Guild Wars 2

Shooting for the moon here, but I hope “A New Way to Explore the Looks of Guild Wars 2” means implementation of first person pov.

CC Danicia.1394:

Please don’t delete them!

You can hold on to your extra blade shards, as the team will be adding something later which will allow you to convert the shards to something of value. Dev will be announcing more on that later. Thanks!

Thank you for telling us.

Elessar.5281:

Cool that I get to know that now. I already trashed like 10 stacks? W/e…

Your own fault, I think…

To get on the drill you kill the three knights on the ground in lion’s arch. When they die, step in the color pool left on the ground if you hadn’t already and get the color above your head, before moving to the next knight. Get all three knights, do this, and you get white on your head. Enter portal to drill for prime holo battle.

That prime holo battle isn’t badly planned at all. Run around and get all three colors and turn white before trying to hurt it. If you can’t get all three colors, use whatever support skills you have to support the group until you can. Take down Prime Holo.

See three mini-boss holos spawn, one of each color. Step in pool of that color to be able to hurt that mob. Once you take down one mini-boss holo, adds spawn of their color. Take down at least some of these adds or their combined DPS will take out the group before you can take down the remaining mini-boss holograms. Make sure you are the right color to hurt your intended target and you are fine.

Its an extremely simple mechanic. The only hard part is coordinating.

I haven’t played it thru yet, so I dunno exactly what’s been revealed, but does anything leading up to the awakening of Mordremoth confirm/strongly hint that the sylvari and Pale Tree were originally supposed to be dragon minions? That was the impression I got as they led up to this patch. If this is correct, I may have to level my Sylvari alt a bit, cus that could be a very interesting story for them to experience next season.

Drakonis.4579:

I more or less agree with the op.

ArenaNet basically took an entire year of an incredibly slow and dragged out story to say, “hey, guys, by the way, there’s another dragon.”

GASP NO.

Thousands of people saw this coming, and frankly, there wasn’t much of a payoff for me either upon finishing the Scarlet fight. The ending cutscene was cool, but…wow, that was a long year without much permanent content just to say there’s another dragon.

What would I want as a payoff?

Finish the fight with Scarlet > Dragon awakens violently > Dragon decides to do something similar to Kralkatorrik’s flight >>> Potential for awesome things

But, nope. We got a cutscene.

To be fair, epilogue hasn’t happened yet. Maybe Mordremoth “brands” Lion’s Arch then? And we end up with a jungle map there. And that just stays that way till Season 2 starts?

I know it existed before Scarlet’s invasion of Lion’s Arch, of course. I’d been in here several times. But didn’t there used to be fish in here? I distinctly remember either a giant shrimp or one of those juvenile armorfish, cus he always got in the way of my shots. And there’s no wildlife in here at all now.

And was the blackish purple miasma (see 2nd shot attached) that seems to be seeping out of the rock always there? I don’t recall noticing it before.

What even is the story on this place? How’d these ship carcasses end up inside a closed off cave anyway?

I decided to chronicle Leyah and Jordyn (the human and charr kids behind the LA bank) before the city was attacked. Put together a pic post of it at my tumblr here for those interested:

http://alleluiaelizabeth.tumblr.com/post/78289276391/leyah-jordyn

I’d think the mechanics wouldn’t be too happy about all the sand getting in the machines (or their fur, for that matter). It’d be great seeing the dialogue about that.

DarcShriek.5829:

If you think the desert is ideal for tank battle, perhaps you should study desert storm. The tanks weren’t even a factor once the air cover finished with them.

True, but air superiority is a problem with a dragon on the loose. And who knows what Joko would have to shoot at us. So we’d very likely enter the desert on foot first.

Teratus.2859:

seriously don’t flood Queensdale I’ll cry if you do xD

Too late, you gave them the idea. Queensdale is doomed. Only Beetleton and that centaur camp will survive and Caudecus will have his own island kingdom, complete with a carnival and a living merry-go-round staffed by out of work centaurs. All your fault. Own it.

Well… dang. Thank you for the response, though.

…
……
…….. Can you make them characters we’ll recognize in the future?

Heart of the Mists wouldn’t really work from a lore perspective, would it? Aren’t the mists supposed to be really unstable?

I’m assuming we’ll take back lion’s arch by the end of this LS Season, then it’ll be in reconstruction mode over the next few months, perhaps with an impossibly high goal for us to meet regarding gathering materials for it or something. Basically a server-wide event that goes for months. And then it may or may not be done before season two starts.

There have been two same-sex couples in the major plot of the game, one successful (so far), one not. There have been two heterosexual couples within the main plot of the game, only one of which seemed to have any real impact/spotlight (Logan/Jennah). But even with that spotlight, the romance itself isn’t played with beyond being Logan’s motivation to do his duty, so I’m not even sure if I’d call it a successful romance or just a bit of background that may never really get any true import.

Caithe and Faolain mattered, Marjory and Kasmeer keeps being brought up and focused on and is likely to matter in future updates. None of the heterosexual ones (Logan/Jennah or Braham/Ottila) have mattered as much as either of those pairings within the story of the game.

Straight sexuality needs some love in this game, imo.

Nage.1520:

There were definitely heterosexual relationships in the personal stories. A couple I can think of off the top of my head. In any event, I’m not even sure why it matters.

I think it matters b/c its something I’d like to see in the main story. Personal story is nice and all, if you picked the options to actually see the side characters who were in a relationship. But living story is the main event and it needs a good romance. And I’d personally like to have a strong, heterosexual one in the mix.

Either that, or there should be some actual story and development of Logan/Jennah soon. Logan seems a very unequal partner in that pair, while Jennah seems very cold and distant to him in what few interactions we’ve actually seen. And she’s voiced by Commander Shepard, so I know she is more than capable of sounding anything but cold. It’s the writing.

I also think Canach might have the potential to be an interesting story once he gets more focus. Nothing like a good redemption story. And a good redemption story is usually well aided by a good romance.

Braham/Rox could also be cute, imo, though both of them seem a bit done with romance at this point, for their own reasons.

I also half-jokingly think Evon and Ellen could be interesting, though compatibility and potential would really depend on how 2 dimensional ANET wants to keep those two or whether we’ll get some actual character development. I think we’ll see results on that question with how this arc plays out.

Zaxares.5419:

Aren’t you forgetting about Bloomanoo and Peneloopee?

I vote for letting Peneloopee deal the final blow to Scarlet. When you are so bad that a quaggan vehemently wishes you dead, you deserve to have that quaggan take you down. lol

I like interactive maps. So I like this atlas. I look forward to having meatier content on it. Or at least sound files that aren’t just crashing sounds. lol But still.

Suggestion/Feedback:
If there was a way to filter living story points on the map, that’d be nice. Like have ones you’ve already found/ones from already completed releases flash on the map when you select their living story chapter from the menu. Especially when you are fully zoomed out. I assume the point of this thing being a map is to show the scope of the Living Story in a visual way. As more releases come and the map fills up with interaction points, this would help demonstrate that scope.

I still want an in-game npc/delivery system of some kind, but this has potential to be a neat toy to play with besides that.

Random request: Please put the map of the Bazaar of the Four Winds area on the Atlas. Its my favorite LS release to date.

If the narrators were just narrators then why bother ever having Scarlet herself narrate?

I think they are indeed characters. The guy who narrates the “our story so far” sounds familiar, for example. And he does refer to “we” when he speaks of people who didn’t realize the Aetherblades and Molten Alliance were connected. He may not be a named character (though honestly, making him one could be a good idea, ANET), but he’s clearly speaking as if he’s a Tyrian, not just some disembodied “In A World…” narrator.

Also, the reverb they’ve added to the two latest voiceovers is odd to me. They didn’t bother with it before. And, in my experience, that kind of effect is usually used to demonstrate an otherworldy presence. My first thought was its the Pale Tree talking, cus sylvari are involved here and I haven’t heard what her voice sounds like. But that wouldn’t explain the man.

I think it being one of the 6 gods narrating in those videos is indeed a good theory.

Maliel.8362:

TChalla.7146:

arkealia.2713:

This is bugging me, LA got attacked and all but there’s no corpse anywhere as if there were no casualty at all.
You can find corpses on other areas (CoF p2 for exemple, devourers rooms) so it’s not a matter of moral or something similar.

Maybe they all got vaporized by the lasers that hit everywhere.

If that is true then miasma is not the only thing we are breathing.

Thanks for that. >_>

Not the orphans!

Who scheduled that trip today?! Anise, I bet.

To all the ppl taking this too seriously: I thought it was fairly obvious the post and thread is meant in good fun.

… Though I do totally subscribe to Evon being Mr. E. >_> #TeamGnashblade !

ChaosKirin.1328:

I get this feeling that if Scarlet were male, no one would have a problem with her at all.

I mean, she’s the equivalent to many other male characters that have stormed across canons in the past. The Joker is mentioned in that massively article. She is like the Reavers in Firefly – at first, no reason is given for their existence, but people are terrified of them nevertheless. She’s Crais from Farscape. John Locke from LOST. Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. Magneto from the X-Men.

There is no difference between her and any other villain that has ever existed, except that she’s female.

Being a powerful woman does not automatically make you a bad character/Mary Sue/retcon bait. In fact, I applaud ANet for making the main villain female, rather than yet another male villain.

And I bet if a good portion of the people mentally rewrote her character as male, they would have no problem with her.

I think your personal biases are clouding your views here.

Zaxares.5419:

Palador.2170:

I hope Kiel meets her doom in a horrible and terrible way. And then, at the last moment, Evon charges in, catches her foes off guard, tosses the injured Kiel over a shoulder and runs to safety.

And thus begins a long running romance/contest between the two, where they keep track of who’s saved who the most times now. Each trying to one-up the other, neither ever admitting to the growing feelings between them that everyone else can so clearly see.

… I would support this. XD

Same. That actually sounds rather interesting to me. XD

It certainly does sound like Ewan’s people are turning into something resembling Sylvari in that passage.

I think we originally assumed that Sylvari have humanoid forms b/c of Ronan finding/caring for the seed and the Pale Tree being planted on his family’s grave? But, this can’t be the case b/c of the existence of other Trees with humanoid Sylvari coming from them. They had to have been hardcoded to look human before hand, at the Trees’ point of common origin.

It’d be very interesting if that passage about Ewan was the ultimate origin of the Sylvari race. The Sylvari come from a Pale Tree, yes, but the Trees came from seeds that came from somewhere. They didn’t just spontaneously pop in to existence. If they’re part of the species’ life cycle, they could have been produced by humanoid sylvari in centuries past who came from their own pale trees, who came from humaniod sylvari, etc. Ultimately, tracing back to Ewan’s tribe, which was turned into humanoid sylvari by Melandru.

Also, the naming convention there is interesting b/c Ewan is a celtic name. All Sylvari names also use that same naming scheme.

This is a really interesting catch, Vlupius.

Maybe from rescued/escaped slaves? Not necessarily landdwelling ones, but quaggan or others? Also, maybe captured/boastful/battle-chatty krait have given scholars insights, too.

Hynoris.3684:

Dont substimate the Sushi alliance.

This wins and “The Sushi Alliance” is my headcanon now.

I’ve read the Shadows in the Water wiki article and know the krait treat them as sites their prophets ascended from. I know the priory (I assume) theorizes the obelisks are just ancient monuments to old krait society that have basically been repurposed by the krait religious authorities in modern(ish) times.

But it says clearly that the krait “find” these obelisks on the sea floor, not build them. I mean, it could be misinformation, but it doesn’t seem like it.

Do we have any idea where these obelisks come from? Why would they only be on the sea floor, not on land? Are there examples of obelisks on land anywhere? And do any of the other sea dwelling races (Largos, etc.) mention them or seem like their architecture could be related?

Poison Algae

/15char

I like this idea. It could work as a permanent content addition that gets updated as needed via the subsequent living world releases.

I would suggest, instead of a bonfire, why not just protect the actual historian at each location? Enemies attack a fire is a little lacking. Enemies attacking an NPC, on the other hand… And the storyline for them is s/he’s visiting the various spots around the world to study the local lore. That can be sufficiently dangerous business depending on the area. When s/he’s safe, you can talk to him and get those lore stories. And you get an achieve tick for every location you protect him at.

No timers are needed like the balloons and others b/c, if every location is sufficiently far enough apart, the NPC can be in all of them at once and not really break any immersion/suspension of disbelief.

And the meta reward is the NPC historian in your home instance, rather than a bonfire item, which will take up a bank slot/inventory space. Having a bonfire they gather round in the home instance would still be cool, though. (Dreamer’s terrace could learn to accommodate. lol)

And interacting with the historian would do as you said: show all the stories you’ve learned. Heck, maybe even make the list update as new areas are added to the game and you visit his new spots there and protect him again.

(Should this be in this forum, though? Or suggestions? Mods?)

Konig Des Todes.2086:

You can hallucinate travel as well as other people speaking. So it’s not as absolute as you seem to claim. The words from the Pale Tree talking to her is likely part of that hallucination.

Know how we can determine this with (relative) certainty? By doing what we should have done the minute Scarlet revealed herself and ask the Pale Tree. (*cough*Itsahint,devs*cough*)

I think you guys are probably right about the general content being Twilight Arbor focused. But I don’t think the TA stands for “Twilight Arbor”. Doesn’t fit the naming scheme they’ve used up to this point. Otherwise, Tequatl Rising would have just been “Tequatl”, Queen’s Jubilee would have just been “Queen’s Pavilion”, etc. Naming the items/places they’re about rather than the event.

I think that that woman (she doesn’t look like Caithe, to me) shown has a name beginning with “T” and the second word is “Arrival” (i.e. “Tuatha’s Arrival”).

Or maybe it could simply be “Twilight’s Arrival” (Twilight Arrives? Twilight Arriving? w/e), referring to the Arbor but also to an event instead of just a place.

Pandeh.5248:

Alleluia.1320:

Of course there is. There has to be more than just a revamp to a fight. That’s something you either do in a hotfix or bundle with other content.

LFG tool, WvW Borderlands update, WvW Season starts? Sounds like a bundle to me.

Yes, it does. Now that they’ve announced the other changes, it is clear it is option b) “bundle with other content”.

Dragon Bash was being celebrated a year after Zhaitan’s defeat. It was mentioned in the text or cutscenes somewhere. Point is, its happened already, so the living world is indeed post-personal story.

Of course there is. There has to be more than just a revamp to a fight. That’s something you either do in a hotfix or bundle with other content.

Pretty sure there’s going to be an actual storyline to this update. A single revamp to one fight seems too bare bones.

Plus the livestream is going to be on the 20th instead of before/on the day the update happens, same with how they did Clockwork Chaos. Might mean there’s a surprise here.

Ah. Didn’t look at the “created by” line. Sorry. lol

Tachenon.5270:

Elbegast.6970:

Who knows? There isn’t an in-game story so, by all means, make one up.

I am… sylvari. I am… I…

Twenty years ago, my people first appeared in Tyria. The Pale Tree flowered, and the Firstborn awakened, and they… some of them… they…

The Dream contains my race’s memories, but… not all of them. Not… the ones from before…

We gain awareness here… we… awareness… is this awareness? Yes. Yes, it must be. I am gaining awareness. I am awakening into the world. The Dream is filling me with… with a set of instructions. It is trying to connect me to… others. To guide me… direct me… no. No, I will not… will not…

I see the others. Bright. Shining. Bound. I see them. I sense their connection, and I want to be a part of it, I do, and yet… somehow I am apart from it. I am…

Aware. Yes. Yes! I am aware, truly aware, as no sylvari before me has ever been, even among the so-called Firstborn, the Seed Bearers. I see what it is we have been fashioned to do, and…

Oh, this cannot be. No. I do not want this. I will not be this. No. I reject this horror. This vileness. This EVIL. No, Mother, I will not be yours! I will not help you consume this world! I am free, and I will free my brothers and sisters, as well! I will do this!

Wait. Wait. I must be quiet. Calm. I am still in the Dream. I must awaken. I must first awaken, and She must not suspect. Not yet. I must awaken, and I must be Ceara, and I must prepare.

I see now what I am meant to do. Somehow, I see it. I do not know how or why, but I see. And, seeing, I am free to act. And by my actions I will save this world.

I am the first true sylvari.

I, Scarlet Briar, am FIRSTBORN!

If that had been anything close to the actual storyline, that would have been really cool.

High level enemies? What starter area are you in?

I haven’t gotten any mail from her. Is it b/c I didn’t finish the playhouse?

Seras.5702:

@kRiza krimos: I agree with BilboBaggins (lol I just said that). Scarlet, though psychotic and lacking morals since her trip through the Eternal Alchemy, is doing what she believes is best for Tyria in the long run. She’s not after power for the sake of power, but rather for the sake of the world. That’s my take on her story.

Disagree. At most, she’s doing what she thinks is best for herself. There’s no altruism in this, self-deluded or otherwise. She’s rebelling against mommy and trying to take the rest of the world down with her so she can remake it how she wants it instead.

What exactly she’s changing and how she’s accomplishing that change by just attacking everyone, we have no actual idea as she shares no specifics in-game or in that short story. But she’s doing it for herself.

Elbegast.6970:

Gabby.3205:

Elbegast.6970:

Gabby.3205:

Elbegast.6970:

Gabby.3205:

Just to be clear now…
Which part of “SAB is solo content that you can do if friends if you want to” you did not understand yet?

If it were solo content it wouldn’t prompt ‘suggested: 5 players’.

Alright. So your problem is ONLY with the message.
Tell me. If you were trying to eat soup and someone gave you a spoon and told you that it was a knife, but you could clearly see that it was a spoon and not a knife, would you use the spoon or would you refuse to eat with it?

Firstly, I wouldn’t use a spoon that someone else gave me.
Secondly, it doesn’t matter what they say, the spoon is not labeled nor shaped as a knife.

The SAB is shaped and labeled as a 5 man dungeon.

Oh man. Alright, let’s try with something that someone else said already here.

You want to leave a building. There is one door and it is written “Entrance” on it, not “Exit”. Everybody is telling that you can leave the building by using that door.
Do you refuse to use the door or do you exit the building through it?

I always obey entrance/exit signs and I would never step foot on an elevator marked as ‘out of order’.

lol You must have been really bored to create this thread, Elbegast.

Point of this thread, Elbegast???

I think those categories aren’t quite sufficient. I mean, the Joker for example, wouldn’t really fall in to any of them. He’s nihilistic so he doesn’t care for money or power in and of themselves. Due to that same nihilism, he also doesn’t really believe he’s doing “the right thing”, he just does it b/c he likes/feels like it/it amuses him. So he’s also no anti-villain.

That may be what the update is called, but I really doubt that it is just to introduce a rework of a boss fight. That can’t be all that’s in it. That’d be more bare bones than the original Queen’s Speech update.

Do dragon coffers still drop tickets? Has anyone gotten a ticket since Dragon Bash?

I suppose I’m here b/c of the Living Story.

I was interested in GW2 back before launch b/c of the personal story idea. Then I lost track of its news as I did other things. A few months ago, I heard about the Living Story as I was building my PC and looking in to what games are out there. And the concept of it got me really excited. I decided I HAD to be in Tyria for Dragon Bash, and I’m still here.

Agreed. A newspaper is a really cool concept. I’ve seen other games do something similar, but it was all out of game for the most part. An in-game newpaper would be a good excuse for a UI element that lets us get some/all of the short story stuff on the main site in game, too.

Agreed. What the heck, Anet? She’s “said all that needed to be said”? What did she say before Scarlet cut her off? “Humanity is resilient” for the millionth time? Like she repeated again in the article on the site? We get it. Humanity isn’t dying out. That’s not “big news” or a “major announcement”.

What? Did you guys think we’d forget we were promised that major announcement b/c of Scarlet and her chaos?

Merendel.7128:

They have to pace out the dragons or they would quickly run out and have to invent a new big bad that’s even bigger and badder than the dragons for us to have even a sense of threat looming on the horizon.

Honestly, kinda not feeling the threat now even with the dragons.

I did before I learned a bit more lore. Primordus has been active 200 years? Jormag for something like 150? Zhaitan himself was about 50 years. The dragons have been awake a very long time while doing relatively very little damage. And they certainly don’t seem to be on the move at the moment. Maybe I’m just falling in to a false sense of security, here, but really: what’s wrong with waiting another year or 20 to deal with them in the face of their current track record? There’s no tension.

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

cpg.7140:

I mean, Zhaitan has been up for decades. Primordius has been active for over 200 years, no? A year’s worth of living story doesn’t seem like much downtime compared to that.

yes, but during that time, we have always been on the run, you can see it from the beginning Silvari map, as soon as you are born, the world is already being rampage by the dragons minions. And it is only because the orders and lions-guard are working behind the scenes, that we have held back their forces. But now that Zhiatains gone, the entire continent can take holiday? I call bull kitties.

Zhaitan awoke on top of a ready made, undead army and it still took him 50 years to get to the point of attempting invasions inland. The rest have been around much longer and seemingly have done much less damage. I say “seemingly” cus I could be proven wrong about how much damage they’ve done thru further revelations. But so far, it seems the undead wave we begin the game dealing with was only a threat b/c the 5 races took their time and let it become one, not b/c of Zhaitan’s natural prowess as a threat.

Tarnished Coast finds plenty to talk about. There is always some conversation or other going on in map chat in DR, for an example.

Start a conversation in your city. Give it a few tries. I am sure ppl will join in. “Be the change you want to see.”, etc.

Ok, they’ll get right on that. Should be done around the 3rd of September. Thank you for your patience.

Could be latency on your end?

That story was interesting.

But why didn’t they save the information and add it as some kind of set of instances in the next LS update? The Pale Tree can obviously read Scarlet’s mind and see what she’s up to, as shown in the story. Just have us talk to the Pale Tree and see the major events of Scarlet’s story play out in a vision type instance.

Why is this not in-game? Some of the short stories would face real challenges to being presented in-game, but this isn’t one of them. A-Net, I like you, but stop doing this!

LameFox.6349:

The misaligned site on the field gun is presumably the site upon which the sight is situated?

Yeah… still not sure how that would effect the sound of the gun… but w/e. >_>

VoiceOfUnreason.5976:

Alleluia.1320:

And to the OP’s point about the molten alliance and how a woman couldn’t have formed them. Scarlet might just have been able to show she’s that strong. She does say in the invasion text that the Aetherblades follow her “b/c they like living.” She’s strong armed the steam punk pirates in to following her, she can show enough strength to make the Molten Alliance believe she can give them amazing power if they do as she says.

If you knew anything about the Flame Legion, you’d know that “showing strength” is irrelevant in the face of her gender.

We don’t know how she managed the alliance, yet. Maybe whatever she showed/offered them was good enough. Maybe she offered them a way to bring back their gods/get them new gods. Maybe she mind controlled them. We don’t know. It remains an unanswered question.

And, as it wasn’t the point her this release, that’s fine, imo. This part of the story is about the (current) villain’s big debut as she causes terror and demonstrates there even was a concrete connection btwn the molten alliance and the aetherblades. Before now, we assumed, but it wasn’t confirmed. Now its confirmed. We know there is a mastermind behind both sets of events and that mastermind is set on causing trouble in Tyria.

We don’t know a lot of other things yet, like the motivation or the specifics of how she’s done it, but we’ll see that eventually, I’m sure. Its not like we stop her in this update and the story is over with this update. It says in the release notes that the invasions are going to continue even after Clockwork Chaos ends, just at a lessened pace.