Guild Wars 2

Darkbattlemage.9612:

The evidence that conflicts with their statement is the mere opening of the alternative reality flood gates, without any thought towards the possible implications of their opening. They have provided a multitude of ways they could reintroduced Abaddon directly to the story of Guild Wars 2, a few I can think of will technically not break their “He’s gone” statement.

Erm… You’re wrong on this. Y’see, what we see in-game has been “possible futures” and “echoes of reality”. There has yet to be any confirmed existence of alternate realities.

In the former, while travel back and forth is possible, the future is ever changing and thus the possible future will disappear once diverted away; and in this situation, Abaddon is dead in all possible futures, because he died in the past.

In the latter, what we would see – such as in the Fall of Abaddon – is not Abaddon. It is an imperfect clone. And what would be missing, if nothing else, is what makes him a true god (or rather, made) – that indestructible core of magic and divinity. At least, by all indications – I suppose it is possible for the Mists to effectively recreate Abaddon in its full, but even if this is done, depending on what Dessa’s story is, he may be unable to escape that bubble of reality (his “fractal” so to speak).

Which, I should add, creates and interesting observation of the colossus: he leaves the Fractal, something which given by Dessa and the whole respawning (a lore fact) shouldn’t be possible. Indicating that he either isn’t leaving but simply “despawning” or that he was not part of the Fractal in the first place.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

Onto the topic of Lore. Lore is presented from an in-game perspective, which means it can be inaccurate or outright wrong as legends in the real world can be.

You are also wrong here. While this is the most common way, especially across other stories/games/whatnot, and is often the only way in other such stories/games/whatnot, it is not so with Guild Wars. ArenaNet frequently gives interviews, answering questions in lore, as well as posting in forums and other places to answer such confusions. This too, counts as lore. And not only that, but it comes from the developers themselves, a “behind the scenes” in what’s happening in the lore, if you will. The whole “Abaddon is dead” statement is such a situation. This is not questionable, it may change since it isn’t in the game and thus isn’t a retcon, but it is an objective truth of the game’s lore until otherwise.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

Using available lore sources as counter to hypotheses and theories are expected and seemingly encouraged by story writers, as the debates themselves generate potential plot hooks the writer could use if they are subjugated to the horrible Writer’s Block. However those using “Oh the writer said this character is gone ergo god has spoken.” don’t encourage intellectual debates which could potentially help the writer by providing some inspiration.

However, it would be no different than seeing Abaddon die ourselves, thus making it an objective truth.

Which we did.

Didn’t read your full first post but, on the second: Scarlet is, in fact, a Soundless. So she’s not connected to the Pale Tree or the Dream of Dreams.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

Actually it does make everything contested, as there is no proof they will stand by the decision in any and all circumstances.

By your very arguments, I can say that Tyria is a world made out of poop and you will have no means of counteracting me.

Your argument makes everything a contested lore fact or speculation. Anything is possible by your argument, and it would be impossible to argue against even the most asinine statements.

Grenth is merely your PC’s future self.
Scarlet is your PC’s daughter.
Trahearne your PC’s future husband.
Livia is the daughter of King Doric and Dwayna.
Primordus gave birth to the sun, despite being male.

Etc.

You cannot refute any of these statements, even sillier ones, because of your very argument of “until the franchise is over, anything can be retconned.”

And furthermore, there would be no point at all in documenting or discussing the game’s lore, because anything of it can and would be believed to be false, and every theory out there, no matter how little evidence it has, and how much counter-evidence it has, will still be possible “just because the writers may decide to retcon anything.”

But here’s the thing: ArenaNet is very careful in not retconing their objective truths. The only things that they could be argued to retcon are their subjective truths – such as the origins surrounding Glint. They have not once retconned an objective truth. And Abaddon’s death is an objective truth.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

Anyways there is still a possibility that the artifacts, forbidden knowledge, and even surviving servants of Abaddon can still pose a threat to Tyria. They could use any of these to satisfy those who wish for Abaddon’s return yet maintain their “He’s gone” response.

And still he will be gone, thus the original statement of “nothing says Abaddon is dead in GW” is still false.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

You are correct they could if they wanted to. Here’s a thought try using the lore presented to explain why something can or can’t be, instead of relying on the “Oh they said so” excuse. This way one doesn’t look like a complete fool when the decision is changed.

But they wouldn’t be a complete fool. Because they did say so, even if they later decided otherwise.

But Jeff – and other developers – have stressed on multiple year-spanning occasions that they are not going to focus heavily on the story of Abaddon again. Honestly speaking, something akin to either an old remnant of his servants or the Fall of Abaddon fractal is likely all we’ll ever possibly get. Given that they’ve maintained the stance for so long – for five years via mentions – it is unlikely that they’ll break it.

Chances are, the only way for Abaddon to return, will be some new writer replacing the old writers.

I do think that there are golems used by humans.

Keep in mind that the “Genius-Operated Living Enchanted Manifestation” name comes from asuran history before they even met humans and the like. In the 250 years, golems have become somewhat self-aware, even if still programmed under certain protocals. This would allow humans to use such.

This said: Uzolan made a golem from Snaff’s designs.

So yes.

My bet is portal tech. Maybe that fourth one to the west is intentionally hard to get to for some reason.

dkspins.4670:

I thought they would have left the old Lion’s Arch, since the PS is thought to be a year prior to the LS. I just tried the Reconnaisance PS, and had a difficult time getting everywhere. And yeah, it was funny with the risen everywhere along with the burning city around.

The Personal Story is a year – nearly two, actually – before the Living World story. Sadly, it seems that ArenaNet isn’t capable of having the personal story instances use different maps than the open world.

However, I recall Bobby Stein stating a while back (last Halloween?) that they’re in the process of making such possible – so soon enough we should see the personal story happening in old-LA/Kessex rather than modern.

Now, whether they’ve given up on it, because tbh, it’s been a kitten long time, or if it’ll be part of the future feature update coming… in a month and a half I think? Or next month? Not sure… is up in the air.

I would have thought they’d impliment it for Tower of Nightmares – if not this content.

Galen Grey.4709:

There is a reason why the event reward scales to 1500 villagers yet so far in most events i took part personally we didnt save more then 500 ! its more efficient to split up into small groups cause what the event needs to succeed is not 3 giant destructive forces that at times even end up coalescing, what it needs is small groups spreading out to cover as much area as possible.

Indeed, I think that the most effective means would be to have 5 people (one party) per escort event, 10-15 at the three control points, and another 10-15 at miasmas. Any more and the event scales too high to be completed quickly (more and more elites, plus the very rare – too rare to farm – champions), and having 1-3 others at the various places that large amounts of civilians spawn at (Crows Nest Tavern, Black Lion HQ, Corlios Plaza, to name a few).

But all I see is 1 or 2 zergs of 30+ people, which just scales events to such high amounts that it takes longer to complete the events than if it were even just 5 people!

Since it’s on topic, will it be possible to obtain more cypher fragments in the future?

Or some of the other old Scarlet-related story items like Twisted Shoulder Scraps?

Or if we don’t have enough for a complete piece, should we just delete these remainders we have?

Or Doc Oct from Spiderman!

Or Andariel from Diablo II!

Or this concept art of Abaddon from GW1!

Or the hundreds of other beings with blades/appendages coming from the backside!

Ice of Dragons.1637:

I think its more like this. The blades are propeller blades from a helicopter thats why there is a jet on the pack. That dude from transformers

I think they’re more meant to be mechanical wings, actually.

Not that they’d be at all helpful in flying, but the design feels more like “pressed together, they form wings.”

Scarlet’s story ends next patch.

Nothing has said that Tequatl is related to Scarlet – just the Living World stories (plural).

The discovery came during Edge of the Mists, with all the talks and inspection of the objects related to Scarlet.

Shiren, that dialogue is about the crashed and unusable airship that was seen in Labyrinthine Cliffs. This happened after she commandeered an Aetherblade airship. The treasure talked about was in fact Aetherblade-stolen loot from Lion’s Arch, and she returned it to Lion’s Arch.

Magnus the Bloody Handed: Nice captain’s uniform.
Captain Ellen Kiel: I stole it off those Aetherblades who attacked the Arch. I figured as long as I was taking one of their airships, I may as well take their look too.
Magnus the Bloody Handed: Did the swagger come with it, or was that of your own making?
Captain Ellen Kiel: That, I was born with.
Magnus the Bloody Handed: You ready to beat the smug off that greedy ol’ pirate?
Captain Ellen Kiel: Gnashblade? No problem. Well, small problem. Okay, so he’s probably going to smear me, but I’ll give it my best shot.
Magnus the Bloody Handed: Good. Don’t underestimate him. And don’t disappoint me. I’m sticking my neck out, ‘cause I think you can win.
Captain Ellen Kiel: I’ll do my very best.
Magnus the Bloody Handed: All right, Captain Ellen Kiel. You’d better go make sure your crew isn’t robbing you blind.
Captain Ellen Kiel: Aye, aye.
This happened during Bazaar of the Four Winds content in Fort Marriner, before Kiel went to Labyrinthine Cliffs.

Also: Only the first airships were stolen from the Pact. After that they began reverse engineering them – as seen in Twilight Arbor. Whether the one Kiel got was the former or the later… unknown.

Players have serious self-esteem and narcissism issues if they so direly want the spotlight in a bloody video game.

I suggest such players should play Special Ops: The Line. It has a message for you.

Yes, I realized this after posting. Seems that Shadow Lion’s Inn got a PoI (before it was a WP there – the WP was moved south a bit and renamed Postern Ward Waypoint); Gunnery Range uses the same id as Tenanera’s Pit and thus is auto-revealed if you had been to Tenanera’s Pit before the update.

Or never at all.

Remember that all other stories have left unanswered questions too.

Cultural backpieces, yes. Ones that show too.

Also, give the dungeon backpieces something to show off, too. They aren’t back straps that can fit under the armor.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

They have not touched a dragon in over a year. They have been rotting in fort trinity forever.

Half of the reason why I hate the living world concept.

“Sync the passage of time with real life!” = “Why the hell is nothing else progressing?”
“Little updates at a time! Continuously!” = "One storyline takes for-effen-ever.

I blame this not on the NPCs, but Anet, and their overambitious but also narrow-viewed design ideals.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

They focus on nothing. They are useless. There are other elder dragons awake, why the kitten are they staying in Orr?

Well, Risen for one. Tequatl’s weird power boost for two.

Zhaitan may be defeated, but nothing said he’s dead nor that the Risen aren’t still a threat that’s far closer to the rest of Tyria than the other Elder Dragons.

Zaxares.5419:

I don’t think that’s actually true. Evon was at least curious about the idea until HoT said it didn’t have any money, at which point Evon told it to shove off. HoT then tries begging, explaining in more detail what he wanted, to which Evon says “So you want something that can take it, but not dish it out?” When HoT says yes to this, Evon goes, “Heh, good luck.” I interpret that to mean “Good luck finding something like that”, or “Good luck getting it.” There wasn’t any sign that Evon was giving anything to HoT at all.

Of course, it’s kind of a given that we’re soon going to see Hero-Tron in action, but I get the feeling that it’s just going to swipe the chassis from Evon when he’s not looking. :P

The last line by Evon sounds like he got convinced to give o-Tron some defense gear, commenting that o-Tron’s acts would possibly convince the Lionguard and Captain’s Council. It sounded to me like Evon was scheming “and I will be the one who made o-Tron’s fight possible! I deserve some benefits, too!”

Also, I hope o-Tron dies. I hate him. Doesn’t anyone else? Please say I’m not alone in this…

Then again, I hate quaggans too.

And krait need more love. They’re just lashing out for being hated all the time! Like pythons!

Is this thread a joke?

Lion’s Arch got destroyed, sure, but “most” people escaped (quotations used because it’s 99.99% of named NPCs escaped).

The Searing not only wiped out a huge number of a full nation (not just one city, even a large city), but it effectively destroyed the ecosystem of the nation for decades if not centuries.

The Cataclysm, however, was genocide. All life in the area – all life unquestionably – was wiped out. The only Orrians that survived were not in Orr. And the ecosystem was also destroyed – irrevocably so. Any ecosystem to move in once Zhaitan’s corruption is cleansed… will not be the same ecosystem in the least – they’ll all be invasive species that had no native species to wipe out (the job having been done).

So yeah, which was most brutal?

The Cataclysm, hands down. It’s not even a contest, even if you add in the Jade Wind (reversible effect) and Nightfall (again, reversible effect) or even dragon corruption (reversible once more).

The Pact is only focused on the Elder Dragons. I believe it was this interview in which it was stated that the Pact are still reering from their assault on Orr – the risen weren’t all killed, of course, and the Pact lost a lot of individuals in the assault. In Flame and Frost, it’s even highlighted subliminally if you’re a Pact commander (read: completed Forging the Pact) that your presence is odd because the Pact is to fight Elder Dragons, and only Elder Dragons (similar to how you won’t see the Sentinels fighting ogres or Ascalonian ghosts).

Just because the Orders are involved, doesn’t mean the Pact will be. The Pact is a separate entity than the Orders – it pulls most of its resources from the Orders, but the Pact has some Pact-only soldiers, as well as members that are from other groups (Seraph, Iron Legion, Lionguard, and individual norn being most prevalent of such).

In short: they’re too preoccupied with dragons and recovering resources and manpower to deal with non-dragon threats.

What do you all expect?

Kiel is a pirate. And not the good-doer kind.

Evon is a spy. Who’s been trying to take over LA economy for the Ash Legion.

You really expected one of them to play the good guy?

Yeah, not so much retconned or broken by Scarlet – people love to exagerate it a lot – but it really bends the lore to unquestionable points which in most people’s eyes becomes breaking because they often presume things are more set in stone than they are. Which is part of Anet’s issue – they give too little to explain things, people then make presumptions (justifiably so presumptions mind you!) then it turns out that the unknown gets filled in with something different or an individual was simply just wrong.

The worst crimes Scarlet offers was her short story, second to worst is getting the krait to work with her. The former got less offending later on, but initially she was presenting as being a sylvari who studied under the greatest norn blacksmith, under an expert sniper, all three asuran colleges (something no asura has done – and she did within a year each), and under hylek – the last being “just because she could at the time, not because she wanted to or was interested in it.” She was outright presented as borderline Mary Sue, especially since she met attempts to use her as a scapegoat, attempts to kill her, and the loss of her experiment stuff with the same “I don’t care!” reaction. Topped off with “she saw the Eternal Alchemy and learned about all there is!” This later got dumbed down in the colleges and Eternal Alchemy bit, with the former being specialized courses, and the latter via “she didn’t actually see what she thought she saw” later turned into “it was all in her mind… kind of”.

The krait working for her has yet to be clarified. She somehow got obelisk shards, and she somehow threatened the enslaving race of krait whom view themselves superior to all into working for her to get their prophets made… and they complied without question.

The biggest issue with Scarlet is how she’s delivered – and this issue extends throughout the Living World. There have been pieces this improved greatly (Tower of Nightmares stuff, sans the lack of why krait didn’t just gut Scarlet, is perhaps the best example). Second issue is that there is no character development presented. Take how she is when she wakes up, and sans some paranoia over some entity that messed with her mind after she went into Omadd’s device – something unknown until the past month (aka we went a full half year, more or less, not knowing the only thing to develop her) – and compare her to now, and you get practically no difference. Again, the only difference is in her two journals of her talking to herself about the unknown entity. So even her interactions with all others remains unchanged. And the third biggest issue is how everyone likes her – the blacksmith who rarely takes in trainees? Takes her in. The gladium who’s a loner and hates everyone? Teaches her for two years. The asura who are paranoid on a whole? Gives her their secrets. All six groups she takes in as minions? Follows her even after the failure of her promises. Yeah… what?

skullfaerie.7203:

So…. In other words… We suspect and must beware of… titans?

I don’t think so.

Those couldn’t have been made from titans.

The miasma that Scarlet uses is not the same as what Shiro caused. For Shiro, it was his mere messing between spirit and mortal realms (aka The Mists and Tyria); it was, in other words, a spiritual miasma. Scarlet’s miasma, however, is from plants that were altered to be deadly.

It is, quite simply, the toxins of Tower of Nightmares improved and modified. It no longer gives hallucinations like before, but it is resilient to the old antitoxin and is even far longer lasting. In the lair under the Priory one can see one of Canach’s plants he used to spread the enraging pollens amongst the karka, stabbed a bit and next to one of Marjory’s antitoxin filled injector. It seems pretty obvious that she used Canach’s plants – whatever their origins – to enhance her poison which removed its hallucinogenic effect but made it tougher and deadlier.

We know the origin of Scarlet’s miasma, and it is not spiritual but plant-based. And Shiro had no relation to plants.

Actually, Elrey, you don’t need to pay gems. It’s the fastest, indeed, but you can get one-time use passes from the Alliance Bags. I got one from my last run 20 minutes ago, even.

This said, @Smooth Penguin: Have you tried jumping from the caldera of Mount Maelstrom (near the vista, iirc) into the pit? That is the furthest jump in the game that wasn’t part of the temp stuff.

TurtleofPower.5641:

They really need to stop supporting old story items. Let people clear their inventory in peace!

Or allow them to be merchanted – those you cannot make infinite of like Scarlet’s Journal, of course.

Nabrok.9023:

Thareen.5471:

Usually the chest for leftover items (keys, cyphers) stays after the content is extracted for about 2 weeks. Like the chest in Kessex.

The chest in Kessex isn’t for people to spend left-over currency. It’s permanent content. You can still gather toxic spores. You can still purchase the tri-color key components with them. You can still open the chest.

You could only purchase one key component per. And.. I don’t think the chest is there anymore?

Thought it was removed with The Origins of Madness.

BondageBill.4021:

Hmm, I wonder if they could just tweak the player cap for the zone. Leave it as “open-world” as it currently is, but start a new overflow at a much lower number of players (e.g. 25 or 50). This could leave the feeling of open world, large scale content but may further discourage zerging, assuming they spread out multiple objectives.

Of course, I could be entirely mistaken about the effects of that type of change, but it would seem worthy of testing.

I imagine they can, but that it’d be for all zones and not just one particular zone, thus already empty zones will feel emptier, and already full zones like Queensdale will overflow more often. And doing such, also means rebalancing Tequatl and Triple Wurm.

The colossus I think is too big, actually. That’s something more on par to the Giganticus Lupicus, Marionette, or standard champ giants.

Though Marionette would also be too big, I think, and her corpse is in Marionette’s Landing now.

At Durmand Priory* Not Vigil Keep.

DSD is in the Unending Ocean, but not necessarily between Tyria and Cantha.

Technically, the deep sea dragon is also “lost to history” – until very recently, it was unknown for the most part, and even now it’s only known to the Orders, Pact, Inquest and those who fled it (largos, krait, quaggan, karka) and those affected by those who fled it (hylek).

It’s been stated that no Elder Dragon was killed/defeated in the previous rise.

But the rest… I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, really, other than what’s been said by dozens of others, and not even about lore?

ElysianEternity.6215:

Also I don’t know about him wearing an eyepatch in the novel but new datamined chat codes ([&AgGowwAA] and [&AgGmwwAA]) seem to indicate they’ll be in the gemstore as cosmetic item soon so he’ll definitely start wearing an eyepatch (again?) next time we see him. (also IIRC his Mini shows him with an eyepatch now?)

They’re drops from the content, I believe. I think I saw someone saying they got one of them.

Jelle.4623:

It’s strange that when you encounter him outside Fort Marriner he doesn’t wear any eye patch at all.

I would place this on the fact that he was introduced without one. When he was modeled, there was no eyepatch in the game and he used fully old armor.

Those still don’t look like footprints to me. Just elongated indentations from impacts.

Pretty sure you’re all overthinking this.

Jelle.4623:

-Magnus lost his left eye? (Molten Berserker event)

I’d have to re-read the novel, but didn’t he have an eyepatch in Edge of Destiny?

Jelle.4623:

-MA machines pointing towards the Breachmaker and one that is pointing towards the sky

Clarification: those machines are Sonic Periscopes – aka listening devices. So I think they’re put there for Scarlet to communicate with her troops. Though… why is one pointing to the sky?

Jelle.4623:

-New ‘caves’ opened up

Have yet to see these caves. Where at?

Tomzzy.9564:

I found some giant footsteps IF they are footsteps.

Pics:
[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/mjmy6e.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/i434n5.jpg[/IMG]

Edit: They are probably not from marrionette, cause she has high heels if i remember. These look more like barefoot.

Marionette’s dead – there was only ever one, the repeating event was for benefit of players it seems, confirmed during a Live Stream.

Those look more like craters than footsteps though. The first is far too displaced to be a footprint, the second is more likey but again, looks more like a crater – an indentation of where stuff struck and sunk.

wookalar.8952:

Also the Marionette’s “corpse” is in Lornar’s pass now. But, we don’t know if that was the only one.

It was, according to Angel McCoy.

Lutinz.6915:

After the fight against the Molten Beserker, Magnus says something along the lines of ‘I cant see’. Not sure if its the beserker or the Miasma. The doc at the Vigil Keep Refugee camp mentions that they are losing about half the people that come in who are affected by it and the rest will probably have respiratory problems for life.

It’s the miasma affecting him. It happens at a timed interval like his other miasma comments I believe.

Lutinz.6915:

- I haven’t seen how Canach gets from his cage in the Vigil Keep to LA but he appears with Ellen Keil at the end of the Molten Beserker event at Fort Marriner to evaculate Magnus.

It’s the other way around.

In the various escort events in LA, you actually save some of the refugees that are at the three camps. Evon included. Canach is in his cage in LA until the very end where he evacuates with Magnus and Kiel.

The LA zone happens before the speeches with the camp refugees, lore-wise.

Lutinz.6915:

Note about the house with the force field. Isn’t that the house of the Priory agent from the Priory Personal story?

Yes.

The “breach” that she’s “making” is the one the drill forms when going into the ground. Y’know, breaching the soil and all.

@Jelle: Did you do Edge of the Mists content? May be triggered from that. Or as a Priory member. Didn’t read her dialogue myself, just screenshotted it.

Jeff.4680:

Why is it every patch has to require a zerg to play?

I guess it’s cool for everyone else, but personally I can’t even play this stuff. I’m on a university network, and my university hates zergs. I mean, I can’t even get skills off or talk in chat. Crazy lag. No, it’s not my frame rate.

Really getting nostalgic about Guild Wars 1 instances… :/

The issue is that without instancing them, which means solo or no more than 5, it has to be ready for zergs. Why? Because everyone will be doing the “shiney new content”.

So it’s either dungeons (which people have complained about as well and will be temporary anyways), story instances (which are usually lackluster), or open world (thus have to be balanced for the inevitable zergfest that will happen, designed for or not).

The only way to prevent this is to bring out a lot of content at once (which seems out of Anet’s scope for some unknown reason – seriously, their company of 200+ cannot possibly be having such issues for such little content built in 4 months when Nightfall came out 6 months after Factions, roughly), and/or make it intended to remain long after the hype dies down – which means either making it scale for both low and high numbers, or allowing it to break with high (or low) numbers.

Evil Tim.5104:

I’ve got some before and I guess during screens. I’ll add the after when the time comes.

Hah, I was going to do the very same thing, using the GW2W’s screenshot angles.

To expand on the lorewise explanation from Mega Messiah a bit: in Scarlet’s Lair you can find one of the plants that Canach used to permanently enrage the Southsun Cove wildlife (that is, if they were affected by it, they went insane, slowly dying iirc, and it was irreversible) next to Marjory’s antitoxin-filled injector. Seems Scarlet used that to boost her own toxin.

Mechanically, because armor cosmetics don’t do anything.

(Didn’t see a thread for this so apologies if one exists)

Perhaps bugged isn’t the right term but…

Tiers are set at 100, 300, 600, 1000, and 1500 citizens rescued.

This is from the update notes. However, for about three or four times now, I always got tier 2 rewards at 500, and even the one time my group reached over 600 without a bug, no tier 3 – not that I recall at least.

So the update notes a lie, or someone messed up with the tiering programming?

Well, Vigil Keep is meant to be a “temporary refugee camp”

Refugee camps won’t be full of all your greatest qualities of life.

First world problems here in this thread.

adubb.2453:

Okay so, do women in Tyria simply have no shame whatsoever?

Differences in cultures is a funny thing.

What may be shameful for you, wouldn’t be shameful for another; and vice versa. There are cultures – mostly, now, historical I believe – which believe the revealing of the ankle on women was the most shameful body part to reveal. Similarly, showing breasts was common in various cultures.

The whole sexualizing of a woman’s breasts is due to our culture and nothing more, really. But people don’t really see past that, and get stuck in the mental thought of “covering up is modesty; revealing is shamelessness.” Which is just a sad, close-minded view to me.

This said though, this armor set no doubt pushes the bounds more than any other armor set, however, the male’s armor sets are equally revealing and – something I haven’t seen noted in this thread – the revealing holds an aesthetic purpose – you cannot tell so easily with still images, but go preview the armor on any character (non asura/charr would be best – norn, actually, is probably the best) and rotate the character while staring at the blue of the chest. Notice something? Hidden in the “blue skin” is transparency that shows stars (hence the name). Cover up the skin, you lose that effect – so revealing “skin” is not so much an act of making skimpy armor, but to show a cosmic cosmetic effect. Mind you, they should have picked a deeper shade of blue to better show this, as the skin change is meant to reflect the character representing the star constellations themselves much like the weapons do.

Sadly, this effect is also only really apparent on high texture and resolution settings – much like the shading differences of kraitkin between settings.

Wrong sub-forum but to answer your question, there were two added in LA with this update. Gunnery Range (where the Zaishen were just west of Fort Marriner) and The Breachmaker (Scarlet’s drill).

zamalek.2154:

Sort of, but at the same time quite far off, what actually happened: shoot bits off of him, wait until he lands on a tower, commence fireworks. A ground battle (instead of fireworks) would have been quite some fun.

Because hacking at Zhaitan’s cuticles to damage him sounds like so much fun.

I think fights like The Shatterer is dull enough when your blade only reaches the ankle, and you need ranged weaponry to reach something more vital. But with Zhaitan, who’s easily over 4 times the size? Yeah…

A ground battle against a wall that can lift itself off the ground would be more entertaining… or rather, the same thing, if not easier.

Back in… August or September, there was an interview stating that the Pact is re-organizing. Though victorious they were dealt a heavy blow with the invasion of Orr and it’s a continuous battle – they lost a lot of soldiers and gear, so during the time Scarlet’s rampaging about, they’re recovering and resupplying their stock.

Not like they’d bother themselves with “trite” matters like Scarlet anyways – the Pact was established for fighting dragons, not terrorists.

Maidah.2539:

First, the attack on Divinity’s Reach had always felt like it was done by Scarlet on a whim, even the investigation instance kind of gave the same impression.

Because it was, stated sadly only in an interview after Clockwork Chaos on Scarlet between Scott/Angel and TowerTalk. A link to said interview is on Scarlet’s GW2W article, at the bottom.

Maidah.2539:

Second, notice how we have not seen any of the Twisted clockwork minions in either trailer video or the released screen shots of attack on Lions’ Arch.

Doesn’t say much, TBH. We only saw, what, four short scenes of Scarlet’s minions? Two of which were Aetherblade.

Wait til the update comes. You may get debunked in this alone right off the bat.

Maidah.2539:

For example, the twisted and crazy mob design, I mean really, can you imagine a rational/powerful mind to come up with something as crazy as the Marionette.

Actually, yes. The Twisted Nightmare is literally a Watchknight placed on top of another – it has 8 limbs, each limb being two normal Watchknight limbs on top of each other (sans hand/feet), and the torso is two Watchknight bodies stacked together (where one’s head should be, the other’s butt is). Twisted Horrors are like a mix of hylek and dog. Twisted Menders are literally mosquitoes. And Reavers are Wind Riders full out.

They’re all rather rational.

Maidah.2539:

Remember that part of Scarlet is struggling against the entity. Remember that her own initial motivation was to actually confront the entity not to become its slave. If that part is still alive and is represented in the Twisted clockwork then she might use them to sabotage the Entity’s plan.

Presuming, in the first place, that it has a plan. Maybe it just seeks chaos? Maybe it’s just toying with Scarlet’s mind – and her thoughts truly are her own, but it’s just going “nah, I thought of that first and told you!” repeatedly.

zamalek.2154:

Maidah.2539:

Notice also how the Marionette is hanging from chains like a puppet.

Oh my… She, herself, is a puppet – you, sir, are a genius.

You realize that was one of the first things mentioned about the Marionette? That it could be a reflection of her being a puppet in the end as well.

zamalek.2154:

I wonder if a Konig summoning spell would shed some light on this…

You are not of the Archivists. My pact is not with you! All who breach the pact must be purged.

/turns you into an elemental husk

In short: we have NO clue. At all.

Magical disasters can occur, perhaps. Maybe everyone gains magical longevity, living for thousands of years leading to overpopulation. Maybe it will mean the end of hunger, strife, and conflict and Tyria will reach utopia. Maybe an Elder Dragon may form – depending on some theories of their origins and nature. Or maybe nothing, maybe there’s a ceiling of “it cannot grow any longer” and the Elder Dragons were never needed to “balance” it.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

Edit: FlamingFoxx beat me to it. Although I doubt Abaddon was completely destroyed.

On a side note can someone refresh my memory on what happened to the Fondry of Failed Creations, was it destroyed with Abaddon’s defeat or does it still exist.

Abaddon is dead. Gone. Forever. This has been stated – multiple times – by ArenaNet.

The only way he’ll return is via means like the Fall of Abaddon fractal. A mere echo of the past, unable to leave its little bubble of existence.

Wow, for some reason I thought that you were quoting someone in this thread. XD

Hilarious. Especially Riot Inducer’s post.

Makes me wonder if they treat the Elder Dragons the same…

I don’t see how it “can only really be Mordremoth”.

There are hundreds of other possibilities, really. Why must it be Mordremoth? Because of the debunked fan theory of sylvari being dragon minions? Because of the no-context, may-not-even-be-made-by-Scarlet, cave painting of a dragon in her lair beneath Durmand Priory?

Dhuum’s known for influencing people, as are demons like Kanaxai (not suggesting Kanaxai, but presenting him as an example for something similar to, but not the same individual as, Kanaxai), as are mesmers in general. Who’s to say that this isn’t some trick by Faolain? Hmm? Hmm?

While Mordremoth currently is the Occam’s Razor potential, he is not the “only” possibility.

Two zones? News to me.

I’ve seen it stated that the map of Lion’s Arch will be fully map completable – you’ll just need to find new means to get to certain areas (I presume places like Lost Grotto, the vistas above Trader’s Forum, etc.). Given this, there’s no reason for ArenaNet to make “2 different zones”.

Nor can I see them doing this to Orr, nor LA, given Kessex Hills’ major change.

You set the stage on the creature’s back, and drive swords into its eyes while avoiding the hundreds of snaping Tequatl-sized heads.

That is, if you avoid the whole “get eaten and kill from within” idea. Which wouldn’t work with Elder Dragons because, you know, they corrupt what they eat.