Guild Wars 2

Donari.5237:

Equinox: I agree that it’s not realistic to dual wield other than for extraordinary individuals. I fenced many years myself and happen to be extremely right-handed. The main gauche used in the rapier era was a blocking device that happened to be pointy enough to occasionally thrust with, but was far more a shield than a precise offensive weapon.

Still, there is something to be said for “it’s a fantasy game and dual wielding is cool.” Our characters are supposed to be extraordinary. Heck, I RP my Thief as ambidextrous (naturally right handed but he trained hard for years to be nimble with both hands) because such a skill fascinates right-handed me.

I prefer realistic weapons and armor. I’m ok with stretching what counts as “realistic,” though, especially when it comes to my fantasy character’s abilities (within the limits of my not liking monty haul godlike power). Should every character in the game do it? Likely not. But some should. Because it’s cool.

That’s fine, and I don’t have a problem with how it’s treated in the game, just saying that “because it’s cool” alone isn’t a good enough reason for things like dual swords on elementalists or scepters on warriors.

Two things:

1) Historically speaking from a real-world perspective, dual-wielding isn’t as effective as it seems in most situations. There’s a reason why, other than in Renaissance-era duels and some other limited instances, neither soldiers nor civilians would use two weapons at the same time. For a further discussion, see this video. (The guy in the video has a channel where, among other things, he debunks myths about ancient and medieval warfare—especially when it comes to how modern fantasy has thoroughly mangled it.)

Warriors make sense for dual-wielding because they’re weapon masters and use the offhand sword for purposes other than melee attacks. Yes, fighters in the medieval and Renaissance periods did throw swords from short distances (under 15 feet I think), and having taken six years of fencing, I can attest to the parry-riposte combination as being quite effective. Mesmers, as part of their class’s flavor, are meant to be magical duelists, so dual-wielding swords, especially where the swords are used as magic foci rather than outright melee weapons, is also appropriate. But generally, people didn’t carry two swords in open warfare, because even if you learn how to use two at a time, I can tell you from experience that it takes too much practice and concentration to be useful. Yes, it’s a fantasy game, but that doesn’t mean everyone should be able to use swords, let alone two of them.

2) The developers have NOT said that every class will get access to every weapon. All they’ve said is that they plan to introduce existing weapons to classes that can’t currently use them. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for warriors to use scepters, or for elementalists to dual-wield a mace and a shield. Greataxes have been confirmed as a weapon they’re planning on adding eventually, but beyond that I don’t know of any new weapons they intend to develop.

Please note that “it would be cool” is NEVER a sufficient reason, without more, to create something new in this game. For example, would it really make sense for thieves, which are meant to carry lighter weapons and move quickly, to carry (let alone conceal) a giant two-handed sword or hammer? Would it really make sense for the warrior, which is a purely physical class and shuns magic, to use a scepter and focus? Please think about the practicality and/or ridiculousness of suggestions before suggesting them. “Eles should use greatswords” is not, on its own, enough of a reason to make that idea a reality.

EDIT: I should add that warriors ARE the class for dual-wielding. They can use axes, swords, and maces in either hand, and can also carry warhorns or shields in the offhand. That alone gives you TONS of room for customization.

Zach.3264:

Similar.
Just wiped on that boss though, the attack he does at like 40% when he destroys tons of floor is painful.

At least it isn’t Liadri’s insta-kill Shadowfall attack…

So maybe the question is, did she somehow manipulate certain people/entities into showing up at the Queen’s Gauntlet as part of her diabolical master plan?

That Subject 6 (the ooze boss) was basically Subject 7 from Queen’s Gauntlet, except with a party, and the final boss is basically Liadri with a party? Think about it…

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Hmm.. still convinced. Thief have so many mobility and stealth skills and weapons without cooldown, thats scares me a bit, i don’t think i can use it good in fight +ping really matters here.

I would actually say the opposite. You WANT to have these options without cooldown. I got a new computer this last June that can play on medium-high settings at about 20-30 FPS, but before that I had to deal with single-digit framerates most of the time at the very lowest settings. My main character is a thief, and trust me, being able to spam Death Blossom or Pistol Whip as much as you need in a panic situation, or having Shadow Refuge as a 10 to 15 second “time out” button really makes a difference. No other class can do those things.

Gummy.4278:

I know quite a few gw2 players who are playing other games that would come back and play again if mounts came.

dbgamer.3407:

Why do mounts have to = speed boost? why can’t it just be an aesthetic thing?

I think I’m done with this thread. If these things are just supposed to be purely aesthetic, and people would come back to a game they already chose to quit simply because of one new aesthetic option, that’s just ridiculous. We already have more than enough pure aesthetics in the gem store, and I don’t see the point of adding a bunch of purely aesthetic mounts just for the sake of having them. It will add nothing to the game other than new gem store sales and sheer appearance. Even more ridiculous is the idea that people would be enticed to come back on the sole basis that there’s a new shiny thing to collect and/or ride. I’d rather that they keep this a nontraditional MMO and not submit to people insisting that traditional features should be added just for the sake of having them and without any real reason other than “I want it.” So because I know that further responses to this thread will just raise my blood pressure, I won’t post here again.

Elric.6971:

@Equinox
Uhhh… Okay, that’s a fairly unique look at things. Nevermind that guns in Skyrim could mechanically bows and arrows or crossbows with a reskin and maybe a few odd benefits and drawbacks here or there.

Sure, there are mods…but I’m saying that you should imagine that after release, Bethesda puts semi-realistic guns into the game. Even a simple handgun fires faster than any bow, crossbow, or spell in the game, and even at low damage levels, it would be pretty imbalanced. The whole game would need to be balanced around this new mechanic that was NEVER intended to be part of the core, non-modded game.

In other threads, people have complained that there are only 5 playable classes. Anet has also stated explicitly (I can’t give you a cite, but I and others can confirm it’s official) that the game has been balanced around the cultures, cities, and territory of exactly five races, and that there are no new races planned. In fact, they’ve gone so far as to say that new races are pretty much next-to-last in terms of planned additions, with new classes being the very bottom. They put tremendous effort into creating five races, and to add more at this point would simply be too labor-intensive to be feasible. Likewise with mounts. Heck, there aren’t even horses in the lore except for Necrid Horsemen from Orr in GW1, and they’re all gone by the end of the GW1 story. Simply put, the devs DO NOT want mounts in this game, at least not in the traditional sense. It’s not simply a question of “what would be cool.” You need a much more compelling justification to add something like that.

Really, the trickiest part with mounts is all in aesthetics and figuring how you want to do them. Also, strafing. TOR and City got around this by giving mounts that either could reasonably strafe (due to being animals that could turn on a dime or because the vehicle hovered). But it probably would seem silly to be riding a charr chugger and for that thing to turn on a dime to drive sideways like the usual sidestep (no pun intended) of avoiding strafing animations.

Hence why the skins, if any, should be no more than character-sized, like the broom. I’ve seen the speeders in TOR and they look ridiculous. Imagine LA, with all its crowds in the popular areas, populated by people in vehicle-sized mounts. That would get ridiculous really fast, and everyone would probably turn off the display mounts option—and then what would the point be if they were merely aesthetic?

Banewrath.5107:

How exactly is this game designed with the idea of never having mounts? That makes no sense at all. You already have access to speed boosts. How is a mounted speed boost going to change anything that isn`t already dealt with the normal speed boosts? Mobs aren`t going to hit you for more damage because you have a mount, they aren`t going to chain cripple you more then they already do because you have a mount. It`s no different then a speed signet with a graphic attached to it. Tell me exactly how the game was designed against it again?

The game was designed for certain classes to have certain access to swiftness and/or passive speed boosts. Four of the eight classes, for example, don’t have signets that increase speed passively by 25%. I’m sure this was done on purpose. Other classes, like Mesmers and Necros, don’t really have a reliable way to apply swiftness to groups and only have limited access to swiftness for themselves. What you’re suggesting is that EVERYONE should be able to have 25% or greater speed boosts all the time, and that’s just not the way the game was designed. Also, our speed was deliberately limited so that we’d more or less have to make use of the waypoint system. If everyone has a mount, then the waypoint system becomes moot, and so do the passive signet speed boosts enjoyed by half of the classes at present.

Banewrath.5107:

I don`t see how an added option to a game can be so breaking when everyone would have access to it. Make a hidemount option and make them only have out of combat run speed and you won`t have any problems with them.

It’s still going to break the game because EVERYTHING was designed around the idea of never having mounts. Imagine taking a thoroughly medieval game like Skyrim and adding modern guns as an official update. Sure, they could be “comparable” to bows and spells, but the game was never designed to accomodate guns. They’d have to do a tremendous amount of work to balance things, and even then, things wouldn’t be quite right. Whether you like it or not, this game was built not to have mounts. It’s all there: the waypoints, the swiftness boon and its availability to just about everyone, jumping puzzles, hard-to-traverse terrain, etc. Again, Guild Wars 1 never had mounts and everything turned out just fine for Arenanet. Why add something that the developers never wanted or intended to add, that the game was built around the premise of not having, and that really wouldn’t add anything significant to gameplay—and would in fact cause problems?

Isle of Janthir generally does world boss and temple runs every night starting at reset time. PM Zorav in-game, she’s the one in charge of organizing that stuff.

Adine.2184:

Equinox.4968:

GW1 never had mounts of any kind

This isnt entirely true . there was the sand wurm and siege devourer . They were incredibly slow though and actually gave you a speed buff to get to normal speed for a short time . Although i am against speed mounts going around making false statements doesn’t help the cause .

Thing is though, those weren’t really mounts. They were just predecessors to the environmental weapon system we have in GW2. They weren’t really mounts so much as an alternate skillbar and more health, sort of like siege golems in WVW. Moreover, they were only useable in a select few zones, and those zones (instances, not the open world like we have here in GW2) were designed to accomodate them. Simply put, it is 100% true that there were no mounts in GW1 in the manner the topic creator is trying to describe them (that is, EQ- and WOW-style mounts). Nor are they in GW2, and nor should they be.

As with so many features that are in other games but not GW2, my question for those in support of mounts is the following: what will it really add to the game, and how will it do so without breaking what already exists?

GW1 never had mounts of any kind, and it was a perfectly fine game. As it stands, GW2 is in the same position. Having movement buffs tied to mounts would unbalance the state of the game with respect to professions, traits, and skills, and if they were “just for fun,” then as many posters have stated before, they would just provide unnecessary clutter on the screen. Note that the two “alternative movement options” released so far (the digger and the broom) take up very little extra space, don’t increase movement speed, and are optional purchases through the gem store.

So long as they continue to release items that aren’t available for just anyone who does some basic content, are approximately character-sized or smaller, and provide no benefit other than aesthetics, I’m fine with them. But it seems that people want actual movement speed increases in the form of large and impressive animals or vehicles, and that goes against the design philosophy of the game. To those who say “old games had those, why doesn’t GW2?” I ask “why are you playing a game that’s deliberately built around NOT having these things?” By saying that “old = good” or insisting that Arenanet follow tradition for the sake of tradition, you’re committing the fallacy of appeal to tradition. Other MMOs may have dozens of playable races, mounts, 52 billion super specialized classes, etc., but that doesn’t make them better, it just makes them different. Guild Wars 2 was a game intentionally designed to revolutionize or do away with old MMO conventions, and this is one convention they decided to eliminate. That’s the way the game is, take it or leave it.

I wouldn’t say Thief has mediocre ranged options. Dual pistols can do a good amount of damage and help control the enemy; pistol/dagger is excellent for keeping away from danger and the dual skill, which inflicts torment, combines well with all the crippling you can inflict; and the shortbow does incredible damage with the 2 skill (Cluster Bomb), has a ton of mobility options, and the autoattack is at least as good as the Ranger’s axe autoattack.

As for Ranger, the pets aren’t necessarily weak. I personally use a lightning drake (tanking plus great damage) and a whiptail devourer (ranged attacks), and generally my pets only die if I myself am vastly outnumbered or outclassed. Your pet will stay alive as long as you’re at or above the recommended level for a particular situation and have at least some means of taking care of them (even if it’s just the passive regen signet or the Healing Spring skill).

I use the arrow keys and mouse to move, and I just set shortcuts to things that I know I’ll remember (plus I’ve had a lot of PC gaming experience so I tend to use things I’ve used in other games). For instance, since I use the arrow keys, I set autoattack (skill 1) to 0/insert on the number pad so I can hit it easily with my index finger on my left hand (I set skill 2 to 1/end, but I click on the rest of the skills with the cursor). I have a mouse with thumb and little finger buttons on either side of it: the thumb key is use/activate/loot and the other side is jump.

People who aren’t Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s day, non-Christians celebrate Christmas, and non-Hispanic people celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Why? Because they’re holidays and an opportunity to relax, have a good time and/or an excuse to drink as much as possible. I don’t think your argument really holds up. Also, 1) dervishes were native to Elona, which has since been pretty much wiped out, and 2) some of the attributes of Dervishes already exist in Guardians. Plus (as I said) the devs have confirmed that they’ve done pretty much everything they’re going to do with classes because they are satisfied that the eight we have are all we need to cover what they want to get done.

niki king.3904:

yeah thats right i get a steal skill that applies random condition the i use heart seeker and i get chaos armor

And it can also be put on you involuntarily if you’re standing in an ethereal field when someone uses a blast finisher on it (causes “area chaos armor”) to people in the field. The Cluster Bomb (2 on thief shortbow) skill can cause blast finishers if it lands without being detonated into smaller bombs.

That could have been it then. Thanks for the response.

4: PvP Content?

- Im a big PvPer but since im a noob i have only focused on the Exploration and PvW content (allows me to understand class abilities and lets me work on my ability to control my character better). But im curious if PvP is a big thing on this game. Some games i play have pvp, but no one really takes it serious or the game doesnt support it too much. Given the fact that i have not done much research on this subject, but all i have seen so far is WvW for pvp. so i have no clue.

PvP is almost a separate game unto itself in GW2. I’m a casual WvW player, and I only recently got into sPvP. WvW is a larger-scale game type and it’s more like PvP with PvE elements mixed in. For that, your server probably has training sessions every week (at least mine does), so you might want to check that out or at least ask around in Lion’s Arch to be introduced to some commanders who could help fill you in.

sPvP is even different. To get there, click on the crossed swords icon at the top of the screen and choose “go to the Heart of the Mists.” It’s best to start with hot-join PvP (talk to the match organizer in the Mists and hit “play now”) to learn the basics. But when you get better, try some Solo or Team Arena play (available from the PvP menu). Those are competitive and people there generally play at a higher skill level. Personally I just do hot-join because I want daily and other achievements, but if you’re serious about PvP, you should definitely go into the arenas.

Thanks for the help in advance and i hope i can get some good answers,

If you need help in-game, contact me under my tag (Equinox.4968) and I can help you. I also run a guild that specializes in training new players, we’re based in Isle of Janthir but you can join from any server if you’re interested.

Deadnoz.7905:

1: Class stability?

- Is there class stability? or is there classes that are frond upon? Like in some, not so straight forward, posts about class ability, they go on to explain how some classes do not perform as well as others. and im curious if there is over all class stability or if there is a favored.

Every class is definitely viable, and with the trait system there’s a build for everyone. A lot of people are biased about particular classes (and often rightly so), but essentially, if you want something to work you can generally make it work. It’s important to play whatever appeals to you most and specialize from there. For every person who complains that their class is underpowered, there’s a Youtube video of someone showing incredible skill with that class and doing things that don’t even seem possible.

Which brings me to an important point: this isn’t a game where you can throw on some gear and slap on a build and expect to win. GW2 is a game about skill; except in zerg (gigantically huge open-world group) content, your personal skill matters A LOT. A person who copies and pastes a build they saw on the Internet—even the build that’s currently considered “the best”—will fail more often than not if they don’t understand why and how it works and how to make the best use of it. Builds are a very personal thing, and while you can’t literally do whatever you want, it’s important to find a playstyle that works for you and master it, while also being cognizant of the other options you have with that class and remaining open to change things out when necessary.

2: End game?

- Now i have no idea whats in store for me at end game, but Honestly all i have done to level is 100% Zones, I just started my story line quest, and i have crafted a bit. Bt that is it. I have yet to do dungeons, WvW and Fractures (i think they are called that). I have tried living world but i had no idea what i was doing. BASICALLY what i am asking is there a beginners guide to how these work?

Ask around in LA or on the forums if you want dedicated groups or detailed explanations on how to do things. The Living Story is the easiest to get into since many if not most people in any given area have a grasp on how it works. Part of it is also experiencing the LS yourself so you know how it works. Pay attention to the upper right corner of the screen where the LS notifications will give you hints as to where to go to get started. The website dulfy.net is invaluable for figuring out where to go and what to do if you’re lost.

3: Community?

- I have played many games, and some games have the, in my opinion, worst communities. Like World of warcraft and League of Legends. Where trolling is a 50% chance of every encounter. Im curious if this game has some actual meaning to it, and not just a person who would run their mouth at any given moment.

To be honest, there are a lot of trolls and haters out there, but due to the way the game is made, generally people are helpful. Only the worst of the worst will make fun of you for not knowing something, as long as you’re not being willfully ignorant about it, and you seem like you genuinely want to know more about the game so nobody will fault you for that PvE is set up in such a way that cooperation is encouraged; events are easier to get done with other players (you don’t even have to group up, you can just find random people in the area doing things), rezzing other players gives experience and leads to a title, and there are virtually zero ways people can hold up others’ progress or prevent things from happening as they should. The only trolling you’ll see is in chat, and there’s always an ignore feature. If people see you’re being trolled, you can always ignore the troll and ask everyone else for help and/or support.

niki king.3904:

Hello i got a few questions.1st:why sometimes with my thief i got chaos armor buff?Im not a mesmer.2nd is the total makeover kit also affecting all face details or only height and physique and 3rd how is the gem—>gold and gold—> gem system working.More people turning gold into gems -higher price or something?This is the 1st topic i create so pls help me.

1) Chaos armor is a buff that mesmers can use as a skill, but anyone can get it if a blast or leap finisher is used on an ethereal combo field. For example, on a mesmer, try using Chaos Storm (staff 5) and then use Phase Retreat (staff 2) while standing in the storm. You’ll see a small indicator pop up that says “Chaos Armor,” and you’ll get the buff. You can do this with other fields to get other buffs, like the Fire Aura (otherwise obtainable as an elementalist skill).

2) No idea, but it should let you change everything about your character’s physical appearance except for race.

3) Basically, the entire supply of gems is created by people buying gems with real money or getting small amounts of gems (400 I think) for every 5000 achievement points they earn in-game. People then can sell those gems on the Black Lion Trading Post to other players for gold. Players can then buy those gems and use them for themselves. The problem is that generally people use the gems for account upgrades or items rather than sell them on the market, so the supply is moderately low. As a result, over time the prices go up because the gems are in high demand but there’s not an increase in supply to meet the demand.

Katre.1084:

They balance the game around PVP not the 5 races. The racial skills are so weak they would never throw balance out of whack.

Not racial skills, but the cultures, histories, and flavors of those races. Like I said, I can’t remember where, but I read something from the devs stating that the story and environments of GW2 were built around the five races, and that for that reason they don’t intend to add more.

I just checked it, and it’s definitely soulbound.

Not sure if this is covered somewhere else, but I haven’t seen any topics about it. Yesterday, I got on my main character, did the story instance to get into the “new” Kessex Hills, and got all four of the obelisks in Kessex. Then I got on another character, did the instance on him too, and tried to talk to the Priory member who gives out the transcription device, but she wouldn’t give me one. I then went to Gendarran Fields and tried to transcribe the obelisks there, but it wouldn’t work. So in other words, I did everything I was supposed to do on an alt but didn’t get the item and can’t transcribe the obelisks. Is transcription limited to just the first character on an account to get the transcription device, or am I overlooking something?

BlackDevil.9268:

Also, to release Tengu you would need another story. As they tried to keep themselves locked up to avoid zaithan kittenters come in their territory. Maybe you could actually see a great empire with stuff of GW1 in it.

You’re missing the important fact that they’ve been isolated these last hundred years. The tengu have deliberately isolated themselves as a culture, so even if something brought them out of the Dominion of Winds and other nearby areas, I don’t see them becoming a playable race. Imagine all the changes they’d have to make to existing zones to accomodate the flood of new tengu NPCs. And they would have to add tengu NPCs, otherwise tengu would simply be an aesthetic choice without any real substance or backstory to it, and it would be very difficult to have a personal story taking place throughout the world if the tengu are only just starting to leave the safety of their former home. No, you need the same scale of development you see with the five player races, and it’s simply not going to happen at this stage in the game because they hadn’t planned for it by release. I could easily see the Dominion of Winds being released as a new explorable zone, but not the tengu becoming a playable race. Again, “it would be cool” is not sufficient justification to bring about such a significant change to the status quo.

BlackDevil.9268:

Hell, they might even release the dervish with an update like that because they got locked up in that empire too.

Impossible. The dervish gets his or her powers from direct appeals to the six human gods in the same way that GW1 monks did. That simply can’t work in GW2 because we have techno-Buddhists (asura), agnostics (sylvari) and atheists (charr). Note how the guardian class isn’t like old monks in that they get their powers from their personal beliefs, such as loyalty to friends and willingness to fight for a political or ideological cause). The developers deliberately wrote them that way so all five playable races can use them. Dervishes, on the other hand, are strictly religious in nature, so that means three of the five races couldn’t play as them because they don’t worship the six gods, let alone any other deities. And even if they did add dervishes in a lore-friendly way, what would they do that hasn’t already been done in the existing eight classes? It would be foolish and pointless to double up on something that’s already been done, and guardians already exist as a very similar class. Why would we want another “holy warrior” archetype when one already exists? It would be like adding GW1 assassins when we already have thieves that cover that territory.

What if the point of these alliances is for the devs to make us aware that we should be feeling they’re very wrong and probably should never have existed? It could be a way to lead up to some lore-friendly explanation in the end…I hope.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

With her motivations, I was referring to this line:

In my opinion, these “alliances” that were set up by Scarlet serve two purposes: first, they give her the resources (magitechnology, spores) she needs to fulfill her goals (see below), and second, to create discord and chaos, which is apparently her main motivation.

I was clarifying what her main motivation is, and that chaos is just a side-effect or actions she does on a whim. She doesn’t – or at least shouldn’t – need chaos to end predetermination in the manner she’s trying to end them. It sounds more like she’s trying to remove the Dream and the Nightmare, since they are what creates that pre-determination. Or remove sylvari from being connected to them.

No offense, but this seems way too limited. What about those other quotes from the interview? The devs are making it sound like her plans do include the Dream/Nightmare, but that it goes way beyond that.

To your quote – Scott says elsewhere that “she didn’t see what she thought she saw” and explained the nature of the machine, and that said machine is what drove her insane.

But we still don’t have enough information about Scarlet to make a thorough determination either way. “Didn’t see what she thought she saw” and “the machine drove her insane” don’t necessarily mean that she was deprived of sensation and had some weird experiences that made her do some rather major things. Maybe she didn’t see the Eternal Alchemy, she saw some vision brought about by Mordremoth or another Pale Tree (because others have to exist), or somehow connected briefly to another dimension (possibly the source of her powers, she might have found a way to tap into an alternate reality somehow). And just because the machine drove her insane doesn’t mean that the physical sensory deprivation it brought about was the literal cause of her new ideology. That would be like saying “Islam was founded because Muhammad went into some caves.” Literally speaking, yes, the physical act of going into a cave to meditate led to the founding of Islam. But the religion was founded because of what Muhammad experienced during his meditations; according to Muslim doctrine, he received the word of God. Who’s to say the same thing isn’t the case here? You could just dismiss Scarlet as a mind-trip gone bad, or you could consider that maybe there was some truth to what she saw, even if it wasn’t what she thought it was. Ancient people saw dinosaur skeletons and made up stories about dragons, so maybe Scarlet, as intelligent as she is, saw something she couldn’t comprehend and is merely referring to it according to concepts she does understand? I don’t see why the devs would go into so much detail in all of this backstory if it weren’t significant in some way. I refuse to believe that they would create nothing but a throwaway plot and a throwaway character just to kill time; surely this has to tie into something bigger.

As to your stated main point in said last post – they do know what they’re doing, for sure – as in they know their actions. As far as plotting out goes. But the question is whether or not they know what they’re doing as in their actions’ effects on the lore. Or why their actions (mainly their terrible habit of having no exposition) is negatively effecting the story.

So what if some indeterminate period from now, they come up with a perfectly lore-friendly solution to all of these apparent discrepancies that correlates exactly with established GW lore? What if we finally discover exactly what Scarlet is after, and precisely how she was able to form these alliances, and how currently unknown details that are lore-accurate led to situations that we currently consider lore-unfriendly? What if when the big finale hits we all look like idiots for complaining about the story up to the point we’re currently at? Sort of like a film where all sorts of seemingly supernatural occurrences can be attributed to some person using special effects behind the scenes to manipulate the protagonist(s). It makes no sense when you see it, but at the very end it comes together and there’s a perfectly rational explanation. At this point we’re still in the “supernatural occurrences” phase, and my fervent hope is that there WILL be a big reveal in the end that the antagonist was using special effects all along.

Redenaz.8631:

We do still have one question used in character creation that isn’t used in the personal story, after all, and I’d like to see that developed into some “return home” content somehow.

I’m anticipating a transition into expansion-esque content. That question across all races has to do with one’s inspiration and/or mentorship, so I could see an asuran advisor, spirit of the wild, human god, charr warband member, or firstborn mentor tell the player character about some vision or rumor of danger in a new part of the world, something that you wouldn’t have figured out on your own but would have to have heard of through some very unusual means. Imagine your patron god/goddess telling you about your destiny in X location, or a Synergetics professor explaining that there’s “a great disturbance in the Eternal Alchemy” emanating from some geographical point.

Addendum: [paraphrase] “We don’t know if she actually traveled somewhere or if she was just hallucinating…it remains to be seen how much of what she saw is real.” We can’t conclusively say that she’s 100% crazy and that none of what she saw was grounded in reality. Certainly she IS insane and enjoys making people suffer, but there’s simply not enough evidence that it ends there.

Just to restate, my main thesis here is that the devs DO know what they’re doing, and that the apparent butchery of the lore will be reconciled in a very interesting, unexpected, and fulfilling way down the road (I hope). The new NPC dialogue in Kessex seems to be a sign that we’re supposed to be leery of all the seeming inconsistencies we’ve witnessed so far, because if the in-game characters are speculating in that manner, we ought to take note of it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I didn’t read this in full, but I’d like to note one thing: Scarlet’s motivation.

We actually have it, at least part of it.

“But I see the flaws in that design. My people don’t have to take what we’re given, or be what we were “born to be.” No people do. We can change the rules…well, I can. And I’m going to.”

Her intention is to remove the concept of predetermination (aka Wyld Hunts). Her attacks on Queen’s Jubilee are unrelated to this, as stated in this interview and were actually just done on a whim.

So in a way, she does create chaos for the sake of creating chaos. That’s what she did with the Jubilee. And she isn’t so much “really, really stupid” but rather just that insane. Her act of “seeing the Eternal Alchemy” was false – the device she was strapped to was a sensory deprivation device. In other words, she just lost all sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. That typically sends people insane and Scarlet is no exception. She hallucinated, but was told she’d see the Eternal Alchemy (a placebo at best) so she believes she saw the Eternal Alchemy.

I get all that, but in the end, isn’t spreading chaos ending predetermination? Predetermined events are set in stone, and she’s trying to change that. It also seems as though it’s not limited to just Wyld Hunts, as she’s messing with the entire continent, not just the Tarnished Coast (or specifically the Grove). She HAS to be part of something larger than just the fate of the Sylvari, or otherwise what’s the point of everything she’s done so far? “Changing the rules” seems to involve the rules we’re accustomed to here in Tyria. In the very podcast you cited, it was stated that “she has an agenda, but overall her goal is to shake things up as much as possible,” and later, “she’s trying to change the way the world works.” Breaking the tradition of the Wyld Hunt giving purpose to the Sylvari is only one facet of that, and perhaps the one that she identifies with most, but I can’t see how that would be her ONLY goal. Her experiences in the sensory deprivation chamber changed her, but we’ve only seen one facet of that episode. We don’t know the full story, we don’t know her ultimate goals and exactly what she intends to do to get there, we don’t know what she knows, and we don’t know how real her visions truly were, or whether they can be attributed to something other than just sensory deprivation. It’s like Moto’s story from the Super Adventure Box—we have a limited perspective in the short stories, and we only see what we’re intended to see.

Part of it is also the fact that I refuse to believe that the LS writers really would limit themselves to a cartoony villain like Scarlet as she’s appeared thus far. Maybe it’s true that that’s her only purpose, in which case Arenanet should no longer be taken seriously as a company. But I have faith in the writers to bring this all together and show that Scarlet is only a small part of what’s really going on, and that everything that’s happened so far in the LS is not only interconnected, but in a way that makes perfect sense and showcases their talent in creating a compelling storyline. There HAS to be more (and much more) to Scarlet than what we’ve seen so far, or the game is doomed.

Redenaz.8631:

Much as I like the Tengu, I’m not in a particular hurry for them to be introduced as a playable race, if they ever are. They’d require a substantial amount of work to have a personal story arc as broad as the other five races, and, art-wise, they’re going to have just as many problems adapting armor to fit their model as Charr do. I think Charr players might like to see their issues sorted out first, before we get another bestial humanoid race.

If there’s ever an expansion, then I’d think more seriously about them introducing a new race. It’s just too big a thing to fit into Living Story, if they want to make the Tengu experience on par with the other races.

I agree, it might work for a traditional expansion, but definitely not with the LS. People have argued to me that “it’s fine, just add a few extra NPCs and personal story chapters in existing zones,” but really they’d have to rewrite the whole race to bring them out of isolation. It wouldn’t really merit creating a race just to have different avatars and armor models if there aren’t tons and tons of tengu being actively involved in the world and its events (including the period covered by the personal story). It would be nonsensical for Orr to suddenly have whole brigades of Tengu where before there was only that one armorsmith and maybe one or two random guys I can’t think of right now. As for the Largos—no real customization, the wings would get horribly in the way on land, their story would have to start in or near really high-level zones, and overall they strike me more as a White Mantle-esque faction that will help us now but stab us in the back later. The five “racial sympathy” races (skritt, quaggan, hylek, ogres, and grawl) aren’t nearly developed enough in terms of sophistication and civilization to be playable races, plus it would render that arc of the personal story moot. Kodan are like the opposite of the Largos—friendly towards us, but not enough customization or story to really merit being playable.

My question to people who want more races (or more professions) is this: what will adding these things really do for the game other than simply adding more “stuff”? Flavor and RP alone are not enough to justify such an addition. Looking at professions for example, people have suggested many different new classes, but what would those classes do that hasn’t already been covered by one or more existing classes? They’d have to come up with a completely unique set of mechanics for any given class and make them really good at things that existing classes aren’t already good at. “More” isn’t an end unto itself.

Overall, it’s just too resource-intensive, and (as I stated before citing the devs) GW2 was intentionally built around five playable races—no more, no less. At most they’ll add the tengu, but even that seems like a stretch to me.

Also, about Scarlet’s motivations: either she’s a terrorist and is really, really stupid, or this HAS to be part of something bigger, and the chaos is just a side effect, because she knows that terrorism doesn’t work and can’t be an end unto itself. For further reading, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWbtN1mwgkU

So in other words, my second theory is that the writers do know exactly what they’re doing, and they have everything figured out perfectly. The story has revolved around Scarlet, but so far we don’t know much about her motivations, goals, or even methods. From what we know, Scarlet’s main objective is to change everything possible. She wants to destroy the status quo (and perhaps even prevent there from BEING a status quo) and sow chaos everywhere she can. It goes beyond just taking delight in messing with people. She has a modus operandi that involves putting opposites together, as demonstrated by the Molten and Toxic Alliances and her pairing of Slick and Sparki in the Aetherpath. Moreover, she was essentially willing to sacrifice a whole airship facility simply to let Caithe know that she (Scarlet) knows way more than she ought to. She clearly has something in mind, we just don’t know what. All of this randomness and insanity has some plan behind it, and she’s using anyone and everyone she can get her hands on to shake things up. What that plan is remains to be seen, and it’s REALLY frustrating that Arenanet keeps dragging things on like this, but I feel that the writers have some grand scheme that will fall into place after all the requisite pieces have been introduced. It’s like a heist movie where the criminals steal a bunch of strange things in order to use them in pulling of some master plan without anyone guessing what they were ultimately up to. So as infuriating as it is, I think that eventually we’ll see a LS update where everything falls into place and the LS writers will prove their brilliance, and we’ll all look like idiots for complaining the whole time, but until then we’re going to have to deal with a slow-paced story. We’re still in the “get what’s needed for the heist” phase, and it might drag on for quite a while.

(While we’re at it, I’ll just throw out my two cents and guess that she’s tied to Mordremoth the jungle dragon somehow. The objectives of each dragon are reflected by their nature: Zhaitan, being the undead dragon, wants to corrupt all life and replace it with undeath to serve him; Jormag the ice dragon values strength and power, just as ice is extremely tough when you get enough of it laid in one place; Primordus the lava dragon, like a volcano, seeks to explosively spread its fiery nature wherever it can and replace life with lava-like elemental creatures; and Kralkatorrik, like the crystals it represents, wants to replace the disorder of the world with crystalline order and perfection. If that’s what they’re supposed to represent, then Mordremoth represents the jungle, a place of wild growth. If he’s acting through or with Scarlet, a sentient plant, then maybe their goal is to choke out civilization with chaos and “improve” things no matter what the cost, “growing” at the expense of everything else. Not really founded in anything concrete, just speculation.)

(Oh, and not to brag but I predicted the plot of Guild Wars 1: Nightfall a while before it came out, speculating that it was going to involve a fallen god and his/her “angels.” But that doesn’t mean that my predictions here are correct)

First, I’m not a fan of the LS as it stands. I agree with many people that based on what we’ve been shown so far, the story makes little sense, seems to be nothing but filler, and has a villain who has rather flimsy motivations and doesn’t connect to the “main” GW2 story. However, with a few tidbits gleaned from the beginning of this chapter, I think the writers might know what they’re doing and have this planned out really well.

My first theory, which is apparently shared by many if not most people on these forums, is that the LS is nothing but sugar-coated filler with shiny attractions but no real substance, designed to maximize player presence and activity within the game and give an excuse for limited time only gem store offers. Let’s hope this isn’t the case.

My second theory, based on NPC idle chatter from the Thunder Ridge area of the “new” Kessex Peak map, is that the writers of the LS want us to feel that the whole story is wrong and doesn’t make sense from a lore pespective.

Mykala: I never thought I’d see the day when the Nightmare Court would form an alliance.
Senna: I doubt it’s truly an alliance. If I were to guess—and I am—I’d say the court is pulling the strings.
Mykala: An interesting choice of words. That’s what they said about the Flame Legion and the dredge.

In my opinion, these “alliances” that were set up by Scarlet serve two purposes: first, they give her the resources (magitechnology, spores) she needs to fulfill her goals (see below), and second, to create discord and chaos, which is apparently her main motivation. She doesn’t intend for them to last, she’s just playing factions against each other under the guise of uniting under a common cause. The Molten Alliance was not very stable, as instanced by the dead drop reports from Flame and Frost. They really don’t trust each other at all, and it was simply a marriage of convenience to ensure mutual survival instead of mutual destruction in the wake of a massive civil war and the death of a leader/“god.” As an analogy, consider America and the Soviet Union in World War 2: they joined together to survive the Axis onslaught, but we only saw the end of the Cold War about 20 years ago.

Here, we have the Nightmare Court, who generally go it alone but have formed tenuous alliances in the past (see Vandal’s Claim in Brisban Wildlands), and the krait, who have NEVER in the known history of Tyria EVER been anything but hostile to non-krait. If the dredge and Flame Legion are xenophobic, the krait are worse than both of them combined. I have little doubt that the Court is using the krait for their own purposes and will dispose of them afterwards, and the krait likewise consider the Court their pawns and that after their usefulness runs out, the knives will come out (literally and figuratively) and they’ll use them as slaves and/or sacrifices. Unlike the Flame Legion and dredge, the Nightmare Court and krait aren’t necessarily in a desperate position, they just have a lot to gain from their alliance.

So we have makeshift alliances that are almost certain to collapse sooner or later (probably sooner). In my opinion, they were never designed to last long, just long enough for Scarlet to profit from them by freaking everyone out, turning factions against themselves and each other, and gaining some resource to use in the future. Note that even the NPCs are concerned that the alliances probably shouldn’t exist in the first place, and they’re making very reasonable assumptions that the factions will probably tear themselves apart in the near future. When in-game characters are lore- or genre-savvy, that should tell you something is up. In my opinion, this attention to how weird things are getting is not mere coincidence, and I very much hope that this means the LS writers are (seemingly) butchering the lore on purpose. The developers want us to know how messed-up the Molten and Toxic Alliances are from a lore perspective. They want us to feel how WRONG this all is, and how it shouldn’t happen and seemingly couldn’t have happened until now.

Because they deliberately balanced the game and the story around the five races we have now. They’ve said (I forgot where) that new races are pretty much at the very bottom of the list of what they plan to implement. New professions are slightly higher on the list, but still pretty much certain not to happen.

On my elementalist, I’ve gotten credit a few times without using siege weapons by means of the ice bow and FGS. If you use BOTH weapons to their fullest extent, you MAY have a chance at getting credit, but no guarantees.

If PvP isn’t about winning, what is it about? I don’t see how anyone can legitimately claim that people play PvP for reasons other than to try to win. Not to say that losing can’t be fun if you’re up against a challenging opponent who gives you a run for your money, but I see no reason why people wouldn’t have the goal of winning in a deliberately competitive environment like sPvP. Moreover, there’s nothing wrong with taking the game seriously and trying your hardest to learn the game and win it consistently.

Furthermore, I’d like you to answer the following question before you attempt to refute what I’ve said: is there any rule in the game that prohibits the behavior you’re complaining about or makes it a violation of the terms of service or EULA?

There are many things in this world that aren’t nice or moral, but are nevertheless legal. The only thing stopping you from doing them is your conscience. For instance, it is perfectly legal (in America, at least) to use offensive language to curse at someone. Is it a virtuous or moral thing to do so? No. But so long as what you say isn’t a threat, doesn’t allege something false about the person’s character that would damage his reputation, and isn’t raising a ruckus that breaches the peace, you can curse at someone to your heart’s content—it’s perfectly legal. If the Founders wanted to make swearing illegal they would have done so. Here, Anet designed the game to allow for “3v1 backstabs” like you’re talking about. They have in no way, shape, or form said that it is not a legitimate strategy or made efforts to counter it. Therefore, you’re arguing with the way the game is designed. As I said before, if you want to find people who agree with your outlook on PvP, feel free. But don’t make demands on the developers to conform to your desires. 3v1’ing is legal, as is swearing, and regardless of how distasteful or “dishonorable” or “dirty” they are, none of that changes their legality. So long as they are legal, you can’t do anything about them and your complaints will be in vain.

I wholeheartedly agree with everyone who has cited Sun Tzu and David Sirlin. In gaming, as in real life, the concept of “honor” only works when everyone involved in a fight or competition agrees to abide by the rules of honor. All too often, “honor” is defined by people in online games as limiting oneself and not using certain skills, tactics, or strategies. It’s fine if you go up against other people who likewise agree to limit themselves in some way, but you cannot force others to abide by YOUR rules, and there is no such thing as “honor.” Unless Anet has disallowed something because it is an exploit, or the devs choose to rebalance skills, you have to accept the strategies you don’t like as part of the game and work against them. For instance, people today often complain about “camping.” Are you aware that “camping” was how countless armies won victories back in the day? It’s not about what’s “honorable,” it’s about whether you win or lose. In a real war, would you expect people to be “honorable?” No; it’s about living or dying. Honor is simply an impediment in such situations, since if you let down your guard and expect that your opponent act honorably, he’ll just ignore you and take advantage of your reservations and self-limitations. An army would not limit its numbers to equal those of its opponents; armies would take advantage of their superior numbers to utterly crush the opposition. But you’re asking that here, people should all fight one-on-one and take turns fighting. That’s utterly ridiculous.

Alleging that someone is dishonorable means nothing, except to you. Legal and illegal conduct is something altogether different, and exploits—not just “this is OP/unfair” but actual gamebreaking behavior that was not foreseen by Anet—should definitely be reported, but “honor” is your problem, not everyone else’s. I don’t mean to be rude, but that is a simple truth in life, right up there with “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” and “people are not perfect.” If you don’t like being backstabbed, for example, find a counter-build. Just because you don’t like permastealth thieves doesn’t mean that your opinion must become law. They will not stop using those builds unless and until Anet chooses to change certain Thief traits and skills. There is nothing objectively wrong about their behavior; they are playing the game with the tools handed to them by Anet. It just so happens that permastealth Thieves can get away with a lot. But the skills that allow such builds haven’t been nerfed yet, so Anet has acknowledged that it is a viable playstyle.

If you go to a fight carrying a sword and expect people not to bring guns, honor isn’t going to protect you, and you’ll lose until you bring a gun of your own and know how to use it. Honor is irrelevant—all that matters is who wins or loses, so if you don’t want to fight people you consider dishonorable, find those whom you would consider honorable or just don’t play against other players if you don’t like the way the game is set up.

Flamfloz.6732:

As for hotjoins, people will generally try to win. But they won’t be trying too hard either.

Therein lies the problem

Eurantien.4632:

I was talking for tourneys. As for hotjoins, people just go in there to do what they think is fun. Skill, strategy, intellectual thought do not come into play in hotjoins.

I understand that hot-joins are for casual PvPers, but I still don’t understand why people wouldn’t even try to win. It boggles my mind to think that someone would consider playing badly, failing to strategize, and ignoring the obvious “fun.” I mean, I’m pretty much only in it for the achievement points, but while I’m there I might as well try my best to win…

Eurantien.4632:

You have to weigh the risk with the reward. If you go for a boss and it gets stolen, if you are planning on using treb and an enemy engineer just lobs nades from the ledge, how do you deal with that? Or if your trebber can’t kill an assaulter quickly 1 v 1, doesn’t have the ability to insta repair treb with portal, or is a bad shot. Also, if your team doesn’t set up treb hits the enemy team could just dodge every shot. Then there is the lord on foefire, if you fail a lord push it can cost you the game.

The problem is though, there are clear—very clear—openings that people just completely ignore. An enemy base in Legacy of the Foefire can have BOTH of its door blasted wide open and the entire team could be capping the point near that base, with no enemies in sight, and they’ll just walk right by it. The cannon in Capricorn could go an entire match without being fired ONCE, even when it’s wide open. People in Temple of the Silent Storm can be the only players near commune points and they don’t use them. (And don’t say I’m exaggerating—I see these things happen all the time.)

I’m not the best PvPer, as I said, but if there’s one thing I know it’s strategy, and hot-join sPvP is thoroughly lacking in strategy. I understand exactly what you mean about risk vs. reward, but even when the risk is nonexistent and the reward is very high, opportunities still don’t get taken. I see blowouts happen all the time because one team or the other ignores the mechanics central to a particular map. Is it that people know about these mechanics and just don’t care about anything other than killing other players, or that they don’t take the time to learn the maps? I don’t know which is worse…

I’m mostly a PvE’r and I only recently got into sPvP (mostly so I can get more achievement points). I’m not a hardcore PvPer by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m very good at noticing tactics and strategies (or the lack thereof) in other players. It seems to me that very, very few people use map mechanics. I’ll see entire matches go by where nobody reconfigures the Skyhammer to their team, uses the trebuchets in Battle of Khylo after the first few minutes, or uses the cannon in Raid on the Capricorn. Granted, I’ve been doing hot-join for the last three months and am only now getting into the solo arena, but I really don’t get why people fail to use all the resources given to them. Do people seriously not care about winning to the extent that they completely ignore map mechanics, or is there something going on that I’m not aware of?

Cyhann.2609:

Equinox.4968:

First: I’m not a PvPer, I mostly just do it for the achievement points

Why would you do that? In the same time you could make at least ten times as
many achivement points in pve. Or do you allready have all/most of them?

I’ve been playing since beta and I have something like 8800 achievement points now. The only PvE achievements I have left require large amounts of grinding (slayer, weapon master) and it wasn’t until recently that I realized the reason why some people have so many more points than I do is because the daily PvP counts for 4 points per day, which adds up over time.

In that case, solo queues it is. Thank you everyone for being helpful

Arachnid.4062:

Equinox.4968:

Ok, thanks for the feedback. I had thought that solo queues were for 1v1 or something. I understand now that it’s a team vs. team format, but what makes it different from hotjoin?

People take the objectives seriously because it’s a rated format and you get larger rewards for winning (tournament chest+ extra glory).

Does it count as a tournament for achievement purposes? If not that’s fine, but if so then I’ll definitely be doing them from now on

Ok, thanks for the feedback. I had thought that solo queues were for 1v1 or something. I understand now that it’s a team vs. team format, but what makes it different from hotjoin?

Again: people don’t care about glory, they care about the quick, easy, and effortless path to rewards. People don’t want tragic battles against overwhelming odds, they want champion bags, exp, karma, and loot. You’re not going to change peoples’ mindset at this point. If your suggested changes were implemented, WVW would likely dry up very quickly due to lack of profitability.

First: I’m not a PvPer, I mostly just do it for the achievement points. I don’t mind it, but as I’m about to explain, I’m kind of frustrated and I’m looking for guidance.

So about 3 months ago I started doing SPvP on a daily basis to get more achievement points. I’d say I’m pretty average; I understand the maps and their mechanics and I can strategize quite well, but my execution is lacking since I’ve always been a PvE player and have very little experience fighting other players. After a little while, I started noticing some problems with the standard (hotjoin I guess) PvP crowd. I would usually do 3 or 4 rounds to get my daily done, and it quickly became apparent that pretty much everyone else was there for the same reason. This isn’t a problem at all. The problem is that nobody really seems to care about even putting up a fight. Virtually every match is a blowout, with one side getting 500 points and the other getting 200 or less, and often under 100. Some would say “who cares as long as you win,” but I’m the sort who would rather have a decent challenge while getting my daily done. People ignore map mechanics (I rarely see people try to take the Skyhammer lazer after the start of the round, use the commune points in Temple of the Silent Storm, or use the cannon in Raid on the Capricorn, despite their importance to winning—heck, I’ve seen whole teams completely ignore wide-open bases in Legacy of the Foefire). They even admit in map chat that nobody cares in the least about these things.

On the other hand, I’m not a hardcore PvPer by any means. I only do it for the daily, and I don’t see why I should start doing tournaments when I’m not that invested in PvP and will never be a competitive PvPer. All I ask is a decent challenge while doing my daily. I’d gladly lose—even routinely—to a good and evenly matched opponent rather than win against an apathetic or just plain bad one. Is there a game mode for me? Am I overlooking something?

Even if not a lazer shot, then SOMETHING to make the first quarter just a little easier. Even just a half-power lazer or something like that to make it manageable. Earlier today, my server (IOJ) had a new record in getting him down to 75% before failing the battery event (we would have failed anyway, we had 2 seconds left at the point the timer stopped). Just half an hour ago, we got him down to 58%, but still no dice, and we have some great commanders. All we need is a small boost to get us over the 75% hump, and then we’ll be golden—or at least have a reasonable chance of success, as opposed to our current 100% failure rate.

I think I figured out why Tequatl is so tough these days. It’s because in the 75-50%, 50-25%, and 25-0% phases, you get a megalazer to help you out, and pretty much every team that’s won has commented on how after 75%, things get much, much easier. So why not have a megalazer event at the beginning of the encounter, even if that event is harder to manage than the subsequent ones? Then I think it would change from near-impossible to a reasonable challenge. As it stands, the first 25% seems to be THE barrier to winning this. After you overcome that, you have a fighting chance.