Guild Wars 2

Boneheart.3561:

Kain Francois.4328:

I do wish ArenaNet would stop holding our hands for everything.

Where’s Miner Toska?

…in the mine. C’mon, she’s right next to that other NPC you had to talk to! -_-

..yeah, that sometimes makes me a little sad.

The story stuff was okay, but the open world padding to get to it was irritating.

And that’s the end of the first part of the Dragon’s Reach.

Well, it was a nice continuation story wise, and while the leader/superior NPCs have their own problems, they still hear us out, and agree to come when we alleviate their more immediate problems to give them a breather for the meeting, unlike a certain other group of leaders that did nothing until the baddies were on their doorstep. The interactions between the characters are nice and believable, even Braham’s awkward tone towards Eir.

On the other hand, having the open world events required to progress was flat out irritating, especially with the initial new events bugging out until a fix about 3 to 4 hours later.

Also, enemies in the instances not dropping loot is still a downer for me. Thankfully there aren’t as many fights in the instances so it isn’t as noticable…but it’s still bad. Between that and the open world nonsense, I can’t really say if I want to replay this, even just for the extra loot from alts.

So…yeah. So, what do the rest of you think?

“How did you ever become a krewe leader?”

“Well, I don’t type my own speeches.”

“You don’t give speeches.”

“….Exactly. It’s foolproof.”

Well, that I didn’t expect that to happen. I mean, I figured the ritual would fail or go very haphazard before working, but…yeah, a pit opens up, and Rytlock jumps in after it.

Rox is worried, but Smodur’s sure he’ll be back. As we talk to Smodur, he explains that the cleansing failed, and that Rytlock went in to get it back. (Glad he knew exactly what happened, didn’t realize the Imperator read up enough on magic and ancient rituals to know that it failed.)

Even though it didn’t work, we still helped him somewhat, so he’s going to the summit. Yay!

Rox is still worried about him, but we’re sure he’s ok. She’s also concerned that none of the other leaders might come, (having not been told that we got the others on board already, Smodur was the last guy) but once again we reassure her, as Mordremoth is a big enough threat to demand their attention.

Into the vault, we fight some ghosts as we go in. Once we reach the end, some elite vault guardians possess the remnants of Barradin’s statue to fight you, and other ghosts join in as well.

The fight itself is okay, though it does go on a bit long, especially when having to go back and forth between killing the buffing NPCs. That, and the orbs hurt a bit much, though I was playing a thief….better than instant kill though.

After beating the statue, Rytlock performs the ritual, but Sohothin falls into a pit that opens up…and Rytlock goes in after it.

Now, we meet up with Rytlock and Rox again, with Smodur in tow as well. He states that if Rytlock’s plan wipes out even a potion of the ghosts for good, he’ll join the summit.

Rytlock goes over the plan once more, referencing Rurik being the previous wielder, his death at the hands of a Stone Summit dwarf, (all the while repelling our question about how he got the sword) and that he’s been sniffing around in the Priory, and found a reference to a ritual there (and the source had an Orrian stamp on it, so it had to be legit. Maybe..).

All we need to do is kill a bunch of ghosts to charge up the sword, and he can handle the rest, hopefully.

Smodur notes that it might be a fool’s errand, but Rytlock has done the impossible before, and that he’s spent every day looking for a way to end the ghosts.

Rox is nervous, of course, but hopeful this will work.

With all said and done, we head on in.

Anyways…time for more open world stuff. -_- Thankfully, these events are simple and don’t bug out ever, as far as I know. First, to Oldgate ruins for the first (or second, since Rytlock gave us the first) lost fragment. It’s in a rock pile, but Rhell Crankmane’s ghost machines have to be active for you to get it.

The next one is at the Serenity temple, but of course you have to wait till a scholar whose name I don’t remember finishes his research there….why? Oh well, didn’t have to do it at least.

The last one is near the front of Bria’s manor, and yes, she has to have been beaten before you can get it, despite that it’s easy to find otherwise, and you don’t have to enter the manor or anything. Good thing I beat her on the way to the second one..

Right, back to Rytlock then.

Anyway, onto the plan. Rytlock has learned that the ritual to do this was given to humanity by the Six, and that it involves the use of Adelbern’s crown, which has been split into four fragments, making it hard to find now.

It was preserved even after the Foefire, but charr messed with the pieces and lost them. However, Rytlock managed to find one, and it’s attracted to the others, so we have a means of detection. And they’re presumably still around nearby, so time for another scavenger hunt.

“You, Rytlock Brimstone, are going to perform a ritual?”

“If it means I’d succeed at breaking the Foefire curse, I’d put on a robe and call myself Shaman Brimstone.”

No, no dungeons. They can’t do that stuff right anyways.

Like what the opening post said, if it’s talking to an NPC, finding clues, or going to a place, fine. Otherwise, keep it in the instance.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Roxhemar.6039:

I miss Tybalt and the vigil dude… On a side note, I like being called boss in DE 2.0, makes me feel like a kitten champion, that’s right Kas and Jory come to the bosses office…

No, sir, I don’t like it.

. . . unless Logan and Rytlock start calling me ‘boss’ too. Together. And Logan has to wear a dress.

. . . and so does Rytlock.

Wait, what? Phffthahaha!

Lasica.5068:

Nilkemia.8507:

Eh? It worked fine for me, and aside from a vet that ran away after half health, the enemies weren’t problematic.

That vet is designed to work that way (to make the achievement harder). He becomes attackable again halfway to the exit, so you have to stop him there and kill him.

Oh…I did try chasing, but couldn’t kill them. Should’ve realized it was for an achievement though…oh well.

Once again, we have to explain that Mordremoth is a greater threat, having already reached as far as Kessex Hills and Timberline Falls (And Iron Marches, right next to that Brand they’re so worried about, yet we can’t bring that up for some reason) Rytlock figures the Shiverpeaks will block it, thinking the vines can’t go through solid rock (despite the fact that it’s already in Iron Marches!), and we counter by saying it can go through the Fields of Ruin (or you know, south from Iron Marches). That, and the fact that if the charr stick only for themselves, they’ll soon be fighting Mordremoth on top of all their other problems as well.

Rytlock relents, but points out that Smodur will be harder to convince. However, he’s got a plan. He’s apparently researched a way to use Sohothin to reverse the Foefire (and thus the ghosts as well). If that works, the Black Citadel will have one less problem, and Smodur might be easier to convince.

So, we get to another instance outside the Old Duke Estate on Ashford Plains (with some nice yet scary art for presumably Rytlock) and we meet up with Rox, who worries about Rytlock’s disappointment over her not killing Scarlet (never mind she was still there for it and was aiding two wounded allies who might’ve died otherwise).

Rytlock’s a tad harsh to her. Seriously, she was still there for it! She didn’t disobey your orders. I just beat her to the kill, that’s all. Anyways, we talk to him, and he notes that while he is harsh, it was to toughen her up, and now that she’s a free agent, she doesn’t have to see eye to eye with him anymore anyways.

Rox then gets to the point, informing Rytlock of the summit, Mordremoth, and that the Black Citadel may be vulnerable, but Rytlock states that the Branded and the Ascalonians have the charrs’ hands full. Sigh.

P.S. And apparently the Flame Legion too, despite the fact they’ve been beaten constantly, had their leader and all aspiring replacements assassinated, and presumably lost even more in the whole Frost and Flame business back in Season 1.

Anyways, after that revelation, we go find the hunter to talk to, only to find they already wrecked the place. Luckily, we can still check it out (presumably thanks to the recent hotfix) and walk to the totem and smash it. Mission accomplished.

Then we get an instance where Braham and Eir sort of seem to get over the drama after some off-screen fighting, then they decide to head back to Hoelbrak for a feast, and to tell Knut of our victory. But the commander’s job is never done, and we plan to meet Rox soon.

Eir leaves first, but Braham questions us about her afterwards, seemingly understanding why she had to leave to deal with the dragon minions so long ago.

(Well, that and the fact that Braham didn’t actually exist until after the fact. While I don’t mind Braham as a character, I still feel that the plot element of him being Eir’s seemingly illegitimate son was bad fanfiction insert levels of stupid, and didn’t need to be done to make him an interesting character, and it went against everything we knew of Eir so far. Besides…my norn ranger looks like she’s more related to Eir than him.)

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

Norn are hunters who obsessively believe that one must hunt alone to get the highest respect……

Too bad the game doesn’t let you do that for everything. Part of me would love to solo things like dungeons and huge bosses and stuff, but it’s either too hard, too long, or just made impossible to to gimmicks.

I know, I know, “it’s an MMO”…I don’t mind working with other people, but when the game forces it, it gets irritating at times.

Also, either when I got in or during the instance, I got a mail but didn’t notice, because I’m dumb like that. However, I think it deserved its own post…

Well, despite the jerkishness I saw earlier, Eir does offer a solution: If we head of to Frostgorge Sound and take out the totem the Sons of Svanir are making and kill them, it might impress Knut enough to help us. However, we have to take out the totem ourselves, while Braham and Eir stay back a ways.

Braham wants to stick with us, obviously not wanting to be stuck with Eir, but we insist on it, probably against our better judgement. Only time will tell.

However, how we must go to Hoelbrak for Braham to talk to Eir. Well, let’s see how much drama unfolds this time…

Well, Eir is surprised, but still okay with seeing us. However, Knut Whitebear apparently won’t be going, due to having to deal with the Sons of Svanir and Jormag.

Really? When was the last time they were a threat, Honor of the Waves? And sure, Jormag killed the Spirit of Owl, but apparently has been taking a vacation since then, letting his minions and the Claw do the dirty work.

Braham points out that Jormag is dangerous, but just one of a pack of Elder Dragons, and that Mordremoth is definitely being more active. While Eir understands, she still doubts Knut will run off to the summit while Jormag’s threat looms.

Also…Eir’s kind of become a jerk now. See the last attachment. Not quite the same Eir that tried to help before…

Anyways, Taimi’s been working on her device to save the waypoints, but Phlunt wants to see it work before he goes to the summit. Some of the conversations we hear also imply that some may not be fond of Zojja’s work as of late, or of Taimi…

I’m a little odded out by the fact that only one councillor showed up with just four guards. You’d think that news of a ley line hub being discovered, and a device that can show part of the universe (allegedly) would be immediately swarmed with researchers and Peacemakers to keep it secure and figure out how it works, what with Taimi’s talk of how they’re so elusive…but eh. (shrugs)

So we go on a little scavenger hunt, with Scruffy autonomously helping us out. Aside from some sparks and an Inquest veteran (who wisely runs off after beating beaten down a bit), Scruffy’s detect function makes getting the things you need simple enough.

You can also do some fighting instead of looking, but since the enemies don’t drop anything, I didn’t opt for that.

Afterwards, Taimi heads to Omadd’s machine, using it as a conduit for her waypoint resonance altering device…but it’ll take a few weeks. We can’t wait that long, so we hope she can speed the process up. Oh, and Kasmeer comes in with good news: Queen Jennah’s on board for the summit, so kudos to Countess Anise.

Well, Jormag prefers to offer power to people first, then corrupt those who join him. Mordremoth seems to just try breaking into your mind until you’re insane.

Eh? It worked fine for me, and aside from a vet that ran away after half health, the enemies weren’t problematic.

Still should’ve been instanced from the get go.

Vexander.9850:

Hrmn… interesting. Sylvari were said to be uncorruptible by the Dragons, but now we have confirmation that Mordremoth can indeed corrupt them. I’m curious as to why. I mean, the obvious answer is that the Sylvari are plants and Mordremoth is the Plant Dragon and then there’s the usual conspiracy theory that the Pale Tree is a Champion of his, etc…

But I wonder if perhaps it has something to do with how powerful he is? Unlike other dragons, Mordremoth’s influence has spread -rapidly- since his awakening. Could the surge of energy through the Leylines have empowered him beyond what the other Dragons have attained?

Anyways, excellent summary so far, and I find the narration pretty nifty. Thanks for sharing!

While I still don’t subscribe to the “Sylvari are dragon minions” theory, there does seem to be a connection that he has that the other dragons do not possess (also being a large magical plant like being).

Also a thread from way back before Mordremoth’s reveal implied the the Nightmare corruption may have been an aspect of Mordremoth that could affect them, even while it was dormant.

The courtiers don’t seem to be minions as of now, but they could be spreading it, and part of them corrupting something or someone involves breaking their will….and the Pale Tree warned that Mordremoth’s corruption tries to crack through your willpower first (unlike the other dragons who corrupt physically first, besides Jormag who prefers to tempt people, and Primordus who we haven’t seen corrupting anything), implying that it prefers mental over physical.

Speaking of which…

Right. Yet anther timed about saving people from vines, then we get to another one about killing a Mordrem wolf running around (that splits into more wolves as its HP goes down, and has permanent stability and retaliation, because unremovable boons for enemies is so fun, not.)

Finally, after talking to one last charr we can get away from that annoying open world event nonsense.

Oh, and Taimi talked to Zojja, but things got complicated.

Odyssey.2613:

Uh, why are you narrating? Don’t you think if people want to know the storyline they will, eh, go play the storyline?

Why do I do it? Well, because…

- I wanted to give my first impressions on it bit by bit along the way.

- Because I can.

- I might be evil.

- Kasjory forever!

Good enough? No? Oh well.

Still doesn’t change the fact that having to wait for Open World events to progress the story is already bad design, made worse by them bugging out and not starting on certain flows.

Well, after guesting, not guesting, just going to character select and sitting there while reading things here, I finally got into a flow that had it working.

After killing the gimmick boss there, you talk to that charr again and she directs you to another one that needs help getting samples from vines by coating yourself in spores from dead Mordrem (neat, but again hampered by being a time gated event that can bug out and never pop up)

Of course, that one bugged too, and I had to wait until later to do it.

No thanks, I’ll take the instances over this any day.

Between having the story be bound to time-gated group events and the bugs forcing me to change flows constantly to get them, dealing with Trehearne again is just fine, thank you.

Besides, it makes sense given the situation.

I saw a warthog in Iron Marches with a guild tag.

That might be a Molten Sword (flame legion), and that might be a Flame Legion soldier (perhaps they attempt to interfere with breaking the curse). Or it’s early concept art of Rytlock or another charr.

Seriously, how does a bug so obstructive that it stops the story dead in its tracks slip through like this? I had hoped that they were taking a little longer to make sure something like this wouldn’t happen, but apparently not. Bad first impression for this patch, ArenaNet.

RedStar.4218:

Nilkemia.8507:

Supposedly, he’ll also see Taimi can get Zojja to listen at least. (A nice touch is that since my character is an Asura, he also notes that the boss could convince Zojja too.)

It’s not because you’re an Asura. It’s because it’s assumed that you helped Zojja through out all the dungeons.

My character is a Sylvari, I got the same line.

Aww. Okies, thanks for the correction.

Anyways, I went to Ascalon to get to the next part…but currently can’t. You meet a charr, who directs you to another one who just tells you to get a flamethrower and burn some Mordrem, or maybe the vines around us. But…there’s no flamethrowers nearby, nor are there any enemies to fight nearby most of the time. Either I’m missing something, or it’s bugged so I can’t continue the story as of this post…well.

Seriously, how does a bug so obstructive that it stops the story dead in its tracks slip through like this? I had hoped that they were taking a little longer to make sure something like this wouldn’t happen, but apparently not. Bad first impression for this patch, ArenaNet.

During this, we get a note from Taimi.

She mentions Mordrem presence in Iron Marches (…sigh, why Ascalon?), which we tell the others. Off to that then.

So, we tell her about the vision we had, that we used the same device, and the Pale Tree warns us that’s dangerous, but still hears us out. She doesn’t understand the vision however(suspecting Ceara may have left an imprint upon it), figuring we alone can figure that out.

Then we tell her about the dragon, that it’s been wrecking things far and wide, and is spreading, She agrees to trying to get the leaders of the races of Tyria, with the Grove being the meeting spot (since she can’t go anywhere, being a giant tree and all). All good so far.

Meeting back with the others, they all agree to this too, and will go for respective leaders/superiors in their own nations.

Kasmeer’s going for Countess Anise, since not being a noble anymore, she may not be able to get the queen’s ear.

Rox’s going for Rytlock, since Smodur won’t even give even the Commander of the Pact the time of day.

Braham’s going to Hoelbrak, Knut Whitebear…..and his mother (shudder) Eir.

Supposedly, he’ll also see Taimi can get Zojja to listen at least. (A nice touch is that since my character is an Asura, he also notes that the boss could convince Zojja too.)

Warning: Here be spoilers, and references to evil plants, some snarking, and walls of text. If you’re prone to t.l.d.r-itis, you should probably go back now.

…..Still here? Good.

Evil’s spreading, oh noes. Welp, finally time to go talk to the Pale Tree about this.

Marjory’s not there, but apparently the funeral’s been taken care of and she’ll be back soon, yay.

Also, Taimi’s off getting some schooling or something. Also yay.

Wow, neat find. In all seriousness, maybe Mordremoth has “vine spores” that could grow into areas like that without being connected to anything? Or Taimi was wrong about the huge vines being part of it.

Still probably just an oversight on their part…

Ronin.7381:

People are just trying to latch onto the lonely little scholar who wanted to pursue knowledge without jeopardizing innocent and unfortunate souls who crossed her path, it wasn’t until Omadd and the events that followed that changed her to not giving a frag.

Funny that, the short story “What Scarlet Saw” clearly states that she joined up with the Inquest (who are unashamedly evil) out of her own free will, and may have even helped trigger the Thaumanova incident, before going back with Omadd to the mind opening device.

In addition to that, one of her holorecordings (from her secret room) notes:

“I’ve landed a lab assistant position with Omadd, an intelligent but overly gentle asura. I should be able to wrap him around my little finger.”

She was selfish, conceited, and manipulative even then under that seemingly “innocent” exterior. The device only completed a fall that was doomed to happen eventually.

Zaxares.5419:

Yeah, I know, but I was referring more to the general Toxic Seedling clusters that just show up in Kessex Hills without needing to complete an event first. (And even so, getting one measly Toxic Spore for completing an event seems like an insult.)

And on top of this, can occasionally harvest the pristine spore node more than once, or it can give you multiple samples in one harvest (I recall getting 3 samples from one once, and even 7 another time, though it’s obviously rare to happen). There’s really no need for the mini tower events anymore, as only the Vigil mortar one is reasonably doable, and in the time it takes, one can just go hunt down the nodes instead.

The worst part is that there have been instances of enemies that don’t drop loot but can still give EXP/count for stacks, kills, etc (The Nightmare Pups in TA and the bomb golems in COE 2/3 come to mind), meaning either someone screwed up on this, or did it on purpose. Bad design, and makes me not feel like fighting them unless I have to.

FrostSpectre.4198:

The Device makes you insane, pretty much only: if you’re Sylvari and either part of The Soundless or The Nightmare Court.

But still, there might have been something left of Cearas personality, but we don’t know, we’ll see in the future…

No solid indication of that so far, only implied. Aerin hadn’t gone to the machine at all (as far as we know, and I doubt he’d have time to while chasing Mr. Peace), only going crazy after joining the Zephyrites in the sky. And, since no Nightmare Court have used the machine either, no indication if they would go….any more crazy then they already are.

Vesuvius.9874:

Mordremoth would’ve woken up eventually anyway, with or without Scarlet. Regardless, unless you have an explanation for Scarlet’s statement where she said Tyria will need her one day, there will always be people questioning, “Was she really the villain people think she is?”

Um….yes. Yes she was the villain we thought she was. And that garbage of “Tyria will need me” is so far just her self conceitedness and sense of being better than everyone else.

And yes, Mordremoth would’ve woken eventually, but we’d have had more time to prepare for it as well (our character knew it name already anyway), aside from the fact that the Invasive Weed tied up our efforts with having to deal with her shenanigans.

She really wanted to help? Could’ve just taken all those Aetherblade airships/troops over to where Mordremoth’s body was and firebomb it first, then slam the Breachmaker drill into it’s face. As stupid as that sounds, even that would’ve been better than all then nonsense she did.

Filaha.1678:

Because of the things she says which implies she feels that she’s helping the world somehow.

It’s not like we know why she did it yet.

Hah! The only thing worthwhile she might’ve done was getting those alliances to make those unlimited harvesting tools and skins for us to get later. (Well…the tools anyway. The skins require stupid BL ticket grinding)

Manasa Devi.7958:

Before wondering if anything Scarlet said might be profound, meaningful or prophetic, consider that she once tried to cook Faren in a giant pot before gleefully coming at us cartoon-style with a giant hammer. I never did figure out how all of that contributed to her masterplan.

Neither did I.

Lies and deceit. The Invasive Weed never saved anything.

After getting more than one stack of this (not really going for ascended items besides trinkets and a few weapons), I thought it’d be a great idea if these could be salvaged into Globs of Ectoplasm, or more Piles of Crystalline Dust even (since some might consider being able to get even more ectoplasm that way broken…)

Only you can prevent this!

Bite its head off.

Actually no, you can’t do anything but put it down…can’t even toss it back into the tornado or to someone else.

The rifle interested me, because it supposedly has a unique sound when being drawn/firing. Other than that though, the weapons just don’t match well with any of my gear, and I’m not wasting gold on keys or building up enough to buy them off the Trading Post.

Rangers, Engineers, Necromancers, maybe Mesmers and Warriors (if built a certain way).

The shapeshift skills are garbage, except in the hands of NPCs that can recharge/maintain them beyond what the players can do, and a certain blacksmith at a certain forge in Edge of the Mists who can maintain it indefinitely below half health and spam launching charges constantly.

So Braham doesn’t need that.

Wanderer.3248:

You know what would be even more surprising?

That someone learns how to use the search function in these forums, realises that the are ten score threads on their new theory, and doesn’t post it again.

When that day happens, the sun, the moon and the stars will fall from the sky; all the elder dragons will let forth a single cry, and cease; and the world will end in darkness and silence.

If only. Wait, does the search function actually work now?

Also, no. Nothing indicates the topic title at all, and in fact shows completely otherwise.

Let’s see:

Why would she help our character in the beginning if she was a Nightmare Courtier?

Why would she go to great lengths to help get the white stag/Ysvelta back from the Nightmare Court?

Why would she warn us that getting corrupted by Nightmare is uncurable?

Why would the Nightmare Courtiers openly voice such disdain for her every time she’s mentioned by them? They’re all but celebrating when they think she was killed in the Shield of the Moon plotline (their only concern is how the Grand Duchess will take the news)

Sariel really wants to kill Caithe (due to her jealousy of what she and Faolain had) and tries to do so in the White Stag plotline and in Twilight Arbor.

And that’s just regarding the plotlines you have done (or are doing).