Guild Wars 2

Had a discussion with a friend yesterday evening and one of the things that we spoke about was this issue. Neither of us liked the Saturday evening resets! I would really like the reset to be changed back to Friday evening, somewhere before prime time EU. So basically the way it was before.

And thank you for finally listening to the community.

Thanks for posting it in here as well.

The last article I wrote on my site is about my personal wishlist for GW2 in 2016. I thought it might be nice to post the WvW relevant part in here as well. Have fun reading.

So what would I really wish for Guild Wars 2 in 2016? Maybe weird, but ever since the release of Heart of Thorns and the introduction of the new Desert Borderland I’ve had countless of moments in which I was really looking forward to go into World vs World later that day. I had those brief visions of running to North Camp, running from Citadel to Garri, or just running past Henry Trevor III, scouting at bay or a nice fight at Hills. I guess I really miss the old borders and I would so much like to be able to play in them as well. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the new Desert borderlands, I can even see that it has potential, but it’s not the border I love. I think this is what I really would wish to see in 2016 above anything else, being able to play WvW in that old dusty border I just love, the Alpine borderlands.

For World vs World as it is now I hope I can get the fun back in this game mode. I would like to be able to run around in air keep, under influence of my Endless Pink Quaggan tonic and then just go skydiving, popping my Black Featherwingglider, just in time to land on the back of that random Dolly running to keep. Or getting that new Endless Pink Dolphin tonic to swim around ehhhh…. that small pool in the Oasis maybe? Hmm maybe not the best of ideas though.

Back to being serious now. I really would like that fun back in WvW, and I guess that’s not just for me, but for so many other people as well. That’s what I would like the most, seeing more people having fun in WvW fighting with and against each other. Some of my thoughts:

An improved borderland: More room for large fights, better strategical placement of the towers (northern ones should be vital for Garri defence) and waypoints in T3 keeps (for both mobility as well as a reason to fight or defend).

Better balance: No more classes/skills that are extremely OP and yes they should be balanced with a focus on WvW (so seperate from PvP and PvE). An end to the Pirateships, ranged and melee should be balanced as well. Stability Change! Make stability work on duration instead of stacks (but maybe not stackable, have skill matter). Guild Upgrade system: Smaller guilds should be able to get them as well. Banners have to become more balanced, to powerful at this moment.

Elite specs: Automatically unlocked upon entering WvW and being able to play any character how I want to, without having to grind the hero points first. WvW has much more to do with account progession than it has with character progression, I can play all my guards on an equal level, even on a level 15.

Rewards: Have some special WvW only skinsets for weapon and armour for instance, becoming available after every 500 rank up level, or some WvW collections that require some rare WvW only drops that can be sold on the TP, it would be a nice way for WvW players to get. Any reward that is available through both PvE and PvP should be available through WvW as well. All of the non-exclusive drops in PvE (both pre and post HoT) should be a drop in WvW as well. I don’t want WvW to turn into a grind area, rewards have to be balanced, but it would be so amazing if I could reach my in game goals by playing what I like most.

Mastery Lines: Something similar to the PvE mastery lines (maybe gliding) and PvP reward tracks. Gradually working trough the lines, achieving special rewards (dungeon tokens or the unlock of a special WvW skill) as well as bags/chests filled with PvE loot and random WvW consumables/siege.

Thanks for reading it

Sinbold.8723:

Non-HoT players wouldn’t be able to glide on the new bl’s, which would give HoT players an advantage. I’m sure Anet wants to avoid that.

In my opinion game changers like these should be available to anyone entering in WvW (and yes, I also think this should be applied to the elite specs in WvW only).

One way to implement it is through making it a part from a WvW mastery line, but that probably will split the player base as well (unless Anet decides that WvW actually can be treated as a third game mode instead of a PvE/PvP mix).

This is something I would absolutely love to see happening (but my excuse for a falling death would be gone haha). Would spend so much time gliding in the borders <3.

Maybe remake that center event so the side controlling it gets access to a platform from where you can glide out of the Oasis (with some tweaks so you can’t glide into Garri F.I.)

Thank you for this post

I really agree with a lot of things you wrote down. I also really hope that ArenaNet will fix it the best way possible (a tricky one for sure).

The map itself is beautiful, but it lacks a reason to play. Towers are not strategically placed, T3 keeps still won’t have a waypoint (worth defending), there are no real places to have good bigger fights, way to many chokes and elevation levels and not enough mobility throughout the map. As for the Oasis event, it’s to OP and laggy. I like the idea behind it, but it could be worked out a lot better (damage one gate, give some reward and done. It can be a nice spot to have small scale battles, but have smaller groups benefit from it as well).

The changes with the guild upgrades are just to much. It costs a lot of gold (most WvW players don’t have) to get the basics. Especially for smaller guilds it will be difficult to benefit from them because it’s really hard to get the buffs (even for small guilds that had that +5).

One thing I really think ArenaNet hasn’t put enough attention to is rewards. I never played WvW for the rewards because winning (or losing) fights have been the rewards for me for years. But with improving the rewards I think a lot of non-WvW players (new or veteran) could get a reason to start playing and falling in love with the game mode. I really wouldn’t like to see it turn into a karmatrain/rewards mode, that would be awful, but there are other ways. Gold/Silver/Bronze rewards per matchup, Reward Tracks, extra chests per cap/xxx kills, and rankup chests that actually matter. Introduce WvWv only weapon/armour skins, improve the rewards so everyone can achieve most of the GW2 stuff within WvW (legendaries requiring more f.I., sure, but everything available in PvP also available in WvW).

Rewards could even help population balance, give people a reason to go to low bronze (new and vets). This would need a solid player base of course, but it’s not impossible.

So many things that could work for sure

I wrote down some things on my website about WvW again. If you are interested I really can only say read through them, because they are pretty elaborate (it’s also a long read, four articles) and not as one sighted as this short post I’m writing here right now.

The thing that has been lacking from WvW as we know of are the rewards. Just keep in mind that those people that do love WvW, that have been playing for so long already, actually don’t care about rewards to start with. Fighting, scouting, achieving what you want to, have been the rewards for so many people for years already.

The idea I’m having is to improve the way rewards work in WvW, serverbound WvW, so not EotM. Three levels of WvW only skins for armour and weapons, some of them easy to achieve, some on a ascended/legendary level, or close to it (so you will need to play WvW to get them, not farm things or hop in WvW every day). They can be bought or found by playing the game (through random in game drops) or bought from merchants for a lot of Badges of Honor. WvW never had these, the only specific skins or rewards where the ones you could buy after the tournaments (no need to changes those though). What if there would be a reward for playing WvW every week, the rank you server managed to achieve after every matchup. You can have a Bronze, Silver and Golden chest (dependant on your placing). It will contain some RNG but also some chances for WvW only gear/trinkets/weapons/collections/legendary. It won’t make any difference for people that love to play WvW for the game mode, their friends, but maybe it will for people that never have ever touched WvW.

Just take a look at the matchups as we know now. There is actually no reward at all for people playing, sure you won the matchup but that’s it. With a reward system tied to your placing in every matchup, winning the matchups does matter. A lot of new players would drop in as well, end up being 1, 2 or 3 and get some amazing rewards you can’t find in PvE. It won’t take long before those new players will find out why people like to play WvW (without any rewards). People who used to join the server that is always winning (No 1) can now also go to lower level servers, because they can win that matchup as well, with that golden chest as a reward.

As for population balance, I really think improving the rewards would be a solution as well. In the above I explained why rewards and a weekly matchup reward might work in the future, in here I will explain how it could be used for the population balance as well.

Most important is that ArenaNet manages to get the core population of people more or less in balance. There will always be people leaving because they are done with the game, but there also should be plenty of new players joining, weather it’s the next Xpack or just advertising the game in various ways. If this ground layer population is there, so people leaving as well as people joining the game, it’s a good time to look at a way to arange those people evenly on servers. Just bluntly saying you go join this or that server won’t work imo. People will always join that server where their friends are playing and that is the way it should be. You should play the game with people and friends that you like to play the game with. As for new people that don’t know any players in game, guild groups or groups of players that are lookin for a new server or just that single person that wants to join a different community the following could be of some importance and a way to make the best decision possible.

First of all, don’t forbid, but discourage people that want to join high tier servers, make them having to pay gems to transfer, just like we do now (maybe even something similiar for new players joining, somthing that discourages them, but not so much that they can’t join their friends on those servers). Encourage people to join the lower populated servers, no gem costs and actually a reward for joining that server. Maybe even adding some sort of title (ehhh...) for people, especially new players, who join the lowest servers (something like Emergency Aid, Volunteer or First Choiche, just an idea).
Have the rewards vary from some sort of chest (the ones you get from the matchups outcome as well) and some unique skins for transfering to or chosing medium or low populations. These unique skins should be the WvW only skins, but definetly not the highest tier of them. The highest tier ones should be earned on the battle field, not by transfering down (medium tier is questionable as well).

Down below I listed how it could work. The rewards are for both transferring as well as a reward for a new player. There should also be something to prevent players from transfering every week just for the rewards or joining the winning servers (maybe allowing one free server change per month and 1 reward every three months).

Server status: Gem cost: Rewards:
Full 1800 None
Very High 1000 None
High 500 Bronze chest of the Mist
Medium 0 Bronze chest of the Mist + unique skin
Low 0 Silver chest of the Mist + unique skin
Very Low 0 Golden chest of the Mist + unique skin

I really think that this is a solution to the population problem, without doing something rigorous like destroying communities that have been around for years, and just aiming for the players themselves to fix the problem. And rewards.... All of the people that have been playing WvW for a long time know that the reward is in the fight, and not in actual loot, but I also think this is the reason why ArenaNet has underestimated it’s value in WvW. With improving the rewards in WvW you can actually fix some of it’s core issues as well as atrackt new players to this game mode.

Another thing I really think is needed people (and ArenaNet) start to realise is that World vs World is a completely different game mode. It’s not a mixture between PvE and PvP, it’s a third one: WvW. This really has to be one of the main reasons why and how things happen in WvW. The balance of skills and traits shouldn’t be “does it work in PvP? PvE ok? Do it.” No, it should be balanced in all of the three game modes. “If they run with fifteen of those they will wreck everything. Hmmmm, so let’s redo it for WvW only”, just an example. Balance the skills seperately from the other game modes. I know nothing really matters in PvE, but in PvP and WvW it’s important that that core balance is there.

The elite specialisations? I absolutely understand why they implemented it like this. It’s an extra layer of character progression, just as masteries are. I also really don’t mind having to play the characters to unlock their elite.... in PvE.... But for WvW it’s just not the right way. I play some of the classes for one reason only, in WvW, to know how they work, to learn how to counter those classes. I like it, it’s fun finding that way that will work against, knowing their rotations, their positioning, the way they can be implimented in a group setup etc. Right now I can’t do it, unless I spend a lot of time leveling those classes I don’t like to play through PvE, which I don’t mind occasionally but not for a sole reason of understanding how that class works in WvW (and for real, no one will figure out the classes through PvE, the game modes are just to far off). So the trait system including the elite spec just really should be unlocked upon entering WvW.

One thing I actually didn’t write down in my articles is this one. The idea of alliances is not that bad at all, but you have to consider that the servers as we know now are alliances already. People that have chosen to play together in benefit of their server. So many of the great ideas regarding alliances can be implimented in the server system we have already, absolutely, but I don’t think that it would be wise to just break up all of the alliances we have already. A rigorous efford in rebalancing the servers, allowing free transfers every now and then f.i., is an option but there still has to be a reason why people would transfer to lower populated servers. Just changing the name from “Server” to “Alliance” is not something that will adress and solve the core issue of population balance.

https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/12/05/some-more-wvw-feedback-1-rewards/
https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/12/05/some-more-wvw-feedback-2-poplulation-balance/
https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/12/05/some-more-wvw-feedback-3-solution-to-population-balance/
https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/12/05/some-more-wvw-feedback-4-elite-specs-and-class-balance/

Swagger.1459:

EylanaE.1579:

Swagger.1459:

EylanaE.1579:

First of all, for constructive feedback take a look at these links, you’ll find plenty from my perspective:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/How-Heart-of-Thorns-affected-WvW/first#post5809441
https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/wvw-after-hot/

As for this mega servers thing, it’s safe to say it would ruin the way I love to play this game.

What really bothers me is the word “Server Pride”. For the majority of people it hasn’t got anything to do with server pride (and even if it does it’s fine). It has everything to do with a servers community, the people playing. Over the years these communities have grown to be pretty organized, website and ts. When playing on a server you get to know so many people, not just your guildies, but also the pug commanders with the regular players, the guilds, roamers, scouts and you even get to know your opponents.

This is the strength of a server based model imo. Because people know each other they will fight together, not for PPT, but to help each other. And every server needs them all, public commanders, pugs, fighting guilds, ppt guilds, roamers, scouts and new players eager to learn.

Any mega-server like idea will destroy these communities. And to be honest, it’s the only thing left that has some importance for me as it is, WvW wise.

As for population balance? How about fixing the core issues WvW is suffering from first, that way there might be some population left to balance.

You will absolutely love megaservers and come back to these forums praising the devs! You’ll meet more like minded friends, have more peeps to play with regularly, get more rewards, have more fights, run lots of tournaments…

Wut???? It seems like you’re really contradicting yourself now. You have repeatedly asked for constructive feedback on WvW, which I gave you. Also the reasons why this megaserver idea won’t work imo. And this is your answer? Sorry, you lost track of your posts in here.

I also would like you to respect mine and other people’s opinions, because your reply shows you have no idea how a constructive discussion works. Worse it also shows you have no idea what this discussion, that has been going on for a while, is all about.

I provided s lighthearted response to your question. Feel free to read any of my other posts because I’m not going to repeat the same things over and over per person. If you are that interested in my responses then by all means scroll through the thread.

????

Swagger.1459:

EylanaE.1579:

First of all, for constructive feedback take a look at these links, you’ll find plenty from my perspective:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/How-Heart-of-Thorns-affected-WvW/first#post5809441
https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/wvw-after-hot/

As for this mega servers thing, it’s safe to say it would ruin the way I love to play this game.

What really bothers me is the word “Server Pride”. For the majority of people it hasn’t got anything to do with server pride (and even if it does it’s fine). It has everything to do with a servers community, the people playing. Over the years these communities have grown to be pretty organized, website and ts. When playing on a server you get to know so many people, not just your guildies, but also the pug commanders with the regular players, the guilds, roamers, scouts and you even get to know your opponents.

This is the strength of a server based model imo. Because people know each other they will fight together, not for PPT, but to help each other. And every server needs them all, public commanders, pugs, fighting guilds, ppt guilds, roamers, scouts and new players eager to learn.

Any mega-server like idea will destroy these communities. And to be honest, it’s the only thing left that has some importance for me as it is, WvW wise.

As for population balance? How about fixing the core issues WvW is suffering from first, that way there might be some population left to balance.

You will absolutely love megaservers and come back to these forums praising the devs! You’ll meet more like minded friends, have more peeps to play with regularly, get more rewards, have more fights, run lots of tournaments…

Wut???? It seems like you’re really contradicting yourself now. You have repeatedly asked for constructive feedback on WvW, which I gave you. Also the reasons why this megaserver idea won’t work imo. And this is your answer? Sorry, you lost track of your posts in here.

I also would like you to respect mine and other people’s opinions, because your reply shows you have no idea how a constructive discussion works. Worse it also shows you have no idea what this discussion, that has been going on for a while, is all about.

First of all, for constructive feedback take a look at these links, you’ll find plenty from my perspective:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/How-Heart-of-Thorns-affected-WvW/first#post5809441
https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/wvw-after-hot/

As for this mega servers thing, it’s safe to say it would ruin the way I love to play this game.

What really bothers me is the word “Server Pride”. For the majority of people it hasn’t got anything to do with server pride (and even if it does it’s fine). It has everything to do with a servers community, the people playing. Over the years these communities have grown to be pretty organized, website and ts. When playing on a server you get to know so many people, not just your guildies, but also the pug commanders with the regular players, the guilds, roamers, scouts and you even get to know your opponents.

This is the strength of a server based model imo. Because people know each other they will fight together, not for PPT, but to help each other. And every server needs them all, public commanders, pugs, fighting guilds, ppt guilds, roamers, scouts and new players eager to learn.

Any mega-server like idea will destroy these communities. And to be honest, it’s the only thing left that has some importance for me as it is, WvW wise.

As for population balance? How about fixing the core issues WvW is suffering from first, that way there might be some population left to balance.

First of all I wrote this post on my own website: https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/wvw-after-hot/
I explained in there in what way Heart of Thorns has affected WvW imo. It’s not just about the map, but mostly about how WvW players in general are affected by the changes to the mechanics of WvW. It’s a long read, so I’ll try to explain some of my main concerns in here. It’s also not my intention to be negative about WvW, but I do want to share the concerns I’m having at this moment. I also posted this in the constructive feedback sticky, because I really think it’s important the core problems of WvW after HoT gets solved.

In WvW before HoT I was usually raiding with my guild, 10-20 people, mostly fighting other even sized or larger groups either in open field or scrims. If needed we would go help defend, cap or switch borders. When not running with my guild I was either following a commander doing the same or sometimes just roaming or scouting a bit. Never really went to EB, to blobby, or EotM, to much EotM. I really had a lot of fun in the borders. Running around looking for open field fights, scrims or fights to defend structures. Sometimes just roaming with a small group, capping camps, scouting a bit and always joined in the fights over a Bay, Hills or Garri with a waypoint.

With the Desert borderland and the changes in game mechanis the way we used to play WvW has changed massively. I basically just run to places where might be some people to fight (and I basically mean running because they are hard to find), getting walls pop up in my face, searching for routes to go up or down, and most important, fighting against the lag). Commanders are hard to find and usually it takes to long to get there, so I just leave.

There is less room for open field fights, less need to cap, defend or scout, less random encounters. The only thing that hasn’t changed that much is karmatraining a border with a full zone blob. Also something that really is a problem atm is the lag. The game is absolutely laggy when fighting, if the Oasis event is up its even impossible to just run around without lagging insanely.
The map is to large, design flawed, structures to far apart, no reason to defend T3 keeps with waypoints, and if Garri is contested you can just recap instead of defending. That Oasis event in the middle requires you to kill PvE creatures, just so you can grab that thing and give it to a NPC, all of this in the middle of to much lag. It’s also way to overpowered at the moment. A large group will have no problem doing the event, but they won’t have any problem capping all the structures anyways. The smaller groups (I really do see potential in there for small scale fights in the center) won’t benifit at all from the laser thing.

There is no need to defend a T3 Bay or Hills for a commander to tag up (especially outside of prime time), people jumping in looking for some action will leave because of no commander, so even less need for a commander to tag up. Roamers will have to much time searching for other roamers, so they will play less as well. Scouting and upgrading basically has been removed because there is no need to anymore (besides who should a scout ask for help when there’s no one running on the maps?)
There is no need to cap camps or escort dollies, cause the structures will get upgraded anyways. There is also no need to cap them to stop an enemy objective from getting upgraded. So roaming around is not so much fun after this.

The buffs usefull in WvW are locked behind upgrading the guild, which involves a lot of time and gold, and is basically impossible to achieve for smaller guilds within a reasonable timespan (and don’t forget the smaller guilds are the ones benefitting most of these upgrades).
I never played WvW te expect loot or wxp, the best rewards have been the fights and the thrill of (almost) winning a seemingly impossible battle like outnumbered fights or a threeway at Garri. It would have been nice if the rewards were buffed a bit, and maybe even special WvW only skins or drops.
I really don’t like how the elite specs are working within WvW, the only way to get them is by ranking up, wich again means the best way is to start karmatraining and capping things (not by doing what I like to do, which is fighting). Those chests you can switch out to your other characters, but the proofs are soulbound. Both my main characters already have the elite specs fully unlocked, with the others I’m forced to run around in either PvE or WvW (and hoping that I will rank up enough again). This also goes for the double classes I have, all of my guards need to endlessly grind them.

So what will I be doing if it stays like this? I’ll probably still go to the borders (because I still don’t really like EB) but not for as long or as often as I did before. I already find myself playing more PvE than before but I also tend to AFK in Lion’s Arch or just not be in game at all.

Some up of the things I think will be needed to fix WvW:
Get rid of the lag
Focus on fights, take the playstyle of all of the different types of WvW players into consideration (pugs, guilds, roamers and scouts), it’s not a PvE map and people only joining WvW occasionally shouldn’t be the ones WvW is designed for.
Downscale the size of the map, make it so that the towers actually are worth it strategically, less verticality and chockepoints, remove the gimmicks like earth walls and turrets.
Change the auto-upgrading system: Have dollies actually count, player interference needed and waypoints at T3 keeps.
Change the Oasis event rewards: Just have one gate downgraded, a buff like the old Bloodlust or just a big chest in the center.
Redo the guild upgrades, make +5 one of the easiest accesible upgrades.
Change the way the elite specs work. Either have them unlocked completely when entering WvW or at least make those chests stackable or the proof of heroics accountbound.
Redo the reward system, improve the quality of loot (not just blues and greens in rank up chests), have a few seperate skinsets only available in WvW (buyable with badges) or some rare weapon/skins that only drop in WvW.
Having the Desert borderland in rotation with the Alpine border and maybe a new map might help a bit as well (as long as the problems above are also adressed)

First of all I wrote this post on my own website: https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/wvw-after-hot/
I explained in there in what way Heart of Thorns has affected WvW imo. It’s not just about the map, but mostly about how WvW players in general are affected by the changes to the mechanics of WvW. It’s a long read, so I’ll try to add some of my main concerns to the questions listed.

•Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

Usually I was running around with my guild, 10-20 people, mostly fighting other even sized or larger groups either in open field or scrims. If needed we would go help defend, cap or switch borders. When not running with my guild I was either following a commander doing the same or sometimes just roaming or scouting a bit.

•Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

In EB I basically only joined the commander there. Never really liked the map, so I didn’t go there that often.

•Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

An hour spent in the new border is basically just running to places where might be some people to fight (and I basically mean running because they are hard to find), getting walls pop up in your face, searching for routes to go up or down, and most important, fighting against the lag (almost unplayable at some times).
Commanders are hard to find and usually it takes to long to get there, so I just leave.
Roaming or scouting is not fun, to much running around and there is no real need to defend the keeps, no need to save the waypoint f.i.

•Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

First of all, builds are not so much affected by this map (the examples above are just situationally and will stay like that), but they are affected by the elite skills, revenant and rebalancing of the classes. This is something that has been done before and will be done afterwards as well.
What this new map has changed is the fact that now there are just almost no fights to be found, so it absolutely has changed the way we fight but ehh….. There is less room for open field fights, less need to cap, defend or scout, less random encounters. The only thing that hasn’t changed that much is karmatraining a border with a full zone blob.
Also something that really is a problem atm is the lag. The game is absolutely laggy when fighting, if the Oasis event is up its even impossible to just run around without lagging insanely.

•In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

I never focused on capping objectives, not something I really like to do. What I have noticed is that at this point it’s easier to cata down a wall than ram an upgraded door when you run with not that many people. Also a lot of the guild upgrades to WvW are locked behind improving a guild hall. This means that to get for instance a +5, you will need to have a large guild, focused on upgrading the guild. But the larger guilds could also just run with more people to have more suplies. The smaller guilds and groups benefit most from this upgrade, but for them it’s impossible to achieve.

•How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

I never played WvW for loot or wxp, the best rewards have been the fights and the thrill of (almost) winning a seemingly impossible battle like outnumbered fights or a threeway at Garri. The best way to get loot and wxp was by playing the way I don’t like to play, wich was karmatraining in EotM or just run around capping things. As for loot the best way is to go to PvE.
I really don’t like how the elite specs are working within WvW, the only way to get them is by ranking up, wich again means the best way is to start karmatraining and capping things (not by doing what I like to do, which is fighting). Those chests you can switch out to your other characters, but the proofs are soulbound. Both my main characters already have the elite specs fully unlocked, with the others I’m forced to run around in either PvE or WvW (and hoping that I will rank up enough again). This also goes for the double classes I have, all of my guards need to endlessly grind them.
And no, don’t think I can get all of my other goals through playing only WvW, it would be nice to have a realistical chances of crafting ascended, but for legendary weapons etc. it’s totally fine having to do other things as well (it would be nice having some skins and drops only available in WvW though).

•How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

Due to the size of the map and the lack of waypoints most of my time in the borders will be spent running around. The value of a Waypoint on Bay or Hills (not to mention Garri), was so important basically the full map would go there to defend (and even call out for aid to other borders or EB). Also the value of both North Towers is gone with the new map. Before they were actually really important strategically, now they aren’t.
There is no need to cap camps or escort dollies, cause the structures will get upgraded anyways. There is also no need to cap them to stop an enemy objective from getting upgraded. So roaming around is not so much fun after this.
The PvE event in the center is something I do to get rid of the lag. It’s also way to overpowered at the moment. A large group will have no problem doing the event, but they won’t have any problem capping all the structures anyways. The smaller groups (I really do see potential in there for small scale fights in the center) won’t benifit at all from the laser thing.
So in the end I will spend less time in the borders than I did before. After we’re done raiding I either quit the game or grind some masteries in PvE.

•In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Get rid of the lag
Focus on fights, take the playstyle of all of the different types of WvW players into consideration (pugs, guilds, roamers and scouts), it’s not a PvE map and people only joining WvW occasionally shouldn’t be the ones WvW is designed for.
Downscale the size of the map, make it so that the towers actually are worth it strategically, less verticality and chockepoints, remove the gimmicks like earth walls and turrets.
Change the auto-upgrading system: Have dollies actually count, player interference needed and waypoints at T3 keeps.
Change the Oasis event rewards: Just have one gate downgraded, a buff like the old Bloodlust or just a big chest in the center.
Redo the guild upgrades, make +5 one of the easiest accesible upgrades.
Change the way the elite specs work. Either have them unlocked completely when entering WvW or at least make those chests stackable or the proof of heroics accountbound.
Redo the reward system, improve the quality of loot (not just blues and greens in rank up chests), have a few seperate skinsets only available in WvW (buyable with badges) or some rare weapon/skins that only drop in WvW.
Having the Desert borderland in rotation with the Alpine border and maybe a new map might help a bit as well (as long as the problems above are also adressed)

•In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

It’s confusing. A large map where you should be having large figths but you can’t find people to fight with or against. If you see one of those commander tags it takes a while to run there, if you can find it at all. There are not enough people around to help you getting to know the maps and or the different WvW playstyles (and the servers communities and TS). This is a missed opportunity because new players will not get the chance to know that what kept me in WvW for years, a great battle system and amazing communities.

•In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

First of all read the above concerning the map, that’s the same for a veteran player new to the map. But veteran players will miss the old borders a lot. They will see there are less people, but also less reasons to play. The map is to large, design flawed, structures to far apart, no reason to defend T3 keeps with waypoints, and if Garri is contested you can just recap instead of fighting. That Oasis event in the middle requires you to kill PvE creatures, just so you can grab that thing and give it to a NPC, all of this in the middle of to much lag.
No need to defend a T3 Bay or Hills for a commander to tag up (especially outside of prime time), people jumping in looking for some action will leave because of no commander, so even less need for a commander to tag up. Roamers will have to much time searching for other roamers, so they will play less as well. Scouting and upgrading basically has been removed because there is no need to anymore (besides who should a scout ask for help when there’s no one running on the maps?)

•Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?
Probably still the borders (because I still don’t really like EB) but not for long. I find myself playing more PvE than before but I also tend to AFK in Lion’s Arch or just not be in game at all.

DSD stands for Deep Sea Dragon. It’s the only Elder Dragon we don’t really know a lot about. I’m actually hoping that we will learn more about it soonish tho.

As for the Personal Story, it’s roughly the same on every character. Of course races and choices do matter, but in general it’s kinda the same. You could replay all of those for all classes and stuff, because there are hints you can only find in those specific situations, but I find it a bit to much to replay it all the time.

The thing with the lore of GW is just that it is really complex and everything is connected one way or another. Every time I think about one thing I’ll start thinking about other things, so I know the feeling there, I’ll try to answer your questions as far as possible tho.

Did Morde awaken when the Sylvari did?

No, he didn’t. Maybe he started stirring a bit when they awoke, but the actions of Scarlet (using the Breachmaker to hit the Ley Lines) was the reason why he really woke up. In Season 1 and 2 the story of Scarlet is told, so it’s really a good idea to take a look on the interet, there are some really briljant video’s and posts about it. In short it’s basically that Scarlet Briar was a briljant young Sylvari called Ceara, who always had these terrifying nightmares. At one point she finds Omadd’s Machine, and sees the Eternal Alchemy. After that she emerges as Scarlet and starts being the bad girl of the game. She creates the Aetherblades, Toxic (a combination of Krait and the Nightmare Court) and Molten Alliance, events happen like the Tower of Nightmares you witnessed the remains of in Kessex hills. She destroys Lion’s Arch, tries to reach the Ley Line underneath Lion’s Arch with the Breach Maker but we get to kill her. All of this is in Season 1, so you can’t replay it anymore. In Season 2 we learn a lot about the reasons behind Scarlet and we find out she was corrupted by Mordremoth, see what she saw in Omadd’s Machine and a lot more.

Why can’t dragon minions get taken over?

At this point in the game we are starting to learn things about the Elder Dragons, but there is still so much we don’t know. All of the Elder Dragons have their own Spheres, we found that out during the events of Season 1, in the Eternal Alchemy. So this means that every Dragon is different from the others in it’s essence, it’s magic if you want to call it like that. This is also why all the dragon minions are bound to one dragon, because the magic that is affecting them is different then the other dragon minions types.

If Zhaitan is truly dead (confirm?), can’t Morde now take Risen and turn them into Risen Mordrem?

If you play trough the Personal Story you will defeat Zhaitan yourself in the final instance (did it like two months ago o.o). If this means being defeated for ever or returning after thousands of years is something we simply don’t know yet. But because of the answer above, dragon minions being totally different from each other. So the Jungle Dragon Mordremoth will have it’s own minions and is unable to take over the undead minions of the Undead Dragon Zhaitan.

Can Dragon Champions (a la Scarlet) gather minions of their own, or are they bestowed? If they can self gather, can they theoretically take the power place of an elder dragon?

So far I haven’t seen a Dragon Champion gather their own minions, most (if all) of the corruption seems to come from the Elder Dragons themselves. We still don’t know enough about the Dragon’s to know everything tho and one of the things that are just really intriguing is Glint. She was one of Kralkatorrik’s champions, who was freed from it’s corruption by the Forgotten. With all the things revealed in HoT about Glint’s egg I do find it a posibility that the egg will be raised to become another Elder Dragon, but that’s just speculation of course.

Since Elder Dragon’s are not born and are thus MADE, does killing them serve any purpose other than buying time?

Nothing is known about wether or not Elder Dragon’s are born or made. As far as we know they have just always been there, awaking, feeding on magic, going to sleep in an on going cycle, keeping balance in the magic level of the world. At this point “We” feel we need to kill them to prevent the world from disaster, but no one knows what is going to happen after we defeated them. Maybe the total amount of magic in the world will be to much, so we will actually cause a bigger problem by killing the Dragon’s than we would have by not killing them.

Hope this answers your questions a bit

As a new player to the game I can imagine the lore to be quite confusing. There are some things you need to keep in mind. There is the Personal Story (Zhaitan is explained in there), Season 1 and 2 (explaining Scarlets story) and now the HoT storyline (Mordy). But the lore in those is not something explained completely, a lot is open for discussion and speculation, some things are explained but other things are just hinted at (sometimes even hints given by NPC’s). A lot comes from the lore in Guild Wars 1 or found in the books written for the game (love Edge of Destiny myself).

One of the things I really like about the game is the Living World. From the start the ingame world has been changing all the time. Updates, new storylines, special events have happened during Season 1 and 2. The events of Season 1 happened in the world itself, events like the Destruction of Lions Arch or the Twisted Marionette happened in when we played those weeks, changing the world permanently. You can’t replay these events, but there is a lot of info about it on the internet. Season 2 is mostly instanced, just like the Personal Story, and you can replay these when you purchase Season 2.

In the link below you can already find a nice sum up of what happened during the Living Story.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World

Also Krait are not related to Mordy. They are a race that lived in the Unending Ocean, until the Deep Sea Dragon made them leave their homeland. Just like the Karka, Quaggan and Largos they fled for this Elder Dragon.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that I decided to create my own website. Next to a really busy real life there are two things I just love doing, which is writing and playing Guild Wars 2. With this site I found a way to combine the two.

I’m going to write about almost anything I enjoy in this game, wether it’s a review of new content, a preview on any special event or just overspeculating something that got my attention I’ll write it down here. I am also planning on writing some things about established lore, just explaining the known facts and what it means for the game.

I hope you’ll have as much fun reading as I’m having fun writing these things.

Fearan

https://eylanae.wordpress.com/

If you want to read about my first hours in Heart of Thorns, you can find it here.

https://eylanae.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/heart-of-thorns-is-finally-here/

There are a lot of changes you can do with your character (total make over kits etc), but some things are difficult to get done for sure. Just simply changing the name of your character will need a Name Change Contract, a lot of gold, but worth it for those extra special ones.

A race change is something that is a lot more difficult than a name change, personal story wise mostly, so I definitely don’t think that is going to happen. IF it’s going to happen (and I really don’t think it will) it will cost a lot of gems and I don’t think it will be worth all that.

Best thing to do is keep that character, if only for the birthday gifts and world completion, and just create a new one. Buying a new character slot will be a lot more cheaper than the money needed for a race change AND you will keep your anniversary stuff (really worth it for sure).

Just for your info I levelled the my first, third and fourth character mostly with tomes of knowledge, because I didn’t like the class/playstile etc, really happy with the third year gifts tho.

Just get another slot

If you look through Trueclaws dialogue lines, she no where specifically says there where six races fighting the Elder Dragons, you are right there.

But the overall conversation, to me at least, is enough to seriously doubt the generally accepted theory of five races. In fact she no where states there being only five, only that we know of five races (who left their legacy to be known to us, ánd who weren’t somehow politically erased from history, Tome of the Rubicon for instance).

I do believe there is a connection between the races that fought the Dragons last time and the playable races we have right now.

What for me is interesting that there are in game hints of there being six races that fought the last time (Scholar Trueclaw http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scholar_Trueclaw). It’s been a while since I came across that btw, but I’m still pretty intrigued by it.

Six spheres, Dragons, Gods etc. Six races fighting sounds a real possibility to me. Right now we have only five playable races, but there has been quite a lot of speculation about six playable races. If you look at the conversation of Scholar Trueclaw, he says something like five races that survived to tell the story. Could very well be there’s not going to be a sixth race, cause that would mean killing 1/6 of the players characters during the final event against the Dragons.

Of course there should be a new race stepping up there (Tengu imo). Lots of stuff to speculate about.

It’s really not easy to give a thorough response about the way this event ended up happening. I really love just this regular update you guys did. Some sort of prelude to HoT, really, really love it.
But the event itself is not working for a few reasons, and that has got everything to do with, how can it be different, loot.
Right now the only rewards you get are the ones you get after playing the whole event cycle, and that only is adding to the small stock you have to actually buy something nice from the vendor. For example, I’ve had quite a lot of time to play today, but only got 80 of those thingies, and I can’t afford spending this much time over the next few days to get to the 450 i need for the thing I want.
I can imagine you did this so you won’t make it easy, but really… There is no random reward, anywhere, no matter what you do, no random blues, greens, spikes or whatever. I think those bonus rewards could make a difference.
So I think the balance in rewards should be taken more into consideration, it really ads up. And as for the events like this, just keep them going, just a bit more balanced

I really was trying to stay clear of anything regarding this topic, because I just don’t like the negative attitude of some people (NOT the people that are just critical, or waiting for more information, can definitely understand that). But I just want to share my view on it, and it didn’t feel right to just post it into one of the threads where people were already being toxic to one another. So, just to make it clear, you can disagree with me, have a different vision of the topic, but just let it be constructive.

I’ve read a lot of people wondering if HoT would be worth it, because the things they revealed so far was not as much as they were hoping for, or worth the money paying in advance. But, tbh, when I bought the game I didn’t know what I would be getting for that money either. There was just the first world, no Southsun Cove, Wintersday or the Living Story. And it turned out to be so much bigger than what I initially expected.

The stuff they have revealed so far are nice, absolutely, but it’s not a new game (how could it be, it’s an expansion). But to me it shows they are just redesigning the game, to match the standards they would like to see in its future (and they could easily go for an easy solution like GW3). And I like that idea, all of us will keep then progress we made in this game, but at the same time experience the benefits of a new game. And releasing future expansions would be so much easier based upon a solid foundation.

When I first realized there was going to be an expansion I just couldn’t link it to the stuff I saw during the Living Story. Of course I knew Mordy was involved, and the direction that would bring us, but I dunno. For me things like Glint, Turai Ossa and the ascension markers actually made me convinced we were heading into a different direction, namely the Crystal Desert, Ascension, maybe even Elona. I still think that is a direction the game can go to tho (that, or Cantha, with Bubbles and Largos and stuff).

With all the Living Story episodes we’ve had so far and the things I saw and experienced, I just can’t believe it’s just about the things were getting initially. I think we will see a lot evolve around the Living Story, new lore, Maps maybe even a lot of new expansions coming. Who knows, we could go to Elona, Cantha or just unfamiliar territory in the end.

It actually has been crossing my mind a bit as well. I know the personal story has got nothing to do with the class you play, but I feel not changing something to it would be just a bit off. Even with the living story seasons it felt (on new characters) as if you were just reading the same book for the tenth time or sth.

Now, with HoT coming it would definitely feel like Been There, Done That. When creating any new class you would have to defeat Zhaitan, but at this stage, with HoT, it’s just to much replay. Zhaitan is a part of the history of GW2 now (unless some unexpected plotchange would show up).

It would actually be pretty nice to have a new personal story line, that evolves around Mordremoth, and guides all players that have HoT towards its basic story line. Maybe an addition to the PS, or just a total new line (remind me to finish my PS soon btw). But I definitely like the idea, and if they really are doing with HoT what I hope they do, it won’t be that much of a surprise to me

Hope you all enjoyed reading it, just wanted to share it with you as well.

Thanks for reading

Fearan

All of this just has to be connected, it’s so adds up to each other. But let’s just take a look at another thing that is actually really important in the Story Line, the Eternal Alchemy.
Now, if you don’t remember how it looks, here’s a picture.

eternal alchemy.jpgeternal alchemy.jpg (7.84 KiB) Viewed 4 times

There have been a lot of people that have connected both the six dragons and the six human gods to this picture, but it also makes a lot of sense if we would be missing another race. Six races to fight those dragons. It looks like 6 is a major theme thing through the story of Guild Wars.
I also found out that the Eternal Alchemy is not just the thing the Assuran believe in, because Ogden Stonehealer refers to the Eternal Alcemy as the All.

“Ogden Stonehealer relates the Eternal Alchemy to The All, but considers the asura’s attempt at quantifying it to be the wrong way to look at it – that by trying to define it, they actually understand less and less of it.”

It struck me, because could this have something to do with Alain, that Al’Seen prophet? But just think of it, it so makes sense. Ogden Stonehealer was one of the dwarves that went trough the Dwarven Transformation, only he stayed on the surface. What if that ritual was actually the Dwarven equivalent of becoming Chosen or ascended? It actually could for real, just let me explain that one a bit, but I will be jumping to another race we know of (one of the races people thought may have been one of the playable races for Guild Wars 2), and I’m talking about the Tengu.

Now the Tengu have been an interesting race for sure, because there they are safe in their Dominion of Winds, where no one is allowed to go and they don’t actually come out of it often. They even sealed the door to Lions Arch shut after Scarlets invasion. But why? A lot of things I wrote before have a lot to do with Ascension, becoming one of the Chosen. Now you would think the only way to reach that state would be through this path, found in the Crystal Desert, but this is actually not true. And I will just put some quotes in again.

“The attitude of modern tengu towards spirituality is unknown, however the Canthan tengu of old believed in an afterlife, which they called the Sky Above the Sky. A sect of tengu were known to have guarded the Celestials during the Canthan Trials of Ascension, meaning defeating them was necessary to become Weh no Su, but their connection to the mainstream tengu belief system is unknown.”

“Weh no Su means “to be closer to the stars” and is the Canthan equivilant of Ascension. One achieves this by fulfilling the trials of the Celestials and the Oracle of the Mists, currently Suun. The location of these trials and of the Oracle of the Mists moves periodically, requiring one to seek out the Oracle’s adepts to find out where he currently resides."

“Becoming Weh no Su allows one to see the spirits of the dead, even if they are hiding from mortal eyes, as well as becoming capable of entering the Realms of the Gods and learn new secondary professions.”

Interesting. I also found this fun trivia thing about Weh no Su:

""Weh no Su" may be inspired by “Zi wei dou shu”, a phrase used in a form of Chinese fortune-telling, which means “The Destiny Path” or “Fate”."

That phrase sounds familiar to me as well. It looks like the Tengu will be playing an important part as well, cause they are connected to ascension as well.

So this brings me to my final thought of today. What if it’s all connected to the Eternal Alchemy, or the All, as Ogden Stonehealer calls it. It almost has to be I guess. Six dragons, gods, races. Could it be that there are even six ways to reach ascension? There are two ways to become it without any doubt, becoming a Chosen or Weh no Su, but I’m also pretty convinced that the Dwarven ritual is one of those ways as well.

All of this is opening up a lot of ways the storyline could unfold in the future, and I already know how I would write the story of Season 3 for sure.

Postby Fearan » Sun Jan 11, 2015 6:42 pm

I stumbled upon some interesting about the Dragons. Last time we fought the Dragons there were five races we know of that fought them; Forgotten, Seers, Dwarves, Jotun and….. Mursaat.
And I have the feeling that history could actually be repeating itself. Because if you look at those races and the ones we know of know its obvious to notice that Jotun and Norn are strickingly similar, and the dwarves and Assura as well. The forgotten/Seers resemble Human/Charrs. That would leave the Mursaat and the Sylvari, wich would make the final pair.
Here is an interesting part of my theory, we all know that the Mursaat betrayed the rest, what if the Sylvari are actually going to betray us as well? And it could happen if you look at my thoughts about the Sylvari.

When I shared this with some people, one of my guildmembers mentioned something amazing. He was convinced there were actually six races fighting the dragon, not just five. He remembered this scholar in the Durmand Priory.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scholar_Trueclaw
And this guy has some amazing dialogue going on. I’ll just quote the most interesting part here.

“Jotun, mursaat, forgotten, seer, dwarf. Five against six. It seems so unfair. And, yet…”

AND

“It’s accepted that there were five sentient races who fought the Elder Dragons the first time and survived. I’m studying them and looking for hints among their relics to how they did it. Only five races? That we know of. This was a very long time ago. I’m afraid none of them are coming forward with helpful information. We have the dwarven Tome of Rubicon, but it has been changed over the years. Changed how? Through copying and re-copying as the physical material of the tome degraded with time, I would imagine, though other, more political factors may have played a role.”

AND

“I have to sound smart all the time. Though, I’m learning a lot. I found out that there were five sentient races that fought the Elder Dragons the first time around… and survived to tell about it”

Now this is getting interesting for sure. There were actually SIX races and not FIVE that fought the Dragons, and this makes so much sense to me, but more about this later.
Another interesting stuff lies in him mentioning the dwarven Tome of Rubicon.

“The Great Destroyer has been cast down into the Depths. Never again shall its name be uttered, lest it rise up and bring ruin down upon the world.
— Tome of the Rubicon”

Is this Great Destroyer the dwarves believe in, actually a different way to describe the Dragons. How about their Deity, The Great Dwarf?

“when the Great Dwarf still walked on the world of Tyria, he used Anvil Rock as his forge, and at another time used the Anvil of Dragrimmar to forge weapons with the strength of the Dwarven people and shields as unbreakable as their collective will. Ages ago, the Great Dwarf battled against the Great Destroyer and in order to defeat the creature, stole its name and sealed it within the Tome of Rubicon. It is also said that when he left Tyria, he traveled to the Great Forge that lies within the Rift and currently rules there.”

“Legends tell of an anvil of great power called the Anvil of Dragrimmar. Some say it was used by the Great Dwarfhimself. Upon its face he forged weapons with the strength of our people and shields as unbreakable as our collective will. There’s no doubt the Anvil of Dragrimmar exists, but whether it truly belonged to the Great Dwarf… that mystery may never be uncovered.
The Great Forge is the realm of the Great Dwarf and the afterlife for the Deldrimor Dwarves of the Shiverpeak Mountains. It is similar to the other afterlives, and is said to exist somewhere within the Rift and is connected to the Hall of Heroes.”

“The Rite of the Great Dwarf, sometimes referred to as “the Rite,” is the ritual performed by King Jalis Ironhammer, utilizing the Hammer of the Great Dwarf and the magic hidden within. It is the key component in the event that would become known as the Dwarven Transformation, where the Deldrimor Dwarves were turned into living stone in order to fight off the Great Destroyer and its spawn."

And I’m just quoting here, because this all is just so easy to find on the Wiki’s. But there is also something to be found about that Tome of the Rubicon that is just absolutely breathtaking for real. And I’m still so in shock that this is actually in there, and I’ll just quote it again:

“There is a river in Italy called Rubicon. Its significance comes from the phrase “Crossing the Rubicon” which means crossing the point of no return."

OMG CROSSING THE POINT OF NO RETURN!!!! And yes this deserves caps for real.

“Read the tablet. I. Live life well and fully, and waste nothing. II. Do not fear difficulty. Hard ground makes stronger roots. III. The only lasting peace is the peace within your own soul.
Continue reading. IV. All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed. V. Never leave a wrong to ripen into evil or sorrow. VI. Act with wisdom, but act.
Continue reading. VII. From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you.”

These two people that are major plot figures of Caithe’s story turn out to be connected to my main thoughts as well. The Mursaat, Chosen, Ascension….. But her story was already connected of course, she is focused on the eggs of Glint. And Glint is, I think, a major connection to the Ascension/Mist related things (and I think these are the main reason why it all could be true). The same goes for that mysterious wall, only in the trailer it has the Ascension Runes in between the dragon like things.

But how else could all of this be connected? I just really think that it has something to do with the sylvari, more specifically the gap between the first and the secondborn. You would think it’s just about the difference between the nice sylvari and those of the Nightmare court, but I don’t really think that is it. Could it be that the first and secondborn sylvari just have a completely different mindset? They are different, you can see that in this episode. Also Cadeyrn is mentioned, and he was the first of the secondborn, the one that established the Nightmare Court to be freed from the Ventari tablets influence. What is so important in that small piece of text? From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you. ? Or is is “The blossom is brother to the weed.”? Could it even be that the sylvari and Mordremoth are actually related? Is it that the firstborn are maybe under Mordys influence, cause they follow the tablet? Why did the Pale Tree say WE needed to take care of the egg, and not Caihte? She is a firstborn afterall, and so is Wynne. And Faolain tries to persuade Caithe, i’m sure of that, but is Faolain being the bad guy here, or does it just look like that? Mysteries all over the place for real. And how about the Wynnes secret? It’s the egg for sure, I don’t doubt it, but why? This Ronan guy, he found the seed of the pale tree in a cave somewhere, so I think it might be this cave. Could Caithe want to bring the egg there? But why (again)?

There still is a lot uncertain to me, but I will try to find out if I can find some more connections.

by Fearan » Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:19 am

Replayed the last living story episode to see if I could find something about Caithe’s story, and I’ve found some nice hints. And the true hints are really just a few again I think. Just a quick summary of it (ok maybe not really quick here).

At the start we are in the Grove and we meet the Avatar of the Pale tree, she is dying (is the Pale Tree dying as well?), and she says that WE are the ones that should take care of Glints seed (not Caithe). She gives us some memory Seeds, so we can retrace Caithe’s steps in the past.
The first memory seed shows us the Grove. Basically it shows us that there is a gap between the firstborn and the secondborn, even though they are all Sylvari they don’t seem to be the same. Also we see that Faolain is there, the leader of the Nightmare court (and those are not nice Sylvari imo) and she is talking to Caithe about Wynne and about something that would give incredible power. Another interesting thing here is the mentioning of Ventari, but more about him later.
In the next part we are going to the Inquest, the Asuran bad guys basically, and they hold some newlyborn Sylvari captive there. And I really get the impression that Faolain is actually trying to persuade Caithe to follow the wrong path, but I could be wrong there. Some things that are interesting is that Faolain said “I think Wynne is guarding an important secret. No one should control our fate.” and also that “I know she does. She said to Mother. “They can never know. It could exert unspeakable power over all sylvari. I must know what that power is.””.
In the final part we are going to the Silverwastes to search for clues about Wynne. Wynne has been searching for clues about Ventari (but Faolainn has no interest in him at all). At the end of this part we reach a dead end. A wall with two dragon like images upon it. The same wall we see in the trailer, only there it has the ascension runes in between those dragonlike things. Back in the real world, we show Marjory this wall. And what does she say? Basically Let’s go to the Durmand Priory, so i can investigate it further (again, just like in the trailer).

A lot of interesting stuff here for sure, but I’m not totally sure that I’m making the right connections right now, and it’s getting late, so just read the rest and keep it in mind.

Something that is mentioned a lot in this episode is Ventari, and I actually only knew the Toy Ventari, from Wintersday, but that guy, or centaur is actually amazing. He was a centaur elder in the Maguuma Wastes. He fled to the Tarnished Coast and, together with Ronan, planted the seed of the Pale Tree and founded the Grove. He also wrote down some things on the Ventari Tablet, but more about that later. Do you remember the small town of Ventari’s Refuge from GW1? He used to live there cause all of the planting the seed with Ronan actually starts in GW1, and this used to be here, in the region of Dry Top and the Silverwastes.
Now Ronan, he is an interesting character as well. Remember that he lived 250 years ago, but he was actually a member of the Shining Blade, the soldiers fighting the White Mantle and the Mursaat.He left the Shining Blade cause his family was murdered by the Mursaat. Interesting, the Mursaat connected to Caithes part of the storyline as well.
Now this Ventari Centaur wrote down some of his thoughts near the end of his life in the Ventari tablet, and these things are kind of amazing to read.

Ok, an update already (I just finished writing it yesterday o.o), but ArenaNet has published another teaser picture, just as the ones they did before.

Again, at first glance it looks like we are going to fight Mordy. What do we see here? We see the airships flying towards the sun to fight that dragon and a nice piece of text that says “There is no turning back”. Nice, we thought that would happen, right? We are going to finally fight it and we just cannot stop because we need to fight it, right?

Well, I actually don’t think so. Just take a better look at it, cause what do we really see?
Easiest to spot is the ground beneath the airships and I see mountains, forests and even a lake there, not what I would expect if we are heading towards Mordremoth. This doesn’t look like what I would expect the Maguuma wastes would look like at all.
And I’m not sure if I’m looking at the sun there, it’s a bit large, could it be the impact glow of a massive explosion as well. And that blue light in that airship? It looks like the same glow coming from the ghost from the trailer our ghostly hero (and you all read my thoughts about that guy). And finally, just reread that text there “There is no turning back”, and just take that literally, we cannot go back.

There is no turning back because our homes are destroyed maybe? Will we be trapped there? Maybe we didn’t join in the fights, what I originally thought, but it could also be that we did join. That blue light, if that’s the Ghostly Hero, he might even be our saviour. Maybe he guides us to the mists, through Ascension? He is supposed to live there according to the lore (Maybe we even get to see Rytlock again in the mists, cause I think he is there as well).
Interesting again, and they are doing a nice job keeping me excited for sure.

But how can all of this be connected to the Living Story? Cause during the storyline we have been going in the opposite direction so far, towards Mordremoth in the northwest and not the Crystal Desert in the southeast of the map. Completely the wrong direction for sure.

Let’s just think about it a bit, and this all is going to be purely speculation, what if WE are not going to fight Mordremoth?
What if the gathered troops of the pact would go into battle with Mordremoth, but we would not join in the fight? Imagine something going terribly wrong there and the world we have known so far in-game would actually be in terrible danger, and the Ghostly Hero, Turai Ossa, would be there to aid us and he would turn out to be that hero from legends that will return it’s people to the Crystal Desert? And what if we would be pushed out of those territories and we will reach Elona Reach, a point of no return?

I’m absolutely not sure about this all, and I can actually be completely wrong here, but it does sound intriguing. And, don’t forget, this is something that is massive enough to be announced during a major event as PAX South as something like setting up a new framework how a MMO can grow. And just imagine the impact it could have. Not only opening up new content, but also the things connected to chore game mechanics.

It would be amazing…….

Fearan

The other two interesting things are actually related to each other and to Glint, the dragon from one of the previous LS episodes (and this is an important part of Season 2 lore). It’s the bright runes we get to see and the very short part in which a ghost appears.
The runes are without any doubt three of the Ascension Runes, from some missions we did during GW1 (and funny enough, one of them is Elona Reach) in order to reach that state, meet Glint and become one of the Chosen. The ghost is open for discussion, because it’s such a short frame and difficult to see him good enough, but he immediately felt somehow familiar to me. A lot of people think it could be the ghost of Prince Rurik (which could make sense considering Rytlock carries his sword), but I don’t agree. I’m actually convinced that this ghost is the Ghostly Hero who aided us through this same mission from GW1.

These two images, I think, directly point towards ascension. Ascension is one of the basic game mechanics in Guild Wars. It’s impossible to type all of it down but there is a lot about it to find in the GW Wiki. I will just show you something that is really interesting relating to GW2 and it’s future.

Ascension is described as a state of communion with the Old Gods. Among other benefits, those who succeed in attaining it are able to travel through the Mists, and with the right help can unlock hidden reserves of power. As well as being masters of their primary chosen heroic profession, Ascendants are able to grasp, to an extent, elements of all the other professions.

Ok, it’s not really that much that is written here, but if you look at it close enough you can see the enormous impact this could have. Communion with the Old Gods (Ritualists could do that). Travelling through the mist (o.o like we all know, the mists is where we can find our PVP arena’s, our borderlands, Eternal Battleground and even Edge of the Mist, in WVW, so could it be?). And Ascension is also one of the gameplay reasons why people could master two professions. Have you thought about our ascended gear and weapons, also related. This Ascension stuff could explain a lot of changes they might make, maybe? And there really is a lot more about this to learn, but I will leave it with this.

I do want to tell you more about the Ghostly Hero. He was our guide of course, but before that he was Turai Ossa, the guy that defeated Palawa Joko in Elona, the first ruler of an united Elona since the Primeval Kings. In the end he guided his people to the Crystal Desert to find Ascension. He died there, but he turned into a ghost and ended up being the one helping us reaching that state of Ascension.
When I read all this about Turai Ossa it made me think I of something I’ve had read somewhere on the wiki, but it took me a while to find because it was in the GW2 wiki. In the Gladium Canton in the Black Citadel, you can find Alain, a self-proclaime prophet, who has a really interesting dialogue.

Stop. Approach no further. You’re in the presence of the Al’Seen. Show him your respect. What’s wrong with you? The Al’Seen is perfect in every facet. He needs nothing and is nothing, and yet, he is everything! Enlighten me, deluded one. What’s an Al’Seen? It was prophecied over three hundred years ago: an Elonian, long from home, living beneath steel, would rise and lead his people back to the Crystal Desert. So, I’m guessing you think you’re this great hero? Perhaps there’s hope for the heathens who plague this metal monstrosity. When the moment arrives for me to lead my people home, I may allow you to travel with us. You’re aware the Crystal Desert is barren, right? The Al’Seen will make it fruitful again. All will bow to me, be it that pretender Palawa Joko or the Elder Dragons. The Al’Seen will be loved. The Al’Seen will become the ultimate.

Al’Seen? I can’t remember them, but I do remember the Unseen Ones, the Mursaat. They were the ones we needed to fight back then, and the reason why we needed to become one of the Chosen. Very interesting for sure, and I cannot stop thinking our Ghostly Hero might be the one mentioned here.

This is basically some stuff I wrote for my guild, so I’m just going to copy paste it here. But I really think it would be interesting. Just for your info, i’m not sure about all of this, but most of the facts are actually from the Living World itself or the Guild Wars 1 and 2 Wiki.

And there will be a lot of possible spoilers, guesswork and stuff like that o.o.

I’m just copy pasting it, cause i actually don’t feel like rewriting it all. And it’s a lot of text to read as well, so enjoy it.

Fearan

Postby Fearan » Thu Jan 08, 2015 9:08 pm

Next Tuesday will be the release of the next Living Story Season 2 episode, that might be the final one for this season. As usual Arenanet has given us a nice trailer to get hyped up about it, and I have to say it is working for me so far. And it’s all about some tiny hints they put into the trailer that, I think at least, could open up some amazing possibilities for the future of Guild Wars 2. There is going to be a lot of speculation here and I hope you guys can keep up with me .

Here is the link to the trailer for those of you that haven’t seen it yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US3iSXm333I

A lot of things in this trailer is about the pact preparing for the final battle against Mordremoth, events in the Silverwastes and Caithe. But for me these aren’t the things that are actually really intriguing, for me the amazing things are basically some small parts of this trailer. And those little, and at first unimportant parts could imply so much for the future of the game that I just have to share it with you guys.

Some other things, not related to this trailer, are also interesting to mention. The first being that Guild Wars is celebrating it’s tenth anniversary this year.
The second is the announcement of one of the main stage acts of PAX South 2015 at January 24th, (south.paxsite.com/schedule/panel/guild-wars-2-beyond-the-point-of-no-return), featuring both the president of ArenaNet as well as the Guild Wars 2 game director for 1 hour and 30 minutes of main stage time to discuss

how we’re setting up a new framework for how a MMO can grow its universe. The Living World was just the beginning.

Interesting! And for some reason I cannot imagine those guys going on a stage to talk about a next feature pack or just a season three like the ones we had so far, so it should be something impressive.

So lets just start with the first of the things that is so interesting, the text that they put in that trailer :

When your world is threatened you must preppare. You can study your enemies and rally your allies. But then, you will face a decisive moment. You will reach a point of no return.
POINT of NO RETURN JANUARY 13TH

One of the things that is so obvious, is the constant repeating of the Point of No Return, but so far no one knows what that point of no return actually is going to be, but it sure is a promising sentence and I guess everyone has noticed that one.
The sentence that really stands out to me in this text is “You will reach”. I just always read “Elona Reach” after it, silly right? But I even did it the first time I read it, so just keep it in mind a bit.