Guild Wars 2

That’s the question I find myself face with every time I play an LS episode or do any of HoT stuff and see this group whose names I can barely remember in most cases. Yeah there is that recap that briefly mentions them but that tells you the bare minimum at best and answers few questions overall.

Doesn’t help that most of them are near useless in the boss fights.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu6e24dQtVRerleVcx9bL0IRr1iyqy7NA

Is why I don’t like Living Story, or whatever LS stands for.
Finished my personal story a long time ago, and when I bought HoT and started that personal story it was like so confusing I didn’t care to care anymore.

The characters do develop and become much better the later it gets. What you say is true though. It’s not very good

They’re just kind-of-stronger-than-everyone-else people that happened to be at the right place when some important world changing events happened. Then decided to stick around to find more events. Just like the PC, whose only real claim to fame is being a murder machine. Which apparently is all you need to qualify for 2nd in command in one of the largest forces in Tyria.

Squee.7829:

They’re just kind-of-stronger-than-everyone-else people that happened to be at the right place when some important world changing events happened. Then decided to stick around to find more events. Just like the PC, whose only real claim to fame is being a murder machine. Which apparently is all you need to qualify for 2nd in command in one of the largest forces in Tyria.

Like Darth Vader.

Squee.7829:

They’re just kind-of-stronger-than-everyone-else people that happened to be at the right place when some important world changing events happened. Then decided to stick around to find more events. Just like the PC, whose only real claim to fame is being a murder machine. Which apparently is all you need to qualify for 2nd in command in one of the largest forces in Tyria.

You raise a very good point there. I’ve often wished there were other ways to play out the next stage in a story than just murdering mobs and then a big bad. I mean if your PC is a warrior, obviously that would be fine, but thieves, etc.? There should be other ways to contribute to move the story forward. Given the purposes/methods of the Orders in the game too, it would seem to be an overlooked opportunity really.

Ella Mackay in LA not only gives you a cut scene telling you of Scarlet’s History but she’ll also give you information on all the NPCs in your group. Just talk to her and you’ll get some background. It’s not a huge amount, but what is there is pretty good.

Not even I find good enough reasons to care about any of the new characters, especially any in Destiny’s Edge 2.0. They just are all so boring, or Mary-Sue/Gary-Stue-ish. * shrug *

Well there not all bad for example Taimi is a character I remember if you ask me to name any of the companions of Pillars of Eternity that I played for who knows how many hours I do not know. I even praised how good the story and characters are but now thinking about it not remembering their names means that it was a short lived good thing. Like when you eat french fire or chips or ice cream do you think the memory of those things made it memorable no it did not. But Taimi is something memorable I do not know why but the fact that I know her name it does.

Sounds like most of you guys didn’t play living story 1. It explains who these people are and how they came to be apart of the story. On the Anet wiki: (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Upcoming_changes_and_features)

It says under general content that living story 1 will one day be apart of the story journal. When that happens you’ll be able to see what I’m talking about.

ApolloJustice.3705:

Doesn’t help that most of them are near useless in the boss fights.

I completely agree. We had this problem with Kormir in GW1, who would literally stand and watch your team die rather than lift a finger to help. Well, she didn’t do too much watching after being horrifically blinded, but I couldn’t even muster any sympathy for her.

And now, in GW2, I just know that the most I can expect from these characters is a fleeting little reflection bubble once every 60 seconds. Or a slowly auto-attacking Mesmer.

I imagine the developers are afraid of robbing us of our agency as players, of taking the spotlight off of us. But they already have by forcing us to work with characters that are thoroughly impotent in every combat encounter.

I’m still quaking with rage over the Victory or Death mission, where the various members of Destiny’s Edge were too busy holding hands belowdecks to help my pathetically undergeared Guardian manning the weaponry above.

Read the Living Story Season 1 summary on the Wiki then play through Living Story Season 2. It should explain most of who everyone is.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_1

You can play LS2 either with someone who already has it unlocked but you won’t receive rewards and can’t do the achievements but at least you can see the story or you can buy it from the gemstore.

Unfortunately LS1 is not replayable, only way to find out what happened there is to read the summary, watch videos, ask people who have been there for details. The #1 video I recommend watching is this one, it’s probably the most important video of all of LS1 but there’s plenty of other important things that happened it doesn’t cover of course but this is literally the ending of LS1:

Also look up videos of the marionette fights, the queen jubilee clockwork attack, and the attack on Lion’s Arch. Maybe also check out the Karka event but just find a summary of what happened because that event was like 3 hours long.

I do feel like GW2 doesn’t do a great job at explaining the gap between Personal Story and HoT. Especially with the new Level 80 Booster that new people use and then have no clue what’s going on or why.

Has OP a problem with remembering who all those NPC’s are or doesn’t he/she like the NPC’s? In the first case talk with Ella Mackay in LA or read the links in Fay’s post above.

In the second case, a lot of players seem to dislike most NPC’s. I don’t really share that opinion. I do think that ArenaNet does a good job with using “old” NPC’s in HoT. Just walk around in the new maps and you encounter so many NPC’s you encountered before in Personal Story and the Living World seasons.

If OP is complaining about the story in HoT, well ….. I can only agree. The story isn’t great. But I am not sure the NPC’s are the problem.

I haven’t really been following the story, and I’ve played since beta
The characters are just the stereotypical hero, tough guy, smart outcast, know it all, Etc. I kind of like Caithe
I enjoyed the cutscenes in hot where my character actually talked, it wasn’t that trehearne crap where he’s the main character and turns to you for everything and he gets the credit
If anet gives us content more frequently, new dungeons for starters- I’d be willing to get back into playing gw2- but anet is more focused on releasing mining skins.

The new npcs could have been fleshed out a little more but I enjoy them. It is more a case that they force you into buying these extra story bits to see them develop. And HoT does not do them justice. Good characters, bad story.

Season 1 ruined those characters.

Season 1 had one-time events and they were never fully explored in depth. As a result, people hardly got to know them. Never mind the characters, people hardly got to know season 1 period! Later on, they were just shoe-horned into the story assuming you already DID know them.

Unfortunately, those are the first impressions people have of Marjory, Braham, etc. If only they were fleshed out further, for example, maybe people wouldn’t dislike them as much. People would accept them. An example, Marjory gets her own story mini-arc, her past, her family, her struggles. Braham would get his as well with his personal struggles with Eir.

Season 1 just did not introduce them properly. It’s unfortunate since this is your main cast of characters that your PC is involved with.

A lot of this is a consequence of how they handled season 1, and the fact that they somehow don’t see it as a priority to get it in the game in a format more similar to season 2 despite the fact that it should be their top priority because its glaring absence ruins the entire presentation of the game.