Guild Wars 2

What I don’t understand is that they know what people want appearently, thanks to Polls, their (unfortunatly canceled) communications efforts and repeated begging for the reduction of certain armor tropes.

Aside from heavy (which is actually the decent one here, as it tries to go the full armor style at least and I know the transformer feature won’t appease everyone), the “please not more of that” is in full effect on the other.

While we don’t know the other races or genders, we see a very obvious neglect and even disregard of open criticism and a very lackluster explanation of their designideas.

We only get some basic strokes:

Medium: Fallen foes and trophies should imbue our armor, which leads to trenchcoat and Arah design how?

Light: We wanted crystals of magical power, which leads to leather dragon style, how?

I think we need a more explicit explanation on their designs and why they went there.
They also need to explain why they go against common criticism and allow us to grasp their decissions.

Neural.1824:

While some people like the look of the armor, this thread reminds me a lot of when the Ascended armor came out. A lot of people couldn’t stand it, and today few use it (the skins).
That’s the intent. Anet did as little as possible to make the appearance of the armor unique, added the features to make it Legendary, and will then go back to pushing outfits.
It’s a simple process really, and it worked really well for them with ascended gear:
1) promote new armor with new features that no other armor has
2) design it so that it’s unattractive to most
3) Sell more outfits on Gem Store
4) profit.

Quite ironic, as I never will buy an outfit, since I often only enjoy parts of the design and love to mix and match.
No nostalgia will get me to buy them.
Though some outfits look better than some of these armors.

To summerize:

Heavy: Great, some spikes are too much, need to paint first.

Medium: generic and overused design compaired to the rest of the game

light: more medium (leather, facemask, etc.), seems to busy (frontloaded, shoulderdome)

Again, we need to see it in action and colored differently. So far light and medium are based on exactly the things, people complain about and in case of light a way to busy design, which could have been placed more thoughtfull

I thought they needed more time to rework them based on the criticism they got from the first sets?

I mean, heavy looks fine (we saw them on humans already) and on charr it looks properly menacing. I’ll make a great transformer out of it.
However medium is just a fancy Arah armor, with trenchcoats and the same skulls we have on almost every bone armor. It is more or less the most boring one of the three.
btw. is that the battle mode? it does look very subdued.

The light armor is as weird as i thought it would be. So it is a leather style, bellydancer with dragons and crystals, as well as facemask? At least for females, which means males get the stuck up, boring version i believe. So far most fears came true here. To busy and weird. I mean what’s up with the floating crystals in front of my face? Way to much frontloaded. Do these crystals float around my upper body like a dome? I like the idea, but the execution somehow doesn’t jive with me… Aside from the gimmick this isn’t better as an outfit to be honest. It feels like they took medium armor and slapped it on a light armor with some crystals.

They look interesting and I need to see them in action (we need a proper video demonstration), but they kinda feel too normal. How about compairson-shots of normal vs. battle mode?

Don’t get me wrong, they don’t look soo bad, but as they are presented here, not legendary. We got better outfits and since I don’t buy these (and never intend to do so) it seems like i have to pick up raiding for my heavy.

Time to prepare for the finale. The second to last episode will be released next week and we got a trailer.

Let’s speculate and discuss opcoming events and delve deeper when it hits:
Flashpoint

Getting my Flash joke out there: “run Barry, run.”

• Well, we get a look into our good old Mursaat friend and maybe a conclusion on our big mystery there.

• Going by the trailer Lazarus is not Lazarus but someone else. The way they hammer it in, seems to indiacte someone plays with a Mursaat puppet.

• Kasmeer is back and she is together with Majory. Maybe we finaly get an answer to what their problem is.

• Submarines, many rocks, it seems we go back to Maguuma, but from another direction. A lot of subterranian envirmoent as well.

• I also think we see a new Scruffy there at 0:34

Not much to see here otherwise in my opinion. Pretty straight forward. Lazarus bad and dangerous and seems to go straight towards our brain to stop it from whatever.

Got the same problem.
Choose some items to change, preview them in the wardrobe window and end up with some of them just switching back, while still selected.

Mat.8137:

zengara: Yeah I’m playing as a Charr character. As far as I’m aware I haven’t been skipping the story when it’s presented to me. I try to watch what happens but half of it doesn’t make much sense to me because they keep bringing stuff up which hadn’t been established yet. It was as if the characters knew what they were talking about due to actually living in that world, but they forgot to pass on that information to the player.

---

From what I’m getting out of these replies, to understand the story I would basically have to play through the story of every type of available character, kind of like one of those bad dreamcast era Sonic games. That sounds increadibly time consuming just to understand what’s going on with the game in general.
Also where are these season things that I’ve been hearing about? At the very least those sound like they could be worth looking up whether I decide to get them or not.

Okay, make it a bit easier:

• You don’t have to have played Guild Wars 1 or read the novels to get everything. They, however, enhance your understanding and significance of things.

• If you play through the GW2 mainstory (it doesn’t matter which race or Order), you will go through these steps: Your Character Background, your Race Problem, Becoming a Hero of your Race, Joining an Order, Rise in Rank with the Order, Discover the Danger of Zaithan on L.A. , bring the Fight back to Zaithan, Weaken Zaithan and finally defeat Zaithan.

• You mostly meet unknown characters in the last part of the mainstory. Mostly, because they wanted to have all come together there. It might be confusing, but often you just need to role with it.

• However just following the story, won’t give you the whole picture. You get more information if you look at the lore presented in the maps (Enviromental Storytelling). For example, the whole Orr maps are showing the struggle of the Pact against Zaithans forces and that is referenced in the Story. That means, you liberating and holding Orr, is the progress the mainstory is referencing (like claiming temples there, etc.)

• The other significant story starts with the dungeons. Each race has a hero (For example Rytlock Brimstone for the Charr), who was part of a legendary Guild called Destinys Edge. They have split up after a certain event (discribed in a novel, but also told about ingame). You first meet a hero in the PS (Personal Story) as your liason and then you meet all member in Lions Arch. From there you can help them reform their guild via the Dungeon Storymodes.

• The Living World/Story (LS). Right now we are in the 3 Season. The 2nd Season is available in the gemstore. Each episode of a new season will be free, as long as you log in, when it goes live. The experimented with season 1 and changed the format in season 2. Without going into details, you have to read up on LS1, as it isn’t available anymore today.

• Raids are a new thing that came with LS3 and they are given auxilary lore, that is highly significant but you get the gists outside as well.

• Current Events, extra quests you can go on, who change the world, but are mostly hints towards future events. For example the Anomalys that run around several maps.

To give you a chronological order (Not nessessary to follow all):
GW1 (+All add ons and Mission Packs) → Sea of Sorrows (Novel) → Ghosts of Ascalon (Novel) → Edge of Destiny (Novel → GW2 Personal Story → LS1 (Wiki and Movie ingame) → LS2 (gem-shop) → HoT → LS3 → Future expansion.

Doesn’t he also use blurred frenzy from the mesmer after his tackle?

May the real Lazarus please stand up:

Okay the reveal of Lazarus having split his soul in several artifacts and that Caudecus exchanged one with a fake does bring up several possibilities:

• Lazarus is not Lazarus but a fake being. We don’t know who or what he is, but it’s certainly not the one from 250 Years ago.

• Lazarus is only 4/5 Lazarus. He is the Lazarus, but is missing parts of his soul, which would explain his more benevolent behaviour
• Same as above, but he only fakes being nice, thus no real change and Caudecus didn’t affect much (?)

• It is Lazarus body and maybe 4/5 of his soul, but something/someone else is filling the empty space

Depending on which scenario is the case, it does allow for some interesting future developments:

• Lazarus lost part of his evilness and is now nice. He isn’t aware that he is missing something and getting knowledge of it might trigger something

• Lazarus uses us to get his missing part back, which for some reason he wasn’t able to before (scared that Caudecus might break it maybe?)

• Lazarus now has some human part, thanks to the many souls floating around there and is actually a good guy now. He is aware of everything, but needed to wait for us to uncover the truth so we will believe him on our own.

Continuation:

• I like the new map. Nothing special but fun events. A bit sad that its secluded and doesn’t affect the sourounding areas like Queensdale or DR.

• Love the lore scattered around. However who is Cin and why should I care about that scoundrel, who is clearly a bad guy? Is there any pay off to him?

• Aiden’s heritage is sad. Wish we could gain more then a bit of closure here from it. Maybe a memento.

• The six gods are gone. I kneel and do other things in front of them and don’t get a reaction. Why have you foresaken me Melandru? or did I choose Kormir?

• E is alive and we get some infos on his spy network. Seems human centric so far. Evenia maybe? We got that name brought back thanks to the fort at least.

• I liked Logans development. I am curious what broke the bond between him and Jenna (?). He seems more clear in the ehad now. Maybe being put in a pod did clear his mind?

• I loved Caudecus manor and the many letters scattered around. Sad to see Demi go, though.

• Anise was weird. Way to angry and cut-throat the whole time. Way to trigger happy. She never stroke me as someone who would loose her head so easily. Sure it was war, but I always thought of her being more reasonable and professional. She was like the Queen of Hearts… Wait a sec… Queen Jenna was agitated and told us about her pent up frustration and agression. Now Anise is very riled up. Maybe Anise is a Mesmer construct which channels Jennas emotions of some sort? Or Maybe there is a link? Something to think about…

• Caudecus did everything that harmed the humans in the past few years. Interesting, but I am curious what is his endgame was? Just the throne? World domination? If he is as cunning as he is discribed, it’s kinda weird to have him so oblivious to the overall danger beyond the human realm. Though he might have had just a one track mind over the years.

• Caudecus SMASH. So he was a Mesmer, who knew… blurried frenzy and stuff. The fight was mostly annoying, thanks to the short timeframe and camera. But that’s gamemechanic.

• Canach was great. Hope he comes back soon. Most other members get on my nerves right now.

• Caudecus room. The dialog was great. I just say picture and bed…

• No Kasmeer sadly, only mentioned in one of E’s letters. With all the mega powerful mesmers around, she would fit right in.

So, i finished yesterday, now I can also chime in:

• Meeting the Ministers was interesting. Taimi starts to make me cringe a bit in her approach to things and the foreboding Scarlet uttered by my Comander doesn’t bode well. Also Oomads Machine and the eternal alchemy come into play, which I also see as a red flag. Taimi is playing with fire and I can only see it blow up in her face. Why do all my friends have to be so recless? I miss Rox, Kasmeer and old Majory.

• The Queen and the ministers were fine. While we don’t see the extend of her research and if she put mostly bad ministers under housearest , it was a bit uncomfortable, but not unreasonable. While the one minister had every right to speak up, the queen also had every right to do so. This is martial law. The queens decree would become unreasonable, if the temporary part gets cut. Yes we could make some IRL compairsons, but I am only talking from an objective point of view.

• I know the PC Mesmer is allrounder grunt Mesmer, with some specializations, but I kinda feel impotent compaired to all enemy Mesmer around here. They can teleport everywhere, do massive AoE sword spikes, create a full life clone… geez… I thought our PC was a combat focused Mesmer and things like mass teleport was more for the scolar types.
  Suddenly Scarlet creating portals everywhere feels kinda lackluster. Heck even the simple medic later did an emergency teleport. Anet seriously needs to put there limits back in line.

• Queen Jenna going all out , was fine. I liked it. I don’t believe she is the one who holds up the shield though. I think it’s a group effort of the Mesmer collective and her going around and strenghten the shield was to counter distruptions or anything. I know she is a strong mesmer, but this scratches the believability. Luckily she said that they had messures in place, which might mean she just activates some rituals, or other magic mumbo jumbo.

All items shown there are available ingame.

Going by the list of Rikis post, you are looking at the Cabalist armor set, which is easily aquireable by just playing the game:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cabalist_armor

There are several ways to get it.

Overall notion:

• Dungeons need 5 people (there are exceptions) and have unique armor (and the one you are looking for, but there are easier ways to get this).
• Remember that you can mix and match.
• Color does a a lot in improving how your character looks. Parts of each armor are given parameter, like being metal, leather or fabric, thus dyes might make have other effects there

So, all the things you can easily look up and discover by going into the archievment tab and should just spam you if you are somewhere or anyway near something you might need.

I see a big problem here:

• Constant WvW spam
• Constant PvP spam
• Constant spam from several collections in HoT (like specialization collection)
• Constant spam from overalapping archievments
• Constant Daily spam
• etc…

With so many overlapping things in that area of the game and the ability to access them from anywhere, you will get a constant flood of information, that might not even interest you at the moment.

Ironicly if you filter out what information you don’t want to get, you have to go through all the archievments anyway, to tick them off and activate the ones you want, so you are actually looking your desired ones up anyway.

Furthermore all the stuff you mentioned is designed to get you into the areas, for you to seek out.

You want QoL and to passively gain everything by wandering around it seems.

1) Bosses etc. are usually described in their archievment. If you want it, look it up and go there. It’s not that hard. More so, you will get the archievment anyway if you do these events, so how is a range alert and improvement, aside from the fact, that you might not doing the event?

2) Dungeon Archievment tells you exactly what you are missing. LFG let’s you exactly formulate or look for certain dungeons and paths. If you want to do dungeons, open LFG and look. An alert won’t change much, because even if you get alerted, you might only be informed of a starting group and have to wait half an hour to have it filled, making the alarm rather useless.

3) Bosses are on an shedule. You are asking for a Bosstimer and your problem is more along getting into the right map to do that archievment, instead on being there on time.

4) Kinda takes the fun out of it. You are already told where and who has the item. If you want it, wiki or search it. Sure a proximity inndicator would be nice, but why should everything be GPS today?

I get your concerns, but in a wiki world, I enjoy a bit of searching and mystery for myself.
Everything is allready a checklist enough already.

mexay.3902:

Few things to note about not-Lazarus:

- He claims to have “more virtuous pursuits”
- Wants to protect Aurene

My thoughts are something to do with Glint, honestly. He knows about Aurene, he knows who we are, etc. Maybe it’s even the Master of Peace?

Very interested, hope it gets answered next episode.

Maybe we got the typical “injecting humanity into a god/demon” trope.

This of course can go several ways, but it’s an interesting thought.

Shiren.9532:

I really liked the GW1 references in Noran’s homestead. It’s just sad that Aiden’s and Zho’s legacy ends so tragically in GW2.

What was the point of the charr presence in Lake Doric? Shouldn’t that unnerve the Krytan’s in the region and empower Caudecus’ cause? First she recognises the charr/human treaty despite being Krytan and not Ascalonian, now she has charr forces fighting Krytan citizens just outside the capital. Did I miss some greater purpose or story to the charr presence or is this a continuation of the World Summit charr characterisation (our allies’ fight is our own) and set up for something to come?

If Lazarus isn’t the real Lazarus, who is he? Obviously someone really powerful but the reveal of the Horcrux plot really makes that whole scenario confusing. Could it be Palawa Joko? I really don’t know who would disguise themselves as mursaat to fool the play protagonist to gain access to the dragon.

• I liked that as well. Aiden was always in my Tyrian Team and the last one to go down in GW1. It’s cool to see that they even have a black Moa.

• The Charr are there, because the White Mantles victory would put an end to the human/charr treaty. They don’t want all their efforts go to waste and offered to help fighting back the White Mantle. If you run around the villages, people are more devestated about their homes being razed by the mantle, than some Charr fighting for them.

• I don’t think Palawa Joko would do something like this so far up. He is a trickster, but he has his domain he rules upon. He is powerful enough to go full undead on Kryta if he needed. Maybe even tapping into Zaithans power, which is now floating around. That would actually be more plausible to a degree. It’s close/similiar to his own power and geographicly.
  I don’t think PJ would go that route. It’s way to complicated from his perspective.

ugrakarma.9416:

Randulf.7614:

Anyone notice the Lord Faren illusion in the manor?

Same. And he dissapeares when we enter on room.

The lore wise guys have any speculation? its kinda misterious.

As far as we know nothing more than eyecandy for the White Mantle Mesmer in the room.
Who could resist Lord Faren in a speedo?

As I have not finished yet, did you notice most evil minister wore the white mantle colors in reverse?

If they rebuild DR after that onslaught, please let us be part of the process.

• Allow us to vote on characters/architects that each have their own different vision of the city.

• Have different designs to go towards too

• Don’t go “BAM” new city. Take it and be quiet. Without any real build up. LA was badly done, as it didn’t forshadow the endresult in anyway, but instead dropped it over night. There were barely any steps in between.

• Give us more stake, than “choose a name”. This is now participation, that’s blindsiding the players with something unimportant. Heck, even the “Guildname” was nothing more than a cheap GoT reference, with no real impact or reasoning.

• Put more effort into it. We know that you are able to, since you did it with the Kiel/Gnashblade debatte. That actually felt like something.

I mean, just imagine if we could have voted on race integration in LA. As a multi-culti city, there could have been a Asura quarter, studyng the ley lin energy. Or we could have voted against it, because it would be dangerous.

So many possibilities in design choices, that could have made some interesting stories for the future.

Another quick though:

The Great Collapse would be a perfect drain for water breaking into the city.

I am curious on how they will “animate” the water, if they do that.

Other interesting things that could come out of it: Divinity’s Reach Catacombs (I can dream)

It’s that time again.

New trailer, new episode. Let us all gather around for simple speculation in the pre-release time and of course go in-depth after it goes live…

Official Trailer here, accept no imitations

Now for the spoiler stuff

• DR great political upheaval. Caudecus stuff starts to create a rift in the human society. Do we now get finaly a civil war? I mena, we forgot the Sylvari incident pretty quick.

• Great to see some Watchknights again… hope we also get them in action.

• more emphasis on Primordus and Jormag

• Siege on DR, I hope it allows for some restructuring.

• Breaking the kitten ? Water flowing (Visible at 0:54)? DR underwater? Bubbles confirmed (just joking). However, I always thought these things could be dangerous. I don’t believe Queensdale get’s flooded though.

• A centaur white mantle, wielding bloodstone crazed magic?

Anyway, sounds interesting. No Islands of Jantir and I hop we get a Norn follow up after that lackluster ending, but I will enjoy my three hours next week.

Kastylx.3725:

Hey!

I know its an oldish thread, but i just finished “Setting the Stage” – Its a bit messed up cause before the revamp you could do this story mission at lvl30 (or below). Now you get the Ascalonian Catacomb at 30, and if youre like me, going for the story first, then you get a bit confused, Eir mentioned she has an idea and she has to leave from the Setting the stage mission – the AC story was her idea. And yeah, i dont know much about destinys edge either, they didnt really mention what happened to them.

And to Rognik.2579;

It was obvious when Jennah said “I have enough servants—I want a partner. Logan must be free to make his own decisions. I made such a mistake once before. I won’t make it again.” – What was that mistake tho? Is it connected to Rytlocks anger?

Sorry for necroing and bad english.

You will get these answers later on, if you do the dungeon stories.
each of them will delve into the personal relationships of the Guild and what split them appart.

I actualy believe it comes back into play at some point.
Unfortunatly, as it stands right now, only for a sacrifice.

I don’t know. The whole ordeal always had that undead army from Lord of the Rings vibe and the one who will wield the sword may be the one to charge and die with it.

And as there are human ghosts in Ascalon and the story points to Logan (who for some reason can still be connected to be of royal lineage, like if they made Gwen the result of an affair for example… but that’s going too far maybe).
Which could also explain a bit of Rytlocks secrecy. Maybe he knows about the sacrifice part and doesn’t want his buddy to do so.

Anyway, just some two second thoughts here.

Anet also said that the tech behind outfits is more advanced, than with armor.
Easier to use and thus they can pump it out much quicker.

Basicaly armor tech is old and they don`t have the time and reccources to revamp it.

These things also remind me of depictions in chemistry.
Would be interesting for Asura i think.

Otherwise. Astronomy all the way.

I liked the severa occasions we got extra conversations with some characters.
Sadly not in the last instance.

Btw. did someon notice the green glow around Brahams face?
It doesn’t seem to be part of the outfit.

Could it be magic/dragon corruption of some sort?
It also doesn’t fit with his color sheme of organge/red, black, blue and white.

It could be some explanation, since even if we reason his behaviour it feels way too over the top for him.

Also. Was that scroll forshadowed? Recently I mean, if any?

Please have aureen just walk to the next Generator and don’t fight every Ooze. it’s so annoying to wait for her…

Valmir.4590:

Yes, but it’s stupid. I don’t like Taimi’s plan. We are overcrowded with Asura, they are everywhere, worst than Sylvari. Jormag is the Norn’s Dragon, my main and most of my characters are Norns. I want to go with Braham, not oppose him. ANet trashed an event I waited for more than four years with the way they broke the Fang, and it’s a shame.

@Shiren : I know it. Still, I want to go with Braham, because it is how Norns should do thing. I don’t want another Asuran cop out to kill Jormag.

Actually Norn do their things Legen… wait for it… dary (couldn’t resist)

However they don’t do it unreasonable (most of the time). They are loving the fight and that’s why they are dangerous. They live fighting, thus the leaders actually are more tacticaly inclined.
Braham isn’t such a peson.
His mother proved, that fighting Jormag just with brute force won’t work, yet he wants to do exactly that.

I hope the Norns see his guilt and struggle and decide not to follow him, except maybe a few.
I really hope the more reasonable ones are able to show him that his way is right, but not at the moment.

I wouldn’t mind him breaking the Tooth. However not in his current state.
In his current state, he shines a very dark light on the Norn, because he is the unreasonable leader, who will run against the next wall.

Braham rushing into things will be a negative influence on the overall war effort, resulting in us having to safe him.
We will say sorry to each other and buddy up again.

Otherwise, he will die and his miserable life (yeah, his life kinda sucks) will finaly come to an end, with hopefully one epic stance at the end, saving us all.

The worst thing is. Braham in concept is a great character. Braham in game is just messing things up and is now actively a hindrance.
Before he only cut of Scarlet from revealing her master.
now he prematurely puts one of our greatest assets out on the frontline, even though there are way better alternatives.

Storywise, weakest episode.
Story instances have too many damage sponge enemies.
A person I don’t like got even more annoying.
An epic premise destroyed.
Unexplained McGuffin.

Yeah, that kinda sums it up.
The map and everything sourounding is great, though

Having calmed down after a good nights sleep, i might be a bit more reasonable.

Let me just say one thing: How Braham is being used is just disapointing
I mean that in a general way. He is someone whos destiny seems to be failing and if he does succeed he isn’t able to grasp or hold onto it.
Braham still has an unexplored past, but we know about the life he build himself.
It wasn’t an easy one, but it feels like everything is out there to punch him in the guts, when he feels better.
Loosing friends and loved ones to dragon minions, molten alliance, another man and what else, he definetly had his ups and downs which would put everyone through the wringer.

However, if he weren’t written as a muscle-brain, then he would be more sympathetic.
If he wouldn’t have been the reason why I just shake my head at the situation more than once, then I would understand.

He went from cool, to sympathetic to useless over time. He was in the group as the token Norn, with no real reason, aside from “friendship” and “dragonslaying”. He was the comic relief.

I hoped they either phase him out or give me a reason to care about him.

Seems like they want to continue his streak of being a hindrance, instead of an asset, though. Killing his empathy for a dark and grivious persona, who should know better.

Now he will be a “leader” and representing the Norn on the front and this just sad.
This won’t be the epic tale people were waiting for. It is just sad, because it is set out to be a failure.
I have no doubt that Brahams rush will bring more harm than good and that we will have to bust his sorry kitten out at some point, resulting in the “i am sorry i was wrong” from both sides and some back to back battle, because we can’t have him die (which I wouldn’t mind right now)

There was no need for this kind of dark redemption. Braham needed something to make him likeable, something positive to his character.
He is dead for me and I don’t believe a necromance would be able to bring him back.

On a more interesting note: VISUAL CUES AND MAGIC POISON

• Aurean does appear next to you as a spirit when you finish a story step or die. Kinda cute nod.

• There is an interesting trend with the new designs of the group. There is some glowing and colouring going on. All have a dark and green touch. Braham has a green glowing sign on his helm, Taimi went green glowing, Majory black and green, Canach was it from the start and Rox’s bow is now glowing yellow (don’t know if it new)
  Could these be signs of magic poisoning or some kind of energy corruption? Maybe that could explain some developments.

I haven`t done much in the new map, so any deeper lore there is not for me to talk about right now.

For the story itself: It was okay. Personaly the weakest so far.

• The “training” of Aureen was just frating for me. I see where they want to go with it, but in my opinion they can leave me out of it. I personaly don`t care for her and I wish she would take more a backseat position. Be a dragon and no qutesy saturday-morning-how-to-train-your-dragon-knock-off.
  That part was just annoying.

• New map is great, but as said before, I didn`t delve too much in it. But we can see Quaggans freeze to death, which is interesting.

• There is some mechanical dwelling underground. Scarlet test area or Dredge. We have to see. It looks similiar to a giant drill.

• Undead-Icebrood was okay, but I am curious why there were undead and jungle worms. How did they get there?

• Last instance was bad. Really bad. I wanted them to do something with Braham, but the literal lone wolf thing he is doing now is soo bad, it just hurts.
  Furthermore it just doesn`t fit his character.
  He is old enough to have lived through several Svanir and Dragon minion onslaughts. He has seen several people die.
  Yes, his mothers death is a big event, after they rekindled their family feeling, but even if he was written as a dumb musclebrain, he never struck me as an unreasonable Idiot.
  Right now they created a character that had potential to be saved and flushed every dignity he had down the drain.
  Before I wanted him gone, now I wish he would just bash his head in, the next time he attempts his brute force methods.
  Right now I demand a choice to let him die in the obvious event that he will fail and we have to bust him out.
  Braham has lost every sympathy I had for him.
  If he was written well, he would have been reasonable, but right now he is just a giant piece of… Argh , but you know what. Who cares. They blew it and now I am just disapointed.
  Oh and you didn`t establish the cool fire magic well enough, so deus ex machina much?

• Ending Video: Screw you Braham. You should have failed right now. I would have loved it, if you weren`t such a whiny little… you know what I mean.
  If it wouldn`t be for the fact that these events would`t screw us all over, pushing the Norn into the “stupid fighter without brain” area, It would be glorious.
  However as it is helmed by Braham I am out. I don`t care anymore.

Overall the weakest episode so far.
It is great that we got more info on Quaagan, Kodan and Grawl for this area of the world, but the main story should have been scrapped and rewritten.
No part of this episode left me with any kind of satisfaction.
Well, except Taimi, because she was the only reasonable person (never thought I say that) who wasn`t even there.

Seriously, if we have every Character go down the brooding dark way, then I just wish the dragons would finaly kill us.
First Majory, now Braham. Good thing Rox has her puppy eyes, because I wouldn`t be able to take her seriously, but if Kasmeer goes towards the dark side as well, then there is a serious problem here.

Writers. Get your kitten together, because this artificial drama is just stupid, annoying and takes away from the worlds story, which is way more interesting.

I kinda agree.
Seing how he is supposedly in the “grawl cavern” , I guess it could be part of an metaevent there.

Maybe a group of mercenaries trying to push out the grawls?

Do we even have some bandit activity in shiverpeak territory?

Sock.2785:

Jaken.6801

Red Crytals (bloodstone?) sourounding a statue of Jora.

Those crystal formations appear orange; unless the lighting is affecting their visuals (switching their colour from red to orange) it shouldn’t be a bloodstone.

It’s also worth noting that the human character we see in the trailer wielding Sabetha’s rifle (skin) actually uses it as a flamethrower, like Karde or Sabetha herself would do, and not like a rifle, like a PC would do; it’s plausible then that character is an NPC, probably a bandit. Perhaps those crystals have something to do with this character.

True, but there are kits for engineer and items to pick up that change player behaviour.
Since we don`t see him from behind (?), it could just be for atmosphere.

On the other hand, why focus on someone like that? It is too secific, for a generic PC representation.

Maybe a new mastery, allowing firesticks aka rifle flamethrowers o combat ice enemies?

Simply said: unknown.

We only saw Glint as a representative of her race and at that point she allready had her eggs.

We don´t know when or how they were conceived.
Did she do it asexual?
Did she just create them?
Is it a power of her race?
Is it a power granted by Kalkratorik?

Overall, the question about the reproduction of the dragons, hasn´t been answered so far.
All we know is: Glint is a dragon and had eggs in her cave. Only two have hatched so far.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Jaken.6801:

• Red Crytals (bloodstone?) sourounding a statue of Jora. The place seems to be underground, but sports vines and Quaggan lights?

Just watched it again- not quaggan lights, but the glass baubles grawl have around. You can also see the grawl paint scrawled on the statue and the walls. Apparently we have Jora worshipers.

Oh, that makes sense.
I totally forgot about the Grawls, after the game had.
I mean, they just vanished after the last time we saw them… when they fled to LA from the molten Alliance.

Randulf.7614:

The wolf like one is pretty much a normal icebrood wolf (at 1.00). I don’t see anything unusual in it from the brief flash.

Yes, at 1:00, however it is much bigger and seems be only partly crystaline. I could be imagining things, though, since it is only a brief moment.

I am finaly reading Edge of Destiny and Eir told the tale of Jora. Maybe I was mixing things up there.

@Konig: I am not as familiar with the models. But this was the first time I saw an “undead” Son of Svanir/transformed Norn like that. Similiar to its depiction in the books.

You are right about the Claw of Jormag, but wasn´t this the same design used for the Jormag totems? I was thinking they are building a giant dragon to worship, similiar to what the Norn in Hoelbark did.
I don´t believe they have to sculpt the Claw of Jormag for it´s master, though that would be an interesting as well, because it would tie in with the Norns themselves.

Halloween is over and in this time of festivities we are gifted with the announcement of the possibly last episode for this year: A Crack in the Ice .

As always, this thread is for speculations and when it goes live, for discussions that don`t warrant a seperate topic.

That being said, my trailer impressions:

• After Primordus, we see some changes for Jormags followers. It seems this Season updates on most elder dragons, before revealing the next threat in a possible Expansion?

• We seem to get reunited with Rox and Garm. Which means Braham isn´t far away.

• Oh and we are going north, acording to some map changes northwest of forstgorge, so right into jormag territory.

• Some familiar structures but most importantly, a giant jormag statue, similiar to the ones in Hoelbark, only less clear (jormags sword looks similiar)

• Some Kodan love and “underwater content?”, so we get some Quaggans maybe? (fitting the new legendary shield?)

• Green glowing minions, and Ice elemental, Claws of Jormags in the sky, decayed sons of svanir (closer to the books representation?)

• Red Crytals (bloodstone?) sourounding a statue of Jora. The place seems to be underground, but sports vines and Quaggan lights?

• Kodan guide and an Ice griffin?

• a wolf like ice brood, more werewolf like. So maybe some link to Svanir?

Thats what i have seen. If you can elaborate or speculate on some of these things, feel free to do so. Otherwise, I am curious and ready for November 21st.

Randulf.7614:

Under the collections system, I’d have gone for this regardless of whether I’d use the skin. There would have a lot of potential for some fun collections and exploring more Quaggan lore.

As it is, I’ll skip it entirely.

Yeah, I agree.

Because now the missing narrative is hurting the “epicness” of the Legendarys.
It´s much easier to stomach the silly ones, if there is at least some “backstory” and as seen with Chuka and Champwhat, or H.O.P.E. they are able to create such feats.

I know it is a money issue, but still… I got less reason to do them now, because I have no journey. Only grind.

We only have an unreliable confirmation by the pale tree, which is still out of commission, that Scarlet was influenced by Mordremoth.

However in an recent AMA (this or the one before… I don’t know anymore), I got my question about the voice in her head answered to a certain degree:
“We won’t get any demon suprise with Scarlet” (demon was my example).

Which means that there was no other entity behind Scarlet puppeteering her and all singns point to the fact, that Mordremoth pushed her.

Artistic license in my opinion…

Yeah, she wasn’t influenced by Mrodremoth or anything.

Furthermore
Everything Mordremoth related would have happened at some point. She only sped things up.
If it wouldn’t have been her, then he would have deviced another way.

All Elder Dragons are awake. You might mean “being active”.

Mordremoth was already about to wake up, he was influencing Scarlet from afar, because she got to close.

So yeah… Scarlet did some bad things and given her personality would have done so in some capacity, but her main motivator and driving force was the little voice in her head.

Ubik.8315:

I was hoping for something elegant but with flourishes.

I even drew a idea of what I was kinda hoping for. Though I guess it’s not very legendary looking… ;-;

We got that kind of armor in game, though.
And it is smiliar to the base style of the armor.
The transformation is just the gimmick to have it stand out,

On the other hand, I like the armor, but I am unsure about the one big shoulder spike, that comes out of nowhere and looks pretty painfull when it retracts into your body…

What about the Door spawn rate?

What about the other Areas (Clock Tower and Ascend to Madness)?

The other threads talked in detail about problems and “missing” features, that would be a delight to come back.

I don’t believe it is “little effort”, because that is what these events are supposed to be.

Stuff they can easily drop in.

However that doesn’t mean they can be “lazy” about it (to clarify: The work is done, let’s just get some polish done and call it a day).
These are events that do have a reputation and excitement.

I don’t believe they want that turned into disinterest.
I personaly don’t have much to go for this halloween.
If you did this two times allready, you also have barely anything excited to aquire.

Just because it is supposed to be easily implemented, doesn’t mean it isn’t allowed to evolve and be expanded upon.
You had your base ready two years ago. Now it is time to add and add and add…

Yay just throwing something in, to see if it sticks..

I don`t mind recycling.

I do mind the exclusion of of old content that was beloved.
I do mind the lack of polish and balancing towards rewards.
I do mind that there was a story started, which is either unplayable, or not continued in one form ot the other.

Just recycling doesn’t exite players who are around for more than two years.
Reducing the scope and boiling it down to mindless grind and zerg content, isn`t exciting

It just doesn`t feel like a celebration if it is missing the “soul”.
Just some “festival” stuff dropped into LA.

Halloween 2012 was an event. Something to be excited about.
Halloween 2013 was a step backwards, but it added to the experience.

Then we lost more than with what we started with.
Sure there are some nice rewards now, but the overall experience is dulled down.

My investment into this event went down with each year, mostly because it was only “rewards” given out for monotone content.

Like the jokes the mad king tells us, it got old…

There are some interestings things going on with this “quest”:

• The changing appearance of the priory member
• The notion that the Consortium wants to take the place of the Priory as a research group, thought still with their corporate angle.
• That the Priory is struggling (and maybe the other orders as well), with the losses of the Pact.
• The Consortium claims to have a better information network

However there is another things we might want to remember as well:
the Orders have spies in them. I am not talking Consortium, but White Mantle.

Now there are several stories that can come from it:

• The Consortium wants to take the place of the Priory, thus our choice is an indirect vote for them. Interestingly with the side effects it could end in an event where Anomaly Priory Members fight against Consortium Drug Addicted Members.

• The Priory has problems, thus the researcher we are consulting is in need to rush his research. As we provide him with our rare material he is finaly able to get results, with us as the guinnipig. He might not have to use us, but who knows what is driving him.

• There is a white mantle spy in the Priory and using that magical device, will be a reason for us, to join them for a cure.

Now there is also another interesting angle. The Ascension towards Godhood. We know that being able to gather and govern lots of magic allows for godlike abilities.
If we consume magic uncontrolled, we end up as Anomalies. However the Shadowstone could be an ancient device, that is allowing us to regulate the magic flow, thus getting us closer to being gods.

It might not be in our interest, but maybe the interest of the “researcher”.

I can go even further, with him being a White Mantle. Lazarus did indeed absorb large amounts of magical energy, but isn’t able to control it. Now he needs something like the Shadowstone to vent his body from this energy.
Maybe Lazarus is now a ticking magical atom bomb, ready to blow up for his revenge.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Here’s the problem with that argument:

New lore tends to be more accurate than old lore when ArenaNet writes. Only exception is when the new lore has some sort of indicator that it’s not accurate. And these have no such thing.

Mostly there are little mistakes, though, but they tend to be fixed at some point if they are spotted.

Only works if he changes the number on a daily basis

I see no problem with the supposed Mursaat “retcon”.

All it gave is more info on the timeline of events, which brought a bit more development to the race, instead of portraying them as flat out evil.

You know, Black and White thinking. GW2 tries to go away from there as much as possible. Even Scarlet, misguided as she was, actually had some rediming qualities (even if they weren’t much).

I don’t get it actually.
All it says, that the Mursaat fought in the war and weren’t happy with the idea of putting their faith into the next cycle, going against the other races at that time and in their eyes “abandoning them”.
Sounds like the things we allready heard before, so i don’t really see that much change to the overall lore, just to the flavour of it.

Same goes to the bloodstones. GW1 was based on a human viewpoint and the gods were the biggest things out there. If they claimed they made them, then the humans followed.
They don’t even have to claim to be the creator, just that they used them to do their stuff after they arrived.
Humans, guilible as they are, just fill in the gaps.

I think most of these retcons aren’t as problematic as some make it out.

However if they come out and completly change the things that happened and we were clearly able to see happening (like a group human heroes killing the lich changed into Skritt), then I call bullkitten, because we were there…