Guild Wars 2

Screenshot isn’t that good for details, and I keep forgetting to check it out in-game, but if they’re the same as the medium armor’s design then I’ve always taken that to be a symbol of their Elonian origins (land of the golden sun – as mentioned, it’s similar to the Sunspear emblem somewhat).

The game was never in a ‘living world’ state. Any changes made where focused on the main story/stories (always revolving around Kiel, Scarlet, and the biconics directly or indirectly), and they would be gone without a trace (for the most part) within a month’s time. A true living world would have had the style of Southsun Cove’s releases or Tower of Nightmares arc (the months’ content no longer accessible but the ‘aftermath’ still around) with the Halloween 2012 update of adding mini-dungeons and events across the world (even if only 5 or so at a time).

The ‘fake living world’ that was Season 1 was a bad design ultimately because it created a lot of effort from ArenaNet for no direct profit and no lasting effect on the playerbase. And it was far from a core aspect of the game, since it began two months after release (or four if you don’t include The Lost Shores) and didn’t have a trace of a ‘true living world’ until a year after release.

The name ‘living world’ or ‘living story’ has always been a misnomer.

However, I do not believe that their model is the ‘same tired model every other game uses’ since most other games just go expansion → expansion → expansion; GW2 is going ‘series of temp-free DLCS → expansion → series of temp-free DLCs → expansion’.

I wouldn’t mind a mixture of Season 1 and Season 2’s set up – if we look at Tower of Nightmares as the core foundation of what Season 1 should be, and take permanent instances as, well, being permanent. That would give the best feeling of a living world, especially if they periodically include events unrelated to the main plot but related to zone plots across the game.

There’s a long standing presence for spirits to be a form of energy. Beyond the situation with the river of souls in Nightfall, we see/hear of Margonites, torment demons, titans, and scarabs all eating souls as a form of long-lasting nourishment, and for power. The demons’ assaults on Dragon Bash and the Hall of Heroes (Tombs) were tactics for apparently similar reasons.

As for human sacrifices on Bloodstones – basically what that does is tear the soul out of the body. We don’t know if this is innate to Bloodstones, or caused by inscriptions seen only on the Maguuma and Ring of Fire Bloodstones (of three seen, two have inscriptions which don’t seem to be part of the Bloodstone). From there, in GW1, the soul was transferred via said inscriptions into the soul batteries, and the soul batteries charged in the Maguuma were transported to the Ring of Fire Bloodstone to power the Door of Komalie (this tormented the souls and resulted in them becoming maddened to the point of recognizing the players as enemies, and fought alongside the mursaat who had imprisoned them – not too dissimilar to the Spirit Vale souls!).

Salvation Pass implies that they’re charging bloodstone shards in the same way that they charged soul batteries (we never did know what the soul batteries were made out of – and like the jade constructs and mursaat towers, they had a similarity to the Bloodsotnes), which implies that souls are stuck inside those shards. But ultimately, we don’t know yet.

Bloodstones weren’t meant to seal magic away so much as contain magic.

Samnang.1879:

also when the Mesmer shatter their clones, butterflies come out, is this a reference to an anime or something?

Mesmers had butterlies related to them before they had clones and phantasms – back in GW1. The name itself likely comes from the same root as mesmerism – Franz Mesmer, – and I think the butterfly is meant to come from the Butterfly Effect

Hero challenges get filled in when you do them; the emblem in the center inverts because otherwise it’d blend into the fill.

Hero challenges, hearts, and vistas function the same – outlines that get filled in. The only difference is that hero challenges have something in the center even when not completed.

The thing about GW2 lore is that while, yes, there is some conflicting sources, there will always be sources with more credibility or more consistency than others. We know that Bennett is not telling the full objective truth because we saw it all happen, just as we know that Thrulnn the Lost is not telling the objective truth because there are dozens of other NPCs – including a ghost who had first hand experience – telling the same thing that contradicts Thrulnn’s tale.

When you have one or two guys telling one thing, and eight telling another – typically it’s more correct to go with the eight. The only exception is when that one or two have first hand knowledge and aren’t likely to be lying.

Verdant Brink – no mastery-gated map completion (just mastery points) beyond gliding/updraft (i.e., the first ones). Only 3 champion hero challenges (1 veteran), all of which can easily get help for by masking in map chat (compared to AB and TD which are reversed – only 3/4 communes – and unlike AB and DS none are gated behind the meta event’s success.

I would say Auric Basin is the second easiest if and only if you do not have ley line gliding – Dragon’s Stand is second easiest if you do, as you can get most stuff (basically all but 5 PoI and 1 vista and all hero challenges) at any time, and all hero challenges are communes (though gated behind the meta). Auric Basin often has hero trains, so it becomes easy once you find that. Main problem with AB is that one hero challenge is locked behind the meta’s successful completion, and a PoI/vista is locked behind story progress. You also need Nuhoch Wallows and Lean Gliding to get everything (without mesmer portals at least).

Tangled Depths is by far the hardest, IMHO, because not only is it gated behind masteries (need poison mastery – DS does for a PoI which you can easily run to and die), and most hero challenges are champions – furthermore, it’s harder to find trains for the challenges, as they’re in odd to reach places (looking at you, troll runestone and spiderbat guano!).

As it stands, no. It is not coming back.

It really should though. Currently, playing through the game for new players is like going through the original Star Wars trilogy without watching Empire Strikes Back.

Slowpokeking.8720:

Maybe because Mordremoth wanted to keep their intelligence as more powerful minions. And it doesn’t have the ability to corrupt beings with their intelligence intact like Kralkatorrik or Zhaitan.

More likely that the sylvari still were protected by the Dream with their state of ‘they die if corruption touches them’ that even Mordremoth could not (fully) bypass. We still don’t know the source of this protection, after all (and no, it isn’t necessarily because they’re dragon minions – we already see at minimum two cases of beings corrupted by multiple dragon corruptions).

As to intelligence, given all examples: dragon minions made from ‘scratch’ like mordrem and destroyers seem to be mindless, while dragon minions which are ‘corrupted former living beings’ (whether the being is dead or alive at the time of corruption) results in mostly mindless (but not fully). The exception are, of course, dragon lieutenants and champions, which become more intelligent and powerful the more corrupted magic they have.

Since we know that Primordus can corrupt living beings, and we know that Kralkatorrik, Jormag, and Zhaitan can corrupt landscapes/elements (and in the former two, turn those into minions), it’s likely that this separation of corruption metholody is not a case of ‘cannot’ but ‘does not’.

Of course, this begs the question of why sylvari are so smart. But the reason why Mordrem Guard are unique is because sylvari are. Sadly, like all other important things, ArenaNet has not devulged the most important question of the Heart of Thorns story – what makes sylvari unique.

And, of course, the sylvari uniqueness is why I still say ArenaNet’s ‘reveal’ that they’re dragon minions makes no sense and contradicts all known lore – because, until we get a proper explanation (and possibly even with that explanation), they do contradict all known lore about dragon minions and, therefore, make no sense.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Stavemaster Adryn seems to have been molded into something that looks an awful lot like a seer. Even wields that Seer’s staff.

However, Adryn is a Mordrem Guard, which makes him a former sylvari. His dialogue implies he was a Nightmare Courtier before falling to Mordremoth’s call though.

Which is a bit interesting, that he would still make calls for us to ‘gaze into Nightmare’ even when he now serves Mordremoth.

I was tempted to say earlier: “How do we know it doesn’t work as a waterspout too? He was the god of water!”

But regarding the egg and Dream… Did we ever get told that it was the Dream who told the Pale Tree to take care of the egg?

BigZThyDoom.8750:

Wilu.3987:

Hi.

I have never player GW1 and I would like to discover a whole lore, so – are there any good and legit sites/videos describing it? Also I would like to discover raids lore in HoT too – I played it and read some notes etc but a compressed guide would be much better.

I’d recommend watching WP’s lore series. I’m pretty sure Deroir also has a series on lore, but it’s more about the mysteries of the game. For that matter, I’d also recommend watching WP’s mysteries series, once you know more about the lore.

I’ve not seen much of Deroir’s (I watched some of two, but the second one started out with such HUGE lore fact twisting that I facepalmed and closed), but for WP I would say to take everything with a grain of salt.

WP’s research for his videos are incomplete at best, speculation being presented as fact at worse. They’re decent for a brief overview, but it’s hardly something to take as truth in of itself.

Valento.9852:

@Konig, why would they ban you? lol

Long story short:

An on-again-off-again user kept adding incorrect details and speculations onto GW2W, claiming them as supported fact; I tried to keep the wiki as fact based as possible. Revert wars ensued. I stated I was leaving (meaning temporarily) out of frustration of said user. Admins temp ban me. Rinse repeat a few times over two years. A couple times this spread onto GWW, when I was trying to improve those articles to pass the time (I had a lot more free time then).

During the last temp ban, I got so fed up with the admins’ continuous tactics of ‘lock the door after he leaves, that will show him!’ for their bans (literally every ban came the day after I got frustrated to the point of taking a break). So, fed up as I was, I made a rant about it on my GWW talk page. This resulted, due to ‘disturbing the peace’ as an excuse, in a perma ban on GWW.

Because a rant on my personal talk page is disturbing the peace. Because banning someone who’s not active is really teaching them a lesson.

I don’t mind those folks who were admining the wikis then (I dunno if the one behind the perma ban even remains active, but the others are at least active editors), but honestly their policy enforcement is – or at least was- plain stupid.

Humorously, ever since, that user has not edited the wiki as far as I know – and that final campaign also got him banned (think it was a 6 month temporary like I got, too).

Rant over. Wasn’t very short… but wasn’t the long version either.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

In the future then ANet could have Pale Trees from other areas of the world with Sylvari modeled after Charr, Asura or have Norns sized Sylvari. Or they could be modeled after centaurs, if that’s whose cemetery the tree grows on top of. Or Skritt for that matter. And of course those females won’t all have boobs.

It’s got nothing to do with the cemetery, just the Pale Tree having seen humans.

Danikat.8537:

Was it ever actually confirmed that Malyck came from a different tree?

Yes. A better example than Narcemus’ – which outright states that he is from another tree (as does Caithe, though less directly), would be the story step before, when going with Trahearne:

Amaranda the Lonesome: A distant shore—and darkness. A root, a cave…you. You are the seed. What Ronan knew and never told still lingers in the Dream.
Malyck: What does that mean?
Trahearne: It means my fears are well founded. You were not born of the Pale Tree, Malyck. We cannot see your Dream; you cannot see ours. I must return to the Grove and speak to the Pale Tree.
Knight of Embers: Now I, too, understand.
Knight of Embers: When the grand duchess hears this, she will send the whole court after you, Harbinger!

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/A_Different_Dream#Dialogues

Of course, Trahearne’s claims on the Dream separation seem to be wrong – Malyck, even with trying to reach out for his Dream, results in nothing, as discussed in Caithe’s path :

PC: have much to learn. The Dream guides us. Reach out, and it may guide you as well.
Malyck: I have tried, but to no avail. Your “Dream” eludes me, and I’m left wonder if it and nightmare are the same.

We even got comment from Bobby Stein that Malyck’s tree was originally to be part of HoT, though the plot got cut for time development reasons. Claiming ‘we wouldn’t be able to do it justice’.

Sadly, not having it in the one and only time it would make the most sense to have the plot does it less justice than doing it poorly.

I knew what you were meaning. What I meant, however, was that if such was the case then the Shining Blade would have been just as likely to know of it during the War in Kryta content as they would be in GW2’s time.

Given that they didn’t make such claims in WiK, however, this indicates to me that Bennett’s claim is just post-war propaganda on the Shining Blade’s part. While there is possibility for the propaganda to end up being the truth, I doubt those who began it knew it to be truth – is what I was trying to say.

For properly experiencing the story, the best order to go with is:

• Personal Story chapters 1-4 (levels 10, 20, 30, 40)
• Ascalon Catacombs story (level 30)
• Personal Story chapters 5-6 (levels 50, 60)
• Caudecus Manor story (level 40)
• Twilight Arbor story (level 50)
• Personal Story chapter 7 (level 70)
• Sorrow’s Embrace story (level 60)
• Citadel of Flames story (level 70)
• Personal story chapter 8 (level 80) sans Victory or Death (final mission)
• Crucible of Eternity story (level 75)
• Honor of the Waves story (level 78)
• Victory or Death (final mission)
• Season 1 recap (actual content no longer available)
• Season 2
• Heart of Thorns

A couple notes:

The level differences in the Personal Story and the dungeon story modes is caused by a now-old update called the New Player Experience; originally personal story chapters weren’t all the same level or at every 10, but each mission was ~2 levels higher than the last, so the level order made more sense, but when they changed the personal story levels they didn’t change the dungeon story levels. The two were meant to run side-by-side after the beginning of chapter 4 of the PS and recombining with the final mission (which was originally both a PS step and a dungeon story mode).

Season 1 follows the personal story and, as mentioned above, is currently not available. Some ArenaNet devs have stated wanting to bring it back as permanent content in Season 2’s format but there are no current plans to actually do such. Instead, they added in a very unfulfilling recap, which becomes available at level 80.

Season 2 and Heart of Thorns are the same story arc, effectively, while the personal story/dungeon story were one arc and Season 1 was its own arc. You will not understand HoT well without Season 2 – and unfortunately, you’ll be left with a ‘huh?’ on Season 2 without enjoying Season 1. The best you can do is watch the recap, read the wiki’s summary, and any youtube videos suggested.

Also, one last thing. In the personal story, there are a lot of returning NPCs later on in the plot, however, their placement is predetermined to certain storylines – so even if your early storylines have characters that’d return, you might not actually see them and instead get these seemingly ‘new characters’ which you’re supposed to care about. If you want to see as many returning characters as possible in a single playthrough, I made a crude graph here a while ago. It’s not been updated with HoT (which sees some returning characters) though.

All that would be needed is for Malyck’s tree to know about the existence of humans. Depending on its location (given our explored map, it’d be between Dry Top, Tangled Depths, Rata Sum, and Metrica Province given that it’s along the river that leads into Metrica/Brisban), it could have seen White Mantle/bandits wandering around and created copies from them.

Unlike with calling Saul a deceiver, the Shining Blade didn’t suggest that King Jadon fled the throne due to the White Mantle:

The royalty of Kryta descend from King Doric, the first king of united Tyria. The Royal Line has continued uninterrupted for generations, until the great charr invasion, when the strength of Doric failed and King Jadon abandoned his throne. In the absence of a king, The White Mantle cult took control.

http://www.guildwars.com/warinkryta/sb/

While possible, I’m rather doubtful that’d have been the case. Most likely, it was Shining Blade propaganda that began after the Krytan civil war – or Bennett meant it in a general sense of the White Mantle taking power in place of the throne.

virus.4370:

the Mantle wasn’t made till after the royals fled..so they can’t topple them..

Not true.

Only those who have proven themselves worthy are asked to partake in this ceremony. In the past five years, all of the knights who have been promoted to the rank of zealot or justiciar had at one time administered the test.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Mantle_Knight_Franklin

The Test of the Chosen, a White Mantle act, has existed for three years by the time the royal family fled due to charr.

The cinematic is told from the perspective of an NPC and we’ve never heard the details of why King Jadon fled.

InsidiousWaffle.7086:

You have to consider that the shining blade probably villanised the White Mantle, and that is how things were remembered in history

They did villainize them. In War in Kryta, they called Saul a tyrant and liar, though we know he was genuinely a good hearted man.

And if you played Unknown Parents storyline, the PC thinks the White Mantle were fairytales. So not only were the good members of the White Mantle villainized but the order was effectively made into untaught historical information – comparatively to if Germany didn’t teach about kittens and kitten in their grade schools.

Sounds like a good excuse to continue my learning of the German language.

Yes, I need an excuse for I am lazy. :P

Deleena.3406:

you mean Yehuda!

i never saw the goddess/god names having realworld meanings inside guildwars lore
(then you will have to explain what dose dwayna means !)

Dwayna is clearly the female version of Dwayne. :P Just like Grenth is an anagram for The RNG!

More seriously though, about half the god names have a relation to rl myths, legends, and religious documents – Balthazar being a name of one of the three wise men, Lyssa being a Greek goddess (or was it demigoddess) of madness and insanity, obviously Abaddon.

The other half appear to be fully made up – Dhuum is obviously a play on doom, but beyond that they seem uniquely thought up (though perhaps Zintl holds some Aztec ties?).

First off, I’ll say that I don’t consider myself a bit pvp’er – however, Skyhammer is one of my favorite maps, so I definitely do not want to see it removed from unranked – I’d rather see it added to ranked, be it with tweaks or not.

But then again, I’ve never really seen why so many hate Skyhammer. If anything, it’s the most strategizing-based map in PvP due to all the ‘environmental traps’ (which, apparently, is where most of the hate comes from – apparently people don’t like tactics in PvP?).

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

• Remove/adjust the breakable panels at A and C point or Add second layer under the hole so players dont die, but still lose time for falling into them
  • Which do you like better?
• Glass Panels only break from cannon fire
  • What do we think about this suggestion?

What if you have two types of glass panels – one that can be broken by walking over them, and one, larger and very visably different, which can only be broken by the Skyhammer?

I would suggest:

• Make current glass panels immune to Skyhammer.
• Reduce the number of current glass panels by ~half, removing those around points A and C.
• Reduce the distance to the ledge around points A and C by about one current glass panel’s size worth.
• Add, throughout the middle, new and larger panels which only break by Skyhammer fire.
• Skyhammer cannon no longer deals damage – just knocks down and breaks new glass panels – and has an increased recharge time. Reduce radius slightly (should be no bigger than a cap point, but I would suggest about half the size of a cap point).
• Replace the solid ground at point B with the new glass panels, so that a well aimed panel hit can prevent progress of capping B by all players (this means hitting B with the Skyhammer is a hindrance to both sides if it’s uncapped, while just the team who doesn’t have it capped if it is capped). If you’re on point b when it hits, you’re simply falling to the glass panels beneath; if you’re quick, you can escape death, if not you die – giving them a proper role in the match.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

• Enlarge the Skyhammer Platform, Add line of sight props
• Add multiple portals to get to and from the skyhammer platform
  • Does this have to be in both places: in center of map and skyhammer platform or just the skyhammer platform?

I actually like how you need to ensure your placement or bring stability when you’re at the Skyhammer platform, so I wouldn’t change that. I would just remove the two glass panels up there.

I also don’t see much need for the multiple portals, personally. Making a chokepoint getting to/from the Skyhammer allows strategizing for it.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

• Adjust the jump pads
• Take away the ability to die from falling damage
  • Do we want to completely remove the ability to die from falling damage or make it only in very specific places?

The current jump pads use the Aetherblade/Dragon Arena jump pads which are very wonky (not always working for whatever reason). Replace these with a new jump pad which is mechanically the same as bouncing mushrooms but faster animation and without mastery gating (which should be a given) – bouncing mushrooms do bug occasionally but not nearly as much.

All the raised platforms are tall enough to cause some amount of falling damage, so I would say ‘across the main arena’ (e.g., not under Skyhammer platform). Which mechanically might make it easier to just go with ‘completely remove it’.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

• Adjust middle point high ground
  • Do we want to completely remove this because of gameplay/camera problems or adjust it as it creates good gameplay but messes with camera

Adjust if you go with something along the lines of my suggestion, remove if you keep the design of it as is – the high ground currently holds no purpose, but if you turn it into a layers of death set-up it can hold purpose.

Blanche Neige.7241:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

You don’t need cliffhangers to get people to stay with the story.

You need a good story to keep people with the story.

And continuous cliffhangers is not a good story.

The main goal for the next season will not be to tell a story. It will be to serves as a teaser for the next expansion. There will be a cliffhanger.

Everything we know of S3 says it’ll close up some loose threads oepened by S2 and HoT. Nothing implies leading into the next expansion, especially since we don’t know what that expansioni s or will be released.

More than likely S4 will lead into the next expansion. However, that doesn’t mean it needs to end with a cliffhanger either. You can lead into sequels without a cliffhanger as well. If you think you must end a story that had a sequel with a cliffhanger, you’ll not make a good writer.

A good example would be Brentt Weeks’ Night Angel Trilogy. Every book was a conclusive story with room for sequels but no cliffhanger at the end.

Blanche Neige.7241:

I don’t expect season 3 to start before late August / early September.

I doubt they will release it in the summer, which is generally a low season for player population.

And since S3 will most likely only be a teaser to try to sell the incoming expansion, (like S2 was in regard to HoT) they will certain release it when there are a lot of players around.

Season 2 began in July and was a lead in to HoT.

What we’ve been told of S3 makes is a conclusion to HoT, not a lead in to expac2 like S2 was for HoT. That role will likely fall to S4 or S5 depending on their set up.

rrusse.7058:

Is S3 really set to try and bridge the story from HoT to whatever the next expansion is? There are so many holes and unexplained points to the story with the scope and the way the story was told for HoT.

I would realy like to see S3 answer a lot of what was skimmed over in HoT and something like S3 part 2 or S4 to be the tie in to the next expansion.

S3 has not been stated or hinted to be a lead in for expac2. In fact, S3 is hinted to be closing up some lose HoT threads.

There is a known but with decimal rounding in the hero panel displays. There was a recent thread similar to this but with condition duration on reddit.

Basically if you unequip everything else and are in a place you’re not downleveled you’ll see the difference accurately.

Ascended is higher. Just a display bug.

When the blade is molten lava, it’ll cut both ways.

I think that’s what the thrashers and husks are meant to be.

Similarly, I think that the GW1 destroyers could be attributed to such too – the Destroyer of Thoughts has a very mursaat-ish shape, though greatly altered. And this is why we have not only the name difference (in GW1, we didn’t know the races that were being copied), but now the only destroyers we see are of trolls, harpies, and crabs – modern races.

It’s also possible that Mordremoth had no ancient-race minions because they were all wiped out, and Mordy didn’t bother making more of the ancient races, but instead immediately made some of newer races (trolls, teragriffs (colocals), etc.). Mordremoth didn’t have a dragon champion that survived since ancient times like the other four dragons we’ve seen, of which only three are ‘mockery minion’ dragons (Primordus). With no equivalent of The Great Destroyer, it likely didn’t have interest of making ancient race copies.

All of LA was walled, however, and such was done via old architecture (same artchitecture design as the ancient tower in the swamp or the watchtowers in Watchtower Coast, or even the LA castle), which implies that the walls predate White Mantle.

As Erukk said, the Pale Tree modeled sylvari after a basic comprehension of the human body. Which involves boobs on females.

Nilkemia.8507:

It can be killed, it just gets back up

Hence nigh immortal.

If it’s getting back up, it’s not being killed – not truly.

Nilkemia.8507:

until the whole party is together, after which it just vanishes. And, the bioluminescent ones were not present and thus irrelevant.

They are in the same location, the Lurcher might disappear mechanically but that doesn’t mean it’s gone for good.

So I’m going to disagree with your assessment.

Nilkemia.8507:

Unless they fixed that bug(?) where she just stands at the entrance to the room while the others attack the boss, no she does not help you.

They can all bug. Not just Caithe. And it’s kind of an RNG thing which happens only if you die during the fight and have to run back (due to the whole ‘npcs follow you around’ mechanic).

Nilkemia.8507:

I’d like to think the others wouldn’t just stand there and let them try to kill each other (except maybe Zojja), considering it wasn’t until Citadel of Flame that the two finally tried to do it, before we break that up.

Twilight Arbor she brings Logan and Rytlock – alone – together again. After seeing exactly what hostility they had in LA.

So, still going to argue she put no one at risk and was thinking differently than ‘acting before thinking’ and ‘not considering others’ emotions and perspectives’?

It’s not the exact same thing, but both situations are brought by the same personality quirks.

Nilkemia.8507:

Prior to catching up with her proper, only 2 or 3 NPCs in the story spotted her at all (one named Pact NPC, a native hylek scout, and and maybe a third NPC in Auric Basin, uncertain).

Intentional exageration. And yes, an NPC in Auric Basin does see Caithe wander by.

But somehow these same scouts don’t see a big kitten charr with a flaming sword not trying to be secretive.

But as I said, this is Caithe’s only incompetance, which is bad writing just like her explanation.

Nilkemia.8507:

The only thing that should’ve given her any shock was Faolain turning out to be a Vinetooth. She already knows Faolain is evil and not to be trusted, which should’ve made her more on guard right way, even if she didn’t consider that Faolain could’ve been turned by then. Yet she arguably ends up explaining more to Mordrem!Faolain than she ever did to us, until near the end.

The love of your life, bitter rival that sometimes aid you, which you still wish to be with despite knowing they’re not a good person and trying to see the good in that person anyways, turns into a horrid abomination serving your most ultimately hated foe.

You really think she wouldn’t be shocked? And when she’s explaining, she didn’t see that Faolain had been turned into a mordrem.

Nilkemia.8507:

And then we end up accomplishing her task anyways, despite her head start. She was rash, incompetent, and useless.

Her incompetence and uselessness – questionable for the degree you proclaim – is purely mechanical and bad writing. It has nothing to do with her being a traitor or liar either. She is rash, yes. But she’s been rash since day 1!

Nilkemia.8507:

Also, as you pointed out, Faolaintooth immediately gave chase on us, and thus wasn’t threatening the others. But if she was, we knew they at least stood a chance since we had fought and killed a Vinetooth prior to this. (general NPC incompetence notwithstanding)

Faolain wasn’t exactly the same as a Vinetooth though, and it was pretty clear from the beginning. Vinetooths aren’t very smart by the looks of it – they’re just stalky predators. Faolain had obviously all the knowledge of her old self, and intelligence too, while the physical strength and prowess of a Vinetooth.

We immediately treat her for what she is: Mordremoth’s greatest champion.

Nilkemia.8507:

When Caithe ditched us the second time, it was to the Shadow of the Dragon, a creature we had only fought off previously with the Pale Tree’s help (which left her near death), and she certainly didn’t know about the Divine Fire or that it could harm the dragon champion. Thus, she left us to a fight that for all she knew, we might not win.

We fought the Shadow of the Dragon 1 on 1 before, and won.

The second time, it was Shadow versus 6 of us.

She knew we could at least keep it occupied and force it to retreat – we did it before with fewer forces.

Nilkemia.8507:

And finally, our character did try to return to find our team once the egg was secured and check up on them to make sure they were okay. Caithe did no such thing, even after we accomplished her mission for her.

Because Caithe didn’t have the egg in Tarir. We didn’t check up with the team again until the egg is in Tarir.

Unfair comparison.

GW1 lore is rather extensive. You will not get a compressed guide that gives you most of the details. But I would suggest the GW1W – at least as of when I got perma-banned from it (due to GW2W trivialities no less), its lore articles were fairly detailed.

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lore
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Timeline
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Category:_Lore
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Template:Lore_nav

I would suggest going through those articles and the links in those lists. You’ll get a fair amount of the lore that way – not all of it, mind you. Best way would be to play the game yourself and do all the quests (the game is still up and fairly populated still), but this should suffice for a good deal of it.

Mordremoth – like Primordus – doesn’t use original concepts for its minions but create mockeries of already living beings. The first wave of minions on both sides likely resemble ancient races (husks do have a similarity to jotun).

As for the mordrem guard, they weren’t created by Mordremoth and in general they don’t seem to be ‘truly’ corrupted – Mordremoth messed with their minds, but as we see in Buried Insight’s side achievement, this isn’t the same as the will-enslaving corruption all dragons use. There’s still some free will in the Mordrem Guard, meaning that given the right environment they can get close to being how they were originally. Their appearance change seems no different than what Canach and Caithe went through – all sylvari can have their appearance drastically changed if they undergo the right kind of psychological stress and personality changes.

So no, mordrem guards are not “Mordremoth’s original design” in the least.

Nilkemia.8507:

1: By the time one reaches the egg, most if not all of the Mordrem get cleared while rescuing the party. Not so infested by then.

If you exclude the one nigh immortal mordrem which we never killed, then yes. However, I would still consider that place infested even excluding that one.

Nilkemia.8507:

2 : If she was so focused on getting the egg, why didn’t she take it out of there while the group was fighting the Mordrem Predator? “I’ll get the egg, you kill that monster!” She certainly wasn’t helping fight it after all.

She technically was – all iconic/biconic NPCs in Season 2 are invincible but deal so little damage they’d kill a standard ambient foe in five years of continuous combat without dying.

Nilkemia.8507:

3 : All she would’ve had to say is “I know where it goes, I’ll tell you later.” Couldn’t have taken much longer to say than “no time to explain”, along with that pause before she swipes it. No one expected her to stand there and tell the whole story right away. Or, since she stopped back at the camp before heading out, she could’ve instead said to meet her back at Camp Resolve and she could’ve explained there.

Which goes to the ‘she acts before thinking’ bit. Explanations aside, her actions aren’t unusual. In fact, her saying ‘no time to explain’ is more words than she’d usually give.

Nilkemia.8507:

So abandoning those who should be her allies to potential death is not an oddity?

Given she knows how good her allies are, and that the mordrem’s ultimate goal is the egg, taking out the valuable and vulnerable artifact that cannot fight back instead of assisting the rough and tough Elder Dragon slayer and his/her friends is, indeed, not an oddity.

Nilkemia.8507:

Those actions did not put anyone else at undue risk, and in the case of the latter, her reason was clear and explained : She thought they needed to rejoin together.

Yes, putting two people who wanted to kill each other at arm’s length was indeed not putting anyone at risk.

>.>

Nilkemia.8507:

Her actions during Season 2 and HoT regarding the egg made her look incompetent at best, or a potential turncoat at worst.

Her being seen by everyone in HoT made her look incompetent, not the rest.

Nilkemia.8507:

what happened to her plot Shadowstep then?)

She was in shock at that moment.

Finalfreefall.8247:

That’s the standard MO for the inquest though, they’re an aggressive version of the Priory who lost their books and hordes of information (quora sum) and are out to regain it and insure that such a loss can’t happen again. Yeah, they’re jerks but they’re actively trying to get control over the dragons to insure such a loss can’t happen again.

And how is researching a way to control the dragons any worse then the Priory’s research to destroy the dragons? At least the Inquest is less wasteful.

Er… while the open MO for Inquest is to ‘never lose knowledge’, they’re also selfishly ambitious. They aren’t so much out there to regain lost knowledge, but their formation was designed to prevent further loss of knowledge. That doesn’t mean, however, that it wasn’t taken over by selfishly ambitious people since.

In effect, they’d use the Elder Dragons’ power to subjugate the other races – and other asura – under their control.

Finalfreefall.8247:

They’re cool with that though, as are the other Asura. (Inquest is seen as an unplesant element but useful) And it’s not like Asura don’t believe themselves more important than the bookahs anyway.

This isn’t correct at all.

The asura populace accept the Inquest solely because the Arcane Council allows them to work there – and they do it because most of the Council wants more time for their own works (thus they don’t mind delegating stuff to the Inquest, who wants the Council’s roles – something exceptionally rare among asura), and the High Councillor Flax being of the mind of ‘anything to let asura have a higher place’ (which is not common mentality for the asura).

The asura populace – as easily shown across the Hinterlabs – outright detest Inquest. This is why one of the first Metrica Province hearts has someone asking us to deter Inquest recruiters – which we do by… killing them.

What you’re describing is actually closer to the norn’s take on the Sons of Svanir – which is typically a ‘judge the individual not the group – if I have a beef against one Son of Svanir, I won’t take it out on other Sons of Svanir, and I won’t have a beef against the Sons of Svanir just because they decide to be idiots and worship something that wants to kill them.’

Kalavier.1097:

Or as I’ve stated elsewhere in other discussions (Was me or somebody else who said it, forget which If it wasn’t me, sorry). Why do necromancers apparently get this big distrust and fear, yet elementalists get nothing? “MY GODS, THAT MAN RAISED A BONE MINION!” makes sense, but “MY GODS, THAT MAN JUST LAUNCHED A FIREBALL THE SIZE OF A PERSON!” doesn’t to some apparently. Really, the Eles I’d imagine would be the most distrusted magic user simply because they are the most directly destructive path of magic.

It’s less of what one’s capable of, and more of what they deal with. Necromancy ties to death, which is something a lot of living beings are often hesitant to work with and around, so it becomes natural to try to shun those who do.

Then there’s the whole ‘desecrating corpses’ that necromancers do (moreso in GW1, when the distrust of necromancy was more prevalent).

Add in Zhaitan’s horde of undead, or even Khilbron/Joko’s undead armies, and you get in both games a very modern case of ‘undeath and those working with it – e.g., necromancers – are those we’re fighting’. Kind of like how so many Americans are seeing all Muslims as potential enemies, when it’s only a few.

If we had more villains that were burning all things with fire coming out of their fingertips, I’m sure elementalists would be harder to trust.

They’re not fighting the Elder Dragons, they’re capturing, studying, and trying to control them.

The only racial rival faction fighting Elder Dragons as well are the Nightmare Court.

The bandits/White Mantle seem to just be ignoring them. Sons of Svanir follow Jormag. Inquest are trying to control them. Flame Legion believe they’ll survive their cycle.

There are items for 1 token. Which can be sold on TP or to merchant. So they kind of already have.

I don’t want to be able to trade one kind of dungeon token for another dungeon’s token – that kind of ruins the point of having multiple dungeon tokens, and people would just do the PvP track or dungeon paths which are easiest to get the harder dungeons’ gear.

That said, ArenaNet, please add in dungeon-specific backpiece, aquabreather, outfit, and glider skins. With the backpiece able to be made ascended and then infused.

I was using the term under its definition of “very old or ancient” rather than the artistic style.

JamesAckley.7541:

Hello,
Thanks for the feedback everyone, we will definitely look at this. It is quite often a hard balance between what we think an area would sound like if it was real and what we “want” it to sound like. But you are right, areas that we spend a lot of time in need extra care to make sure the sounds don’t make you want to leave:). Thanks.

Just don’t remove it from every airship. It’s a neat little ambiance, but annoying when you’re hearing it continuously for a long time.

Furajir.3815:

Is there a list of ones I can solo in new hot maps? I just bought HOT a few days ago, and I’ve wandered around aimlessly awaiting someone to do trains, which never seems to happen.

I’m at a loss and already have world completion from before hot.

Any advice?

Typically if you ask for advice in map chat, folks will come help. Most of the hero challenges are communes, and if you have the appropriate mastery for them (if needed), then you can solo those (exception being Balthazar’s Rest due to being protected by a champion – you need to stealth past that guy). Just look up which are commune on the wiki – unfortunately their list of hero challenges in Magus Falls don’t (currently) list the challenge type. Something it should.

If you have world completion in Central Tyria, then you only need 4-5 hero challenges for the elite specialization, so you can easily get these from just Verdant Brink. If you’re after map completing, then you might be better off starting a train for Tangled Depths.

Caithe has always, since Edge of Destiny, acted before explaining or considering the emotions of others. She has always put “what must be done” before any consideration of other people’s view on the situation.

So no, her taking the egg immediately out of a mordrem-infested location because she actually knew where it needed to be taken, rather than waiting for the group to recover after the Master of Peace’s death and explain it all to them is not an oddity. Her taking the egg when the Shadow of the Dragon attacks and using us as a diversion (since we’re its targets anyways) is not an oddity in her behavior.

The only oddity is the “I’m sorry Commander, it was my Wyld Hunt, I couldn’t control myself” – she’s done stuff like this in the past, be it minor (like randomly running into LA to stop an illegal bear fighting arena without telling Rytlock and Logan why she’s randomly running forward) or major (like calling together DE without regard to how they would react to each other to try to force them to work together because they’re needed in Tyria). They didn’t need to have any explanation beyond “I did what I believe needed to be done.” Because that’s been her reasoning for her actions for as long as we’ve known her.

So her actions was not strange. And the PC, Rytlock, and Canach know her well enough to know that they were not strange. They were questionable given the situation, but I think those three individuals should have had enough trust in her not to threaten her life or disarm her in the middle of enemy territory. It was a good opportunity to create a schism between Marjory, Rox, Kasmeer, Braham, and the other three/four (if you count Caithe as the fourth).

Lion’s Arch is the historical seat of power for Kryta. It only became independent because it got destroyed by Zhaitan and humans forced to relocate – in said time, pirates rebuilt the place and made a buffer against Zhaitan’s forces. King Baede effectively let them be so that they can deal with the risen threat instead, and the crown prince, Edair, waged war on them when Baede was on his deathbed, but after a massive loss to risen forces during a blockade attempt agreed to give LA its independence officially.

All of this is in the Sea of Sorrows novel – sorry for spoilers! :P

The White Mantle would be interested in taking LA for the same reason they want to take Kryta – they think it is rightfully theirs.

Dantert.1803:

I have to say that I was suspicious from the start, when you enter the Durmand Priory Basement you see this huge statue of Abaddon and the description on the base says ""Abaddon! Lord of the Everlasting Depths, Keeper of Secrets, open mine eyes and bestow upon me the knowledge of the Abyss…"—from the Scriptures of Abbadon [sic], giver of magic ".

That inscription is from the Scriptures of Abaddon. I’m not so sure why this is so strange.

Dantert.1803:

We know from Gw1 nightfall that Abaddon is evil, yes true he was the God of Secrets, so it makes sens that is guarding the secrets of the Durmand Priory,

Technically, he as the god of knowledge and wisdom – until his fall where he became the god of secrets because he himself was a secret.

The Priory hold onto ancient knowledge, even dangerous stuff like the Sanguinary Blade. Most of this is done to keep it out of the wrong hands, as well as to study to make use of it for the side of good – but always within extreme caution… well, usually.

Dantert.1803:

Abaddon worshippers in the Durmand Priory? Not suspicious at all they say…

Not sure how you get to the conclusion that Abaddon statue = Abaddon worship.

It’s a museum.

Dantert.1803:

One of my friends showed me the last time that if you dance in front of the statue of Abaddon the god will punish you by putting you into downed state, an yes I know, that’s an easter egg from gw1 dencing Abbaddon, but let’s say it has an actual meaning, that the god has still some power on the Gw2 world even though he should be deceased and his powers as we know it from Gw1 Nightfall was absorbed by Koromir and Lyssa.

Lyssa didn’t absorb any of Abaddon’s power.

Besides, it’s well established in [Containment](http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Containment) and throughout Orr that the statues of the gods have magic in them, left there from centuries ago, and are still able to be tapped today.

So Abaddon’s statue having magic within it is unrelated to Abaddon’s state of being.

Dantert.1803:

Why is there a statue of the fallen god into the Basement of the Durmand Priory?

Why not have an archaic statue of the god of knowledge in the foyer of a museum?

Dantert.1803:

Why does he still have the power on life and death?

He doesn’t.

Dantert.1803:

Also there’s the topic of the tail of Zhaitan.
Now we know that when a dragon dies a huge amount of power is released, we saw that with Mordremoth, but when we killed Zhaitan nothing like that happened, he fell in the sea and that was it.

Two things.

1) Technically speaking, when we see Mordremoth’s body die we don’t see the release of magic. That release in the artistic cinematic was not how characters saw things – same with the end of Season 1’s cinematic, as afterwards NPCs mention a ‘brief light’ not a gargantuan beam that traveled across the face of Tyria.

2) Zhaitan didn’t fall in the sea, but on land. We never saw its body upon death, so we couldn’t tell if there was that brief light – the only way to see it without ArenaNet giving us an out-of-perspective view like they did for the end of Season 1 and end of HoT.

Dantert.1803:

Then for some reason no one talks about it, the undead are still there and then our character, the Pact Commander discovers this hidden place right under the Durmand Priory with one of the tails of the undead Dragon, a tail that should be dissolved in my opinion after the dragon “died”…. yes “died” because after the fall of Zhaitan in the final mission we speak with Caithe, that sneaky, liar and traitor son(daughter) of a leaf, and she tells us that we succeded. (Totally no bad feelings left against Caithe…none XD)

1) It’s explicitly stated at the end of Victory or Death by Trahearne that the risen will remain to be a threat. They do not drop dead just because Zhaitan did.
2) Why would the tail dissolve? It’s undead, not foam.
3) We didn’t really discover the place, we just had no reason to go there before. The Special Collections area is mentioned several times to Priory characters – and is where the Sanguinary Blade is placed (as well as where Sieran gets a bunch of oddities – and other characters get other oddities).
4) Caithe isn’t a liar nor a traitor. She actually acts no different in S2/HoT than she does anywhere else. Why everyone think she does is the oddity, not Caithe. The only oddity is her excuse.

Dantert.1803:

No mission to be sure that the evil is dead right? And we end forgetting about it..

Cue the ever so common “there was a plan for it but for development time reasons it got cut”

Originally, Zhaitan’s body was to be visible in Arah explorable mode – along the Seer path, specifically. However, near the end they changed Zhaitan’s model to Kekai’s awesome dragon made out of lesser dragons. But due to this, they could not work in the time to make a new dragon corpse for the path (because that’s very hard?), and in turn had to scrap the idea.

There was a beta version of the Arah map which was found which showed Zhaitan’s corpse, and it was even in the trailer apparently. [Zhaitan’s Rest](http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zhaitan's_Rest) is where the body was to be.

Dantert.1803:

The start of the tail also is closed in this room where we can peek into from a metal grid, and what is clearly visible is that they are attaching machines to the tail, probably extracting it’s power…or maybe trying to revive the dragon or keeping him alive…

Or just studying it. Since that’s what they do – try to figure out means to better fight the dragons.

Your tinfoil hat theory is describing the Inquest, a known rival of the Priory.

Dantert.1803:

You are the Pact Commander and you can’t get inside and have an explenation about what’s going on in there.

Because it’s not the main plot, or even a side plot. It’s just an easter egg.

Aside from humans and professions in general, there isn’t much lore on ‘why a certain race began to pick up a certain profession’.

Is there anything like that in GW2, and if not is there anything like that anywhere in the wiki?

Not in the game no. We did get a bit of lore on the newer professions (Guardian and Engineer especially) via interviews, but that was all, and that stuff should be on the profession articles on the wiki.

Revenant ‘has lore’ but for the most part it’s fallen down to Rytlock saying “I’ll tell you later.”

I’m kind of hoping for a coup d’etat situation, but I don’t want it to overshadow the more important (to me) sylvari hatred plot that in all honesty should have been done before Mordremoth’s death (I really feel that HoT Act 3 should have seen us return to LA to deal with a anti-sylvari movement, and Rata Sum to deal with a mordrem assault, before we head into Dragon’s Stand to see the Pact regrouped).

Before – or alongside – any potential expansion and conclusion of the White Mantle plot is done, we really need to wrap up all this sylvari nonsense. Malyck, sylvari hatred, the nature of the Dream, Nightmare Court’s actions post-Mordy/Faolain, and the Pale Tree’s fate. These need to be the #1 Season 3 focus. Whether it’s done before or alongside the White Mantle conclusion, I don’t care so long as it’s done.

And they can easily be done alongside – we got the Sinister Triad which could see an involvement of Nightmare Court’s aftermath + White Mantle actions, we got the Shining Blade openly supporting a sylvari (Canach), and Jennah’s alliance with them that the White Mantle can assault politically to open up the sylvari hatred (or opened up from the sylvari hatred, rather), with the Pale Tree’s status in question the future of the sylvari is in jeopardy and we can see a riot march on the Grove, instigated by the White Mantle; Malyck’s return could be done to help defend their fellow sylvari, but could backfire as a ‘see they’re already spreading to wipe us out!’ far sided proclamation by sylvari haters, etc. etc.

All depends on how it’s done. But if we skip over all sylvari aftermath, I will be highly disappointed. The egg can wait. Rytlock can wait. It won’t make sense for the sylvari plots to keep dangling longer – it’s already going to be awkward to bring in Malyck (who’s plot shouldn’t be left dangling – who shouldn’t have been cut from HoT; they should have cut the Ogre lane instead and put Malyck’s tree there) with the whole ‘where were you when Mordremoth attacked!?’ issue to tackle.

I don’t really get where ‘pro human White Mantle’ comes from. They never showed xenophobia in GW1. They didn’t even make an effort to actively fight the tengu or centaurs. They kicked out the charr because the charr were invading, not because of a hatred of non-humans.

It was the Ministry of Purity – who also wore white mantles :P – that was pro human.

In GW2, Caudecus is actively pro human, but this is mainly to counteract Queen Jennah, by all indication. I’m not really sure I’d consider him pro human when he allies with centaurs that are attacking humanity – even if all that alliance is meant for is defaming Jennah by giving away Seraph movements.

All bandits are financed by the White Mantle. The higher ranked ones seem to actually be White Mantle or directly deal with them. There’s comments that hint Sabetha had been beyond the wall (inside wing 2’s area), which she says is only for the worthy – this would place her as ‘one of the worthy’ which would no doubt mean ‘White Mantle and their sacrifices’.

As for Knuckles – I suggest watching the GuildChat about the story in raids, as it talks about Knuckles’ backstory. Further, throughout the game we see that the lower ranked bandits don’t know the truth behind the higher ranked bandits (that they’re White Mantle), and several times long before Knuckles we see bandits who show dissent and questioning their actions again. It’s probable that Knuckles is one of those who joined the banditry because of disdain with the crown (like many others – some given that disdain, ironically, by White Mantle actions), and ended up climbing the ranks – at which point he’d be in too deep to simply leave without consequence (this was something that the White Mantle had done more or less in GW1 as well – the lower ranked White Mantle never knew the full truth of their order, the whole deal of sacrificing the Chosen, but as they showed devotion and rose in ranks, they learned more and more – some managed to leave after the civil war broke out, but before hand there’s no indication of such).

Unless, of course, Chrysanthea was one of those/the one who was promoting the alliance in the Sinister Triad.

There’s also the alliance with the centaurs that the White Mantle have forged. Though how long that would last is questionable.

draxynnic.3719:

Konig, I recall you complaining a few months after release about how all the juicy lore in Arah was locked behind content that only the elitists who mostly cared about loot and challenge rather than the lore could get through. :P

(Paraphrasing somewhat, since it was close to three years ago now…)

If memory serves me right, the complaint wasn’t that it was inaccessible, but that it’s hard to find a group that won’t rush through the cinematics and threaten to kick you (if not actually do so) if you take your time.

Which isn’t an issue with raids because there is no skippable cinematic.

draxynnic.3719:

First, the GW1 elite missions are essentially side quests and epilogues to the main story.

[…]

The raid… well, we don’t know at this point whether it’s going to be part of the main story moving forward or a side quest. If it’s the former, then that’s a part of the main story that a lot of people are missing out on. If it’s the latter, then they’ve just relegated the White Mantle and Mursaat to the same status as Kanaxai.

And so far, so is the raid. An epilogue/side story. Bobby Stein has stated in the past – paraphrasing this – that the raid story won’t be necessary to know moving forward, but it will help bridge into Season 3. So its story, while thicker, is equivalent to Tombs, which acted as a bridge into Nightfall, or Sorrow’s Embrace, which acted as a bridge into Eye of the North (though far less so).

draxynnic.3719:

the fact remains that the raids are something quite different in feel to the base game, while Guild Wars 1’s elite missions had the same feel as the base game except with the difficulty turned up.

This seems the same in GW2 to me. Just as Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North introduced better enemies in the base of their games, HoT does too, and the elite missions for each release was tougher versions of those, sometimes with unique mechanics (such as the environmental effects in Urgoz and the Deep, unique to them and RoT HM/Mallyx).

draxynnic.3719:

If you face a setback in one of the GW1 elite missions, then as long as you didn’t wipe or fail an NPC defence event, then you could generally recover and have another go. With the raids, just being a little slow in your damage output (so much for breaking the berserker meta…) is enough to have to start again.

Just the fight where you failed, which is no different than GW1’s elite missions – so long as you didn’t wipe in GW1. If you wiped in GW1, you started from scratch. Wipe at Dhuum? That’s the entire Underworld to redo with minimal rewards. Wipe at Sabetha? That’s just Sabetha fight to restart – and if you leave, you start after Gorseval’s death, instead of from the beginning.

So gonna have to disagree there.

Third, there’s the fact that Guild Wars 1 stuck to its guns about skill over time spent, while Guild Wars 2 has Ascended gear that is very expensive for the average player to obtain

While helpful, it’s not necessary to have ascended gear to do the first two wings; just as it wasn’t necessary to use the meta builds or PvE skills in GW1’s elite missions.

And you completely forgot about heroes and PvE skills, which made PvE vastly easier. Yeah, armor and gear effectiveness stayed the same, but they stilled inserted power creeps elsewhere.

draxynnic.3719:

Apart from areas where you need to keep NPCs arrive, all you needed is for one person to get away with Rebirth (or some other suitable strategy for ressing the party) and you were able to recover and go again. Can’t do that with the raids – can’t run away, and unlike the rest of the game, you can’t res someone who’s defeated at all.

Except for Dhuum, which locked the area, and almost all of Urgoz/Deep which had doors close as you progress (potentially locking slow players out of the rest of the run), and Tombs where aggro was pretty much the entire map. And most wipes were caused from those defense events, so running wasn’t an option most of the time, and even when it did – the aggro range was larger than it is in GW2.

Even if you wipe at raids, you can go right back to the fight you were in. Wipe at Vale Guardian? No need to kill the three elites before it! Wipe at Tormented Spirits in UW? Gotta redo the whole thing over again – including entry fee.

draxynnic.3719:

Ascended gear is purely “your numbers are bigger so you can fight enemies with bigger numbers in turn” progression.

A 5% stat improvement is hardly effective.

Shiren.9532:

Another alternative is if the Shining Blade decides the White Mantle corruption in the Ministry and Divinity’s Reach is so deep (could it be related to the man Marjory chases in her short story?), the only way to cleanse it is to fake Jennah’s death, let the White Mantle execute their plan and take the throne, once the Mantle and their supporters move out of the shadows the Shining Blade and Jennah finally know who they are dealing with.

I would actually really enjoy seeing this if done right.

And not only could the plot prove interesting, with the players thinking Jennah is dead, but this would also show us what would have happened if Jennah died in Ebonhawke when Kralkatorrik awoke – the thing that Logan prevented by leaving Destiny’s Edge.

That’s what drax said. Said war happened during the previous dragonrise given all known lore. The mursaat betrayed the other races, which includes nearly wiping out the Seers (not completely, but enough that they couldn’t recover), then fled from Tyria for a thousand years.