Guild Wars 2

Ryuu.5608:

The tons of information inside the priory is just wonderful, now if we could just have back those neat lore books from the beta stage..

I would most definitely love to see those. I was never around for the beta but I keep hearing so much about the lore books from friends. I’m a heavy lore-nerd and I read every log I come across in games, so it would fit nicely.

I agree, and I would appreciate to be able to get there without having to wait 5 minutes because of Marjory.

The tons of information inside the priory is just wonderful, now if we could just have back those neat lore books from the beta stage..

I simply adore the detail and artistic work that went into the Durmand Priory’s hidden library. It’s quite beautiful.

I’m slightly worried you’ll do something drastic in the future, like blow it up or bury it, making it forever gone. Like what you did to LA. Or Fort Salma. Or the Zephyrites. You have a history of doing that…

Please, don’t. Not until I get enough time to curl up in this huge library and read all the lore hidden in here.

Melody Darquess.2867:

Long term forum lurker, first time poster. I love this thread

- I created 9 female characters during 3 day head start and still have them all.

- I love asurans

- I love necro’s and only play them with condi builds and minions. I don’t care that it’s not the best build/set up.

- I have 3 asura’s and 3 necro’s

- I loathe jumping puzzles so much I “bribed” my partner to do most of them just so I could have the achievement. He now checks every patch to see if there have been any more JP’s added and looks so disappointed when there isn’t one.

- I miss my heroes and merc’s from GW1 so much. I would throw alot money at anet if they brought them back in GW2 for instances/dungeons. (Or alternatively they could have my first born, their choice )

- I loathe dungeons and happily pay for path runs

- I have 13k+ AP and get very tempted to join any lfg’s wanting 6k+ AP just to prove having AP doesn’t mean you are any good at dungeons

- I have enough materials to make 2 bifrosts EXCEPT for the Legend precurser. I live in hope that one day they will introduce a way to get it without RNG

- I love skritts and dislike quaggans

- I spend at least £40-£80 a month of buying gems and have no remorse for that.

- If I go to a world boss event I always use the bobblehead lab as it’s so funny seeing Jormag/Teq etc with bobbleheads.

- I don’t own a zerker set of armour and this doesn’t bother me.

Melody wins the internet…

- I played since the beginning and have never created a human character.
- Also never played the Norn story.
- Or made a male character. Ever. I don’t even know what they look like.
- I made a ranger as my first character and i still play her as my main. And i never gave one single kitten about people whining about the class. Same with Staff Ele’s.
- I make it a point never to join any party that wants to enforce an AP minimum, despite having more than enough of the useless things to join up.
- I brought several people into the game and warned every single one not to go into the forums, at one point calling it “the proverbial hive of scum and villainy” – and i stand by that.
- I laughed my kitten off at the people crying about the same-sex couples in the lore. I still do! It’s hilarious to see bigots lose it. Or just lose in general.
- In my first week playing, i bought gems to convert into gold, since i needed more cash. 4 gold for 10 euro – i was pretty happy with that back then.
- On the first halloween, i opened a random BL chest with a key i got from the story and got the Greatsword Chainsaw skin. (before there were actual skins, mind you)
I then sold it for 20 gold, thinking i just made a fortune.

- And i really, really, really want to see more high heeled shoes in the game, especially for Asura.

- I love killing rabbits, raccoons, and other helpless creatures with ice, fire, poison, and electricity just to watch the amusing death animations. Particularly fond of the rabbit fire death animation where it tries to put itself out with its paws, and all the ice animations where they just freeze in place and fall over.

- I have far, far too many weapons on most of my characters for no reason other than appearance. They all have the same stats, all will (eventually) have the same sigils, though because I do have so many it often takes me a while before I fully gear them up, its all literally just for different skins. Because I’d rather buy and carry around 2 dozen weapons (or more, my ranger is almost up to 3 dozen >.>) than waste transmutation charges.

~ Likewise with armor, though I haven’t quite reached the point where I have more than 2 sets on any character. Yet. My Guardian might be getting her 3rd set with the new heavy female Carapace, though…

~ Because of both of the above, I have maxed out every character’s bag slots (except my Engineer and Elementalist, since they have less weapons to choose) and have half of those slots taken up by invisible bags for all my excess gear. Only 15 slot bags, because I’m too cheap for higher capacity ones >.>

- I buy recipes for new food and other consumables when they’re first introduced (and thus “cheapest”) for no reason. Even if I never, ever see myself using them, I want them just for the sake of it. Though with that being said, I don’t and likely will never have all of them, so I’m not even a proper completionist. But if I can afford a new recipe, I’ll probably buy it. Recent example, I bought the recipes for Batwing Brew, Crystallized Nougat, and used my Mad King Chest on the recipe for Pumpkin Oil (skipped the Sharpening Skull because its too expensive). I will likely never craft any of them.

~ I keep my characters well-stocked on food and utilities, but almost never use them, since I don’t really do much of the tougher content which requires the added stats (I never WvW, don’t really do dungeons, ect). And if I am doing something tougher that I feel could benefit from a few bonus stats, I’m still hesistant to use them.

~ I’ve wanted to do dungeons since I first hit level 80 a year and a half ago. I have dungeon gear I’d like to get, and it’d be nice to work together with players in a controlled environment and not just a zerg. To this day, I have not done a single dungeon beyond the Living Story related ones. Every time I think I might want to actually bite the bullet and get into it, I read some hate-filled forum post or see some flame-inbued conversation in-game about stacking and meta-builds and terrible “noobs” and I decide its not worth the hassle. Who’s going to want to put up with my lame non-meta-build noob self at this point.

~ To tie into the above, I want to craft Arachnophobia and The Crossing. I even bought all the stuff I need to forge the recipes during Halloween while prices were low, and I’ve started saving the Lodestones. But I need dungeon tokens for the Gifts. Will I ever ACTUALLY craft them, given that fact? Who knows.

- I always think it would be nice to hold little giveaways for various items that I might have lying around, really make someone’s day, and yet I never feel like I have enough gold or stuff to justify giving anything much away. Most I’ve ever given was some of the various Wintersday skins and the like, and lets be honest, those are worth next to nothing. Not sure if that makes me greedy or generous.

- I am more than willing to spend real money to buy gem store items, but that is entirely restricted to cosmetic items (or more space, bank tabs and bag slots). Armor, weapons, minis. Which I buy and use on ONE character. Yet I will not buy endless harvesting tools or anything of the sort, despite the fact that unlike skins I’d actually get a tangible benefit of convenience from them, because they only apply to ONE character.

- Reading through this topic has, at times, kittened me off and reaffirmed the internet is full of terrible trolls.

Long term forum lurker, first time poster. I love this thread

- I created 9 female characters during 3 day head start and still have them all.

- I love asurans

- I love necro’s and only play them with condi builds and minions. I don’t care that it’s not the best build/set up.

- I have 3 asura’s and 3 necro’s

- I loathe jumping puzzles so much I “bribed” my partner to do most of them just so I could have the achievement. He now checks every patch to see if there have been any more JP’s added and looks so disappointed when there isn’t one.

- I miss my heroes and merc’s from GW1 so much. I would throw alot money at anet if they brought them back in GW2 for instances/dungeons. (Or alternatively they could have my first born, their choice )

- I loathe dungeons and happily pay for path runs

- I have 13k+ AP and get very tempted to join any lfg’s wanting 6k+ AP just to prove having AP doesn’t mean you are any good at dungeons

- I have enough materials to make 2 bifrosts EXCEPT for the Legend precurser. I live in hope that one day they will introduce a way to get it without RNG

- I love skritts and dislike quaggans

- I spend at least £40-£80 a month of buying gems and have no remorse for that.

- If I go to a world boss event I always use the bobblehead lab as it’s so funny seeing Jormag/Teq etc with bobbleheads.

- I don’t own a zerker set of armour and this doesn’t bother me.

Greatest Fear you could just put back, and fix the related plot issues. The content still exists.

Source of Orr is harder. You need to shuffle the NPCs at the start (to avoid the haven’t met Sayeh al’Rajihd yet type issues) and probably switch the boss (so the Eye reveal doesn’t come before the Eye investigations).

Doesn’t that cover most of the plot troubles?

Some sweet pics you guys got there!

Here is one of mine:

Lion’s Arch Halloween March with Guild

http://files.enjin.com.s3.amazonaws.com/811767/module_gallery/original/2053767.jpg

Video incoming too!

I think I broke something.

Alienmuppet.1942:

The main thing that annoyed me about him was, almost every time we went into a dangerous situation he’d say “this won’t end well”. That’s not what you want to hear when you’re all keyed up to kick bottom!

I see this complained about a lot, and I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but before I really read any of the Trahearne dislike on the forums, I never interpreted it as “oh no we’re gonna lose”. In my mind it was one of two things: either a battle threat (“This won’t end well (FOR YOU)”), or a general melancholy “We’re going to have to kill you now, and this makes me sad” remark.

I like him and don’t really get the hate. I mean I can see why some might dislike him a little, but hate? Nope, don’t get it.
I also liked Kormir though, not like the players could become a god afterall. That would be stupid.

Ellisande.5218:

It’s a lot easier to not hate Trahearne as a Sylvari because he actually makes a lot of appearances in the early Sylvari story quests. So when he suddenly shows up on Claw Island you aren’t meeting a new character but greeting an old friend.

SPOILERS IN THIS POST
^This exactly! I do like Trahearne, but then again Sylvari was my first. So my personaly story went from meeting my Destiny’s Edge member Caithe, to me meeting Trahearne from the start and was told how his hunt lines with/is simlar in nature to mine (to me it hinted/foreshadowed/I assumed that we are going to be killing stuff later together). SO you know more stuff happens you meet your order mentor, you see your buddy Trahearne again, your mentor sacrifices themself, and you party up with Trahearne and he make you his right hand man. Which basically fits in all nice and flow together, for the Sylvari.

In fact I even remember reporting it as a bug in the text for Claw Island how they are reintroducing me to Trahearne and attacking like I never meet him before. Little to my knowledge then, that it is just set up that way for the other races. So from the other races perspectives he really is a nobody that is trying to take your mentors place after Claw Island and the stories don’t flow together at all. Their story go from Destiny edge member, to mentor, to Trahearne which just seems like you are being thrown around not progressing. Not to mention the fact that you just meet him and he is willing to make you (a stranger) his right hand man doesn’t exactly make sense.

For all those who hate the golems, I justify it to the fact that he didn’t fight much before Claw Island so he didn’t have the power/experience to summon all of them then. But since he started leading everyone he gained experience/“skill points” and unlocked it for himself. But that’s just what I say to myself to justify it.

So overall I like Trahearne, but playing my personal again on other races I see why there is no love for him and I myself might not like him as much if I started as a different race. Since you are basically being pushed into being his lacky right after your mentor dies. While from a Sylvari point of view you “decide” to help out an old friend with the same goals to honor the memory of your mutual friend.

I find Traharne quite attractive! How could i hate hate him?

I don’t understand as well people who complain about him “stealing their spotlight”: i think that those people are too self centered and want absolutely to be the center of attention no matter what.
Seems like they only enjoy something if they get all the glory.

With Trahearne i really felt like i was part of a team, and that my best friend was fighting by my side. The threat given by the dragon is so gigantic, did you really expect that your main character was going to take care of it all by himself like a boss? that’s would be not believable at all.
The main story shows that to achieve great things we need to be united and make everybody work together, and we are just a part of that big movement among others.

I actually really like Trahearne.
As a Sylvari I know him form almost the time I awakened- he has always been there to advise and help me and it only makes sense that since our Wyld hunts are linked we share the burden.
He is also the first of the firstborn and as such I respect him.
It makes sense that he is the leader of the Pact because he doesn’t belong to any of the Orders yet they all respect his knowledge.
Me? I am a fighter, Commander of the armed forces is much more my style

Faowri.4159:

I think that’s a general problem with Anet’s writing though. I call it “there’s a spell/device for that”. Their core systems of magic and technology are so ambiguously interwoven into the plot that for many problems in the story, especially in the later chapters, some NPC will come along with a gimmicky spell or device they conveniently know about/found/invented that will solve it. It makes consistency a bit hard to achieve because there wasn’t one that didn’t feel like it hadn’t been made up on the spot instead of tied into some solid, underlying system of magic or tech.

Very well said, and this baffles and disappoints me all the more because I bought GW2 partly due to the impression that this setting was actually better thought through that say WoW, where “facts” change at the drop of a hat and no one knows how to even spell “continuity”.

The asura in particular are just a giant blob of convenient deus ex machina, though Scarlet and the Aetherblades are getting even worse. It’s a particular irritation for me because it’s all pseudo-technobabble in a game that I thought would be high fantasy but barely contains any actual magic or mysticism in its writing.

Ellisande.5218:

Chadramar.8156:

NPC deaths are always hard to do well because of that “So why didn’t I/that NPC actually use my/their power X, Y, Z to save them?!” issue.

Deaths that occur during a cutscene defy the entire purpose of a video game as an interactive medium by removing the player from being able to interact with the game for that one crucial moment where the player knows that if they had been able to interact with the game that death wouldn’t have occured. It is from the player’s perspective a deus ex machina.

This is true even during a PNP RPG. I understand that the GM has a story they want to tell, but they need to do so within the context of the game as an interactive medium and not as a movie or storybook.

I’m a bit more forgiving of such things in a computer game, which simply has no hope to match a decent GM’s ability to improvise and adjust to the characters — but so many cutscenes in games are just so bad in terms of stripping characters not only of agency but also of anything resembling brains and competence. Ugh. That is what really gets to me. I like a good death when it “fits” the character and situation. Forgal’s death works for me, as does …

… later in Orr. But the issue of Trahearne’s inexplicable minion swarm which is inexplicably there in one mission and then inexplicably fails to be seen ever again is a prime example of the game’s story often feeling like a disjointed mess in which each chapter was written by a different person without any contact with anyone else.

Chadramar.8156:

NPC deaths are always hard to do well because of that “So why didn’t I/that NPC actually use my/their power X, Y, Z to save them?!” issue.

Deaths that occur during a cutscene defy the entire purpose of a video game as an interactive medium by removing the player from being able to interact with the game for that one crucial moment where the player knows that if they had been able to interact with the game that death wouldn’t have occured. It is from the player’s perspective a deus ex machina.

This is true even during a PNP RPG. I understand that the GM has a story they want to tell, but they need to do so within the context of the game as an interactive medium and not as a movie or storybook.

Faowri.4159:

Hopelessalchemist.4816:

(Why didn’t he do that at Claw Island if he’s got enough power for it? I will forever hate the devs for that having the story play out like that.)

I think that’s a general problem with Anet’s writing though. I call it “there’s a spell/device for that”. Their core systems of magic and technology are so ambiguously interwoven into the plot that for many problems in the story, especially in the later chapters, some NPC will come along with a gimmicky spell or device they conveniently know about/found/invented that will solve it. It makes consistency a bit hard to achieve because there wasn’t one that didn’t feel like it hadn’t been made up on the spot instead of tied into some solid, underlying system of magic or tech.

The Living World suffers the same problem. That whole thing during the Dragon Bash investigation where Marjory pulled some magic-detector thing out of a hat. It all feels incredibly random to serve the moment-to-moment needs of the plot, and it’s nothing to do with Trahearne.

That’s why I advocate for writers to sit down and decide on the metaphysics for how the magic in their world works and make sure never to deviate from it.

I think Robert Jordan was one of the best at doing this even though he himself sometimes deviated from time to time.

It’s a lot easier to not hate Trahearne as a Sylvari because he actually makes a lot of appearances in the early Sylvari story quests. So when he suddenly shows up on Claw Island you aren’t meeting a new character but greeting an old friend.

Faowri.4159:

Hopelessalchemist.4816:

(Why didn’t he do that at Claw Island if he’s got enough power for it? I will forever hate the devs for that having the story play out like that.)

I think that’s a general problem with Anet’s writing though. I call it “there’s a spell/device for that”. Their core systems of magic and technology are so ambiguously interwoven into the plot that for many problems in the story, especially in the later chapters, some NPC will come along with a gimmicky spell or device they conveniently know about/found/invented that will solve it. It makes consistency a bit hard to achieve because there wasn’t one that didn’t feel like it hadn’t been made up on the spot instead of tied into some solid, underlying system of magic or tech.

The Living World suffers the same problem. That whole thing during the Dragon Bash investigation where Marjory pulled some magic-detector thing out of a hat. It all feels incredibly random to serve the moment-to-moment needs of the plot, and it’s nothing to do with Trahearne.

The hallmark of bad fiction writing is events happening because it is convenient. Guild Wars 2 doesn’t really ever establish rules in regard to how magic works and by doing so allows the writers to pretty much make it all up as they go. The plot also struggles with a sense of scale and believable villains. After blowing up the single corpse ship with ghostfire you’re told that the armies of Orr will have no more recruits. What? Did they only have one ship? Were there other ships that were attacked by other Pact squads? This is never mentioned or explained. Zhaitan is poorly delivered as well. Every time you strike a blow at him by killing the Eye or the Mouth or whatever someone always remarks, “Oh did you hear him roar? The dragon must be afraid.” Really? I wouldn’t expect Zhaitan to be that upset over the eye. Or a boat. He’s a giant dragon. Why wouldn’t he attack Divinity’s Reach or anywhere else right away? Are their defenses strong enough to be a threat to him? If so why is his coming viewed as a threat to the entire world. The armies of Orr are held at bay as well. I’ve never completely finished the main plot for this reason. Every time I play a mission I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing and am completely unnecessary to the plot. Trahearne is the least of anyone’s worries when it comes to the writing.

Hopelessalchemist.4816:

(Why didn’t he do that at Claw Island if he’s got enough power for it? I will forever hate the devs for that having the story play out like that.)

I think that’s a general problem with Anet’s writing though. I call it “there’s a spell/device for that”. Their core systems of magic and technology are so ambiguously interwoven into the plot that for many problems in the story, especially in the later chapters, some NPC will come along with a gimmicky spell or device they conveniently know about/found/invented that will solve it. It makes consistency a bit hard to achieve because there wasn’t one that didn’t feel like it hadn’t been made up on the spot instead of tied into some solid, underlying system of magic or tech.

The Living World suffers the same problem. That whole thing during the Dragon Bash investigation where Marjory pulled some magic-detector thing out of a hat. It all feels incredibly random to serve the moment-to-moment needs of the plot, and it’s nothing to do with Trahearne.

Hopelessalchemist.4816:

(Why didn’t he do that at Claw Island if he’s got enough power for it? I will forever hate the devs for that having the story play out like that.)

What it all comes down to is inconsistent writing. It’s quite sad because the writing in GW2 starts off so well, in the 1-30 range (with only a handful of missteps, like the Sylvari twins), but then, for the rest of the game, it’s very uneven, and by the time you’re in the 60s it’s become “Welcome to the TRAHEARNE SHOW!” with Trahearne treating you much the same way Leno, Letterman, or whoever treats his main musician, only our characters are forced to be more respectful.

It’s just misleading to call that your “Personal Story”. It’s not. It’s Trahearne’s story. Which would be fine if it was called that, acknowledged as that, and so on, but it isn’t.

The stuff with the Flesh Golems later is SO sketchy that it made my wife quite certain Trahearne was up to no good – I mean, if not, why did he suddenly do that then and never before? If anything, that situation was far less dire than previous ones.

Chadramar.8156:

And I also second the opinion that having a more introverted, quiet character in a prominent position is good, and too rare. Not everyone has to be a shrieking extrovert with a huge gimmicky quirk as a stand-in for actual depth.

Inconsistent writing really undermines that, though. Trahearne is not consistently quiet and introverted, nor does he grow in a believable way. He’s that early on, and it makes sense, but then later he randomly switches between that and being a bossy, loud prat, and gives tons of questionable speeches.

Plus he gets so much time that almost none is left for the PC, which is just bloody silly.

NPC deaths are always hard to do well because of that “So why didn’t I/that NPC actually use my/their power X, Y, Z to save them?!” issue. I am finally working on my main’s personal story, and encountered a really, really bad example of that in Orr. I was fighting a named enemy with about half a dozen NPCs — and all of a sudden a long cutscene began in which one NPC went down, cried for help, another NPC distracted the enemy and was killed by it. I just sat there shaking my head in disgust over the sheer ham-fisted stupidity of it all. What was my character doing during all that time? What were the other NPCs doing? Standing around with our collective thumbs up our backsides? Ugh. That enemy was alone and a pushover, at no point was anyone reasonably at risk from it. At least the mentor death happens off-screen while our character has a good reason to run.

But, yeah, for a unique weapon of legend, Caladbolg sure doesn’t pack much of a punch.

And I also second the opinion that having a more introverted, quiet character in a prominent position is good, and too rare. Not everyone has to be a shrieking extrovert with a huge gimmicky quirk as a stand-in for actual depth.

My first main was a human warrior. I joined the Order of Whispers and fell in love with Tybalt. We got to Claw Island, Tybalt died, and for the LONGEST time I wanted for Trahearne to be the one that was sacrificed. Then I started playing sylvari. I love sylvari and I realized why Trahearne’s so freaking useless:

It’s that sword. Dudes, when I had to use Caladbolg in my lvl 28 chapter I hated it. With a passion. I died multiple times and I longed for my proper ranger skills. After that I continued to main sylvari, and after doing all three of the 11-30 sylvari story lines Trahearne is just there for me. He’s an NPC that I resent because he let’s your Order mentor die, and then later he summons like 3-4 flesh golems to help you out in a different chapter.

(Why didn’t he do that at Claw Island if he’s got enough power for it? I will forever hate the devs for that having the story play out like that.)

I personally liked Trahearne. I admit his personality came off as a bit too flat perhaps, but I don’t think he was intended to be a cheery/happy character anyway.

He comes off as a kind of bookish and introverted to me. Maybe even a bit sinister due to his profession as a necromancer and because of his Wyld Hunt in Orr. I think Anet wanted to show that off by picking a calm/monotone voice for him. Not saying there’s nothing wrong with him, but I enjoyed the character and was glad to help him.

I don’t dislike him. But some HUGE mistakes were made with him during the personal story.

He’s a somber and very introverted character, prone to silence and solitude, and awkward because of years of practicing those habits. But he is intelligent, strategic, and driven. And I actually really really love that they put such a character in the game, few writers are brave enough to put true introverts in their stories, especially as a central characters, it’s nice to see one as not only a main character, but as a hero.

But, after establishing him as such a character, they completely ignored that during so many sections of the personal story. The later you get in the story the more he says and does things that do not fit his character; the ridiculously flowery and emotionally driven speech, constantly asking for advice, making decisions quickly and firmly rather than slowly and concertedly… and the list goes on and on.

He was completely disconnected from his established persona all the way up until you find him hiding from the party during the celebration of Zhaitan's defeat. Where for the first time in over a dozen story steps he is actually acting like himself.

I made a sylvari called “Tráhearne Jr” so no.. I don’t