Guild Wars 2

Morfedel.4165:

Exactly. But after two games, I think its time this mystery IS solved. A mystery is intriguing; a mystery that goes on unsolved forever is just an irritation.

This isn’t a Yes or No matter, though. They could give us more information, or have something happen there to respark the mystery without solving it.

There’s no reason for this mystery to remain a mystery forever. SOMEONE should be working on figuring it out, after all. Several someones, in fact. But that doesn’t mean we need the answers all at once.

Ever play The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker?

You sail on an ocean for a lot of that game, and it shows the problem that you’d run into with the sky idea. The ocean was big and vast, with only a few interesting spots scattered around. You’d spend a lot of time just sailing to get from Interesting Point A to Interesting Point B, with nothing to do in between.

It got old, fast.

Now, I have no objections to them opening up sky “realms”, places that float high above the landscape of the world. But opening up the entire sky is overkill.

Vigil keep makes sense in the short run, but not in the long run. That’s why I think they need to rebuild Lion’s Arch.

However, it doesn’t really matter where the actual GATE hub is, as long as it connects to each major city. So, what if one day all the gates suddenly redirected to a certain floating castle?

[Edit] Also, aren’t Karka supposed to be intelligent? Alien, and very much so, but intelligent? Talk of exterminating them or “domesticating” them is a bit unsettling.

There’s a few other threads about this, and the general answer is “DDoS Attack”. It’s not something ANet can fix, as it’s not them. It’s not us. There’s only so much ANet can do.

Mind you, one of those things would be to make a good, front page announcement about it here on the forums…. Come on guys, this is the third day in a row. Speak!

RockDemon.3627:

Arenanet,

Most of the content in this game, both original and newly patched in, requires players to participate and succeed in long, complex event chains to gain final rewards. We’ve seen this with PvE events such as Fractals and other dungeon instances to “Open World Events” such as Twisted Marionette, Temple of Balthazaar, etc. We also see the same dedication and uninterrupted play required to take major objectives in WvWvW such as Bay, Hills, Garrison, and StoneMist Castle.

I’ve experienced terrible lag the last several nights to the point the game is unplayable, and totally interrupts any big events I may be in the middle of with my friends.

Most of the core community takes part in the bigger and harder events that take time and requires us to be logged in for extended periods without lagging out or interruption of service. Some of us even use premium Internet service and Proxy services to get the best possible connection in our area.

The users’ efforts, time, and expense are all wasted on your game if your servers and security are terrible. Enough said. You needed to get this fixed days ago, or people will take their money elsewhere to games like Wildstar and Elder Scrolls.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Lag-and-DC-are-getting-ridiculous/first#post3637613

Wildstar and Elder Scrolls will fall to these attacks the same as GW2, if this is what’s happening. DDoS attacks are not a problem on ANet’s end any more than they are on our end.

soistheman.7208:

im getting the lag attack again. this is 3 nights in a raw

Someone’s told me it’s a DDoS attack. Someone’s taking credit for it over Twitter.

Hope they get shut down, and shut down hard.

It’s the third night in a row this has happened. Is someone hitting GW2 with a DoS attack or something?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

A R W E N.6895:

For the PvE topic would it be to much if it is about Fractals but also about dungeons in general?

Hi Arwen,

I have been thinking a lot about this. My concern is that the PVE thread may become cumbersome. I will think about it a little more.

Chris

I would strongly suggest keeping it Fractals focused, but it can’t hurt to make a note if you think a suggestion would be a good idea for dungeons in general.

I don’t do dungeons OR fractals, but I’d think there’s enough differences that it would be best to focus on just one for now, and the other later. Some ideas may carry over, but I’m sure there’s other ideas that might be great for one but really bad for the other.

I’m sure LA will get rebuilt.

I expect it to be officially “reborn” around the time of Dragon Bash. That way they can change that festival to being about the re-rebirth of LA, and not mention the dragons any more. Why? Because this storyline is either ignoring them, or LA is about to get leveled because of them. Either way, Dragon Bash as a big holiday just doesn’t make as much sense any more.

AlexEBT.7240:

Ok number one: story and gemplay segregation… it’s a thing now
“Dragon champion or not, Scarlet is still a sylvari. A sword will pierce her flesh, a hammer will crush her head. She may be stronger than normal, but not that much stronger.”
Well to play with the premise, the other dragon champions have never learned one extremely important but often overlooked tactic that Scarlet employs a lot: tactical retreat. :P everytime she gets into mortal danger, she runs away and then comes back with a vengeance. Most dragon champs stay until we kill them and feast upon the loot they drop.

Very true.

THAT is why she’s survived. Not because she’s a Dragon’s Champion, but because she knows that running away keeps that sword/hammer thing from happening to her.

I will still say that it’s been poorly written, but running away before being killed? Yeah, I can’t really hold that against her. It’s the smart thing to do.

Xiahou Mao.9701:

If people’s viewpoints on these stories is going to be “when the players win, the enemies need to get weaker”, then that implies that either there can never be a strong, world-threatening enemy to face in the living story, or that weeks and months of events have to be skewed so that players winning becomes physically impossible. “Well, here’s the Molten Facility dungeon, but since Scarlet is going to need more Molten weapons later on, the Berserker and Firestorm at the end will fully heal themselves whenever they reach 50% health” “It’s time to raid Twilight Arbour to shut down the airship factory, but when the Clockheart is reduced to 0 HP it will explode in an undodgeable blast that instantly kills the players, ending the dungeon without any rewards”

Not at all.

All they need to do is to give a good reason why they’re not getting weaker. It doesn’t even have to be played out (though the old “Show don’t tell” should be kept in mind). Just make the reasons clear WITHIN the story. Make those elements carry weight beyond themselves, so they’re reflected within the story.

In the Molten Facility, they could have included an area where you found empty shipping containers and some dolyaks. Maybe a pile of papers telling how many of each weapon had been sent out to storage from that particular facility within the last week. Bang, foreshadowing that this isn’t over and a reason for her to still have access to all this stuff later.

Have a character ask “Where is she getting all her raw materials from?”, or “Where is she building these new ships?” Then, when it’s revealed that she’s messing around in the mists, have someone discover a lab where they’ve been experimenting with entering the mists. Charts and notes on all the small areas they’ve found, and either strip mined or turned into a factory. Maybe even let you get into one and wreck it, but you know there’s others out there that you can’t get to. Now you know where she’s been hiding her remaining forces and supplies, and why she’s not running out of weapons or airships.

All these bad plot elements could have been good plot elements with a bit more work, but it’s far too late now. If they try to explain it now, it will look like the last minute, desperate retcon that it is. At this point, it’s better to just move past this story, and hope they’ve learned from their mistakes.

Many, many mistakes.

RyuDragnier.9476:

The Spiral King.2483:

Don’t let it bother you so much, it’s plot armor combined with terrible writing. That’s it.

Her plot armor is that she’s Mordremeth’s champion. As we’ve seen, it takes a LOT to take down a dragon champion, and the only time we actively fought her she was toying with us. Not once has she buckled down and fought seriously.

It takes a lot to take down a BIG and POWERFUL dragon champion. One that would take a lot even if they weren’t the dragon’s champion.

Remember the Eye of Zhaitan from the personal story? I wouldn’t say that was an easy fight, but it didn’t take an army to take it out because it wasn’t really all that powerful. Dragon champion or not, Scarlet is still a sylvari. A sword will pierce her flesh, a hammer will crush her head. She may be stronger than normal, but not that much stronger.

Invictus.1503:

It is ultimately a game, and all games have a predetermined end (arguably even PvP as one of the teams will win, that is predetermined. the only choice is which). Read a book, it ends how it is written. Play a game, there is illusion of choice at times, but the end is preprogrammed. I don’t see this living story any different. If you want something that isn’t predetermined, go out to real life. That is the only place you’ll find it, and even then some would argue that many of your decisions are only illusions there too.

But the ending of a book or single player game usually flows from the actions of the main character as well as the villains. The problem here is that the LS isn’t reflecting our actions very well.

Scarlet started with the Molten Alliance, and we broke them. Then the Aetherblades showed up, and Scarlet now had the MA and the Aetherblades. That seems fine, until you remember that we smashed the MA. But… okay. Maybe it’s just a few left over. So, we smash the Aetherblades. We went in all Rambo, and handed them their kitten. But the next time she shows up, she STILL has the MA. And she has the Aetherblades at full force as well.

THIS is the kind of stuff we’re talking about. By PLOT reasons, she shouldn’t have all these forces any more. And yet she does. We’ve accomplished nothing.

It would be bad business for Evon to be backing her. So, he wouldn’t, it’s as simple as that.

The Consortium? Yeah, maybe. I could see that. But not Evon.

Not because he’s good, or heroic. But because it would simply be stupid for him to back her.

The problem is, they’re moving everything to the Vigil keep.

THAT will become the hub, unless they shift things from there to the other cities. Honestly, I think that Lion’s Arch will be rebuilt, and everything moved back there eventually.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think some people are confusing story elements and gameplay elements. I realize that enemies respawn and thus there are an “infinite” amount of them, or that dungeons are repeatable so we blew up thousands of molten facilities, but those are gameplay elements.

Story elements are things like, we destroyed scarlets reason for the krait helping her, why are they still helping her? we blew up the factories that make the airships and the molten weapons, why are they still being used in later stories?

The story is supposed to progress in a logical fashion. Sure there are gameplay elements to consider, but the story itself should still be logical.

Correct.

Okay, look. Let’s take a small example. Why are there endless centaurs in Queensdale? Well, that’s because the plot never really advances beyond the point where there’s supposed to be a lot of centaurs in Queensdale. Yes, the events happen. The battle rages back and forth. But the plot itself is stuck in “Centaurs and Seraph fight for land in Queensdale.” Thus, the centaurs keep coming back.

With Scarlet and the Living Story, however, the plot IS advancing. The plot events have happened, though according to the plot they’ve happened only once. She had a facility in Twilight Arbor, and it got wiped out. She sent a huge force to support her weapons test with the marionette, and we wiped that out too (plot assumes that the event was a win for us). As far as the plot goes, she doesn’t populate those events a dozen times a day, and we don’t do them a dozen times a day. She sent her forces in, we wiped them out. ONCE.

The “endless armies” are a game mechanic for when the plot is at that point. But the plot moves on, her people ARE being slaughtered, and they ARE NOT endless. Every time the plot has moved forward and events have moved into the past, she’s lost a huge chunk of her forces.

She simply shouldn’t have much left by now.

[Edit] There was a farmer that had a dog, and apparently the dog’s name was seen as a dirty word by the forum software.

ChaosKirin.1328:

There’s a huge content update coming out in March.

Just to clarify something…

As I recall, they’ve said that they will give us more details about the upcoming “big” update in March. They have NOT said that the update itself will be in March.

It may still be several months away.

lazarus.1639:

And then, massive rule 34 happens.

“And then”?

Do you honestly think it hasn’t already?

lazarus.1639:

I hope both Kiel and Evon die screaming in terror and pain.

I hope Kiel meets her doom in a horrible and terrible way. And then, at the last moment, Evon charges in, catches her foes off guard, tosses the injured Kiel over a shoulder and runs to safety.

And thus begins a long running romance/contest between the two, where they keep track of who’s saved who the most times now. Each trying to one-up the other, neither ever admitting to the growing feelings between them that everyone else can so clearly see.

Delvoire.8930:

I agree. She has been losing forces. I just don’t think it’s been to the extent that some have been posting about.

Agreed, but that cuts both ways. She doesn’t have the endless forces to people these events over and over again. As far as the plot goes, they happened once. (Except for the invasions, I’d give them once per zone.)

People may be inflating the numbers, but that goes on both sides. Taking them down to correct levels, she’s still losing a huge part of her forces every time she tries something. She shouldn’t have much left.

Delvoire.8930:

If anyone is looking at it like we are just destroying her army and she should be depleted of troops.. well then you have to say the same thing to every monster/enemy/creature in the game. How many Tequatl’s are there? How many Fire Elementals? How many Centaurs can their be? Surely we’ve killed them all by now.

You can’t look at one area of the game and give it a certain standard and ignore all other parts of the game that are similar.

WE don’t have to. The standards for the two areas are different because the Devs made them different.

You see, in the main world, the plot never really advances past the events you see. The centaurs still threaten Queensdale, the fire elemental is still a threat, and the Wardenlight Tree is still under threat. The world doesn’t really move past those events.

But the Living Story does. Those events have moved into the past, the plot has moved past them. They happened. They’re done. The repercussions of those events carry forward. If the plot says Scarlet’s army was defeated at the Marionette test, then it was defeated there. (The plot seems to assume you’ve won that fight, by the way.) Yes, they only happened once, and not dozens of times, but they happened.

Scarlet has been losing people left and right. It’s there, in the plot, and it needs to carry forward. That it doesn’t is just a huge plot hole and bad writing.

Delvoire.8930:

The Aetherblades are clearly being threatened and bullied by Scarlet. It would stand to assume she does the same with the other alliances she has formed.

That doesn’t change the fact that some of them (Flame Legion and Dredge) wouldn’t give in to those threats. ESPECIALLY the Dredge, given that she’s basically making them slaves if they’re working under threat. The whole point of the Dredge is that they’ve been slaves before, and they have no intention of ever being slaves again. They’ll die fighting for their freedom, and do so in some areas of the game.

Delvoire.8930:

Once they work for her, she then threatens to kill them if they don’t listen. It’s pretty straight forward.

Yeahhhhno. I can’t buy that.

When the Molten Alliance was beaten, she kept them in line by threatening them?

Stop and think about WHO she was threatening.

Flame Legion? You think the Flame Legion rolled over and submitted to the demands of a female sylvari? Even if she threatened them with the Aetherblades, the Flame Legion wouldn’t bend to that. Plus, they had some new molten weapons already. We’ve all seen how willing they are to fight, even if it’s a losing battle. No way would they just give in to her demands.

Dredge? Do you honestly think they’d submit to being re-enslaved? Nope, wouldn’t happen. They’d die fighting it rather than be slaves to someone again. And the only forces she had to threaten them with were the Aetherblades, and they’re even less of a threat to the underground dwelling Dredge.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Palador.2170:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Are we going down this path again Gidorah?

Chris

Nah. By now, nobody actually expects you guys to talk with us about it.

But even if you did, an entire CDI on it would be overkill.

Personally I think a CDI on the BLT would be good to do at some point.

Chris

On the BLT in general? Yes, good idea.

On the pick itself in specific? Too late, and serious overkill.

To be entirely honest, though, the BLT/Gem shop is one of those places where it feels like we’ve been talking to a wall. It may not be the biggest, most obstructing wall in the game, but it’s still a wall. A two-way conversation on it is LONG overdue.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Are we going down this path again Gidorah?

Chris

Nah. By now, nobody actually expects you guys to talk with us about it.

But even if you did, an entire CDI on it would be overkill.

Delvoire.8930:

Also the Aetherblade path of Twilight Arbor taught us that the Aetherblade Pirates were being used to bully the Molten Alliance or vice versa. The aren’t working in harmony together, they are being forced to do this now that they’ve given their allegiance to Scarlet.

I didn’t run that, sorry.

If they’re NOT working in harmony, and are actually under threat from each other, then my question still stands.

This is their big chance to turn on each other and get away with it. This is their chance to break free, take Scarlet down, and TAKE what they’re after. Scarlet’s going to be fighting on a few fronts already, she won’t be able … okay, realistically SHOULDN’T be able… to deal with betrayal as well.

And none of these groups will try it? Nobody’s going to step out of line and take their shot? Not the Flame Legion? Not the Krait? Really?

Akari Storm.6809:

This day will actually be marked with a holiday as the day Tyrians ended the tyranny of the toilet.

That sounds like the day Tyrians discover Metamucil.

Rym.1469:

it wouldn’t make any sense.

Ummm… you HAVE been playing the same LS we have, right?

They’ll take one look at the chaos, see that it was started by one of the five races that wants to be allies with them, and decide that it’s not time yet.

Maybe it was a rogue agent, maybe they’re all really like this. They’ll just have to wait and see.

In other words, nothing will happen.

Aajolea.8132:

They are story convenience, there is really no attempt to justify the enormous resources she has and has had destroyed, there has been attempts, but considering the volume of machinery destroyed by us and the thousands of her allies and machines destroyed by us, her supply is greater than all the nations combined, and the dragons too.

In short there are unlimited to fit the story of the writers/devs and as such horribly out of place with the rest of tyria’s economy and presentation.

Yeah.

I might try to come up with excuses, because I like finding ways to make things like this work. But let’s be honest, there’s no in-story balance here. No source of her resources.

Even the GI Joe cartoon in the 80s eventually touched on where Cobra got a lot of their money and resources. Scarlet is now less believable than Cobra Commander.

Kal Spiro.9745:

wookiee.4631:

I know they said LA would be changing, but who said it would be gone for good? The merchants will be in Fort Marriner for the next release and probably the one after that. Once Scarlet is done, I bet LA will be back to normal, but with some changes from the invasion. Although, it would be cool if it were totaled and became a regular zone with monsters and stuff, but not likely.

It took them half a year to rebuild the statue after King Thorn blew it up, how long would it take them to rebuild the whole city? Especially if things are still there fighting them.

Meh. They’ll just throw two bricks, a plank, and a sack of kittens into the mystic forge, and POOF, newly rebuilt Lion’s Arch.

Infamous Darkness.3284:

SIDE NOTE: I understand that it appears scarlet will combine the might of all of her alliances to form a coalition with the purpose of destroying lions arch? (kinda interesting that lions arch the melting pot of tyria would be destroyed by those outcast from the major races?)

I’ve been thinking about that…

Let’s pretend for a moment that there’s still a reason why Flame Legion and Dredge would work together as the Molten Alliance. Let’s also pretend there’s still a reason for the Nightmare Court and Krait to be working together. Ditto the Inquest and the pirates to form the Aetherblades.

Let’s pretend all of that still makes sense, somehow…

Now, throw those groups together with each other, and tell them they all have to get along and fight on the same side.

It just doesn’t work, does it?

He needs to survive so that he can use all his wealth (which I hope he’s gotten clear of LA, given that he’s been expecting an attack) to buy up the ruined remains of LA on the cheap.

Then, once we’ve driven Scarlet off, the city starts to rebuild. The Captains’ Council looks down on him again, and then he pulls out all the deeds… and tells them to get the kitten out of his town.

I’d say she’s been opening portals to unexplored parts of the mists and strip-mining them. That’s where her factories are, too.

Gibson.4036:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Finally, I wonder “why?”. Nothing in this Living Story merits the destruction of LA. Nothing about the living story is worth it. Not the premise, not the characters, not the antagonist, not the motives. All I see is using a pretty poor excuse to do something that someone deems “kewl”.

Agreed.

Big, climactic, destruction of familiar city would be interesting if the story had built toward it. Instead, it just feels cheap.

I like LA, and can imagine a story in which it’s destruction feels like the inevitable conclusion, allowing me to mourn it and yet have the satisfaction of a story well played.

Instead, it feels like, “Hey, what’s there left for Scarlet to do after making the Asura colleges look like kindergarten, bringing together alliances out of factions that have every reason to hate each other, and generally being invincible as all Tyria tries to fight her? Oh, yeah, she can do what the Charr, Mursaat, Abaddon, and Zhaitan failed to do!”

Yeah, pretty much all this.

I realize the story’s going to play out. There’s no stopping that. That doesn’t mean that the rest of it magically gets better.

Also, if she could do this so easily, WHY did she even bother trying to get someone on the Captain’s Council? And, for that matter, why was she doing that to weaken L.A. if she didn’t know where her target was, anyway?

Even if the update contains some good bits of play (questionable, depending on tastes), it’s still driven by the same bad story centering around the same lame villain.

If an elder dragon did show up, and was scripted fairly, I’m sure Scarlet would soon be revealed to be a “dragon spooker”.

Carnius Magius.8091:

My Krait Obelisk Shard had several Hylek near it in my Home instance. May I have them back? Why were they removed?

Are you checking with the same character? I think they’re from the part of the personal story where you get to interact with one of the less advanced races, so only ones that did the Hylek one will have them there.

…I think…

Aidenwolf.5964:

Keep the questions coming and one year maybe they’ll answer.

I hate to say it, but your answer will come a lot earlier than that. Say… when they release the next infinite sickle or axe.

I was one of the first people in the first thread to say “Give them a day to answer”. I was trying to be respectful and understanding. Clearly, it was a wasted effort.

Lesson learned.

CC Danicia.1394:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

CC Danicia.1394:

First thing I did was get the shield and pistol for my Engie. And the staff for my Ele…and so on and so on….

I suppose you developers have some sweet console commands for this?
Like /add x blticket

Ahahah. No. We have zero special commands on the live servers. I earned mine! /flex

Really? Because normal people have to rely on luck. There’s no “earning” of anything here.

Let’s be honest, the norn cheats.

They claimed to have fixed him once, but he kept right on cheating. So… cheat back.

I beat him by putting down a Box O’ Fun next to myself, setting it to shapechange, and then starting the contest. As soon as it started, I hit the box for the shapechange. Drinking stuff was gone, and I was getting Out of Combat regeneration (as I recall). It wore off before the end, but it was enough of a boost that I was able to take him down the rest of the way.

I expect:

• The start of a skin locker.
• ONE new weapon added to each class.
• ONE new skill added to each class.
• A few balance/bug fixes.
• A “memento” of Scarlet in the gem store.
• A sale on character slots in the gem store.

And that’s pretty much it.

I really hope I’m pleasantly surprised, but I’m not getting my hopes up. I’m worried they’re too high already.

If they allow you to buy an item to go straight to level 80:

• It would make the level 20 scroll nearly worthless, would it not? There would be little value to them, and they’d have to give something else out when a character reaches the 1 year point. (Not that some people don’t find them useless already.)

• What would be a fair price for it? It would have to cost at least 2000 gems, maybe more, for something like that. Anything less, and it’s massively under-priced compared to everything else in the gem store. At which point, who would really want it?

The marionette needed extra power sources before it could fully operate. Lion’s Arch is sitting atop a huge junction of “dragon energy” ley lines.

Lion’s Arch isn’t the final target. It may not even be where the final target is. Lion’s Arch is just the power source for her weapon. She needs to “plug in” the marionette there before it’s at full power for its real purpose.

I think she’s still going after the Pale Tree. Both Ceara and Scarlet would want that. Ceara because she doesn’t want to be controlled by it, and Scarlet seems to want to destroy pretty much anything she can get her hands on. We’ve heard her say that what she does, she does for herself, not for whatever may be controlling her, so it has to be a goal that both would want. Right?

Wouldn’t this mean that the Soundless are open to the corruption as well?

Sharvis.9085:

Mikuchan.7261:

ANet has called that “anything is fair game” and “anything can be destroyed”.
They have some 350 employees and guestimatingly about 80 working on living story. There is a -huge- room for rewriting the entire personal story if needed.

Now I’m not sure they would do it…
But if they really want to show us something spectacular, then that’s what’s happening.

Based on what’s changed so far in LA, I doubt it. The fountain that came back and the lighthouse being destroyed were the extent of destruction thus far. For the latter, you’d think with a bunch of wild Karka more would have gotten destroyed. I can’t fault ArenaNet too hard since it costs money and all, but it’s been fairly tame and inconsequential. I’d love to see big changes mind you, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.

Agreed. I don’t expect much, especially in the main world. Might be trashed in an instance, but that’s all I expect.

“Anything is fair game” and “anything can be destroyed” is just hype and marketing speak, just like “an expansion’s worth of content”. Don’t buy the hype, kids. You’re just going to be disappointed.

They’re not OP, but the power is easy to access. For any other class, there’s more effort involved to get them to pay off.

There’s also the fact that in PvE, damage is everything. And given that warriors make it easy to hit object A with weapon B, they can feel a bit OP.

I didn’t buy the original armor, so I’m not out any money here. But…

2 months to make this? To slap flame effects and maybe a bit of color rework onto an armor that already exists for all races?

At this point it is safe to say that ANet has neither the talent pool nor the resources to have any kind of cosmetic “end game”. Any claims that they could make such have been a massive self-delusion, at best.

Calling it disappointing is an understatement.

Atlas.9704:

Gearbox.2748:

So I can see that new patch is a force us PvE players into WvW…

We don’t know the full story yet, but it seems like most of it won’t even be in the Edge.

Tyler Bearce.3427:

I stated this during the Ready Up livestream earlier today, but I’ll repeat it again here.

While we are releasing new story related content with the Edge of the Mists update, very little of that content actually occurs inside of the EotM map. Hopefully that alleviates some of your concerns!

“Very little” is “very open” to interpretation. Especially given that we don’t know how important that “little” part of the story will be.

We had to do one of the boss events to unlock the story and character development in OoM. There’s every reason to worry that we’ll have to face PvP to get to the main part of the story in EotM.

Nausiation.1469:

why become stone?

It makes them stronger, tougher, able to survive on bad air underground, and all around better suited to fighting lava/magma creatures like the destroyers.

There’s also a chance that it may make them immune to dragon corruption. Dwarves supposedly knew more about the Elder Dragons, it’s possible that the spell they used protects them from corruption by using a similar effect to that corruption. Once something’s corrupted by a dragon, it can’t be re-corrupted by another dragon.

SaltyDave.7346:

“your giving us all these mining nodes and cool stuff "

Mining stones and what? I mean, what else?

LITERALLY NOTHING.

Skill point.