Guild Wars 2

It’s now 26 years. The firstborn were born in 1302. Every dialogue ever just averages it out to “25 years ago” because rounding.

There’s always a challenge to the dragons…

The other Elder Dragons.

They’ve not shown hostilities (yet), but they all aim after the same food source.

CodeHavoc.7926:

How is that any different than making the legend backpack and slapping a mawdrey skin on it? Making the kitten thing was a chore in itself, but I have to craft it twice? No thanks.

The difference is that it would be a brand new skin that utilizes the current Mawdrey like a precursor. Like the model difference between the Mysterious Vine, Cultivated Vine, and Mawdrey.

If you still have it (even if you transmuted the skin), then you wouldn’t need to craft it again.

Are you sure, because I definitely recall it being a HUGE thing about elites being added to the open world – and them being named elites (before they were named no differently than standard foes but had that silver border in their icon; they were called dungeon veterans by devs but elites by players).

Episodes 1 and 2 primarily function in Dry Top (rest is in Brisban Wildlands, Timberline Falls, and Kessex Hills). Episodes 3 and 4 only partially take place in Dry Top (rest is all across Tyria).

Episodes 5-8 deal primarily in Silverwastes and Durmand Priory (also taking you to Kessex Hills).

So technically not even half of Season 2 takes place in Dry Top. Just the beginning does.

It’s always been like that AFAIK – my sylvari went through that about 3 months after release and had that line. It was very poorly done, being in two separate cinematics, but it was there.

I suppose there might have been a bug where it was missing though.

That’s certainly true, Lethalvriend, and outright stated. Still, the question that must be asked is twofold:

Why not lvl 1-15 zones (either in addition or instead)? Or cities? Both are accessible to low level F2P players.

And why not Snowden Drifts? It’s also a 15-25 zone like Brisban, Diessa, and Kessex.

Also, to note, Diessa is for charr not norn – norn get Snowden Drifts.

The gods knew of the dragons. This was proven in Season 2 by the existence of the “Scroll of the Five True Gods” which names the six Elder Dragons.

However, Randal Greyston in Arah states that they did not know that Zhaitan was beneath Arah/that Zhaitan was the source they pulled magic from when strengthening the Bloodstone.

That’s mechanics and can’t really be used to argue lore.

Being older than the titans doesn’t mean much, given we don’t know how old the titans are (best placement is “as old as the Forgotten”), and doesn’t necessarily link the magic to the Elder Dragons either – given that the titans originate from the Mists, it’s more likely that any magic that would be granted by them (or Abaddon) would be more closely related to other beings from the Mists – e.g., the Forgotten, demons, or Six Gods – than the Elder Dragons.

Unless, again, the titans didn’t give empowered cauldrons, just cauldrons which could be empowered.

And AFAIK, the only change mentioned for Evon winning would be that LA would be more defended because Evon would have put more pressure than Kiel did, but still ultimately destroyed by Scarlet (just fewer casualties).

EDIT: Note, that I am not saying that the Searing is unlikely to have been powered by Kralkatorrik – I think it’s highly likely, especially how ever since GW2 became a thing every single little matter somehow involves dragons and dragon minions now – but rather that it isn’t certain without doubt.

As mentioned above by Aaron, standard risen caused magic to be reduced in an area, as shown in the asura personal story steps Field Test and Test Subject.

Trueclaw says there were five races fighting six Elder Dragons. There’s no indication of a sixth race in Trueclaw’s dialogue. “Five versus six” is races versus dragons.

sharkswithlazers.7632:

Mawdrey is unique in how you had to travel all over Tyria to obtain her, she grows as you collect more stuffs, and could potentially grow even more (if you could give her legendary pots and waters ofc.)

+1

Would also like to be able to take my Spinal Blade backpieces and upgrade them once more into Legendary status. Could make Mawdrey the “Season 2 Legendary Backpiece” and Spinal Blades the “Season 1 Legendary Backpiece” even.

Though the Spinal Blades isn’t so ‘travel all over’ – though nothing says the recipes can’t be altered – neither is the current state of the fractal backpieces. And let’s face it, getting all three colored Spinal Blades is a legendary feat compared to our current legendary weapons.

Fractal Capacitator, Spinal Blades, and Mawdrey are the only backpieces that you actually craft from low to high status (well, there’s the crafting backpieces but meh to those – they’re too simplistic to deserve legendary status).

sharkswithlazers.7632:

What would a legendary Mawdrey even look like?

-insert obligatory Feed Me Seymour joke-

NapTooN.6283:

One insecure Guy detected. There is nothing girly about the Color Purple, and back in the Days (at least in Germany), Pink was considered the Boy Color until someone decided: “Meh, thats pretty girly”.

That’s how it was in America too, until the early 1900s when the baby clothing/etc. companies decided to color code their products.

Pink was originally a color for boys because it was a “softer red”, with red being a color for men.

Similar to how nowadays people associate purple with either girls or pimps, but in the past it was the color of royalty.

Most gemstore armor is just shoulders, gloves, and helms. Some are just gloves and helms and some are just shoulders and gloves. Lawless are unique in that they also have boots.

Rather wish all were like Lawless.

Well, I’d wish more that there were full sets, but unless they become like Hellfire and Radiant I’m ever so doubtful.

It woudl be, but it would also require a bit of dialogue changing or else potentially feel jarring. There’s also the matter of rebalancing them not just to number of players but level as well, and then the matter of placement within the personal story – the best place to put them would be between chapters, but even if AC is put directly after Setting the Stage story step, you’d still have only the breaks between chapter 4-5, chapters 5-6, chapters 6-7, and chapters 7-8. Though one could argue placing some in the middle of chapter 8 given that chapter 8 itself is three separate storylines all dealing in Orr (effectively the size of three chapters.

Ideal placement, with minimal work involved, in my opinion would be:

Setting the Stage (moved to end of Chapter 3) → AC → Chapter 4 (Order intro storyline) → CM → Chapter 5 (racial sympathy storyline) → TA → Chapter 6 (Claw Island) → SE → Forging the Pact (minor dialogue rewrite at end) → CoF → rest of Chapter 7 → HotW → Pre-Further into Orr Chapter 8 → CoE → Remainder of Chapter 8 (ending with Arah and after-party)

CoF deals with the Pact, so it can’t be pre-Chapter 6 the end of which sees the formation of the Pact, though it’d be best after Forging the Pact IMO. It wouldn’t make much sense to go into Fireheart Rise after defending Fort Trinity either, IMO; it doesn’t much for HotW but that’s what it is and it would make less sense to go to Honor of the Waves while you’re deep in Orr (while less sense for going into CoE because that involves with research into dragon minions, which is later used against Zhaitan, and is very close to Fort Trinity thus posing a potential threat to the Pact). Placing CoF in the middle of Chapter 7 also prevents bunching dungeons next to each other.

That’s not true. While the mentor does introduce him to all players regardless of race, sylvari get a special before-mentor-introduces cinematic where they greet each other showing they know each other.

Said special sylvari-only lines:

mtpelion.4562:

They tried to scale them on my server, but we didn’t have the population back then for Champs. Just lots and lots and lots of vicious elites that gave no loot.

Season 1 was a very dark time for the small servers.

Erm…

Elites weren’t added to event scaling until Tower of Nightmares. Scarlet’s Invasions predate that.

o.O

@PopeUrban: Can’t see anything to disagree with there, though I’m not sure if that’s all that needs to be done.

Adding a cost to waypoints is not a mistake. It’s an intentional gold sink to help manage the economy, and overall a well done one. It’s only a real hindrance to players when you have to waypoint a LOT – such as during invasion-styled events.

sorudo.9054:

GW1 has the hobbit and LOTR in one, GW2 barely makes the hobbit and that’s including HoT.
i was talking GW2+HoT, not GW1.

So was I.

Season 1 directly leads into Season 2 which in turn directly leads into Heart of Thorns. Those three storylines function as a trilogy.

The Personal Story is a prequel to S1/S2/HoT, but is not directly influencing the plot of said three beyond setting the stage. Very similar to how The Hobbit is a prequel to Lord of the Rings, setting the stage for the trilogy, but does not directly influence the plot of LotR.

GW1, however, does NOT tie in directly to GW2 and aside from the latest installments, particularly Eye of the North and War in Kryta, does not even set the stage for GW2. GW1’s plot and story is 100% unrelated to GW2’s plot and story – the only similarity they hold is being in the same world.

And until recently, even that didn’t matter much with how few references there are to GW1. You can easily play GW2 without any knowledge of GW1 at all. If you play GW1, there’s only minor tidbits that you gleam as additional facts. Unlike where you can read LotR without the Hobbit, but if you read the Hobbit then you gleam many additional facts that are related to LotR.

This isn’t lore at all but pure 100% mechanics – and lazy ones at that, given that they could rework them just for the revenant.

After all, the engineer gets unique racial skills (except for elites but that’s also recent laziness on the devs part).

It’s not yet clear that the Searing was tied to Kralkatorrik, however even if it was there’s an important fact to note about it:

Researcher Fero: Well, braid my ears! Those ancient Flame Legion poobahs may’ve been evil, oppressive oiks, but they knew how to enchant a weapon.

wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blast_from_the_Past

The Flame Legion might have been given the cauldrons, but they enchanted them. Supposedly.

As for Zhaitan’s interest in the temple of Abaddon – he and his generals had interest in EVERY temple in Orr. Not just Abaddon’s.

Abaddon’s statue in the Priory is because he’s the god of knowledge (though called god of secrets after his fall). Priory is all about lost knowledge, and he is lost knowledge.

They didn’t say Abaddon’s fractal would be tied to “this whole thing”. They only said that Evon’s interests might not have been entirely unreligious – hinting that Evon is a secret worshiper of Abaddon.

That idea has been around since The Movement of the World’s been around (aka since we knew of the Elder Dragons).

But why would giving the races (not just humans) and the world itself the Elder Dragons meal be a means to fight them?

Elder Dragons literally consume magic. Fighting them with magic is practically suicide – this is why the Seers made the Bloodstone in the first place, to starve the ED.

By the time of Nightfall, Abaddon had clearly gone insane – whatever noble or not-so-noble agenda he had in year 0 when he unleashed the Bloodstone’s magic was likely long gone and his focus was on freeing himself and revenge against the other gods. A thousand years suffering under the multiverse’s greatest source of torment will do that.

Uhm, I’m not sure where you made that leap.

The vines that attacked the waypoints were – theorized by Taimi to be – a part of Mordremoth himself.

There were no such vines at Concordia. There were other vines – jungle tendrils – which are not the same as the waypoint attacking vines.

There’s never specified a specific type of mordrem consumes a magic. It’s just stated that the mordrem assaulted the magic item holding caravan and the items were drained of their magic during the assault.

In Iron Marches there is another Priory caravan which was assaulted by mordrem too.

Nothing says that the Jungle Tendrils consume magic. But we’re told that the mordrem that assaulted Concordia – which included tendrils, wolves, husks, and both standard thrashers – drained magic from the area.

Just like we have standard risen consuming the ambient magic in the asura personal story steps.

SirDrygan.1823:

It’s just the same as sending this spawners to spawn in DR, The Grove and Rata Sum.

I’m sorry, but no. Sending and army of minions via underground to the countryside is NOT the same as sending an army of minions via underground to a highly populated city with concrete ground.

The mere change of population is the key factor. People living inside walled cities (or floating cities) won’t care if you assault outlying farmlands and mines. But they will care if you assault said fortified cities.

Yes, in either case the mordrem get cut down – though in all honesty there’s a smaller likelihood of the mordrem being defeated in attacking the outskirts of civilization – but the repercussions that are the kingdoms’ rulers reactions differ greatly. They will not feel threatened so unless pushed they will not mobilize a retaliation.

But if mordrem suddenly showed up in the Arcane Council chamber? If they showed up in the Queen’s Pavilion? You can bet your kitten the entire asura and human race would be mobilizing – be it in retaliation or in fleeing.

And there’s no doubt that an unprepared raid would fail if attacking the capital of an entire race (let alone kingdom). But it’s not without doubt the raid would fail if attacking suburban areas.

Besides that, where Mordrem show up is rather crucial locations – just not the most crucial.

• Brisban Wildlands holds the largest skritt city – Skrittsburg. As well as a huge concentration of bandits. Minion making fodder in both cases.
• Kessex Hills holds the mines and farms of Kessex. As well as a huge concentration of centaurs and bandits. Hinders resources and takes minion making fodder.
• Diessa Plateau is the main ranch lands of the Iron Legion. Their primary food source. Attacking that starves the legions – or at least hinders their rations.

Yeah, it might not be cutting off the head of the kingdom, but it deals critical potential damage.

SirDrygan.1823:

Even if it failed to destroy The Grove, it managed to weaken it. Another attack would have complete the job for the traitor Pale Tree.

The attack did its job, technically, but only because the entire Grove is the individual being that was the target. Attacking DR or Rata Sum wouldn’t be so successful since attacking the underground roots of the Pale Tree was damage – but there’s no such underground targets for Rata Sum, and even breaching the ground in DR wouldn’t guarantee attacking Queen Jennah (not that Mordremoth would care about a puny human queen – remember that the Elder Dragons think in the span of centuries that would be equivalent to days or weeks for us, the life of a single mortal race’s leader is irrelevant because to the Elder Dragons they are as quickly replaced as your pair of underwear).

Aside from the vines that directly attacked waypoints, the tendrils and vines are mordrem.

While I understand the speculation on the raid being around the Bloodstone, for some reason one of the image trailers – the one with three colored crystals – reminds me of the Aurora Glade mission, particularly the attunement portion to allow access to the Henge of Denravi. I know that part of that mission (including the Henge itself) is in Brisban, but that platform reminds me of that rather than anything in that cinematic/images reminding me of Bloodstone Fen.

Edit: This image

Mordrem were also attested to consuming magic by their pure presence during The Concordia Incident.

As sweetmesquite said, you can only get them via the trading post now. They aren’t expensive either. Currently, all four 2.2g.

Season 2 is permanent content.

Season 1 was designed to be temporary, but the negative views made Anet change their mind. They said they’ll someday remake S1 in S2’s format though.

Edit: Official statement.

StrangerDanger.3496:

the reason season one isn’t available is because it was more like an active world event rather than a set of personal story instances. Meaning they cant just have season one active for anyone who buys it, since that would require public world events to make work, which wont work on a per player bases.

Redenaz.8631:

Season 1 isn’t available because the content was almost all open-world events, rather than instances like Season 2.

This is the common belief, but is ultimately not true. The reason it was temporary is because that’s what ArenaNet wanted. The primary story was still told in instances and dungeons, just like the personal story, however Season 1 was designed with two mindsets in mind:

Firstly, that you didn’t need to complete the personal story to play or understand S1. This in turn meant that they had to make “redactions” from the PS’s outcomes to avoid spoilers (such as Logan stating that he would not return to Kryta until all Elder Dragons are defeated, however in Season 1 he very clearly does).

Secondly, that it would be showing only the current state of the world. This means taking away things after implementing them as the state of the world changes.

Both ended up going belly up though, mainly due to player complaints.

The Season 1 story instances, unlike the Personal Story and Season 2 story instances, were determined by account rather than character – and were often tied to achievements. Because of this, it’s not a simple case of converting into the story journal. And while most of the main story was told in the instances, and the open world stuff could mostly be re-added without any harm to the world’s story (no more than the human-charr treaty still being under the same state of negotiations for 3 additional years at least), there were some open world stuff that wouldn’t work any longer such as The Lost Shores and Escape from Lion’s Arch. And there were zerg instances like the Tower of Nightmares which makes the conversion harder. Though the addition of raids allows new avenues for how to return that content.

Overall, Season1 consists of 30 story instances and 2 dungeons. And the main story is told through all of them, and only about 15 or fewer open world events.

StrangerDanger.3496:

Season two is just a bunch of instances, like the personal story, so that is possible to forever stay active because anyone who buys it can just do it at will no need for public event management and coordination.

This is also untrue. Season 2 was a mixture of instances and open world events just like Season 1. If it wasn’t the case, then Dry Top and Silverwastes would be barren. :P

But even ignoring that, we have the new events in Iron Marches, and the changes to events across Ascalon and in Frostgorge Sound (part of Episode 3).

Etien.4601:

If I remember correctly doing a successful Scarlet invasion and LA attack the rewards at the end were way way better than just farming champs. I remember people going crazy for failing at them. Am i wrong?

You’re wrong about the second part. The first part’s rather subjective.

During the Scarlet Invasions, people upscaled and farmed the living hell out of events for the drop loots. This wasn’t so evident at first, but after the first two weeks or so, it was plain as day that was happening, and you’d rarely get past the second of five tiers.

Tybalt said he had a bomb to blow them up. Sadly, we saw no evidence of this bomb that would supposedly make a huge crater in the fort.

Forgal’s the one I don’t really get, being a warrior. Even as a norn.

But if you take note, they barred the giant kitten doors. It bars from the inside. And the docks are outside. They closed the gate, barred them, and held out just long enough.

And yes, it’s been discussed but the forum’s search engine is so crap that it’s not worth the effort to find it.

The Lionguard were weak, crippled, and limping. There were many injured. There were already risen on the docks, but not many.

They could not reach the ships if a hoard of undead were right on them.

The mentors held them off to give that breathing room to the injured.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hello,

I asked the head of the GW2 Design Team about whether we would be making changes and rerunning it, extending it, or repeating it as it currently is designed. At this time, we are not going to extend the event, nor do we have plans at this time to repeat it, either amended or in its current form.

Very bad, very poor decision, IMHO. The event should, at the very very least, extend to Friday. But if that’s what your head thinks, that’s what we suffer. :/

But how about this question: Will Mordrem Blooms be used in the future, or should we use them all before the vendors disappear?

It’s known that sylvari feces is mulch, and so what they drink is likely processed in a similar method that mirrors humans somewhat.

Not all those close to Mordremoth turned. As shown by Laranthir’s camp which is full of sylvari. Some might be moles, but why all of them? Wouldn’t make much sense story wise.

Especially since the sylvari PC have plot armors that make them ultimately invincible/immortal.

draxynnic.3719:

If we start seeing a lot of anti-sylvari prejudice outside of the Heart of Maguuma region, though, the Nightmare Court may be able to present themselves as the only ones who can properly defend the sylvari against the mobs.

“They can’t have the Dreamers. They’re a pain, but they are our pain!” – Scholar Faolain

Unless Anet has taken back their statement that HoT takes place 24 hours after Season 2’s ending (with all the dialogue added with LA’s restoration and this event, plausible), then it’s unlikely that this event is ‘canon’ – and if it is, it’s likely a one-time event that happens almost immediately after the Pact Fleet’s destruction.

If you take note, except for Diessa the three zones are along the placement of Mordremoth’s vines that assaulted the waypoints at the beginning of Season 2 (which ended with Episode 4’s release). So technically Mordremoth already had some presence in those routes. But this presence doesn’t exist in, e.g., Divinity’s Reach (only city where tendrils popped up was Lion’s Arch – which has had a new ground foundation added to be less than pure dirt like Concortia and Salma’s ground).

Then there’s how one of the Researchers state a theory about where Scarlet attacked and where Mordrem pop up.

On the topic of ‘smart or stupid’ – let me ask you this:

Is it smart to assault a large populated location when you’re not fully prepared yet, just because you can? Or is it smarter to wait in the distance, make yourself a known but not immediate threat, and gather your strength so that when you do assault said large populated location there’s no chance for them to be victorious?

The attacks on Fort Salma, Concordia, and The Grove while devastating and with enemy casualties were ultimately unsuccessful for Mordremoth. So why would he antagonize the entire human, norn, asura, and charr races by assaulting their capitals and largest population centers?

A lot of people ask “why don’t the Elder Dragons just wipe out the capitals/races/leaders/etc.” but honestly… what would that accomplish if they failed? High gain, yes, but also high risk. And Elder Dragons don’t play a zero sum game.

And Mordremoth didn’t plant the Pale Tree or the sylvari. And besides that, the Pale Tree was planted 250 years ago not 25.

If they do the NC writing good, there will be a schism between those who think it’s more important to be their ‘true selves’ (aka mordrem) and those who think it’s more important to decide their own fate (aka the basis of the NC’s founding).

Faolain never really gave off interest in either case until S2, where she was all about deciding her own fate. So it would be downright odd for her to accept Mordremoth.

People say that scene with Faolain in the trailer was humans vs sylvari and mordrem… but what if it was sylvari vs human vs mordrem?

Put it into this perspective. Let’s say 1 airship requires 100 steel beams, 25 pounds of canvas, 300 feet of rope, and a good team to pilot it. Sans that good team, all of that can be mined or farmed and produced pretty much anywhere in Tyria.

But a magical armor of total invincibility. Let’s say this costs 20 iron ingots, special sylvari plants, and an orb of eternal power. That orb you won’t be finding laying around in a supermarket.

A fleet of airships is pure material costs. A magical suit of armor is magical costs and could require something completely unique – after all, no such suit of armor exists anywhere else in over 2,000 years of recorded history.

And Bercilak doesn’t keep the armor on at all times – it’s how we kill him, after all (presuming you assist Gairwen rather than Occam – she literally tears the helmet off his head and runs away with it so you can kill him). If it’s so easy to remove a helmet… you’re screwed.

And then there’s one fact you’re forgetting… this suit of armor is magical.

Elder Dragons consume magic.

So… yeah, that armor would be useless against an army of magic-draining-by-mere-presence dragon minions.

Presuming that HoT even comes with a story and that ‘preview story step’ isn’t actually part of Season 3 that gets released with HoT or some other stupid kitten like that…

Most likely it will. Comparing Zhaitan’s plot to Mordremoth’s, Season 1 is akin to PS’s chapters 1-3 – until the end there’s no real relation to the ultimate plot; Season 2 is akin to PS’s chapters 4-6 – deals only indirectly with the main plot for the first bit, but quickly heads into fighting a dragon champion at the end (Blightghast the Plaguebringer v Shadow of the Dragon); so HoT’s plot will be akin to PS’s chapters 7-8, the actual assault against Zhaitan/Mordremoth.

Though I guess we can always be wrong…

“Blueprints for a magical suit of armor. The smith notes that it required unique components and was hard to make. It is truly one of a kind.”

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/A_Good_Work_Spoiled

Because it’s too costly?

And there was more than just “the only thing that could destroy it was the hammer that forged it”:

“Occam’s journal describes the green armor’s enchantments, and says that they only work if the entire suit is worn.”

So if you take off the helmet to cool off, or lose a glove… you’re just as vulnerable (if not more so – we don’t really know how good the armor is without its invincibility as Bercilak died easily) than any other person out there on the battlefield.

Basically, it’s the same argument for “why doesn’t the Pact just use the ritual that freed Glint on all dragon minions” – the ritual requires specific geological locations, is costly in resources needed to use it, and only gives free will not make the minion opposing the Elder Dragon (so if the minion doesn’t want to leave servitude, it won’t).

Indeed, Ree Soesbee said that in an interview after Ghosts of Ascalon which denoted Killeen (the sylvari of the story) as being ‘brighter’ and ‘more energetic’ during the day than at night.

Basically that they photosynthesize, but it’s not enough energy since they’re mobile and thus need to eat food.

Of course, nowhere is ever stated that they consume magic like proper dragon minions of all shapes and sizes. -coughs-

More feedback after my previous post. Some other issues I’ve noticed.

Immersion Breaking
The mordrem do not attack anything, by my views. The times I’m the first one to the events – as few as they are – the mordrem are literally just standing around picking daisies, even if there’s wildlife right next to them.

The mordrem should attack everything in sight.

You should never encounter a force threatening all life as we know it standing around idly with a cute fuzzy bear right next to it as if they’re having tea and crumpets!

Event Diversity
While the three events are fun, it’s not enough for a lot of farming. There should be more things to do than just “kill Vine Crawlers”.

How about some champion events? Or a capture the area events? Kill mobs like crazy events? Scarlet’s Invasion had a much wider spread of events, which made them more enjoyable.

I would also look at the BWE2 finale which had a different variety of events, and was greatly praised – party due to the open world WvW feel of it to players who lost. When dealing with temporary invasion events, it’s not so bad to let players be the bad guy (that actually makes it more fun, especially if rewards are the same either way).

The Mordrem Invasion has, effectively, one goal but different methods to complete that goal: Kill mordrem spawners.

Where’s killing champions?
Uncontesting waypoints?
Slaughtering mook mobs?
Protecting NPCs/locations?

And then some. The Mordrem Invasion would be like if during the Scarlet’s Invasion you’d have just had Destroy the Molten Alliance tunneling machine as every event. Would get boring quick, no?

An example for the Mordrem Invasion on other events possible to have:

• Dark Wings spawn across the map using the attacks from Tracking the Aspect Masters – they could either stay until killed, or like Scarlet Briar disappear via flying away when low health.
• Calm/Capture Raving Sylvari – the Mordrem Researchers say they’re there to study effects of Mordrem. Capturing sylvari who are being turned by Mordy seem like a great opportunity. Bring in environmental weapons for the capturing, to spice things up.
• HoT-exclusive champion – similar to the Dark Wing one, but staying to death and with an army of minions around it, introduce a mordrem champion type that will be featured in HoT as a preview of what we can expect to fight. Even if this figure remains in the distance like The Shatterer did during BWE2’s finale, that’d create a thematic interest to the event.
• Players being turned – since this is dragon corruption we’re talking about, experiencing such a thing for a one-time event wouldn’t be out of the question. Players who die near certain events are given a zone-specific buff that acts as a transformation and makes players hostile to other players without the buff. Giving them a brand new model that players will see as an upcoming foe’s model makes it all the sweeter.

TIME TOO SHORT
30 minute invasions only cause players to rush-rush-rush through stuff, ultimately for few rewards. It’d be better to have more time to allow things to be more casual. Overall duration of the event as well. One weekend is far too short – we learned this with The Lost Shores, why are we repeating past mistakes? Is 2 years so long that Anet needs to relearn what was learned then (not just in the event’s duration, but the other issues too)?

The husks are tied to the sylvari just like sylvan hounds are. It’s not the same as the undead-risen comparison.

It’d be a more accurate comparison to say “I doubt all plant monsters are Mordy’s, any more than all undead belong to big Z.”

Heart of Thorns isn’t Season 3 just like how the Personal Story isn’t Season 1.

Heart of Thorns would be more akin to Season 2.5.

sorudo.9054:

playing S2LS without HoT is like reading lord of the rings the two towers without reading the fellowship of the ring (altough, LOTR has a story with tons and tons more lore and depth then Anet can ever make), i do think that if they are so generous then they should include this in HoT.

I like to compare GW2’s story to LotR too, though I disagree with the “tons and tons more lore and depth” – if you played GW1, there was a lot of depth, and in all honesty in just LotR and The Hobbit alone I don’t think there’s as much depth as many people claim, but that’s me. How I like comparing GW2 to LotR is like this:

Personal Story = The Hobbit
Season 1 = Fellowship of the Ring
Season 2 = The Two Towers
Heart of Thorns = Return of the King

You can play through S1 and S2 without knowing the details of the PS, though the PS leads into S1. But you can’t really play S2 or HoT without knowing S1 or S2 respectively.

Regev.6971:

Alright, thanks, so I suppose there’s no reason not to buy the LS2 right now.

Do you recommend the 100$ HoT option (with 4k gems), or simply buying gems directly?

If you’re buying HoT and 4k gems regardless, the $100 option is superior because you get deluxe edition for free by comparison.

As for not buying S2… It is worth buying, IMO, since the story directly leads into HoT. You will be confused and be spoiled to S2’s massive plot reveals if you go from PS to HoT.

Granted, you’d get the same from just looking at all the HoT promotions, and the same would happen for S1 if you play through S2.

In your shoes, I’d probably read a good summary, watch the cinematic they put in to summarize the important parts of S1, and then buy and play through S2.

Alternatively, take a multi-month break. Come back in January or something and see if they’ve made S1 permanent or if there’s any news on that. If you don’t mind being behind in the plot, simply “not playing until S1 is permanent” is an option given the game’s no subscription nature. And it’s not like there’s gear treadmill you’d have to rush through upon coming back.

Regev.6971:

So HoT isn’t likely to be like $20-25 post-release, on the official website, or at least on G2A or any similar price?
I feel like ANet might end up offering it for a much lower price since everybody seems to be complaining
What are your thoughts?

They probably will.

Eventually.

But you’d lose out on the free character slot from pre-purchasing on the official site, and might even lose your chance to get deluxe/ultimate editions (without upgrading to deluxe from gemstore).

Why don’t they drop?

Because Anet made similar events like this in the past where foes dropped loot. And it was abused.

Why aren’t the rewards based on map progress?

Because Anet made similar events like this in the past where the players were rewarded on map progress. And it was abused.

Don’t like how things are? Blame the players who exploited these very kinds of events throughout Season 1.

Scarlet’s Invasions (and many, many others). People farmed few events, letting champions spawn and killing only them.

Escape from Lion’s Arch. Hour long event that tracked progress by maps. Became full of players afk’ing and getting rewards for doing no work.

People still do this stuff. If you were around during Season 2, you might remember the beginning treatment of the Barrowstead event chain that got buffed during Episode 3. People upscaled the events and failed them only to farm champions as fast as possible. People still upscale them, but now failing is more harmful than success and champions spawn less often, so people upscale and kill the last boss as slow as they can while not hindering themselves from farming the other champs in the zone.

And now that anet completely prevented this kind of exploiting, people are QQ’ing and kittening about not having the basis of what allowed that exploitation. Most of them might even be the very exploiters.

Especially when events don’t give money.

Yes, that is intentional. For no real reason, it seems, but intentional.

CureForLiving.5360:

Scarlet is the only person we know who had a mobile working teleportation device.

Kudu had one too.