Guild Wars 2

AlphaK.9486:

Chrispy.5641:

You can actually do more damage with the new skill set up now… I tried this today already all across PvE and WvW…

You can then stealth, then regain opening strike with the Remorseless Trait, apply 5 more stacks of vulnerability + 5 more from your pet.

Remorseless only reapplies opening strike to the ranger, not to the pet. I tested it in the mists just to be sure.

sorry, I made a mistake. Remorseless doesn’t reapply Opening Strike for your Pet when you gain stealth, because only you gain stealth. But I Know it works for when you kill an enemy. Sry for the mix up. But thats still 5 more stacks of might than you would of had with the old setup.

A Little While ago, There was a thread complaining that only Lion’s Arch gets all the love. It was This thread:::
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/cutthroat/Why-does-ArenaNet-Glorify-Lion-s-Arch/first#post2440132

Then we got this reply from Anet:::

Kryta will get their day.

That is all.

So, yeah, its Definitley Kryta Related. I am 100% sure, and I bet the next person who replies 15 Gold that I am Right on that!

Things to note in the picture is that the Figure in the Foreground is a Male Centaur. You can tell by the shape of the face and all the horns. The Figures in the Background look like they are Female Centaurs, but you can’t really tell because the picture cuts off just at the spot where theiy should become less humanoid and more Horse. The armor they are wearing doesn’t look like anything in the game though, especially those helmets, but those could actually just be horns.

Another MAJOR thing I want to point out are the Triangle Shaped Banners in the Background on the top. They look exactly like what is in the Attached Screenshot. That is a Screenshot of Divinity’s Reach!!!

So what could it Mean?!? The Centaurs have Invaded Divinity’s Reach…And they Won!?!?! The Harathi or Tamini or another Tribe have Proposed an Alliance because they are tired of being stepped on by the Modniir?!? An Elder Dragon is making them work together with Humans?!? Some new Development in the War that Involves another Evil Faction making an alliance with Centaurs?!?

I have no idea!!! and I really hate the fact that Anet is making me wait 6 more days to find out! And I could be 100% wrong which makes me really wonder what the heck the full piece of Concept art looks like (..in all probability, it’ll be datamined from the .dat file in about…6 hours ago…)

Also, This guy:::
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Outcast_Qindova

Edit:: Also, Also, has anyone been to Divinity’s Reach recently? Other Threads have asked about this, and you can now see a Giant Tent over the Great Collapse, along with a Few other things,…which, just makes me wonder even more what’s happening in two weeks?!?

You can actually do more damage with the new skill set up now… I tried this today already all across PvE and WvW…

If you have opening Strike, you can use Rapid Fire, apply 10 stacks of vulnerability + 5 from opening strike, +5 from your pet. You can then stealth, then regain opening strike with the Remorseless Trait, apply 5 more stacks of vulnerability + 5 more from your pet. This equals 30, but the first stacks of vulnerability you applied are already going to be worn off, plus you can;t go higher than 25 anyways, but by then, you should have that barrage already going, and Rapid Fire and Hunter’s Shot are already almost recharged, so you can just apply more vulnerability. Rapid Fire is even more loads of awesome if you have the Piercing Arrows Trait as well!

You don’t really have to use stealth for any other purpose than to apply a quick, free, extra 10 stacks of vulnerability on top of what you already have, which is what I use it for most of the time.

Just got to say, Hunter’s Call has pretty much always been that powerful with its ability to apply lots of bleeds if you have the right traits (Sharpened Edges), gear (I recommend Rampager’s or Rabid though there are strengths and weaknesses in both sets of stats), and sigils (Earth). You should also use consumables that extend the duration of your condition damage. There is absolutely nothing new about this.

Also, Other useful skills with a sigil of Earth and Sharpened Edges is Rapid Fire, Barrage, or Whirling Defense. Barrage is by far the best skill to use with it….but Whirling Defense might be better now with the update though because of that Retaliation.

Prysin.8542:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBlYDbkoqyOwSxi1OQ0ewJzjp3jYx+27KMqMW6BZSA-jAzAorIjyAoGAEEI6DcWsIas1tioxqmDkyGTpqUb9F0cJK1CB8dMA-e

build completed for you already. Been using that since patch came out. It will give you a steady high DPS. Nothing undramatic. Just pure good old pounding em down. No fancy conditions either.

Simply brutal healing and good old fashioned damage.

That is very similar to what I’ve been using for months:::

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAT8fjEVJ29VeVg2Bi2DO1fM9eEL23eXhRlxTPITC-jgyAoNBZqBAJAmKAlFLiGbHoIasKbMdJRUt1HzlQEVLDg5YA-e

Raven.9603:

Any pet that gives me a bonus to something when I put it on passive, so that it is useful in dungeons and large scale wvw, where the only pets alive are the ones on passive.

Stuff, like, If I put the Fern Hound on Passive, then regenerates health slowly for me and it, like the Signet of the Wild does? Or I put the Eagle on Passive, then I get a small chance to apply bleeding with every attack? Bear would improve my toughness, etc?

Because if pets could have a bonus for being on Passive, that would be kind of Awesome. Makes more sense than my idea!

I feel bad for selling it for 90g now (when I bought it for 20). I should have waited!

Simon.3106:

Guess no one likes my joke. -_- I never had that much humor anyways.

Oh no, I got your joke….He runs away right?

Prysin.8542:

knockback with piercing is fun when you are behind a door and a zerg rushes in…. whole zerg are sent flying. especially fun at garri inner (above water gate)

That’s what I use it for!

I thought about this for a few days,…and my wish….

I Wish Anet would Replace the Magic Find stat with a Profession Attribute Bonus.
Make it small, like no more than 20 total for your armor and 20 total for your trinkets, and 5 total for your weapons.

There, Pets have a 450 point bonus to each of their primary attributes; other classes have a 45% bonus to their Profession Attribute. It just requires that one of your three armor stats be replaced with it! I think its a fair trade! Anyone else agree?

oh wait, a wish for a new pet…..I want a Skale! Those Fish/Reptile/Salamander looking things are Awesome looking!

Simon.3106:

It would be extremely OP if it was possible though. Good choice. Bryzy, if you can, please try piercing shot with rapid shot and see vulnerable stacks with all units. I want to do AOE Vulnerable to my enemies in pvp. I would appreciate it. =)

haven’t tried that yet since patch isn’t live yet, but If you have the Sharpened Edges and Piercing Arrows traits active, you can apply all sorts of bleeding in a large group of enemies with your bow attacks. You can also apply any of the other effects as well with Piercing arrows, such as the knockback with Point Blank Shot and the Stun with Concussion Shot. Vulnerability should work that way too (…I hope…)

Zenith.7301:

5% extra damage every 9.25 seconds is useless when in a PvE settings warriors can already get the boss to max vulnerability cap before the boss dies.

There are simply classes that do vulnerability much better than us, and if you’re using rapid fire on a boss to stack vulnerability you should be kicked from the group anyways as any competent group expects melee stacking for much better damage and boon stacking.

In a PvP encounter burst is far more valuable a tool than a few stacks of vulnerability that get cleansed immediately from light and water fields.

And when you are in a nice, empty, far flung part of the game world Like Orr where you are the only person around usually, and you have to solo the groups of enemies and champion yourself (which I do most of the time anyway)? You can apply that 5% extra damage alot more often than every 9.25 seconds. I also don’t run the Marksmanship trait line when in Dungeons, which gets rid of the need to ever worry about it anyways.

@OP
I understand why you are angry at the skill change, but have you been reading the Ranger Forums at all? Its like every day, a new thread gets posted talking (really, Whining is more the word) about how useless the Longbow is, and how Skills 2 and 3 need to be combined and something else needs to be put on Skill 3. So yeah, If Anet even sort of, maybe, possibly listened to the suggestions in the forums, everyone saw this change comming for months now.

@*Everyone Else*
Darkace and Zenith have a good point, instead of straight up 10 stacks of vulnerability (20 with opening strikes), you have a gradual increase, and a gradual decrease. You will have as much vulnerability as you did before, but you have to work more for it now, using Stealth, and a kill in combination with Remorseless in order to get it up that high. But since Opening Strike doesn’t stack, there is more oppurtunities to mess it up now too.

@Zentih
I always take Remorseless over Beastmasters, because despite the increase in damage, its an increase in damage for 8 seconds every 48 seconds (or 60 untraited). The Remorseless trait gives you opening strike every time you kill an enemy, with no recharge, which means Opening Strike can get reapplied constantly over those 60 seconds over what Signet of the Wild gives you. That makes it stronger for doing damage, and faster, atleast I think so.

I would like to know where the Skritt King intends to get more Shinies for everyone to enjoy? Oh wait! I know! He intends to Tax it from the Super Rich, such as Evon Gnashblade, whose fortune is estimated to be at 100 Billion Gold, and the Skritt King intends to just give it to the people?

Well, if Business and Politics has taught me anything, its when you place a higher tax on goods or services, those goods or services tend to cost the consumer more, like me. I would rather pay 800 gems for a new set of armor skins, not 1600, thank-you. And I would rather the Black Lion Trading Company’s listing fees and taxes not double either.

Thus in good conscious, I cannot vote for the Skritt King. His policies would be bad for the economy!

Silent The Gray.3091:

No enemies/The option to turn them off

No enemies would make this much easier for everyone because we wouldn’t have to deal with the decreased movement speed. Maybe give people the option to play with enemies or not.

Please consider these and make any suggestions you feel are worthwhile.

This is the only one I don’t like. Some Jumping Puzzles are only difficult to complete because of the enemies (like Chaos Crystal Cavern or the Shattered Ice Ruins), otherwise you would just run straight through them in about 90 seconds each.

If its really too hard to kill the enemies in that 1st puzzle I mentioned, then run back to do the puzzle in about 3 minutes before too many enemies respawn, then there is nothing Anet is going to be abe to do with jumping puzzles to make you happy.

In the Second puzzle I mentioned, the Shattered Ice Ruins, you can actually make about half of the jumps even when in combat, and all the enemies are easily within melee range.

A Realistic observation :::

Anet :: “Alright, we Cave. We’ll listen to the community and combine LB Skills 2 and 3, and redo skill 3. We’ll also give the Ranger a Blast Finish, and we’ll do some other cool things like give them Retaliation when using Whirling defense.”

The Rangers of Guild Wars 2 : “Yeah Anet! WooHoo! You are Awesome! The Ranger is the Best Class Evar now! YAY!”

….2 weeks later…..

The Rangers of Guild Wars 2 : “ZOMG! We Hate you Anet! The Ranger Sucks! Its the Worst Class Ever! I’m Rage Quitting! You Need to make our worthless pets stronger! Why don’t we do enough damage with Long bow!?! OMG!”

On another note entirely though that isn’t insulting in any way….

JonPeters.5630:

Among other benefits the stealth on hunters also let’s you cast the beginning of barrage without detection.

Instead of using Stealth to start off Barrage, I was thinking of using it in WvW to run into a group of players, use Entangle, then dodge out of the way and let my group ram into them…, or immediately use Barrage with a Zerker build before anyone knows what hit them.

I already used this to great effect in WvW without the stealth, I’ll flank the Group and run straight into them using Entangle, then immediatly use Barrage. Normally half of them are already downed before they knew what hit them because rarely does a group of players pay attention to their sides or behind, only whats directly infront of them!

Skady.5916:

p.s. Can we also get viable mainhand melee weapon? I mean all that ‘fix root on sword’ ‘rolling off the cliff’ ‘jumping around the target like crazy’ thing. New mainhand weapon like dagger would be amazing!

also, I want to say that I like the sword the way it is, especially the rooting, and the jumping around the target like crazy,….but randomly jumping off of a cliff is starting to get a little old. And Please, God! No Dagger! Make a weapon that is actually useful, unique and not Thief-like in any way!

Not a bad summary. And I do agree with the Hyena, as there is only one instance where I ever found it to be useful,…..Running away.

Uhm…why should we do that?

1) Keep the Sword exactly as it is! My reasoning for this is that Anet gave us two different skills on the sword that involves you jumping backwards and rolling around all over the place to evade attacks. If you haven’t learned how to use those, then you probably have no business using the sword in PvP or WvW
(And for advanced players : to escape a fight really fast, use skill 2, then lightning reflexes, then turn around (you can use a hotkey to turn around instantly), and start running. If you are stunned, then use Lightning reflexes first since it breaks stun. You will be way ahead of your attackers this way. During two of those steps, you are evading just about everything, and you haven’t even dodged yet (plus, LR gives you 10s of Vigor for extra dodging!))

2) Keep the Greatsword exactly as it is, even the rooting that occurs with Crippling Throw! My reasoning for this is that Anet gave you a skill that makes you travel foward very fast, and it recharges every 12 seconds. Plus there are more than enough ways for a Ranger to cripple or stop an enemy’s movement while giving chase.
(It involves using your pets and traps, or switching to the longbow or shortbow and applying cripple that way, then switching back to the greatsword when you can)

3) Don’t Touch the Longbow, and definitely don’t mess with its increased damage with Range. My reasoning for this is that when you are at maximum range, with a fully loaded Zerker build, you can do atleast 3500-4500 damage with your auto attack, if you go with applying your 20 stacks of vulnerability (10 from you, 5 from opening strike, 5 from the pet’s opening strike), and with buffs and might, you can do over 9,000 damage. I’ve done it before. You can also auto attack with the longbow roughly every second. Do you think its fair to hit someone for 9,001 damage every second at point blank range without doing anything on an autoattack? You can also use rapid fire, and I have clocked myself at doing around 15,000 damage with it, at any range. And even a moderate damage build would be able to deal a thousand damage a second at point blank range if the longbow were changed. This is far too imbalanced, and even combining skills 2 and 3 would be way to imbalanced.

Also, if you shoot an enemy that is actually at point blank range, the Knockback is just as effective to any melee attacker as several seconds of Stun, because they get knocked back, and then they have to travel back to you to keep attacking. Plus it has a 15 second recharge time, which makes it just as effective, if not more so than any skill in the game for stun or daze, if you learn how to use it right. Its even better if you get the trait that lets longbow skills recharge 20% faster (quickdraw).

Barrage is good with any build because of how long the cripple lasts, and I often use the longbow for that purpose, and it has helped me solo many group events and bosses, and control just about any WvW situation, even without any power or precision stats.

4) You don’t have to be behind anything to bleed them. You only have to be to the side, and not by even that much. Use your pet to pull the aggro (you have it for a reason), then run slightly to the side and fire away!

Sorry to be Troll-like, but, your suggestions Suck, and would not improve the Ranger class in any way. It would just make us more Thief / Warrior like, and I like not being either of them!

Nah, I’d rather concentrate all my hate on another Dimension in WvW. Hating someone across the street is so much harder work.

As long as my armor and weapons get changed into something with different stats, I’m happy! I would be really sad to see my weapons with skins from Dragon Bash disapear, skins that I worked so hard to get (I opened like 6,000 boxes to get them!)

If you are talking about me, I never played it…. is that a Facebook game or something?

Dodge could remain as it is,…but what if we could use traits to add an effect onto the dodge? Oh, wait! We already can! And I see no benefit to letting some classes Block instead of dodge (like ranger’s and thieves) Nevermind….

…..Maybe we could get some new traited effects for dodging in future updates like we are getting new skills?

- For example, whatever direction the Ranger Dodges in, a trail of thorns grows in the line they dodged in. Enemies that walk into that line are immobilized and take bleeding damage for a second or two.

- A Thief had the Uncatchable Trait that applies bleed and cripple when they dodge. Maybe they could get another trait that creates a poison cloud from where they dodge that applies poison if an enemy walks into it as well.

- A Warrior could get a trait that makes a single dodge take up their entire endurance bar, but they get a unique dodging animation with it, and their Dodge becomes Ram, and they literally Ram into enemies and Knocking them back however far the Warrior’s dodge is, plus a little extra. The longer the enemy is in the Warrior’s path, the more damage they take.

This would be cool to see.

Tengu – Are the most likely of all we have seen so far, because they on par with intelligence with the other playable races, and they have their own potential capital city and territory in the game already (not available to us, but its on the map). It was also considered as a playable race in the past. They also have a very different way of thinking from the playable races (then again, so do the Skritt)

Kodan – Lower on the list, but I can see it, if Anet ever makes ‘Black Bear’ and ’Grizzley Bear" varieties instead of them all being giant polar bears. Theres not much other variety though since none of them have hair in the game, they have an even coating of fur. Maybe let us add scars or something?

Largos – Please Anet, save it for an underwater Expansion when we go lay the smackdown on the Deep Sea Dragon. We know next to nothing about these guys, except that their faces are always covered with masks(possibly since they can’t breath above water? Which would be cool, since the Largos could be the opposite of other playable races, and could wear regular helmets under water, and breathing masks above water)

Centaurs – The Animations would be wonky, and be hard to make work, plus they are constantly at war with the humans, and seeing them suddenly become a peaceful race would be wierd gamewise.

Skritt – Skritt are complete and total dimwits when they are alone. I can’t see them becoming a playable race in any way since the only way they would be smart enough to do anything except go “Shiney!!!” is if there are more than one(well, 10 or 20) of them around. Other “primitive” races include the Jotun, Ogres, Hylek, Quaggan, etc.

Dredge – (I am assuming that when we go into the Depths in a future expansion to fight the Destroyers, there will still be a bunch of stone dwarves around, and they will be friendlies) Since we are friendly to Dwarves, the Dredge automatically hate us, and want us to die. Not to mention the fact that they have allied with the Inquest and the Flame Legion in the past….yeah…..

Undead – …..THIS IS NOT WORLD OF WARCRAFT!!!!

Krait and Naga – (putting this into one) They HATE other races, and the Krait regularly enslave not just the Quaggan but other races as well. They are enemies just like the Dredge. The Naga are probably extinct in Cantha because of their no non-humans policy.

A New Race entirely – Shoot, this is just as possible at this point, Since the Charr and Norn are pretty limited to the Shiverpeaks and Ascalon, and so are the Tengu in the center of the map. The Asura might have a far flung city somewhere thanks to their asura gates. All Playable Sylvari all come from the Pale Tree, but there is a Sylvari in the game that came from a different Tree. Other than that, outside the Tyrian Continent, there are lots and lots of humans. We don’t know what else lives out there.

Polearm….
Halberd
Spear
Pike
Glaive
Pollaxe
Naginata

These are by definition, not magical weapons, so why would only the Scholar professions be using them? I could see any class using any one of these, especially since some classes could use them like a Martial(close range) weapon, some classes could use them to throw like a Javelin, or both at the same time. Some classes would use them like its a Magic weapon (like how the mesmer uses greatswords). I guess Anet will tell us when they feel like putting them in the game.

Exactly what Dan described is my general opinion.

The Way the skill books existed before in beta takes you completely out of the game to show the monster’s model and gives you about two sentences describing that monster. It didn’t look like a very complete system in the youtube videos that showed it, and there has to be a reason why it was removed. However, Anet said yesterday in that blog post that they are going to be adding and expanding the way we get skill points. Maybe this is getting put back into the game? (hopefully its better than what it was. Just having something for the sake of having something is not good enough if the system itself has problems.)

It also sort of reminded me of how Elder Scrolls does their’s (but no monster model). You find a book out in the world, and you can immediatly use it and read it. It actually opens a model of the book and displays the text of the book right there, on the pages. But it pauses the game to do so. Most of the Elder Scrolls Books also just simply tell in-game stories, and little else.

The way Dragon age does it, is that you pause the game and you go into the codex, and you can read some pretty expansive texts on just about anything in the game world. It also has a few in-game poems and stories to read as well. Also as you find new books, it gets automatically added to the codex instead of wasting a heck of alot of inventory space like Guild Wars 2 used to do in beta with their skill books, and how Elder Scrolls does.

The problem with all three of these systems is that you have to pause/leave the game world in order to read them/ see the models. The thing with Guild Wars 2 is that it’s a persistent world, and the Claw of Jormag isn’t going to wait for you to finish reading the lore and move out of the way before he lands! So, not pausing the game, or not going to a seperate cutscene would be the best way to do it. Doing it like how you read your personal story straight out of the Hero panel would be the best in my opinion, because with that way, you can close the hero panel when the Centaur across the way is shooting arrows at your face! You can just go slaughter him, then continue reading on top of his corpse.

Even if it just shows a piece of art, and has a relatively short length like the personal story stuff would be more than enough for me. And At the very least, we should have stuff like this for the Living Story and Dungeons as we complete them! That should have been in the game from the start.
(TL;DR….Man…I can’t write a short post if my life depended on it! sry!)

yandere.9176:

Well, we all know which male Sylvari could lead a new Destiny’s Edge to glory.
Of course the man whos second in command killed the Elder Dragon Zhaitan. No other than Marshal Trahearne himself!

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

…also, there have been alot of Asura characters created since the whole living story started. Do we really need any more?

Did you check to see if there were other ways to get Celestial armor in the game? You can’t get everything, but you can already get a full set of Ascended Celestial Trinkets, and you can get an Exotic Celestial Accessory (after collecting 1,000 karka shellls!).

Have you also considered that there are alot of players with maxed out crafting levels, and can already craft Celestial armor in, like, five minutes, not several hours like you are implying.

But I do agree, We need to be able to get any armor stat we want to, either by crafting, by Karma, by Laurels, or by Collecting items to trade for them (like dungeons and WvW). As it stands, there are only some armor types you can get from any one of these things.

And as far as account bound goes (for getting armor by any of those methods), why shouldn’t it be account bound? You’re telling me that you just want to buy the armor instead of doing the hard work to get it yourself? That’s not even playing the game (well, it is technically Grinding COF or another dungeon until you get the gold to buy it, but still…)

I would::::

1) Continue to give players in-game mail, because suddenly having someone from Destiney’s Edge or some other random in-game character show up out of the middle of nowhere when I log in in some random remote location to tell me about the latest and greatest sounds extremely game and story breaking to me.

2) Let Players read a summary of the Living Story in the Hero Panel (like the living story tab) in sections Only if they completed those sections (like reading the letter you get from an in-game character explaining those events to you is saved in a new, Living Story tab, and you can go re-read it whenever you want), just like how you should get to read sections of your personal story after you complete those sections. Why should a newer player get to read about it if they never did it to begin with?

3) I would have permanent changes to areas in the game (like the addition of Cragstead for example), and add a new Map/Zone/Whatever every few month (Like Southsun Cove).

4) I would have temporary story content, but once its gone, its gone forever. The Molten Alliance invaded six months ago. Why should they still be invading in December, if all the other events that happened are a direct result of this story content? The World doesn’t seem like time passes in any meaningful way if the storylines stay there and overlap forever!

5) I would not do away with RNG chests. I would make it so the first weapon claim ticket is a freebie, but only after completing the meta achievement or a smaller achievement in the living story release. If you want more weapon skins than that, then you might want to start working for them!

Sorry if this sounds kind of Troll(y), but there is very little I disagree with as far as the living story goes so far, except….

6) I would not add another half-baked mini-game, or any new gameplay types at all unless there was atleast a month or longer of extensive beta testing to ensure it works as intended.

I’m kind of wondering what the reason was that Anet removed them from the game… Bugs? Too much graphic resources were wasted? Maybe people playing in Beta didn’t like the fact that they were running around the world collecting books that wasted inventory space? People were getting attacked in the middle of combat and couldn’t see because they were in the middle of a cutscene? It made people invulnerable while watching the cutscene, and it ended up being an exploit instead?

I kind of want to see something like those youtube videos in the game, but I don’t want to go into a cutscene that comepletly blocks my view of whats going on in the rest of the game. I like not dying, unless I know about it and it was my fault. Maybe let us see the Model, Like how the weapon and armor preview window works? Or if that wastes too much resources, maybe show us some cool concept art of those creatures instead, as well as the lore that goes with it?

I also want to see Lore that talks about the Locations and Religion/Mythology in the game as well, not just a Bestiary of monsters.

For those that TL;DR everything I have written so far….I just want more Lore In-Game, But don’t remove any of the Supplemental content from the website either. Those are just as necessary to draw people into the game!

@celicynd

Which is why I suggested that finding these books automatically makes an entry in a seperate Lore tab on the hero panel, kind of like how the personal story tab is set up (which adds entries whenever we complete a personal story step.)

Speaking of which, we should have stuff like that for dungeons and living story content too so we can go back and read an overview of those stories and what we already did and learned in those parts of the game.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

We have more than one type of employee at the company. No matter how much the content designers can add to the world, there’s always going to be resources dedicated to building supplemental content for the web site. It’s not a matter of preference; the people who write those lore pieces are taking the time to contribute extra material to the release. I think the only other option would be for them to not do at all.

There are other options. For one, Keep the Stories comming on the internet, because me and other people like reading them when we aren’t neck deep in the game somewhere. I like reading that ‘supplemental’ content.

As far as in-game goes,….as serious as you guys are about your backstory and lore, the in-game presentation of it is is scattered and disorganized. In some areas, you’ll find books and other stuff scatered around, and you can get a pretty good idea of the story. In other areas, you know next to nothing about it other than the name of the area. Some of the backstory conflicts with each other, which is fine, since every other fantasy game / novel in existence does that anyways.

A Suggestion that I would like to make for future Living Story content….(I’ll leave it here, since this thread is in the living story part of the forums anyways)

Make a System like the Codex entries that exists in Dragon Age : Origins and Dragon Age II. If we are running around, and we find a book/scroll/etc. Create an entry from that book in a Lore Tab inside of the Hero Panel, so we can go back to it and read it whenever we want to.

When we find these books, maybe we could have an in-game date that corresponds to when it was written, using any of the calender systems in the game. We could come across an old Canthan Scroll, and the date it was written is in the Canthan Calender, but we come across an Elonian book, and its date is by Dynastic Reckoning. Most of the stuff we find in Tyria would naturally be by the Mouvelian Calender.

Maybe instead of finding books all the time we purchase a few of them from scholars and smart people.

Other ways to make an entry would be to meet a specific person or organization/guild and have a lore entry made for that.

Also Organize the Lore according to whatever it is about, Geography, People, Monsters and Races, Notable Bosses, Religion, Elder Dragons, Historic Characters, Entries on Legendary weapons, Major events, Guilds, bits of story and lore (like what’s the whole story beind some of the ruins inside the jumping puzzles), etc.

Also when we find these books, don’t just have a single book we find for a single entity or event. For Example, there are atleast three different versions of Melandru in the game. Let us come across a modern human book written on the goddess that was written in 1320 AE, and make that a seperate entry, but let us come across a different point of view, like, we find an old tablet somewhere in Ascalon, and it’s the Charr’s original veiw of Melandru, dated for like 500 AE or something. Then, later, we come across something that ends up being the Quaggan’s view of the Goddess, who believe she is seperate from their goddess Mellaggan, but everyone else thinks they are the same being. Maybe we find a book that explains the Asura’s point of view and how she fits into the eternal Alchemy. Or, we come across an Old Canthan Scroll on the beach at Lion’s Arch, and it tells of their belief that Melandru was killed by the Jade Wind or something.

Scattering these books, scrolls, etc. all over Tyria would also give people a reason to re-explore an area that they haven’t been to in six months or more.

Yeah, creating this lore system would be ALOT of work, and you guys at Anet would probably have to write some backstory that you probably didn’t think of before, but honestly, I would much rather see an Expansion on the Lore and backstory side of the game in a Living Story udpate, rather than playing yet another mini game. The way you present the Lore in the game in its scattered and broken way (as in barely presenting it at all) also seems like an extension or an afterthought most of the time too. Look at how the Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age presents there lore in-game, and it is lightyears ahead of what you have currently.

Honestly, I can’t think of a single thing in Guildwars 2 that is MANDATORY in order to play the game and have fun.

I have a theory regarding that here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/My-Theories-on-the-Dragons/first#post2403021 (go to part 3)

Also, The Forgotten, (if there are any left), Worshipped the Human Gods in gw1. Not just humans worshipped them. Though, you are right, Not many races would appreciate the human gods comming back to Tyria to fight the dragons. The Jotun for example, believe that the gods took magic away from them, and would probably join the dragons against them, (though other sources say the Seers took the magic away).

last thing, the last time the gods interfered, It was Abaddon that gave humans magic, and it was the war between the other gods and Abaddon that turned the Crystal Sea into the Crystal Desert (I explain that in part 2 of that same thread). Well, Abaddon’s gone, so, that can’t be it. But the amount of Earth Shattering change the Gods brought with that one war would pale in comparison to fighting six dragons with the same power. That would do more damage than just letting the Elder Dragons rampage on their own.

Kralkatorrik, from all the information I can gather, including from ::: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kralkatorrik

Everything didn’t JUST become branded JUST because he was JUST that powerful. His Breath corrupted anything it touched, which meant that his breath has ALOT of magic in it, which means that the very act of using his Breath to turn the land black, creating his minions in the process, drained his magic as he flew over Ascalon. And if the dragons are so powerful they are ‘Dripping’ magic, that means that they are gradually losing their magical energies that way as well. That means that they are so powerful, their own bodies couldn’t contain the magical energies they had when they awoke (not even including all they consumed so far), so I have to wonder why they even bothered to go back to sleep in the last cycle? And, where’s the source that Zhaitan is/was the weakest, or is it just specultion because we killed him first? And, where is the source that says that the elder dragon’s aren’t really smart, that their champions do all the work and thinking for them?

Kralkatorrik for example, Knew that his Champion Glint betrayed him, from before the last time he went to sleep, so the first thing he did when he woke up, was go and and kill her traitorous butt. You think a Dumb Force of Nature would have enough intelligence to do that? These things obviously have intelligence.

And have you considered the reason we haven’t fought any other Elder Dragons is BECAUSE we killed Zhaitan? The other Elder Dragons are probably afraid of the Races of Tyria now because of what we did, and are now thinking of a different strategy to take us out so they can continue their quest to consume everything.

PART FIVE

The reason’s I explained above are also possible to explain why Kralkatorrik was so weak when Destiney’s edge fought it. When it created the DragonBrand, it probably used most of its power doing so. It also landed in the Crystal desert, which is almost completely devoid of life, and no senitent race lived there, so there isn’t much in the way of magic for it to consume. So, I think that Kralkatorrik is the Weakest Elder Dragon right now, in terms of the ones still alive.

I think that Primordus is the Most powerful of the Elder Dragons since it has been awake the longest, and it has been consuming all manner of Asuran Artifacts, as well as those of the Dwarves, any Skritt Empires if they exist, and countless other civilizations that used to exist beneath Tyria.

I think that Jormag is probaly the middle power (but something we don’t know could put him much higher on the list), because he has a great many magical artifacts of the Norn and Kodan that he has probably consumed and corrupted already, not to mention any other Race that exists out there in the Far Shiverpeaks and beyond.

I can’t tell where the Deap Sea Dragon is in Power, because I am unsure of what is in the deep parts of the Ocean, other than Krait, Quaggan, Largos, and Karka, but he is probably quite powerful.

Lastly, there is the Jungle Dragon, which we know almost nothing about because it is still sleeping.

I can support some of this further if you read that short story about the Zephry Sanctum, when they describe that the Magic the Dragon’s consume isn’t destroyed. (I think it only changes forms), and it would just simply take the Forgotten’s cleansing spell (or what was used at the Artesian Waters in the Personal Storyline), to cleanse the Elder Dragon’s corruption.

Alright Lets Review the major points of this section (also for those who TL;DR)::

1) Most of Tyria’s magic is sealed in the Bloodstones, and the Elder Dragons do not have access to it.

2) Even comparing the feats of the Elder Dragon’s to the Gods, they don;t really compare to the Gods.

3) We cut off Zhaitan’s sources of power by killing the Mouth of Zhaitan, the Eye of Zhaitan, and do several other things.

4) Zhaitan is as much to blame for his downfall as we are. In his fear, he created as many dragon champions and other creatures as he could to try to destroy us, that drained his own power, and made him weak enough for the combined might of five races of Tyria to bring him down, once and for all.

5) Other Elder Dragon’s work in the same way. Kralkatorrik for example lost most of his power when he created the Dragonbrand, and hasn’t been able to regain his original power yet.

6) Magic is like Matter and Energy. It cannot be created or Destroyed. It only changed forms.

Alright, I think this long, long, post covers all the points that I though of and wanted to cover. I am 100% sure that someone will poke over 9,000 holes in it. Just post some sources backing up your claims so I can read them. And with that, lets see what people think, or will come up with…

PART FOUR

Alright, lets get to why the Dragons were so weak that a band of Humans, Char, Asura, Norn, Sylvari, and assorted minor races with a super powerful magical weapon were able to kill it.

First, we know that most of Tyria’s magic is sealed in the Bloodstones.

We don’t know if its 99%, or 51%, but we know it is ALOT. Going back to the Human Gods, when they went to War with Abaddon, they struck him down at the Mouth of Torment, and this blow was enough to turn all of the Crystal Sea, into the Crystal Desert. The Gods also had the almost unlimited power to shape Tyria however they saw fit. Going to the Dragons, When they Rose, each of them did Terrible things, but none quite as much as what the Gods could accomplish.

Tyria world map as of Gw1::: http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/a/ac/Tyria_world_fan_map.jpg

For example, going back to Guild wars 1, we can look at the world map, and see that Orr actually has quite a bit of it above ground, so when Zhaitan raised a continent, he didn’t actually raise that much, but, even basic physics will tell you that raising a bit of a continent will cause the water that was there to move elsewhere, and that’s what happened. It flooded Lion’s Arch, and the Crystal Desert. Imagine if Zhaitan had the Combined power of the gods (I imagine that he could immediately corrupt almost any living thing in a thousand miles of where he was at)…..

Now, we’re just going to mainly stick with Zhaitan with the rest of this posting, because he is the one we know the most about, but I’ll describe others too.

We Know that through missions in Guild Wars 2, we cut off the source of Zhaitan’s food, which was magical artifacts. We also cut off the ships that carried dead bodies to Zhaitan which prevented him from raising a larger army. This cut off his power a little bit, but it was not what made him so weak that we could kill him.

The fact that we were cutting away his source of magic at the source, and destroying the dead before they could reach his influence, meant that Zhaitan was getting scared, and was getting desperate, So he raised as many Dragon Champions as he could, but…Could he raise those dragon champions without using up all of his own power?

My Answer is, no, he couldn’t, which was the reason why Zhaitan was gathering magical artifacts so he could consume their magical energy. I think that when Zhaitan Corrupted something to his side, or when he raised a Dragon Champion, he had to use a portion of his own power in order to do it. Just like when Morgoth in the Silmarillion spread his power too thin is creating the Balrogs, werewolves, his own dragon champions, etc. This is from the wikipedia entry, and explains my reason that the Elder Dragon’s of Guild Wars are also not unlimited sources of magic either:::

“Melkor’s powers were originally immense – greater than those of any other single Ainu. He shared a part of the powers of every other Vala, but unlike them used it for domination of the whole of Arda. To accomplish this Morgoth dispersed his being throughout Arda, tainting its very fabric; and only Aman was free of it. His person thus became ever more diminished and restricted.”

So what I am saying, is that as the Dragon’s spread their influence, they get weaker, so weak infact that his own Sauron-like champions could probably challenge him and deal a crushing blow to him if they weren’t completely under his corruption and influence.

If the Dragon’s could gain access to magical energy, either through artifacts or inside of a living thing, then they could replenish their power, but we had Five races of Tyria, and all their combined might doing literally everything they could to stop that from happening.

Not only that, but the Glory of Tyria, the Airship you rode on during the final battle with the Dragon, was equipped with a MEGA-LIT Cannon, a mist-cooled tripartate thautmatium energy weapon with a lead tracer array set for draconic energy. I am not even going to bother trying to explain what that long word means (maybe you can help Anet?) That weapon was specifically built to Destroy Draconic Energy (or, since magic can’t be destroyed in this game, it only changed form, a form the dragon couldn’t immediately use)

That weapon would have been enough to drain the Dragon of ALOT of its magical energies, which it did, greatly injuring him. All that had to be done was get on some canons, and batter the dragon until it fell, and probaly died of the fall, by crushing itself under its own weight, if the players didn’t kill it already from the cannon fire.

PART THREE

So…What about the Elder Dragons, Which I am sure were about to rise again because of the flood of magic that was in the world? Well, that leads me all the way back to the begining, where I said that the reason the Human gods don’t just come to Tyria to kill the Elder Dragons, is because they can’t. The Human Gods hold almost limitless magic power, and that the Elder Dragon’s would easily take that power from the Gods, and if that happened, really bad things might happen.

Things like,…for example, giving the dragons the power to leave Tyria, and enter the Mists, which is nothing but pure magic. If the Elder Dragon’s were able to accomplish that, then there would be no stopping them from consuming all of Reality, ending everything in Tyria, as well as all the Alternate Tyrias that exist in the Mists (WvW), and everything else in the Universe. That, would, Be, Bad!

So, I think that the Gods left, because they were one of the few beings with the Knowledge to create Portals into the Mists, and along with the huge amount of magic they possess, them leaving Tyria prevented the Dragons from waking up Early.

(now sure, there are other people in Tyria that can create mist portals, but, none of them have the power to create a mist portal large enough for an Elder Dragon to fit through. Not only that, but all portals to the mists are Asura gates, who have been shown through their science to be able to create gates that can go to other universes(well, timelines). So, even though the Elder Dragon’s have corrupted the Asura, and they certainly do have the knowledge to create Asura gate to go to a great many places, they still can’t get to the Mists. no amount of power on tyria would let them build a gate that big for them to fit through.

Now, it would have been more than possible for say, the Mouth of Zhaitan to go through one of these smaller Gates and consume the magic there, but because he was in a different dimenion, the magic he consumed would not go to his master, it would have either stayed inside of him, or it would just simply get lost back into the Mists.

This is getting Long, so lets review my Theories so far (also for those who TL;DR):::::

1) The Dragons are not, and never were more powerful than the Gods, but, they have the potential to.

2) The Original Bloodstone, created by the Seers, and filled with purified magic by the Forgotten, caused the Dragons to lose the war and go back to sleep. (I would also like to say now that because they are basically the fundamental forces of nature, the Forgotten couldn’t cleanse their tainted magic after they went back to sleep, only the magic that the Dragons expended and went back into Tyria)

3) Abaddon was corrupted by the Elder Dragons, and Unleashed the magic from the Original Bloodstone, and if it weren’t for King Doric and the other Five Gods, the Elder Dragon’s could have very well rose again, consuming all life on Tyria, and eventually spreading their corruption through the Mists.

4) The Human Gods left Tyria in order to prevent the Elder Dragons from rising again at that point in time, and They haven’t come back to Tyria, because if they do, the Elder Dragons would take their magical power and defeat them.

5) The Elder Dragons have no known way to gain access to the Mists in which to expand their power and influence.

PART TWO

Alright, the Dragons were brought to their weakest point in thousands of years, and were forced to go back to sleep. Everyone’s happy, right? Dragons can’t rise up again without magic? Welll…..The Human Gods kind of Messed that up for everyone, didn’t they?

Darn right they did! When the human Gods came to Tyria, they brought humans with them. (or were the gods humans themselves just the leaders of the human race? Whatever…another theory for another time!) anyways, Humans gradually became the dominant race on Tyria, and the poor Forgotten retreated to the Crystal Desert (which was an ocean back then). At the same time, the Gods were gathering up all the Magical artifacts in Tyria, either willing from other races, or by using force, and were bringing them to Arah, including the bloodstone.

One particular human, Jadoth, was being hunted and persecuted by the Forgotten. eventually the Forgotten had quite a large force of warships going after him, so, like any devout human, he prayed to Abaddon, and Abaddon answered, completely destroying the Forgotten armada. Abaddon used the original Bloodstone to gift magic to all the races of Tyria. (I am assuming that at this point, the Forgotten still had access to their magic, and Abaddon was gifting Magic to the other races to put them on an even playing field.)

Well….The Bloodstone was kind of useless since Abaddon released the magic into the world, and all the races that suddenly had magic (some sources say it was only humans who got magic), decided “to hell with those Forgotten. Lets kill eachother!”, so, yeah, they kind of did!

While the Original game says nothing of the Elder Dragons, I think that the sudden release of the magic was causing the Elder Dragons to stir once again, not to mention that everyone was busy killing each other to care about their rise. While the original game makes no mention of this (the dragons specifically, the killing each other thing, yeah, it did), I think that King Doric saw this comming (the dragons) or knew that something bad was comming, so he went to Arah, and pleaded with the Gods to take away the gift of magic because of the dragons (alsobecause of all the wars and bloodshed and such.)

The Gods did so, and they split the original Bloodstone into Five, one for each school of magic (Aggression, Destruction, Preservation, and Denial), as well as a Keystone. This keystone was needed to reassemble the bloodstones into one. This prety much took most of the magic from the world.

I also think that when the gods took the magic from the world, they also accidentally took part of the Dragon’s awakening power with it. I also think that Abaddon was corrupted by the Elder Dragon’s magic, which is what made him release the Magic from the original Bloodstone. when the other gods sealed the magic into seperate bloodstones, this prevented the magic from being released into the world, and prevented Abaddon from re-releasing it because of the four seperate stones, and the key. I think this is what made Abaddon go to war with the other Gods, and it explains why Abaddon was sealed in the Realm of Torment.

PART ONE

This is a new collection of Theories on the Elder Dragons, some that I do not think has yet been posted anywhere else on the Forums. There are several major points that I will be covering in it. Some of these points were asked by several other threads, but rather than posting on each of them individually, I am just going to create this topic. This topic covers many, many points, so I will be linking to several wiki and forum articles that covers these points in more detail.

The Main things that people are asking are Why are the Elder Dragons so %$^$ Weak? And there are other people asking if Zhaitan is even dead after that battle?

On the first point, I want to say that the Elder Dragons are weak, like extremely weak. Like so weak that the Human Gods, if they were in a good mood (or still alive themselves), might be able to come back to Tyria and lay the unGodly Smackdown on them all, well….Except for the part where the human gods have their power because of the magical energies they have inside of them. (I say this because of an unrelated theory I have about the human gods, and how they got their power to start with, and how they aren’t even technically gods, etc.). The Elder Dragon’s could just simply use their ability to consume magic, and lay the unholy smackdown on the gods themselves, before any battle ever starts.

Aside from that point, the Movement of the World article states that “These mystic and terrifying creatures rival the gods themselves.” This refers to the Elder Dragons. Based on this, I think that the Elder Dragons are not more powerful than the Human Gods by leaps and bounds, though they have the potential to,….except for something the Gods did thousand of years ago.

You remember the Bloodstones, right? (Gw1 article)Well, according to Randall Greystone in the Ruined City of Arah, During the last Rise of the Elder Dragons, the Seers gathered ALL the magic in the world that was not tainted by the Elder Dragons and put it all into this Bloodstone, even going so far as to take the Jotun’s magic from them (or they gave it freely, not sure). This prevented the Elder Dragons from consuming any more Magic. Now Remember that another Race from that Time period, the Forgotten, used a spell to break Glint free from Kralkatorrik’s influence.

As the war against the Elder Dragons and the Races of that Age waged on, I think that the Forgotten continued to use their spells to cleanse the magic tainted by the Dragons, and the Seers continued to pump this magic into the bloodstone, out of the reach of the Elder Dragons. I think that because of this, the Dragons eventually expended their magical energies, and were forced to go back to sleep.

So, according to that new article Anet posted, we’re all getting those awesome movement skills (and armor pieces) from the shattered body parts of a dead dragon? Well, that makes me feel better!

@Cabosoul, I am not sure if you are disagreeing just to disagree, or not, but my point is that the Soutsun cove and Aetherblade puzzles are generally harder than Obsidian Sanctum(for the vast majority of players who are not godly enough to time their jumps perfectly with platforms that appear and disappear every 15 seconds using a system of 3D movement that was probably not built from the ground up for that kind of thing to begin with).

(and I’m also talking about jumping these puzzles without Mesmers, otherwise, the two I mentioned are among the easiest)

Okay, before anyone complains again, I have question to ask.

Is jumping puzzle is really that hard? (No, its not. Try the Jumping puzzle on Southsun cove. that one’s hard. The Aetherblade Jumping Puzzle. That one’s hard.)

Do you do the jumping puzzle with a group, or do you blindly try to run it by yourself?
(It IS in WvW, taking a party of three to five people is probably the best way to do it. Doing it by yourself is a darn sure way to meet an early death.)

Do you use Speed boosting skills in the Jumping Puzzle?
(While not necessary to complete any jumping puzzle in the game (and it actually makes it harder to complete some, like the earlier mentioned Aetherblade puzzle), they do help sometimes with bigger jumps.

Do you attack players from other worlds while doing the jumping puzzle?
(You should NEVER do this in the jumping puzzle unless you are attacked first. The other problem is that once you enter combat, the game mechanics make you move slower until you move far enough away from each other to break combat and move at regular speeds. Or you two have to kill each other)

Here is some additional tips::

1. In the Dark room, if you are a character that can equip a torch, you can use that for lighting instead, as well as any other item that gives off its own light. I only reccomend this if you are familiar with the puzzle and jumps, as the light is only enough to see the next jump. If you do this, then you won’t be tempted to set any bonfires anywhere and accidentaly enter combat, making you move slower (and making the jumps impossible.)

2. If you see a large group of enemy players, stay back and observe! Once they move on, you move on. Since they don’t usually want to enter combat anymore than you do, you can sometimes just run right by them if they are stuck in an area and you know what you are doing.

3. There is actually a Mystic fountain at the begining of the Puzzle that will make you invisible for 5 minutes if you can find it. Its long enough for you to make through 1.3

4. Bring a Mesmer along if you suck that bad at Jumping puzzles! Actually, just Bring more than one person along! It is WvW!

5. YOUTUBE A simple google search shows videos for the jumping puzzle if you are stuck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS95GX3Xp-I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi6a25J7WR8

And here is a guide from Dulfy
http://dulfy.net/2012/09/23/gw2-obsidian-sanctum-eternal-battlegrounds-jumping-puzzle-guide/

and finally, if there are players camping at the end of the jumping puzzle because their lives aren’t good for anything else,…. There’s a reason I told you to take people along.

A Full run through this puzzle should take no more than 20 minutes, and if you are new to it, it may take up to an hour.

@Mistt, I have to disagree. With the right build, you can Survive better than any other class. And with the right build, you can damage with the best of them.

Your problem is that you think that it takes a Glass Cannon Build to be effective, when its totally useless in nearly every situation. There is also a reason why those Superior Sharpening stones raise you power based on how much Toughness and Vitality you have, not other stats. Another big point is that your Pet IS your class mechanic. Use it! Take advantage of it! ETC.!

Rangers are a very effective class, and it doesn’t require Berzerker’s or Rampager’s gear to do it! Try out Cleric and Soldier gear. Using a combination of those two, you can still deal alot of damage, and take alot of damage before you go down.

That concept art is (OLD!). I think its from way back when Anet was still making stuff for Guildwars 1.

I am expecting big things too, but I am expecting them in small gradual steps at the same time, like how the Flame and Frost storyline played out. Even if they have a team of 500 people, there is only so much they can throw at the game at one time.

Nekroseth.5186:

We (i) waited 5-6 years for the game ,and it came out almost half finished. (and it still kind of feels it is). I dont want to offend anyone or qq, but to me it feels, there are extreme ammounts of things that are rushed and half comeplete. For example the guild halls, that are mentioned, planned, but are still not out after a whole years. Whitch is infuriating in my opinion, since it was very well made and important.

I agree that there are many things in the game that Anet promised but hasn’t even started yet, but, did you play The Secret World when it first came out? THAT was a half finished game. Guild Wars 2 was more like 80-90% finished at the most.

I use them just after killing enemies in WvW. I light off the fireworks over the dead bodies of my enemies while I spam the /laugh emote. Best thing ever!

I like to make my armor match the colors of the weapon (mostly):

Looking at those poll results, it seems like everyone hated doing stuff that required more than literally five minutes of their time, which was just about everything.

Maybe there is no actual planning involved. Maybe they just have a dart board with a bunch of ideas taped to it, and run with whatever idea the dart hits (which I am totally Okay with).