Guild Wars 2

Welcome to the Forums and the game! It feels at times like you are playing all alone because there is no real need to team up with anyone for quests, with a few exceptions like dungeons. I find low-level areas like Queensdale to be still populated, but the best way for you to meet other players is probably to join a guild. Like with everything there are good and…less good ones, but you can always leave a guild that doesn’t give you what you are looking for in this virtual world.

And you probably didn’t travel to Lions Arch yet, you can do so by an Asura Gate in your starting city. It is quite the populated place in this game, so if you wanna meet people go there, regardless of what level you currently are. Good Luck!

Congratulations Ebay! You worked hard and got the promotion you deserved! I wish you a save travel! And here you were asking me if i was actually thinking about what i was typing when i predicted you would get an awesome match-up next…have fun with servers No. 5 and 7! I laughed so hard when i saw that…

You mean the great fights your zergs had against gates? No, wait, you must mean the good times waiting for someone from us to come out of our spawn point while you camp there! The difference between your prime time of the day and ours creates an imbalance in forces that few of us would regret to see go away.

Some days ago i had to tell someone who asked at LA how to get a fused weapon ticket that he couldn’t get one. I literally could feel his disappointment – i can’t understand how people who got lucky through RNG and got a ticket could feel better when seeing someone realizing he can’t ever get one. That’s just Schadenfreude and not pride about any “achievement”.

I stopped playing the Living Story content, the only thing that made the world feel alive for me was Flame & Frost (which i liked very much) and everything since then felt like it had a lack of quality. And the constant RNG leaves a sour aftertaste.

Is the Living Story content infinite? There is the potential of an infinite amount of new Living Story updates, but all are temporary. The world of Tyria is currently static as very few Living Story content is permanent, and only an advance of the main theme of the game, the fight against the Elder Dragons, can change that. But such content won’t be infinite.

To sum it up, the Living Story is not infinite content, and most of it doesn’t even qualify as content.

That’s Kaineng for ya’. I am sure you are glad they did not vomit onto your corpse. But you are taking their bad manners with humor, that’s good.

My my, seeing all these angry replies makes me think you guys have some anger issues! Seeing how Kaineng currently rolls over you in EB and your borderlands makes me understand this, though. Now i’ll go back to collect more bags from you guys and Kaineng. Cheers!

If other servers all have more numbers than you then what you achieve is all the better! I wish you a save travel to the next higher tier and that you enjoy your time there just like last weeks “winner” CD is enjoying theirs!

I think just now Kaineng demonstrates what they are capable of in their prime time of the day – YB had their early day Zergs for weeks. But you guys from Ebay just go ahead and win this week, so you get a nice promotion to a higher “tier”, just like CD.

I am sorry to say so, but we have to accept that we will most likely never get the answers to those questions, seeing that GW1 is getting set to be more automated, to run without anyone working on it, basically. We will not get any further additions to GW Beyond and there weren’t even plans for an addition to GW2 until recently, so i would be surprised if they would just give us the answers to the questions that were left open in GW1, like you are asking in this thread…

I do not doubt that without the threat of the Elder Dragons, especially Zhaitan, the pirates of LA would be preying onto the ships of other nations. And it is convenient for the council of captains to renounce any responsibility for actions outside of LA. They have entered into an alliance with Kryta because being between a nation hostile to you and Zhaitans minions would probably mean the end for the “privateers” – it was thanks to the Pact that LA was defended.

Should the threat of the elder dragons get neutralized then the current state of affairs may change, although i think we are seeing a long-term change here, with LA turning into a center for trade and piracy (or “privateering”) fading away from it eventually.

I guess you guys are right, such things happen and i should not hold a grudge against Kaineng. Besides, afterwards when we caught that group i danced on one of the guys corpse. So i am not free of such behaviour myself. And the guild in question…
http://i40.tinypic.com/ev1heu.jpg

If you look at ancient mythology you will find that gods are merely powerful beings with the same flaws as humans and plenty of cases of misbehaviour.

The GW gods are behaving more like i would expect gods to behave, except for the little fact that it’s YOU who has to help them out all the time (in GW1). So, from a mythological point of view possessing supernatural powers alone makes them qualify as “gods”. And other races like the Charr just see them as that, beings of supernatural power.

I also think that humanity must have benefitted from direct actions of the gods once, so they earned their titles in the eyes of humanity. Even in GW1 one can get various buffs from their statues, although one has to pay them for it.

Now should we go on seeing them as gods in GW2, i am not sure of that.

Some guys from Kaineng are seriously lacking in manners – today i died during camp defense in our borderlands and someone vomitted repeatedly onto the corpse of my character. Didn’t even know one could do that. It was a Charr, so it didn’t surprise me that much. And you remove your corpses afap because you seem to be afraid to be treated in a similar disrespectful manner. I would post the guild tag here, but instead i will just treat every Kaineng the same way. You got no honor.

I have been playing WvW for only a few days now, and my experiences are quite different from what i read in this thread. My servers 2 opponents not only mostly ignore each other in our Borderlands and only attack us, but they only fight when they have numerical superiority. I have given up on running around on my own or fighting fairly. Never saw them show any respect in any way, so i do not show them any either. And i see it as legitimate to do to them what they do to me, dance on corpses and laugh. This is what i have learned in WvW, expect no mercy and show none. So, no need for a tool to show respect to a fallen opponent. I have none.

I am hoping that we will see Lazarus the Dires return, since i got a score to settle with him and he swore vengeance to “countless generations” anyway for the damage done to him. If he will be capable of using Spectral Agony is questionable imo, since his power got “twisted” in some way. I hope he won’t, at least not on such a deadly level as in GW1, where infusion decided if you just dropped dead or not. Something like this should be limited to the Fractals imo, where everyone can decide if one wants to get exposed to Agony. ANet should not actively seek to split the playerbase into those who can play new content because of the proper gear and those who can’t.

And i would not like to see any other Mursaat return besides Lazarus, since the last few Mursaat were supposed to have gotten wiped out during the Battle for Lions Arch during War in Kryta. But that Lazarus was the last one was never definitely stated as far as i know. ANets wording about some plans for the Mursaat could be taken as a hint that there are more survivors than just Lazarus though.

Only a handful of crates for me and no ticket, not that i care about it, those skins are really ugly. Got a Mini Kasmeer though, and a few good items from dead Instigators, including a Mini Reef Rider. I got lucky getting a Fused ticket during FaF, getting a Sclerite one would not have meant anything to me.

There are occasions when someone’s hair turned white due to extreme physical stress, if that applies to the Charr too then we may see the limit of the Foefire’s range when it came to affecting the Charr here. If that was intentional or not, and if Adelbern decided about it, who knows…

About Adelbern, he dug up the procedure for the Foefire from somewhere, earing him the nickname “sorcerer-king”, not necessarily meaning he had some hidden magical talents. The power of the Foefire came from the gods, and the last thing the Charr would admit is that it was through them that Adelbern could wield such power.

Not more people are searching for Sohothin and Magdaer because the setting is like that, and that was a choice the devs made. I had the faint hope that it is all for the good of a future game expansion where we, the players can take part in putting the ghosts to rest, but by now i doubt that any such plans exist. I was wondering when i read EoD that Sohothin was not more of a topic, that it stayed in the hands of a Charr. My ingame character blames Logan for not taking it, and hopes for an opportunity to take it away.

And yes, the Foefire was on a level with the Searing (which killed roughly half the population of Ascalon).

About how to “undo” the Curse, we only know that it is said that the rightful king of Ascalon needs to return either Sohothin or Magdaer to Ascalon City. We do not even know if that means that it has to be someone from the royal line of Ascalon, or if it can be a descendant of Doric. Wade Samuelsson would most likely qualify. Adelbern knew in advance what he would cause with the Foefire, that means there was some sort of source available from where he got the knowledge, and that source could still exist and maybe tell something more about how to lift the curse.

Concerning the question how far the Foefire reached, GoA mentiones that it “killed every human in the entire country” (p.239) as well that “it affected every bit of the nation except for Ebonhawke” (p.240). Adelbern may have decided to spare Ebonhawke, or it was simply too remote a place.

I also assumed that every human in Ascalon outside of Ascalon City (and with the exception of Ebonhawke) had been dead since the Charr had control over all of Ascalon except of Ascalon City (“conquering it would have eliminated the last outpost of human resistance in the region” – GoA, p.279), but we can meet ghosts outside of the ruins of Ascalon City itself, which only does fit into the picture to show that the Foefire did indeed cover all of Ascalon.

And the Foefire was magic of a powerful kind which could probably be extended or limited by the person unleashing it. So i assume Adelbern wanted it to cover all of the original human kingdom of Ascalon, with the exception of Ebonhawke.

The Adelbern we see in GW2 is pretty different from the tired monarch full of regrets that we met during “The last day dawns” in GW1. I was actually just irritated at seeing how he acts in the AC video and count that as Charr propaganda.

What was his “sin” then, that he refused to leave with Rurik? Every Ascalonian was given the chance to leave, and many did. You may blame Adelbern for making people stay, maybe because they believed that things would turn out alright…but the Charr are responsible for the deaths of the Ascalonians, not Adelbern.

The Forefire made the dead defenders rise again, Ascalon City was the last remaining human stronghold in Ascalon at that time (disregarding Ebonhawke as it was not affected by the Foefire). One could as well argue that Adelbern sent a lot of people to safety in Ebonhawke, as it was him who ordered them to leave.

Sure, in the end you can blame Adelbern for the Foefire, but the Charr’s view of him does not give him justice imo. He may not be sinless, but his sin was pride, not mass murder. That falls to the Charr alone.

I gave the solo instance another try after the Karka swarm in the passage leading to the entry had driven me away at first. I did not have any problems dealing with Canach, i had expected a more difficult challenge actually. A few mines did the trick. It’s alright as a solo instance i’d say.

The ghosts aren’t evil, they are cursed to see every living being as a Charr. Unfortunately that means that we have to defend ourselves if attacked by them.

I would be happy if we, as the players, were given a choice about how to treat the ghosts, but we aren’t. I feel pity for them but do not have much faith in ANet to handle this situation well, should the time come when the ghosts will be put to rest (if we will ever see that happen), given how the Charr are seemingly preferred over humans in GW2.

I have been to Ascalon with my human characters, but i avoid killing ghosts as much as i can, and i’ll never complete certain areas (not interested in world completion, i scraped along every corner in GW1, that was sufficient for me).

@ Saelune, the Charr would have murdered every human in Ascalon City, and any prisoner taken would have met some gruesome end as well. The blame for the Foefire falls upon the Charr, do not confuse cause and effect.

I thought i’d give this fight a try, but the entire passage to get there was filled with Karka. One could not even run through them because of the hordes of Hatchlings that cripple you. Of course i died and every single waypoint on Southsun was contested, so i just left this boring island. And that was my experience with the Canach fight. Great work, ANet.

Now open on Yak’s Bend

I don’t know if it has been mentioned, but that human friend of Historian Fia in Cursed Shore is probably more interested in her than just being friends, at least this came to my mind when i read the name of this thread. I think she is pretty much unaware of this though, as she says that she does not understand humans, and especially not him.

I spent a majority of my gold and 10 bucks for 10 keys in total. I got 4 more from BLC and literally the last chest gave me a ticket. I had expected not to get one, usually i do not get lucky by RNG, this was the first time. Will i do it again? Most likely not, chances are too small. I have no problem with spending ingame gold though.

In my opinion the comparison between Native Americans and the Charr is flawed. Allow me to explain why. First, the Charr weren’t natives of Ascalon. Second, they were hostile towards humans, to say the least, and in GW Prophecies they weren’t victims of human aggression, it was the other way round. Third, after a thousand years humans had become the natives of Ascalon and had every right to live there, and the victims of the genocide called the Searing were innocent.

If the Charr thought they had every right to “retake” Ascalon then the humans of GW2 have another 750 years left during which they have every right to committ genocide onto the Charr, if they had the power to do so. Now do i think so? No, i don’t. The Charr of GW2 can’t be blamed for their ancestors deeds. Does that give them the right to forgiveness for it? No, they have a special responsibility to see to it that such acts of barbarism do not happen again.

Reminds me of today’s Germany which has a special responsibility as well. I’m german, by the way. I used to ask defenders of the Charr in GW1 a question, which was “alright then, when do you give back the US to its rightful owners?” But todays US americans are not responsible for what happened 200 years ago, imo. I think that GW2 shows us a good compromise, the Charr giving the land east of the Dragonbrand to Ebonhawke. More than we humans in the real world manage, usually.

Yaks Bend Temple of Grenth just opened for visitors.

Yak’s Bend Melandru temple now open for a friendly visit.

I think it is safe to assume that the Charr did eat humans in GW1. Allow me to post a few quotes from GW1:

“Did you bring these human slaves to carry your pack, Pyre? Or are they lunch?”

“I spied some Charr a few days ago dragging a sack into their cooking tent. A wriggling, talking sack. What do you make of that?”

“I’ve heard he prefers the tender bones of the young for a late afternoon snack.”

“[…] and the numerous chains of diminutive skulls that drape his enormous frame.”(Hierophant Burntsoul, and it looks like human skulls).

Some things are only hinted at or mentioned but never shown in GW1, just like you do not see any blood for example.

I am sure that the Charr of GW2 do not eat humans, and that them doing it in GW1 was retconned away for GW2.

Managed Melandru today, literally at the last second. It was a big push for monthly Veteran kills, but not fun at all. I haven’t even tried Grenth since the patch, and i won’t.

I am personally grossed out (read that, ANet: grossed out) at the sight of anyone covered in spider eggs (that hatch more Veterans). I will avoid doing events where Champion Spiders show up from now on. And i do not like to play games that make me feel physically unwell.

I had been pretty sure that Adelbern was a commoner before he became king, i was looking for proof of it, but that has been cleared now, thanks König.

As others said, no need for a retcon for Rytlock’s heritage, i was pretty sure his heritage hasn’t been given yet. That lead me to this idea in the first place, things left open for future development, and seeing how important the characters of Logan and Rytlock are already, and that this would eventually be shown by their status. Logan as King of Kryta and Rytlock as emperor or even Khan-Ur, holding one of the swords each…

I am glad this led to a good discussion and i wasn’t laughed at, thanks everyone. I agree that there is not a high likelyhood for it to happen.

Concerning the ghosts, i am sure we will eventually see them be put to rest, but it never felt to me like Jennah will be the one to do it. Maybe Logan should he become King besides Jennah (and therefore getting the right to do so by marriage), or Samuelsson, or someone yet unrevealed from the Ascalonian line. My bet is on the last one, but we shall see. It’s just a hunch…

Temple of Melandru in Cursed Shore might be the challenge you are looking for…the last quest was visibly scaled up, and has a considerable chance to fail now, making the armor harder to get. I’d compare it to Temple of Grenth now. o_O

You know how i think about Sohothin, that it does not belong to a Charr. And besides that, i am not overly thrilled at seeing my little idea come true. But as you said, such things are in the future.

I am sure though that eventually the question of the ghosts will be resolved and it does not feel to me that Samuelson will be the one to do it. But that is a different topic.

Sohothin and Magdaer in the hands of Rytlock and Logan does strike me as something of symbolic importance, and as a basis for future developments. Of course Rytlock does not have the rank and status yet to challenge an emperor, but that could happen in the future. I was speaking of something a few years ahead in real world time. Given his heritage, we saw a commoner become king of Ascalon and to be revealed to be a descendant of Doric. A human, sure, but do we actually know Rytlock’s descendancy?

Fantasy storylines tend to follow certain mechanisms, with someone becoming a hero and eventually a ruler being a possibility.

Ghosts of Ascalon, page 357 describes the Claw: “But the Claw held Dougal’s attention. Two blades pointing forward, two pointed back, a handgrip in the middle. An ungue.” So it does kinda look like a Klingon weapon. There are similar ungues in GW1, weapons for Assassins, most likely a lot smaller than the Claw though.

Oh, and i think there is a candidate for Khan-Ur that hasn’t been mentioned yet…Rytlock. Before you laugh, consider it: he carries a symbol of the kingship of Ascalon, and the other one will be given to Logan who will probably marry Jennah and become king of Kryta besides her, making Logan and Rytlock basically leaders of their people, and of equal status more or less.

And don’t misunderstand, if this would actually happen i would just…give a sigh and think that i have read too much fantasy novels in my youth.

How long the Charr had been living in Ascalon before humanity came, if it was longer or shorter than humanity does not matter one bit, as Ascalon was not theirs any more. The humans of Ascalon at the times of Prophecies had been living there for 1000 years, if that is not enough to give them every right to live there then 250 years are by far not enough to make Ascalon Charr land again. Reality is different…i live in Europe and if its nations were still laying claims to old borders from a 1000 years ago then some nations would cease to exist.

Might makes right, and that is why the Charr hold Ascalon today, there is no other justification. They only claim that Ascalon is all they wanted, and i have the slight suspicion that it is because they want to erase certain truths from history – that they needed help from an evil god to overcome the wall, that they had tried for hundreds of years, that they committed genocide and still could neither take Ascalon City nor Ebonhawke.

There will be people who will defend the Charr no matter what arguments are given, although i find it a bit hard to understand. Only explanation i can come up with is a different understanding of morality, or that they just don’t apply moral standards to a game. Yet i see people go up against opinions that differ from their sympathy for the Charr. It’s just a game after all…that’s why i can tolerate the Charr in GW2. People who like the Charr should feel free to do so, but differentiate between the two games. The Charr of GW Prophecies were just monsters one had to kill, just like any other. There were no atrocities committed against them in that game.

Seems like no one said a word of welcome to you. Welcome to the game! As others said, it is unlikely that dwarves will return to GW2 as a playable race, as they were especially written out of it, except for one NPC named Ogden whom you can meet in GW2, he is well known to GW1 players but even he is stone now. The favourite of the game designers seem to be the Charr, contrary to the majority of players, and galling to a part of the player base who do not like the Charr.

In the beginning one could not say a word of mild criticism of the Charr without getting swarmed by their fans. I wonder how many of those played GW1…or how anyone can sympathize with the GW1 Charr. Thankfully this has somewhat changed. They were not meant to be sympathized with until Pyre showed up, and even he enjoyed the Ascalon genocide. But there still seems to be a trend towards assuming that humans were only visitors to Charr lands and the Charr only took back what was theirs. A misconception that people need to get out of their heads.

I would like to get a quiver for my Ranger too, for the looks. Feels weird that no other quiver is available than the ascended items, which i will probably never get because of the low drop rate of vials – been to the Fractals completely on my own a few times, spent a few hours with getting rags and patches of fur. Waste of my time.

My main character is the descendant of my GW1 Ascalonian main and is extremely wary of the Charr. Distrustful even, but there are actually likeable fellows among the Charr, notably Tybalt. That helped a lot to come to accept the peace negotiations, but it does not mean she forgets her families history or what the Charr did to Ascalon. She does not feel like the Charr deserve to live there, but accepts things as they are, especially since the Separatists make it hard to sympathize with them. She prefers not to be around the Charr though and has never set foot into the Black Citadel. But i would not call it hate, that’s just a futile emotion imo. She is rather pessimistic when it comes to the question if the peace will last though.

Ever looked at the Ascalon census? Half of the population dies in the Searing. Of the survivors, some part goes to Kryta, the rest dies in Ascalon. When the Foefire happened the Charr had occupied all of Ascalon except Ascalon City, which most likely means that everyone outside the city was dead already (except those that went to Ebonhawke). Human Ascalon was as good as gone when the Foefire struck (one can argue that it lived on in Ebonhawke). Seems to me like you are trying to put the blame for the destruction of Ascalon away from the Charr, which is just not possible.

Ascalon wasn’t Charr land in GW1 because humanity had been living there for a thousand years. If we let claims from a thousand years ago be valid in our world some nations would cease to exist, nations who got a right to exist.

There was no distinction between killing a Charr or any other monster in GW Prophecies and one did surely not consider their “rights”, they were not civilized enough. One should differentiate between GW1 and 2 lore here imo.

In EotN the Charr had permanent structures by the way, Assault on the Stronghold anyone? Even if it was “just” walls…

In GW2 the Charr have been living in Ascalon for 250 years and they can’t be blamed for the deeds of their forefathers (except that they are a bit too proud of genocide and do not yet show that they aren’t willing to repeat it). Still, there’s the thing about us players for whom it wasn’t 250 years emotionally wise, but not so long ago.

So why do i play humans…because it wasn’t 250 years emotionally wise. My characters are descendants of those from the times of GW1. Doesn’t mean i won’t try out other races eventually.

Anet turned the Charr into a playable race, so turning Mursaat into one is possible although highly unlikely imo. I always assuned we would see them again, if only in very small numbers, and maybe only Lazarus (with whom i, like probably many other players, have a score to settle). But evil nature does not stop Anet, one just retcons stuff away.

And about the Charr and Ebonhawke, it feels like Anet will not let another war happen between Charr and humanity. From the background information it would seem to be likely that the Charr would seek new enemies once the available ones are defeated, but it is still a long way till then, and the ingame perspective is “we all become big friends with one another”. Cooperation between different races and organizations and overcoming differences for the sake of a greater good are some of the main themes of the game.

“Killing too many Charr alerts the entire army. Avoid unnecessary combat.” (Rise of the White Mantle), based on that i assumed it was an army and not a century that invaded Kryta. And the force one sees during Great Northern Wall did not look exactly like an army to me, but i assume it is supposed to represent one. And tell me if i am wrong, but didn’t the Charr defeat the Krytan army when invading Kryta? I am not sure a century could have managed that.

And since the Charr saw humanity as an infestation they would have tried to exterminate all of it, for which some considerable forces are needed, especially when taking on all 3 human kingdoms more or less at once.

Furthermore, i assumed that Abaddon wanted to see humanity exterminated as well, for he could not strike back at the gods, so he targeted what they protected, humanity (besides humanity protecting the gods more than the other way around, against Dhuum, Menzies and Abaddon).

The Searing happens in the year 1070 and you jump 2 years forward to 1072 when accepting a certain quest in Pre-Searing. During those 2 years the Charr did not concentrate on Ascalon as it seems, but went on to assault both Kryta and Orr on behalf of their gods, and through them, on behalf of Abbadon. It seems like they split their army in two and left some forces in Ascalon. Their armies got wiped out both in Kryta and Orr, by the White Mantle in Kryta (in fact by their masters, the Mursaat) and through the Cataclysm in Orr. Shows how much Abbadon cared for them by letting them get wiped out through something he himself made possible.

The Charr needed 2 years to recover from those losses, till they assaulted Ascalon again, and you witness that happening in the first mission The Great Northern Wall when the Charr army pours through the wall again. Some ghosts in Ascalon have to relive that exact moment again and again.

This is how i explained what happened to myself, such things are not fully explained in GW1. Ingame one does not hear all about what happened in Kryta and Orr during those 2 years…

And about Khilbron, i thought he was a friendly and completely trustworthy fellow when i met him (sarcasm).

If you pick a certain fear you get to know Sayeh earlier than in “Temple of the forgotten god”. It’s one of those cases where NPCs from other parts of the storyline get introduced all of a sudden to players who did not meet them before.

I do not hold dislike for Trahearne as there is room enough for your character to become a famous “hero”. Trahearne takes the spotlight, alright, but in GW1 ones characters rarely got any credit for everything one did and rarely got recognized by NPCs at all. Winds of Change comes to mind as an exception (especially the funny NPC dialogues after getting discovered when spying on the thugs).

In GW2 one becomes a “hero” rather quickly i’d say, and Trahearne is the one who acts as leader but always confers with you and leaves most of the actual decisions to you – it’s you who slays Zhaitan in the end, and Trahearne is not there. You play a key role and do get credit, and who is actually at least as important for the Pact as Trahearne.

I see it like this, one is kingmaker and the power behind the throne, so to speak. Should Trahearne fall one day (given the history of such characters in GW1 it is not completely unlikely) then who would inherit his position as marshal most likely?

Neither does his voice acting appear as that bad to me, it’s as noble as i would expect it to be from someone as him. People can just skip cutscene dialogues if getting annoyed by Trahearne.

Largos, Tengu and Kodan seem to be likely candidates for future races. Personally i’d like to see Quaggan, Hylek and Skritt.

So far i only got one character, a human, because it’s (in my own little personal version of the game) the descendant of my GW1 main character.

I looked at the other races and both Asura and Charr are just not my taste, due to how their races are portrayed ingame.

I wanted to try the Sylvari out but there are very few options for hairstyle and face that i find to be acceptable, and none that i really like.

Nothing against the Norn, maybe i’ll create one eventually.