Guild Wars 2

“Is this a joke hurr durr?”

No, your attitude is a joke.

No minion will be good damage and no matter what minion is will be, I don’t think it will make this shout worth using instead of something else. I’d rather have something altogether different, like “Play dead!” that is an AOE knockback, and perhaps throws torment on enemies as well.

CHIPS.6018:

As many of you know I had been playing as a necro since GW1 beta (not kidding =) ). I used to play WvW a lot. I hasn’t really played that much nowadays. And when I do I just play with the mobs in PvE and LS.

I had been playing WvW for the past 2 days. Let’s just say things have gotten much worst for the necro. I am not going to repeat what many other players have already said a 1000 times.

I will keep this short. If you guys hate DS as much as I do, boycott DS altogether from now on. Just never use it. Never push that button. See how weak necro actually is. Fully embrace the truth about the necro.

Many of you will say that’s how necro was balanced. No that should be the last thing on your mind. You should instead be thinking:

Do I enjoy using DS? Do I enjoy being in DS? I am a paying customer. Why do I have to put up with this?

For me DS just disables my whole skill bar. It is a skill that shuts down my whole character. Who needs mesmer when I can shut myself down just fine? It was just a skill to temporary delay defeat in WvW. Meanwhile my whole party is getting healed while I am not getting any.

Instead of trying to work with DS, why don’t we just boycott DS and see how weak necro actually is right now? For example let’s say you go 1v1 someone without DS. If you only bring him down to 50% health before dying, well guess what necro is only half the man your enemy is!

Then you got to ask yourself: Do I want DS? Or do I want a total revamp of something new to replace DS?

If you truly want a necro class without the negative influence of DS, then you must cast your vote. Stop using DS. Boycott it from now on.

I don’t hate DS. I do, however, hate posts like this one.

Atherakhia.4086:

It’ll never be worth using if the sole point of it is DPS. Even if spec’d for minions and nova I doubt you’d see a Necro bother with it. It needs to be scrapped entirely and replaced with some kind of functional utility that the class is missing and could actually use.

I suggested it the other thread and I’ll just repeat it here… It should just summon some large random construct that knocks things back a short distance when summoned and then spins in place for a few seconds reflecting projectiles and continuing to knock back people who decide to get near it. Kind of like how the golem spins work. After a few seconds it falls apart due to the fast spinning.

The class needs an answer to projectile spam and it needs a way to break a melee train. This will do both.

We already have spectral wall. But you’re right, as a damaging shout, it would lame no matter how you sliced it. I don’t think reflection will ever be part of the necro kit.

I could see a shout that is an AOE knockback, though, and on top of that, say, applies torment.

Shiki.7148:

biggs.4702:

Vizardlorde.8243:

Ezeriel.9574:

Roe, How are you going to fight a ranger? How are you going to fight a Dragon Knight? A shortbow thief? a condi thief? pistol engi? nades?

My longbow ranger uses chill and cripple runes… I can see it now. Reapers are cannon fodder.

pretty sure the 33-66% snare duration will be staple in all reaper builds all they need is a staff and they can close the gap enough to get in range for the GS pull

How?

Spectral Grasp.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Grasp

That thing is single target though. Reapers Grasp is up to 5 targets with a (slightly) lower cooldown but half the range and poison instead of chill. And since Reapers want to have many targets…

The original post was concerning 1v1 situations in PvP or WvW. Therefore, Spectral Grasp.

Vizardlorde.8243:

Ezeriel.9574:

Roe, How are you going to fight a ranger? How are you going to fight a Dragon Knight? A shortbow thief? a condi thief? pistol engi? nades?

My longbow ranger uses chill and cripple runes… I can see it now. Reapers are cannon fodder.

pretty sure the 33-66% snare duration will be staple in all reaper builds all they need is a staff and they can close the gap enough to get in range for the GS pull

How?

Spectral Grasp.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Grasp

Since the reaper is a soul-harvester, using normal necromantic minions seems out of place in addition to the fact that most players think jagged horrors are weak and not worth using.

If we were to entertain the idea of a new kind of minion, what might it be? Since the theme of the reaper is harvesting souls, then I think it would be cool for the Rise shout minions to be souls of some kind. The only problem I foresee is that the existing models in the game are all used for enemy mobs: wraiths and ghosts. Liches would be cool, but there could be some confusion about which liches were players in lich form or not, even if the Rise liches were smaller in size.

You could possibly alter their colors, but that can be off-putting to players who are colorblind.

So designing a new “risen soul” minion would be the optimal way to go if you want people to actually use Rise and you were willing to design a new minion that fit with the Reaper theme. The least amount of work you could do to make Rise worth considering is buffing the jagged horrors.

Final idea to throw out there: use flesh wurms that shoot chilling boulders like ice wurms do that knock back but don’t do a lot of damage, and make the wurms reasonably tough to kill. Sort of like necro undead turrets. Because the wurms would use a chill attack, any chill traits the Reaper is using, along with minion traits, would affect the wurms.

Death Shroud traits need to span multiple lines or your traits for it would be too limited. It would also mean they’d have to put minions into a single trait line, too, because why should Death Shroud get its own line but nothing else? No profession in the game has an entire trait line devoted to its core mechanic, so let’s just let that idea go. It’s not viable.

Death Shroud itself, its existence or how it works is not a problem. The problems are the lack of any real diversity or synergy in the traits you can select for it, and the lack of desirable group utility.

Group utility traits I’d like to see:

• Entering Death Shroud grants might and resistance (the new boon) to allies.
• Entering Death Shroud casts the new slow condition on enemies in a radius
• Entering Plague form absorbs projectiles in a radius around the caster

Survival trait I’d like to see:

• Entering Death Shroud or Plague causes the caster to evade all attacks for X seconds or grants aegis

Not everything has to be about Death Shroud. Plague and Lich forms could use some love too.

rift.6870:

From following the blog posts and watching the in depth live stream last night, I am very much looking forward to the far more streamlined specialisation/trait page, and I agree with the above poster that it would be the icing on the cake to have the trait lines “themed”.

I have no idea how time consuming / complicated it would be to program, but I have been thinking about how useful it would be to have a clear visual indication of how much each trait will effect your equipped skills (and vice versa) whilst you mouse over them.

I have uploaded a few quick paint mockups at the link below to hopefully better explain myself:
http://imgur.com/a/SYkBB

Essentially, if you hover over a trait that buffs, reduces recharge or gives additional bonus to a weapon or utility skill (or an entire group of skills), it would be nice to have them highlighted – maybe in a similar way to the glow of new items in your inventory, or by darkening out the other non buffed skills.

This would give a visual indication of how useful the trait is to your build (in terms of effects on skills, of course there are many other useful effects of traits), and could also make it easier to tell that you are selecting the correct trait when changing them “on the run”, without having to read the skill facts.

Now that we will have a single panel that shows all traits together with current weapon skills and current and available utility skills, this sort of function would make my day.

Of course, this could also work the other way, by mousing over a skill and seeing all the traits that would benefit it (see example 3 and 4 in the link).

My apologies for the terrible mock ups, but hopefully they will convey what I am trying to say.

Sweet mock-up! That’s exactly what I was envisioning.

We ask for better group utility for YEARS and are basically ignored. It has not even been acknowledged this is an issue. That’s pretty cold.

Most likely the tomes will advance you a level if you are below level 80 and after that they will do nothing.

ArenaNet have said they read forums and yet all this time we have been DYING to have better group utility, to be more desirable in organized groups, our concerns have not even been acknowledged, let alone addressed.

Here we are going through the biggest class changes since the game started and our desire for better group utility remains ignored.

I really liked what they showed on the last POI show with the upcoming traits interface. I understand that the artwork isn’t complete for it, yet, so this is the perfect time for me to make this suggestion.

As the player selects traits, these blue magical energy lines appear to connect them all in a line. My suggestion is simply color these energy lines to match the profession’s color scheme.

• Elementalist: Lines that match the colors of the elements: orange for fire, blue for water, tan for earth, purple for arcane.

• Engineer: golden lines

• Guardian: blue lines

• Mesmer: light purple lines

• Necromancer: green lines

• Ranger: Yellow lines

• Thief: red & black mixed lines

• Warrior: tan lines

Don’t know enough about revenant to even offer a suggestion for it. But you get the idea. I just think that would be a fun and visually pleasing “eye candy” touch to have.

Nokaru.7831:

I’m going to just re-post this here: This is not an opinion piece. Here is perhaps the biggest and most subtle problem with the NPE that’s technically “working as intended” – The “stat burst” and the “stat slump" effect.

• Stat Burst: With the original leveling system, players would receive a small amount of stats each time they leveled, which made their character slowly get stronger each level. With the NPE changes, after level 4 the player will received a large chunk (or “burst”) of stats every 6 levels. This was likely to make certain thresholds feel more rewarding and fun. (“Stat burst” levels: 4, 10, 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 52, 58, 64, 70, 76, 80)

• Stat Slump: The problem is that the “stat burst” power did not come out of no where. The power is redistributed from prior levels. The result is that players feel weaker than they did before during certain windows of leveling. This is being remarked as the “stat slump”, which is typically 2 to 4 levels prior to each threshold.

• The problem? If a player tries to fight a creature 1 or 2 levels higher than themselves, the “stat slump” complicates things. A level 9 creature is more powerful than a level 8; but a level 9 player is not inherently more powerful than a level 8. This is because the stats come in bursts for players, but gradually for monsters. This is not intuitive at all, and it makes it difficult for a player to judge how difficult a fight will be.
  
  Prior to the NPE, a level 8 player would size up a level 9 monster and conclude that it is only slightly stronger than themselves. With the new change however, this creature is actually 5 levels higher than him since the player is effectively level 4 stat wise. This problem continues all the throughout leveling during every “stat slump”
  
  It comes as no surprise to me that players are noticing that certain Personal Story missions are feeling much harder than they used to, even with all of their skills unlocked. This is a result of the “stat slump”, which is making players feel lower level than they actually are. (Because they effectively are a lower level)

More information is on this subject on these reddit threads:

• Stat Slump Stuff
• Downscaling & Stat Slump

In Conclusion (TLDR):

• Since you gain stats every 6 levels instead of every level, if you could not kill a creature at level 40, you will not be able to kill it at 44. A level 44 player is exactly as strong as a level 40, sans any gear changes. This phenomena happens frequently, and it has greatly changed the pacing and feel of leveling in GW2. Most offensively about this system is how subtle and non-intuitive for players to not stronger every level, yet creatures do. This change, more than any other, is the most dysfunctional one in the NPE, in their effort to create a “rewarding feeling” but instead it difficult to size up challenges now for players leveling.
  
  The ideal fix would be to un-do this redistribution and give the stats to the players gradually as it did in the past.

Absolutely this is something that should be looked into and adjusted.

I don’t have anything original to contribute now, but I’ve really liked some of the proposals and wanted to make a little digest of the best ideas:

• Guild-wide messaging system of some kind, whether by in-game mail or mass chat messaging or both
• More granular management of ranks, roles, and permissions
• Guild member tool tip hover in the roster
• Guild-only group tags similar to the commander tag. Only guild members see them
• Ability to create large subgroups within the guild, similar to a raid party, with its attendant communication needs such as chat channels and other elements
• Ability to create an alliance out of multiple guilds, with its attendant communication needs such as chat channels and other elements
• Guild event calendar interface
• More robust API for guild information

The whole point of a profession’s main mechanic is that you use it.

If, during the course of combat against normal and veteran open world PvE mobs, adrenaline never gets past 2 bars, a warrior cannot use any burst skills. The grandmaster trait Berserker’s Power is now useless.

If every warrior feels compelled to equip adrenaline-boosting traits/skills just to be able to even get to the point where they can use a burst skill or benefit from Berserker’s Power, then our hand is forced regarding builds.

If these adrenaline-boosting traits/skills become the new “must haves” then warriors now have fewer options for build diversity and the profession has suffered a crippling blow. This is the main profession mechanic we’re talking about, here, not some over-powered exploit. It’s not fun and it’s not acceptable.

Harper.4173:

Yes- it is still viable. At least in PvE.

Adrenaline may as well not even exist, now, therefore Berserker’s Power is a waste of a grandmaster trait at this point.

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!

Black Lion Chest Changes:
Removed the following items from Black Lion Chests:
*Scroll of Knowledge (+1 skill point)
*Essence of Luck (50)
*Essence of Luck (100)

Thank you, ArenaNet.

All I want is for adrenaline to wait just one more second before beginning to decay.

kikojak.7051:

Atticus.7194:

Enter my friend, learn to live it and love it if you ever expect anyone to read what you write.

maybe make your replies make more sense before u reply at all. What are u trying to say?

He’s trying to say for the love of all that is holy press the dang Enter key once in a while. It’s called a “paragraph,” and it’s a basic element of writing which dramatically decreases the desire in people to skip over everything you wrote and ignore it.

Warlord.9074:

biggs.4702:

Before I say anything else, let me say that I was for this change, because adrenaline shouldn’t have decayed so slowly nor be saved if you fail to land a burst skill.

But the rate of adrenaline decay is now too severe. You should be able to at least go from one mob to another when mobs are spaced apart normally in the open world without having to start all over again building adrenaline. If there’s nothing within range to fight, and it takes you longer than normal mob distance to engage combat again, then, yes, adrenaline should decay.

To not even have a chance to use a burst skill without using abilities that inject extra adrenaline unless you’re fighting many mobs simultaneously? That’s not appropriate and I’d like to see the decay begin just a couple seconds longer.

I don’t get it a lot of people said on the forum this change was bad. I mean what exactly did you expect? Something other than what was being said?

…

And what gets me Is I knew how bad it was going to be but it is even worst than I expected.

Well, which is it?

But I’ll run with your final statement, because yeah… it IS worse than we expected. I think if adrenaline waited even just one or two seconds longer to begin decaying, then the intent of the changes would be better fulfilled.

But to not even be able to use a burst skill fighting mob to mob? To almost never have max adrenaline without using abilities which give more adrenaline than normal skills? This makes burst skills happen too infrequently and it completely cripples the grandmaster trait Berserker’s Power.

And frankly I’m surprised that this didn’t come up in testing or that this was tested and found to be acceptable. As someone who has mained warrior since beta and who has been on board with most of the “shaves” (ArenaNet’s term) warrior has received over the last two years… I feel like this change goes too far and it needs to be dialed back just a little bit. And it needs to happen very soon. There can be no pretense that this is acceptable or good or balanced.

Before I say anything else, let me say that I was for this change, because adrenaline shouldn’t have decayed so slowly nor be saved if you fail to land a burst skill.

But the rate of adrenaline decay is now too severe. You should be able to at least go from one mob to another when mobs are spaced apart normally in the open world without having to start all over again building adrenaline. If there’s nothing within range to fight, and it takes you longer than normal mob distance to engage combat again, then, yes, adrenaline should decay.

To not even have a chance to use a burst skill without using abilities that inject extra adrenaline unless you’re fighting many mobs simultaneously? That’s not appropriate and I’d like to see the decay begin just a couple seconds longer.

Unpredictability.4086:

I think it’s futile at this point.

Log in once every couple of months to get living story unlock, ignore the game till something significant really happens.

Not at all. The truth is that of course a necromancer can run dungeons and do any PvE content. The only place where a necromancer is not wanted is for speed runs or by people who are lazy or ignorant. And there are far more lazy and ignorant people than there are speed-runners.

If you have a good group of friends or guildies you can run any PvE content you want with your necromancer. If not, than your friends and guildies are not good, and you should find people who are.

Necromancer not only does well but excels at open world events and soloing.

My enjoyment of the necromancer profession is much stronger than any pessimism or defeatism about the game or the poor decisions made by other players.

Parasitic Contagion: Currently this grandmaster trait causes a mere 5% of your condition damage to heal you. Possible change: 3% of your damage (power, not condition) heals you and up to 5 allies within 600 range.

Unholy Sanctuary: Currently this grandmaster trait gives you health regeneration while in death shroud. Possible change: Grants the same amount of health regeneration to up to 5 allies within 600 range.

Foot in the Grave: Currently this grandmaster trait gives you 3 seconds of stability upon entering Death Shroud. Possible change: Give stability to up to 5 allies within 600 range.

Currently many PvE necromancers who would like to run dungeons feel quite betrayed and let down by the current state of necromancer traits and abilities. My suggestions are meant to make necromancers more desirable to have in parties by bringing more group utility.

We get plenty of Essences of Luck from salvaging, thanks. I expect to receive items from Black Lion Chests that are valuable or that cannot likely be acquired in the game otherwise, and Essences of Luck fit neither of these criteria.

Thanks for taking the time to hear my concerns.

Since this thread came back to life it got me thinking of some ideas:

• Primers for boosters or extended time boosters (5 hours and/or 24 hours)
• I’m always down for new faces and hairstyles/colors, but specifically I’d like to see longer beards for guys (both human and norn)
• New body types. Let’s have more options for weightier options for all races, more defined muscles for human females, older character bodies
• New patterns/tattoos for Norn/Asura/Charr and tattoos for humans as well
• Magic carpet (similar to the broom)
• Floating divan/chair (similar to the broom)
• Glowing cat’s eye effect at night
• Antlers (similar to the devil horns)
• Beggar’s outfits: tattered, patched hooded cloak
• Crafting outfits similar to the chef’s outfit for other crafting disciplines: an armorsmith’s leather apron & gloves, jeweler’s loupe or dark goggles, and so forth

Not worth it at all.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

The intent of the Renown Heart system was originally to help players find event content. They also provide a decent method for us to give the player some context and awareness of what’s going on in the area. There are probably a few issues in that design which we could discuss. We could also let it suffice to say that hearts do not make the best repeatable content the game has to offer.

On the topic of keeping players engaged with open world content, I think this goal may be for more approachable from a different angle. Consider Dry Top, which has no hearts. Players on that map are participating in events all the time, largely on the premise that each event contributes to both map-level and personal-level goals. This gives me the notion that with a little help at the system level, events can and should be the bulk of repeatable open world content in Tyria.

I’d be very interested in hearing your thoughts on that.

The way events are done in Dry Top is brilliant, but how would something like that work in light of world map completion? You need a way to show “done is done” so you can get your achievement and move on.

kta.6502:

Zoso.8279:

Voting is over. Tip for the forums try to read full topic before writing. “We” players have to learn to read what developers post and not just type what we want.

Sorry if I “sound” like a D*** re-reading my post kinda feels that way but not trying to be!

Don’t worry about it.

I’m really surprised to see the answers in this thread because folks were so ticked at Anet a couple weeks back. They felt the devs weren’t listening to them. The players wanted the power to influence the game, and Chris gave it to them by re-opening the CDIs. Now these players just want to give away their power by letting Anet pick the topic? Who plays the game more: the players or the devs?

Some of the devs play the game. I’ve noticed that they tend to design the game from a dev POV instead of a player POV. That’s terrible because it has led to bad game design. unnecessary nerfing, exploits, and banning folks for playing the game. The Arah explorable dungeon paths are a very good example of this.

If Anet takes over and people start to complain on the forums, I will refer folks back to this thread. I will say, “YOU gave away your chance to influence things. Don’t complain. This is what happens when you give away your power. Remember that.”

There are alot of areas in the game that have been ignored for too long. I really think that players need to take the floor with this new set of CDIs regardless of the votes. I don’t want to see another riot and troll-fest.

That’s exactly what I was thinking. Everybody just rolled over onto their backs. And then will complain later about the decisions.

But then again… I’m cool with guilds being the topic, so… mixed feelings.

J Eberle.9312:

Axelwarrior.9084:

J Eberle.9312:

Axelwarrior.9084:

J Eberle.9312:

Teckos.1305:

Can we all take a moment to appreciate the fact that this Anet employe is running a celestial guard and signet of resolve.

Is there a reason for this because I just.. I can’t. I don’t even. Yeh.

A GM is not using a meta dungeon build at all times?
Well, that’s it for GW2, everyone go back to WoW or Wildstar or something.

Missed point completely. :/

Oh. Could you explain?

What is the actual use of celestial gear in a dungeon

The GM isn’t running the dungeon. He or she is doing their job.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

By the way you order Reddit for it to be linear. Honestly I would like to be able to use something like Reddit for a CDI from a tech standpoint.
Chris

You could create a subreddit for this, couldn’t you? Unless you feel you need to be outside the influence or association with outside parties for reasons of metrics or IP or sovereignty.

Such mechanics could be more streamlined and useful than a tradition forum.

I know it’s super-tough to balance this out with the all the work you have to do, but to players, the most valuable action you (and anyone at ArenaNet) have taken is to simply be here and be part of the discussions. It’s messy and practically unquantifiable, but it’s also vital and magical.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

The CDI is starting up again. How would you like the topic/s to be chosen for this round.

Here are you options for now:

1: Anet chooses.
2: You list your number 1 topic and the one with the must number of votes wins.

Note: This isn’t a call for topics just asking how to pick them(-:

Chris

Players put a lot of effort into their suggestions and ideas and complaints on these forums, I think the players should choose.

Katreyn.4218:

Pretty much the way I see it. The dragon we saw in the dream was just a representation of a dragon. Not necessarily a specific one.

As for it being nature form, same with the hounds, it could be the only way the dream can represent figures: in a nature-like form.

I think when we are given our wyld hunt, it is just assumed that our vision is that of Zhaitan. But personally I think the dream meant dragons as a whole, not necessarily a specific one. It was assumed Zhaitan because he was a known threat at the moment.

But you can push all that aside if you think the writers written that much story in advance. Which is quite possible. So the dragon and everything was intended to be Modremoth from the start. It’s also possible we haven’t heard what the missing piece of this possible puzzle is yet. Obviously mother Pale Tree has more attachment to Modrem as suspected by players.

I would like to think that’s true (the Shadow of the Dragon in the Dream is specifically a minion of Mordremoth). I would like to believe that ArenaNet have been planning this the whole time, because that would be awesome and I would definitely be impressed by that. My concern that it may not be true is that ArenaNet’s storytelling so far in Guild Wars 2, while excellent, hasn’t been the most subtle.

Wollowitz.9174:

Guys, please stop arguing.

Wades into a river filled with piranhas.

“Guys, please stop eating the flesh from my bones.”

CureForLiving.5360:

The Shadow of the Dragon is an example of retcon. Originally it referred to Zhaitan, now it’s either referring to Mordy or just generally to EDs.
The reason you fight the Shadow of the Dragon in the dream is because it’s your Wyld Hunt. The Wyld Hunt is given to Sylvari in the dream. The same way you can also dream about unicorns and knights.

Now I’m not dismissing the possible connection between the Sylvari and Mordy (we simply don’t know at this point).

The dragon isn’t named in the dream at all. Later, Zhaitan is assumed to be the object of your Wyld Hunt, but when all the elder dragons are named, Mordremoth isn’t one of them. It seems pretty odd to me that it’s “of the Dragon” and no specific dragon is named.

So we have a Mordrem in the dream (it’s the exact same model), and this has now become a mystery.

In the dream are also mobs called Sinister Nightmare Hound. We’re to assume they’re related to the Nightmare Court? What is the connection between the Nightmare Court and Mordremoth?

If the dragon in the dream isn’t related to Mordremoth, what is it and what’s it doing there? Same question goes for the hounds. If the dragon’s not related to Mordremoth and the hounds aren’t related to the Nightmare Court, then we have some very clumsy writing and design for the sylvari tutorial story.

If we assume competence on the part of the writers/designer (which I’m inclined to do) then we can assume all this is deliberate, and was so from the beginning when the game was in the planning stages before launch.

And if all this is deliberate (Mordremoth minion + Nightmare Court) then we now have an official Mystery. If it’s a retcon, what are the Nightmare hounds doing there?

Questions… Questions without answers.

Kate did a great job and I’ll be sad to see her go. You should get Felcia Day to host the show, and then take all her lines and remix/edit/use them as dialogue for Zojja. Voice acting problem SOLVED.

Kidding. About Felicia Day. Not Kate. Kate rocked. Tough shoes to fill, because you need someone who’s reasonably photogenic and who can present/speak well. I’m sure you have someone who will do a great job and I’m looking forward to seeing who it is.

Goatjugsoup.8637:

im dead set against pale tree being mordremoths minion and also struggle with the idea that the nightmare court are following mordremoths will as well.

If you actually look into the backstory behind the nightmare court it does make sense why they would exist without being influenced by mordremoth

ArenaNet are, for better or worse, blatantly obvious when they’re trying to telegraph something to us. In the personal story, for example, when you talk to who you think is Trahearne, you know it’s not him because his behavior is so off-character. Another example is what’s going on with Countess Anise and Canach: you couldn’t possibly miss it.

So I don’t think ArenaNet would be so obvious with one “secret” and so subtle with another. I think we can take the Pale Tree at face value.

I didn’t notice Caithe there and fighting, but you guys clearly do, so I’m sure my memory is faulty.

She shows up at the Summit for The Dragon’s Reach, Part 2 unannounced, not saying a word.

A major beasty shows up and nearly kills the Pale Tree, and Caithe, one of the best fighters in Tyria who has fought against dragons before and who is also a Firstborn…

does nothing.

She does nothing to protect the Pale Tree, nothing to help you.

After the fight is over, she’s nowhere to be seen.

There is obvious, can’t-miss dialogue about how the dragon minion’s actions seemed too well-timed as though it had been informed in advance of when and where to strike.

From the Aetherpath dungeon we know that Scarlet claimed to know a dark secret about Caithe that even Faolin didn’t know, and Caithe seemed ready to rip her head off for teasing about it. She never got the chance and we never learned any more about it, leaving that as a very glimmering loose thread.

From the player’s personal story as a sylvari, you fight this exact same model of dragon creature in your new character tutorial. Caithe is your mentor/guide in this, and she’s there with you when you fight it. During this, she never names it other than to call it “Something” and “the poison,” as in: “Something is poisoning the dream,” and, “…the poison is at its strongest in the clearing beyond.” This creature is called “The Shadow of the Dragon,” but it doesn’t say which dragon.

Caithe does help you fight it, and says, “Destroy the nightmare before it takes root,” Also the smaller mobs are “Sinister Nightmare Hounds.”

Later in your personal story as a sylvari, Zhaitan is mentioned but not specifically named as the cause of the creature you fought in the dream. I don’t know if a little bait-and-switch could really be happening this early in the life of the game and in the story, but it’s possible. It would mean that ArenaNet knew exactly where the big story was going all along, and of course, why wouldn’t they?

If you choose the White Stag as your dream vision as a sylvari, Caithe displays some rather ruthless behavior that would give anyone pause, but doubly so in light of later events. You have, with her help, captured a member of the Nightmare Court and convince her you’ll free her in exchange for information. It’s obvious by your character’s dialogue and behavior that your character intends to uphold their end of the bargain.

Caithe has other plans, however, and kills the captured Courtier after you get what you want from her, claiming what she did was merciful compared to how she’d have been treated by the Nightmare Court after they found out she gave you information. It’s pretty cold-blooded.

There may be other examples of this kind of behavior from Caithe, but I haven’t played enough sylvari personal stories to have seen it.

Caithe mentors you in your fight Zhaitan indirectly over the course of your personal story, and she (along with Destiny’s Edge) fought against Kralkatorrik. The only elder dragons named for us at that time in the personal story are Zhaitan, Primordus, Jormag, and Krakatorrik. This is also during a sylvari personal story quest. Moredremoth isn’t named or mentioned.

I don’t believe that ArenaNet would just suddenly, two years later, decide: “Hey, let’s throw Mordy out there and see what happens!” No. This was all planned from the beginning.

So…

This could mean one of two things.

1. Caithe was influenced by Mordremoth from the beginning (formation of Destiny’s Edge), for the purposes of defeating the other elder dragons in order to provide more magic/strength to Mordremoth. The secret Scarlet knows about Caithe is that Caithe is also influenced by Mordremoth, just as she was.

2. Caithe wasn’t influenced by Mordremoth at first, but she is now. After the failure of Destiny’s Edge, the rise in prominence of Trahearne over her, and the loss of Faolin, Caithe was in despair. An easy target for a whispering voice to manipulate with promises of power and redemption.

Now, there are two things that I can see that really stand in the way of these speculations:

1. ArenaNet are obvious with what they want you to pay attention to, and no attention was brought upon Caithe during the Dragon’s Reach, Part 2 episode.

2. ArenaNet have not had a significant, plot-twisting betrayal by a major character. It just doesn’t seem to be something they do, and if they did, it would be obviously telegraphed (like how we know unmistakably that something is up with Countess Anise and Canach).

This would mean the most likely explanation is simply that Caithe is just not a major actor in this episode because other characters have the spotlight and there’s only so much room in the spotlight.

Because all the attention was brought to Countess Anise and not Caithe, it’s no wonder everyone’s wondering about Anise.

But it’s still fun to think about. And if anyone from ArenaNet is reading this: a little more subtlety and gasp-worthy betrayals might not be such a bad thing!

So what are we to make of it that nobody else cares enough to respond to this thread? No one cares enough about the voice acting to bother? And yet all those folks who claim to hate Trahearne’s voice didn’t hesitate to show their displeasure. I guess once it’s done and it’s too late to change it, that’s when people decide they want to talk about it.

ColinJohanson.2394:

ipan.4356:

May I ask, “not allowed” by whom? You guys are the developers. Who do you need permission from?

Sorry that should say: “Our company policy is not to talk about what’s in development”.

-CJ

Maybe it’s not such a great policy and sincerely needs to be considered for revision. For inspiration and examples, take a look at what Digital Extremes does, the folks behind Warframe. Their openness and even inclusion of players in the design process is a big part of their success. Grinding Gear Games, makers of Path of Exile, are also excellent at communicating with their players. There are good examples out there you can learn from and adapt to your own way of doing things.

ArenaNet prides itself on doing things differently within the game and we love you for it. How about taking that approach to outside the game, too?

It could be an amazing, beautiful thing.

ipan.4356:

In over a year of playing, I’ve never seen an exotic drop once.

Then you’re doing it wrong. Look at this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2ecb9z/i_opened_10k_champion_chests_for_science/

Not only did that guy get tons of exotics, he actually got a precursor.

Zoso.8279:

bob.5680:

biggs.4702:

So people acted like jerks and now their toys got taken away. I’d say “serves ’em right,” but people almost never change.

Agreed, “People don’t change; they only become more so.”

I’m sorry but i disagree. We are all constantly changing. Now true not everyone can change but the world is not so dark. We stop changing when we die.

Unlike what happens in TV, books, and movies, when someone’s jerkwad, they’re usually a jerkwad until the day they die.

jheryn.8390:

biggs.4702:

I don’t feel that I should be made to sacrifice combat effectiveness just so I can run faster.

I want to be independently wealthy and own an island in the Hawaiian Islands.

We don’t always get what we want, so we deal with what we have.

Wrong, we work for what we want.

Nerelith.7360:

biggs.4702:

I don’t feel that I should be made to sacrifice combat effectiveness just so I can run faster.

That is the balance that the game developers have decided we should consider. They have made the game as it is. They have decided that speed boost is one of the elements around which the differing professions need to be balanced.

I can understand you want perma-speed boost without giving up combat effectiveness.

The developers have always expected us, to compromise one need against another.

This is One such case.

If you do not want this to be the case, you are asking that gw2 be changed to another game that you would Like to play, the thing is… we like it as it is.

If you do not wish to sacrifice combat effectiveness, to gain a speed boost, you wish to play a game that is not Gw2.

I’ll thank you not to put words in my mouth or tell me what I think. If you believe that I should play an entirely different game just because I dislike this tradeoff then I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with such absolutism from you for very long.

Lasur Arkinshade.4107:

I hate to say this, but I honestly am not in favour of a new VA for Zojja. While I realise they’ve had trouble getting Felicia Day back since launch, the fact of the matter is that a huge amount of Zojja’s character came from Felicia Day’s performance. Changing the voice actor would be fundamentally changing the character. I don’t believe Tara Strong or any other voice actress could do Felicia Day’s performance as Zojja justice.

Also, and this may be slightly digressing, but Zojja can easily come back in an expansion – with Felicia Day’s voice – since ArenaNet will have a much longer development cycle in which to book her and get her to a recording session. I’d rather them not arbitrarily change her voice actor so they can shoehorn her into the LW updates. So far we haven’t really had much need for her in them anyway.

You’re right, changing the voice actor does change the character. There’s a certain point where you have to stop with the workarounds and move on. I’d rather we do that sooner instead of later so it doesn’t start feeling more tedious than it already is.

Felicia Day has stated that due to the constant harassment of women and herself personally whenever she’s involved in game-related work, that she’s drastically scaling back any work she does involving games. Let’s hope that GW2 has enough pull and credibility with her to entice her back.

You like how that rhymed? Because I did.

But seriously, if you can’t get Felicia Day to record new VO for Zojja, I think players will be far more understanding of a new voice talent instead of having to put up with creative ways to not need Zojja’s voice.

Tara Strong did such a great job as Scarlet’s voice and she’s absolutely capable of voicing Zojja in a way that captures her spirit as the feisty genius we all know and love. She’s the first one that comes to my mind.

Any other suggestions for a new voice actor for Zojja?

Uh… no… actually it’s going down.

Maybe this bothers me more than it should, but holy cow it’s been two years, can we not get this fixed soon?

I don’t feel that I should be made to sacrifice combat effectiveness just so I can run faster.

So people acted like jerks and now their toys got taken away. I’d say “serves ’em right,” but people almost never change.