Guild Wars 2

Item: Druid’s Staff (the staff one gets for training to be a Druid on a Ranger)
Race: any
Profession: Necro
Gender: any

Details: The scythe effect on a staff necro is a bit off when the Druid’s Staff is equipped. Normally the scythe blade effect appears near the head of the staff above the character’s hand, while with the Druid’s staff the scythe blade effect appears much lower on the staff and is about even with the character’s hand.

Bug originally found on male human but I tested for it on female human, male charr, and female asura just to make sure the bug was not isolated and such.

Are some of the local jungle frogs allied with Mordremoth? Back during the second beta weekend I encountered a situation where a frog mob had a buff associated with a mordrem guard. I sent a ticket about it thinking it might be a bug. I encountered the situation again in beta weekend three (but no screen shot this time), and so now I’m curious.

Is this a quirk of the system or something deeper?

I can’t wait to hear what Faolain has to say about Lord Mordy.

What ever her decision she is obviously going to want to make sure Caithe makes that decision too. If the Nightmare Court end up being anti-Mordremoth that would lead to some interesting scenes where Faolain saves Caithe from the Mordrem (or even more dramatic Caithe saves Faolain).

Nicely put EdwinLi.

Anyway I don’t care that much one way or another about Trehearne. I’m more interested in what Faolain is doing. She finally gets to know the secret that has been kept from her for all these years. She has always been anti-Ventari and been disgruntled with Mother.

Faolain

The Dream is a nightmare. See the world for what it is-episodes of pain ending in untimely death.

I would definitely want to be my main, a female sylvari thief. I would have a lot of fun with Stealth, Steal, and Shadowstep. It would be awesome to be so lithe and athletic. I would also enjoy meeting all of the NPCs in person, and I would want to become good friends with Caithe.

I would assume the OP is implying Log Horizon rules, so it’s a good thing my main happens to have 400 in cooking.

ooh, and I would love to be part of the Order of Whispers.

I add my vote to addressing the issue.

I make a super-cool engi in celestial colored armor, and then I took out the grenade kit and the brown hobosack totally ruined the aesthetic. His cool points were reduced by 200%. It was a sad day.

Female Charr

1. because it’s the only race/gender combination not covered by my collection of alts
2. Bakeneko character

I had fun figuring out a good mix for my Ele. I used a mix of Aetherblade and Nighmare to find a good mix of plant and academic aesthetics. I also decided to add in the fused gauntlets to add a bit of a fiery touch since she likes to use fire too.

Head: Aetherblade Light Goggles
Shoulders: Nightmare Court Mantle
Chest: Aetherblade Light Chest
Gloves: Fused Gauntlets
Legs: Nightmare Court Sarong
Boots: Aetherblade Light Shoes

http://i.imgur.com/rNpgIuO.jpg

Later I switched out the Aetherblade helmet for the Mask of the Night, because I wanted something prettier that would also show off her wonderful new hairstyle.

Pic 2
Head switched to Mask of the Night.
The rest remains the same.
http://i.imgur.com/QNjH9lr.jpg
—————————————

For my engineer I immediately fell in love with the raised collar look of the Forgeman shoulders but I thought the rest of the set was a bit cliche for an engi. The Gas Mask skin came out, and I thought it was a cool engi looking alternative to the Forgeman helmet. The chest I choose because it had the look of armor without being too bulky and the gloves and boots I choose for some extra flair.

Helmet: Gas Mask
Shoulders: Forgeman Shoulders
Chest: Sneakthief Coat
Gloves: Prowler Gloves
Legs: Forgeman Breeches
Boots: Prowler Boots

http://i.imgur.com/EkQMNMo.jpg

This reminds me of one time in Cursed Shore when an Orrian tree node was placed at a spot where a pact ship had crashed and the node was inside an invisible wall. I had to shadow step to break past the wall just to get to the node.

The thing that I find is over powered about them is the width of the attack (which is wider then the animated visual). There are numerous times when I have stepped or dodged out of the way of the attack visual and they still hit me. Other times I have been standing to the side and seemingly without being hit I am damaged and knocked away.

First of all I wish to state that I am one of the many people who were drawn in by those four words and then was deeply saddened and let down by the railroaded story.

I realize that the MMO environment does create some extra problems when adding in a morality system and what not but if we are talking about morally ambiguous sylvari then perhaps we could spend some time on Caithe.

I am in the Caithe fan club and I am very concerned that her reluctance to confide in anyone will lead to darkness and depression (and ultimately a fall into nightmare). This is a situation where again the reality of a game limits the agency of players. My main is also a night-born sylvari. I feel like the two could be good friends. If I had had the options and the story had not been so railroaded I would have let someone else take center stage in the story so that I could be more of a heroine to Caithe.

I went on a bit of a tangent there, but what I am trying to get at is that there are a number of Sylvari named NPCs who are prominent in the story, and that even if the PC can’t walk the line and perhaps fail as a hero, due to plot, the NPC can.

How do you think this hullabaloo will effect sylvari NPCs like Trahearne, Canach, Foalain, Caithe, other Firstborn, etc?

Also if what Caithe said in the cave was true, that “You and I are on the same side”, why is she doing what she is doing, and will she eventually fall into nightmare?

I don’t think that thing is a sylvari. There are better examples of corrupted sylvari in the Ominous Portent (at the end of the Mysterious cave LS mission). I get shivers every time the glimpse of Faolain skewering a human comes around. She has red eyes and looks a bit more thorny than usual.

The sylvari do seem to exist in a grey area between dragon spawn and dragon corrupted creature. “We were meant to serve the dragon”, is an ambiguous statement that still leaves some subtle details unanswered.

I’m very interested in Caithe. I have read the Edge of Destiny book and I enjoyed her fearless curiosity and sense of adventure. It did hurt me a bit to see Caithe so young and naive, and I had to keep reminding myself that she is only two years old in the vision.

It also hurt to see Caithe so blind to Faolain’s selfish thirst for power, but then I reminded myself that for those two years Caithe and Faolain were the only sylvari who sought to adventure beyond the Pale Tree’s roots in which they formed a deep relationship.

I am looking to see how Heart of Thorns expands on Caithe’s story (and Faolain). I’m excited for all of the new gameplay and mechanics, but one thing I’m sad that I have heard nothing about is Caithe.

I’m going to make a bakeneko revenant (aka female charr).

I was also concerned over the bottomless pit.

I’m interested to see how they handle map boundaries in the final release. I hope that if they do employ the mechanic displayed in the demo that it at least looks more like a writhing mass of vines rather than a black bottomless pit.

The sylvari are my favorite race and I am in the Caithe fan club. I am interested in their entire story so the discussion that is raised in this topic interests me very much.

Concerning the questions of factions, as Katz.5143 said, the game already has factions. The only thing to figure out then is to figure out how to make the “evil” factions playable without breaking the game.

This particular quandary has actually been around quite some time and is evident concerning the sylvari and the Caledon Forest heart in which the character infiltrates Briarthorn Den. Once within the character has a chance to decide whether they wish to help or hurt the fern hounds. It ends up not being much of a choice though, because if you choose to hurt them it gives you a damage over time debuff called “darkening heart” that will eventually kill you.

This struggle with darkness is an essential part of the sylvari story. It is dealt with in one line of the personal story and is a major part of the story of Caithe. It is wrapped up in her relationship with with Faolain and is encapsulated in that one line we hear during A Light in the Darkness: “For you…Yes. I will fall into Nightmare.”

If Caithe were to fall into nightmare I feel my character would follow her there.

There is a lot of character potential in the idea of a character (including a player character) having a low/dark time in their life when they act more like a villain than a hero.

This seems though like something that would be best handled by the Personal Story system. That though is going to be revamped for Season 2 and so I will have to wait before I make any further decisions on how it might be implemented. For now will I look forward to Season 2 and hope that Caithe’s story is continued and her relationship with Faolain is touched on more.

I liked the stickfigure avatars they did in GW1 some time ago.

The big heads made me dizzy, especially when trying to do a jumping puzzle.

I only played it out on my main but I was satisfied with the choice about the kiss. My female sylvari thief might have said it in different words but I feel like she would have deflected the question by changing the subject to the kiss.

The problem the OP brings up is of course related to the big problem when it comes to MMOs and their stories. As a videogame there are a massive amount of PCs. Story-wise though the game doesn’t always acknowledge this and keeps the fact beyond the 4th wall. The problem then arises when you give a million different people all the same dialogue spiel. It is practically impossible for such to apply to every person, and so it causes some disparity with some people that can break immersion.

I have a number of characters but my main is a sylvari thief that I consider a bit of a waylander. I feel she would get to know this new group and become at least mild friends, but would not consider herself part of their group. DE on the other hand, she is very good friends with and considers herself a (sort-of) member of the group. She missed them very much during this time. She was happy to see Caithe in the Aether path, but found her acting strangely distant like she was acting as if she didn’t know my character even though we had spent quite a bit of time together.

Aerathnor.8305:

As cliche as it is to say it, here it is. Who plays a human in a high fantasy game? They are like the people that go to a Mexican restaurant and order the cheeseburger :p

Considering GW, the only race you could play in GW1 was human. One of the major reasons I’d imagine for playing a human in GW2 is if you wanted a character that was a descendant of your GW1 character.

As for sylvari, they’re awesome. They are a nature race that is not an elf (talk about cliche), or a nymph or dryad. They have an awesome appearance, with lots of colors, styles, and a glow. They are apparently biologically immortal. They have an intriguing, and mysterious backstory, which lends itself to an interesting racial character. Their starting zone has three jumping puzzles. Their hometown is an amazing three tier giant tree that is still fairly easy to navigate.

I’ve actually been working on a fan fic idea about my main, a sylvari thief name Renee, who has a crush on Caithe. One of the important moments is centered on that particular phase.

Renee sat outside in the dark night looking at Caithe through a window. She had dreamed of Caithe and knew of her darkness. She could see Caithe, but wondered if Caithe would see her. It was Caithe herself who had said, “You are either firstborn, or you are Sylvari.”

The fact that Faolain is also a firstborn only makes the moment more dramatic.

The picture of Caithe smiling does look strange. Not to mention the fact that Caithe doesn’t seem like the lovey-dovey type.

Squeee! My first thought when this whole plot line began was that the dragon was going to be Mordremoth, but now that we have Attack on Lion’s Arch and the OP has reminded me of how much fun I had that one time, running from destroyers in ancient dwarven ruins, it seems that the dragon is going to be Primordus.

I agree with those who want LA to be destroyed so that the other cities can hold more significance.

I also agree that Scarlet is an experimental villain who is not suited to hold the mantle given to her, but seeing as how she is most likely a minion of an elder Dragon that things are heading in a desirable direction even if it does includes mostly revamping old areas instead of adding new ones.

I would also say that it makes sense for the Vigil and only the Vigil to take up the task of accommodating that which used to reside in LA. They are the eternal protectors. Their whole spiel is to protect people and unite the races. LA is rather unprotected due to a lack of walls, defensive positions and a less than intimidating army. The Vigil is a military order with a fortress. They would want to keep the united spirit of LA alive even as the city burns. The Order of Whispers likes to work on the down low and would not appreciate having their secret underground lair turned into a travel and trade center. While the Priory who would be interested in keeping the history of LA alive, they are more interested in books and such than people. They like the Order of Whispers would not appreciate the change to their HQ because they would not want pirates stealing precious artifacts, and such a buzz of people would get in the way of research.

I hope and agree that Anet should include player choice in the eventual rebuilding of the iconic city of Lion’s Arch.

One thing I have noticed is that Caithe’s story is very melodramatic at times. There is a certain polarization of good and evil, and as you said, Caithe has issues. Faolain acts as the central dark/antagonistic/evil character but I haven’t seen much of a light/protagonistic/good character to foil and balance Faolain. Caithe does have Destiny’s Edge, but she isn’t all that good at sharing herself with them. I know it is quite fantastical to think I could do such, but I have wanted to step into Guild Wars and be apart of Caithe’s story. I know she has a certain darkness about her (night cycle, not afraid to gaze into the darkness). And for those who have read the book: if the hand shaped poison scar over her heart has anything to say about it she is most certainly touched by nightmare. This sort of story is not for everyone but as for me: I want to be a light in her life. I guess I am just a dreamer like that.

I’m sorry I was feeding the trolls a bit by posting nothing but that block of text. I suppose I figured I’d get those sort of comments any which way and I just wanted to get them out of the way before moving on to talk about Caithe, which is what this topic is really about.

Those who know Caithe’s story know that she is in danger of falling into nightmare and the reasons why revolve around love. The thing is though is that everything that the nightmare is about is the exact opposite of what love is about. The reason that I want to tell these words to Caithe is that I want her to realize that. I want to tell her that I love her, and to never fall into nightmare, because love is about never giving up hope.

The story of Caithe is an interesting one and how it will end is yet to be seen, but for now… What do you think? Do you think Caithe will eventually fall and join the Nightmare Court? Do you want her too, or do you, like me, hope that she never gives up hope?

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, is does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preservers. Love never fails.

I do hope it is something to do with the Order of Whispers, whether it’s a collective persona or some mysterious pseudonym of someone. All this pact business has been much too overt for my tastes.

I’m excited ‘cause it very possibly could be Mordremoth. The jungle dragon is something that the inquest have been studying with along with all the other dragons, but he hasn’t shown himself yet. In the trailer there is a giants green goo spewing vine wurm, and poison and the vine wurms seem to be associated with the Jungle Dragon. Also Scarlet has spent some time in Twilight Arbor which also has a connection to the dragon.

Elbegast.6970:

Brother Dulfite.5793:

What if she somehow destroys every Asura gate? That would be a pretty significant change. Especially if she took down waypoints as well lol.

If she did and it was permanent, I would take back every negative thing I have ever said about Scarlet Briar. As I, myself, tend to avoid fast travel at all costs and would rather walk than run through the game world.

I’ll add my vote to this. Lion’s Arch being the “Center of the World” is a very important thing, and taking away waypoints would only reinforce how much the world relied on the gates and how disconnected they are now that they are gone.

The talk of Scarlet and Scarlet hate has been bouncing around for long enough. A number of people have said that they don’t want Scarlet but there hasn’t been a lot of talk about what to put in her place.

Thinking about it I am reminded of the Movement of the World. The fact that this is Guild Wars 2 is not lost upon me. I think about what has already happened and I ask myself, “what would happen next?”

One idea that has occurred to me since the introduction of all of these enemy sub-factions, is that perhaps there are friendly sub-factions. During the personal story players have the option of joining one of the three orders of the Pact, but I doubt that those three are the only in existence. The dragons have helped to unite the races, but not everybody is going to join hands and sing Kumbaya. I feel a good direction to take that would help flesh out the world to make it more real is to introduce factions and a reputation mechanic. I realize that this would take a lot of work but it would add so much to the game. It would be an alternate way to introduce some awesome armor skins besides the gem store and would add some replayability to the game because the player could join different factions with different characters (as with the pact- except that not all of them get along)

What do you think? Do you have any ideas about where the living story should go or what it should include?

I think a statue of one’s mentor in the home instance is a super awesome idea.

I put it on my human engineer who I have dyed head to toe in celestial. He’s not 80 yet so I haven’t figured out the armor for sure, but I think I like this look.

@ Elbegast I did enjoy the Rings of Akhaten episode of Doctor Who.

As for the topic of this topic, I do think it’s pretty meta that Anet would develop a character who has lead the characters to chasing carrots, so they could have the players chasing carrots.

I think that the reason Scarlet has dues-ex-machina so many times is that she has never actually been there. It has been an illusion the entire time and has only pretended to have super teleportation powers to hide this fact. Hopefully after this last hallucination filled adventure the characters will be better at handling illusions and can find where the real Scarlet is hiding.

My main is a thief. As a person who enjoys playing the stealthy character, I do tend to favor running. It was always really fun when I could run through (with the assistance of infiltrator arrow and some traits) and then stealth, and I was safe. I still enjoy running jumping puzzles with my main because I can use stealth to grab the end chest without having to fight the mob standing on top of it. I guess I just can’t get over the fact that stealth no longer resets agro.

7/10 It doesn’t sound very sylvari to me, but naming a necromancer after an archangel is certainly an interesting choice.

Renee (but pronounced ri-nee)

Also technically the character has a last name, but only because “Renee” by itself was already taken

The instance I am talking about is the Protect the Mists storyline of the Norn personal story. The Sons of Svanir are the ones doing all the heavy lifting, but if they hadn’t been beaten back Jormag would have had a hold on the Mists.

As for the Dream it is correct that the Sylvari instance it the time I am talking about. And it is true that it is debatable whether a dragon was involved. What is specifically said though is that it was caused by the Nightmare Court (which may be involved with a dragon), and while mostly they refer to it as a poison, there is one instance, right before the boss fight when Caithe says “Swiftly now. We must end this corruption.”

I suppose in the end, there is no definitive argument against the ‘They don’t know how to yet’ argument, so I’ll just have to agree to disagree on that particular theory.

It seems more like a problem of syntax in my use of the word then an actual flaw. The question that comes to mind is this: If the Pale Tree was who the nightmare court wanted her to be, than would she really be the Pale Tree? The Ventari Tablet is the backbone of Sylvari society. To be against the Ventari Tablet, as the Nightmare Court are, is to be against the very thing the Grove was founded on.

The thing that makes the ‘not flesh and blood argument’, not as sound is that the dragon corruption has affected things other than flesh and blood. The biggest example is the branded plants. The argument against that is of course that Kralkatorrik is on the other side of Tyria from the sylvari. To argue against that I would ask one to consider the effects of Dragon corruption on the very land. Zhaitan’s corruption has completely changed the landscape of Orr, including changing plants into coral. Jormag’s corruption too has certainly changed the landscape in areas.

There have been instances where dragon corruption has entered both the Dream and the Mists, but was beaten back. The Dream is a big unanswerable question at the current time.

The way things are now does make one feel like they are chasing carrots. The LS foils the storied past of the GWs universe in a bad way and makes achievements and such more important than story.

The reason I fell in love with GW2 and wished to really be a part of it is that I really felt like it was a living world. Personally I wanted to enter Tyria and tell Caithe just how much I like her so that she will never fall into nightmare. Now after running through so many hoops, after so many releases it feels more like just a videogame. I’m to much of a dreamer to not care, but I do fear for the future of Tyria (and Caithe).

I think where the problem lies is how much the bi-weekly events foil the usual long running stories which usually drive videogames. The frequent release schedule gives it a monster of the week feel. Also the constant release of new ‘special’ items and the rewards of the achievement system and how the event achievements are one of the best way to get the points can give the feeling of chasing carrots.

As a thief I prefer to use a combination of lots of stealth, infiltrators arrow and a few traits to run past mostly everything, but I was stonewalled on the first level when I ran into a champion (like the OP). Also during the fight it got so crazy with all of the fields and adds that it got to a point where people were being downed and dying like crazy and me and my partner couldn’t even tell what we were getting killed by.

Doon.2364:

Do any of you find the female sylvari attractive?

Yes, I am in love with Caithe. I want to be her girlfriend for life and save her from falling to nightmare.

Sylvari is my favorite race. I have 3 sylvari characters including my main.

Doon.2364:

I think they look kind of weird. […] I like the Sylvari race concept but wish they have better looks though.

Anet has the appearances run the gambit, and given the sylvari concept (plants in the form of humanoids), it’s obvious that at least some of the options are going to be weird. One of the most notable qualities which is associated with beauty is symmetricalness. All of the male face options and 7 out of 10 of the female face options are symmetrical. That said, there is only one (female) face option which I would go so far as to call “human looking”. They are very beautiful, just not humanly beautiful.

The best theory that seems to be about is that the Pale tree is part of a group of champions of Mordremoth (the jungle dragon) that were cleansed by the Forgotten and then stored in a cave. Ventari’s tablet is not what cleansed the Pale Tree but simply something she decided to take to heart because she saw what nice people Ventari and Ronan were when she was growing.

The nightmare court are analogous to the Sons of Svanir. A cult which turns away from the traditions of their society in favor of worshiping a dragon.

DarksunG.9537:

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Don’t kill her, just retcon her out of the entire game.

would be awesome

Quick, someone get Bad Wolf.

The idea of Faolain teaming up with Caithe to defeat Scarlet does seem like an interesting drama filled story with lots of consequences. It certainly would twist Caithe’s feelings all up, which is something I see Faolain seeking to do. As for Caithe falling into nightmare, I hope that never happens, because once one falls into nightmare there is no saving them. It is said so in one of the sylvari personal story missions, and is something that has been said in other media as well.

“Once you’ve crossed that line, once you’ve given into fear, you’ll never go back. I’ve seen it.” -The Green Lantern (2011)

I’ve thought about making it my personal mission to make sure that Caithe does not fall into nightmare. It’s a bit complicated because she is a NPC in a video game, but Anet does allow people to influence the game and I feel that Caithe is very important.

I saw that a Twilight Arbor event was coming and I immediately, grew excited for more of the Caithe/Faolain story. It makes me sad to hear that the event with have more “clockwork chaos” rather than more Nightmare Court, who are the actual denizens of TA.

As for Caithe shacking up with anyone, I would hope it would be me.

As for Faolain shacking up with someone, I wouldn’t put it past her.

As for Scarlet shacking up with someone, I agree with earlier posters in that she is a chaotic third party who is just as likely to kill the Nightmare Court as she is to help them.

Scarlet’s ultimate goal seems to be something akin to an anarchist, that is destroy the system and interrupt the status quo. The Nightmare Court’s ultimate goal is more akin to a dark prophet, that is they want to reshape the world into a blacker facsimile of itself. They wish to keep the darker parts of the system and the status quo rather than completely razing it to the ground.

I have liked Cathie since the beginning and she is certainly been my favorite Destiny’s Edge character. Her Story is one that is very interesting to me. I care about her well being, and I want her to have someone in her life that will help her fight the nightmares of the world rather than fall into them.

With the new changes to the way the Living Story will be handles I am wondering if we will be able to explore the stories of the members of Divinity’s Edge. They have already been through a lot, though I see that there is still more to come; certainly for Caithe a presumably biologically immortal sylvari.

My Main is a (female) sylvari, and again since the beginning I have imagined that the two could become close friends. I would even say that Caithe has been a bit of a lesbian crush. It is quite a grand notion that my character would ever be in such a position but the creation of the sylvari Ameranth who was inspired by a real person has given me a bit of hope that a player can influence a game.

What do you think?
Is there any NPC position you wish your character could enter into?

I vote YES.

Necros have awsome looking masks that they can start with, and no other item can compare to their awsomenss.

I was recently working on the appearance of my Norn Necro, and have decided that the t1 sheepskin set is the look for her-at least from the sholders down. I did have the Demon Mask, but I accidentaly lost it during transmutation. Now I am deeply saddened by the fact that her awsome look will never be complete.

I’ve got 97% Map Completion, I’ve explored the entire PvE map, all of WvW that’s not behind a wall, and some of it that is. I’ve tried to grab some of the remaining poi’s by sitting back and letting the other teams fight it out until one of them breaks down the other’s door but loot and kills are too important to let either of them let me sit idly by and not kill me. I’ve already heard that I might have to switch servers to take care of this little detail, but I’d rather not uproot myself for 3% when I’ve been on the same sever for the other 97%.

Renee Syl-Thief-Night Cycle

Her dream was longer than most, for she dreamt of The Long Road. This road is one that seems to stretch on forever, and Renee should know for in her dream she traveled this road. She traveled through forests and through deserts. Into towns and cities, in which she met static reflections of people she felt like she had met before. She saw much of the world and did many things as she traveled the winding path. When she did finally reach the end of the road she reflected back on her travels. The adventures that she experienced had been very exciting and fulfilling. Then she awoke and was faced with the fact that her journey had all been a dream, and that there was still a long way to go.