Guild Wars 2

I think there’s the misconception that the device was used after Phlunt took it… but it wasn’t. It was used before.

At the end of the Taimi mission in Episode 3, when we help construct it, Taimi turns it on and begins the reprogramming of the waypoints. She outright states its going to take a while, so in the mean time we should go do other things than sit around twiddling our thumbs. And we do – we go do Party Politics story instance. When the device is done, Phlunt demands confirmation so we then do that silly test “in miniature!” which draws dragon minions (how that drew dragon minions but not using it across a sub-continental-wide network is beyond me).

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

It doesn’t change the fact that ANet would still have shoehorn in various aspects of the story and figure out a way to include (or mention) the epic battles.

What epic battles?

There were only four zerg-based epic battles that were not kept, but you and those like you keep stating it like every release had an epic battle. Those three are: Ancient Karka, Scarlet’s Invasions, Twisted Marionette, and Prime Hologram.

Those are the only open world ‘epic battles’ that you/those sharing your stance so often claim was the entirety of Season 1. People keep saying ‘epic battle this’ and ‘epic zerg events that’ but honestly, the zerg content was a minority – a HUGE minority – in Season 1.

Four battles are the entirety and foundation of Season 1? No. They aren’t. They aren’t even the foundation of a third of Season 1.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

And it completely ignores the various triggers|flags and things that would have to be added to the current zones to progress the story. It ignores fitting the elements into the UI and setting up the switches that allow people to turn on|off each step, as we can do now with LS2 and HoT. And that’s before ANet even considers rewards, achievements, masteries, and challenges.

I haven’t ignored the UI issue at all. In fact, I have repeatedly stated that is where most of the work will be.

Rewards can be the same as before, achievements can be the same as before, masteries would just be added to the story chapter and meta achievements, there’d be no need for challenges, and zone progress? There was never any zone progress with the main story – that was all just ambient stuff and most of S1’s events can be re-added without any such hindrance to the chronology of the game (no more than Orr perpetually acting like Zhaitan’s still alive, or Magus Falls acting as if Mordremoth lives, etc. etc.).

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

And of course, it ignores the “fact” that what has been most memorable for veterans were the epic open world conflicts, especially Battle for LA. Of course, ANet can turn that into a cutscene and include it as a spectator-only part of LS1 — there’s no question that people who didn’t get to do LS1 would like that opportunity. But there’s also no question that it wouldn’t be very interesting to those who were here at the time.

Or they can take the Escape map’s three sections and turn the main events there (the one-time escorts) into the main story step objectives with the other events as side-objective, turning the ‘help people of LA escape’ into three subsequent story steps (one from each entrance and Biconic duo), and turn the Battle for LA into similar but one instance (choose who you assist, get a main chain with side objectives (bonus achievements) that ends with one Assault Knight and one of the three platforms of Breachmaker).

It really isn’t that hard if you open your thought process. The hard part comes with having to test the new balance (and not even all events would need that, as most events were already balanced to be capable of being done solo).

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

In other words, adding LS1 still requires an epic amount of work, even if it isn’t as much as adding LS3 would be.

It would definitely be less than a new season, as all the voice acting, models, animations, sound effects, and plot are all done. Only in cases of modifications which are more optional than not would be raising it to more work.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

And for all that effort, only a fraction of the community would benefit a lot; the others would see less value.

A fraction that grows every day. A fraction that is the majority of the community.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

tl;dr the division between open-world zerg and personal instances is a red herring. It’s still a lot of work to make LS1 replayble and that same work could be devoted to LS3 or other new content.

Why couldn’t the designers and programmers work on S1 while the writers plot out S3, get the musicians to begin drafts on the music, the artists to get models and animations ready from the writers’ plotting?

Not everything is done at once, some things are done much later than the rest. Proper management of tasks is key to running an effective company, and this is no different than any other company that would handle multiple tasks. Even Pixar has an establishment where while the majority of the company works on a movie, there are writers working on the plot of the next.

And the fact is that with some games – if not all – some people’s roles are left low on tasks while others are overflowed, and it’ll switch around as projects progress.

Talk to Marjory in the hub after the story mission. She talks about having revenge for her sister.

It’s not well shown during the story step, but for Marjory, preventing the mordrem from interrupting you while you killed Mordremoth was just as much revenge as killing Mordremoth herself.

Reinate.7594:

Taimi had worked out how to stop it .. but then the Kitten from Rata Sum took her invention to be held in escrow till she became of age i thought which ment they were not going us use it? Which is why Taimi went bat%#^& crazy and ran away with the device.

It was used. During the releases, vines were actually attacking waypoints – some of them (3 I think) were destroyed. With the release of episode 4, the episode where Taimi’s device is finished and taken by Phlunt, the vines in the open world disappeared.

Eir died never telling who she gave it to, now the blacksmith has one of the most legendary swords and doesn’t have the obligation to share it with the world.

It disappears forever, as the blacksmith keeps it for himself.

/loosethreadclosed

I got lucky with a precursor out of the mystic forge, so I sold that and converted gold to gems to buy it.

Never use the outfit, the immortal weapon box sits on a mule, and I am still happy I got the soul glider without a penny spent.

Slowpokeking.8720:

They don’t command each other.

No one said they had to. Except you. And they don’t.

Slowpokeking.8720:

And Heart of Thorns is the story about Mordremoth. The LS setting was about it, the end of LS2 was to set it. You want some stuff to continue, sure, but DO NOT leave the main focus, DO NOT set these at the price of shatter the war against Mordremoth.

They didn’t leave the main focus. You claim that the egg and Rata Novus were leaving the main focus but they weren’t.

Mordremoth wanted the egg, so it was in Tyria’s best intrest to prevent Mordremoth from getting the egg. It paid off, while seeding in plotlines for the future.

Rata Novus was studying dragons and their weaknesses, so we went there to try to find Mordremoth’s. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay off – but that’s life. Not everything works out well. Rata Novus didn’t.

If everything worked out in the PC’s favor, then the story would be pretty bland, and that’s when things start becoming Mary Sues and variatoins therefore. You need variety – and Heart of Thorns has that, as does the personal story (greatest fear arc was just as much a distraction as Rata Novus and the egg were, yet you don’t complain about them).

Slowpokeking.8720:

Tell me, should Mordremoth serve as a stepping stone of other EDs? As for the “too much magic energy”. Did Zhaitan’s campaign get butchered for this “greater threat”? No. Then why should Modremoth’ story suffer such fate?

I never said Mordremoth is a stepping stone for the other Elder Dragons.

In the end, all six Elder Dragons are, equally, stepping stones for the conflict of saving the world.

You say that Mordremoth got butchered so that ArenaNet could present a “greater threat” – but he didn’t. He got butchered because ArenaNet rushed the plot – just like Zhaitan’s fight and plot got butchered at the end with that anticlimatic showdown.

Slowpokeking.8720:

The others are unrelated big bad, it’s not their xpc. There are other evils like the Barlog in LotR, did LotR focus too much on them? No. Why? Because it’s NOT their story. You need to focus on the antagonist of this chapter first.

And they did. Rata Novus was hardly a focus (it was just two story instances for gods’ sake), and the egg was a focus because Mordremoth was explicitly after it.

Slowpokeking.8720:

Mordremoth is a solid Elder Dragon piece, and the story of the war against it had failed.

This is a matter of opinion – that the story failed. I would say it didn’t. It had terrible parts, yes, but most stories tend to have one scene where you just go ‘is this necessary for the plot?’ The fact is that no story will ever be perfect.

HoT had fallacies, but the detour of Rata Novus in of itself wasn’t one. The dues ex machina revelation of killing Mordremoth in the dream was – and honestly, that could have been placed at the end of the Rata Novus story step (yes, story step – not arc – it wasn’t that long like you seem to think it was).

Slowpokeking.8720:

Even if it’s not the last season, you don’t let too much unrelated foreshadowing plot break the campaign against the current season’s antagonist.

Everything was related. Everything that was placed in was done so in a matter that made it relevant.

Slowpokeking.8720:

I mean, you admit the problem of HoT and Mordremoth story, .

There’s a problem, yes, but it isn’t the existence of the ‘detour’ of the egg or Rata Novus. It’s nothing that you’re complaining about.

The issue isn’t that they added stuff in they didn’t need to. The issue is that they didn’t add things they needed to – Malyck, the Nightmare Court, Pale Tree origins, sylvari-other races conflict, repercussions among the main races outside the Pact on the sylvari origin reveal, so on and so forth.

The last two can still be picked up in Season 3 – and in all honesty, it needs to if it is t o have any redeeming quality to it.

But the existence of the egg and Rata Novus you’re continuously bashing on neither interrupts nor detracts from the main plot. No more than the krait orb or Tonn or Syska does in the personal story, no more than the trip to the temple of Abaddon did which yielded nothing to the Pact, no more than killing one of many dozen eyes which again yielded nothing to the Pact.

You say Mordremoth’s plot got butchered because of these ‘detours’ while the Zhaitan plot had no such thing… but it had more such detours. That were just as long too – one, two, or three instances.

DarcShriek.5829:

I enjoyed season 1 better than season 2. The problem I had with season one was that when it was over, it was gone. I would have liked to have some of the events remain. Events such as the aetherblade dungeon, the krait tower, and the marionette.

I do like the replayability of season 2, but season one just seemed more epic.

This is probably because each month was its own individual plot – much like the personal story chapters – which had an overarching plot. However, Season 2 was just two plots (episodes 1-4 and episodes 5-8) with one overarching plot (that led into HoT), and HoT had only one plot to it (well, 2 really, but they both lasted the same length).

As such, like how each chapter of the PS has its own climax, so did every two releases of Season 1 (or four releases, in Flame and Frost’s case). This increase in climaxes in the story results in a more ‘epic’ feeling throughout.

Slowpokeking.8720:

No, Mordremoth is the 6th Elder Dragon, nothing is above it based on current lore. Unless they decide to make some magical pull to give us some “Greater Evil”, which would damage the story mostly.

Even ignoring the fact that four other Elder Dragons still exist and that they are all equally or more powerful than Mordremoth, in a way, they did give us this. But it isn’t a “greater evil” but rather a “consequence of removing evil”. It’s been known since Hidden Arcana in Season 2 and is the very core of the reason we care about Glint’s egg.

If you’re not mistaken, this ancient tome was written by someone known as the Apostate. It appears to describe something similar to what you saw in your vision of the Eternal Alchemy. The author calls it the Antikytheria, describing it as a cosmic mechanism made of many parts, all spinning around a central body known in ancient Krytan as Thyria. Six large bodies orbit the world, existing in primal symbiosis. The energies move with the push and pull of positive and negative, ever in motion. The Apostate says one thing that is especially troubling… “Should the energies become imbalanced, the world will tilt and all beings will fall off it into the void.” It’s probably a metaphor.

Ogden Stonehealer: “Too much magic, and the world spins out of control. Too little, and it crumbles into darkness.”

The Elder Dragons is not the main plot. Keeping the world alive is. And the method to this – as revealed in Heart of Thorns – is Glint’s legacy. Which is more than just the egg.

ArenaNet has presented a “character versus other character” conflict, but is twisting it into a “character versus environment” conflict.

There is no “greater evil” but there is a “greater threat” – it’s just that the greater threat is without consciousness and thus without moral and can therefore be neither good nor evil.

Currently, the Elder Dragons – Mordremoth included – are preventing that greater threat, at the cost of being a great threat themselves. Tyria cannot survive either threat (the reign of Elder Dragons or the collapse of the world).

Slowpokeking.8720:

Sauron is the big bad of the trilogy, Saruman was his servant. Defeating Saruman’s forces is making progress against Sauron. Mordremoth is the ultra big bad, the other dragon’s don’t command him.

But Mordremoth isn’t “the ultra big bad”. He is A big bad.

A single one of six.

Just like the plot wasn’t finished when we killed Zhaitan, the plot isn’t finished when killing Mordremoth.

Slowpokeking.8720:

Also the problem is: The Battle of Helm’s Deep is told well, the battle against Mordremoth isn’t due to lack of focus, we jumped from nowhere and there is NO foreshadow piece to mention the “defeat Mordremoth in its dream”, it all came out very oddly.

I don’t disagree regarding the quality of story telling. However, you are acting as if Heart of Thorns is a solid whole story. It isn’t. It’s a piece. A mere part of a series.

Athrenn.9468:

That is incorrect. It is blatantly obvious that Mordremoth was the primary antagonist of Season 2. From the very first chapter, the writers had been dropping clues that pointed straight to Mordremoth being a global threat. This threat was recognized by the ruling bodies of every nation in Tyria during the world summit which is why they all agreed to help the Pact fight Mordremoth.

Most stories try not to set the main villain out from the beginning. Half the time, you get a puppet villain, or a villain that’s established just to be revealed that there was another threat behind it.

Slowpoking is set on the concept of a “character versus character” story. But this is not the only kind of story there is – there are effectively three conflict-based plots:

Character versus other character
Character versus self
Character versus environment

The threat of the Elder Dragons – what we started seeing GW2 as – is character versus other character. This is what you and Slowpoking seem to continue to take GW2 as.

But Season 2, as drax said, introduced a different conflict behind it all: character versus environment.

This “different conflict” wasn’t really evident until Episode 5 of Season 2, but the seeds for it were planted even in the Personal Story, with a few more in Season 1 (particularly the end), and even more in the first half of Season 2.

Mordremoth, like Zhaitan, was just a “frontal main villain” – all the Elder Dragons are. However, where Zhaitan is treated as “the big bad” of his plot, Mordremoth isn’t – because by the time they reached Mordremoth’s true plot, ArenaNet had already set sail on revealing the true conflict to be had in GW2 (which, IMO, was a bad move – should have waited for the second dragon to die before doing this).

Yes, Season 2 tries to convince us that Mordremoth is a threat to all of Central Tyria, but this is done not to make Mordremoth “the antagonist” but to help emphasize just how horrible the true conflict of GW2 will be.

If Mordremoth, one of six lesser-but-still-great conflicts, threatens the entire known civilization, what does that say about what Mordremoth, and the other six lesser-but-still-great conflicts, are preventing from occurring?

ArenaNet has effectively pulled a Mass Effect but with a twist – where the galaxy can survive without the Reapers for a long period of time, only risking self-destruction by creating rebellious AI (which the oldest AI, maker of reapers, is convinced will happen regardless every time), Tyria cannot survive without Elder Dragons – but it cannot survive with the current Elder Dragons.

He doesn’t really specify the number of voices he hears. He just says " I’m still sorting out the voices in my head. This new spell kitten nal of mine comes with…baggage."

So for all we know it’s just two. Either way, they are indeed aware – they’re aware of fighting and they’re aware that their power is being channeled. But that doesn’t specify if they’re aware when not being channeled – Rytlock doesn’t give much into the details of it, and it could be that both legends available are the only ones one hears (but game mechanic ties their voices to skill usage so players can only hear the currently active legend).

The “problem of HoT” is that it isn’t a complete story.

Yes, the “story of Mordremoth” is dead, but to use the above comparison to LotR, this is no different than victory at Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers. It is not the death of Sauron, it isn’t even the defeat of Sarumon who threatened Helm’s Deep. It’s just the current hurdle having been passed. Mordremoth’s death is the escape-from-Death-Star-as-Obi-Wan-dies in A New Hope, not blowing it up.

That’s all Mordremoth was – a hurdle with more to come. That’s what ArenaNet treated him as, unlike Zhaitan and Scarlet who were “the end boss” of their respective plots. Mordremoth was simply just another Blightghast or Shadow of the Dragon or Mai Trin. A checkpoint boss.

The “problem of HoT” was that unlike any proper release, it wasn’t a completed story. And not just in the ‘they overlooked so many plot arcs!’ but in the ‘they obviously did not intend for Mordremoth to be a climax.’

RubiBayer.8134:

The February 5th episode of our Guild Chat livestream will be about designing creatures in Guild Wars 2 with dev guests Brian Walter (Animator) and Ben Phongluangtham (Game Designer). They’ll be talking about the work process of adding new creatures to the game, using creatures you’ve encountered in Heart of Thorns–Mushroom Bombers, Bristlebacks, and Mordrem Maggots, among others–as examples of how it’s done.

We’d like to answer a few of your questions about this topic, so post them here and we’ll select some to talk about the day of the show.

My questions:

• How much more difficult was it to make HoT enemies compared to release enemies in terms of how hard to make them?
• How much time would be needed to be spent to make most core enemies like HoT enemies – or if the only difference was changing their base attack speed up from the 3 second pause to 1 second pause (something done for The Shatterer) between attacks?
• ADDENDUM: It’s not question that PvE could be a bit more engaging, especially in Central Tyria’s middle and higher ranged zones. Would there be a chance of an overview of improving this? In a theoretical/white board drafting sense, what would you look at to make random mobs be more difficult to players?
• Typically how much effort goes into world bosses like the Octovine, Mouth of Mordremoth, Chak Gerent? Compared to story bosses or raid/fractal bosses, is this more or less? Compared to revamping old world bosses (like the effort put into Tequatl or Shatterer)?
• What’s the most time consuming part of making new monsters – figuring their looks, animating them, or finding the right difficulty for them?
• Now that there’s gliding, has there been considerations for making the old creatures that “fly” truly fly (i.e., glide without decline) in central Tyria? What about creatures who can attack gliders while gliding themselves?
• Is there any design choice over not bringing back the GW1 Saurians (e.g., Tyrannus, Angorodon, Ceratadon, and Ferothrax)?
• Could we expect to see more GW1 monsters make a return as we re-enter old territories (e.g., Hydras, Dryders, Abominations, Titans), or would such expectations be false hopes?
• How much work would have to be put in to make largos, tengu, or kodan a new playable race?
• When will you tire of keeping the deep sea dragon a secret? It’s not the Wizard’s Tower. After all the tauntings we get (City of Hope was the perfect time to add a true, weak, DSD minion), its mystery will stop being fun.

While I agree that the HoT story was really incomplete, I disagree with your on the egg being a loose end – at least, to the point where it’s point blank painfully obvious that the egg isn’t really “part of the HoT story” – it’s “part of the GW2 story”, just like the Pact and the PC, it’s going to become highly important later on.

The main plot of HoT felt convincing up until and including Act 2. Or rather, up to and not including Buried Insight (or at least, not including Buried Insight’s finale).

You also have to keep in mind that Season 2 and Heart of Thorns is a singular story sold in sections.

If you want a scattered story play the Personal Story, where you have 6 segmented plots put one after the other, or Season 1. HoT is nowhere near as segmented as that.

They did set up a ‘research station’. Talk to the Priory folks that are now in the tent on the beach – they’re studying all the after-effects of Scarlet’s invasion. The poisoned water is foremost – they need to find out fast which fish are safe it eat if any, and if not how long until they can be estimated to be deemed edible.

As for pulling out the drill – it broke in the shaft of it, just beneath the sea floor, and no doubt goes on for miles given the speed and duration of it drilling during Battle for LA. It would take a long kitten time for it to be pulled out sufficiently.

Though I have a hard time imagining such a small drill actually blocking the flow of a ley-line given how big they are in Dry Top, Tangled Depths, and Dragon’s Stand.

I’m 99.99% sure that’s just fan-fiction. The name and the mention of Jotunheim (part of norse mythology but non-existent in GW2) kind of give it away.

Going off of the S1 ending cinematic, the ley line that goes from LA to Thaumanova then goes towards Tangled Depths’ Ley-Line Confluence, which if the four paths are any indication, is a hub of 5 incoming lines (west, northwest – Tarir, north, northeast – Dry Top, and south – Dragon’s Stand).

Also, in Dragon’s Stand, the Southern path is actually a ley line tunnel as well.

So thinking on that, it is possible that the “east blast” would be the Southern path of DS, which could lead to either Rata Sum and/or Tangled Depths’ Confluence, then splits into four directions: one of which being Thaumanova → LA, another being Dry Top, then Tarir and somewhere between Tarir and DS.

Though there’s the question on if the burst of magic would remain largely clumped together or split off bit by bit at every major and/or minor branch off.

Should try to map out ley lines again, given the new HoT information. Though I doubt it’d be any more clear than before.

While we don’t know why Abaddon had Razah imprisoned, it’s unlikely that Abaddon had any plans to become Razah.

First off, Abaddon had been reconstructing his body throughout Nightfall. This is why he appears as just a head and two hands when fought, and why said head and hands looked very twisted, insectoid, and sinewy – he lost his body when he was beaten before the Exodus, and was making a new one out of the Realm of Torment itself (which is very sinewy and insectoid). So if Abaddon was to become Razah, then his newly formed body was pointless. Why not just take Razah’s body from the start?

Secondly, Razah had a clearly defined persona – even if limited in knowledge – while imprisoned. This would no doubt cause a clash, which might result in similar to when Kormir took Abaddon’s power, knowledge, and mind: Abaddon’s death.

The energy channeled along ley lines, so it would be less about “the remaining presence of four Elder Dragons” and more about “the paths of the ley lines”.

Mordremoth situated itself on a ley line hub – meaning two or more large ley lines intersected. Given the cinematic, we saw that two got the biggest chunk of magic, and it spread in both ways along those two ley lines.

And Glint’s egg is north of Mordremoth, not east. Nothing but ocean is east. So the “windstorm” that hit Forsaken Thicket had passed through the egg first – showing that not all of the magic got absorbed by the egg. It would have to veer a lot to then hit Jormag, and by that time it would be far enough that the magic would have dissipated a bit.

Given the angle basing the north one to go to Tarir, the magic that went west would have passed through Rata Sum and the Grove (thus showing the attack path which the mordrem took for their assault during The World Summit – right beneath Rata Sum – and also showing that Rata Sum was built on a large ley line). Further on, it would have passed through/near Southsun Cove and, eventually if it kept straight-ish, near Thunderhead Keep and/or Ebonhawke, though I doubt it kept straight for that long. If it veered south it could hit Kralkatorrik eventually, but like with the one going north possibly hitting Jormag – if it did, then the magic would have no doubt dissipated over the distance.

The one that went south would have went near Abaddon’s Mouth (largest volcano in Ring of Fire, which houses a bloodstone). And either that or the one that went east could potentially hit the DSD. Depending on how close the DSD is, it could get quite the power boost.

There wasn’t anything with Zhaitan, but keep in mind that the concept art cinematic would likely not have been seen – after all, we see Mordremoth’s phsyical body die at the same time and while we see a flash of light we don’t see large paths with the light (just as NPCs didn’t at the end of S1 – they saw a flash of light, but not a trail of it that led westward). So there could have been such with Zhaitan (we didn’t see his body the moment of death) and it wasn’t shown to us players, or it’s possible that Mordremoth had consumed more magic than Zhaitan did (or had more in his own body – Zhaitan did have quite the army that would have had magic itself too).

It isn’t uncommon for souls to be bound – by force – to objects…
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Soul_battery
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Soul_Stone
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Shackled_Spirits

As well as by choice…
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Seraph_Belinda_Delaqua
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Exalted

Baconomics.8674:

But why stop there, damaging abilities shouldnt affect people who are downed either! They should be able to be revived, or stomped. That’s it.

/sarcasm

That actually sounds like it could be a fun random effect similar to GW1’s Fluxes.

Or maybe a Fractal Insability – all foes get downed instead of killed when defeated, cannot be damaged so only way to kill is to stomp, they cannot be healed or revived by allies but they can use the downed 4 skill to revive themselves if not stomped fast enough.

I think TT is fine. We need at least one boss in this game that is “the hard boss”, and currently that’s TT. I thought Mouth of Mordremoth would be it, but no; could have been Chak Gerent, but they nerf-via-scaling-fixed it.

I don’t think anything should be nerfed just because there’s new content out there. For a very simple reason:

Power creep.

While GW2 doesn’t have vertical progression and gear treadmills (as much as other MMOs at least), it still gets power creep in the fact that newer skills and capabilities (masteries, elite specializations) make old content less trivial – alongside the fact that players get used to mechanics and learn to counter them, the longer content remains untouched, over time it will become easier. So long as there are people interested in doing the content – be it for the fun or the rewards (and TT has unique rewards, and the most Central Tyria mastery points than any other world boss currently, possibly achievement points too).

If anything, the Central Tyria bosses – even Tequatl and Vinewrath – need buffs, not nerfs. But TT is fine as it is, IMO.

Trahearne said that, the Pact was gearing up for fighting Kralkatorrik.

Rytlock also wants payback on Kralkatorrik, stated at the end of HoT.

Though Jormag’s still a viable option, he’s been gearing up for assaulting Tyria since the personal story and by the side comments of S1 and S2, hasn’t stopped gaining traction just yet.

Was thinking I recalled a firework that showed off guild emblems, and the old GW1 White Mantle emblem is a GW2 guild emblem (the one linked by Nero).

So yeah, not going crazy. Just a guild with that emblem shooting off a guild firework.

OtterPaws.2036:

They added a various jumping pads around the world, if that counts.

They have? I’ve only heard about the ones at The Shatterer.

I’m not really a WvW’er or PvP’er so I’ll avoid that, and balance patches have never had much effect on me since I don’t play meta builds, more often than not.

So I’ll focus my feedback on the three major things of this update I do know: The Shatterer, Central Tyria Gliding, and Lunar New Year.

I’d comment on the scribe stuff but I haven’t really looked at it all. I’m just glad it got cheaper.

The Shatterer
The Shatterer is by far an improvement, however I feel that the stance to keep the world boss ‘on par to level’ was a mistake. The dragons are “the big threat” to the world. The three dragons we can fight – Tequatl, Claw of Jormag, and Shatterer – should be among the toughest Central Tyria world bosses (and only other world bosses that should be on par, IMO, in Central Tyria is the Gates of Arah and maybe Orrian Temples – and Triple Trouble but only because it would be silly to nerf that).

The Shatterer, as well as the Vinewrath and Octovines, feel like great placements for “the easiest standard world bosses” and should be where all Central Tyria world bosses not mentioned above or in starter zones should fall at.

So while it is far better than before, I think it should be tougher. That said, I still love it.

I’d rate it an 9/10 – I loved it, I find little to no flaws with it, but I can’t agree with the intended direction of it.

Central Tyria Gliding
Honestly, I love this. I haven’t really tried it out that much but what I have tried out I love.

However, I feel that this should just be “the first step” and not “as far as we’ll take it”. Try to picture it with me:

• A series of updrafts in Orr that takes us to the airships high above so we can fight those dragons in the sky.
• Floating rocks like Morgan’s Spiral or Geomm’s Lab, high in the skies above the lands, that require gliding to not only get to, but traverse.
• A series of steep slopes in the peaks of the Shiverpeaks that can only be reached, one to another, by gliding across wide gaps, ultimately leading to a majesty view of the surrounding area, and some other ‘neat surprises’ for players to find.

In short: adding gliding to Central Tyria opens up a lot of opportunities to add content to the old maps, giving veteran players more reason to re-explore them, and giving new players a glimpse of what they can look forward to in returning to their roots. And I REALLY hope that you guys decide to take advantage of this in the long run, even if now.

As it stands, the maps aren’t really made for gliding, so there’s not much to do with it but prevent dying from fall damage or going a little faster from high point a to high point b, but with some ‘minor’ adjustments here and there, this can change.

And I do not think that people would be opposed to seeing some bouncing mushrooms expand eastward. If you need an explanation – pollen sticking to the Pact/adventurers as they return home and spreading.

I’d rate it as 10/10 – but if you guys fail to capitalize on the potential it has, I’m knocking you down to a 6/10.

Lunar New Year
Pretty much the same old. I was kind of hoping for a fix to some of the old bugs (volunteering not giving auto-win) and oddities (win 5 dragon arena matches for daily… but participate in 2 for daily – feels it should be switched), but wasn’t expecting much. I’m glad that there’s no achievement with an absurdly high goal for maxing out AP this time. Closest is the healing, but that’s rather easy if you do the dailies.

But they cannot withstand the weight of the mighty zerg.

Now that Mordremoth’s done, there’s really no reason to go west. What we know to be in that direction would have been around Mordremoth, beyond just a coast and an ancient no-longer-used (even by GW1) Krytan trade route.

Since they didn’t expand the borders for Mordremoth but instead went to so much trouble as to move the map of Rata Sum down a few pixels on the (zoomed out) world map, I’d say that there’s a reason for them not expanding the world map border.

Either way, North/East/South is really the only direction to expand it with worthwhile story content that we are aware of.

Honestly, I’d rather go to the Sunrise Crest or Forsaken Cliffs than Elona or Cantha, just to explore more of the world, but I think that ArenaNet is trying to focus on Central Tyria and its neighboring areas as much as possible. Which I honestly think will bite them in the butt in the long run.

Cyninja.2954:

I’d say, give it a week or 2 and see if people addapt or if it is an actual problem.

This. People just need to learn the mechanics. Instead, folks look on ways to bug things out or just complain it is too difficult because they cannot faceroll the content.

Rather sad.

That long if and only if they try to fill every nook and cranny (not gonna happen) or have some full-underwater maps (also not going to happen).

Vax Tezhme.7128:

It’s pronounced ‘gall-uhm’ and ‘wiv-urn’ now because that is how it is pronounced by people now.

And while I am at it:

• decimate does not mean ‘to destroy to one tenth’ (not anymore)
• there is nothing incorrect with split infinitives
• you can use ‘literally’ as an intensive rather than as precisely ‘literally’
• dialects like African American Vernacular English (so-called ‘ebonics’) are not a sign of inferior education but rather a fully capable language system in and of itself
• there is nothing special about the oxford comma – it’s a stylistic choice and nothing more.

Language is very different than the rules you learned in English class.

THANK YOU!!!!

I cannot stress this post enough. I cannot +1 this post enough.

As an English major, I wholly agree with this post.

Einlanzer.1627:

No, it actually doesn’t work that way. There are still standard english rules, and language rules exist for a reason – to establish and sustain coherence and clarity in communication.

You must take into account, however, that there is a huge variance in the rules.

These variances are often denoted as dialects and accents. They result in different pronunciations and different meanings behind words used. They oft vary based on one’s local region.

If one wanted to nitpick enough, one can argue that there are hundreds of “proper ways” of speaking English.

People tend to misplace what’s often called “high English” with “proper English”. There is a difference between the two terms, however, as “proper English” doesn’t truly exist.

I’m going off of this line in the Ecology:

Occasionally, non-descendants of the Khan-Ur join the primus warband, taking the name of their leader as their own, as is Charr tradition.

“Occasionally” would imply that it happens, but not very often. Possibly not even every generation. Otherwise it’d be more like “frequently” or not even worth mentioning.

This is probably the best summary you’d ever get. Regarding your specific questions…

How did Scarlet become so powerful?

Define “powerful”. She was born smarter than the average individual, but she never had much physical strength to herself. Her capabilities was all done through studies, and truth be told, put up to unrealistic (even in a fantasy setting) tone. She tutored under folks and read books and with her high IQ was able to use this to build stuff and con folks.

How did the Queen know about the attack and how did Lord Faren survive that fall?

You refer to the attack during the Closing Ceremony – they knew it was coming because Scarlet and the Aetherblades attacked during the Opening Ceremony. Prior to that, they didn’t know.

As to how Faren survived the fall… who knows. Wasn’t explained. Maybe he got lucky and landed on that bail of hay. Or perhaps Scarlet’s devices caught him. Or he’s a cartoon cat and landed on his feet with no harm.

How was Lion’s Arch attacked? Wasn’t there a way to defend it?

Short answer: idiot ball handling

Long answer: Scarlet pulled all her alliances she conned folks into making (who for some odd reason, despite failing their objectives even though they were guaranteed success, still worked with her) and all her machines and launched a full scale assault on LA from the air, where LA wasn’t easily defensible.

It was established as a bit of a surprise attack too, however the PC, biconics, and Ellen Kiel all knew it was coming. Unfortunately, despite being on the Captain’s Council and being supported by the Slayer of Zhaitan, it seems Ellen Kiel’s words have no weight on the idiocy of the rest of the Captain’s Council, so no preparations were made for the two weeks or so advanced notice they had of the impending attack (reminds me of a certain Commander Talon who let Claw Island fall because he didn’t believe a credible source about an impending army assault).

How did Scarlet get wounded to the point that she couldn’t even stand?

During the Prime Hologram battle she eventually joins the fray, and I think what was supposed to be intended (but not easily seen if shown) was that the Prime Hologram’s destruction caused her injury – that, or she simply got injured during the fight. Either way, after the injury that destroyed her special battle armor (the helm, shoulders, and gloves that were once available via gemstore/achievements/mordrem invasions vendor), I think the idea is that she was suffering from heavy blood loss as she struggled her way into her airship, the Breachmaker.

The PC and biconics followed her in, and found her on the floor.

How long was she submitted to the asura’s experiments?

“Days” is what the short story tells us – if you’re referring to Omadd’s Machine.

If you mean their studying of her in general, several years since they were studying her (not really experimenting though, other than giving her the coursework) while she was attending the college which was roughly 3 years.

How do you meet the gang(Kas, Jory, Rox, etc..)?

Through different measures – Braham and Rox are both met first when the Molten Alliance was a threat; Kasmeer is met when Canach is causing trouble on Southsun Cove; Marjory is first met during Dragon Bash when Mai Trin makes her first appearance. There’s an in-game recap of Season 1 that you get directed to from the Story Journal under “Scarlet’s War”. Talk to the NPC after the cinematic recap for a recap on the biconics and how they joined the fray, and she mentions how each one is met. The link above also has that.

The avatar is just an aetheric apparition of the Pale Tree. The Pale Tree is the Grove. If you burn down the Grove, you kill the Pale Tree – avatar and all.

It’s well known that dragon champions can create minions on their own, the question is more of whether Glint was pregnant pre-corruption (we know that dragon minions cannot sexually reproduce – due to the whole ‘body turns into ice/crystal/fire/decayed flesh’ thing – but a pregnant creature corrupted by an Elder Dragon/a dragon champion would have the eggs corrupted too and be able to keep the eggs in stasis, much like Glint’s final egg has been until HoT).

The thing to keep in mind is two:

1. She was originally a living being. Though whether she was a dragon isn’t clarified, however there’s plenty of evidence to suggest a dragon race in Tyria in the past (Bone Dragons from GW1 amongst many other things).
2. Her eggs have been in stasis for an unspecified amount of time.

So the question really falls down to “when were the eggs made?” on whether or not they are just dragon minion creations (like the Crystal Guardians and Crystal Spiders in GW1, no doubt) or if they’re corrupted dragon eggs.

ToT.7018:

If you switch back to the map you dc’d from your participation is restored, so always try be in a party or squad.

This. Map participation is counted on a map ip basis. So if you leave and come right back to the same map ip, your participation remains, so long as you don’t take long enough for the participation to wither from inactivity.

Edit:

ToT.7018:

ToT.7018:

If you switch back to the map you dc’d from your participation is restored, so always try be in a party or squad.

You shouldn’t be forced to be in a party or squad to rejoin the map you disconnected from.

The whole taxi kitten is annoying.
They should just make it like GW1 where you have a server list and just join the server you want. People wouldn’t randomly be placed on different servers and could just join an active event map without needing someone to taxi them in.

While I don’t disagree, this has been around long enough that it is a well known problem of the megaserver and even upon Anet’s addition of the megaserver they tried placing in failsafes to allow you into certain maps.

You don’t need to go anywhere to unlock LW season episodes. You just need to log in on a character.

reapex.8546:

People that died in the mists, are the originals as far as I know.

Tybalt didn’t die in the Mists. He died in Tyria.

Rytlock is highly unlikely to be a descendant of the Khan-Ur. All known descendants of the Khan-Ur are in the legions’ Primus Warbands, which is the warband that the Imperator is leader of.

So if we have an anti-Bangar plot, we’re either overturning charr norms for having a Khan-Ur descendant as Imperator, or we’ll be allying with one of Bangar’s warband members to make that individual the new Imperator.

I think most folks were expecting something more on par to Eye of the North, which was an expansion, and gave us 18 dungeons, 14 explorable areas, and a full not-rushed-feeling story (despite being a fast-paced story like HoT was).

Aaron Ansari.1604:

And to be fair, it’s about as legendary as what Grymm Svaard did. His big deed was to kill his own brother which, while tragic, couldn’t have been unheard of in the campaign against Zhaitan.

He did more than just that, being a big sailor who worked with many big shot names. But overally, yeah, Tybalt’s actions are pretty much on par to Grymm’s actions. Some could argue they’re greater.

wouw.5837:

They should add a Rurik champion, he runs incredibly fast and has little health…

And his spawning quote will be “As a boy I spent much time in these lands. Look at them now.”

reapex.8546:

This lore isn’t intended to be serious but Anet made their own lore on Tybalt’s return:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdHzRybcVJ0

Thing is, Tybalt isn’t really returning. He’s a Mist Champion, in other words what we’re summoning is no different than Turai, Niki, and Grymm – just a copy of the hero created by the Mists.

Erukk.1408:

Plus, Sieran would be incredibly OP considering it’s canon that she has the ability to fly for short periods of time. She would just fly over all the obstacles.

Sieran’s boon would be granting the ability to glide to those who summon her for a short period of time.

Yeah, that was definitely the best part of the final fight. And my vocal reaction was pretty much verbatim of what my charr said (though perhaps a bit more profane).

It’s rare when video games can get me to have the same reaction as a character’s reaction to that same thing. I think the only thing that succeeded in that was Psychonauts (the main characters’ facial expressions at the weirdness matched my own a lot). And when that happens, I consider that to be Grade A game making.

I even liked the fight against Blighted Eir and Blighted Canach. And after Tybalt showed up, I was like “wait, are we going to revisit every failure the PC had in the personal story!?” and was so hoping for Tonn to reappear from the greatest fear arc, or Barron/Fero/Arda Gyreshriek from the Priory’s Further into Orr arc. Part of me was also hoping for a return of killed villains – Gaheron, Kudu, Trybulus Griefblade (from Ash Legion storyline), etc. You know, pulling the player’s personal victories and failures to fight against him.

Was a bit disappointed when they didn’t show. Would have been better than Marjory and Left-behind-Number 3 (Braham/Canach/Caithe) joining in after that system was figured out. If Mordy was so smart, he should have figured out once the PC so quickly realized Marjory was a fake that approach wouldn’t work.

But the situation around Trahearne and how forced that felt, and how it felt like a blatant catering to the vocal Trahearne haters to me (I know others will disagree), ruined the greatness of that final mission’s fight.

Fjaeldmark.9043:

The asura can levitate an entire city, I don’t think a few boxes are a problem.

^^^

Rata Sum is a box. A solid box of stone that is slowly being carved into and decorated to become a living space.

Given that communication is still held with the charr lands (via the charr – Ash and Blood legions don’t have their imperators in Ascalon and maintain communication at least on Tribune level), and even as of 1324 AE the Ash Imperator (Malice Swordshadow) had been negotiating with Almorra Soulkeeper for that human-charr treaty (and Bangar had a role in that too – one of grudging acceptance) and Elona (the Order of Whispers still have methods to get to and fro Elona), I find it near impossible for them to have been wiped out.

Further, Jormag seems fine confining himself to the cold regions, which charr lands are not. And I think it would be downright impossible for an Elder Dragon recently risen to wipe out an entire continent in 8 or so years (he awoke in 1320 AE, HoT takes place in 1328 AE), especially without the Order of Whispers sharing this information with the Pact if no one else.

Shiny was Goren’s pet dragon, which was a Saltspray Dragon from Cantha and placed in the djinn city within Vabbi the name of which I will never be able to remember (and people think Kralkatorrik is tough to remember… HAH!).

Glint’s hatched child we saw during Eye of the North is indeed given the name Gleam by bards according to Eir in S2 E6 (Return to Camp Resolve instance).

Rash.6514:

I just wanted Marionette back. Maybe a new map with a world boss that isn’t Marionette but has the same mechanics with some updated tech?

That’s Vinewrath.

most important thing to note is twofold:

1) The wiki can be edited by anyone, so if it isn’t quoting dialogue from the game, it might not be accurate

2) an owl spirit != the Owl Spirit

Truth be told, I’ve never seen that spirit before, despite going to that point in the past. So either it has limited time spawning or is indeed new. However, I doubt that it is the Owl Spirit.

In fact, checking the edit history of the wiki article the line was added this month, Jan 10th. Most likely it was added as part of the legendary collections.

That line was a jest, Astaldocair. It was poking fun at how the mechanic got trivialized and then made a requirement that turned into easy griefing.

And the ’didn’t fight as planned’ was not blaming the community but talking about things the community found out about the fight that made it trivial.

But I guess this is a glass half empty glass half full thing. You’re just interpreting harmless words as harmful intention.

Crimson Clouds.4853:

Randulf.7614:

A Cthulhu derivative might be copyright protected. I think also it is expected to begin with “S” based on clues in LS2/ Also the Sclerite weapons might be a clue

I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that the Sclerite weapons are named as such because they have those creepy blinky eyes on them. The Sclera is the medical term for the white part of the eye. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sclera

More likely they’re named Sclerite weapons because sclerite is a term for hard body parts, such as the shells of crustaceans.

And aside from the blinking eye and oozing ink, the Sclerite weapons appear to be hardened shells of sorts.

That said, Zhaitan is named after Shaitan, and Jormag seems to come from Jormangundr, etc. So having an Elder Dragon take inspiration from a real life term is far from unique.

NumenorLord.6539:

Trepzacoatl, inspired in the winged serpent from the mesoamerican civilizations Quetzalcoatl.

It’s time to have a bit more diversity in dragon’s design and morphology, all dragons in GW2 seem to come from the western fantasy concept and nordic mythology (or at least they’re inspired by them). I think a great serpent will fit the underwater role perfectly.

You haven’t seen Mordremoth yet, have you?

Spoilers: The Mouth of Mordremoth is Mordremoth’s actual physical body. It’s a giant half-plant half-reptilian snake.

The only dragons in GW2 that are inspired by European mythology are the dragon champions like Tequatl, The Shatterer, etc. Zhaitan roughly resembles this but he’s far more like a patchwork of dragons both serpentine and western, but Mordremoth far more resembles the Asian dragon concept (especially his head).

Scleritethin

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Sir Not Appearing In This Game

Ever.

+1 I lul’d.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Replayable instanced content has it’s advantages, for sure, but it would be hard to put the Marionette or the destruction of Lions Arch as instanced content for solo players, or even up to 5 players.

I know this was from 9 months ago but the Marionette is actually very easy to change.

The original was that the biconics meta up at the waypoint just south of the Marionette and when it became active had a short dialogue then go into their lanes which would one by one become open for players to go through and attack generators, and would meet back up upon success (upon failure they flee then return).

The rework would be simple: Start at the waypoint with the short dialogue, then go into Lane 1 (directed by star) to defend, it opens up, you go in and land on a specific one of the five platforms at the generators, you destroy it, move out to lane 2 (notified via dialogue of biconic shouting “I’m being overrun!” or something), defend that lane, it opens up, you go in and land on a specific one of the five platforms at generators (always different from previous ones), rinse repeat for all five lanes.

Make it more believable by slapping in some Lionguard and Seraph (to explain Logan’s sudden appearance at the end) or something to assist the Biconics/replace the players. But the idea being that you constantly move to the place most heavily attacked. Not too dissimilar to the Disturbance in Brisban Wildlands instance but five lanes instead of two.

The only truly hard to convert part would be Cutthroat Politics and the voting.

You make it sound like they can only work on one thing at a time.

Furthermore, at worst, working on S1 before working on S3/next expansion wouldn’t result in less content for those releases, just a longer time for them to be released. There would be no ‘sacrifice’ to part of the future story except for possibly when we’d get it – any reduction of story would be done regardless unless they establish themselves a deadline before dividing out workloads, which would be idiotic to any management system.

And as time goes by that “many have already played” becomes less and less in comparison to the number of people who haven’t played it.