Guild Wars 2

Knighthonor.4061:

well that means cant have Solo Guild Halls after all now.

IIRC, previous stuff indicated that minimum scaling is 5. Originally it would support 5-200 players. Now it’s just 5-150.

I’ve always seen average human male height in GW2 to be 6’ – I think someone even checked scaling and found this to be true.

So a max human male height in GW2 should be ~7’ I’d imagine.

Dara Potocska.8196:

8. Will guilds be able to buy favor with gold, like you can currently with influence?

You will not be able to buy favor with gold. We want favor to be a currency with value for the guild system in Heart of Thorns and do not want it to become trivial for some guilds.

Hmmm

What will happen to the scrolls of influence one receives from the end of Retribution and Victory or Death personal story steps? What about the laurel vendor’s scrolls?

10. Will there be opportunity to complete unqueued upgrades after launch?

10. Is it possible to get a refund of influence for guild missions (and maybe other upgrades that will go away)?

Is 10 such an awesome number you just had to use it twice?

Random.4691:

Why do people keep using GW1 or other games as examples ? This is clearly not GW1 or we would have split classing and not be able to jump, it’s also not Metroid because this isn’t 1930.

People use GW1 because it’s also made by ArenaNet.

My post was using the other games to prove that every single game in existence has the very system that people are complaining about right now. Needing to play content in order to progress your playing capabilities.

And just so it’s clear:

Locking elite specs behind doing HoT content is not the problem. This should be done.

It’s how they locked elite specs behind doing HoT content that’s the problem.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

/sigh

(Silver platter) here yah go. The whole game unlocked for you. Enjoy.

People keep repeating this like programmed drones…
specs are not content, they are the means to play it. It’s not that I don’t want to work for something, I don’t mind that, I just want my spec while doing it.

I want to play hot with a Chronomancer, not play hot and get a chronomancer at the end.

When Nightfall came out, did you get heroes automatically or did you have to play the new game to get them?
When Eye of the North came out, did you get PvE skills automatically or did you have to play the new expansion to get them?
When any of GW1’s games came out did you automatically have all skills – both normal and elites – unlocked?
When you start a new character on GW2 do you have all skills and specializations unlocked and accessible right away?
When you played Mass Effect games did you get all abilities unlocked and accessible right away?

Those are not content. Those are how you play the game. So according to you, they should all be free. Every skill, every ability, every gear should be free. Because “they are the means to play it.”

I’m “sorry” to say but unlocking more means to play a game is part of playing the game.

Every game with progression – which is just about every game ever – has this.

You do not start a Metroid game with the best armor, weapons, and all abilities. You do not start a DOOM game with all guns. You do not start Batman Arkham games with all abilities unlocked. You do not start an Assassin’s Creed game with all weapons and abilities. You do not start ANY game with everything unlocked.

People keep “repeating this like programmed drones” because that’s what it is – it’s asking to be handed an intregal part of the expansion on a silver platter.

You might as well be asking for the function of legendary armor to be given just because you bought the expansion.

Does this mean that their method of locking the elite spec is good? No. But should elite specializations just be automatically unlocked for purchasing HoT? Also no.

Lue.6538:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Grind is not “time consuming”. Grind is not “playing through the game’s content multiple times.”

Grind in the context of video games refers to the repetitious act of repeating the same singular activity over and over.

Doing 40 different hero challenges? Not grind.

Doing 40 different hero challenges on multiple characters? Not grind.

Doing the same singular hero challenge over and over? Grind.

Doing the same singular event in hopes of getting that RNG drop called Sam? Grind.

Please people, get your dictionaries out and know what the words you are using actually mean!

By this logic farming keys from the level 10 story isn’t a grind as it is done on different characters.

Not at all.

Farming keys is the same act – doing the chapter 1 personal story over and over for its reward. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing it on one character or multiple characters, you’re still doing the same singular act.

Now, if you were to do a different chapter then one could argue it isn’t grind, but I would disagree. It’s just a farm that has multiple possible routes. And yes, I would consider farming to be grinding – because they’re both acts of doing the same thing for the same reward.

In GW1, it’d be like farming ecto – there were many ways to do it, but ultimately you’re doing the same thing: go into Underworld, head to location specified in guide, kill all the things, leave Underworld, start from step 1.

Sirendor.1394:

In the context of a video game like GW2… making the game timeconsuming (but easy) is the same as making it grindy. The game is timeconsuming in the fact that it requires you to repeat easy actions countless times (= grindy).

I didn’t want to include all hidden premisses, thought it was clear to everyone? But yeah I wouldn’t mind doing different content each time, but repeating hero challenges PER character is obviously grindy in the sense that it’s timeconsuming, and timeconsuming in the sense that it’s grindy.

You wanna list grind in GW2? Sure.

Slayer achievements are grind (especially that dreaded Giant Slayer one). Weapon Master achievements are grind. Fractal Frequenter, Hobby Dungeon Explorer, and just about all PvP and WvW achievements are grind.

World completion is not grind.

Doing something on multiple playthroughs is not grind.

Time consuming != grind. Time consuming is boring. Grind is also boring.

People are using the term “grind” interchangeably with “boring due to time consuming” but they are NOT the same. It’s just that both result in the same feeling: Bored.

IchbinVol.5407:

I’m noticing that Anet is running into the same problem, all MMO devs do. With every new expansion, comes the inevitable obsoletion of former content.

Does this really surprise you? People called out power creep happening with HoT from a long time ago. And yes, this constitutes as horizontal progressions’ power creep – where it’s simpler to do newer stuff because you get more out of it for less work.

They did this with GW1 too. Play through Prophecies for 25 missions, and 20 of them you’re not yet maxed level. Play through Factions for 13 missions, and for 3 of them you’re not yet maxed level (if that). Play through Nightfall for 20 missions, and 3 of them you’re not yet maxed level and you have heroes (aka customizeable henchmen) to aid you. Play through Eye of the North for powerful PvE skills.

Every GW1 game added something new and more powerful. Factions added faster leveling – changing quest experience rewards from 100/500 commonly seen in Prophecies to 1,000/5,000 commonly seen in Factions (which was toned down a tad with NF and EotN, mind). Nightfall added the addition of heroes which made everything before hand completely trivial to solo. Eye of the North added not only 100 PvE skills to it, but 10-20 PvE skills to Factions and Nightfall too, which made the game so trivial that they had to limit the number of PvE skills you could take with you.

Heart of Thorns is no different with elite specializations, masteries, and other things we’re getting. The only difference is that there’s more work involved.

Work that, ironically enough, is the exact same system as the NPE. Account and character based experience progression unlocks features thus allowing you to do more things in past areas (like “unlocking hero challenges at level 11” despite easily passing several before hitting level 5).

The Pale Tree says she’s fading, not dying. (I don’t think a spoiler for S2 is needed since that was released over a year ago now). Which basically means she’s going lights out (which literally happens too).

The Dream does not come from the Pale Tree. She’s merely a caretaker. So it would remain. However, it’s the Pale Tree that bridges the connection between Pale Tree and sylvari – so without the Pale Tree her sylvari have no dream connection, and that connection is also the protection against elder dragon corruption (some argue just Mordy, but wording implies to me all elder dragon corruption and Mordy’s just the only one who can bypass it because sylvari come from Mordy).

I don’t think the egg has anything to do with “saving the Pale Tree”. The goal for the egg seems to be far bigger picture than that with what we learned from Hidden Arcana – that is, to replace an Elder Dragon in the long term.

Argon’s incorrect that “no Pale Tree = no more sylvari”. Keep in mind we have multiple trees – both multiple trees that are purified – or at least one more. Malyck’s Tree is still out there, and as such that one would produce sylvari. However, Malyck had no Dream, so it’s unclear if any other tree or their sylvari will be safe from dragon corruption (or re-corruption, as the case would be).

As to Mordremoth’s intention in attacking the Grove. Yes, he wanted to kill her – no different than Kralkatorrik and Glint – but also use that attack to get through the defenses of the sylvari to take over them. Furthermore, there are corrupted trees elsewhere called Blighting Trees. We see one in Verdant Brink, and they’re the source of the additional Mordrem Guard so he’s not cutting off future minions. He’s cutting off future rebelled minions. And lore indicates that there’s three Blighting Trees out there (it was stated that there are three Mordrem Guard commanders and one of them seems to be based on that first Blighting Tree in Verdant Brink – so by reason, it’d be one commander per tree thus three trees for three commanders).

It would be a massive story spoiler to all new players. Racial cities are highly unlikely to ever change because of the needed changes to low level zones, personal story, and the flow of the story in general (both spoilers and how it wouldn’t make sense for new players to be going through some other land just to end up with a “and our home [where you never lived, new players] is destroyed” in the plot.

Unlike Lion’s Arch, where only a handful of personal story steps take place and none of which are linked to new players beyond LA instances now featuring a “different” LA, or require moving the player base thus relocating them.

Too variable to really theorize, IMHO. If you want to do something in RP, then you gotta explain why you can.

I would argue that a ranger could not speak to animals any more than anyone else could, nor could they train their pets to transmit empathetic messages. This does not, however, mean that they couldn’t train their pets to react to specific phrases in a certain way – no different than animal trainers in reality. Nor does this prevent finding a magic that could allow an empathetic bond (such as via a third party mesmer).

Personally, I think that the cost and inflation is a bit silly. Are we to be perpetually stuck with 214 spare hero points?

Would have been better, IMO, if they required unlocking the elite spec to be a part of HoT gameplay (outside of WvW and PvP of course), such as a unique non-story instance in the open world or something akin to the second trait unlocking system (doing a particular event to unlock it), but the costs to be even managable as just doing core content – e.g., 100 points, with HoT only providing 50 hero points.

But what’s done is done…

Pezz.4758:

they are different people is it that hard to understand?

im fairly new to the game, ive never made a too easy post or anything.
im just a little disappointed that i wont get to experience nearly 50% of the new maps without the spec i basically stayed around the game to get into.

im sorry i didnt mean to offend anyone im just saying how i feel.
and that is disappointed.

You have to play the expansion’s content in order to unlock the expansion’s mechanics. Is that too hard to understand?

Sirendor.1394:

Well.. the devs misunderstood.

-> Players: “Too easy”

• Easy = not hard
• Players: “Hard = challenging!”
• Devs “Hard = timeconsuming!”
• But: timeconsuming =/= hard!
• Timeconsuming = grindy
  -> Players: “Too much grind”

gavyne.6847:

You do know how to read right? I clearly stated hero points, and you do have to grind hero points for each and every character you want to unlock elite specs for. Masteries aside.

Grind is not “time consuming”. Grind is not “playing through the game’s content multiple times.”

Grind in the context of video games refers to the repetitious act of repeating the same singular activity over and over.

Doing 40 different hero challenges? Not grind.

Doing 40 different hero challenges on multiple characters? Not grind.

Doing the same singular hero challenge over and over? Grind.

Doing the same singular event in hopes of getting that RNG drop called Sam? Grind.

Please people, get your dictionaries out and know what the words you are using actually mean!

Chpoit.6498:

Broken can also mean that the energy scanner thing doesn’t work anymore, and ANYWAY, what’s wrong with a bit of exclusive content for the vets?

The fact that vets who did the content but didn’t keep the skin for wardrobe unlocking because it wasn’t a thing for over a year and a half after then results in vets not having the skin.

But on the off-topic topic of limited-time one-time content. In general that’s a bad idea because it means players miss out on content. In regards to items, it just means that players who want it have zero chance to get it. If you’re not a vet, then you don’t like it.

Exclusiveness should come out of recurring limited-time stuff, duration-of-playing (e.g., birthday titles/finishers/minis/skins), or simply from harder content.

Chpoit.6498:

EDIT: On topic, I do think it would be nice to have the one not on fire unlocked if you have the one on fire, as a lot of people, me included, destroyed the not on fire one after getting the flaming one.

Meanwhile I’m the reverse. I have the one not on fire, but I didn’t keep the one on fire because for all my characters who got to level 80, there were better options and as much as I loved the skin it didn’t match with any of my characters except one who couldn’t finish the second half of the scavenger hunt due to being too low level.

Celestina.2894:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3olwt7/fyi_mad_memoirs_will_not_be_obtainable_this_year/cvyc50x

For anyone who has the Complete Edition but not the base skin, please refer to that link.

Hmmm, wonder if I still have a screenshot of a character with the Complete edition, and see if I can get it from support.

No. Any “passive aspect” would likely be more tied to training than anything. Because one individual of a profession can do something doesn’t mean all can.

Sidenti.6035:

piano man.1672:

Contact support. Threads like this will just stir up feuds.

Ever wonder if that’s the intent behind some of these complaints? Or am I the only one that cynical? XD

No, it’s pretty clear the intent of the OP is to stir up feuds.

It’s called baiting. It’s a classic technique for trolling.

I’m doubtful that the OP actually wants that refund. If the OP did, they would have gone directly to support.

Jora’s armor is nothing like any of the cultural armor nor is the revealing aspect of norn clothing based off of Jora rather Jora’s revealing clothing was based off of the lore of norn.

And why can’t there be short norn? There are short humans too. Humans in rl vary in size. I’m 6’7", does this mean that I’m pretending to be a norn?

Dibbelocher.2318:

Can you guys give me a link where it is mentioned that Grenth is a god of justice? Can’t seem to find it on any of the wikis.

He isn’t. He’s the god of judgement. Similar but different. Beyond the Quiz Terminals from a broken event in Malchor’s Leap I don’t think there’s anything that actually calls him that, but he’s repeatedly called the judge of the dead and a just god of death.

I’d actually imagine a ritualist/revenant’s sight – while blindfolded or simply blind – to be akin to Neo’s vision in the Matrix – just replace the streams of numbers and symbols with lines of magic.

Also:

• Necromancers can’t sense life force so much as better utilize it than other professions.
• Mesmers can’t so much sense the framework of magic. From past discussion you’re still taking Kasmeer’s knowledge of the Tower of Nightmares as meaning mesmers can sense all magic, but that was just Kasmeer recognizing another mesmer’s handiwork – no different than Marjory being capable of telling if anothers’ magic is necromantic or not.
• Nothing says thieves have enhanced – magically or otherwise – proprioception or balance.

All cases that you seem to be based off of – from past discussions – is just a magic user recognizing their professions’ magic. No different than an archeologist knowledgeable in the Mayan language recognizing Mayan writing in a museum.

Huh. Never seen such priests before. Makes me wonder if they were originally intended to be part of the personal story chapters like the charr sparring partner.

And… “Kormir is the patron god of thieves”? Where did you ever get that. Thieves derive from assassins and the patron gods of assassins were Lyssa and Grenth.

Canthans and norn both use the terms “spirit realm” and “spirit world” interchangeably and both refer to the place where spirits reside – and on occasion, it’s simply called The Mists.

Going off of Weh no Su lore and instances where the “spirit realm” or “spirit world” are mentioned, part of the Mists seem to overlap – literally – with Tyria and spirits in the world primarily live in this “overlap” if they haven’t moved on to the afterlives like The Underworld (e.g., lost or regret-filled souls). They are capable of hiding in this overlap, thus becoming invisible to – but capable of interacting with – mortals (the entire point of becoming Ascended aka Weh no Su in Factions is because Shiro pretty much did this to our PCs – hid in the spirit realm and killed the PCs).

Ascension allows a mortal to see this overlapping, to some degree. Ritualists – and by appearances, revenants – have taken practices which allow an even lesser version of this.

This overlapping of the Mists and Tyria also appears to be what allows the mursaat to become invisible. The Arah dungeon’s lines of them “slipping between worlds” refers to them entering this place, where mortals shouldn’t normally be capable of accessing (only mortals besides mursaat who can – known to us players at least – are havrouns, and for some reason, Svanir). And like souls, they’d be capable of interacting (just as we can kill risen while “phased out of Tyria” in Arah dungeon’s mursaat path’s final boss, all the while being immune to damage from them – and how similarly the boss can attack us but we cannot attack the boss until we’re also “phased out”). Thus why Ascension was needed to see and fight them.

So by my interpretation, what ritualists and revenants see would be people’s souls and the flow of magic in things. The spirit threads as it’s called in Factions at one point.

On ritualists:

From manual: They hood their eyes to better commune with spirits that grant great power and protection to Ritualists and their comrades.

On revenants (all comes from biography):

I fight with my _ blindfold on to shut out the distractions of the physical world and focus my magical inner sight.

Veil Piercer (“veil piercer”) — Form follows function with this blindfold, designed both to cover a revenant’s eyes and help punch through the barriers that conceal the unseen.

Resplendent Curtain (“resplendent curtain”) — The resplendent curtain is for revenants who choose to make a more elegant and stylish impression; because even if they can’t see the world around them, it can still see them.

Based on this and more that’s less obvious, ritualists and revenants both blind themselves to better see into the Mists/Spirit Realm. Basically giving them a weaker version of Ascension/Weh no Su.

So to answer your questions:

No, maybe in a physical sense, only in a magical sense, mesmers either alter reality or mess with the mind itself so in the case of GW1 and ritualists yes because it’s not what’s seen but what’s perceived that’s messed with and in the case of GW2 and revenants yes because illusions are physically there for a time.

I have never seen my supposed Priest of Balthazar in my ranger’s home instance, if that’s truly the case.

There are always some priests of Dwayna and Kormir in the home instance, however, regardless of progression.

Unlike Season 1 which was designed to disappear at the end of the story chapter it was released for, as the next one went live, Season 2 is 100% completely and totally permanent.

Well, more like 98%. But what wasn’t permanent is just some ambient dialogues and already long gone and has been since no latter than January 23rd 2015 (or whenever episode 8 was released).

MatthewMedina.5419:

-snip-

So…

Does this mean that the story instance we saw in the Beta – the “Heart of Thorns Beta Story” titled one…

Is that the same story instance as “Torn from the Sky”?

Because if so, that makes me very, very sad. Because, in all honesty, the writing and plot of that instance was really, really kittenty – especially as an opening story.

Then again, so was the very first NPC dialogue you have in that open world tutorial (why does HoT need its own tutorial instance, btw?).

MatthewMedina.5419:

• Silverwastes tutorial – This was needed for a number of reasons: 1. because the storyline for the base Silverwastes map is so distinctively set in a time period (Pact forces are preparing for the assault on Mordremoth, however in “Heart of Thorns” this assault has already been launched, and failed). 2. because it allows us to not have a flood of players in one of our popular maps who are not working toward the meta for that map and consequently skewing the meta progression in undesirable ways, and 3. for some sound technical reasons. :-)

How would having a story instance entered from Silverwastes be any different than the Season 2 story instances – especially when Season 2 was new?

MatthewMedina.5419:

• Canach and the others – Yeah, the beta version of this chapter didn’t include the main NPC’s you’re used to seeing in story content, but they’ll be there in the Live version you’ll experience on Friday. You’ll get to see them briefly and get an explanation for their presence prior to seeing them in “Torn from the Sky”.

So they’re in the tutorial instance? Okay, that makes sense, and fixes one of the many issues I saw glaring me down in the first beta story instance. That of Canach being randomly with your party – doesn’t fix how there’s suddenly no rivalry between you two despite there being nothing but insults coming from the PC during the course of S2 (which was annoying, but going from full blown insulting to “we’re pretty chummy” with no transition is worse and this was the second most jarring part of that beta instance).

This is the first time I’ve ever heard about this problem.

Which makes me think that this is a graphics issue on your end. You may need to tone down the graphic settings, or get a better graphics card all together.

vanderwolf.7084:

Grenth is the son of Dwayna and Malchor, a half human.

Technically, Grenth’s father was never confirmed. We don’t even have confirmation his father is human. Just a “mortal sculptor”.

Mind you, the chances of it being Malchor is pretty much 99.99999% likely. But it’s not confirmed, so there’s always the chance Anet throws us a curve ball and says his father is a mursaat, forgotten, or even dwarf.

vanderwolf.7084:

Also the god you chose is never once mentioned anywhere, shown at all, and doesn’t make an impact at all….soooooo

Kulvar.1239:

If I remember correctly, it’s use for character racial shouts. “For _insert god name_ !”

It alters the dialogue of a specific priest/priestess in Queensdale.

That’s all.

Erukk.1408:

Each of the Six might be patron gods of certain classes, or certain aspects of the classes, but their blessings are open to anyone that wishes it.

Guardians might be blessed by Grenth for their sense of justice.
Necromancers might be blessed by Dwayna for their strive to protect the weak.
Warriors might be blessed by Lyssa for the artistry and elegance in which they do battle.

Best way to look at it.

A profession might have a patron god, but that’s not a restriction nor rule – more of a guideline.

Necromancers who find Grenth to be “too gloomy” to worship do exist.

Obsidian.1328:

Why not a third option: the sun is green because the the sun is green. Why does it have to be explained at all? Can’t the world of Bubbles just have a green sun and not have to explain itself to the reader? Can’t the reader just accept that as a fact of the world, and move on with the story?

Such stories exist too. I recall a story which takes place in a world with two moons. They never explained why there were two – there just were. It was nothing more than am ambient setting.

Such stories can and do exist.

I’m saying for the other stories, in which the reason why the sun is green is explained, there will be a reason why it was explained intended later on – presuming that reason doesn’t get scrapped in the case of writing long series.

There are stories where such things don’t get explained. But in stories that they are explained, they are explained for a reason.

Phy.2913:

Methal.9045:

Phy.2913:

Are you trying to say the new precurser mastery’s will be botted?

If you can do it, a bot can do it.

Those precursers are account bond. The effort it would take to program a bot to do the activities required to complete the mastery would far exceed the effort to do it manually. This is literally a none issue.

The new precursors are account bound.

No word on the old precursors made from the collection+crafting however. At least afaik, and I’ve never seen a source when someone says otherwise.

Obsidian.1328:

Hmm…how would you define mystery then?

I think I understand the literary definition, which is what I think you are alluding to…please correct me if I’m wrong. The mystery genre? Like a puzzle that can be solved. Or peeling away at a problem layer by layer until understanding comes? I don’t mean that.

I mean something not understandable or knowable and never will be.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, a make-believe world called Bubbles has a green sun. It’s always had a green sun, that’s completely normal for this particular fictional world. That’s just how it is.

Now, does it really matter at all, even for immersion’s sake, that we, as willing spectators and/or participants in the world of Bubbles, know why the sun is green and not yellow like we are accustomed to? Can’t it just be a green sun and leave it at that?

First half of my post was about mystery genre – explaining that “not knowing” is not the same as “mystery”.

Second half of my post was about “why explain the sun is green”. Either story makers do it because they want to fill in space, or it’ll play a chekov’s gun or similar role – either be foreshadowing to explain a different event, or become relevant to the plot itself.

Ley lines were this. There was no need to explain that magic flows in rivers. After all, we’ve known since GW1 that certain areas have higher magical concentrations (Arachni’s Haunt, for example, is said to be exactly this and is why the asura were interested in clearing out those caves, eventually turning the nearby area into the Rata Sum docks). However, it became relevant to know when we had the plot being about redirecting those rivers to feed Mordremoth.

In your sake of argument example, the author could explain that the sun is green in a high fantasy story due to an ancient god-like being throwing a magical artifact into the sun for protection. Then suddenly during the story the sun turns yellow, and the big bad of the story suddenly has a powerful magical artifact. Because of the change in the sun, and knowing why the sun was green, the hero (and audience) can conclude what the artifact is – the one of the story of the godlike being – and figure out how to counter it.

Obsidian.1328:

Um…I understand human curiosity and technical advancement, that wasn’t my question. That’s real life. I’m talking about fiction.

I guess my question is why turn fantasy into science or science into fantasy(or anything in between) in the same fictional universe ?

Does this happen a lot with fantasy/science fiction? I honestly don’t know.

“That’s real life. I’m talking about fiction.”

People impose their reality onto their fiction while altering it to not be their reality. That’s how anyone who makes stories or art pieces work.

I think the issue is that you’ve created such a stark difference between what is fantasy and what is science. They don’t have to be so separate. Why wouldn’t people go towards technology, just because they can do magic?

I would argue it happens in just about every piece of fantasy and science fiction there is. There will always be a bit of fantasy in science fiction, and a bit of science in fantasy fiction. The question is more of “how much of each” rather than “does it have any of either”.

Obsidian.1328:

I don’t want to know how Luke performs the force, I actually prefer the mystery.

And not knowing that is what makes it science fantasy, not science fiction.

Obsidian.1328:

But for fantasy…does it really make a setting less immersive if one does not understand, say, the mechanics of a simple magic spell? I would argue that the more technical(for lack of a better word) a fantasy setting gets, the less “fantasy” immersive it becomes because it starts blurring the line between how that world and our own world works.

Does no one like the idea of “mystery” anymore?

Explaning how magic work doesn’t remove any form of mystery. That’s not a form of mystery at all.

Mystery is more than just “what’s not known”. An issue that ArenaNet truly failed to grasp while making Season 1. Mystery is the subtle hints, pieces of bait that draw people to looking for the meaning behind them. Ascendant’s Ring in Verdant Brink is a mystery because it lead folks like myself wondering what its purpose is. How someone conjures a fireball is not mystery, despite not knowing how it’s done beyond “magic!”

Knowing how someone conjures a fireball in their hand doesn’t reduce magic. It rather builds upon foundation to lay down explanation for how something greater could be done. Usually explaining things like magic results in being a proverbial chekov’s gun – unless the writer is just trying to fill space, it’s going to become relevant later on to explain something.

Obsidian.1328:

My question is: what do subjects like advanced mathematics and scientific theory have to do with “sword and sorcery”-ish fantasy settings? I’ve never understood the need, or wish for that matter, to insert modern scientific thought and theory into a fantasy setting. Isn’t that supposed to be for, you know, the sci-fi genre? One thing Fantasy is, at its core, is a make-believe universe that does not in any way have to try and adhere to the laws of RL science.

I think the issue falls fundamentally with the notion that these theories are new and only exists because we’ve reached a certain point in technology.

In actuality, however, humanity has been trying to define the universe since the earliest of civilizations. Nowadays, we refer to these early scientific theories as “myths”, but they ultimately served the very same purpose as things like string theory, the big bang theory, and so forth do for us today. Explain how existence came to be, and how it functions on the grand scale of things.

The act has not changed one bit. The only thing that’s changed is what the theories are.

Of course, rather than using mysticism we use telescopes and radars and all these other fancy machines who’s names I probably couldn’t even pronounce let alone explain what they do.

But what if mysticism took a more tangible form? More than an individuals’ possibly-just-hallucinations? What if prophecies truly came to pass in an obvious manner? Wouldn’t that then be used to more fully explore the universe and how it came to be and how it functions on a larger scale? Would they not be used to figure out things the mortal eye cannot, and thus allow them to see things that instruments which allow people to figure out things the mortal eye cannot allow people to see?

If magic was as concrete as technology, would that not be used to attempt the very same thing we’re attempting with technology, thus the advancement of magic eventually leading to the same discoveries as the advancement of technology in the same given world?

After all, the goal is the same. The same goal we humans have had since we could think:

Why are we here? What is the meaning to our existence? And is there other existences out there?

I – and I believe many others – would think yes, we would go after the same thing regardless of method.

Obsidian.1328:

Things like the Star Trek ‘verse for instance…of course. It’s Sci-Fi, it’s only natural that something about high-tech space-ships/travel should be relatively highly steeped in science. But high fantasy?? I just don’t see why it should have anything to do with it really. If anything, it’s the one genre where you really don’t need to take a nod to science at all…it’s the power of creative imagination at its purest.

I’m actually not trying to troll here, what’s the deal with marrying science to fantasy? Is this a modern trend or something? Because I never remembered this ever being a “thing” with fantasy in the past. Or maybe I did and simply disregarded it as silly, I don’t know.

Science Fantasy is a very big genre, though folks don’t tend to label it as such. Things like Star Wars fall under this, where science is used to create a rule of cool, more or less, without scientific explanation. Science Fiction, at its fundamental basis, is really a “what if” scenario played out in story format.

Change the reactor to a magic orb, change the tazers to scepters, and change the holodeck with an illusion deck… and how different is the outcome to Star Trek?

Not very different.

It’s not a pre-order item. It’s a deluxe edition item.

So like regular rytlock… Yes.

I can see the argument for both sides. Personally I have always seen the arm effect as a bit of " the weapon’s power flows into you, shaping itself onto your arm" kind of thing. As such, it always made sense for it to be one arm even for two-handed weapons.

I think the best solution would be if they managed to make it so whatever body part touches the legendary is covered. E.g., when an ashes places their greatsword on their shoulder while running, the shoulder takes on the effect. But I think that’su nreasonahle. Still if they can make it a case of “left arm affected only when holding” then that’s the way to go.

But I wonder… How will the situation be when wearing legendary gloves?

Exalted are magical and still hominid in shape. Tengu and mursaat are both fleshy, but tengu have feathers, mursaat don’t; tengu have claws for hands and feet, mursaat while armored have more humanoid hands and feet; tengu have long beaks, mursaat, while masked, have flat faces. Tengu have no wings, mursaat do.

Exalted to human comparison can be different because exalted are not fleshy. And they’re still hominid, just like Margonites were.

Tengu and mursaat look nothing alike. How would they be related?

Tengu are clearly avian, while mursaat are clearly humanoids.

To get a full precursor in the new system you need to first unlocking masteries in core content with 7,620,000 experience. So we won’t really know for quite some time after HoT is released – because not only will a lot of folks be in HoT areas, but when they’re not they got to choose between fractal or precursor crafting.

And after unlocking the collections, they need to complete them so that they can be allowed to craft the precursors. Which takes ascended materials – and if the image for the hammer shaft is equivalent for all precursor pieces, it requires 5 times the amount of ascended wood/metal/leather than actual ascended weapons – for the first tiered precursor.

I don’t think the precursor prices will be dropping much. If anything, the aquatic ones might even go up due to the ascended materials needed to make them.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Tomes do not count as they are not a Heart of Maguuma source.

Also not everyone can play all day every day. What if they want to do raids. What if they want to do new wvw. What if they want to get to fractal level 100. In an ideal scenario if you did 10 events a day that took 7 minutes each you are looking at 1 hour of game time a day dedicated to this task just to get it in a year lol

You do realize that doing raids, WvW, and fractals also gives experience. Some may even give more experience than events.

You get experience doing just about ANYTHING in the game. You don’t have to restrict yourself to just events. And raids will count to the HoT masteries just as much as HoT zone events, adventures, mapping in HoT zones, and HoT storyline.

Besides, experience boosters count.

However, one thing missed by the OP is the experience required to unlock HoT precursor collections – which, iirc, is over 20 million too.

The thing that you missed is only xp earned in heart of maguuma will go towards heart of maguuma masteries

Read my post. I mean actually read it, and you’ll note that, no, I did not.

I mentioned HoT zones exploration, events, raids, and HoT story. Those are all sources of experience in the Heart of Maguuma. So they’ll all credit towards Heart of Maguuma Masteries.

Stop half-reading posts to make your point.

Edit: I made the part in my original post that’s quoted in this post in bold, to emphasize where I originally said it.

DoctorDing.5890:

Stage 1: “Give me everything NOW!”

Stage 2: “I’m bored. There is nothing to do.”

I think this is the main reason why the masteries are gated. I can’t say I agree with the numbers – especially for precursor collections – but the gated behind exp is needed for this, and in turn the idea of “locations locked behind masteries” is needed too for this reason.

If you can do everything right away, you’re more likely to rush through a zone and never return. How many folks here go back to Harathi Hinterlands after mapping except for Ulgoth farming? How many of you go to Fireheart Rise except to head to CoF? How many head to Iron Marches at all after mapping?

Not many, I bet.

Using masteries to “gate content” allows ArenaNet to add some secret areas in even the earliest of places for players to go back to and find.

Besides, I bet that most of the places you get to easier with higher masteries are still accessible without the highest masteries, just much tougher.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Tomes do not count as they are not a Heart of Maguuma source.

Also not everyone can play all day every day. What if they want to do raids. What if they want to do new wvw. What if they want to get to fractal level 100. In an ideal scenario if you did 10 events a day that took 7 minutes each you are looking at 1 hour of game time a day dedicated to this task just to get it in a year lol

You do realize that doing raids, WvW, and fractals also gives experience. Some may even give more experience than events.

You get experience doing just about ANYTHING in the game. You don’t have to restrict yourself to just events. And raids will count to the HoT masteries just as much as HoT zone events, adventures, mapping in HoT zones, and HoT storyline.

Besides, experience boosters count.

However, one thing missed by the OP is the experience required to unlock HoT precursor collections – which, iirc, is over 20 million too.

Asumir.1978:

The Others, having practical sense of what will enable maximum survivability and maximum speed, demand I have the right gear.
So it boils down to: no gear, no lore experience.
No farming, no gear.

You don’t need any particular set of gear beyond right rarity and level for dungeons. Those who say you need such are speed runners who will not wait for you to enjoy the story anyways. Find friends or guildies or put up in the LFG casual run watching cinematics etc.

Asumir.1978:

Now raids are coming in with super-exclusive content.
Brilliant. MORE things I have to grind in order to know the story for, let alone the fact that I need to pay real-world currency to buy. Buying is fine, it keeps the game alive. Grinding is fine, it makes one appreciate the worth of what they are using. But I want the story first.

I wouldn’t call it “super exclusive” so much as “the highest challenge”. This is little different than Domain of Anguish, The Deep, Urgoz’s Warren, Tomb of the Primeval Kings, and The Underworld of GW1.

Which basically means that it’ll require top gear until people figure out the mechanics and create guides for easiest actions and builds. Then the “best gear” will only be “for optimal chance of survival/fastest time completion” which won’t be necessary for “just completion”.

Asumir.1978:

1. Could you please populate and open up the entire map of Tyria?
   I want to go everywhere, see and do everything, meet everyone in the tale!

That list is basically 6 years worth of work for ArenaNet, y’know.

Asumir.1978:

And please also make use of the extant big, beautiful Home Cities/Areas that you have built in order to create a quest-rich environment. Upgrade Divinity’s Reach from beautiful diorama to beautiful city.

The point of cities is that – outside of special events – they’re meant to be event-less. They have their own story, but there’d be no combat. So you can take your characters there without qualm of being attacked.

Asumir.1978:

Underground World of Tyria: The layered map of Tyria offers many possibilities. An entire world, unbeknownst to the citizens of Tyria, right beneath their feet! New races, quests, and a throwback to the ancient residence of the Asura!

Will come with Primordus, no doubt.

Asumir.1978:

Ditto underwater realm

Will come with the Deep Sea Dragon, no doubt.

Asumir.1978:

Ditto the skies! Want to fly? Great. We have a whole world up in the sky. Is this where the Tengu come in? Or the Zephyrites return?

Tengu don’t fly. And I think ArenaNet made a point that they want to avoid aerial combat. Gliding in HoT (and likely future maps) will probably be the closest we get.

Asumir.1978:

Six Dragons: four down, two to go. (If my reckoning is correct) What will you do when all six are down, then? Are they really down?

Uh… Only Zhaitan’s been killed.

Are you mistaking The Shatterer, Claw of Jormag, and Tequatl for Elder Dragons? Because they’re not. Neither are Blightghast, Glint, Shadow of the Dragon, or the other three dragon-shaped champions of Zhaitan.

Asumir.1978:

Need ideas? Am willing to write!

No game company is short of ideas. Everyone has them.

Smokin Dice.9103:

Hey guys,
as the topic suggests I was wondering if it is worth my time to buy gw1 for ap in gw2.

-I never played gw1 and started with gw2, 3 years ago
-how many ap can I get from gw1?
-what other stuff do I get from gw1 for gw2?
-is it worth my time?

• You get 550 AP. 50 AP for every 10 points in the Hall of Monuments, and an additional 50 for having GWAMM.
• Several skins for armor and weapons, 11 titles, miniatures and pets. Here is a list.
• “Worth your time” is variable. It depends on how much time you’d say is worth the above. Getting 30/50 points in the Hall of Monuments isn’t so hard if you’re a dedicated player with a guide such as “this one,”: but that will only get you 6 of the titles and 300 of the AP.

Smokin Dice.9103:

Because I have done alot of the ap in gw2 already and want more unlocks of the skins and other stuff, also I need to kill some time until HoT releases.. so if it would be worth my time to get some ap in gw1 meanwhile Id be happy to support Anet some more and also maybe get a better look at the story and what happend in the past.

You probably won’t get even the first AP mark in 8 days truth be told. Especially if you’re taking your time to enjoy the story.

In all honesty, I’d only suggest getting GW1 if you want to enjoy that game. The skins are cool but they’re not needed and to get the full amount of AP is a lot of work.

Mind you, I do think GW1 is worth playing, in the proper campaign order, so I’d recommend it either way. If you only intend to play GW1 until HoT comes out… well, that doesn’t leave you with time to do much in all honesty.

But in all honesty, I’m not sure getting 50/50 HoM points is even possible without pulling in other players to play with you. Doing the elite areas isn’t really feasible with the AI. You can definitely get 30/50 though as well as GWAMM. So that’d be 350 AP there.

Linken.6345:

Im wondering how many points you can get from only the first campain tho anyone got a answer for that?

Zero.

You need at least the expansion to get access to the Hall of Monuments, and you can’t play the expansion without a campaign.

But one campaign + the expansion can get you about 40 points not counting the nigh impossible PvP titles or the tougher elite areas.

It’d be best if you buy all four games though.

Keep in mind that the backflashes were well after Faolain had encountered the Nightmare. So she was already different than the Faolain that Caithe had fallen in love with.

I recall it being said once that Faolain and Caithe both originally encountered the Nightmare in Orr, but where Caithe turned away Faolain didn’t. She didn’t fully fall to Nightmare, however, until after Cadeyrn brought her into the Nightmare Court (which despite what Caithe says in The Mystery Cave, we’ve been told happened well after Cadeyrn established the Nightmare Court which in turn happened after he left the Pale Tree entirely – the flashbacks make it seem like all three happened within hours/days, but the original implication was more of weeks/months).

So what we saw never included why Caithe loved Faolain, as that was already pretty much gone and Caithe was desperately holding onto a memory of who Faolain was.

I don’t think Garm or Eir are dead, personally. Especially Garm (there were some death flags raised with Eir). Reason I say this is because I recall an interview asking Anet why Garm appears to be the only black wolf we see in-game, and the response is that this is actually important to the history of Garm and Eir and that it is intended to be explored in the future.

Mind you, plans change and iirc it was Jeff Grubb who said this and he’s been MIA for over a year now along with Ree. So it’s hard to say if such still holds true.

Anet devs also said they look forward to having the biconics grow both in character and physically – especially Taimi and Frostbite in the later cases, since they’re so young.

It’s more likely that a different ranger – perhaps someone we know in the Pact – might adopt a HoT pet instead as part of the dynamic events. Depending on who all returns for the Pact actions.

They recognized all of the Elder Dragons, even Zhaitan. It’s why they built the wall – as well as their well reasoned distancing from other races.

The tengu seem to have a “run and hide” rather than a “stay and fight” mentality when it comes to the Elder Dragons as evident in the book in Hidden Arcana: Riding the Wind: The Tengu Exodus. The particular line to note is:

Now we see the world ripped by dragon’s teeth and send a message of survival to all the races. We believe in taking flight.

On Marjory: It’s far more evident in Season 1 and most importantly in the tone that Marjory does have a joking personality behind her serious motto.

As for correct/incorrect use of the word, look up the definition of it. It means to make light of a serious situation. That’s what Marjory was doing when Kasmeer was worried sick about her. She was making light of the situation in order to put Kasmeer (and perhaps herself) at ease – or more ease. She wasn’t blatantly facetious, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t being facetious.

I actually find that a LOT of people misuse facetious – it wouldn’t be surprising if you see it constantly misused and think that’s the proper usage. Like how people use literally when they mean figuratively.

On Rox: Have you ever seen her cast a nature ritual? No? Neither have I. Nor have I ever seen her cast healing springs. The closest thing to magic I’ve ever seen is some poison cloud looking effect when she uses barrage. But that can easily be explained by her using special arrows.

Just because the PCs can doesn’t mean the NPCs can too. Similarly, just because NPCs can doesn’t mean that PCs can too. Everybody has their own way of specializing into a profession.

We know that guardians are capable healers – Logan is, for example, just as much as he is capable at fighting and shields (despite what mechanics show, this is shown downright in Edge of Destiny – including the healing bit). However, not once does Braham ever use healing magic. We only see him bashing things with his mace, using magic to augment him bashing things with his mace, and on rare occasion creating a shield with his magic.

Similar with Rox and rangers. We know they can use magic, but not once do we ever see Rox using magic. Plus there is no such thing as “battlefield magic” except in the metaphorical sense of being an expert on the battlefield – in this case, first aid.

Responding in order:

• Being capable of reverting, sensing, or hastening decay doesn’t mean it isn’t there at a natural rate.
• I’ve never really read into string theory so I cannot comment. I’m sure drax can. What I do know is that ether is mentioned to be the foundation of magic.
• Never said that there are no twins, but rather that we don’t see any. I don’t count sylvari because they’re dragon minions and dragon minions are known to create clones – especially Modremoth.
• Marjory doesn’t jest via sarcasm but being facetious. It means making light of a serious situation. People do this to avoid shock or freaking out in overly stressful situations – like almost dying. If you paid attention to Marjory’s dialogue, she actually makes similar comments a lot. Not as sarcasm or being overly witty, but facetious and, on rare occasion, puns.
• We NEVER see Rox using magic, nor is there any indication that she can. And it goes against common charr mentality for her to do so when she doesn’t have to.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

Scarlet made it clear that Elder Dragon Magic can easily be mistaken for Chaos Magic (at least by the Inquest)

I don’t think she’s telling the full truth. When you get to a high enough fractal that you have access to the dorms, saving and following the two generic Inquest NPCs get them talking about how Scarlet coerced the project lead into adding dragon energies into the mix to “see how far they can go”.

Don’t think this has been documented on the wiki yet, though.

Last we saw from the dat, it took 170 hero points to unlock all skills/traits, and 250 to unlock everything related to the elite spec.

But how to begin unlocking is the true mystery. IIRC, in the beginning it was said that elite spec unlocking would “tie into the lore”. Beyond that…

We already see purple in Mordremoth’s vines, however, and have since Episode 1 of Season 2. Just go underneath the entrance to Dry Top – or look at the vines in Brisban Wildlands and you’ll see. Even Mawdrey is purple from the get-go.

We also see purple in Desmina’s Hollows and Arah. Zhaitan’s corruption also results in purple.

There’s even purple at the highest concentration of Jormag’s corruption (such as Drakkar Spurs) – though for this to be seen you need the highest post-processing up.

As I mentioned near the beignning of this thread, Jeff Grubb once stated in an interview in response to a question asking about a link between Kralkatorrik and Abaddon due to the shared color purple that in Guild Wars the color “purple” is generally used to symbolize evil. Every dragon we see very high concentrations of corruption from has purple glows, just like how Abaddon and his Margonites glowed purple.

Daniel Handler.4816:

In physics and chemistry: What do we know of their core concepts? My assumption is that they have no atoms only ether +magic.

I wouldn’t be so quick to say they don’t have atoms. Magic and ether are far from the same thing as atoms. Now, them knowing about atoms and molecules is an entirely different matter.

Daniel Handler.4816:

• Do they have entropy?
• Do the stars in their universe have similar distances to our own?
• Ice and water seem to be related by not synonymous in this world, there are spirits behind the process of frost, do they complement or cause the process?
• Is the ice made by necromancers water that is frozen, or something else?

• Unknowable.
• Hinted to be a case of both “yes and no” – the Mists kind of distorts things in this matter, and we know that there are stars in the skies of the Mists.
• You turn down the temperature, and water turns to ice. No magic involved even in Tyria. There’s no spirits behind the process of frost – you’re mistaking the ranger spirits as the only method of freezing of Tyria, but this isn’t so. It’s more of a case of “some nature spirits are capable of freezing” rather than “freezing is caused by some nature spirits”.
• Magical ice – and other elements – are highly questionable due to lack of Anet going into the finer points of things.

Daniel Handler.4816:

On biology and medicine: When Marjory was hurt, Rox seemed to be the only one knowledgeable of battlefield magic that heals despite Brahman being a Guardian.

Marjory talking about Rox’s “battlefield magic” is a joke – a jest. Most likely, Rox just knew first aid procedures and was able to stabilize Marjory without magic. Rox doesn’t show signs of being able to do magic – even as a ranger. Braham was likely too distracted, what with a broken leg, and his show of magic has been more of “bashing things” and the occasional shield rather than healing.

Daniel Handler.4816:

• Has the knowledge of first aid been delayed by the existence of monk and their instant heals to the point only rangers and engineers are competent?
• We have seen identical twins and medelian characters to the point one can assume something similar to DNA exists in all creatures. Yet we see no humans living thousands of years despite aging being a form of genetic decay. Is the process of death not solely biological, and if not how much power is given to the soul?

• No. Bandaging wounds and using salvants are seen across the game. There are many battlefield areas where we can see wounded individuals wrapped in partial bandages – particularly in the case of Seraph camps.
• Don’t take character models seriously. I don’t think there is a case of identical twins in the game, actually.

And what do you mean by “we see no humans living thousands of years despite aging being a form of genetic decay” – wouldn’t it be because aging is a form of genetic decay? Why does this even have to be asked? Humans don’t live that long because they age. Nothing magical about that. All races age – and just like with us, some species age faster than humans, and some age slower than humans, and some age at roughly the same time.

Serafi.7506:

Scarlet has heard voices since she left the Dream. She went to menders who could not help her in any way, she was terrified to the point of being afraid to sleep.

You got this from her journal, however it’s dated 1320-1322. This was well after she left the Grove, and denotes the beginning of hearing voices. So it was not “since she left the Dream.”

Serafi.7506:

There is NO confirmation that Mordremoth was the one talking to her, nor is there any indication that Scarlet knew of his presence. All she knew was that there was something in her head that wouldn’t leave her alone.

I’m going to disagree with this. Scarlet very much knew of Mordremoth and his presence. The situation about Wynne was, going off of dialogue in Twilight Aetherpath, the secret that Scarlet had discovered about Caithe. This likely means she knew the origins of the sylvari as well.

She was also very aware that the voices were not her own in any way. Her journals during A Study In Scarlet show this point blank. And while not explicitly stated, it’s beyond heavily implied the voices are Mordremoth – in the HoT beta for example, Scarlet is directly applied to having been corrupted by Mordremoth.

Serafi.7506:

When she chose to partake in Omadd’s study and used his mind delving machine, she claimed she saw everything. She said “I saw it. I saw it all.”, claiming she saw the very heart of the Eternal Alchemy. She also saw something else in there, and it stared right back at her. Without knowing what this was, one can’t say that what she saw was Mordremoth nor herself.

What we see when we enter the machine in Season 2 is said to be a copy of what Scarlet saw – not a complete one, mind you, given that Scarlet was in the machine for days, but even at the beginning we hear the argument between the Pale Tree and Scarlet, and the PC tells Rox afterwards that they saw a dragon – and the dragon looked back.

Serafi.7506:

She saw the Eternal Alchemy, she knew how everything worked now.

She saw what she thought was the Eternal Alchemy. But all she saw was The All.

The All is the inner workings of Tyria (world). The Eternal Alchemy is the inner and outer workings of all things (the multiverse). Two very different things.

Serafi.7506:

Back when Scarlet was attacking Lion’s Arch and you boarded the Breachmaker, Scarlet has a dialog when she’s pacing back and forth at the control panel, “No! This is my idea! Not yours! Get out of my head! 3.14159, yes, lovely”.
As I said, there is no direct confirmation that Modremoth had anything to do with it.

However, this matches 100% with how Mordremoth goes after sylvari.

The Elder Dragon can implant thoughts in its creations—thoughts they may even believe to be their own

Scarlet had thoughts implanted in her, and thought they were her own.