Guild Wars 2

In the southwest corner of Frostgorge Sound next to a vista point you will find the remains of a dwarven town. I found two gravestones there which turn out to be Deldrimor dwarves who perished defending Krok’s Hollow from the Stone Summit.

Krok’s Hollow is the village where you met with Jalis Ironhammer during the Borlis Pass mission.

There have already been a number of threads addressing the issues with this mission. If you do a search, you’ll find some with tips about what tactics to use.

The fight with the mouth of Zhaitan has several phases that make it difficult. The NPCs die immediately, you are left to fight solo with tons of damage to dodge. You can hide behind the pillar and use ranged attacks to pick off the shields circling him. But that still took me quite a while and a number of deaths. Depending on the spot behind the pillar, you can avoid most of the Mouth’s attacks. However, it was then more difficult to target the shields because of LOS. When they get to about 50% health, the targeted shield will leave the Mouth and attack you making it easier to finish that one off. Once all the shields are destroyed, the NPCs will revive on their own. At that point, I found melee was the best way to go. I had my ranger run in and basically tank him using my axe/torch and apply conditions. Try not to let him get to the chests that the undead servants are bringing in or he’ll regen health and eventually the orrian spectral shields will surround him again. Note that during the time you are picking off the shields, you don’t need to worry about the undead servants. It won’t make any difference until you’re actually fighting the Mouth. If you can apply cripple or other conditions, you can keep him from reaching the chests.

Also most people agree this is one mission that needs to be toned down a bit. It was the most difficult one of all for me.

I’m on Crystal Desert as well and finding very few people in the lower zones. If this is not the case on other servers, then I’ll definitely make a transfer.

However, I think it’s just a question of time before most people are all in the level 80 zones; there will be no real reason to come back and play in the lower zones unless they start another alt. New people coming into the game will not be enough to create larger populations in lower zones.

So I think before long all servers will see the same results…. DE that are dead. The other day I came across a norn settlement in Lornar’s Pass that had been taken over by the branded. No one in sight. Eventually another player came along and we managed to defeat them and revive the norns. I’ve tried to do the skill point at Grenth’s Door but no one has come by and I haven’t been able to do it solo. I’m sure I’ll be able to find a group or do it solo eventually. The difference is that initially there were people everywhere and none of this was an issue. Lower zones are definitely not as much fun as they were with more people around.

Making DE replayable with bonus rewards might bring more people back to the lower areas.

Thanks for taking the time to post responses. I enjoyed reading everyone’s perspectives. I hope some scholar does indeed decide to do more research on the “mysterious heroes who seem to pop up everywhere.” That could make for a fun little storyline. And Sialor, thanks for the tip about those scholars in Rurikton. I’ll have to go check that out. =)

I was doing the GW bonus mission "Rise of the White Mantle’ the other night, and I thought what fun it would be to have a few of those types of bonus missions added to GW2 with revelations of past lore.

To respond to the above:

Thank you for your replies and perspectives on the possible explanation for lack of lore on some major events in GW. I certainly have heard of people like Genghis Khan, Mahatma Ghandi, Attila the Hun, Saladin, and major pharoahs like Tutenkamen. I think the heroes like Devona, Aiden, Cynn, Mhenlo as well as our character would be remembered as having done something to transcend the ages. I don’t expect to see my character specifically named because obviously that would be impossible.

Travel between continents was happening 250 years ago. So news of what was happening on those continents should also have been known in Tyria. Mhenlo was there in Cantha and witnessed the events although he was a Prophecies character. And in Tyria they do recognize Kormir as a god. So they must have had some knowledge of the events that led up to that.

Maybe I’m the only one who feels this way; but I would have expected to at least see some mention of the Lich Lord being defeated by a “group of heroes.” If such a reference exists, I haven’t seen it. I also have yet to see any reference to Devona or Cynn who were obviously major characters/heroes. The only reference I’ve seen to Mhenlo is on a bookcart in Divinity’s Reach.

I do think, however, that more will come to light through the discovery of texts, journals, letters, artifacts, etc.

I haven’t seen those items yet. However, it has been somewhat disappointing to find so little history about the events of GW campaigns. After all they did know about the history of Ascalon. A lot of other historical events are mentioned in dialogs….the sinking of Orr, events around the searing and King Adelbern, Prince Rurick, even Vizier Khilbron, and yet barely any awareness of the threat Abaddon posed and the heroes that thwarted his plans. It just seems hard to believe that something that big would not have been passed down at least thru word of mouth. We saved Tyria, Cantha and Elona from Abaddon; yet no one knows about it. Surely there would have been some mention of these events thru Queen Salma. Durmand was around 250 years ago; I would think that he’d have preserved some of the important history of his times. And it couldn’t all have been destroyed since other artifacts remain. Plus the Order of Whispers existed back then .. not a single mention of Master of Whispers from Nightfall has turned up. And then here’s the big one … Ogden Stonehealer still survives and he knows what happened. But apparently he hasn’t shared this info with the Priory.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who could come up with explanations lore-wise as to why there doesn’t seem to be any clear record of those events. Maybe dungeons shed a bit more light on the heroes from GW.. I don’t know. The bottom line is ANET chose not to include them (at this time anyway).

It makes me feel sad. But hopefully they’ll add more info in future content. I don’t think anyone has discovered the remains of Eye of the North/Hall of Monuments because no mention is made of it. However, the ghost of Artificer Mullenix is still there. So maybe thru him more could be learned about the past.

Other areas underwent changes but they still have the feel of how they were. I see no resemblance at all to the Maguuma area as it was. No plants, animals, topography .. nothing. Drying up wouldn’t change the topography. I can understand that there would have been changes, but to look completely different … I don’t know. I love all the other areas. Brisban Wildlands is the only area I really don’t like.

The volcano changed the southern part of the Shiverpeaks, not the whole mountain range. The whole maguuma is gone as it was that is.

The fight with the mouth of Zhaitan is working as it did from the start. The NPCs die immediately, you are left to fight solo with tons of damage to dodge. You can hide behind the pillar and pick off the shields circling him. Once all the shields are destroyed, the NPCs will revive on their own. At that point, I found melee was the best way to go. I used my axe/torch and applied conditions. Try not to let him get to the chests that the undead servants are bringing in or he’ll regen health.

There are a number of threads with tips on how to beat this mission… just do a quick search. Also most people agree this is one mission that needs to be toned down a bit. It was the most difficult one of all for me.

GW ranger skills were so much more interesting … burning arrow, megabane shot, frozen soil (a must against roaring ethers), distracting shot, conditions/interrupts, … traps … beast mastery skills … overall very versatile. And different types of bows with diff specialties… hornbows, flatbows, recurve (my fav) plus great skins. So much fun to play. I enjoy my GW2 ranger, but I do miss the wider range of skills.

Yup, you have to approach the door as though you were going to open it. Then you’ll get a reaction. Also there are other posts about this mission if you do a search that will give you more tips like this one.

Interestingly, there is a god’s hand and god’s skull not faraway.

The one area that totally does not seem to fit for me anyway is Brisban Wildlands. This was the Maguuma jungle around Aurora Glade. Although there are still some areas that seem jungle-like, the overall feel is not the Maguuma. There aren’t any giant vine bridges for example. And why are there no centaurs here? What happened to the giant aloe seeds? There were jungle trolls, thorn stalkers, and spiders everywhere. Now there are a lot of bandits, Nightmare Court, and Skritts. As far as I can tell this area would have been less affected by the dragons. Less rain is too simplistic to explain all the changes especially when it’s right next to the Caladon Forest which is quite lush.

I found some interesting books in the Durmand Priory library. This is at the Priory headquarters in Lornar Pass in the instanced area of Durmand Priory. Ogden Stonehealer is in this area.

Books:

Master Togo’s Book of Koans 1 – a student learns an important lesson

The Aiden Journal – Aiden explains his dislike of towns and his desire for wilderness

Then there is a book by Wikki (I had a laugh over this name) Official Guide to Tyria where he tells a little about the history dating back 11,000 years. Interestingly … he notes that there are a number of continents on Tyria the planet, but only some have been explored.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I appreciate all the great detail in your explanations. Now it makes sense …. funny how even after playing GW1 for so many years I’m finding pieces of lore that I hadn’t paid as much attention to.

It’s not clear to me yet why the mursaat killed the white mantle and Saul D’Lessio (as far as we know) after the battle against the charr. Why did they help Saul when he first came to their city as a dying man if they didn’t want people knowing about them? He returned to Kryta, formed the White Mantle, and successfully pushed back the char with help from the mursaat. He was a champion for the mursaat cause you might say. Why did they agree to help the White Mantle only to kill them afterwards? Yet they allow some of them to live. It doesn’t make sense to me. In GW1 we fight against the White Mantle and the mursaat; therefore, they wanted to rule Tyria. It’s not like we don’t know about them although they are called “the Unseen.” After the battle with the char, the survivors would have continued to spread the word and believe in the mursaat. Why would they care about witnesses to what they had done? If they did, then why not kill all of them. If they wanted the White Mantle to continue helping them, why kill some instead of letting them all go out to proclaim the superiority of the mursaat. Just don’t see the logic or the motivation in their actions. If anyone has more info or insight into these questions, please expand. Thanks!

Ree Soesbee: There have been a lot of questions about the Seers and their ancient war with the mursaat. Sadly, these aren’t questions we can answer at great length without giving away some very deep secrets of the Guild Wars world.

Some remnants of that civilization, and that ancient time, still remain in modern-day Tyria (both in GW and GW2), but often, those who discover such things do not realize what they have found. There are opportunities in Guild Wars 2 to uncover some of the most ancient lore, including previously untold tidbits about the Seers and their story, but such information will be very difficult to come by.

This is from a GuildMag interview/Q&A. However, it’s from 2 years ago, so who knows if it’s still accurate information.

I’m wondering about those “very deep secrets of the Guild Wars world.” There’s obviously a lot more to their story than we currently know. So I’ll be curious to see if it gets developed in GW2.

Never count on your pet to help you kill anything.Utilize their CC abilities to try and synergize them with your own, and sacrifice them to save a player.

Thank you for your post!! I’m glad that you’re talking to people about this problem. Since pets are a big part of a ranger’s dps, it obviously puts us at a disadvantage when we can’t use our pets for their main purpose.

Another problem that has come up is the aggro range of pets in dungeons. They end up triggering traps and causing unwanted aggro in tight locations.

I think pets need a buff for dungeons, and they shouldn’t be able to trigger traps

Lol … you’ll have to post a pic for us afterwards. =)

Well, to each his own. It’s hard for me to understand how any ranger could seriously love a my little pony bow…..maybe as a joke.. okay.

Lore-wise it makes no sense since there aren’t any unicorns in Tyria. If ANET intended the bow to be some sort of joke, I’m not laughing.

Although there may be a few people who will want to craft this shortbow, most certainly will not. That takes away a huge piece of end game content for the majority of players.

I miss all of the above … especially:

So many fun skills we had to choose from. I really enjoyed crafting my own builds for particular situations.

Targetting and auto attack… it was so simple to use. =)

Access to storage accounts in every town and outpost. Xunlai chests ftw.

Free ports to all locations … it really irks me that I have to pay for a waypoint after I die. I already died which is bad enough; now I have to pay to port on top of that. Just doesn’t seem right to me. Ressurection shrines ftw.

Heroes/henchmen… I know this game is set up differently, but they were fun … Koss, Dunkoro, Olias, Gwen, Zhed, Razah. I miss ritualists and the SoS build.

Thanks again to all the great finds people have added as well as the link to the updated map.

I saw another post about Saul D’Lessio; so I’ll add some info that was posted there by Konig Des Todes:

Demetra is where the Bonus Mission Pack mission, The Rise of the Mantle, took place. It is the village that Saul defended and launched his sneak attack from, and became a holy site for the White Mantle.

That is why his tomb is there…. though there’s never been a body

Saul D’Lessio’s tomb is in the Ruins of Holy Demetra… SW corner of Harathi Hinterlands, and there is a renown heart there as well.

I got a laugh when I interacted with a char who was cooking … he says I know what you’re going to ask, but “it will be ready when it’s ready.” Of course, that’s what we heard from ANET every time people wanted to know when GW2 would be released.

I agree that this was the most difficult and annoying mission of all the ones I did for my personal story. I think a lot of people haven’t chosen this option; so it hasn’t gotten as much attention as some of the others. I definitely think the devs need to take a look at it and make some adjustments.

The NPCs run right into battle with the mouth and die. Instead it would seem wiser to have them pause and discuss a plan of attack. “Looks like we’ll have to range him” or something to that effect. Then the NPCs could actually be helpful. For example they could work on keeping the servants from reaching the mouth while the player takes on the main attack.

There is a Xunlai Chest in GW2, two if I remember right. Go to Eye of the North, and look around.

There are two chests there; however as relates to the question of this thread, they don’t supply any answers. If you interact with those chests, it says they’re magically sealed. You would need to speak to a Xunlai agent to have an account. But since there aren’t any agents around you can’t access the contents.

So it would seem that after the dragons awoke, banking was just one of the many things that changed over the course of 250 years.

South of that island there is a renown heart where you collect truffles. If you search underwater there, you’ll find a way to get to that last poi.

When you go to Eye of the North and your Hall of Monuments in GW2 you will find not only the Historian Kimmes, but Artificer Mullinex, Staci (the rune trader) and Micah Fergson who was the skills trainer. There are also a number of pets to charm notably the black moa and black widow.

Also there are two Xunlai chests that you can interact with; it says the chest is magically sealed….. “Talk to a Xunlai agent to activate your storage account today!” Of course, that’s the message we got before opening the account in GW.

I don’t think some of his points are without merit just because he’s comparing his gameplay experience from GW1 and GW2.

1. One suggestion that even came up during beta was the ability to customize the UI and move things around as we like. It definitely came up as an issue. Sure we can play the game just fine with the current UI. Is it terrible .. of course not… would it be nice to have more options… I can’t see why not.

2. Skills… I have seen this come up from others as well. So it’s not an isolated complaint. In GW1 there were indeed 100’s of skills for each profession. Many of them I never used or only in very unique circumstances. So I agree that we don’t need 100’s of skills in GW2.

However, let’s be honest here. Who wouldn’t like to see just a few more utility skills or maybe even some interchangable skill options for each weapon set? Are there a lot of choices with weapon swapping and diff utility skills… sure. Can we create many builds … absolutely. Does that mean it wouldn’t be nice to see a few more skills added … I don’t see why not.

The game is still brand new; so I’m sure we’ll see plenty of things added to the game in time.

I think the rainbow pony bow is stupid looking. Looks like something you’d find in a game for 5 year old girls. In fact, I’ve only seen a couple of bows that look “nice”…….nothing really epic (but I probably haven’t seen every single bow skin yet) obviously some people must like them. But since I don’t, I guess that’ll save me a lot of time for doing other things instead. =)

I hope they do come out with more options in the future.

There are a couple of threads with dungeon tips and advice. I’d like to see ANET create an official sticky thread combining all these posts. Thanks for the great ideas; it really does help. I know it’s helped me for sure.

Thanks Shiren for bringing up this topic. I have been wondering myself what is the best armor to go with. So very helpful!

As others have mentioned, communication is key… I think sharing builds before starting the dungeon is a good idea since you can see what skills overlap or what might be missing. You might need to adjust your build to be as effective as possible not only in dps but in team support.

Also it’s a good idea to check out any dungeon info you can ahead of time; so you have some idea of what to expect. That way you can also create the most effective build possible against the mobs you will face.

I agree that there are quite a few nice looking sets for light and heavy, but I haven’t seen anything amazing for my ranger. I checked out the human racial armor T3 and it’s too skimpy for my taste (why expose part of the breast?) isn’t armor spose to protect me .. lol..I actually like GW1 armor better than GW2 as far as ranger sets go.

I love underwater combat…. it’s my favorite part of the whole game. In fact, I specifically chose story paths that I knew would give me underwater combat. Of course, I am a ranger; so my armored fish is a big help.

They look like a gray, leathery sabre-tooth tiger with wings and a lizard-like tail. Here’s an image of one: !http://www.ign.com/wikis/guild-wars-2/File%3AMinicolocal2.jpg!

Great suggestions and I like the positive tone everyone took in their posts. We need all the help we can get with these dungeons. I especially am always interested in what others do for interrupts since we don’t have any true “interrupt” skills. Is it possible to interrupt a bosses big attack? I know about stun, daze, knockback, etc. serving as interrupts, but I’m just wondering how effective those are in preventing an attack. In GW1 my favorite ranger build was an interrupt/conditions build. I really enjoyed shutting down the mobs. But here it seems that you mainly have to dodge/evade to prevent damage. Anyway, thanks to everyone for taking the time to give advice.

Thank you for taking the time to write up this guide; I found it very helpful although I haven’t found dungeons to be that difficult. Still there are always things we can improve on to be more effective.

I’ve noticed several threads offering advice or people asking for help. It would be a great idea if ANET would start an official thread with all of these posted in one place. =)

Centaurs are in the same position as the charr; humans took over their land and they are trying to reclaim what they believe is theirs.

I was curious about why the charr reversed their stance after they saw the threat the dragons posed while the centaurs did not. As I was checking out info on the wiki, the main problem is the centaur chieftan. He doesn’t see the dragons as the main threat and he rules with an iron fist. This is reflected in the real world … a certain stubborness of some leaders despite the handwriting on the wall so to speak. If you interact with the centaur in LA he’ll give you a little more info on the situation.

And hopefully with the defeat of Zhaitan travel to Cantha can resume as well.

Mad King Thorn was mentioned in some dialogue during a personal story quest with the carnival.

Ranger Nente, Kasha Blackblood, Ralena Stormbringer and Vassar from AC story mode were all trainers from pre-searing Ascalon.

Interestingly though, Lion’s Arch was the main city in Kryta during GW!. Queen Salma was at LA. It seems somewhat hard to imagine storywise that a city could go from being the capital to being not even considered part of Kryta. I understand the changes that have brought this about….the elder dragons, flooding, pirates rebuilding LA, it’s multi racial populace. The transformation that has taken place is something I had to get used to…. seems hard to believe after spending so many happy hours in the old LA with my GW1 characters. We even had to defend LA against the white mantle and mursaat in the last battle of War in Kryta. It’s definitely not the same city anymore.

BTW there is a centaur living in LA.

Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to post their finds!!

I don’t remember if I ever saw the surnames of Alesia, Stefan, Reyna and Orion. If I did, I certainly didn’t remember them. That was a great find, and I didn’t recall the Iron Forgeman either.

Also in a previous post EdwinLi wrote about Dagnar Stonepate and the Dragon Blood Sword in “The Sanguinary Blade” – Priory story path only.

I know not many would remember Dagnar’s Sword since it was only briefly mentioned back in GW1 lore

At first I didn’t remember Dagnar Stonepate … but he was the one who appears in the cutscene where Rurik is killed. Stonepate, leader of the Stone Summit, comes riding in on his ice drake, causes the avalanche, and then murders Rurik.

There’s a woman in Divinity’s reach named "<don’t remember the first name> Malone, in the apple business (pre searing quest). from Delsabre

And of course how did I not remember this one … the apple orchard was not far from Fort Ranik and we had to help Mary Malone find her basket among some spiders.

ThiBash wrote Yak’s Bend is more or less the same. The old bridge leading out’s still there. Some of the terrain shifted a bit though.

I saw this post in another thread, and I had just explored that area tonight. It’s in Frostgorge Sound. I also felt it had the same general configuraton as the orignal.

There’s a curious story I ran into while doing a google search for Captain Fawcett. There could be a possible connection assuming ANET devs had seen this because it would explain why the good captain and his crew are ghosts still hiding out. Captain Fawcett was a brand of mustache wax with a story to go along with it. Check out his website: http://www.captainfawcett.com/book.html

According to the story, Capt. Fawcett was an explorer who disappeared along with his crew while searching for the source of a river in Africa. Many years later his journal turned up in an old battered trunk. In it he wrote..“Without supplies and short of ammunition. We are surrounded by hostile natives. However, while still sporting a stiff upper lip, I expect my men to fight to the inevitable bitter end.” Among the papers was his personal Mustache Wax recipe.

In GW2, Fawcett’s Bounty is a puzzle north of Arca Lake involving a Capt and his crew members trying to do you in while you traverse the course of the puzzle. (In the screenshot posted above, Captain Fawcett does not have a mustache.) =(

I had a good laugh over this even if there’s no connection.

When he gave me that title, I was all exited thinking I’d now find it as a new option under titles. Sadly, it wasn’t there. But who wouldn’t want to display that title. Of course, everyone would have it eventually; so I suppose it wouldn’t mean so much after a while.

BrotherBelial.3094:

I wouldn’t mind seeing an over lay map of GW and Gw2 maps

The link below was posted by Draxynnic in another thread. I hadn’t seen this map yet. It’s very interesting to see how things match up.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/41360-new-map-old-locations-map/

When doing the Straits of Devastation it was interesting to climb to the top of Vizier Khilbron’s tower. (Quite a good jumping puzzle btw.) There are a number of artifacts that you can interact with giving a little more insight into the Vizier and the sinking of Orr.

-Again in the Iron Marches is a Priory scholar studying an arch to try and discover something of her ancestor. This Ancestor is the Ghost in the very first Mission in Prophecies who asks you to collect his armor for the bonus mission. I assume the Arch is the place where you meet him in GW1.

I located this spot in Iron Marshes. It is generally in the correct location for the first mission and the arch should be the entrance to his mausoleum or what’s left of it. Just as you mentioned his ghost was standing next to it when we did the bonus. Interestingly his name was Kilnn Testibrie and the Scholar is Aimee Testibrie. There’s a POI named Kilnn’s Rest.

Also the ruins of Grendich Courthouse are in Diessa Plateau.

Thanks Jeffrey for the input and status update!!

Thanks to everyone who has posted here so far. I see I have many more sites to explore and NPCs to check out. I always find it exciting when I run into these places or items. I appreciate all the work ANET did to make sure there was continuity between the two games. =)

Also in another thread I posted info about Pockmark Rough which is almost identical to the crater-like basin with the giant crystal formation in Pockmark Flats. I remember killing quite a few elementals and wind riders there while on quests. The info at the site says it’s still the original crystal formation from the time of the Searing

One more location I forgot about before is Wizard’s Tower which you could see from Kessex Peak in GW1. It can now be seen from Wizard’s Fief in the southeastern area of Kessex Hills. It’s still on the floating rock island in the sky.

I hope for some further development of our Hall of Monuments because I guess I had always thought that my GW2 character would be able to view the displays. Of course, after thinking about it, I can see it would take quite a bit of programming to be able to do that. So it may not be realistically possible….I don’t know.

I haven’t seen any statues or monuments to any of the henchmen in GW1. If they exist, I’d like to know where they are. I feel in general there is very little mention or recognition for the accomplishments of all the GW1 heroes. I’ve seen a book by Mhenlo and another by Norgu. Too bad we can’t interact with those books and get some history revealed that way. I’ve not seen anything about the rest.