Guild Wars 2

In Dragon’s Reach Part I if you are using a Charr character, it will trigger a set of Charr exclusive dialogue when speaking to Rytlock for the first time during the final chapter named “Plan of Attack”.

“Sure. But being a free agent means she has her mission and she’s expected to figure out how to do it herself. She’s on her own.”

“All free agents have missions. Some deliver messages. Some fight Elder Dragons. We don’t talk about it.”

Its assumable a free agent is a Charr who temporarily acts separately from their Warband for a given mission on a solo basis, Rox’s could possibly be her task of killing Scarlet Briar, or it could be something else Rytlock was referring to.

Despite Rytlock saying the phrase “We don’t talk about it.” suggests all free agents work on a secret basis, I do think there are free agents who aren’t secretive, depending on the nature of their mission, just because everything is a secret to Rytlock and he just refuses to talk about anything.

Does anyone else have any other information or lore concerning free agents? Do all free agents have a Warband and just act independently, or are there some free agents that have no Warband and function as a solo unit on a full-time basis?

If there is a GW3, it won’t be for at least 5 years, minimum, we’d have to kill all the Elder Dragons before GW3 could even be discussed, however, even it was an utter disaster, I would play it, just for the purpose of lore. This game easily has one of the most well-wrote and most in-depth lore of any game. Im talking like, the lore of the Guild Wars universe is up there with The Elder Scrolls, I think its amazing.

Or Charr. I would play a GW3 if there was Charr as a playable race again.

In the Smokestead bar, the bartender talks about how Engineers always smell “rank” after their shifts, indicating that they probably sweat if they’re working with heavy/hot circumstances.

As for changing magical profession, theres no lore surrounding the changing of profession, however, it is said that its extremely dangerous to use magic from more then 1 school of magic at the same time. I don’t have a source, but I recall reading somewhere it can cause an explosion and harm the user if more then 1 type of magic is used. Theres a number of theories towards why this happens, however, the most popular one is that each type of magic comes from a different Shard of The Bloodstone, and pulling magic from more then 1 at a time is dangerous.

Im assuming its possible to learn a wide variety of magic from different professions, however, they would likely need to wait a long period of time before switching to a different profession’s magic, to avoid the complications described above, which could be why nobody wants to go to the hassle of learning more then 1 type of magic.

I know ArenaNet generally release their OSTs very quickly after their use in-game, but this time, I haven’t been able to find it. Has anyone found them yet on the internet, or at least the one from the ending battle in the final chapter?

Thanks for the quick reply.

Lately, ive noticed a lot of chat about updates, that I just can’t find. Ive heard people talking about Necro and Thief apparantly getting Cleave on their daggers, and Warrior’s Adrenaline degrading quicker now, but I can’t see any of this in change logs anywhere.

Where is all of this information coming from, and is it implemented yet, or not implemented yet?

I really do not like it, at all. I hate it so much, I skip Orr while doing my Orichalcum/Ancient Wood run, im happy to miss out on the extra 1g per day if it means avoiding Orr.

Like you said, the mobs are morbid, but even if all the mobs miraculously disappeared, I would still avoid it.

Im not OCD, but the placement of assets and colour is not balanced at all, and its not even describable how it makes me feel, its a mixture of extreme rage, dissatisfaction and anxiety. The grey stone of all the buildings, the orange sand, and the green mould/plants is putrid, its sinful, and the contrast in detail from location to location is horrible, one area is very clustered and busy with lots of little details, while you have the big smooth, open slates of stone that make up the circle formations and buildings.

I know Orr is deliberately styled to be chaotic and corrupted, hence why the colours are meant to be, like I said, “Putrid”, and its stark contrast in detail/openness is to make it feel chaotic and uncontrolled, however, for someone like me, it actually makes me anxious just being in Orr, I don’t feel comfortable or at ease at all in there, which is something ive never had happen to me in a video game before, which I suppose, in an odd way, displays how talented the design teams at ArenaNet are, because they can cause such a set of feelings and reactions from a person.

Also, Orr is a nightmare for anyone with Tripophobia (Fear of small holes and repeating patterns). Im thankful I don’t have to deal with that issue at least.

My friend who plays human characters jokes about Charr saying we’re big enough to ride, etc. “Mounts in GW2 confirmed – Charr!”

Trust me, when the last dragon dies, and the treaty goes down, the curtain will fall on GW2, and we’ll look towards GW3. While everyone is on the hype train to GW3, ill be back here having a mass genocide against the humans. My fur won’t be so “fluffy” when its flattened by the blood dampening it down.

Bathos.6341:

If you play the Shaman father option on your character you know the answer is yes. Because you end up helping him to defect.

I was referring to this, without trying to plaster the forum in Personal Story spoilers.

Subtlety is wasted.

There are a few reports of it happening, however, I assume it happens more then we hear about, because the Flame Legion do capture and enslave Charr, so I assume if they escape, they just run back home, however, I assume if they were just Flame Legion looking to join the others, they’d either be untrusted and monitored around the clock by guards/spies or forced to stand trial.

Zaxares.5419:

That’s fair enough. Although, if his passion was about bows and weaponry, why not make him a Warrior instead? Why a Ranger, in particular?

Long story. ^w^

I wanted 1 character for each profession, all Charr, then to write backstory and lore around them. My Warrior was the 2nd of my characters, and my Ranger was the 8th, so by the time I got to him, I was running out of ways to link my characters together through their backstories. I did try to whole generic “nature” theme with him, but it didn’t interact well with any of my other characters, so when I came up with the idea to put him with my Engineer so they could research weapons and such together, it worked, and it felt innovative, and it linked him to my other characters, because my Engineer is the personal Quaestor(Technical term for a Charr Quartermaster) for my Warband, which is made up by 5 of my other characters.

In ironic contrast, my Warrior is actually a mage, who chose to ignore magic in favor of swordsmanship because he saw his father who was abused by other Charr for using magic. Again, making up characters. You can pull anything out and make it work somehow.

I get that a lot of players don’t make up backstory and such for their characters, but because this game is just so lore-driven and has such deep lore, I couldn’t resist, and the world is so vast, its possible to write characters without conflicting with other official lore. Its absolutely insane how detailed and diverse you can design characters in this game by linking and revolving it around existing lore.

The whole “Precursor Scavenger hunt/crafting method/system/quest/gold sink/walk to the shops” thing was mentioned by ArenaNet over 18 months ago now. People have datamined stuff about it, but nothing major worth mentioning. Just the names of items related to the new system.

As for lore, there is none currently, only a few can be picked out concerning their origin, like Predator and Incinerator are obviously Charr made, Kudzu is obviously Sylvari made, etc, etc. But thats about it.

alexjolly.1463:

is it possible that the sword was in an ascalonian ruin

Its unlikely, but possible.

Before Rytlock acquired it, Sohothin was last seen at the very end of GW1 within Abbadon’s Mouth with Prince Rurik before he died (Again). After we killed Khilbron and Rurik and GW1 ends, we just left him there, so who knows what happened to it as when GW2 began, we suddenly found out Rytlock had it. So who knows what happened to it over the 250 years between GW1 and GW2.

I have 3 ideas that represent how Sohothin could’ve landed into Rytlock’s hands.

1-The volcano could have erupted again, and conveniently flung the sword back to Ascalon, in which Rytlock found it.

2-At some point, Rytlock traveled to Abbadon’s Mouth and retrieved Sohothin.

3-Somebody else went to Abbadon’s Mouth, retrieved Sohothin, then somehow it got traded/given to Rytlock.

Zaxares.5419:

Rangers are mostly about being “back to nature”, using the natural environment and low-tech weapons though. Iron Legion mentality is mainly about using technology to solve your problems, which seems at odds with what being a Ranger is all about.

While Rangers at first glance have the whole “Tree-hugger” mentality, there are ideass you can use that doesn’t force you into using a “Nature” themed Ranger. My Ranger is Iron Legion. His backstory is that over the course of his life, he surpassed the limitation of traditional weapons, so how hes collaborating with Engineers and such to try and create more advanced bows that can fire longer distances, with more velocity, etc. Just think creatively and explore different reasons why Charr would enter into what legion for what reason.

and if creativity fails, shoehorn it.

I think the thrashers are simply just another one of Mordy’s free-standing mobile units. Although its not confirmed, in the most recent LS chapter, Taimi speculated that she believes the “Vines” are in fact Mordremoth himself, and that they are directly attached to him, while he has the set of free-standing units like the Wolves, Thrashers, etc, etc, who operate where Mordy can’t send his “Vines”/Appendages/Tentacles.

Im assuming we can’t use the logistics of each Elder Dragon to relate to another due to being so different, however, all of Zhaitan’s minions had linked vision with Zhaitan, as well as a hivemind, so Mordy could be the same, although we probably won’t know until we learn a bit more about him.

Ya. I think it looks like female humans can barely carry their sword. On all races, along with males, the greatswords still look heavy, which I like, however, on the female humans, it reminds me one of those anime scenes where the stereotypical “kawaii” girl is struggling to carry her heavy bag to school while chasing after her Senpai.

A Charr’s legion isn’t decided by their abilities or profession. a Charr’s legion is decided by which Fahrar they go to. Fahrars are segregated into Legion, so whichever Fahrar the parents choose to enter them into will determine their Legion, then as they grow, the Fahrar will teach them differently. So if your Ranger was Blood, they’d be taught to be a front-line soldier with axes/swords, etc. However, if they were inserted into Ash, they would probably be trained to be a sniper with a longbow.

All Legions contain all Professions, those professions just work differently depending on how their legion operates.

Sean.8274:

o.O

The 1H sword is arguably one of the best weapons for the mesmer…. to each their own I suppose…

Brother Grimm.5176:

Proof one should take all advice on these forums with a grain of salt….what you said is 180 of the actual truth….Sword is hands down the best MH weapon a Mesmer has.

Just because its the best weapon the Mesmer has, doesn’t make it good. I use Sword myself, because im forced to. Its the best weapon a Mesmer has, but its by no means good, or effective. The #1 is too slow for my liking, the #2 is…ok…at a stretch, the Blur is nice I guess, and #3 is buggy. When im playing Mesmer, I normally just have the sword for looks. Offhand Sword is nice though. I like the Swordsman. I know plenty of people like the Mainhand Sword, but its not for me. Ill be waiting until the Mesmer gets a better power-oriented weapon.

The Personal Story is divided up into different sections, only the first of which is decided by your race. In the Charr section of the story, there is 15 chapters.

In the 2nd part of your personal story, is decided by which Order you select. (You get to select your Order immediately after completing the Charr section.) then the 3rd part is the same for all players.

Im 100% sure it is not Smodur that is being targeted.

“The rest will fall in line” suggests that the target is of a status that would prompt their race to fall into chaos upon their death. If Smodur is to die, nothing would happen. There are 2 other Imperators (Bangar and Malice) to hold things up, and theres the dozen or so Iron Tribunes below Smodur who would replace him. (The most likely Tribune being Bhuer.), so killing Smodur literally wouldn’t touch the Charr, however, if Jennah or The Pale Tree was to die, it would send either race into hysteria, because The Pale Tree is (supposedly) a one of a kind individual, and Jennah is currently unmarried with no heir to her throne.

All NPCs are just programmed with basic dialogue that varies depending on their race. A lot of the time its totally random and inappropriate for the given situation and place, but its just so the NPCs aren’t static and lifeless.

The whole “Meta” philosophy is pitiful, and the “Meta” builds aren’t even that good, my own builds are more effective then this non-existant “Meta” people ramble on about.

Just play what you want, use what build you want. If you want to walk into a dungeon with Minion Master Life Siphon Condi Necro running Magi’s gear with Altruism runes, do it.

As for the actual question, D/D Necro is very survivable, so i’d say you could pair anything with it and still work. A lot of Necro’s utilities work well in PVE, so just pick whatever you enjoy. Ive seen people use all sorts of things in PVE and still work. Even if your Utilities are a bit iffy, your weapons are effective, balanced and survivable, so it doesn’t really matter.

No. The whole idea of GW2 is that its a casual game you can come and leave freely. Ive met people who have legitimately had to go for over a year, so its not fair just giving away their character names. and it would be a massive, massive kick in the teeth for any GW1 players who actually reserved their names.

and normally, if you use GW2 lore-friendly themed names, they won’t be taken. Only if you start trying to do ridiculous stuff like naming your characters after internet memes you run into difficulty.

I find Warrior makes the best use of sword. Im just not fond of it on Guardian. Ranger is a suicide tactic, the amount of times its bugged out and flung me a few extra feet off the edge of a cliff is ridiculous. and on Mesmer, its outright terrible, if there was any other one-handed power weapon, I would use it.

My Charr Thief’s last name is Lotuswither. (Lotus Warband, Wither is the suffix)

The whole trick in making Charr names is selecting attributes that relate to them. The Warband name is selected by choosing an attribute that relates to all members of the Warband, then the prefix or suffix is selected by each individual member for their own name.

For example, I selected Lotus for my Thief’s warband name, because I imagined her coming from an all-female warband, so I thought i’d make it a bit girly by choosing a flower, but also a bit sinister, considering some Lotus plants actually contain traces of Cyanide. ^w^ Lotus also relates to the handful of Thief skills that are named after Lotus plants.

Then I selected Wither to relate to how shes an assassin, so like, Withering into the darkness, or it could relate to how she uses attrition to “Wither” her opponents down to their death, by causing them to bleed. (Im one of the few taboo players out there who runs Condition Thief.)

Even if it isn’t a fractal, i’d just want some information on it. Im sure at least somebody knows how Rytlock got the god infernal sword.

I think that when Living Story takes us to the Blood Citadel off to the northeast, we’ll encounter Bangar Ruinbringer for sure, and im sure he will know how Rytlock got it, so if it doesn’t come out then, who knows when it will, because Rytlock isn’t telling us.

Bangar is one of the only characters in the story who could know how Rytlock got it, because Bangar is the only character who has the right to force Rytlock to do something. So im assuming Bangar would have ordered Rytlock to admit how he got Sohothin at some point in time. How the player will end up getting Bangar to reveal it, who knows, because Rytlock sure isn’t revealing it to us.

Necromancer is tied as the least played profession, with Engineer. 90% of the people who cry and say “Necro is bad, ban Necro from PVE.” haven’t even seen a Necromancer in their life, let alone understand how it works.

I have been playing Necromancer since beta, when it is optimized for direct damage, it has the potential to out-burst a berserker warrior. and the arguement that it is “bad at group utility”, is pitiful quite frankly, Necromancer can perform mass AOE healing, AOE condi-cleanse, it has about a thousand different combo fields, and outputs insane amounts of damage, it makes Warrior look like a leech, to put it bluntly.

Play Necro. Join us.

Thats so cool. :o

Did you just crop round each character and paste them on to the background, or did you take a screenshot of each character in the same place, and match them all together?

No. Because all the filth that lives on Xbox Live and PSN will flood into the GW2 community.

A lot of people will look at you and think “He stacks defensive stats? Blocked.”. But I say have at least a little bit of Vitality/Toughness, because everybody and their mother uses Berserker gear, and its just kitten. I run Power/Toughness/Vitality in dungeons, and im the one running around res’ing all the “max DPS berserkers”

Legendary Weaponry are now “Omnistat” gear, meaning you can change their stat combination outside of combat to any existing combination you desire, and their stats are equivalent to Ascended grade weapons, so your Legendary Weapons are still worth a lot functionally.

Ascended equipment is now widespread. In Fractals, only Ascended trinkets existed, there is now ascended equipment for every slot, excluding Runes and Sigils. Ascended Weapons and Armour can be crafted using level 500 crafting professions (All crafting professions except Jeweler and Chef got a level cap rise to 500), or Ascended weaponry and armour can be obtained through drops from high-level content like World Bosses or PvP Reward Tracks. They’ll drop in the form of a box, aligned with a particular stat, then you can choose any type of weapon or armour for example, from that. So I may get a Berserkers stat weapon box, but then I have the option to select a Greatsword, Sword, Dagger, etc, etc.

PvP has been 100% revamped. Glory no longer exists, instead, you are rewarded with money, and the loot boxes you get from Reward Tracks. The basic philosophy is do games, get loot boxes. Depending on which track you select to do, you are guaranteed 3 Exotic weapons, and 1 Exotic armour piece of your choice.

In Fractals, a number of new Fractals have been added to reflect events in the Living Story, including a renewable source of Azurite through Fractals, but otherwise, its still the same.

Living Story is currently not going on, so ArenaNet can design the next season of LS. In the story so far, the main villian of Living Story Season 1, Scarlet Briar, invaded Lion’s Arch, generally caused trouble, and woke up an Elder Dragon in the process. Living Story Season 2 is coming on July 1st, as seen on the news pages and forums, and LS2 will feature new zones, and hopefully the ability to battle the aforementioned 6th Elder Dragon, Mordremoth.

Im sure ive missed an entire myriad of things, but thats a general overview of whats been happening.

Mobs that use attacks designed to stop stacking. Do it, Arenanet.

Things like the Queen Spider in AC, with the poison field, just magnified many times.

That is literally frightening. How. Im scared to think what your Thief is if this is just you casually trying out Engi.

a) List the professions from 1-8 from strongest<1> in its role to weakest<8> in its role.
1. Necromancer
2. Thief
3. Elementalist
4. Mesmer
5. Guardian
6. Warrior
7. Engineer
8. Ranger

b) List the professions from 1-8 from requiring the most skill<1> to the least skill<8> to play.
1. Guardian
2. Mesmer
3. Elementalist
4. Engineer
5. Ranger
6. Warrior
7. Necromancer
8. Thief

c) List the professions from 1-8 being the most broken, imbalanced, or otherwise<1> to the least broken, most balanced, and overall “okay”<8>.
1. Warrior – The only reason people say this is balanced is because its “good in PVE”
2. Thief – The day I can win GW2 using only the #2 button will be the best day of my life…Oh, wait.
3. Mesmer – Needs a huge, huge damage or defensive boost. At the moment it just feels like team-filler, at the moment, when I play Mesmer, I feel like a support class.
4. Engineer – Grenade kit needs it’s radius increasing to be useful. Bomb kit is useless, Flamethrower is a “troll build”.
5. Ranger – This profession needs some love, like, fast, before it kills itself from depression. Its nice at doing support and utility-things, but it hits for 0s, and dies as soon as I brush past it with a remotely edged object.
6. Guardian – Balanced, but I feel like the Virtues are useless. Their effects are so minuscule, they have never made a difference to me. They’ve never even saved my life, let alone supported my team.
7. Elementalist – Pretty balanced.
8. Necromancer – Ive played Necro since beta. I have used every “mainstream” build that exists. This is not OP, despite the whining of people who have never played Necro.

Every time I run google searches about this, all I get is the Sylvari Dream come up, so I was wondering if anyone here knew if the races of Tyria, particularly the 5 playable races can dream while sleeping.

Odd little detail, but im curious.

Razer Naga 2014. Over £50, but worth the price.

Yes, there is a difference to Razer Naga Epic. the 2014’s keys are mechanical, and they’re made from rigid plastic, not some mushy soft plastic stuff that the Epic has. Much faster reaction time, for much faster rotation, and much more DPS.

Either ArenaNet dropped this not thinking it would turn into one of the biggest GW2 conspiracies yet, or they’ve deliberately done it to stir things up. However because of the fact the particular part where Marjory mentions this Mesmer Collective is not voice-acted, so we can’t know if she was being sarcastic or not.

Marjory’s exact words: “The Great and Gorgeous Mesmer Collective, or whatever they call themselves”

“Or whatever they call themselves” could be indicating its sarcasm, or she is simply disregarding them due to their (possibly) low prominence and visibility.

I do agree, a lot of characters are stereotypical regarding their race…With 2 exceptions.

Rox, is a Charr who is quite paranoid, uncertain and insecure. Traits that not many Charr have. She is also seems to “feel” a bit more then other Charr, as opposed to the majority of Charr such as Rytlock who seem to lack many emotions, or shut them down, to focus on their duty or job.

Zojja, is insane, quite frankly. All throughout the dungeon storylines, she is constantly talking about brutally murdering Kudu or Eir, sometimes both. She always speaks aggressively, and is actually quite furious compared to most other Asurans who are calm, and take a logical view on the world, as opposed to Zojja’s very opinionated and emotional take. I guess the Berserker stat Ascended gear does deserve to be named after her.

I think it is important for the races of Tyria to have a general style of opinion, morality and interaction, to define them, but I would like to see a bit more variation in personality. and less Sylvari. Every 2nd major character is a Sylvari.

Possibly, but I don’t think the minions would smell that bad, really. None of the minions have any visible signs of decay, therefore no reason to smell, and because they don’t live for very long before dying, or being dismissed, i’d imagine they’d have no time to decay.

I’d imagine the main problem would be vultures and flies trying to eat the minions as soon as they’re summoned.

Now that you mention it, smell is pretty much a non-existent sense in GW2. I never hear NPCs discuss it. The only time I can think of is the Bartender in the Smokestead bar. She discusses how “rank” Iron Legion Charr get after their shift. Arenanet, fix this. :c More of the smells, please.

Elric.6971:

Also, Asura have been engineering things while charr were still painting their furs in feces and blood while running around buck naked and without a proper language. (in otherwords, all charr history to present day)

“Engineer technology really developed with the Charr first and foremost. And its one of the specialties developed by the Charr Iron Legion.” — Eric Flannum

Magitech (Golemancy, Waypoints, etc) =/= Engineering (Metalwork, Machinery)

The engineer profession was pioneered by The Charr, so the turrets would match their aesthetic. Asurans don’t really “engineer” anything, they infuse stone using magic, to make it do certain things.

and us Charr don’t really get a lot, AN refuses to fix our clipping issues because we’re the least popular race, statistically. The turrets are our only friends at this point, don’t take them away, let us spread their love to the other races of Tyria!

I would recommend going into one area of the lore that interests you, then it generally takes you to other areas of the lore. For example, I love the Charr. I love everything about their society, culture and history, but quite often, I get taken into lore about the other races, for example. The Charr have had a number of long conflicts with the Humans, so I end up catching a lot of lore about them.

and a lot of it is literally just going into the game and talking to NPCs, listening to ambient conversations, etc. Theres a lot of important lore that was discovered by speaking to singular NPCs that happen to be hidden in far-flung corners of the game.

and like Aaron said, I think its borderline impossible. The lore is so speculative, open and vast. and even just the Charr. Ive been lore hunting about the Charr since before GW2 even came out, and im still discovering chunks of information about just 1 race after all this time.

Ascended and Legendary are tied as the highest stats in the game, but Legendary weapons have the ability to change their stats, so they work with any build, whereas Ascended weapons need to be created with their stats, and are locked into them, like normal gear.

You can play content like Fractals, WvW, world bosses, etc, to get Ascended gear in loot boxes, but ive been playing since they’ve come out, and only got 1, so its just faster to craft them. It might cost money, but you’re guaranteed of getting your ascended gear. They don’t even consume a lot of money if you collect all the materials yourself, and only spend gold on the compulsory parts like the Thermacatalyic Reagents and the Recipes.

There is a need for non-zerk players.

I myself run Soldier’s gear, because I like to do a lot of WvW and EoTM, and during 6 dungeon runs in the past week, everyone in the party has got downed by a powerful attack, except me, and ive had to run round reviving everyone.

“Zerker is the best dps”

Sorry, dead people don’t do DPS, get out of my dungeon group.

“But you can dodge, even with zerker gear”

Yes, you can dodge twice in roughly 15 seconds without Vigor…Then what?…If the boss decides they want to attack for a 3rd time in a row, you’re downed. Im seriously debating about refusing players with berserker’s stat armour from my dungeon groups, just because im sick of having to revive players who refuse to embrace a toughness stat.

I like Necromancer just because even if you choose Power or Condition Damage as a main part of your build, Necromancer hurts, a lot. Ive won 3 vs 1 fights in WvW using my Necromancer. and with the added bonus of Death Shroud, which is the best profession-unique ability in the game, hands down, making Necromancer hard to kill.

and because we have a whole archive of viable builds, as opposed to other professions that have only a small handful that will work.

I only like Axe for Unholy Feast. I dislike all the other skills on it.

I personally run Dagger/Focus in PVE and sPvP and Dagger/Warhorn in WvW, just for the swiftness, but Focus is my main offhand weapon.

Axe Autoattack is very slow, sure, it gives Vulnerability, but Focus, if used on a single target without bouncing to any other nearby targets, will put 12 stacks of Vulnerability up instantly. Life Siphon by default has lower damage than Ghastly Claws, but when boosted using traits like Bloodthirst and Vampiric, it hits for much more then Ghastly Claws, and it can’t be canceled by simply walking into the Necromancer.

as for Dark Pact….Ya, nice immobilize…Retaliation is my friend, I need it in my life. ;A;

Finishing the main world isn’t hard. What becomes an issue is getting completion in WvW, because you might get given a Boarderland that isn’t convenient for the objectives you need, or you might need the objective in a hard to siege keep, which the enemy team holds.

On a side note, its probably quite rude of me to point out, but its interesting that your anxiety manifests in the form of being scared of challenges, but then again, ive met people with stranger triggers for it.

Its just newer bosses that use it. I think its to make the rings more noticeable, because a lot of the new bosses have one-shot kill attacks, so it wouldn’t be exactly fair having a one-shot kill AOE marked only by that thin red ring, which is obscured and almost invisible if anyone uses an attack that has a particle effect or explosion effect.

For example, Tequatl The Sunless has the thinner red rings for his attacks, and I can just sit there and tank it all day, because they’re not one-shot kill attacks. But things like the Queen’s Gauntlet bosses all use the orange circles, because they all use one-shot kill attacks.

The reason Warrior is overplayed it because its an easy class. People see others using some cheap greatsword build and think “uhhh. half-decent DPS. Must steal build.”, when in reality, greatsword warrior is slugish. After Hundred-Blades is on cooldown, they’re no use to me any more.

Guardian is overplayed, yet half the community apparently hate Guardians, from what I can figure out. Apparently it is socially unacceptable to use Staff on a guardian, because for some reason people dislike mass AOE boons. Its also popular among Commanders to be Guardians, because they are sort of defensively bulky and can spread boons quite easily, and have a very high Swiftness uptime in WvW.

and the above point about Rangers and Necromancers being shunned because of their lack of “group utility” is complete and utter rubbish. Rangers can provide AOE healing, AOE boons and a variety of combo fields, some of which being the rarer ones, such as an Ice field, as well as a handful of the ever-popular Fire fields for AOE might stacking. (Ranger have more fire fields then Elementalist.)

“Necromancers have no group utility”. Because obviously, AOE Protection, huge AOE healing, permanent 25 stacks of Vulnerability and not dying in 1 hit like every other berserker warrior in the game is a lack of group utility.

At the end of the day, people can talk about what professions do it for them, but all you can do is try out and experiment to figure out what works for you. For example, I think Guardian is the hardest profession to play in the game, yet I have no issues playing Engineer, which is widely reguarded as a complicated profession, however a lot of other people find Guardian easy to play, so all you can do really is try to find something that fits you.

I don’t think Scarlet is necessarily a champion of Mordremoth, nor a minion, just some kind of a thrall. Because, as we know, Elder Dragons have the ability to influence people, on a mental level, without actually transforming them to their generic minion state. EG: Risen.

Spoilers below concerning Charr Personal Story.
In the Charr personal story, you meet a Necromancer named Rissa who raises Howl The Brazen from his grave and commands him to attack you, however she is wearing a pendant that some how influences her to the point where she does Zhaitan's bidding, without being completely "corrupted", as she is still alive, not a risen minion.

Because of the above in the spoiler, I believe that Scarlet is only under the mental influence of Mordremoth, and not being directly corrupted/controlled by him, in the same way Rissa was.