Guild Wars 2

I agree with you Skaan. There is still music I specifically associate with the Crystal Desert and I’ve noticed they are still using some of the Fire Island soundtrack in the Charr areas. Every time I hear it I remember those hydras and the missions I did there. Jeremy Soule composed such a fabulous soundtrack for GW2, but lately I don’t feel like I’m hearing a lot of the music playing.

About Orr….I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t hear any music in those regions aside from the instances for our PS. I hear the noise of all the catapults, cannons, etc. and what sounds like seagulls, but no music. I don’t know if they wanted to create a “dead feeling” and so didn’t want to have music for this area. If other people are hearing music, then maybe it’s just bugged for me. Anyway, I hope as the servers settle down and everything is more stable, they’ll be able to include more zone specific music especially in Orr.

I thought it would be fun to have one thread that contains a list of locations, items, NPCs, dialogue, ruins, etc. that link back to GW1. I noticed a couple of threads that already contain some of these finds such as Gwen’s grave at the Ebonhawke cemetery. I also created a thread about Pockmark Rough and it’s tie to Pockmark Flats and Serenity Temple in GW1. So please add to the list as you come across the lore finds from GW1.

Here are a few more that I know of:
1. In Divinity’s Reach you can find 3 kids playing; their names are Gwen, Jora, and Melonni.
2. In the harbor below the diving platform at Lion’s Arch you can still find the ruins of the original LA including the fountain.
3. If you do the explorable Arah dungeon mode, you can find Ogden Stonehealer. He’s still alive.
4. Of course, in the Plains of Ashford you can find the ruins of old Ascalon and the Barradin Estate. Also there is the statue of Balthazar. I remember the warrior trainer was located near this statue in pre-searing Ascalon.
5. Just south of The Black Citadel are the Ruins of Rin.
6. Underwater in the Mount Maelstrom area, I located some ruins said to be from Droknar’s Forge.
7 The Ascalon Settlement in Gendarran Fields has a cemetery with the grave of Captain Greywind. There are also ruins of the original settlement. I noticed that the settlement is still in about the right location compared to the GW1 map.
8. In Fireheart Rise, I found a burning forest (there’s even a skill point there) which reminded me of the one in Sacnoth Valley (Eye of the North) located not far from the Catacombs of Kathandrax. The Burning Forest seems to be in the same general area.
9. I’m sure most people have examined the book carts around Divinity’s Reach. There’s one by Mhenlo about the Luxons and a play I presume from Norgu. (I don’t remember the titles of these.)
10. Oola’s old lab can be found in Metrica Province.

It will be fun to see what everyone else has discovered.

Sounds like that strategy was a lot better than fighting from the steps…. more room for dodging and better position for attacks.

Well, the story mode dungeon is fun and challenging as well as the battle on the airships. So I still think it’s worth doing. Since it is the Arah dungeon story mode, I guess people can always repeat it if they change the mechanics of the Zhaitan “battle.” They are also looking to fix the problem with the loot drop. And according to ANET, they will find a way to adjust the loot for people who already completed the mission.

This has been an issue for some time. ANET has looked into this problem. I’m not sure if they have fixed it already since we haven’t had any recent patches that I’m aware of. Anyway, as a ranger I was hanging back when you get ambushed and pulling a few at a time. But Trahearne would never follow me to the tombs. The last time I tried it, I jumped into the middle of the fight using my traps and the quest continued normally that time. So I’m thinking that if you get too far away from Trahearne, he bugs out.

I didn’t see Ogden Stonehealer yet. Where did you see him? And he obviously should remember our hero from GW1 since we fought the destroyers together. So I do hope that somewhere along the way more will come to light. Maybe the Durmond Priory will discover our Hall of Monuments and restore it. =)

For any GW1 fans .. in case you haven’t been to the Blazeridge Steppes region yet you’ll find two areas from GW1… 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. The info at the site says it’s still the original crystal formation from the time of the Searing. The other great find is the ruins of Serenity Temple. You can even find Priestess Rashenna’s grave there. It was quite exciting to find these two areas and recall the quests I did back then.

Thank you ANET for including these areas from GW1. It’s always exciting to come across such finds in the game. =)

I think the HoM itself is meant to be our memorial. But I agree that I’d like to see a little more mention of my accomplishments…. something like a bit more dialog with the ghost. For instance, he could recall battles against Shiro, Abaddon, the Lich and the fight against the destroyers when we first learn about the threat Tyria faces from the EDs.

For it clearly states that he found it in a cave guarded by powerful plant creatures.

Yes, and I agree that the writers intend for the wiki account to be the accepted lore about the Pale Tree. I just think they need to go back and redo the Ventari statement so it matches up more clearly. It still has some contradictions with the wiki account.

The OP was questioning whether the seed might have come from a cave in Orr with some tie to Zhaitan. That’s why I commented that Orr was at the bottom of the ocean in GW1.

As it stands now, I have a hard time believing the story of the Pale Tree.

Basically it’s what Vard said except that you don’t have to rez the NPCs. They will automatically rez once you’ve eliminated the spectral guards circling the mouth. Using the pillar is good cover, but finding the right angle to gain protection and be able to pull wasn’t so easy for me. It still took a while to clear those. I didn’t worry about the servants bringing food during this part.

When the NPCs rez then you should melee the boss and apply as many conditions as you can to take him down fast. Also it’s good to have some way to cripple him or immobilize him, so he can’t reach the chests of food. Otherwise he will start to regen health and a new set of spectral guards will appear causing you have to start the process of killing those again.

This was the most tedious and challenging of all the missions I did. I’d rather fight Zhaitan again (including the dungeon) than redo that mission.

So our group did great … we were moving right along. Finally got to the part where we kill Zhaitan, except first Zojja has to power up the “big guns” … well, she never did. So we just kept getting wave after wave of risen to fight. We finally gave up. I don’t know if there is something we were suppose to do besides defend her. She did die at one point; so I don’t know if that bugged her. We revived her and she was just standing around not doing anything. Anyone have any tips on making sure she does her part? Or if it was a bug then we’ll just have to try again.

First of all, there are some conflicts in the lore regarding the Pale Tree that ANET has not cleared up. If you played GW1 and have been to the grove there, interact with Ventari and you’ll get a different story about the seed. He states that Ronan gave him the seed .. that Ronan had fought the White Mantle and upon returning home found his family dead. (No mention is made of the village.) “In his grief he threw down his weapon. Perhaps he was looking for escape or a place to die to end his suffering. There he lay a broken man, and in that moment he found the seed that would become all of this.” This version, stated by Ventari, obviously implies that Ronan found the seed after coming back to his village and not beforehand. Since Ventari says that Ronan gave him the seed, it throws into question a number of lore points. First, Ronan did not plant the seed on the grave of his wife and daughter because he gave it to Ventari. I would find it doubtful that Ronan’s village was located in the position of the Grove. It’s on a small island in the south and east of Rata Sum. The White Mantle were fighting in Kryta. Second, Ventari had arrived at the grove before Ronan. Ventari wanted to create a sanctuary and made his way to the grove. Ronan arrived afterwards seeking a place away from war and pain. Third, since Ronan gave Ventari the seed as he states, it would be logical to assume that Ventari planted the seed.

In regards to the seed coming from some cave in Orr, that would have been impossible since at the time of GW1, Orr was at the bottom of the ocean. I personally doubt that the Pale Tree is a dragon or even champion of a dragon. Abaddon is the god that provided the gift of magic. Perhaps the seeds are a result of those magical abilities stored away for future use, but forgotten about over time.

The main questions that still remain are about the origin of the seed and how it came to be where Ronan found it. It’ll be interesting to see where ANET goes with the development of this piece of lore.

Did you leave the ship or did you go to the top of the ship marked by the green star? When I did this mission, I also literally got off the ship (expecting a huge explosion) and nothing happened. Then I realized the green star was indicating a spot at the highest point on the ship. So I got back on board and climbed up to that point. Then the mission finished.

Well, I think it’s like ANET said… it’s going to take time for people to get used to the new style of combat. Plus in any game it always takes time to learn the mechanics of the bosses. Unavoidably there will be that initial sense of frustration. The people who say the dungeons are not that hard have probably run them enough that they know exactly what to expect and how to setup for it. People who feel they are too hard are still in the frustration stage.

I think you’re idea of allowing a bigger team to do a dungeon (SM with fewer rewards) as opposed to a 5-man team, for instance, is a good idea. It gives people a chance to learn the new system and dungeons with less frustration. People who might feel reluctant to try dungeons might be more inclined to give it a go. Right now the negative feedback is keeping people away.

Why didn’t Trahearne join the fight against Zhaitan at the end? I know his Wyld Hunt was finished, but he was the leader of the Pact. So you’d think he’d have been there too. That seemed odd to me.

Besides being low level gear, none of the items from the 5 gift box were useable by my profession. Right after killing Zhaitan tho, I did get a level 86 hat for my ranger … so that was nice.

I have to admit that the Zhaitan “battle” was really simple. I had to work harder to beat Shiro, Abaddon or the Lich.

Dortmunder, I hated Estate of Decay because it’s very tedious having to kill all the spectral guards first, avoid the constant aoe attacks from the mouth, and try to keep the risen servants from bringing him food. I don’t know about the fiery “spheres” you mention. I didn’t see any option to do that. Maybe it was bugged when I did it.

Anyway, Kaine if you go the the Personal Story section of forums, you’ll find a number of posts regarding the battle against Zhaitan. Your summary basically summarizes the description of the fight along with posts regarding the poor loot drop at the end.

I just tried this quest and unfortunately it’s still bugged. I couldn’t get Trahearne et al to move ahead into the tunnel to the tomb. We killed all the mobs in sight; I even pulled any extras standing around elsewhere to see if that’d trigger him .. but nothing. Then I went into the tunnel and killed everything up to the green star inside .. he still wouldn’t move. I tried moving back and forth even talking to him multiple times, but it made no difference. He’d say “Moving on” but then just stand in his spot and never budge. I did notice that there were two green stars … one over Trahearne and one inside the tomb area. I’m wondering if that could be part of the problem. The instance bugs out because two green stars become active simultaneously.

At least make it free to travel to Lion’s Arch from any location. Crafting and other services are mostly in major cities. I hate having to pay for a trip there and back just to do business.

In GW1 you could access your vault at any city or outpost, travel between places was free, and were not needed as gold sinks. Why has that changed in GW2? Can’t they use the same gold sinks we had before? Usually crafting is a huge gold sink along with buying rare and exotic armor pieces. I hope ANET will re examine this issue and come up with a better solution for gold sinks.

From roqoco " If the devs are concerned that reducing waypoint costs would inflate the gold supply all they need to do is to reduce reward amounts by the correct % to compensate."

Unless I’m misunderstanding you, wouldn’t this defeat the purpose. If you pay less, but get less then the percent is still going to be the same. So it will still be expensive to use the waypoints relative to the amount of money you’re making. I think there are plenty of places where gold sinks can be used besides waypoints.

The other thing that I find bothersome is the idea that the higher level I am .. the more I have to pay. That would be like charging senior citizens more money to ride the bus than a teenager. I know this is a game, but the reason for charging more is nevertheless discriminatory… people who make more should pay more. (Sounds like current political agendas.) The amount paid should depend on the distance traveled. I can understand paying more to travel to Orr. But it’s still more expensive for me to travel from Divinity’s Reach to Ashford Plains now than it was when I was low level.

Oh that’s true .. didn’t think about that option. Thanks for the help! =)

Yeah that makes total sense .. thanks for your reply. =)

Has anyone found a way to stop attacking an enemy. In GW1 if you moved, it interrupted your attack which was sometimes a life saver when you realized you didn’t want to aggro a certain foe. That’s happened in GW2 a couple of times. You can turn away, of course, but then when you turn back you automatically continue attacking. I’ve tried switching weapon sets but that didn’t stop the auto attack. The only other thing is running out of range if possible. I was just trying to figure out if there’s an effective way to drop aggro.

I just completed a mission in which one of the characters I work with takes an arrow in the back and dies. We are all standing around mourning his death while I’m thinking why don’t we just rez him? I can understand if a person is blown up in an explosion, or they are corrupted and become a risen. From a lore perspectice it seems contradictory that I can rez vigil, priory, or whisper agents, but not certain NPCs. I even remember having to rez Trahearne a few times. So I guess if you’re expendable then you can’t get a rez. Hope I never become expendable. lol

Additional skill points earned are needed for Mystic Forge items. If you plan to craft a legendary weapon for instance I heard you’ll need several hundred skill points. There’s an NPC next to the Mystic Forge that has items to trade for skill points. Most of those items relate to certain recipes used at the Mystic Forge.

It would be great if we could replay missions like in GW1. Then a person could at least go back and see what they missed. I hope they eventually make that option available, because it’s hard to get the overall picture the first time through and pick up on every detail or nuance. This way those of us who missed out on some vital story step can at least go back and fill in the gaps.

I had a similar problem. When I got to Fort Trinity, I had to go get that orb which I also had not heard about. So it made no impression on me and I had no idea what it’s purpose was until I read about it here on forums. I also had no idea then who Apatia was. In addition to that, after the battle I was introduced to a largos Sayed-something who I’d also never heard of earlier in my PS. However, my characters says she’s “honored” to meet her as though she knows who this is. I also did not know anything about who the largos were. So somewhere along the way I missed some critical information or skipped some important mission.

Recently, I had another error come up in the storyline. When I did Estate of Decay, a group of scouts led by Captain Antje, proceeded into the mansion ahead of me. Afterwards it turns out she was corrupted by the undead. Curiously when I was doing a later mission where I have to sabotage the lighthouse, she’s present on the beach and I talk to her to begin the mission. Maybe she had a twin sister. lol

I’m still enjoying the story though and feel confident ANET will get all the bugs worked out.

In regards to the GW2 personal story I think the problem lies in the fact that there were too many choices and it makes for a less developed story in the end. It reminds me of those books called choose your own adventure or twist a plot that came out a few years back. They have the same problem. In order to provide more choices you have to sacrifice in depth treatment of plot and characters.

I don’t feel like I played second fiddle to the characters in GW1 and here’s why. They seemed more like friends and we were a team fighting together. The characters we started out with followed along with us throughout the story; so there was an opportunity to develop their personalities… like the relationship between Cynn and Mhenlo. Prince Rurik in one quest needed a birthday present for Althea. I’ll never forget the scene where King Adelbern renounces Prince Rurik as his son. These are the little things that make the characters seem real. So for me I never felt overshadowed by any of them.

I’ve gotten used to Trahearne now. Although I don’t feel anything towards him. He’s just a character I have to interact with to complete the missions. His character should have been developed a bit more since he was to be an integral part of the storyline. Then I think people would have seen him more as a comrade rather than someone who took over their personal story.

I’m level 80 and I haven’t done a dungeon yet. The reason is because I keep reading about how difficult they are especially with a pug. I expect that most people doing dungeon runs are in guilds that have those organized in their schedules. So less people standing around the entrances lfg.

Craziest idea I ever heard; they produced a product. They’re entitled to charge for it. That’d be like some car dealer letting you have the car for free and hoping you’ll buy upgrades for the vehicle to cover their cost of production.

Thank you for the information Sisho. =)

Thanks for the information BitRaiser. All good stuff to know. =)

He does have some good ideas and valid points. In regards to the GW2 personal story I agree that there were too many choices and it makes for a less developed story in the end. It reminds me of those books called choose your own adventure or twist a plot that came out a few years back. They have the same problem. In order to provide more choices you have to sacrifice in depth treatment of plot and characters. As WoodenPotatoes pointed out, there were a number of interesting missions that led to dead ends with no further development of that event. I also agree that the cutscenes were not as engaging as they might have been. I wish they had kept the same style as they had in GW1. Some of those cutscenes were memorable….not so for the ones in GW2. In any case, I still think the general storyline is a good one and I have enjoyed doing the missions.

Thank you for the clarification Cavalorn. That was a question I had about adding the second rune. I had tried to add one to the same armor piece but that wasn’t working. So now I understand. In GW1 it was possible to add more than one upgrade (depending on the upgrade) to a weapon or armor piece In GW2 it looks like you can’t add more than one.

Okay thanks .. I’ll check that out. =)

Okay so on further thinking is it that the second rune has to be applied to a different piece of armor.? I’ll try that instead and see if that now gives me the second stat bonus. It wasn’t clear to me how to do that.

I’ve already acquired all my ranger skills, but skill points continue to accumulate. Will there be any use for these in the future? Or is there some use for them now?

Some pieces are upgraded when you get them. So they already have that particular rune in the upgrade slot. When it shows 1/2 it means you should be able to add a second rune of the same type and that will give you an additional stat bonus.

That’s what I thought too, but it didn’t work for me. I had a minor rune of the eagle on my body armor. It shows the possibility of having 2. When I tried to add the second one it removed the first one and applied the new rune. So I’m wondering if that was a bug or I just didn’t do it right. I even double checked to make sure that the second rune was the same type. So that wasn’t the problem.

The Largos are an aquatic race of assassins from the deep oceans of the far north and the Unending Ocean – in both cases, they lived and interacted, to varying degrees, with the native quaggan. This is from the GW2 wiki.

Yeah it was tedious … and as Beyreva said you just talk to one of the NPCs and one of them will “force” the door open. =)

Here’s what they should do: set up the same system they had in GW1 with a number of NPCs offering a selection of rare level 80 weapons in a special reward area. At the end of the last quest, you move to the reward area and get a token than can be exchanged for the item of your choice. Now for those who have already completed their PS, they’ll still be able to enter the reward area and claim their token without having to repeat the last quest. That way everyone will end up happy.

September 14, 2012 02:28

Permalink

So far I’ve found the story missions to be fairly easy, but I may have just gotten lucky. Or it may depend on the class you play. I am a ranger and my bear does help a lot. On some you have to use different strategies or tactics. On the Battle for Claw Island, I found that if you move up the ramps to the top of the wall, the enemy will start to focus on everyone in the middle fort area. Then you can pull a few groups at a time. The Battle of Fort Trinity also did not seem that difficult. I died once because I basically got one-shotted by a nearby explosion.

The only mission so far that I think is difficult is Estate of Decay where you have to kill Zhaitan’s Mouth. The difficult part is when you have to eliminate the Orrian Spectral Guards surrounding him but also be trying to avoid damage from the mouth’s attacks. The NPCs are dead at this point; so you have no help. Plus you have to deal with undead bringing food to the mouth; lots to deal with solo. Once the surrounding guards are eliminated it becomes easier as long as you use the right weapon combos.

I was surprised when reading this post to learn about the poor end story rewards. I am also surprised that ANET would not have had an end story reward system set up as they did in GW1. You’re a hero; you’ve accomplished an incredible feat… destroyed a dragon. You certainly deserve a special item.

Here’s what they should do: set up the same system they had in GW1 with a number of NPCs offering a selection of weapons in a special reward area. At the end of the last quest, you move to the reward area and get a token than can be exchanged for the item of your choice. Now for those who have already completed their PS, they’ll still be able to enter the reward area and claim their token without having to repeat the last quest. That way everyone will end up happy.

I was successful as well. I’m so glad to be done with that mission! I picked off the floating swords, npcs rezzed just like described above. The first time I tried to range him but didn’t quite finish him off. The second time I decided to run in and use all my traps and conditions. He wasn’t even able to reach his chest of “food.” We killed him easily that time. Thanks for all the great tips. =)

And this is why I liked heroes in GW1. If I wanted to team with others I could, but if not I had my heroes. Hopefully, there will be plenty of people looking for a group. =)

HERO are those all just your ideas about the story of the pale tree in GW2 or are you basing it on some other source? I’ve never seen anything from ANET that would suggest this version of events. I don’t believe that the pale tree is a dragon. It could be that the pale tree is like Glint….one who has turned against her master. Then it would make sense that she’s creating sylvari to help defeat the dragons including her own master.

I just tried this and I’m stumped. I am a ranger, but seriously I don’t know how the above poster managed as a ranger because I couldn’t see any sort of damage accumulating at all on the mouth. I kept killing the undead bringing food which left very little time to try and get in a hit or two on the mouth. Plus you spend quite a bit of time just trying to dodge his attacks. The NPC’s are useless. But I will definitely try to kill the stuff circling him and see if I have any better luck that way. I sure wish I had chosen the other option.

I also found Trahearne to be bland and boring. I think for those who chose a sylvari you get some introduction to Trahearne early on. But in my case, choosing human, he just appears as some expert on Orr who will be helping us out. But then suddenly he’s the leader. I understand why he was chosen; I just don’t like him. He has no personality, no sense of humor, no short comings, no emotions .. he’s a two-dimensional character. Perhaps this problem arises when trying to build personal storylines with many options to choose from. It becomes difficult to have every single possible storyline mesh and blend together. So following certain story paths will feel more complete with characters better developed. Others will seem somewhat disjointed.

I had a similar situation come up where I was introduced to some largos NPC and had no idea who that was although my character acted like she knew. As I checked out other sites, it appears that if you chose Order of Whispers you ended up skipping certain parts of the storyline in which Apatia and the largos were introduced. I never did any quest about stealing an orb from the kraits .. after fort trinity I go to explore Abaddon’s sunken temple.