Guild Wars 2

It wasn’t rebuilt in time for the karka to destroy it. It’s only been destroyed by Mr. Thorn and Ms. Briar.

Scarlet’s Secret Lair is still there, but the chests within can no longer be opened (despite still being there).

You were able to get keys for about a month and a half after ToN ended (while “The Nightmare Is Over” achievements were available), but not anymore.

I noticed the return of that chest, and its lootability.

But we know that Anet intends to bring back Season 1 as permanent content styled like Season 2 ‘eventually’. Perhaps this is a hint to show that they’re serious about it/making progress on it?

The aerodome is south of Fort Marriner. It has no name on the map, and you cannot reach it – but you can see it at the end of the cinematic when you first enter LA, and from Fort Marriner.

And I too was disappointed that the lion statue did not return. It’s not worth calling Lion’s Court without a kittening lion. And “Festival Plaza” was just a bad name in general (removes the seriousness of the place, IMO). If there was no intent to bring back the statue, there should have been different name options. Even one as generic as “Central Plaza”.

Meanwhile, in the Black Lion HQ, each weapon set gets their own unique NPC and a table to display one of the weapons from said set.

Haven’t seen him yet. Hope they didn’t remove him… That would be a low blow since a lot of people wanted to see Dougal not only in-game but with a role of importance.

Ascalonian minister = minister of Ascalonian descent

“no land, no vote” = Not many places that feature a lot of Ascalonian descendants (Rurikton and Ascalon Settlement, that’s pretty much it for clearly Ascalonian).

There is a new Consortium workspace near the Commodore’s Quarter Waypoint (just south of it), in which there’s a lot of New Krytan to be read. I translated it all and I noticed that most of it is about beach/crab/sand related slogans and a Consortium contest for an annual new slogan.

Shortly before Secret of Southsun came out there was a poster with a fancy slogan (“Wish you were here”) that hinted at the new Southsun content. See the poster here

Do you think this is a hint at a return to Southsun in the story or content?

There’s a LOT of New Krytan writing seen in the new consortium workplace in Canal Ward/Commodore’s Quarter (the structure is borderline of the two areas it seems).

Big sign
The Consortium
“Your satisfaction is our reward”

Behind the big sign
The consortium is a premier omnichannel provider of iconic brands, planning solutions, and customer-centric services.

At each workplace
The benefits of standing all day:

• Improved circulation
• Less/more inertia
• Every weekend is like a vacation!
• Sitting is for the weak!

At some desks (bright yellow paper)
Privileged and confidential

Attention consortium employes. It’s that time of year again. Time to dust the old brains off and come up with a new company slogan. We’ve found that revenue spiked every time we change our appearance. So it’s time to bring out forward thinking innovative thought process to bear in this project. Be sure to leverage all your mental assets! The winner this year gets a very attractive warm beverage holder!

Whoever submits the worst entry will be encouraged to seek employment elsewhere.

Good luck and most importantly, have fun!

Unique letters per desk (slogans?)

1. We “care”
2. When was the last time you had a good time?
3. A new world awaits
4. Never stop changing tomorrow
5. Where the fun comes home
6. We are the future
7. Romance on the beach is more than just a drink
8. Catch the feeling

(the last ones are all on the same desk with a bunch illegible ones crumbled on the floor and the person crying)

1. The least rough sand in the world
2. What crabs?
3. Could be worse. I guess.
4. What have you got to lose?
5. (under the desk) Keep rollin rollin rollin

Fun fact: The ? is, unlike all other punctuation, different than ours.

Fun fact 2: This is likely a hint to a future Southsun Cove story, as during the Secret of Southsun, we had a ‘new slogan’ from the Consortium (“Wish you were here” – it was on an out-of-game image of a poster for the Consortium’s resorts on Southsun), and many of these slogans seem to hint to karka, sand, beaches, etc. – aka Southsun.

Mem no Fushia.7604:

Did undiscovered sea areas in tengu theritory get more bright blue color or am I mistaken. / Edit mistaken.

Caromi Scouts back. / Edit:
Tengu noticed that I am charr. Tengu noticed that I am well known. /Edit:
“We must soon determine with whom we will fight and with whom we will ally” he said.

/ Edit: one of them has voice line. As well one near seem to be a trader, Kae Mayumi, he seem to work with charr called Rraghk. Chilldren there have voice dialogue about tengu.

THe Caromi Scout dialogues is old, but once belonged to a named NPC. Kae Mayumi is also old, and is not from the Dominion of Winds, but is born and raised Lion’s Arch citizen – Rraghk is one of the merchants from LA pre-destruction who, like Kae, lost his business. Seems they became business partners while being refugees.

I don’t know if it changed with today’s update (loading it up now), but he has always been located not-to-far from the dungeon vendors; always.

Blazing Liger.1236:

Yes, I did mean that some races worshiped ONE of the human gods. We have Melaggan who may or may not have anything to do with Melandru, and I recall some source claiming that the early Charr worshiped Melandru (I can not for the life of me remember where that was stated). The Prophecies manuscripts also says that the druids may have worshiped Melandru. Melandru seems to be the one human deity most often worshiped by other races.

• Nothing really says Mellaggan and Melandru are the same, aside from a slip-of-the-tongue of a non-lore-focused dev and human proclamations. Either way, the quaggan do not see Mellaggan as Melandru, so saying the quaggan worship the Six isn’t entirely correct until we know the two are the same.
• Charr had legends of Melandru creating Tyria, but they never worshiped her.
• Druids were a faction of humans, not their own species. They transformed into the plant-like beings we have always seen them as later on (about 100-10 years prior to GW1).

Still far from many races worshiping the Six, or one of the Six.

Blazing Liger.1236:

As for Abaddon, yes, the statue makes him look as though he’s just wearing a cowl. Still not quite human (his hands look rather bestial), but certainly humanoid.

He’s clearly wearing gloves…

The ‘tendril hair’ is part of his mask; beneath his mask you can see human lips (easier to see during Temple of the Forgotten God); his ‘clawed hands’ are clearly gloves when you observe close enough. He’s a man in a toga with a fancy mask and gloves.

Blazing Liger.1236:

The Manuscripts say that Saul was blindfolded and ridden out from Kryta for three weeks before being dumped there. I imagine that would leave him in the Maguuma somewhere, but if someone wants to try to calculate where he may have ended up, by all means.

It’s said he was left in a ‘forest’. There’s several forests in and around Kryta. He was also taken from the Watchtower Coast area, which is far closer to Woodland Cascades to the north. THere’s also the forested areas to the south, now called Bloodtide Coast and Sparkfly Fen thanks to the risen and Orrian flooding.

Blazing Liger.1236:

As for the origin of dragonkind on Tyria, we honestly don’t have enough information. Since Glint was corrupted, not created, by Kralkatorik, it’s possible that the elder dragons are merely the oldest of some ancient dragon race. Whether or not the dragons are actually born of magic itself, I still think their locations coincide with the largest amount of ambient magic on Tyria. It makes sense, after all, for them to stay by a ready food source.

Why their locations coincide with large amounts of ambient magic is pretty clear to me:

When they sleep, magic seeps out of them. The asura and gods utilized his seeping magic from Primordus and Zhaitan respectively; it’s possible that Abaddon/Titans/Charr did the same from Kralkatorrik. Magic even seeps out of dragon champions (Drakkar and Svanir’s story).

If ley lines are the paths of least resistance for magic to flow, then it’s only natural that the ley lines will ‘lead’ (or more accurately: originate from) the Elder Dragons, and around them, pools of magic will form – the magic that they lost.

Blazing Liger.1236:

I have suspected that magic works like this: ambient magic flows through the ley lines. The Forgotten sealed as much of that magic as possible into the bloodstone to keep it away from the dragons. Abaddon allowed mortals to tap into the bloodstone, the gods got mad, chaos ensued, and the bloodstone wkittentered into pieces and locked with Doric’s blood. Previously magic was separated into different schools with no overlap because of the bloodstone configuration. But as magic was drawn from the bloodstone, it returned to the ley lines. So much magic has left the bloodstones that they are likely nearly depleted; the dragons have a lot of magic to devour. The rise in ambient magic has also broken down the previously separate magical schools; the kind of advanced magic used by the asura and the Priory simply wouldn’t have been possible when most of the magic was locked within the bloodstones. Some magic returns very quickly to the ley lines, some of it more slowly. Enchantments are magic held in the items enchanted, hence why the Mouth of Zhaitan was devouring so many magical trinkets.

As far as our information goes, you’re mostly right. But you are missing the fact that magic seeps out of dragons when they sleep – a confirmed, known, fact. This is why the schools of magic became irrelevant – not because of magic leaving the bloodstones, but because of the introduction of non-bloodstone magic into the world at higher levels than bloodstone magic.

Also, it was the Seers, not Forgotten.

This is not a new theory. This was a wide-stated theory when Season 2 Episode 5 was released, with the lore about The All being known from Hidden Arcana.

It’s my current theory on the nature of the Six Gods, as well.

@Drygan: It was Rytlock, for sure. Also, we don’t know how he will react to sylvari players in Heart of Thorns. He may be outright vocally hostile like he was with Logan; he may even fight sylvari players.

Also, it’s pretty blatantly clear that The Grove’s sylvari are not immune to Mordy’s influence. Scarlet and Aerin were both from The Grove, after all. The corrupted sylvari didn’t attack the Grove first because they weren’t corrupted until the Pact took flight (or so it seems), and not all sylvari in the Pact were even corrupted.

Rytlock hasn’t led the charr to attack the Grove because he hasn’t returned from the Mists yet – again, the trailer has not happened. For all we know, Rytlock will lead an assault on the Grove. We may end up having to fight and kill Rytlock – again, for all we know. Which is next to nothing (part of the reason for the pre-purchase backlash).

@Nilkemia: Given that Rytlock hasn’t stated not to trust sylvari yet in the story, it isn’t necessarily bad writing – we just don’t know the story behind it.

Saying it’s bad story writing is like saying a preview for a movie which shows Character A trusting Character B and then hating Character B in the same preview to be ‘bad writing’. It’s a preview.

Gaile Gray.6029:

The standard edition will be available in a “boxed copy” version from some authorized retailers. Some of those retailers are engaged in the pre-purchase program. Others are offering a pre-order, which is not the same thing and will not gain the benefits of the actual pre-purchase.

Hope this helps!

I bought a hard copy of every Guild Wars game to date.

However, the Guild Wars 2 hard copy is a huge disappointment. It’s a box, two cds, and a sheet that says system requirements and for the most part “for more information, see our wiki!”

I loved the Guild Wars 1 hard copies because of the manuals they gave. Will HoT’s hard copy be the same as the core GW2’s hard copy?

No, but a lot of players got precursors during the Ancient Karka event from the end chest. If your character was 80 and not being upscaled like mine was (got a lvl 60 exotic instead…)…

But I know the pain. Been playing since the earliest BWE possible, but it wasn’t until the Lunar New Year that I got my first drop worth anything more than 15g. Of course, I’m 99.999% sure that the months of February and March ate up my luck for not only the past three years but the next three as well as during that time I got Fractal Shortbow, Fractal Sword, Dawn, Chaos Gun, and The Chosen (not in that order) – all about a week apart. Ironically I got them all just after I finally finished making Kraitkin (bought that precursor as it’s semi-cheap). I did get lucky about last month with a Tequatl Hoard though, and yesterday/saturday with my first ascended box from Fractals lvl 45 personal reward (lvl 49 run). So maybe my luck isn’t all eaten up…

As far as we know, no. The Elite Specializations and their related traits and skills are for HoT players only. Core Specializations – which is a revamp of the trait lines – is added for all players and goes live tomorrow. The core specialization does not give anything new – it’s merely a rebalance, which features merging traits and/or skills together in a manner that will allow Anet to easily add more trait lines (the Elite Specializations) in the future. They call them Specializations, but really it’s just trait lines.

Buying HoT will only give you access to the Elite Specializations and HoT areas; not buying HoT merely restricts you from them. HoT players can still access the core game, where you will be restricted to if you don’t buy HoT.

GW2’s pre-purchase began exactly 2 months prior to the release. HoT’s pre-purchase began June 16.

Just sayin’.

Jumanji.8724:

Yeah i wont spend the 2k for just a skill lol

Technically it’s an elite, a mini, and a few semi-worthless consumables, a good consumable given to every new character (golem banker – lasts 2 weeks after first use, soulbound though), and a good-for-starters trinket given to every new character (celestial rare no-level-requirement ring, good for first 20 or so levels).

But I don’t get why buying the Ultimate pre-purchase edition didn’t give you Deluxe. Perhaps you should consult support?

Blazing Liger.1236:

The gods claimed to come from elsewhere and to have created humans, but we don’t have any outside confirmation of either. Even in-game sources are highly skeptical of those claims, so we shouldn’t take anything the gods say at face value. Also, it is heavily implied by the text of the King’s Watch Monument in GW1 that Doric was actually slain by the gods upon the bloodstone:

Actually, the oldest human records (which would imply governed by the gods) claim that the gods created the world, not that they came from elsewhere. As provided already, we have dev statement that the original claims (gods created and came from the world) are false.

And no skepticism is given to the claim that the gods (or humans) came from another world. Except maybe by old-school humans who preach that the gods created the world. And we know those NPCs are wrong – like fundamentalist Christians!

Okay, sorry, sorry, I take that back. >.>

Blazing Liger.1236:

That doesn’t mean that the gods made the humans nor does it answer any questions about the gods’ own origins, though.

Nor is it relevant to the topic, whether or not the gods created humans.

It does, however, deny the possibility of the gods becoming such after being on Tyria.

Blazing Liger.1236:

We don’t know that the gods brought the humans to Tyria; it could have been some other powerful being(s) or a fluke of the Mists.

Actually… all indication says that they did.

There is nothing other than the original claims that the gods made humans (sources proven false time and time again even in GW1’s timeframe) that indicates otherwise or implies skepticism on the claim that humans were brought to the world by the Six Gods.

Blazing Liger.1236:

Abaddon certainly did not look human.

Abaddon lost his body when he was defeated in Year 0, and was recreating it from the landscape of the Realm of Torment throughout Nightfall. His original appearance (the appearance he gave to Malchor, at least) was very much human-like.

Blazing Liger.1236:

Many other races worship the human gods or very similar deities. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that the gods predate the arrival of humans on Tyria, if in some other form.

If by ‘many’ you mean ‘one, with sects from three others’ then you’d be right. Aside from humans, only the Forgotten worshiped the Six in full; there were a few centaurs that worshiped/revered Balthazar, one naga that was named for Dwayna, and churches of Grenth and Dwayna among the dwarves. But the Six were primarily – and always – highly restricted to humanity in faith; hence their other name “the Human Gods”.

Blazing Liger.1236:

Regardless, I only have theorized a connection between the gods and the dragons as a possible explanation for the gods’ absence. It’s not a central point of my theory, and I’m open to other ideas as to why the gods have been so distant.

There’s no need to theorize the reason for the gods’ absence, as it is known to us per the Word of God.

Blazing Liger.1236:

I have always suspected that the Chosen are simply the descendents of King Doric, and thus their blood was needed to activate the stones.

In claim, the Chosen had more magic/magical talent than other individuals. In actuality, it seems that the term only refers to the group of individuals who would kill the mursaat race (aka Prophecies PC and co.). The term has NEVER been used outside of the context of the Flameseeker Prophecies, which implies that the White Mantle’s claim (that they had more magic/magical talent) is a 100% BS lie.

The bloodstones were never actually activated, as best we can tell, but were instead used as a conduit – a means of transition of the Chosen’s souls into the soul batteries via the runes on the bloodstone.

Blazing Liger.1236:

I also believe we never saw or defeated all of the Mursaat; most of them remained deep in the Maguuma where Saul D’Alessio found them, or hid themselves in a dimension out of sync with our own.

Nothing actually says that Saul went into the Maguuma. Just sayin’.

Blazing Liger.1236:

Not specifically stated, but hinted at:
- Conservation of Magic: magic can be neither created nor destroyed, and it is not infinite

Half of this actually is stated. The Seventh Law of Maginamics states that magic can be neither created nor destroyed but is infinite. However, in the asura personal story Gorr attempts to disprove this; while he states that he did disprove it by showing that the dragons consume magic which results in a lower concentration of magic in the world, he failed to question whether or not the consumption of magic destroys magic.

“According to the Zephryites, it does not destroy magic.”:

There’s also an event NPC in Straits of Devastation that explains magic as indestructible and takes a long time to naturally dissipate. (dialogue sadly not documented)

In the end, we get the conclusion that magic is finite, but indestructible – just changes shape. Creation of magic is still questionable, but most likely only The Mists can create magic (just as it creates worlds or chunks of reality – these worlds, if they function like Tyria, must contain magic thus if the Mists doesn’t recycle then it must create from near nothing).

Blazing Liger.1236:

There are areas throughout Tyria where the ley lines form eddies, and large concentrations of magic are gathered; these coincide with the locations of the elder dragons. The elder dragons are forces of nature, born of this accumulated magic. This means that it doesn’t even matter if we kill them, others will rise to take their place in the next age.

I’m gonna have to disagree. If this was the case, then there’d be no risk mentioned in The Map of the All or by Ogden during Hidden Arcana

While Anet likes to toss the phrase that the Elder Dragons are ‘forces of nature’, they’ve also mentioned that such is of the opinion of the standard Tyrian. We’ve seen plenty of evidence to indicate that they are not this mindless apex predator group of creatures.

And while the theory that the Elder Dragons are born of pure magic was once a thought I had, the implied existence of a dragon race through the lore on Glint, to me, hurts this theory. If there was a race of dragons, then the Elder Dragons were likely of this race, and mutated from the great concentrations of magic they’ve consumed.

Blazing Liger.1236:

There are six gods, and six elder dragons. I suspect this is not coincidence, and that there is some tie, direct or indirect, between them. We know that the gods were once mortal. I suspect that they found some way to tap into those vast stores of magic in order to ascend. Their absence may be due directly to the rise of the dragons: as the dragons gain power and devour magic, the gods’ power is weakened dramatically.

While there are six gods in the human pantheon, we actually know of 3-to-4 beings that could be counted as gods (Zintl, Koda, Ameyalli; arguable: Great Dwarf). People often forget that the Six Gods are not the only ‘gods’.

And given the origin of the Six Gods, there’s unlikely to be any direct relation – we know that at least three (Dwayna, Melandru, and Balthazar) came to the world as gods; and the Six Gods (and humans) in general are not native to the world.

Also, we know that some gods were once mortal – there’s no indication that Dwayna, Dhuum, or Melandru were ever mortal. If the “First Gen” of the Six Gods were originally mortals, the magic they tapped into was not on Tyria. But we’ve been told that the human homeworld has low/no magic – as humans were not used to the concept of magic when they arrived, and is why they thought magic to be a gift from the gods.

Furthermore, the absence of the Six Gods has been explained – they left because of the sibling rivalry with Abaddon, and the damage they caused. They left over a thousand years before the Elder Dragons began to awake, and went silent half a decade before the first began to stir.

There’s likely a relation, but not a power-to-power one. We know the gods knew of the Elder Dragons, we know the gods tampered with at least one Elder Dragon if not at least two. And there’s the theory that the Six Gods were to their home world what the Elder Dragons are to Tyria (part of the world’s The All/antikytheria, balancers of the world – it’s hinted that the gods’ homeworld fell into chaos or otherwise needed to be escaped, but also lacked magic; it’s possible that the Six Gods took in too much magic and retained it while awake, thus resulting in their world crumbling – something Ogden warns could happen to Tyria if too much magic is removed).

But again: no direct relation, and certainly not in a power-to-power, god-to-dragon relation. Only half match up under such arguments.

Randulf.7614:

Not sure if kralks aspect is purple. Its prob his favourite colour though

Purple has been stated to be ‘the color of evil’ in Guild Wars (makes you question Lyssa and mesmers, eh?) and is why we saw it so prominently with Abaddon, and why we see it with Kralkatorrik’s crystals, and in heavy concentrations of Zhaitan’s and Mordremoth’s corruption.

But Kralkatorrik’s aspect is crystal – the second one is theorized to by some as chaos, and by others (such as myself) as sky.

Blazing Liger.1236:

If you think of the dragons’ spheres as some corrupted opposite of the gods, you could tie Dwayna with Zhaitan (life vs. unlife) and that leaves Grenth with Jormag (both ice).

It’s also entirely possible that any connection is more indirect.

Good luck finding a corrupted sphere equivilant of crystal in the gods.

Or knowledge, in the dragons.

Furthermore, the Six Gods’ aspects change per generation.

Originally (to our knowledge) it was:

Dwayna: Life, Air, Light
Balthazar: War, Fire, Honor
Melandru: Nature, Earth, Growth
Dhuum: Death, Darkness(speculated and questionable)
Lyssa: Illusion, Beauty
Abaddon: Water, Wisdom (later, with his fall from grace: Eternal Depths and Secrets)

Now it is:
Dwayna: Life, Air, Healing
Balthazar: War, Fire, Honor
Melandru: Nature, Earth, Growth
Grenth: Ice, Death, Judgement/Justice
Lyssa; Illusion, Beauty, Water
Kormir: Knowledge, Order, Spirit

“Light” seems to have gone from Dwayna to Kormir – or shared between the two; Grenth brought “Ice” into the pantheon entirely; “Water” transferred from Abaddon to Lyssa

And if we look at the Elder Dragons:
Zhaitan: Death and Shadow
Mordremoth: Plant and Mind
Primodus: Fire and (Unknown; speculated Earth)
Kralkatorrik: Crystal and (Unknown; speculated Air/Sky or Chaos)
Jormag: Ice and (Unknown; speculated Spirit/Soul)
Scleritethin (aka Steve aka Bubbles): (Unknown; speculated Water) and (Unknown; no common speculation)

Which causes only a line up for Zhaitan-to-Dhuum, while the others are mix-and-match, and you still leave certain aspects like Crystal and Mind from the dragons, or Life, Knowledge, Illusion, etc. from the gods.

So any direct relation is unlikey.

ColinJohanson.2394:

A quick update on this one -> After feedback from presenting the original hero point count – we decided getting to level 80 will give you enough hero points to unlock all the core skills and traits entirely. Doing hero challenges (aka skill challenges) will simply allow you to earn all the skills/traits earlier before level 80. With the release of HoT, there will be options to spend the excess hero points earned from doing hero challenges in the world.

There are a number of other changes on 6/23 to make the experience from 1-80 more exciting, better-paced, rewarding, and fun as well after having the time to evaluate and player feedback from the updates last year.

-CJ

What? That sounds so stupid.

I would want work I do in core to matter to core, not expansions.

“Hey, you did all this work, but you won’t get rewarded unless you cash out additional money to us.”

Games – base games and expansions – should reward within their own system.

I don’t mean to sound like an kitten or anything, but that set up sounds really stupid to me.

We will be needing about 400 hero points and will now be receiving all 400 from just leveling, while practically doubling the amount via map completion, and being able to do nothing with that doubling…

warbignime.4610:

The people complaining on forum, I can guarantee you most of them will but HoT they second they hear people talking about it after release. This is what happens every times.

Of course, because most people are simply wanting to know that the expansion is worth that $50.

It’s not so much the price, as the information about the product.

When will people who are defending Anet and the pricing realize this?

So since what they want is information… when HoT comes out they’ll have that information from other players and reviews. So yes, most people will end up buying it.

Those who aren’t buying because they can’t afford/don’t want to pay $50 for any kind of expansion will end up not buying it until it becomes cheaper – likely a couple months after HoT’s release, unless sales are terrible or we hit some seasonal sale (anniversary, holidays, etc.).

That rather depends entirely on why they were part of the original implied alliance, and why they betrayed the jotun, dwarves, Forgotten, and Seers.

But it’d still be hard to press a good argument for friendship now, especially given the history between mursaat and humans, and given the history of the mursaat in general, known to the Priory.

Kreejaffa.3682:

http://www.amazon.com/Guild-Wars-2-Pc/dp/B001TOQ8X4/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1434851349&sr=1-2&keywords=guild+wars+2

Best bet is to buy it on amazon or something similar, as Arena Net now only offers expansion/base game combo.

I disagree. If you buy it from A net then they can refund you – naturally at the cost of closing the account.

However, buying the game from third party members means that you can’t get a refund without a lot of hoops to drop through.

So if you try and don’t like the game, it would be best to buy from a net for that refund.

That’s in the Priory story, not vigil. It’s also in charr gladium side story.

“Undead” really isn’t a race though. Joko has undead humans, centaurs, and what seems to be even charr.

So I never really see the interest in an ‘undead’ race. Because it’d be more of ‘undead human’ or the like.

As Diovid said, I don’t think that quaggan and centaur (like skritt) ever have a chance at becoming a playable race. Main reason I would argue is that quaggans are too peaceful – they’re the Tyrian Victim of Bullying race – and are a racial sympathy (for which reasons I knock off skritt, grawl, hylek, and ogre as potential playable races); centaurs were said from the beginning to be an intended ‘always villain race’ like the krait.

For that reason, of presented Tyrian races, I would argue that the only races to have a chance at becoming playable are:

• Tengu
• Largos
• Kodan

Kodan are least likely, imo, due to customization issues. If they were a race of walking bears (like charr are walking cats), that’d be different, but polar bear race kind of hinders it as they all have to be shades of white (insert 50 Shades of White joke).

Largos would be a wonderful addition when they go to explore the DSD. Especially if they expand the world map. But until they push out upgrades to underwater combat and exploration (something they seem hesitant to touch with a 10 foot pole atm), I cannot see them adding largos as a race.

Tengu I can definitely see happening, because they share similar rigging to charr. So the two races would begin being able to share most of their armor (with minor alterations ala human to sylvari).

Here’s a race I would enjoy playing though:

Naga.

From Cantha.

Wrong forum. You want here.

Mada.5319:

-snip-

In order:

• That’s something we’ll have to learn in HoT. Exalted Ones may just be a placeholder name for the sake of spoilers, after all. Whatever the case, it’s likely to be related to how the Exalted Ones are now apparently independent.
• We actually don’t know that’s an Exalted One. The appearance is vastly different – it has a collar while the in-game models don’t; we saw no horns on the black figure, while we did on the Exalted Ones. That thing is more closely resembling a Seer than mursaat/enchanted/exalted. We also don’t know if it was turning it into gold, or activating it somehow to make it glow/light up – the scene is too ambiguous. Even if it were an Exalted, however, who’s to say that the Enchanted couldn’t perform such feats?
• There’s no green; you’re thinking of a more black. But the Gilded Hollows, Sealed Cave ruins, and Forgotten City are more than gold too – they had a gray/black portion, as well as a ‘darker gold’ portion as well. Furthermore, we’re seeing a transition between GW1 and GW2 – look at EVERYTHING else from both games, and they only share the base similarities.
• I explained the glow already. As for levitation: says who? We only saw those in the Crystal Desert, so who’s to say that some that were located elsewhere couldn’t levitate? Harn Coldstone for example levitated when using skills, if I recall correctly.
• See Harn Coldstone. Proof that they could be – granted, Harn isn’t outright called a Forgotten’s enchanted, but it still proves that they could be. And again, transition from GW1 to GW2 – things change. If you’re going to try to argue everything between GW1 and GW2 are the same, then you’ve clearly never played GW1.
• They had spikes coming out the back; again, this would be part of their change. These tendrils are nothing like mursaat’s either anyways. Furthermore, if we’re making what was invisible now glowing, who’s to say this wasn’t simply ‘invisible’ before?
• No. Look at the models. It’s pretty clear as day that they look the same. In lore, they hold no connection (at least they didn’t as of 2007), but their appearance was the same as mursaat’s clothing but more armor-like. Similar situation as the White Mantle and Shadow Army (to the point where the Shadow Army had the bright white White Mantle emblem on them). You seriously cannot look at both the mursaat model and the enchanted armor and not say there’s no similarity. And it wasn’t one person’s opinion – the lore forum on GWO forums (before it got wiped) were widespread with connection theories because of this similarity.
• Which was in 2007, and could have been changed, not yet coming, or referring to the War in Kryta stuff.
• The color variation was minor and only in two groups, furthermore to me it looked more like the ‘armor’ portions rather than the ‘glow’ portions. But this is a case of multiple models whereas the War Beasts all use a single model, so you cannot claim outright lack of relation there.

Is this thing fullproof? No.

But it holds as much weight as claiming the Exalted Ones are mursaat.

• Mursaat were fleshy, not ethereal/glowing/energy/whatever that is.
• Mursaat wings were black, and did not drape down.
• Mursaat structures were a dark red/purple color. Not gold.
• Mursaat didn’t shoot golden beams.
• Mursaat were mostly wiped out.
• If mursaat live in a place, they wouldn’t call it a Forgotten City, unless it didn’t belong to them.

Half of these (first, second, fourth, fifth) you can claim to be a change between aesthetics of the games, but that’s the same argument to defend the changes on my stance. So in the end, they hold the same weight. The only real similarity between the mursaat and Exalted Ones are the golden armor/clothing, floatingness, and back-tendrils (which is a general similarity), and the general shape of their clothing (which also relates to the Enchanted).

So as I see it, both are equally likely. But what pushes down the mursaat likelihood for me is the fact that the Exalted Ones are allies. So unless this is just some faction that didn’t agree with the rest of their race, or some such like that, it would make 0 sense for mursaat to be allies. Why? Mursaat are selfish kittens, all of their GW1 and especially GW2 lore points to this. They’ve caused genocide just to save their own behinds. Twice. They’ve left the world to rot at the hands of the Elder Dragons, just so that they wouldn’t have to fight for their survival (even though they had the most effective means of combating dragon minions).

So who’s to say they wouldn’t do that again? Better question is: why wouldn’t they?

Quite a few things. I brought it up once before but with the Masteries description I have an additional piece of support. And with yesterday’s Guild Hall stream, I feel I have yet another piece of support. Take it for what you will.

• As mentioned above, they live in the Forgotten City; but such a name is only such when it is abandoned, as otherwise it isn’t Forgotten. Given that it isn’t abandoned, then it’s a descriptor name – in this case, likely being a city of the Forgotten.
• The Gilded Hollow guild hall has, to me at least, a very Hall of Heroes/Hall of Ascension appearance – it might just be the whole gold structures thing, but the floor tile designs and the gilded walls and pillars seem like a GW2 take on those GW1 structures to me. GW1 vets will know that the Hall of Ascension was heavily tied to the Forgotten, as was the cave in which other golden structures were found in Season 2, which seems to share the appearance of the Gilded Hollow and Forgotten City.
• People relate these to the mursaat foremost for their armor’s appearance – the Enchanted armor mimicked the mursaat’s clothing a lot, especially noticeable in the mask (defining feature for the Exalted Ones->mursaat physical relation). But where mursaat were flesh and blood, both the Enchanted armor and by appearance the Exalted Ones, are not.
• The thing that sold me, personally, was the Rock Dogs – odd thing, right? Well, in GW1 we had Stonewolves who were led by Lissah the Packleader. One thing to note about their pack alpha is the appearance – it’s an Obsidian Wolf by model, which is a bunch of floating shards in a wolf shape. Fast forward to GW2: we have no stonewolf, but instead have rock dogs which like stonewolves look very fleshy. One of their pack alphas is Sourfang – which utilize the War Beast model. As one can see, War Beasts (and Sourfang) are floating shards in the shape of wolf, but with gold glow between. This gold glow is the same as what we see with the Exalted Ones between its ‘armor’.

This leads me to think that these Exalted Ones are just GW2’s re-imagination of the Enchanted Armors. Remnants of the Forgotten’s sentinels.

Divinity’s Reach will be destroyed. The asura do it.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Split_Second

But a bit more seriously: constantly attacking the home cities gets boring fast. Every city has already been attacked at least once (Rata Sum and Black Citadel were small scale stuff though, during the Personal Story, once and twice respectively; DR got attacked small scaled during the personal story but large scaled during Season 1; LA got attacked large scale once in PS thrice in S1; Grove attacked small scale in PS, large scale in S2). It’s gotten to a “been there, done that” point now.

brokenrabbit.6538:

A rapid river. Rapid water erodes bedrock and building material. Worse, that river can’t be older than the Divinity Dams, and look how much of the bedrock it’s cut away already.

I think the river is likely a remnant from the earlier designs of DR, which included a river between Shaemoor and DR proper (between the map portals) that showed bridges – it connected Lake Regent (west body of water) to Lake Doric (east body of water) at the dams. So the river would have been an offshoot of the two dams to regular water on the northern side.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

the differences in the major cities

This is because the descriptions that the book gives are the beta appearances of the cities – Hoelbrak, Rata Sum, and Lion’s Arch all got overhauls during development. If you watch the first GW2 trailer which shows all three cities, they actually are closer to the book’s description than what we saw at release.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

human caravans in the Blazeridge mountains? Dwarvern cities underground? Horses? :P

How’s this weird?

Ebonhawke had no asura gate, so they had to get supplies somehow. Only path that’s really there thanks to the Shiverpeaks is through northern Ascalon or the Blood Legion Homelands (it’s established gw1 lore that there should only be two safe passages into the Shiverpeaks from its east side – Anet flubbed it a bit with Fireheart Rise giving access to Frostgorge Sound but hey).

Dwarves had pre-established underground cities – it’s just that most of them that we knew were above ground.

And we knew of horses. :P

bigpoy.8205:

Also, were dwarvern cities not underground? I always pictured them to be similar to Asuran cities before their race came to the surface.

Technically, we only saw one underground city of the dwarves in GW1 – Sorrow’s Furnace – which by the time we go there had long been conquered by the Stone Summit (evil dwarves) and turned into a mining fortress.

But there’s a well-if-not-obvious established connection between the dwarves and underground. We just never see it first hand.

No new books on the horizon, alas.

As for Edge of Destiny, yeah it did feel lacking in storytelling, but it had the most lore – arguably to SoS.

I feel like it could have done better as two novels – one to show the rise of Destiny’s Edge, and one to show its fall from glory. There were just too many time skips with the constant weeks/months of preparation between each dragon champion, and us only seeing the dragon champions after they formed. The first half was rather good in pacing, IMO, though it could have been a bit better in wording and writing – but that’s often a downside to external writers being brought in. Everything after the celebration of the Dragonspawn’s death until Caithe collapses just… needed great improvement.

What bothers me the most however is that in game, we see a few mentions of Destiny’s Edge doing things unrelated to what we saw in the novel, and the novel supposedly only timeskips over the preparation of fighting the dragon champions, and Edge of Steel’s arena matches. For example, there’s an ogre in Hoelbrak who mentions seeing Destiny’s Edge in full – this is including Eir particularly – in the Blazeridge Steppes. But according to the novel, only Logan, Rytlock, and Caithe were there – well before Destiny’s Edge formed. Most oddly, is that he only mentions one asura…

ColinJohanson.2394:

This is for weapon and armor currently – weapons use the same recipe as armor to stat change except they use inscriptions to allow you to change instead of insignias.

Alas yes it does destroy the runes and sigils in the item, the mystic forge doesn’t currently have a way to allow us to do this kind of stat changing without it working that way.

Also: Shout out to Matt P and Linsey who did all the hard work to make this possible

But does it remove the infusion?

And yes, cheers for Matt P and Linsey!

Yes, I would like to see regional jumping puzzles.

I’d also like a wider variety of world boss events.

I’d also like regional mini-dungeon dailies – stuff like Vexa’s Lab, Ruins of the Unseen, Forsaken Halls.

I’d also like to see a generic ‘dungeon completer’ daily – separated into story mode daily and explorable mode daily.

DresdenAllblack.1249:

Wouldn’t the dragons be a large enough threat for them to reconsider their hidden ways?
Self-preservation is powerful motivator.

Last time the dragons woke up, the mursaat betrayed the other races, nearly wiped out the Seers, and then fled the world thus creating the beginning of their hidden ways.

Their “hidden ways” kept them alive. If anything, self-preservation would dictate they repeat history.

DresdenAllblack.1249:

Plus the symbol on the door that Rytlock pushes open IS Mursaat.

Technically, the emblem people are thinking it is (we don’t get an exactly great view iirc), is of White Mantle origin as far as we players know.

Mitzilfligz.4028:

Asuran portals work on asura technology and not magic. Therefore, if you were to activate one—-you would be particle transferred from one point to another rather than teleported. If there is interference, it wouldn’t be possible.

Uh….

Asura technology is run on magic.

So yes, asura gates – and waypoints – work on magic.

“technology” of any kind is not a power source, it’s a method of using a power source, and “asura technology” uses the power source known as magic (or magical energy if you want to be more specific).

Aaron Ansari.1604:

My one objection would be that competing over territory would necessarily mean PvP, either open world (shudders) or by some regulated format that we all get handwaved into going along with.

People didn’t mind it with Factions – such was added via the Alliance Battles, and alliance system and town owning system for the Echovald Forest and Jade Sea.

In fact, it made the guilds that could handle such even more popular, and increased PvP if anything. The system wasn’t fully PvP either, but faction based. You can do PvE stuff for faction; the PvP merely determined the line between the two allegiances, thus how many guilds can control how many towns.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Back on the lore topic, I do like the idea, but it is admittedly the sort of crumbling into anarchy that leaves the governments portrayed as impotent, which would severely hinder storylines involving them in the future. Why would we care if the Ministry overthrows Jennah once she’s become just a figurehead? So what if the charr legions find their rivalry resurgent, when they barely have a say over their own headquarters anymore? Player organizations would become the main movers and shakers, and that would be very difficult to construct a narrative around for ANet. Nice way to end the game and move it to self-sufficiency a la GW1, but not so nice so long as there are still stories they intend to tell.

Which I think is the reason why Anet has kept away from the Guild Wars concept since leaving alpha for Prophecies.

DeceiverX.8361:

I think the big issue at hand is that simply put, the content in HoT to our knowledge thus far isn’t worth the $50.00.

THIS.

Really, nothing else needs to be said.

From what we have been told in the past six months, we content of Heart of Thorns is so minimal that our guesses at its size is not worth $50. If ArenaNet wants to calm folks down, the best way to do such is to give us a ballpark figure of how much content we are paying for.

We paid $60 pre-purchase for 80 levels, 5 races, 8 professions, 15+ storylines, 2+ dungeons, 5 regions which included 11+ maps and ‘all open betas’. That is the core game that we knew when the pre-purchase showed up.

We are paying $50 for 0 levels, 0 races, 1 profession, 9 sets of new skills (guessed 54-69 skills) 1 storyline, 0 dungeon, 1 region which includes 1 maps, and ‘all open betas’. That is HoT pre-purchase and what we know.

Price is basically the same, content is not.

I don’t think anyone is forgetting that, and I for one certainly wouldn’t expect such. All I was saying was a simple name replacer in text dialogue no different than when we see NPCs refer to our character’s name, race, gender, profession, or story progression.

All it changes is about 25 npcs dialogue tops if such was done.

GranspearZX.5624:

Lost in all this shuffle is a point that absolutely no one is bringing up—there is no release date. None. So no one knows what their $50 is actually buying… but that obscured overall picture is much, much clearer for players who don’t have an account already.

This is actually why I refuse the pre-purchase.

It’s not really the cost.

It’s the fact that I have no idea what I’m buying. We have had ZERO content reveal since January. We already knew of Verdant Brink and a little bit of the story then. That’s what we know now.

How many maps do we get?
How long is the story?
How many events per map?
How many achievements?

It has been six months since the last content update. It has been six months since the last content reveal for what is guaranteed to be HoT-only.

Stronghold and Desert Borderlands we’ve seen additional of. But that’s likely to not be HoT-only, especially the later.

So I’m paying for a full unknown content-wise.

I know some features. Guild halls – something that, like Stronghold, was part of GW1 from the beginning and is a complete baffle why it wasn’t so with GW2 – and revenant, new elite specializations (aka new trait lines that do more than old trait lines). That’s nice. That’s great. But twice we’ve gotten feature packs, and they’ve been free. So what makes this one worth $50?

To be worth $50, to me, it would have to be the size of GW2’s core game, give or take. Because the core game was $60 and gave access to not only PvE but also WvW and PvP. HoT is just PvE with some PvP/WvW being release alongside (I cannot see them restricting players who don’t own HoT out of the borderlands; I cannot see them restricting players out of Stronghold with the current system).

So where’s the $50 worth of content Anet? Please, show me. Do that, and I’ll buy the game.

You’re the salesman Anet, so make me want the game.

I’m going to have to give a slight rant about the pricing of HoT’s pre-purchase. But let me start by saying that the deal is good…. if you’re a new player. For $50 you can buy the core game and HoT all-in-one; for an additional $20 you can buy a bunch of cosmetic stuff and an extra character slot; and an additional $30 adds $50 worth of gems. And if you’re a new player, that’s great! I think the Deluxe is a total rip – $20 for a mini, glider skin, guild hall item, and character slot basically – but that’s personal opinion as I only see use for that character slot and maybe the guild hall item. The Ultimate is pretty good – it’s basically buying the base game and HoT for $50, then $50 worth of gems, and the rest which is given in the Deluxe free.

But to existing players, the deal is total kitten. Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard the argument that there’s so many new features and that most MMO expansions are a little cheaper but they have subscriptions. But that’s just it. Many new features. We’re being charged the price of a full game for features – most of which are copies of GW1’s features that were available upon Prophecies’ release. But there’s the CONTENT? We have seen a single map with promises. Promises of a good story – hard to believe with the crap that was the Living World – and promises of plenty of content per map. But not even a guesstimate on how many hours of gameplay the story itself can give; no guesstimate on how many events per map we’ll be seeing, or how many maps we’re getting. For all we know, HoT is that single map in PvE content with a single Living World episode’s worth of story instances. I doubt that’s the case, but at this point – six months after reveal of HoT’s existence; six months after a content update, and we don’t know any more on the content of HoT than we did by the end of January. We’ve only learned about features.

I am willing to pay $50 for an expansion. The price isn’t the issue. It’s the price-for-content that’s the issue. Most expansions are priced at half of the initial game’s cost because they only give a third or half of a full game’s content. Factions and Nightfall were full priced because they were stand-alone and full campaigns.

I will not pay $50 for access to guild halls, elite specializations, revenant, a single map, Stronghold, and new WvW borderlands. And I’m fairly sure that the latter two will end up accessible to all (certainly the new WvW borderlands). I will pay $50 for a full game, like GW1’s campaigns were. I will pay $30 for half-a-game like most expansions are. But I will not pay $50 for guild halls, elite specializations, a new profession, and a single map.

And let me go a little bit into the purpose of pre-orders and pre-purchases. Such a thing came about when games were mainly sold in stores rather than online, because the more expected titles can sell out fast. Pre-orders became a thing to ensure a customer got that game on release day. Via online, all it does is allow a customer to pay sooner rather than later. But the issue is that we have no indication on whether or not that game is good or not. Nowadays, companies are exploiting the pre-purchase aspect with all these pre-purchase-only gizmos and promises that in the end don’t matter much (or shouldn’t). And this pre-purchase is no different – only the character slot is really all that useful, but I don’t need to pay $20 for that. And still, I know nothing about what I’m paying for beyond ‘features’.

Features used to be free updates. They tend to be in most games. Content is what you pay for, more often than not. HoT is not content – not what they’ve showed at least.

Sorry Anet, but that incentive is not incentive. You need to tell me that I’m getting my money’s worth.

Many possibilities. That is a trailer for what is likely half of the HoT storyline if not more. So it isn’t a simple “he’s returned and instantly knows the sylvari are turned”. This line likely comes about after he’s seen the Pact Fleet devastation and is his statement on trusting sylvari when such is approached to him.

I am still doubtful they’re mursaat.

They live in a place called “the Forgotten City”. Since it’s inhabited, it isn’t forgotten in the sense of no one knows about it. So it’s likely a forgotten city in the sense that it’s a city once owned/inhabited by Forgotten.

These ‘Exalted Ones’ are just GW2’s version of Enchanted armor that never got a proper name. That’s my theory, at least.

It didn’t occur to me until after the crash as I tried to understand what had just happened. There were signs, bursts of anger. He said odd things about believing the world must be destroyed.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Reunion_with_the_Pact#Dialogue

Aspect Masters talking about Aerin and his talking-to-himselfness.

Mordremoth doesn’t really return plant life back to the Maguuma Wastes – the Heart of the Maguuma that we’ll be going into in HoT had that jungle all along – and is viewed as an invader by the inhabitants; the Maguuma Wastes barely sees new plantlife, really, and what there is, is vines that destroy the landscape and kill wildlife.

Mordremoth’s corruption in appearance is an invasive species thoroughly, but one that harms not only the natural wildlife and plantlife, but the landscape too.

Your questions in order:

• Unknown.
• Unknown, but NPCs certainly don’t (every NPC using a waypoint walk directly underneath it)
• Implied via above quote.
• Unknown.
• Unknown.
• Unknown, but arguably no (that’s why they don’t show up at first)

Kalavier.1097:

C: Because advancing the clock 250 years actually means they can reference the events of GW1 WITHOUT having to explicitly label a ‘canon’ hero. Was it a Ascalonian who did all three campaigns in canon? Or one Ascalon, one Canthan, one Istani?

They could have done it how, imo, they should have done it.

When you link to a GW1 account, you choose which of your character is “the hero” for each campaign you had linked. Any other campaign it’s treated with a ’ArenaNet’s canon’ but where you linked up and chose there’s a ‘personal canon’ – think Dragon Age choices; there’s a “BioWare canon” which goes with a certain set of choices from the games and is used for non-game media (comics and books), but there’s the ‘personal canon’ which is your continuity in the game series.