Guild Wars 2

Yeah. Screenshot it. My male asura is nearly max height and he isn’t nearly as tall as a minimum height human.

Yes, Order of Whispers personal storyline. You have a drinking contest. One of your opponents is an asura.

Here, from 3:10 to 4:10.

I’m with Kerithlan here: names with double or even triple syllables are still acceptable as long as they fall within the conventions: a double consonant, with masculine names ending in consonant sounds, feminine names ending in vowel sounds.

About those elite tomes: I can definitely hear those voice clips when a guardian uses them in proximity to me.

Not sure about the shouts though. I’m actually a shout-reliant build and I’ve never thought about whether or not my teammates can hear my shouts. The shouts work as they’re meant to functionally speaking, so I guess that’s why I’ve never considered it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

@Dinny: Actually, Blimm just stopped believing in the Eternal Alchemy. Nothing says or implies he began worshiping the Six Gods.

Thanks for the correction, this is what happens when you rely solely on memory I suppose. Though I thought the implication arose when it was mentioned he no longer believed in the eternal alchemy and lived amongst/thought like humans… Unless the implication was that he just essentially became an atheist.

While I realize dervishes as they were known in GW1 won’t come back, it would still be interesting to take the ideas/mechanics of the class and repurpose them. A light armor class wielding scythes and having a lot of close-range/melee attacks, with lots of healing abilities/damage mitigation abilities, perhaps? I’m not sure.

To answer your question, there’s nothing actually preventing any of the non-human races from worshiping the human gods. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, Blimm (asura, Ghosts of Ascalon novel, if you’re unfamiliar) was rumored to have renounced his faith in the eternal alchemy and begun to worship the human gods. So conversion/departing from racial stereotypes does happen.

I don’t know if we can expect to see dervishes (or a dervish-inspired class) but it would certainly be cool. Dervishes and paragons were my favorite classes from GW1.

I was torn between posting this here or in the ‘fun facts’ thread, but it makes more sense to place it here since it pertains to Snaff in particular, so…

I was exploring RS on an alt and went to idle near the peacemaker headquarters. Two of the NPCs had a discussion. It was revealed that, apparently, there was a point at which Snaff had access to/control over Rata Sum’s peacemaker golems. He supposedly slipped up and lost control of them. It sounds as though they may have hurt or even killed people.

I just thought that was interesting.

Yes, yes, 100% yes on the point of skill descriptions. Yeah, it tells you what the skill does, but I hoped the tooltips would give you accurate, concrete numbers.

As much as I loved the endless amount of builds you could make on GW1, I feel like the system in GW2, while different, is actually equally as challenging. The possibilities don’t feel as “endless”, but the weapon + healing + utility slots system is actually really elegant.

Here’s something no one really mentioned… I liked the scenery/settings of the Factions and Nightfall campaigns, Nightfall especially because I have never, ever seen an MMO attempt to portray diverse African landscapes like scrub/deserts, low-lying mud flats, mangroves, etc. Rolling green hills, powdery mountains, dense forests and other traditionally European “fantasy” landscapes kind of bore me by this point.

But! I know that these sorts of things will come with future expansions, so I’m not too bothered.

Bluestone.7106:

GW2 is less instanced than GW1.

Pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Guild Wars 1 was like…. 90% instanced (because really, none of the game/story actually took place in the towns).

Quick question: Does this show up in-game? I’ve noticed it on the character select menu, but it’s so minor it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I’m surprised you even caught it at all. You must have a killer eye for detail.

Doesn’t happen for me in the game, though.

Just to neatly sum-up what everyone’s said, in regard to the third-person camera being necessary:

- The more challenging vistas and jumping puzzles would be virtually impossible.
- You can see enemies approaching from your sides or behind you.
- It’s required to properly execute dodge rolls.
- Remember that the ingame mechanics have to be tailored to/built around the camera. It would take more work than you think to have a proper first-person camera.
- Personally, I like to admire my armor/running/attacking animations. So, so much effort was put into the asura animations, and it shows.

You might want to think of the taverns/lounge areas as more of a “hub” for roleplayers rather than the only place they roleplay. It’s awkward to begin roleplaying in the open world or in a dungeon party and everyone else just goes “?”.

I feel you. I work and I’m a law student, and for the first time in a very long time, I feel like if I can’t get on for a while because of other commitments, I won’t fall way behind everyone else. Sure, they will accumulate some new stuff/gold and they’ll get better at actually playing/building themselves, but I won’t be nearly as disadvantaged as if I needed to take a two-week break from, say, Perfect World or World of Warcraft.

TL;DR: I concur.

If my memory serves me correctly, Kileen’s memorial is a skill point (commune with type). That makes me happy.

Dougal stands around in Fort Marriner of Lion’s Arch. I also thought I saw Ember Doomforge somewhere, but I could be mistaken.

What makes me sad is that there isn’t (to my knowledge) any sort of memorial for Kranxx. Even after he pretty much changed the tide of the final part of the book with his death and, turning completely against the normal asura stereotype (greedy, looks out for number one), gave up everything to help Dougal and co.

1. When did you begin playing? (post bw’s)
From launch. But I was pretty busy and didn’t get very far. Felt no real motivation to play until I rolled an asura and noticed that the personal story was far, far, far more entertaining than as a human.

2. How many hours total do you have? (/age)
221 hours.

3. What’s your most gold banked so far?
20 gold.

4. Do you have a max level character (s)? (number if more than one)
Yes, and another who is close.

5. List 1-3 areas / zones / events / tp; where you spend most of your time for income.
Uh… I don’t really concentrate on money-making that much. I just sell things I find while doing dungeon runs/map completion rewards. I salvage rares/exotics for ectos. Sometimes I buy gems.

6. Do you mainly use MF or not?
To begin with, but not anymore.

7. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a mob? If so, how many and total?
Yes, but I can’t remember the details.

8. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a chest? If so, how many and total?
Yes. See above.

9. What’s the most number of rare weapons you have looted in one day or 8hrs time?
Uhh, like 4~6?

10. How many rare or exotic weapons do you “expect” to loot in one hour of time?
Exotics? Exotics are supposed to be very rare, I don’t expect to find one in one hour of gameplay. I expect to find a rare most of the time, though.

11. How many lodestones have you looted total so far? (all types)
Shrug.

12. Do you craft? If so, do you have a 400 crafter? if so, how many?
I have max cooking, jewelling and weaponsmithing. Working on the others.

13. Do you sell your looted crafting mats? (specify optional)
Yes, if I’ve already maxed the professions they’re tied to.

14. Do you feel your return, (in terms of items, completion, income, etc) for your time, has been worth it?
Yeah.

15. In ONE word, what needs improved most; from your perspective?
Since build diversity and horizontal progression have already been covered: writing.

I want the next leg of the personal story to be leaps and bounds ahead of this one. The potential is definitely there, if the asura storylines and the whispers arc are to be believed. There are many characters that have been introduced and can be brought back and expanded upon and re-used, made dynamic, believable and relatable (rather than just creating new characters for every mission in the story – though, this aspect (character recycling?) was actually handled fairly well).

TL;DR: You have a stellar set of voice actors, some with impressive and long track records (i.e. Liam O’Brien). Push them. Make the dialog more natural and emotive. Bring back and expand upon the various characters you introduced. Make us care about them. And don’t always kill off likeable characters. By the end of the game, I was automatically assuming that every character I liked/cared about would invariably die. I was right 100% of the time. Of the characters I particularly liked, only Zojja and Gorr didn’t die horribly.

I spend almost no time in Divinity’s Reach (usually in Lion’s Arch or Rata Sum), but I’m gonna go check this out now. Surely you’re all pulling my leg.

Invite them into your party.

I’m very casually making my way toward the requirements for a legendary. I’m actually pretty happy with my exotic gear: I work very well in PvE/dungeons/WvW without any legendaries and I don’t really see the need.

Apart from that:
- Getting all crafting to max.
- 100% map completion.
- Actually exploring, i.e. examining locations (not just running past POIs) and talking to NPCs for fun/lore.
- WvWvW is pretty much always fun. Reminds me a little bit of TF2 in that regard, how people play 2Fort over and over and over again without tiring of it.
- Working toward completing all of the dungeons, just because I wanna see them.
- Do Crucible of Eternity runs (I dig the gear from there).
- Jumping puzzles (very behind on these, but I love them).
- Going through the personal story on three different characters: three different races, one for each order.

I would also kind of like to get into roleplay, maybe. A lot of the most lively servers are servers that are known for being roleplay-heavy. But I’m not on one of those and I don’t think anyone’s interested.

I really don’t want to make any assumptions about you two, but… Play better/smarter? Mess around with builds?

I know it isn’t that easy to get through the personal story missions as a light armor class, but it was still very manageable for my friends and I. We did our stories separately all the way to the very end. Here are my suggestions:

- If you’re squishy, do personal story quests at about 3-4 levels above the recommended level.
- Make sure all your armor and weaps are as up-to-date as possible. While I could coast through 30 levels without changing the armor on my guardian, I could not get away with it for my thief or ele.
- Stay on the move. Run, roll, kite all over the place.
- For “Magic Sucks” specifically: I am not 100% sure, but if my memory serves me correctly, you don’t have to actually use Gorr’s polarizer. You can use your normal weapons if you’re finding they work better. Otherwise, when using the polarizer, you should suck three times, knock back, and then use 3. And just repeat that over and over.

Baktwerel.9108:

Dinny.5310:

Baktwerel.9108:

Zojja and Snaff shipping? Come on, Zojja is still relatively young and according to the artwork Snaff could be her father/grandfather age-wise. I don’t think there was any love, he was more like a mentor/father figure for her.

As someone who has legitimately had feelings for someone old enough to be my father, I’m not sure how I feel about the insinuation that you can’t/shouldn’t have feelings for someone older.

Anyway, it’s practically canon. The insinuations are, well, pretty much everywhere during the asura personal story. And if you need it any clearer, you really should read Edge of Destiny. If it helps you at all, it seems like it may have been a one-way crush.

I did read it, multiple times even. However, unlike with the Caithe-Faolain relationship (or heck, even the Logan-Jennah one), there are no real hints of a romantic relationship between the two asura. I can still only see them as a master-apprentice, no matter how I look at them.

That’s fine, I understand it’s very open to interpretation, but still… “You’re her whole world?” What kind of master is their apprentices ‘whole world’? Aren’t lines like that normally supposed to denote romance, or at the very least, a platonic, but deep emotional attachment?

Soooo… Anet writers… Help? Clarify? Waves into the abyss

Mif.3471:

Dinny.5310:

• There’s a female asura in Rata Sum who talks about a relationship issue with her girlfriend. So, I am assuming homosexuality is fairly accepted in asuran society.

That’s interesting. Most gay characters I’ve seen have been Sylvari due to their lore.

Any chance you could tell me exactly where this Asura is?
I’ve love to read her dialogue.

Sure thing. Her name is Exiffa and she’s on the main level of Rata Sum. You’ll find her close to the Lion’s Arch asura gate.

Anyway, right, facts for this thread… Let’s see what I can remember that hasn’t already been discussed:

• At approximately the same time the Snaff Prize is held, the students of the three colleges hold an intercollegiate for-fun competition called the Snafu Prize. The prize is given to the invention that is the most catastrophic failure. (Source: Asura NPC in Rata Sum)

• Most of the asura councilors really don’t want to be there. Many act out of some sense of personal obligation, but are constantly looking for opportunities to foist their responsibilities upon someone else. They would rather be back in their own labs. (Source: Snaff, Edge of Destiny) Additionally, an NPC in the College of Dynamics mentions that the ministry is essentially a farce.

• There’s a female asura in Rata Sum who talks about a relationship issue with her girlfriend. So, I am assuming homosexuality is fairly accepted in asuran society.

I know I’m going to attract a lot of incredulous looks and comments of (likely dismissive) disbelief, but…

I would be far, far less inclined to play WvW if player names were visible. I prefer to play cooperatively or as friendly competition, and when I encounter the occasional person who has no interest in keeping it friendly, I don’t enjoy my experience. I study and work, negative interactions are draining. When I come home for the day and decide to play, the last thing I want is some player complaining if I succeed against him or gloating if I fail.

That said, I think that some of the ideas raised here are legitimate concerns (i.e. dismissing personal liability and self-governance, making the PvP impersonal). I guess my argument is that WvW shifts the focus to “person versus person” to “server/team versus server/team”.

I thought it was said that he’s from Synergetics like Zojja, but I don’t have a source on that so I’m not going to quote it as the gospel truth. It’d be likely: it seems logical that a master and his apprentice are usually graduates of the same college.

Mind you, I do think he fits Dynamics to a T. But definitely not Statics.

In the spirit of the conversation, I’ve posted almost all of the important segments. Enjoy, and come to your own conclusions. Spoilers for Edge of Destiny (obviously enough).

I’m really leaning toward seeing romantic inclinations rather than a father/daughter relationship, although I concede that how he constantly refers to Zojja as “dear” is very reflective of the latter.

EDIT: Any Anet writers out there browsing this forum? Could we have some sort of clarification on what the intention was…?

Baktwerel.9108:

Zojja and Snaff shipping? Come on, Zojja is still relatively young and according to the artwork Snaff could be her father/grandfather age-wise. I don’t think there was any love, he was more like a mentor/father figure for her.

As someone who has legitimately had feelings for someone old enough to be my father, I’m not sure how I feel about the insinuation that you can’t/shouldn’t have feelings for someone older.

Anyway, it’s practically canon. The insinuations are, well, pretty much everywhere during the asura personal story. And if you need it any clearer, you really should read Edge of Destiny. If it helps you at all, it seems like it may have been a one-way crush.

Urthona.3198:

Take a moment to think of the romances we already do see in game (Logan and Queen Jennah, Caithe and Faolin.) Think of the dialogue, the voice acting. Now tell me, honestly, do you really want to sit through more of that?

If that’s between my player character and Prof Gorr, yes.

In any other event, no.

/wishful RP-related thinking

You weren’t kidding about Mr. Sparkles being a looker, lol.

Hmm… Fair enough. I suppose at the end of the day, I just doubt it’d happen because it would require a big departure from how the story has been planned out/written so far.

Nomadic Reverie.2863:

Oh I’d like to try out that story. I was actually thinking of starting a charr in the lightbringer tradition. Kind of inspired by Tybalt. So Sieran is a mentor for Tybalt?

Oh, no, who your mentor is for 20 – 40(50?) depends on the order you choose.

Tybalt is your character’s mentor for the Order of Whispers.

Sieran is your character’s mentor for the Durmand Priory.

Forgal is your character’s mentor for the Vigil.

Zaxares.5419:

I don’t remember it being stated anywhere that Charr have litters, but that would be logical, considering Charr females have six nipples. (It would be evolutionarily useless to evolve so many nipples if you didn’t birth multiple offspring at a time.)

It’s been stated a few times. For example, in the personal story, Dinky is described as being the “runt of his litter”.

As much as I adore Tybalt (and Sieran, in fact, I love Sieran more than Tybalt): no.

I’ve never been a fan of “bringing back” characters who are dead. It cheapens the tragedy terribly. The thing is, writing-wise, the orders arcs are arguably one of the things that GW2 got very right.

In the case of Tybalt himself (ignoring the other mentors momentarily), the more you look at it, the more bittersweet the tragedy is. After everything he’s been through with you, he decides to give his life for you. It’s not much, and it’s not particularly glorious, but it’s a few moments just so you can escape. And then you consider his underlying sadness: in many ways, he was a broken man. When he lost his hand, his warband, the people he likely considered his comrades and even family (if Charr society is anything to go by), suddenly decided he was useless and turned their backs on him.

My point is: Do you really want to diminish the value of one of the most poignant moments in the game? Because honestly, that’s all this would achieve.

While I have no strong opinions on implementing such a thing in the personal storyline (I personally adore romance options in games, but as it’s been said, they are not easy and GW2 has bigger things to deal with), I think the suggestion that this could be toyed with as part of a Valentine’s Day event is a very good one.

Now I am very curious as to what sort of events will be offered up on Feb 14.

Huh. I can actually sort of see where you’re coming from.

I think the designs were conceptualized before the VAs came in, though. Mind you, it’s actually really common for characters in cartoons/films/videogames to reflect the appearance of their voice actors.

GuzziHero.2467:

So from this I derive the question: What are the breeding rates per female of other species? Do we know the gestation periods and rough lifespans?

The query may not even have to stop at the controllable races. Will Skritt one day outpopulate all other species due to their birth rates?

Of the big five, charr could easily outpace the other races. No word on gestation or lifespan exactly, but charr give birth to litters. Contrast this to humans, norn and asura, the latter two of whom are implied to generally reproduce in the same manner as humans (and actually have comparable lifespans — to quote a dev, an average asuran lifespan is “10% longer than a human’s”, which I wasn’t initially expecting).

I’m not sure about sylvari. I think I may have missed some vital in-game info, because I can’t seem to recall how often sylvari awaken from the tree and in what sort of numbers etc.

Also, if I recall correctly, some of the NPC dialog in Skrittsburgh implied that skritt are similar to rats: rapid reproductive cycles, and giving birth to litters. They would easily be the most prolific breeders if we’re counting the sub-races.

On topic: Snaff’s not an engineer. As people have pointed out, he wears light armor. I’m 90% sure that he was a mesmer, after all, he managed to take control of Kralkatorrik’s mind/body. But necromancer is still an option.

ThiBash.5634:

Shadowdawn.7946:

Not really on topic, but I think Zojja has a crush on Snaff.

It was more like a father-daughter relationship.

Pretty sure it wasn’t. Some of the story mode dungeons imply it, but the Guild Wars 2 novel (which is canon) definitely seems to confirm she had feelings for him. No word on whether or not Snaff reciprocated yet. I haven’t finished it, I only received it in the mail yesterday. :P

Vekthor.8914:

Do the Asura even feel love?

Yes, to the same extent of any of the other races.

As someone mentioned above, one of the Orr lines (Whispers, I believe) involves an asuran pair professing their feelings for one another right before one of them is tragically killed.

Make an asura with the dynamics background. The dynamics personal story line involves an asuran couple, the male of which is extremely (even excessively) romantic/doting.