Guild Wars 2

What if the Dream is actually Mordremoth’s dream, and its continuing existence is what keeps it from awakening? In this way, the Pale Tree could be the one thing that is keeping the Elder Dragon from awakening.
(The Nightmare Court is not trying to end the dream, but to corrupt it into its opposite.)

Also, Marjory’s powerful antitoxin (which Scarlet purloined) worked against the evil toxic plant inside the Tower of Nightmares. Therefore, it was specifically proven to be poisonous to gigantic mystic plants. So it is indeed a possibility that Scarlet may intend to use it against the Pale Tree.

A final question to ask is what the plant inside the Tower of Nightmares actually was. It was grown by sylvari, it grew the Toxic Hybrid from one of its pods, and it was immensely big. My theory is that it was grown from a similar seed that sprouted the Pale Tree itself, and that either Scarlet or the Nightmare courtiers had somehow acquired it.

Probably also the unintended downscaling of the Cobalt Wurm’s health halfway through killing it.

I don’t think Canach’s billet will be bought by Marjory, Kasmeer, Rox or Braham.

Marjory is a struggling entrepreneur who deals more in favors than in money.
Kasmeer is broke and dependent on Marjory.
Rox and Braham would not even consider politics.
Taimi is a runaway child with nothing but a golem.

If anyone would buy his billet, the candidates would be:
- The Consortium (in order to get back at him and make him disappear)
- Captain Evon Gnashblade (who has money and yearns for more influence)
- the mysterious E (who may need an agent so that he/she can remain in the shadows)
- Captain Ellen Kiel (if she ever needs someone to do her dirty work who is NOT the players)
- Captain Magnus the Bloody-Handed (if he ever needs someone to do his dirty work who is NOT Ellen Kiel)
- A new unknown party

Of course, any of these people could have Canach infiltrate Marjory’s group for some reason. Except the mysterious E, who already has a direct in with Marjory.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Following the reasoning in the first post, Taimi will likely not be killed at this time. The reason is that the character has only just been introduced, and there has hardly been any time for the audience (i.e. us) to grow attached to the character.

They do exactly that in the personal story. Meet someone in one chapter and two chapters later he/she’s dead.

Two counterpoints:

1. The Personal Story cannon fodder NPCs were generated with standard faces and hair meshes that are also available to players in character creation. Taimi and her golem have a unique look, just like Scarlet, the members of Destiny’s Edge and the rulers of the major cities. This is an investment of time and energy that should be justified by frequent use. Getting rid of Taimi at this point is too soon, because the character has not made an impact yet. The other four members of the group have made their impacts to some extent.

2. There was negative player response to the frequent NPC deaths in the Personal Story before the Living Story got written. ArenaNet appears to have taken this into account in the Living Story. (For example, it would have been easy to just kill off Otilia, or the minstrel, or Noll.) Besides, the PS had a different writing team than the LS does. These are all reasons that recently introduced NPCs getting killed left and right is unlikely in the LS.

Actually, Rox and Taimi share an element in their backstories.

Rox has lost her original warband, which consisted of the charr she grew up with since she was a cub at the fahrar. A charr’s first warband is as close to a family as they get, as a charr’s biological parents are acquaintances, or distant mentors at best. Rox lost her family in the mining accident.

Taimi is an orphan.

Delvoire.8930:

I guess all that’s missing is a transgendered person and we’ll have everything tied up neatly in a bow

You mean a sylvari?

I think it’s more likely that Scarlet will receive a partly redeeming death scene, in which she is defeated in the final battle, briefly reverts back to Ceara, says something about achieving freedom, and then dies.

Following the reasoning in the first post, Taimi will likely not be killed at this time. The reason is that the character has only just been introduced, and there has hardly been any time for the audience (i.e. us) to grow attached to the character.

Braham and Rox are also safe. Braham will not die before at least one more meaningful interaction with Eir, which is unlikely to happen in just two more updates of a story that hardly involved Eir. And Rox was accidentally named “Rox Whetstone” in one of last year’s Release Preview webpages, meaning that she has been written to earn her place in the Stone Warband.

Marjory is also unlikely to die, not until she has had a chance to solve the Mendel case (which was what turned her away from the Ministry). While the Mendel case has a decent chance to turn out to be Marjory’s undoing, the Scarlet case does not appear to be linked to it. The identity of the mysterious “E” could still be revealed in the current storyline ( – I suspect Evon Gnashblade – ), but if it is not, this mystery will also further enhance Marjory’s appeal. Besides, Marjory is arguably the leader of the group (or the second-in-command, the player character should be considered the leader).

Which leaves us with Kasmeer.

Kasmeer was introduced to us rather early, during Secret of Southsun, and she served no actual purpose there. Her banter with Lord Faren wasn’t even relevant to the plot. She did mention the name “Jory” once, hidden deep in her dialogue. We did not find out who “Jory” was until Dragon Bash (which was when we also met Kasmeer again). During the story instance in Lion’s Arch of “Origins of Madness”, we learned everything there was about Kasmeer and her backstory. She now has no more secrets, and the only character development that she still has is centered on her interactions with Marjory.

If anyone will die, Kasmeer is the most likely candidate.

There is a fishing pole already in the game that gathers Succulent Crabs. During Crab Toss.

By now, it should be clear that it’s not Mad King Thorn. If it had been him, Scarlet would have had an involvement in Halloween 2013, and the big climax of her plan would have taken place then.

It didn’t. Instead, the Scarlet storyline was put on hiatus while we met the Bloody Prince.

I would also like for all dialogue cutscenes to be replayable, both for Living Story and Personal Story. It bothers me that all the voice acting that goes into the Personal Story in particular will only ever be listened to once, unless you create an entirely new character.

At least the cutscenes in Guild Wars are replayable, because the missions that include them are replayable.

I am very certain that Rox will join the Stone Warband.

The Marjory-Kasmeer relationship is being overanalyzed, in my opinion. The writers likely wanted to have a couple in the second iconic group, and are making sure that the players know that in order to increase player engagement in the Living Story. Whether or not the relationship will be played up for drama (noble sacrifice, corruption, death, violent break-up, or happily-ever-after) or not remains to be seen.

One thing that does irk me a little is that the second iconic group of NPCs is devoid of males, with the exception of Braham (whose maturity appears to rank below Taimi’s). A bit more balance there would have been nice.

(Although I have to say that Destiny’s Edge went too far in the other direction: those characters were cast with such a painstakingly specific goal of creating a balanced mix of race, profession and gender, that they don’t appear to have any chemistry at all, since none of them have anything in common with any of the others. The only reason I can imagine for them to stay together is because they all liked and respected Snaff. And I did read the novel.)

Zaxares.5419:

Yeeesss… -steeples fingers- When Marjory falls “tragically” in battle, I will be there for Kasmeer to collapse into my arms for comfort. All is going according to plan…

Except you will have to elbow Lord Faren out of the way, because he has been in that exact place ever since he and Kasmeer kissed that one time, when they were four.

The announced changes to elementalist are just a sample of what is to come. They are not all changes to the elementalist profession in the upcoming March balance patch. There will be more.

Not all changes to elementalist were announced, because:
(1) It was announced during a webcast with limited time and much more to discuss.
(2) Many proposed balance changes were not approved yet, so could not be presented.
(3) The blurb about “increasing sustain” is the stated goal that the full set of updates for the elementalist is set to accomplish.

For those who believe even the above is too long already: The listed improvements will not be the only changes to the elementalist.

Do not stay in one place. Explore the world. Do not repeat the same things over and over again (unless you actually like doing them).

Leveling to 80 is not a chore in this game, but one of the fun parts of the ride. Especially on your first character.

Besides, everything gives experience. Events do. Gathering does. Reviving other players does (and it doesn’t require a skill). Uncovering new parts of the map does. Leveling your crafting does (especially making discoveries). The personal story does. Finding new vistas, waypoints and points of interest does.

Try everything and see what you like.

I am guessing the marrionette battle would make a nice boss fractal, with some minor tweaks to allow it to be done by a party of five:

- Party fights its way through a barricaded tunnel towards a green gate.
- Party is transported onto the first of the 5 platforms, where it fights Warden Keeper I. Upon victory, destroy a generator, break Chain 1.
- Party is transported onto the second of the 5 platforms, where it fights Warden Keeper II. Upon victory, destroy a generator, break Chain 2.
- Party is transported onto the third of the 5 platforms, where it fights Warden Keeper III. Upon victory, destroy a generator, break Chain 3.
- Party is transported onto the fourth of the 5 platforms, where it fights Warden Keeper IV. Upon victory, destroy a generator, break Chain 4.
- Party is transported onto the fifth of the 5 platforms, where it fights Warden Keeper V. Upon victory, destroy a generator, break Chain 5.
- Party watches victory cinematic, and a big chest appears.

I would like to add that there already exist a few ways to access auras better, and to get better benefits from auras.

Fire Magic IX: Whenever you activate a signet, gain a Fire Shield.
Earth Magic V: Auras grant 3 seconds of protection when applied.
Air Magic I: Auras grant 5 seconds of fury and swiftness when applied.

Currently, I use a signet/aura build on my elementalist, wielding dual daggers (which give 2 auras on the weapon skill bar), Signet of Restoration, and usually 2 other signets as utilities.

Regarding signets:
- Signet of Restoration is one I rarely activate; only in emergency situations.
- Signet of Fire provides a long-duration burn and has a short cooldown (especially when traited). The passive effect may or may not be useful, depending on build.
- Signet of Water has a passive effect that is often overlooked, and a very underwhelming active effect (except in certain boss fights). Still, it has a very nice cooldown (especially when traited).
- Signet of Air has a great passive effect for use outside combat. In combat, it can be activated in a pinch for a multi-target blind effect AND a stun-break. Very useful defensive ability to have.
- Signet of Earth has a nice passive effect. The activated ability (immobilize) is not useful when using daggers, but with staff it could be better.

In my opinion, the auras by themselves are too weak. Adding either the Earth Magic V trait (Protection) or Stability as part of the basic effect of all auras would go a long way towards fixing this.
- The above solution would fix Fire Shield, Shocking Aura and Magnetic Aura sufficiently.
- Frost Aura’s 10% damage reduction should either stack with the protection boon, or should be reworked to give another effect. Perhaps regeneration?
- Alternatively, the durations of auras (and their associated trait boons) could be doubled.

The signets could also use a boost (although a smaller one).
- I believe that Signet of Restoration and Signet of Air are in a good place right now.
- Signet of Fire is a borderline case: it is a nice addition to a critical damage build, but the active effect (a long-duration burn) is easily removed and boring.
- Signet of Water needs work. Its passive effect is interesting enough, but its active effect is near-useless. With the re-write of the Soothing Wave trait, I propose using the old version of that trait as a new active effect for Signet of Water: have it remove a condition upon activation, and grant regeneration on top.
- Signet of Earth’s passive bonus to toughness is probably all right. Its active effect is underwhelming, though, especially when compared to Signet of Fire. It either needs a secondary effect (like daze) on activation, or its cooldown should be drastically reduced.

In my opinion, the team who originally balanced the elementalist utility skills and auras were too strict. The signets and auras were given a very low baseline, so that the fully-traited bonuses were balanced with other professions. The result was that the utility skills of fully traited elementalists are now on par with non-traited non-elementalists. This unfortunately means that fully traited non-elementalists have far better utility skills than fully traited elementalists.

Volrath.1473:

The fact that Thieves were completely ignored on the “ready up” doesn’t bother anyone else?!

Didn’t surprise me that they talked allot about warrior since they all main warriors (except Josh) and they clearly said it out loud in the stream but bypassing the thief profession like that shows the respect they have for the thief community. Not that we don’t already know how they feel about thieves but acting like that in a live stream is unprofessional and offensive.

Yes, they wasted a lot of time joking instead of talking shop, and it got worse in the last few minutes. Yes, they need to take a course in PR and presentation skills. Yes, it was unprofessional.

But given the poor time management they already exhibited, skipping over most of the thief changes was necessary. They were running out of time, and the Warrior Healing Signet issue is one that they needed to discuss, because many, many players have been very concerned about this skill for months now, and the forums have been overflowing with discussions about Healing Signet.

One other possible reason could be that they mentioned they are reworking some game mechanics in ways that they can’t discuss yet, and this will affect the Thief more than most other professions. Therefore, perhaps they were at less liberty to discuss the reasoning behind upcoming changes to Thief than they were for other professions. So perhaps they are reconsidering how (e.g.) stealth works, except that it won’t be ready yet for next week’s update.

The developers said that there is no need to feel forced to change gear, despite the nerf. Berserker will still be the stat combo with the highest DPS. No other stat combo will be better at damaging foes.

Suppose you are driving a car that is the fastest there is; it is a lot faster than all other cars. Now, the car is recalled for an emergency (and mandatory) fix to the engine for safety reasons. The car is now 8-10% slower than it was before. However, it is still faster than all other cars. Therefore, you still drive the fastest car there is. So if you like speed, why would you consider getting a different car?

So just relax. Gameplay will be a little bit more challenging, but that was only because it is currently too easy.

TL;DR: Berserker will NOT suddenly be “suboptimal”.

Also, bear in mind that ArenaNet announced changes to the systems for critical hits, likely as part of an effort to address the omnipresence of berserker-equipped players in many areas of the game.
My advice is to wait for news on this development (expected later today) and see if maybe you could benefit from the item yourself in the upcoming meta.

I have a balanced elementalist with Carrion armor, but with Cleric’s accessories. It gives s a mix of condition damage and healing power, and giving decent bonuses in both toughness and vitality. All the while, every item provides a boost to power.

With this mix of stats, I find my elementalist to be very versatile. The only sacrifice I made was the chance to score critical hits.

Perhaps an idea is to add another defensive secondary stat that affects endurance regeneration. Let’s call this stat “Stamina” for now.

Consider:
- Drastically lower the speed with which endurance (i.e. the dodge bar) regenerates.
- Introduce “Stamina”, a stat that increases the rate with which endurance regenerates.
- Create several weapon or armor prefixes that include “Stamina”.
- In traits, remove all bonuses to Condition Duration (arguably the most worthless secondary stat) with “Stamina”.
- Rework and rebalance all skills, traits and sigils that restore endurance.
- Reduce Vigor durations.

This way, the effectiveness of active defenses gets integrated into the character stats, and there is actually a drawback to cutting back your defenses while equipping berserker gear.

Or purchase town clothes from the gemstore.

Keep your eyes peeled in the next months, as well. The CDI discussion has led to ArenaNet admitting that some kind of “wardrobe functionality” would greatly improve “quality of life” for the game, and my guess is that something of the sort will be added to the game in some time. Whether this could also cover town clothes or not remains to be seen.

One way to avoid going broke:
Be aware that waypoint usage costs coin. It’s not much at low levels, but you should probably avoid using waypoints every 5 seconds on a whim.

The exception is inside cities (like Rata Sum or Lion’s Arch). Waypoint use inside cities is always free. Teleport around all you want in there.

If the formula for how critical damage works is changed, this would also apply to NPCs and mobs, thus lessening damage from critical hits by enemies, and improving the relative quality of defensive stats against damage spikes.

Welcome back!

A recap cinematic for the Living Story thus far has recently been posted. Check it out here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/recap-the-living-world-of-guild-wars-2/

The Living Story has been on hiatus for the past month, but is about to pick up again for the finale, starting next week. The current story will end on March 4th.

For an overview of changes/updates to the game in the past months, check this link: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates
In short, a new dungeon path was added to Twilight Arbor, Fractals of the Mists were expanded, some world boss encounters were updated, and ascended weapons and armor are now in the game, available through crafting (which has received a higher ceiling to level up to).

@Dardamaniac:
They had to prioritize.

The first six months were spent fixing bugs and exploits. The next six months were spent upgrading WvW and PvP, and ever since, they have been focusing on improving game balance (i.e. reworked skills, reworked traits, new healing skills). The Runes/Sigils thing is part of that.

A change to how critical damage works was announced. Everyone who owns ascended Berserker equipment is worried about whether their equipment will now be worthless.

Personally, I think it won’t be so bad. Yes, I expect critical damage will be toned down (or at least the effectiveness of bonuses to critical damage). But no, this should not “nerf” Berserker builds into oblivion. Instead, it should only bring them down a little, to be on par with different stat combos.

In short, Berserker equipment should not be better (more synergetic) than nearly all other item stat combos, but it should not be worse either. Players should be encouraged to consider different builds than Berserker, without feeling pushed out of Berserker.

DiogoSilva.7089:

If critical damage had a set value instead of being % based on power, this could potentially nerf power-precision-critical damage sets, yes, because it wouldn’t scale as crazily high as it does, but it could also potentially make critical damage stronger (less useless) at low power.

Interesting. As you indicate, that would open up multiple builds, and it reduces the necessity to put Power on your gear (which in my opinion is a significant weakness in the equipment system). And since build variety is one of ArenaNet’s stated goals in the balancing act of professions, skills, traits and stats, they may well be thinking along this line.

Discordia.7293:

Condition builds is a easy mode. If nerf critical damage, Anet incentives a skill less players and casual.

No it’s not. That’s just a personal opinion. Condition builds require skill too, because conditions alone do not kill most enemies (unless you are scaled down from 80 in a starter zone). Conditions need to be reapplied, traits and skills can be exploited to deal better direct damage to enemies with conditions on them, and you need to stay alive long enough for the enemy to go down.

Saying conditions require no skill is like saying playing a mesmer/necromancer requires no skill, since the illusions/minions do all your work for you.

“Effective Health Points” are an interaction between Toughness and Vitality.
Healing Power does not factor into this directly, because (1) its effectiveness is limited by the various formalae for various healing skills and regeneration, (2) it requires that you have actually been dealt equal or more damage than the healing effect will recover, and (3) combat tractics will not always allow optimal use of healing effects (especially those that trigger passively). All in all very situational.

Having said that, the Toughness/Vitality interaction is similar to the Power/Precision interaction. That is all fine and balanced, because these are two pairs of primary stats.

Critical Damage % is the odd one out, because it is a secondary stat (which is supposed to have a lesser impact than a primary stat, just like Healing Power), but it still has a direct multiplicative synergy with Power, while Precision actually decreases how situational Critical Damage % is (by increasing critical chance). Eliminating one of these synergies would be an act of balancing Critical Damage % to its sister stats of Healing Power and Condition Damage.
(And I am a proponent of removing the interaction between Power and Critical Damage %.)

I believe a nerf to Crit Damage % is not so much meant to encourage condition use specifically, but rather to encourage other builds than just “zerker only”.

The recent boost to support skills was meant to encourage use of defensive and support builds.

I recall a quote from a recent interview that upcoming content will offer some new enemy builds that have specific weaknesses to conditions. That is meant as a specific tool to encourage conditions.

You should delete the second ticket, keeping only the oldest one. If the second ticket contained unique information, edit the first ticked to include that information.

If it has been more than three days ago since you submitted the first ticket, and you have received no reply, check out the “Tickets Under Review” thread in the Account Issues subforum. That thread exists to help people with delayed responses to tickets, in order to make sure they still get resolved.

I hope the item can be restored, but there is also a real chance that it won’t be possible.

The Berserker stats (Power, Precision, Critical Damage %) have a mutually strengthening interaction that is lacking from all the other stats.

Consider:
- More Power => More base critical damage => more damage on a critical hit
- More Precision => Larger chance for critical hits => more average damage
- More Critical Damage % => More bonus critical damage => more damage on a critical hit

The crucial interaction here is that Critical Damage % is a percentage of Power, so an increase in power Power actually increases the absolute value of how much damage a +1% Critical Damage entails .

This is overpowered. Not in itself, but simply because other stats do not have such an interaction.
(There are only two exceptions: Boon Duration % (with boons) and Condition Duration % (with Condition Damage), but those are counteracted. Boon Duration % is counteracted by the limited availability of skills that allow boon stacking, along with the relative rarity of the stat. Condition Duration % is counteracted by (1) the presence of condition removal effects, (2) the damage formula for each specific condition – limiting the effectiveness of the Condition Damage stat, (3) the stack limit on conditions – including those that stack duration, and (4) the fact that condition damage is always rounded down into one-second ticks – wasting any duration that does not reach up to the next tick.)

Toughness, Vitality and Healing Power do not have any such interaction. Having a high Toughness does not increase the value of your heals, and having high Healing Power does not increase your maximum health. Not in the way a high Power increases your critical damage bonus from high Critical Damage %.

Therefore, I think it is entirely fair if the Critical Damage % formula is changed in such a way that it no longer multiplies boosts to Power. In fact, my proposal would be to have it be a percentage of the base (unmodified) Power stat (which is 916 at level 80). I am guessing that this is what ArenaNet already has in mind.

This would mean that players’ critical hits would be dealing less damage. At a Power level of 2748, this would reduce the effectiveness of critical hit bonus damage (both the base critical damage increase and the % bonus from the stat) by two thirds. If this is deemed too strong a nerf, perhaps the the percentage bonus on Critical Damage % could be increased (doubled?) to make up for it.

For all those heavily invested in Berserker gear, this would be a nerf, but not a crippling one. Simply cutting the interaction between Power increase and Critical Damage % increase ensures a more level playing field in the value of all the stats.
Berserker would change from the single best stat combo from a numerical point of view (because it is the only one with a three-way synergy between the stats) to one of many decent stat combos.

(Incidentally, such a step would also be a minor increase to the survivability of Elementalists in PvP/WvW, as they would take less damage from critical hits.)

I have two theories concerning the identity of E.

1. Evon Gnashblade.
I noticed both Ellen Kiel and Evon Gnashblade have first names starting with the letter “E”. I think the election was secretly a double one, leading one of the two to become the new member of the Captain’s Council, and the other one retroactively being Marjory’s secret contact all along. Kiel won the election, so Evon is now (retroactively) Marjory’s “benefactor”.

2. The new asura character that is to be introduced in next week’s update. Because the identity of E would be a decent way to introduce a new major character to the team of Marjory, Kasmeer, Braham and Rox.

The Tequatl fight is badly implemented, because it only takes a relatively small amount of players being counterproductive to make the fight unwinnable.

And it is very easy to be counterproductive. All you have to do is be afk in the general vicinity of the event (especially near the turrets) by the time it starts.

Scarlet does not appear to be about death or undeath, which is Dhuum’s domain. If it is one of the fallen gods, Menzies (pretender god of strife) is the more likely candidate. After all, Scarlet is raising alliances in order to sabotage the unity of the five major races.

Holding hands in schools is frowned upon, because it is thought of as a sexual act.

Holding hands with skritt is frowned upon, because skritt have cooties (according t many asura).

Throwing snowballs at skritt is seen as a way to keep the skritt from spreading cooties.

Of course, since no asura researcher has ever proven the existence of said “cooties”, this practice is an act of blatant speciesism of asura towards skritt. Does Tixx (an asura) even give Wintersday presents to skritt?

Farm 30 toxic spores.
Purchase 3 key pieces from Marjory’s Helper Dee. (This can be done once per day for each of the 3 pieces.)
Open the Tri-Key Chest.
This will give you about 20 Dragonite Ore, in addition to some other drops.

Have you considered reporting them for “harassing other players”? Because you had every right to do so.

In practice, the label “botting” covers all forms of cheating.

(In fact, I find it doubly appropriate when applied to a siege golem.)

Playing at level 80 is not a fundamentally different game than the game before that. The level 80 content gives only slightly better rewards than comparable content in a level 70 zone. You are still encouraged to do world exploration (especially if you enjoy that). In fact, if you want to do dungeons, it helps if you have the waypoints at the dungeon entrances unlocked, so you can travel there more easily.

In short, there is no reason to stop doing the things you were already doing before hitting 80. Everything still works, the rewards do not change, and you keep “levelling” past 80, which still gives skillpoints.

The gemstore inventory is usually updated with new items every Tuesday (and old items are removed at the same time).
On weekends, there are usually limited time discount offers.

If I were to post three suggestions for horizontal character progression in Guild Wars 2, they would be these:

1. Ability to collect equipment skins in PvE lockers, including town clothing and one-time skins from Living Story achievements

2. Improve interaction with the three Orders, for examply by building up faction with them to be used as currency for cosmetic rewards, or other such systems that invite players to spend time with their Order.

3. Redesign of the home instances to reflect a character’s achievements
(i.e. not just improve the Personal Story impact, but also giving customisability like in the GW1 Hall of Monuments. An example could be displaying banners or NPCs in the instance that depend on the title worn by the character upon entering the instance.)

Those are the suggestions I would give. Oh wait, I think I just did.

That is not a bad thing. What ArenaNet wants to avoid is certain people having a 17-hour gaming session immediately after an update, in which they complete all new content in one go. The next day, these people start whining on the forums that “we want more new content”.

Players are encouraged to take their time at the new content, instead of compulsively rushing through towards the rewards (and never stopping to actually enjoy their play experience).

Besides, I find the accusation of “a new level of time gating” a vast exaggeration, given that it only takes 5 minutes in 3 additional days to finish a meta-achievement.

You do this in the Gemstore, which is part of the Trade Post.

While in-game, press O. This opens the Trade Post. On the top tab of the left-hand menu (Gemstore), select the rightmost tab on the upper menu bar (Upgrades). This one should include extra character slots for 800 gems each.

Kaiser.5439:

Will we ever be able to acquire/buy the town costumes that the npc’s wear?

I should note that the top worn by the female human in your fourth image from the top is actually provided as part of the standard town clothes when you created a female human character.
(Note that the PC is given a skirt to wear underneath, whereas the NPC is wearing trousers.)

A number of the existing town clothes for sale in the gemstore have been removed as of today. (This was announced a week ago.) Specifically, what was removed was the following:
Wide Rim Glasses, Sports Sunglasses, Aviator Sunglasses, Bunny Ears, Boxing Gloves, Cargo Shorts, the Air Rider package, and the various shirts/vests/hoodies.

The reason given was that ArenaNet was “streamlining the style section of the gemstore”.
This could mean that there will be a renewed effort at introducing new (sets of) town clothes.
Or it could mean that the removed items will be reworked as armor skins at some point in the future.
Or it could mean that the Gemstore style section will be completely revamped (with a new subsection for town clothes).
Or it could mean that they merely removed items that were not selling well.

However, there is no reason to fear that town clothes will be removed entirely. The Cook’s Outfit and Pirate Captain’s Outfit remain, as well as many of the separate town clothes items and toys. In fact, last year’s Winter Outfit has just returned for sale.

I believe that the trait is working correctly, except that it does not display the visual effect. I do believe I have seen myself getting stripped of 3 conditions at once at the same time as multiple adjacent enemies receiving a small amount of damage. What I do not believe I have seen is the animation of a burst of flame at that time.

There are fewer bugs than at launch, and there are frequent updates. Not everything is to everyone’s liking, but there is enough for everyone to choose from.

I agree with the above posters that you should see for yourself. Remember, this is a no-subscription game, so if you purchased it, you can play for free.

Also, don’t get hung up on the Personal Story alone. It takes center stage during the first few levels, but you are supposed to gain a few levels in between each story step, which you can do by exploring, crafting, gathering, etc.