Guild Wars 2

Definitely backing this. Especially since /sit already has an animation present in-game (at least for the raptor), it would be nice to make it command-able.

ugrakarma.9416:

One thing seems to be unanimous. The designers of maps are still, by far, the strongest point of Anet. These guys deserve a toast with good beer. The state of the art HoT maps were bring into Ls3.

Agreed. Great map design started all the way with Silverwastes and it’s definitely something to be proud of in both Heart of Thorns and LS3.
I’d also like to once again point out music, which was amazing in both releases as well. I grew up attuned to Jeremy Soule’s tunes as any other gamer, but with the music torch being passed to the team both current and gone but not forgotten, Guild Wars finally found its own voice instead of sounding like the step-brother to Elder Scrolls. I just hope Path of Fire as well as some of the tunes from LS3/Raids get a decent release.

Aaaand just like that, the PowerPS is axed from raiding. Thanks a lot, ANet, nobody asked for that.

Yeah, the real achievement is “how many times can you find something fun to do outside the game while you alt-tab”. Listening to a great cinematic 10 times in a row because of an achievement is grating (and some of us are locked into it, because the challenge is stacked specifically in favor of/against specific classes. Not builds, classes), but 10 (or more) of one of the worst pieces of writing acting and writing present in the game? That’s two achievements I’m skipping. Which means no legendary trinket. But I can live with that, I prefer my nerves intact.

Same. All nodes unlocked, oyster not showing up.

Crinn.7864:

As for the Charr, the Charr PC was transferred out of the legions when they joined the order, thus nullifying that connection.

Except no, that’s not how it works. It’s actually explicitly stated that you never lose your alignment to your legions. Only that some work away from their warbands and legions (in Vigil, in Order, in Priory, etc) for prolonged periods of time, often years without contact with the Citadel, but it is actually addressed early on in the original game that just because you’re away, it never means your duties to your legion magically disappear.

So yes, even a Pact commander is still a charr, still a member of their warband and still an officer of their legion.

VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618:

why should a charr, that worked with humans, fought side by side with humans against dragons, joined order that is at least partially composed of humans, have problems working with the shining blade?

At that part of character development, the charr char should either grown enough to see beyond the species – or should not be part of the story anymore.

There’s a royal difference between cooperating with another faction and seeing past differences (i.e. Vigil, Pact) and joining secret society whos first and foremost goal is to propagate their own interests possibly at the cost of yours. See: “you will do no harm to Kryta”, “You are now protector of the kingdom”, both under penalty of death.

Even so, it would be possible, if it were somehow reflected by the characters, other than “ew, we’ve never had a non-human, is it sanitary?”

zealex.9410:

Changer the Elder.2948:

zealex.9410:

JTGuevara.9018:

Looking at season 3 overall, I’m disappointed. I’m sorry to say, gw2 needs to step up their storytelling. It is sloppy. It is a mess. The story is clearly trying to do too many things at once. Too many plot elements: Lazarus, Balthazar, Dragon’s Watch, Jormag/Primordus, now Shining Blade?! Livia?! The writing needs to pick a narrative and stick with it. Otherwise, you just confuse people. Season 3 started off ok, but then it just fell flat.

That being said, I’m glad that the Mursaat story is officially over. At least season 3 ended the way it was supposed to.

Tbf it was fiting that the shining blades ended it. The WM were their arch enemies and mursaat their masters im glad it was the blades that helped us finish it.

… which would be great if it were setup in the actual story, not somewhere deep in Guild Wars 1

I dont remember prev episodes itss been a whle since i did them but im sure the fact that the WM are sworn enemies of kryta and Lazarus a sworn enemy of the humans was touched upon. Dont forget there were current events as well with shining blade and WM

Offhand mention doesn’t count as setup. I’m aware there’s some connection between Mantles, Blades and stuff, but this episode didn’t get as much as a reminder. Especially in an arch that’s already juggling enough plots to choke a walrus, it’s crucial to set your plots properly. When you already toss around enough factions and names that put an appendix section of a WW1 documentary to shame, it’s easy to get them lost in a clutter. You can’t just say “I told you once a few years ago, what else do you want”. That’s basic storytelling and writing. You “not remembering previous episodes” is actually a sign in and of itself.

Current events were centered on White Mantle and their connection to bandits, not Shining Blade.

zealex.9410:

JTGuevara.9018:

Looking at season 3 overall, I’m disappointed. I’m sorry to say, gw2 needs to step up their storytelling. It is sloppy. It is a mess. The story is clearly trying to do too many things at once. Too many plot elements: Lazarus, Balthazar, Dragon’s Watch, Jormag/Primordus, now Shining Blade?! Livia?! The writing needs to pick a narrative and stick with it. Otherwise, you just confuse people. Season 3 started off ok, but then it just fell flat.

That being said, I’m glad that the Mursaat story is officially over. At least season 3 ended the way it was supposed to.

Tbf it was fiting that the shining blades ended it. The WM were their arch enemies and mursaat their masters im glad it was the blades that helped us finish it.

… which would be great if it were setup in the actual story, not somewhere deep in Guild Wars 1

Agreed. I do get that we’re the minority and we are to expect the shorter end of the stick, but come on. This was so blatant and the ludonarrative dissonance it created was so kitten jarring I actually for the first time just opted to skip the story at first and just port-to-friend to the new map.

Longer version here, so I don’t doublepost: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lwd/SPOILERS-Season-3-Over-All/first#post6655861

ANTHROPOCENTRISM
The worst part about this Living story for me as a non-human player was how blatantly human-centric the whole plot was. Heart of Thorns, while being a sylvari-dominant storyline, pulled it off very well, but current Living Story never cares to explain why should a sylvari, an asura, a norn or a charr care about human politics, human centuries-old conspiracy groups, human secret orders, human gods or human kingdoms. There’s rarely any explanation why is Ragenar, a male charr commander, such a lore buff on White Mantle, why is he so eager to stop a plot against Krytan queen, why would he join Shining blade on a whim, and if there is, it’s so blatantly patched-on and hand-waving the issues it’s basically just an afterthought. (I laughed when Logan introduced me to the Blood legion emissary in Lake Doric, saying something along the lines “Looks like even the charr are concerned enough to help.” No really, Sherlock. I’m standing right here.)

Crowned by latest episode, where you’re explicitly mentioned as “Protector of the kingdom” never to “act out against Kryta”. I’m sure imperator Smodur and Blood legion tribunes will be thrilled to hear I basically serve the enemy now. Thanks.

TONE
Tone is not just something you let mr. Diemer to carry for you (and holy smokes, did he, ms. Chappelle and the others do a dam great job since the HoT release), it’s an integral part of the story. And that’s where this season fails most of all. In comparison, contrast Heart of Thorns, in which the player character (most noticably male human) matured in the face of the loss of the Pact and having to pretty much stare down an elder dragon. It felt like a natural progression.

All that is now forgotten. Our pact commander is a snarky teenager exchanging sassy quips with Anise, Marjory, Lazarus (!) and others. It may be my paranoia, but it reeks of Joss Whedon influence. All these dialogues seem to be the result of your writing team bingewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer in one night and then getting to write all the dialogue in the hangover morning after. Problem is, good comedy requires timing, and when everything you say taht isn’t a witty remark is a sarcastic quip instead, timing goes outta the window faster than even Tides of Time can carry it.

SINGLE ISSUES
Some more small eyesores that didn’t help…

• Character consistency. Seriously, pretty much everyone was a pain in the neck. General Almorra Soulkeeper? Reduced from a dignified old warhound to a hysterical errand boy shrieking orders left and right. Braham? I get it, his mom died, but the turn he took from me feeling sympathetic towards the boy to me wanting to punch the spoiled brat in the face was sharp enough to pack a few Gs. Caithe? Constant apologize-trust-mistrust-apologize glockenspiel that got so kitten old. Some of the dialogue even points out how odd that is, but when the response is basically just “Eh, yeah, I’m different now, so what, just roll with it”… I’m actually not sure what to say at this point besides putting a neon sign with “THIS IS WRONG” all over it.

• Voice acting. That was a royal let down overall, especially in the day and age where studios focus more on driving their actors to their limit and bring out stellar results (so we have a lot to compare it to, if somewhat unjustly). It’s probably worse for me being part of the player base that got hit with the player voice change, as my pact commander is a male charr, but generally, very few people I could say did a great job. Almorra sounded jarringly off-character (either voiced by someone completely different who didn’t even try to mimic the old voice, or just bad). Livia/whatever her name was sounded so forced and stilted and with a completely wrong tone it kept dragging me off. And while Lex Lang’s handling of the male charr PC got consistently better throughout the season (and the sound editors finally figured out a good filter), it still doesn’t hold a candle to Ron Yuan’s performance (there are some instances he does sound just fine, so again, nothing against him, he just has a high bar to break). The only positive I remember was Logan and maybe Rox, but she didn’t really have enough dialogue to judge.

• Mini-plots. You know, sometimes things are better left unresolved. It’s definitely preferrable to the alternative of all the characters turning up, saying something along the lines of “hi, here’s my storyarch ending” and disappearing. It was like that with Rytlock’s magic, Braham’s Jormag hunt, Logan’s queen issues, and worst of all, player commanding the Pact. All of those were “resolved” by three or four sentences and tossed aside without care or consequence. Even worse, all of them, unlike the whole Mursaat/White Mantle/other “important” stuff actually did have good setup and players were already invested.

• Raids as a mandatory story prequel. Which is something you explicitly said you wouldn’t do. I am a raider, my boss kills clock somewhere between 600-700, based off LI on both my accounts. And yet I still hate that you made it part of the personal story. It’s a horrible decision, to have a story that’s so short on the setup even shorter if the player is not part of the raid elite (which you yourself again specifically stated to be a thing).

In short… ANet, I love you. I love your game. Really. I spent over five thousand hours lost in your world, exploring Tyria and living in it, I had tons of fun with your game, I grew attached to your lore and your characters. But this was bad in pretty much all of those regards. I still look forward to the expansion, and I hope that whatever I said here will help you get it done right next time. It’s just that this season, unlike previous personal (and mostly unreplayable) stories, I won’t be coming back to. It just isn’t worth it.

I’ll have to split this in two, because message limit, so I apologize beforehand…

So, if I have to sum up Season 3 overall impression…
I’m going to focus pretty much only on story delivered with this season. I will say that while map design, music and combat would deserve their own in-depth posts, I generally liked what I saw this season in those departments. But the story… well. Let’s take a look.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
First of all, I’ll take a little side-nook and look at two things that are somewhat unrelated but came in the same release window: the three new Fractals and the Bastion of the Penitent. I have nothing but praise for both, and not just in mechanics that are fun, diverse and entertaining, but surprisingly, in their story. “DDR” fractal set offered closure for a setup done long time ago in Thaumanova release and did it very well. Arkk was a fun character, and there was enough clever foreshadowing for me to be able to guess who he is based on dialogue from Nightmare Tower just before the final conversation unfolded. It was sweet, it was well-thought out, it was well-acted. Unlike most of the Living Story, but I’ll get to that later.

Bastion of the Penitent had a great setup in the three raid wings before that. Despite me knowing or caring an absolute nothing about White Mantle or Mursaat, it showed through slow exposition and dialogue alone, and in the end, delivered a great payoff in the decomissioned Mursaat prison. Saul’s storyline was presented pretty much entirely through fight mechanics and dialogue quips, and actually successfully pulled it off. I felt sorry for the old coot in the end, and the dialogue with Glenna after the final boss was a great closure. Setup, payoff and closure is also something the LS failed to do, but again, I digress.

And finally, there was one more thing unrelated to the LS that came about, and that was the Knight of the Thorn. It was the best little surprise past few updates had for us, and despite not being a Trahearne fan (I don’t hate him, just… don’t really care), I found it touching, and it was a great sendoff to pretty much all of Heart of Thorns. The story felt personal, despite not being all that bombastic or important or in the middle of current events.

SCOPE AND SETUP
The setup of these episodes were some bombastic plot twists and arches. And it was obviously too many for the short timeframe of the episodes to carry. Mursaat, Bloodstones, Caudecus plot and White Mantle, Balthazar and human gods, Jormag, Primordus and now Orr, all of these pop up, toss around a few convoluted threads and basically disappear. It’s simply too many. Contrast the examples above. Knight of the Thorn, Fractals, Bastion, all those work because they’re given proper time to develop, to go somewhere, and thus, have an emotional impact on us as the player. By giving us less, but more carefully packed, they gave me way more than all of the Living Story episodes combined: they made me care.

The worst part is, the general idea and heading always seems nice and interesting, but it gets dropped and stomped to dust before it gets properly developed, explained or carried out. I did start the past three episodes genuinely curious where this was going, instead of bitter and jaded as this text makes me seem, but always ended up punched in the face somewhere down the road.

As for setup… quite simply, there is none. Nothing. Zilch. Zero. For people who didn’t raid, for people who didn’t do or remember the human personal story, for people who didn’t play Guild Wars 1. While our main character seems to have a pocket encyclopedia of human lore, it just drives the wedge between me and him further, because while he gets excited about Mursaat or White Mantle plots or whatever else, I’m here, scratching my head, yelling “who the f* is Livia?!”. Or Lazarus. Or why is this Demmi girl is staged as such a big deal (in a bizzarre twist, I know the latter well, but that’s when my commander shouldn’t, since he’s a Vigil).

Overall, the biggest failure was the story counting on us being invested and care before we could even realize what’s going on. Care about human politics while non-human, care about characters we possibly never met, care about payoffs to plots we haven’t witnessed starting. It’s basically just like that Caithe episode in LS2, where people complained about not caring because they possibly haven’t even met Caithe, let alone care for what she does. Well, this time around, the whole season felt like that. Not a fan of that feeling, really.

A few points on my end:

- Please make up your mind what is my character supposed to be like. I don’t mind playing for something that’s not an “empty vessel”, I actually prefer it, but wobbling me from comedy to serious drama is working less than expected.
- Whee, I’ve joined another human organization! Which I unexplicably care about despite being a charr!
- While it has a nice idea in it, the fight with the Self-Doubt is more a fight with a crippling procrastinator issues. Whoever thought to have undodgable tendrils (they obviously are… but not with 120 ping, because their window is just THAT small) that give me 2 minutes cooldown on autoattack is a great idea… well. Let’s just say that your taste and mine will never align, pal. It’s also astonishingly punishing for certain classes. My particular Self-Doubt found me with a ranger longbow (15k rapid fire + knockback + range all over the room), a signet of stone (improved toughness) and signet of the hunt (health regen, which at some point heals it faster than my blocked skills can damage it). My friend, in comparison, had a lazy warrior with a greatsword telegraph. Thanks for kicking my sorry tail for maining a ranger. “Play it your way” indeed.
- The use of emotes and cinematics was nice. The Shining Blade class of horrible acting was not. Also, not sure if intentional, but “So much death…” quote from male charr sounded like a drunk freshman on a movie night.
- Fractal’s nice tho.

Well, I wouldn’t pat team Gilded Hollow on the back just yet, since I know of at least two guilds with a severe case of buyer’s remorse. At the start, GH was the shiny new promising place. But as time went on with upgrades, Precipice became an actual small desert town that looks like a group actually made it their home, while Guilded Hollow is still just a dank hole in the ground with nothing in it.

You can rest assured we’d swap if we could.

• Medium and light armor now has fully covered asura toes, in and out of combat.
• Fixed an issue with light female armor for humans and sylvari in which portions of the back of the chest piece would clip.
• Fixed a clipping issue with medium armor and charr tails.

I just wanted to take my time to say: Thank you. I mean, I’m still not planning to make the set (as it just doesn’t click with my taste, but that’s fine), but I just wanted to point out it’s worth a nod when things get fixed and as a player, I just appreciate fellow players getting a chance to be happier with their shiny.

That said, any plans to fix cowls on medium to stop cutting off horns? That would be nice, too.

So, as a charr ranger, I come up once again with the short stick.

There’s one word for legendary medium armor, and that is: lazy. (And a few other choice words). I usually don’t bother commenting on disappointing stuff, I understand problems of development and animation and necessary corners to be cut, and I know it’s tough, but come on. I admit the heavy and light have some nice racial adjustments, even though I’m personally not fan of the looks, that’s fine. The medium armor? That’s just kitten atrocious. Cuts of horns, cuts of manes, offers the most basic, totally unadjusted and obvious clipping. I’m used to running Soul of Koda, I’m used to overlook clipping, but this is supposed to be THE armor set of the game, the thing you work till you drop to show off, the biggest prestige items hyped up for over a year… and it’s flubbed this bad? YOU put the race in the game, YOU encourage people to play it, YOU should make sure to get it kitten right.

But considering it’s also over a year and the Astralaria effects are still unfixed, I’ll just… stop hoping.

For start, I would like some guild chairs and seating cushions people can actually sit on, instead of having a set appropriated from an extremely minuscule dollhouse.

But yes, definitely seconded (fourth-et, whatever). More animations would be extremely welcome.

I’ll take the patch as a whole instead of just the living story episode. Therefore…

Positive:
+ Mobility around Ember Bay. The new mastery is genuinely fun, it’s not just an instant teleport like Nuhoch wallows, but allows to swap on gliding mid-way through, thus working as really good way around the place.
+ The jumping puzzle. Not the Volcano one, but the new awesome surprise JP we got with the Fractal lobby change. And the related diving achievement, that’s a cherry on the cake.
+ The new Fractal lobby as a whole. Aside from some minor confusion about who sells what now and where to find it, the overhaul is great. It now feels like a hub I’d like to just hang out and roleplay in, instead of a flat rock with a giant portal covering most of it. And the map topography and design are on point.
+ Not entirely related, but I’d like to relay kudos for what other races mostly take for granted: Mursaat armor looks great on charr! Only minor clipping (cheek horns in some females tend to bug out, since they’re pretty much perpendicular to the face), and even the fancy tail armor! Woo!
+ Moto’s messing up with the machine was the only really funny thing about the whole episode, and it played out great.

Negative:
- The story is a mess. Caithe is banging her annoying “I AM A TRAITOR, WOE ME! But we cool right?” glockenspiel, the Mursaat flip flop is literally unbelievable, our own character talks like a spoof of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which is so appropriate for a male charr…). And while there is a legitimatelly cool core in the Rytlock having a dangerous new magic the Legions are justifiably iffy about, given the charr history, handling it is just kitten-poor. Last time, we had a butchered out of character version of Almorra Soulkeeper, this time, we have a duo of cringeworthy legion regulars (WHY did a GENERAL of the VIGIL handle the business last time, if we can just sent footmen this time around?) who spout lines that sound like someone was retelling the original script with bad memory and horrible game of impressions.
- Male charr voice is still far from optimal.
- While I did wish in the past (and still do) that some of the cool original renown hearts would be repeatable, this is definitely not what I had in mind. But from what I’ve seen elsewhere, that is mostly getting a fix. Not sure who thought having to unlock the same merchant again every day would be fun, but it’s not.
- New map is way too… separated, for the lack of a better word. Instead of having one map that just melds into a nice complete whole, we have five mini areas that are pretty much secluded from one another. There’s the caldera with the wurm, there’s the skritt half-island, divided by river of lava lies the asura killing field, then there’s the circus grounds, and divided by a giant wall the mursaat fortress thing… after a series of amazing new maps we’ve been getting for over a year (starting with Dry Top, Silverwastes and even counting the Heart of Thorns maps design), it’s a bit of a letdown.
- The new legendary. Design is fine, but if the legendary journies got flak for anything, it was concentrated grinding steps. This is literally nothing else than a concentrated grinding step.
- Destroyers melt very fast, while Jades are obnoxious. Not hard, just obnoxious. Killing them is not worth it and takes ages, I skip them all the time (and I’m usually not the skipping sort). Some middle grounds would be nice.
- New fractal instability rework seems mostly untested or royal case of “didn’t think that far ahead”. Some instabilities are downright incompatible with some fractals due to space and other limitations. Please, give it a second thought.
- Open world story steps are… could we please avoid them as much as possible? It kinda breaks immersion when “Only you can save us by fixing the ancient dwarven device!” with other ten people standing in the line behind you for the very same thing.

While the design is awesome, I may have a nitpick with the placement. Unlike most other gliders, this one is clearly meant to stick to your spine as close as possible, which not only looks silly when gliding, because it makes the wings stand close to 45 degrees, which is way beyond stalling angle, and if you’re a large charr, your own glider stabs you in the back. Also, when you’re a charr, the bright wings cover up quite the large portion of screen, due to scaling and their angle, and attempt to beam me blind.

Would it be possible to make them less a cardboard desk and more… well. Wings? Pretty please? At least next time, if you can’t fix this one?

Already a topic going on about this:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lwd/Implementation-of-repeatable-hearts-is-bad/

Amaimon.7823:

Frenzify.6832:

azizul.8469:

it is their game, they can dictate how it is played. lazy people are always lazy. if you want something work for it, including vendor access.

Did you read the thread? I’m guessing not.

Lazy people will be lazy people, I agree. it takes less than 2 minutes to complete the heart. Its a way to introduce more reward to a map. If you can’t be bothered to take 2 minutes to unlock the merchant, you’re not worth what the merchant sells.

I’m more than willing to unlock my merchant, thank you very much. I did that with every other heart merchant in the game and I didn’t complain about it. But let’s see how you like doing that every day over and over and over for a year.
That’t not the mark of a busy bee, that’s just masochism.

And again, it’s not about being lazy, it’s about being a kitten Sisyphos. I’m running map completion on my alts, and my mesmer had hearts partially finished, before I dropped out to bed. Now I can go ahead and do it AGAIN, because my progress was reset. That’s not “having to work for something”, that’s “being a kitten to players for having a life”.

azizul.8469:

it is their game, they can dictate how it is played. lazy people are always lazy. if you want something work for it, including vendor access.

It’s not about being lazy, it’s about being bored out of your skull with it real fast. When I visit a vendor, a vendor I already previously unlocked, possibly even several times, I don’t really want to do a little 5 minute dance around it just to convince it to sell things to me.

I also hate having a map that’s virtually impossible to complete. My main has 100% world completion, with a map that’s now stuck on 87% every day. And if you’re willing to sacrifice an hour every day to do the same five kitten harts over and over and over and over again, all the time, every day until Tyrian servers die, then be my guest, but I deem it not fun, annoying as hell and badly implemented all around.

I did enjoy doing hearts on the original map, even though some of them do need finetuning because compared to others, they fill incredibly slow, but having to repeat them over and over again with the same character, losing progress on alts that didn’t finish it in one sitting because their player and handler is an actual human being with work obligations and basic needs like sleep?

NO.

Well, I do see how something like Chuka & Champawat took hours and hours and hours to implement. Pure new content, lots of new assets (which were SO kitten worth it, I just wish they were more… permanent. Like the tiger pair’s ghosts haunting the home instance, for example, to preserve the gorgeous models).

“Old” legendaries, however, mostly used the content that’s already been in the game since launch. I recently did Howler, for example, and the tier 3 spirit journey dragging you across pretty much ALL ghost-related events in Tyria showed me some places I never knew existed in the game. When I wield my Howl (yet), I remember actually playing the game and having fun with it: climbing the desolate owl shrine to the very peak, paying respects to fallen Norn spirits, returning a cherished locket to a slain Vigil soldier, driving Malchor up the cliff for 173rd time…

The mace lacks all that. You have literally the same experience building a bloody legendary item of bloody legend that you have buying a giant pack of skritt merchants. Actually, even grinding gold in-game and buying thing like… let’s say… the Kurzick axe from gemstore with ingame gold only feels more challenging and rewarding and fun, because you can at least freely change scenery at that point.

New legendaries really don’t all have to be as complicated as the short bow, amazing as that one has been. Compared to Astralaria, making Howl was a cakewalk, as the collections are much shorter and mostly use existing content. And still, it was fun nonetheless. Please, bring at least that level of fun back to the legendaries. Make them a journey again, instead of being a rat race.

Unlike Geodes and Bandit Crests, this would be more of a tradeoff. Both Petrified Wood and Blood Rubies can be directly sold for quite some hefty gold, which I approve more than having another useless currency stack, but it could be worked around (e.g. having merchant sell trash items in the same gold value). Indeed, if the trend of new currency item per map continues, this will get incredibly annoying incredibly fast.

After reading the reddit AMA and posting about legendaries, (viewable here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/legendary-weapons/ ), I’d like to offer a bit more feedback on the topic.

On the pro-side, it’s definitely good that new legendaries make it into the game, and Eureka was a nice surprise treat in yesterday’s patch. While I have no interest in making it (since it has a wielding arm effect which is almost certain to look horrendous on charr – my Astralaria still isn’t fixed, thank you very much), I was curious about it at first.

If there was something HoT did tremendously well, it was the precursor/legendary journies. Even though I don’t really like most of the designs, as they mostly range from annoying and blingy to just way too glittery and overly fancy for my gear tastes, I actually jumped into several of the collections just because they were tremendously fun. They dragged players through the most obscure and uknown little places and tiniest nooks. Even I, despite enjoying exploration element, found a few places I’ve previously never seen.

And indeed, when Chuka & Champawat was introduced earlier this year, it offered the best, most FUN journey so far. Even though I have no class to use it on (does anyone really use shortbow these days? It’s only wieldable by two classes, anyway), I wanted to make the bow because it was simply enjoyable to do.

Eureka went in the completely opposite direction. It’s just there, requires you to grind one map currency over and over again and… that’s basically it. That doesn’t really reward you for playing the game, it rewards you for getting bored out of your skull really fast. Possibly the spookiest moment of the whole AMA was the question if ANet is planning to “streamline” past precursors the same way (thankfully, the answer was NO, and I do pray it stays that way, because if the game doesn’t need something, it’s ditching gameplay for MORE obnoxious grinding).

I’m not saying getting legendaries should be easy or cheap (Eureka, by a paradox, seems to be so far, just boring as hell), or that some mat-sink shouldn’t be present: that’s the whole point of legendaries, after all. I also understand that when all assets and models and art are done, holding back legendary weapons for months at a time just to figure out what “journey” to attach to it is not a good solution. But cutting out pretty much ALL of the process besides the grinding part seems equally wrong and pushes the game further into a place I’m personally sad to see it go.

Getting free bling items for ton of currency should be left to the gemstore. I’d like to get something to actually play in the game.

Koceto.6930:

I’m not one of those fans being here from the start of GW1, but from what i hear mursaat are very cunning and deceieing race and the players in the first game thought they are the good guys in the begining so Imo Lazarus just wants our help to kill more dragons so he can absorb more magic and then deal with us… pls excuse my english.

Problem is, literally everyone in-universe knows Mursaat are cunning tricksters, even your player character with their suddenly inexplicable encyclopekittennowledge of a organisation that was up to recently considered nonexistent for some 200+ odd years, and what Lazarus did required no cunning or trickery.

He literally just came up and said “Hey, I’m good, K?” and the commander and Marjory basically just rolled with it. Some of the dialogue even lampshades how silly it is, which doesn’t make it any less hard to digest.

[… lol, the profanity filter has problem with knowledge that spans an encyclopedia]

I agree that the humor is great.

BUT…

Could it be a bit more… let’s say racially appropriate? The lines we got were brilliant in human or asura commander (even though the latter would probably use a bit more… bigger words), charr and sylvari felt weird saying that. Female sylvari basically gave me flashbacks to Commander Shepard on their more whimsical day, not to a race of top age 25, and the so far rather no-nonsensed male charr just sounds like a teenaged idiot. :/

Character inconsistency has actually become rather annoying plague of the past two episodes. Almost none of the characters, bar some exceptions, can’t really keep… not even true to themselves, but at least make it seem they haven’t got insane.

There was Almorra Soulkeeper in the previous episode, who’s gone from the calm, collected and dignified old warhound into a shrieking, hysterical mimsy that was for whatever reason sent to do errand-boy duty that befits a common soldier, not the general of the Vigil.

There’s the constant plague of Caithe, who is consistent herself, but is being treated according to what seems a roll of a dice. People around her, especially the player character, go from accusing her of being shifty to getting all chummy again and back to suspicion. This yo-yo effect thing is even more annoying by being brought up EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. she appears.

Lazarus is mentioned above, but the treatment by Marjory and even the treatment he’s given by others present reeks of plot necessity instead of normal character development.

I mean, as much as I like Rox and Braham, it makes me actually happy they haven’t been around yet, since that allows them to escape unmolested, but please… these things are rather cringeworthy and make the story run as smooth as an agave cactus being shoved down the throat of a slightly worried budgerigar. Even though I genuinely love the new mechanics, the story really does leave a bad taste in my mouth this time around, which, except for that one weird Caithe-centric episode back in LS2, didn’t happen before :/

Okay, to reasess my original thoughts on the new voice: while first episode was sound-mix inconsistent, I thought it would be something that improves, and that I may be a bit biased because I’m simply used to the old voice. But no. The second chapter is just straight out bad. It maybe because some of the most un-charr sentences my charr has been forced to say, or if you focused so much on the tone that you got way off your rocker, but it just sounds fake, stilted, dishonest. Acted. And that’s never a good thing with any acting :/

Not sure what’s different, but ever since the patch, I get some royal performance issues. I run the same settings as last night, there were no updates to my computer or drivers, but the game seems to be choking up. Some assets don’t even load at all, no matter how long I wait. My necromancer shows an empty bar with a 14k number on it, for example.

Morpeth.5318:

Blame Anet, they’ve completely skrewed pvp up, players are flustered and angry, and rightfully so.

“Blame ANet, we’re just going to keep being kittens to other people who have nothing to do with developers whatsoever. We have every right to do that!”

How about we learn some basic human decency and just DON’T.

I love how it’s always “[Insert mechanic that currently gives me a hard time] carries scrubs! Nerf!”

Because when someone beats you, it’s never ever due to your own lack of skill. Why can’t you accept that sometimes, when you lose, it’s losing because the other player is simply better? That never ever happens to you?

Bunkered down on a point our team holds, denying cap, holding my own for over 3 minutes against 3 of the enemy team. Being yelled at after for being useless not-burn-meta with my “kitten staff guard”.

Wolfey.3407:

- knew that caudecus was up to something against the queen (cm & personal story

Except that’s only true for humans. I am a charr. I only went to Caudecus Manor and that’s… how to put it politely. Very plain on actual information.

It’s the same as the uproar against Caithe’s story, actually, possibly even more so. Back then, human-only players were upset story relies on information they haven’t seen. Now they’re not, because they’re a majority.

What I’m saying is: for a human, the story’s good. For every other race, there’s simply no buildup.

Astralporing.1957:

Bellatrixa.3546:

Astralporing.1957:

Maybe, but then locking out said stats behind raids is a problem so big they really shouldn’t wait with introducing any solutions to it. In fact, it should have been fixed long ago.

So far, their “solution” doesn’t help much at all.

I do wonder if part of their logic of introducing the Legendary unbound Guardian in the new map was a way for people who wouldn’t normally raid to experience raid mechanics in a setting that’s not as high pressure as a raid. That way people can learn the basic mechanics and realise that they do actually stand a chance at least at clearing Vale Guardian.

If that was their intention, it backfired, as after the first day i have yet to see a map that is even interested in spawning him, much less fighting him. If it’s going to make average players realize something, it would be that this boss is definitely beyond their reach.

Dungeons and high tier fractals teach you more about VG than the Unbound Guardian. Unbound can literally be done by standing on a rock, pressing one and reading newspaper. Pretty much the only mechanic it keeps is seekers (which people have the annoying tendency to knock into other people, therefore the afforementioned rock), which is an alien mechanic to most. I laughed myself silly when someone called to pull the seekers together so we could all cleave them properly.

Other than that? Green circles do nothing sans the Enrage boon (which, thanks to the scaling, doesn’t really make any difference), blue fields don’t teleport you, there’s no split, no boonremoval or condidamage only, no instakilly ground to stand upon… no. Despite wearing the same skin, this boss isn’t anything like the Vale Guardian any more than Justicar Hablion is Gorseval.

No amount of fair play will make people stop being kittens to one another. Blaming someone else’s poor behavior on the developers is like arresting a teacher for a crime commited by his pupil on behalf being responsible for the crime by giving him poor math grades.

If someone’s an arrogant bum, even the fairest of games will always turn out sour because that’s just the behavior they were enabled and even excused to keep because of the “unfortunate system” developers implanted. Even the match most fair has a losing side, and when you have a moron on the team, they’ll always end up blaming everyone but themselves.

To which, I’d politely call bovine waste.

Reaper Alim.4176:

Zenith.7301:

Being “set up to lose” does not entitle you to throw a tantrum and abuse people.

If you want to win, get a team. No game is under the obligation to hand you possibilities to win as a PUG.

Smite, Dota, Lol, Overwatch, CS:GO even. If you are a solo queuer you still have get way more even Match-ups and players ELOs are displayed in those games aswell. So your noncompetitive point of “I’m a player of a team so just because of that, my team deserves to get free wins being going up against teams that have a much lower overall MMR, is just BS.”

GW2 is the only game that I play out of a bunch that allows for such a things. So yall want free wins against players that are not on a team, then you have to deal with even thing else that comes from such inequality.

I think it’s really sad that you can have a group of so called competitive players, that feel they are entitled to win just because they are on a team. Even more sad when the Devs agree with these players. It makes for a sad and highly toxic community more so then LoL.

Whatever the faults of the system are, none of them give anyone the right to just yell random profanities at people, insult them all the way to their mother’s great-grandmother and downright verbally abuse them.

No matter how unfair the game seems to be at times, no matter how angry you are with it, no matter how much you cuss silently to yourself, going out there and just take it out on whoever you picked as the cause for all evil in the world for that particular match can’t be excused.

Christ, it’s basic manners, people. That’s not that much to ask.

I think inconsistency is more of a problem. At one point, everybody is “WE DON’T TRUST YOU YOU SHIFTY VEGETABLE”, and at another, it’s “Okay we’re chill now. Watching you but chill.”

And it gets brought up all the bloody time.

Huskyboy.1053:

I agree with blocking, but it doesn’t solve the problem in the future. They’re still going to act up, just with different people. Dishonor is a joke punishment, people with behavior problems aren’t scared by it nor should they be. Call me kitten Cheney but I like more severe and permanent punishments, short of banning (which is unrealistic since it takes revenue away from Anet).

But should everyone block them, they’ll be left alone, yelling into the eternal darkness, with nobody left to hear them. Worst punishment for people who love the sound of their own voice, to be honest :>

Zynt.5769:

It’s quite amusing when the person doing the trash talking ends up on the enemy team in another game and you end up steam rolling them though =P

And when you do, they just start yelling how you play the “cheese easy class for noobs” so of course they’d lose!

But fun aside, there’s morons everywhere. Nothing can 100% protect you from them. Except growing a tough hide. And a block button x)

Problem is, the biggest kitten talk tends to happen inside your own team. Disabling say chat just prevents you from being polite, too. Or congratulating the other team to victory well-earned.

Keeping it team-only never protects you from “that one guy” who just sits on the base and trashtalks their OWN people, essentially making the game 6v4.

Just block whoever decides to be a rude kittenblister. Easy as that.

Either/or, +1 for me.
You either get people angry at being forced into the same map over and over again, because majority wants to grind their achievements (which are there for limited time, and once again, we have no clue how long), or you get people with limited time wanting to grind their achievement but not willing to waste precious time forced into an old map 1 person voted for.

Both leads to quitting, both leads to frustration, and if it comes down to that, 10 people leave with a kittenty experience. Ergo, bad idea all around.

Wolfey.3407:

It makes me sad and furious when people state the story sucks or was lack luster because they did not play Guild Wars 1. If you’re that cheap and lazy… Get your WoW butts to the GW1 wiki and read the basic lore…

Guild Wars 2
2
1…2…

Not 2…1..

If you’re going to play 2 you need to understand there’s a 1. So here’s your options:
A. Play gw1
B. Read the gw1 wiki
C. Watch YouTube videos from GW1
D. Suck it up and realize you’re lazy and 10 years late

Be critical of the the story that’s cool… But cut the bs hating the story for being: lazy, late, and ignorant.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Timeline
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Mission
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lore

Problem is, story needs to stand on its own two feet and present itself to anyone as a whole in its linear path alone. It mustn’t rely on you scouring other media, other books or other games. Those can provide tidbits of additional information for the “initiated”, but this approach is basically shivving anyone new in the eye and alienating new players (which goes pretty much against everything ANet was trying to do so far).

And before you start tossing accusations of being a lazy noob my way, I’ve played Guild Wars 1. I know the lore. And I still think presentation of Lazarus and the White Mantle arch was lackluster. I as a player know what bloodstone and Mursaat and White Mantle are (because I’m a stubborn mule and was willing to put up with GW1’s horrible combat, but not everyone is). But for my character to know that with no buildup makes absolutely no sense.

When you see a kitten explosion, the transition to “Oh, right, it was bloodstone exploding” wasn’t on par with a character who lives in the world where White Mantle are supposed to be operating on such low key they’re basically superstition to even most humans, let alone other races. It’s on par with an avid lore-nerd who kept the past half a year eagerly speculating about raiding storyline and where will it go next.

The final presentation of Lazarus is basically “O hey, you knew I was coming, so just keep it short, I’ll be on my way, toodles”, without counting on people who have literally no idea what the hell’s that supposed to mean.

Also, yes, I know Bennet recaps the raid for you, I know another NPC gives you details on the White Mantle, but this was supposed to be a major cliffhanger in a short storyline, that requires investment. Tossing half a wikipedia on someone doesn’t make them invested, knowing isn’t the same as caring.

I know all the lore I need for the plot, yet I still struggle to care. Because for me as a player character, I struggle to find a reason to be invested. Especially since I’m obviously clairvoyant now.

Cultured, smooth, like a merchant or Whispers operative. It’s definitely not the same Pact commander for me anymore. Especially since he seems adamant on immitating Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and keeps swapping voices around between lines. It’s nothing against Lex Lang, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop wanting Ron Yuan back.

But eh, who cares, we’re just charr. They never fix our tails or legendaries, why would anyone care when we protest what we now sound like.

Soundmixing absolutely needs to get better with the voice though. Throughout just the first instance, the voice mutated through about four different versions and it was horrible to listen to – sometimes it was fine, but holy maccarones, sometimes my main sounded like a kitten Nuhoch because the sound editing leaned a bit too far on the “deep and bubbly”.

But yeah, it makes me fondly remember the days of former Living Stories, where all your dialogue was text. -.-

You don’t have to do the story with your alts at all.

And the account bound item stays, it’s not consumed. So even with 12 alts, all you have to do is gather 1000 magic (which is ridiculously easy, just fly around for a while and gobble up the blue blobs) and all your alts have a free instant teleport to Bloodstone Fen.

It just takes a short while and considering the tiny map and nice map rewards (you literally can get map completion in 5 minutes), it’s a good balance.

Dlarnkk.1068:

Actually if you’re a Pact commander, as a PC. You can actually talk to Canach about the ‘White Mantle’ stuff. So technically before they came to Bloodstone Fen. The Pact commander have a silver of information on what’s going on because of Canach.

However you probably just skipped Canach. He was in an episode called ‘Rearch into Rata Novus’, where he stand there near the very end. You should be more observant next time, and communicate with the NPCs around!

I talked to Canach, I talked to Bennet, I actually know the lore and backstory, it just made little sense in the terms of presentation. Lots of rather importatnt pieces are just haphazardly tossed at you.

I realize this is a much less of a complaint point for most, since playing human is the overall meta, I just offered my two cents of someone who mains another race.

Same. Won multiple times now, counted just three times.
It’s more than a little annoying.

Vargamonth.2047:

Changer the Elder.2948:

If you don’t raid, the comeback of Lazarus comes with little ceremony and is literally dumped on your head, with some backup cinematics from Benett and other suporting characters, giving you the Scarlet Wars treatment of “oh, you should know this, if you missed it, sucks to be you”.

It’s not really that different from what you get inside the raid. The cinematic is exactly the same one we got at the end of the second wing, if I’m not mistaken, and any reference to Lazarus comes exactly the same way, scrap papers and some small dialogue entries. There’s probably much more lore about what the white mantle has been doing on those three diaries than in the whole raid.

I know, I actually raid. I finished all three wings, I scoured them through and through. But if I haven’t, I’d have a very bitter aftertaste right now, since the game basically tells you “Oh, and here’s a chunk of story you were too noobish to play, so we’ll digest it for you and tell you all about it,” which is basically literally what Bennet is for.

And I play Guild Wars 1.

Problem for both the raids and GW1 lore is the same. The story literally counts on you already doing both or knowing both, and being human, or at least knowing the human personal story and lore. If you don’t, the key parts of the story are just unceremoniously tossed at you. There is no proper buildup or anything. Especially the introduction of Lazarus is handled pitifully. “Tada, here I am, I know you knew I was coming, so there’s no reason to drag it off.”

People who don’t raid really didn’t know he was coming. People who don’t know Guild Wars 1 lore don’t know why is it such a big deal.

It’s not a problem of the stuff being there, but the way it’s handled. Generally, the story feels a bit frankensteined together. The part with Taimi and Eir and the dragons and magic builds up just nice, but as soon as Alm… whoever that fake cloned charr is barges in and shoehorns the White Mantle in, it takes a sharp detour into a plot that’s just “there”.

As a Pact commander, you basically say “Oh, it’s that dastardly White Mantle again, and they’re messing up with the Bloodstone.” That makes perfect sense for a human Pact commander, since they’ve dealt with White Mantle before, but for an asura? Or a charr?

It’s literally the same problem as it was with Caithe several months ago. The story counts on us having feeling or at least knowledge on something many have never seen.

Okay, rather than founding a topic on partial petty niggles, I thought it may be nice to consolidate.

So first of all: the new fractal is a beast and it melds together all the elements awesomely. The mechanics, the map, the intriguing story; all of that set up the first treat of this patch update. Kudos on all fronts.

Second: The music. It keeps being absolutely on point. I didn’t really expect to hear anything new, but the willingness and talent of your audio team are just awesome. I hope the tracks will be released through some means, be it Soundcloud or an actual soundtrack purchase.

Third: New charr VA. It’s better than I feared, but it still needs some bug catching in the soundmixing department. I think that whoever adds the effects to the voice needs to get used to the new actor, because (especially in the first instance), my main kept mutating between ok – almost indistinguishable from the original – nuhoch – someone with malfunctioning gag reflex. And it’s not exactly considered best manners to start practicing your ventriloquist skills on a funeral…

Fourth: Dragon’s Watch. Eugh. I’ll have to live with it, I suppose.

Fifth: New map is a bit of a one trick pony at the first glance, and it will provide a huge economy boost for HoT owners But then again, HoT provided a huge economy boost for HoT owners, so maybe it won’t matter that much. And hey, the leather market may finally stabilize now the things actually drop from something again.

Sixth: And now for the bad. What. The. Hell. did you do to Almorra Soulkeeper. The wise old charr general speaks like a skritt (fast enough for the actor actually sound slurred because of the syllable tripping) and acts like a bad fanfiction. Seriously, this is not the same Almorra Soulkeeper that has founded the Vigil and let it against Zhaitan and Kralkatorrik’s minions, this sounds like being written by someone who utterly despises the character and gives her a Ron-the-deatheater approach. Considering I’m a charr and a vigil member, that was quite the kick in the gut.

Seventh: Not much replayability. As has been touched upon in another topic here, lot of the storyline takes place in the open map, which can’t be replayed on the same character. Well, thanks.

And finally:

The White Mantle. Dear gods, the White Mantle. Yes, raids are key part of that story, but it’s not the main issue. It’s the same mistake that happened back with the Caithe-past-centered episode in Season 2: You once again count on people knowing the lore when there’s a solid chance they don’t.

Current episode counts on three things: A) You raid. B ) You played Guild Wars 1. C) You’re a human.

If you don’t raid, the comeback of Lazarus comes with little ceremony and is literally dumped on your head, with some backup cinematics from Benett and other suporting characters, giving you the Scarlet Wars treatment of “oh, you should know this, if you missed it, sucks to be you”.

If you didn’t play Guild Wars 1, Bloodstone Fen is an uknown to you, Mursaat is an uknown to you and bloodstone is only known for being trash loot and having no culinary application. Suddenly talking to a Mursaat is not properly explained, there’s some sort of a narrative switch that says “Oh, this should be a big deal!” without telling you why is it such.

And if you’re not a human, then you know sod all about Caudecus and his politics and Shining Blade. For an Asura, a Charr, or a Sylvari, Caudecus may be the name you’ve never even heard, since you pretty much only meet him in the Caudecus Manor story instance, and Dungeons are not fixed part of the story, just a recommended one. White Mantle, you really don’t meet at all, since that’s all human personal story territory. My charr legionnaire being up-to-speed with all intricacies of human politics (enough to give even me a headspin, and I know my lore quite decent) just sounds wrong, stupid and shortsighted.

Overall: good patch, sizeable new content, but that royal kick in the head in the story department, butchering character voices and the long wait for the next chapter are just too much for me to be content with it. The latter, I can live with, but please, could we do without the other two next time, thank you -..-

Well, if ANet removes that, you’ll just start geting what most of us get any time we open a black lion chest: A transmutation charge, another transmutation charge and an enchanted combat booster.