Guild Wars 2

Could it be GW2 for consoles, or an official mobile connectivity app?

That, or more Mad King Thorn jokes, is all I could see as likely.

Here’s mine! I like the dark look, it goes so well with all of the blue fire.

Here’s mine! I like the dark look, it goes so well with all of the blue fire.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Oh, also, to the Op’s point (sorry, I’m about to present in China, my mind is elsewhere, didn’t mean to ignore the OP):

The reason we did a “big” change for the Necro, as I’ve stated before, is that we had the Pax tournament coming. We knew we wanted to get Necros and Warriors up with the other classes, and that’s why we had big changes.

Also, a lot of our changes happen VERY far ahead of what you guys see on live. What do I mean?

• It takes us time to get our changes to editors for writing (any text/trait change has to be edited). This can take a week or more.
• We have to then get changes to writers.
• We then have to make sure we work with artists for any visual changes
• We also have to work with sound to make sure we have sound for any changes
• We have to work with icon artists for icons if they’re needed (in the case of Death Shroud 5)
• We have to make sure the changes get through multiple stages of QA testing
• Then with the changes in, we get time to play them before we do final changes
• While doing all this, we have to take the current meta, be it in dungeons/wvw/pvp, and from that, try to extrapolate what we think needs to be done a few months in advance.

This process can take a LONG time, as you can imagine. It’s not as simple as, “Oh, let’s change this to a 2, and change that to a 7.”

I know the video game industry in general is not very transparent when it comes to how things actually work, but I wanted you guys to know that a lot of times, there is a LOT of process for even the SMALLEST balance/content changes.

We get to see how Ridley Scott made Blade Runner with a companion DVD special, but in video games, no one talks about all the complex processes that go into making and balancing a game as complex as GW2 (which is basically 3 games in 1, all using the same balance #’s).

Hope this makes sense.

Oh, also, the reason we can’t give Necro’s too much disengage has to do with the point of “purity of purpose”.

In this game, we want to allow classes the ability to deal with all situations but in different ways. But, if we give all classes all TOOLS (which is a different thing), then players get confused as to which classes fill which roles, and in what way they fill those roles

Example: In PvP, the Necro and Engi both vie for the position of condition pressure. The engineer has more physical alternatives, the Necro has more boon/condition manipulation, the Engi has more escapability, and the Necro is a little squishier. If we gave the Necro too much mobility or escapability, then all of a sudden their “tools” start to line up exactly. If this is the case, one of them will simply be better than the other, as far as efficacy goes, and thus, one will push the other out of the meta for that “role” on the team. This class would then be the “apex” predator for that role. So, in order to prevent this, we try to make it so that the classes don’t have all their tools overlap perfectly. This means you have to say (following our example), “Well, if we take a Necro, we get more condies, but a squishy body that can’t disengage…..but if we take Engi, we lose some DPS and control (depending on utils), but we get someone who can stand up to a spike better”.

Make sense? If we just gave the escape to Necro’s, then all of a sudden, the Necro is just the clear choice. Not all decisions come down to a clean break like this, but this is the type of thing we’re trying to do when we “deny” some classes certain tools.

This is the same reason that Red doesn’t get interrupts in Magic, the reason that Zergs, normally, have much more mobility than Protoss (since Toss are usually stronger unit-by-unit), and why Karthus has no escapes. By denying tools, you create choices for the players. We sometimes do a poor job of this, sorry. But overall, we try to make it so that all classes have choices, and teams have choices in which classes they bring.

Also, keep in mind we’re trying to get 8 classes to fit into 5 slots, for PvE, Dungeons, and PvP.

This is all high level, and I’m in a rush, but I just wanted to explain this real fast…..

It’s funny, being in China, I have more time to post on the forums than I do while in the office. That’s irony or something….like 10,000 spoons….

-Chap from China

I love posts like this. When a dev takes the time out of their day to sit down and go through a conversation with the fans about what is happening behind the scenes. Thank you, Chap, for being an exemplar to the rest of the Arenanet team when it comes to community interaction.

Interesting stuff, great attention to detail Konig!

I’m having a hard time thinking of an NPC who would be interested in seeing relatively uncompromising and zealous groups endanger the public for the sake of enhanced magitech. The only one that comes to mind off the bat is a revenge-fueled Zojja, potentially, seeking to erase the guilt and shame of Snaff’s past failure by making sure that Tyria is never again under-equipped to deal with the threat of the Dragons—by fueling petty wars and inciting these dangerous alliances.

The most interesting parts of the reactor explosion, as far as I can see, are twofold:
First, the reactor explosion is warping the very fabric of the universe, even time. As evidenced by the steam creatures that occasionally get ported into the reactor, anything could happen, from any place or any time. Possibilities abound.
Secondly, the reactor might have something to do with the sixth Elder Dragon. Considering its proximity to Maguuma and the Inquest connection, we might learn some very interesting things by studying the reactor.
Think of the plot of Half Life, The events surrounding Black Mesa are very similar to what could potentially have happened at Thaumanova.

You’re right, Kasmeer does talk with some familiarity about Marjory. Kasmeer might lie to Marjory, however, if she were being coerced, perhaps by Evon due to something concerning her father’s mysterious death or her unexplained issues with the DR upper-crust.

Evon is openly a competitor with the Consortium. However, he still made a profit selling Consortium supplies and equipment through the Black Lion Trading post. He also gained further customers from the refugee influx through LA to Southsun Cove. Lastly, with the Consortium out of the way in Southsun, having done most of the leg-work of setting up infrastructure, the area is more-or-less completely open to him to exploit for profit.

I understand that these ideas are all based on unexplored theories, and I’m not trying to make tinfoil cap rumors—just hoping to open up discussion to the possible direction of the story. No need to slam my fact-checking. Facts > all.

Part of my interest in implicating Evon in the MA/Southsun affairs is due to the way that Arenanet has handled him so far. He’s basically a brand-new, no-background character seizing an opportunity for the spotlight that had previously been nothing but a shop NPC. I could see Arenanet writing him in as a behind-the-scenes schemer in the end to spice up his otherwise empty character.

Yeah, I agree, Anet wouldn’t throw that many red herrings into the game. But maybe we can at least give their lore team some ideas? ^^

As an aside, your female Sylvari theory—perhaps Faolain? She certainly has the motivation and fits the bill that the Dredge described. Maybe not as Scarlet, but as the MA perpetrator.

The way I see it, it was a foolproof plan for Kiel, regardless of the outcome. Either way, Mai Trin could at any moment be apprehended for her Aetherblade connections. By having Mai execute the attack that removed the Captain’s Council member, Kiel both opened up a seat on the council for herself while eliminating her own competition for Aetherblade leadership.

Perhaps Kasmeer is a liar to her core—she acts innocent but she is apparently well-trained in combat, investigation, and social customs. She clearly has plenty of history that so far is left unexplained. She doesn’t open up about it. In one of her dialogues, she says,
“I miss the man who used to hold my hand at the carnival, yes. But, let’s not talk about that.”
—Implying that her father was originally a good man when she was young, but turned bad as she grew older. She also said that he died in the last year. Perhaps Evon was involved, and through some turn of events she ended up in his employ. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Kasmeer could find or use some kind of magic to change her voice and approach Marjory as Mr. E.
Where did you hear that Kasmeer and Kiel were childhood friends?

Another point of interest—The Molten Alliance dredge claimed that it was a fast-talking city type who incited them to war. One of the Anet Devs stated that this culprit was female. Could it be possible that Kasmeer (a smooth-talking female from the city) incited the Molten Alliance, at Evon’s command? Evon stood to profit from the Molten attacks with his Consortium connections. Kiel managed to foil that ploy with her brazen actions in Southsun, however, one-upping Evon for her own similar goal of control of LA.

It’s entirely possible that Kasmeer is perpetrating these plots for Evon, but sees herself as a troubled hero, similar to Canach. She has shown sentimentality for the downtrodden of Tyria. Maybe she instigated the Molten Alliance attacks due to coercion on Evon’s part, or maybe she hates Charr(leading to an interesting twist on her relation/service to Evon). Perhaps a Charr killed her father, or perhaps her father became a separatist. Maybe she saw the Molten Alliance as a way of strengthening ties between humans and Charr in the face of the zealotry of the Flame Legion.

Another tidbit-during Secrets of Southsun, Kasmeer said,
“Have I given you that impression? I must apologize. I’m actually looking forward to getting back to work. I may complain, but I love my job and my business partner and I make a great team.”
According to her, she had already been working with Marjory for a couple of months by this point. The statement was ambiguous enough, however, that she may have been referring to Evon.

It’s a stretch, but I’d love to see that these two and Kasmeer have each been working independently to incite the attacks over the last several months.

Yes, I considered the points that both of you are making, and some possible workarounds—

It’s possible that Mai had never met Scarlet/Keil face to face. Kiel might wear a mask. Furthermore, “Scarlet” might be a nickname, alluding to some other part of her personality aside from her hair. She’s sort of a brunette, not a redhead, so that is a bit of a stretch, but maybe there’s some clue that we’re missing that would connect Kiel better to Scarlet.

Concerning Evon and Marjory’s short story, it’s possible that the “Mr. E” that covered her mouth was, in fact, Kasmeer. She may have used magic to mask her voice, and delivered the message for Evon. The article also says that the hands that wrapped around Marjory were intimate, hardly noticeable and not-at-all alarming.

The biggest conflict that I can see is concerning the Scarlet/Kiel tie—the short story between Kiel and Kasmeer during Secrets of Southsun seems to get into Kiel’s head and reveal her to be rather one-dimensional. Anything is possible though.

What if I told you that…

Mr. E is Evon Gnashblade.

Scarlet, the leader of the Aetherblades, is Ellen Kiel.

Supporting facts: They both have their motives for wanting to be on the Captain’s Council. Evon has his business, and more importantly, his profits to look after. He benefits from the Aetherblades being removed by eliminating some of his pirate brethren and furthur securing his position as one of the kingpins of the Lion’s Arch criminal elite. He chose to remain anonymous. Kasmeer Meade is his lieutenant, and through her he oversees many of the goings-on of the world, such as the Dragon Bash investigation and the Southsun corruption. His deeper motivations are unknown, but researching the fall of Abaddon is particularly suspicious.
Ellen is the mysterious Scarlet, one of the leaders of the Aetherblades. She is known as Scarlet for her red hair. She destroyed the Consortium contracts to eliminate a competitor with a strong armed presence in Lion’s Arch. She took on Mai Trin personally to eliminate her chief competitor within the Aetherblade hierarchy. Now that she captains her own ship and has the full trust of the Captain’s Council and the LA populace, she’s ready to swoop in and seize control of not only the city, but also the Aetherblades and the Lionguard. She hopes to study the Thaumanova Reactor as a part of her association with the Inquest.

I would expand more if I wasn’t at work. Thoughts?

Yeah, nobody ever seems to go up after those puppies, and it’s so much fun. You climb some stairs made of giant skeletal vertebrae. There are two towers holding cauldrons.

I agree with both of the above posters—but my real question is along the lines of analyzing the usefulness of celestial gear vs. berserkers, for taking down high-health targets and in WvW. Celestial only slightly decreases the power/prec/crit damage, while upping the condition damage and other defensive stats considerably. With the increased durations and the new grandmaster zeal trait adding power to condition damage, I feel like a more versatile build might be justified. In terms of 1v1 damage, the combination of power and constantly-reapplied burning damage and vulnerability might be more effective than direct damage.

Right off the bat, this new patch is fantastic for guardians of every build.
I’m writing to discuss the viability of our burning condition with the new traits. Arenanet is obviously trying to entice us to spec more into conditions—particularly condition damage.
Burning is a very accessible condition for guardians, along with blind, and vulnerability. The new Zeal grandmaster trait (Power—>Condition Damage)coupled with the torch trait buff and the Blind Vulnerability duration-doubling seem to lend themselves to more condition use by aggressive guardians.
My question is, for an aggressive guardian who relies on Sword/Focus and Greatsword for WvW and PvE, are celestial stats looking more attractive now, with condition damage and duration more useful? Thoughts? Opinions?

After three grueling hours of failed attempts— Tarnished Coast is opened! ~11:50PM CST.

FANTASTIC posts, man! Very well thought out. Love your descriptions and ideas. Arenanet, hire this player!

darkace.8925:

In GW Palawa Joko never struck me as a serious villain. I don’t know what it was (probably the voice acting), but I never saw him as anything more than a Saturday morning cartoon villain. I’m sure he’ll show up in some capacity, but after battling dragons with the power to literally reshape the word, he’s always going to seem like small fries.

I agree that he doesn’t come off as a real foe whatsoever—but at the same time I wouldn’t write him off entirely. He did teach us to ride around in giant sandworms, nearly conquer Elona in the ancient pass, and command a pretty kitten little undead army of his own. The fact that he was an ally in GW1 gives me the sense that he’ll be some kind of quirky, taking-himself-too-seriously-but-still-dangerous ally in GW2 as well. At least, I hope.

Mind-blowing plot twist:

You know how everyone thinks there’s a slim chance that Zhaitan is maybe hopefully probably not-quite-dead, since we didn’t actually see his corpse disappear or wither away?

Palawa Joko is going to resurrect him into his now-nearly-unstoppable Elonian undead army, and the players will form an unholy alliance with Joko, much like they did in Nightfall, controlling a re-un-dead Zhaitan to take down Kralkatorrik.

Make it happen, Arenanet!

Could you quote the ghosts, or link the text from the GW2 wiki, or something? I looked up the Cathedral of Silence mission but couldn’t find any of these Ascalonian ghost sayings that you’re talking about.

I would love this in a new zone—I think Arenanet tried to evoke this sort of thought with the Southsun Cove release event, where we had to uncontest all of the waypoints in the zone before it became truly ‘civilized’.

I would LOVE, love, love to see a zone with, say, only one waypoint. Make the zone one big tribute to GW1, situate it in the Crystal Desert or Bloodstone Fen or something similar perhaps. The idea would be that for whatever reason, supernatural or otherwise, we couldn’t set up waypoints in this wide region, and so everyone could port in at a base camp and then set off and explore in whatever direction they choose.
The area would be very large, with valuable resources and events in every direction.
References to GW1 everywhere. Make it happen, Arenanet!

I love the Toast. : )
So many brilliant, friendly, happy people. It speaks volumes about the beautiful way that a friendly community can mesh with a game that is built around cooperation, seeing people play together on Tarnished Coast.
I really hope that Arenanet adds some more RP-oriented tools to the game. Some new emotes, or the ability to interact with objects like chairs and benches, at the least.

I’m running into the— “Card approval failed. We appreciate your continuing purchases. Please contact customer support to confirm your identity before making future purchases.” Issue. I’m not sure, but it seems like this is the best place to contact customer services. What should I do? I just want to get a few more gems!

It’s easy to play an offensive Guardian. Just insult anyone and everyone that you encounter, on a regular basis, and spam /laugh and other infuriating emotes at your enemies in WvW.

I started having this issue today, too. “Card approval failed. Please contact customer support to confirm my identity before making additional purchases.”

What the hey?

That’s exactly it, Akamon—you explode out of nowhere in a fiery whirlwind of pain and debilitation. Something every Guardian should try and enjoy.

The Guardian’s elites are all really useful in the correct context. I have a lot of fun with them all, especially Renewed Focus. Maybe the Guardian isn’t the right class for you, based on your opinion.

It’s pretty simple: Leap of Faith + Judge’s Intervention.

I was pretty ecstatic when I realized that it’s possible to cast Judge’s while mid-Leap. The result is a nearly-1800 range gap closer that slams your target with damage, burning, blind, and usually vulnerability. Extremely, extremely fun, try it out!

Yes. If Rangers are going to get a new weapon in any future content expansion, an offhand sword to dual-wield would be a dream.

The heavy gloves for the Sylvari t3 set—the “Oaken Gloves”, have a weird graphical issue. When the character is standing with his arms at his sides, straight, the armor displays as it should, like in the preview—knotted, spiky wooden gauntlets.
However, whenever the character bends his arms, like while in combat, running, or dancing, the long wood protrusion on the gloves bends along with the elbow joint of the character, making the wood seem elasticky, rubbery, and outright weird. For an “Oaken” armor, this seems really weird, and probably not intended. Any fix would be great, I’d love to see this armor set in its full glory!

(My character is a male Sylvari wearing entirely sylvari t2 and t3 cultural armor.)

So— The Sylvari tier 3 heavy set looks really great on my Guardian in the preview.
However, after buying the gloves of the set, I’m regretting my purchase a bit.

For a set named the “Oaken” set, the wood should not warp and bend like the glove model does when your character moves. Basically, any bending at the elbow that your character might do causes the long wood protrusions at the back of the glove to bend along with the elbow, leading to some really weird-looking situations while in combat or dancing, for example. I’m pretty sure this weird graphical quirk isn’t intended.

Screenshot: