Guild Wars 2

Braham to be honest was a little offencive to me as a man as hes literally just portrayed as a stupid norn while the rest of the DE 2.0 team except for Canach were portrayed as strong intelectual women.

I get that there is a strong agenda in the writing of A-nets work but sometimes it comes across a little too aggressive and Braham doesnt need to be this stupid forever.

I quite hope that after he decides to solo Jormag and aptly fails, he will learn to appriciate teamwork a bit more once again, considering he was a very heavy team player before Eir Died.

Still hes immature for a reason, hes a teenager whos about to reach early adulthood, hes literally not grown up yet even if he looks tall.

So I can kind of forgive him being a “dumb” male but I do wish he’d start getting smarter, theres only so much that writing can come across as unoffencive and frankly insulting, not all Norn Males are idiots.

As for Logan, Logan I suppose could be considered a Wuss because hes literally hypnotised and enchanted by Jennah, but again, he is far from a dumb male, if anything Logan prooved that by luring the mantle into a trap in the human lost parents storyline and also by being slightly corrupt and above the law in the noble/commoner storylines where he manipulates things to his advantage.

Logan is what one would regard as a morally clever kitten, since he takes advantage of his own power and uses it to get what he wants but usually for the right reasons.

Despite this however, it will be interesting if Jennah dies, because Logan’s old personality was alot closer to a rebel/survivor than a corrupt guard and chances are, he’ll go back to Ascalon without her to protect.

Jennah is after all his “one” reason for being in Kryta.

Part 2

Going on…

Roleplayers are the prime part of any MMO, however minority their communtiy may be they are the most immersed players in the world itself and have the most interest in seeing it grow.

They build fan-based storylines, and build amazing communities built on those fan-based worlds they generate through respect to the lore, or interesting ideas that edge the boundries of it.

There is nothing humanly wrong with a small group of nerds wanting a bit of fun in a fantasy world to escape the boring kittenstorm that is real life.

And frankly I think they need a little more love, not less.

Also, recommending people to other games that are suffering just as much right now is not the right answer. Every MMO RP community right now is suffering the plague ive mentioned in my previous post. Too many bubbles, too many elitists, and the bubbles that do exist get taken over by smaller, more control-freak centric ones.

Its sad to watch, watching people get angsty over someone refusing to bow before some made up Seraph guild or refusing to accept that their Criminal/Cult Guild can suffer a setback.

Interaction is pivotal to us all, we need to be more willing to TALK, to COMPRAMISE instead of being sturdy and saying “no its my way or no way”.

Either way…

Roleplayers are amazing, even the ones I hate are amazing, even the people I want to punch are amazing.

Because the fact they can actually live in this world in ways no normal person could shows just how much they care about it.

So give ’em some love guys.

Wow this really got the wrong kind of attention but for all the wrong reasons.

Okay, lets play this card for a moment:

Talking about Roleplay In General:

Roleplay is far from dying, but I wont outright lie and say everything is perfect. That being said I will say that the declining EU population has made roleplayers in the EU significantly more open and welcome to people in recent months. Things got better now that most of the hyper elitists went away from Piken and joined other mmo’s.

However, the real issue with that is that indeed, megaserver contributed to some factor in damaging the potential for roleplayers to exist, because the concept of a roleplayer co-existing with a normal player doesnt really work when roleplayers crave a safe-space.

Im a bit of an ironic hypocrit here, I hate that term, safe-space, and yet, in roleplayers case its literally the truth of how they thrive in comfort. Roleplayers dont “want” to share their world with everyone else but at the same time they DO want a place they can congrigate to. The answer to that would be this:

Megaserver Sub-Servers

While in a Capital City Region at least, this could be done since I can see it working, GW1 had this and it is “not” that hard to create specific servers in GW2.

The idea behind this would be a simple lower left sub-menu like GW1 had where you can pick which server your in while in a capital city like Lions Arch, DR, etc.

This basically allows people to specifically choose which megaserver they’d rather be on, that way, they’re always shoed into that server. Such as the Roleplaying Megaserver, or the PvP Discussion Megaserver, or the Trade Megaserver.

Honestly, this would help deal with some of the social problems anyway.

But lets talk about the REAL reason Roleplay has suffered in GW2 and its happening in WoW, ESO, SWTOR, Wildstar, and every MMO To Date.

Too Many Elitists, and Safe-Spaces

Contrasting my previous point about there not being enough of a specific safe-space for roleplayers as a whole. We have segregated our communities so thinly now that its a case of “your either with us or against us” which forces people to adapt to some micro-communities lore/rules/ideals about how rp should be done.

This is unhealthy, frankly, I actually blame Guilds for this, as their existance has given way to the excuse for people to not intergrate with others openly.

So while we DO need a HUB in which we can all meet, what we also need is to stop being so aggressive towards outsiders, guildless players or people not in our camp.

If roleplay is to thrive, it has to do so without interference, you cant get in its way and try to control it that NEVER works and has been PROOVEN to kill RP communities in the past. See Rift for an example of that being a failed experiment that people should learn from.

The best way forwards is an age of tolerance where roleplayers can openly enjoy rping with other roleplayers even if not everyone gets on. An age where your not bullied by demanding elitists, or extreme mary sues because you didnt agree to their hyper realistic/edgy fantasy plots.

Instead of playing the camp game, just let people pick, choose and be versitile, theres nothing wrong with being a bit of everything. Its a fantasy world, not everything has to be realistic and edgy, likewise, not everything has to be so over the top that you’re playing an anime.

Respect peoples limits and equally respect peoples desire to play something. If they want to be something more than billy the realistic peasant on the street thats their RIGHT to do so.

Likewise, if they WANT to be billy, thats ALSO their right.

Nobody is wrong, as long as they dont outright disregard the lore, and even those that do are entitled to as long as they dont force that on others.

So going back on topic.

Yes, id like my chair, one I can sit in, and yes, as hilarious as it would be to see a charr trying to sit on an asura seat, id still like to see it happen someday.

Closing

Also lets talk about Canach quickly.

Canach is awesome, end of story.

Okay, in seriousness, Canach really was awesome, firstly because hes a reformed criminal that went from being a get-rich-quick consortium idiot to a kitten trying to actually fix his own mistake by… unintentionally killing everyone, then getting arrested for it, then turning into the edgy kitten hes become working for Anise.

Can I just say, I love Canach, right now, Canach’s cynical, ruthless, brutal personality is what makes him one of the best Sylvari ever in the story. He is somewhere close to a courtier but never quite on the edge, hes ruthless enough to make even Caithe pause, but still able to know the limit, even if he is merciless to those with an evil agenda.

His cynical character makes him one of the most interesting Sylvari, with alot of humanity and depth to his layers giving him a relatable perspective of that redeemed villian persona that defines him.

Also, speaking of Villians.

Scarlet… now lets be honest, Scarlet was not great, Scarlets biggest downfall was exactly the same as Eir’s. Scarlet had an AMAZING short story written on this very website about her backstory that really helped flesh her out and give her layers but ALL her plot was told in stories and NEVER in game nearly enough making all of her actions feel like a “I did it” annoyance more than an “im actually smart” genious. She was just being outwardly obnoxious when she revealed in the tower she did everything since everyone just said “we know” by that point.

Now Lazarus is alot more interesting in this respect, so far, his mystery and lack of clear agenda have made him alot more engaging as a villian if he is a villian at this point, or even an anti-villian, as his personality makes him directly difficult to understand.

So far that enigma around Lazarus makes him someone I want to know more, unlike Scarlet who I knew too much by the end of it. I mean literally every episode you had a recap of everything scarlet did and it was annoying by the end. People can figure this out themselves, they dont need to be told.
They have the tools to read with their eyes, and listen with their ears, they dont need everything spoonfed repeatedly as if they’re morons.

In closure, A-net, I hope you fix DE 1.0 but I really hope you consider the future of DE 2.0 too, and I hope most importantly, you remember, every character is a person, and they have stories to develop, and grow with, we need to see that in game im afraid, you cant just get away with hiding it in a lore book forever.

Though I would love to see a novel detailing some of these things, like Belinda’s past before she died, as a Seraph, and maybe even her life before it.

Maybe she was an amazing kitten, or maybe she even saw her own death and was unable to prevent it in some tragedy.

Regardless, thats a story for another time, like Belinda, Mai Trin, Mister E and alot of other characters id like stories on or even the ability to play as and learn about from their POV.

Part 2:

Continueing from my previous post ill finish with this, saying the following:

Regarding the origional Destinies Edge.

Eir was probably the weakest link in that entire camp.

Eir had no story going for her aside from being the leader of the group, and never being up to the job. Eir was unfortunately portrayed poorly in the games while having an amazing backstory in the novel edge of destiny that really builds her character in alot more ways.

But focusing on why Eir is bad, Eir is bad because the one chance she had to be interesting, was told off screen.

Braham and Eir bonded, we never SEE how they bonded, and that was a MASSIVE hit to the player as it removes any sense of relationship between them because, what was that relationship, how did they connect?

From that point its partially understandable why some feel Braham even caring about Eirs death is strange. We were supposed to have something in season 2, but in episode 3 of season 2 it was all just told “away” from the camera, meaning, what ever happened, we have no idea.

This is the same reason that Rytlocks “Mist journey” is honestly Bullkitten, in storytelling medium its not good story when your entire plot revolves around a mystery that you probably didnt even have the ability to answer.

I get that it was a cool idea, and that the plot wasnt fully there yet, but sometimes its better to have a clear idea what to write before writing it, than just putting it there because its cool then figuring it out later.

The most developed member’s of DE 1.0 were Logan and Caithe, despite people hating on Logan he had the most story in Season 1+2 as most of his character development revolves around launch content and the first two seasons of the game where he has involvement with Jennah at all times.

Logan definatley has plot, and Caithe? While her plot was a … well, lets just say Cluster-F of odd choices it was a plot even if the egg thing was a terrible drive. Season 3 sort of clears the air with Caithe but still leaves her unsolved and her story unfinished, really, it should have been easier to tell that from the start, instead of making it so unnecessarily complicated.

And Zojja? No, Zojja can honestly die for all I care, Zojja was a terrible character even before she was a character in the game. Her story is aweful, shes meant to be something interesting but she is awefully written and awefully portrayed in terms of personality, character and agenda. Her entire character is a “sassy asura” who basically gives people lip because she “knows better”. The thing is, she doesnt, at no point does Zojja believably seem smart or intelectual except to people who are blatantly more stupid than herself which really demeans her even more.

Zojja’s problem was also a lack of standing out, with Taimi in the story, Zojja is literally unneeded, her plot is so backwards now that killing her off might actually be the best way to move her on. That being said, I do think there is ONE way to redeem this character that I feel is PIVOTAL in bringing her back.

I would like Zojja to have a buddy-cop story with Taimi, against Kralkatorrik, with Zojja becomming Snaff 2.0 this would actually give her a role again, and yes, that even includes Zojja’s fate, dying as Snaff did, to save her academic apprentice.

Only this time Zojja will actually do something meaningful and injure the dragon, or fatally wound it before finally dying, having succeeding in avenging snaff before passing on to join him and leaving the future in Taimi’s hands.

That, would be the only way Zojja at this point, has any story left to tell in my mind.

As brutal as that is, Zojja is frankly expendable, even more so than Eir was.

Caithe still has something to do, her story with Aurene could go somewhere, Rytlock NEEDS TO GIVE US AN EXPLINATOIN AND THAT CRAP CANT BE HIDDEN FOREVER.

And Logan could still very much come back from his comatosed state, as he needs a story where he can finally grow away from Jennah.

Im hoping, she dies in episode 4, which will let Logan go back to being Ascalon Renegade Logan from the book, and make him into the edgy kitten he was before.

Regardless…

I feel strongly that DE 2.0 has a place, more so than DE 1.0 but DE 1.0 needs to play its part, or its going to become irelevent, and right now, they’re definatly falling into the background too much.

To be honest I actually disagree… I think it was ballsy for a-net to have the chars be sassy at all.

It was good to see them actually have their own motivations and goals that trancend just being one dimensional companions and partners, what makes for interesting characters is growth and willingness to be more interesting.

Brahams actions are largely regarded as “sassy and childish” but people forget that as much of an edgelord as he has become he did literally loose his mother right infront of him.

Imagine that if it was you for a second, im not saying he was perfect by any means but he did SEE it happen which is not the same as HEARING about it. It had a strong, and deeply traumatic effect on Braham and understandably changed him into a bitter and more angry character.

As for Jory, she lost her sister, she also left the ministry guard because she refused to be told what to do in the first place. Her entire character from the start was a rebel and a detective, she called you the boss because she went along with it, not because she regarded you as her superior, at any point.

Jory is actually the most interesting member of DE 2.0 next to Kas with both having some particularly deep family storylines yet untold, like the fact Jory has more than one sibling, a complex relationship with her father, a mother whom she has a distant relationship with and a dead sister whom shes haunted by, literally.

Then take Kasmeer, who was a noble who lost literally everything, whos family was torn apart all because of her brother Kyle who basically got himself into trouble with shady characters. Her father ended up in debters prison, and rotted to death there never knowing freedom, and she lost literally everything to her brothers greed except one thing, her stuffed bear, which she later lost anyway. Jory was literally her lifeline and the only thing she had left by the end of that mess.

Taimi… is a bit of a mary sue, even if she has this love/hate vibe for me, Taimi started off great as this chaotic character that just appeared into the chaos and mess of things and claimed to know everyone. I strongly suspected at first she was just some spy working for Scarlet but being her fangirl made her alot more hilarious and complex. But the only thing I didnt like was her initally bratty personality and how angsty she was about giving her invention away rather selfishly kitten ing all of Tyria for a brief moment because she wanted the credit.

I get that it was her invention, but that was annoying for me. It was however redeemed when she finally learned to depend on her friends instead of being a brat and after that she grew on me heavily. Since then, ive really come to like her as a character and shes all but replaced Zojja at this point who is frankly a spare part since Zojja’s role as scientist extrodinare is literally now Taimi’s role.

The weak link in DE 2.0 is Rox, unfortunatley. Rox entire story was “notice me Senpai Rytlock” which eventually boiled down to “no I dont want to join your warband anyway” and wasted the entire plot on her pride and personal desire to help her friends. Its understandable they tried to make something of her but Rox has never really “shone” for me, at any point.

Thats her biggest weakness, she is just “there” a spare part in the group who honestly wouldnt be missed if she died because her story has the least impact of the group. She has no real story at all, her backstory is sad, sure, she was part of the stone warband, it got destroyed, things went badly, but she never really… does anything with that, or with herself.

She has no growth.

This is where Braham/Marjory really have excelled as they are the two most developing members of DE 2.0

In conclusion, I think its unfair to hate on them for actually being interesting, because at least they’re doing something, which is more than just standing there and looking pretty, like Zojja is right now.

Personally im for this along with “raid story mode” for those that never experienced the raid.

Frankly its time that a-net realized that more access to content=more incentive to actually do it.

Less accessability creates an atmosphere of “my club not yours” and ultimately creates a feeling of stagnation and non-interest in future developments.

It tends to make things feel less engaging.

I also strongly advocate that yes, the personal story is yours, and frankly thats the thing, it should always have been yours from the start, explorable mode is definately a group thing and should remain so. But the dungeon story should be accessable to everyone to better understand the connection between the DE characters since it doesnt seem inherantly clear until doing the dungeon storylines which more or less tell their entire plot.

Likewise, its highly important the game adds raid-story modes for people that dont care about the actual challenge as it will help keep them in the loop.

The argument that raids should be exclusive to people that do 10 man content is nonsense if the story suffers, if the raids had nothing to do with the story at all, that wouldnt be an issue.

But they do.

The first raid especially was pivotal to understanding what was about to happen in season 3 since it focused on introducing hte mantle, and unless you played it, you wouldnt know.

That goes against the idea that raids were meant to be “for fun” and dont interfere with the personal plot.

In conclusion I would definately like to see more access to story content as explorable stuff is honestly just “fluff” which it should always be, rather than being pivotal to the plot itself.

If they were to do the Origins of madness story again id say, do it on the 10th anniversary.

It’d be a good time to do it when everything else is done, like a way to round everything off from previous chapters.

The logical things we can expect:

- The remaining 3 episodes of Season 3, between late January and May.
- An Expansion announced at Pax or the end of Season 3 like S2 was.
- Possible World Vs World Revamp.

What would I like to see in Expansion 2:

- A New Race that ISNT The Tengu, preferably Largos or even Mursaat, Revived by Lazarus himself.
- A direction slowly Veering away from the Dragon Storyline as its become stale beyond kittens to give at this point.
- New characters that are NOT THE ONES WE SPEND ALL OUR GOD kitten TIME WITH.
- A more casual friendly end game this time round with less enphasis on HoT esque “challenging group content” as it clearly killed GW2.
- Perhaps a new mutation based solo end game with variable challenges, Solo Dungeons/Story Raids.
- At least 2 new Specialisations for every Class, not just 1.
- More than 4 new zones in an expansion and a story content that lasts more than 2 hours since all of its content was Mastery-Wall-Gated which sucked.

Honestly by the end of season 3 expect the dragon story line to be near enough finished, I expect that by expansion 2, we will get a Kralkatorrik storyline with Jourmag/Primordus defeated in S3 and possibly leave bubbles as a threat for a much later date.

They need to “move on” from the dragon threat and give us a “new” enemy, which I suspect they’re working on, considering how much the dragons have clearly been poorly recieved as an antagonist. We need an antagonistic force with a more human touch and more relatable and interesting goals.

Episode 3 you get some information about his whereabouts from Rox.

Also, honestly, if it turns out that all the mantle story will be raid/fractal related, ill be more than dissapointed, the White Mantle deserve a bigger spotlight as a threat.

What id be okay with, is if the split in the mantle leads to Caudecus renaming his own faction or simply declaring the ministry/ministry guard as Caudecus own faction rather than the mantle directly.

I want the “Neo” White Mantle to be formed from more than just humans, I want Lazarus to rebuild the mantle as a new second faction in all this war between the dragon, while the pact is busy building weapons and studying how to destroy one dragon, Lazarus could use his demi-godhood to assert a new kind of dependance on him as a new force. The White Mantle becomming his fanatic loyalists driven with one goal to elivate Lazarus power and make sure it is successful no matter what.

Ironically the highlight for me was actually seeing Braham be a complete kitten to the commander.

While I do think we needed the option of just downright punching him in the face, I did like the fact that he confronts the players selfishness by saying cruel lines such as “your the only one that gets to kill dragons now?” in a very harsh manner it gave him enough layers to make you think of him as a friend whos comradeship is fading.

Its clear he misses his mother, its great that hes got this revenge complex, what does concern me is that you’re only half committing to that plot point.

Heres a tip as a guy who writes for fun and roleplays for kicks.

If your going to commit to it, stick to it, dont be afraid to take things too far, dont be afraid to be exciting and cruel to your characters, or to the player.

Make me care about Braham, make me care, that his revenge streak is going to get someone close to him killed (Like Rox) which will probably redeem him and send him into a spiral of depression all at the same time. Make me reminded of the time I watched Sieran die as Rox throws him out of harms way, and gets killed in the process.

This kind of cruelty would be amazing, it’d really make you remember Claw Isle the most brutal way imagineable, watching Braham be the reason for the death of his best friend.

This would break him, allow the commander to rebuild him, and make him come back after the fall, letting him be a likeable hero once again, probably going back to being Taimi’s surrogate guardian.

Speaking of character depth:

Dont be afraid to make characters evil, snide, cruel, or downright heartless towards the commander, especially ones that could fall or turn evil. Villians are fun when they come from former heroes, especially ones you cared about.

Seeing Jory turn on you with Lazarus was exciting, seeing Braham do the same is intrueging I like this story because I like watching DE fall apart, not because its tragic, but because its interesting, progressive, it moves the plot forwards.

Our companions are not just machines we can order around, they have lives, ideals, choices, sometimes those choices and ours just clash.

I like that way of thinking, it lets them feel more human.

We cant always “control” our friends and perhaps to some extent, we shouldnt. Yet at the same time I also think theres another bit of character I really want to see in all this.

I want to see the commander go dark side, proper, dark side.

Not just Sylvari Mordrem mind trip, but actually give me the option to do some questionable things to my subordinates to “force” them in line, for example, threatening to destroy Taimi’s work if she refuses to do as I say, or threatening to make sure Jory can never see Kasmeer again if she refuses to cooperate with me.

We dont need extremes like murdering them, or torture or something sadistic, but those things that could make us decide do we want to sympathise with our allies, or use them, should be a choice.

We are the commander, a world saviour, a protector, and sometimes, a necessary evil.

We are allowed to take extremes to save the world, even if it means we are never thanked or never loved for them.

So I do hope, A-net, moving forwards, you will show us that the commander is as human in personality, regardless of race, as any other character in the setting, and capable of making as much heroic choices…

As questionable ones.

Personally I think what A-net could and should have done is the following:

- They should not have made us leave the pact, infact, the pact could have played a critical part in end game in the future with a new expansion.

- We could get some kind of mini garrison ala wow only better designed more like a total war style map with various forces we can send to various regions to offer additional aid. During that time, we get a sort of “bonus” event or two in that area triggered only if you sent your forces into that region for that week.

- This could be the “Pact Campaign” event, with new events each week designed to keep the freshness of the game going, you get to pick one of 2 locations in Tyria’s many regions in order to elivate the ongoing affairs and surpress dragon corruption in that location.

- In addition, it could add “mini” personal story replayable segments that have us constantly interacting with the companions of ours in various situations. This could keep us freshly involved with most of the team on a regular basis.

- Finally, the potential to have the ye old “companion” system" from GW1 return in 2, with us picking members of Dragons Watch as available canonfodder during missions who give us unique special follower only abilities and potentially open to extra dialogue over time the more we bring them with us.

A brief synopsis:

The Story:

The weakest episode so far in season 3, I enjoyed episode 1 and 2, but 3 was too short when you consider that the most story you have revolves around farming mobs and items to progress to a lackluster “thats it?” ending. It was good to see Braham getting some much needed character growth, but Rox was very much a spare part in this episode with little story.

The Gameplay:

Horrendously bad, I mean, by far the worst for the specific solo friendly episodes. Too many mobs in that last mission forcing waves upon waves of veteran and elite mobs on a “solo” mission was really, really bad design and honestly the ugliest thing ive seen in the game so far.

Moving Forwards:

As your MMO is slowly shifting towards an RPG focus, commit, dont just be half-hearted. You need to accept that you cant please both your MMO community and your RPG community at the same time without sacrifice, as such, this is what should be done:

- All future story should focus on story specific agenda, instead of clustering lots of events on the map and slowing progress, clump up a heavy episode with dialogue, character growth and meaningful cutscene heavy events.

- Gameplay in those stories should be fun, ask yourselves next time, is having a hundred mobs to kill for a single player actually fun? Maybe if I had an item that could kill them all epicly and I had to use it for that specific encounter it could be, as an example of this done right: The Mini Boss fight against the Icebrood/Mordrem hybrid was actually fun because of its mini mechanic gimmick. But in contrast, the endless waves of icebrood/svanir/spiders/elementals and then the extremely unfair final boss with massive spams of AOE was just “not” fun at all without some means of turning the tide.

A story doesnt need to be part of your MMO, it can be its own thing, with its own appeal, to its own audience. The MMO side of the game should focus more on the fractals/raiding where it belongs, but the actual story, with the most important events, the biggest characters and the personal story being “personal” to you, should be personal to every individual playing it, you should “feel” like the hero you “should” be able to kill mobs easily with special toys or gimmicks, and maybe find special boss encounters that require you to stand infront of a mirror to reflect a laser beam, or get on a turret to shoot down flying drakes.

Etc-etc

I could go on a rampage but I am not trying to demolish here, im trying to feedback, my critique, is that this episode was too short for its story, and too long, for its grinding, and gameplay farming for any one individual to enjoy.

Olba.5376:

There is currently no enemy that would target Lion’s Arch.

None of the dragons are anywhere close to Lion’s Arch and we don’t have a villain that would be interested in destroying Lion’s Arch.

How about we destroy something else next? Maybe Divinity’s Reach?

Another city being destroyed would serve no purpose at this point, but there is something that probably will happen in DR given the krytan politics atm, the resurgence of the white mantle.

DR might become a civil-war zone with hostile mantle npcs attacking the loyalist queens seraph/shining blade and civilians.

I expect that Jennah will have a proper assassination attempt on her life this time, not just the one that scarlet tried but something significantly more aggressive by Cadecus and his followers as a last-ditch effort to conquer the city by force.

I do believe this, Jennah will be injured in the final battle, quite badly, much like the pale tree was, taking her out of the picture will destablaise the unity of the world further as the tree and jennah really served as two of the only real advocates for peace among the leadership.

Which could lead to some interesting storylines in future.

The way I see it, DR would become an internal battlefield with streetways filled with blood and fire, some buildings being burned down and certain parts of the city being locked off by the Seraph to prevent the Mantle getting inside.

Then the Ministry betrays them from within, causing even more havoc as they force open the gates and let the mantle make their move.

Let me be clear:

The reason Jory left with Lazarus was fairly obvious if you paid attention to the dialogue she spoke.

She basically thinks he might be key to ressurecting Belinda its -hinted- in the way she says shes interested in how he came back from the brink of death.

I dont think death is the only way to make things darker however, personally id like to see things go in a direction that avoids the death path because its been used too much in GW2 lately.

What I personally would prefer is having the COMMANDER do something questionable, YOU are responsible for something terrible, something world changing.

Example:

What if Lazarus offers us a means to fight the dragons, example: Ressurecting his entire race, the Mursaat, an action that would have DIRE consequences on the world of UNKNOWN magnitude.

But to do it, we must sacrifice the white mantle, not just some of it, -all- of it, literally wiping the entire mantle out as a people to bring back the Mursaat as a species.

This, could be a truly dark moment for the player that would leave you with a cold sense of justice and yet an uncertain sense of discomfort. The Mantle a threat to the world is gone, but you took it out in the -worst- way possible.

Which begs the question commander…

Are -you- really a hero?

Another thought that came to my mind, example here…

Caudecus could try taking the bloodstones power, along with the mantle, but the power is too great, its ripping him apart, literally torturing him. The villian you saw before is now a victim of his own folley, but the power he wields could destroy everything if it isnt controlled.

Lazarus is the only one you know that can control it… and with reluctance your forced to let him take that power knowing the risk it has by giving him more strength. The Commander isnt stupid, its dangerous, he could betray you, but hes the only guy there at the time that can fix this. The only one that -can- do something about it.

So you watch, as the souls of Caudecus and the others are ripped into the soul batteries and used to fuel the rebirth of the Mursaat as a species, as they scream in terror and you see the real monster. Not the people that were trying to rule the world with mad delusions, but the one willing to press the red button and doom a people.

You.

We could even make this more stringy and cruel, what if Jory knows what you’re about to do and tries to stop you. You go full Watchman on her and murder your own comrade in cold blood to hide a terrible secret for the greater good, and yes, Jory or possibly Caithe, one of them anyway, who would be foolish enough to tell the truth and expose you to the world.

Well, dark enough for you yet :p?

A word of warning, the booster ate my 70’th character slot and I ended up with 69 characters, a-net refunded me the price of the item in gems but sadly I did not get my char slot back.

So as a note to anyone trying to buy it, dont, unless A-net adds more character slots.

Ive made a few in my time of where GW2 had some qualities that have long since faded but this one is less about saying GW2 is bad and more about saying what the current zones are doing wrong.

The problem with Grinding when it becomes too much:

Too much of a ‘good’ thing to some is often a bad thing to others. One of the issues with Season 2 and HoT zones dry top/silverwastes and all the HoT zones specifically, is that every single bit of content requires you to regularly farm events in that zone in order to aquire a zone specific resorce thats basically a glorified time sink that takes a few days of your life to get the attained equipment you desire.

Solution:

Not “every” zone, needs a grind, not every zone “needs” gear that is attained via farming regular content, some zones “should” be easy, almost laughably easy because it balances the challenging content and gear from the easier more rewarding content that gives a level of instant gratification.

Basically, grinding needs to be something available to the zones in HoT and episode 1 of S3, but from now on, every future zone should have bosses that literally “drop” the loot you want every run you do them, literally “drop” the gear you need to start making progress, such as maybe an early ascended accessory to start people off.

Catchup isnt a bad thing, nor is toning down older content

When was the “last” time you honestly tried to farm an Amberite weapon with a zone of people? When was the last time you cared about bandit crests, when, was the last time you tried to get a Sceclarite weapon?

If the answer is, forever ago, then your on the right track to recognising the problem. The issue is that older content is going to be less relevent, and that includes the grind towards it.

Solution:

Simply reduce the grind, its time to nerf the amount of geodes you need to collect Amberite weapons, its time to nerf the amount of crests you need to collect Carapace Armor, and theres “nothing” wrong with that nerf since it was “relevent” then, and not now.

Easier is often better, Gw2’s launch advocated this game as a casual friendly MMO

Longevity is less tied to grinding, and more tied to gratification, people “like” to feel rewarded, they dont like to spend weeks upon weeks farming for specific loot that feels pointless and niche in the games future.

Example: Going through ascalonian catacombs to grind dungeon runs for the tears feels like you’re missing the point. Its not the resorce that mattered, its the loot.

If I kill a dungeon boss, I want a dungeon loot reward, I dont care if its an item I cant use, I dont care if its a duplicate of an item I already own, I “want” that loot as it feels like an “instant” reward.

Grinding has much more effective ways of appearing, in Wrath of the Lich King in WoW the large success of the expansion was lended to the fact there were “multiple” ways to loot things. Not all of it required farming weeks of dailies, sometimes, you could just spam dungeon runs and get loot every boss, even useless trash.

Solution:

If I get a piece of loot I cant use, thats leagues more interesting to me, than getting a masterwork or rare piece of loot that has no value to me at all, TL:DR I am probably “not” going to care if I get a rare, but I will care “greatly” if I get an exotic, even if its one I cant use.

The Casual matters, no matter what the hardcore say

In the end, There are OTHER ways to add content with challenge that does NOT require the game to sacrifice its casual base for its hardcore, or vise versa.

Examples and Solutions:

Raiding: Add a story mode raid difficulty for those looking to experience the lore of the raid, simply deny anyone doing it any loot while doing so or if they get any loot, maybe they get a basic ascended accessory at the end of the run per account.

Dungeons: Make every story mode entirley solo, not just Arah, so that everyone can get into explorable without having to waste the effort on finding a group. Revamp the Explorable experience to make it harder and more challenging, and equally, reward loot every boss, even crap loot nobody wanted in ADDITION to tokens.

Fractals: Incentivise the noobie to join the fractal experience, offer a double-reward weekend event, tie this to other experiences like raiding/dungeons and pvp to increase their value.

PvP: Add the “activities” into this category as an ‘alternative’ to the mainstream pvp progression, let people earn the progression rewards from it, though keep the ranked pvp rewards to ranked gameplay only.

WvW: Add a third borderland type, not much to say on this but there is more I can go into but id need a seperate topic for it.

Dailies and Questing: Add a “Dragon Watch” mini secondary questing system that lets you do mini quests at random once per day, each one takes you across Tyria doing variable activities and offers a bit of lore/va thats repeatble each day with random new adventures, similar to fractals, rewards you with some laurels at the end.

Specializations: As a future way of fixing the “trinity” you’ve created, give us 18 new specializations by expansion 2, ambitious I know but hear me out, by adding 3 specs for each class, you can give each one a soft trinity of its own, allowing us to pick tank/heal/dps for any class bringing “back” what Vanilia GW2 had, the ability to play without feeling too grounded to a class/role choice. I could go into some suggestions on this but I digress its just something to muse on.

Anyway, these are “some” things you can do to fix the game and work on it in a productive way.

I just want the ponytail that the ghost npcs in bloodstone fen have, and the other hairstyle the mantle inquisitor veteran has.

Diovid.9506:

1. He very clearly did not absorb all the magic in the bloodstone, only ‘the lion’s share’ as our character says.

2. How did you get from absorbind bloodstone magic to ‘could literally kill a dragon’? That is a huge leap of logic.

1. Thats what our character says, not what necessarily happened, he could have honestly absorbed all of it, considering his race was the only one out of the 5 old races that did “not” lower itself to giving up magic, meaning Mursaat have ALOT more expertease in controlling it.

2. Technically see above, but also, consider that Primordus is the WEAKEST of the Dragons, canonically meaning that he DOES have a fairly reasonable chance of taking him down.

Diovid.9506:

Literally the first thing he does is kill dozens of white mantle. How does that tell you ‘love, peace, respect’?

Everything we know about the mursaat tells us that they are only concerned with their own wellbeing. When they stood together with the other ancient races during the previous rise of the dragons, they fled to the mists. When a prophecy foretold of their demise, they sacrificed thousands and enslaved a nation.

I never said he was taking the high road for “good” reasons. More importantly, he makes it clear he is removing the competition, setting a “good” example, ergo, for now at least, he seems keen to make sure the mantle belongs to him, and him alone.

For what agenda? Who knows, but a higher purpose sounds to me like something clever, like killing a dragon, and taking the glory for it.

Diovid.9506:

He hasn’t shown this ‘ally’ side yet, so I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.

If he was going to kill you he had “more” than an opportunity to do it there and then, clearly, he needs you for something.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Hes making “you” seem incompitent, the commander, the pact. After all, if Lazarus kills a dragon, with just one shot of his power, then he has prooven there is NO need for you anymore, no need for the pact.

Diovid.9506:

Yeah, that’s not happening.

You basically relinquish the pact as Soulkeeper states “Im sorry to hear about your early retirement” after your asked if you want to become marshal and reject the offer, you also make it clear you can do more for the pact as an ally, not as a commander.

So basically you threw the pact away, and honestly, its popularity tanked after Treesus made a massive screwup with the verdant brink so Lazarus could “easily” make himself the better option.

Diovid.9506:

There already is an alliance between asura, nightmare court and bandits (the latter of which we know are related to the white mantle) i.e. the sinister triad. I can see Lazarus using that to his advantage. Charr I don’t see happening though. Remember, it were the Mursaat that stopped the Charr from taking over Kryta at the end of the Guild Wars.

The Flame Legion did “not” care who they followed as long as someone gave them power and they are basically decimated at this point, the same goes for the Nightmare Court in many respects. As for the normal Charr, renegades and malcontents may be convinced to find a “higher purpose” in joining team Mantle after they felt abbandoned by their own.

Diovid.9506:

Yes the pact is weakened but again, I think you’re seriously overstating the extend of his power.

There are only 5 bloodstones in the world of Tyria, each one containing an absoleutley staggering amount of magic, and most of it, went into Lazarus, which makes him near enough on par with a dragon in terms of power.

Diovid.9506:

We’ll see but I don’t think he’ll live past this season.

If they pulled another Scarlet I think people would be more irritated than anything, and after Mordremoth, A-net knows the Dragons alone will “Not” carry the franchise, they need another villian, one with a humanoid appearence and motive.

So, Lazarus has returned, which begs the question, exactly what is our favorate Mursaat going to do with his new found demi-godhood and power of rediculas levels of magic?

Lets remember a few things:

The Mursaat are literally the most powerful race of magic users in Tyria

Unlike the other races that decided to tone down magic, the Mursaat, did not and they gained great wisdom and power from that which most Tyrians cant hope to rival. Adding insult to injury, Lazarus already grand level of expertease with magic not only makes him a formiddable sorceror, but also a demi-god, considering he just absorbed a BLOODSTONE’S worth of power.

That literally is some of the largest quantities of magic in the world, Lazarus could literally kill a dragon, with that kind of power, which brings us to the next part.

Better to be loved than feared

Lazarus obviously realizes that the Mursaat were all but wiped out because they enslaved, killed and tried to conquer everyone, perhaps now he sees a “new” way to win over the people of Tyria to his side.

Love, peace, respect, and a new face for the white mantle.

Lazarus is strategically being clever about this, rather than conquering the Krytan throne, and trying to usurp people and rule them, hes showing his hand as an “ally” to the world, a powerful demi-god who could lead everyone to betterment. He is taking the other approach to evil, the much cleverer one.

Hes making “you” seem incompitent, the commander, the pact. After all, if Lazarus kills a dragon, with just one shot of his power, then he has prooven there is NO need for you anymore, no need for the pact.

The White Mantle will expand beyond humans with Lazarus influence

This will allow Lazarus to draw other followers from beyond just human worship, asura curious for power, norn that feel the spirits are not helping enough. Charr who see a chance to return to worshipping a new god (flame legion or otherwise) and Sylvari who no longer feel the Pale Tree can guide them.

Lazarus could amass power over night and become just as powerful if not “more” powerful than the pact ever was just through godhood alone.

Having his followers find new ways to empower “him” personally and making them Reliant on his power for protection he essentially cheats by making himself seem like the benevolant dictator that rules everyone for the greater good.

He essentially “removes” the commander as a threat to him without ever needing to draw a sword.

This makes Lazarus a very interesting villian indeed

Unlike typical villians trying to destroy the world, conquer it, or simply get edgy dark revenge, Lazarus could trancend the common typical villian and go for a “I am the better option” approach.

By doing that, he actually makes himself even more interesting than I had thought, making him more engaging as an antagonist as instead of being a typical bad guy, hes actually a good, bad guy, a redeemed villian albiet, one with personal gain in mind at every corner of his ascention.

And if he becomes too powerful, well then, by the time anyone tries to oppose him, nobody will be able to, as his power base will swell so far and his power itself so great that no one would dare.

He would become a clever dictator.

This is where I hope A-net doesnt mess this up

I think Lazarus could be a VERY interesting “long term” antagonist, as opposed to a steriotypical seasonal antagonist, I think we have room here to make him a “reoccuring” ally/enemy who helps us at every turn only to claim the glory for the mantle, and himself.

That constnat getting in our way will eventually put the commander at odds with Lazarus, and even cause the two to go against each other, but by then, the pact will look incompitent and out of date, while Lazarus, will look significantly better.

Basically, we will look like the villian.

Thats kinda, how I hope A-net paints this story.

The ending and the suspense built from it were literally genious in terms of litrature writing quality. It was perfect to set up episode 2’s build up but I think theres a bigger and more obvious issue with this episode than that.

It was too short.

This episode needed at least another 2 hours on it from what it had, more depth, more time to add even more content, we got plenty in Eir’s house, which was fantastic, we got plenty in Rata Novus.

Then we had this ‘scattered’ but “swiftly” finished storyline in bloodstone fen that felt… rushed.

The ending was Great, I loved it, Cadecus while being a bit less clever and cynical from GW2’s launch was much more blatant evil villian now and im not necessarily complaining, he had been building his power for a while. When his time came to shine it was the best time to reveal his obvious evil intention.

However, Lazarus? Lazarus stole the show, not only because his reveal could not have been more epic than it was, but frankly because it leaves him with just enough mystery that while you are probably sure hes still a villian, your not sure “how” hes going to be villianous yet.

If, he is…

Theres alot of interesting ways they could go with him now, whos to say he will necessarily be evil and suddenly pull a fast one, just yet.

Perhaps his goal is alot more subtle than being evil for the sake of being evil, infact, I already think I know what A-net is planning to do with Lazarus and if its what I think it is, its quite a clever play.

After all, if he is the last living Mursaat, who just absorbed the power of a bloodstone, he has the power of a demi-god at this point, enouigh so to challenge, even kill, an Elder Dragon.

And if that was the case, then…

Why does the world need the commander, or the pact, when it has a new protector, a new god, to watch over it?

Me thinks, Lazarus, is going to play the “better to be loved than feared” card, turning “us” into the villians as we will look incompitent and lackluster compared to this all powerful deity absorbing magic and killing dragons.

Very well played A-net, very well played.

I know that im mostly reporting it as a bug as thats exactly what it is, basically, so I feel it should be dealt with regardless for anyone that tries to max alts.

I wanted to reserve my judgement of this patch and its content until after I had played it and got some idea of what I was looking at, so here is what I will say for each individual aspect:

PvE:

I have waited…. 9 months, for a zone the size of Dry Top? I know that you clearly put effort and time into making the new mobs, events, and asthetic of the area, I am hard to please honestly. I like the visual design, but frankly I do not think that this new map alone was worth 9 months of waiting, its barley if at all a new zone, its actually “smaller” than dry-top when you eliminate its verticality.

Story:

The story was fantastic, the writers get my absoleute 10/10 this time round, I loved it, I wont go to far into details but I can say I was “not” dissapointed when it came to the writing of the story, the consistancy of the flow and helping pick up where heart of thorns left off and fixing that abysmally poor storyline that it had left behind.

The story, was what carried this patch entirely for me.

In conclusion:

Was this worth 9 months of my life waiting for new content outside of raiding which I dont take an interest in, or fractals which again, I dont really care for?

No.

Is it a GOOD patch with a decent sized amount of content.

Maybe.

It depends how much you’re willing to give A-net a chance to impress you, as I said, this wasnt all bad but there are things about it that keep it from being “good” in my mind.

Moving Forwards:

In order for arena-net to really make this work they need to stop being fair. I have seen you in bias develop content for raiders over 2 months that came out on a regular basis, along with tornaments of pvp.

Its time you did the same for the living story, the next patch should be focused almost biasedly, towards new content on the pve side of development, and giving us maps that actually drive us to play consistantly, I hope, in some way, you find some soft-way of returning to the old vanilia heart quest style of pve progression, and map progression because these “zerg” maps are getting tedious.

That being said, I am going to say it right now, the writing was the best ive ever seen, the voice acting was amazing, and I think you deserve a massive kiss/hug/pat on the back take your pick for that at least.

Again, this isnt to say you didnt try, its to say you should have thought about just how much content your playerbase was expecting for 9 months of drought.

Hopefully, you can fix that with the next 2-3 patches.

There appears to be a problem with this new promotional character slot purchase, as I initally had 70 character slots but after purchasing the char slot+30 boost I am now down to 69 character slots.

I am more than a little confident I “had” 70 character slots so I dont know whats going on, logically that would mean I now have 71, character slots.

(yes im a crazy altaholic for those twitching and dropping their jaw)

either way, 70 was the inital cap, I was under the impression since the promotion was there, id be allowed to use it to increase that cap by 1.

Evidently, it reduced it.

Explain?

I am going to say this as blunt as a hammer:

I dont want love or romance in a fantasy game about dragons, world destruction and chaos, it just feels out of place and forced in for cheese sake.

Maybe in a novel, or something off-the-games viewing thats fine, but romantic drama has no place in the game itself its been alot more harmful to it than helpful in the past.

I have a feeling that they will be adding new hairstyles on account there are a few already in game we cant yet access.

There probably will be more raids in future but I suspect given the backlash they’ve suffered they will make some kinda compramise with casual players in future in order to make them more open to everyone and not just specific players.

The new threat is the White Mantle, the endless trailer shots and pics are taken mostly from raid wing 2 and 3 but theres a few new ones which seem to show the raid under a red mist suggesting the bloodstone is going critical.

The mantle are the new threat, and I wouldnt be surprised if we see them make a move on DR in S3 Episode 1 by the teasers and indication.

I expect the following:

- At least 1 possibly even 2 new zones, 1 large, 1 small possibly.

- A moderately long story, probably 4-6 hours of playtime in length.

- DR will likely turn into a battleground at one point, and get severely damaged.

- Possible introduction of phasing technology if they choose to avoid this direction outright.

Im going to pander a few guesses at what episode 1 will be about:

1. We will probably go to Eir’s funeral, and possibly see the Pale Tree awaken again, this will likely be the start of the episode.

2. We get a message from Taimi about some unknown event going on North and she needs us in Rata Novus.

3. The event in question is the bloodstone fen, the only part of the raid currently not available, which will be made available to all players as possibly a smaller instanced area via living story.

4. We will go there by Airship, evidenced by the trailer, by the end of which we will end up trying to escape the blast caused by some cataclysmic event there (im going to put an estimate at something to do with the white mantle and lazarus the dire being empowered/awakened).

5. This will trigger a further problem, a sort of signal, for all white mantle in DR to rise up and destroy the kingdom, Cadecus will take this chance to try and possibly even succeed in assassinating Jennah, we, will foil/kill him in the process.

The episode will end with chaos, the throne of kryta vacant and the fate of the krytan people very uncertain and tense, the mantle having scored a victory, albiet, a phyrric one with heavy losses in revenge against humanity.

Bonus Points:

- Something to do with the Shiverpeaks and the North, possibly the Eye of the North.

- Kasmeer gets made into queen or will be revealed as Jennahs replacement.

- Canach being a kitten because reasons, I suspect the mesmer he was trying to hit “may” be a fragment of Xera from the raid.

- Braham actually growing a pair and being less of a manchild, also, no more bald Braham plx.

- MAYBE a Teaser as to what Rytlock actually bloody did in the mists.

In terms of mechanics, gameplay and lore, the only viable ones are:

1.
The Tengu

Why:
Because their race was initally planned to be amoung the launch races but was swapped at the concept stages of the game.

How:
Unlike most races, Tengu had a recent update with their animations and models allowing them to use swords with unique animations while before they could only have unique bow animations. This suggests A-net has plans to give them more animation options and styles before they’re done.

Lore:
I am not a fan of the Tengu personally, but their storyline is most likely going to be linked to either Cantha, or Primordus. Their “isolation” storyline feels a bit naff and weak and doesnt give us enough culture, lore rich and vast to seperate them from other races, but it has promise.

They will likely show up as a playable race when Cantha finally becomes a thing due to their hatred of the humans that lived there for driving them away. They could help the humans of Kryta deal with the white mantle due to their prejudices and style but I dont really think that blend makes any sense personally.

Problems:
While I do think Tengu are likely going to be playable, I dislike the notion of them being playable, in essense, they are very similar culturally to the Charr, and that similarity makes their only real appeal the fact they have asian themes around their culture which is about the “only” thing I can see making any real reason for them being a playable race.

Now lets move onto number 2, my favorate option:

The Largos

Why:
The Largos are actually “perfect” in terms of racial choice, they have a mysterious, dark background with little lore on them presently which fits the theme of Steve perfectly (Deep Sea Dragon) and weaves into their culture well.

How:
They have defined male and female character models, and could easily be updated to have new rigging, models and textures making them much like Sylvari/Humans while Tengu would only need a rigging like Charr/Asura.

Lore:
The mystery behind this race is what gives it potential, we dont know much about them, they are similar to predator in terms of lore, dark, mysterious, hunt enemies mostly alone on glorified murder/assassination tasks by their Tethyos Houses. They have a very atlantean vibe about them, or nomadic culture, I kept fanon seeing them living in a fleet of giant submarines.

The Largos would work well as a culture because of the fact they fit a missing piece in the world. I feel they would be a more ideal choice because they have the potential to be.

The Problem:
The lack of knowladge about their physical characteristics and lore could also be a void A-net may struggle to fill without delving into the depths (pun intended) which requires alot of underwater combat revamping and other underwater things. Plus their wings (though that can be resolved by updated lore about their species).

Number 3 is my wildcard, I had alot of optoins for this, Skritt, Centaurs, Stone Dwarves, Kodan even, all I like the idea of and all even Margonites and Mursaat which would be AMAZING by the way.

But I think number 3… will be:

The Undead

Why:
Palawa Joko is a villian, undoubtedly a villian, but a villian we may “need” to defeat our enemies, and his undead elonian armies, may be the key to scoring an equal playing field against Kralkatorrik.

How:
New, interesting decrepid mummy style appearences/figures decompusre but not quite necrosis on humanoid characters resembling former humans could be added to make this happen.

Lore:
Ever heard the phrase, the enemy of my enemy? Joko’s armies could be located on the edge of the desert connecting Elona to Tyria, allowing us to use that as a new starting point as the Pact gains a new foothold to launch campaigns from. Joko denies us access to Elona, but on an uneasy promise, agrees to help us defeat Kralkatorrik and join us “if” we respect his rule over the border and beyond.

A reluctant unholy alliance would make an interesting new play since it would create a new route for the story to take, the concept of undead being allies, rather than enemies.

The Problem:
A Self explaintary Wildcard, much like the idea of Margonites or Mursaat being playable, this requires extensive depth and lore and a willingness for A-net to look at darker but more interesting plot twists in Gw2 to move its world forwards.

It could work, it could even happen, but I dont think it will, it would be AWESOME if it did, but who knows.

What “could” happen regarding a potential idea for tonics is that they could have a Tonics Tab for non combat tonics, allowing you to store them like you do with other wardrobe cosmetics and “possibly” add some kind of dye system through that, “maybe”.

I take pride in my work bows Generally try to write concepts that actually would work in game and be interesting to play.

Adding a megaserver “type” would be moderatley easy since its simply more freedom to let players pick which server they want to be part of within the megaserver.

Honestly however, making this even easier, simply make it possible that when your in a city hub, I.E. Lions Arch, DR, Hoelbrek etc… you have the “option” of selecting Roleplay as a server preference, allowing you to enter the roleplaying instance of that city and “only” that version, granted it might not be as effective as making it entirley open world but it would be easier to programme and make.

I have ideas for new classes, and revamps of gw1 classes that could work, but honestly I think the best answer is for a-net to focus purley on adding new sub-classes aka: specialisations and possibly new weapons to play with for current ones.

I do think they could make underwater weapons useable overland, and vice versa, by switching certain abilities, but thats about it.

That being said, never say never, in the distant future, anything could happen.

My concepts in a TL:DR notice would be:

Heavy Armor: Demonologist

This guy seems similar to the Revenant at a glance, but hes more of a Dark counterpart to the Guardian. The Demonologist uses variable Pacts with demons to buff himself and weaken his enemies, much like the guardians passive aura’s help allies, as Revenant Heralds auras.

Demonologist also has the ability to morph their limbs and bodyparts into variable monsterous weapons, like demonic sword arms, whips, etc infused with the dark powers of the mists and tormented by the cruelty of demonkind, they are able to unleash a terrible torrent of unsummountable hatred upon their foes.

(Great for edgelords and people after a “dark knight” kind of fantasy, something that heavy armor is half-lacking since revenant is more like an armored shaman, than a death knight).

Medium Armor: Arbiter

This guy attunes himself to the variable dragon kind themselves, sort of able to draw the corrupted magic and purify it like a walking dowsing rod, they focus on channeling powerful magic and using it to passivly increase their own powers, and their allies the longer they remain in certain types of “attunement”.

Attunement work like an F1-2-3 combo except they have to be maintained rather than switched to gain more effectiveness, the longer an Arbiter is attuned, the more power they gain in that particular attunement and eventually start giving to allies.

They’re sort of a hybrid between a buff bot, and a support, expelling powerful magic that requires alot of attunement using their skillpoints, while building attunement with weapon skills.

They’re basically a medium armor mage, fast, aggressive, powerful arcane users.

Light Armor: Vestal

Basically these guys are “what was left” of the Dervish having a love child with the other races of Tyria, the Dervishes went around teaching the spirituality of faith in ones self rather than the gods, manifesting into divine and powerful energy that can be used to expel harm upon foes.

These guys, are basically a Dervish and a Monk having a love child, with a kungkittenmaster. A LIght Armor melee/tank that focuses on an unusual dueling mechanic.

When using a single weapon, they gain twice that weapons common stats, and are able to use abilities 4 and 5 for a single weapon, when dual wielding, they loose the passive buff, and instead gain various additional skills, sort of like a thief but more one or two weapon focused.

This makes it a more versatile melee than most could be.

Anyway, I digress, those are my “ideas” but honestly, specializations seem more likely.

Tbh, id settle for things that they could actually add.

- Chair emotes or sittable chairs.
- An actual /roll command.
- A roleplay specific megaserver, probably the only one that needs the most work, adopt the SWTOR system which currently uses a PVP/PVE megaserver, just add a roleplaying one and you win the internet.
- Possible new tatoo colours for norn, new sylvari skin patterns/tones and charr fur/asura colours.
- A return of the personality system from the launch.
- Culture specific outfits (much like megaservers, this a timesink, but certainly plausable, like the wedding outfit).

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Pretty much this lmao

Pretty much the issue im trying to point out, waiting so long means that like Duke Nukem Forever or any other franchise that takes forever to be a thing, once it finally does come out, players will have such a high expectation, it wont be able to reach their demands.

A-net is trying to hold things off, it will either pay off with more than an amazing level of shock and awe…

Or…

It will be an example of where too much silence, is as bad as too little.

Your assuming everyone in the roleplaying community has the same interests as you, someone whom I already know on a personal level for negative reasons and who has created a number of negative problems for me and several other players in the past.

OP, you’re not the RP community, your a part of it.

Dont think you represent everyone.

If you want me to be productive however, lets be productive.

Your suggestions are mostly based on things that would take at least a full content patch to add, not all of which will ever make it into the game.

Dying tonics is pointless, honestly, its better if they just-re-added old outfits as transmog pieces.

Character description would be nice, but honestly has no real impact on the rp community tbh. Frankly I feel it could create more metagaming, as people would use it to abuse secrets written in the descriptions themselves.

Turning glows off is more likely going to be a graphical change than anything to help with FPS if it ever becomes a thing, for purely cosmetic reasons? nah, they wont change the shiny weapon philosophy.

Choice of animation would take a hell of a time to work on, were talking a full expansion, even 2, not likely going to happen, we may however see more animations for emotes.

New hairstyles were already datamined and on the works so beards will probably come eventually.

Cape and cloaks were being worked on since launch, they will come its just a matter of “when” not if, probably by next expansion.

The pet option thing is not likely going to be a thing, a-net made pets for a reason, they’re combat assistance for rangers.

Anyway, weather you take offence at my rebuttle or not, im simply sobering your dreams, not trying to drown them. Some of your ideas have merit but the reality is, most of them are very optimistic and would require “alot” of work for the game and tuning.

Often the easier solution is to make a simpler way to apply such content, like adding old outfits to the gemstore instead of making tonics dyeable.

Let me explain something here to be clear:

Its literally been nearly the exact same amount of time there was between Season 2 and HoT’s release in terms of a content gap, we’ve waited “that” long for new content.

The difference between HoT and Season 3, is that Heart of Thorns had trailers, content updates, news about things and teasers on the classes to keep us occupied while we waited.

This, is where Season 3 and Expansion 2 are lacking. There is nothing, no news, no insight, not a clue whats going on, and thats not a “good” thing.

Its not good to keep people in the dark forever because while it can be okay to promise nothing until you deliver it, it also creates paranoia that may even be justified.

What “if” all we get when LS3 starts is one small new zone less than 1/3rd the size of Dry top, and at most, 2 hours of new story?

Do you honestly think thats going to sit well with the people that waited 9-10 months or so for something new to do in the main world?

Hell no.

This is the great danger of silence, silence isnt golden, silence is dangerous.

Not telling people what you’re up to basically creates a LACK of hype, it creates a LACK of expectation.

And if that lack turns out to be justified…

Then you wasted everyones time, and trust me, a “LARGE” portion of the player base “WILL” decide that they’ve had enough until the attitude changes.

You can wait for a nice delicious pie all you want but if it turns out to be a pie you waited nearly 10 months for to get a tiny thing the size of a cup cake with no nutritional value, no depth, and no taste.

It will “not” have been worth the wait.

So yes, a hype, a tease, is better in every way, it gives us something to be distracted by, to create expectation and be dissapointed, but at least then we have “something” to be expecting “of” in the first place, and if its good, all the better.

I remember when LS1 ended, it was amazing, the closure was teased for several months beforehand and when it finally did close, boy was it a hell of a finale.

Season 2, ended on a pretty solid cliffhanger and an amazingly well done teaser for HoT.

So why is Season 3 failing?

Simple:

We dont have a clue, what season 3 is even about, or what to expect, we dont have a concept art, a screenshot, we dont have a trailer, we dont even have a music piece.

We dont have, anything.

That void, is not healthy for people, it just makes you uncertain if theres even anything going on, and lets be honest, A-net, you made 3 legendaries in HoT and it took you nearly a quater of a year just to finish a FORTH.

What facinates me and leaves me dumbstruck, is the same CANNOT be said of the PvP E-sport push OR the Raiding content. Both have had PLENTY of hype and teasers before going forwards and yet S3…

Nothing.

Expansion 2?

Nothing.

We “need” something, its time, its OVER-Due.

I would have accepted the “patience” argument nearly 3 months ago, but now im sure we can all agree we’ve been “very” patient.

Raiding definatley has played some kind of hand in delaying the launch of season 3 but I think thats intentional. As they clearly have shown the raid actually does have story hints and teasers towards future content which they CLEARLY lied about.

They once said that raids would have NO impact on the actual lore or content that main world players would experience. Yet after the events of wing 3 which I “wont” spoil for anyone I disagree that exclusive content exists there.

Also, before someone says:

Youtube it, no, screw that guy, who ever you are, screw you. The game isnt meant to be Youtubed its meant to be “played” and content is meant to be “consumed” players are consumers, they pay “money” to consume that content and “expect” quite fairly so, to get something out of that.

I do not for one minuate buy the “git good/joina training guild” logic ever, its not going to work okay? I have said this from the start even if I myself recently had the luck of raiding at all.

Raiding, has “no” place in Gw2, it never did, it shouldnt even “be” in this game and honestly it was a cataclysmic mistake to even add it.

New dungeons would have been fine, but raiding changed the entire map, completley, forever. It changed the mindset of the players, it introduced hard caps, demands, achievement levels, hard grinding, extremely tedious generic mmo content NOBODY likes doing from previous mmo’s.

It literally made this game everything it once stood against in its Manifesto video.

Raiding has to make way for the rest of the playerbase. A story mode “must” be added to raiding in order to do this, and like it or not, raiders, you already get the hard content and the difficult challenge so complaining that people can actually experience the story isnt “exclusive enough” is rubbish, you get the loot, and the challenging raid, dont complain.

You “got” content, while the rest of us, waited nearly a year for something new.

Calling a few proxy events that give some “clue” whats going on new content, isnt new, its literally just a filler in an attempt to stem things from getting worse.

It would have paid off, had that filler actually “lead” to something, but it hasnt, just more ominous nothing.

While people wait for something to actually “be” added to the game.

So no, raids definatley did damage, they definatley didnt help and yes, they probably have delayed the launch of season 3 and other content because they required testing, tuning and adding of content that others wont get to see BUT raiders.

And im sorry A-net, but you PROMISED that content would NEVER be exclusive in this game.

A lack of communication, teaser, even a hint as to whats happened basically leaves an air of mystery. This promise suggests we will get something, sometime, soon, but we havent even got a picture, a teaser, even the smallest bit of content to speculate on.

Theres a problem with this mind set:

It means that when the content finally DOES come out it will NEVER be able to live up to the hype placed on it, the expectation that we are getting some really cool new update with huge amounts of new content with monthly intervals.

I dont think A-net has the right idea here, the 2 week system for Season 2 worked “fine” it gave us enough time to break between chapters and constantly kept the game with new content in some way or form.

I am scared now, that Season 3 is going to basically end up being crushed under expectation before it even “reaches” teaser levels of content.

A-net, you NEED to give us “SOMETHING” and “NOW” before Tommorow, before tuseday, because if you make people wait ANY longer and after tuseday theres STILL no news on Season 3.

You can be sure that most people are just going to not even CARE what comes out by the time it finally does, your milking the silence FAR too long, its time to give us a teaser, any teaser, even the smallest “hint” something is comming.

I really dont think theres much of an argument though, I mean lets be honest, your not actually loosing anything.

- It incentivises new people to raid, it gives them catchup gear to start themselves on that journey which only benefits raiders since it lets more people join raiding.

- The White Mantle Box as I pointed out before is an account “one time only” thing which you would never get a second time, you’d only get it the first time you completed the story mode.

- Story is always and will always be something casual players favor over gameplay, it makes no sense to argue or debate that having exclusive story content is something a raider would even care about as the fundamental value of raiding, is the difficult group bosses, and the awesome loot that comes with it.

TL:DR

Its not a loss for the player after the best loot, theres also nothing wrong with “more” accessability to the content itself that does not in any way compramise the loot table or challenge.

Hell I did point out that by making this story-mode level you can still add boss mechanics, which still lets people that have never raided train and learn the raid itself.

Personally, I cant even see for one second, how thats a bad thing.

I recently got to try out my first raid, the issue is that I feel raiding still needs a story mode, a compramise.

My idea was this:

Add a story mode variant to the raid that includes the pact commander (and) the biconics (or what ever name they have) on an investigation of the area, allowing players to try the raid solo and experience the story of it.
This would:
- Allow people to enjoy the story, perhaps even allow A-net to give it more depth.
- Be a good compramise for raiders vs non raiders.

Also, to avoid Raiders being worried over gear and exclusive content, this is my answer:
- In the Story version, clearing each wing grants you one ascended quality accessory/ring/trinket designed to help you catch up with other players, this can only be earned “once” per playthrough on any character.
- Completing the “entire” raid for the first time grants you a weapons box that lets you choose a white mantle weapon, but only “one” per first time completing the story raid “per” account, so that you cant simply switch characters and abuse this.

This:
- Gives non raiders a chance to catch up with raiders.
- Gives them a small snippet of content that does not interfere with the rest of the raid or other exclusive rewards such as Xera’s Backpiece, Matthias Staff etc etc.

As someone who recently got to raid with a fairly nice bunch it was an arite experience as experiences go, but that was a luck of the draw situation which was mostly down to the groups patience for me learning, though their leader did say I was pretty good as was my friend whom both of us were newtime raiders.

This is the thing though, I do think that as time goes on, people will struggle to keep up. For new players especially getting “into” raiding will be hard… thats why I have made this suggestion.

It allows A-net to flesh out the raids, and increase their potential, and it allows “players” to experience the lore in more depth, possibly even adding new details.

I believe this system could work, you could have 2 modes for raids:

Story Mode:
- Soloable, and dooable with groups.
- Serves as a small training course on what to expect in proper raiding.
- Has more lore, less rewards.
- Gives you an accessory/ring/trinket per wing to help catch up per character, plus one white mantle weapon box per account when you complete the story mode, cannot be gained more than once.
- Launches a month after Expedition Mode.

Expedition Mode:
- Always appears before Story mode, considered the start of every raid.
- Expedition mode is the proper hardcore raid, with loot, rewards, challenging bosses.
- Less focus on lore, more on gameplay and gear and rewarding content.
- Retains all of the full rewards, can be unlocked once completing bosses or getting lucky with loot.
- Allows access to challenging achievements and mastery points.

This, I think, is a good medium, it helps nobodies catch up, it helps somebodies remain exclusive, and nobody can argue that it isnt efficent.

Pondered this for a while now but anyone actually know if those things will ‘ever’ show up in game?

I can still see the datamine for Fargate Opener, Mistreaver and the other weapons but you cant actually attain them.

Im fairly sure if A-net added major characters being taken down in raids, many people would quit in mass, they cant do that and they “know” they cant.

It’d ruin the entire game, they’d be “forced” to add a story mode for raids, something many raiders are scared of happening which would remove exclusivity to raids. As it stands, even if I dont like it, raids do have some lore exclusive to them, but not enough fortunatley, that major chars will ever be boss fights in them.

Nobody wants raids that exclusive except the die hards in the raid community.

In the end, no matter “how” you cut the cookie, Gw2 is a “personal” story, and thats what it advertised, so taking down joko, kral, everyone else.

No, no one else but “you” gets to do that, the world is just an addition to the game itself.

The Pact already has quite a number of strains, the Order of Whispers doesnt necessarily “have” to be the good guy forever, hell it could even make things more interesting having Joko work with the players and even turning the OOW against you temporarily.

Mordy however and all the Dragons so far have failed to be interesting, the worst part ot me is that honestly I felt more threatened by Mordremoth “before” we got to see HoT, in S2 his presence was more threatening and more impactful than his actual voice and actions in HoT. HoT turned him into a steriotypical destroy the world baddie rather than having something more elaborate. You know its bad when Shadow of the Dragon in season 2 felt more of a danger and personal threat to me than his superior did in HoT’s entirety.

Also, regarding antagonists and layers, as a writer myself, it is very important for a character to have a personality for a person to interact and care about it. An example being: People were more invested in Marjory in Season 1 because of the time we spent getting to know her, granted not everyone cared about her “near death” experience but it was far more impactful than the actual death of her sister Belinda in Season 2 because the latter had next to “no” character at all.

Faolain had potential, because we knew of her via Caithe and her interaction with her, but it was shallow and empty, lifeless.

When you invest story in a video game it works differently from writing it in a book or a roleplay. You have to actually interact “with” the player the antagonist has to “feel” like an obsticle, both metaphorically and literally. Their actions have to be the thing that impedes your progress, and gives you motivation to surpass that in order to progress.

I also have to be pointed that nobody ever said the Pact Commander themselves is incapable of being a villian even partially. The Commander by now is going through some serious vietnam flashbacks and it wouldnt surprise me if even your character is capable of doing some questionable actions to continue moving forwards.

However, on the subject of Lazarus and Layers:

Lazarus tie to the White Mantle and the White Mantle itself is what makes both factions so iconic. The Mantle was literally “the” main antagonist for the majority of Prophecies until the end itself. Their role is hard to even hope to come close to measuring compared to that of Dhuum or Menzies because those two only had roles to play in more expanded parts of the lore. That isnt to say either couldnt be touched upon frankly id love to see some Menzies especially since he got next to no attention in GW1.

However, when your dealing with something thats already got previous establishment then fans “do” expect a faithful replica and depth to be cared for, they want to see layers. They want to see what happened to the mantle 250 years after it fell they want to know what was left behind.

There is potential in that to add mystery, to add story, it isnt just about the antagonist himself, but he definatley has a large part to play.

Lazarus is after all the last “currently” known living Mursaat (be there more or less of his race) with a name and a face. He is the only noteable individual amoung the mantle and the mursaat with any real power at this point and so that alone gives him importance.

He has to be significant, because anything less would make him pointless. Sometimes you need a villian to monologue, have evil plans, and do terrible things to “give” the player a reason to even care about them.

The protagonist, you, cannot just be motivated by a simple desire for loot and glory. Your the Pact Commander, your role is to protect the world from the Dragons, and that does extend beyond them to threats outside the Dragons themselves.

Lazarus can fill that void, he is the only antagonist so far within the proximity of the settings current storyline that has enough power and influence to be your greatest personal nemesis.

If Xera’s claim is true then the Mantle has been around in more than just the culture of Human society, but among the Asura, Sylvari, Norn and Charr while it rebuilt itself.

It has had “time” to regain itself, regain its strength and influence new allies into its ranks.

See the Mantle has something that Joko, the dark gods and the Dragons do not.

It represents in many ways, your literal nemesis, the anti-pact, the force devoted to something other than trying to save the world, it represents trying to “rule” the world itself and that in many ways makes it a very interesting villian.

And if You are the leader of your faction, then Lazarus, must be the leader of his, he must be important.

By that logic, as an antagonist, he cannot simply be killed off after 2 encounters, he needs “many” encounters to become a constant annoyance until we are genuinley tired of him and want him so dead we could personally leap into his face and stab it.

Antagonists succeed when they are that annoying, that impeding, which is why Scarlet worked well, because even if she was mostly just a bragging rights antagonist who said “I did it” half the time, and didnt really “do” much visually for us she showed how much she had expanded her reach. She also showed when attacking LA that she was “more” than capable of backing a threat.

Lazarus has the potential to surpass even Scarlet in scale and actions, because unlike Scarlet, he has the patience, years of experience and wisdom to succeed where she failed. To kill Jennah, to upset the unity between humanity and charr, to destroy the trust between the Norn and Asura.

He has been party to a race already “known” to undermine loyalty and build its own power base, which is after all how the mantle itself even rose to power.

So yes…

Lazarus “is” important.

As for the Egg…

The Zephyrites most likely know of it in some way or form considering that it was around as early as the second visit to Labarynthine Cliffs. Any number of people could have seen the glowing cargo the Zephyrites Carried with them and more.

The Knowladge of the Egg is not that sacred, what it actually is “may” be but the fact that it exists isnt.

Finding it wouldnt be that hard, plus it is guarded in Tarir, which is hardly a hidden city.

You also have to remember that the most powerful sorceror species on this current setting was none other than the Mursaat themselves.

So if anyone could sense powerful magic nearby, its going to be Lazarus.

Joko wont be a villian tbh, as much as it is plausable.

Joko to me is more likley the “necessary” evil he was in GW1, we are going to need him against Kralkatorrik, the future beyond that may change, but I definatley think at the very least, Joko will be an ally, before he is an enemy though probably one we have very tense truces with.

Also, Scarlet wasnt that great no, but the idea behind her was brilliant, her introduction and death were her two most flawless pieces particularly the latter which symbolised just how far she was willing to go for her cause.

The story definately “is” important too, but I feel like GW2 lacks a baddie that actually feels personal at this present point.

Faolain was a downright sin, wasting her like that was patheticly bad even if it served to eliminate Eir in the process.

But Mordremoth was downright proof that dragons will never be interesting villians, so far they have absoleutely failed to make them engaging or threatening beyond their inital presence. Frankly, I think Mordy would have been “more” interesting if he never talked even once and simply used trip visions to get into Vari’s heads instead.

Mordy didnt need a voice, but Lazarus? Lazarus is honestly one of the big ones. Messing up Lazarus would be fatal for the storytelling as it would be proof they simply cant write a good villian and so far they have made that mistake at least 2 times.

A third would be the final nail in the coffin, Lazarus “cannot” be boring, as a bad guy, they “need” to give him layers, “alot” of layers, even the potential to grow along side the protagonist, even change his viewpoints or way of thinking.

He cant just be another random obsticle to us, he needs to be the most iconic antagonist so far we have ever encountered.

Now…

Granted… Dhuum, Menzies (Menzies especially tbh) and Joko have potential to be someone.

We also have potential in the form of Cantha’s current Empire which was left isolated and potentially xenophobic turning it into a tyrannical empire. The last we know of cantha in GW2 is that it merged the vassal nations of the Kurzic and Luxon people into itself once again and has become somewhat more hostile to outsiders. This suggests the Canthans themselves could be a villian blindly driven into a human supremist agenda.

Elona however, I see as a hostile friend, Joko will be “needed” as ive said, to defeat Krally, albiet bitter-sweet, he will probably use us as much as we use him which will probably lead to an eventual betrayal but not until “after” hes done with the dragon, too many dangers.

Theres even Saul himself, whos fate is unknown, he could be a hero, he could be a villian, and we have Mai-Trin of the Aether Pirates and Caudecus.

Who knows…

Theres alot of faces right now, what we need however, is one that wont be forgotten any time soon, someone whos personality, depth and layers dwarf any other villian in GW2 to this point.

And whos story can carry the plot even beyond their own storyline.

Though I do hope they dont pull a Matyrdom twist with Lazarus like they did with Scarlet, he needs a far more simple death than she had.

My own theory for Lazarus

I would ideally like Lazarus to be inavertly or even directly responsible for the Death of Queen Jennah, plummeting Kryta into utter chaos. I also want him to force the Pact Commander into an unwinnable situation, launching an attack on Tarir in order to take the Egg (he probably found out about it from the pact prisoners) while maybe Krally attacks Ebonhawke.

We are forced to abbandon the egg in order to save Ebonhawke, which allows Lazarus to take it for some nefarius agenda (like trying to create and control an elder dragon).

Eh, fanon there but… you get the point, its possible he would seal himself in the golden city and its various provinces, using them as a fort to hold off the invaders (you) from the city using mantle soldiers and traps and bloodstone monstrocities.