Guild Wars 2

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Weren’t the Titans Abaddon’s creations and the Domain of Anguish shut off the ability to make new ones?

Actually I believe it was an agent of Dhuum who was creating the Titans for Abaddon as part of the alliance they had. Also the Seer in Prophecies suggests that they are infact anceint which would likely mean they predate the war between the gods.

My personal theory is that Titans can form naturally under extreme conditions. Dhuum’s agent merely synthisised this process to create them in numbers.

I dont really have any solid evidence for it but it would fit the info we have on them as far as Im aware.

Dont the Quaggan think the Krait killed their god, not the EDs?

I have to say, that if several of the gods did turn out to be dead, it would be an immense blow to humanity, at least on Tyria. There faith is one of the cornerstones of their society.

Titans would be amazing in the GW2 engine though I guess people could easily mistake the fire ones for Destroyers. Still those guys were kitten before and would be kitten still.

I actually wouldnt mind seeing some of Powala Joko’s soldiers at some point. They have the whole mummy vibe, and unlike the risen, are an organised and disciplined army, if prone to infighting without strong leadership.

Dryders would be interesting. If nothing else Im very curious on exactly what they are. They pop up in some odd places.

I miss the Dinosaurs somewhat. I kind of would like to see them return.

This might be an obvious one but Id like to see the Mursaat again. Not in numbers. Any Mursaat ingame Id want to have as a boss level threat. Again, I think the Mursaat would look amazing with the current engine.

I think he was talking about King Doric’s bloodline rather than just the royal line of Kryta. She is one of the last known decendants for King Doric. Ive heard the head guy in Ebonhawke is too but Ive never checked that.

There could however be other unknown decendants to King Doric out there. The old royal Krytan family disappeared. We dont know for certain if Barradin had any other relatives that might have had children too.

The big question for me is why the line of Doric is actually that important? We know that it wasnt his blood that made the Bloodstones. We also dont know if there was infact any particular reason the gods favored him as King of Humans. He seems to have been favored by Dwayna. However his bloodline doesnt seem to have any known special quality that Im aware off apart from producing some very powerful figures.

The mission ‘Air Drop’

I cackled madly through the whole thing. When the reinforcements turn up and tell you a column of tanks has been over run by an army of risen and need help, I was so, yeah I got this, you guys just chill here.

That battle suit was a beautiful work of pure destruction. It felt like payback for every time a risen had ambushed me in Orr.

I also laughed pretty hard on Claw Island when you learn how Trehearne helped Seiran once with a risen gorrila she let out of a cage.

“I misread its sign language. I thought it was saying ‘I feel better’ when it was actually saying ‘kill’”

Oh poor Seiran. She was so crazy and cheerful.

Also, the very end of the solo missions. I know alot of people pan it but that last part were your defending and you form a line with the other guys and ‘fear not this night’ starts playing was amazing for me.

Hjorje.9453:

@Konig

Where did we learn about them “learning from those they corrupt”. I don’t remember reading that any where. I don’t see how they absorb the intelligence of the creatures they corrupt. They don’t seem to physical touch the creature, more of their essence that is used to corrupt.

Not trying to say your wrong, I just don’t remember seeing that any where.

In the personal story, it’s stated that Zhaitan knows everything his minions knew the moment they become Risen. This is why he knows so much about the Orders and the Pact.

Im not aware of it being said it applys to other ED’s minions but it would make sense if it did.

Erukk.1408:

While I’m sure something is there, I can easily see her putting duty ahead of her personal feelings, and her using him in the end. Plus, I haven’t trusted her, or her group, since i first saw them…

Tin Foil Hat Time!

1) She wears White Mantle colors (white and gold). That raised a huge red flag when i first saw her.

2) Countess Anise. To my knownledge, the other races didn’t get a secondary mentor like the humans did. That marks her as a future important figure. She is also an expert in “Ancient Krytan Law”. Which is oddly specific.

And the most “crazy tin foil hat” speculations of them all.

3) Shadow, the Queen’s cat. For one, Human players can ask about it, so at least a small mark of importance. Secondly, the Queen responds with an odd statement when asked….

“Ah, yes. My little Shadow. I’ve had her since I was a child. Royal children have very few friends, and she has always been a comfort to me.”

It might not seem weird to most people, but if Harry Potter has taught us anything; it’s you never trust long lived, and seemingly harmless, pets of important characters.

/end tinfoil speculations

Odd thoughts..

1. Considering the White Mantle are linked to the Ministry and the bandits and they are trying to overthrow her Id say she isnt connected to the white mantle.

2. Countess Anise is quite mysterious in ways but shes also the leader of the Shining Blade which has been enemies of the White Mantle since the two groups formed. Her agents foil an attempt to assassinate the character in one of the PS paths by the White Mantle and you work with them to route out a cell.

3. Jennah’s pretty young. It would be an old cat by now but it wouldnt have to be that old.

Anyway, Shadow is clearly the champion of an Elder Dragon living underneath Divinity’s Reach and is mind controlling Jennah.

The personal story is taking some interesting paths here though at the moment I think we are only scratching the surface. The from reports by refugees, we arent just having the dredge and Flame Legions fighting together, but using each others weapons and teck. This is a substancial alliance.

Further, we really don’t know whats causing all the vents. Logically it would be this new alliance but that isnt completely certain. Indeed the vents seem to be popping up almost randomly spreading out from the ‘Steam’ mountain that now has some structure on it.

I still think this could be an attack set up by the Inquest. They have a history with the dredge and I can see them approaching elements of the Flame Legion, particularly if they have the tech to control Destroyers. Certainly Ill be curious to find out how this alliance came about.

On a seperate path we have the refugees and their fate. We see the Consortium turning up and looking to relocate the refugees in LA to Southsun Cove. We all know they arent doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. The fact they are shunning the Grawl refugees is certianly interesting. It will be interesting to find out what they plan for the refugees.

Toxyn.9608:

It is an alliance between Flame Legion and Dredge.

Go look at the new Ascended accessories. The “Molten Ore” one has flavor text regarding this.

Edit: What I want to know is; why should we care? We already crippled their forces and killed their leaders in Citadel of Flame and Sorrow’s Embrace. We assisted in the death of an Elder Dragon. What threat could they possibly be?

Ah, hubris. The downfall of many a great empire or hero.

Even assuming that they couldnt win, the damage they are doing is substancial. Diessa plateau is the Black Citadel’s primary source of wood, food and water. Attacks could seriously hurt the Iron Legion.

Even ignoring that, something is causing the vents. If its this alliance it means that they have a weapon that is triggering volcanic vents and creating unstable weather and currently we have no counter to it.

Tanith.5264:

So while everybody is busy hammering away at the dredge and Flame Legion degenerates popping out of those Diablo-esque portals near the Dolyak Pass waypoint, some of us are noticing the large new (inaccessible) structure on the north side of the pass.

It appears to me to be of norn construction, though others in the area think not. What say you?

We really should try and keep all the things to one thread so Ill post this here.

Theres a new NPC cub at the Black Citadel Refugee camp. The kid says that the Flame Legion is using guns but not Iron Legion style guns. Instead they are guns that ‘shimmer and make your head hurt’. Sonic weapons? Sounds like we might actually really have an alliance here.

I see wat you did there…..

My guess would be in about 10 hours or so. Thats roughly about the time of day the last patch dropped I think.

Pirlipat.2479:

Lore reasons rarely seem to be the source. Lore wise the Quaggan and the Skritt both are useful and potentially helpful races in the pact. Infact the Grawl are probably less useful than either of the cute races.

Why do you think that? In some of the storylines you can make the Grawl join the pact too.

As for the Quaggan, I think they are a bit overdone in their cuteness. A bit less baby-speak and a bit less “oh look I’m so cute and helpless” would be much less annoying. In fact I feel always tempted to make them angry so they turn into their nasty fishform. Unfortunately it works only on some rare occassions. (meanie me. :P)

Actually since you can meet the reps of all 5 races during the final step of the PS I suspect all 5 joined the Pact in some capacity. We also see the Quaggan in the DE events to take the middle invasion path during underwater fights and we see some working with pact forces in the Cursed Shore.

Quaggan cutiness might be over done but alot of people like that about them. At least Arenanet has treated their lore seriously. I find the Quaggan interesting and I still find some of their voices grating.

The new stuff should be out later today.

In an interview with Colin Johanson, he said that they were still getting the Living Story on its feet and it probably wont kick in properly until March. Im still hoping that the Feb patch has more meat on it story wise than the Jan but Im not going to get too hopeful.

In the end Im happy to wait for things to pick up when they finish it properly. Good content is better than rushed content.

Regardless we should see more story today even if its not too dramatic yet.

They may be forces of nature. That doesnt make what they are doing any better. If it helps think of it as us verse them rather than som overaching greater good.

Note that natural forces arent always what we as humans would classify as ‘Good’. There have been natural forces that play out on earth that in the past have lead to extreme mass extinction events. Natural forces can go out of balance.

If the ED are natural forces, then it raises a question on what caused them to manifest in the first place? What was so out of balance that it caused such extremely destructive creatures to come into existance?

Today would be a bad day to ask since most of the Arenanet staff wont be at work. Id say your best chance to get a reponse is to contact Arenanet directly or perhaps try and send them a twitter.

Largos are like Quarians? Wha..?

The voice is the only similarity. Oh and they wear masks. That it. Their society, natural habitat, rights of passage, technological bend and physiology is all different.

They have similar physical design? You mean humaniod, like almost every other race in the game. Thats the only similarities physically.

Largos only difference to a human form is that they have gray skin, pointed ears and fins on their backs.

Quarians have different leg structures, different body shape, a different number of fingers and a different number of toes.

How, apart from the voice, are Quarians any more like Largos than humans are?

@Weindrasi Have you ever seen a stingray swim? I could see very easily how those back ‘wings’ could be very effective in helping Largos swim. If anything its the fact they use swords as an aquatic race that is more out of place.

The secondary races, including the Skritt and the Quaggan are all well developed and make sense. What Ive tried to explain in my posts is there is more, lore wise, to the Quaggan than simply a cute joke race. The Skritt are the same. Arenanet has put effort into making them a race with solid, logical lore.

You rarely find that with joke races from other fantasy settings.

Most people who really hate on quaggan do so for one of two reasons Ive found. Firsttly, the voices irritate them. Thats fine. Quaggan voices can be a bit annoying. The other is that they dont like anything cutsy in their fantasy about kittenes.

Lore reasons rarely seem to be the source. Lore wise the Quaggan and the Skritt both are useful and potentially helpful races in the pact. Infact the Grawl are probably less useful than either of the cute races.

As for the backpack meaning they are useless story wise consider this:

My neice as a hypo backpack. Its very cute. Hypo’s are among the highest cause of fatalities from wild animals in some parts of africa. They kill crocodiles with their jaws.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

But still, given all indications, to me it seems like they filled the role animals like rabbits fulfill – they’re nature’s prey for nature’s predators.

I disagree. They are prey due to social conditioning rather than lacking the ability to defend themselves.

Evolutionarily they have a powerful defense mechanism. They lack the other tool prey use to survive. They dont have huge birthrates, their reproduction process is actually quite fragile (eggs cant be moved once laid), they dont hide effectively, they have pretty poor cameoflague and no other natural deterants or escape mechanisms.

If quaggan were wild and less smart they would probably be seen as more of a threat. Instead they are civilized and, ironically, it has made them more vunerable.

Theres alot of options on who could be behind this. We know the Dredge are active in the Wayfarer Foothills and the Flame Legion are active in Diessa Plateau.

However we dont know why the two are attacking now and how it relates to the vents.

Options Ive thought of are:

1. The Dredge and Flame Legion are allied. Considering the Dredge are said to have magical aid and using fire its not impossible. It seems a strange alliance though.

2. The Dredge are being pushed to the surface by Destroyers. At the same time, the surfacing Destroyers are attracting Flame Legion to the area who seek the Destroyers power.

3. Both groups are allied but its due to a Power-Behind-The-Throne. It seems unlikely that Destroyers would be chatty but the Inquest could forseeably use the other too groups as proxys and that would explain the use of magical support for the Dredge and how it relates to the vents.

They are my current three guesses. We will find out more soon at any rate.

I favor healer classes in other games and Ive found that strong support builds in GW2 can have very much the same feel. Recently Ive been playing around with a support engineer based around elixers and the elixer gun. Its been quite effective, particularly with me being able to lay down light fields almost constantly. Extremely effective for condition removal.

The main difference for me is that I set up situations that add and support my team. Often my team will have to take advantage of what Ive done. It requires more awareness of surroundings but I find that better than watching healthbars and healing with mouse macros.

A few pictures of angry quaggan:

http://imgur.com/r/guildwars2funny/39VGm

https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/20076/badquaggan.jpg

Quaggan are actually both stronger and more capable in fighting than their outward appearance suggests. As said above, when angered, they beserk. This causes a physical change as their body is flooded with adrenaline and endorphens. They also have very mean maw and six inch claws that only come out when they beserk.

If youve ever seen a pack of beserking quaggan in the water, its like seeing a swarm of parahnas the size of a large dog. They are pretty scary.

The think is that quaggan find this loss of control deeply shameful. A beserking quaggen can be quite distructive and wont hold back. They can cause alot of damage to there surroundings and potentally harm others more than the quaggan would intend to do if they had control.

As a result quaggan will often go so far to be victims rather than risk beserking. Its a cultural taboo deeply ingrained in their nature. It isnt that they cant fight back. Its that they are afraid to. Thus they keep trying to run or hide behind others.

This has lead them to develop other options. Quaggan have very powerful magical wards for defensive purposes. We see in the PS a quaggan Lorekeeper using Jotan runestones to power such a ward.

Quaggan are also meticulous record keepers. Their knowledge is extremely valuable which is why the Priory in particular will go out of its way to help quaggan.

One interesting thing you find though as you go through the story is that some quaggan are starting to question the taboo on fighting. Sure in society beserking is bad and destructive but sometimes you need to fight back. The pact has several quaggan fighting along side it and even involved in aquatic missions around Orr.

Beserking quaggan do seem to be able to tell the differance between friend and foe so its not impossible you will start to see more quaggan willing to fight. Personally, I kind of hope we do cause for all their cuteness, a swarm of beserking quaggan tearing apart dragon minions looks pretty kitten.

This raises the question of what the Elder Dragons are. Theres a norn Priory member at the heart just outside Sorrow’s Embrace that got me thinking. She says something along the lines that ‘the Elder Dragons are still aspects of nature.’

The norn she is talking to responds with the question ‘What could be so out of whack with nature that causes it to manifest such destructive forces?’

She responds that ‘thats the question we need to ask ourselves.’

Now its just passing dialog but it got me thinking on what caused the Dragons to manifest in the first place and what are the dragons? Were they are race that developed into the monsters we have today or were they things that materialised our of magical forces as avatars if you will.

If the latter is the case then their motivation could simply be that its what they exist for. They are driven to destroy and assimilate because its the reason they came into existance. That raises the question of what triggered their manifestation.

Frankly we know far to little on the origins of the Elder Dragons at this point to do much more than make guesses.

plasmacutter.2709:

The Charr tend to prefer to do things themselves anyway and they have made alot of progress towards dealing with the ghost problems through technology.

The ghosts they dispatch are never truly “slain”.

They will “respawn” over an unsubstantiated period of time.

The charr are tilting at windmills thinking they will win any measure of strategic victory, no matter how many ghosts they neutralize tactically at any one time.

They will never know peace, and they deserve never to know peace until they learn remorse for using WMD’s against a civilian populace. (they still consider this legitimate)

The charr have developed weapons which lead to ghosts taking longer to remanifest, meaning they at least are starting to understand the mechanics behind the remanifestation. Further they have developed a device that renders ghosts in an area passive (displayed by a dynamic event in the Diessa Plateau) and they have developed a method for both capturing and containing ghosts (as shown in both a dynamic event and several hearts in the Ashford Plains).

Id say considering that these three technologies are already in existance, the charr are well on the way to developing a method of supressing the ghosts to the point where they become a maintanance issue even if they cant wipe them out.

plasmacutter.2709:

schizandra.4587:

RE: Traherne; no, I don’t know why everyone hates him. But yes, everyone seems to. Why?

You go from hero to lackey, and it ceases to be the story of you, and instead the story of Traherne, through the lackey’s eyes.

Is it realistic? yes, but this is a fantasy game.

Most loved: Rytlock, he is the only member of Destiny’s Edge that didn’t screw up.

Depends on your definition of screwed up. That sword he wields holds the key to freeing his people from the ghosts of ascalon, but he wont surrender it to the humans out of pure arrogance.

Ok. I hear this arguement alot of how Trehearne stole the characters place and it ceases to be a story about you.

You know what he would be doing while you were traveling south to orr, destroying Risen installations and leading men at the front line? He would be traveling a safe path under escort to insure he was both safe and constantly contactable. He would have been spending hours going over logistics, meeting representatives from verious races, briefing and being briefed by pact soldiers and officers and setting up plans in great detail.

You know what he would have been doing when you were fighting across Orr, taking down Zhiatan’s champions and spearheading the most important and dangerious missions? He would have been making sure there was sufficant food, water and equipment scheduled to pass through to the front lines along with reinforcements to keep the pact moving forward. He would have been going over reports and spending ours deligating roles and meeting with staff.

Being the General sucks.

Trehearne only turns up for a handful of important missions and one is because hes the expert who came up with the ritual you use. Almost the entire rest of the time from the point you leave him at Fort Concorde, including in the fight against Zhaitan, hes in the background playing support.

Trehearne obviously has issues but I dont think its that he suplants the player character.

As for Rytlock, assuming he knows of the rumor, he would first have to find a appropriate human that would be willing to take the risk of facing down the ghosts of Ascalon based on a unsubstanciated rumor. Considering there are only two known decendents of Doric left and one of them is the queen of Kryta, that might be hard to ask for.

Add to the fact that at least one version of the rumor I heard talked of a ‘true heir to the throne of Ascalon’ which Jennah isnt, it makes the whole thing rather unlikely even if Rytlock gave up the sword, particularly since the whole thing might not be true.

The Charr tend to prefer to do things themselves anyway and they have made alot of progress towards dealing with the ghost problems through technology.

Last information we had from Arenanet was that the amount of players logged on had been increasing for the last two months. That info is only a couple of weeks old.

I cant speak for every server but on mine I am yet to ever go to Lion’s Arch and not first be in an Overflow server even in the middle of the night in both Australia and America. I havent been in any zones were I’ve gone more than ten minutes without seeing another player somewhere. From my experiance the game population is fine.

Its kind of hard to compare them unless you’ve been on a few. My experiances with guesting and on my own server have generally been that the communities are fine though your always going to have a few loudmouths around regardless of where you go.

Id say she falls into catagory 3. She hasnt shown much to indicate she has selfish plans. She has also not shown any sign of trying to abolish the Ministary which has been around for a long time. If anything it seems more that her position is under threat by corrupt ministers rather than the other way round.

We know she regrets calling Logan away from Kralkatorrik and we know that now she is actively trying to get Logan to leave her side and go out and fight the Elder Dragons. We also so far have never seen her misuse her Mesmer powers either.

I agree that she does put Kryta above everything else but that because its her reponsability to. Smolder would be doing the same for the Charr. Jennah however is very active in supporting and empowering the ‘unite the races’ thing. She has open diplomatic channels with the other major races, is working in with the Admiral’s Council in seting plans (Lion’s Arch being the closest to a neutral center that Tyria has) and was instrumental in establishing the Treaty with the charr.

Id say shes doing her part.

I dont think the problem was the story or even the characters themselves. I found the core problems to be consistant appearance by characters so you got to know them and presentation/dialog quality.

For example. Snarl and Galina are two characters who, if you pick the right options, can turn up alot. I was pretty fortunate to get them quite a bit in my first play through. I got to know and like both these characters and enjoy their style.

My brother however in his playthough had them only turn up once and get to know them at all. They were just a couple of random NPCS. The same issue applys to other NPCs such as the querky charr and asura priory researchers whos name I cant remember.

Presentation is the other issue. Ive had a lot of discussions over Trehearne with others. While I didnt hate him, he wasnt a particularly appealing character to me. However he gets alot of hate from others. Interestingly hes also accused of things that if you look closely at the plot didnt actually happen. Something about how he is introduced or presented puts him in the bad books of alot of people.

I think it has two key issues though since I dont share this hate I could be wrong.

Firstly, people perceive Trehearne’s role as more important and exciting than it actually is. Perhaps I didnt have a problem with Trehearne because being the Marshal seemed like a thankless task to me. He got all the paperwork while I got to do all the action stuff. I dont think alot of people thought that about Trehearne. Instead they saw him as the center stage character stealing the PCs limelight.

Secondly, Trehearne’s character was quite a subtle one and as a result required careful presenting to insure it had both a feeling of depth but enough charisma to interest the player. In the end he tended to come off either as rather boring or overbearing depending on the occation.

I think very few people managed to empathise with him and as a result failed to value him as a character and a friend/partner of the PC. Compare him to the mentors who were almost universally liked by players. It wasnt just that they were querky or funny. They were our character’s pal and friend.

If the Mursaat werent wiped out in GW1 then they would have been close to it. Do remember that the whole reason they were killing of chosen was because chosen were prophecised to lead to the Mursaat’s doom. Even if you ignore the numbers who die to the players in GW1, its quite likely that the Lich unleashed the titans on the Mursaat too.

Indeed, there would have been very little to hold the Mursaat in Kryta after the events of the Flameseeker prophecies if they could just head home. The humans had little to offer them.

If we see the Mursaat in GW2, I suspect it will be in pretty small numbers and quite possibly behind the White Mantle and bandits in Kryta.

Id give 2 main feedback points related to the PS:

1. Character development of NPCs. The personal story has quite a range of characters that you interact with. However due to the nature of choosing different paths, these characters rarely get the development you would have on them if you managed to pick all the PS steps they were in.

As a result you can get to the end and still have half the NPCs who turn up at the end almost complete strangers.

Getting to know NPCs is valuable. Characters give life to an over all story. Getting to know said characters takes time. Saying that, certian characters, like Trehearne, needed much more effort selling. Frankly I think all races should have met him far earlier in the story. He’s someone that really need to both be sold to us as a strong ally and someone we like. I dont hate Trehearne but I think he was poorly presented.

2. One problem with the personal story is some things really seem to come out of left feild. I felt that there was certian things I would have really liked more explaination on regardless of the story path I took.

An example of this is the airships and the weapon used against Zhaitan. My first playthrough it seemed like out of nowhere we happened to have a giant super airship and a cannon that could take down Zhaitan. I was like ‘where did all this stuff come from?’.

There is other stuff by I see alot of other poeple comment on those issues. The stuff above though I think can be somewhat solved either by having key points where plot points are introduced or elaborated on and having characters more uniformly turn up during missions even if it means the same characters turning up on different paths.

There is nothing wrong with the trinity but at the same time I dont think its the only valid structure you can have for group play. Strickly speaking GW2 hasnt entirely removed the Trinity either, but merely spread out its functionality and demanded a higher level of co ordination of abilities between classes.

For example, I have recently been running dungeons on my Engineer as a support build mainly using the Elixer gun and a few utility kits. Careful placing of feilds, positioning and use of Fumigate combined with weakness the Elixer gun places on its target allow me provide a great deal of healing while setting up fields for almost constant condition removal.

As mainly a healer in Trinity based games, the feeling was very much similar. The difference was that my teammates had to have the foresight to take advantage of the fields I had set up and respond to them. It required playing smarter for both them and me.

My brother plays a warrior built as a control build and finds things similar. The biggest difference for a ‘tanking’ style is that you simply cant stand still taking hits. You have to use you skills cleverly and time them effectively and manage kiting effectively. You have to move around and try and avoid enemy hits rather than just getting punched in the face.

Ive heard people refer to this as a soft Trinity. Now I do enjoy playing my healers on other MMOs but I dont like the idea of them changing GW2s style cause I rather like the difference. For small groups it creates far more dynamic combat.

I agree that the Dream is almost definately some form of realm within the mists. I wonder exactly though how it is tied to Tyria. Is it something that was their before the Pale Tree or did it grow from the Pale Tree. I personally expect the latter. Are druids connected to the Dream in some way? Perhaps other nature spirits like Urgoz?

One thought I had is that it could be either the realm of Melandru or one set up by her. There is a line in the Orrian scrolls which vaguely talks about Melandru heading out to prepare the world for a difficult future.

Alternatively there may have always been a dream and the Pale Tree somehow tapped into it from due to either where it was planted or something special about it.

One of the things that I wondered about from the vision from the Seer was the line ‘What Ronan knew but never told still lingers in the Dream’. Actually the distant shore line I found curious too but the Ronan line makes me wonder if the fact there were other seeds in the cave was actually an unknown fact in Tyria prior to Malyck turning up.

If thats not the secret then what is it what he knew?

On the Dark Hunts, I find it curious that the NC would get twisted versions of the Wyld Hunts. It makes me wonder on the source of the Wyld Hunts to begin with. Wyld Hunts arent just a guide on what your supposed to do. They are a nagging thing constently on your mind.

The Wyld Hunts come from the Dream. Im pretty sure the Pale Tree says at one point that she has no control over who get what Wyld Hunt. She doesnt control the Dream but is merely its caretaker. The question is born from this what exactly is the Dream. If we knew that then perhaps we would understand what the Wyld Hunt’s actually are.

On a seperate but perhaps related topic, during one of the Personal Story missions, a Nightmare Courtier called the Knight of Embers refers to her Dark Hunt (with capitol letters). More curiously is she doesnt even know what the Harbringer she is hunting actually is and nor does the rest of the Nightmare Court. When she discovers the truth you rush to cut her off from telling the rest of the Nightmare Court.

This makes me wonder if Nightmare Courtiers can get an equivilant to a Wyld Hunt from the Nightmare part of the Dream or if they are just impersonating the Wyld Hunts.

Edit: Soundless cut themselves off from the Dream. According to the Seer in the PS, Malyck was never a part of it.

Actually the wording of her vision was interesting:

“A distant shore – and darkness,
A root, a cave… you. You are the
seed. What Rohan knew but never
told still lingers in the Dream.”

From that Trehearne got that Malyck was from another tree. Not sure how but their you go.

CHIPS.6018:

Without the elder dragons, the Charrs would have overran the humans already. Humans are a bunch of farmers and scholars. Charrs already got airships, tanks and modern gun batteries.

Elder Dragons “saved” humanity, in a twisted sort of way.

No they didnt. Actually the dragons have been worse for the humans than the charr.

The first time the dragons really got in the charr’s face was when Kralkatorik woke up. Before then, as far as we are aware, the Elder Dragons were not actually threatening any of the charr lands.

On the other hand, the moment Zhaitan woke up, Kryta lost most of its southern coastline, including it’s capitol, and were forced to retreat and regroup further north. Humans also lost contact and access to other areas of the world, including the Battle Isles, where there was a strong human presence.

During that time Ebonhawke as been under constant seige. We are talking about 200 years of seige. The Iron Legion tested their war machines against the fortress because it was that hard to crack and the first charr to ever make it to the top of Ebonhawke’s walls has a statue in the Black Citadel.

The last 250 years have been pretty easy on the charr compared to the humans. Its only in the last 6 years that the dragons have become a serious problem for them. The humans on the other hand have barely gotten a break since the fall of Ascalon and still they have held the charr in a stalemate where the two groups are still fighting.

The charr are kitten and have an extremely powerful military. Humans in Tyria however are extremely tenacious, resourceful, cunning and powerful magic users. They have held their own very well against alot.

It could be argued that without the ghosts things may have been different. The ghosts have chewed up a great deal of charr resources. However without that internal threat the Legions could have just as easily ended up infighting. As Jeff Grubb said, one of the greatest threats to the charr are themselves. All it takes is one imperitor to fall out with the other two and you have the makings of a civil war. Fortunately the current imperitors get on pretty well it seems or at least see the advantage of cooperation.

Unless and until the charr have a Khan Ur there is always the risk of the Legions falling out.

Narcemus.1348:

Well, honestly it was in the best interest of humanity for the charr to fall into a civil war. I mean first in Prophecies you kill the Titans to remove the flame legion’s power source, and then you remove their leaders, giving them a civil war with the other charr legions. If it hadn’t been for those moves, charr wouldn’t be the independent thinkers that would give them the ability to accept a treaty with humanity.

Humans didnt really help out the char on purpose. The titans were more of a threat to them than the charr. The titans wanted to take down humanity cause of its ties to the other gods. The real target of the charr during their invasion was always Orr. As a shaman in the Realm of Torment commented, the titans kept pushing the charr onward, always towards Orr. Ascalon was as much in the way as anything as far as the titans were concerned and the charr were merely useful tools.

As for Pyre, the Ebon Vanguard, or rather the player character specifically, needed his help to save a number of their own. Afterward supporting Pyre’s rebellion was simply benifical as it might weaken the ruling body of charr.

The name Guild Wars is from a conflict that happened before the begining of the first game that lead to the weakening of the human kingdoms and the invasion of the charr.

Its unlikely that we will see conflict between player freindly factions. We may see some intruge come out of the politics among the humans and maybe the charr plus there is some potential with the Asura, but we will be allied with a certian side (the crown in the case of humans, Smolder in the case of the charr and whoever is against the inquest in the case of the asura).

However if you dont like fighting dragons and other big bads then GW2 probably wont have the story your after. Expect alot more dragons and big bads.

The Sons of Svanir, from a norn perspective, have a valid arguement on following Dragon. They argue that he is a Spirit, the ultimate predator. While alot of Norn disagree with the Sons and that Dragon is a spirit, they respect the Sons treat him as one. Its a very norn thing to do. After all the Spirits of the Wild are wild.

For the inquest, I think its best to think of Asura society as made up of lots of little corperations. The inquest is kind of a mega corperation and worse, they have influence on the Arcane Council. Between that influence and propganda they are able to downplay their negative activities to the bulk of Asura.

After all sabotage and theft between krewes is far from unheard of and the Inquest can certainly argue that others are stealing their research too.

In both cases, you cant think of their societies as the same as a human society. It operates in a different fashion.

Weindrasi.3805:

Balthea Havokbringer, a charr warrior, rebelled against the Shamans. Her rebellion was led by women, and it almost worked. Ultimatley it failed, because the Shamans had the magic. Balthea was killed, and all women were enslaved and made second class citizens.
Now that the Shaman Caste was in power, they used their magic to destroy the Great Wall built by the humans, and drive humans out of Ascalon. They retook their homeland.
Eventually, charr began to rebel against the Shaman Caste. They realized that the Titans were not true Gods, and not worthy of worship. They also realized that the Shaman Caste had tricked them to gain power. The rebellion was led by Pyre Fierceshot, and his granddaughter, Kalla Scorchrazor. It was successful—the charr were free from Abbadon’s influence and the Shamans, and women fought to gain equal rights again.
And that leaves us where we are today. The charr won the second war for Ascalon. Even so, the charr nation and the human nation would have remained enemies. But with the rise of the Dragons, both nations are being destroyed. They realize that if they keep fighting eachother, they won’t be able to fight the Dragons and everyone will die. So they have a cease fire, until the Dragons are taken care of. They definately aren’t buddy buddy—many charr and humans still hate one another. They just realize there are bigger problems at the moment.

Its ironic that it was humans that destroyed the gods that suppressed the charr in the first place. Pyre’s rebellion and the weakening of the Flame Legions hold on the other Legions owes alot to human heros and the Ebon Vanguard.

Its ironic that some of the greatest positive steps for the charr in the last 300 years have been due to involvement or support of either humans or a human god.

The charr would so hate that if they learned the truth.

The Foefire was in no way an ok thing. By far the worst crime it caused was the killing and cursing of every human in Ascalon apart from those in Ebonhawke. Thats a horrible fact to put your own people under because you dont like that you’ve lost. Adelbern was a jerk.

The only reason its worse than the Searing is because of that. Not what it did to the charr.

People are playing an odd which is worse game here. Its a pretty silly one. Both sides have grudges against each other for very good reasons. It was charr land first? Sure, over 900 years prior to the charr taking it back. That logic would mean that the humans certainly should hold a grudge for the lose of Ascalon since it has been only 250 years. Further, this is under the assumption that the Charr never took it from someone else in the first place. We know that the Charr fought with the Forgotten for example and they arent above taking things they want.

If your looking for some moral high ground here your not going to find it. In the end the CURRENT war was about old hatreds. BOTH sides are having to let go of these. The fact that the Charr are backing down and excepting the existance of Ebonhawke is a huge thing. Ebonhawke is a thorn in charr racial pride and has been for 200 years. Its existance means that even now they never completely defeated Ascalon. Part of it remains and is going to remain regardless of all their efforts to remove it. This means accepting the humans as more than just enemies to crush but actual neighbours.

For the humans, they are having to accept that Ascalon is now charr owned and humanity no longer has the resources, manpower or interests in getting it back. Humans are having to chose between fighting over something long ago lost or protecting and nurturing what they have today. This means accepting the charr are more than just beasts, letting go of ghosts and living for the future.

Tyria is a very different world for both the charr and the humans to what it once was. The charr and the humans themselves have changed alot both culturally and politically. The Searing and the Foefire happened long ago and the ones responsible for them are all dead (if in some cases ghosts). Both races are learning that they have to move on for practical reasons if nothing else.

The whole point of this treaty and its importance is it shows these two races, who probably have the strongest organised militaries among the 5 major races, moving on and learning deal with what is important now, not what was important hundreds of years ago.

People are seriously trying to come up with which race are the ‘good guys’? None of the races, including the centaur, charr, human and asura are innocent if we look at their full history.

The reason the charr and the humans are ‘buddy buddy’ is that the war they have been fighting up till now has been little more than a stalemate for the last 200 years. Its a war that bleeds both groups and offers very little in the way of benifits if won. Its also over conflicts that started hundreds if not a thousand years earlier under very different racial nations.

Its a pointless war. The only real reason its been continuing is because both sides are taught from youth to hate the other. This is why you have them demonise Rurik and Adelbern. This is why most humans look at charr as little more than beasts and most charr look at humans as little more than vermin. The truth is that both groups have done an exceptional job of killing each other without actually acheiving final victory.

In the current Tyria, neither race is in a position to really spend resources fighting a pointless war just for the sake of hate. There is practically nothing to be gained by fighting and alot to be gained by building bridges. It wasnt simple. There have been groups like the seperatists and the renegades who outright opposed the truce and both groups have needed strong, practical leaders with the deplomatic savvy to both negociate with old enemies and sell the idea to their own people. Smolder is very lucky that the other two Imperitors agreed to the truce.

As for the centaurs, they have been fighting each other just as much as they have faught humans too. They are also fighting the Norn who technically are in land they once held. The only reason the centaurs are united is because one tribe has managed to enslave the other two. Several times in GW history its been stated, including by Ventari, that there is enough land for both the centaur and the humans. Old hatreds and territorial attitudes have dragged out an endless war.

Final point on the Foefire. The Foefire was a terrible thing but not because it killed all the attacking charr. Its terrible for what it did to the humans of Ascalon. Its extremely hypocritical of the charr to critisize the humans for using forbidden magic in war since the Searing was almost certainly the deciding factor in their successful invasion of Ascalon. If they had invaded without the Searing crippling Ascalon first, it would have quite likely been a very different war.

Theres an interesting part in the mission ‘A Light in the Darkness’ where the pale tree presents the player with dream versions of the members of Destiny’s Edge and gives us a chance to get a look at their inner thoughts and feelings.

For Logan, he says something interesting which would explain alot about his obsessiveness towards Jennah. He says he has to keep Jennah safe otherwise he left a friend to die for nothing. Logan is caught up with guilt over the fact he left Destiny’s Edge to save Jennah. He doesn’t feel he made the wrong choice. His actions probably did save Jennah. But he does feel responsable for the cost of his choice.

In short, hes kind of projecting his issues onto Jennah. He thinks if he can keep her safe then he can deal with the guilt. His choice was justified. I get the feeling Jennah kind of realises hes doing this as well.

I always found the fact people call Logan a coward funny. Generally a coward wont run from one danger and put themselves next deep in another danger on purpose. Logan had a very logical reason for making the choice he did. The reason I suspect alot of people have trouble empathising with it is frankly we didnt know Jennah well enough for people to value her.

Also Jennah probably wasnt thinking very clearly at all when she called Logan. She had just touched the mind of an Elder Dragon.

Ree Soesbee outright stated that the love between the two is real. I think the problem is that the book presented it badly. I also think that Logan becoming the queens consort isnt strictly speaking taboo or illegal. Certainly, it seems pretty widely known in Divinity’s Reach that Logan only has eyes for the queen.

Jennah falling for Logan isnt such a stretch when you think through things from her perspective. Shes a young woman who is constantly surrounded by people currying her favor for their own interests. Particularly with the ministry as strong as it is and unwilling to give up power, she would be used to everyone around her having a hidden agenda.

Logan turns up who is in many ways like a hero from history (her example is Rurik) and through her magic she discovers hes totally devoted to her. No hidden agenda, no trick or manipulation. Her hero. Having her form a crush, particularly after him and his guild start bumping off dragon champions, is hardly suprising.

Infact Logan falling in love with her seems more forced. Sure, she is beautiful and is a nice gal but Im generally not sold on the whole love at first sight thing.

I think however that Jennah has been keeping Logan at arms length since the colapse of Destiny’s Edge, not because she doesn’t want a relationship with him, but because she doesn’t want to limit him.

She says two things in game that are interesting regarding Logan. The first is that she knows that he would do anything for her but keeping him as her personal hero was greedy and a mistake that she made once before at great cost (the collapse of Destiny’s Edge). She thinks that the whole world needs heros like Logan, not just her.

The second thing she says about Logan is that she needs him as a partner, not another servant. This is probably the other issue they have had relationship wise. Logan has been so obsessed with her protection since its the only thing he didnt screw up that hes fallen into the role of servant. Jennah is after someone to be more her equal, at least relationship wise.

At least thats my take on it.

Calae.1738:

You want to know why poeple leave and get bored of MMO’s? You think it’s because lack of content? Guild Wars 2 has plenty of content. There are 26 zones. Twenty Six Zones.

The problem is they are so ridiculously easy that you could train a monkey to complete them.

People play and leave MMOs for alot of different reasons. Difficulty is just one of them.

Seriously?

They very clearly stated that the Hall of Monuments required GW:EN. Its been that way since the Hall of Monuments came out long before GW2 even had a release date.

The Hall of Monuments is an ingame mechanic rewarding players for acheiving things in GW1. It works fine. Its only rewards are some minis, a few titles and skins for armor and weapons.

They could have alternatively not given old players anything. The Hall of Monuments wasnt something they had to do for us.

You got what you payed for when you first bought and played GW1. The Hall of Monuments was a nice extra that came out with GW:EN.

Edit: as a side note, just completing the campaigns didnt get you many points in the HoM. You had to earn titles, max out reputation with factions, recruit and get the prestige armor for heros, earn the rarer weapons, buy multiple sets of prestige armor and collect alot of minis and several rare hunters pets.

It took alot of work. Even with the Hall of Monuments and without the stuff in Eye of the North, just completing the 3 first stories wouldnt get you 8 points unless you completed the missions on at least two of the campaigns in hard mode or had alot of your heros in prestige armor.

There was a recent interveiw where the Wizard’s Tower came up. Apparently they have plans for the tower and the area around it but haven’t had the time or resources to develop the content yet.

I get the feeling theres quite a few areas they have set up for further development later.

Thats Mira (cant remember her rank), the lionguard officer you save on the beach a bit earlier. Remember how she and the Lionguard held the courtyard while you activated the beacons? Well she was badly wounded from the dragon champions breath attack if I remember rightly just after it busts through the wall.

The wrap thing is something sylvari have for carrying injured or prisoners.

Will Trahearne lead the Pact against the other EDs? I suspect yes. He is the Pact’s Marshal.

Will he play as big a role as he did against Zhaitan? I suspect not. With Orr, the fight was a very personal one for Trahearne. Cleansing Orr had been the reason for his existance since he was born and until proded along by the Player Character, one he considered impossible.

With the other EDs, I suspect you will see other characters and groups involved. Trahearne and the other pact commanders will almost certianly play a role as the Pact’s purpose is to fight the EDs.

However I dont expect that fighting the other dragons will just be a rinse/repeat of Zhaitan. Zhaitan we fought with a direct invasion against the center of his power and crippled him. The other dragons will probably have their own unique challanges we have to overcome. The story will get rather dull otherwise.

There are small changes but many of them arent obvious unless you look for them. I agree that things seem very slow at the moment. The Living Story to me seems about creating an atmosphere of change in the world as a narative. Events and stories can then be set against that.

Im gonna give it time to run its course before forming a final judgement on it.