Guild Wars 2

draxynnic.3719:

We’d need to actually have damage types for that to happen – I had a bit of a weird mix of GW1 and what I know of WoW for that exchange above.

Could probably make it work with alternating chilled and burning conditions – only one can be applied at once, but with a mechanic by which extra damage can be applied by alternating between them properly…

Technically, we do have damage types. They’re just so unimportant that the only thing they’re worth is unique death animation! We got poison, fire (I’d say burning but fire-engulfed weapons like the Fiery Dragon Sword trigger this animation too), chilling, electrocuting, and more as death animations.

But all you really need is to have a unique boon that is removed by having both chilled and burning on the buffed character.

Technically, the Shuttered Gate is NOT the border of Dominion of Winds. If it were, then Wizard’s Fief and Garrenhoff would be locked in, but it’s an active port town.

In Kessex Hills, you can see the Dominion of Winds’ wall head south just before Garrenhoff.

Prior to the Battle for LA, there were some NPC merchants not far from The Shuttered Gate who stated the tengu were blocking their trade route. If that gate was there for the past century, then those merchants wouldn’t have even thought of going that way. That gate is clearly a recent addition.

Jaken.6801:

Isn`t the boon stripping and reshuffeling already covered with other classes?
Necro has it certainly and I think Mesmer dabbles in it as well.

Necros and mesmers spread enemy conditions, singularize ally conditions, and remove enemy boons.

They do not remove enemy conditions or self-boons though.

The idea I have is basically “remove condi damage being done on foes to present a spike of boons for self/damage for enemy” – kind of a reverse dervish with stacking then self-stripping-for-more-effect enchantments.

There having been three dragonrises between now and 10,000 BE (@~10,000 BE, ~2,000 BE, and ~2,000 AE) is the most likely, imo. It seems a bit far fetched for the Elder Dragons’ current rise to match the same span as all previous ones given the Bloodstone (both creation and gift-of-magic-fiasco).

But in the current theory, it very well could be that the Giganticus Lupicus were wiped out prior to the alliance of the five races.

Edit: I just want to re-iterate: the thread is about THE previous dragonrise. As in, the one to happen before the current. There really is no denying that a dragonrise occurred at 10,000 BE. The question is: was there one since then and before now? If so, how many?

So the question is rather asking “when did the Alliance of Five exist? 10,000 BE, or later?”

There is no doubt that there were many previous dragonrises – as I pointed out already, Scholar Caterin at the Durmand Priory pointed out that jotun creation myth mentions multiple cycles of a sextant of swallowers (Elder Dragons). This means there were at least 2 dragonrises before the jotun lost their civilization (this may mean 2 rises prior to 10,000 BE, or two rises prior to some later date, including the 10,000 BE rise).

They actually said sometime near the end of Season 1 that there was such a sylvari focus because they are new, don’t have as much lore as the other races, and they want to flesh the race out, to show multiple facets.

Thing is… Norn and asura have about just mad much lore, and it feels like the other races lack those other facets as many have been dumbed down in presentation, especially evil factions.

Mechanically? I’d argue that one that specialized in the same field as the Dervish’s special mechanics (in GW2’s form, stripping one’s own boons and stripping enemies’ conditions to create additional effects (offensive or defensive). All other mechanical things I can think of beyond pure healer is already covered.

Aesthetics? While cliche’d, dark knight concept (heavy armor necromancer of sorts for GW) is the only one that wouldn’t create an imbalance of magical fields or be a duplicate of what we have. Ranger and elementalists hold a shared theme; thief and mesmer hold a shared theme – leaving monk and necro themes, but we have guardian, so if we get another ‘light mage’ concept, it’d have to be scholar or adventurer. The only potential alternative I can think of would be a heavy armored tech, which is probably too close to warriors.

Lore? Ideally introduce such with a new expansion into new lands, but alternatively – especially if it’s a ‘different take of another profession’ like a necrowarrior concept could be – introduce by having key figures becoming that new profession.

Wanze.8410:

If you are unhappy with the game and think it was wrongly advertised, contact customer support and they will propably refund your money.

AFAIK, they only refund iff:

1. You bought the game from Anet’s store.
2. They’ll also close your account, permanently.

-points to OP-

On one hand, you have a Priory theory continuously stated for 10,000 BE as the previous dragonrise approximate date

Note the bolded.

The possibility of the Priory theory being wrong has always been there in my argument.

What perilisk said was:

There’s nothing anywhere that suggests that Giants were around for the last dragonrise, so Varra must be talking about an earlier one. Could just be badly written.

I pointed out that yes, there is.

They may be wrong, there may be wright, but perilisk was wrong by claiming nothing suggests the previous dragonrise and when the G-Lupe were wiped out were the same timeframe. But that’s the more common argument, in fact.

Yes, the Priory could be wrong, but as I stated in the OP, it would also mean that an interview with Ree Soesbee (which unfortunately I haven’t been able to find again…).

As for when the G-Lupe were wiped out, that’s been known to be approximately 10,000 BE since the days of Prophecies – it was part of the first lore we got. In fact, Jeff Grubb stated in this interview that the Giganticus Lupicus’s lore was the foundation for the Elder Dragons’ creation. The Priory theory is that they suppose that the G-Lupe extinction was brought by the ED, and this could be true (likely is, we see a risen GL from a previous rise), but it’s not the one and only thing pointing to 10,000 BE – just the most numerous.

Thing is, if 10,000 BE isn’t the previous rise of the Elder Dragons… ArenaNet sure are pushing almost everything to make us think it is.

A necromantic knight isn’t all that lame/out of context in the GWverse, though the typical dark knight (a twisted holy knight) is.

Similar to how assassins/thieves use the same theme of magic as mesmers; or guardians for monks, any ‘dark knight’ profession in GW would be the same but with a necromancer style to its magic.

However, I don’t see this as the case for Rytlock. That said though, that thought (that Rytlock is not going to become necromancer/warrior hybrid) is going off of nothing, and if such a thing (‘dark knight’ aka necrowarrior) were to be introduced, Rytlock turning into one would be a good way to introduce them.

Like giving a necromancer a greatsword…

Marjory and Rytlock confirmed as first NPCs of a new profession.

I don’t think krait have been tied to poison before. And relating Aetherblades to sea is rather… thin.

Jaken.6801:

Well, she used the NC to produce the Toxin

Source? We don’t even know where she got the seed that became the Tower of Nightmares from, let alone where the toxins came from. We know that the courtiers side of the alliance experimented with the toxin the most out of the TA, but I don’t recall anything saying it came from them.

I say again: we don’t know the origins of the Tower of Nightmares

Jaken.6801:

Her plan was to clear a possibe drillzone easily and an airborn toxin was something that her computer research brought up.
We saw that in the NC finale, where we could acess her database.

I don’t recall such being mentioned. We didn’t even know about the miasma until Escape from LA, and didn’t know of the drill until Origins of Madness, there was no mention of clearing the drillzone in Origins, so you must be referring to the interactive objects during Scarlet’s End.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Marionette_Control_Panel
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Drill_and_Leyline_Diagram
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Energy_Probe_Map

But as you can see, there’s no such thing as a calculation for the best way to clear the area.

So yeah, either you’re making kitten up or you’re incorrectly citing.

Jaken.6801:

And with Dark Knigh I do not neccesary mean evil. I just call him that since, lets face it, almost every evil stereotypical black/dark/evil knight uses the Red/Black motive.

In a way, so did Rytlock during Episode 3. His armor was, for some oddity, black, and Sohothin is orange/red.

Jaken.6801:

This colorsheme and spikes are rarely associated with good.

Did you even look at charr heavy cultural armor?

Spikes. Spikes everywhere.

You can thank Kekai Kotaki, I’m sure.

Jaken.6801:

Begs the question why we had to go sightseeing if she can reproduce Visions like that.
Though we can go with the Caithe-Connection here, that her database filter is not optimised enough to give us that, without a physical link.

Mechanics and ensuring that we had a proper story step with combat (how many story steps in the Personal Story have no combat? Hmmmmm? Instances, sure, but story steps? I’ll give you a hint. Starts with Z, ends with Ero.)

As for Caithe, this is more likely due to the Pale Tree being in-and-out-of-consciousness that she gave us memory seeds. The question that really comes from this: Why weren’t memory seeds used to discover Riannoc’s means of dying?

Jaken.6801:

I might argue that being a plant comes with the territory, but her antics otherwise did not really use that aside the Tower of Nightmare in which she was using the Nightmare Court , which are plant themed.

So we got 1 plant themed endevour, which aside from the produced nightmare poison did not really come up towards the end of her Master Plan .

You excuse me for rating these points a bit lighter, since that were tools for her, not part of her style .

Which is still two points (being a plant, having mind-altering plants once) above Rytlock.

On an aside, she used the toxins from the Tower of Nightmare, modified a bit, on Lion’s Arch to create that miasma. So… three points?

Jaken.6801:

Also, it is still nowhere confirmed that Mordremoth was whipsering in her mind.
If we go by GW1 standarts it could be some other being like Abaddon (which wont, since he is dead, finito, ended, etc. )

Abaddon never actually whispered into his enemies’ minds, afair. The closest we have is Melonni, who was having nightmares. But these nightmares never came into fruition because we entered her dreams to prevent any potential anchor (this is why, unlike the garden, Marga Coast never changed in the open world), though whether such an anchor would become or not is unclear.

The only being attributed with mental mindkittens is Dhuum, interestingly. And Kanaxai.

Jaken.6801:

Yeah. However there is still the coloring. Dark black, evil glowing eye.
It`s not even fire, but dark red.

I see no eye. I see a design – a diamond with a hood over it.

Jaken.6801:

I know we shouldn`t judge by apearence, but he certainly should have a good reason for going Dark Knight on us.

He usually seemed pretty practical, so that is kinda weird.
Even if we consider that he wants to intimidate someone (which is the job of these kind of armors. To look scary. Though this is a fantasy setting with underboob T3 amor, so style over substance might apply)

I’m not really seeing a dark knight.

What I see is Rytlock going from stand-up soldier to grim adventurer. No dark knight, no evil, just grim. When I saw his new outfit, what came to my mind was not WoW Dark Knight but rather Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (where in the game, after being chased countlessly for years by an unbeatable death machine of darkness, turned into a dark personality himself, wearing close-fitting armor that allows ease of movement rather than typical bulky soldier armor of the time) – still a good guy, just a darker good guy.

I don’t see mesmers calling ether as chaos. There are a lot of ether skills but few chaos skills in comparison.

I’m really not understanding your reasoning for the different professions’ understanding of ether.

That said, arcana and ether are different. Ether was explained to be the basis of magical form – raw magical energies as I understand it. Arcana/Arcane by all appearances seem to be a step between that and the elemental magics. Mesmers however seem to use ether more directly, primarily going off of their skill names and ability to bend reality, and when giving it a unique form it enters the domain of chaos magic.

……………

You must soon enter the vision, and gain a glimpse of what may be.
-> What do you mean, “vision”?
The portal before you is a passage into the Dream. There, you will see glimpses of the past, the present, and the future.

Yeah, it says we enter the Dream. This story step’s description is what made me theorize that the Dream is part of the Mists.

About when Season 1 started:

Technically, season 1 didn’t even exist until The Origins of Madness, when ArenaNet announced “season 1 will end”. So when it began is 100% arbitrary and dependent solely on ArenaNet willy-nilly saying when it began. The thing is they state Episode 1 is Flame and Frost: Prelude, but they also called Festival of the Four Winds as the prologue for Season 2. So one can count The Lost Shores as Season 1’s prologue. They also count Bazaar of the Four Winds and Tequatl Rising as" special events" rather than Episodes, even though they very much were part of Season 1 (at least as much as Cutthroat Politics and Secret of Southsun/Last Stand at Southsun were). This was likely done just to create a nice even 20 episodes for Season 1’s lengths… ArenaNet has a history of loving flat even numbers.

On “evil” Rytlock:
Rytlock’s armor is no more evil than any charr cultural armor, IMO.

As for no plant theme in Scarlet…. Tower of Nightmares with mind-altered Krait and the fact she is a plant says hello.

Toxic Krait are likely what Mordrem-corrupted animals would look like, if not Mordrem Trolls.

And most Mordrem don’t have eyes. The obvious to see ones are red. But what is the point in asking? We don’t see Rytlock’s eyes. And red is hardly that unique of a color.

Something many folks forget is that Pyre and his warband began a mini-revolution before EotN, beginning due to the deaths of the titans. This is why we find most of the Fierce warband imprisoned. They were on death row.

The year attributed to the beginning of Pyre’s first revolt was 1076, two years before Eye of the North.

So humans didn’t really get the ball rolling. They did kill some ‘gods’, and Pyre saw this and began the revolt, which got a little push with human assistance in 1078.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/LOR-748_Field_Reporter for year
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Pyre_Fierceshot for Pyre and warband’s first revolutionary crimes

ElysianEternity.6215:

Warden Illyra tells us the Forgotten predate the earliest civilizations on Tyria.
So they must have been around before the Jotun and dwarves.

2,000 years prior to 1325 AE would be before 674 BE (note: Year 0 exists so it’d be 674 at the 2,000 year mark, rather than 675). So per Sieran’s note on dwarven civilization… the Prophecies date works there – there’s an approximate 1,000 gap for there to be made.

Jotun is hard to explain though, since they have knowledge of multiple dragonrises, however something I forgot earlier was The Natural War which lists jotun and dwarves being as old as 10,000 BE. Now, this can be excused as the Priory assuming that since they place the last ED dragonrise at 10,000 BE, then the races that survived the last dragonrise was around then too. I’m not too sure on the credibility of The Natural War, given that it claims the G-Lupe were without weapons – possible, but the risen G-Lupe we see utilizes cybernetics and we were told in an interview that said G-Lupe was corrupted from a previous dragonrise.

ElysianEternity.6215:

Though the 3000 years of memories statement about Glint can mean a lot of things and doesn’t necessarily have to mean that she only lived 3000 years.

Example:
Lets assume, last Dragonrise, 10,000 years ago
Unknown time from rise to Forgotten ritual: ?? years
Time between Forgotten ritual and Glint deciding to betray Kralkatorrik: A couple of hundreds of years according to Glint herself in EoD IIRC
Timespan Glint hid the races during the razing of the EDs: ??

We also don’t know when Kralkatorrik corrupted/created?? Glint either.

It’s possible Glint had to go to sleep herself for a couple of millenia, albeit not as long as the EDs.

I’m not certain enough to play with exact dates tho, so here’s my guesses on what this mess could mean. :P

Well about the hundreds of years for Glint to betray Kralkatorrik… she doesn’t mention that she was freed by the Forgotten, so since the ritual only gives free will, I’ve interpreted that as “Glint had free will, but did not betray right away”.

It’s overall rather confusing…

PeterFries.1057:

I hope I don’t sound unsympathetic to your plight, but as a content creator and dev, we could have a lot worse problems than our players being impatient to find out what happens next. If it helps, I am as impatient as you to have our next episode get released, and as hopeful as you that you will really like it.

I’m sure you know but since I like covering as many bases as I can:

It’s not so much that people are impatient to find out what happens next.

It’s that people are unsatisfied with Episodes 6 and 7’s plot progression, where in the first we pretty much got 2 instances of development which weren’t much and were mostly just boss fights and the second was no development at all.

I am fairly sure that if Episode 7 included that 4th seed location, people wouldn’t be impatient.

The other side of the complaints about the sudden break is that it was a sudden announcement and we had built the expectation, due to lack of communication, for the plot’s continuation without any further fragmentation. (sorry, couldn’t resist) If we were told earlier than the week prior to the expected release, I doubt the backlash would have been as fierce as it is (the ferocity of the backlash being subjective to one’s knowledge of the overall playerbase’s opinions).

PeterFries.1057:

Any of the parts you didn’t like were almost certainly my fault.

Pfft, there are better targets to paint than you Fries. We like you.

ElysianEternity.6215:

Anyways, back to Mr. Fries.

You don’t have to please us, you have to be honest with us. No need to spill the beans and tell us about what you are working on, but something along the lines of “we’re excited about what we’re working on” and expressing your giddiness and joy about seeing our reaction when it goes live is miles better than standard PR speech like “you’ll love it! It will surprise you! blahblahblah” :P

My old teacher always used to say, writers decide what is right, readers decide what is good. ;P

Can’t disagree. So I’ll just agree.

PeterFries.1057:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

(…) probably more that my sickened brain cannot really work out atm.

Get well soon.

Danke. Thankfully it’s gone down to a brain-rattling cough… for now.

This is what I get for driving from 80 degree Florida to 30 degree Virginia back to 80 degree Florida right before it becomes 30-60 degree Florida in less than 3 days. >.< Fast temperature changes! My one weakness!

sigh Has no one read the links I posted?

From Arah:
Scholar Yissa: That’s the corpse of a Giganticus Lupicus!
Scholar Yissa: Their extinction matches the possible last time the Elder Dragons awoke.

From Varra Skylark:
→ When did it last happen?
Around ten thousand years ago. You know what this means? The Elder Dragons may have been responsible for the extinction of the Giganticus Lupicus!

Varra says ten thousand years ago for the last star birth – aka dragonrise per her statements. Yissa and Varra both state the Elder Dragons’ last awakening as the time of the G-Lupe’s extinction.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

If the Forgotten arrive in 1769 BE and were supposed to have been placed on Tyria by the Gods then I’d think they may have even arrived prior to that date, rather than 786.

All indications suggest they weren’t here during the last dragonrise. If they were they would have been huge targets or alternatively you’d think they would have helped out.

If the Forgotten did arrive in 1769 BE, then the dragonrise was not over (or begun?), so the line about the Six Gods bringing them would be false (or rather, maybe the Six sent rather than brought?).

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Actually. I was suggesting they were native to Tyria but left for the Mists at some point after the previous dragonrise (possibly to wherever the Gods came from), and were then brought back to Tyria by the Gods to be humanities protectors (they would be a logical choice for the Gods since they would have been familiar with Tyria already). And then now have once again potentially left.

I don’t see why it wouldn’t make sense. If you survived a dragonrise but knew that at some point in the future the dragons would wake again and you had no easy way of stopping them, wouldn’t you want to leave?

This doesn’t work. We’ve been explicitly told – even recently reaffirmed in Hidden Arcana (see link “The Forgotten Not Forgotten”) that they are not native to Tyria (world). That is why it wouldn’t make sense. We know that their origins do not come from Tyria, and the one and only time that they arrived in Tyria (to our knowledge) is 1768 BE. Meaning that if they left and were brought back by the Six, their timeline would be “arrived, left, arrived, potentially left”.

As an aside, they were not human protectors, but world balancers. Quite a big difference, since they worked with all races (supposedly) to keep balance within the world (like actually effective kodan!).

/puts on grammar kitten hat

PeterFries.1057:

Wow, tough crowd (mops brow, loosens tie nervously like Rodney Dangerfield)…

Maybe I should have just said, “All I know is that I’m excited about what we’re working on.”

Feel free to buckle or unbuckle your seat belts according to personal taste and locally legislated safety standards.

/takes off grammar kitten hat

You call us tough, I’ll be tough. :P

But more seriously, it’s just an overused line is all, one that doesn’t really work for the reason that FlamingFoxx said – and probably more that my sickened brain cannot really work out atm.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

With the Forgotten is it possible that after the last dragonrise they found some way of going into the mists and decided to leave Tyria since they knew the dragons would wake again? Or possibly went to where the Six were in the mists and then after the Six came to Tyria were brought back to be protectors of humanity? They do by all appearances seem to have once again left Tyria evading the current dragonrise (presumably they all went into the realm of torment to redeem it with Kormir?).

So you’re arguing that the Forgotten came from the Mists, left for the Mists, came from the Mists, and once more left for the Mists? That doesn’t make much sense.

As for those in the Realm of Torment – they’ve been there since the Exodus, so there were two “colonies” of Forgotten (at least) in GW1’s time: one in the Crystal Desert, and one in the Realm of Torment, acting as protectors of Ascension/Glint and wardens for Abaddon respectively.

versidia.4520:

1769 BE – The Forgotten arrive in Tyria.
1320 AE – Edge of Destiny takes place. Kralkatorrik, the Elder Crystal Dragon awakens.

3089 years since the arrival of the forgotten until the death of Glint. That would explain Eir’s statement on Glint having three thousand years of memories, she doesn’t take into account the time Glint was under Kralkatorrik’s command.

Glint was freed during the previous dragonrise – hence the fact that Glint hid the surviving races from the Elder Dragons. Your basically saying “Glint was freed during the dragonrise which took place about 3,000 years ago” and does nothing but say “the second scenario is the case”.

Diovid.9506:

What about the possibility of two previous dragonrises?

Well it’s established that the Elder Dragon rose many times. This thread is about the previous dragonrise. As in, the latest one to happen prior to the current.

versidia.4520:

A possible explanation for Varra’s dialogue:

- This is an amazing discovery! The jotun’s sky-sweeper shows a stellar match with the last time the dragons awoke.
What does this prove?
- It shows that the awakening of the dragons is a natural and cyclical thing. The stars only indicate the passing ages. They do not determine events here.
When did it last happen?
- Around ten thousand years ago. You know what this means? The Elder Dragons may have been responsible for the extinction of the Giganticus Lupicus!

Maybe Jotun’s sky-sweeper doesn’t meassure time in years but in seasons. So if a year has four seassons that means the last awakening would have been 2500 years ago. That is closer to other theories, but would have been a weird mistake by Varra.

Hopefully someone answers you.

By the way, do we know the date of the six god’s arrival to Tyria? Where they in Tyria during the last dragonrise?

Or the previous dragonrise wasn’t documented by the sky-weeper. Either way, Varra is incorrect, which makes that path weird: why have three correct revelations, and one wrong?

We do not know when the Six Gods arrived, but we do know they were not in Tyria at the time. It’s stated that the Tome of Rubicon, war between mursaat and seer (which is hinted by Randall to have been during the previous dragonrise), and the freeing of Glint to be pre-Six Gods’ arrival. Unless yet another interview by Ree Soesbee is wrong (for Tome of Rubicon/war between mursaat and seers) as well as Warden Illyra.

So this has bugged me since the game’s release, but it feels like there’s two attributed dates for the previous dragonrise (the term ‘dragonrise’ comes from the chapter title of EoD’s chapter that featured Kralkatorrik rising).

On one hand, you have a Priory theory continuously stated for 10,000 BE as the previous dragonrise approximate date, with a tying in with the Giganticus Lupicus’ extinction. You have Varra Skylark’s gathered information from Arah explorable pointing to roughly that time (+/- 1,000 years), and there were a few pre-release lore interviews hinting at stuff (including mention of the Giganticus Lupicus being wiped out during the previous dragonrise).

But on the other hand you have:

• The Forgotten coming to Tyria in 1,769 BE (source: Prophecies Timeline); and recent reaffirmation in Hidden Arcana (S2E5Q1) that they came from the Mists
• Magister Sieran stating during Bad Blood (PS C4PrioryQ2) that dwarven civilization is +/- 2,000 years old.
• Eir in Return to Camp Resolve (S2E6Q1) stating Glint had “three thousand years of memories”; Glint was freed during the previous dragonrise per Arah explorable Forgotten path

Which all points to the previous dragonrise being +/-2,000 BE.

So there’s a conflict here. One of the two are wrong, but we can’t tell which – there’s too little information.

If the first is correct, which given this included interviews with Ree Soesbee is probable unless this is like her statements of the Secondborn’s age being retconned, then it means that the Prophecies manual timeline is false (no big surprise), Sieran for some oddity said “over 2,000 years old” rather than “over 10,000 years old” (or dwarven civilization died and was reborn), and Glint lost +/- 8,000 years of memory.

Alternatively, if the latter is correct, then Priory theory is false (no big surprise), Ree Soesbee’s interviews got retconned (again), and Varra Skylark’s entire revelation about stars relating indirectly to Elder Dragon rising is 100% complete bull.

I unfortunately don’t have any true conclusions to add, as this matter is at a standstill. So I’m putting a request for ArenaNet: can you tell us which is the case?

Important Sources

• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bad_Blood#Dialogues
• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Return_to_Camp_Resolve#Dialogues
• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Timeline
• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Forgotten_Not_Forgotten
• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Ruined_City_of_Arah_%28explorable%29#Dialogue
• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Varra_Skylark

Which is exactly their point, Zaklex. We didn’t learn “anything” of importance. We learned where to go to find it, but Anet put an arbitrary wall blocking progress for the sake of… a terrible cliffhanger?

We learned where we can find an answer, but we have not reached any answers themselves.

On the wiki category idea, I’m sure a new template akin to the bug, sic, and anomaly template could be made that autocategorizes, and you (and other writers) would just have to bookmark a single page and check it periodically – no need for activity on the wiki, just observing a single page.

Though you saying you don’t check the wiki is a bit saddening as that’s a pretty decent way of checking what lore we know (when it’s done…. conflicts have put such on a standstill several times).

Rather than “changing” or “splitting up” I think Anet’s actions are leading to DE becoming background figures or written out of the story entirely (be it by death or being put on the proverbial bus), and the reason may be voice acting costs and availability (this is what happens when you take famous voice actors for a video game you intend to have rolling continuous content). Even now, Zojja doesn’t have a single spoken line added since the game’s release (unless I missed something).

This of course could lead to them changing/splitting up, but that’s more of an after-effect.

Logan has overcomed his grief – what little there was of it – of Snaff and Glint’s death. He’s certainly not pulled down by it. Go play Citadel of Flame story mode (again). He outright states that he had to make a choice and neither choice was the ‘right’ decision, so he doesn’t regret his choice, even though he still feels remorse for Snaff’s death (he doesn’t mention Glint, iirc, but even if he remained Glint would have died).

Zojja has nothing new on her. She always thought that the Arcane Council was full of it during the Personal Story, and has long adopted the approach of “ignore when possible.”

And I honestly see nothing “evil” about Rytlock’s new outfit. His outfit was always black.

Caithe’s attitude is based on her past, so logically, whatever’s happening now she should have always (as long as we’ve known her) had such happening. So she isn’t turning, she’s just being her usual ‘take matters into her own hands without thinking through first’ (remember when she suddenly called all of DE and her idea of helping them overcome the grief of Snaff’s death was “Tyria needs us, we must work together again now work together again!”) and ’don’t tell anyone until necessary’ Night sylvari self.

So really, I see no big change in DE happening.

Nokaru.7831:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

No offense

Ironically, nothing non-offense has ever followed those words in the history of mankind.

Which is why that phrase exists. If the following words weren’t going to be offensive in some manner, then why say “I mean no offense in saying this,” “no offense is intended,” or simply “no offense”?

By stating that phrase, you acknowledge that what you’re about to say can be taken offensively, but also stating that you hope it isn’t taken offensively.

@Kaamau: the Elder Dragons existed as world lenders at least ~7,000 years before the human gods showed up in the world.

If we can’t enter the Dream… Then why do we step through a portal to enter the Dream during A Light in the Darkness?

I’d like to see this interview, and question it’s canonity as Angel herself said that she and other devs can make mistakes during interviews.

Ciramorn.4503:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

quite entitled players have become when looking back to season 1… where a new zone was something quite rare.

season 1 didn’t add any zones- southsun was added 2 months before the first season started. ‘entitled’ isn’t exactly the word i’d use, considering the lacking amount of content from season 1, permanent or not.

There actually was quite a bit if content. Players just tend to forget because most of it was hidden and/or one time accessible, and fully temporary.

The Lost Shores can be counted as season 1 technically, even if ANet doesn’t officially count it as an episode for whatever strange reason they have. It was directly tied to the season’s secondary plot of Ellen Kiel.

However, when you look at Season 1, you got:

• 1 permanent new zone (Southsun Cove)
• 1 permanent new dungeon (Fractals)
• 2 temporary dungeons (Molten Facility and Aetherblade Retreat)
• 1 overhauled dungeon (Twilight Assault)
• 4 temporary zones of varying sizes (Labyrinthine Cliffs, Mad King’s Realm, Crown Pavilion, Tower of Nightmares)
• Multitude of arenas (both permanent and not) and other small locations
• 6 major map (sector) changes (DR, LA twice, Kessex twice, Southsun)
• 3 LA festival decoration maps

While in Season 2 we’ve gotten 2 Southsun-sized zones, 1(?) arena, 1 LA decoration map, and 3 map sector changes (Salma, Concordia, and Iron Marches).

So really, a third zone is rather on par to Season 1. It’s expected S1 to be more, naturally, since more time passed across it, but yeah 3 half-zones (that’s basically what Dry Top, Southsun, and Silverwastes are) is not very ‘entitled’ to be requesting. And TBH, I was predicting 3 such half-zones since the break after S1 given all the content S1 gave.

A new zone was something rare because almost all of the content was temporary.

So over on Reddit someone compiled the Rytlock teasers from twitter. Here for the post.

To me, this indicates a new zone is coming, and the last two images are of said new zone. The sky and appearance is far too different from anything we’ve seen, and the lines from the notice that E8 is post-break, saying the Pact will assault the jungle… that really feels over the top for that three laned area.

With the break, I’d rather be disappointed in anything less than at least one full zone and a story that’s three times the length of any previous episode (read: minimum of 9 full instances!). More if it involves killing Mordremoth, which must be a dungeon. -sagenod-

PeterFries.1057:

Dondarrion.2748:

And I’m really curious (but careful not to raise my expectations to expansion-hype levels) what & where Anet are going in 2015.

I know where we’re going, and I advise you to go ahead and fasten your seat belt.

No offense, but you (ArenaNet) has been effectively telling us this since Flame and Frost.

I’ve yet the need to “fasten my seat belt”. There’s been ups, but never nearly as grand as you (ArenaNet) make them out to be.

Sometimes I wonder if you (ArenaNet) are playing a different game from us (the players).

draxynnic.3719:

That was the theory that an NPC, I can’t remember which off the top of my head, presented for the nature of Zephyrite magic. It was a pretty good explanation at the time, but we lacked knowledge that we now have that the Aspect magic ultimately came from Glint – and thus, apart from generating similar effects, it’s magic that may never have passed through the Bloodstones and may otherwise have no relation to the magic elementalists normally use. It’s essentially a non-corrupting form of dragon magic.

It may be fundamentally the same type of energy as air magic, or combining air and fire magic, or mixing together all of the energies associated with elementalism but in a different fashion (Wind seems to be a mix of Air and Water, kinda like dervish Wind Prayers was a bit water-like in GW1; Bastion in Sun is reminiscent of either Earth in GW1 (Ward of Stability) or the Guardian (Hallowed Ground)). However, it could also be something different entirely.

You refer to Bethamy. Though I was pretty sure it was stated to be air magic by a Zephyrite sometime in S2…

Unfortunately, I’ve only been seeing continuous reference to sky, which one would attribute to air magic if any pre-existing magic. I’d also be more intent to relate sun to air magic rather than fire magic as the sun aspect is more about light than it is about fire and burning (there is, in fact no fire-relation to Sun beyond the orange beam appearance) – just like Dwayna, the goddess of air and light. Their very name, Zephyrite, is far more akin to air than elementalism in general.

This said, I wouldn’t attribute dervish’s Wind Prayer to being a mixture of Water and Air magic, so much that it takes the aspect of chilling winds part of air magic whereas elementalists take the aspect of lightning; and Zephyrites take all three aspects: wind, light (or rather, sun), and lightning.

In other words, I would argue that the Aspects are simply the full take on Air Magic, whereas Elementalists are a limited view of mostly lightning and a little wind.

Similar to how I’d argue air magic has multiple facets, I’d argue the same for the other elements. Earth, for example, is not just about rocks and soil and mud, but also magnitism and, going off of Earth Prayers, plants (GW1 skills Veil of Thorns, Aura of Thorns) – which would then connect rangers’ plant magic (Grasping Vines, etc.) as earth magic.

Diovid.9506:

I think Ranger magic is actually closer to Ritualist magic than to Elementalist magic (I think something along those lines has even been stated at some point).

The only similarity between rangers and ritualists is the nature rituals and binding rituals, but those spirits seem unrelated. Rangers’ newer magic utilize fire, water, earth, and lightning, and ritualists only ever had ties to lightning.

The merging of ritualists with monks and paragon also indicates to me that ritualist magic was more akin to those two professions.

Erukk.1408:

If s/he meant casters in general with mages, and elements as just different schools of magic, Liadri comes to mind. She seems to be one of the few/only person(s) that we see cast Cosmic spells.

I think Liadri is just an extreme of a specific focus in necromancy, as necromancy also utilized darkness. Similarly, the Facet of Darkness used Liadri’s drop-down skill (in weaker effect), and in GW1, the Facet of Darkness was black.

If you do the jumping puzzle, you find out that the “storm wizard” (who is the skritt standing in the grassy part of the ‘top’ side of the boat) fakes the dowsing rod’s thievery because she wants to work on the ship forever. If you take the rod at the end of the puzzle and hand it to her on the ship, she’ll “cast” a water spell and then claim the water’s backlogged.

This is all a ploy by that one sneaky smart skritt so that the skritt work on the boat forever. She has the rod “stolen” by a ‘legendary skritt thief’ but has it occasionally returned to her by adventurers, and when it’s returned to her she ‘uses’ it but claims the water is backlogged before it gets stolen again – all a ploy to make it look like she’s serious about launching the ship.

Including Rytlock not showing up for another year.

Rytlock has been banished into the domain of hyperbole advertisement.

Lazaar.9123:

Zylonite.5913:

Again another feature/change nobody had asked for….

Both of the new features are things people have requested in the forums, multiple times at that.

Really? People asked to be given items just for simply logging in?

I’ve never seen that.

And if such was requested, I’m sure they’d be in the minority and ridiculed for wanting to be given stuff for doing nothing.

Vukorep.3081:

-Anet: “FREE STUFF FOR EVERYONE WITH NO ACTION IN THE GAME REQUIRED!!”
-Players : " OMG REALY ANET!??! WOW SERIOUSLY!? Q_Q -makes treads on forums how horrible the idea is-

how bad does this make the community look?

Mireles Lore.5942:

I find it mind boggling people can complain about getting rewarded for logging in. Its like they are saying “Anet please reward me less and stop trying to get players to log in everyday.”

I don’t think either of you are getting the actual points being made.

In my case, as I will not speak for others, my complaint is how this feels that ArenaNet needs to take lazy, artificial routes to try to boost their playerbase.

I would rather have enjoyable replayability than “give me something for doing nothing” which is what the log-in reward is, a reward for not really doing anything.

The new daily/monthly I see pros and cons (directing players to do things they may not do – a plus – but funnelling players into the same location creates zergs – a con). But I see no reason for the log-in reward.

I’m not saying “reward me less” and I don’t think the others are either.

I’m saying “don’t try to spoonfeed me rewards just to boost your statistics” (or alternatively, “I want to be rewarded for doing something, not nothing.”).

In other words, I would rather have ArenaNet put efforts into improving downscaling, event rewards, balance, and other aspects of the game that feel broken or could use improvement, rather than giving us rewards for logging in, which feels like nothing but an attempt to raise statistics.

This isn’t a bad thing, but it gives a feel of desperation for better statistics to me – and hey, maybe I’m wrong here, who knows – but even so, there really wasn’t all that much need to add this log-in reward system instead of improving other things.

Like say, a certain personal story that got bent over a kittened in the kitten back in September.

saventis.1485:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I really wouldn’t, as those are more of magic types than elements. Or at least they seem to be by argument of the Tyrian system as far as I can see and tell.

then whats the question?

i mean isnt that what he means by uniqe element that a mage would use?

id understand if he was talking elements of the earth but he is talking elements of magic right?

I had interpreted the OP as meaning mage=elementalist (wizard/mage is usually the term for a generic mage that primarily focuses on elemental based spells in the typical fantasy rpg setup).

And by element, I interpreted the OP as meaning natural elements (the base four in western culture being water, air, fire, and earth; spreading out we have more varieties – metal, crystal, lightning, ice, etc.). This is usually what people mean when talking about elements in such generic usage, and hence the OP saying “four essential elements”.

So I interpreted the question as “do elementalists use unique elements that don’t fall into air/water/earth/fire?”

Which the answer is no. But while elementalists are bound to those four, that doesn’t prevent fine-tuning of those four into uncommon views (e.g., aspects being mostly unique views of air magic – particularly sun aspect; arguably given the Obsidian and magnetic themes of earth magic, that can delve into crystals and metals on top of simple soil and rock). This is typically the reason why the four elements are the four elements – everything else from more or less fall into those four elements.

And besides, if the question was “is there more magic than elemental magic” then… well that seems kind of point blank obvious, doesn’kitten If you’ve looked at all into the game, you’d know about necromancy at the very least. So I’m giving the OP the benefit of the doubt for not being a complete idiot.

I really wouldn’t, as those are more of magic types than elements. Or at least they seem to be by argument of the Tyrian system as far as I can see and tell.

lordkrall.7241:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

However, the Log-in Rewards scream “lazy desperation to increase statistics” to me. Like somewhere down the line of management promised a higher up ’we’ll increase log-in numbers’ and rather than going the proper route of making continuous playability enjoyable, they’re promoting log-in-once-and-leave mentality.

While that would indeed be the case if it was along the lines of many others which basically resets if you do not log-in one day the system they are implementing seems to be remembering your place, so even if you only log-in once a month you will still progress on the track.

It is rather unlikely that people that wouldn’t login anyway would log in every day just to get a reward that they will have no use for unless they actively play the game.

A lack of reset does not mean that the system’s purpose is to effectively falsify daily log-in numbers.

They’re providing a reward that if you don’t log in you don’t get (as fast). It’s psychological conditioning at its finest. Do a simple action, get a reward; the action again, get a reward; rinse repeat. It’s a minor alteration of the skinner box (which almost all MMOs – as are all gambling are based off of in order to retain playerbase – and the creation of additional skinner boxes just means they’re getting more desperate for retaining their playerbase).

The new daily/monthly system seems interesting to me. Though the re-division of PvE/PvP and now WvW as well seems counter-intuitive to the original merge (for better or for worse, I don’t know).

However, the Log-in Rewards scream “lazy desperation to increase statistics” to me. Like somewhere down the line of management promised a higher up ’we’ll increase log-in numbers’ and rather than going the proper route of making continuous playability enjoyable, they’re promoting log-in-once-and-leave mentality.

If you reached Forging the Pact (completed Retribution) prior to the feature pack, you’ll be fine – you’ll get the original setup.

But if you reach Forging the Pact after the feature pack, even if you wait for them to fix it, you’ll still get the current order (changes within the steps may differ though).

I was saying that the hyping was the claim of “point of no return”, and that in reality our point of no return is a leader’s death, Mordremoth’s awakening, discovering the egg, etc. Basically, I’m not expecting some fancy thing to be the point of no return, but that the claim of a point of no return was just overhyped.

Those aren’t really ‘elements’ though.

Squee.7829:

If Glint was wholly corrupted, and thus rendered unable to biologically reproduce, it could mean that her “babies” are more like clones.

As I understand it, the eggs would get corrupted, so they’re still separate corrupted beings at the time.

But this is presuming that Glint was truly impregnated and her eggs isn’t the case of a dragon champion creating more dragon minions.

Squee.7829:

We see no evidence of any other members of her species.

We kind of do. And we know they’re not constructs.

But the question of “are Glint’s eggs biological or just dragon corruption spreading” is the point of answering whether or not there was a species for her.

Byoushinou.9458:

But Glint isn’t the only branded champion in a shape of a dragon, right? There’s Shatterer. Commonly reffered to as a he (by the fanbase, at least). Though I don’t know anything about his origins.
So there’s 2 possibilities then:
1. All branded were living beings so both Shaterrer and Glint were living dragons before and could make some babies cause why not and then Kralkatorrik comes along.
2. Kralkatorrik comes along and creates both champions (nobody said there couldn’t be more than one at a given time, just like with the branded leutanants) then gets lazy (?) and uses living being as frames for his branded minions. This practically excludes Glint being able to have offspring for reasons already stated before.

Unless Shaterrer is also female then we would have some interesting development. As far as I’m concerned, adoption is a valid option for all creatures

The Shatterer is a construct. The body is hollow, full of corrupted air/lightning, with an exoskeleton of sorts that is blackened stone.

Glint had skin/scales with crystals jutting out even in GW1, much like how we see Branded that were once living creatures.

Glint’s also stated to have regained free will, implying that she had free will originally, thus again implying she was a non-corrupted being at first.

The Aspects are air magic that were fine tuned. So they’re not unique elements, just a unique take on elements.

There have been no spellcasters with unique elements, though unique takes on certain elemental magic is possible (again, Aspects and air magic).

The recent news post kinda tells me we’ve seen the point of no return.

A few months ago, we announced that Guild Wars 2‘s Living World experience was launching on a path that would result in our story-and the whole world of Tyria-reaching a point of no return. We’ve since ventured into the heart of Glint’s lair, discovered secrets in the depths of the Durmand Priory, witnessed the fall of the leader of the Zephyrites, recovered the last known dragon egg only to have it stolen out from under us by a longtime friend, and searched through the first memories of the sylvari race in our hunt to find her.

ANet is rather known for overhyping.

Though I don’t see why there wouldn’t be a Priory scholar informing troops of the area. Think Shelter Docks in Malchor’s Leap.

Jaken.6801:

PeterFries.1057:

Let us know how we did, when you get there.

As for how we’re doing along the way, keep giving us your feedback.

Thanks!

You are becoming my favourite dev here on the forum right now.

This. I love devs that respond to players in more ways that damage control. Especially when they’re being helpful when not doing damage control, and giving interesting trivia like you have been.

But since you asked, Peter, the TL;DR of my view of Season 2 thus far is (Spoiler Alart: talking more than just lore):

• Open World Writing: 7/10
• Open World Art: 9/10
• Open World Music: 9/10
• Open World Mechanics: 8/10
• Living Story Writing: 5/10
• Living Story Art: 9/10
• Living Story Music: 9/10
• Living Story Mechanics: 8/10
• Delivery: 4/10
  ——————————————————————————
  Writing
  Overall, I can’t think of many problems with the writing of the open world content. There is one exception to this, however, which is why the rating is 7 rather than 9. And that’s the altering of old dialogue. Primarily, the NPCs around Fort Concordia, Fort Salma, and Fort Vandal. While I’ve noticed a removal of some dialogue at the last (talking about sieging the place), the hearts and dialogue boxes have remained unchanged. This is bad. One point off per major location!

The writing for the story instances is different, and ranges from utterly and sadly ametueristic, where I find that newgrounds.com has a better average than what I’m seeing in the story instances (I’m looking at you, idiotball holders, Lochin, and the PC!), all the way up to pretty kitten good (Hidden Arcana, primarily, minus two books and a certain blonde laying on her butt for no shown reason).

In some of the negative cases, it’s using overly cliche’d words and phrases (Looooochiiiiinnnn!!!!), but in most cases it’s a case of not portraying moods and events properly (Faolain in the past and Caithe in a tent says ‘hi’). Overall, the average level of writing is “decent but not interesting” while leaning on the side of “subpar”. And these downsides are all about reveal and mood, rather than grammatical errors (and very few are about lore inconsistencies as we go on).

Thus far, the most annoying thing, however, si that it feels like the plot isn’t going anywhere. Compare this to Winds of Change, and where we are now with release number seven is just now feeling like it reaches the end of WoC Part 1 in comparison of plot development, with us waiting on meeting Reiko at long last.

Music and Art
In all honesty, I can’ say a single bad thing about either the music or the art. I only made it a 9 out of 10 so your heads don’t go blowing up from inflated ego.

Mechanics
Episode 1 story mechanics were spot on, in my opinion. Aside from a few tedious bugs here and there (NPCs resetting during Trouble at Fort Salma still – yes, I’ve reported), my biggest complaints would be the forced* reliance on Zephyrite Aspect skills that don’t function properly all the time (I’m looking at you lightning skill), and how the allies in story instances are invulnerable 99.99 with a lot of nines% of the time – it removes all challenge there could be, and removes the usefulness of them if they do 0.1% damage to enemies (if any!), especially bosses, nad usually don’t even revive you anymore (such as during the Predator fight – I recently did such just to have Kasmeer, Caithe, and Marjory suddenly stop doing anything once I died, just standing there giving oogly eyes at each other while Rox and Braham were invulna-killing the Predator).

Overall, I like the mechanics. I loved how in Episode 1 the NPCs didn’t skip around when following you – I’m sad to have seen this ended with Episode 2 at Trouble at Fort Salma instance.

*"Forced" as in “without a portal from a mesmer or unique profession mobility skills that may or may not be of assistance”

Delivery
In my opinion, the delivery – which includes the release schedules, the amount of content given at a time, the breaks (yes, including this sudden out-of-nowhere “Episode 8 next year!” announcement a week before we were expecting it), the (virtual) material rewards, and the quality. This is where I find the Living World lacking most – and it was where it was lacking most in Season 1 too. While the amount of content has improved, imo, the releases have not, and the breaks don’t help. I understand the need for breaks to develop the content – producing content at a continuous biweekly rate results in bugs, incomplete testing, etc. etc. I’d just much rather have a system akin to Winds of Change – 2 month break, large content (~4 episodes worth), 2 month break, large content (~4 episodes worth), etc. etc. rather than this tedious sporadic biweekly nonsense**. The quality of the content is overall up and down, which is never good.

**Naturally, it is nonsense in my opinion only and I do not speak objectively.

No Walking.6349:

My main in GW1 was Dervish, I know the playstyle well. Building up enchantments, then removing them to cause damage and effects. Evoking power of the gods (or alchemy elements) to help in battle. This isn’t already covered by any other class in GW2.

GW2’s style of the dervish would be building boons and revoking them for damage. Which is harder to do than GW1’s achievements because unlike GW2, GW1 had multiple kinds of benefiting conditions (enchantments, spirit weapons, etc.) as well sa multiple kinds of negative effects (hexes, conditions). So unlike in GW1, there’s a lot more ways to shut down a dervish style build, making the profession a lot harder to make without being imbalanced (no boon stripping foes? overpowered; boon stripping foes? underpowered).

Though perhaps a self-boon-stripping/opponent-condition-stripping combo in dervish would help keep it balanced if done right?

The whole god thing can be removed entirely from gameplay, as it is lore, and the profession called – and look like – something else entirely – just have the same gameplay focus as dervishes (similar to thieves and assassins, or guardians and paragons/monks). The dervish god-related skills are already partially part of the human racials anyways.

And by removing it from the lore, I don’t mean a retcon, so much as that the profession we have would not have modern ties to the gods – maybe historical ties that got changed and now the profession doesn’t call on anything.