Guild Wars 2

BunnytheSwordsman.4173:

Nah, that’s just the lighting. She’s got the caramel skin, it seems.

Yep, and it’s pretty much the same skin tone as Queen Salma (Jennah’s ancestor in GW1). That said, most Krytans in GW1 had darker skin than Salma and Jennah, but that may be a result of the Doric bloodline.

Sadly most Krytans in GW2 look like Ascalonians, with the light Northern European skin tones. I’m glad that at least Jennah has the right skintone for her ancestry.

It is a bit of a shame there aren’t more. My one Charr is male (as being a guy, I roll male characters first), but if I ever get a sixth character slot, it’s definitely going to be a Blood Legion female warrior.

I definitely appreciate a race where the females look as fierce as the males, and don’t look like strippers in 90% of the armor sets. GW2 is a bit better about offering non-stripper armor set choices for human/norn/sylvari females, but there’s still far too many for my taste (luckily medium armor has the least, and my one female human is an Engineer). I’m really glad GW2 did Charr female justice and didn’t try to go the horrible route that WoW went with bestial races.

About 30 gold. I don’t play a ton and when I do, it’s never to grind money, as for me, grinding of any sort (and playing the TP) is less fun than watching paint dry. I can’t even fathom how some people have made so much gold.

I do have full exotics on my main, so there’s not anything in particular I really need money for until I get alts to 80 (my next highest character is only 47, so I have a while to go). I may eventually buy the mats for an Ascended backpack, or maybe another character slot. I have zero interest in the legendary grind, so I don’t really have to worry much about that.

The Risen spout a lot of psychological propaganda, they seem to want demoralize their opponents as much as possible. In fact, if I remember correctly, the Risen Priestess of Lyssa says that Zhaitan devoured gods plural.

But even if the Risen believe what they say in this regard – Zhaitan has clearly deceived its servants in the past, as some Risen claim Zhaitan promised them immortality (such as the Priest of Grenth in the Cathedral of Silence mission). I would not for a second believe anything the Risen spout, and there’s been no indication that Lyssa – or any of the gods – have been devoured. So most likely, it’s just ‘propaganda’ – whether used by the Risen to demoralize their foes, or for Zhaitan to deceive its followers. Either way, it’s most likely a lie.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

No. I find the whole concept ludicrous.

Pretty much the same for me. I mean, if people enjoy watching video game matches, more power to them, but I don’t for a second understand why – as someone above said, I find it about as interesting as watching paint dry, and find the concept of taking a video game so seriously a bit baffling.

Then again, I love baseball, but I know people who find it paint-dry-boring, so I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.

As for playing an ‘e-sport’ – well, I like competition in my game, but it’s all in good fun. It’s a hobby for me. Anyway, I far prefer WvW over sPvP – it’s more unpredictable and offers a more varied experience. so I’m not interested in the part of the game that would be considered an e-sport.

As an Elementalist, without a doubt I’d trade my Elite for an extra utility slot in most situations. I might continue using Elemental in some PvE content, but in WvW I’d always take a 4th utility over an Elite if I could.

The fact that at least half of the professions would probably take a 4th utility over an Elite shows that a lot of Elites are not what they should be. Most of them aren’t game-changers at all, and yet have long cooldowns shackling them. There are exceptions, of course, but a lot of Elites either need to be brought up in power or brought down in cooldown.

Given that the Mursaat, more than anything, seemed to be concerned with their own survival, I do wonder if they instigated the war in the first place.

If they did, you would think they would only do so if they thought the Seers were a threat to their survival in some way – and enough of one to risk going to war with them.

Granted, so much of the Mursaat’s history is shrouded in mystery, but their motives always struck me primarily as survival at any cost. They didn’t kill Chosen out of anger, revenge, or spite, but instead to survive at a race at any cost – even if it meant the death of thousands of innocents. They are a horribly selfish race, willing to kill and murder if it means a better chance for survival – but unlike, say, the Charr from GW1, they don’t seem interested in war for the sake of conquering their enemies.

This makes me think that if they were, in fact, aggressors in instigating the war with the Seers, they must have had some reason to believe the Seers were a significant threat to their survival (not that the reasoning in any way justified it) and the best way to address that threat would be to wipe out, or at least cripple the Seers.

I use Battle on both D/D and Staff – I just love the constant 6 stack of Might from it. It’s a noticeable boost to both direct damage and condition damage (condition damage isn’t that important on either set, but it’s still a decent boost).

I do like Hydromancy a lot for D/D as well but I ultimately picked Battle over it. Battle is a constant boost that’s always useful, while Hydromancy is situationally more powerful but not useful in every scenario. Both are good choices, I think.

Kodiak.3281:

InFluEnZa.6908:

There is nothing to prove; using meteor shower in conjunction with cc abilities will keep your opponents stuck in the aoe longer so they take more damage.

But is it more damage than had you just stayed in Fire and continued to do more Fire based skills? That’s the part you need to prove. You made a claim, now back it up with numbers.

If you don’t have numbers, then it’s just you think it does more damage but you can’t say for sure.

You can’t really quantify the effects of CC skills with numbers. And numbers really don’t prove anything, even with damage skills, as they never tell the whole story – there are far too many variables in actual PvP combat to account for, and something that may do more damage on paper might never do such damage in actual combat. Lava Font hits extremely hard, for instance, but only if the opponent stays in the circle – numbers don’t represent that because you can’t account for how long the enemy may stay in the circle – there’s too many variables – do they have Vigor, are they chilled or crippled, do they have movement skills or condition cleanses to get out, etc., etc.

Numbers really don’t prove anything in a PvP environment. So the definitive proof you’re asking for doesn’t actually exist – or at the very least, accounting for every variable is far too complex to be feasible and so your request is unreasonable.

caiomacos.1694:

Vasham.2408:

Considering all the things in game that require gem purchases you’re probably paying more per month playing GW2 than you would for any other MMO right now. Screwing the playerbase over with mandatory real money trade is actually worse than having a monthly fee.

Mandatory real money trade? Never spent a cent (beside the box price) on the game and my characters are equally as strong as anyone who bought gems.

Likewise. I’ve never bought gems and the only things I’ve exchanged gold for gems for are 2 bank slots, and that only because I horde too many items. I’ve never felt anything was required from the gem store to fully experience the game.

No – I’ve played sub games in the past, but I won’t ever again. No MMO I’ve ever played had enough regular content updates to justify a monthly fee – at least the standard $15/month fee.

I bought GW2 specifically because I could stop playing and pick it up for a week, a month, or as long as I feel like without having to worry about shelling out more money. F2P models can work (Planetside 2 is a good example) but I’d like to see more MMOs adopt a B2P model like GW2. It works for most other games – buy the box and you can play it forever. Why not most MMOs?

I’m always fine with buying expansion content, if I feel like it’s worth the money. But barring something amazingly good (like a true rebirth of DAoC), I will not be paying a sub fee again.

I do like the Ghastly staff and I use it, it’s ornate without being too gaudy – though I wish it was possible to turn off the night particle effect (the blue glow). It’s not bad but I’d prefer just having the base staff all the time.

I also use and like the Ebon Vanguard staff. The human tier 1 and 2 cultural weapons (also available via drops) are also good – like mentioned above me, they have understated particle effects that look good without being flashy.

One of my personal favorites is the Gnarled Walking Stick (the HoM reward) – it has a cool particle effect that’s not over the top or flashy. But unfortunately it’s not available to everyone.

I’m with you 100%. It boggles my mind that there is a huge array of NPC clothes that are just screaming to be town clothes on the gem store, and yet not a single one has been added.

Town clothes in general are just really under-utilized in the game…there’s so few sets, but there’s the potential for so many more.

I remember at one point in beta, they had Scholar’s robes in the gem store (at the time you got ‘free’ gems since it was beta). It was a town clothes item that was a copy of the robes some human NPCs wear – you can see it on the Seraph Mage – but then it was removed before release. I really wanted this set, but for whatever reason they removed it entirely. I’d love to see it – and many other NPC town c lothes – added to the gem store.

There’s no particular lore I know of covering this topic, but I would imagine Charr would have little tolerance for mental illness. Charr culture has its admirable qualities, but tolerance is not one of them. Those who don’t align with Charr ideals are often despised or ostracized – for instance gladiums, Charr without warbands, are often looked down upon. In particular I think if a mental illness could potentially danger the Charr’s warband, it would be despised.

Honestly a lot depends on if there’s even an understanding of mental illnesses as such in Tyria, or if it’s just classified as character flaws, madness, or worse, rather than understanding it as a disease outside the individual’s control. Unfortunately such ignorance existed in our world for a very long time, and while Tyria really can’t be compared to our world, it would not surprise me if they don’t have a true understanding of mental illnesses. I don’t know of any lore that has addressed this issue, however, so it’s impossible to say for sure.

I actually like the relative simplicity of them. I’m not a personal fan of a lot of the over the top high-level skins, so this is more my style.

Commendation costs aren’t bad, either, though they’re competing with ascended accessories so might be a while until I pick up one of these.

CAA.9653:

You make a fair point. And as a Guild Wars vet since release I appreciate the human lore. And humans as a bit generic in this game is my opinion.

However, my point is: to appreciate and understand the entire lore of Guild Wars 2 one should not limit themselves to only human characters.

That’s fair, and I do agree with you on that – I have made every race for that reason (except Sylvari, just personally not a fan). Every race has its own unique qualities to experience and I enjoy delving into each of their unique cultures.

I know I hated the Charr from my GW1 Ascalon bias at first, but after playing a Charr character, I came to really appreciate them and their culture, to the point that they are now my second favorite race.

Focksbot.6798:

In all seriousness, it’s not the killing of the characters that’s bad. It’s how rhythmic it is, which makes it feel over-orchestrated and ultimately fake. “Oh, I see, that guy had to die because we’re at the end of this part of the story now, and we all have to move on.”

Bingo. Killing off characters is not a bad thing by itself. Doing it with such predictability and regularity that it becomes easily predictable is.

Towards the end of the game, it became easy to figure out who was going to die. “Oh, they just introduced this character at the beginning of the arc…I know they’re going to die by the end”. It feels like a forced attempt to add emotion – complete with sad music – but when it’s so predictable, there’s no real impact.

The order mentors – that had impact. That wasn’t necessarily expected and we had grown to love those NPCs over the course of several arcs. But after the Pact is formed, NPCs are introduced than killed off a few missions later with distressing regularity.

Everyone’s missing the obvious answer – the Kormir monastery in Queensdale produces beer. Both of the traditional variety and all sorts of experimental brews. They’re basically Tyria’s first craft/micro-brewery. Why would you not worship her?

In seriousness, I will never understand the Kormir hate. People complained about Rurik always getting himself killed, so they made Kormir as an NPC not participate in the fighting – and then people complain about her ‘doing nothing’ and becoming a god.

Additionally, a lot of what she does is behind the scenes, particularly in the Realm of Torment – as draxynnic noted, her direction, planning, and leadership of the lost souls there were critical in assaulting Abaddon’s realm.

Beyond that, like it or not, she is one of the Six and the Goddess of Truth and Knowledge. Any who value those attributes (scholars and members of the Priory come to mind) would naturally pray to Kormir for enlightenment and clarity of mind. I for one choose Kormir at character creation as I see my character as a seeker of truth and historical knowledge, and Kormir’s domains fit perfectly with that.

CAA.9653:

While it’s ok to play human (my main is a human), don’t limit yourself. Playing only human is actually kinda lame.

Charrs are really funny, and they bicker at each other all the time. Asura are little jerks, and you just want to knee them in the teeth sometimes. Norns have great beards. And Sylvari are hippies.

Humans are actually the most boring. They are so generic. And Logan is kind of douchy. It’s a fantasy game, make a crazy looking character and go kill things. Don’t limit yourself to one race or you will miss out.

Opinion =/= fact. You may find humans boring and generic, but a lot of people feel otherwise. Humans in Guild Wars have a rich history and lots of lore, a multitude of different cultures, and in GW2, they occupy a similar thematic place that humans rarely do in other fantasy – an old, once-powerful culture now on the decline and struggling to survive. There’s a lot of depth below the surface for humans, particularly for GW1 veterans.

I personally find the Sylvari the least interesting race, and humans and charr are the most interesting to me because of their history, culture, and lore – but others feel differently, and if people love the Sylvari the most, it doesn’t bother me. If people find humans the most interesting and don’t care for the other races, why shouldn’t they roll all humans?

No armor skin is all that prestigious anyway, as none are that hard to get (unlike some weapon skins). The only potential exception would be T3 cultural since it’s over 100 gold for the full set, but even that is less prestige and more a “I’m rich” sign.

Just pick a skin you like and use it. That said, I am also not a fan of the majority of light armor, for human male at least. I stuck with the HoM skin for most of the game, and now use the Orr temple armor. If you have a set you like, use it. Don’t worry about prestige for armor, as rare or legendary weapons are far more prestigious.

Elemental Attunement without a doubt. It gives boons without any extra work, since I cycle through attunements anyway. I can’t see any reason to leave it out in any build. It’s synergy with Bountiful Power (Water 25) and Cleansing Water (Water 30) is an extra bonus.

Teevell.1684:

Tybalt>Sieran.

I know I’m one of the few people that really found her annoying, and didn’t mind her dying at all. Tybalt though…T__T

You’re not the only one, her overly cheerful, air-headed personality grated on my nerves. I much preferred Tybalt and Forgal.

Still better than Trehearne, though. Though it annoyed me, at least she had a personality. And the mentor’ s death definitely felt contrived, and could have been executed far better.

WASD for movement.

1-5 for weapon skills.

Shift+1-4 for attunements

Mouse thumb button 1 for heal

ZXC for utilities

Mouse scroll button for elite

It works for me at least.

I don’t hate him for “taking over the spotlight”. Unlike many, Kormir never bothered me.

I dislike him because for such an important character, he has no personality and a very shallow character arc. I also don’t care for the fact that he’s ‘destined’ to cleanse Orr. I’m human – why should I care what some magical tree says? If I had a vision from the Six, maybe I would have cared, but any non-Sylvari has little reason to follow what the Pale Tree says.

His introduction for non-Sylvari also comes out of nowhere. We’re just supposed to accept the fact that he’s a renowned scholar and respected by everyone even though we’ve never heard of him before. I’m never shown a good reason to follow him, other NPCs just tell me I should. Good stories show, they don’t tell.

Overall I find him boring and shallow, and for an important NPC that’s a major problem.

Human male, because my Ele is my main and human is my favorite race. They look the best in most armor, and they have a ton of history in Tyria. I played GW1 so there was never really any doubt I’d play human.

Plus, as Arcalas noted, there may be a White Mantle connection. Not a direct White Mantle/Mordremoth connection, since there’s no evidence of that, but if Mordremoth is in fact in the Maguuma Jungle, the Pact may also encounter the Mantle there, since there’s evidence they have a significant presence in the region.

The White Mantle and Mursaat may be the best chance for the humans to have a prominent focus in future content, since there’s so much history between them and Kryta.

My Asura guardian, Vidd, in his personal lab.

This isn’t quite the final look, but it’s close – just going to add the T2 Cultural helm at 60 and either the Pact Hammer or Peacekeeper Hammer at 80.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The second point I disagree with is that the Grove will hold a major piece in facing Mordremoth. The sylvari got enough spotlight with Zhaitan – it’s someone else’s turn coughumanscough.

I agree with you – or at least, I hope this turns out to be the case. There’s already natural connections for the other 3 races – Krakky and the Charr, Jormag and the Norn, and Primordus and Asura. The history and location of those races make them obvious choices to have the ‘spotlight’ when those dragons are introduced.

There’s not really much room left for humans to get the spotlight. The DSD doesn’t seem like it would fit, so that really just leaves Mordremoth. Before actually playing it, I would have thought Zhaitan would have spotlighted humans more than Sylvari, given the connection of humans and their gods to Orr, but this didn’t turn out to be a major part of the plot.

So while I’m not sure if Anet actually WILL give humans the spotlight on one of the dragons, if they do, Mordremoth would seem to be the best choice left available. And I really hope humans get that chance, since as a human main I was a little disappointed how they and the Six Gods didn’t have a major spot in the storyline.

It’s purely a cosmetic item. Many of the items are unique (such as Elementalist headgear), some are not normally available to that armor class (such as Engineer googles), and a few are obtainable normally (such as Warrior shoulder pads).

It does not change the personal story in any way, it’s just for looks (and technically a minuscule bit of armor or an upgrade slot, but those are so minor).

nakoda.4213:

Knox.8462:

I’ve yet to meet an Asura at Queen Jennah’s level of power.

You’ve not yet met very many Asura.

I assume he means her level of power unaided by technology. Jennah at Ebonhawke, during the Ogre Revolt, created a massive illusion of Kralkatorrik. That’s a display of magical power that I haven’t seen any Asura reach without the aid of technology.

When you consider magitech, though, they have many devices that can reach such high levels of power (or, arguably, surpass them). So the Asura can achieve similar power, but, from what we’ve seen so far, they require technology to do so.

Jennah isn’t the only human in lore to show such massive personal power, either. It’s by no means the norm for human mages but it at least shows how high their potential can go.

Maybe try to work in “Umbra” (the Latin word for shadow) or “Umbral”. Since real-world sciences typically are named in Latin, using Latin words is a good way to make a science-y sounding name. Maybe “Umbral Arcanology”, which would roughly be ‘science of shadow magic’?

I like to mash different words together until I get something that sounds good, so finding some suitable words and scientific suffixes (-ology, -ography, etc.) and fitting them together can be a good way to approach it.

Male or female character? They have different naming conventions.

If female, ‘Ammi’ fits the naming convention (double consonants, vowel at the end). Male names do the double consonants but typically end with them, and don’t add the vowel. ‘Amm’ doesn’t sound so great, though, so perhaps ‘Alxx’ based on the middle name if you plan to roll a male character.

If the name is taken (as one word names often are), you can add a title. Here your options are really varied, because it’s not beyond Asura to make up their own titles. Anything that sounds vaguely scientific works.

You can also make up the krewe of your character and add that to the name. I.E. “Ammi of Aerological Transogenics”. The more complicated and technical the krewe name sounds, the better!

Asura do not typically have surnames – it’s not unheard of for Asura to adopt one, but they are usually the target of jokes by other Asura. So generally it’s best to avoid a surname unless you have a particular idea why the character would have adopted one.

Elixirs I think are the exception for engineers – they (and the elixir gun) feel very Asuran, and they certainly seem at least partially magical in nature. The weapon skills still might not feel very appropriate, but grabbing a Glyphic or Peacekeeper weapon and using a pure Elixir build can make the Engineer feel pretty Asuran.

It’s true though that most of the Engineer skills and kits don’t feel quite right for an Asura.

I am also having this issue as a human.

The checkbox was marked to not display before whatever patch removed it, and now I can’t display any town clothing head gear on him. Hopefully they’ll re-introduce the check box at some point – I see no reason why they would remove it intentionally.

Statics, of course! It is the bedrock upon which Asuran civilization is built!

Conducting an experiment without proper preparation and testing is an inefficient waste of resources and time, and both of those are precious commodities to any Asura. To waste them indiscriminately on experiments due to impatience and inability to properly plan ahead…it is foolish!

Yep, my Charr thief (created on release), has this too. At first I was a bit annoyed by it, but I’ve really come to like it as well. It gives the face a lot of character.

I definitely agree with draxynnic on this – humans seem to have a stronger natural aptitude for magic based on powerful individuals and magical feats in the lore, while Asura are more adept at harnessing magical energy into technology.

In general, I feel like the two races approach magic in very different ways. Human mages I see more like artists – they use magic on a combination of training, creativity, and intuition. They have a higher raw potential than Asura, and can perform some pretty impressive magical feats without the use of technology. However, they don’t have much skill in using it in conjunction with technology, and Asura magitech can often outdo human magic.

The Asura, on the other hand, see magic more as a force to be harnessed and used to power technology – they are scientists and engineers, and magic is a subject of study, and a source of ‘fuel’. As already noted, all of the Asura’s most impressive magical accomplishments are through the use of devices and technology. They are unrivaled in their ability to understand magic and use it as a way to fuel amazing devices, but they don’t seem to have the same raw potential to use magic unaided by technology that humans have.

It can be argued that this is purely mechanical and thus has no bearing on lore, but I would look at the racial skills. Asura racial skills are all based on technology, none on ‘natural’ use of magic. Human racial skills, on the other hand, invoke magic in the form of prayers without any technological aid, and even non-magical classes can use them. This suggests that all humans have at least the potential to wield magic.

I’m not sure one is necessarily better than the other, they just utilize magic in different ways, and each is stronger in their particular approach that the other.

Not an easy question to answer, because there’s so many factors to judge, and compared to a real-world culture, we really only know a fraction of the details about how the different cultures work.

I personally think the Asura society is far too unstable to be considered the best. They do have an excellent grasp on technology, and they are very scientifically astute, but most Asura lack the wisdom to use their intelligence responsibly. There’s far, far too many examples in the game of Asura technology going haywire. And I don’t see how they are friendly to their environment, considering how much of their technological missteps seem to adversely affect the immediate area (see: Thaumanova Reactor).

Humans are difficult to judge. We’re sometimes told they’re a race on precipice of oblivion, but Kryta (despite its internal troubles) seems to be relatively strong, particularly given the events in the Harathi Hinterlands in which the centaurs are pushed back. Furthermore, we don’t know enough about Cantha or Elona to judge – they could be in a stronger or weaker position than Kryta (though Elona, of course, is under Joko’s rule, but it still might be strong and stable). Though I honestly think if Kryta and the Charr do make a lasting piece, Kryta will be a major player in Tyria, despite some of the lore saying “humanity is on the decline”.

Charr I think would my vote, but it’s not an easy choice. They still a bit too aggressive and war-like, but if the newer generation truly begins to commit to peace, I think they’re in an excellent position to become the foremost power in Tyria. They are innovative and technologically adept, but unlike the Asura, they are practical. They have a unified, stable society – granted, a somewhat harsh and restrictive one, but it’s at least stable. However, I worry what would happen to them as a society if they no longer had a threat to unify against. In that instance, would they be able to transition to a more peaceful society – or would they turn on their neighbors, or even themselves, and return to their war-mongering ways? I could see it going either way, honestly.

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

I wouldn’t mind some of the old GW1 armour coming back too. One set for each armour class just seems so limited.

This, a thousand times this. I loved a lot of the armor art in GW1 and would love to see some of those sets in GW2, whether in the gem store or in-game (gem store is fine for me since I can always trade gold for gems).

The same could be done for GW1 style weapons, as well. There’s a few GW1 weapon skins in game, but I’d like to see more. Gem store seems a decent place to put them.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

There are a lot of risen which lay eggs – risen, being undead, shouldn’t be capable of reproducing. There’s also a Branded Devourer Queen in Iron Marches (the meta event) which spawns Branded Devourer Hatchlings, iirc.

So she’s likely referring to other dragon minions.

Though this isn’t to say that Primordus can’t corrupt living beings. It just seems he doesn’t – and this is the closest possibility to Primordus ever having done so. If you’re part of the Vigil, Fergal says that this is something unheard of and it may be that Primordus is “learning new tricks” – so unless the Priory kept this vital information from the Vigil (something I both doubt and wouldn’t be surprised about), I’m betting Seiran meant a different Elder Dragon. Especially since, once again, in the following story mission (if you go to rescue the skritt), there are eggs which hatch full grown crabs and trolls (possibly harpies, though idk if they came from eggs or were always-present mobs).

Good point that the Priory would probably not withhold such information from the Vigil, and given that you are probably correct that Seiran was referring to another ED.

Still, the possibility that Primordus might be ‘learning new tricks’ is a very interesting one. Given their alien nature, it’s difficult to give human-like motives to the Elder Dragons – none the less, I do wonder if Primordus in some way has come to recognize the value of corrupting living creatures (if in fact the Queen represents a corrupted living creature). Even if its goal is still to ultimately destroy life, it could still use living creatures as tools to eventually be discarded.

I do hesitate to assign humanoid motivations to the Dragons, but I also find their nature fascinating, so the possibility that Primordus might have changed tactics and ‘learned new tricks’ is something I’d be curious to see is continued in Flame and Frost, or other future living story content. It’d give us another glimpse into the nature of the Elder Dragons.

At first I was going to say that it would give those races a huge advantage, but you do have a point that they are already at a significant disadvantage for jumping puzzles (and even many vistas). And a single extra slot would not be a massive advantage, and would seem a reasonable tradeoff to me.

Still, I don’t think it’ll happen since ANet’s philosophy with the races seems to be that no race should have any mechanical advantage over another. Now whether some racial skills do in reality give an advantage is another discussion, but ANet has stated that racial skills are intended to be weaker than profession skills and thus should not give any mechanical advantage (even if that’s not the case in practice).

draxynnic.3719:

@Tuomir: That one’s unclear – the characters hypothesise that a creature that was corrupted may be laying the eggs, but we’ve seen that not every theory is correct. The eggs may have had nothing to do with corrupting an existing creature.

Well, in Sieran’s case, she states that the Priory has documented such corrupted creatures:

Priory records have documented such creatures. They were pregnant when they were corrupted. Or it might be something new.

Though she doesn’t state outright that these other cases were corrupted by Primordus, so it’s possible these past cases were corrupted by a different ED, and as you said, in the specific case of the Hatchery, it is still just a theory, even if it is based on prior documented cases.

In any case it’s quite an interesting avenue of discussion. Primordus’s MO has been to destroy, not corrupt, life in the past – but what if in some way it’s come around to seeing the value in corrupting living creatures? Since the Destroyer Queen in the Hatchery seemed to be a new creature, it could be a recent change – and if so, it’s possible Primordus could have a connection to the events of Flame and Frost.

This is pure conjecture, mind you, but I think it’s an interesting possibility. The nature of the Elder Dragons is still very mysterious, so I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility than in some ways the Elder Dragons might modify their tactics and habits.

Oldest of the playable races? Possibly. Oldest of all the races? Not by the evidence we have.

As others have noted already, the Charr do predate the human’s arrival on Tyria by over a century (and possibly much longer). As for Norn and Asura, there’s no clear timeline on how long they have been on Tyria as far as I am aware, so it’s difficult to say whether Charr are older than them, but we do definitely know they have been on Tyria longer than humanity.

However, the evidence we have points to them being younger than Dwarves and Jotun. The Charr are not among the five races recorded to survive the last rising of the Eldar Dragons – those five races being the Dwarves, the Jotun, the Forgotten, the Seers, and the Mursaat. This suggests Charr were not around when the Eldar Dragons were last active, unlike those five races. So, with the information we have been given, the Dwarves (and those other four races) are older than the Charr.

Tengu are unquestionably my number 1, and I agree with many others that they are by far the most likely first new race for reasons that have already been stated and I won’t bother repeating. I personally really like the Tengu, even more so than some of our existing playable races; avian races are not terribly common in fantasy, there’s a lot of lore and background for them, and I like the elements of the society that we know of so far. I already know what class I’ll be rolling if they come along.

I guess Kodan would be next. The lack of customization could be a problem, but I find their society intriguing. Plus, you know…armored polar bears.

Largos would be likely, but I’m not a fan of them. What I’d like to see is Centaurs, and they would probably be my third choice, but I also recognize they are very unlikely to be implemented due to the animation and underwater issues.

Least favorite: Trahearne, though not for stealing the spotlight as many believe he did. I think it was fine to have a General while the PC does the legwork, and I really didn’t feel like I didn’t get due credit. The reason I hate him is because for such an important character, he’s badly written and badly voice acted, and he really has little depth beyond “reluctant hero”.

Outside of the Sylvari storyline (apparently, I have not played it due to my general dislike of the race), he just comes out of nowhere and shortly after his first appearance he becomes Marshal of the Pact. And despite being a scholar with no experience for warfare, he seems to have a ton of respect from a lot of NPCs, many being military types. His transition to Marshal seemed forced, and his ‘learning to become a leader’ felt shallow and contrived instead of genuine. I care nothing if the Pale Tree thinks he’s destined to cleanse Orr – why would any non-Sylvari care what a magical tree says? Plus in general I just hate “it’s his destiny” as an excuse to put someone unqualified in charge.

I also dislike most of Destiny’s Edge when they interact with the others – particularly Zojja, Logan, and Rytlock. Zojja acts like a spiteful child towards Eir, and Logan and Rytlock’s rivalry feels more like that between middle schoolers than grown men (or Charr). I don’t put them at the top though because these characters are decent on their own. It’s just when you put them with the other members of Destiny’s Edge that I can’t stand them.

I also disliked Sieran and found her extremely annoying, but that’s more a personal dislike for air-headed, overly bubbly characters. I don’t regret going Priory but I shed no tears when she died.

Favorite: Multiple Charr NPCs, I think overall they have the best NPCs out of all the races. Top probably goes to Clement Forktail; that line of quests was probably my favorite personal story bit. I wish I had more character slots to try out Dinky, since people seem to love him, and I’d love to see if Charr NPCs in other storylines are as well-done.

Rytlock and Logan, when not dealing with each other (or Jennah in Logan’s case), I like quite a bit as well. They were good mentors through the first 20 levels of personal story for humans and Charr.

And though I don’t really like him as a person, as he’s a smug SoB, I think Caudecus is a good antagonist. I appreciate an antagonist who doesn’t have any magic or fighting prowess or extraordinary abilities, and can be more subtle in achieving their goals than your typical fantasy villain.

9/10.

Brynhildr is a solid and appropriate Nordic sounding name, and Wyrmbane is a fitting surname – particularly given that the Norn’s personal story begins with slaying the massive wurm Issomir. Overall perfectly fitting for a Norn.

Mine is Halvar Shadowseer, a necromancer and devotee of Raven. Though he has nowhere near the connection to the Mists as the Havrouns, he occasionally has visions into the Mists of things that were and things that may come to pass (hence the seer part of the name). He’s by no means prophetic, as they are only shadowy glimpses whose meaning can only be guessed at, but he sees them as gifts of Raven. He believes that Raven would rather have him use his cleverness and wisdom to tease the meanings from such visions rather than give him clear messages.

A bit of backstory there, but it informs the surname so I thought it was worth including.

TrashHunterz.4751:

Right now I’m using superior runes of dwayna. But the regeneration from healing skill doesn’t remove a condition. (While I’m traited for it)

I’ve noticed this too. It seems like such great symmetry, and then I was really let down when it didn’t work. I’m not sure why it doesn’t either, you are granting regeneration to allies.

I am curious if it’s intended or a bug. I’ve been looking to replace my Dwayna runes as well but I’d hate to do so and than have them fix the slot 6 skill to work with Cleansing Water.

Tei.1704:

Caledore.6271:

Did you miss the part where I said “That said – I wouldn’t be opposed to some sets that show more fur if it was done in a fierce tribal way, rather than a ‘sexy’ way.”?

I am all for more choices, even if it doesn’t exactly fit lore. And I never said the current sets do, either – in fact I hate how they just stretched and transported armors onto the Charr with no thought on how it looks or the horrid clipping issues. I love Charr but my biggest problem with them is how horrible most armor looks on them.

Saying you’re ok with something doesn’t mean an argument you use against it can’t be illogical. If current armor has nothing to do with lore or pragmatism, why should any new or redesigned armor?

Pretty simple, because a lot of people would prefer more lore friendly armors that fit well on Charr, as most of the current skins in this game aren’t designed for Charr. One of the biggest complaints about Charr seems to be how ill-fitting the current sets are for Charr. It would increase the appeal of the race by designing new armor skins more suitable for them.

There are some armor sets that look decent on Charr, particularly the cultural armor, but I’d like to see more. I really wish cultural armor was more the norm than just having a few sets. I look at WAR as a good example of this; each race and class had completely different looks. I’d rather Charr (and other races, for that matter) have their own unique armor skins than ported and stretched from a base model designed for humans.

That’s not what we got – no doubt due to how many more resources that would take – but I am hopeful that we’ll get some armor sets in the future that are more unique and lore-friendly to a particular race in the vein of cultural armor.

Guardians aren’t necessarily faith-based – at least not in a religious sense. Their magic can be fueled by loyalty and a desire to protect their comrades. The Charr are fiercely loyal to their warband members. A Charr Guardian, then, would draw on there faith in their comrades and these unbreakable bonds of loyalty to fuel their magic.

Though I will admit the names of the Guardian abilities often invoke a religious warrior feel, I would try to just ignore the ability names in that regard.

Did you miss the part where I said “That said – I wouldn’t be opposed to some sets that show more fur if it was done in a fierce tribal way, rather than a ‘sexy’ way.”?

I am all for more choices, even if it doesn’t exactly fit lore. And I never said the current sets do, either – in fact I hate how they just stretched and transported armors onto the Charr with no thought on how it looks or the horrid clipping issues. I love Charr but my biggest problem with them is how horrible most armor looks on them.

I’d rather see new, more appropriate armor sets for Charr before ‘skimpier’ tribal-esque sets, but I am still not against them entirely, as I stated in my post. I’d ask that you read my entire post rather than cherry-pick part of it.