Guild Wars 2

Tell a bad salad joke for the fallen.

Kalavier.1097:

Nike.2631:

The sad thing is it would have made Scarlet look genuinely scary if Lion’s Arch had battened down the hatches, manned the walls in double shifts, and made every possible preparation… and her forces walked over them to the exact same degree we see now.

I don’t see how she doesn’t ‘look scary’ or her forces don’t look that way now. They took a city in a range from UNDER AN HOUR to within a single night (aka, a few hours).

No, the plot convenience took the city in under an hour. Nothing about Scarlet or her forces suggest she is capable of doing this. Considering we have dispatched every force she has ever dispatched to date.

Any victories Scarlet achieves are done so because the player and the iconic NPCs are forced to hang on to the Idiot Ball. Nike is correct.

Trixie.7614:

Have you seen a jumping quaggan.

I’d like to. 15 quaggans

Well, the assertions about the presentation and exposition are my opinion; an opinion I have developed by being a part of the LS/LW patch by patch, since the first day.

My ‘information’ is community information. It’s not mine, but rather common knowledge for anyone interested in reading on the direction of the game.

“The feedback that ArenaNet has gotten from players has gone a long way toward shaping the upcoming releases, Johanson said, and will continue to do so.”
-http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/01/14/exclusive-preview-of-guild-wars-2s-origin-of-madness-release/

HoBo Tron is another example of a community driven decision by Anet. He was not initially as focal a character but was fleshed out and developed in response to a good community reaction.

I think saying that the whole Season was planned is the smart PR statement to make. I hope that it is indeed a PR statement and that they have better writers on board than the ones who penned this story. I believe that they’ve had a good concept, an idea for a conclusion, and have fumbled the ball on execution in between.

Regardless, we know Anet is willing to change their game plan (e.g. Manifesto). Hopefully the second season shows us what they can really do.

glaphen.5230:

I don’t think I even had a problem with any PvE monster. I used to solo any champion event I found when I first started even if it gave complete kitten for rewards.

Indeed. Not usually one to say this but, it does seem to be an l2p issue. Open world PvE is probably the most forgiving thing this game has to offer.

I consider Lore very important. It’s the foundation of the world the game is set in. Much like if you asked me whether I consider physics to be important. Inconsistent Lore is a big deal in a game or fantasy universe.

The story is a little less heavily weighted in my book. Story arcs can be altered and concluded. The only requirement for a story arc (imo) is that it can exist within the Lore. Past that, good/bad is a matter of opinion on the art of writing (and the medium it’s presented in).

It may just be you. I can say at this point that the story itself hasn’t been as bad once Anet took into account the community’s input. The presentation however has been, and continues to be sloppy.

Events are connected through retroactively added plot conveniences instead of gradually built connections and exposition. This continues to be the case to the day.

Well, she is a punk so…

I would have rather had no cinematic to that one. Now I do like that they’re giving exposition the old college try, but that cinematic was shameful.

Both that one and Zephyr were shameful. For all their improvements, this was grueling to watch.

Asko.4120:

Look it is this thread again. Zerker doesn’t need a fix – you take defensive stats assuming that you take damage, and if you trust your skills enough to be able to survive without any defense you are free to do so and enjoy the benefits. It is working exactly as intended.
What is needed however is to make conditions a viable alternative in PvE but I’m sceptical about the possibilities to implement that considering conditions are way OP in PvP. I don’t think it can be done without completely splitting PvP and PvE balancing but as it seems atm Anet isn’t willing to do that.

They’re splitting the changes in the coming patch between PvE and PvP I believe. If this is indeed the case, there is NO excuse for having left conditions to wither away in PvE this long.

Well, let’s not make any excuses for it. They are not intended to reflect what Ellen or Dessa think/said. They are meant for the player.

Just like the quests surrounding and referencing LA that have not changed for this update, this line of text hasn’t either. I suspect it will be business as usual soon and they didn’t want to change anything.

Or it will be business as usual and they didn’t bother to change anything.

Nesiko Tomoe.2068:

Or they can simply correct it. I’m pretty sure if I was new in the game and I want to do my personal story I rather not way 4 weeks til “whenever” either Lions Arch is either A. Fix to new (in a revamp style or old skins) or left as ruins.
If this is suppose to be a living world, shouldn’t it be well living? NPCs should be gossiping what’s going on in their world aswell.
They are kind of treating it like same BS different day. Rinse and repeat. If you want to make the world a living story, truly make it such. Curious Scholars, vigils or Order of Whispers will seek and search to see if everything is “living” as they claim including when it interferes with the personal story.

It isn’t. And it hasn’t been sadly. NPCs in DR still talk about late shipments from LA. Quests around LA still reference the city no differently than they did before this patch. The world didn’t really change any. It is a very localized change. Kind of a shame imo.

Anything artificially gating content is extraneous. I’d wager the AR mechanic is here to stay as a method of progression but I’ve said time and time again that the best way to re-invigorate fractals and dungeons would be ‘gambits’.

This provides a challenge for everyone interested as well as a mechanic that may disrupt current tactics and require some new ideas.

Indeed. The pre-renders from arcade games I used to play looked better.

Nike.2631:

Romo.3709:

Asia Skyly.7198:

• The Marionette.

How would you possibly make a world boss encounter that required an entire map to complete into a 5 men battle? I see other ones you listed as potentially fun levels, but Marionette? Not so much.

I’ve envisioned it as a boss fractal with~

90 seconds in lane 1 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden I, then…

90 seconds in lane 2 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden II, then…

90 seconds in lane 3 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden III, then…

90 seconds in lane 4 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden IV, then…

90 seconds in lane 5 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden V, then… Loot!

Possibly with fake adventurer NPCs on the other platforms who automatically win or fail along with you just to maintain that sense of scale. It uses everything about the fight, just in smaller doses.

Fail to kill a Warden in time, letting enough enemies slip by to charge the Marionette, or any party wipe at any point resets everything. Basically 12-15 minutes of kicking butt .

Erm…I like the idea of having the marionette changed but not like this. I’d like to see it again but if another time gated mechanic is added, I would be very disappointed.

It looks like it was filmed on a potato. Just like the Zephyr Sanctum one. Was this not the case for you?

Well, I believe the idea is to avoid bad players in general. There isn’t a need for many Warriors either. Just the one or two will suffice. Team synergy isn’t about catchphrases like “heavies only” despite what your PuG LFG may lead one to believe. A single good Warrior offers what our team needs while a good Necro does not. Even a guildie playing a Necro should be playing something else for an optimal team build.

If that’s not important to you, then ignore it and carry on with using the LFG tool. If you are building a team for speed clearing for the purpose of dungeon touring, I suggest you look at an alternate class that is able to boost group deficiencies.

Ruruuiye.8912:

The instance owner system is an important check on the zerker warrior-guard-mesmers actually. Without being able to open the dungeon yourself (possibly as a warrior and then switching) it would be almost impossible for necros (or sometimes rangers) to LFG into Arah, Aetherpath or Fractals at all.

I used to get a kick out of these deceptive attempts when trying to find a 5th for 1-man-short run.

Getting carried isn’t fun for anyone. Just get by the honest way

onizaki.7240:

2 days ago, I tried to find party via LFG to run SE path 1. I found 1 party so i got
in and waited until we had 5 people in party to run but then someone kicked me
out of party. i thought it was misunderstood or something. So i went back to LFG
and that party was still advising so i got in again but i was kicked out suddenly. So i whispered someone that seemed to be a leader. and he told me he kicked me out
‘cause i’m a necro.

What a mess!!! He didn’t know what my necro build or stat.

I’m a power mark-wellmancer. 0/25/25/20/0 even if I don’t have power trait but
my dagger/warhorn atk is 3100 and my staff atk is 3300 with armor 2600(dagger/
warhorn) , 2500(staff) and my life 20k. And I can support party with well that
can use target arear.

I use dagger/warhorn + staff. i can run as others class run. My dagger autoskill 1’s dps can beat many classes with many builds. I don’t know why he think every necro
suck at running dungeons. this thing disturb me all times while i’m playing GW2.

that’s why I make this thread and I wanna know about your opinions about necro
in dungeon.

Sorry bud, I think our group would do the same. Of course we would encourage you bring a different class to PvE rather than kicking right away.

Your Vitality isn’t important in our dungeon runs and the “wells” are a huge problem for dungeon runs. The numbers you’re rattling off for DPS are pretty low and would drop the party’s DPS.

As far as I know, necros do pretty well with vuln stacking? It could be useful except we always have vuln. regardless. In short, there is little that you would bring to the table and much that you could detract from the team.

It’s not a personal thing. It’s just a class that needs some work.

a t s e.9614:

Anyway I think its ight when its easy , its mostly to farm gold anyway. Nobody wants to wipe over and over just to get a bit of gold . Challenge its good once in a while but the game is supposed to be rather relaxing . I remember playing an FPS where I had to try extremly hard to win , it was fun but I couldnt play like that for more than 1 hour.

Edit: look at that ty hard picture.

lol check out my cameo in your chat though

xsquared.1926:

Dear arenanet,

Please get rid of all champion trains.

Sincerly,
The dungeon community.

Dear Anet,

Please keep the champ trains so that those kinds of players don’t come pollute dungeons.

Sincerely,
The dungeon community

These trains keep a huge portion of bad ‘1-spam’ players busy. I don’t really care how people play as long as they know to do their own thing and not intrude onto my play. Keep the trains and keep these players out of dungeons :P

fallenguardian.2147:

Hey guys I am playing a charr guardian in my group and am the tank for a Mesmer and hunter and I am looking for a good tank build. what skills, weapons, sigils and runes would best accomplish this I figure that healing might also be important but I don’t know. Any suggestions would be welcomed!

New, I take it? Guessing by description and wording. Erm so, nope. None of that is actually important

So, I’m sure everyone has already told you no tanks, all dps. Basically, that’s it for PvE. You are still new though and there is a learning curve. Maybe take some Knight’s gear while you learn how to stay alive.

The best thing you can do as a guardian is invest in consecrations. These have the best PvE utility for the Guardian and will be the best things you can use to support your team. That, along with Aegis and Absolute Resolution trait + PF to cleanse conditions.

As far as a build goes, I would recommend Obal’s Hammer Guardian build. It isn’t the top DPS spec but it offers some good benefits as well as some solid DPS output. You will have 0 problems staying alive and supporting the team in an active way instead of being a leech in PVT gear spamming 1 and 4 on staff.

She was just a small town girl. Living in a lonely world. She took the midnight train going anywhere.

Fortunately, that train took her away from Tyria and out of our game.

Yes. Fifteen Quaggans.

The ‘by the book’ definition is a pick up group assembled with random players you have not met or played with before.

It more closely means a ‘casual’, which interestingly also doesn’t quite mean what it seems to imply.

PuGs and casuals can put many hours into this game. The best way to tell is by assessing player skill. Do they might stack? Do they dodge? Do they know that they can and should change their utilities and weapons? Do they use consumables? etc…

If not, they are bad and ‘casuals’ and of course a pug.

Whole heartedly agree with you. I haven’t personally went to check out PS during this patch but I have heard this a few times.

It’s disheartening. Preceding the patch there was a thread regarding the Hearts, DEs, Mail, and NPC chatter regarding LA. I don’t believe these have been addressed or altered to reflect the changed state of the city either.

I was in Kraitbane Haven today and heard some Lionguard just talking about the same lines they always do (something about investing in the city being smart). Above anything, attention to small details will really give their “living world” a living feeling.

Right now, events like this seem very ‘frozen in time’ with no real impact. Yes, the city is burning. But there is no impact to the world.

Agreed. That would encourage a slightly more dynamic style of gameplay. But, folks would still probably try to tank lasers and every other AoE :P

What is this!? A potion for ants? It needs to be….at least 25 % bigger than this.

fifteen quaggans.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but there isn’t a Light/Medium/Heavy version of the backpiece right?

Just craft it with a character who is an armorsmith or leatherworker. Problem solved there. You don’t need to do it with a tailor.

This lies beneath lion’s arch.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Beneath_Lion's_Arch

I hope they do keep it in mind moving forward

zamalek.2154:

ElysianEternity.6215:

What convenient placement. Thaumanova Mk. II here we go.

So I would assume that the drill bit is somewhat like a battery terminal. Conclusions:

• The sounds coming from under LA were the ley lines all along. Unless there is also an ED at the intersection (some interpretations of the thumper maps had the EDs at the tips of the ley lines, so if you agree with those maps this scenario is unlikely).
• If she is indeed after an ED she is probably leveling up her airship by siphoning off magic out of the ley line intersection (or at least, she plans to).
• I even further doubt that LA is the final target.
• I wonder what that Skritt who enjoyed rummaging around in the sewers has to say.

Jelle.4623:

-Water level is lowering (noticable mostly around Grand Piazza and Farshore Ward)

This indicates that there must be a massive volume of air under LA; because aren’t the harbors connected directly to the sea? In order for the water level to be lower [locally] the rate of flow into the caverns must be immense – unless Scarlet blocked off the harbor somehow so that she could physically access the caverns. Will the new LA be partially built in these caverns? Is the new map we have been asking for going to be below LA? Are these caverns possible one way to access a specific ED? Primordius seems logical, Mordremoth is very plausible.

Shiren.9532:

It really sucks to be missing out on this stuff and it makes me feel like I made the wrong choice.

I would suspect the other orders have their own NPCs that either explain the same thing, or, further flesh out the information – we just haven’t found them yet.

Anyone else find it poetic that we have come round in a complete circle? The LS started with us freeing refugees, and we are now doing it again.

There is a lot of air under Lion’s Arch actually. We do actually know what is beneath the city.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Beneath_Lion's_Arch

We also know that (at least 250 years ago) this underground network was heavily breached by destroyer tunnels. Normally I would like to speculate that Primordius is involved but I doubt that’s the case.

Anet have been pretty systemic about avoiding GW’s lore and substituting instead the Living Story alternative storyline. So, perhaps the water is just lowered for appearances.

I doubt they are really going as in depth in this as the community is.

Vol.7601:

My goodness – if you find waypont fees expensive enough to make a convoluted rant, then…

Agreed. I get that not everyone makes passable coinage in this game but c’mon now…2, 3 silver at the most?

Maybe there are still folks using the gates to travel but I don’t think I’ve done so since launch. WPs are very reasonable imo.

Agreed. This isn’t the most memorable event, but it’s not bad as far as zerg-fests go. I’m at peace with that.

What I don’t like is that the event immediately starts with an RNG overflow. There is 0 time to really coordinate commanders and parties. I also cannot play with people I want to play with.

Sherburne.2874:

…or spend the money to used the already overpriced way points. Nice way of creating a new drain on the already depressed GW2 economy.

They cost about 3 silver at max. The WP costs are dirt cheap in this game.

Shouldn’t really matter too much here. The only times you will ever go down is from a random multi-enemy spike which would down you even if you were taking regular damage.

Basically, more damage is better.

Pen and paper are your friends

The patch left me with a mixed opinion of it.

On one hand, there isn’t much technically wrong with it. The Scarlet invasions (as some have already said), were alright. This patch isn’t anything special. Is it the worst zerg fest? Nah. It’s alright…

The events are easy. The loot is plentiful. It is pretty much impossible to pre-coordinate (as I’ve seen) but it doesn’t seem all that necessary.

It feels pretty shallow though and I’m not sure I quite like it. I don’t dislike it but it’s nothing I’ll remember for any long time to come.

meh

I think I got my hopes up too high after the positive turn in the LS lately. Anyways, I came back from work today already pretty frustrated.

The patch wasn’t ready to go by the time I got home and then it just seemed a bit lackluster. I’m not sure exactly what it is. It’s not too bad as far as zergfests with 20 commanders go.

On the bright side, it’s fairly easy to do what you need to do. On the other hand, it’s 100% pug-roulette with 0 time to coordinate and tag/detag, or establish rapport. It just felt like a pretty solitary experience. Run around pressing 1 to tag for loot.

It might be overhyped, that’s true. But it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the forums buzzing with speculation regarding the living story again. It seems the end of this ‘Scarlet era’ is igniting speculation and leaving the future of Tyria again.

That’s a good sign for the community.

Another day, another “stack is exploit, skip is exploit, nerf pls” post. Why must you folks cry for Anet to ruin the way I enjoy playing this game? It’s clear you will not ever be in a speed run group and so will not have to ‘suffer’ through the horror of a quick, efficient stack/skip run. So why so much energy to ruin the way I play?

Help me understand how it is you folks play. Do you attack each enemy separately? Do you refuse to leave the dungeon until every mob is dead? Do you refuse to stay in melee range of enemies? Do you all run around wildly and chose to not take benefits from the boons and utilities of the party?

If you ‘hate’ speed run groups for a reason beside jealousy of loot, time, etc.. (don’t have to admit it here if that’s what it is), please do say what it is. Anet has already said on multiple counts that stacking and skipping work as intended. We know it is not an exploit and it is not broken. So, what is it?

I think it may just be a characteristic of Asuran relationships. If you recall Zoija had a tense relationship with Snaff but we do understand that she had great respect for him and cared deeply about her mentor.

Perhaps they are externally very driven to prove their genius but they do understand and value their companions when push comes to shove.

Delvoire.8930:

Astralporing.1957:

I am sorry, but you are so wrong here it hurts. First, even a fantasy setting and fantasy story need to be internally consistent. If it’s not, they are not a setting or story at all, but only an incoherent babbling. Second, the fact that “mysterious or supernatural forces” exist doesn’t mean those are not also bound by their own rules. While those rules are often more nebulous and less clear-cut than we’re used to with scientific aproach, they generally do exist (if there are no rules at all, it’s generally a mark of a bad writing). As far as we know the magic in GW2 is not one of such “no rules” cases, and does have rules and limitations. While exceptions are still possible, too many of those (or too big ones) just devalue the rest of the setting. And third, the sentence “stretches the limits of believability” is always relevant to any story, regardless of how magical or weird it would be. Basically, the story needs to make sense, needs to be relatable by the reader. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t, and all waving the “it’s magic” card around accomplishes is to make it even _more senseless.
Besides, most of the logical inconsistences in the Scarlet story are not connected with magic at all.

TL/DR: “Magic” in a story doesn’t mean you can forget about sense and logic.

The Elder Dragons are ancient, powerful beings of unknown origins. They keep the magic balanced by consuming it and drawing it into themselves; though indications show that this isn’t their goal or intention, but rather a side-effect of how they function. Every several thousand years (roughly 10,000 years according to the Durmand Priory), the dragons wake and consume everything in the world, thereby reducing the world to a low level of magic, before going back to sleep. Then the magic they have consumed bleeds out into the world, harmless unlike when they’re awake, only for the dragons to eventually awaken once more and the cycle to begin again

This basically says the Magic is unbalanced and dangerous right now.

Also, I can’t think of one thing that has magic involved and makes sense. Magic defies logic. That’s the purpose of it._

Eh, Magic defies Science, not Logic. Logic is just reason. Within a world like Tyria, magic is reasonable. Within a world like Tyria, the commando class is not reasonable. So, it isn’t logical.

In a magical world, the presence of magic should make sense. In our world we are bound by our physical laws. Tyria is bound by the laws of its lore. That’s really the purpose of lore; to serve as parameters.

So I recently had to PuG Arah Story on an alt. It has been almost a full year since I last completed it and I figured I’d add to this post with the thoughts from it.

I think most can agree the conclusion leaves much to be desired. Gameplay wise it’s very strangely punctuated. You switch vehicles a few times and there are very long sections of inactivity interrupted by a brief second or two of combat (and another few minutes of nothing). I found this to be the worst aspect of the story mode (the last time around).

The dungeon story feels very drawn out by the airship segments with 2-3 risen attacking every few minutes and boring Teq-esque dragon fights. An overhaul to this portion would do wonders to make this dungeon more exciting and feel like the epic defense of the most powerful Pact weapon against an Elder Dragon.

As for Zhaitan? Doing the Arah story again after having played the Marionette event, I think a Marionette style phase 1 would be great for Zhaitan. Before the pact laser blows him in half, Zhaitan should do passing runs on the airship leaving AoEs, and Red DMG trails that characters need to avoid while fighting his spawning minions. His attacks should be very punishing and require players to stay on their feet while fighting the risen on the deck. After a set number of waves, and special champ fights onboard the ship, the laser should be charged and ready to fire.

Cue laser and phase 2! Now the players have successfully defended against Zhaitan’s minions long enough for the laser to get off a shot. It of course will miss him center-mass but hit his rear and tail. This should injure him enough to cripple the dragon but instead of having him fly around like a moron and cling to some building for dear life while getting pummeled by cannons, he should instead cling to the side of the airship.

Here he would of course attack and require players actively dodging while they damage his Left and Right arms clinging on to the side of the ship. After a certain amount of damage (Legendary Boss symbol and health pool so he can be hit with crit) he would roar, AoE some sort of DoT (poison maybe) and cue risen to spawn.

Next, Phase 3. He will then fly alongside the ship and players will need to continue dodging his AoE that he spews out while fighting his minions (he can no longer swipe of course or drag his tail across the deck because the laser has destroyed the tail and the players have destroyed the hands).

Between each wave (or during, if players are skilled enough) players will target Zhaitan’s wings and damage them with the dragon fighting weapons created during the personal story. This could include all of them, or they could be specific to the dungeon opener’s instance. This adds some impact to the player’s choices. After DPSing the wings down, they tear and the dragon is forced to land. The Flak cannons on the side get some shots off (manned by NPCs) and blow some more chunks off the dragon. He should now be torn up enough to crash onto the airship and hang on with his broken limbs and wings.

There is damage to the airship now and the cannons are no longer functional. This is ok though because….Phase 4, the final phase, is upon us. Zhaitan spawns a last set of mobs to prevent players from killing him. Similar to the allies at the end of DA:O, the NPCs the player has befriended or allied with throughout the story should pour from the ship to help keep the waves back as players charge across the deck towards Zhaitan’s head. NPCs from the different orders, races, etc… They all push back waves on either side while players move to Zhaitan’s head to finish the fight (with possibly some chatter about supporting the cause for the sake of story). Zhaitan’s head has some straightforward attacks (conical attack, bite, AoE DoT, etc…). This should be a fairly simple phase.

Once his health its 0, Zhaitan should turn into an “F” interactable with a “finish” prompt. Here DE tells you to finish this Elder Dragon and blah, blah, story, story

You hit F, and cue cutscene of slaying an elder dragon. He then tumbles into the abyss below as a confirmed kill. Of course pan out to show allies killing the last of the risen on board. Cue more story and dialogue, and…fin.

Why do folks always think it’s Cantha. we still have 66% or so of Tyria left to see and explore. GW1 players, you remember the rest of it I’m sure.

There is a lot left to see here. I personally don’t want to set foot inside Cantha for a long time. Not until we really explore Tyria and possibly Elona.

I do hope they work on more. I’ve heard a few times that they do have a ‘shadow crew’ working behind the scenes. However, the 350 employee thing is a little deceptive.

I don’t think they’re all game developers. I’d wager a number of them work in finance, HR, etc… So, if the behind the scenes work is happening, I don’t know if it will be as fast as we think.

Palador.2170:

Yeah, she’s been voted onto the Captains’ Council… so they can ignore her.

The only power and authority that she has is what they give her. Love Evon or hate him, at least he would have had more pull with the council due to having influence of his own.

There’s no way she can save Lion’s Arch. However, she may be able to help save the people of LA. And then, when this is all over, the Captains’ Council will publicly claim that she failed at her job to warn them of the incoming danger, and hang her out to dry to cover their own failures.

Sounds like someone has been too well spoiled with good books, movies, and shows. I hope they can put in something like that.

However I expect something a little more in the shallow end of the pool.

ChaosKirin.1328:

I get this feeling that if Scarlet were male, no one would have a problem with her at all.

I mean, she’s the equivalent to many other male characters that have stormed across canons in the past. The Joker is mentioned in that massively article. She is like the Reavers in Firefly – at first, no reason is given for their existence, but people are terrified of them nevertheless. She’s Crais from Farscape. John Locke from LOST. Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. Magneto from the X-Men.

There is no difference between her and any other villain that has ever existed, except that she’s female.

Being a powerful woman does not automatically make you a bad character/Mary Sue/retcon bait. In fact, I applaud ANet for making the main villain female, rather than yet another male villain.

And I bet if a good portion of the people mentally rewrote her character as male, they would have no problem with her.

Or maybe we could let opinionated gender bias sit this one out. Let’s not forget that most of the NPC protagonists in this game are also female.

The Joker was mentioned because he is an example of a great execution of a ‘chaotic’ villain.

As someone else mentioned, Varresh Ossa from GW: Nightfall was a fantastic villain. I bought that she was a powerful ruler and competent military tactician. From the exposition I could tell that something was amiss with Kourna and Ossa. She had a strong backstory behind her (and her name) and her descent into madness was also believable. None of her skills and actions seemed far fetched.

Her plan to bring back Abaddon was alluded to in the starter quests for NF characters. Exposition from Mhenlo and Co. for non-NF characters also hinted to what was to come. It was a gradual buildup that developed the story into something the players could care about from the start. Did we know exactly how she was planning to bring back the lost God? Nope. But we did know she was involved in it and for much of the story she was the main antagonist.

She didn’t have to be trained by the Kurz stonesingers and Imperial swordsmen. She didn’t have to learn spells from the mages of Nolani. She didn’t have to have ascended in the desert (conveniently sometime before we did). She was already an imposing foe as the ruler of a powerful military nation and a seasoned fighter in her own right. Add to that her powers granted by Abaddon and his tormented creatures? Yes, she was a great villain without being cheesy in any way.

They even had the character of Morgan as her 2nd in command who we could see from the start realizing that she wasn’t the person she once was. All of that together made it enjoyable to play through.
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Now imagine there was no boxed game called GW: Nightfall. Imagine there were no quests with exposition or missions to provide the context of her actions. Imagine that the first thing you did was repel the tormented attack on LA as a non-NF character. Then you go to Kamadan and the Sun Docks. Then fight the Kournans and Varresh but are not shown the Abaddon statue. Imagine the demons don’t come to he aid. She just gets away and that’s that. Despite you defeating her fortress. That encounter doesn’t really tell you much does it?

Well, all three of those reasons can really be rolled up into one. Character slots are on discount so they are offering fast ways to level your character to give players more incentive to buy a slot.

Still, I do think we may be getting close to seeing more of our feathery friends. The NCSOFT earnings report suggests that GW2 is doing great with microtransactions and they will keep expanding via LS. If we can believe some things we read, there is talk of a team working on a large project at Anet.

Story wise, we are getting close to a logical jump off point for involvement with Tengu, although I don’t think it’s just yet. With LA under attack, the Tengu will not likely be quick to open their gates. They would also need to plan out a whole story for Tengu characters. It’s possible that we’ll see more of them in the coming story arc though.

I’ve wanted to know what’s in that tower since Villainy of Galrath. I suppose to an extent, since leveling my first GW toon in Wizard’s Folly.

The Wizard is Isgaren, and you can check out Wooden Potatoes’ channel to find out more about this GW lore mystery. It’s pretty cool. That said, I think it’s best we let this one remain unsolved.

I don’t see a satisfying conclusion from it (given the current storytelling).