Guild Wars 2

Prestige shouldn’t be “I did something you can’t access anymore” but more like “I did something difficult” – like if Liadri was permanent, the mini and title would be prestige to doing that and would be good.

Weapons/Armor skins… are not good prestige items. Titles are. Minis are. Tonics… maybe (would be better if there was a collection tab for them), but skins? Why limit looking cool to prestige? But still, prestige should be “I did something challenging” and not “I’ve been playing longer than you!” or “I logged and did something simple when Anet wanted me to.”

The reason why skins are not good prestige items – despite GW2 being “all about skins” – is that if you want to show off that prestige… you’re going to have the ugliest match-up armor ever. Imagine Molten Gloves + Zephyrite Helm + Twisted Shoulders + Tequatl Wings … Yeah…

And Anet, please, make stats available at all time. And not just via TP. I’m looking at you, Settler’s, Sentinel’s, Celestial’s, and Zealot’s.

Of course, I’d wish that Season 1 would become permanent and some sort of extension of the Personal Story (even if not by that name, I’m talking about the green UI with series of instances/open world events/NPC dialogues). If they did that from the beginning… this topic wouldn’t exist, now would it?

Budman.2934:

im glad they have a poll for this but seriously kill of Kas majory taimi and Brahm maybe Rox to if she continues to coddle Brahms

better yet just get rid of all the Mary sue character’s

i don’t have any hate for these heroes its just that they are really lacking in what any GW1 hero had the person who writes the stories your doing good but it could be better nothing negative just some constrictive criticism

1) The biconics are not mary sue characters. May Sues are defined by a lack of flaws and how everything always goes their way.

Rox got disbarred from joining the Stone Warband – a proper price to pay for disobeying orders. If she were a Mary Sue, then she would not have been punished for disobeying orders.

Braham’s mother died right before his eyes. If he were a Gary Stue, then at the most harmful Eir would have died with him far away.

Marjory nearly died for no fault of her own. That doesn’t happen to Mary Sue characters unless the purpose is to solely act as an excuse for a romance plot – while a kiss with Kasmeer was resulting, the purpose of Marjory nearly dying was, besides an alternative to Marjory actually dying (the original draft), to keep the heavier fighters out of the fight so that the noble girl Kasmeer could stand up and grow as a character. Not to mention the death of Marjory’s sister.

The only character that comes close to a mary sue would be Taimi, really, but this is due to the rating of the game – they can’t bring harm to children without the ESRB folks frothing at the mouth and rating the game Mature, and ArenaNet’s desperately wanting to keep the game rated Teen.

And your criticism, as pointed out by another, is hardly constructive as you never point out any pro and con to your reasoning. You just say “kill off these characters I hate, they’re awful!” That’s just negative comments – I’d hardly call that negative criticism as the other person did.

Yeah, the in-universe time will quickly get old fast.

Why?

The characters, PC included, do not age. We do. And things happen at unrealistic paces.

If Anet does things like this – or more books – I’d like it to be new stories.

People who want to know GW1’s story can buy GW1 and play it. It’d be worth it for them.

Point 3: Scarlet and the ley lines
Though we see stuff about ley lines in what have been calling a drawing of the Realm of Torment (the characters call it a sylvari’s view of Tyria, mapping the ley lines, with the Pale Tree in the center of it all – I doubt it, personally, on both accounts) with the hologram recorder though, she only mentions ley line study after becoming Scarlet Briar.

This – as well as her buying a room in Prosperity after becoming Scarlet, with her inquisitions on the ley line beneath the mines – indicates to me that all her interest in those came from the entity, and it may be possible that as Ceara, she never had an interest in them.

Point 4: The Coffin with Tentacles
This is another thing that intrigues me. What was the purpose of this apparent “coffin” that had tentacles coming out of it? A prison for Mordremoth? A bio-engineered cyberminion of Mordremoth’s? An imprisoned kraken? Hard to say. But looking at the diagram, my thoughts went to Rata Sum with that cube shape.

BobbyStein.2315:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Also x2, for when you get to The Secret of Southsun, you include the recorded but never used Faren judging the fancy cat competition.

It’s on the list!

Solely for the purpose of pre-release critical analysis, can we by any chance see what this list is?

PeterFries.1057:

BobbyStein.2315:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Also x2, for when you get to The Secret of Southsun, you include the recorded but never used Faren judging the fancy cat competition.

It’s on the list!

(gasps in shock)

Oh, hey, my favorite Anet writer pops up here.

Any chance you can feature some extra dying quaggans with the ToN content. That sounds like a proper alteration of S1 for improvement reasons. Come on, you know you want to.

You can even write Drooburt in there, giving him a reason for being out in the desert.

“Foo, got high on Toxic Pollen. Woke up in Prosperity. Was one cooOOool ride though. Got any spare change? Quaggan is thirsty.”

I think the term “scarab” is just arbitrary for insect. But there is definitely points of insects being the cause of it:

“These bones have been damaged by the passage of time, but still bear signs of the disease that killed their previous owner. There are spherical indentations and cracks on the surface; something hard and round grew against them and bent them out of shape. The skeleton is curled in a fetal position, as if the person was in significant pain.”
“Strewn across the ground near these bones are the remains of some sort of small eggs or cocoons.”

“Hmmm. Most interesting… what you have found confirms my suspicions. The few written records I have are so crazed that most thought them to be wholly inaccurate, but it seems now that the stories of bugs bursting from within people’s skin may actually be true. If you are still willing, you may be able to assist me further in my research…”

Furthermore, you gather Scarab Spores from the various insects in Fahrahnur.

Everything points to it being bug related – though more than a simple ingestion of eggs (eggs wouldn’t be along the bones if merely ingested, indicating that bugs within the body then laid eggs – the position of the skeleton implying this being done while the person was alive).

Per the dialogue lines, it didn’t suddenly vanished – as Aaron said, the island was quarantined for several decades. Heck, with the re-opening of Fahranur, the Scarab Plague may easily have re-ignited after GW1.

But either way, nothing indicates anything in relation to the DSD. In all honesty, the zero-evidence claim of Kanaxai and/or Kuunavang being a dragon champion of the DSD has far stronger roots.

Ronin.7381:

This doesn’t explain anything. As we make note, Mordremoth. Who either has awoken 7 years ahead of schedule or late if the interpretation of the ending cutscene is to be taken literally. So no, it isn’t a law or natural repeating process – it’s based on limited sources.

Reread that quote. Grubb is talking about within the past 250 years. He’s relaying to the current cycle in explaining the time leap from GW1 to GW2. As he said, 250 years is a long time in human terms but quite instant in the grand scheme of all things – so that’s a lot of history gaps that need filling in. Not that it’s a law or necessity, he doesn’t denounce the possibility of being coincidence.

Exactly, Jeff is referring to this cycle. This cycle, the Elder Dragons awoke 50 years from each other. Despite Thalador’s rather interesting theory that could account to the orbs being awakening order, Jeff’s statement remains thus:

This cycle, the Elder Dragons awoke 50 years (roughly) from each other.

Yes, it means that Mordremoth awoke out of time – being 43 years early (roughly).

Primordus awoke. 50 years later (roughly), Jormag awoke. 50 years later (roughly), Zhaitan awoke. 50 years later (roughly), the krait fled their homelands which match the description for where the DSD awoke (DSD = deepest part of the seas; krait = deepest trenches of the Unending Ocean). 50 years later (roughly), Kralktorrik awoke. 7 years later (exactly), Mordremoth awoke.

Primordus’ awakening was shown with the skritt and murrellow breaching the surface as well as the dwarves all going down to fight him under the Rite. Jormag’s awakening was known by the norn very soon. Zhaitan’s awakening was known by Cobiah Marriner as he saw the dragon awake (everyone else denied Zhaitan’s existence – thinking Jormag was one of a kind – until Port Stalwart was wiped out). Kralkatorrik’s awakening was known right away too.

There is no “interpretation” for their awakening dates; except the exact date of the DSD’s awakening. Unless there are two “deepest” parts of the waters of Tyria (which kind of means… one isn’t the deepest).

Ronin.7381:

There’s some merit but then it again throws a cog out of the machine that claims the “rule of 50”. It would mean that Mord and Kral did not spawn they should have, so this whole every-50 years cannot be applied. I mean that’s only explanation I can think of to suggest what we see in the order in which they light up and move; something delayed these two. Intervention. Be it divine or accident.

Either you mean “Mord or Kral” or just “Mord”. Kralkatorrik awoke 50 years after the heavily implied date of the DSD’s awakening, and 100 years after Zhaitan.

The situation is simple:

Either the Movement of the World is wrong – again – which makes it as full of lies as the History of Tyria as well as Jeff Grubb being a liar there (hey, out-of-game sources are “malleable” after all!), and something messed up both Zhaitan and Mordremoths’ awakening and we’re just wrong about the DSD’s awakening, or those orbs simply do not represent awakening.

I prefer the idea that it represents their birth/creation (oldest to youngest) or even their level of strength (with strongest to weakest).

There actually is lore in the Fractals.

It’s just not said to us pointblank. The fractals don’t go slapping us in the face, grabbing the collars of our shirts and shaking us while shouting “THIS IS THE LORE I HAVE TO GIVE YOU! LISTEN TO IT AND ENJOY!”

Though Anet hasn’t yet perfected their way to telling lore, fractals have lore. And honestly, the lack of explanation allows for discussions and theorycrafting, which is honestly the best part of game lore.

Cliffside Fractal, for example, is an early-history Tyrian example. Urban Battleground is an alternate version of the Searing. Uncategorized is a non-Rata Sum asuran megastructure/city – we don’t really know what the situation is, but it is a story that Anet intend to tell and elaborate on still, but nonetheless it’s a representation of something that happened (or will happen?).

So the Fractals do have lore. It’s just not obvious and in your face like other games – as is the case for most of GW2’s lore.

CHIPS, you’re judging the credibility of characters off of what is effectively tinfoil hat theories, and assuming said theories (practically debunked) are real.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Wasn’t there something previously about ArenaNet not being able to add Cantha for some reason or another? I thought I read something about this a while back.

This was about the Canthan District in DR. Basically some Asian audience hated the idea of ArenaNet mixing in multiple Asian cultures to create a unique-but-Asian-feeling culture in Tyria.

Patriotism and all that. Stuff I don’t personally get.

ArenaNet didn’t have time to redesign the appearance of the district before release, so they turned it into a big gaping hole that was the Canthan/Art District (there is in-game and out of game lore calling it both).

It’s why we have the Great Collapse – or rather, Crown Pavilion.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Torolan.5816:

MithranArkanere.8957:

What I see more likely is the following, in this order:

• Janthir region.
• Crystal Desert.
• Northern Shiverpeaks
• The Depths of Tyria.
• The Sea of Sorrows.

Good list, although I would put Crystal desert on place 1. Why? Because of the egg and the legacy of Glint in that area.
And I have to insist on Ring of Fire, Anet!

So I see it like this:
Crystal Desert
Northern Shiverpeaks
Janthir area
Blood legion homelands
Sea of Sorrows
Depths
Unending Ocean area

I agree with your list, but I can see us going into elona after the crystal desert. One, because after taking out the dragon, there is nothing stopping Joko from marching on the rest of Tyria. So we will need to take him out, also after taking out the 3rd dragon, the home nations and the pact troop numbers would have dwindled alot, and we will need.“fresh” troops. Elona could provide. Also we would then for the most part be fighting a war on one front, to the north. (I can’t see us ever going to fight bubbles).

This would then mean that we would have uninterrupted supply lines from elona, and every where else in Tyria. I can then see the Eye of the North becoming the HQ in the fight against Jormag.

If we do fight bubbles I can see it being around the ring of fire, there is a lot of magic there after all.

I’m doubtful that we’ll be leaving continental Tyria any time soon. If they ever had the intention of expanding the map, Mordremoth was the perfect time to do so – however, instead of expanding the map they just squeezed him in, literally shifted Rata Sum’s placement (the entire map, not just the cube) over a bit to make enough room. Despite the fact that his placement right next to a giant city of magic and not attacking it makes little sense.

So I don’t expect us to go to Elona or Janthir or anywhere that isn’t on the world map. Not any time soon™ at least.

Nor do I expect to deal with any threats there. They can easily just say “Joko had no intent on attacking Tyria – yet.” After all, he waited until the heroes of GW1 were good and dead (or far too old to fight well) before assaulting Elona. I think he’d wait out the lifespan heroes who took down world-ending dragons. He’s got time on his side, and despite being comedy relief like Lord Faren, unlike Faren he’s actually smart.

Also, the Eye of the North won’t be relevant to the Jormag arc. Why I know? It’s used as an instance for linked accounts. It’s already being used in its entirety. They might decide to use the zone around it, maybe even make it visible beyond an impassable section like Rata Sum in Dragon’s Stand, but it won’t be accessible from those maps.

Torolan.5816:

MithranArkanere.8957:

I think that after a dragon an interlude against another enemy: The White Mantle would make more sense, instead going straight against another dragon.

The White Mantle would take advantage of the pact, the 5 big cities and the orders being weakened to try and take over Kryta again.

That would indeed be very intriguing, but I doublt it will happen. Anet does seem to not like to be reminded of GW1 too much most of the time :/

I think the raid will end up closing up the White Mantle arc – at least, as much of it as Anet’s going to do.

And HoT is all about GW1 lore references – even S2 was in large that.

But HoT was also all about catering to the vocal outcries of how to direct the story. Who knows how the future arcs will go with that…

Agreed that the problem behind the LW is that it is just continuous DLC. And this is an issue in many ways. DLCs just never have the same impact as expansions. They are mini-expansions.

If I had to pick a single word or phrase to explain why DLC will never beat expansion to players, I’d place it as this: publicity

You never get the same feeling of interest for DLCs as you do for expansions in the same reason you’ll never be happier for an expansion over a new game (except in cases like WoW). Amount of content is part of it, expectations is another part, and just simply how it’s publicised is another.

The ‘Living World’ – a misnomer in of itself – will NEVER be able to solely support GW2, simply due to this difference in appeal between DLC, expansions, and full games.

Any attempts to compare games to a tv series or other styles of cinema is false. They are too different to compare. The Living World is not like a tv series. It’s like a series of DLCs that have the same plot – like a game that got butchered and we’re being served it piece by piece instead of the proper wholee, which is nothing less than uninteresting and borderline boring.

The Walking Dead can manage its style because the content is bigger chunks and is an adventure game, not an MMO. And I feel that ANet had looked at that game and thought ‘we can do that too’. No, no you cannot. The games are just too different.

Guild Wars 2 needs the publicity of an expansion, and that is something that the Living World will NEVER be able to provide. Ever.

AegisRunestone.8672:

About Traeharne: everyone I knew in RL who played this game hated Traeharne. All my guildies hated Traeharne. I hated Traeharne. A lot of people who posted on the forums hated Traeharne. We all had different reasons, save that the focus was: “He stole my spotlight.”

Don’t lie to yourself and say that he didn’t steal your spotlight in the PS. At the beginning of the PS, your character says: “This is my story.” And then at the end, it becomes Traeharne’s story.

He didn’t. He NEVER stole a story. And I DARE you to prove that he did. But you can’t, because he never did. Not a single person who claims to hate Trahearne can point out any place where he stole credit. Not. A. One.

Because such a point doesn’t exist. Never existed. And certainly never will.

AegisRunestone.8672:

I really do not believe you at all when you say it’s a “vocal minority” that wanted the spotlight when the story is supposed to be about YOU. Your character. Not an NPC.

It was the same people I saw stating this over and over again. Everyone in my guilds didn’t hate them. The folks I know out of the game do not hate him.

They found him annoying, largely because of his personality and voice acting, like I did, but they did not hate him and they knew he did not steal the spotlight, did not take any credit.

BobbyStein.2315:

It seems like there’s some misunderstanding regarding the purpose of the short stories that we publish on the Web site. They are not meant to “write outside the game” such that the game is unplayable without them, nor are they meant to provide vital information to the in-game story for a particular Living World release. They are purely optional stories meant to provide additional context and lore for those who care. If we felt that the inclusion of this information was critical to understanding the plot or playing the content then we would put it inside the game, plain and simple.

And yet, if you want to see Scarlet as anything more than a teenage Harley Quinn with no Joker to adore, you need to read her short story – and for that short story to not make her out to be a Villain Sue, you must listen to the recent “TowerTalk interview”:

To realize that the Zephyrites are not something pulled out of thin air in a very literal sense, you need to read the journal short story (which you cannot even get to in the News archive on the main site).

To know of the interaction between Kiel and Kasmeer/Faren, you must read the Welcome to Paradise short story.

Are these things needed to understand the main plot? No. But they are needed to understand the characters of the main plot. Otherwise you may as well provide the story in the form of stick figures with names floating over their heads and monotonous voices (aka all voiced by Trahearne!).

Some of the short stories – the ones on Rox, Braham, Canach, Marjory, and Kiel’s pasts are very much just flavor text, and they’re fine not in the story. But the ones I mentioned – What Scarlet Saw, Trek of the Zephyrites, Welcome to Paradise, etc. – are very much needed in the story, if you want to understand the story’s characters themselves (the last mentioned, least so though). If you want to have any depth to Kiel and the others, you need them. Rox and Braham have depth even without them, since their stories’ events are mentioned in-game (much like how the main events of the three novels got placed in the game here and there).

The “A Message from the Queen” I didn’t even see or know about until today, and I try to keep tabs on all the lore stories provided. That should have and easily could have been provided as a mere mail message like the ones from Faren and Scarlet.

BobbyStein.2315:

On a related note, some of the lore stories use imagery or situations that would be more difficult, time consuming, or expensive to replicate in the game. Some wouldn’t add anything meaningful to gameplay. So if you’re finding it stressful that these optional pieces exist external to a Living World release, I suggest not reading them.

That feels very… negative? Poor? Unprofessional?

“if you don’t like it, don’t do it” – but what if I don’t like how it’s done, but want to know what’s being presented anyways? I don’t like it how it is, but I do want it.

And besides, some of the short stories could have easily been placed into the game – Trek of the Zephyrites? A new interactive book object in the Durmand Priory library (or multiple if need-be). Welcome to Paradise? That would have taken a bit more effort, best placed as an intro instance like the one made for the Bazaar of the Four Winds. What Scarlet Saw? A journal item dropped by Scarlet during one of the invasions, just change the writing to first person.

They don’t need to add anything to the gameplay. They add something to the story, and that’s enough to include them in the game. Or does ArenaNet no longer care about their lore?

Nonetheless, that very last sentence there? Really reduces your credibility.

-more in next post-

The "funny" thing is that, according to Angel McCoy, everyone and everything has access to magic, uses magic, and knows they can. And magic has only gotten stronger since GW1.

Then what’s with the over-the-top use of technology? I get it, cultures advance, we’re fighting magic consuming eldritch abominations (in the personal storyline), and honestly I don’t have a problem with technology in the game. My problem is that it’s just too heavily played.

Kind of funny, though, how the introduction of Scarlet has gotten just about the entire lore forum in an uproar about the direction of the lore, and talking about things earlier.... Well, I guess the Living Story has reached the "too much" point.

TBH, for me, I could live with where the asura and charr were in the initial release. And if not for Angel’s interview but a better proper explanation, I could deal with the whole Orr-is-very-magical and other lore from Orr.... But now it’s gone too far from the original lore.

So much for ArenaNet claiming that they seriously care for the lore.

Psynch.4087:

In the personal story (The Hatchery), we see that Primordus is actually experimenting with alternative forms of corruption; that is, corruption from birth and through incubation (hatching eggs). This is a revelation that we may not have paid much attention to (with our focus on Zhaitan) but all of the Orders agents agree that this is a uniquely new form of corruption. However, this technique proves to be insufficient as the minions that are hatched are too weak to do anything of value and we vanquish them fairly easily. So, Primordus has the corruption-from-birth angle right, but he needs a way to birth minions that are actually powerful.

Well, I’m glad you’re not saying that that storyline shows Primordus corrupting a living being… cuz I’d have to point our you’d be wrong there and I’ve done that so many times. Thank you for saving me the trouble.

Anyways, you’re wrong about those destroyers hatched from the eggs to be too weak – as there are standard destroyers hatching from some of the eggs too. The chances with the crablings are that we disturbed them before they could fully “mature” (so to speak) while within those “eggs” – only the crabs have a “weak” form among the destroyer minions so instead of making new minions they likely went with just mainly featuring crablings.

Psynch.4087:

Given Rata Sum’s history (and present day problems) with Primordus and Destroyers, it’s very possible that the area in general sits atop a draconic leyline (as the Thaumanova Reactor did). And in this case, Primordus’ leyline.

I don’t see why you think that the Elder Dragons get their own leylines. Leylines by nature are the ways in which magic flows through the world itself – living beings may tap into them, but they do not get designated leylines all to themselves. I don’t see why Elder Dragons would be any different, as they would likely be consuming the leylines.

Psynch.4087:

So when Omadd fires up the machine, mixing the chaos magic powering the machine with the dragon magic in the area, Ceara doesn’t completely plunge into the eternal alchemy; instead she becomes saturated in Primordus’ magic. But why didn’t she access the eternal alchemy? Honestly, I think it was a power supply issue.

And why are you saying Omadd’s machine was powered by dragon and chaos magic? The Thaumanova Reactor and Omadd’s machines are two different things. There is nothing to link Omadd to the Inquest anyways. Why didn’t Scarlet access the Eternal Alchemy? Because the machine was merely a sensory deprivation machine – in other words all the thing did was make her blind, deaf, mute, unable to smell, and unable to feel (touch sensation, not emotions though she doesn’t feel that way either :P).

You can slap the lack of Eternal Alchemy (if that’s what Scott meant by “not seeing what she thought she saw”) to flawed asuran theory. However, I would like to point out the Pale Tree’s recent dialogue about Scarlet. She confirms warning Scarlet – possibly referring to that ‘vision’ of Scarlet’s; though that wouldn’t be too odd, doesn’t mean she saw Eternal Alchemy but instead the connection between sylvari, Dream, and Pale Tree (possibly Nightmare too).

Psynch.4087:

We actually experience something like this ourselves in the Asura Infinity Ball personal story. When we supercharge our infinity ball, it produces steam creatures – creatures from an alternative world. THIS is the power that Omadd and Ceara were trying to harness; the power to traverse space and time. But what happens when the infinity ball is NOT supercharged? Well, when we activate it, a bunch of Destroyers come out! Dragon minions, and Primordus’ minions, no less. It may be the case that, when mixing chaos and dragon magic, there is a spectrum of energy input that either taps you into the draconic magic in the area, but if you are able to provide enough energy to the device, that can take you into the eternal alchemy (I know, that sounds awkward).

That makes no sense. You’d note that the first time the Infinity Ball was powered up – with the least amount of power of all three attempts – Steam Creatures came out.

Each time the Infinity Ball showed different possible futures – a total of two or three possible futures (or even one, really). The need for ever-greater power sources in the storyline was just to keep the Infinity Ball “portal” open longer so that actual results rather than random creatures pouring out could be obtained.

The amount of power did not affect what the Infinity Ball did, just how long it was open and how viable to results were. Similarly, the amount of power wouldn’t have effected Omadd’s machine in that kind of way you claim because it was simply depriving Ceara of her five senses; he mentions previous patients dying – this is likely due to shock of losing said senses.

He is. It’s obviously a plot.

Pay the repair workers minimum wage, adventurers keep all that cash, they use all that cash on trading post trades, getting him even more money (net profit=up) from the sales tax!

It’s one massive plot to gain money and put those repair workers starving.

On ritualists:

From manual: They hood their eyes to better commune with spirits that grant great power and protection to Ritualists and their comrades.

On revenants (all comes from biography):

I fight with my _ blindfold on to shut out the distractions of the physical world and focus my magical inner sight.

Veil Piercer (“veil piercer”) — Form follows function with this blindfold, designed both to cover a revenant’s eyes and help punch through the barriers that conceal the unseen.

Resplendent Curtain (“resplendent curtain”) — The resplendent curtain is for revenants who choose to make a more elegant and stylish impression; because even if they can’t see the world around them, it can still see them.

Based on this and more that’s less obvious, ritualists and revenants both blind themselves to better see into the Mists/Spirit Realm. Basically giving them a weaker version of Ascension/Weh no Su.

So to answer your questions:

No, maybe in a physical sense, only in a magical sense, mesmers either alter reality or mess with the mind itself so in the case of GW1 and ritualists yes because it’s not what’s seen but what’s perceived that’s messed with and in the case of GW2 and revenants yes because illusions are physically there for a time.

Felix.7586:

I’m less bothered about the Exalted and more about they just dropped the Master of Peace’s actual goal like it was nothing. You had most of Season 2 revolving about the mystery of the whereabouts of Glint’s Egg and you spoil it before the game even comes out?

^^^

This.

The lore works, despite constant complaints (and funny thing to me is that the complainer’s “better lore” doesn’t work with continuity despite their claim). But honestly, this was supposed to be a huge discovery in the game. And we get it as some blog post…

People (in large, not universal) loved the execution style.

But people (in large, not universal) hated that it was temporary, and that it would be gone in 2 or 4 weeks.

If they kept their original schedule (one update a month with pre-scheduled alterations showing without patches to add them instead of biweekly) and made the majority of it (like achievements, non-city events and instances) permanent (even if the instances weren’t tied to the story journal), then I think there’d have been no complaints about Season 1.

From what I’ve gathered regarding the Dragon’s Stand meta dialogue and from the final instance dialogue is that the Mouth of Mordremoth is actually Mordremoth’s physical body – it’s the mouth we saw at the end of S1/beginning of HoT. The reason why we can’t kill Mordy by killing the Mouth of Mordremoth is that his mind is effectively in all of his corruption so he can just regrow his body (explaining why the meta is a repeating event).

The connection between the Mouvelian calendar and our real-world calendar is a practical one. Thanks to your question, we had a big discussion here. The Mouvelian calendar was established way back when Guild Wars was first being created. At that time, we had no idea we’d ever be doing Living World content like we are now. We’ve decided that we’re going to change the Mouvelian calendar to a 365-day year. Here’s the official in-game asuran announcement:

“Friends and fellows. Due to recent (amazing!) reasoning by scholars of the Astronomagical Society, we are pleased to announce that we have added the five hidden days to our calendar year! That’s five extra days we’ve recognized for you to advance your work before the annual review. Gifts and gratitude are unnecessary. We merely acknowledged them officially; we did not create them. May all your projects be almost as successful as ours.” — Mikk

Are you freakin’ kidding me?

“Oh hey, when this was made, we didn’t think we’d be doing this. So lets retcon it! 8D”

Goodbye ArenaNet, hello Blizzard 2.0 who’s lore is written on a piece of toilet paper. >.>

Next thing you know, they’re going to say “no, the Mouvelian calendar doesn’t start at the beginning of spring, it starts in the middle of winter!” Or they’ll go “the Mouvelian calendar didn’t have months in the past, so we decided to give twelve months to it – we named them January, February, March, April, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December.”

First basically retconning out the four schools of magic, and now altering the calendars for no reason? What about the Canthan calendar which has 12 months already of 30 days each? Or the Dynastic Reckoning calendar? Are the years between them now going to be messed up in transitioning, or are those going to get retconned to just to make the living story progress at the same time as reality?

GG Anet, kittening up the lore for non-lore reasons.

Funny thing; at 21:30 Angel explained why the Flame Legion agreed to work with Scarlet and she said that Scarlet offered the dredge technology she had already acquired, but yet…

“Yeah, the flaming cow pies and their fast-talking friend from the city. Never again! Lying silver-tongued, snake-nosed trickster! Never again. "

According to the Veteran Dredge Prisoner from the end of Flame and Frost, it was the Flame Legion that Scarlet had gotten allegiance with first.

DarcShriek.5829:

You wouldn’t believe how many people would just go TL;DR at any attempt at exposition. Players just don’t like it. Keep it short, keep it simple. That’s all 90% of your players can handle. Short stories on the internet give the developers an opportunity to dive deeper into lore than is possible in game.

“Nothing” or “Next to nothing” in the entire game is not the same as “short and simple.”

There’s a grand difference between the two. And let’s face it, “hidden in game” is far superior to “hidden on the internet.” Especially when ArenaNet’s site search features are bad or the information comes from interviews that ArenaNet doesn’t even make mention of.

Well your theory is 100% debunked by one piece of lore: the mursaat predate any time of the Six Gods’ time on or even known knowledge of Tyria. They were around for the previous dragonrise (supposedly 10,000 BE), while the Six Gods arrived much later, after the Elder Dragons went back to sleep (earliest known mention being 1769 BE)

Plus, while mursaat are humanoid, they have some distinguishing features marking them notably not human, their three toes being a big one, as well as their “wings”.

Other notes:

• Dhuum was against resurrection and undead because he was an unfair god. It’s said that he had hunted down anyone who “escaped death” (exact meaning unknown, but could easily mean anyone who received healing magic for a fatal wound and survived just as well as meaning those resurrected/turned undead).
• The gods did not worry about granting magic, but rather the conflict came when they wanted to take back magic – the five gods saw it as a mistake, while Abaddon did not see it as such (reason unknown). But Abaddon releasing magic was entirely agreed upon by the other gods (whether just by majority or unanimously is unknown though, we don’t know how the gods decided things).

Thobek.1730:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

not even Kiel who promised to look into the Aetherblades and Molten Alliance (ironically, just before Scarlet decided to reveal herself). And lo-and-behold, Kiel’s not doing much about it (but Magnus is, thank god).

Really? What is Magnus doing about it? Finally a male in a role that isn’t comic relief or a dimwit.

Didn’t read the short story release for Twilight Assault, I take it?

He’s the one who gave Kiel a ship to command, and put her up for the council position. He’s also been behind-the-scenes-investigating the Aetherblades and was the one who sent the Lionguard to Twilight Arbor.

Seras.5702:

You find out that the Flame & Frost alliance, the Aetherblade revelation, the Watchwork attack, the LA murder, the Steam Creature invasion….all connected by one Moriarty type character. A genius. A true nemesis, that can pull the strings of multiple entities to craft a detailed web of confusion, distrust, and chaos. It’s an M. Night Shyamalan twist revelation and everyone is all ho-hum, another salad. So she’s a Sylvari…so what?! She’s orchestrating something that we haven’t been able to figure out. We haven’t caught her. She’s struck many times, both overtly and from the shadows. Yet she continues down her path undeterred. We hope she dies pitifully while we speculate what new atrocity she’ll visit upon us. Her insanity makes some rolls their eyes, simply because they feel the need to compare her to the only other insane villian they can think of; The Joker. But she’s not. She’s part Moriarty (brilliant, calculating), part Harley Quinn (petulant, insane, precocious), part Magneto (reshaping the world).

She’s a quality villian, she just needs a better delivery.

A few things:

1. She’s not behind the steam creature invasion. It’s rather unknown why there are some in her army. It’s been completely left in the open thus far.
2. She’s FAR from Moriarty, far from Magneto, and far from Harley Quinn. Those were actually good villains. She is not, and it’s not because she’s a sylvari – her being a sylvari actually gives her a chance to be good in her own way.
3. It’s far from an “M. Night Shyamalan twist revelation” as well.
4. We haven’t been able to figure it out because we’re given no or next to no hints about what she’s trying to do. And that’s one of the biggest issues with Scarlet – the story is so drawn out that we get one chapter a month (even though it’s 2 updates a month, the second update is either a continuation of the chapter or unrelated), and so little story in those chapters. Anet compared it to a book, that by the time of the Bazaar of the Four Winds were were only at the end of chapter 1. That is six months for one chapter’s worth in comparison to a novel. Too little, too slow.

Here’s the thing, Guguwars. EVERY single piece of lore about the “mursaat betrayal” states that they waged war with the seers as their act of betrayal, and that they nearly wiped the seers out in said war while the tablet claims the seers were wiped out by civil war and not a single indication of the mursaat invoking retribution (the theory that was the mursaat’s saving grace). Every single piece of lore also states that the races hid together, under Glint, and did so after the mursaat left the world – while the tablets state that the races hid separately and before the mursaat left.

We’re not talking one source versus one source. We’re talking 10 or so sources – in-game lore from Glint, dwarves, jotun, seers, Priory scholars, as well as out-of-game lore from two major writers of the series (Ree and Jeff) – versus one, more recent (which is often the rule of ‘new trumps old’ sometimes) source.

The accounts are so drastically different that the mursaat tablets cannot even count as a subjective view. It’s an entire rewrite of history.

Wrong sub-forum but to answer your question, there were two added in LA with this update. Gunnery Range (where the Zaishen were just west of Fort Marriner) and The Breachmaker (Scarlet’s drill).

Humans coming from boats to continental Tyria is 100% truth. However, it is not the first time they stepped foot on continental Tyria, nor did the Six Gods ignore the humans until they built kingdoms (remember that humanity built the Primeval Dynasty within five years of landing on Elona, which was at the same time they landed on continental Tyria in 205 BE), we know this for a fact because of Canthan history which has knowledge and recollection of the Six Gods (well, Five Gods since all historical records removed Abaddon) since Kaineng Tah’s time which is well over 500 years prior to humanity’s establishment of their four Tyrian and Elonian kingdoms (in order of establishment (best guess – no known dates for Orr’s establishment): Primeval Dynasty (200 BE), Orr (?? BE), Margonites (175 BE (first knowledge of)), Ascalon (100 BE), Kryta (?? BE by King Mazdak, former prince of Orr – re-established in 300 AE)).

Humanity first appeared on continental Tyria at the same time they appeared on the world – brought to the world by Dwayna from another planet through a portal that led them through the Mists. This portal was opened on Arah. For unknown reasons, humanity was removed from Orr and settled in a land suspected to be either south or east of Cantha – where they on “their own” developed and colonized new lands (first known records place human settlers on Shing Jea Island and northeastern Canthan shores what is now Kaineng City; Tyrian scholars such as Ermenred speculated that humanity came from Shing Jea, though we know this to be where Tengu had lived for a long time and they see humans as trespassers so the certainty of this is highly unclear); second showing is in the Echovald Forest (Kurzicks) and Jade Sea (Luxons) – then centuries later in Tyria and Elona as mentioned above.

What homeworld they came from is unknown, however we have moderate to heavy indication that it was a world with little to no magic, and had suffered some sort of calamity which forced them to move to another world. What knowledge we have on this mainly comes from the Orrian History Scrolls in Malchor’s Leap and a response from Angel McCoy.

And as for that hypothetical “homeland continent” – the only indication of what life was like there would be Cliffside Fractal, which is a representation of the earliest times of Tyria (world) as humans know it. Its speculated location comes from An Empire Divided (where we get the settlement history of humanity on Cantha I mentioned above – take note while reading that, it is written from a pre-Nightfall in-game perspective, so knowledge of Margonites is treated as myth by human historians at that point, and Abaddon is unknown to 99.99% of the human population) and an interview with Jeff Grubb in which he says humans could have come north from “somewhere south of Elona or Cantha” (and southeast of Elona, or east of Cantha, is still “somewhere south of Elona (or Cantha)”).

I would also like to note that EVERYTHING that Thruln the Lost says about the history of magic is either outright false or unsupported by anything else. For example: we know that the Seers had taken magic from the jotun when making the Bloodstone, though it is not unknown if the Six Gods ever did something at a later time; it is also known that the reason for the jotun civil war and infighting was out of pride after they had conquered all of their enemies, not a case of confusion from magic taken from them (though such could have added to the problems) – it’s also known that jotun forever lost magic not because it was taken, but because their magic-users and lorekeepers were the first to be killed off (killing them was a “sure” way to eliminate a tribe) so very few had survived. The existence of the Age of Giants – or when such a thing would have taken place – is fully unknown whether to have existed or not.

Gade.2760:

Keep in mind that below Tyria lies the continent Cantha. There are theories that says that human race spread from the Canthan continent. But how they got to Cantha is not yet known if im correct.

Do you mean that humans spread to continental Tyria and Elona from Cantha? If so, then you’d be wrong fully as Cantha did not know of Tyria until quite some time after its establishment – and the cultures, except possibly Margonites from Luxons, differ greatly. It is most likely that the two (or three) groups that settled Tyria/Elona came from the unknown continent that humanity supposedly lived on prior to Cantha.

How are people only seeing this now?

She’s already gave us her power, communicated her thoughts to us, and we were called the egg’s chosen by the Exalted back in HoT.

Ruka the Wanderer: The hatchling chose well. You’ll be a fine champion for it.

Ruka the Wanderer: Congratulations! I knew you could do it. Tarir has accepted the egg, and you as its champion.

We’ve been corrupted by Aurene since Prized Possessions, if not sooner.

It’s just not taking a physical affect because Aurene’s not evil… yet.

Valmir.4590:

Something tells me that Balthazar has been ousted by Menzies or another entity who defeated him and claimed the role of God of War, but in a not honourable way, hence precipitating him toward his current actions. At least, it would make sense of his behaviour.

This is my theory too. His line “They abated me, they dimmed might light… But now they will see me.” indicates a loss of godhood as well.

Whether it was Menzies+Dhuum coalition, or the Six Gods, or some new, unknown entity is unclear. But it does seem that Balthazar has been usurped but, like Dhuum and unlike Abaddon, survived his overthrow.

This event clearly demoralized Balthazar and made him loose faith in his old beliefs – not just about honor in combat, but also the worth of his followers’ lives (he was a very pro-human god in the past, and cared greatly about human life as shown with the story of Kaolai, the Scriptures of Balthazar in GW1, and the Orrian History Scrolls). He’s become clearly apathetic and hellbent on revenge, regardless of the cost to those around him.

It’s less of “some bandits are White Mantle cultists” and more of “the bandits, which at first appear to be highly disorganized and separate groups of individuals raiding Kryta, are actually a highly organized and mostly-united organization that is being puppeteered and financially backed by the White Mantle and certain Ministry members (Zamon and by bandit claim, Caudecus) who may or may not be White Mantle members themselves”.

Most bandits don’t seem to realize who their leaders are truly working for – and the White Mantle’s tendrils seem to reach even into the street gangs of Divinity’s Reach poorer districts (Two-Blade Pete using a hideout that bandits use which has what appears to be a neo-White Mantle symbol).

Tesla.9072:

Maybe we’ll get a ‘Ritualist’ specialization for the Revenant?

I think it’ll be a necromancer specialization.

• Necromancers have already gone into the spectral realm of things, far more than in GW1.
• Marjory’s the first of the new necromancer specialization. She’s of Canthan descent. And she has a spirit-imbued weapon.

Arewn.2368:

The representation of gay relationships in the over all game seems okay/well balanced/appropriately representative, but there’s definitely a huge over representation of homosexual relationships among non-single important/main characters.
I don’t want to see every important character paired off, but they do need to increase the representation of hetero relationships amongst the main cast. It’s kind lame if they just make every non-single main character homosexual to draw attention/make them “special”.
I’ve no problem with homosexual characters, but as the OP alluded to, it’s starting to feel “cheap”.

Not that’s a very important/pressing issue though.

Eir, Logan, Braham. Three of the 10 “iconic” NPCs are/were/want to be in a heterosexual relationship.

Caithe, Kasmeer, Marjory. Three of the 10 “iconic” NPCs are/were/want to be in a homosexual relationship.

No indication on whether Zojja, Rytlock, or Rox have, had, or are even interested in relationships (be it one-nighters or something more permanent). Taimi is just a child so, no relationship there but likely to have a crush sooner or later (I wouldn’t use her idolizing of Scarlet, or her teasing with Braham as an indication, personally – not yet at least).

So it seems pretty even across the board for homo/hetero/unknown in orientation when it comes to the iconic figures. Wanna go further?

Jennah, Moto, Knut Whitebear are hetero. Smodur, just about all of the Captain’s Council, Evon, Trahearne, Kiel, the two asura scientists dealing with Halloween/Southsun stuff are unknown. No other main homosexual figures.

So, yeah. ArenaNet isn’t making the homosexual relationships more numerous than heterosexual relationships.

And in terms of relationship importance? Well, Logan and Jennah is pretty important, and given that Moto’s relationship is partially the cause of the SAB, that’s pretty important. You can easily say Braham’s isn’t, but Eir and her dead husband’s somewhat important to Braham’s background. Caithe’s is about as important as Logan’s, and Kasmeer/Marjory is actually not very important in the long run at all, it’s just highlighted now because it has to be sometime in order to show players “they’re in a relationship.”

And in general, you gotta realize there’s enough heterosexual relationships (or interests) to populate the entire continent. Even magic cannot make a lesbian pregnant without a man’s involvement.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

- A one-sided heterosexual crush which is embarrassing to watch between Logan Thackeray and Queen Jenna.

It’s not one-sided, however. Jennah also loves Logan, but the two’s social classes (Logan is commoner), as well as the whole strife with the Ministry and Caudecus prevents Jennah from following her heart.

Random.4691:

Why do people keep using GW1 or other games as examples ? This is clearly not GW1 or we would have split classing and not be able to jump, it’s also not Metroid because this isn’t 1930.

People use GW1 because it’s also made by ArenaNet.

My post was using the other games to prove that every single game in existence has the very system that people are complaining about right now. Needing to play content in order to progress your playing capabilities.

And just so it’s clear:

Locking elite specs behind doing HoT content is not the problem. This should be done.

It’s how they locked elite specs behind doing HoT content that’s the problem.

Which is entirely vague and doesn’t say that the fear storyline will be returning, just that they’re going to fix “plot holes and story inconsistencies”

Which very well may end up just being altering the text dialogue, and removing key VO dialogues.

In short, I won’t be happy until I see something more detailed about that.

And if they don’t revert it, they better give an explanation for why they could possibly think this blatant retcon (something which ArenaNet has taken multiple repeated steps to be adamantly against) was a better outcome.

gereden.6983:

except we didnt fight him, at all. we fought his hounds, which lets be honest, any seasoned warrior( which our PC’s are) could probably kill the hounds.

Technically speaking, we didn’t even kill the hounds – not directly. We tricked them into absorbing dragon energy thus sending them into the machine which meant we might have “fed them” into Jormag, Primordus, and Balthazar.

Cristalyan.5728:

This is my opinion too. Keeping the title of “god” for these …. alien beings is useless. As long they can be defeated by mortals and their powers absorbed, the “gods” are primary targets for all the tyrian adventurers.

But we never fought a god at full power. Abaddon’s power was weakened, he was at best at 3/8th of his full strength. Dhuum was a fallen god, thus technically a god no more. Balthazar was similarly weakened, and we’ve yet to fight him directly – and even weakened, he was capable of instantly wiping out a dozen seasoned soldiers empowered by bloodstone magic.

Cristalyan.5728:

What is hard understandable is why the “gods” did not fight themselves with the rebel Abadon and instead relied on a mortal help to finish him?
No matter the reason but if another “god” will be defeated by us, then GW2 will became a god hunt festival.

Because the last time the five fought Abaddon, they turned a verdant coastline into a sulfurous wasteland, and a large sea into a desert.

They also needed a replacement for Abaddon, and probably wanted to make sure the replacement could do the job right so used fighting a weakened not-even-half-strength god while blessed by the other five gods as a test.

Cristalyan.5728:

In the beginning we had the gods as GODS – intangible entities with an existence and purposes over any human mind understanding and the Dragons – insanely strong beings, able to destroy the life on the planet but with understandable reasons and moreover, beings we can fight. And defeat.
Unfortunately ANet lore team left this path and mixed the Dragons and the gods in the same soup.

I’m going to disagree here. The Five/Six Gods have never been intangible, nor were their existence or purpose ever “over any human mind”. They were always the same as any polytheistic pantheon – unaging beings capable of creating life from nothing with human characteristics and human personalities.

In fact, the Elder Dragons were initially presented as intangible entities with an existence and purpose being any mortal understanding. They rather still are, though we’ve learned quite a bit about them. We still don’t know how or why they exist, what their origin is. We only know that they’re wanting to destroy or change the world in their own not-healthy-for-us way and that their existence is tied to The All and killing three will supposedly result in world devastation.

Rurik’s stated to have no heir; it’s stated that Adelbern’s line died with Rurik several times over throughout Ghosts of Ascalon and various Ascalon ghost-related dialogues.

I do believe that it was said that Barradin’s only child was Althea, but also that Barradin had a brother – I’d imagine Wade comes from said brother, unless I’m mistaken (it’s been a while so entirely possible). Though it’s further possible that Wade comes from a line further back than Barradin.

@prism: There’s a bit discrepency about whether or not Rurik was Adelbern’s only child – the Prophecies manual states that Rurik is the eldest son, implying a younger sibling (most likely a younger brother), but at the same time Rurik is repeatedly said throughout GW2 to be the last heir of Adelbern. Most likely scenario: Rurik had a younger sibling who died before he did.

I think most folks were expecting something more on par to Eye of the North, which was an expansion, and gave us 18 dungeons, 14 explorable areas, and a full not-rushed-feeling story (despite being a fast-paced story like HoT was).

1. The Consortium did the construction, and the Trader’s Forum and Grand Piazza look like tourist attractions. While I don’t like it, it fits the theme of the constructors. As to the Priory’s care – perhaps they just didn’t have a say? Perhaps they got the ruins? Their excavation got moved when LA was beginning to be resettled; their newer camp was established to research the Breachmaker and the ley lines – it was (still is I think) on the southwest end of Sanctum Harbor.
2. It’s an open-air chapel (and then some), but dunno where she moved to. I was expecting a more temple-like chapel myself, thinking it was going to become what it is described as in the Sea of Sorrows book (a chapel to the Six Gods with attributions from all then-four races). I was kind of expecting all the recent god costumes were because Anet were going to have holographic models of the avatars done similar to Scarlet’s holos which is the Scarlet model with a fancy effect (like all ghosts are).
3. She disappeared as of Escape from Lion’s Arch. With no mention of her since, I’ve presumed her dead.
4. Less retcon and more forgotten. They had that presence there, but no more. Where they are is anyone’s guess. I hope they’ve not been put on the bus forever, though.
5. Missed these banners, but they were probably meant to be for the history of the city – the area known as Commodore’s Quarter could have been named Doric’s Quarter – after the first human king who had his palace in Lion’s Arch.
6. You kind of answered this yourself. Likely a design oversight. If you bug it, they may fix.
7. It would likely be the Aerodome, which is on the cliffs just south of Fort Marriner.
8. Because there’s been less care about maintaining credible consistency in lore. Because it’s the consortium and their only interest is profit. Because many possibilities.

1. The Crucible of Eternity takes place in 1325 AE, not in 1327 AE. Having Mordrem in there now wouldn’t make much sense, as it’s stuck in time (unlike the open world which is a “stuck in time until updated” scenario).
2. The Great Jungle Wurm still isn’t confirmed to be influenced by Mordremoth, technically. It’s only been speculation, and still is. In fact, the rise of Mordremoth and lack of any “Blighted” implies that the Great Jungle Wurm is NOT influenced by Mordremoth.
3. What RedStar said.

Abaddon had no statues nor high priests for over a thousand years prior to Zhaitan’s rise so it had no strategic point in comparison to the other temples. There was just no interest in the temple that couldn’t be found elsewhere in Orr. It was also hidden, sunken, and sealed. Per the story, Zhaitan’s minions only recently went into the temple to take some simple magical artifacts for the Mouth to consume (which they do just before we show up). So the risen have just been taking their time systematically consuming the magical artifacts (via Mouth of Zhaitan) throughout Orr – and Orr’s not exactly small or lacking in magical artifacts, nor are they restricted to Orr with such, nor were they in a hurry – Elder Dragons function on a different timescale than mortals thus are very leisurely in comparison.

PeterFries.1057:

Dondarrion.2748:

And I’m really curious (but careful not to raise my expectations to expansion-hype levels) what & where Anet are going in 2015.

I know where we’re going, and I advise you to go ahead and fasten your seat belt.

No offense, but you (ArenaNet) has been effectively telling us this since Flame and Frost.

I’ve yet the need to “fasten my seat belt”. There’s been ups, but never nearly as grand as you (ArenaNet) make them out to be.

Sometimes I wonder if you (ArenaNet) are playing a different game from us (the players).

Forgot this last time: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Abbadon-first-champion-of-Zhaitan/first#content

Recent discussion on a similar topic.

The dead bodies sticking around for so long after the sinking of Orr is another oddity.
So, was Zhaitan killed with the cataclysm then corrupted by his own magics or was it just a release of his power. The long term preservation of bodies could be attributed to his leaking magics, possibly due to the shift in his nature.

As in, when the city was thriving magic was a common and wondrous thing. After the destruction and ascent from the depths it became a corrupted land.
Instead of wonders by living beings the undead wonder aimlessly until willed.

In order:

Why is it odd that dead bodies remain in place? Would dead bodies usually just up and move themselves?

It was confirmed in an interview that the Cataclysm had no effect on Zhaitan.

Those corrupted by Zhaitan always appear rotten, even if they’re newly dead – in the books, you see that people don’t even hit the floor before becoming risen, and their skins instantly turn grey and their blood putrid and bile. In certain PS story steps, such as Against the Corruption, we see individuals corrupted coming back within minutes just as rotten as others. It would not be hard to believe that Zhaitan’s corruption can restore rotten flesh just as well as rot good flesh, given that Elder Dragon corruption always creates a physical change.

The notion of Orr becoming corrupted after the Cataclysm isn’t an off one, either, however. There are several things hinting to the Cataclysm – or another magic – having a lasting effect. Freezing waters, constinuously cloudy skies, etc. that are even mentioned upon in GW2-modern Orr. But this doesn’t mean the Cataclysm had an effect on Zhaitan, per se.

The notion of body preservation and land corruption post-Cataclysm was discussed a bit in this thread not too long ago.

Ishmael.6740:

Where did you even get that it would need dead bodies?

As far as I understood Zhaitans corruption, it would turn living things into “Risen”, not classical undead, but living things corrupted by the Dragon of Undeaths power.

Zhaitan could have awoken, say, right next to Lions Arch and would have turned it’s people into Risen, they didn’t need to be dead for that. In this it works as Kralkatorriks Corruption.

Or am I mistaken? I forgot who said that, but I’m pretty sure it’s stated ingame.

It’s shown throughout the game and books that Zhaitan almost always kills first and corrupts second.

The exception to this are Kellach and Necromancer Rissa, potentially those who wore the amulets created by Rissa.

You are correct in saying that risen are not traditional undead, but the reason why “undead” and “risen” are interchangeably used by Tyrians is because Risen are created 99.99 with a lot of 9s% from dead bodies. Just like how those two terms and “Orrian” are used interchangeably because the source of risen is Orr.

We see that he can corrupt living beings – but he doesn’t seem to “prefer” it. Kellach only became corrupted via an artifact. Possibly Rissa as well (via the Dragon Crystal). In all other cases beyond those two, those who become corrupted are killed first.

I have never seen it said anywhere that Zhaitan would corrupt living beings directly. In fact, everything I’ve seen points to the opposite: that Zhaitan’s corruption only spreads to living beings through indirect means (be they plants or wildlife). The most common cases being when wildlife devour risen corpses, and they become toxic and spread diseases to the other plants and animals nearby (there’s a heart detailing all of this, but we see these effects throughout Bloodtide Coast and Sparkfly Fen).

I’d love for both to be available in both means (gemstore and basic gameplay), however if such isn’t possible, I’d settle for outfits in the gemstore and armor in gameplay.

However, I do wish that outfits functions like GW1 costumes – helm separated from the rest, and showing armor if either the costume’s body or the costume’s helm were hidden (while also able to hide armor’s helm).

The awakening cycle is unaffected because Mordremoth was the last Elder Dragon to wake up.

The Elder Dragons become “active” is just Tyrian speak for “they’re doing stuff (again)”, which they tend to overlap with anyways (both Jormag and Zhaitan were active during the PS, after all; we just manage to push Jormag back – or rather, norn players, Priory players, and Grawl/Quaggan sympathizing players do – before he can make an assault like Zhaitan did).

It’s been my theory that all three Central Tyrian ED would become active in S3. Two down, Kralkatorrik to go.

BobbyStein.2315:

I hate to burst your bubble, but I think some overzealous fans misinterpreted the announcements from China. Ree did not work on the Festival of the Four Winds content. I can’t comment on* what she’s been working on lately,* or on any unannounced future releases.

It’s great to see so many fans of hers express support, though. I’m sure she’ll be excited to know you’re looking forward to whatever she’s involved with.

Y’know, this has been bugging me. I get you cannot comment on unannounced future releases, but Ree and Jeff’s projects has been in the shadows since release. This is… befuddling. We ask, and for over a year we’ve gotten “cannot comment”.

Given there’s been interviews with them and Anet’s not one to hide employees leaving, we know they still work for ArenaNet but… what could possibly be in the works for lack of any hint in any way, shape, or form for so long?

And I should note, that back in January there were comments about two large projects being in the works that’d be announced after Season 1 ended – projects untold about, and such other than the feature pack and China release.

Are these two related and the “announcement date” just got pushed back? Or… what?

The lack of ANYTHING is driving me mad!

BobbyStein.2315:

I’d like to have QA repro this, but I need to know exactly what happened. Let me know if my understanding of your situation is accurate here.

• You hadn’t yet completed Personal Story (e.g. did every story step except Zhaitan)
• You bought LW Season 2 in the gem store
• You then finished your Personal Story by defeating Zhaitan
• The content guide then pointed you at LW S2 Episode 8 instead of Episode 1

Is this correct?

Yeah, this has been around since at least September. I recall it happening for my ranger, and he’d constantly be pushed to the most latest episode whenever I tried to stop an episode.

BobbyStein.2315:

thedrumchannell.2405:

This is exactly why LS1 should be unlock-able and purchasable like LS2.

I don’t disagree. We’ve stated before that we hope to one day rebuild LW Season 1, but we’re focused on HoT development right now.

Any chance we can convince you guys to have a side team work on Season 1 now?

Perhaps sending cookies would help the process? Or other sweets, perhaps?

I don’t like Scarlet in the least (there was just too many retcons made to make her seem all the more important and all the good guys just kept juggling that idiot ball throughout Season 1), but I enjoyed the mechanics of Season 1 and I’ve grown long tired of having to explain to new players what it is their missing and how they cannot play Season 1, and tired of seeing the immense disappointment that leads to anger over ‘lost content’ after explaining such to them.

This just seems like something as important as the Personal Story Restoration project. And something that by all logic should go out before HoT’s release because Season 1 leads into HoT just as much as Season 2 does.

When you really look at it, Seasons 1 and 2 and HoT are all one story – while the Personal Story is its own story that’s just related. But as it is, people coming into the game for HoT can’t enjoy Season 1.

It’s like telling people to read The Hobbit (Personal Story), and then The Two Towers (Season 2) and Lord of the Rings (HoT), while keeping Fellowship of the Rings out of their reach, allowing them only to read a summary of it online. That just makes no sense.

Donari.5237:

Until we have LS1 playable again, use a cinematic to inform players of the story bridging from Zhaitan to the biconics (along with a written summary in the PS panel), then direct them to how to access LS2 in the correct order.

They even already have some ‘recap cinematics’ (though they don’t do that grand of a job) already:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/recap-the-living-world-of-guild-wars-2/
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/recap-scarlets-war/

So just adding those into the game via an NPC would work ‘well’ until Season 1 becomes permanent.

pessimist.7294:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Note: They’re adding the custom slider back to the new gemstore.

They said they will add it soon. And soon means in Anet language maybe in whenever they feel like it.

Fixed for you.

They said GW2 would come out soon in 2010. They released in 2012 full of bugs and glitches in the latter third of the game.

They said they’ll bring Season 1 to permanence soon. 6 months have passed, still nothing.

They said they’ll get back to us on the personal story changes soon. 6 (or is it 7 now) weeks and nothing.

“Soon” in Anet time can mean “anytime.”

You may get it tomorrow, in a year, or the day before ArenaNet calls for bankruptcy and closes GW1/2 servers.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

A suggestion to future WvW surveys – Limit responses to players with a minimum WvW rank. Something like a threshold of Rank 1000. It’s low enough that a casual WvWer would be able to achieve in the last 3 years of playing, but high enough to sort out those who don’t play WvW enough to have a say.

Hi, I’m one of those casual WvWers. I’d probably only put in around 15-30 hours a week when I’m feeling like WvW’ing. No, not much, but that’s still 2+ hours a day on average.

I am still in the Bronze rank titles. That means, yes, less than 500. Despite playing from headstart – now, I didn’t play WvW from the headstart, but I’m fairly sure I’ve been casually playing for a long time now with no more breaks than I would for the game in general.

So by your argument, I should be incapable of voting.

By your argument, new players should be incapable of voting.

In fact, by your argument, everyone I know would be incapable of voting, even those with 800+ rank.

I disagree.

lil devils x.6071:

So this means:
1) Past and present WvW players over a certain rank were not notified via email. If players were unable to log into the game this week for whatever reason ( for example: the hospital I have been at most of the time has GW2 blocked) they do not know the poll is happening at all.

2)There is no restriction on the poll itself to limit voting of non WvW players or multiple accounts.

3) WvW rank 10 would never be high enough to impact multiple accounts. Rank 1000 would be a much more appropriate measure.

1) Why would people who aren’t playing the game be notified about the game’s progress? If they’re not playing but are active in the community, they’d find out via forum or reddit.

3) I think 1000 is too high, however. It would keep casual WvW’ers out.

I could agree on 100, or 200 even, though. I would argue that you need to have reached Bronze rank titles to vote – which, if wiki is right, is 150.

Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365:

W never got to vote on that. Just that the reward tracks were here to stay.
What they do with the reward tracks is up to Anet, atleast right now.

We were told the gift of battle would be turned to only reward track when the WvW reward tracks exited beta.

There was a poll asking if the WvW reward tracks were ready to exit beta.