Guild Wars 2

Behellagh.1468:

I’ve open 101 of the chests after they switched to this new seasonal item.

I’ve gotten the 4th slot only 10 times. Once was a skin from the rare pool, the rest were uncommon including 4 BL Tickets, 2 seasonal dye kits and 3 seasonal items.

As long as you buy keys for the surprise factor instead of targeting a specific item from them then it’s fine. I like blind box and capsule toys and I see BLC no differently.

I just wish they would be transparent to what’s the difference in terms of % from common, uncommon, rare and super rare. The collected data on the wiki page doesn’t seem to have a big enough sample size to put a % value onto the various tiers. At the moment the various rarity labels seem to be misnomers. Because the BLC definition of uncommon is probably not the drop loot definition of uncommon.

I’d be fine with the BLC business model if there weren’t those limited skins thrown in. They seem to be marketing the BLCs these days less on the random chance and more on obtaining specific account bound items.

The definition of season items seems largely undefined because while I can see the Infinirarium Glider being in rotation every christmas, the Living Story specific ones seem like their ‘season’ is a one time only thing. It would suck for those who bought such items via the keys, if they eventually repackage them via the gemstore.

To try and get those one or two exclusive monthly items every month, means spending alot on keys. You probably have the right approach by pulling randomly and not expecting much. But the way they’ve been marketing those exclusives seems rather off.

Amaimon.7823:

I’m generally against this method because I would’ve paid good gems for it,
But I’m not gonna pay real life money without even knowing whether or not
I’m going to get the item.
I’d pay 2000 gems for a permanent contract, I’d pay 600-700 gems for the
elemental sword or sword zaishen helmet, but I’m not gonna spend 200 keys for a small chance of either skin, or 10,000 key for a small chance of a contract.
If anet doesn’t want my money, that’s fine, it’s their choice, it’s just a lose-lose situation, and that’s just kinda sad

I think the rarity of the permanent contracts, nodes and BL weapon skins is fine because they can be bought via the trading post with gold and should be that rare. But those account bound skins really need to have a specific monetary value placed on them. Instead of using them to drive the sale of keys, they should have them as a loyalty rewards for those who use a certain number of keys each month.

Faaris.8013:

They should rather put a cool down timer on those one armed bandit chests. After every 5 keys used, you have to wait 5 hours or so, or you can only use 2 keys per day or whatever sounds reasonable.

In Germany, slot machines are required to have a cool down timer by law, and those chests function exactly like slot machines.

Yeah certain countries have strict gambling laws but legislators seem to be slow to see gambling via online gaming in the same scope as slot machines.

I know that in Japan they recently passed a law that forced companies to be transparent with the actual drop rates of online gaming gacha rewards. When in the past they could get away with absurdly low drop rates without being upfront about the actual chances. The very least ArenaNet could do is to assign percentages to each BLC reward for the sake of transparency.

It’s a shame that outside of ArenaNet choosing to reform their BLC system on their own, it’ll probably fall on rather technologically illiterate legislators to pass laws to force such companies from using pure gacha systems.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

If you received a duplicate Account Unlock (such as the Mail Carrier), you should have received 2 Black Lion Chest Keys, instead. (Of course, if it comes as a consumable item, you would have to have ‘consumed’ it, first, I believe.) Either way, you can contact the CS Team via the ‘Support’ link for assistance.

Good luck.

Huh, that’s news to me. Luckily I got no duplicates this time round, unlike people I know. But back during Christmas I got around 3 duplicates of that Candelabra Staff while chasing the glider. I’ve since deleted those but had no idea that duplicates weren’t supposed to happen.

Behellagh.1468:

You want a pity timer on items that are uncommon that can only appear in a 4th slot, a slot that shares those uncommon item chances with both the rare and super-rare pool, a 4th slot that appears to only have a 10-15% chance of appearing?

Pretty sure you wouldn’t like the number of attempts I’m thinking is reasonable since at 2 or 3% chance. At the very best, it would be 50 and 33 respectively with the odds I stated. I personally would double or even triple that because those numbers 86% of the players would have gotten it “naturally” with the number doubled and 95% with the number tripled.

I’m suggesting a pity timer only for the monthly exclusives like the Zaishen Helm. The ordinary uncommon & rare items that appear frequently would be exempt since they aren’t monthly exclusives.

Maybe move the Zaishen Helm item from appearing in the 4th slot, to appearing in the 1st slot over the monthly item caches like the Zaishen War Paint Kit. So if the pity timer number was set at 12, then by spending 12 keys per month you are guaranteed the monthly exclusive. If you are opening the chests for other items then the rates wouldn’t change.

Now for the average player who key farms, the pity timer wouldn’t help them unless they buy some keys to reach that 12 key quota. But for those unlucky players who end up using 200+ keys just to get that one skin, it would be a big help.

Aveneo.2068:

Would have loved to buy the Balthazar Hound mail carrier directly, but it will be a cold day in hell for me to gamble away my money. Especially when every time I used one of my rare freebie keys from the occasional map completion reward I got nothing but trash items.

To me these Black Lion Chests are currently just a Korean style cash-grab scam imo and I would never spend actual money on buying keys.

Yeah it made no sense why they made that item available only through the chests. Especially since there was already an exclusive skin set aside for this month. I also wonder how items like that will reappear in the future. Whether they’ll reappear next year via the chests or make their way on the gemstore.

Anyways, they need to give a guaranteed cost to those items. Like calculate the average gem cost of mail carriers, double it, convert that into the number of keys required to use until you are guaranteed obtaining it via the chest. Which ends up being 10 keys. Having skins like that tied to a pure gacha system is antithetical to what I used to associate GW2 to.

Black Lion Keys & Chests are pretty much your standard gachapon system of rewards. That means that each reward is tied to a different percent chance. In the case of the exclusive BLC items, the drop rate is so low that it’s possible to spend hundreds of keys and still not receive the one off item. That’s just not tenable, encourages gambling that goes against the game’s ethos and can ruin one’s faith in spending via the gemstore.

Decent gachapon systems have a mechanism called the ‘pity timer’ which means that after a certain number of attempts the gacha system either increases the odds for the exclusive reward or ensures a near 100% chance. Those without pity timers are usually scam based mobile games which GW2 shouldn’t be

So I suggest that the BLCs add a pity timer mechanism that means that for this month, if you use around a dozen or so keys you get a 100% chance of obtaining the Sworn Zaishen Helm. Or make these exclusive items obtainable only after spending a set number of keys, so that way they can be assigned a monetary value, leaving the random gachapon values for the standard BLC items.

Also don’t add two monthly exclusive items, it’s bad enough getting duplicates of the mail carrier when you only want the helm. Just leave it to one item per month. Or make it that when you receive the account bound item the first time, then it is then removed from the reward pool to avoid pulling useless duplicates.

I just want to be able to wear that new outfit’s helm with my armor. Looks like Darkwolf from Fire & Ice (1983).

I hope Braham dives off an airship and into Jormag’s mouth. A fitting end to his legend.

Really disappointed that Braham is the one who damaged the tooth. Not only was it incredibly predictable but Braham just isn’t charismatic enough to be the one to fulfil the prophecy. They have pretty much cemented his status as a major player in the lore and that is a real shame. Seeing as he is the only Norn representative, any lore related to that race going forward will have Braham involved all the time. They should introduce a new Norn character of significance, someone who represents Norn in a positive light. Aside from being Eir’s son, I don’t get what is so captivating about Braham.

If they do introduce a new Norn, it should be a female since part of the reason why Eir and Jora were so great is that they were legends within a patriarchy. Eir in particular was a great foil to the women hating Sons of Svanir. Having Braham around just misses a golden opportunity to exploit that part of Norn society. I truly wish it was Eir who destroyed the tooth, since having a woman be the key to destroying what the Sons of Svanir worship is poetic. Although it would be hilarious if Taimi melted the tooth with a heat ray just to shame Braham.

His sap story is wearing thin too. He is carrying on as if he was the only one to lose a loved one. I just hope Marjory’s story doesn’t fall into the same angsty pitfall. Everytime he reminds me that Eir died, I just think it should have been him. I hope that the story is leading to him falling from grace. His arrogance and blindsided nature should see him either devoured by Jormag after attacking it head on or somehow corrupted by the dragon due to his hunger for power and hatred. If there was a candidate next expansion to die it should be him.

That said I did agree with him regarding Destiny’s Edge. The writers haven’t really sold me on the new guild, if it even exists right now. All this drama is just delaying the formation of the new guild.

I hope that Braham forges a rival dragon hunting guild that acts in direct opposition to Dragon’s Watch. The story could do with a good rival faction and a “Kill All the Dragons” one would be a nice counter to the whole save Aurene plot. Not to mention that if Braham tried to slay Aurene, it would give a good opportunity to exit him from the story.

This is an oddball suggestion but I’d love to have the next be Razah. The stance would be called something like Legendary Mystic Stance and be rather ‘meta’. The concept behind the specialization would be about what happens when a Revenant summons a being from the Mists made of the Mists. Sure he may not be in the Tyrian history books right now but he’s an iconic face of GW1 and his introduction as a Revenant Legend could give the opportunity to explain what he ‘grew’ into. There could be a whole mysticism aspect to him where he never died but ascended to the Mists like some sort of enlightened prophet.

Razah in GW1 was highly malleable in that you could customize his profession, while his personality was a blank slate that grew with the player. So his role as a Legend would be to help bolster the other player selected Legend whilst learning from allies and enemies.

The profession mechanic would be of the “Siphon Link”, where basically you target ally or foe and a link of siphoned energy is established. The Link remains intact until you leave maximum range or it’s breakbar is destroyed. If you link to an ally then you channel energy to them, but if you link to an enemy then you siphon energy from them. You act like some sort of chi master. You can only be linked to one target but you can select the upkeep value which alters the siphon strength.

The Grandmaster trait determines what sort of ‘energy’ you siphon within the link, could be health, endurance, stats, etc… Health would help Ventari to heal a ‘tank’ or Jalis to increase survivability. Endurance could be used to speed endurance generation or be used to neuter a Daredevil. While something like a stat boost or drain would just increase or decrease a target’s potential. The link would stay active between Legends like Facet of Nature did.

The Razah stance would use Glyphs that react depending on the linked target (ally or enemy) in a similar way that the Druid Glyphs change during Celestial Avatar. Here are some quick examples of how it would work:

What that unique meta-Revenant boon grants depends on the Legend you use. Using Shiro grants ferocity, Jalis grants Toughness, Malyx grants condition damage, Ventari grants healing power and Glint grants boon duration. It can’t be used that often since the skill forces you to switch out of Razah to quickly get back energy.

I’m not sure what would happen if you have two revenants siphon linking to each other, it might increase the potency or cancel it. I guess the two revs could rotate entering Razah’s stance to give each other the meta boon. Or you could stay in Razah’s stance and use the Glyph of Souls to keep the beam up between you to damage or heal people as you force enemies to pass through the beam.

As for equipment, the armor would be Razah’s iconic headpiece which works for a Revenant since it has the whole blindfold thing going on. And the weapon would be a scepter since Razah’s default profession was the ritualist and they used Scepters, not to mention that 900 range fills a gap with the Revenant’s weapon selection.

As for profession name I’ve been thinking of Acolyte because it represents that Razah was a ‘follower’ or a ‘helper’ which fits into the whole ascetic theme and the stance’s role of aiding other Legends/Revenants.

It’s a complex idea and this is the first time I’ve put it down into words, so I hope it makes sense.

I was crashing around 3-4 times an hour whilst running Sierra. So I downgraded to El Capitan and I’ve only crashed twice within a week. Sierra was also crashing other applications, for example whenever I would choose a location to save a Photoshop or Illustrator CS5 file it would crash the application but that has also stopped when I went back to El Capitan. So there really seems to be a compatibility issue regarding Sierra that extends beyond just GW2.

iMac Retina 5K 27-inch Late 2015
Processor: 4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 8GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4095MB
Storage: 500GB Flash (400GB spare)
OSX: Sierra v10.12

I’ve been playing the game on the following settings

Resolution: Fullscreen 2560 × 1440
Refresh Rate: Default
Frame Limiter: Unlimited
Animation: Medium
Antialiasing: None
Environment: Medium
LOD Distance: Medium
Reflections: Terrain & Sky
Textures: Medium
Render Sampling: Native
Shadows: Low
Shaders: Medium
Postprocessing: None
Character Model Limit: High
Character Model Quality: Medium
Optionals: Nothing Selected

My problem is that while the game runs perfectly with no lag and at around 65-45 FPS, the client crashes. When it crashes there is no slowdown or compromised performance, instead it quits within a second. There is no message that pops up telling me the client crashed which used to be the case.

Yesterday I crashed three times during the Auric Basin meta, twice during Dragon’s Stand, three times in WvW and once when I was walking around the PvP lobby waiting to join a game.

It’s not bad in WvW because I can get back into the game in under a minute, it’s just in other circumstances I get locked out of full maps, so I can’t complete the metas. I also crashed when the Chak Gerent was at 1% even though I got back into the same map, I was locked out of the chest.

I’ve only recently got this computer so I don’t know if it is the new OSX upgrade that is to blame or its’ just the client. When I used to play the game with an old Macbook Pro I rarely ever crashed despite the absurdly low FPS. Since it’s an iMac, the only thing I can upgrade is the RAM (waiting on a delievery to get it to 24GB memory) but is there anything I can do from my end to prevent this from happening?

Eleiyas.8217:

I was somewhat weirded-out by the whole Eir deal during LWS3.

Like… Trahearne was 100x more important than Eir during both the main story and HoT, yet we hear like one line of dialogue about Trahearne, yet have a whole mission dedicated to remembering Eir.

I’ll admit she was a large part of the Norn personal story, but for every other race it just doesn’t make any sense.

Trahearne’s importance is based around the existence of the Pact and the uniting of Tyria against the Elder Dragons. However without Eir none of that would have been possible. For she was the one who formed Destiny’s Edge and was their leader. People believe that Rytlock or Logan are more important than Eir, but she was their ‘boss’ and the one who saved them from a life of fighting in arena fights.

Without Eir showing Tyria that the five races could work together to defeat the Elder Dragons, Trahearne would not have been able to do the same via the Pact.

Trahearne was pretty much a general, but Eir was a legendary warrior and unifier. Not to mention that on a personal level she means more to the game’s main characters than Trahearne, who really only forged a close bond with the player.

The game didn’t do a great job of showing the importance of Eir but GW2 is founded on her actions.

Honestly saying nothing about this until a fix was actually implemented would have been preferable. If only to act as a deterrent. Giving the okay to this will now only encourage the practice further. It doesn’t just trivialise the skins & infusions, it trivialises all the players who are completing tribulation mode the intended way.

I hope a fix is implemented sooner than the end of the festival. It should really be a priority.

The problem is that the dungeons would need to be reworked regarding solo difficulty. Some encounters are designed around a team of players. I’ve managed to play through some story mode dungeons solo but certain enemies can be harder than the final boss due to how they were designed. Namely bosses that spawn minions.

With some hindsight they should have designed them to be scaled depending on the number of players. Now it is just alot of work to retrofit something like that.

I can complete the first Fractal solo thanks to the Charr NPCs who divert the attention of the boss. So maybe they could make a Hero mode where for every missing player a premade NPC is created that helps out. That combined with the power creep of the new Elite Specializations, it might be easier to solo the dungeons.

Even though Dungeons are unpopular right now, it’s not too hard to find a suitable group on the LFG tool. The groups advertising story mode, especially asking not to skip cutscenes are newcomer friendly. The only problem is that some dungeons are more popular than others. Often you’ll find a group who after completing story mode will then go onto do exploration mode of the same dungeon. I’m from Australia so sometimes there isn’t the dungeon I want to play active, but that’s just nature of things. Sometimes you get lucky with the LFG tool.

I’m not sure if cities is the best place due to population. But I do think Guild Halls is an appropriate place, or maybe Home Instances.

Since the introduction of the Herald, the Guardian has become a bit of a jack-of-all-trades Profession. So I wouldn’t say it’s outdated, just that no longer occupies a particular niche and has more of a wider combat role. The critique I have of the Guardian is that it has a bit of an identity crisis. It’s hard to say where it excels in particular. I still wouldn’t say it’s falling behind the others though.

For me the Thief is trailing the other professions. I used to main a Thief but outside of novelty value I don’t see the point in playing him anymore. Especially when there is the Shiro Revenant. The core specializations seem rather hollow, particularly Acrobatics which was gutted to make way for the Daredevil. Of which brought very little variation. Outside of traited Venoms there is very little party support. Traps are also rather inferior to Rangers and Dragonhunters. Stealth used to be special is now spread out among several other Professions. Mainhand Pistol or Sword are outclassed by Shortbow, Dagger and Staff.

It feels like there are fewer ways to play the Thief today than before without being outclassed. The Thief has always had particular problems, it just feels like it has inherited more over the years. Acrobatics and/or Shadow Arts needs to be updated at the very least. At the moment I’m having more fun playing my Mesmer and Revenant as if they were Thieves.

Thank you for being upfront and honest with the community.

Looking at the rate of which the legendaries were being released before this announcement, I can see that we were never going to get to releasing them all before even the next expansion. Realistically it looked like years. The same with other things like the WvW rework and more Open World content, things have slowed down and the balance has been disrupted. So I commend you stepping in as the new design lead and setting things straight with us. There have been wider development issues that extend beyond legendaries and it’s great to see you acknowledging this and seeking to direct resources to fix this.

For as much as people are disappointed with elements of the expansion which have not yet to come to fruition. There are bigger fish to fry, namely game modes and maps. I much rather see living story updates over legendaries anyways, the community centred content are vital to the core of GW2. The game sold me on it’s open world, the fashion wars elements has always been secondary to me.

It’s important to note that new legendaries are just suspended for the foreseeable future. Doesn’t mean we won’t see them ever again, just that there are things in dire need of addressing first. Seeing as they were taking 6 months or so to release one or two legendaries, it makes perfect sense from a management point of view to do what O’Brien has done.

It’s unfortunate that the new game developer has had to inherit this dilemma but it is encouraging to me to see him be realistic rather than try to overhype a way out of this situation. We’re in a transitional period and I’m willing to give O’Brien a couple of months to get the game back on track.

That’s not to say that I don’t agree with people who say that developers currently working on the next expansion shouldn’t be redirected too. You must do whatever needs to be done to fix the problems plaguing GW2. Especially if the Living World is truly delayed until late 2016 like was alluded to. That above Legendaries is a major crisis especially when that goes to the very heart of what GW2 is all about. I’m glad that we are getting back to earth.

The waiting game is why I’ve stopped playing. My current living/job situation just doesn’t allow me to play to the game’s internal clock. I used to spend 30 minutes max each time I logged on and that time would greatly vary depending on the day. Rarely I would be able to commit several hours in one log in.

It’s not impossible for me to play now, it’s just less convenient. It’s why I went back to old Tyria before I eventually quit playing. Currently I’m waiting until LS3 comes back. HoT just wasn’t the sort of content that fits my own schedule. I’m cool with Raids being a thing even though I don’t have the time for it, I’m just disappointed that the new open world maps have specific start times. I was hoping for something with a little more variation where the central meta wasn’t the only big thing to do.

I haven’t played since Christmas. Came back to check out the balance patch but nothing has really changed for me.

I’m chiefly a PvE player and I was incredibly disappointed in how they handled the expansion’s storyline. The game’s world and lore is what drew me into Guild Wars. I pretty much only like Auric’s Basin, because the map is the least gimmicky but doing the same meta over and over is boring. So I went back to old Tyria where I could do things on my own terms. Leveling up alts became the last thing I enjoyed doing.

The central problem for me with HoT is that there is an obvious structure, whether it is the use of large metas driving the ‘dynamic’ nature of maps or that things like masteries, adventures, etc… I miss being able to travel through maps and have things just happen. There were predictable things in the past like Hearts or Vistas. But GW2 used to balance that with the odd surprise. There’s no surprises or GW2 sense of exploration in HoT. Everything feels like it’s on a timetable now, so it’s no longer an organic experience.

Eir > Braham

I managed to complete LS2 with a condi Mesmer wielding a scepter before they reworked conditions. The Barradin fight was a nightmare trying to kill the mender with torment but it was possible. It really depends on what build you use. LS2 can be easy with the right builds.

However I admit that the difference in difficulty between LS2 and the HoT story is vast. I’m surprised at just how easy the HoT story and the achievements are in comparison to LS2.

The way Rytlock addressed the Revenant origin leads the door open for it to be explained later on. Especially since he promised Rox that he would explain things later. Honestly when Rytlock jumped into the Mist Portal back in LS2, that felt rather out of the blue too. Like things happened, just without any real logic to it.

I fear that there probably isn’t much to the Revenants as we are expecting there to be. The way Rytlock summed up his wielding of new magic was intentionally vague because there isn’t a whole lot there other than a cool concept for a class. When you compare the Revenant to other professions and the new elite specializations, it actually has more in-game lore.

It really depends on the profession. Generally melee has higher risk but lands greater, more reliable blows, while keeping your distance lowers risk but doesn’t yield higher damage. There’s examples now where this maxim doesn’t hold true but melee will always have its place in bringing pressure. There’s a virtue in getting in the face of your opponent and closing the gap. Especially when heavy hitting ranged weapons like the Mesmer Greatsword or the Ranger Longbow require maximum distance to reach maximum damage potential. Using those weapons in melee range is not ideal.

I was going to bother getting the item… but I realistically looked at how much use I would have gotten with it. I’ve come to the conclusion that the snow effect just doesn’t suit any of my characters, and the only reason why I would bother getting it is for the elitism.

So I’m just messing about, selling drinks when I’m bored and doing bits of the achievement when I feel like it. I’ll probably be able to get it next Wintersday or the one after that. It really doesn’t matter to me.

But I can understand the frustration of those that truly want it because it suits their characters. If it was realistically doable all year round it would have been cool, but time limiting it is unfair. Nightfury is rather difficult to achieve due to all the materials involved but I like how it’s no more difficult than crafting an legendary, and could be done on your own time. The Winter’s Presence skin is deceptively simple, just monotonous.

I like these holiday events as a means to mess about and have fun. Tying a carrot at the end of everything even related is silly to me. I feel for those who are burning themselves out instead of having fun. Although there is that small percentage who have fun burning themselves out.

The more Black Lion skins they release, the more I don’t want to buy. There’s too much saturation that it turns me off them. The quality of them is better than your average skin but not to the level of a Legendary. So they often fall short of being something particularly special. Especially since weapons usually signify some sort achievement, be it boss loot, crafted legendary, HoM weapons, specializations collections, etc… Most of what the Black Lion skins have going for them are that they once cost 1 ticket.

I admit that they work well if you are looking for a specific theme, its’ just that the theme is usually pretty situational and has a large novelty factor to them. I immediately thought that the Time weapons would be a perfect fit for my Chronomancer… until I saw that they were too literal and the only thing special about them that truly invoked the time concept was the draw sounds. Sure they were shiny and pretty but that’s not a unique character trait.

I have 5 tickets in my bank and I have only ever bought one skin. That was a Dreamthistle Shield because it was the only shield that didn’t clip with my character’s hair and that it was rather special with its’ glow effect matching up with my Sylvari. I should spend the tickets just so I can make some gold but I keep hoping that the next set will be worthy enough to spend them.

I pretty much prize armor skins over weapon skins anyways. When I find a good looking weapon I stick to it, especially if it is something like a Legendary. But I swap Armor skins all the time. So for me, having a hundred or so Black Lion skins released a year is just redundant because at best I’ll only ever bring myself to get one of them.

It was also pretty disappointing that the new Black Lion shield was more intricate than the Chronomancer’s Horologicus. Doesn’t feel right that a mass produced skin had more attention paid to it than an ascended profession weapon.

I must have bad luck because I’m on my 20th try entering the JP and I keep on getting redirected back to DR. Haven’t been able to play it this year but last year I had absolutely no problem. I’m entering it via the NPC rather than the portal just to make sure there is a map open.

At first I was a little disappointed about the Shield changes. Since it’ll now have a lower duration than off-hand sword but the positive is that the Phantasm will spawn quicker. I have to admit I liked using it to run and tank through PvE mobs because of the longer cast time, but I think I actually prefer the change for actual combat. It is true that the shield’s block is actually longer than off-hand sword if you factor in “Deja Vu”, so I’m cool with this.

I do sympathize with those that liked the longer block, it was nice to have for survivability in PvE.

The shield isn’t really the issue in PvP though is it? Personally Well of Precognition should be changed from Blur to Distortion so it can’t contest Capture Points or just leave it but change the Blur effect as a whole so it can’t contest Capture Points. That way it will have a minimal change to PvE.

I do like it when these balance patches happen on a smaller scale. Instead of the plan to do it every quarter or so, they should be done every week or fortnight when a problem really needs to be addressed. Nothing worse when you are handed down with a list of changes to one profession that comes out of the blue. You need time to adapt playstyles and equipment in PvE and WvW whenever a change happens.

Agemnon.4608:

I thought Logan was the leader?

Destiny’s Edge was made up of two separate groups; Dragonspawn’s Destiny & Edge of Steel.

Eir formed Dragonspawn’s Destiny with Snaff, Zojja & their golems in order to defeat Jormag’s champion called Dragonspawn. They failed and Dragonspawn attacked Hoelbrak, leading to her exile from the Norn.

Meanwhile Logan, Rytlock & Caithe were prisoners in Lion’s Arch and were forced to fight gladiatorial styled battles to gain their freedom. They named their arena group Edge of Steel. Eir was searching for warriors strong enough to defeat Dragonspawn, and managed to free them. From there the two groups formed Destiny’s Edge.

Eir was the one who came up with their attack plans (in consultation with Snaff) and she’s the one who led them into battle everytime. It’s also why most of them resent her because she led them to defeat against Kralkatorrik.

I actually don’t know what Logan contributes other than muscle. But for some reason he does get centre stage in alot of the promo material for Destiny’s Edge.

That thorns quote is the reason why I don’t have a female Sylvari character.

When I first heard about Adventures, I thought they were going to be more than just mini-games. Not too pleased that they are linked to Mastery Points. Besides the mini-games are pretty disappointing on their own, they are pretty much the poor man’s Activity.

They should have just added a couple more Activities and given them the leaderboards instead.

There are some Elite Specialization skills that can be used underwater. The Berserker can use Outrage & Blood Reckoning. The Daredevil can use Distracting Daggers and Impairing Daggers. The Tempest can use all of its’ shouts. And The Reaper can use 5 out of 6 shouts.

It’s more of a case of some skills just not being much use underwater or that the developers haven’t found a way to make them work fairly. Even many core professions have skills that don’t work underwater. A year ago they updated some of them to work, but only a couple. One glaring case of a nonfunctioning skill is the Necromancer’s Flesh Golem, it can’t be used underwater because the Developers have yet to give it a swimming animation.

There’s even some mini’s that can’t be used underwater because they don’t have swimming animation.

It’s true that underwater combat doesn’t receive the attention it deserves, but you could say that about any number of game modes. There is speculation that underwater combat may be looked at further when we get closer to battling the undersea elder dragon.

This thread is going to be about the structure of a Living Story Season and how portions of it could be later released as Fractals. I’ve bolded the important parts.

There were at least one moment in every episode of LS2 that could have been created as if it was a Fractal. Now doing this kills two birds with one stone. You are developing content for both Living Story and Fractals at the same time. So at the conclusion of each season you have a couple of new Fractals without having to spend extra resources.

Let’s take episode 5: Echoes of the Past to demonstrate. Chapters 1-3 are purely story instances with the odd fight, but Chapter 4 contain Glint’s Lair which has the level of difficulty and teamwork that would suit a Fractal. The Fractal would only contain Glint’s Lair and not the library portion which would contain the story instances. There’d be no cutscenes in the fractal portion and the story exposition would be left until the Majory & Kasmeer get back to the library.

So with a LS episode you’d have chapters that are pure story instances but have one chapter per episode that contains the Fractal. That chapter would have a beginning, middle and an end. The beginning and end would be story instances but the middle would be the fractal. So when a season is finished and the playerbase has moved on, that middle part would then be ported over as a fractal. Ensuring that it’s not just ‘old content’.

When it comes to achievements, the same ones would apply to the fractal. However a fractal player who hasn’t bought the Living Story wouldn’t have access to the achievements of the other Story Instances. And therefore wouldn’t get rewards like the Luminescent Armor. But if they are having a hard time getting achievements in the fractal portion, they could just do the fractal with a party. It’s easier to find a Fractal party over a Living Story one a year or so after release.

Aside from Glint’s Lair, I can think of some decent candidates from LS2 that could have been designed as if they were Fractals:

Chapter 1: Battle with Aerin.
Chapter 2: Battle at Fort Salma.
Chapter 3: Fighting Duke Barradin.
Chapter 4: The attack on The Grove.
Chapter 6: Saving the Aspect Masters
Chapter 7: Saving the Secondborn plus Canach from the Asura

They’ve already taken some moments of LS1 and turned them into Fractals. It would just be a whole lot easier if future Living Story releases were designed with Fractals in mind, than having to rework old content into Fractals.

My endgame was WvW since that can go on forever….

But honestly I just find myself leveling alts, world completion and collections. I’m not into farming.

Eir is by far my favourite character. Which is a shame because she is linked to the character I like the least.

My main is a male Norn and honestly without Eir’s inclusion in the game I wouldn’t be all that interested in them since they get overlooked in comparison to the other big 4 races. But she’s a great representative for the Norn, almost like a Jedi Master figure or a combination of Jora and Sif.

Despite being the leader of Destiny’s Edge and the only really interesting Norn NPC, Anet seems determined to undermine her. I honestly don’t understand why.

I’ve been messing about with that Valkyrie Jumper build over at Metabattle that never really left the drawing board stage. Where you spam staff #5, using your dodges to bide time until initiative builds up. Makes my Daredevil seem like a Dragoon from Final Fantasy. Extremely hard to use anywhere other than PvE though but I like the concept of it.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Daredevil_-_Valkyrie_Jumper

Name: Valkyrie Jumper
Game Mode: PvE
Weapons: Staff/Short Bow
Gear: Valkyrie
Trait lines: Acrobatics, Trickery, Daredevil

Credit to CGSN.

^ These threads are harmless. Just a bit of speculating fun.

But it is true that this proposal is a little too similar to the Thief itself rather than bringing anything radically new to the table. I think it’s best to ask what exactly is missing from the Thief that the core couldn’t offer. The reason why Rifle is such a popular suggestion is because it gives the Thief 1200 range for the first time.

Not to mention that a new class mechanic should operate in a different way than just a utility skill could. For example the Daredevil grants three dodges. Also I’m not sure Corruptions is the best skill type for the Thief to borrow since the Necro itself has different ways to consume or transfer conditions, but the Thief lacks. The Thief should be trying to sabotage others than sabotaging itself.

I wouldn’t mind it if the icon was only shown if you selected the player.

But if we’re showing off the PVP league badges, then I would want some love for PVE stuff like World Completion score or WvW Rank for WvW. Give some equity between the three major game modes.

It was a bit ironic that the Dragon that ruled over the domain of the Mind, would be defeated so easily within his own mind. You’d think Mordremoth’s mind would have had some truly nightmarish hellspawn within it. But you’re right he chose to represent himself like your average Maguuma dinosaur. Corrupted Faolain was way more threatening.

I regret spending the price of HoT on useless Gemstore stuff I’ll never use. But I have myself to blame for that.

In regards to Eir’s Legend, I’m not sure if killing all the Elder Dragons was always a static goal. Her goal has changed throughout her life. Originally leaving to fight against Jormag, switching focus to Kralkatorrik, failing and then focusing on Zhaitan. It was then because of her son’s pleas that she ran off into battle against Mordremoth. So her Legend is definitely tied to the Elder Dragons but there are many paths for her to get there. The Elder Dragon she choose to fight has shifted at least once before and could have done so again.

Eir could have reacted to Mordremoth’s sudden rise to power and have come to the conclusion that Jormag could do the same with just as much notice. That would be strong motivation to stay within the Shiverpeaks and train other Norn for the coming battle. The act of mentoring Norn to refuse Jormag’s temptations would be a heroic thing in itself, especially if she trains them in dangerous situations. She could even be remembered as the “mother” of heroes. She could even have the plot of training or scouting out a hero strong enough to harm Jormag’s Tooth, like a Tyrian’s answer to Merlin. All of this would lead to Jormag of which she’ll be first to lead the charge. She might be Norn but she was incredibly pragmatic too.

I just wonder if we are better served “shelving” characters until they find their time to step into the spotlight, instead of killing them off when it seems like their story has paused. Eir may have had no story to tell at the moment but there are several potential future events where she would have come in use. Namely the Jormag arc, but also the fate of Magdaer. Those stories would have been all the richer with her, than without. Not to mention that with someone like Eir, you could dive right into the Jormag arc because of her history and knowledge. Than say someone like Kasmeer.

The appeal of having 6 Elder Dragons with various corruptions plaguing the world at once, is that there are simultaneous threats around Tyria and no short supply of things for heroes to do. The game goes about elevating certain Elder Dragons to the spotlight in a linear fashion because it makes logistical sense. But that doesn’t mean the game’s heroes should be following that linear pattern. They should be following their own personal motivations and utilizing their own talents where they are served best in the wider world. It would fit in with the “Living Story” concept by having heroes traveling in and out of the player’s perspective, as if they were autonomous.

I believe it would be better if we had more than one group of heroes out in the world but with separate Elder Dragons as their focus and not always crossing paths with the player. For example the Sentinels are fighting against Kralkatorrik but having a Hero helping them elevates them and gives us a link to them, so in turn we have a stake in the Sentinels. Different Hero teams existed for a time with Destiny’s Edge and the Biconics but they all got roped into the Mordremoth fight and I fear they are now going forward a mega group. The sad thing about losing the Pact is that it could have been an organizing force. Instead of everyone going into the Jungle, the Pact could have co-ordinated different Elder Dragon efforts, and thus allowing heroes to go elsewhere but still have contact with the player’s group. Mordremoth would have been the prime target for now, but there could have been auxiliary groups operating under the Pact. Like a Jormag/Kralkatorrik/Bubbles/Primordus centred version of the Pale Reavers, of which we eventually work with depending on the arc.

So back to “shelving”. I hope that we start seeing characters left behind at certain locations only to rejoin or be picked up when a specific Dragon arc starts or when they are needed. For example Rata Novus would be a great location to shelve Zojja, who as a Golemancer could deal with the Golems and access all of the site’s knowledge about Primordus. Then when the Primordus arc occurs, Zojja would act as an authority and a key player. Zojja could also in the meantime lead a group of Heroes researching Primordus, who would appear when Elder Dragon knowledge is needed.

Funnily enough the members of Destiny’s Edge were “shelved” after the personal story where they went back to their own lives, allowing for the Biconics to lead the adventure. And that worked fine for LS2. I hope that balance is used going forward but not down the clear line of Destiny’s Edge and Biconic but who has a story to tell and who doesn’t.

This might be a bit strange but heroes’ who are off stage and out of the player’s perspectives could have updates released through the game’s mail feature. Just like how lore blogposts often go into finer detail than the game does, they could release a short story update of their current location or status like how we used to get Person Story mail from our herald or mentor. So if we left Zojja at Rata Novus, she’d send us mail about whatever information she has discovered. Even if it is trivia. It could be a way of keeping a hero active but allowing them to travel their own adventures through “postcard” but also provide an outlet for lore without having to script and voice scenes. Once read, they could be sent to a glossary tab which compiles them. For example bringing up “Rata Novus” in the tab would link you to a mail or journey previously sent to you by Taimi/Zojja describing the place. So it would double up as a description of something specific but also a mail/journal entry from a Hero’s own adventure.

With Eir’s most recent demise, it’s made me think of how major characters are going to be written out of the story in the future. Eir and Trahearne are the only big “Destiny’s Edge” characters to be written out and in both cases were killed off. But is it possible for someone of their stature to just fade into the background or retire to adventures that we the player aren’t a part of. That their legend continues on just our paths no longer cross.

Could Eir have simply returned to Hoelbrak after handing the torch down to her son? Would it have made sense if she realized that she was better served in the fight against Jormag rather than Mordremoth? So take her out of the story until Jormag becomes the big threat and then conclude her story where she is best served.

Zojja/Taimi could remain in Rata Novus and spend a good chunk of time researching Primordus until it is time for the Primordus arc. Logan could go back to Kryta and do his job. Rytlock could go and lead the assault against the Branded until the Kralkatorrik arc. And so on…

The major characters serve their purpose of conveying the danger of the Elder Dragons on a very intimate level. I question if we are better served if say Mordremoth’s effects and the Maguuma region would have been better communicated if more Sylvari or Maguuma residents were elevated into a starring role. Rather than say including Eir who served no purpose other than Mordrem fodder to strengthen Braham’s resolve, or Logan and Zojja who acted as damsels in distress. We are starved on the details of HoT lore but not on Destiny’s Edge interpersonal drama.

This leads me to wonder if a character once they have reached “Destiny’s Edge” stature will stay with the player until they are killed off. For example Marjory after finishing her investigation and avenging her sister by defeating Mordremoth will then jump into the fight for the next dragon, and then the next dragon, etc… until she either dies or makes it to the end of the game’s life. When would be the best time to say goodbye to someone like her?

If we want to learn more about the new regions… then one way would be to explore characters with real ties to specific regions. For example, if Faolain was elevated to a supporting role in the fight against Mordremoth, we would learn more about the Nightmare Court’s thinking in the fight against Mordremoth from seeing things through her unique perspective. Or even a new character from one of the new areas, that would act as a guide or a “translator” for all the new lore, rather than leaving things to be discovered via someone like Taimi. It would be easier to highlight those already fighting an Elder Dragon than weaving the story to include those who were once outsiders but find themselves caught up in it through happenstance.

Bit depressing imagining that Garm died. I hope Eir left Garm back at her home because the Jungle or even riding on an airship is no place for a wolf. Would be cool to see him protecting Stonewright’s Steading but also a little sad to imagine him waiting for her to return.

I never really liked the Pact as it took away from the dynamics of the three Orders which were far more interesting. I hope that now the three Orders go back to their original state and focus on their strengths without losing their autonomy.

The Vigil should assume the military role of the Pact and unite various military efforts into a central peacekeeping force that aids the existing conflicts led by smaller forces. Kinda like a Tyrian version of NATO or the UN Peacekeepers, where a group like the Sentinels would have a Vigil rep. The Piory should revert to one big university designed to know and house everything about magical knowledge, where it would be the hub for knowledge like a giant library or vault. The Order of Whispers should go back to being a secret society that seeks to infiltrate and keep a watch on everything.

So while Destiny’s Edge & Friends do the Dragonslaying, the Orders will be there to aid. So if they need a military diversion, then the Vigil will arrange it. If they need to research history or lore, then they’d turn to the Priory. If they need to spy or investigate then they’d call on the Order of Whispers.

I think it would be useful if there was a Order rep within Destiny’s Edge. Like a counter/foil to Taimi from the Priory, a liaison to the Vigil and someone within Destiny’s Edge that is a spy from the Order of Whispers. I fear that the more we delve into Destiny’s Edge the more we will lose our ties to the people of Tyria.

I think the problem isn’t that they’ve created so many Elder Dragons, but rather they created too many Elder Dragons that have to be defeated rather than simply being accepted as part of the new norm.

It’s a shame that they all are awakening at such rapid speeds. If the time period between Elder Dragons were spread out then it would only be a matter of defeating those that truly provide a threat while the other dormant ones would just be explanations for blizzards, bad ocean conditions, etc… or the new terrain.

Would be nice to take a break from Elder Dragons and explore something else for at least one Living Story season.

This post from a dev hints to a problem with expecting elite specialization lore in HoT.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Spoiler-HoT-Unsorted-Discussions/first#post5648054

If the Dragonhunter lore was added after the whole “Braham taking Eir’s bow” plot point was already developed, then it literally is an afterthought and not part of the narrative development process. So the communication between the Narrative team and the Elite Specialization team wasn’t very integrated in that the Narrative team was largely ahead of the other in terms of developing lore. If we wanted Elite Specialization lore in HoT then both teams would have been more in sync, and the lore concepts of the Elite Specializations developed alongside or even prior to the HoT narrative.

Makes me wonder if then Marjory receiving Belinda’s Greatsword informed the choice of the Reaper wielding a Greatsword for the Elite Specialization team. So if Belinda was to say wield a different weapon like a longbow, then the Reaper would have used a longbow.

It’s a little confusing now because we expect Marjory to be a Reaper and Braham to be a Dragonhunter purely because of their new weapons. And therefore expect others like Taimi to be a Scrapper, Kasmeer to be a Chronomancer, etc… just for the sake of representing the new Elite Specializations. Makes me wonder if it’s too much trouble integrating the professions or elite specialization in with lore, and just accept them as gameplay only.

The only profession that I think needs some explanation is the Revenant purely because Rytlock can’t just disappear into the Mists without telling us what happened there. I wonder if Rytlock disappearing into the Mists inspired the creation of the Revenant or if the Revenant was already planned and that inspired his journey into the Mists. And the only Elite Specialization I personally need explaining is the druid, because what is the difference between a Druid and the druid specialization?

It’s all a bit of a chicken and the egg scenario, where it’s unclear which came first. The Elite Specialization concepts or the lore that just happen to vaguely hint to them. I believe if the Narrative team was as active in the creation of the Elite Specializations’ origin as the Elite Specialization team itself then we would have had the proper integrated lore.

I do think that there is value in having a thread on the forums, if only because the whole exercise would also serve as feedback to whatever Developer that happens to come across it.

I think a top 10 or maybe a top 20 unanswered questions format might be the way to go. Because then you have a concise list and a manageable goal. Not to mention that if the Developers do take the feedback in consideration then they have something to go from, rather than a rabbit hole with no end insight.

So maybe a top 10 for HoT/Maguuma specifically and then a top 20, 30, etc… for wider questions that extend beyond that context. Getting to that number is the tricky part, but I reckon a bit of brainstorming done in that thread of yours would be enough to get some sort of consensus on what are the big hanging questions. I believe that getting it as clear as possible would show that answering those questions can be done.

I’m going to say Kralkatorrik too.

Mainly because considering the way Destiny’s Edge is faring, there won’t be many of the original members left standing, let alone alive to see it happen. There won’t be much catharsis in avenging Snaff if there isn’t anyone around who remembers Snaff.

But Calcifire is right, the egg is an obvious bridge from Mordremoth to Kralkatorrik. In a more subtle way than how Scarlet shifted our focus directly to Mordremoth. It would just be a natural progression.

I imagine after the experience of defeating two Elder Dragons, that Destiny’s Edge & Friends will become more proactive and confident in their fight against them. So Kralkatorrik will be the big test, if Destiny’s Edge: The Next Generation can slay him then the story will shift from being a set of reactive scenarios where the heroes are on the defensive to where the heroes actively seek the dragons out.

In that case it would then be either Jormag or Primordus who are targeted. I reckon Primordus because it would tie into the Destroyer threat in the Dominion of Winds and therefore open that region up to the player. Leaving Bubbles for last because slaying Bubbles would not only end the Elder Dragon threat but open up at least Cantha and the potential for possible post-Elder Dragon storylines, if the game’s lifespan wills it.

There really should be a thread listing all the unanswered questions and forgotten plot points, just so we can keep track of it and maybe see the scale of what needs to be addressed. You could probably do a pretty sizeable list of just HoT/Maguuma-centric stuff.

I’m tempted to do it but I don’t think I have the best grasp of the problem.

I’m okay with Trahearne dying the way he did. In this scenario Trahearne is the true hero thanks to his personal sacrifice and ability to open Mordremoth’s mind, so that a group of mercenaries can finish the dragon off. When Tyrian history looks back on Mordremoth’s defeat it will be that Trahearne was Tyria’s salvation. Trahearne the hero who was the only hope to defeating two Elder Dragons.

Shame that Tyria’s greatest hunter will be remembered for falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book. It’s a wonder how she managed to survive all this time dealing with the very worst of Tyria to somehow forget that you never trust the shamelessly evil. Eir’s death was an insult to her intelligence and frankly anyone who cares about Norn lore.

Every other major race gets at least two major NPCs, but the Norn now has Braham only. That’s incredibly lame and a downgrade of what we had.

The Backstabbing Ally trope would have been lame. But a mixture of Faolain & the Nightmare Court, The Pact, Malyck & what’s left of his Tree’s Sylvari, AWOL Caithe and an anti-Sylvari faction all operating for the same goal (killing the dragon) would have made things incredibly interesting.

By reducing Faolain to a character who’s first impulse is to betray the first hero she can, goes against the sort of pragmatic thinking that made her such a mastermind. By killing Eir when there are witnesses just signs her own death warrant. Not to mention that Faolain has the same goals as the rest of the group, co-operating is in her best interest until the big threat is neutralised.

You could say that she was clever in trying to use a weakened Eir to escape. But it really didn’t help things did it? If Eir was willing to save Faolain at risk of her own life, then Faolain should have exploited it. Eir being the altruistic soul probably would have died fighting to protect the injured Faolain. Faolain’s death was an example of “stupid evil”.

I just hope she is resurrected from the mists as a Celestial Avatar Druid with Drooburt by her side. So every now and then she’ll appear as an Obi-kittenenobi hologram giving Destiny’s Edge & Friends advice.

Actually I expect that after defeating all 6 dragons the player will throw a party with some Ewoks. Then by the campfire we’ll see the ghostly spirits of Eir, Trahearne, Snaff and whoever the writers decide to kill off giving everyone the thumbs up.