Guild Wars 2

We shouldn’t digress into off-topic stuff here, but I think you are giving the human species less credit than it deserves. Of course intelligence is not a stable value, so some tribes might have not known, but sooner or later some one will point out the connection. You know we are kitten sapiens for a reason. (seriously the latin word for human get’s replaced with kitten?)
And as I said, even if that is true (which I still don’t believe and, even though I’m not an expert on that area, I have done quite some research in that field myself), it’s still not the reason of inequality between the sexes.

No you aren’t, you are the king of death, therefore you are god or something, you don’t count.

I just want to kick Trahearne in the face so yes. In fact, make the whole Sylvari race villians, those salad heads are up to no good. Imagine some Pact airships flying in, firing rockets at the Pale Tree Avatar-style. That will teach them.
Don’t worry all Syvari players will get a brand new Tengu as replacement. Great ideas to make a great game even better.

I actually suspect (and hope) we have to ally with Joko again to fight the bigger threat (Krallkatorrik). It would play so wonderfully with player’s expectation. Since we first heard of Joko ruling Elona now, everyone was like “oh so he will be the villian of the Elona expansion.” Making him the lesser evil again, would be so delightful. :9

With Gwen there are only 2 types of people, the ones who hate her and who love her. I certainly hate her with a passion. I did when she kept following me in pre-searing and I did even more so when she would never should up about the charr. No I’m not putting Gwen and Trahearne on the same level, she is even worse for me.
And this stupid cheesy love story. Ugh. Kieran was actually quite likeable, but he has a horrible taste in women.
Luckily I had Norgu, so I never had to put Gwen in my line up if I wanted a mesmer, as one was usually enough. I still have that armor for her, but more to get my HoM points, not that I cared about what she looked, she wasn’t out to be visible anyway. Oh how I wished the Charr would have made a better job with the searing, not only would it have spared me of her horrible whining in EotN, no there wouldn’t be a Logan derping around too. It’s the genes you know.

Weindrasi.3805:

people also did not know that sex resulted in babies—they just thought women became pregnant due to the will of the gods or some other reasons.

What? No! You can say many things what people did and didn’t know in ancient times, but this one is most certainly not true. Not only could people see the direct connection by their own species, but also with their cattle and if you want to go even further back, by animals they hunted.
And even if there was a point in human history were they didn’t know (though I can hardly imagine such), it has nothing to do with the equality of men and women. Women being oppressed and forced to be the “housekeeper” stems from the fact that they are giving birth to children and can nurse them. Even if you are stupid enough to think pregnancy is magic, you still know that only women can bear children. Staying with the children is by the human biology, the mothers job.
The important part is biology, before people start claiming I’m a chauvinist. I’m not, I’m all for womens right and see no difference between what a man and a woman can do, besides biological things, like bearing a child.
I’m just saying that most (not all!) human societies just expanded on this biological aspect. If the woman has to stay with the child to nurse it, she can stay at home all year long. So this were the unequality comes from, not from not knowing the relation between sex and childbirth.

Not to offend you but none of the names sounds very charr-y. 3/10 for Trappe Echourgnac, the others are more like 1/10. Sorry :/

My ash legion ranger is named Corr Pridehunter. Unlike my Norn, I pretty much came up with this name in a matter of minutes (while my norn took honestly more than one year of preparation). It does have a lot of Rs in it, as I think, together with K, it’s the most common consonant in Charr names.

Flying around, smiting some harpies and hekets? Yeah, would have been fun, but I guess the PC was overpowered enough, making him a god is pointless, he already is a physical god.^^

Oh Trahearne, what a horrible NPC you are.

Let me tell you something first, I dislike many characters of the main GW plotlines, Cynn and Mhenlo, Destiny’s Edge and most of all Gwen. But I do like Kormir, Togo and to some degree even Rurik, though more in a sense that is AI is so stupid but not the character itself and unlike all other NPCs I dislike, I was actually allowed to kill him… so satisfying!

Trahearne however is nothing but a male Gwen for me. Gwen stills holds my number one spot of most hated NPC. She is as terrible as Trahearne for pretty much the same reasons. She shows up out of nowhere (well you could meet her as a kid, if you were from prophecies, leading to the same problem with Trahearne only having significants to you if you are sylvari), tags along with you, despite having to lead an organization (in her case, in absence of the real leader), annoys the living hell out of you whenever she opens her mouth (“charr are so mean!” QQ) and worst of all, she get’s all the credit! Oh what was that sentence in Ghosts of Ascalon, who is the greatest hero of humanity? The one who killed 4 major villians and ended several wars and had friends in many different races and cultures all over the world or the one who just went along on the later missions and founded one town. Oh it’s Gwen, yeah makes sense…
Hell I would even say Master Togo was a bigger hero than her (ended 1 war, schooled a new generation of heroes, sacrificed himself to save his half-brother). If anything Trahearne is not the Kormir of GW2, he is the Gwen, which is far far faaaaaar worse. *

(* yes I copied and pasted my own text, sue me :P)

Another reason I don’t like Trahearne; he is sylvari. Yes, this is a valid reason for me to dislike him. The sylvari race in general feels too Mary Sue-ish for me. You would expect, if a new race shows up, that has such high birth rates, that they can outnumber anyone in a few decades, and is completly alien in behavior to all other races, they others would be, well suspicious to say the least. But no, everywhere I go, if it’s Lion’s Arch or Frostgourge Sound, everywhere when they talk about sylvari, it’s always positive. They are appearently the best blacksmiths, because they don’t brag and they are liked by the Kodan because they are in balance.
They simply have no flaw, they are perfectly lawful good and everyone likes them for it. Okay you have the Nightmare Court, but really that’s black and white painting. All other races have morally good, evil and neutral characters and that’s what makes them work as races. The playable sylvari however are always lawful good, the NC always evil. Nothing in between.

I still try to give every Sylvari character a chance, but so far I disliked them all. Sieran for example is annoying and doesn’t really seem to know/care about history, she just likes adventuring (her so called knowledge about the dwarves is very basic). I was glad to see her die on Claw Island, could have taken Trahearne with her though.
Caithe? Oh please, the perfect example of a Mary-Sue if you read Edge of Destiny. And even ingame she is of course the only one who every other member of the group still likes. Killeen from GoA was another generally well liked Sylvari, I didn’t. She had no character, and died as she lived, trying to be as cool as the other protagonists but utterly failing.
Carys was one of the few positive examples I can remember, her stupidity showed that atleast not all Sylvari are perfect, but even she is just okay, not good.

I know that video, it’s great and funny. But your points aren’t true. Kormir is nothing like Trahearne. She is actually useful, and you can really see that she cares about her men and the world.
She thinks the nightfall is her fault for meddling with the Apocrypha, even though, atleast in my view, it would have happened anyway.
It’s true later on she doesn’t help you fight anymore, but she is blind for crying out loud. I bet you wouldn’t have even come along if a demon ate your freaking eyeballs!
Kormir was a bad*ss to be honest. Maybe the PC deserved godhood still a little more than her, it wouldn’t been possibly story wise, as the PC just can’t become a god.

Regarding Trahearne, I’ll quote a Guru post I made about the topic:

“[…] Gwen, who stills holds my number one spot of most hated NPC. She is as terrible as Trahearne for pretty much the same reasons. She shows up out of nowhere (well you could meet her as a kid, if you were from prophecies, leading to the same problem with Trahearne only having significants to you if you are sylvari), tags along with you, despite having to lead an organization (in her case, in absence of the real leader), annoys the living hell out of you whenever she opens her mouth (”charr are so mean!" QQ) and worst of all, she get’s all the credit! Oh what was that sentence in Ghosts of Ascalon, who is the greatest hero of humanity? The one who killed 4 major villians and ended several wars and had friends in many different races and cultures all over the world or the one who just went along on the later missions and founded one town. Oh it’s Gwen, yeah makes sense…
Hell I would even say Master Togo was a bigger hero than her (ended 1 war, schooled a new generation of heroes, sacrificed himself to save his half-brother). If anything Trahearne is not the Kormir of GW2, he is the Gwen, which is far far faaaaaar worse."

@mercury: the sylvari are a race of mary-sues, they deserve all disrespect they get, imo. :P

My questions for the AMA:

What’s going on in the Crystal desert? Were the branded, the risen and Palawa Joko’s forces possibly fighting a 3-way battle there? If yes, has this changed since Zhaitan’s death?
What other consequences did the death of Zhaitan have?
Why do all races celebrate wintersday now? Wasn’t it a human celebration of changing seasons? This aspect seems to be gone entirely now.
How accurate is the world map seen in the OoW HQ?
Why do the Largos look like they could easily live on land, if they are supposed to be a mostly aquatic race? Did they evolve on land and settle in the sea at one point or vice versa?
Forgotten and Naga are said to be unrelated, but what about Krait and Naga? Do they share common ancestry?
What happened to the Krait’s power of metamorphosis?

Sounds like a great idea. I don’t have a reddit account though, so would it be possible to ask questions here and you forward them?

The Straits of Devastation artwork actually makes sense to look post-apocalyptic/futuristic considering the Orrians were highly advanced in terms of magic. I wouldn’t wonder if they were almost comparable to asura in regards of understanding how magic works.

The buildings in the background of Hoelbrak reminds me more of Khmer architecture than anything futuristic. It’s a bit weird that of all races, the norsemen types have this, but on the other hand, Anet is known to mix match human cultures like crazy to get their desired results. Though I can’t recall these buildings actually being in Hoelbrak, so it might just be the designers preference.

Embolism.8106:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

/cough charr /cough

I also doubt quaggan and hylek will be playable, but for another reason, they are one of the lesser races, which you can sympathize with in your storyline. They aren’t ment to be one of the big players.

Compared to Quaggans and Hylek, the Charr are not distorted at all. You need to think about it from the perspective of models and animations, and how every piece of equipment is going to look on them. For starters, neither Quaggans or Hylek have distinct necks, consider how Helmets are going to work with that.

I mentioned the “lesser race” reason in a previous post as well. When considering if an existing race is going to work, consider if the player’s interaction with them would make sense if the player is a member of the same species.

Aye, right, I did see that post, I just didn’t see it was also made by you. This forum could use some kind of avatars, in longer topics it’s easy to miss who said what, if you aren’t outright looking for it.

While charr might not be as distortet as quaggan, there is still a difference, just look at the legs. I’m just saying, the look of a race, isn’t that much of a problem, unless we’re speaking of a complete alien race, in terms of locomotion, like centaurs or naga. A quaggan or a hylek, still have 2 legs and 2 arms, giving them armor compatable to the other races is possible without altering it too much. Not that they ever will be.

/cough charr /cough

I also doubt quaggan and hylek will be playable, but for another reason, they are one of the lesser races, which you can sympathize with in your storyline. They aren’t ment to be one of the big players.

It’s the carlton dance. It’s freaking awesome! Best dance in the GW franchise yet.

Of course there are always haters, but if they hate the dance, no one asks them to type /dance anyway. Let them rage and cry, we all know the carlton dance will never be replaced. It’s perfect as it is.

Hi there. You are doing an awesome job with these sketches. This thread is one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a while. I hope you wouldn’t mind doing one for my Norn engineer?

Preferably with the flamethrower packed and that crazy look in his eyes, that says “I’m gonna go medieval on you!”, but I give you artistic freedom.

Norn engineer as main here. I do see why people think it’s odd, with the norn probably the least technological advanced race, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t certain individuals interested in technology. And since they are location wise the closest to the charr, it only makes sense they get their hands on charr technology.

I agree though that they are the least likely engineers.

Well maybe the human storyline I played made them look more like this, than they actually are, but the White Mantle looked pretty run down. So they intended to kill a bunch of people that are important for the kingdom Kryta, yet they let themselves be lured into an obvious trap (one of the storyline options). I know there is a difference between lore and gameplay, that means their level doesn’t indicate how strong they are in lore, but it’s clearly shown in the storyline that they were gullible enough to believe that Logan, the captain of the Seraph Guard in Divinity’s Reach(!), would just walk through the Kessex Hills, all alone.
How threating are such idiots really? I’m pretty sure they aren’t defeated yet and will come back in future content updates, possibly even with some surviving Mursaat to back them up, but I highly doubt that they are in any position to bargain with the Inquest. Yes they have Mursaat relics, but they are not the only source of them. I’m pretty sure the Inquest has established a base on the Fire Island already (though I always ask myself how they fund themselves). Besides that the Mursaat are just one of many races with interesting artifacts. The Inquest are way to proud and intelligent to end up with the worse deal when they interact with other factions.
And you really think the Inquest would do the dirty work for others for a bunch of artifacts? The Inquest is shown to be not above doing various crimes to get what they want, but their dealings with other races so far show, that they always make sure they are getting the most out of it. Besides that, they are supremacists, why would they run around and do what humans ask them to do? They’d rather hire another race, like centaurs to do it for them.

Okay I was wrong with the bandit’s motivation, but I don’t think that makes them more threatening. They still just work for anyone with the same cause, even if they are all influenced by the White Mantle. By the way I’m not sure if it’s proven only by the fact that they use the same symbol, that they are part of the WM, it could just mean “Hey we are bandits too, so find some other place to pillage!” I admit however, that it lookes suspiciously close to the White Mantle symbol.

Great Gaudrath, you’ve done it, you made Narcemus tell us about his invisible friends! I hope you are happy now!

Sry couldn’t resist. :P

Well not all of the bandits, some of them. Bandits are in my opinion the least threatening faction, as their only motivation is money. They will work for anyone providing this money, no matter what this benefactor’s goals are. The White Mantle, the centaurs, the Inquest and some ministers of Kryta, all hire bandits to get their dirty work done.
Compare this to other racial enemies, who all have their own distinct goal, usually world domination and the bandits seem rather petty.

The Inquest is exactly the opposite, they let other people do the dirty work for them, bandits, dredge and maybe even the Nightmare Court. Besides that, they managed to optain the corrupting power of several dragons and are right now figuering out how to use it. With their different bases all over Tyria, they are also the most global threat. Last but not least they are tolerated, if not benefited by the Arcane Council.

Forget about the White Mantle or the Flame Legion, the Inquest is far more dangerous than them.

Gaudrath.6725:

So who took down Zhaitan, and who is the second in command of the Pact forces… me or you? Or Bob?

Simple. You, if you play it, me, if I play it. In lore there is just some nameless hero. It only gets tricky, if the events are mentioned later. Some games counter this by giving the hero a gender-unspecific title like the Elder Scrolls series often does. Through this the PC can be addressed without ever mentioning the name. Other games like GW1 make up NPCs who could have done the PC’s deeds instead (Devona and the gang). GW2 mixes those 2 things up, giving us a title like commander, while making us an anonymus part of the Pact, with several NPC groups who could have done the individual tasks.

^Cool names, very norn-y. Vidar Skargrad is the best of them imo.

Tyr Snowmane:
Profession: Engineer
Appearance: White hair, wrinkly face, rather slender body for a norn, panascopic monocle
Totem: Wolf
Motto: Kill it with fire!

My character went through a lot of first names. First I wanted Garm, but Anet revealed Eir’s pet and I didn’t want it to look like I stole the name of an important NPC. So I chose Ulfrik. But then came Skyrim with Ulfrik Stormcloak, so I had to change it again. Eventually I chose Tyr. I wanted the name to be connected to wolves, which I got with this name, since Tyr’s hand was bitten off by the wolf Fenrir.

Besides that, not all classes would make sense for undead. While there were undead rangers in GW1, they never used pets (and if a few did, which I may forgot about, I bet their pets weren’t alive anymore) and I doubt living pets would follow an undead master. I also doubt Anet would give us an undead re-skin for every pet.

As I said before, I wouldn’t hesitate a second to play a servant of Joko, if given the opportunity. He’s one of my favorite characters in GW’s lore.

The text on the book, is that one of the languages we can translate? If yes, has someone done this yet or is considering to do it? I would really like to know what the text says.^^

Edit: Oh sry, totally missed that Konig already mentioned what the text is about. My bad.

1) Tengu – At some point of GW2’s development they were considered to be playable and are the most likely imo. Besides that they are samurai!

2) Palawa Joko’s undead – Not too likely (too close to WoW’s forsaken I guess), but I would definitely play one.

3) Largos – Their lore so far is cool, if only they wouldn’t look like butterfly people (I know they are fins).

True, it’s not a 100% match. I still think Sylvari-Seers and humans – Forgotten works a little bit better, you could for example argue that Seers are also into preventing corruption, as they stored all uncorrupted magic, while forgotten, like humans were at war with the charr once.

Well it’s just food for thoughts.

I’ve made a comparison of the the old and new 5 races on GW2 guru already, but I think I share it here too:

Humans – Forgotten: Worship the Six and were once a dominating race, later pushed back into a melting pot

Charr – Dwarves: 2 Factions in a civil war, have access to magic, they rather use blackpowder, alchemy and steam though.

Asura – Mursaat: Master of magic technology (Golems- Jade constructs/soul batteries – some asura energy storage devise, I bet they have some :P), but also arrogant and think of themselves as superior to everyone.

Norn – Jotun: Love a good fight and like to stay individual, though they Jotun have taken it to extreme by being xenophobic to even their own kind.

Sylvari – Seer: The most mysterious and alien, both have no real genders.

The most creepy thing about those dolls is that eerie scream they let out. And the fact that they have no face and go out to kill you.
And that comes from a man who has no idea why people think slenderman is scary (I want to hug him <3)

Confession bear.jpg

I actually think Skritt are cuter than Quaggan.

Koss on Koss is also a book you can find in Divinity’s Reach. They named the ascended backpiece after the book. That leaves me with the question, are all copies of the book powerful pieces of equipment? Is Koss so hardcore that writing about him alone gives a book magical power? I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case.

I think the submarine belongs to the pact or OoW. Besides that, the Infinity Coil Reactor is right next to the Mire Sea, so if the CoE is underground it could easily connect to the sea.

Considering you can leave the place by a submarine (which brakes through a wall), the thing can’t be in the sky, that much is clear.

Well there could be a 3-way battle going on, maybe that’s the reason why the guards in Ebonhawke wont let us go through.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

That’s why I said rumors, I wasn’t too sure. I actually heard both, one source claims he fought the Risen, others the Branded. Since we defeated Zhaitan without hearing anything about him fighting Joko (which I guess the Pact would know about, it’s a huge deal if your foe fights on 2 fronts), I guessed the other thing must be true.

Never once heard of Joko fighting Branded. Only misconception on The Movement of the World article, which only states that Zhaitan’s forces are fighting on Elona’s borders.

“Zurzeit hat Kralkatorrik Streitigkeiten mit Palawa Joko, der das Ödland im Süden kontrolliert.” (“at this time Kralkatorrik is in dispute with Palawa Joko, who controles the Desolation in the south”).http://wiki-de.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kralkatorrik
I’m not sure where the german wiki got it from, but I remember it too from an interview. However this of course could have been changed by now, the german wiki isn’t the fastest with updating lore (and of course not a canon source).
It however does make more sense to me, that, if anyone, Joko is clashing with the Branded as they are right next to his (possibly former) capital, the bone palace. Zhaitan has no direct border with him, unless he controles parts of the Crystal Desert too, which is never said anywhere. The only other possibility is that he send some of his undead navy to attack Elona, since he could have the knowledge about the continent from his risen corsairs.

That’s why he was called Aruman in the Rankin/Bass version of LotR.^^

I love their spirit of adventure and “just do it”-nature. They clearly enjoy every aspect of live, something that is very admirable.
Besides I like their, looks, abilities (being able to turn into an animal is freaking cool), humor and personality.

Norn and humans being mechanically able to do and being able to produce offspring are two different things. Considering they both look the same, I guess they have the same way of reproducing. So I don’t see any reason why there can’t be Norn/human couples. And they could still adopt children.

That’s why I said rumors, I wasn’t too sure. I actually heard both, one source claims he fought the Risen, others the Branded. Since we defeated Zhaitan without hearing anything about him fighting Joko (which I guess the Pact would know about, it’s a huge deal if your foe fights on 2 fronts), I guessed the other thing must be true.

In ancient times the Crystal Desert used to be an ocean. The Margonites, a seafaring human civilization lived in and around it. However they were followers of Abaddon (at the time, he was the god of water), so they sided with him, in his conflict with the other gods. Eventually Abaddon was defeated in the Crystal Sea, were he fell the water disappeared, leaving a wasteland known as the Desolation (the elonian part) and the Crystal Desert (the tyrian part).
Nowadays the desert is the location where Krallkatorrik resides. Also there are rumors that Palawa Jokos forces fight the Branded there.

Hmm reminds me of a certain Lonely Island song…

Many stories depict warriors or knights as leaders, giving them a kind of military and political power. While sometimes wizards are leaders, it’s still mostly warriors. Maybe most wizards are introverts?
Also, the more technological advanced Tyria get’s, the more can the non-magical professions keep up with the mages. An engineer for example can do many of the things an elementalist does.

The shaman in the fractals is called Lornarr, not Lornar. They have similar names, but they are different people. As mentioned, Lornar was a dwarf.

Oglaf.1074:

“Wizards” will always be more powerful, when you think about it. They have the ability to manipulate reality like conjuring up a tornado of fire from thin air. No matter how good you are at swinging that sword around, I just don’t see that being at the same scale of “power” as being able to wield magic.

Like Lord of the Rings: none of the “physical” heroes ever come close to the power of the “magical” ones, i.e Aragorn vs. Gandalf

Well the GW universe has thief with shadow steps, with the blink of an eye a thief could jump to you and pierce your throat with a dagger. Also warriors and engineers have rifles. They might not be all that precise or reliable during that time, but still one masterfully aimed shot could kill a mage before he get’s to use his spells.

GW1 also had it’s fair share of powerful non-magic users. Turai Ossa for example defeated Palawa Joko, without any magic. Shiro could possibley also count, yet he does also use magic, mostly out out of combat though.

I think it really depends on the person and circumstances, hard to say who is the most powerful.