Guild Wars 2

Engineer – Dawn Cycle
In his dream, he is standing on a beach, looking out an ocean, a quiet cove protected from the surf. It is dawn. The ocean’s waves lap the shore. One by one, an army of clockwork puppets, of all shapes and sizes and designs, emerge from the tree line. They march down the beach, walk out on the water, and then, in unison, they turn around and dance for him.

Best. Dream. Ever.

Surely not all of the Sylvari beating up fireflies and turning into fern hounds to play with puppies have dreamed of dragons. Yes it’s canon that the player character has, but why not branch away from that from time to time? (There are certain elements that are a give; far shores, new places, etc.)

Roleplayer or not, it’s fun to develop the characters, so share! What specific thing did your Sylvari dream aside from the general information? What motivates them from their dream?

I’ll go first then:

Ranger – Night cycle
He didn’t have the best of dreams. He dreamed of following a far off light while the rest was darkness. Not a very happy guy and always worried he is slipping into Nightmare.

Guardian – Noon cycle
Dreamed of curing illness and corruption. He’s took this to heart and is a healer that supports those that actively fight the Nightmare Court.

Elementalist – Dusk cycle
Dreamed of fire that didn’t burn him and of great libraries he knew he had to visit. He’s a scholar determined to learn all he can about elemental magic, fire in particular. Most of the time he has his nose in a book.

Sylvari are very expressive and emotional in general. Being in love is not a private thing either, so I don’t know what “private life” you speak of. Yes the dialogue is silly and most of the relationships overdramatic, but none branch into “private life” range.

If you want a storyline that doesn’t revolve around feelings, the most openly emotional race is a bad pick.

Calling a gay couple existing in the game a sign of them being “politically correct” is enough to show you’re a bigot. Existing does not mean they are pushing their way of life on you. They are not trying to make you gay, the dude just wants you to stop the green knight from slaughtering his partner.

Need more boy Sylari? Can do.

My pretty ranger who I purposefully gave wide, odd looking eyes to make him look nervous.

And my main elementalist… who never looks at the camera! I have not managed to get a straight shot of his face yet.

I have stated to Anet myself that they made me uncomfortable with how they have made the Sylvari way to PC. I like the OP will not impose my life choices on others. I feel though that they have really over done the PC-ism on this race.
I actually changed my personal story due to how uncomfortable it made me feel.
Everyone has a right to do whatever they wish too in their bedrooms, but they need to tone it down in the game.
If I were to start preaching in the game I would get banned. So they either need to let me teach the Gospel if I so desire or tone it down.

Existing = getting in your face. Got it. I mean, that should apply for every couple in the game right? Then the whole Sylvari race should bother you, all around the Grove you can hear about them talking about their love interests.

Gross.

Two boys, my Sylvari Elementalist main being one of them, and three girls. I’m eyeing my extra character slot though, not sure what it will be!

I prefer Asura, Norn, and Charr as women but like the Sylvari men a bit more than the women. I just don’t like humans period. :P

You can eat something and you can bet yourkitten it ain’t a salad!

Jk, but no really, we’re not for food stuffs. >:I

I somehow doubt that the Court will suddenly become nice and peaceful as soon as the Pale Tree is corrupted. By corrupting the tree they are bound to cause any further saplings to start out vicious and hateful if not just horribly traumatized. The Sylvari aren’t even “bound” by the tree anyways. Clearly they can have other ideals or be away from the tree with no issue, see the Soundless.

The Court has a purpose and one that has some logic to it but they are still evil people that prey on the innocents. How are they better than the tablet if they brainwash, torture, and force innocents into the Court?

The way I see the tree is as a mother taking care of her children and teaching them what she thinks is right. That doesn’t make her evil, she’s hardly teaching them terrible things. They are free to choose a different path and many do. By the way the Dream works, the Sylvari are going to be influenced by something, tablet or not. They’re still going to have the memories of the rest of their species. The Court will just be exchanging it with a different influence, which is hardly any better.

Well, I’ll echo Eir here: “This is your legend, slayer.”
You know all those problems people have with Trahearne? If Caithe, Logan, Zojja, Eir, and Rytlock all took the front seat, they’d be in the same position the story puts Trahearne, we would never hear the end of how these are not our personal stories.

I’m aware why from the gaming standpoint, it’s still silly to me from a writing standpoint. It’s still a plot hole, necessary or not.

Soundless: How to handle being free of the tree the right way.
Nightmare Court: How to handle being free of the tree by being horrible monsters.

Their intentions don’t erase their actions either. No matter how noble or not they might be, what they do is vicious, cruel, and unforgivable.

What happens after quest at level 30? She tries to unite them and it fails. She, like Eir, is probably trying to figure out a way to bring them back together. There are more dragons, and remember, Caithe’s often been described as mysterious and unpredictable.

This does not change the huge plot hole that the play character’s opinions are held over hers involving the Sylvari storyline and that she doesn’t contribute much when she has the same dream and 25 years over me. The after 30 quests don’t matter when I’m talking about the pre 30 ones.

Anet establishing that the Nightmare Court being incurable is no different than any book or game writer dictating the rules of their universe. Their lore is an explanation and there’s nothing to excuse here. You can hardly make a go at their writing when you barely seem to pay attention to it. That one scene from the white stag line seems to be your only knowledge of the interactions between the Court and the Dreamers.

On the note of the tablet, I do get the impression that it is more of a starting point for the Sylvari and none of them are compelled in a hive mind sense to follow it. Like I said earlier, they are basically humanlike in nature. Bending of the rules is gonna happen.

Sisterhood of the travelling angst. And Rytlock, Logan, and Zojja are all angsting.nShe’s got her own agenda at the moment.

But she’s there… the whole time. She is present at every meeting with the Pale Tree and most if not all Sylvari missions 1-30. She’s clearly not that busy with the angst if she’s present to have me pick the story path.

Defending oneself is not murder. No really it’s not. Most of the missions I’ve done that have involved actively going after the court was to save prisoners they were planning on torturing. The fact that you keep overlooking the horrific things they are doing to innocent people is frankly baffling. You can say it’s because Anet wrote them badly but they still wrote them and their word is law in this universe.

The Nightmare Court goal is to either convert or destroy every Dreamer. They do not relent. The Dreamers either fight or allow their entire way of life to be destroyed. Again, the Court started this conflict.

Cry all you want about the Dreamers killing to defend themselves or ONE Sylvari, Caithe, killing a surrendered courtier, but the Court will always trump that. Hell, in the very flipping start of the Sylvari area you see Nightmare Hounds in the dream. Those hounds, a big element of the Court, were more than happy to kill dreaming saplings. Your character is fine because of the hero setup but the sapling that dreams of being a really good baker is going to get ripped to shreds. That’s not peaceful recruiting, that’s murdering defenseless innocents.

If you follow the green knight line you’ll hear Caithe explain that many Sylvari convert after being tortured because their agony poisons the dream. They convert to lesson the blow to the Mother Tree. They aren’t being reasonably persuaded here, they want to save further saplings from having to deal with their pain.

The Court are shallow but they are not completely unsympathizable. There is a certain amount of logic behind what they think but at the same time, their actions do not support it. What the Court invokes is pity and sadness if you think of those that converted to spare the dream more pain. Now they’re stuck being monsters to the ones they wanted to protect. That’s pretty gutting right there.

I would be all over a whip for elementalists, mesmers, and rangers! Fire whip! Like others have said, the whips are already in the game and move quite well. It’s not like they’d need to add many or any animations to them.

Sylvari – Elementalist (Main level 50)
Sylvari – Ranger
Charr – Guardian
Sylvari – Engineer
Asura – Mesmer

I bought an extra slot… Might make a salad thief. Never enough trees!

If I had a choice between death and becoming a torturing monster that would go on to murder and torment innocents… Uh… I might choose the former, at least I have some freedom in that option.

It’s not strong to say what the courtiers do is horrible. It IS horrible. Caithe might be vicious but I haven’t seen her torture someone to death and then stick the mangled body in the cage to further degrade the minds of the cellmates.

If the nightmare court were like the soundless, you’d have a point, but they aren’t. The Soundless have a similar mindset regarding breaking away from the tree. The big difference is that they’re not horrifically evil. The nightmare court as not as deep as you’re trying to make them out to be. To be honest the evil in this game is pretty shallow and the court is no exception. Those recruiters were peaceful right then but you can bet they were just as vicious as the rest.

Word of god(Anet) says they can’t be fixed. Word of god is right despite how much you want to speculate.

I’m not really getting the Nightmare only convert people argument here. How they convert Sylvari to nightmare is horrific to say the least. Finding a group of prisoners with their tortured cellmate’s body still in their cage is pretty sickening. If you listen to a conversation between two NPCs in the grove near the Asura portal you’ll hear a woman talk about the damage the nightmares she’s having are doing. She’s losing her sense of identity and it’s the court to blame.

I doubt the Sylvari never tried to cure a coutier but when they’re threatening to slaughter a village, it’s hard to try to reason with them. Besides, having a darker edge to even good Sylvari is nice. It gives them some depth. They’re inexperienced, but they are still basically human like in nature.

Kinda sad that Trahearne took over the story, not so much because I didn’t get to be the hero (I really don’t like the cookie cutter hero I have to be) but because it’s so unsuited for the character. I liked his character okay in the Sylvari starting line. His personality and goal makes a lot of sense with his background, but main character of the story? No, not so much.

He feels much more like one that would be on the sidelines making sure everything falls into place instead of banging his face against the problem.

At the same time your character doesn’t really display knowing much. They just pick between two-three options that others suggest. I guess this implies that your character had an idea of what’s best but it sure doesn’t feel like it, especially as all the paths get it done.

Caithe also dreamed of killing dragons so I don’t know why my character has more input than she.

The thing that bugs me is when the story brings back things or characters that we may have met before, but doesn’t acknowledge when we have met them before. As a sylvari having Trahearne introduced as if for the first time at Claw Island is jarring, and later when Caladbolg is reintroduced as if the two characters there hadn’t stabbed a lich in the face with it not so long ago, and later still when Occam shows up again without so much as a how-do-you-do.

Very much agreed. That was really the turning point of the story becoming just strange to me. Especially as Trahearne remembers you and then two dialogue lines later forgets who you are and starts calling you magister instead of herald/valiant. It was a very obvious and clumsy shift from personal story to main story.

The general lack of recognition of your race/class in cutscenes after a certain point comes off as very odd in general. Being a Sylvari in the Priory made me wonder why my character was never bothered by Gixx berating Sieran. Wouldn’t he be annoyed by the Sylvari specific insults after a while?

I think she’s a troll for going: “Heyyyy, you there, the one that’s like, four days old, come here and make decisions for the firstborns.”

I still haven’t gotten over basically being a child making decisions for the elders of the Sylvari.

The voice acting and jerky personal story progression is really my only significant problem with GW2 at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, the ham and cheese sandwich that is the Sylvari dialogue has not stopped me from rolling three of the fakebrits, but the word “beloved” should be purged from their vocabulary. I think the poor sap in the green knight’s first appearance mentioned something about being in love with his boyfriend a good three times.

I will say that I loved Sieran. I know she was a little flat but she was a nice breath of fresh air from the other Sylvari. She really seemed to have that curious nature and the lack of forethought I expect from them. Sure she nearly got me killed several times but her lines are some of my favorites in the game so far. (Up to level 50)

I feel that the lack of dialogue options for players in the personal stories really limits how personal it is. All I’m really doing is driving around this “Herald/Valiant” guy from point to point in these missions. This is so much more noticeable if you play another of the same race, even if they’re a different gender and story path. My scholarly elementalist and my loner ranger have the exact same reactions to most of the storyline. It really doesn’t feel like there’s much of a point of picking different cycles for Sylvari if it doesn’t impact them. Sadly, I know that having different voicing for all the different choices in the game would be an insane task and that ANet would likely not be able to deliver something like that. Which is reasonable but it does take the bite out how personal these stories are supposed to be.

Also, I will never forget (or forgive) the male Sylvari player pronouncing “sword” as “schword”.

Schword.

I doubt it. It’s a wonderful game but I don’t see it having enough to pull the WoW crowd away from WoW. I am going to continue raiding in WoW and having fun poking things on alts in GW2. They’re pretty different games and I really don’t get the sense that GW2 is out to “beat” WoW.

GW2 doesn’t really have the structured PvE content that WoW does so it’ll struggle to get the raiding crowd anyways.

It really is just a different game. Without that sub it’s easy to pick it up whenever you feel like exploring/pvping and keep playing whatever other MMO you want in the meantime.

I think, at least, cosmetic mounts would be nice. A teeny speed boost wouldn’t hurt much I wouldn’t think. If money is the problem, it would be simple enough to make mounts themselves massive money sinks.

Maybe… rented mounts? It would be like a very long lasting speed buff: 25%+ speed on the mount for say, an hour or more depending on the price.

Zone specific mounts? Buy a mount for that zone that can only be used in that zone that costs a pretty penny.

I love GW2 and intend to play it often, but not in a very serious way. It’s a very fun game for me in the way that it encourages and rewards exploration. I do adore leveling and enjoy the leveling system so far.

I am, however, going to still be playing WoW. I have no problem playing both at the same time and enjoy different aspects of them. I greatly enjoy the structured PvE content of the traditional MMO model but love the heavy exploration focus of GW2.

I see no reason why one can’t like both models. The only thing I really miss in WoW over GW2 is the dodge roll! I spent tonight’s raid trying to dodge roll out of bad stuff on the floor.

Funny thing is that the sylvari are why I bought this game in the first place! I was pondering looking at some trailers when I saw a screenshot of the bark faced male sylvari with the glow in full force. I just knew I had to have one. I Bought the game that night, a day before release.

Reasons for having three sylvari (Ele, Ranger, Engineer):

1) Utterly unique twist on the elf stereotype. They fit the role but in such a new and interesting way I can’t help but want to know more. How cool is the Dream?

2) Adorable charm to them. Not quite naive, but very curious and honest.

3) I can be a tree that breathes FIRE. What is more awesome than that? (Double dagger fire ele forever!)

4) The Nightmare Court are a little over the top but at the same time, quite a chilling brand of evil. I’m having fun weaving a story for my ranger involving an encounter with the Court.

5) Caithe is awesome. She has that innocent edge at times but then she goes and stabs someone. Love her.

6) All the nicknames the poor things get: Twigs, sticks, salads, walking ferns… I haven’t seen one get offended yet but I’m waiting for it.

7) Lastly… They get the best options for customization out of the races in my opinion. I don’t see many neon pink Charr around. ;D