Guild Wars 2

Ree Soesbee has written the next one.

Its probably just a bug with linking models with voices. I saw a sylvari with asuran dialog yesterday. Did the crusaders use human or sylvari voices?

The humans have an active interest in resettling orr if just for the reclaimation of the temples. I think NPCs in Orr even make a point about how the Temples are going to get looked after because the humans have a big interest in retaking them.

They are also still major holy site. Not that in Grenth’s temple we have the first time in 250 years of contact with one of the God’s agents. One of Grenth’s Reapers actually turns up. That alone makes the temples significant even if we do ignore the latent power that seems to exist in the temples.

The Searing itself was probably bungled from what we learn about it in Orr. The magic had the ability to be far more focused and directed. Of course, this is the Flame Legion we are talking about so they may have just done it on purpose.

Although the Charr feel very strongly about their claim to Ascalon and often hold a hatred of humans that isnt really shared with any other race, many Charr didnt approve of many of the methods used during the invasion 250 years ago. There are charr around the Ascalon areas which make comments on it.

Most of the worst activities committed by the Charr were the result of the Flame Legion. Most other Charr can be brutal but are pragmatic about it rather than malicious the way the Flame Legion is.

You also have to remember that Ascalon was really just in the way. The Titans were pushing the Charr towards Orr. The Charr as a race really wasnt in control of its own destiny at the time and the result of that is their strong hatred of gods.

Id put it down to a few things.

One would be unity. Although they seem to have been allied they didnt really seem to act much in concert. Infact the Mursaat ran away once they figured out how to leave the rest to their fates.

Secondly Id say magic would play a part. The anceint races may have had more powerful magic, but we have the advantage of having access to divine magic and the magic of the sylvari, which is extremely effective against the dragons.

Finally Id say tech. Remember that the Dragons eat magic. Taking magic to a fight against a dragon can very likely backfire against you and make them stronger. Cannons and lazers are probably the most effective weapons you could use against the Dragons cause they dont have the ability to corrupt lazers and cannon fire in the way they can magic.

Seriously? I keep having to double back to vendors to clear out my bags. Im not sure what is causing you to get no loot but the zone seems fine to me.

Using daze and stun is also effective in stopping their attacks. Havent had a chance to try blind but I have a feeling it might only stop the first hit.

If the theories behind the bandits and the white mantle and the centuar are right then Id go with the White Mantle PARTICULARLY if the Mursaat were the power at the top.

Then again I cant help but feel nostalgic fighting the White Mantle. They have been bad guys in GW for a long time, plus them and the Shining Blade have a great grudge thing going on and Ive always loved the Shining Blade.

A note on Owain. She is from Tyria. She was part of a crew that came to the island being sponsored by the consortium. My guess is she has only been their for a few months at most. She was a chef sent to research new ingredents.

Shes gone insane from the trauma. Anytime she mentions Tyria or her crew she starts to crack and break down crying.

The island has likely only been open for survey recently. Prior to this very few people would try and set up on an isle that close to Orr. The risen probably had a notable presence on the isle originally.

There eggs are certainly edible. Theres a stranded Sylvari chef on the Southsun Cove who has survived on them since her crew was wiped out. Poor girl has gone insane from the trauma. Makes a mean Karka omelette though.

Shes on a outcroping on the southwestern corner of the island. To get to her you need to clime the wreckage of the boats up against the her rock but its a pretty easy climb.

I felt so sorry for her. She was a talented cook. Sent to the island as part of a survey team, all her crewmates die and she is left all alone, trapped on the island. Poor girl cracked and has survived living off Karka eggs. I dont even think she realises she has a way off the island now.

The only mobs Ive really stuggled with are the Drakes and the Veteran Karka. Considering their size I dont mind that the Veteran Karka are such a hard fight solo but the Drakes attacks seem to be unavoidable and brutally damaging. The fact their sonic breath attack is invisable and seems to work even if Im behind them really makes fighting them a struggle.

I agree. P2 has been great fun. I loved having a new zone to explore too and theres alot of detail to it.

Possibly. However we cant be sure that Glint’s offspring arent subject to the influence of Kralkatorik. Glint was freed from his control through magic. Its uncertain weither this freedom was passed on to her children as well.

Ogden is also an interactable NPC at the start of the explorable mode of Arah.

I got to say, that was my first thought when I heard the terms Agony, Ascended and Infusion. Spectral Agony made Mursaat quite scary till you got infused gear in Prophecies.

Honestly, this Ascended gear doesnt seem much different to how Lightbringer rep allowed you to mitigate the damage of Abaddon’s minions in GW1.

Its a gating mechanism for the content. It doesnt make you that much more powerful as much as mitigate OP abilities enemies have. Actually there use of infusion and Agony reminds me of the infusion mechanism in GW Prophecies. Try taking on a Mursaat without infused armor and see how far you got against spectral agony.

I think people are getting carried away.

I doubt risen have to breathe. However the obvious reason to sink the boneships is that A) it slows the movement of risen since the ships can carry risen around quickly and it stops the ships throwing giant rotten fish full of disease and risen at us.

Graill.8596:

@OP, Kiranslee stated it best in their last sentence. Make your own opinion after trying the game out. In my opinion there are ALOT of areas that need work and the devs are not communicating regularly, only when they feel they need to silence people because the rabble are making to much noise.

Anet is like a person sitting in a lawnchair with a garden hose wearing dark sunglasses holding a drink in one hand that randomly splashes water around to put out the really hot spots on the lawn. You will find this out for yourself soon enough. They do smile alot though, if you ever watch their dev vids…they do smile alot.

So…. A game that is what? 2 months old? that has released on content patch already and is about to release another is a person sitting in a lawnchair? Pray tell what your comparing it too? People siting in lawnchairs must be very productive from where you come from.

The game is in a pretty good state. Its two biggest issues when it launched was endgame activities and bugs. Both are still in need of work but are improving on both fronts. The community has been for the most part great. Ive had alot of fun running with people.

The game isnt for everyone but no game is. Give it a try. For the game it is GW2 is quite solid and Arenanet are certianly working hard at it, which considering they arent charging us a sub fee is pretty kitten good.

Kralkatorik.

His minions look kitten, his corrupted areas are sort of pretty in a hellscape kind of way and I hear hes got great ideas to stimulate the economy.

I dont like the cold so Jormag is out. Zhaitan’s kind of unreliable being dead dead now plus he really let Orr get run down. Primordus seems more interested in replacing the voting public of Tyria with animated lava contructs and Bubbles doesnt even seem to be contending at the moment.

Narcemus.1348:

Grenth is half god/half human, Abaddon had a predecessor (stated in GW1) though we do not know who this is, Kormir obviously took her powers once Abaddon was slain, and Balthazar came to Tyria carrying his father’s head (though in victory or remorse is not known).

Its worth noting that Kormir was blessed by the other 5 gods so that she could take on Abaddon’s power. It wasnt just her running in that granted her godhood. I suspect its alot harder than that. The ‘vessel’ for the god power has to be up to the task.

Also we know that Balthazar turned up on Tyria, carrying his father’s head, though if he had killed his father or if someone else had is hard to say. Considering the god qualities of his half-brother, Im guessing Balthazar’s dad used to hold the war gods role.

Its worth noting we do see humans harness the power of the gods a little in GW2. Priestess Rhea calls a soul back from the underworld in one quest and summons a Reaper in another. Also there is a Dermond Priory quest where a Avatar of Balthazar is summoned and the ritualists summoning it are all humans.

The only other hint Ive seen is in the fighting between Rytlock and Logan when you first walk into the story mode of CoF, Logan has a buff called favor of the gods or something like that which is regenerating him.

Wasn’t Fireheart Rise the Flame Legion headquarters? Thats where the Flame Legion Citadel was.

I would be suprised though them linking Tengu to Jormag. Also I suspect we will get a new class or a new race but not both. The rest of the classes would probably get new weapon options and utility/elite skills.

I wouldnt worry too much. The weekend event will scale players to 80 for the events and the rest will be perminant content, waiting for you when you get to it.

If its the spot I think it is then it was a nobles estate. It could be that Kitah who the spell is named after was a orrian noble who lived there.

Necromancy is just a form of magic in Tyria. Its not a set ‘evil’ in the same way as death isnt in itself evil. Necromancers take many forms, from those seeking power through it to those who care for the dead, souls or body. Most if not all of Grenth’s priests would be necromancers.

Id say it goes like this:

Humans may be creeped out by necromancy but accept it, to a great part because of the worship of Grenth. Grenth is a death god and one who judges and looks after the souls of the dead. Death is a part of life and Grenth is the god of balance.

To the Asura, its just another part of the Eternal Alchemy. In their view everything has a place including necromancy. To ignore it would be foolish and short sighted.

To the Sylvari, its linked to death and that interest alot of sylvari. Even death is a pretty new concept to their race and they seek to understand it and its place in their lives. Kalleen from Ghosts of Ascalon was a good example of a syvari necromancer.

To the norn, necromancy seems to be linked to Raven. Norn are into spirits and necromancy deals with the spirits of the dead. It works in pretty well with their shamanism.

To the charr, all magic is suspect. Necromancy doenst hold any particularly more questionable nature to other magics. Infact I suspect they would dislike mesmer’s more since at least necromancy is more honest. However like mesmers, necromancers are valuable to the Legions and the charr are very pragmatic. To ignore or be ignorant of a power just because you dont like it much would be foolish.

Thats my take on it anyway.

Nar.8327:

How it actually went down:

[DE] had an organized raid scheduled on Kralkatorrik, but a few moments before they started, Logan caught wife aggro and bailed.

As a result, Eir decided to pug it, Rytlock went AFK, Snaff tried to tank, and Zojja forgot to slot Glyph of Renewal. It was ugly.

lol.

You deserve a cookie.

Zhaitan did corrupt living members of the Pact at several points. It seems to kill you and turn you into undead so it can be very rapid.

The others seem to be different in their own way. Jormag’s corruption often can seem quite subtle. Of all the Dragons, he actually has non minion followers. Kralkatorik on the other hand seems quite brute force in his corruption. Creatures get twisted into the branded very quickly.

Dragon corruption seems to be linked to energy they release. The brand has an energy feild play across it that the Charr researchers call the Brandstorm. It has a direct effect on the minds of the Branded, drawing them and making them more active and agressive. Curiously it also suggested that branded can sometimes regrow from the crystals on the Brand.

Who is worse? Who knows. I suspect that the Pact would be developing ways to resist dragon corruption at this point as they learn more about the energy that causes this corruption. In the end I dont think any of the dragons would be that much easier to beat, just different. Kralkatorik wont turn out dead against us like Zhaitan but his corruption eats away at structures making our fortifications less reliable.

Strickly speaking, if its the story Im thinking of, I get the feeling your hooked up with their warband to pay off losing their vehicle. In a way its how they intergrate you into their command structure.

As for being considered a perminant part of the warband its hard to say. Maybe, if you should you were worth it. Kind of like a close family friend.

Actually I very much suspect it has to do with the DSD. If not, then something aquatic.

So far we have in LA:

My suspects are the Krait or the DSD.

I thought both the skritt and the quaggan were just joke races originally but Ive been greatly suprised how much depth and detail the two races have.

Unfortunately I dont think youll be seeing either as playable. Skritt only work well when grouped with other skritt, otherwise their intellect is subpar. Quaggan on the other hand beserk too easily in combat.

Having said that the beserking Quaggan were sort of cool. It was like having a swarm of freindly giant pirannas on your side.

I havent done the events in Kessex Hills but one of the Lunitic Court NPCs mentions a Countess as the one trying to counter the Baron.

Of course they could all be insane and delusional. They are all from the Mad realm after all.

Destiny’s Edge are valuable to the fight but not compared to the Pact. Do remember that when they fought Kralkatorik they had help from Glint.

The legions seem to allow some personal freedom to their members if they arent on specific missions and are considered trustworthy. We see charr all over tyria in various roles many of who even mention they are still loyal to their legion. I think the legion understands the value of their people getting life experiance and learning things from outside their own areas.

The deciding factor I suspect is weither the Legions feel that the charr in verious organisations still have the Legion’s best interests at heart. The Durmond Priory and the Vigil certainly are organisations that the Legions respect and whos interests are favorable to the charr. The Order of Whispers on the other hand I think the charr are more inclined to be working with considering the age and resources of the group than working against.

Remember Warbands are like families to the charr rather than just military units. As long as they are honest and communicate there desire to join an order or travel to their Warband and by that their ranking officer, Id say they would have the freedom to act on it as long as they werent needed at home.

Really the same would apply to a human. If a human walked out while their family needed them they wouldnt be too popular either.

I dont think either side are good guys. Its just that the rebels are trying to get into Tyria while the loyalists are trying to stop them. Its more a chase of the fact that the loyalists goals are currently to our favor.

This doesnt sound likely to me for multiple reasons. The biggest one is that by the same logic we couldnt go anywhere all the playable races didnt have major representation. That means areas like the Charr lands beyond the Blazeridge mountains including the other two legion citadels and elona would be off the list.

I dont see Arenanet kittening that much of their world.

I wonder if we will find out how the treaty talk with the centaurs played out in the second book. That could be interesting.

Im pretty sure this was under the things they listed as perminant.

And wasnt he quite the young psycopath. Now we know how two of his wives died. Im guessing the rest didnt fair much better.

Ive found two NPCs that talk about this: one in the Pale Tree’s chamber in the Grove near Ventari’s tablet and the other at one of the first hearts in the Sylvari area.

From what I understand, Sylvari hounds all come from the Pale Tree like Sylvari but start young as pups and grow. Why the Pale Trees ‘fruit’ are born in different ways is certianly interesting. Currently there doesnt seem to be an explaination why or if there are any other creatures that come from her.

SPOILER

Actually the fact that sylvari are humanlike seems to be a characteristic of any sylvari rather than the Pale Tree. We meet in one of the sylvari personal story steps a sylvari from another tree and he has the same form as a Pale Tree sylvari.

There is a part in the 20-30 chapter of the human story where your meeting the reps of the orders to discuss a threat to Jennah and the priory guy makes a comment about her being the last heir of Doric. Interestingly the whisper guy says something along the lines of ‘that may not be entirely accurate’.

Personally Im wondering if there is anything particularly special about Doric’s line or if its just about having an unbroken royal bloodline. Originally, I thought that Doric’s connection to the bloodstones may link his heirs to the bloodstones but that no longer is likely.

The fall of humanity had more to do with the actions of one of their gods that had fallen rather than the gods abandoning them. Most of humanities biggest losses had Abaddon behind it.

By the time the other races were on the rise, humanity, at least in tyria, was already on the ropes. The only other territory they lost happened when Orr rose and flooded the coast. Humanity pulled back further north in alot of places.

The true reason the gods are silent is hard to guess. The gods most certainly dont want to get into a fight with the EDs. If one of the gods lost and was consumed it would be a catastrophy on a pretty grand scale. They are still around and we at least get to speak with one of Grenth’s Reapers so they seem contactable.

Actually theres a Ash Legion scout near Camp Althea which seems to suggest the Ash Legion charr had a camp there with the same name. Apparently local storys suggest that Althea’s ghost still wonders that area some nights. Ive tried to see if I can find her ingame around that area but no luck.

Curiously the charr named their camp after her out of, not exactly respect, but sympathy. She died, burned alive in a Flame Legion ritual. To them she died an enemy of the Flame Legion.

Its also worth noting theres quite a few charr which display disgust at the tactics used during the war against Ascalon.

Humanity’s efforts to protect the world from various threats cost it dearly. Elona is a prime example. Powala Joko gained his freedom and returned to power because his help was neccesary to defeat Abaddon. The sunspears saved Tyria but at the cost of Elona and the human nations there.

Infact most of the fall of humanity can be put at Abaddon’s feet. The charr invasion, the Nightfall in Elona, the release of the Titans, the destruction of Orr and even Shiro were Abaddon’s work. Ironic that it was one of their gods that ended up pulling them back down. Humanity after that war was far weaker and the rise of the Elder Dragons just floored them.

Id say calling them a dying race though is foolish. Humans are very hard to kill off. They have a talent for surviving.

ReginWoods.8573:

I believe that, for some reason, Gargoyles were drawn towards Kralkatorrik. This could be because they are crystalline type creatures and are the minions of Kralkatorrik.

I dont think their disappearance matches up well with Kralkatorrik becoming active.

Oh hell yeah. Much of playable Tyria in the game is the same area as Prophecies and GW:EN from the first game. Ascalon in particular has massive amounts of references. Infact the geography is pretty close in those areas to the first game if you lay the two game maps ontop of each other. Its nostalgic and sometimes a bit melencoly.

It isnt only locations. References or ghosts from old NPCs. Alot of the named ghosts are NPCs from the first game. One is even a henchman. In the Brisbane wildlands you have ghosts of White Mantle and Shining Blade still locked reenacting a battle that the players were part of in GW1.

You have the ruins of Rin where priory guys are excavating to learn about the events that played out in a mission in GW1 including the bonus part. The queens palace from GW1 is also an excavation sight in Lion’s Arch in GW2 and the old lions arch is still under the water in the bay. Infact there are ruins of old locations and hubs everywhere.

Theres a sight in the metrica provence where there are asura studing an old asuran site which was the sight in GW:EN of the G.O.L.E.M. project by the asura to create fast deployable Golems to use agianst the Destroyers. Getting the project running was needed to recruit the asura against the Great Destroyer.

Hell, technically you could even visit the Pale Tree when it was still a sprout in GW1.

The Devs when out of their way with references to GW1 in GW2. Its pretty cool.

The detail that Arenanet went into in the creation of the ‘minor’ races is amazing.

We take the Quaggen for example.

The quaggen fit the role of a cute, clumsy race in the game but there is more to them than that. Their society and culture has been strongly shaped by an evolutionary defense to danger in that they beserk. This loss of control is considered both shameful and a great taboo. Quaggen favor peace, polite and freindly society cause it limits the risk of this ‘hulking’.

This has lead to two notable features of the Quaggen apart from their peace loving and polite cultural norms.

Firstly, they have developed wards and techniques of avoiding danger and conflict rather than confronting it. They have adapted to danger by finding ways to hide, ward off or run away.

Secondly, they have developed such a stigma to conflict that they become prone to victimisation. They are so afraid of the shame of losing control that they avoid fighting back then targeted. Its curious to see in the quaggen villages and in the PS the arguments between quaggen on fighting back and hearing some quaggen arguing that they need to start.

And of course they are kind of cute. Except when they are angry. Then they are like swiming with a swarm of giant pirannas.

The skritt I didnt care for much till I saw skrittsburg. Walking around it and talking to the skritt shows exactly how amazing and somewhat terrifying the skritt can be in numbers. They are a race that thrives when working together. They stop acting as individuals and become part of one giant system with each skritt becoming a cog in that machine.

Still havent gotten around to doing the Gwarl or Ogres. They are on my to do list.

They have fought several times and its never been decisive. Rytlocks advantage in attack is countered by Logan’s strong defensive skills. They are very closely matched.

They have never gotten to finish a fight. They always tend to get interupted either by enemies, authorities or snappy player characters.

There are several places in lore where they say the humans were brought to Tyria by the Gods but the most compelling evidance is from dev interveiws where devs have said ‘when the gods brought the humans to tyria’.

There is clearly something we dont know about the whole thing yet. The timeline is pretty out of wack and Im pretty sure its not a mistake on Arenanet’s part. Its clear that humans didnt arrive at Orr before Cantha even though GW2 suggests that Orr is where the gods entered the world from the mists.

Well the humans had Balthazar and his blessings backing them up when they invaded so its pretty questionable to call it fair either.

Wars are rarely fair. Fighting a war fair generally means fighting a war stupid.

Who deserves it now? The people who currently hold that territory. Be they charr or human.