Guild Wars 2

Hey,

I just now noticed that there is an issue with the website localization. Having a german IP i have no way to read blogposts / news in english anymore. While the switch for that is gone for a while, altering the URL (de->en) worked until now. While annoying, now not even this works anymore since the website apparently checks and “fixes” it to be german again.

For the forum, the language switch remains thankfully, but if you choose to go back to the main website after switching to english here, it will result in 404 because the parser puts both the en and the de tag into the URL.

May english speaking people living in central europe PLEASE get english news back…? Thanks.

While i generally really appreciate the strong female leads, i too missed a strong male lead, someone like Canach originally was but with appealing looks. Why is it that even like this only the guys get Kasmeer as eyecandy and we go empty.

I’ll chime into this for once. My story is similar. I was a GW1 fan back in the day, Arena Net convinced me to truly believe in them. So my boyfriend and my followed announcements, played Beta and Headstart, etc. For the longest time i find myself defending GW2 and Anet for what they are doing here. I had so much faith in them to disregard any critics. Over a year ago, they started living world.

It was an exciting concept, although it started to feel a bit “meh” right away. Fix sign posts. Wait again. But this was GW2 and Anet. They sure would do something great. The Waiting Game started, and for longer than a half year by now it’s every patch the same. Wait 2 more weeks until finally we get meaningful content and answers. Aw snap not this time but in 2 weeks. Oh wait, this was recap, but in 2 weeks. Repeat for months.

The anticipation built up until the finale, the updates got better. Content seemed to build up. LA was attacked. The FINALE of over a year in 2 weeks… was a complete and utter lackluster once again. I had more fun fighting the Marionette 20 times in a row than Scarlets annoying Hologram. And what answers do we get? In 2 weeks epilogue. sigh

Now, the epilogue is done and over with. A story instance with 5 minutes dialogue that didn’t deliver anything of what we waited for for over a year. My final faith is gone. What is this? This instance could have easily been added after the defeat of Scarlet, you can’t tell me this needed months to make as well like other updates. Not to mention that it was more hints at the NEXT story than an epilogue of the season 1. So you tell me we have to wait more… again… well i stopped believing the wait ever ends. And it’s frustrating and sad beyond belief, being a huge fangirl of GW2 since always. I simply lost my faith by now.

And no i don’t complain about the content being temporary at all, but everything so far was dissappointing steps into a questionable directions, and there was more than enough time to really improve on that. It seemed they did, but the end showed otherwise.

By now, it saddens me to agree with the critics. We’re in 1.5 years of the game, and what they delivered was no expansion style updates. I much rather would have paid for an expansion than get this living world lackluster and minor features /qol updates that should have been in the launch.

About the bugs, i do get that you have priorities, but whoever thought it was a good idea to scrap the 2 person dialogues while the PC isn’t able to talk needs to seriously rethink this. Not to mention graphical glitches that just shout “non-polished” and cheap fixes without any sense. Let’s take the removal of the waypoint after the spiders in Arah P2 for example. It does pop up after you defeat the abomination. So yeah you get 2 waypoints after this boss. Makes no sense whatsoever. Doesn’t adress the annoying mechanic of the golem that is worse than dying 20 times trying to skip it. Doesn’t adress that oneshot mechanics are never ever ever ever fun for anyone ever. Doesn’t adress the ridicolous amount of CC most mobs have while retaining high dps and a healthpool of 200 players. But i guess i should be thankful, since those spiders make my mesmer or my thief vital to the party, contrary to most other instances where you’d want a warrior.

Enough rant. Despite everything i ever believed i lost my faith. Nevertheless among the MMOs GW2 is still the best there is right now for a lot of reasons, this however isn’t one.

Ofc only they know – i can accept scarlet thinking she does the right thing, but not fathom she actually does /o/ not to mention that if they make her die a matyr for something good and erect a permanent statue in her memory they will kitten off most people. xD

I don’t know @Bau Bau – i have a few major concerns about this and reasons for my crazy idea /o/

1) Scarlet would know people kill other dragons, she has to actually burn present tyria to the ground while enabling herself to survive AND fix the balance. Otherwise the pact would go kill some dragon and nothing comes out of this. As you said that’s chaos again. I don’t think Scarlet would plan this considering she is meant to be super intelligent – too big the chance to fail. Or you mean she wanted to be sealed, being the loser in all of this? Idk…

2) I think everyone neglects to consider that they used a Metronome to deliver the poem. Why a metronome? There are hints throughout all the world that all religions are somehow intertwined (however lorefriendly to gw1 that is is not point the discussion though). Something true and something twisted to every single “religion”. All play together in a symphony of harmony and balance though. Just like Tyria itself. So Tyria is a symphony, races, gods and everything are instruments playing their tunes to create it. What is a Metronome? Time itself.

3) I personally like to think the linked tapestry of devotion is a retconned nod to events before GW1 we will now see. Yes it’s retcon, but it would be quite cool i guess. If you’re going to do it you might as well do it in a fun way.

Lastly, that male asura will simply help us to follow her into the past imo

I’ve been tryin to speculate crazier the past few days for the simple reason it can’t be what it seems to be – that would be too obvious and logical. So while trying to find other things, i saw that…

http://de.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1v96de/an_old_artwork_by_daniel_dociu/

and suddenly everything got crystal clear. I basically saw the eternal alchemy
Scarlet saw that the dragons are a needed evil to balance magic – without them Tyria drifts into chaos. There is no chance to survive against them if you aren’t allowed to defeat them either (balance etc.). So the only option would be to stop the dragons from the start – cancel out “excess magic” so they never awake. It’s not that far fetched that scarlet found a way to time travel. We also know her marionette in lornars pass is just a test. So here is what happens

Scarlet uses the thumpers to suck energy off the leylines in order to jump back in time. It’s the only way she can stop the destiny of sylvari and overcome the seemingly insurmountable challange of balancing (see What Scarlet saw). If other Sylvari knew their destiny is to create inbalance in magic, they’d wake up screaming from the dream. So thump thump time to jump. You get it.
Where to travel back to? Isn’t it obvious? Excess magic was handed out by Abaddon back before he fell. Scarlet goes to the Fall of Abaddon – not his defeat in Nightfall mind you, but before that – where she would try to take down Abaddon before he could screw things up. Maybe she tries to absorb his power much like Kormir did in order to survive while tyria burns later. To defeat him she uses the marionette – devoted to become the best, learn the most and free herself from the chains of destiny.

I suppose the player will somehow stop her before she succeeds, maybe with “toxic magic” like against Zhaitan, making her dissolve painfully across time and space as we travel back into present without her. Nonetheless her thumping woke primo and we get Tengu and fight him with them buuuuut – in the next Arc.

Simple and crazy enough?

here we go

Environments:
The Wizards Castle – A permanent zone added, full castle interior with the wings and mobs described above. After the 4 weeks of living content the castle remains there, although it’s a magic research center with friendly NPCs and a wing for the Durmand Priory and either the elemental of Isgarren or Verata himself to meet – while still keeping access to the Legacy Shards, for everyone who completed the Meta as part of the LS. For every account that has not yet done this story (or explicitly states at the asura lab in garrenhoff they want to redo it) the whole story stays as if it just went live as part of the LS, so there is no temporary content but permanent change. (Also a POI in the castle)

Characters:
Voill – (New!) An Asura Scientist most curious about Mursaat Technology.
Verata – A twisted but not fully evil character from GW1, Necromancer.
Garren/Isgarren – An evil former student of Verata, using everything for his own advantage.

Aftermath:
1) A new magic hub and accessible Wizards Castle that can incorporate future magic research stories aside from the durmand priory.
2) A way to relive events like the searing, Old Yak’s Bendand the Death of Verata from GW1 without throwing them into fractals but as story instance. (I personally like fractals but it would be weird to introduce them as fractals yet again – beside I like the idea of a powerful wizard making you relive his history, and in order to get the key you have to do what he did. Now it sounds like Assassins Creed… but you get what I mean)

The Events continued:

Purging Fire: (Instanced)
As the searing comes over Ascalon, young Garren is taught by his Master Verata. Considering the benefits of the chaos, the two lay out plans on how to obtain permanent minions. Verata wants this for Necromancer Minions, while Garren is more focused on using this technique on all kinds of spells to make them permanent. Question to solve: Does Garren support Veratas efforts or undermine them?

Progress at all costs: (Instanced)
Garren and Verata go to Yak’s Bend. Garren kidnaps people to test on them, but disguises himself as Verata, who is then kicked out of the “Order”. Enfuriated he confronts Garren. Question to solve: Does Garren apologize or flee?

Change of Management: (Instanced)
Garren knows of Veratas “Wizards Tower” in Kessex Peak. Since he cannot use Veratas Research without his resources, he meets Zaishen Operatives to set out a bounty on Verata, his former Master and Mentor. In the Battle, Garren watches as a Hero slays Verata. (There is a hint at this being an old relative of the player). Afterwards Garren moves the Tower and founds the village of Garrenhoff, using the essence of Veratas permanent undead spell to stop his own aging process. He leaks info about how to keep necro minions permanent to the general public, since he doesn’t care much about it anyway, and he is considered good after it. Question to solve: Does he use the soul of his wife Isabel or son to power the spell stopping his aging

Recent Studies: (Instanced)
Now proclaimed Master Wizard Isgarren invites villagers of Garrenhoff to experiment on them under premise of them being apprentices, turning them into permanent elementals using old Mursaat Soul Batteries. While he tries to make them bound to his will, it does not yet work, so he sends them back down to the village, where they apparently do all they can to help the villagers. Question to solve: Does he have regret or not?

Facing Evil: (Instanced)
Entering the center with the 4 keys we finally face Isgarren. It starts of as a generic battle while after about 50% of his HP we protects himself with a barrier. In order to defeat him then we either have to use his soul battery against himself, charging it with cultists he spawns (5 times each taking 10% away) turning him into a Bound Permanent Elemental that has to protect Garrenhoff, or we summon Verata, who takes away his Barrier and helps in the Fight. After Isgarren is defeated, Verata absorbs his soul, staying alive. Verata promises to protect Garrenhoff from now on, and tell you that justice is served, and the ancestor of the Player who killed him is forgiven by what we did today.

last split i hope

Since i am personally interested in the Wizard Castle/Wizards Tower/Floating Tower etc as well… my take on it (idk if it was done before, i took a lot of time to write and format it)

Legacy of a Dead Man

The Asura detected an Energy Spike not unlike one caused by Mursaat Technology the Inquest fiddles with in Kessex Hills. As it is traced back to the floating Castle of one Wizard Isgarren, the Arcane Council decides to set up a small Laboratory in the Village of Garrenhoff to observe the Events in Secret.
The Head Researcher Voill and his Krewe discover readings off the charts soon, and ask the [Player Order] for assistance. In an effort to build up prestige, the Order sends the best they have to help investigate this curious incidents – The Player.

Achievements:

• Legacy Unveiled – (Meta – 50 Points) Complete 5 Achievements of this Event (Mini Verata)
• Phoenix – (5 Points) Complete the Legacy Shard “Purging Fire”
• Prodigy – (5 Points) Complete the Legacy Shard “Progress at all costs”
• Puppeteer – (5 Points) Complete the Legacy Shard “Change of Management”
• Poltergeist – (5 Points) Complete the Legacy Shard “Recent Studies”
• One flew over… – (5 points) Take a dive jump from the Asylum Wing
• A kind of magic – (10 points) Turn Isgarren into a bound elemental. (Title: Mad Scientist)
• Nemesis Redefined – (10 points) Summon Verata in the final fight. (Title: Deadly Avenger)

Events:
Take place in a small zone like the Tower of Nightmares, which is the Wizards Tower. It has several Wings filled with various cultists, crazy test subjects (citizens), elemtals, undead minions. There are four keys from wings one must obtain in order to enter the center of the tower, to meet Isgarren himself. Every Key is locked with a magic shard. In order to obtain it one must relive the “Legacy Shard”, living history in Isgarrens footsteps, doing what he had done. (One branch each right and wrong)

Too long so i had to split it :/

I like the idea, especially considering a vendor for that. It would be great to see some form of cultural armor/weapons that race makes for another race. Like Norn design for an asura, or charr design for a human, etc.

It could be…

• a good “gold sink” like cultural armors are already
• a good way to introduce such armors (non coat medium options cough)
• a symbol for unity amongst the races now against the next elder dragons

For clarity: Not just strap X Cultural on Y Race. Unique design elements for another race is the key.

In that regard it would have been nice to have ranks in the orders as titles, not unlike sunspears, but… other topic.

I both agree and disagree – let me explain :p

I love dark nights from an RP perspective, and it would be truly awesome if nights could be like the dark JPs or (for more perspective) the dark forest in the snow fractal. Put torches and magical lights at streets and paths, give players a possibility to light their way with torches or somehow without losing a weapon slot, etc. One could even improve on that by reducing free running sentient mobs at night and have more wildlife.
However, as much as i love the idea of this others would be annoyed by it. I guess the only common ground possible is an option to have darker nights ingame, but that as the only change; if that is even technically possible. Some people don’t care at all about “obstacles” like darker nights. They want to do their things, farm away, etc. So yes it would need an on/off. That being said, even if nothing is implemented of this, i would like them to consider adding more things like the dark forest in future content.

Personally I must say I don’t find the “change of human gods history” to be that severe, seriously. As was mentioned before, over 200 years passed since GW1. Lots has changed in real religion in the last 250 years as well. Saying some things that are normal today could get you hanged back then.
You have to realize that most (almost all) humans never have witnessed a god for themselves, so doubting some lore the grandfathers grandfather wrote down while supposedly being drunken is rather easy. Not to mention that humans are facing extinction (even though we hardly notice that ingame), and no god helps. Losing faith is probably one of the first things then.
Last but not least, with Infos we have now, nothing states Orrians intentionally withheld information either. To the humans back then it may have seemed the gods made he world for them, and they created magic out of nowhere. Or it was simply written more poetic than it actually was. However it does fit rather well. I’m aware that there are probably a few details off, but those are just details. And as i take it there are still some human priests who believe all of the old lore even. So no the asura are not completely right either. It’s just all linked (Spirits, Gods, Eternal Alchemy, etc).

TL;DR – You can’t compare this to learning one thing in school and next grade you hear it was completely different all along unless you count in 250 years of studies of several – vastly different – science institutes in between those 2 grades.

Joey.3928:

Request:

GW2 – The Tengu Wall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBIWK7ddLpg

So good. Seems simple, but I can’t figure it out

I don’t know if it’s been done by someone yet and simply not updated as i’m not going through all the posts, but it should be something like this:

2 456 8 656 5442
2465 654 212

for the first “part” anyhow.