Guild Wars 2

I really commend you for this, and I hope there’s truth in it.

The thing that dissuades me is how the line of dialogue in the Thaumanova fractal, which refers to ley-lines, is so… throwaway. That Fractal did not exist primarily for story/lore purposes. If they had something like this up their sleeve, they wouldn’t have given Scarlet so many more lines that pertained to nothing at all.

NoxInfernus.2361:

All I’m reading here is sour grapes.
Please give it up already. Kiel won, end of story.
Everyone benefited from her election promises, not just the people that voted for her.

Asking for a recall?
What possible “legal” grounds could you justify it? (keeping in mind the nature of LA’s cut-throat politics).

Sour grapes in a cup of bitter tears.

We shall see whether people benefited when the Fractal comes out. The fractal was always the main point of contention, after all (as someone said, a single 10 minute CoF run would pay the entire WP bill for the period, after all).

If the Fractal releases, and the reactor was overloaded by Scarlet or something, then everybody will most definitely not have benefited.

Every time anything new has been released, I have always seen far more teams who don’t give a hoot what profession you are than ones what specify.

No classes will be “omitted”. The majority of teams won’t care. You always have those few who scream in all caps that they only want ZERKER WARS and everybody must be GEARCHECKED, but they really aren’t the majority. Not even close. PvE in this game is far, far more open than most.

Gotta agree with Konig on that numbers thing. Think, for example, of any number of other games, even ones with highly-developed storylines and background— the Half Life universe, the Bioshock series, etc, etc.

There is never any thought given to how many Splicers you killed in Rapture, or how large, numerically, the Combine force on Earth is. You know the Combine force is bloody huge. Putting a number on it would not deepen the experience, or make it more immersive; it would only put players’ experiences on a collision course with lore.

Personally, I wouldn’t start with the Living Story.

I would start with the spots that you can revisit from GW1, finding them in GW2 and reading up on the role they played 250 years ago, via the Wiki. Places like the Temple of the Unseen (the ruins are now in Caledon Forest), the Temple of the Ages (sunken ruins now in southern Queensdale), and the Henge of Denravi. They all played major roles in GW history and lore, and it feels good to have the solid, visible connection in GW2 by revisiting the sites and reading up on them.

If you’re max-level, then I’d also heavily recommend doing the Explorable paths of Arah, in which you learn about the ancient races. The Forgotten, the Mursaat and the Seers were all interacted with in GW1, and make up a huge part of the lore of the first game.

The final, and probably most important element to read up on would be the Fall of Abaddon and the rise of Kormir. Without playing GW: Nightfall, I can only recommend that you visit the Wiki, or talk to priests of Kormir in the game (do they provide any good information?)

Burnfall.9573:

Op

Once and for all, there will not be an expansion.

It would be suicidal for Arena.net to release one; due to the overdue unfixed problems and hectic bugs which still plauging gw2 since release.

And that’s basis enough to conclude there will never be an expansion? The fact that bugs exist?

I guess you’ve never played a Bethesda game.

chaosblackdoom.9182:

While this is an extremely unpopular opinion, I hope they don’t make any other races, because then I’d have to trash one of my characters to make the new race, and it doesn’t make any sense to double up on classes.

When Factions and Nightfall were released, and new professions introduced with them, players were given new character slots.

I see no reason to assume they wouldn’t do the same thing if new playable races were introduced.

Midnight Gypsy.9360:

Talking about Scarlet having too much lime like not Lady Glaive.

Oh! My mistake, sorry.

Midnight Gypsy.9360:

Scarlet is more along that of Lady Glaive, she should not of had this much lime light.

Lady Glaive was mentioned very briefly in NF, very briefly in EOTN, and pops up in a GW1 skill description.

That’s a tiny amount of lime light! She never even appears!

Personally, I think the Living Story’s greatest strength has been in DESIGN. The Molten Facility (and its bosses), the Tower, the Aetherblade airships are all visually stunning.

Another strength is that the LS includes some of the best bossfights in the game. Tequatl is an obvious one, but also the Molten Firestorm/ Berserker, & I liked Slick & Sparki, too.

The greatest downside to the LS, on the other hand, is story (and how it’s told). The tone is off; it has none of the darkness or emotion it should be portraying. Scarlet is not threatening, and she is impossible to take seriously. She is Harley Quinn, right down to the giant mallet she had in the Pavillion bossfight (picking up that mallet was her lowest point, IMO, pushing her firmly into “children’s cartoon villain”).

So, overall, the visual design has been stunning and brilliant, and the gameplay has included some great parts too, especially in the dungeons. It is gravitas, storytelling, and lore that are suffering. You have a very strong background of lore to work with: don’t overlook it in Scarlet’s pursuit of wacky-evul-alliance number three!

Dondarrion.2748:

From left to right; Aetherblades, Twisted Nightmares, Scarlet with a Champion Toxic Husk(?) behind her, Mechataur and another Aetherblade?

I don’t think that’s a Mechataur. Look at the glowy blue eye and the hands (which look like cylindrical drills)— I think it’s the same kind of creature as the Molten Berserker.

Interesting, but I must say, I wouldn’t consider it “preservation” to be a Dragon Minion. Most Dragon Minions lose any independent will of their own (with a few possible exceptions, such as Labwan the Deceiver). All that is “preserved” is their flesh, and even that is often twisted out of shape.

A species is more than its flesh. It is everything else that the Elder Dragons destroy— the culture, the independent will, the life. The flesh remains, though not “preserved”, rather, “co-opted” or stolen.

Primordus creates life-forms, but the life-forms he creates are created to be soldiers. Once created, by his will, they kill and invade. The diversity and freedom of life has only suffered by his intervention.

Atlas.9704:

A strange man in a suit of armor staring into room 11 and then walking away.
This man will fight us and defeat us. He will then stand over us and stare.

He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing. The fury of the Seraph. And then we discovered why. Why this man, who had fought with gods and demons, why he’d run away from us and hidden. He was being kind.

He wrapped Rytlock in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a dwarf star.
He tricked Eir into the event horizon of a collapsing Asura gate to be imprisoned there forever.

He still visits Zojja once a year every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is. Can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror, every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that’s her. That’s always her.

As for Caithe, she was suspended in time thanks to Jenna’s power. And this man, Logan Thackery, put her to work standing over the fields of Shaemoor, as their protector, as a scarecrow.

In hindsight I shouldn’t watch my Doctor Who episodes while being silly on these threads.

That was brilliant. Thank you.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Scarlet has no worse depth than Batman’s Joker, or Catwoman, or Two-Face, and batman is a classic.

You must not have read very much Batman. The three you mentioned have extensively fleshed-out backstories (though the Joker’s are not definitive); they all have great pathos, flaws, and personal conflict.

Most importantly, If they accomplish something, it’s often shown how they do it. Their method and capability is clear for all to see. With Scarlet, we are merely told that something incredible has been accomplished, and that it was that genius Scarlet again.

Those characters do not exist primarily in the cartoons y’know!

Lorelei.7809:

On a side note: Can we please stop having Sylvari be the evil race? Pleeeease?! And same with Mesmers. After all it was illusion magic that covered the tower…. I am getting tired of my race and profession being the singularly most evil thing in the game besides the dragons from what I am told.

Hey, hey, hey. In Prophecies, it was us poor Ascalonian Necromancers who got it bad. After the Searing, both Verata and Oberan the Reviled turned evil (not to mention the Lich).

We would have Evon Gnashblade if you people had voted right.

JohnLShannonhouse.1820:

It was not entirely clear when they would be rolling out the next dragon, but it seemed to be the next full expansion.

Did they mention full expansion as a thing they would do in future? Did they truly?

Aaron Ansari.1604:

No, mostly because of the Nightmare Court roots coming out of the tower.

I just see roots. Could be the “jungle dragon”, or even just the Krait growing something themselves.

I just think it’s too little to assume NC involvement for certain, which is what a lot of people seem to be doing.

Captain Seyo.4285:

Sigh…They got the blender back out. Nightmare Court and Krait.

People keep assuming the Nightmare Court are involved in this. Why? Just the word “Nightmare”?

EDIT: Seen the post on ‘Hub, but that’s still not a direct source. I’d like a direct source.

Tanith.5264:

I don’t see why Anet would go to the trouble of bringing in the Nightmare Court (which has no discernible presence in the region)

We don’t know they’re involved.

I’m actually inclined to believe they’re not, and that ‘nightmare’ simply refers to general awfulness.

Feralnex.4071:

I don’t like WvW and I have to grind all achievemnts but I don’t want to

Wait, you have to grind all achievements?

Who on earth is making you?!

I’d also greatly prefer integrating this information into the game. Putting stories in the website provides information, but completely breaks immersion; and in the game itself, the Living Story lore seems very thin.

1) Palawa Joko. What is his regime like, how solid is it, what are the Order of Whispers up to… and will Elona open up dialogue with Tyria at any point?

2) What happens to the dead. What is the state of the Underworld? Are Grenth’s rules being observed down there… is Dhuum still asleep? Dead? Awake?

3) What direction will the Dredge be heading in? Does the uprising spread, after taking down Shukov in Sorrow’s Embrace?

Aaron Ansari.1604:

@Neilos: It itself is not directly called a fleshreaver, but the waves of its minions are.

Oop, you’re right! I’d forgotten that.

Observed Ally: Either Glint, or the Pale Tree.
Guessed Ally: Perhaps the Largos. I doubt the Zephyrites will take an active, military role. Another possibility is “Your Herald”.

Observed Enemy: Kralkatorrik.
Guessed Enemy: Either Dhuum, or Lazarus the Dire. I count these as “guessed” simply because we don’t know how active these figures are 250 years on from the last known encounter.

LEAST useful ally ever: The Great Zehtuka!
LEAST dangerous foe now: As of GW2, I’m tempted to say the White Mantle. I get the impression that they’ve been reduced to a fairly insignificant threat, still clinging to their old hierarchy.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

They date back very far. How far is unknown though. But there is an ancient Deldrimor ruin in Lornar’s Pass (the draconic gate or w/e it’s called) which has an ancient imprisoned Fleshreaver within it (the one mentioned above).

In that event, the creature is not called a “Fleshreaver” IIRC; isn’t it just referred to as an “Ancient Creature”? It shares the model, but not the term.

ANet reuse models quite frequently. Ritualist Spirits were not Banshees, for example, and I never considered Mragga to be one, either.

Mind you, now that I’ve re-read it, the description of Rragar’s Menagerie does seem to support your conclusion that the creatures were not his creations; “Rragar had taken advantage of this… easily manipulated evolution”.

Anybody know how to contact THS?

If it’s just through this thread, I’ll reiterate my interest. Taken him down once; engie & warrior.

I’d love for there to be a third guild, and to be able to take part in organised anti-Tequatl funs.

Sign me up!

Well, you know, if/when you make it.

I actually do like one or two of GW2’s villains: foremost, Kudu and Shukov.

There is potential in Scarlet, but no real gravitas. Harley’s manic energy comes with the reminder that what she does is truly dangerous, truly homicidal. Scarlet, on the other hand, has no lasting impact. The manic energy is directionless, and feels shallow.

Ditto the above.

Is any guild open for this still? I’d greatly appreciate an invite if so.

Have a Warrior & Engie at 80 w/ exotic gear.

I’d love to get in on this. Last I PM’d, they were full— but if the opportunity comes up, please send an invite!

bravoart.5308:

Hope you enjoy playing by yourself then, because if all the content goes on par with tequatl the funless, casual players are going to abandon ship so fast. Doubt a game that relies on monetization is going to risk scaring off their silent majority.

When was it ever suggested that “all the content” will be as difficult as Tequatl?

Let’s not just wildly jump to conclusions in order to complain.

The OP wasn’t being condescending in the slightest.

I agree with him. Genuinely challenging content, and people are far too quick to leap to criticism of the game itself, rather than reviewing how they can legitimately overcome a challenge.

Stage 1: Incandescent rage about a minor visual change. Insults are thrown, refunds demanded by people who apparently bought the pick for the tiny animation alone. Irrational speculation that ANet have done it “out of spite”.

Stage 2: A dev explains, politely, that it’s merely a mistake, and will be rectified.

Stage 3: Some people thank the dev and move on with their lives. Others, robbed of their rage, scream that “quality assurance is nonexistant”.

…I wonder why gamers get a name for petulance and rage sometimes.

At least I have one reason to be proud of Deso, after are dismal recent WvW performance

Agreed with your points about the LS seeming random & disjointed.

The only thing I’d be against is splitting Orr into “before and after” zones for characters at different stages of completion. We don’t want to split the playerbase in existing zones.

Possible, yes, but certainly not ideal.

ANet have already given themselves five other dragons to deal with. Protracting the Risen threat by replacing Zhaitan with Tequatl… it wouldn’t be wise. ANet have enough to work with already on the dragon front.

In Guild Wars, it’s quite important that representatives of Grenth and Balthazar took us into their respective realms. We didn’t exactly just open portals without their help; we won their attention (in the Hall of Heroes), and then they enlisted our aid.

I don’t think we could get in without being taken.

Well, that is, unless we accomplished some kind of Odran-style super-magic, but that’s purely speculative. What I mean is, the methods we used in GW1 aren’t available, due to the silence of the gods.

DarcShriek.5829:

So what? It’s a legendary, it’s supposed to be expensive. If you want to go cheap, then get a different weapon.

It’d be “cheap” without the Doubloons? No it wouldn’t.

I very much doubt they intended for the Silver Doubloons to be the subject of such artificially-high prices. A low/mid-tier material, never used for its primary purpose (as an upgrade component)? I think this was an oversight.

The lodestones were intended to be the difficult crafting component. At least those could be reliably farmed by Lvl-80s.

This looks great— particularly happy with the engie toolbelt/ turret changes, as previously, the toolbelt didn’t feel like much of a perk to being an engineer.

Can I suggest, while you’re focusing on improving existing content, that you take a look at fixing some of the armours, graphically?

Many of them don’t fit Charr well at all, particularly with the shoulderpieces floating in mid-air above the torso piece. The clearest example of this would be Medium SE armour.

SE Medium headpieces also need a graphical cleanup on the mouth area.

It’s just very restrictive for me as a Medium-wearing Charr. Not many armours fit as they should :< SE armour was the first exotic set I got for myself, looking forward to it and saving up the tokens— and it was a let-down that it had all these textural/ clipping problems.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

So much for the care they put in their lore.

~_~

Starting to find this funny, now. Just the fact that this discrepancy is almost nonexistant on almost everybody’s radar.

Tequatl won’t become the new Zhaitan; ANet have already signed themselves up to flesh out five more Elder Dragons. Having a lieutenant take over the mantle of a fallen Elder Dragon would just… well, it’d be silly. They have more than enough to work with; possibly too much.

Useless in “Most of the game’s content”? Really? Rubbish.

OP is getting a bit polemic. This problem is fairly minor.

As others have said, I much prefer items that fit the tone (like these Risen wings) over ones that may strictly fit the lore, but don’t fit the tone at all (the SAB weapons & backpack).

People saying we should get ’em via the bags or the MF are… well, kind of missing the most important point.

The point being, Silver Doubloons manage to make the Juggernaut significantly more difficult/ expensive than most other legendaries.

pswendel.8179:

Secondary races will never be playable. This includes everything listed prior to my post but Largos. If Anet retcons their lore for Tengu to become a primary race (complete with culture and tech to be listed as such) then this is a possibility. That would fit, as the 250 year gap gives them this ability. Personally I think the Tengu clamor needs to stop. Its clearly Largos.

What criteria are you using, by which Tengu are classified as a “secondary” race?

They lack the numbers of the current dominant five (having been forced from their homeland, its unlikely that the single city contains enough to be comparable numerically) but they have a well-developed culture, and a far stronger position in Tyria than the Quaggans, Skritt, Ogres and other minor races.

I’d agree wholeheartedly that I’d like to see the Largos too, of course.

The story of GW2 isn’t over, y’realise.

We don’t know what they have planned.

It’s difficult (I did this particular story myself), but it’s not unreasonably hard.

I’m with the dev on this. Changing your gear & weapon sets (& getting stuck from time to time) isn’t an unfair requirement.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

White Mantle were pretty blatantly evil – or at least oppressive – if you read the manual (just like Khilbron). And Hot Spring Murders quest made it more so. And other than that, no plot twists existed in Prophecies.

If you didn’t read the manuals, it would be different – because then you wouldn’t know that it was the Vizier who sunk Orr, nor would you know that the White Mantle were oppressing those who didn’t believe in the Unseen Ones.

The Hot Springs Murder is a quest that most people will play after 2 (or quite possibly 3) missions, in which the Mantle fight beside you as allies.

And, even so, there is quite a gulf between “Probable Mantle intimidation used in a murder investigation” and “The people you believed you were helping at Divinity Coast were murdered by the very organisation you fought with to do it”.

As for the Vizier, yes, it was obvious he was hiding something— but it wasn’t obvious he was the Lich, who had been tracking you and the Scepter since it was found.

My only point is this— you (and others) may have disliked them, but I (and others) did not, and I didn’t think it was fair to say ANet have always been as straightforward and predictable as they are in the story of GW2.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

ArenaNet has, since day one, never been good at twist plots.

Hey, I really liked the plot twists in Prophecies, involving the Mantle, Shining Blade, etc. Sure, Khilbron was blatantly evil, but the others worked a bit better.

& In Nightfall, having the invasion of Gandara seem to go so well, only to be defeated by demons at the last moment— it set it up so you expected to be playing a war scenario, and then you ended up playing as an underground organisation instead. That was good, too.

So, I don’t agree that ANet have been bad at twists since day one. I CERTAINLY AGREE, however, that GW2’s story is far too straightforward and predictable to indicate that something like Ludo’s theory is probable, though.

Agreed absolutely with the OP.

Funny stuff is good sometimes, but it doesn’t end up being memorable, and doesn’t make for compelling plot. They need to be riskier, and take a page from GW1.