Guild Wars 2

I think the “fantastic character” is rather subjective. He has become, over time, one of the better developed ones. But I still find him relatively irritating.

I think it’s the constant name changing that bugs me most, though.

Yeah, I’m weird like that.

Asura have made video cameras, yes:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Inactive_Aetheric_Observer
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Inquest_Recording_Device
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Risen_Activity_Monitor

They, however, are not widespread and are only – and scarcely – used by certain asura, the Priory, and Inquest. I imagine that would be due to complexity or cost of manufacturing or using.

There are also holographic recording devices such as those Scarlet Briar used.

wildcode.5403:

Secondly now I have to unlock all the traits skills before I can use any of them. Where as before I could use them as I unlocked them.

…

You have to unlock traits to use them now. However, before, you had to unlock traits to use them.

That is what you just said.

The truth is:

Before you had to unlock points and tiers via leveling, then you had to unlock individual traits via action and unlock points and tiers via leveling. Now you have to unlock traits by leveling or action in a specific order.

It’s actually better than before. The actions before were far harder than now. In this regard, it was a great improvement and no hindrance to play how you want.

In all honesty, the only hindrance to " play how you want" was the NPE.

But Zephyr Sanctum is permanently in the game.

As for Labyrinthine Cliffs, that will no doubt return in some form. Perhaps lacking the Zephyrite’s largest ship (there were ~12 before, we climbed onto one). Or lacking the Zephyrites entirely… Somehow.

CrimsonDX.4821:

We probably wont know until such a time season 3 is released

This.

Colin (iirc) stated that HoT will be required to play all future Living World content. However, it was not said if it would be required to unlock all future Living World content.

It is possible, but unable to prove or disprove, that simply logging in even without HoT as part of the account will unlock the future Season 3, but keep it locked from being actually accessible until you buy HoT.

I wrote out how I would return Season 1, after I had gotten some praise on a short-hand off-the-top-of-my-head suggestion posting a long while back.

In all honesty, bringing back Season 1 doesn’t seem as hard as people make it out to be. Most of the open world events are not relevant to the main story and are little different to the open world events we got with Season 2. Most of Season 1’s main story is still told in the open world like Season 2, with only about 10 idle placement of NPCs – half of which are previews (like for the Tower of Nightmares) or epilogues (like for Flame and Frost) which aren’t needed to be brought back (and if thought it should, a simple instance similar to Rallying Call – a combatless dialogue-only instance meant solely to push players into the next direction – would do).

The ‘zerg events’ only became a part of the Living World in three of the last five releases (Origins of Madness, Escape from LA, Battle for LA) – sole exception being The Lost Shores. Before that, they were zerg events because that was ‘the new thing’ – not because they were designed for zergs. No different than the zerg that showed when Dry Top and Silverwastes were new.

I wrote out how I would return Season 1, after I had gotten some praise on a short-hand off-the-top-of-my-head suggestion posting a long while back.

In all honesty, bringing back Season 1 doesn’t seem as hard as people make it out to be. Most of the open world events are not relevant to the main story and are little different to the open world events we got with Season 2. Most of Season 1’s main story is still told in the open world like Season 2, with only about 10 idle placement of NPCs – half of which are previews (like for the Tower of Nightmares) or epilogues (like for Flame and Frost) which aren’t needed to be brought back (and if thought it should, a simple instance similar to Rallying Call – a combatless dialogue-only instance meant solely to push players into the next direction – would do).

The ‘zerg events’ only became a part of the Living World in three of the last five releases (Origins of Madness, Escape from LA, Battle for LA) – sole exception being The Lost Shores. Before that, they were zerg events because that was ‘the new thing’ – not because they were designed for zergs. No different than the zerg that showed when Dry Top and Silverwastes were new.

Until Season 2, one could argue the same ‘secrets’ stance with Mordremoth, though.

And we don’t actually know that the deep sea dragon has water as its sphere of influence/power/whatever. We call it the deep sea dragon because it woke up in the deep sea. The Movement of the World uses similar terminology for the other elder dragons. Zhaitan was the “Orrian Dragon” because it lived in Orr; Kralkatorrik was the “Desert Dragon” because it traveled to the Crystal Desert. We’ve seen Primordus called the Underground Dragon, and Mordremoth called the Jungle Dragon – all due to their location.

Only Jormag hasn’t gotten such a nickname, instead the closest is ‘dragon of ice and snow’.

PeterFries.1057:

Slight correction: Hero-Tron wasn’t so much freed from the Consortium as “made redundant” at the end of Lost Shores. Hero-Tron is a very rare golem in our game in that it seems to be self-aware, and to have actually developed as a character from the smug corporate functionary that was mocking jobless refugee settlers in Southsun Cove.

You mean Last Stand (at Southsun).

The Lost Shores was the first instance of Southsun Cove… months before o-Tron (will he ever keep a name longer than a month!?) became a thing.

Zommoros the djinn = Isgarren the wizard?

Sure, why not. Can’t be worse than Scarlet.

The only conversation nearby the Mystic Forge is about all the weapons/other items that people have tossed into the Forge. Nothing hints to some portal.

And I don’t see why the Mystic Forge would be a portal to the Wizard’s Tower. It is Zomorros’ prison. Walking into it seems to turn you into the Thaumanova Anomaly’s model – which to me is eerily similar to air djinn from Nightfall (from its ethereal yellow appearance to it throwing spears to it having lightning within its body which is related to air).

I’m not seeing this ‘portal’ theory. The new design is probably more of a joke on the nickname (mystic toilet) than anything else (because it’s a literal drain by appearance now).

So what was the reason behind this ‘portal’ theory?

BobbyStein.2315:

I’d like to have QA repro this, but I need to know exactly what happened. Let me know if my understanding of your situation is accurate here.

• You hadn’t yet completed Personal Story (e.g. did every story step except Zhaitan)
• You bought LW Season 2 in the gem store
• You then finished your Personal Story by defeating Zhaitan
• The content guide then pointed you at LW S2 Episode 8 instead of Episode 1

Is this correct?

Yeah, this has been around since at least September. I recall it happening for my ranger, and he’d constantly be pushed to the most latest episode whenever I tried to stop an episode.

BobbyStein.2315:

thedrumchannell.2405:

This is exactly why LS1 should be unlock-able and purchasable like LS2.

I don’t disagree. We’ve stated before that we hope to one day rebuild LW Season 1, but we’re focused on HoT development right now.

Any chance we can convince you guys to have a side team work on Season 1 now?

Perhaps sending cookies would help the process? Or other sweets, perhaps?

I don’t like Scarlet in the least (there was just too many retcons made to make her seem all the more important and all the good guys just kept juggling that idiot ball throughout Season 1), but I enjoyed the mechanics of Season 1 and I’ve grown long tired of having to explain to new players what it is their missing and how they cannot play Season 1, and tired of seeing the immense disappointment that leads to anger over ‘lost content’ after explaining such to them.

This just seems like something as important as the Personal Story Restoration project. And something that by all logic should go out before HoT’s release because Season 1 leads into HoT just as much as Season 2 does.

When you really look at it, Seasons 1 and 2 and HoT are all one story – while the Personal Story is its own story that’s just related. But as it is, people coming into the game for HoT can’t enjoy Season 1.

It’s like telling people to read The Hobbit (Personal Story), and then The Two Towers (Season 2) and Lord of the Rings (HoT), while keeping Fellowship of the Rings out of their reach, allowing them only to read a summary of it online. That just makes no sense.

Donari.5237:

Until we have LS1 playable again, use a cinematic to inform players of the story bridging from Zhaitan to the biconics (along with a written summary in the PS panel), then direct them to how to access LS2 in the correct order.

They even already have some ‘recap cinematics’ (though they don’t do that grand of a job) already:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/recap-the-living-world-of-guild-wars-2/
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/recap-scarlets-war/

So just adding those into the game via an NPC would work ‘well’ until Season 1 becomes permanent.

That is indeed outdated as that was his placement prior to Tuesday’s patch and not all articles have been updated yet. He was placed by the dungeon vendors then, which is now a barren area.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

No. There is far more build diversity because the design of traits has (for the most part) improved greatly.

I don’t think you understand what ‘build diversity’ means. It means differences of builds.

There is a lot less diversity because there’s fewer traits to choose from, and fewer possible combinations amongst existing traits, but the builds do more individually.

Before, we not only had 13 major traits per line (now having 9), but we could use up to three of traits 1-6, up to two of traits 7-10, and up to one of traits 11-13.

In other words, in a single trait line/core specialization we had well over a hundred possible trait combinations (I tried counting but I lost track at 140). With the new system, we have 27 possible trait combinations in a single line.

However, we also get access to two additional major traits, however at the cost of being only able to put points into three lines.

There is a loss of diversity.

But traits do more now, that we come out more powerful, able to do more with fewer things (which is not build diversity).

Of course, this weeds out the ‘suboptimal’ builds that few(er) people use, causing less (somewhat) hate on such builds that theoretically would lead to a nicer community/fewer elitist regulations, and most importantly makes things easier on the devs for balancing.

But to the OP’s question: Yes. We lost diversity for the benefit of being more powerful.

Absolute Ze Woah.1074:

I was just there too. I’m really disappointed in this health buff because the MKII didn’t need it. It’s already got a ton of health and takes a while to do.

I don’t think it had much more health – if it had more health at all – than most other world bosses.

The thing is that most players just spam 1 at max range while standing on those boxes to avoid the annoyance of the electric fields. Those who can’t spend most of the fight waypointing and running back as the electric field kills in ~3 hits for most (especially zerkers).

So it’s less ‘he has more health’ and more ‘zerg doesn’t do optimal damage by choice’.

If they nerfed that electric field and/or removed that stack of boxes, I bet he’d die much faster.

Aside from level 6, mails get locked for a certain time (I think 3 days?) after account creation to prevent gold selling via bots.

Guild banks are similar – you cannot take out or deposit items into a guild bank until you’ve been in said guild for ~3 days.

In the pre-release Factions lore doc An Empire Divided, Vizu issaid to have shadow stepped continuously from the Harvest Temple to the shores of the Jade Sea, out running the Jade Wind which would likely be moving at the speed of sound until running out of energy at said shores. Depending on which shore, she could have traversed via teleportation across roughly 1/3rd of Cantha on water.

In the Factions trailer, she is seen shadow stepping from the bottom to the highest floor (which looked to be at least 10 or sofloors) in a single leap.

While famous post-mortem due to her dealings with Shrio, she was a run of the mill assassin in life.

If assassins can do that 450 years prior to GW2, then I see no reason why modern mesmers (who seem to use magic similar to assassins/thieves) couldn’t.

I’m guessing Kasmeer just isn’t that focused on teleportation magic. After all, she summoned five clones during Scarlet’s End, and was casting near continuous TimeWarps at Fort Salman (the latter makes me think she’ll be the first chronomancer).

That’s not entirely accurate.

• The Lost Shores – full open world, requires a bit of work
• Flame and Frost: Prelude – next to no story, just a bunch of preview stuff which for S2 has been removed (Festival of Four Winds, the slow transition of Fort Vandal, the destruction of Town of Prosperity)
• Flame and Frost: The Gathering Storm – same as Prelude, but with events on top of NPCs; events can be added without change. If a story step is needed, it can be an open world one like Uprooting the Iron Marches while utilizing these events.
• Flame and Frost: The Razing – primary story is in 5 instance, some changes to old events
• Flame and Frost: Retribution – primary story in 1 dungeon and 2 instances; some open world dialogue, again little more than the preview-gets-removed stuff that we see inS2E3.
• Secret of Southsun – you got ~3 open world dialogues, can easily be put into 1-2 instance, but would be more work than most cases; would be nice to include the spore scavenger hunt, which can be done in open world ala Tracking the Master of Peace in S2E1.
• Last Stand at Southsun – 2 instances (3 if you count Canach’s Lair explorable with Subdirector NOLL golem)
• Dragon Bash – a few open world dialogues that aren’t important; then 4 instances and some random-throughout-the-world NPCs. The investigative NPCs can be re-added without issue to world narrative, made into an open world story step ala S2E1’s Tracking the Master of Peace.
• Sky Pirates of Tyria – a dungeon and Mai Trin in the open world which can be dropped, and a short instance
• Bazaar of the Four Winds – 2 instances, 1 open world zone; zone can be partially converted into an instance
• Cutthroat Politics – 1 instance (2 if count the Aetherblade Waves instance), 1 open world dialogue (Kiel’s victory); dialogue can be converted to an instance
• Queen’s Jubilee – 1 instance; all the events aren’t necessary to the main story, nor would they make sense in open world any more. Only issue in ignoring the rest is going from opening ceremony to closing ceremony, but we already see that in Season 2 (end of episode 3 says that it’ll be ‘a few weeks’ for the events of episode 4 to come to pass)
• Clockwork Chaos – 2 instances and 1 achievement series related to the invasions; latter can be done in a single step (1-2 instances)
• Tequatl Rising – one NPCs dialogue, not entirely necessary but would leave some dialogue later confusing if ignored
• Twilight Assault – all is in the dungeon, permanent already
• Tower of Nightmares preview – like other S2 previews, unnecessary to bring back
• Tower of Nightmares – 1 instance, bunch of open world events that aren’t necessary to the main narrative but some could be added as an instance I guess
• The Nightmares Within – 1 instance (+any Nightmare Chamber if you want), and a new zone; the zone may be difficult to do but can easily be a single instance
• Fractured! – 1 story mode dungeon, still exists in game; if worth making permanent (questionable), then turn into a story step with rebalance
• Wintersday 2013/The Nightmare is Over – had one open world dialogue scene (half are still around), 2 instances; the no-longer dialogue is important (shows the introduction of Rox+Braham to Marjory+Kasmeer) so an instance for that (or moving it to be part of another instance/story step) would be good
• The Origins of Madness – 1 world event, 2 instances
• The Edge of the Mists – 2 open world dialogue (convert first to instance, second is only partially relevant), 2 instances
• Escape from Lion’s Arch – 1 open world zone, 3 dialogue scenes
• Battle for Lion’s Arch – 1 open world zone, 3 dialogue scenes, 1 story instance
• Battle for Lion’s Arch: Aftermath – 1 instance

I might have missed a bit, but I am considering the primary story. I’m ignoring the effective equivilant to the veteran mordrem in Prosperity added with S2E2 – that is, open world events that show the progression of the story. Most of these events – particularly those added with Flame and Frost and Secret of Southsun – can be made permanent with little to no alteration; others like the festival celebrations aren’t needed to be brought permanently as they’d be better off as annual events for the holidays (they aren’t part of the main story anyways).

Is there a lot of work? Yes.

But is most of Season 1 open world stuff needing to be converted into instances? No.

Most open world stuff is just side stories that show the world’s progression a bit better. And half of them can be brought back with only a balance pass to them.

Kal Spiro.9745:

They’ll need to completely redesign every single event from Season One, except the Queen’s Jubilee, to fit into a solo instanced event. Considering how much of that season was zone wide mass zerg events, that’s not going to be easy.

If you actually do the math, there are 30 instances and 2 dungeons from Season 1. In open world stuff, there was about half that in events or dialogue scenes that were important to the main narrative – anything else could be either left out or added in with little narrative change (would be like fighting the Toxic Spores in Brisban).

It’s really only Tower of Nightmares until the end that needs reconsidering.

The claim that most of Season 1 was open world is false. Though given how one accessed those instances, they might have to rebuild it simply because of that, but it wouldn’t be as hard as turning huge open world events into instances.

Danikat.8537:

I’ve done it both before and after the update and I don’t think they made it any easier (or harder). As I remember it one of the biggest complaints about this mission, right from launch, is that it’s very simple and therefore boring. Many people described it as “mash 2 to win!” and talked about how disappointing it was compared to earlier fights.

The mission actually get nerfed (made easier) a month or so after release. There were more mobs to fight before, and they were tougher. Even the Mouth of Zhaitan got its health reduced.

So now it’s just a roflcakewalk. But originally it was well balanced until the final phase of Zhaitan which was the mash 2.

From the world bosses I’ve done since the health update (I haven’t done them all), only Tequatl was troublesome. I’d imagine triple wurm would be too.

Claw felt perfect in health, but needs more mechanics to the fight to be worthwhile.

Karka Queen is still too weak in every field.

Inquest Golem Mk II was…. it’s questionable. The health feels a bit high, and it does too few attacks with too high damage (those electric fields…).

So I do not think that all world bosses should be reduced in health. Some should, others could use a buff still. And a buff does not mean solely increased health, but improved mechanics too.

I do hope that one day Anet will change their mind about the Abaddon fractal. I was interested in both fractals, but in the end disappointed by Thaumanova – I was hoping that it would actually show some of that Inquest research, and not just tell us something we already suspected (that dragon energy got mixed in with the chaos energy).

@OP: The Abaddon fractal was not a GW1 event, but refers to the events of Year 0 – the events that led to the splitting of the Bloodstone and led into the events of GW1. The beginning of it all.

We see only one charr farm in-game (the heart in Diessa) who’s a bit of a secluded odd-ball charr; the rest are ranchers. The cub wanting to be a farmer may be wanting to be something unusual.

VaLee.5102:

If increased HP is challenging content for you, then I hope Anet won’t listen to people like you when they design the “challenging content” for HoT.

Agreed.

Anet’s buff to the bosses’ HP isn’t them making the content challenging, it’s an attempt to offset the additional damage being done to them (first via increased conditions, and now with the critical hit change being added).

At this point, it’s just a tweaking measure to find where it should be. But this is not challenging content.

Tequatl Rising, Aetherpath, and Triple Wurm are, in of itself, challenging content. The issue is that when given enough time, challenging content becomes known content and it’s greatly a matter of trial and error until you find the best means to fight something – after that, you tend to only use those best means. The fact that you’re using those best means doesn’t make the content non-challenging – just that it’s no longer challenging to you.

The main solution would be to change the mechanics periodically. Which would be great, but first we need other dungeons and world bosses put on par to those three. Vinewrath should be more-or-less equivalent to the weakest world boss (excluding the low level ones), while Triple Trouble should be more-or-less equivalent to the toughest world bosses. IMO, at least.

But ‘increased health’ is not ‘making it challenging’. In this case, it’s a simple rebalancing. In most cases – sadly – it’s lazyman’s route to making things last longer.

SAB will never return.

-puts a chalice upon your cheeks to catch your tears for me to drink-

What skills and traits have you gotten automatically unlocked?

It is possible that Anet’s automatically unlocking resulted in spending more hero points than you actually have, so you’re at a negative number for leveling only – thus until you’re no long at such a number you’ll not gain hero points by leveling.

Theoretically, that is.

You should have had 44 + however many skill challenges you had already done for the automatic update for hero points. If my thoughts are right and you unlocked the highest utility skill on two or three different circles, that’s 36 potentially right there.

Dougal has been with the dungeon vendors since he was noticed in LA (in the BWEs). This is the first week ever that he isn’t.

He has been put on the bus, and that’s what people were worried about – not so much whether he lives or not.

I only hope that he’s been put on the bus because he’ll take a more important role in future updates. After all, he’s a famous former-Ebon Vanguard, former-Priory, currently-Vigil adventurer. He’s as widespread in contacts/experience as Scarlet Briar, but it works for him, unlike for Scarlet Briar.

Jaken.6801:

Mem no Fushia.7604:

Entrance to LA from Icegate Waypoint in Genndaran Fields doesn’t exist.

Whoa, now that you mentioned it.
They not only closed it off, they just palced a new mountain there, as if it never existed.
To top it off they put a full grown tree there.

The main question is why, though. I mean they are completly fine with a tunnel to the outer parts of the city from Lonars Pass.

That happened with the Escape from Lion’s Arch patch.

I guess it was because it seemed silly to have two passages between LA and Gendarran so they removed the less used one?

• “Cannons are on the outside of the walls, so they can easily been taken over by ground forces (for example digging o just rush with masses.)”

Not without extreme casualties.

• “No Cannons on the sourounding hills or any lookout (well the Aerodome could do that maybe)”

Pretty sure that is the point of the aerodome.

• “Cannons set to fire over or onto the city or the water and not possible outside, even if you could turn them.”

Actually, the lighthouse ones are set to fire into the Sea of Sorrows (naval entrance); those on the western flank of Fort Marriner are set to fire into Sanctum Harbor (should they pass the lighthouse), and those on the eastern flank are set to fire on the Inner Harbor beach (one of the beaches the Risen assaulted in PS)/Bloodtide Coast entrance.

Every southern entrance is covered with multiple cannons.

And the northern entrance is blockaded by a giant wall (though I don’t think there are cannons there… perhaps there should be). The eastern entrance is oddly left alone (it was an asura gate but now it’s a tunnel – gate could simply be shut off and no problems get through).

• “People apearently living in the “walls” and no further residental areas inside these “walls” like ebonhawke for example.”

Commodore’s Quarter is the primary residental areas. Though if you follow the tour guide, she ends at the exit to Gendarran and explains that beyond the gate (basically, in the area we cannot reach between Gendarran and LA) is the second residential district. There’s also the residents on the southern end of the Grand Piazza, dead center of the city more or less.

No one’s really living ‘in the walls’.

• “East side not covered by cannons and being more residental (however walls enclose it at least)”

Yeah, the barren caverns kind of left me confused, but it’s urban not residential.

Y’know, with the minor change to Southsun Cove, it might be worth checking up on the other mentioned/hinted at locations.

The ecto-gambling skritt mentions a mentor back in Skrittsburg; we got the trikey chest that might hint to something in ToN. Might be worth hitting up these locations.

I don’t really think Anet can use the new LA for the old PS.

• There’s no sewers anymore, so the Vigil storyline’s flubbed.
• LA’s now a defense stronghold – makes no sense for risen to threaten LA after getting past Claw Island

They put a lot of effort (presumably a lot at least), to ensure that the personal story would use old instances – presumably because it wouldn’t make narrative sense for the new LA to be attacked by risen, etc. I cannot see them going and reverting it, when they’re getting praise for the change.

Would also be nice if there was an insignia/inscription that can be crafted by using Foxfire Clusters, Blade Shards, Candy Corn, and Pristine Toxic Samples. With both exotic and ascended variants.

Give them some actual uses beyond their one purpose.

Warpinator.9860:

Guild Wars will always be too easy because it is casual focus. If you are looking for an Hardcore MMO game, GW2 isn’t.

GW1 was a casual focus but it was definitely more challenging than GW2 can ever hope to be at this state.

No one said hardcore.

But it’s pretty blatantly clear that your ideal of how GW2 should be isn’t Anet’s ideal.

Warpinator.9860:

Players who disagree are:

- think this game is challenging

No, people who disagree think the game should be challenging.

And given the second point on this post Anet agrees that the world bosses are too weak. Given that HoT will be having more challenging content, and that the game has been getting progressively more challenging content since release, shows that Anet agrees.

Guild Wars 2 is too easy.

(but then they go and make balance changes like giving everyone four additional traits to use…)

Warpinator.9860:

Before the patch, I would simply go to the champion/world boss , press 1 and look at my second monitor.

And it’s the exact same now, except you have less time to look at your second monitor.

I didn’t see those Inquest symbols! But I think that’s likely just a reused asset.

Then again… the same crumpled paper is at Evon’s desk…

You can just make it out in this image someone else provided in the Evon Gnashblade Conspiracy thread.

PeterFries.1057:

Dougal is fine. He just doesn’t happen to be in the city at the moment.

If he doesn’t show up in HoT as part of DE 3.0 (with a return of Ember and Gullik, naturally), I will be highly disappoint. I will, however, accept his prompt return somewhere else in the game sooner.

Or would it be DE 0.5 since we got to know that group before we got to know Destiny’s Edge very well?

Kalavier.1097:

The way I remember it was less at canthan district and more of they preferred a more unified look across the city.

At least, that is one explanation I had read.

A dev outright stated that the Canthan district was removed due to negative feedback from the Asian audience – they hated hows Anet had mixed in different cultures from across Asia together.

Which to me makes no sense, but hey, prideful people are prideful people and I am not such.

To put a dent in this theory (or to perhaps make it seem like it was planned all along…):

I am absolutely positive that this “Evon” Gnashblade figure existed before Escape from Lion’s Arch – specifically at the Lion’s Shadow Inn (where the Guild Initiative now is). He uses the true Evon’s original outfit which got updated for Bazaar of the Four Winds. The dialogue, if memory serves me right, is more or less unchanged – I definitely recall the mention of seeing Evon on the other side of town and the mention of free drinks (which doesn’t even make sense in the current state – there’s no drinks anywhere where he’s at now!).

Can a dev confirm or deny my memory and/or sanity?

So of said list, only one release (The Lost Shores) was fully open world while also having narrative that wouldn’t be more than the transition of Fort Vandal being lost to mordrem. The vast number of events are not important to the narrative, but served to show players how influential the threat is – again, no more important than the veteran mordrem in Prosperity in the long run. Some such events can be made permanent in the open world, while others can be ignored in bringing back Season 1. From Flame and Frost to Battle for LA: Aftermath, the main story is told, with the exception of a handful locations (mostly previews), in two formats:

1. Instances
2. Temporary zones

In the former – that’s exactly as we experience them already, and is just a matter of transitioning the contents from instances determined by achievements to instanced determined by story journal. In the latter, that’s the only real trickiness to have.

I understand that transitioning the main story could be troublesome, but the argument that “it’s almost all open world” just doesn’t fly. Because while yes there was a lot of open world content, that was not the main narrative in most cases.

PeterFries.1057:

The first Living World season was done mostly as open world events, each available for a few weeks to play before going away. Because of the open world nature of most of those events, they would need significant work to be re-redesigned as instanced, replayable content.

I’ve actually done the math recently and this is not entirely true.

While there was a lot of open world content, most of it were side plots or the effects of the main plot in the open world. Little to no different than the mordrem event in Prosperity from S2E2.

I counted and there are 30 story instances in all of Season 1; and 2 dungeons in addition (three if you count Fractals story mode added with Fractured! – four if you also count Aetherpath). If we include The Lost Shores, Bazaar of the Four Winds, Tequatl Rising, and the ToN preview/epilogue during Halloween/Wintersday respectively (all of these releases are marked as “Special Event” on https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/ ), the episode-to-open-and-instanced-content set up is the following:

• The Lost Shores – 1 story-important dialogue scene, 13 story-important events (2 non-story-important events which can be re-added even now without harm to narrative)
• Flame and Frost: Prelude – nothing story important (just refugees, signs, and a couple NPCs that hint to the MA’s existence)
• Flame and Frost: The Gathering Storm – nothing story important (more refugees, 6 non-story-important events which can even be re-added now without harm to narrative, and a scavenger hunt)
• Flame and Frost: The Razing – 5 instances; nothing open world story important (a few new NPCs such as Ela Makkay; alterations to previous events; Sonic Periscope hunting, Dead Drops – both can be re-added without (much) harm to narrative)
• Flame and Frost: Retribution – 1 dungeon, 2 instances; nothing open world story important (dialogue changes to NPCs, bonfires in cities)
• The Secret of Southsun – 2 open world dialogues, 1 event (event remains, but without the special dialogue); other events are non-story important (and can be readded dependent on any dialogue that wiki doesn’t have documented)
• Last Stand at Southsun – 3 instances, nothing open world story important (no additional events from Secret of Southsun)
• Dragon Bash – 4 instances, ~4 open world NPCs
• Sky Pirates of Tyria – 1 dungeon, 1 instance, nothing open world story important (only killing some aetherblades were added, and the JP that’s still there)
• Bazaar of the Four Winds – 1 instance, 1 zone-with-little-narrative
• Cutthroat Politics – 1 instance (2 if you count the repeatable fight-waves-of-Aetherblades); 1 open world dialogue scene (Ellen’s victory)
• Queen’s Jubilee – 1 instance (Opening Ceremony), nothing open world story important (escort dignitaries; kill aetherblades – nothing story important)
• Clockwork Chaos – 2 instances, 1 open world achievement activity
• Tequatl Rising – 1 open world dialogue scene (series – Rox)
• Twilight Assault – 1 dungeon, nothing open world story important
• Blood and Madness’ ToN preview – 1 open world scene
• Tower of Nightmares – 1 instance, 1 dialogue scene location
• The Nightmares Within – 1 new zone, 8 instances (2 story relevant, 6 kinda-story-relevant – Note: I’m counting each possible pairing with biconics in Nightmare Chambers as its own instance), nothing open world story important (events climbing the tower)
• The Nightmare is Over (aka Wintersday 2013) – 1 dialogue scene location, 2 instances
• The Origin of Madness – 2 instances, 1 event (Twisted Marionette)
• The Edge of the Mists – 2 dialogue scene locations, 2 instances
• Escape from Lion’s Arch – 1 new zone, 3 dialogue scene locations
• Battle for Lion’s Arch – 1 new zone, 3 dialogue scene locations, 1 instance
• Battle for Lion’s Arch: Aftermath – 1 instance, some dialogue scene locations

-continued in next post-

Like many things, those not touched by the Living World remain unchanged.

The crime scene in DR is no different – unchanged.

UltraElectroMagnetic.2187:

I can’t find any entrance to the sewers either. Seems they did away with them entirely. Also, I haven’t spotted any manholes or outlets in LA. Does the new LA even have a sewage system, because there are no signs of any. How does LA dispose of its waste?

I miss exploring the sewers already…

But they do have a sewage system, you can find a manhole covering east of Commodore’s Quarter Waypoint. It has an octopus design on it.

Aye.8392:

Has Evon Gnashblade’s name plate always included the title of Captain? Since he lost against Kiel I wouldn’t expect him to wear that title.

Yes, he kept the title (except for his clone in Fort Marriner from Point of No Return) after Cutthroat Politics. He might not be a member of the Captain’s Council, but he is still a captain.

This is clearly a lead in to the conflicts between sylvari and other races we saw with Canach in the first HoT trailer. The investigator even states she thinks there will be more sylvari deaths.

In fact, a lot of the dialogue I’ve found has seem to point to three things (imo): lead ins to HoT, upcoming return to Southsun, and a lot of nod backs to Season 1 (perhaps hinting at the return of it as permanent content reformatted to be like Season 2).

Kalavier means the stack of crates in front of the asura gate. Where in the building is that? I looked myself but couldn’t find it.

PeterFries.1057:

Speaking of Southsun, there’s been a slight update in the status quo there, between SubdirectorNoll and the new island Sheriff.

Took a peak.

Noticed Deputy Turma’s been promoted to Sheriff Turma. But yeah, to me all these hints and nods to karka points to a return to Southsun.

But then there’s that Trikey Chest added to the skritt cave… which makes me hope that there’s progress on making Season 1 permanent content… Hmmm, wonder if there’s new content near other Season 1 locations.

Glad you removed the duplicate Turma (for a while, she was in both LA and Southsun).

However….

First two Evons, now two Nolls.

Dear gods, they’re multiplying!

Home server only really matters for WvW, thanks to the megaserver.

Having a lot of RP’ers in guilds/friends list will often pop you into maps that have roleplayers in them already, you don’t necessarily need to have TC as your home server.

Only time it really matters is if you want to WvW with your friend.

PeterFries.1057:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

This is likely a hint to a future Southsun Cove story…

Only time will tell on that, but while you’re hanging around the Consortium’s new HQ in LA, listen for a few small tidbits in the office gossip between employees hinting at their mysterious (and remote) leadership.

Speaking of Southsun, there’s been a slight update in the status quo there, between SubdirectorNoll and the new island Sheriff.

DIdn’t know of the Southsun stuff, but I had heard that dialogue while translating.

Koviko.3248:

Speaking of Noll, an NPC made an offhand comment about a director named “Boll”. Is this an inside joke of the Consortium or something?

Boll seems to be the name of the company’s leader, with at least two directors underneath him.

1. The Consortium did the construction, and the Trader’s Forum and Grand Piazza look like tourist attractions. While I don’t like it, it fits the theme of the constructors. As to the Priory’s care – perhaps they just didn’t have a say? Perhaps they got the ruins? Their excavation got moved when LA was beginning to be resettled; their newer camp was established to research the Breachmaker and the ley lines – it was (still is I think) on the southwest end of Sanctum Harbor.
2. It’s an open-air chapel (and then some), but dunno where she moved to. I was expecting a more temple-like chapel myself, thinking it was going to become what it is described as in the Sea of Sorrows book (a chapel to the Six Gods with attributions from all then-four races). I was kind of expecting all the recent god costumes were because Anet were going to have holographic models of the avatars done similar to Scarlet’s holos which is the Scarlet model with a fancy effect (like all ghosts are).
3. She disappeared as of Escape from Lion’s Arch. With no mention of her since, I’ve presumed her dead.
4. Less retcon and more forgotten. They had that presence there, but no more. Where they are is anyone’s guess. I hope they’ve not been put on the bus forever, though.
5. Missed these banners, but they were probably meant to be for the history of the city – the area known as Commodore’s Quarter could have been named Doric’s Quarter – after the first human king who had his palace in Lion’s Arch.
6. You kind of answered this yourself. Likely a design oversight. If you bug it, they may fix.
7. It would likely be the Aerodome, which is on the cliffs just south of Fort Marriner.
8. Because there’s been less care about maintaining credible consistency in lore. Because it’s the consortium and their only interest is profit. Because many possibilities.

Koviko.3248:

Connection?!

Probably not, actually. lol

There was a dev comment on the reddit thread for this topic with the same joke.

There’s no way they added this on accident, so it is intentional. With a dev joke-questioning if there’s a connection, I bet there is.

The Thaumanova Anomaly always looked like an air djinn to me. In Nightfall, they looked like yellow versions of the fire djinns, and this guy’s equally yellow but far more ‘air’-y with the lightning effects.

I doubt it’s a coincidence.

That’s been there since the beginning. Sadly, when the mentor figure talks to Trahearne, they use the same cinematic for all races, including sylvari. Sylvari gets a separate cinematic before that, which is neat, but really they could have recorded 1-2 additional lines per order…