Guild Wars 2

What level are your existing characters, out of curiosity? If you take them back to the 1-15 zones, it should be less overwhelming for you and an opportunity to relearn all the mechanics.

Unlike the aboves, I don’t encourage making a new character just to relearn the mechanics, but if you want to make a new character anyway, go right ahead. Each class is a little bit different, though, so take that into consideration if you go that route.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Mourningcry.9428:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

cadmiumgreen.8712:

I think it’s hilarious, so I guess I have no pity for pixels. I’m sorry you had a negative reaction to it Flesh Wound.

I thought it was worth a thread to discuss it. And I’m glad you like it. I’m reminded now of an old saying that I heard back in the 60’s.

“Everyone to his own taste,” the old woman said when she kissed her cow.

Wonder how the cow felt about that….

Cows don’t have feelings. They’re animals. O.o

And yet you pity this poor fish. How strange…

When I first saw this pet, it was on Facebook with no sound. I rolled my eyes at the absurdity of it and scrolled on. I don’t think the fish flopping around is the problem. The fact that it’s making “gasping sounds”, as it is described, really seems to be the crux of the issue. Mute the pet, and everything should be fine, right?

Amaimon.7823:

thank you for the help. I will try your pathname method.
@Cedo, thanks for the suggestion, but I would much prefer not to use software of any kind, since it’s often hard to tell how picky anet it when they have their banning spree on third party software. It’s propably safe, but an acount as old as gw2 with all the effort put it, I’d rather avoid all sources of jeopordy if possible

That really shouldn’t be a worry, as it only affects booting up the game, not running the game. Still, I understand your hesitation and don’t blame you for wanting to play it safe.

I’m just trying to imagine the minimum number of unique button input needed to play the game, not counting communication with other players. OK, so there’s interact with objects (1), open the menu – which could include inventory and hero panel (2), then 10 skills (unless you want to reduce that number) (3-12). Probably one more to quickly open the map for convenience (13). Are there enough buttons on a game controller to accommodate all of that? Or can you think of a way to combine those pretty basic controls to the game?

I’m pretty sure finding new pages will still count towards the collection, but you probably won’t be able to review them until you complete the book and thus get the completed copy of the journal. I haven’t tested it, though, so venture at your own risk.

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

Rognik.2579:

I’m pretty sure Trahearne’s line when he starts fighting, “This won’t end well… for you” is new. So if they recorded that line, they would’ve recorded any other new lines at the same time.

No, he trots that line out occasionally in Orr.

I know he often says “This won’t end well”, but I thought the addition of “for you” was new.

Khisanth.2948:

Both of those are also PBAoEs.

And for those of us in the studio audience playing along, PBAoE means “Point Blank Area of Effect”, right? I want to make certain we’re all using the same terminology here.

I feel that in general, and for all classes in this game, that if you can switch weapons, you should have 1 ranged weapon and 1 melee-ranged weapon. If your foe teleports far away, then use the ranged option, but if they get up close, the ranged weapon isn’t necessarily a good option.

Daddicus.6128:

I want to get BACK to Bloodstone Fen and Ember Bay. Apparently we can’t do that without spending some kind of money.

Well… you CAN replay the first instance of the relative episode, and you will get there without cost. I don’t really like it, either, but it’s clearly not something that will be retroactively fixed, so we’ve come to accept it.

I’m pretty sure Trahearne’s line when he starts fighting, “This won’t end well… for you” is new. So if they recorded that line, they would’ve recorded any other new lines at the same time.

Flip a coin: heads, it’s elementalist; tails, it’s mesmer.

• How long is she going to be in recovery?
  -As long as the story needs her to be. New sylvari are being born now, so she’s already on the mend.
• Will she better humanity with her mind powers?
  -Who says she has any mind powers outside of the Dream? Also that is a very human-centric question. The norn, asura and charr are also suffering here!
• Why doesn’t she teach Taimi how to to make a Jormag version of Caladbolg instead of this machine nonsense?
  -A) Taimi never asked. Taimi isn’t part icebrood and thus can’t craft a Jormag-style weapon. C) I don’t think it’s that easy to craft a legendary weapon.
• Why doesn’t she train to expand her ability to process the Dream, especially the prophetic parts?
  -You don’t know what the Pale Tree is doing when we’re not around her. She might be trying to expand it and failing, and just not telling us about the failures. Also, the Dream is not this mystical “solve everything” realm you seem to think it is.

I like to think that rangers have their own personal Zhaitan Menagerie hidden away, either in their home instance or some parallel Battle Isles where they can call in their pets.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Not sure you could walk to Southsun; though, you used to be able to take a boat there.

There’s an asura gate in LA now.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Regardless, no map is gated behind purchase except those associated with the expansion, Heart of Thorns. And, just like the initial purchase of the game, are included, at no extra cost, with said expansion, as long as one logs into Guild Wars 2 during the current live period of time, usually around 2 months. Not a very arduous requirement, in my opinion.

Good luck.

All the LWS3 maps are locked behind having the chapter unlocked, which at this point means that Bloodstone Fen, Ember Bay and Bitterfrost Frontier need to be purchased if the player was not active during the months it was a free unlock.

However, to the people who are complaining about having to play the first chapter of each story chapter, are you not interested in buying the related maps? Each of the LWS3 maps have one for purchase for some unbound magic and half a gold piece, I believe. I haven’t bought any of the maps, but it doesn’t bother me, and I personally don’t want the inventory spam, but it might be useful for you if it’s really such a barrier. But for the very first time, you definitely gotta go the long way to it.

Malice.8439:

Thanks. Yeah, I was able to read up on it after I wrote that post. I’m still iffy towards it simply being a “react to this” kind of deal. We’re not told what the boss is trying to do, there’s no levity there to decide whether or not to counter. In the case of Caudacus, you interupt his Shadowstep – but that has the effect of him popping on top of you and instantly cleaving. At the time of the fight, I never felt rewarded for interupting his shadowstep, since the result of me hitting that key just led up to me being damaged in melee, having otherwise spent that fight running around at range with Scepter/Pistol and iDuelists.

Whenever I used the special action key on Caudecus, he would teleport to me then become stunned. I don’t know if he damaged me or not, because there were so many things trying to hurt me at the time that I was never at full health. You should’ve had a few moments to get away from him, though, whether you were in melee or at range.

When I approached the racial sympathy chapter, I decided that I wanted to play all 5 of them on all 5 of the races. Ogres are only available for the charr and the norn; quaggan is open to those who don’t sympathise with the ogres. The hylek is open to all except the charr, because the hylek are highly religious (not a spoiler, as lots of places talk about them worshipping the sun). The skritt are open to charr, human and sylvari, while the grawl are open to the norn, asura and the charr.

That said, all the racial sympathies unfold in a similar fashion: one of their settlements is attacked by dragon minions (not necessarily Zhaitan), and you have to help them out. Also, a lot of the quaggan missions are underwater, so that’s something to consider.

I’m just amused there’s a colour named “Tyrian purple”, but isn’t used as a named dye.

Greener.6204:

That’s a lovely, simple solution to a problem that I’ve had as well. Sure, we’d have to take it on faith that someone doesn’t slip out mid-melee to get their skills back, but that’s a minor issue compared to the two minute cooldown that some skills have.

Some things are hopefully done on the honour code, and not cheating during a match would be one of those things.

I admit to ignorance towards the guild arenas, not being part of any guilds who (to my knowledge) use them very often, but a solution is to have the adrenal mushroom just outside the ring, where teams are chosen. I don’t know if the rings are locked down during a match, but if they are, that’d make it easy to prevent people from cheating. Alternately, if they can be locked, just allow all skills to be reset and all players revived at the end of a match. This last one would require more coding, but shouldn’t be too hard for a programmer to do as a side project (I hope).

Rauderi.8706:

I could definitely use an eater for them. Just opening chests in my home instance can shovel 5-11 of these into my inventory every day. If I go to map/meta an HoT map, it gets even more ridiculous.

You do know you don’t HAVE to open the chests in your home instance if you don’t want the materials, right? It’s pretty much unavoidable on the maps, but if it just gives you ascended crafting items, STOP.

Malice.8439:

What about the Vinewrath? Faolain? The Pale Tree?

Maybe the Vinewrath. He didn’t really feel threatening, though, as he never left the cave.
Faolain was converted late in the story, so she had little time to be a lieutenant. However, I suppose she’d fit the role if she’d been more present.
The Pale Tree counts as much as Glint does, as neither one was on the Dragon’s side when we met them. We don’t fight the Pale Tree, while we do fight the Shadow of the Dragon.

Amaimon.7823:

and his three big guys? Axemaster, Stavemaster and that third one (yea I know of ’em is femme fatale)

They felt more like personal guards than lieutenants as they weren’t leading the charge into Tyria.

I totally agree. I even have Marjory’s Journal from way back when she was introduced; it’d be nice to put those books there, too. That, or have some other way of regaining the book if we delete it.

I don’t think there is any evidence to support a genetic component to the type of magics a child will use. While Demmi and Caudecus both seemed to be the same class (as evidenced by the skills they used in Confessor’s End), Logan does not use the magic of either of his ancient ancestors, Gwen and Kieran Thackery. Also, Eir is a ranger while her son, Braham, is a guardian.

That’s all I’ve seen as far as parent/child. The only other set of known relatives that I can think of (and have seen on camera) are Belinda and Marjory. We know Marjory is a necromancer, while Belinda, being in the Seraph, is most likely one of the Soldier classes (warrior or guardian). I don’t think we saw Belinda fight outside of “Disturbance in Brisban Wildlands” (and even then, I was busier worrying about not dying than what skills she used), so I can’t confirm that, but I’d bet she’s not a necro.

If I missed any other direct relatives (or even confirmed relations), let me know, but that’s all I can recall.

The use of “password” as a password above is only used as an example, not as an actual password. However, the concept of a sibling password is not necessarily bad. I like to have a theme to my passwords, to make it a bit easier to remember. For instance, I might use Mongolia as one password and UnitedKingdom for another. The places where I have to have numbers of special characters, I’d try to put them either as letter substitutes (Mongol1a) or in between syllables, to know that’s where it went.

Amaimon.7823:

All ghosts are:
- Foefire
- killed by bloodstone ritual
- having a destiny or duty of higher level, having something that bound them to stay (very few examples, but look at Turai Ossa)
I can’t think of, or remember any other source of ghosts

There are the ghosts around Hidden Lake in Brisban Wildlands, there are pirate ghosts in a mini-dungeon in Gendarren Fields and I think there’s another pirate ghost group in Sparkfly Fen. More recently, there’s a ghost around Ember Bay and there’s the bandit ghosts robbing the lumber camp or the ones near Noran’s Cabin in Lake Doric. I think these ghosts only had unfinished business as motive to stick around, rather than dramatic forces.

Artasqweroldy.7458:

Ahh, so the Qeen of Divinitys reach has some sort of power bestowed upon her by Lyssa? Because what happend there, with the dome seemed powerful beyond the reasonable level of a single human.. (unless that human absorbs some sort of Bloodstone that is)

OR, and this is just a theory, she’s a powerful mesmer. You say it’s beyond human capability, but it’s not like she, say, summoned a giant illusion of Kralkatorrik to lead Branded away from Ebonhawke or anything. That’d just be ridiculous.

Artasqweroldy.7458:

On the other hand, in the “regrouping with the queen” story instance one of the Ladys-in-Waiting mentions that Jenna and Logan apparently are not as close as they used to be. A possible explanation for that is, that Logan subconciously realized that Queen Jenna is not the real one. If there is anyone she cannot fool its propably Logan I guess..

My interpretation was that it was a change of emotion on Jennah’s part, not Logan’s. Logan just realises she doesn’t need him as a protective puppy-dog and can move on to better things like Marshal of the Pact.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that Jennah’s not an illusion at the moment, but perhaps the illusion isn’t giving the same emotions off that the real Jennah is. At the same time, this could be a calculated play by whoever created the illusion, which might be Jennah herself.

Personally, I try not to use waypoints unless I’m in a city. That’s more because I’m a cheapskate, though. However, I do try to use as few waypoints as possible to get around, and sometimes I’d run into events, or injured players, or possibly even resource nodes that I wanted to collect for whatever reason. So I, too, encourage people to try to walk places instead of just jumping to a waypoint, but unless you have poor willpower, still unlock them in case you get knocked out.

I don’t think it makes sense for Lazarus to be Mordremoth. Why would he protect the egg? To possess her? I don’t think so. I think his mind-planting abilities only reached to plant creatures, as you never saw him possess mammals. That would also mean he wouldn’t be able to do anything to Aurene. And so if he wants her dead, he could just leave the destroyers to do so.

Eirian Direstorm.9748:

(I would love if someday voice acting was added)

Sorry, but I think any voice acting they’d add has already been done. Side characters like Ridhais and Leide generally don’t get voices unless they’re part of an event.

Well, the censor program is trained to find any sequence of words that makes naughty words, and doesn’t want people to get around it by adding spaces or adding characters in between. I like that the censor at least uses a creative censorship method. It’s makes me calfing happy.

As people have said, exotic gear should be more than enough to get through all of the core living world content. However, beware the centaurs in Lake Doric; they have a kick you won’t believe. Other parts of the content might also be difficult, but not because of your gear.

1. Quick rundown of class’s elite specs:
a) Druid: A healer build with the staff. Can transform into celestial form, a healing avatar with a timer similar to guardian tomes. Adds glyph skills that change if in celestial form or not
b) Dragonhunter: Guardians gain a longbow and trap skills. Their virtues change slightly in functionality.
c) Berserker: Warriors pick up a torch and get super angry. Gain new rage skills, and can supercharge adrenaline.
d) Scrapper: Engineers swing a hammer. Gains mobile friends called gyros.
e) Daredevil: Thief uses a (quarter)staff. Focuses on physical skills and dodging.
f) Tempest: Elementalists shout into a warhorn. They can also supercharge their attunements.
g) Chronomancer: Mesmers pick up a shield to manipulate time. Can summon wells, grants alacrity (inverse of chill for skill cooldowns), Can also time anchor similar to thief’s Shadowstep.
h) Reaper: Necromancer becomes a monster with a greatsword. Also gains shouts. Shroud skills become more melee-related.
i) Revenant – the new profession. Summons famous names from GW history. Elite is Herald, adding a shield and Glint as a spirit.

3) Leveling through crafting is still possible, but 0-400 is only 7 levels, I hear, while going to 500 grants 10 levels.

4) Wardrobe unlocks the first time you log in since its implementation. If you had any account-bound skin from before but deleted, they aren’t unlocked. Fine equipment can be unlocked without account-binding it. You can unlock weapons or armor for equipment you can’t wear by account-binding it, then trading to another character. Salvaging an item also unlocks the skin.

Oh, and if you had the old transmutation stones, they can be traded for 3:1 for the lesser versions, or 1:1 for the silver version. Transformation charges are stored in the wallet. (see 6)

5. Living World is GW2’s attempt to make the game constantly grow and feel alive. Sadly, Season 1 was designed to be temporary yet open-world content, so this has all been lost to the sands of time. Season 2 introduced the Maguuma Wastes (Dry Top and Silverwastes), deals partially with the end of Season 1 and leads into Heart of Thorns. Season 3 is ongoing, with a map roughly every 2 months. If you log in during the free release date, it unlocks; otherwise, it needs to be bought in the gem store. Season 2 can be played with someone who has unlocked it, but that only shows the story and doesn’t unlock achievements.

Also, any achievements in Season 2 can only be unlocked after the story was completed. Achievements in HoT or Season 3 instances can potentially be completed in the first run.

6. Since you didn’t know about Living World, I assume you haven’t played since 2012. There’s now a wallet, which contains all the major currencies in the world (gold, karma, gems, dungeon tokens, map currencies). If it can be salvaged or used in recipes, it doesn’t go into the wallet.

Defiance has been replaced with a break bar. Using CCs on them breaks the break bar. They usually only appear on champion or better monsters. Stability also gives a break bar in PvP.

One of the tenets of the game is that there is no gear treadmill. That means that the level cap will always be at 80, numerically, and there are many ways to get the best-stat gear. Initially, that was having exotic (orange) gear. Ascended gear is somewhat higher, but mostly used in fractals so they can have agony resistance (which drops from running fractals).

Guys, this is an 8 month old thread that’s been raised from the dead. Most of this discussion is long dead. Try not to keep pushing this any further.

It’s not a bad start of an idea, but there’s a few things I would change:

• Make the Spirit Force bar more similar to how Celestial Power or the Necromancer’s Life Force bars are. You slowly build it up through attacks, and it only goes down when it’s active or when you die. I don’t know if having it like the Warrior’s Adrenaline bar is a good idea.
• Shield is fine as a choice, but the way you suggest chain skills isn’t like all the other ones in the game. If you want Shield Drum to be the block skill, it should be that the character holds the shield up; if the strider is hit during X seconds, block the attack and the vibration grants Protection to all allies in range. Otherwise, Shield Drum could be a Taunt as the strider beats the drum.
• Having two chain skills, especially on an off-hand weapon, is extremely rare. I think having the strider charge while holding the shield aloft is a good idea, and it feels more like a blast finisher than a leap one.
• Spectral Tree seems too powerful as written. Pulsing is OK, but I would think it should get weaker over time, not stronger. Adding the fruit makes it super powerful, unless the tree can be attacked by enemies which stops both the healing and fruit, in which case I think it’d be fine as written. Maybe.
• Spectral Wisps acts like an ice field, and yet it destroys projectiles. Is this meant to be defensive or offensive? If it’s defensive, it would probably be better to just be targeted on the self, similar to a well and leave it at destroying or reflecting projectiles back. If it’s offensive, it chills enemies in the area and maybe removes one boon per pulse.
• Why have a five limit condition cleanse on Spiritual Cleansing? Not sure how often you have that many conditions on a single target. Perhaps cleanse all conditions, with an effect if X conditions are cleansed, or maybe a lower cap on the condition cleanse.
• For Spectral Protector, maybe have the nearby enemies get taunted on activation, rather than taunt anyone who tries to attack an ally (by which point, it’s too late). The strider gets one stack of Aegis for every two enemies taunted. (Aegis might also be too strong, but it balances out the medium armor of the profession.)
• Instead of Regretful Power, maybe make it Protective Spirit, where having a spiritual pet grants 10% Damage Reduction instead (or otherwise balanced). If the focus of the class is being a more front-line protective fighter, having a spirit prevent the damage seems better than just granting raw power.

Not sure what to think about the parts I didn’t comment on, but these are what I think would make it a more balanced specialization. Naturally, some of the other powers could be balanced by having a long cooldown instead, but I think it’s better to have moderate abilities with neutral powers rather than have superpowered abilities with long cooldowns. It’s a good initial idea, but definitely needs some fine tuning.

If I might ask, do you know how he died? Do you mind sharing? Every death is sad, but some are able to teach a lesson.

Yes, but the living world maps are locked behind another pay wall if you weren’t here when the maps were first released, and each of those maps have their own sets of dailies.

But as bad as the BLTC is, are the Consortium any better? Perhaps they’re framin Evon, making it seem like he’s doing something shady so they can steal all of his business!

I’m not sure how quickly you got to level 30, how you felt that progress was, but that should be the teaching method of how you acquire levels and progress through the world. Also, can you be a bit more detailed on this “One Tamriel” mechanic? I’ve never heard of it, and I can’t even guess which game it’s from.

I’m going to try not to repeat any of the suggestions other people have made, but you have to understand that a lot of the design choices for GW2 was made intentionally to be different from other MMOs at the time, and much of it is still unique.

1. If you haven’t already, equip a sickle, logging axe and pickaxe and go harvest all the nodes around the world. At your level, it’ll be only tier 1 and 2 materials, but that’ll get you started on crafting when you do get the urge to try it out. Plus, you get XP every time you harvest them.
2. Explore the zones fully. Each time you uncover a new bit of map, XP. Each time you reach a new waypoint (after the first one), XP. Each time you view a vista, XP. Map completion also gives you a chest of gear and bonus XP.
3. Events and renown hearts are definitely your early methods to get XP. You get better rewards the more you participate in events, and often the events chain, so that the conclusion of one event leads to another happening. Follow one of the NPCs after the event is over and see if they trigger something new.
4. Go try and find monsters that haven’t been killed for a while. Killing the same fresh mobs over and over will only give you a little bit of XP, but the ones that haven’t been killed for a while can grant up to an additional 2x the base XP.
5. Give crafting a try anyway. It gives XP, and some equipment for either your current characters or new characters of a lower level to give them. They’ve set it up so that grinding is relatively painless (ie. quickly smelt all your metal into bars, and gets faster the more you do at once), and you get far more crafting XP discovering new recipes than grinding out the exact same weapon.
6. Do the personal story. Even if you skip all the cutscenes, each instance usually gives about a level each, meaning each packet of 4 should give you a 4 level boost. It is also designed to lead you to higher zones until you reach what was, initially, the most difficult map. It helps give a little direction in your exploration.

If you don’t enjoy these aspects of the game, GW2 might not be right for you. I always loathe telling people to leave, but if you aren’t having fun, don’t force yourself to stick with it. As there aren’t any subscription fees, you are of course welcome to come back at another time to try it out again, but it should never be a chore to play the game.

I have no objection to having separate dailies for HoT content, but I’m not sure there’s necessarily enough content to have 3-4 separate achievements for just the HoT maps. Clearly, one of the set will always be doing one of the adventures, but what will the others be? There are not enough variations to have the harvest achievement, which splits up Maguuma, Shiverpeaks, Ascalon and Kryta along with foraging/mining/logging. Would you want one to be doing the map meta? Like daily Octovine victory? Daily Patriarch kill? Or maybe do more like the initial dailies and have kill 25 mordrem/chak?

I think the outcry of story being locked in raids is way over-dramatic. There was outcry when the White Mantle were revealed to be active back in either Wing 2 or 3. However, when the main storyline caught up, they added in a short cutscene to catch up players who are either unwilling or unable to play that content.

Saul D’Alessio was a major character in GW1 lore, sure, but means little to people who started playing with GW2. It’s not as if raiders don’t record the story and then upload it to YouTube or list it on the wiki. The story is out there, and it’s not detracting from the main storyline where it would feel shoehorned in. Also, if you didn’t watch the last Guild Chat, they said that if the story wasn’t done in this raid wing, it wouldn’t have happened at all. I believe they also said they almost didn’t get approval to do so. Try to be happy that it did happen, rather than be another unanswered mystery like whatever happened to Evennia.

Bazompora.2635:

They would say that love is too precious to be passed over simply because someone’s eyes are blue, their hair is dark, or because they are of the same sex.

… or because they are all brothers and sisters.

Such general lack of humanity undercuts the argument for Sylvari romance.

Plot hole?

Not really. It’s never been depicted, but sylvari could also fall in love with another race. So far, there’s been no interspecies romance, and we know that there can’t be any cross-pollination of the races, but that doesn’t mean they can’t fall in love with, say, a human, an asura or a norn. The culture gap might be too big, though, which is why we haven’t seen it yet.

Also, since we know no sylvari can reproduce no matter how much they try, does it matter that they’re all technically siblings? They seek comfort in another being, and when you have hundreds of brothers and sisters, that familial bond loses all meaning.

StayNight.5328:

There are skills that turn your boons to conditions and conditions to boons.
Also condition removals,drawing and sending conditions are a bit weird on itself cause you (in a way) shift reality each time.
Butterfly effects on mesmer skills might have a totally different meaning in that perspective.

Boons to conditions and the reverse is a transformation, as it doesn’t really get rid of the boon or the condition, just changes its form. That’s the definition of conservation. However, if you want me to defend the stance, I will:
*Boon magic is summoning magic around you to give a positive effect (swiftness, healing, might). Imagine it like a ball of water surrounding you, slowly dripping out as the effect is applied.
*Condition magic is summoning magic to inflict a negative effect on your enemy (cripple, bleeding, weakness). This is also like a ball of water ticking down, except the water is poison or acid.
*Boon stripping or condition cleansing is taking that ball around the person and dispersing it back into the ether from which it came. The thief stealing boons is transferring that water from the target to him/her.
*I don’t have a good allegory for the drawing or spreading conditions/boons, but for spreading it, it’s taking a snapshot copy of the condition at that moment and giving it to all targets while drawing is taking all of them and dumping it into one pot, keeping only the one with the biggest capacity. It works out in my head, but I don’t have the words to express it.

StayNight.5328:

It might be that magic is just magic.
With no attributes by itself but thought capability(?) of sentient ones might be limiting their usage of potentialy limitless magic?
Example of it; electromagnetic spectrum being magic, those who see all known colors and being totaly colorblind is difference for all different types of sentience.
I wonder what happened to golems who helped all asuras to get out of their hikikomori syndrome in underground and sail to new lands.

Magic definitely has rules. It’s not entirely limitless. Gorr found that the dragons were eating magic because the levels of ambient magic was going down. How strong those rules are is up to ArenaNet to decide, and keeping them as vague as possible for non-player characters allows them to have more freedom for new classes or story beats in the future.

The definition of sapience is the ability to recognise the self and hold complex ideas, which for Tyria defines all the greater and lesser races. Sentience is the ability to move around with a purpose. For example, cats are sentient but not sapient (as far as we know). Most people would not qualify golems as sentient, because they need to be programmed and controlled to move about. Elementals definitely move about, and can use skills either when an enemy approached or attacks, but it’s hard to say if they’re sentient or enacting some weird programming from errant magic.

Also, asura were not hikikomori. Sure, they lived underground, but they had massive interconnected chambers under Tyria. They were chased out because of Primordus waking up and the destroyers flooding those caverns. As for the golems from back then, I don’t remember if they were new upon reaching the surface or just something they always had, but they either broke down, as machines will do in time, or got upgraded as golem tech progressed.

Since the conversation has drifted to the topic of Mary Sues, I’m going to weigh in on that. What is the definition of a Mary Sue? No one is going to be able to come to a consensus, since it is a fan term applied to what people consider to be a lousy character, usually applied to fanfiction. Now, it should be argued that characters written into an original setting cannot be a Mary Sue, because it is not an inserted character. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say it’s possible.

The primary reason I feel Scarlet isn’t a Mary Sue is because she’s a villain. The prototypical Mary Sue is a character with mostly informed traits or background, who nearly everyone loves, and is the “special snowflake” everyone is making fun of these days. Scarlet is the one who causes the problem, not the star. A lot of villains are incredibly intelligent. In fact, that’s usually an aspect of what makes them a villain. Typically, they become evil because they take science too far or they feel they are so smart, they want to take over the world. Scarlet, who had learned at all 3 major asura colleges, does prove she is intelligent, not just through this but also by managing to unite different villainous groups and her various machinations, like manipulating the watchwork knights or creating the marionette. Before the Molten Alliance, the dredge and the Flame Legion never really communicated before Scarlet got them together; the krait hated everything with two legs, but agree to work with the Nightmare Court to form the Toxic Alliance. She had to be smart enough to convince these two groups to work together. Thus, no informed traits. Also, aside from Taimi (who had decent enough reason to respect her), she was a pretty unpopular character in game.

As for Lazarus, that is a conflicting mess at the moment. Him becoming an ally is not a Mary Sue move. He’s powerful in a way, but no so much that he can handle the enemies single-handedly. Now with the revelation that he might not be who we thought he is, this gives a chance to give him some much needed development, as we learn about his true motivations. Maybe he’s got a more sinister plot, or maybe he is a friend who chose the wrong way to get close to the Commander, but let’s give him a chance to develop a bit before we call him such a bad character or “not what he was like in GW1”.

The Shatterer isn’t in a level 80 zone. Tequatl isn’t in a level 80 zone. The location of the lieutenant isn’t as important as how big the fight is.

I haven’t done the megadestroyer in a while, so I don’t know if the battle would count as a lieutenant fight or not. However, Mordremoth only had the Shadow of the Dragon from S2E4 and possibly the Mouth of Mordremoth down in Dragon’s Stand, which is more similar to the Eyes and Mouth of Zhaitan than a proper lieutenant. Either way, Primordus will either get his lieutenant in the story or when we head to areas with more concentrated destroyers. There are so few locations where destroyers are found, so it makes sense we haven’t met his new lieutenant.

StayNight.5328:

Yet all dragons have a very specific elements that belongs (in a way) to them.
It seems to me that when magic gets concentrated in a spot, it creates matter.
But even while matter is created it develops its consciousness with either more time or magic. (little bit of ying, little bit of yang you get gods and dragons(When it comes to mists, its all about probability even if its very small))

I could be wrong, but I think it’s less that matter is actually created and more that that element is collected together into a mobile form. I don’t know if Tyria has the Law of the Conservation of Matter/Energy/Magic, but I think it would be a decent starting point until we have reason to think otherwise.

StayNight.5328:

And now when i think about it, the shape of bloodstone elementals might be coming from those who were sacrificed and trapped inside it.
And humanoid anomalies might be the part of those who got out of bloodstone.
Thats why they are sad all the time?
And are asuras making experiments about this on humans? (fractals)

Bloodstones are making those effected to become thirsty for power and get mad, just a bit.
So maybe magic really have qualities like ying and yang.
Cause those who are freed from bloodstone are “white” and cry-babies?

The shape of the bloodstone elementals are the same as earth elementals. While that might be conservation of models on the game’s side, I’d like to think it means more that it’s because bloodstones are earthen. Most creatures on Tyria are humanoid in some form, so I don’t think the exact form means anything other than how easy/quickly it moves about.

As far as the bloodstones themselves are concerned, perhaps when magic is that concentrated, it acts as a sort of mental poisoning. Consuming the bloodstone dust makes them more powerful but also has bad consequences for the consumer. It’s similar to how certain things are tolerable and useful in low concentrations, but can be poisonous in high concentrations.

StayNight.5328:

In my knowledge there isnt any other “green” elementals anywhere else but at Wizard’s Tower/Fief.
It may be just that “orange” ones are away from “drone controling signals”? so there are on auto-pilot, while red ones are close to touch of tyria’s core?

Sure, there are no other strictly friendly elementals, but neither are there strictly friendly bats or grubs while they can also be either hostile or neutral. I haven’t noticed a pattern behind what motivates them to be aggressive or neutral, but maybe there isn’t a strict pattern to it, either.

Those are just some random thoughts on the matter.

A lot of skills talk about units, but I don’t think there is anywhere in game where that range is really explained. Even in the PvP lobby, where it has short, medium and long range, it doesn’t really explain how far a unit is. Give me a ruler somewhere in game, and I’ll be happy after that.

Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946:

Mesmer gets a movement speed increase from Signet of Inspiration, a) but it is random with other boons procing instead, b) annoying because quickness procs just before you jump (epic trolling by the developers, even if unintentional ), and c) causes your toon to same something stupid every few seconds, otherwise, mesmer gains a speed increase trait with Chronomancer, which is after level 80.

This skill has changed so that quickness is always generated along with a different boon.

Of the characters you’ve already started, I’d stick with the Guardian or Thief. Guardian has a lot of healing skills and heavy armor, but the thief has access to a lot of stealth skills needed to avoid unwanted combat. Learning to play them and decide which style works best with your preferred style will be the key to what you stick with.

Until you unlock a certain level of character, you won’t have a lot of quick-leveling techniques. The best method to learn the class is to keep moving up to level appropriate areas and keep fighting until you find yourself challenged, then consider what you did wrong. If you want to try PvP, though, go for it: you’ll have all skills unlocked, be temporarily leveled to 80 and be able to test your skills against others, although you might find yourself slaughtered.

Elyssandariel.2679:

And if they are dead they should WP…….this is the kind of attitude I am talking about! This attitude never used to be around, and now its “You’re dead, WP.” Some people won’t even help downed players anymore, they let them die and tell them to WP. I am not saying rez them when it’s dangerous, but when you are able to, and you need people to help finish, making them run back from a WP is time consuming.

This is fundamentally incorrect. First off, this attitude naturally existed from the beginning because that is the toxic attitude that many bred way back in other MMOs and brought it here when they started playing. Not everyone is like this, naturally, but it was always there for the more “elite” players.

As for rezing, this is dependent on the situation. I will often heal defeated players if I fin them, and be healed by players should I die and wait around for a while. If I’m on a low-population map, or off the beaten path, then it’s entirely possible I’ll have to waypoint back to life, but several players are still willing to heal a body nearby so long as they aren’t clearly AFK or in a high-danger area.

I might agree that there has been a change, but I don’t think it’s necessarily as drastic as you think it is. It’s definitely not something I can put my finger on it, but there’s been a lot of subtle changes that could reflect the change you’re feeling now.

Well, this is a lot to unpack, but I’ll do my best.

1. Masteries
Well, this is the first idea for progress, and it’s an interesting idea. The most interesting thing is that it’s account-bound not character-bound, meaning my new level 2 characters can run around gliding without ever setting foot in the Maguuma Depths. A lot of the mastery lines as they exist are only useful in very specific situations, but I feel the way the Ancient Magics line goes is a better format to take, where they are useful in lots of places.

2. Elite Specializations
I’m really waiting for a second one before I pass judgement on it. As it is right now, people claim that it’s strictly an upgrade, and I’d have to agree with that assessment. Seeing what a second elite specialization is like, and what the tradeoffs are that might make someone pick the one over the other interests me. Because the test is what other specialization would make someone pick it over the current one without making one or the other unquestionably more powerful. Rangers seem a more obvious case, as Druids specifically focus on healing, so a more damage-focused class would be why you choose another specialization; other classes, though, I’m not sure.

3. Talents
This sounds like how the old trait lines work, but the talents you’ve listed all sound pretty powerful. The key thing about something like this would need to be reaching a balance that doesn’t give that type of character an advantage over another on the same level. For instance, anything that gives a discount with merchants means that everyone will want to have a character like that solely to buy stuff from shops and then throw it into their bank. And if the items aren’t somehow account-bound, that’ll wreck the economy on the trading post. The talents should also be either comparable for each class, or something that specifically enhancing that class’s play style. Like maybe an extra second of stealth for thieves, but only in PvE as that would break the balance of PvP or WvW.

4. Skill Proficiency
This also sounds like some of the old systems, kind of a mix between certain talents and how the old skill unlock worked. I do miss how I unlocked more skills by killing enemies, and the higher the level of the foes I killed, the faster I learned new skills. I’m not sure this method is the way to reintegrate this idea, but I like the spirit of it.

5. Epic Gear
I… don’t understand the point of this except to give people a new carrot to chase. It should either offer better stats than ascended (raising legendary gear to match) along with some other benefit that ascended cannot currently offer, or it’s just a new skin for ascended gear. No need to complicate stuff when it’s already a minor achievement to get equivalent gear.

We’re actually summoning Mist workers, former members of the Black Lion Trading Company that expired when originally establishing the trade routes. With a bit of necromancy, we are able to summon them back temporarily to exchange goods for money. So it’s not so much that they die but are returned to the Mists.

The problem with this, Cristalyan, is that you’re assigning an Earth meaning to a Tyrian creature. The humans may worship the Six like gods, but they aren’t necessarily gods in the sense that we know them to be. In fact, we’ve never seen the gods themselves; no human has in over a thousand years. We’ve seen their emissaries when we prayed at their statues in GW1, and we’ve seen their avatars through the dervish transformations, but neither of those are necessarily the gods themselves.

Another assumption you have is that gods must be eternal, always existing and never ending. That might be the case for monotheism, but most polytheist cultures (and humans are clearly that) don’t have that same belief. You needn’t look farther than classical mythology to find gods being born all the time. Only Gaia, the Earth, and Ouranos, the sky, were creatures that were always there, and Ouanos was defeated by his children. Then there’s the case of Maia, one of the titans. There was a prophecy that she would birth two children of Zeus: a daughter, then a son that would defeat him as he defeated his father. To stop that, Zeus swallowed Maia whole and this is how Athena was born. Homer also mentioned that the gods could be wounded; if a creature can bleed, it can usually be killed.

Abaddon was pretty soundly defeated during Nightfall. There was no indication he split himself into facets like Lazarus did, and his godly essence was absorbed by Kormir. There’s really nothing left for him to resurrect into the body.

Regarding the bloodstones, Abaddon did not create the magic but instead unsealed it from the stones and gave it to the mortals. He might have guided humans in how to use magic, but it was there all along, kind of like how metals like iron and uranium were underground long before we knew how to use them.

Finally, I think you give Marjory too little credit here. Yes, she was fascinated by Lazarus, and I can’t blame her. If he really is back from a centuries-long nap, that’s an aspect of necromancy that any practitioner of the art would be interested in. If he’s really an imposter, her detective skills might have been itching and she wanted to seem like she fell for it to figure out what he’s really up to. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she had figured it out long before we show up to rescue her, and I’ll be disappointed if she hadn’t. Belinda hasn’t been mentioned since she entered the sword, and I’m pretty sure Marjory has accepted that her sister is dead. After all, no one has really come back from the Mists that entered it through death.