Guild Wars 2

draxynnic.3719:

I think it’s that in S2E2 the PC interpreted the orbs as Elder Dragons, but they’re more correctly the spheres of magic or ‘spirit realms’ that each dragon is incidentally connected to. Killing the dragon means that the dragon is no longer soaking up the energy of that sphere, so the sphere crashing into Tyria is a metaphor for that sphere’s power being released in an unbound form upon Tyria.

We have a lot of indications, from various sources, that too much (and, for that record, too little) unbound magic is a bad thing for Tyria. What I’m inclined to think has happened is that the dragons weren’t any deliberate response to a problem, but simply evolved in a high-magic environment to make use of that magic… and thus ended up regulating it (just like predators help to regulate the numbers of herbivores). It’s possible that this happened while Tyria was not fully formed and still halfway in the Mists, and the dragons are responsible for bringing Tyria the stability to form fully.

However, they’re not doing so out of any higher purpose than being hungry, and there’s no reason other, less destructive methods can’t be employed to have the same result: regulation through the Bloodstones or artifacts of similar nature, for instance.

Agreed.

In Guild Wars 1 people theorized why Razah could come to be. For the Elder Dragons, I think they possibly followed the same process of creation. That magic at it’s core has a base property (like all things are composed of matter) and, like light, there are different spectrums. These massive amount of energies coalesced over time to become sentient beings that belonged to each individual sphere of magic power. But like animals, they must feed to survive and so they devour without much considerate for the species that panic bellow them – not until the current era anyways when, through Zhaitan’s demise, Mordremoth was quick to begin dismantling his opposition.

Never the less, I do not think the Dragon’s created the spheres but instead represent them. A manifestation of magical properties catering to one specific type, personified into a beast(s) of immense power.

I’m still of the belief that dragons do not “die” in the same way we players understand it. They become vanquished, sleep, and then wait until the next cycle to start all over again. Yes I’m aware of comments made by devs in saying “Zhaitan is dead.” But at the same time, that doesn’t really answer the question if EDs can actually DIE. We’d have to wait for Guild Wars 3 and it would have to jump ahead in time a considerable amount again in order for us to see the EDs rise again. So it is safe to say Zhaitan is dead because we wont be seeing him again in GW2.

They described these things like forces of nature. You don’t stop nature but you survive it. I do not think we actually kill them.

Were it not for Mordremoth, the airships would more than surfice. Since you wouldn’t have to lay down tracks, blow up holes in mountains, cut down trees – etc. Too much maintenance. But airships? Who is going to cry when these things would slice through clouds, Zeus? Pah.

The way I always looked at it is, for a one time purchase of an individual box, you got the game it offered. That being said, the Hall of Monuments does to some extent tie into GW2 so if you have the time and wish to farm – you have a chance of being rewarded for your hardwork.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Its too bad there wont be a Season 3 , HoT is basically closing whats going on with mordremoth.

There is literally zero comment regarding the discontinuation of Living Story-updates. None. No one has ever mentioned it. HoT doesn’t mean the end of LS, it means the end of Mordremoth. We still have Primordus, Jormag, Kralk, and “Bubbles” – that’s not even counting Emperor Xenophobic (Cantha) and Palawa Joko (Elona). Future expansions could certainly use seasonal episodes between each to set up the narrative that the next large-update provides. Just as how Season 2 leads right into HoT.

Honestly if they continue to improve the way they had from Season 1 to Season 2, the future ahead for more content could look drastically more entertaining.

Crossaber.8934:

try think of it the other way around.

LS2 is actually paid content but player get it for free by login during the 2 weeks window.

It’s not even "paid* content though, it’s a matter of time management. You can get these episodes without spending a single dime. Not to mention the two-week promotion Free-per episode, is a pretty decent deal.

This isn’t like Shadow of Revan where if you don’t get the expansion, you can’t level up from 55 to 60. These were small bits of lore for us lore-nerds and nothing more, some achievement points and what not but otherwise just means to inflate player investment.

Your name makes me cringe OP, I want my $50 back!

But in all seriousness

My complaint is the pacing, as it has been with most of the rest of the game. The pacing is off, and the cliffhangers are overused due to the breaks we had going on.

Yeah. I’m going to agree here in saying that the pacing has been off. Especially given the amount of lore-density some of these simple episodes were trying to build, it just didn’t dive fully into the important bits in setting things up – not enough or even at all IMHO.

It’s what they should have done from the start. Since Season 1 Episode 1 of Living World, I have been relatively against it. Guild Wars 1 had Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of The North that featured campaigns of their own with a “couple” of zones. Had they stuck to that formula sooner, perhaps things would have been going more smoothly. They got lazy though.

draxynnic.3719:

Subject Alpha.

To which many people then cried “ah, but that happened in a lab, it’s not a natural circumstance!”. They may be right, and minions may have some level of resistance to additional corruption.

I can cry if I want to!

But seriously, the fact he kept breaking down and vanishing to me screamed instability. That and, given the nature of the experiments, it is simply not true Dragon Corruption coursing through its veins. But that’s neither here nor there, the point seems moot because low and behold – they are Mordremoth’s grand children.

I do think Primo could do something with their bodies but I don’t think he corrupts anything alike to what we’ve seen so far (Icebrood, Risen, and Branded).

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

I say success. Living Story gave an easy to understand storyline.

Well, I look at it by comparing it to Season 1 and the base campaign of the Personal Story. In the Personal Story we had shoddy one-on-one character dialog over a still-background and then in Season 2 we get cutscenes somewhat more reminiscent of Guild Wars 1. Additionally, we went from Season 1’s lack of narrative to suddenly a plot that eventually ties in together.

That cries out: improvement. And if it gets people to log in and do a couple farm runs, it’s garnering an audience which is always a plus. I would hardly call it a failure but that’s just my two cents, I find it interesting when you lay everything flat out and look over it all from left to right and back again.

Knighthonor.4061:

Btw this post is Satire for those that also didn’t notice at first.

This. 1234567

CureForLiving.5360:

Ronin.7381:

kept using Saren from Mass Effect to draw a comparison to Scarlet during the finale of Season 1.

IE
Saren sought salvation, believing the Reapers could not be stopped and so allying was the only way. Yet at the same time he was conducting research for the affects Reapers had on organics, Indoctrination, and trying to find ways to combat it.

But in the end Saren for all his big talk was indoctrinated, he was a puppet.

Well yeah, that is the major flaw in just about any anti-hero who seeks to challenge fate. In their obsession to change their destiny, they are ultimately consumed by the same source of which they are trying to fight against. In Scarlet’s case, she got too close and when she thought she had the edge, really it just played right into Mordremoth’s favor.

Star Wars The Old Republic just had a plot like this with their latest digital expansion Shadow of Revan. Where Revan’s quest to vanquish the Emperor ends up playing right into the Emperor’s incorporeal hands and thus aided the Emperor in his freedom.

I think Scarlet was just consumed by her fear and determination, the two went hand in hand.

SirMoogie.9263:

Deli.1302:

Because the beings in the trailer had tendrils. Also there was a part in the trailer where it casts some sort of spell and enchanted armors were never spell casters if I remember correctly.

Something curious about that spot at 2:47. The being in question doesn’t appear to have tendrils any longer, or is using them to power the beam attack… it’s hard to discern which of those it is, but towards the end of the brief clip it no longer has the tendrils..

And his hands (gauntlets) are solid blades. Why forsake the capabilities of fingers and thumbs for arm-blades as what appears to be a castor?

Yeah, I’d more so inclined to draw comparisons with Primordus’ method of corruption with that of say the events of Pompeii and other devastating volcanic eruptions in history. Obviously with more magic involved by like those victims in Pompeii, they’re encased in ash but everything under that layer is incinerated. I do not believe Primordus cares much for flesh, so it’d be nothing really like Icebrood or Branded.

It’d also explain why his forces have things like Trolls or Harpies, they’re just the foundation of which to build a body over. Pretty diabolical if that’s the case, Primordus is one evil magma-jama. Huehuehuehue

Agreed. I have never been a fan of nerfing the best performing spec in order to achieve balance, rather – I advocate to actually assessing those performing less than favorable and find out ways how to bring them up. One of the grueling issues, the main one, I have felt for this game is that while I like the idea that the Holy-Trinity is nearly gone… that came at a price. Damage specs provide benefits two fold 1) It’s a, “Kill it before you die.” and 2) The quick-way.

Unfortunately healing and dot damage just isn’t viable. I am also bias since I do play an Asuran Warrior and this Might nerf (plus the nerfs we suffered previously) really showed itself, or will soon :P

This is better suited for the tech section of the forums. We can’t give you much other than check your drivers and hardware to make sure a driver isn’t in conflict with other programs or that you don’t have a failing component.

I don’t know, topics like this make me all the more eager to see Anet get more zanny with the characters in question just to watch people suffer.

Chyanne Waters.8719:

It was a smart decision on NC Softs part.

We must have different definitions of “smart”. City of Heroes was still, after Freedom (F2P-Freemium), bringing in acceptable profit. It really came down to NCSoft deciding to take apart development teams and purposing them and/or letting them go. Some went to Carmine, some were added to a new NCSoft subsidiary (NC-somethingorrather) and others just fell off the grid. In fact Valiance Online (the self proclaimed spiritual successor) picked up some of the animation designers from former Paragon Studios and that game is shaping up rapidly.

Hard to say what compelled their decision to shut it down. I don’t think it was the lawsuits, Marvel and DC both had it out for that game but the lawsuits were dropped when it turned out people forging the complaints were found to be making the very toons they were reporting for “copywrite”.

draxynnic.3719:

Depends on how you define ‘extinct’. They’ve abandoned their corporeal existence and become spirits – which can be viewed as willingly dying and becoming ghosts.

Pretty much this. I mean that was the basis for the Ranger spirit summons. Which… makes me all the more believe that these things are druids and not Mursaat. Even that figure’s form looks too… basic for what I’d have assumed Lazarus to be.

One speculation I did find interesting though is the idea that without being ascended, we of course would see something else out of the Mursaat, assuming they allowed us to see them at all. But then again The Unseen Ones could just be a moniker derived from people who have either never lived to tell the tale or only spoke to non-Mursaat messengers.

I’m just very skeptical on this being turning out to be a Mursaat. Especially in the one shot we immediately have two others, one at each side, of the one we presume to be the one casting his glowy Hokus Pokus.

Michael.8562:

Seems like she’s stating out right that those that don’t have or reject her protection will be corrupted. She also doesn’t mention the Nightmare – so what she’s talking about doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the Dream or Nightmare.

Well, she does. The Dream is a form of protection conjured to “install” morals on her sylvari. The Nightmare is likely Mordremoth testing those defenses and slowly breaking through. Prior to his awakening the Nightmare was but a compelling whisper probably inciting rebellion but it didn’t have an individual to rally to so it was like a call made by an unknown number. Once he awakened however, he became the manifestation of the Nightmare and thus we have what is spilling out in HoT.

Avariz.8241:

Does what happened to Aerin shed a different perspective. He was under the protection of the Pale Tree by all appearances and yet when he got close to Glint’s egg, he was corrupted by an green/yellow energy and possibly by Mordremoth.

Aerin also followed the path of the Sylvari who practice subduing the Pale Tree’s influence, via meditation or what have you. The Silent ones or whatever they were called and something occurred along the way to the Wastes that allowed him to fall under Mordremoth’s influence while his “defenses” were weak.

Wuselknusel.4082:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Wuselknusel.4082:

Kayji.4390:

Another thing to note is that despite mord’s attacks, none of the playable races (except sylvari) seem to corrupted, instead there bodies are just left hanging off vines.

We’ve seen a corrupted charr in the trailer.

The thing Rytlock takes down with a spear? Really doesn’t look like a charr, imo.

No. http://youtu.be/uu0zho4s-IE?t=1m

Just looks like a smaller version of:
http://i.imgur.com/dmFi3Jm.jpg

Slowpokeking.8720:

What if we attack the dragons when they are asleep and weaker?

That’d be a hell of a long time to wait, my characters wont live that long!

Koviko.3248:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

like how sylvari couldn’t be corrupted by Kralkatorrik (eventually re-found that it was from the original sylvari page on guildwars2.com).

To add to this, I saw an explicit mention of Sylvari being immune to Zhaitan: Branthyn of the Vigil says it during the story portion where you defend the Overlake Haven fort in Kessex Hills.

Personally I found that speech to be a play on words since Zhaitan was the only conflict in which the player gets directly involved with. Hence, the justification for mentioning that advantage. This was brought up a lot during the debates as well, taking comments literal when perhaps the NPCs were just as mislead. Some maybe annoyed with that excuse because they want answers chiseled in stone but that’s kind of where I derive my enjoyment from, that even a snowflake can be mistaken, mislead, or downright incorrect.

I still do not see what it is you’re calling me out for over being in favor of Arenanet’s practice, which I said was actually acceptable to me (where as the OP disagrees), vs other experiences that I have named as negative.

Astralporing.1957:

Ronin.7381:

By getting away with it I mean from a business perspective, some business practices look foul in community eyes. And I could think of a few examples (TOR and Champions) where in order to get some extra money out of you, they offer little in return. TOR for example rehashes old skins and puts it up on the cartel market and denies both free and premium players the opportunity to turn in game currency into their form of microtransactions. So I would say in saying that “everything by the book” is a very broad generalization.

True. If going “by the book”, they should have had packaged all those ls components, and made them into a paid dlc. Without the ability to get them for free by just logging in during right time. That would have been soo much better [/sarcasm]

Despite your attempt at sarcasm,

they should have had packaged all those ls components, and made them into a paid dlc. Without the ability to get them for free by just logging in during right time.

I shall humor your comment here and simply ask, why the stipulation? They could have also very well given players the opportunity to log in once every two weeks and apply the story for free but should a person miss those opportunities for whatever reason – have to pay some amount of money at the end of the Season finale for a DLC pack that contains all of the content episodes.

Mind you, Season 1 is not accessible yet. It was a “snooze – you loose” scenario and I had absolutely no problem with that. Never mind during Zeph-festivities they brought back special unique items that were found in these episodes and couldn’t be obtained otherwise.

BrunoBRS.5178:

the engineer’s hammer attack, which is a mix of warrior hammer 4 and hammer F1, just chained together in a single skill, with different particles over it, and with movement added to it.

Or, mind you, it could be two separate attacks synced up. Notice he does change targets there so I doubt that’s a two-in-one skill :P

aspirine.6852:

Ronin.7381:

A Massive Headache.1879:

another thing about mursaat is they’re completely evil.

This is where I disagree. They had a disagreement with the Seers and Forgotten (based on GW2 lore) on how to address the Elder Dragon threat and out of arrogance fled to save themselves.

In Guild Wars: Prophecies, you could easily twist in a way that is more chaotic-good than truly evil. Yes they killed people, they harvested their souls to power the Soul Batteries which in turn kept the Door of Komalie closed. That same door was the key to the Titan Invasion. Furthermore, The Flame Seeker Prophecies (according to Guild Wars: Nightfall) were a fabrication designed by Abaddon to put into motion a course of events that would have lead to his own freedom had Prophecies ended in Kilbron’s favor.

To add note, The Flameseeker Prophecies detailed the Mursaat’s demise. One could easily argue that, again, they fought out of self preservation. Now yes, the fact one Justicar sacrificed a whole lot of Chosen on a Blood Stone to power himself was a bad dude but if anything, that just means he wasn’t necessarily acting on the will of his masters. The Champions, the players, were seen as a threat because we (our player’s ancestors probably unless if you’re Sylvari, SORRRY NOT SORRY) were trying to fulfill the Flame Seeker Prophecies.

You could also argue that their Jade Bows, Armors, etc were products of souls collected being given eternal life to protect the people of the White Mantle. Which, well I guess to relate – you couldn’t call all Germans who fought in World War 1 and 2 evil, they were simply on a side of opposition fighting for what they believed in.

See, this is why I felt the Mursaat were actually pretty awesome. They weren’t your regular black-villain vs white-hero.

Didnt they also kill lots of char and krytans? Doesnt sound like friendly to me

1) The Charr who, according to mankind, was pushing into Kryta and after the devastation unleashed on Ascalon – was that really a bad move? And since history can be swung both ways, if the Charr get a fair shake (Oh Adelburn was a lunatic) well then so do the Mursaat.

2) Krytans, it’s not like the Mursaat were literally entering Lion’s Arch and slaughtering them on the spot. No, they were much more subtle about it. They, The White Mantle, took people in groups and escorted them to discrete locations so they could be sacrificed on a Bloodstone which later goes to show they were empowering a process to prevent a certain calamity.

Note, we the players in GW1 actually helped with that at the beginning mind you.

That’s like saying the Mayans were evil. They sacrificed people too but really it’s a matter of cultural practices.

By no means am I saying the Mursaat were good. No, they just had goals in mind. Plans that they put into action to see fulfilled. That’s not being anymore evil than they are good.

Just watched WP’s QanA a bit ago and someone asked him that questions about Trahearne’s possible demise. I have to say, it does look suspicious and we’ll probably have to go in and save his rear before the process of corruption can be undone – unless of course they plan on him to die. That is however, assuming he’s been corrupted. I take both sides of the spectrum each with a grain of salt.

Ayakaru.6583:

Ronin.7381:

I think they can get away with it only because you can use in game gold and transfer them to come up with gems in a relatively simplistic way. Not at all like say Champions Online that has you going through multiple different currencies just to get Zen or say Dragon’s Prophet or NeverWinter. The transition between transactions for GW2 is rather seamless and it doesn’t take really that long to hit 80. However, to get enough gold to even get 100 gems… that’s going to take a lot of farming.

get away with it?
You mean, like, they commited a crime, or broke some unspoken rules? as far as I know they did everything by the book. Some lazy thing didn’t bother to read the status quo and now complains about not knowing it

By getting away with it I mean from a business perspective, some business practices look foul in community eyes. And I could think of a few examples (TOR and Champions) where in order to get some extra money out of you, they offer little in return. TOR for example rehashes old skins and puts it up on the cartel market and denies both free and premium players the opportunity to turn in game currency into their form of microtransactions. So I would say in saying that “everything by the book” is a very broad generalization.

There’s positive ways to go about providing people to spend money on in game stuff and then there’s negative. I hardly see GW2 as being a negative example thus far, whether my friends hate the game for whatever reason or not.

I’m just waiting for E. to turn into some child prodigy of Livia perhaps, or someone else notable from GW1. It’ll make fans jump with glee but also throw people off.

Edusd.7893:

A very interesting idea. What about the possibility of “not evil” dragons. For example, the idea of keeping Glint’s egg away from the EDs with the intent of creating such a creature, may lend to the idea that perhaps at some point in the distant past, there were more than just the EDs we know, maybe they were snuffed out, maybe they evolved, or perhaps they gave rise to some of the races we see now…

Well I remember back towards the development phase, when news of GW2 hit the magazines and everyone at GWGuru were ecstatic over the new reveals, that it was said the Dragons motives are not black and white. I believe the quote was along the lines of, the EDs not being allied but all having a common goal (to feed). You could draw the comparison between America and Germany too if you wanted to get… colorful (can you tell I’m on a huge Captain America binge right now?).

This is my hope of course that Primordus will get his emerging victory in the climax of Mordremoth’s defeat or he’ll be responsible for defeating Mord and grow all the more powerful – making him the next target.

We do know from the novel Edge of Destiny that Snaff did talk to Kralkatorric but at the same time he’s a dunce so him being “good” is… not a thing. So the dragons are capable of communication therefore – understanding and comprehension.

Novuake.2691:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Great_Jungle_Wurm

Gamarien says the same thing.
I doubt that the Great Jungle Wurm has nightmare court behind it, however I am pretty sure that Mordy HAS something to do with it.

Just more subtle hints. I do think Mordremoth is the one responsible for the Nightmare but with the Pale Trees protection, all he could do was caress the barrier and hope others would listen. Well done Scarlet, YOU HAD ONE JOB!

Konig Des Todes.2086:

There’s really nothing that actually indicates the two is the same. And besides, we know that dragon energy corrupts – but mesmers have been using chaos magic even in GW1.

But if we are to believe that while Dragon’s Sleep they burp and fart their essence back into the world, it’s entirely plausible that chaos magic has a common source. That being said however, given my constant parading against Subject Alpha and it’s legitimacy, I do also wonder how extensive tampering can get – be it voluntary or involuntary.

However, Ceera’s comment could still be a play on words. That she is implying that the Asura miss-attributed their research on the same source of energy. Each ED maintains a sphere of influence on energies, that project a specific affect, that make up the world of Tyria (or the universe depending how they tie into the mists) so Chaos magic may very well be the result of an element per-se that the EDs themselves feed and distribute.

EDIT: What I’m getting at here is that the very same cutscene people were pointing fingers as the explanation over waking cycles, IMHO was actually portraying the relationship the EDs had with Tyria’s ecosystem. On a magical level, I guess you could say. That is of course ignoring the whole Mordremoth bit going through the center which I think was just portraying how we gone and flipped stuff up.

Using the Mesmer reference, what if Mesmers were just attune to that sphere of influence which happens to be on par with Kralk’s behavior?

Honestly, I could see this being a thing for select Sylvari to fill the Tank (boss) roll on the front lines. Roiding said sylvari out with Mordremoth sap and turning them into BarkBeefCakes of pure rage. The rotting wood-look to it does have a nice imagery to it, I think.

As for the creature on all fours. Maybe a fern hound under the same affects?

Any number of reasons could explain what it was she was trying to do. Keep the quote on the Blades Backpiece Blueprint in mind, “Caithe, one day you will find out I was right. Tyria needs me.”

I do believe that, like Caithe as we speak, she was trying to face her fate and defy destiny. Their destiny being that the Sylvari were meant to serve to Mordremoth as nothing more than pawns, minions, in his attempt to scorn the world. But plans like these are always bate for a tragic villain, I remember I kept using Saren from Mass Effect to draw a comparison to Scarlet during the finale of Season 1.

IE
Saren sought salvation, believing the Reapers could not be stopped and so allying was the only way. Yet at the same time he was conducting research for the affects Reapers had on organics, Indoctrination, and trying to find ways to combat it.

What I think Scarlet was getting at was that Mordremoth could not be stopped until he was awoken and dealt with. A fool’s folly surely but one built over courage and determination to face a rising threat that she alone saw was the bigger picture. Now we have a trailer for HoT and Caithe mentions the same thing, that sometimes Destinies need to be challenged. In my opinion, I believe Scarlet was hopping to rewrite herself to be who she wanted to be and not some minion with a simple and violent purpose. She was obsessed but she was obsessed with conquering odds that were stacked against her, and we as the players slayed her dead before she could see any of it come to fruition – leaving us thinking her plan was only about awakening Mordremoth all along. Hell, I bet she smiled during her death because she was at last free from the mental torment she was enduring.

Kayji.4390:

Have you noticed how involved ghosts have been in the second season of the living story? Fort Salma for example, ghosts of the seraph were left lingering where they seemed to be stuck in a continuous nightmare. Then there’s the fact that mordremoth is trying to reach the ghosts of ascalon. One of the points of the theory was to serve as a speculation for what would happen if modremoth were to reach them.

After having just watched Honest Trailers: V for Vendetta, I am curious if there is some underlying connection. Coincidences in story telling thus far simply do not exist :P

I wonder if this means, because of the Lay Lines, that Mordremoth was able to tap into the mists and create rifts. We only see ghosts at specific locations where something traumatic has occurred. There’s probably something akin to a pattern here, that these are all pieces slowly coming together – Rytlock trying to undue the Foefire and going to the Mists (seemingly out of the blue), the attempt fails mind you so we don’t really see the Charr from Rytlock’s warband come to our aid. All of a sudden he comes out with newfound “knowledge”.

The fact that Marg’s sister is indeed lingering in a zone where ghost presences were unheard of.

Interesting….

BrunoBRS.5178:

doesn’t read thread because it’s almost 6am here

i theorized (read: guessed and hope it’s right) that the cave we find in ep.8 is the cave Ronan found the pale tree’s seeds, and the seeds of what would be other pale trees. most importantly, ronan’s seeds, alongside the other seeds in there and pretty much everything in the vincinity (hence the coat of golden, “ancient and pure” magic everywhere) was purified in a Forgotten ritual (much like Glint). it is, after all, a cave sealed by the Forgotten, who are known to have purified dragon minions before, and the magic in the cave is described as “pure and ancient”, AND for some reason that cave is a huge deal to wynne, who learned sylvari were dragon minions in her dream and then was drawn to that cave.

so while i have nothing conclusive, my guess is that Malyck’s tree was also freed from mordy’s corruption, at the same time the pale tree was, way before Ronan was even born.

This however makes me wonder the anatomy of the seed. Could it be possible that The Shadow of The Dragon and the Pale Tree both come from the seeds? And that The Pale Tree was unique in that it was planted rather than left there to incubate? That thought has been going through my mind a bit lately and it makes me wonder how offspring act based on how they are placed in the environment.

Nilkemia.8507:

Koviko.3248:

I think we should be assuming that all champions HAVE free will, but most of them choose to use that free will to assist their master. Glint and the Pale Tree have, instead, chosen to aid humanity.

Um, no. That is not at all how the link between dragon champions and the dragons work. Glint had to be freed from Kralkatorrik’s control by the Forgotten before she chose to help humanity. The Pale Tree’s seed would’ve also had to have been purified in a similar way for her (and the sylvari) to have free will too.

We still don’t know the extent of the ritual for her was like, yet though. According to Glint the ritual just made her more sympathetic and she still watched the Forgotten die, those who conducted the ritual in the first place. It wasn’t instantaneous so what I think Kov is getting at here is that IE: Germans enlisted in World War 1 and 2, they were doing what they thought was right for their country. The ritual just merely opened her eyes to see what she had been doing to others which mind you isn’t a new concept in story telling by any means. Villains turn heroes out of finding out something “new” is quite common, borderline cliche.

Evans.6347:

There are other energy based creatures that have appeared in the gold, red and blue variety, namely Djinn.

At any rate, the last bit of the trailer which has the ‘Mursaat’ firing an energy beam shows a long, serpentine body. I don’t remember the Mursaat being serpentine. Perhaps they are ascended Forgotten?

Forgotten didn’t have legs though and Mursaat did have three toes. We do however know that the dude is most definitely NOT a Seer because Seers have four arms and cape-like wings.

neilug hyuga.5634:

But here Konig des Todes I agree with : maybe they got a new form, in order to “survive” or whatever.

While I am not entirely convinced, one must keep in mind that Lazarus (the last known surviving Mursaat) split his soul into numerous facets. So we have no idea what that could have done to his physical form, altering it in some way if/when he puts himself back together. It’s been 250, give or take, years.

IE: Golem changed due to proximity with the ring in less than that.

The being we see could plausibly be Lazarus but that’s reaching even for my tastes at this point. It’s not new by any means for developers to reuse architecture and designs in order to save development time. It just so happens they used the finale of Season 2 to imply a correlation in Forgotten architecture between the two games, where as in GW1 it was nothing more than a baseless theory.

Honestly, I myself love looking at all of the angles before I jump into any bandwagon. The Sylvari Minion origin was more or less me trying to deny that they were “Tyria’s Immune System and destined to destroy all dragons” which was way more snowflakey for my tastes than the former. But that being said, my take on it didn’t get kick started until Scarlet entered the scene and episode by episode, just before the finale, had given hints. Season 2 then jump started that in a big way, to me the evidence was just substantial – there was a link it just wasn’t clearly defined.

I’d like more information still before coming to any conclusion about this trailer.

lakdav.3694:

If one is looking for a lore explanation on why they look somewhat different (aside from the simple “250 years have passed” or “They are not the same mursaat”), it can be considered that what we saw in GW1 was probably the true image of the mursaat that we as player characters could see as we were Chosen, granted the gift of True Sight through ascension. Our GW2 characters are not chosen, we dont have true sight, and it was very clearly stated that we did not ascend via that echo of the ascension rituals. So the new design might as well be how the mursaat look to those who they let see them, and the gw1 models are how they are visible through True Sight.

I didn’t get to read this because of lousy-refresh stuffs. I do think that would be very interesting by why waste that “image” on a cutscene that the player specifically would have no knowledge of? But it’s something to note as is anything else right now.

draxynnic.3719:

I think there was also one which basically linked every set of old ruins in Prophecies to the mursaat.

To be honest, I can’t remember the details now or which precisely it was – I was mostly watching from the sidelines myself. I do recall, however, mass player anger at ArenaNet seemingly getting something ‘wrong’, followed by dawning realisation that it was a bandwagon that everybody had jumped on despite there being very little actual evidence to support it.

Ergo being cautious now.

The one theory I know myself and Quintus Antonius were very disappointed by was more so Eye of The North. He fell in love with my joke that Menzies was The Destroyer and in the wake of Abaddon’s Destruction, was attempting to “flank the planet”. Unfortunately that was debunked and what we got was a pretty lousy end-boss during GW:EN with a huge segway into GW2 teasers.

As for the Mursaat, hm. The whole, “Hell is paved with good intentions.” Wasn’t ever really disproved. Gale just implied that they had ulterior motives which weren’t entirely evil but obviously, innocent people were dying. Can’t quite remember what the Mursaat grand reveal was.

My favorite theory was the idea behind the Jade Armors actually being the souls of the slain on the BloodStones, thus in death they’re granted immortality to serve a greater purpose. That theory however remains to be confirmed or denied as GW:EN nor GW:Beyond gave any inclination.

lakdav.3694:

The (supposedly) mursaat models look like a redesign. Like as if a designer was given a set of attributes and features, and he had to reconstruct the whole thing without taking much of a look at GW1 counterparts.

Well yeah, naturally when you deal with new engines old designs will get refurnished and upgraded. So there is that to consider but I’m just… I’m hesitant on calling it now even as much as I loved the Mursaat – something about it seems off.

Slowpokeking.8720:

In 2:47 of the trailer, could that Mursaat be Lazarus? He looks a bit green.

While I loved the Mursaat and am indeed looking for Lazarus’ “rebirth” plot to unfold, I’m wondering if maybe that’s just a druid, a species long presumed extinct even in GW1. Seeing them come back as a source of insight on Mordremoth would be cool. Although at the same time I guess my disagreement with seeing that dude as Lazarus would be that the Mursaat were flesh and bone, not energy – however I do admit that Lazarus is one such unique case who sacrificed his body by splitting himself into facets which would also just as much suggest the energy form.

I think they can get away with it only because you can use in game gold and transfer them to come up with gems in a relatively simplistic way. Not at all like say Champions Online that has you going through multiple different currencies just to get Zen or say Dragon’s Prophet or NeverWinter. The transition between transactions for GW2 is rather seamless and it doesn’t take really that long to hit 80. However, to get enough gold to even get 100 gems… that’s going to take a lot of farming.

People, players and developers alike, need to understand that grinding is just a natural element in MMOs. It’s how you convey progression and people don’t want to do something if they feel they aren’t rewarded well enough. That being said, I’d agree that the rewards themselves need to be looked at for a third time, dungeons need to be tweaked if necessary.

Saying “No grind” is like saying you shouldn’t breathe. It’s just the way these games are made, the trick is trying to find a way to make grinding fun.

Dawdler.8521:

CoH was running what, 8 years or something? Compared with GW2, which is just beginning at 2.5 years. Its also 99% likely that there is a Guild Wars 3 in production as we speak, although I dont expect any announcement on that for another year or so. IE GW3 is highly likely to release before GW2 is as old as CoH was.

I would be ok with a Guild Wars 3, assuming they take a hard look at housing in other games and Elder Scrolls Online. Love ESO or hate it, I love the simplicity of its combat and the ability to customize (on par with Champion’s free-framework builds).

….while CoH was a generic “hero game” that easily got trumphed by DCUO. Its all about the lore

Err, that is incredibly debatable. 1) City of Heroes is an original IP where as DCUO carries the DC brand. 2) I wouldn’t say it got trumped at all, while DCUO had a massive falling out and reverted to F2P (survived only by the Station Pass at this point) City of Heroes was shut down by a decision and not because it was “failing” by any means. Despite some of the mechanics here and there, the game itself was solid and still proclaimed as the best super-hero MMO there ever was… which is more or less opinion.

Although I do admit I’m a little bias since my original account on DCUO was banned for using some program I had no knowledge of and when I asked if I could address the problem, they gave me the subtle-finger. To add to that, plenty of people were getting account-locked by false positives, support was running a test of a new security system and I was getting nowhere. So I’m still a little sour about that.

It did kind-of-sort-of stump Champions though. Man that was a horrible mess I regret being apart of.

Nike.2631:

Just three months ago NCSoft butchered the staff at Wildstar – the price they payed for some gross mismanagement. Other studios also got a shave. At the same time ArenaNet lost exactly zero staff. NCSoft has expressed satisfaction with Guild Wars 1&2 in the most tangible manner possible: they left them alone.

Yeah well, WildStar had a lot going wrong with it.

That being said, the fact Guild Wars 1 is still running should give skeptics some peace of mind.

Aye.8392:

Zera Allimatti.2541:

Sure, the players themselves are obviously immune to the effects because duh you’re not just going to make everyone’s Sylvari characters suddenly not playable. Obviously the NPCs in the Grove are immune because duh you’re not going to lock out an entire capitol city from the player base.

Please explain this to the denizens of Lions Arch.

While it’s true the game developers won’t take away our playable characters they could conceivably make it so that Sylvari could no longer be made at character creation. I don’t expect that, but then I didn’t expect them to blow the heck outta LA either.

The circumstances of LA were irrelevant since you had plenty of Native cities to go to instead, that and all they did was move all of the stuff out of LA and into Gandarren – effectively only changing the mechanic-side of things by one-zone over. This is nothing more than an anecdote.

They wont lock a character species nor take control away from the player unless it’s some specific mechanic based on a condition-like effect that suffers a duration.

kmorland.9486:

Its safe to say they will still be going over the games main content whilst we are waiting for the expack to be released expect a lot of feature packs in the next few months im sure they will be fine tuning alot of stuff before it release

If they play their cards right and not rehash the Elder Dragons as the primary kittenes, we also still have Cantha and Elona we could revisit. I’d like to see more closer resemblances to GW1 though, a lot of the areas in GW2 just don’t feel as familiar as those same areas from GW1.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

Test.8734:

nGumball.1283:

If Anet is in panic then most MMOs in the industry should have already been closed by this point.

Let’s see which MMOs have been shut down?

City of Heroes? Check.

Warhammer Online? Check.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes? Check.

Spellborn? Check.

Fury? Check.

Tabula Rasa? Check.

Hellgate? Check.

Star Wars Galaxy? Check.

Earth & Beyond? Check.

…Among others. Not to mention the half dead P2P games that went F2P and now lack any kind of support.

Do you really believe the MMORPG industry is expanding right now? Wasn’t the poor performance of nearly every MMORPG released recently enough to show that maybe the genre isn’t exactly doing well?

Well I played City of heroes, Vanguard and SWG and I know exactly why these games was terminated and GW2 is nowhere near that. GW2 is one of the top MMO’s at the moment so I do not share your believes Test.8734.

City of Heroes was also shut down based on a business decision, not that it was actually losing money. Were one to go look at quarterly reports of NCSoft, after CoH:Freedom, they were generating a substantial amount of money. I’d almost wager it was comparative to TOR, who mind you – was ranked 3rd on the MMO board of 2014.