Guild Wars 2

Soul Reaping is the center point of necromancer mechanics in the Guild Wars franchise. Keep it as it is.

I’m sorry, but how is managing to stay alive while standing in the Legendary Wyvern’s fire as a Reaper for about ten times longer than any other profession/elite spec anything but overpowered?

You said that elite specs are balanced to non-elite specs. I can’t speak for all nine, but for some this isn’t true at all.

There’s more to it than just different approaches.

Ah, I misread – didn’t see the word “types” there.

It happens.

Aurisai.3416:

But if they’re all overpowered, isn’t that balance?

Only if those who don’t use elite specs aren’t overpowered.

Either non-HoT needs an elite spec which is as balanced as HoT’s elite specs, or elite spec needs to be as balanced as non-elite specs.

Simple as that.

Otherwise you run into the same issue as pay to win. Which is explicitly something ArenaNet said they don’t want.

Ganathar.4956:

Anet should at least try to fill in the missing heal and elite skill types in future patches. It just feels wrong to not have them, because it makes some skill traits a bit less useful. Also, why is warrior mending still not a physical skill?

This please.

lordkrall.7241:

And adding one for each skill type would require major changes to most of the traits, otherwise it would most likely become extremely overpowered rather fast.

There is a reason why they are usually not effected by traits after all.

It’s not a case of “adding one for each skill type” but rather “completing the set of six skills for each skill type”

Most skill types have six skills – 1 heal, 1 elite, and 4 utilities. Some skill types, however, lack one of them (often elites). For example, necromancers, elementalist, and thieves have no elite signet, rangers has no heal or elite signet, white warrior, guardian, and mesmer have 1 heal, 1 elite, and 4 utility signets. Another example, necromancers have no heal spectral or well skill; guardians have no heal or elite spirit weapon or consecration skill; warrior has no heal banner skill; engineers have no elite gadget skill. Etc. etc.

And I don’t think that the traits would need that much of a rebalance for adding a new skill or two (rarely three) that the traits would affect.

Diovid.9506:

You misunderstood me. I did not mean: “each profession should always have 1 skill that heals at all times”. I meant: “each profession should have a number of skill options for their healing skill slot equal to the number of utility skill types they have”.

Professions typically have about 20 utilities.

Do you really want Anet to balance 20 heals and 20 elites per profession too?

I’ll stick with 5 of each, as opposed to current averaged 4 heals/3 elites (+1 each with elite specs) that we have.

Would also like Anet to create an even amount of racial skills. Currently it’s 6 skills split, with asura/charr being 3 utility+3 elites, human/sylvari being 1 heal, 2 utility, 3 elites, and norn being 2 utility, 4 elites. Would love to see it changed to all being 1 heal, 4 utility, 2 elite. Revenants could then get a “Legendary Racial Stance” which gives 1 heal, 3 utility, 1 elite. They’d get the short end but it’d be better than… what we have.

The Elder Dragons very much are sentient – and sapient. The novel not only shows Kralkatorrik’s mind in a metaphorical sense, but depicts his perspective of the fight with Destiny’s Edge a few times, and how he intentionally sends his minions to thwart the being trying to enter his mind (Snaff).

Zhaitan throughout the personal story reacts – albeit at a distance, so all we hear are mighty roars – to his forces losing. Every time a champion of his dies, he roars. First in anger, then in fear. He had emotions, he was reacting. That is sentience. That is sapience.

The whole “Elder Dragons are forces of nature” that ArenaNet throws at us has been stated to be from the common Tyrian’s perspective due to their sheer power, and their distance.

But it isn’t true. They’re more than mindless beings.

They think. They react. They desire.

Re: Macha. If she can implant her communication, then with the proper training a mesmer can implant thoughts. Think Inception but with a lot less action.

Re: Grizwhirl. I disagree, but without explicitness it’s hard to argue anything beyond interpretation. It’s been too long since I played the storyline, but what I do recall is that it seemed more than just hypnotic spells (and aren’t those in of themselves brainwashing?). I also recall that you fall under the effects of the Grizwhirl if you choose to go to the secret meeting rather than ransack Uzolan’s place, and the effects are that everyone turns into monsters though you still hear their actual words (and you actually beat the crap out of Logan the Ogre).

Agroman.7190:

Of course the mesmer is largely about messing with other people’s minds. What I am trying to say is that they do not directly control people’s thoughts but rather ‘guide’ them in a certain direction using spells. Theit victims don’t just become brainwashed puppets. My point is that they can influence minds, but propably not flat out read them. Which I believe would be necessary in order to achieve something as extreme as what Anise did in Party Politics without involving some time warping.

Human storyline, Missed Opportunity/Circus storyline. It’s all about mesmer magic being used to brainwash people.

Many people suspect that Jennah brainwashed Logan and that’s why he so quickly fell in love and ran off to her when preparing to fight Kralkatorrik. And not without reason, given we know that mesmers can enter people’s minds.

Jennah, Anise, and Snaff all (attempted in the first two cases) to read Kralkatorrik’s mind.

Macha from Sea of Sorrows is a mesmer that constantly used telepathy.

I’d kind of say that mesmers are capable of the proverbial mind kittens.

So… yeah, they are capable of such.

Morfedel.4165:

Which legendary foes are you just standing in their main attacks shrugged it off? Because I’ve been playing four different elite specs, and as an example the wyvern or the axe master, were downing people right and left with no effort, good lord the axe master literally did 1.8 million points of damage to me with its head shot ability. And the wyvern downed me several times along with everyone else in the fights I was in. So what legendary is it that you’re scoffing at?

As a Reaper? Wyvern, Arah’s Giganticus Lupicus, and Legendary Spellmaster Macsen (at Ascendant’s Ring – the other canopy boss). And I wasn’t even optimized the first time I fought the Wyvern, where I was totally underwhelmed because I was never forced out of death shroud let alone downed.

Gwyllion’s mass one-hit kill is probably the only attack the reaper can’t just shrug off.

The GW2 source.

Which more or less confirms two things about the GW1 lore: they as a whole do serve the Six Gods and they as a whole do come from the Mists. And then stats that those in the Crystal Desert were “guardians” left to protect Glint (which is both with and against GW1 lore – the guardian to protect Glint was said then, but not the ‘left behind’ part, as in GW1 it was largely under the impression that all remaining Tyrian Forgotten resided in the Crystal Desert and their ties to the gods were questionable at best).

Amraston.2846:

Is it absolutely clear that they are? I would guess people in Tyria just jump the gun a little by calling them dragon minions,

Developers aren’t people of Tyria, nor is the Dream, nor is the voice sylvari alone hear.

While I’d rather it be a case of Tyrians jumping the gun, or that they would conclude instead that sylvari are corruptible by Mordremoth because they’re plants, that’s not the case.

Amraston.2846:

How would he have corrupted those seeds? He corrupts by persuading minds, and was asleep. How would he have prepared those seeds? Before he fell into sleep? Thousands of years ago? Probably would’ve decayed.

Every Elder Dragon has champions around for when they slept – Primordus had the Great Destroyer; Jormag had Drakkar; Zhaitan had the Giganticus Lupicus; Kralkatorrik had Glint (who betrayed him thanks to being purified).

Why wouldn’t Mordremoth? And what would happen if the champion was killed, and its attempts to create a replacement champion (the seeds) were purified?

We know that dragon minion eggs can go into stasis (see Glint’s egg, and how risen eggs only hatch when hostiles are near), it would not be strange if corrupted seeds are the same – in stasis until the need for them to awake arises. And we know that dragon minions don’t age – at least not like standard mortal creatures do. So I doubt that any corrupted seed would decay over thousands of years if a rotten corpse remains unchanged for so long.

Amraston.2846:

I’m wondering what the purpose of the barrier is.. imprison minions for the duration of the ritual.. maybe?

But why would it push away non-minions (the legendary just teleports into the center if it hits the barrier – unclear if this is to prevent him from being stuck on the outside, e.g., mechanics alone, or if it’s part of the lore of the structure’s barriers)?

The Door of Komalie wasn’t sunken like Orr. It was buried beneath lava. Or rather, it supposedly was.

The problem with poisoning magic, though, is that the world also needs magic. According to Ogden: “Too much magic, and the world spins out of control. Too little, and it crumbles into darkness.”

So by poisoning all magic, you poison the entire world – not just the Elder Dragons, but magic users across the globe and the planet itself.

Amraston.2846:

As I mentioned in another thread I don’t think the seeds had to be purified in the first place, because I would guess they are uncorrupted before they sprout and Blighted Trees get corrupted as they are growing. Seeds don’t have a mind on which Mordremoth can grasp his corruption.

If the Pale Tree is not corrupted, then how are the sylvari dragon minions?

Amraston.2846:

Also it sounds very unlikely that Ventari or Ronan went deep into the jungle to place a seed (from which they likely can’t know its corrupted) in a circle, which they likely don’t know exists, to perform a ritual, which they likely don’t know either.

I never said Ronan or Ventari utilized this ancient, unknown-until-now ritual that had last been used 3,000+ years ago. In fact, I explicitly stated that I don’t adhere to the theory that Ronan and/or Ventari purified the seed – in any fashion.

I’m saying that the ancient races likely purified the Pale Tree’s seed (and the other seeds/creatures in the cave) at Ascendant’s Ring, most likely as a test to see if the ritual would work before attempting it on a powerful mind-reading dragon champion (Glaust aka Glint).

Amraston.2846:

And who did it for Malycks tree? Or do you think the cave where Ronan found the seed was from a (druidic?) cult who wants to stop Mordremoth by cleansing seeds? Sounds ineffective.

More likely a trove of previous purified dragon minions. Would be as effective as purifying Glint, wouldn’kitten if one became a dragon champion?

Amraston.2846:

I heard rumours once it would be possible for the sylvari player character to become a mordrem guard, I don’t know if its true or where this information is from, but if thats the case, thats probably our place to be, since we don’t want our PC to stay that way.

I’ve only heard this being a wild hope/speculation of players.

Shevek.2691:

Did the barrier look like anything special? Maybe hints of Divine Fire/Forgotten influence? Or was it more just general “barrier”?

I put an image of it there. Though due to it being night time, it’s a bit hard to see.

It appears golden, like the structure. But effectively it’s the same – but retextured – from the barrier that the Molten Firestorm creates in its phase 2. Air waves in appearance and pushes players outward, off of the platform.

And as an addendum to my comments in the OP:

The barrier does, indeed, appear as the legendary lands (it does indeed land from the sky), but shows no indication of being summoned by the legendary. It wraps from pillar to pillar in a circle. So it seems to be created from the structure, not the mordrem.

My only real issue with the mastery system is how bland the core content’s masteries are.

And that we can’t glide in core Tyria…

If you look at Anet’s history of how they made GW1, it’s pretty clear that power creep happens in their development cycle. They introduce new stuff and that new stuff will almost always be better than the old stuff.

If you played GW1 at any point after Nightfall’s release, then Prophecies was a complete piece of cake. With EotN, everything else became a complete piece of cake, even most hard mode content.

It’s a sad, unfortunate, but expected reality with how ArenaNet does things. They don’t have a vertical progression or a gear treadmill – they have a horizontal powercreep.

This is how Anet does things. And I had predicted such back in February.

It doesn’t surprise me.

And to those who are saying that people are not used to fighting the elite specs – this isn’t just a matter of PvP. Go into PvE and the elite specs will melt mobs while the core don’t – or at least, don’t as much. The sheer numbers is vastly greater in most (if not all) elite specs.

I’m sorry, but you should not be able to stand in a Legendary boss’s attacks without a care in the world like reapers can. As one example.

As a main necro, I find the obvious OP’ness of reapers to be… boring.

So yesterday in Verdant Brink I came across something that caught my eye. Initially, I noticed that one of the canopy islands was well high above the rest and got interested in reaching it. I eventually managed to, only to later find out that a copter takes you right to it, but found it to be more interesting than simply the highest place on this side of Verdant Brink.

On the island is a point of interest: “Ascendant’s Ring.”: This is a circular structure that has been overgrown and buried, made of gold like in The Sealed Cave and with eight pillars on the top side of the structure with eight more on the outside, going into the ground. Both sets of pillars are exactly the same, as you can find some popping through the ground and even the edge of the platform; the outer ones are placed in the center of the gaps of the inner pillars.

While the design and size differs, the placement of the pillars and the circle itself reminded me greatly of the Altar of Glaust. The main difference being how it would be held up – either the Ascendant’s Ring was built into the ground, or was elevated like the Altar of Glaust was – but where the Altar of Glaust is elevated by a large base, the Ascendant’s Ring would have been elevated by the eight outer pillars.

Due to the similarity I saw, I began wondering if this could be where the Pale Tree’s seed (and Malyck’s Tree’s seed) were purified? Perhaps as a prototype for the Altar of Glaust – smaller and weaker to purify a non-champion dragon minion?

What caught my eye the most was the champion fight that happens at night there. It’s a triad of champion mordrem that share abilities with each other on proximity. When you arrive, they’re kneeling in the center. But more interestingly is that after you kill the three champions, a legendary spawns (seemingly dropped in – though I didn’t get a good look), and without any indication on the legendary mordrem’s part (again, didn’t get a good look at his spawning), a barrier forms around the Ascendant’s Ring, connecting the pillars. Almost as if the barrier formed due to the presence of a very powerful dragon minion…

I’ve attached a series of screenshots for others’ comparison.

Like I said there’s clear difference between the two in size and design, but the equidestant eight pillars is questionable, at the least.

Curiously, there’s also a mordrem vine that stops directly over the circular structure, poised almost to try to strike at it… but prevented.

Others’ thoughts?

Agroman.7190:

Honestly, I find the mind bending thing more unlikely than time warping. It’s never really stated that mesmers can get directly into people’s head. But, any way you put it, the spell is ridiculously powerful.

“Getting into people’s head” is exactly what the majority of the GW1 mesmer plethora of skills are about.

Mesmers, in general, can do two things: First, they can manipulate reality via ether. Second, they can directly alter people’s minds.

When the mesmer was released, there was an argument not unlike the current druid one where someone argued mesmers in GW2 weren’t true mesmers because they’re manipulating reality and that’s not what mesmers in GW1 did. While mostly true (there was some manipulation of reality in GW1), a dev came in to state that mesmers were always capable of doing both (of course, despite this the person continued arguing his point…).

It was also said in an interview with Angel that mesmers don’t like it being known that they can manipulate an individual’s perception of reality (“get directly into their mind”) to avoid fear propagating about the mesmer. Given GW1, either this is a recent thing thus explaining the overall movement towards reality manipulation over mind manipulation, or yet another thing Angel got wrong in interviews.

Agroman.7190:

The whole profession is described as being more sinister and more “whatever it takes to succed” and honestly I’d be surprised if that didn’t come at a price of some sort.

I’d imagine that any price there is, is simply that of moral decisions.

Agroman.7190:

Jalis – yes, he could still be alive as far as we know, but I believe it can be said that this is highly unlikely. It is explicitly stated that Revenants channel “legends of the past”, and that usually means something that is truly gone.

I disagree. The phrase “legends of the past” or even “hero of the past” is used more in line with someone who’s time of being great has come and gone. A similar phrasing is used to define Eir in Ghosts of Ascalon, when Gullik talks about her in distaste because she had given up adventuring and doing great deeds (due to Snaff’s death, as we later found out).

Agroman.7190:

And honestly, I don’t think that ArenaNet would go as far as to let a Revenant channel the direct powers of a god, which should be beyond what a mortal magic user could control (Kormir could only do it because the five other gods gave her a special blessing to achieve it). They chose Mallyx for a reason, I believe.

Well it’s pretty obvious that the powers a revenant recieves from the legend is only a fractal of their power. Shiro’s Jade Wind, for example, only temporarily solidifies others in the immediate area (~5 feet) for 3 seconds – with Shiro, it solidified half of Cantha for over 200 years. Jalis’ Rite of the Great Dwarf turns you and those near you into stone for less than a minute, but the original was permanent.

Etc. Etc.

The same would obviously be true for powers from greater beings.

Temihal.8651:

The gods are not good guys, except maybe Melandru.

Dwayna and Melandru were good, and probably Lyssa too.

Balthazar was certainly a human-promoting god and thus more or less a racist, and Grenth was more about fair rights rather than good deeds. Obviously, Dhuum wasn’t. Abaddon arguably was pre-fall, but the reason for his revolt is still clouded (asian pre-release NF lore indicated that either he was just defending his followers who were the original instigators, or that he was after having Tyria follow his own rules and not that of the other five gods). And Kormir is, imo, equally dubious – I would put her on the better side of the spectrum, but not necessarily a “good guy”.

And no, I don’t mean it because of any power-stealing. :P

Agroman.7190:

Kormir wasn’t “using the bad guy powers”. Abaddons powers weren’t bad or evil to begin with. He made them that way and Kormir took the raw power and cleansed it. So that’s no argument for the gods being okay with the Revenant channelling Mallyx or Shiro. Especially Shiro, btw., who stole magic gifted by Dwayna to wreak havoc in Cantha.

That’s not the argument being held. The argument was that the gods didn’t object when the PCs allied themselves with obvious villains (e.g., Joko) to confront Abaddon. That is “using the bad guys power”.

Calcifire.1864:

plus, death gets strange when the mists get involved, Mad King Thorn is dead, but also still very much alive in the mad realm, you also get the occasional living person/thing trapped there (Abbadon pre-nightfall, Dhuum, Rytlock, Mai Trin (the real one, not the fractal clone), most of the lunatic court, Possibly Dessa depending on the nature of her being trapped in her fractal)

hell, Mallyx is a margonite, so who even knows how “living” is defined for him, he was made of mists and lived in the mists to begin with, what would be the difference to a living mallyx in the realm of torment and a dead mallyx in the realm of torment?

Oswald Thorn is not alive. He’s a spirit. Souls aren’t alive.

And living beings can go to the afterlife – this is nothing new as we’ve seen it ever since Prophecies. Though in most cases, it’s a higher being (be it a god’s avatar or a Spirit of the Wild) which allows such.

Margonites seemed to have been souls too. Though this is going off of Varesh, who was killed as a human (though appearing like she was slowly transforming into a Margonite) and then came back from the Realm of Torment as a Margonite.

Margonites – including Mallyx – were not made by the Mists. They were originally humans (though Mallyx may not have been) that were turned into ethereal demons by Abaddon.

Agroman.7190:

Fair point. However, regarding that Mallyx tries to tempt the Revenant with ‘ultimate power’ (at least I think that’s what he says, don’t recall it exactly atm) and that the Legendary Demon skills put conditions on the Revenant that can damage him if he doesn’t manage them properly, I tend to believe that the risk of being corrupted by Mallyx is quite real. Yes, that’s all jut mechanics, but thematically it appears that way to me.

It’s not temptation as I understand it.

When you use the Mallyx elite, he says something along the lines of “Finally, it’s time to show these fools ultimate power.”

So it’s less temptation and more of Mallyx being so egotistical with himself that he thinks he wields ultimate power.

Agroman.7190:

Calcifire.1864:

now I wonder: can a revenant channel a god?

The Revenant channels legends of the past. Dead people. The gods are neither, as far as we know.

We don’t know that they’re all dead. Jalis could still be alive.

And given the nature of the Mists, in that it connects all time and space (including the future) together, it’s theoretically possible for the revenant to channel legends of the future – or even possible legends of the future – just as much as it would be to channel legends of the past or present.

Though I doubt we’ll ever see a revenant channeling the legend of a future, more out of the explanation of “the revenant cannot channel what he doesn’t know.”

By the lore they’ve given, the indication is that revenants channel copies of people who had such a huge impact on the world that they were imprinted upon by the Mists and a clone was made. Said clones can come in various shapes and sizes and be of people, places, or events. The ones revenants channel seem sapient but for all we know are incorporeal.

All that said, to say that gods are neither dead nor legends of the past would be false. See Abaddon as a prime example – he is dead, and he had clearly had a huge impact of the world. He would have been copied by the Mists already, in fact, if Evon had won the election during S1.

Rednik.3809:

Revenant is a profession of charr origin, and dont need any connection with “divine” beings who fled at first signs of ED danger.

We don’t really know the origin.

Rytlock might be the first revenant, but where did he get those powers?

For all we know, he ran into the Six Gods and they taught him how to be a revenant.

One can argue that engineer is of charr origin and thus don’t need a connection with “divine beings” but that doesn’t mean there won’t be human engineers who revere a particular god due to their profession.

And as an aside: The gods did not flee due to the Elder Dragons. They left the world over 1,000 years before the Elder Dragons began to wake, and even their silence isn’t completely so (as seen in the PS and the lore behind human racials).

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I certainly agree that an engineer could feel special reverence for Kormir, or even Lyssa- but they aren’t tied to that choice the way GW1 professions were. Making offerings to Kormir presumably wouldn’t make them more inventive or their concoctions stronger, nor does it give them any explicit advantage that they wouldn’t get making an offering to, say, Dwayna, in acknowledgement of the curative properties of their alchemy.

That would be more due to the silence of the gods than anything tied to the profession, TBH.

If the gods were as active as they were in GW1, then they’d no doubt have a “patron god” for the engineer profession. And revenant.

Even in GW1, while there might be a patron god for a profession is was far from uncommon for an individual of a profession to revere an entirely different god.

Agroman.7190:

Yes, the Revenant channels these powers as useful tools. However, it is implied that there is a certain amount of corruption included (hence the trait line name).

And while that does not necessarily make the Revenant himself a heretic to the Six if they use Shiro or Mallyx, I do think that most faithful humans would disapprove of using such powers and likely proclaim that as being blasphemous.

I don’t think the specialization lines can be taken literally for what’s happening to the revenant, so much as what the revenant is doing.

The corruption line is a heavy-condition focused line that focuses on benefitting Mallyx’s powers, which is about corrupting boons into conditions. Taking positive effects of others and making them negative; taking negative effects of the self and making them positive.

Similar to how Devastation isn’t causing harm to the revenant’s body, but is about the revenant causing harm – or devastation – to opponents.

I would not disagree with revenants who use the powers of the gods’ enemies being proclaimed blasphemous/heretics/etc., but that’s a far cry from the revenants being such.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

vanderwolf.7084:

1.) I don’t think revenants would have ties to ANY gods, since they aren’t from the first game and aren’t a human-origin profession (rhytlock being the first one)

I think this is important. I agree that Grenth is probably the single most prominent contender, but the link would likely be much weaker than for just about any other profession. The reason professions and gods were so closely linked in GW1 wasn’t just a quirk of human culture- the gods actually bestowed direct patronage on certain ones, essentially ‘buffing’ members of the professions that fell under their purview. Revenants, like engineers, are from a time after that patronage, so the relationship needed to form the link isn’t there.

Don’t engineers tend to look towards Lyssa and Kormir though (creativity and knowledge), despite being charr-originating and post-Silence of the Six? Pretty sure I’ve read this before.

I really don’t think that the time period would be much issue. Otherwise couldn’t we say the same for guardians and thieves?

I would imagine the same as ritualists, which hold a lot of similarities to revenant. Which would mean Grenth.

@Agroman: They channel them because they’re useful tools and nothing more. It’s nothing to do with faith but practicality in that respect. Furthermore, it’s not like every revenant out there in existence would channel those two.

Does the OP refer to the copy of Silverwastes, or the first story instance within Verdant Brink?

Cuz the copy of the Silverwastes is a tutorial instance – in so much as it functions the same as the tutorials do (shared instance), but probably only exists to keep the beta separate from the main game (so what we see there would likely be in standard Silverwastes in the future).

If the OP refers to the opening instance to Verdant Brink, then after Rytlock shows up there should be a button to leave (as well as a spot you can stand at to make a pop up show up that will also allow you to leave).

Trahearne wyld hunt was influenced by Mordremoth , leading to the defeat of Zhaitan.

This has been brought up a few times, but doesn’t seem to be the case. According to Points of Interest Episode 18 (summary linked), Wyld Hunts and Dark Hunts (the Nightmare equivalent) are not given by Mordremoth, but are instead kitten in the sylvari’s defenses against him (and presumably the other Elder Dragons depending on your interpretation of the Pale Tree’s dialogue to sylvari during Rallying Call – S2E3). If they were given by him, then he wouldn’t be using them as kitten in the defenses.

could this explain why scarlet madness ? is this what she saw in the omadd machine ?
did she see that the sylvari are Mordremoth minions ?

Supposedly, yes. But that doesn’t really explain how Scarlet knew that Caithe knew. Or, given Scarlet’s dialogue, how she knew that Caithe killed Wynne.

The green orb , AKA Mordremoth drops into tyria’s heart and a sec later it “Explodes” and consume the pink orb AKA Kralkatorrik ?

The green orb is actually Zhaitan. At least according to the Durmand Priory’s depiction of The All – The All is what we see in that vision, btw.

And it doesn’t consume the purple orb at all – I’m not sure where you get that from.

does this mean Mordremoth Consumed/Killed/Corrupted Kralkatorrik ??

No.

at 0:24 u see some explosion with light pillars and what look like a sand storm also if u look up ull see a purple crystal type object reflecting the light (0:29).
i dont know about you but i think that Purple crystals and sandstorm = Crystal desert ?! Kralkatorrik ?!

Lets keep going at 0:40 – 0:46 u see crystal shattering and tendrils taking over .
what do u think about this ?

The crystals are Glint’s Lair. This a non-literal vision depicting Mordremoth going after Glint’s last egg – the entire point of the second half of Season 2, which will no doubt continue into HoT – as well as taking it to a golden location (most likely the Forgotten City in the Heart of Maguuma, past the Maguuma Wastes which are full of sandstorms).

All the Sudden u see purple “stuff” in the tendrils ? Could this be The Kralkatorrik Magic that got consumed by mordremoth ?

Purple is not unique to Kralkatorrik.

Abaddon had it. Mesmers have it. Lyssa has it. Zhaitan had it.

Back during the development of GW2, Jeff Grubb (head writer for ArenaNet) was asked if there was a connection between Abaddon and Kralkatorrik because of that color purple. Grubb’s response was that purple is the color of evil in Tyria.

As we see with mesmers and Lyssa, it is also the color of mind magic.

Mordremoth is the dragon of mind, and is evil.

Crystal Reid.2481:

-snip-

Always nice to be reminded that my favorite dev at Anet who’s done some of my favorite content is working on raids.

Cameron Rich.3905:

What was your favorite encounter from the existing dungeon/fotm content? Why?

I absolutely adore the Molten Duo boss fight in fractals. It’s always a blast for me. For dungeons, I really enjoy the Subject Alpha encounters! And who can forget Lupi!

So one of the people working raids share my favorite three dungeon/fractal bosses?

I’m liking the raid team more and more.

To corrupt the revenant? I would argue yes. The fact it’s not the original could change matters entirely.

Of course, this all depends on what the act of corruption entails. Can a mere copy perform such? Would the copy have the means or knowledge to do it if it had the capabilities? Would it?

It’s not confirmed that Tequatl’s power boost was due to Zhaitan’s death. That’s merely player speculation based off of the NPC-mentioned potential possibility of what Glint could have accomplished.

It’s not entirely clear Tequatl is dead, but Rox certainly claims he is – and took part of his tail (the piece that we see sundered when he’s beaten).

@vanderwolf:

The Shatterer dies fully each time, as we can see its body explode when it flies off, but a new one replaces it.

The Claw of Jormag’s fate is unclear when we beat it back – like Tequatl, it just flails into the water. However, like The Shatterer there are known many Claws of Jormag (whereas for Zhaitan’s dragons, they’re all named uniquely).

Daniel Handler.4816:

My premise was that it took them 250 years to do something called magic and then an inexplicable surge in power.

By your arguments, so has every other profession gotten that “inexplicable surge in power.”

Or were warriors always capable of lighting themselves on fire and getting stronger from that fact?

Daniel Handler.4816:

Your Zhatain example is pointless because the asuran society had a much closer proximity to their dragon. Literally able to touch him.

Says what?

How old, exactly, is the Central Transfer Chamber? How long has it existed? How long have asura been near Primordus?

You can’t say. We don’t know.

Orr was always a magical kingdom – the lore says so – and that reason is Zhaitan and the Artesian Waters.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Show me in lore where it’s stated that paragon used magic. It has already been stated that most skills were given animation to identify them in pvp.

So you’re saying that ethereal wings are not magic because they’re mechanics, but you’re saying that it’s not mechanics for a skill to never possibly be magic if it isn’t given the skill type “spell”.

Gotcha.

Daniel Handler.4816:

There is more to magic than just spells. I’m saying its pointless to use in your examples professions that have already been said to use magic. Whether or not the form is a spell is irrelevant. I could even say now that it wasn’t magic and the dervish was simply praying really hard to a diety to grant them power. It’s matters whether the ability comes from inside or out.

And my entire point is that NOTHING states rangers, paragons, or warriors never used magic. Nothing, except for players.

Sure, they don’t use spell skill types, but like you said: there is more to magic than just spells. And that has been my point the entire time.

Daniel Handler.4816:

We can see that engineers have modded prayers to Dwayna to work with their toolbelt. Is this magic?

I would argue yes. Because while that’s called a “toolbelt” in mechanics it’s just a second set of skills. And some are, indeed, magic.

Daniel Handler.4816:

You should know by now that the names of spells don’t exactly matter because of the numbers of real life references in them. As well as that they change in other languages.

My. Entire. Point.

NPCs using player spell names is purely mechanics. So asura rangers using players’ skills is mechanics. Not lore. So your argument that asura learned the ranger profession from humans has no support.

Daniel Handler.4816:

I also dislike the point that if asuran had magic therfore x profession they do is magic. Look at engineers.

No one said that.

Daniel Handler.4816:

every single time you assume that a non spell is magic you need to realise that artist animations and English names are not lore.

Animations are, actually, lore. Names, not entirely so.

But you need to realize the same. Just because an NPC is using a skill named “Dwayna’s Kiss” doesn’t mean that the NPC is a follower of Dwayna. In the same light, just because an NPC is using the same skills as what’s available to players doesn’t mean that the NPC learned their skills from the player character’s culture/civilization.

Congratulations, you just completely countered yourself in your attempt to counter me.

Obsidian.1328:

No, there were no treants in GW1, Oakhearts were Oakhearts. Treants come from Tolkien lore which GW2 borrowed simply to add name recognition to the Oakheart idea. Oakheart was actually an original name for these things; Treants, or “Ents”, is the literary equivalent of a re-skin.

Oakhearts are treants.

Ergo, treants existed in GW1. But we never saw them by that name. In lore, the term “treant” could be newly made in the past 250 years. It wouldn’t be odd in the least, given how fast languages develop and evolve.

And oakheart was only the name of some of these creatures. Did you forget Pinesouls?

Their group classification in GW1 was just simply “plants”.

Obsidian.1328:

Do you really agree with her reasoning there, Konig?

No. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a part of lore.

Whether I like it or not. Whether you like it or not.

And why are you even here, Obsidian? To continue your argument that GW2 lore and GW1 lore are of two completely different universes while arguing crap like how different artists in comicbook universes write for the same story universe despite retconning each other?

You’re only here to kitten and moan, Obsidian. So kindly stop.

BobbyStein.2315:

Some notes regarding story presentation in raids:

• As stated in the Twitchcon interview, the first raid wing takes place shortly after the conclusion of the HoT story in the timeline.
• All three wings are connected via theme and plot. Ideally, players will experience them in linear order for the best possible experience but, like Living World releases or dungeons you can play them in whatever order you choose, as many times as you like.

I think the main concern regarding this is the level of importance of the story.

Is this like an intregal part of the plot – ala the original Arah story mode or the Molten Facility or Aetherblade Retreat dungeons were to the PS/Season 1?

Or is this like a “and afterwards…” thing like all explorable dungeons are to their respective story mode dungeon? Part of the locational plot but not (directly) relevant to the primary overarching storyline?

Or is this a “after the main threat, a smaller but threatening threat threatens!” like the GW1 elite areas of Dominion of Anguish and Slavers’ Exile?

Or is this a lead in to the next plot that’s unnecessary to do to understand like Tomb of the Primeval King’s change with Factions’ release, or the first Dragon Festival event both of which led into Abaddon’s reveal?

If it’s the first, then that’s bad. But if it’s any of the other three, then it’s fine.

I’d prefer Arachnia, tyvm.

Obsidian.1328:

It would be interesting to see where Konig got his reference for that entry in the wiki, because that part of the GW2 Druid lore was placed there on May 7 of this year. There’s certainly no mention of it in GW1, they were humans at first, and then Druids second…no intermediate condition is ever mentioned.

There weren’t any treants in GW1.

Go visit Brisban Wildlands, there are events near the Priory camp there involved with druid lore. There are “husks” which are called the druids’ bodies.

And there were treants in GW1 – just not called that. Oakhearts are treants.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Please stop assuming that just because there was magic in places his perspective is automatically wrong. The race you constantly bring up as counterexample could literally touch a sleeping primordius. He was a human writing on humans.

His perspective IS wrong, because he was working under the presumption that:

1) there were only five gods
2) they created magic

But we know this isn’t the case. In both cases. Therefore, he was working off of false information.

And hell, the Scriptures even show the gods granting magic before 1 BE.

We have developer statement that 1 BE wasn’t the first time the gods released magic from the Bloodstone.

Primordus wasn’t the only Elder Dragon near civilization. Zhaitan says hello.

There is no assumption made. You just refuse to acknowledge that you’re wrong.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Your dervish example holds no ground as the dervish class already used "spells. "

But they use magic that isn’t called skills, yet you say that magic in GW1 skills only appear in the skill types called “spell”.

You’re contradicting yourself.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Your charr example has no grounds because preservation magic has been said to work even with just faith in something.

Oh, so the charr healers have a faith in Dwayna?

Or are you saying that charr could have healers without human interaction because they held faith, yet asura couldn’t develop how to use a bow and arrow on their own accord without human interaction?

You’re contradicting yourself.

And I’m just going to note that what’s stated to be working on faith is guardian magic, not preservation school of magic.

Daniel Handler.4816:

The game called things spells or not. Warriors, Rangers, and Paragons did not have them. This was not the player.

But paragons used magic too. It’s stated in the lore.

Or are you going to say that ethereal wings appearing isn’t magic?

Daniel Handler.4816:

When dervishes used forms they were said to channel divine powers, when rangers do it they are said to borrow them. Ritualists have their channeling magic. Monks are also said to channel.

You’re now just mixing terminology.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Literally only the Rangers are described as borrowing magic, and this was on a class with no access to any spells.

It was not just the players saying who did magic and who did not.

There’s more to magic than just spells. If you actually paid attention to lore like you claim you’d know this by now.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Also I have never said rangers don’t use magic in gw2. I was always referring to the first game.

Your very premise is the argument that rangers don’t use magic in GW2, prior to the druids, and that this is why rangers using druid magic doesn’t fit the lore.

You’re contradicting yourself.

But like I said, not once was I ever forced or even enticed to fight an enemy near an instance border. In 3 years, playing through every release and every storyline, not once was it enforced upon me.

So I cannot imagine the fault being on ArenaNet’s side – be it “sloppy game design” or otherwise.

And if you ever do find yourself fighting near a border… back away from it. The enemy will follow you.

Daniel Handler.4816:

“This text is not a work of fiction, but is based on historical fact as interpreted by the author. Historical facts have been revised based upon new information acquired by the author between 1022 AE and 1072 AE.” You will need to show me why this statement is inaccurate.

Are you kittening serious?

I already have.

That piece of lore was written from the in-universe perspective of an individual before the knowledge of both Abaddon and the Elder Dragons, and as such the existence of magic in the world prior to 1 BE, was known. As I’ve already stated.

At the time of its publication, it was accurate. But it isn’t any longer. Just like the History of Tyria from the Prophecies manual.

If you’re not even going to read my posts, don’t bloody reply.

Daniel Handler.4816:

However for asura.
If they had not had time to get developed to human culture, why do they use the same rangers skills as humans? How is it possible that two races in absolute isolation would practice the exact same way. The ability to give racial skills was already in the game, yet absent for these Asura. It really is quite a quandary, but given their staggering intelligence you don’t know for certain what type of magic the asura practice under the ground.

Why do charr use the same skills as humans? Why do norn? Stone Summit? Krait? Mantids? Naga!?

Because it’s mechanics and in GW1 all NPCs utilized the same skills players did.

Norn didn’t use norn racial skills either. Until the Ebon Falcons in War in Kryta, the Ebon Vanguard didn’t use Vanguard skills. Dwarves never used dwarf racial skills. Kurzicks and Luxons didn’t use their PvE skills either.

I mean, for crying out loud, there are charr who used the skill Dwayna’s Kiss despite the race being clearly anti-Five Gods!

Seriously. You’re not that stupid – I hope – so stop acting like you are.

And I mean come on. Like shooting an arrow from a bow is unique to human culture.

Daniel Handler.4816:

You do hide behind the concept of AR. The concept of full caster versus hybrid was not only based on AR but also on whether or not they used spells. Classes that had zero spells were said to be non magical in nature. The whole idea of which profession types can use magic and which not still exists as the scepter limit for the true caster. And now in gw2 the testament to magical ability seems to be the staff.

Technically, only players ever called a profession non-magical.

Lore never did.

Lore not once ever says “warriors and paragons do not use magic.”

Not. Once.

And rangers use magic pre-druid in GW2. But you’ve already been told this. Yet you deny it. So I won’t bother repeating myself there.

Thieves use magic too, by the way – shadow stepping and stealth are magic. But not anywhere do they use magical weapons. Even using staff as daredevil is not using it in a magical manner. Like rangers and guardians, thieves utilize a mixture of magic and physical ability – and like rangers, also mix in tools.

Daniel Handler.4816:

The way they seem to be expressing spell is whether you perform the magic yourself, or you merely act as a conduit for other energies to perform it for you. And as for resurrection, as they showed that it could be performed without using magic yourself, it is moot as to whether it is magic or not.

I never said anything about resurrection being magic or not – but how it’s a case of mechanics versus lore. Mechanics do not always result in lore.

And you’re wrong about the performing magic yourself=spell part. See, again, Forms. Not called spells, but it’s certainly the dervish turning himself into an avatar – it’s certainly magic, and it’s certainly the dervish performing the magic.

Revenants don’t call upon spirits. ArenaNet has been extremely careful to never use the terms spirit, soul, or ghost when talking about revenants. It’s always ‘legend’.

This indicates that revenants don’t call upon spirits but rather copies of individuals with a strong impact on the Mists. The Mists are known to copy things – places, people, even events – and that’s what the revenants seem to be channeling. Copies of these famous, or infamous, individuals. Sapient copies, as they react to the situation, but copies nonetheless.

As for Elder Dragons… hard to say, really. It’s fully unknown if they have a spirit in the first place. But it’s known that their magic will return to Tyria (as vanderwolf says). And it’s entirely possible that they create an impact on the Mists and thus can be copied – Abaddon would have been copied by the Mists, if Evon had won the election so I don’t see why the Elder Dragons couldn’t be.

If this is so, would a revenant become corrupted either slowly or quickly? No. The copy of the Elder Dragon – or the soul of one – would not retain the original body’s magic. So in a sense, it would no longer be an Elder Dragon.

There was some profession-based rivalry in GW1’s lore, such as between mesmers and elementalists or between necromancers and monks, or mesmers and necromancers, but this rivalry never really went into full blown conflicts like the exampled “A legion of guardians fighting necros” – but more of arguments between individuals.

And this rivalry wasn’t universal either, but more of “common amongst the groups”.

It would be nice if Anet brought some of this out. But it wouldn’t ever turn into anything more than arguments about how to go about things, I’d imagine. Certainly not full blown wars.

Kasmeer was sent there because it was illusion magic, as mentioned in open world dialogue before that story instance was released.

“No clue yet. They’re krait. Naturally mysterious and—as we’ve covered—irritable. All I know is they’re up to no good, and there’s an anomaly in the water out there.”
→An anomaly? How’s that?
“An illusion, if Kasmeer’s right. There’s an area we can’t breech. An invisible barrier.”
→Why are you here?
“The Great and Gorgeous Mesmer Collective, or whatever they call themselves, contacted Kasmeer to come down and take a look. Seems they admire her for more than her looks.”

As to the initial question: Necromancers use magic too. They just can also use life force. It would be more accurate to try to argue “mesmers are to ether as necromancers are to life force”. Both professions utilize magic, as well as ether and life force even (as well as other magical professions like thieves, guardians, elementalists), but mesmers have a finer tuning with ether and necromancers have the same with life force.

Ether being the core form of ambient magic – or so given lore implies – while life force being the energy behind living (take too much and an individual dies – all magic users can tap into their own life force to strengthen their magic, at the risk of injury or death; for example, Koro Sagewind in GW1 tapped into her life force to create an army of illusions but died hours later).

Sock.2785:

So again the theory is that the mursaat successfully tapped from the DSD’s draconic energy, harnessing the usage of spectral agony in doing so, and mimicking in a way the aspect of this corruption.

I don’t see why this would be the case. Nothing links Spectral Agony to the DSD’s minions.

You try to make this connection by going “backpiece is similar to mursaat wings; backpiece is tentacles like eidolon, eidolon looks like a kraken and is resistant to spectral agony, kraken uses spectral agony, mursaat use spectral agony, DSD minions are tentacles, therefore mursaat took power from DSD for spectral agony”

It really feels like you’re bouncing all over the place in an attempt to prove a random thought – which you yourself have just stated to be more or less true (the random thought is “backpiece looks similar to mursaat wings”).

First off, the kraken isn’t related to the DSD at all.

Second off, the kraken doesn’t use spectral agony.

And third off, there’s no tie from the DSD to spectral agony – or agony.

There’s nothing to link your two theories together. Nothing that directly links the mursaat to the DSD – or to the karka.

Sock.2785:

Regarding the eidolon, are you implying that it spawned from the Realm of Torment (making it a demon)?

No, I’m merely stating that its resistance likely comes from its very nature – being a spectral being of malice and shade. Much like the titans, whom are also resistant to spectral agony.

You don’t have to do the full season on each character. Really you just need to do a full episode per character – e.g., have character A go through episode 1, but then character B goes through episode 2.

Nothing is locked behind the story instances beyond the story instance achievements and unique rewards, which only requires you to do the full episode once per account, and the instances of the achievements until you complete the achievements (don’t even need to stay for the full story instance in many cases).

As Electro said, you don’t need to do the Living World to reach Silverwastes or Dry Top. They direct you there, but you can waltz through the gate in the open world at any point after the episode’s release. Access was only blocked to the new areas from just open world for the first two weeks that they were created (and even then, they were available after the first story instance of that same episode).

As for the story border… I’ve never been forced into the instance border by an enemy. If you find yourself close to one, just strafe back away from the border. And being knocked backed shouldn’t give an issue as there is a fairly long time period in which you can get back inside the boundaries unless you keep running out (it’s a distance from + time within thing). GW2 combat is all about positioning – so the answer here really does stem into a “get good” response in most cases. I’ve not once ever dealt with this, in either the personal story or Season 2, and that includes on professions I’m absolutely horrible playing as. And the reason for the borders is pretty clear – to prevent you from exploring entirely empty zones.

Well one good way would have been to find a sylvari from another tree (e.g., Malyck) and watch them go mad and turn into a fullblown dragon minion – or to find a Blighted Tree and see how it’s practically the same as the Pale Tree, but such would still leave room for interpretation which, imo, would have been the way to go until HoT itself and sylvari PCs hearing Mordrmoth’s calling.

They were more connected to the Ring of Fire bloodstone, and equally connected to the Shiverpeaks bloodstone (which we go near). So I fail to see how that’s a relevant connection.

The only source in existence that states the ritualists had a form of magic pre-Exodus.

It’s from the Guild Wars Factions Prima guide, written from the perspective of Loremaster Ermenrend of Ascalon, who was later on added into the game as an NPC in Lion’s Arch.

That said, I would like you to present any source which states “The asura did not have magic in any more sense than the ritualists did. They used magical energies, most likely that taken from primordius.”

“Your definition of magic would then imply that engineers are a magical profession.”

No, it does not. Engineers use technology. Magic is not technology, but as asura and the Pact show they can be mixed. Nowhere did I ever state that magic and technology are similar, nor have I ever stated that you can use magic without spells.

“The game itself defined what spells were and said that nature rituals were not spells.”

This is the classic case of mechanics versus lore. While many times they go hand-in-hand per ArenaNet’s intent, this is not always true – e.g., resurrection in GW1. This is one such case, where not all magic was defined as “spells”. Example: Most, but not all, Forms were magical spells. The various rituals were similar.

Think of it this way: could you pull a soul from the afterlife without magic? Speaker of the Dead says no. A Good Deed. says no. Ergo, binding rituals had to be some form of magic. Ergo, nature rituals – which are the same concept but different subject, summoning a spirit of nature rather than a spirit of mortals – must be some form of magic.

To say “all magic in GW1 were called spells” is downright false.

“Don’t hide behind the concept of AR, that merely defined whether one was a hybrid or pure caster.”

I’m not hiding behind anything. It’s a given fact that in GW1 the “spellcaster” professions were given light armor – just like it’s a given fact that in GW2 the “scholar” professions are given light armor. It’s the same thing. “Spellcaster” is to GW1 as “scholar” is to GW2.

“Also give me the source that there were asuran Rangers no doubt. Especially because none of the animals we can tame in gw1 are subterranean. The subterranean creature we can tame are devourers and they live nowhere near where the asura originated.”

We see asuran rangers in GW1 – here’s an obvious example – and they had not had enough time to get accustomed to human culture yet. We see rangers amongst many races that weren’t humans. Rangers were NOT a human-centric profession like dervishes were (all non-human dervishes were animals that had scythe-like claws).

As for charming subterranean creatures. Again, this is a case of mechanics versus lore – something you seem to continuously blur the line between – after all we see NPCs charming animals in GW1 that players could not. For example, Peacekeepers charming drakes.

However, you are wrong to say there were no subterranean tamable pets in GW1. As there were two. This is even false in GW2, where we have Murrellows which came from the Depths (forced out by Primordus and destroyers along with the skritt and asura).

Ehmmm… You should take a visit to the karka hive, regarding that “karka backpiece doesn’t resemble karka” bit.

Furthermore:

• Titans also have a heavy resistance to Spectral Agony.
• Jade Maw does not use spectral agony, nor does it use agony (unlike any other boss, its applications of agony is ambient).
  Fractals’ “agony” is NOT the same as Spectral Agony. The name similarity is just a nod to GW1 (as was stated way back when, when the stuff was introduced – agony, infusion, ascended gear – just nod backs).
• I don’t really see how the backpiece resembles mursaat wings.

Going off of the fact that Eidolons are stated to be creatures of malice, and are spectral; and titans are created from tormented souls, then their immunity is likely tied to the nomenclature of the Spectral Agony skill – that is, that Spectral Agony likely causes pain to the very soul. Eidolons and titans are both creatures born of spectral pain, so it’d be like using a flamethrower on a man who’s been doused in gasoline and lit on fire already – it’ll hurt and make things worse, but it won’t really have that much difference in its effect.

I don’t think that any of that creates a link between the karka and mursaat. Really, it seems like you just made a link between karka and the DSD (one that folks thought existed since the Sclerite stuff came about) and just arbitrarily said “mursaat!”

In theory, yes.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Magic existed in the world before the gift but ritualists did not use it. They were only able to practice it with the use of spirits. After the gift they became true spellcasters. If you have a source that claims otherwise I would like to see it.

Your source is from Factions, from an in-universe perspective that claims the Margonites to be Luxons.

It’s already made fallible on a few points, due to remove or unknown history to humans. Magic existing in the world prior to 1 BE was part of that removed or unknown history and thus it is subject to suspicion.

We have proof that magic existed in the world. But no further statements on the state of ritualists in the world pre-1 BE. So it can go either way. Therefore, it is a theory. A theory based off of a potentially-fallible statement that itself relied upon false information.

Daniel Handler.4816:

What said they didn’t use magic was the game. Rangers couldn’t cast any spells nor are they listed as a caster profession.

GW1’s classifications of “caster professions” was literally “60 AR armored professions” – assassins and dervishes used magic but were not classified as “caster professions” because they had 70 AR.

Rangers did cast at least one kind of spell: nature rituals. It requires magic to summon spirits from another plane of existence.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Why you are bringing asuras up I don’t know, as one I never said there was no magic in the world, I implied humans could not perform until the gift.

I brought it up because of that implication.

My point being that you cannot trust GW1 sources when it comes to the origin of magic, because they all state that the origin of magic was 1 BE – yes, including the history of the ritualist.

It’s a piece of lore tossed from the known to the unknown due to the base of the information being proven false.

Daniel Handler.4816:

And two the only reason asura had such magical ability is that they lived next to a sleeping primordius. Rangers were humans so Asuras have no bearing on their magical abilities

There were asura rangers too, no doubt. Also, not all asura lived near Primordus – the Central Transfer Chamber was one of six grand cathedral-cities that existed underground. And that doesn’t even include the non-city settlements.

Adrenalin.5719:

Please revert the removes or atleast rerelease them in a forseeable future.

You did not pay attention to the recent news posts, did you?

Last weekend – literally just a few days ago – they put a bunch of items (armor and finishers mainly) from the gemstore on a “going away” notice and in the news – which is visible both on guildwars2.com as well as the game launcher – it was stated that the summer items will be going away until next year and will be replaced by the winter items (which are now up – items such as Primeval armor, etc.).

They will return. ArenaNet explicitly stated that they would, and even warned you that they were going away for the year.

This isn’t even the first time they’ve done this. They did the same thing last year too, removing some skins to bring them back 6 months later.

Magic existed in the world before 1 BE. As we’ve learned time and time again from GW2. There was even an interview pre-GW2’s release which stated that the asura had magic before then, and during Abaddon’s ‘gift of magic’ they felt the world’s magic increase then decrease just as suddenly, never knowing why it happened.

Ritualists having magic before the gift of magic is not weird, since not all magic was in the Bloodstone – some was leaking out of the Elder Dragons.

Nothing says the rangers didn’t use magic in GW1, either. All that’s said about rangers and magic is that in the past 250 years they went more towards magic.

In all honesty, Daniel Handler, I think you’re making an elephant out of a mouse.

If such a thing was stated, it was a relatively-obscure interview or players stating it. Certainly such has never been said in-game nor in any interview I know of, and I’ve been collecting interviews to create a cache of them.

We know that when the Elder Dragons fall asleep they release their magic – but this is a slow process, and wouldn’t strengthen other dragons outright as they’d all fall asleep around the same time (give or take a few centuries). We don’t know what lesser dragons can consume magic besides dragon champions like Glint, etc. But we know that when a dragon champion die they also leak magic out – again, slowly.

Well dialogue in the maps indicate that Zhaitan’s presence ‘deeper’ in the Shiverpeaks (Timberline and eastern Mount Maelstrom) is relatively recent.

Though on my comment of Mordy and the raid and Bloodstone Fen – spoilers – that_shaman pulled the map of the raid in today’s patch and apparently placed north of Silverwastes, giving room for a map between it and Verdant Brink. So HoT could have a Bloodstone Fen map.

Interestingly though, it seems to border that huge lake in the north, which in GW1 had always looked like a face (face-likeness reduced on GW2’s world map).

Link to world map with raid map in it.

draxynnic.3719:

Thankfully, the five main pieces were outside of Zhaitan’s reach (although one is uncomfortably close to Mordremoth…)

Interestingly, or annoyingly depending on your viewpoint, this isn’t true.

Lore says that Zhaitan’s dead ship fleets extended to the Ring of Fire, where naturally we know one of the Bloodstones exist.

Yet it wasn’t pertinent to the story.

Curiously enough, the same is hinted to be the case of HoT. We have Bloodstone Fen so close to Verdant Brink – directly to the north of it… but what’s to the north of Verdant Brink? The raid, which takes place after HoT.

Though since the raid is located along the edge of Silverwastes, maybe there’ll be a map with a gap between it and Silverwastes, placing the Bloodstone in a map, and thus within HoT’s plot. Though with only four maps in total for HoT, one being Verdant Brink… it’s rather doubtful to me.

The thing about the “asura tech airship” is that it was poisoned magic based off of Gorr and the Inquest’s research. In the same method that dragons consume, corrupt, then exude magic to create minions that technology was doing the same – taking in magic, poisoning it, then giving it back. So Zhaitan probably did consume it – or some of it – which then weakened him.

We don’t necessarily defeat the mouth of Zhaitan with magic – the method changes by profession. And as you said, it eats magic items, not magical spells.

Maybe the dragon can ONLY consume free magics.

This is probably true, and that’s exactly why fighting the Elder Dragons with magic is suicidal.

You have a chance… at first. Come a century later? There’s less free magic to use spells. Another century? Even less. Soon enough, within a few generations, there’s not enough magic to power the most basic skills except for the most talented magic users.

The Elder Dragons play a game of attrition, and if you use magic primarily, you will lose unless you can beat them immediately.

But Zhaitan was only beaten because of the combination of 1) old knowledge not being destroyed, 2) magic and technology combined, 3) research on how the dragons consume magic.

Without any one of those, the Pact would not have won.