Guild Wars 2

Wanze.8410:

Are you single? If not, contact customer support…

Congrats, you made me chuckle.

@OP: GW2 doesn’t open your browser and doesn’t have any forms of ads. The situation is as others have said, you have malware/adware/something of that sort.

However, you seem to be convinced that it isn’t your computer that’s the problem, but the game isn’t even capable of creating the issues you’re talking about. Try running something internet related beyond GW2, and you should end up with the same thing as when you do run GW2.

But if you insist ignoring folks’ advice, then the only thing I and anyone else here can do is just ignore you and presume you’re a troll. And that’s what I suggest folks do from here on out, as I shall do such.

Glory.1493:

OP is a troll..his ID is xxxx.9562.if he played gw2 for more than 2 years there is no way that 4 digits start with 9….more like less than 3 months

The numbers are randomly generated.

I registered for the pre-release, and then tied my GW1 account to this one. The numbers changed when I did so, going from 4xxx to 2086.

narwhalsbend.7059:

Zaxares.5419:

I’m surprised Zommoros doesn’t know. If he was around long enough to know about the Karka, he’s certainly been around through more than one Elder Dragon rising.

If Djinn were even around at that time, they wouldn’t be on Tyria. Djinn are only native to Elona.

The flaw in your logic is that Elder Dragons are not limited to continental Tyria. The deep sea dragon and Jormag both were not on continental Tyria when they woke – Jormag has pushed south into Tyria, however.

Furthermore, there’s indications that Zhaitan was not always where he was, given the fact that Arah was used to cleanse Glint’s corruption (would the Forgotten do that under an Elder Dragon’s nose, in the heart of its territory? No.).

Also, the Elder Dragons are stated on many occasions to be world enders, of sorts. They wiped all life from the world in the past. Being in Elona would not save you from the Elder Dragons’ consumption.

Starlightpaw.5871:

If I recall correctly, the default appearance option for PvP is an option. Those who care will use that option when they are fighting other players. Why on earth should that limit outfits from being made into skins? Is it so hard to glance up to your target’s name display at the top of your screen to see what class they are?

The outfits don’t have to be made into sets of six pieces, nothing says that it needs to be six pieces.

I never said that the default appearance is not an option.

The point is a that it is a design decision on ArenaNet’s part to ensure that no two armor classes can look completely identical – and having outfits as armor does exactly this. This is likely why Lawless stopped at gloves, helm, boots, and shoulders, and would be why the chest and leggings for Hellfire and Radiant are different amongst armor classes despite the fact that the gloves, helm, boots, and shoulders are the same across the armor classes.

And yes, the outfits do have to be in six pieces – all armor sets are. There are a very small group that have the shoulders overridden (only 3 I think – asura light T3, Order of Whispers light, and CoF medium), and there are even fewer chest pieces that override leggings (CoF light at least); the outfits would have to override shoulders, boots, gloves, and/or leggings depending on the outfit.

Bloody Prince and Executioner outfits, for example, are two items. The head piece and the chest piece. The chest piece would override gloves, shoulders, boots, and leggings. If this was made into an armor, it would allow no more customization than just allowing helm to mix-and-match.

Mad King’s Outfit and Witch’s Outfit (and Hexen) have chest, shoulders, and leggings as one piece, if memory serves me right, thus they would have to function like CoF’s chest piece. Again, does not allow much customization.

In order to do what you want, they would have to recreate the outfits from absolute scratch. There is no simple conversion here, even if said conversion would result simply in them becoming overriding armor pieces.

DeWolfe.2174:

Outfits work in WvW. Just fyi

Thought as much but wasn’t sure, and it’s less of an issue in WvW since that’s an imbalanced format by design.

Outfits as armor won’t ever be done because it would require too much work for its worth. Rather than that, it would be better to try to get them to allow either customization amongst the costumes (how it was originally) or to allow just helm/rest-of-body customization between costumes and armor (like how it was done in GW1), and costumes just removed for PvP.

VitisVinifera.2834:

for those of us getting into this late is there a summary of what this is all about?

A long while back John mentioned that there were still undiscovered Mystic Forge recipes. I don’t think that resulted in people finding new ones.

This thread was made by John to give hints in story format to figuring out the recipe for Reaper of Souls; every two hints pointed to a single item, though it seems John had expected to make more hints for the final item – no one knew what the recipe would result in, and the hints were presented in story format about twice a day (I think that was the rate – one early and one late in the day). All hints exist on the first post of the thread, and John wrote up an ending to close Lemark’s (the character in the story hints) adventure with Zomorros (which is not on the first post but can be found here ).

Hope that helps.

That would be entirely plausible. We know that they’ve left the world – heavily implying they enter the Mist since there’s really nowhere to go from the world but into/through the Mists – and we know they’ve made teleporters before. Thalador has a theory that the reason why the White Mantle believed Janthir to be in the south was because Saul traveled south to a teleporter which brought him to the northern island we now know as Janthir.

The city doesn’t even need to be in the Mists really, for the theory to be plausible – just a teleporter out in the middle of the jungle that Saul stumbled through without knowing and taking him to location zulu that housed the mursaat city.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that the forest Saul was exiled to wasn’t the Maguuma Jungle, but the Woodland Cascades to the north (which would be closer to where he was arrested at).

And yet another thread brought about by the mishap ArenaNet caused in the 9/9 update.

Originally, there was an entire plotline related to the fear question the Pale Tree asked you in A Light in the Darkness. This plotline was would take place between Forging the Pact and Battle at Fort Trinity; it was removed. Then the very end of hte personal story (Against the Corruption to The Source of Orr) was placed after Battle at Fort Trinity. The Eyes of Zhaitan and Sayeh are introduced in what is now the end of the personal storyline (Temple of the Forgotten God to Further into Orr’s three plot split). Originally you’d meet Sayeh either during a specific fear plot, or during Temple of the Forgotten God; and you’d meet the first Eye of Zhaitan at Temple of the Forgotten God.

Now they changed the order, but they didn’t alter any dialogue or NPC spawning – just how you get to the instance. So new players re left with the questions you have.

As to your last question, at chapter 3, the sylvari storyline deals a lot in Kessex Hills and a bit in Gendarran Fields. Then it’s dependent on your Order and racial sympathy choices – the race no longer matter beyond dialogue change after chapter 3 (level 30). Your “sylvari zones” is simply Maguuma Jungle (by mechanics). Sparkfly Fen and Mount Maelstrom aren’t so much “sylvari zones” as they are “sharing similar themes to the Maguuma Jungle zones”. There are no Maguuma Jungle zones between Brisban Wildlands (15-25) and Sparkfly Fen (55-65).

They can’t turn outfits into armors for two reasons:

1. The reason why the armor class system exists is to help differentiate the professions a bit in PvP/WvW. Outfits remove this differentiation and thus cannot exist in PvP/WvW for this reason. This reason is also why ArenaNet recently added the default appearance option for PvP(/WvW?).
2. Outfits are designed in far fewer pieces than armor. Even the original town clothing didn’t have all six slots, and not all outfits used up all slots town clothing had (iirc, only the first five did: cook, pirate, Mad King, Witch, and Winter Fancy). As such, they would have to completely remake the outfits from scratch to match the same appearance but be set into six pieces – this is harder than it may sound, since as I said it’d have to be done from scratch.

What should be done instead is to allow a hide helm option that then defaults to the armor helm (unless you hide that as well). Similar to what the case was in GW1. Every outfit made before the April update had a separate helm at the very least, and it shouldn’t be too hard to separate helm from the rest given that it’s already hide-able.

So simply make outfits a two-piece set rather than one-piece.

Buying 100 T6 blood is cheaper than 100g, where it was when I made that post, Djinn.

The prison was used for Margonites, not titans. According to dialogue. And the dryders and dream riders were part of The Fury’s group – alongside the Guardians – if memory serves me right (it’s been a long time so I could be mistaken).

Excluding the Battle Isles, you mean. :P

Regarding the titans, it’s actually stated that The Fury – a follower of Dhuum – was the one making the titans. So I would attribute their creation not to Abaddon, but to Dhuum/the Fury. The Fury was also to lead the titans in Tyria after coming through the Door of Komalie but was closed (for reasons unknown to the Forgotten and likely the Fury) before he could cross over.

“The Fury and his minions await the opening of the Door of Komalie, a gateway that leads from here into Tyria. Some years ago a powerful lich…another powerful minion of Abaddon…opened a gateway. It only remained open a brief time, but countless souls were sent through to become titans.”

“He is a follower of Dhuum, but served the fallen god, Abaddon until his defeat. Now, the Fury has taken up a new master, Mallyx the Unyielding, the lord of this realm. The Fury uses demonic troops to torment the souls of the prisoners within these walls. Those torments souls are part of some dark ritual to create powerful titans.”
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Relkyss_the_Broken

Additionally:

“The followers of Dhuum have gathered here under the command of The Fury, seeking to gain favor with Mallyx the Unyielding.”
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Aurus_Trevess

Only the titans, margonites, and the guardians of Komalie are in the Foundry ‘under the Fury’. And the last are in far too few numbers to really say “the followers of Dhuum gathered under the Fury”, imo.

I would certainly love to see more story-driven hints for any more undiscovered recipes.

For now, I’ve been highly curious to see if the Destroyer Scythe is amongst those undiscovered MF recipes and am looking for potential items for such.

Technically, the only gods known to come from said other planet are Dwayna, Melandru, and Balthazar.

Abaddon, Dhuum, and Lyssa’s origins are unknown – as is whether or not they come from the same other planet.

Lyssa is event specifically mentioned to have forgotten origins, hinting that she may not have come from this other world. And Abaddon known to having a predecessor could imply the same – though if such is true, then the gods were a lot better at removing this knowledge than they were of Abaddon or even Dhuum (whom except for rare Orrian knowledge is never mentioned in Tyria except via the Priory and priesthood of Grenth).

John, can you say whether or not you’ll do this again for any other undiscovered Mystic Forge recipes?

Xukavi.4320:

Also, they did say that we’ll see how the events from Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall tie into the lore now.

…What possible relation could Factions have except to try and shoehorn something silly?

Nightfall, I can kinda-sorta see. But Factions I’m having a hard time figuring out a relation.

Though I thought it was just Prophecies.

Xukavi.4320:

Besides, why end the episode with a teasar of the status of Abaddon if the Six Gods aren’t somehow related to all this?

You haven’t seen much of ArenaNet’s hype have you?

While it certainly is the community’s fault for often taking it way out of proportion, ArenaNet almost always give this little piece that acts more or less as a red herring at first glance.

Xukavi.4320:

I really hope that they do show the Rise of Mordremoth and not have us get there in time to hinder/stop his awakening.

He woke months ago, you know.

Each Elder Dragon took a different amount of time to cause their devastation. Jormag took four years to push the norn out after his awakening – despite what the timeline says, unless we believe that over norn.

Edusd.7893:

Well, it certainly looks like either a bronze or gold statue inside of a temple. Perhaps the Mursaat had something to do with Abaddon at some point. Who knows, it’s intriguing at least. I’m curious about how/what they will tie together. Until the blog post, I really didn’t have much concern for whatever episode 5+ contained, now, I’m interested.

Highly unlikely.

It’s been established now that the mursaat fled the world during the previous dragonrise and only returned recently.

They were not in Tyria the entire time Abaddon was an issue, apparently.

Though that begs the question of how titans relate to Forgotten/Seers/mursaat.

I wouldn’t really consider the statue to resemble a largos in any way shape or form, in all honesty.

The only god that resembles a largos is, imo, Dwayna. And this is only because of the blue skin concept that Dwayna has (and the wings).

Though an early (pre-NF release beta) lore distributed to Asia communities only (Note: Asian communities have altered lore due to laws there), Abaddon did have wings that were compared to the eternal blue sea.

Trying to relate Abaddon to largos just because of the sea and knowledge aspects is sketchy at best. His primary aspect is knowledge – he only became the god of secrets after his fall, where he became a secret; and his domain of the sea depths seems to be tied to the boundlessness of the sea more than anything else. Like Dwayna’s relation to air, Lyssa’s relation to water, Grenth’s relation to ice, etc. Abaddon’s relation to water/sea is more a correlation to his primary aspect of knowledge.

In fact, what little lore we have indicates that he was a bit too giving in his knowledge. So that definitely wouldn’t match largos mentality there.

pdavis.8031:

Nybras.1623:

It looks like a level one starter weapon.

This crappy weapon had too much hype for just a rusty hedge trimmer. Really, after all that I expected a beautiful piece of digital art. Instead, we were “rewarded” with something that was clearly taken from a dilapidated, long forgotten, hardware store.

And thats what makes it awesome!!
I like the “nitty gritty” look. It’s like something you see in an old horror flick, and I feel deserves the name “Reaper of Souls”

I agree with pdavis here.

This is something for those who want to play a dark gritty character, rather than the hero of epic anerisms.

I, for one, will eventually get the Reaper of Souls on my necro.

IPhyton.2348:

Ninja katana greats word = gem store , rusted overhyped weapon = in game acquired.
I’m glad they r releasing new in game weaps but for kitten sake can we get cool rewards that are attainable through gameplay? Ido if they’re acct bound jst make it rewarding pls.

The Reaper of Souls isn’t “new”.

It was just undiscovered. Apparently no one thought to include the Heart vendor item in the Mystic Forge, and thus the recipe went unknown for 2 years.

The “hype” that was made was simply to put an end to the undiscovery.

Djinn.9245:

I agree that its nice to have an increased variety of weapons, but its a bit pricey for something so plain. It could still have an effect such as the glint of sharp metal (not glittery), or maybe a spray of blood when you do a crit, or something like that.

It’s only pricy because it was just discovered.

Once time passes, it’ll be as cheap as the blood it takes to make it.

Maybe cheaper, in all honesty, as supply outweighs demand.

John Smith.4610:

I think this thread is pretty good evidence that the value of skins is incredibly subjective. Sometimes a cool skin is going to be basic, gritty, realistic or plain. Other times a god’s hand come from the sky to hand you a universe tearing, light sparkling, night glowing mace that may not compel awe as much as it will force other around you to dance until the stubs of their bones beat a catchy cadence for your amusement.

You!

Give us more scavenger riddles for undiscovered thingies!

It’s just a statue so there may not be much relevance between Abaddon and the main plot at all. It all depends on where that statue is.

If it’s in some reliquary owned by the Pact or one of the Orders, then it’s possible that something else there is relevant.

If it’s in some ancient ruins, then it’s possible that something or someone else is relevant.

Etc.

Just like Temple of the Forgotten God was more about meeting the Eye and Mouth than about Abaddon. Abaddon was just pretext. Even the artifact we were going to retrieve was pretext, as we never see it or hear about it again, or even know what it was.

Zaklex.6308:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

~Snip~

Hopefully, there will be no more mention of her. And if so, my bet’s on magic or Glint or the nature of the Elder Dragons. All three are connected anyways.

Unfortunately for you, you can expect to hear more about Scarlet in the future as A.net has already said they are going to explore more of her background(it was stated at least a couple of times on episodes of Points of Interest), but then again, maybe you were just being sarcastic again.

I was only sarcastic in the listing her name thrice.

But wasn’t those PoI talking about E2 stuff?

kta.6502:

LOL! She’s more like the “heart of GW2 lore” not all Guild Wars lore.

And in GW2, GW1 is irrelevant. Thus the heart of GW lore and the heart of GW2 lore are the same.

kta.6502:

For everyone who hates her, I dare you all to write a fan-fic that includes her. Scarlet is alot of fun to write. I can see why the writers continue to have her in the LS.

I attempted a fan-fict that rewrote season 1 with only clearing up plot holes, and I ended up raging to such degree I tossed the concept out.

I do not find Scarlet Briar interesting at all.

Maybe with some tweaks, such as making her to be less ‘oh so awesome she does nothing wrong,’ she could be, but as is she isn’t in the least. A sadistic sylvari genius that doesn’t take things seriously until a ton of elephant kitten hits her fan and has narcissism going through the roof? That could be made fine. But one that also has zero failures even when standard kitten hits the fan? That’s just bull.

Edusd.7893:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2k857x/poi_ep9_w_colin_johanson_livestream_notes/

Look at what /u/that_shaman uncovered. same as the Abbs statues in Orr….

The interesting bits from that link:

Season 1 – What Scarlet Saw short story was very important in setting the story but didn’t happen ingame. We learned that story had to be ingame in season 2.
It wasn’t in-game in E1-4, unless they’re talking about the holgraphic diary. So looks like more Scarlet.

There’s your heart of lore right there.

_Mordermoth is waking up…This is the first time we are seeing an elder dragon waking up live. Other elder dragons mostly awoken in the period between GW1 and GW2. _
Unless you count Kralkatorrik waking during EoD, of course.

_The second half of season 2 will take lore threads from the first game and tie them together. The remaining episodes of season 2 will be some of the most interesting lore wise. _
This is promising. But given the “lore threads from the first game” we’ve had already, I’m not holding breath.

And that_shaman found the Abaddon statue from the Temple of the Forgotten God. So perhaps we’ll visit another temple of Abaddon (which would be mighty weird given the whole “his existence wiped from all history”). Or the Priory excavated the statue and moved it elsewhere.

I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Only some coast is still sunken, most of Orr is now above water, and we explore over half of the peninsula when combining Arah story and explorable to the three open world maps.

And Orr isn’t a city. Perhaps you mean Arah, but we explore all (or almost all) of it in the dungeon’s explorable mode.

My Sweet Lily.1952:

Except that there are 2 currently on the market and no one has bought :<

3 – maybe more by now.

But folks aren’t going to be buying it instantaneously. Except for impulse buyers.

I’ll be waiting for the price to settle as all the impulse sellers try selling it to impulse buyers.

Malchior.5042:

That was fun, John. Let’s do this again sometime soon.

Yeah. If I recall there were more Mystic Forge recipes to be found.

Let’s bring them out!

Help Cesseilia defend and research her oasis is south of LA.

During Shards of Orr it was attacked by a shrieking risen champion.

There is an event chain where the oasis is attacked by risen

However, I can’t think of any items unique from there. Not previously, at least. And I’m sure this is about one of the undiscovered recipes, not a new one.

Edit:
Just remembered two other sylvari “scientists” south of LA.

Escort Scholar Riagan to the ritual site though it results in a ‘boss battle’. So unlikely.

Help Pixtor test his weapons on the Risen in Murkvale has an asura and sylvari scientist pair, and is around risen.

But again, I can’t think of anything unique from them.

I’m still thinking crafting, however.

Subject Alpha had a strange shriek to him when he appeared. So perhaps it’s related to the Gift of Knowledge?

@rotfsmlsh: That was my thought. Zommoros is an ancient djinn, a human could consider such to be a “pseudo-deity”.

And the bit about getting further than anyone else is likely just that it’s a recipe no one knows (or is not on the wiki), not that it’s for something great.

My guess on the scientific isn’t that it’s asura or lab related, but that it’s crafted. South of central LA is what? Crafting stations in Fort Marriner. And crafting is very much more scientific than fighting some enemies.

I wouldn’t take “scientific” to be too specific – I don’t think it deals with Watchwork.

So I think the fourth item is merely something that can be crafted. The first two are items you buy, the third is something you farm.

So:

1. “Ghostly,” expensive, bought item.
2. “Common” bought item you need a lot of.
3. Farmed item that can be obtained in Southsun Cove.
4. A crafted item.

That’s what I’m getting out of the hints thus far. My guess on items:

1. Eldritch Scrolls
2. Crystals or Mystic Coins
3. Karka Shells or T6 Blood
4. Perhaps a crafted Gift (there are a few MF exotics that require gifts; Foefire weapons, for example), or a weapon crafting component

Depends on what they mean by “the very heart”.

The most important?

The most common?

The central aspect?

And even then, can we trust this is accurate? Besides what makes the “heart of GW lore” being subjective, it is from typical hyping article, which are usually over-exaggerating.

What I can think of as possibles:

Magic
Glint
Six Gods
Elder Dragons
Scarlet Briar
Scarlet Briar
Scarlet Briar

Seriously, Scarlet’s been such a heavy focus that at this point I don’t doubt a certain writer at ANet would consider her the “heart of GW lore”. >.>

Hopefully, there will be no more mention of her. And if so, my bet’s on magic or Glint or the nature of the Elder Dragons. All three are connected anyways.

minfaer.2796:

Aerdwen.3069:

The two blocks are in reference to the two remaining items that you put in the four blocks in the Mystic Forge.

Wow, as i already said, I like your way of thinking. You could be right.

Doubtful. The two blocks is in the second story hint, but the second item was not acquired until the third story hint.

1. I was rounding. And no, I don’t think so. My point was that they said “soon” for it, but it’s not going to be most people’s interpretations of “soon”.

2. I highly doubt that it took that long. I think you’re overestimating how much time it takes to do stuff in development. Consider that each Season 1 release was created from scratch in four months each. So reorganizing and altering a bit of text and entry points no doubt is not 6-9 months of work. Also given that with Escape from Lion’s Arch and Battle for Lion’s Arch they did the exact same thing for all story instances taking place in LA (or having an entryway at LA) – which is at least 18 instances if memory serves me right. But my comment was not about the actual fixing of the storyline, but explaining the situation. It would take a few days at best to track down the person who decided to do this and get his/her view on why it would be done best that way.

3. I was not being entirely serious about that, you know, but was stating it to make a point. That “soon” can easily end up meaning never because GW1/2 servers shut down before it can be completed or even reached on their list of to-dos.

People have countless times since Eye of the North first came out.

pessimist.7294:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Note: They’re adding the custom slider back to the new gemstore.

They said they will add it soon. And soon means in Anet language maybe in whenever they feel like it.

Fixed for you.

They said GW2 would come out soon in 2010. They released in 2012 full of bugs and glitches in the latter third of the game.

They said they’ll bring Season 1 to permanence soon. 6 months have passed, still nothing.

They said they’ll get back to us on the personal story changes soon. 6 (or is it 7 now) weeks and nothing.

“Soon” in Anet time can mean “anytime.”

You may get it tomorrow, in a year, or the day before ArenaNet calls for bankruptcy and closes GW1/2 servers.

The huge issue with the whole Rata Sum = mursaat city ruins is threefold:

1. Rata Sum is an asuran name. See Rata Pten and Quora Sum, two asura settlements. The anagram is merely out-of-game easter egging (or completely unintentional; don’t think we’ve heard if it was intentional from the devs).
2. Rata Pten is a confirmed asuran structure that is pre-Cataclysm. It has the exact same ruin models as the Tarnished Coast ruins. Similarly, Rata Sum and the other “couldn’t be asuran” (or so players think) ruins in the Tarnished Coast back in GW1 used the exact same models as the Central Transfer Chamber (one of the biggest asuran gate hubs).
3. Mursaat structures look like this.

While people love to use that anagram for “they must be mursaat” – in all honesty, there is nothing to support the claim other than an easter egg, and everything to support that those ruins the asura settled on… were asuran – simply lost and forgotten by the asura.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

yeah…. I’ve had enough anticipation…..

“Two months he’d been here. Two whole months of " waiting to know what the recipe was…..

You can’t stretch this sort of thing out for 3 days and then have it be something dumb….. so it better be cool.

He isn’t really stretching anything out. He’s reducing the time required to find it by giving us hints.

The recipe is already in game. Theoretically, we can already find it.

His hints are just to point us in the right direction.

That spot that we couldn’t see resides within Metrica Province now, actually. The river that is directly west of Thaumanova is the Ullen River – it flows from the Inquest Complex to Fisher’s Beach Bend and then to Jaztar Falls (well, the flow is from both ends towards Fisher’s Beach Bend, technically – and lorewise should go further west, though is blocked off for mechanical reasons, at least, if my GW1 memory is right).

Fisher’s Beach Bend is actually where Old Joness was in GW1 – though on a side now mechanically cliffs.

And it was speculation, but I wouldn’t call it “strong” – the entire thing came from a single line:

“Its real name is Ullen River, but those of us who know it best never call it that. It’s the Dark River to us. Dark as in absence of light, yes but that’s only part of it. A shadow lies over that region, and it is cast by something…unseen, I suppose you could say.”
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Old_Joness

This very vague line was hardly “strong” to be honest, and as we can see by going into Metrica Province, there is no such Mursaat structure.

@FlamingFoxx: It was actually canon lore in previous years that the holiday is celebrated in the days to come before Halloween (aka Mad King’s Day) itself. 2012’s plot was centered around this, with Thorn threatening to break out of the Mad Realm days before he was supposed to be able to (the destruction of Lion’s Court). This is the reason why, for the past 8 years (2005-2013), Thorn was only around on Halloween day itself (in Tyria, that is; excluding his threatening to break out in 2012).

There is no lore for this, however, though one can certainly take it to mean that Thorn has managed to extend his ‘vacation in Tyria’ for longer than a single day.

Yoroiookami.3485:

Guys, remember that the first item is both ghostly and was bought for copper. I think it’s safe to assume it was bought by coins…

Anyone knows anything like that avaiable to get by spending copper?

I think John clarified that copper was not part of the hint

mtpelion.4562:

John clarified that he’s only tipped us onto 2 of the items, so the description for item #3 is part of either #1 or #2

Yes, I caught that and edited my post. :P

Yoroiookami.3485:

As I’ve said, I think the second item is the elonian wine. The bottle reflects light so…there…fixed it for you.

Duncanmix.5238:

Yes second item is most likely Elonian Wine. Cylindrical, sealed, can see reflection, is favorite of Zomorros.

First item is still harder to figure out.

The issue is that a bottle of Elonian Wine is not trivial by itself, and in numbers is not powerful.

While it is a favorite of Zomorros, so are Mystic Coins and Mystic Crystals – even Mystic Stones, I think. But amongst them, only Mystic Coins are used in good numbers.

And Duncanmix:

The first item is the cylindrical and sealed one.

The second item can reflect, is useful only in numbers, and is a favorite of Zomorros.

John Smith.4610:

edit 5:
Lemark was in high spirits, it had been a productive week. After a series of failures his luck had turned. He stared at his own reflection in the item, such a trivial thing by itself, but with many, there was power. Zomorros knew it as well, Lemark had seen the desire in his eyes before, this was one of his favorites.

So now we have:

1. An expensive “ghastly” item.
2. A cyllindrical item that’s sealed.
3. A heritage-but-common item that gives a reflection. (at least, I presume the “series of failures” nods back to the failed thievery attempt)

I’m guessing:

1. Eldritch Scroll (ghastly, expensive with 50 skill points)
2. Elonian Wine (cyndrical, sealed)
3. Mystic Coin (for reasons presented – trivial as one, common item, but used in a lot of recipies in groupes of 50+)

This is basically a very common recipe thus far. Seems the fourth item is the unusual one, if this is right thus far.

Edit:

Out of story hint: I’ve only referenced 2 of the components so far.

Ah, so the cyllindrical would refer to the first item too then. Elonian Wine isn’t very ghastly, but a rolled up scroll would be.

So I’m guessing:

1. Eldritch Scroll
2. Mystic Coins

Which again are very common recipe components.

Yoroiookami.3485:

I don’t know about the first item, but I’m sure that the second item is Elonian Wine. If you want proof, just read its description.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bottle_of_Elonian_Wine
“This is also Zommoros favorite drink.”
Heritage. Get it? =o

I’m not sure if it wasn’t posted already. XD

You miss a part though:

Alone it is trivial, but in numbers it is powerful.

This alone makes me think Bloodstone Dust. It’s so commonplace that it’s trivial, but when combining 100 to get a Bloodstone Brick, they can be used for crafting powerful items (Ascended gear) – and in lore, Bloodstones are very powerful artifacts, and would be guarded closely even if commonplace.

But the line about Zomorros loving it points to Mystic Coins, imo.

Dry Top is permanent, not temporary. The only temporary stuff anymore is – or should be – holidays (and daily/monthly).

If you ask me, unless you’re from grindy MMOs, dailies will burn you out fast if you put focus on them.

IMO, unless you’re interested in the achievement skins, don’t focus on achievements beyond holiday ones and maybe monthlies in the last week of each month. Only focus on dailies if you’re in need of laurels.

Actually, ArenaNet doesn’t touch the thing at all. There were devs that helped with getting cleaned information, or respond to questions on their talk pages, but that has reduced greatly over the years and was more or less restricted to GWW, barely existed on GW2W.

ArenaNet hosts the wiki. But aside from general system maintenance, they don’t really touch the wikis at all.

The only thing on the wiki that is not written by the fans, are the things in quotation boxes and NPC dialogues. And of course, any copy of official documents such as found in Category:Tales

Let me rephrase the second one: the wiki tries to avoid absolutes in situations of interpretations. This is one situation where they do avoid it.

Haleydawn.3764:

" He was surprised they hadn’t given up" They chased him for a long time, he may have ran North towards Janthir Bay

I highly doubt that. What would be the point of telling us he’s going into places we players can’t go?

Plus he’s clearly in a city still, there’s no known cities that far north.

And furthermore, it sounds more like he’s been chased around multiple blocks (“two more blocks”), not halfway across the countryside.

While I agree with the premise of the OP (“instances are better than open world”) I have to disagree with the reasons provided being the motivation behind going with instances over open world, and add an addendum to the phrase. In full:

“Instances are better than open world, for the mindset of ArenaNet’s content.”

Aside from balance – which is far easier to balance for a specific number of players (party max) than it is for a variable size that could make any content ever to be either face-rolling-on-keyboard easy or instantly-kill-lots-of-players frustrating – you have the Living World.

Looking at Season 1, and at Guild Wars Beyond, it is plain as day that War in Kryta content was a prototype for the Living World. It received a huge appraisal, while Season 1 was not. And, to me, there are three reasons why:

1. Guild Wars players were deprived of content for two years, so they put up with the lack of ultimate quality brought on by the fact the content was made by a very skeletal crew team. Though there was still a lot of quality in it.
2. The story; unlike War in Kryta, Season 1 did a lot of lore bending and lore breaking (at least from the perspective of the playerbase) and idiot ball handling to make Scarlet such an ultimate foe. War in Kryta, while introduced different story elements, did so in a believable way, by using pre-established stepping stones. Season 1’s story literally came out of nowhere using old factions, with no pre-existing reasons for said factions’ involvement.
3. Relevant to topic: Most importantly for the grand playerbase: Instances versus temporary open world content. Even today, you can go through and experience War in Kryta in the exact same way it was experienced at release – as well as pre-WiK content. The Living World, even if they kept things to the latest update, cannot. It is now impossible to experience Kessex Hills before the Tower of Nightmares, or even during. Instances allowed the world to evolve at the pace of the players, while the Living World evolves at the pace of ArenaNet’s plot-making.

The way the base game was designed is definitely suited more for the open world, but the concept that ArenaNet’s going with the Living World is not really that suited for an open world game without creating zone separations based on position in the storyline, but would be absolutely perfect for an instanced game like GW1.

There’s nothing really wrong with an open world game. But I think ArenaNet’s mentality is still stuck on thinking for an instanced game.

Zaklex.6308:

Usually, most of what you post is very good and well thought out, however, on this one issue I have a bone to pick. You apparently just decided to completely ignore the last two words of that announcement, this year, which unless I am mistaken, means they will return in a different year, be that 2015, 2016 or what ever. You seem to be under the impression that they are gone forever, never to be return. When in fact this is a temporary removal and not permanent.

I did take note of that, but we have no indication of how they’ll return or when. For all we know, it’s like Season 1 becoming permanent content. “It’s on the table, but may not make it live for a very long time.”

And when they do return, for how long?

And even then, the two words don’t mandate that they’ll return. They can easily be “no longer available this year” [and from here on].

So like Pixelpumpkin says, all that says is that it might come back, not that it will. And if it does come back: when? for how long? for what cost?

A lot of GW1 devs left during the latter development of GW2, like Kekai Kotaki. And in the past year, Anet’s lost a lot of devs (or let go), such as Jason King.

I haven’t heard from John Stumme in ages. Is he still working with ArenaNet?

But nowadays, though I have absolutely zero proof, it feels like the only devs that stick around are the leads and those that people show disdain for oddly enough – the rest come and go as their contracts are up.

Divinity’s Reach is on the edge of three lakes (Lake Regent and Lake Doric we cannot access, and then the Lake in Queensdale made by a dam) and a riven (made by the eastern dam). Ascalonians care a LOT about their heritage – just talk to the NPCs throughout Rurikton and Ebonhawke.

Maybe the second item is sold by a Rurikton merchant. Anything unique being sold by them?

The item would be a sealed cylindrical case. Which could mean a bottled liquid, or a container for a scroll or the like.

What Slow was saying is “the Cataclysm made the undead”. Which I was pointing out there’s evidence to counter Jacob’s statements – not full out proof, yet, but evidence against it.

I, in the beginning of this thread, in fact said it may be possible that Zhaitan’s power affected Orr after the Cataclysm. However, I strongly doubt that Zhaitan made the undead – be it just Khilbron or all. Why? Simply due to the fact that they appear and act vastly different from the risen.

There is no skeletal risen, but almost all undead in Prophecies were skeletal.

All risen are fanatically devoted to Zhaitan, as are all other dragon minions to their respective dragon, and this is shown even for when the Elder Dragon is sleeping, yet Khilbron shows no such effect.

The continued use of undeath in Orr seems more like a thematic choice by the developers rather than “it’s all connected.”

If they make it all connected, then at this point they’re retconing.

John Smith.4610:

edit 3 (in story form): Lemark wasn’t much of a haggler. the merchant had taken almost every copper he owned, but it was worth it. He was positive this time, no more fakes, no more copies, forgeries or lies, this was it. He could feel it, sinister…ghostly, it felt weird to hold, but he didn’t care, his journey was one quarter complete.

So the first of four items is “sinister… ghostly” and comes from a merchant.

My mind goes towards the Ascalon Catacombs dungeon merchant. Mind goes to Offering of Ascalon or Gift of Ascalon.

However, I wonder if the “no more fakes, no more copies, forgeries or lies” is part of it. Is there an item easily mistaken for another that is sold by a merchant?

The mention of copper may indicate it’s something bought with gold, not other forms of currency (e.g., karma, dungeon tokens, geodes).

How much of that hint… is a hint?

Issue 3: Achievements
Achievements are a double-edged sword. Though they direct players to content, they are a once-then-done kind of checklist, regardless of what the achievement is. You get the achievement, and you have a reduced drive to do content.

I played for roughly 2 hours today, and I am already 10/12. 5 dailies, 5 from the Halloween category. I stopped so that I would still feel like I have something to do later this week and next.

The ease of completing achievements is not the only issue, but similar to issue 1 (and 2, really), it’s just a repeat of 2013 achievements. Even if you repeat the content, surely you don’t need to duplicate the achievements?

Perhaps something more entertaining would be to bring the previous years’ achievements out of Historical and make them obtainable again, and then slap on brand new achievements that make players go explore the things that were neglected previous years (or new content, should such come by).

Or better yet, set up the Holiday achievements – old and new – to be akin to the dailies and monthlies. They reset after the holiday’s over, and of course locked until it begins again. Again, many solutions than simple duplication.

TL;DR
Rehashing even the achievements completely (sans rewards) is not really that enjoyable. Especially when they can be done in 3 hours but the content’s to entertain players for 2 weeks.

TL;DR of the Three Problems
This Holiday is nothing but an entire rehash of 2013, with a few extra items to throw players off and think it’s new stuff. It isn’t. And while a rehash in of itself is not bad, selective rehashing without new content is.

2013 was passable for removing some of the best stuff because there was new things added to replace them, even if they didn’t meet player expectations. But now nothing’s new, and yet we can’t have the stuff we really wanted: the things that were only in 2012’s Halloween.

Again, I’ll just state that I don’t mind a holiday that “has no new content”. But the unnecessary selective nature of “only old content” is not fun in the least.

Next time you have no new content to bring to Halloween, ensure that all content from the past years is presented. That’s all I ask.

Side Problem: Removal of RNG weapon skins
I mentioned at the beginning that there is a fourth issue with this update not tied to Halloween. To quote the update notes:

“There are only four weeks left to use tickets for Lovestruck, Dragon’s Jade, Aetherblade, Fused, and Dreamthistle weapon sets. After November 18, these sets will no longer be available for purchase with Black Lion Claim Tickets this year.”

My initial reaction was this:

Has ArenaNet learned NOTHING from the hundreds of complaints about removing content over the past two years?

I think I know the reason: that Black Lion merchant’s running out of tab space, and they want to keep pumping out new BLC weapon skins. But this does not require a removal of the skins. Just like Sclerite.

Rather than removal, it would be better to simply place them elsewhere. Perhaps a merge tabs together for more room, or a second NPC – one being 12 or so older weapon skin sets.

Solutions other than removal is not hard to think of, if I could think of those within 30 seconds (I did not even think of such when I began writing the section).

TL;DR
Don’t remove stuff. If space is an issue, find a different way to keep it in-game.

A Good Light in This
While I point out what I find to be three major issues, I want to go out to say that our nameless vendor is a great addition to the holiday. It offers an alternative means of obtaining the Miniatures Bloody Prince Thorn and Carlotta, while giving the first ever obtained in-game outfit.

It is, particularly, that latter bit which pleases me so much. Even if the outfit was a reskin of the Witch’s Outfit – as I heard, done because of China and the original Witch’s Outfit having bones which is a no-no in China – it is a lovely improvement to having only outfits seen in the gemstore. I hope this trend continues, even if it’s rarely or only during holidays.

TL;DR
Please more new outfits/armors obtained from game, not gemstore. Even if sparse in existence.

Overall, I’m disappointed.

Let me first say that Halloween has always been my favorite GW holiday since I first experienced it in 2006. So naturally, I have high expectations for my enjoyment of the holiday. I find that there are three major issues presented with this update. There is a fourth, but it is not tied to Halloween itself.

Issue 1: Repeating Content
Before I get into the crux of this issue, let me just say that I have no issue with repeating content. The fact that 2013 content was repeated without change beyond rewards is not the issue here, not directly at least. I am well used to Halloween not getting much content. In GW1, Wintersday, Canthan New Year, and Dragon Festival all were introduced with multiple quests or quest chains as well as at least one PvP format; Halloween was just decorations and collectors when introduced in 2005. In 2006, it was the same old but added to Kamadan; no quests nor PvP. 2007 saw Costume Brawl added to Halloween, with 2008 only seeing new builds in CB; it was not until 2009 that Halloween got quests, which after a month delay, resulted in Dhuum’s fight being added to the Underworld. Canthan New Years, however, got no change since its introduction; and Dragon Festival’s only change was turning actual invasions into acted invasions (in other words, only model and dialogue changes).

So I – just like all other veteran GW1 players – are well used to not getting new Holiday content, but seeing the same old added. As such, seeing repeated content is not an issue. In fact, this was entirely what GW1 holidays was: repeated content, sometimes with new additions (and often not).

So where is the issue with GW2’s Halloween of 2014? The fact that it is a complete repeat of 2013. Nothing from 2012 returned this year – despite how much fun Ascent into Madness was, despite how much people enjoyed the scavenger hunts for the Mad Memoirs. Not even the open world meta events from Queensdale, Kessex Hills, and Gendarran Fields.

Though I dislike it, I can understand no Reaper’s Rumble.

TL;DR
If you’re going to bring back content. Bring back all content.

In 2015, I expect to see what we have this year, as well as the three metas, Ascent into Madness, Reaper’s Rumble, and the Mad Memoirs scavenger hunt. Hopefully with a continuation to the story as well.

Issue 2: Repeating Festival Hat and Mad King’s Says
Back in GW1, the most exciting part of any holiday for me and many of my friends has been the finales. They were fun and games that happened once a year. Each holiday’s finale was different. Some were afk’able for more rewards, which many of us – myself included – did.

For Halloween, that finale is Thorn’s visit to the mortal world, his jokes, and his games of Mad King Says.

But this year, there is no finale. Thorn is already doing his typical finale antics from day 1. And will continue until the final day no doubt. Perhaps ArenaNet’s going to surprise us with a brand new finale that differs from 2012 and 2013. Currently, though, I am doubtful. I would love to be proved wrong though.

Wintersday suffers a similar issue in GW2; there is no finale, easily the best part of GW holiday history.

Seems I’ll be spending my finales in the past, if in Tyria at all.

But this is not the only issue of this year’s “finale”. The main issue I hold here is the reward.

Partaking in the finale would always, since the dusk of Halloween 2005, reward a year-unique hat reward. This continued into GW2 Halloween, even, by giving us a Witch’s/Wizard’kitten in 2012, and a Mask of the Night in 2013.

And in 2014? We get… a Mask of the Night.

Even with the lack of content for all holidays, there has always been a new prize for the finale. With Canthan New Year, it’s a new miniature. With the other holidays, it’s a hat. Even Dragon Bash had this with the Horns of the Dragon (which have become laurel items, but I digress there).

There is really no excuse for a repeat of last year’kitten, without giving a new one. Maybe, again, I’ll be surprised and ArenaNet has a new form of a finale planned this year. But if not, it’s downright ridiculous that we get two gemstore outfits, but they couldn’t design a single helm. Even if they just took the design of a GW1 helm and remade it for GW2, it would be far superior to nothing new.

If they really couldn’t get a new hat, the least they could have done was reward us Mad Memoirs (either or both editions), or the Witch’s/Wizard’kitten from 2012 as well as Mask of the Night. For those who didn’t save them up to the wardrobe’s existence.

TL;DR
The least you can do is give us a new helm and a proper finale, can’t you?

Continues in next post

Lunatic Inquisition does take a bit to get used to. But the PvE labyrinthe is simple enough. And the Clocktower is a jumping puzzle – if your being sent back by the time you finish reading the instructions, then you’re either a slow reader, popping in at the wrong time (it’s got a peculiar timer) or you’re lagging with your loading – one of which is really ArenaNet’s fault.

It looks like this year is just a repeat of 2013 with some new items meshed in and the skritt collector dude added.

So no Ascent into Madness. No open world metas.

That actually presents an interesting thought to me.

Rurik’s crown/helmet.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Prince_Rurik.jpg

It has a band on it, that could easily have broken apart from the rest and brought to Adelbern as proof of Rurik’s death. Thus his burden being that he effectively sent his son to his death – a burden that has weighed on his mind ever since, as highlighted in both Ghosts of Ascalon and Ascalon Catacombs.

And note: Undead Prince Rurik is lacking that crown/helmet.

On an aside: I just realized how much detail gets obscured in the models when they have the boss aura… I didn’t realize Rurik’s undead form had such detail like the ragged shirt!