. Which would be bound to have an affect on her reproduction methods.

I feel the need to go pick the story writers’ brains…..

Well it brought me back from my almost 1 year of not playing. Besides some minor things I was not amused about(last boss bugging out on me) I found the whole gw1 reference and lore to be jut what I wanted. I loved gw1 and I hoped gw2 would continue on the lore, and if they continue this path I would be a happy man.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Rebound.3409:

The more interesting question is who gave the egg to the Peace guy. Either someone/thing other then the dragon gave the egg to the Master of Peace guy, or that dude is over 200 years old.

That’s why the last question of the LS was “did u see who gave it to him?”

Glint only died 7 years ago. It’s not out of the question for him to have received the egg before she died and be nothing special in the terms of lifespan.

But we know Glint is female, we know how her voice sounds and it wasn’t the heavy male voice we heard here, so while glint may have been alive when he received the egg (there is currently no timeframe for that), it wasn’t her who spoke to the master of peace and told him to protect it.

I want to bring up the ambiance in camp resolve. Sure, there are NPC conversations in other areas, but this area just seems so much more realistic. I walk in and I hear an NPC giving entry instructions to the small blood legion warband and asura krewe that walk in behind me. there is banging and clanging from unfinished structures. I hear one npc bumbling over himself as he attempts to get out of the trouble he is in with another npc for drinking on duty. various npcs discussing the war and, as I recall, that was all just near the portal from brisban. This, in contrast to orr where you get a 2-3 line conversation repeating between a couple npcs or drytop where its just that one doctor and zephyrite in an endless loop. And all the while with very appropriate soundtrack and cannonfire in the background.

Town ambience: well done.

dsslive.8473:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Rebound.3409:

The more interesting question is who gave the egg to the Peace guy. Either someone/thing other then the dragon gave the egg to the Master of Peace guy, or that dude is over 200 years old.

That’s why the last question of the LS was “did u see who gave it to him?”

Glint only died 7 years ago. It’s not out of the question for him to have received the egg before she died and be nothing special in the terms of lifespan.

But we know Glint is female, we know how her voice sounds and it wasn’t the heavy male voice we heard here, so while glint may have been alive when he received the egg (there is currently no timeframe for that), it wasn’t her who spoke to the master of peace and told him to protect it.

True. Unless those memory crystals distort voice or something, which is possible. I was referring more to the “200 years old” comment. There’s no reason why he would have to be anywhere near that age.

Absolutely nailed it.

Glint’s lair was perfection – amazing level design, beautiful music and aesthetics, intelligent gameplay and boss mechanics, and of course, massive lore and story value.

The library is awesome and it would be criminal if this was not made into a new instance accessible from the open world. It should be continually updated with new books offering lore tidbits and hints at future content. Its certainly a great way to introduce new players to old gw1 lore, which I am hoping is going to continue to be key to future updates!

The new map is also very good. The pact camp feels busier and more alive than any other settlement in the game, including major cities (which apart from la feel empty imop). Multiple npcs saluting you as a hero and pact commander was a great touch and something the playerbase has been asking for. Trahearne may be in charge, but its nice to see ordinary soldiers acknowledging who is really getting the job done! In many ways it feels like my char has finally come home and is where he belongs (as opposed to running around with a bunch of outcasts and misfits the story is trying to make me bond with – DE 2.0).

Much has already been said about the successful introduction of wvw mechanics into pve in the new map. I agree that it is working very well in this instance, but also agree with others that a balance needs to be struck between the exciting open battlegrounds of the new map, and the slower pace but more intelligent level design of drytop, which also feels a lot more detailed from a lore and story point of view. I mean, we saw all those cool ruins in the trailer, but we can barely interact with them at all currently.

But anyway, very well done and keep it up!

The small things matter the most – thank you for removing the “permanent” retaliation from the mordrem monsters. That was a huge pain, and this was the reason I avoided Dry Top at first. Now I enjoy both maps so much. I don’t even do fractals anymore.

Fantastic patch, best work on LS in over a year. Very fun, cohesive. Made me want to finish everything, rewarding and provides incentive. Lore is amazing.

I’m not going to write a wall of text but may I just say, this was flawless.

The dialogue, the level design, the mechanics, the lore, the characters, the nostalgia, the music, the numerous Easter eggs and I could go on, congratulations Arena-Net you are onto something special now, really well done.

Make sure you talk to ALL the NPC’s in every instance, also talk to Ogden after you receive the reward for a whole heap of spoken dialogue!

I think the content and lore of this latest installment makes it the best episode so far.

It’s not hard to see the great care taken in writing the NPC dialog. Looking forward to the next episodes!

The writing was great, from all the Ogden lines to the snippets of lore found throughout the library. The only thing which was not so great in the writing department was the inclusion of Marj and Kas in the Facet, seems like the only reason they were present was to spout exposition, which sort of detracted from the wonderment of the whole scene.

No matter, the quality of writing has steadily gotten better since season one, aside from Marj ghost sword nonsense.

Yes, this chapter is best work done so far.

But it makes me wonder if only positive feedback makes it around the Anet office :P (Granted if the other than positive ones are constructive/goal/suggestion oriented)

The voice telling the master of peace to protect the egg could have been said baby dragon we protected in EOTN. Secreted away along with the egg in the hourglass.

Aedelric.1287:

The only thing which was not so great in the writing department was the inclusion of Marj and Kas in the Facet, seems like the only reason they were present was to spout exposition, which sort of detracted from the wonderment of the whole scene.

I disagree, I thought that was an excellent excuse to explain some stuff that was only in the books, or in GW1. It was important to get all of the information out of the way, so everyone is up to speed.

Regarding the mysterious voice that talks to the master of peace. It clearly isn’t Glint herself, because she has a high pitched feminine voice, plus she already died at that point. Me and King Frozenwind had quite a discussion about it. And we figured that the voice might be a dwarf (King Jalis, High Priest Alkar, Ogden himself) or one of the Forgotten.

The gameplay was really enjoyable as well. There was boss design that didn’t feel like trudging trough mobs of enemies like the last episodes and they made you use combat strategy which is something GW2 doesn’t so enough in the open world.

I’ve been quietly lurking on the forums for a while now, on occasion jumping in to share an idea or opinion, but I’ve been out of the game for several months now just sort of waiting and giving ANet some time to grow this game a little more.

I’ve been playing GW2 on and off since launch, and I was one of the many that pre-launch was extremely excited about what Guild Wars 2 had to offer from what I experienced in the beta weekends.

My hopes of what the game was going to be when it initially launched were in line with what I received and I’ve been a huge fan since, though somewhere around mid-point in the Scarlet story the game started to lose my interest. That passion sort of dwindled to a small flickering flame while I waited for something to happen with GW2 that would bring back that level of thrill and excitement I experienced early on in my adventures.

This story, and this new zone have done exactly that. With this patch ANet has reminded me of all the potential that this game has, and revived my hopes for the future. I ran around for several hours in the new zone and not once did I find myself wondering what to do next, where to go, or twiddling my thumbs because I was bored and waiting for something exciting to happen.

Everything is new, fresh, and chaotic. The whole experience really drives home the dire situation with Mordremoth. Everywhere you turn in the new zone something exciting is happening, there’s stuff to do, events to dive into, people to save. The distribution of loot, the systems incorporated with this patch, and the overall tug of war mechanic that very much reflects a full PVE version of the WvW experience is fantastic. I truly hope that this is the direction we will continue to progress and build upon, because this sort of experience really makes the zone come alive and feel EPIC.

Thank you, ANet, for all the hard work, for bearing with us, talking to us, hearing our feedback, and building on ideas as a community wide effort. It has truly paid off, and this was well worth the wait.

I agree too, this update was fantastic. I cannot find any negative point :
- Big new area, with many events at anytime
- Good rewards, good balances, events popping back quickly
- Interesting storyline, particularly the last mission making many links with GW1, which might have been missing in previous stories. I enjoyed visiting the Library and reading all the notes as well.
- Good music tracks

Amazing update!

The new area is great fun and makes you feel like there’s a real battle going on.
The story and the lore brings me back to gw1 and is just perfectly done.
The new orbs to restart the achievements is a GREAT addition
and most importantly … its realllly fun

… Yeah, cant think of anything that i don’t like about the update and i cant wait till the next one!!!! Good job Anet, keep it up =)