Guild Wars 2

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

I think every content should tell a story. This storytelling could be divided into small parts, a puzzle which you have to put together on your own and epic story which should be satisfying.
I want to talk about this “epic moments” a little bit more since our personal story did it all wrong. 1. The animation didn’t fit into the context. You’ve always used the standart animations which are not convincing to say atleast. The new approach as seen with Kasmeer and Marjory would be the way to go.
2. The current music doesn’t reflect what’s happening. The music has to be as satisfying as the animations have to be.
Speaking of which: This game need new music. New good music. The music has to fulfill two criteria: 1. It has to be matching the content. 2. It has to be “re-listenable”. Play the music one week at work every day. If noone goes crazy, the music is good.

I actually really liked the way the original fractals were. Very little “story”, it felt more like “this is an epic glimpse of something in Tyria”. I really didn’t like the inclusion of characters and allied NPCs in the new fractals. I also didn’t like that they were recent events we knew the story about. There was something so cool about not knowing who he Mossman is or how he fits into Tyria. I love going through the Snowblind fractal and just enjoying the art of the experience. I don’t need to think about characters or story, I can focus on the environment – the snowstorm, the darkness, the cold. I feel that in that fractal, this is one part of the game where I think story makes it worse.

The “story” was told through gameplay and it was very effective. The idea that your being hunted in the swamp, the traps, the Mossman appearing out of nowhere, there was something so flavourful and strong about that experience. Cut scenes, animations, named characters we know about in present day Tyria, dialogue – I think fractals are stronger without them.

I didn’t like that Thaumanova tied into current stories (I say this as someone who posts in the lore forum frequently), I really preferred the mysterious and dialogue free fractals that aren’t referenced in modern day Tyria.

I play a Persisting Flames elementalist and the might stacks and fury are one of the reasons why I play that class most often in dungeons. I have often been frustrated byt guardian light fields.

Having said that I also play a hammer guardian. I usually save my guardian’s blast finisher for when a fire field pops up (and sometimes I run my own). Because the hammer places light fields as an auto attack and so many of my other incredibly useful skills are light fields, if my combo fields took priority I would get very frustrated trying to blast fire fields. It would really hurt the co-operative element of party play imo.

Currently I can manage to blast my own fire fields on my elementalist. Sure there is the odd time where unlucky field placement negates my fire field, but I have gotten good at timing my blast finishers when I need them.

I think if my combo fields were prioritised it would be a step away from co-operative party play.

I don’t think Scarlet was ‘chosen’ I think Scarlet, as a sylvari, is connected to something that say an asura or a human isn’t. Normally that connection is controlled, it’s “protected” (think of a pet on a leash). But Omadd’s machine removed her “protection” and that opened a “gate” in her mind (the Dream) that allowed her to move outside of her limited views, but it also allowed the entity to move inside her mind.

I don’t think it would matter for a human or another race if they had their mental protection removed because they don’t have that “gate” in their minds. I believe the sylvari connection to the Dream is more complex than we first assumed, it’s intentionally limited to protect the sylvari. Scarlet removed that limitation and that’s when she became exposed.

brittitude.1983:

Imperios.2543:

I think the problem is the lack of interesting male characters, not heterosexual relationships.

4/5 of the Biconics, the main LS villain, her second-in-command, Lion’s Arch’s most important authority? ALL female.

Add a few more important males and – voila! Surely we’ll have more hetero romance.

I LOVE that there are so many strong, capable, intelligent female characters.

As another poster pointed out, there are a lot of males in game already. I don’t see that as the determining factor in how relationships are created.

Do you think that person’s point is that they don’t like many strong, capable, intelligent female characters or do you think their point is that there is an imbalance of male to female characters?

You can enjoy female characters while at the same time wanting more male characters. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Daroon.1736:

Exosferatu.2961:

Taimi can be killed maybe when she is in adulthood? Asurans have only 5-10% longer lifespan than humans.

True.

Did no one else find her non appearance in the final scenes odd?

I found Braham, Kasmeer, Marjory and Rox’s appearances in the final scenes odd. Taimi’s absence made sense.

If they can’t kill her in perilous situations then they could have her succumb to her illness but I don’t think the writers want a sad story like that.

Weindrasi I flat out disagree that killing a major character shortly after introducing them is flawed writing. Some of the most memorable moments in stories come from a major character biting the dust early on.

Joss Whedon actually spoke about how he wanted to have a character in the main credits of Buffy die early on in the story for the added impact. He later did this with a character in Angel. The idea that there should be a rule about when a major character can or can’t die, that I find to be flawed.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Jora: “I do not know what we contacted that day, but its energies nearly consumed us.”
Jora: “I resisted the power, and was cursed by it. I cannot embrace the wild. I can no longer become the bear.”
Jora: “My brother seized the power and went mad. He was transformed. He became the creature you fought.”
Jora: “My brother now raids the Norn settlements. He avoids me, though I pursue him.”
Jora: “I communed with the bear spirit. She wishes you to aid me.”

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Jora%27s_Curse

I don’t think it was that Bear was out of favor with Jora, especially since Bear told Jora that she wanted the players to aid her.

And I don’t think whatever happened to Scarlet was the same as what happened to Jora. Jora was still able to commune with Bear, and there’s no mental connection (which is what the Dream kind-of-sort-of is) between them.

What if communing with Bear is like physically visiting the Pale Tree? Scarlet doesn’t have her empathic/mental bond with the Pale Tree but she could certainly go and visit the Pale Tree and have a nice conversation over tea.

Jora could still commune with Bear (I assume that’s what the players do when they summon Bear before ‘Blood Washes Blood’) she just didn’t have that intrinsic bond any more. She was cut off somehow.

Keep in mind we don’t know for certain that Scarlet is cut off from the Pale Tree. It’s possible she could still re-open that connection if she wanted but instead Scarlet herself, using her own will, is cutting the Pale Tree’s bond to her. That was the feeling I got from the Wartower interview. What was going on in Scarlet’s mind is an annoying little mystery. I think the implication that sylvari are protected from something in their minds and Omadd’s machine removes that protection, that’s a mystery that they set up to expand on a lot more when we hopefully deal with Mordremoth and the sylvari from Malyck’s tree.

I still don’t think Bear herself withdrew her power from Jora. As Konig points out, Bear still helped her.

Jora: “I communed with the bear spirit. She wishes you to aid me.”

The quest ‘Blood Washes Blood’ is supposed to be Jora regaining her family’s honour, but she can become the bear again as soon as Svanir is dead (this happens before ‘Blood Washes Blood’).

The Spirits of the Wild are known to help the norn fight the dragons. Why would Bear in any way abandon Jora for being exposed to one?

For the record I don’t like the word ‘immunity’ to describe the sylvari and their interaction with dragon corruption. The website wording that comes from doesn’t say they are immune, simply that they die before corruption takes hold. An immunity is more like a resistance, it suggests something else.

To me it’s the difference between flame proof (highly resistant to burning) and being so vulnerable to fire you spontaneously combust when exposed to flame.

Mordremoth was asleep until last week. Unless he has a champion running the show in Maguuma Falls or the surrounding area, he wouldn’t be more threatening than Kralkatorrik was in Guild Wars.

From what we’ve seen so far, sleeping dragons aren’t a threat, their champions are. We have no reason to believe Mordremoth currently has a champion operating in Maguuma up until now.

We still see the miasma deployment events. She’s still using it, it’s just suddenly less effective despite the allied forces not doing anything differently. Regardless of what she thought, she was wrong. If the miasma was working the same now as it was last week she probably would have succeeded.

That doesn’t explain why Lion’s Arch the location of several intersecting ley lines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_literacy#Positioning

We are being positioned to favour these four characters. We are positioned to favour Ellen Kiel and o-Tron. We are positioned to dislike Evon.

The story isn’t one where you decide where you fall, there are sides you are supposed to take and positions you are supposed to have. Language like “your friends” is just another tool to manipulate the player into favouring these new characters (similar to their mechanical role to res you during the hologram fight or their mechanical role to buff you during the marionette fight) regardless of their individual merits or how they strengthen or weaken the overall story. The deck is stacked in their favour.

I agree I like Destiny’s Edge better. They feel more formidable, more like the kind of people that you want taking on dragons and generally making the story feel like it’s about acts of heroism and more about inclusiveness and all the other “very special episodes” that children’s shows centre around. The new characters feel like they are out of a Disney movie (which I love, I just don’t look for that kind of thing in GW2) – they are more about subversive characterisation (both in terms of real world views such as the lesbian couple or the disabled child and in-game views such as Rox breaking the mould of what we expect a charr to be) than they are about portraying Tyria and the story as this place where epic battles take place.

I’d take Eir over Braham or Rytlock over Rox any day. Can you imagine if Scarlet managed to stay alive because Rox prioritised Braham over preventing Scarlet from killing any more people? You don’t need to because that’s what Logan did with Kralkatorrik and it’s one of the most hated events in modern GW2 history (lucky for Rox we are being positioned to like her). Ignore that it didn’t make sense these four were the ones in the final instance (from Tyria’s pov, not from the audience pov knowing they are the “main characters”), look how close they came to botching the whole thing up?

Tyria feels epic when I adventure with Destinty’s Edge. It feels like a soap opera with these four characters.

CureForLiving.5360:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

…Why do people keep trying to make Scarlet sound like a good guy?

Because Anti-Heros are cool, and Canach isn’t scratching that itch any more.

Yeah, I’m not trying to argue Scarlet is some kind of hero, but I was really disappointed with Canach’s recent appearance. It’s like the stripped away everything that made him cool from the assassin killing bad kitten , the intimidating presence from the short story, the Molten Facility soloing commando and the complex morality of the Southsun avenger and now he’s just a redeemed puppy spouting flowers, love and justice. They turned him into politician Kiel.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ley lines don’t lead to the Elder Dragons.

They’re just channels of least resistence for magic to flow across the entire globe. Some may pass by an Elder Dragon, like the case was for Mordremoth, but they don’t flow to the Elder Dragons.

If you think of Elder Dragons and a hurricane of magic and ley lines are like water catchments – they collect the magic and channel it through Tyria, wouldn’t it make sense for ley lines to be leading too and from the dragons? Magic is suppose to adsorbed and release by dragons, shouldn’t that mean the ley lines would naturally form too and from the dragons?

FlamingFoxx.1305:

I also don’t get why Kieran and Logan are in your diagram.
Kieran and Miku never got together, he was in love with and married Gwen.

It’s tongue-in-cheek. The picture is a joke proposing that Kieran and Miku have a love child (due to the closeness of their relationship during Hearts of the North) in addition to Kieran’s known descendant Logan. Logan is in there because in this joke scenerio, o-Tron tested Marjory and Logan’s DNA and found a match (which is implied to be Kieran and Miku).

The sad thing is, this is the kind of seriousness o-Tron would bring the story.

Scarlet’s plan was foiled by an incredibly rare weather phenomenon known as “coastal winds”. The genius that forged several unlikely alliances, created several revolutionary new technologies, aced several shools of study and woke an Elder Dragon didn’t account for an everyday occurrence in Lion’s Arch.

Honestly I just see it as another plot convenience. The hour cycles of Lion’s Arch were a pita and the gameplay provided by the miasma was getting old and would have been intrusive for this update.

Just because they are both Cathan does not mean they are related. You don’t see people posting random threads about “insert white GW2 NPC here” being relating “insert hite GW1 NPC here”. Marjory might have Canthan ethnicity but she’s basically a Krytan.

I really hope Marjory isn’t related to Miku. Miku was a really cool character and her family has an impotant place in Canthan history. Marjory is a bit of a let down in terms of Canthan heritage so far. She may be of Canthan ancestry but she’s very Krytan imo. Her family has been “displaced” from Cantha for too long to really carry a satisfying Canthan story imo.

If Miku’s plot is picked up, I’d love for it to be strongly tied to Cantha or a character ho has kept Canthan heritage a big part of their identity. Reiko seemed on track to being the puppeteer of the new Emperor. I would love it if Ashu followed in her foot steps and became a manipulative force behind the Emperor. That would leave it open for Miku and her ancestors to stay in Cantha as rebels, trying to resist the extreme changes that he brings to Cantha.

I thought it was sad that the mesmer in the new group was a female. We already have Gwen, Jenna and Anise as iconic mesmers, we really didn’t need Kasmeer as one. It was a missed opportunity to portray a male mesmer for a change. The female mesmer is like ArenaNet’s own special trope. Male mesmers exist but they generally lean towards the drama club side of things.

I really like the suggestion of ravens. It really buys into the trickery aspect of the class.

phys.7689:

the interaction for quickness was essentially the idea of you and your pet getting hyped when you see them again. I do understand your saying, though. but quickness on swap for both is pretty cool.

I think someone else had a good suggestion saying they should have an on swap skill as soon as you swap them in. This would be a simple means to give more control, and also more combos.

In my experience the quickness on swap only mattered if you were in melee range, had a ranged pet or if you wanted them to F2 right away. The time it took for a pet to “aggro” (a lot of pets stand there for a second ro two) and run to their target usually lasted long enough that the pet’s quickness ended before they had any use out of it.

Maybe a self policing approach would work better? For example, two topics that pop up frequently are the “Sylvari are linked to an Elder Dragon” and the general discussions around Malyck. When those topics pop up, posters who commented on the original discussion regurgitate the other thread. Would it be a workable solution to instead link them to the original thread and if they want, they can continue the discussion there?

I want my character to be the hero of the story, I want my accmplishments recognised and not given to the supporting characters and I don’t want to follow around a band of other characters doing their work for them but I am perfectly fine with the way Tequatl is handed (aside from Rox’s inclusion in it). I don’t need NPCs to walk around saying “good job on killing Tequatl”, I’d love to be seen as part of the group that does so however.

When it comes to Scarlet I would have been fine if the heroes of Lion’s Arch (the players – all of them) got credit for the kill. I personally didn’t need to stomp her myself and I didn’t need everyone in Lion’s Arch to talk about me as if I’m the one who did it. From my perspective, Scarlet was defeated by around 50 heroes (or more if you will) on the platform outside of the instance. I thought the instance itself was unnecessary.

I liked the way the Karka Queen was handled and would have been fine if Scarlet went that way. I understand why we were given the chance to personally stomp her, I’m sure many players find that satisfying, but defeating her on her ship as a group and then it blowing up with her inside of it would have been just as satisfying for me.

Morrigan.2809:

CureForLiving.5360:

RedStar.4218:

I mind that when Scarlet asked “do you want to hear why I did all that ?” some idiot said “no” and we didn’t say anything.

This is actually the thing that could have been done better. For a while now I’ve been saying we need more meaningful dialog (RPG style). If we had that we could have chosen “Shut up Bro-Ham, I’ve been slogging through the Scarlet Alliance for months and I want to know WHY!?”. But since we can’t talk…

As for the final blow… well people have been asking for our characters to be the Hero for a while now, and now we have what we wanted. Another community-ANet catch-22.

EDIT: I liked the stomp itself, it felt finisher-ish to me. Hands-on if you will.

yes- I wanted to smack him in the face actually.

I was thinking- now you decide to speak up? can you shut up already and have someone with a brain decide this mmm?

It wasn’t just Braham. Marjory was actually the one who stepped forward with the seeming intent to kill Scarlet.

I don’t even know what that means (or where that comes from). Where does it say Bear no longer favoured Jora?

What does “defiled” mean?

Something happened to Jora on Drakkar lake, it seems weird for Bear to abandon her in her time of need. She didn’t turn her back on Bear or her people (admittedly she was hunting on a lake considered to be cursed but that’s more like playing with fire than it disrespecting the Spirits), she was exposed to dragon corruption and resisted it. Why would Bear make a conscious decision not to embrace Jora any more? It seems to me more like Bear couldn’t embrace Jora.

The Pale Tree could no longer reach Scarlet. It’s implied Scarlet is shielding herself intentionally, but is it possible she is “cursed” similar to how Jora was?

That’s what the Sons of Svanir think but I think that’s wrong. I think one of the writers said that female norn are corrupted but the males would kill or destroy them because Jora killed Svanir, so we just don’t see any. It’s not Drakkar or Jormag that discriminates, it’s the cult that worships him.

Were the unstable Mists portals explained? Normally you need a fixed portal to enter the Mists or some kind of meditation. Why did portals start opening up around the world?

The patch notes say Whatever Scarlet did to rip open the Edge of the Mists portal in Lion’s Arch has caused unstable portals to open intermittently in some of the more dangerous areas of Tyria. but that doesn’t explain what she did or why its effect was so widespread.

When Drakkar first corrupts Svanir, Jora was also affected but instead of becoming another champion of Jormag she simply lost her connection to Bear. It was only after Jora killed her brother that she was finally able to become the bear again. What did Drakkar do that was able to sever Jora’s bond with bear like that? Was it psychological on Jora’s part? Was Bear testing Jora or not giving her power until she righted her brother’s wrongs? Or does Jormag’s power have the ability to cut off a norn’s connection the Spirits of the Wild?

I’m asking this now because in some ways Jora’s experience seems similair to Ceara’s/Scarlet’s experience with the entity we assume is Mordremoth. Of course there are dramatic differences but the theme of being connected to a protective/guiding entity (the Pale Tree for the sylvari and the Spirits of the Wild for the norn) and losing that connection (forcibly in Jora’s experience, implied to be by choice in Scarlet’s experience iirc) is somewhat similair.

Did the entity sever or block Scarlet’s connection to the Pale Tree like Drakkar did to Jora’s connection to Bear?

Did we ever find out why probes were in the Mists? Or why the Aetherblades are there? The probes in Tyria were said to be searching for ley lines (was that all they were doing?) but that explanation doesn’t work with the ones in the Mists (unless there is some cross over or mirroring I don’t understand).

Why was Scarlet interesting in Lion’s Arch before the probes found what they were looking for?

How did the Priory know about the ley lines under Lion’s Arch if Scarlet herself needed probes to find them? What technique is the Priory using to locate ley lines when Scarlet herself needed to form a alliances to acquire the technology to track them?

ElysianEternity.6215:

So… Guess who has a twitter now

Also looks like story bits may occasionally land on flickr.

/leaves this here and stealths out

That story emphasises why I think Marjory and the crew were the wrong ones to be featured in the Lion’s Arch updates. The emotional weight, the ownership of the city, the identity and spirit of Lion’s Arch isn’t represented by them. It feels missing from the story as a result.

New trait: Master: Cleansing Swap: When you swap pets, you lose 2 conditions (ICD of 10 seconds).

Counterplay – when ranger swaps pets, the pet loses boons
Gives Rangers a good option for mobile condi removal.

Why does ranger design and suggestions always treat the pet like a secondary factor even when it’s a suggestion for a trait specifically dealing with said mechanic?

The pet swap mechanic should be about accessing and interacting with your pets. For the pet mechanic to have meaning, it has to be designed so that the ranger is engaging with what the pet does not what the swap does.

I was sad when quickness was removed from pet swap because it was quite powerful and the BM line became completely unappealing for me. Part of me was happy because I hated that the game encouraged me to swap pets for reasons completely unrelated to the pet. If I am going to use a pet swap, why should it be for a reason other than my intention to interact with and utilise the pet?

Removing conditions on pet swap is going to lead to rangers caring less about what the pet does and more about having an on demand condition removal. You might argue it’s an interesting choice – help yourself or potentially swap to a less useful pet but I would argue that it actively designs against the class mechanic, it uses a pet mechanic for a reason that has nothing to do with the pet and the drawback of that design is that the pet might be less desirable than the one you previously had in the fight.

Scenario: I’m pressuring the engineer on home but I’m taking too many conditions. I am using my jaguar for DPS but I have a wolf on swap for its F2 skill. I swap to the wolf so that I can cleanse some conditions and buy myself more time, but now I don’t have jaguar DPS (the wolf also has to get back into range). I don’t need my wolf’s knockdown now (he uses it anyway) and I don’t need his howl. If I get downed or want the fear on swap later on, I can’t access it because I wasted the swap to cleanse a condition.

A trait like this actively designs against the pet as a mechanic (and cynicaly views pet swap as a generic resource and not as it’s true purpose – a pet mechanic). It hinders pet performance by getting you to make pet resource choices for non-pet gameplay. This will just exasperate pet issues and hinder design which tries to best focus on how to utilise the pet and not exploit mechanics tied to the pet for non-pet reasons.

This is a bungled mess and it should have been the way it was day one minus the bugs. Dramatically altering content and the strategy used to complete it several days after players have learned how to do it is a terrible idea and should only be done in the most extreme circumstances, not because you wanted players to approach it differently.

Not only do players need to “relearn” this encounter, players who learned the old way are going to be unaware of the changes and are going to hold everyone back (no amount of map chat spamming with teach many people and some will return a week from now and wonder why they aren’t able to help for the whole fight, also holding everyone back). Time limited content should not be dramatically changed unless it’s severely broken, especially when it requires the entire player base learning the encounter (in this case , learning it twice).

I get you want to improve player skill and challenge people more and I personally dislike the zerg mentality as much as most do, but dramatically altering time limited content after many players have learned it already and forcing player’s hands like this by making extra players useless (we constantly hear that as an excuse for why WvW outmanned isn’t made better – if it’s too good players will be unhappy to see allies, this is abandoned with the current design) is simply the wrong move to make. Accept that you designed the encounter poorly to accomplish your goal (it was still a fun encounter and once you got up to the ship – more fun than the ground anyway and something many players simply won’t do with the current design, the zerg split anyway), learn from it and leave it as it is minus the bugs. There will be another chance to “force” zerg splitting in the future.

Thank you Autumn. I appreciate your communication on these issues.

I think I was able to buy the first two on there (I don’t use the UK store). I wasn’t able to get the third one. Did you try the publisher’s website? I think it may have been available there as well.

Does anyone have a solid idea of the path that the ley line took? I’m guessing outside of Lion’s Arch the world hasn’t changed to reflect the events that happened during the finale. I would love to log in for the next patch and see a giant fissure across Tyria leading towards Maguuma.

I wonder if Thaumanova has become worse as a result, what other impacts would the ley line “rupture” cause?

ThiBash.5634:

Which brings me back to my original point. If the biconics decide they want to kill Scarlet, shouldn’t they at least do the job themselves? Why do we have to get out hands dirty? Are we some hired muscle mobsters or something?

What I find even stranger is the only person from Lion’s Arch on the ship turns around and decides she doesn’t want kill Scarlet. Appearently Braham and Kasmeer had more reason to take down Scarlet than Kiel, a member of both the Lionguard and the Captain’s Council.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Lore-wise, it was stated in a livestream that the Marionette event happened once. Not dozens of times. The Marionette’s corpse can bw found in Lion’s Arch, and there was no Aethercannon in the first place. The Marionette wasn’t used in Lion’s Arch because it was already destroyed – the entire point of the Marionette seems to have been to kill as many “heroes of Tyria” as possible during the weapon testing itself, given that the Marionette itself would have self-destructed.

How does that gel with the five Priory NPCs that were at the map? Or the alternate dialogues from the NPCs depending on success or failure.

The Consortium will also likely come back. During the Tower of Nightmares there was a member of them talking about taking over the BLTC.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Subassessor_Prongg

Given how the writers have been portraying Evon more black than grey these last two releases (especially compared to the rest of the “pirates” of Lion’s Arch) I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a future villain and on his way out.

They wouldn’t put the billet info in the game if they didn’t intend to use it. It will happen, it just hasn’t happened yet.

Heraldusluminare.2946:

I think if ANet created another same-sex relationship and put it in the spotlight too soon, it’d probably spark a riot on the forums.

I personally think a well written love story is fantastic, regardless of gender. That said, I felt the slow development of Jory and Kas’ relationship was adorable. When they started holding hands, I immediately smiled inwardly and thought: “I knew something was up between those two.”

If ANet were to include a guy-guy relationship, I’d probably suggest they subtly add some side-quest implying such for players to stumble over.

Anything less than the treatment Kasmeer and Marjory got is not going to be enough to fulfil a request like this. To get the same treatment and prominence would mean we have to sit through a second relationship that has no relevance to the plot and it makes Tyria feel less like a place where you go on epic adventures and more like an episode of Glee, where inclusion and subversion are the driving forces behind the story, or at least the characters.

I’d rather we get characters that sell the conflicts in Tyria, who are plot relevant, not character’s who’s primary role in the story (beyond their initial appearance) was a romance between each other. There are so many characters in Tyria that obviously have relationships (the world reproduces after all) yet we never hear about them. It’s going to be very jarring if suddenly we spend all this time with the lesbian couple and around the corner we have the gay couple.

I’d be happy if future romances were treated the same as they were before – primarily only mentioned when they were plot relevant or minor inclusions in a character’s presence in the story. Tyria isn’t a soap opera, relationships are part of people’s lives but they don’t define the world of Tyria or why I’m interested in spending time there. Less melodrama and more story.

draxynnic.3719:

All of this, if he truly considered it more important than a grudge, could have been achieved through his letting bygones be bygones and putting his weight behind Ellen. Instead, what we’ve seen of him since the election has been him sniping at, predicting disaster after the election of, and generally undermining Kiel, with his actions most likely weakening Kiel’s case (as, because of him, the Council could have seen her campaign as symbolic posturing in order to falsify Evon’s claims than genuine concern).

If he’d stood behind Kiel, then the former rivals uniting behind a common cause would have been a more powerful symbol on top of all of Evon’s money and clout being behind their shared position.

Kiel “warned” the council during the 11th hour. Evon didn’t undermine months of preparation, he openly criticised her long before she had anything to say about the attack (nor did he criticise her warning of the attack, we don’t even know if he knew she started singing his tune). To be fair, Evon wouldn’t be standing behind Kiel, Kiel would be standing behind Evon. If she wanted his support she should have asked him, technically she was taking his position on Scarlet.

draxynnic.3719:

Or he could have used some of that money to invest in improved defences himself, potentially giving him an unassailable case next time an opening comes up.

This is actually why I believe Evon’s character was poorly written after the attack on LA. He believed LA would be attacked but he didn’t make any preparations for it in advance for his own interests not just for the good of the city. Evon is a former member of the Ash Legion. He is also one of the most successful traders in all of Tyria. The BLTC is huge, you don’t found and run an organisation as successful and widespread as that without being a formidably intelligent and resourceful person. Despite these qualifications he openly talks about the expected attack and he doesn’t act to protect his own interests until it’s too late. It’s poor writing imo. An Ash Legion soldier, the top trader in Tyria, that person is smarter than how he was written here. They’re happy to show the ugly side of his character (the ruthlessness in which he prioritised his dolyaks over citizens) but suddenly he’s too stupid to act to protect his company and profits. Evon even “critized” the player if they chose the dialogue that suggested Lion’s Arch would be fine “Not a winning strategy”. That same person didn’t act to protect his own company when he believed the city it was in was under threat.

DarcShriek.5829:

@Konig
I believe the soundless are still connected to the dream and require regular intensive meditation to keep it out. Even with these efforts, the dreams effects are not entirely eliminated as Scarlet’s defenses were.

It was either implied in “What Scarlet Saw” or said in a Wartower interview that Scarlet was keeping the Pale Tree out of her head by her own will. From my understanding, Scarlet didn’t want to share her thoughts with the Pale Tree so she cut the tree off. To me this implies Scarlet has some kind of control over her mind.

I don’t think it’s once a day. I did the event twice for the first time today in parties of five (heh) and not once did I get a chest. I suspect it’s bugged.

ExAstris.8527:

Luke.4562:

The ridicle is that Anet puts so many pointlights on so much useless details when the whole lore, animation, and plot are a total fail.
Do you think that detail is going to make the character more realistic? To give it more deepness? Really?

So are they actually paying a person who applied and studied to do this mansion?

Overarching plot is important. Details make me care. Buffy slays vampires. Lots of vampires. Cool. But I care more about the character. Things that make you “you” matter in creating a textured character. Are hiccups the be all, end all? No. But I appreciate the consistency in developing a character.

(A “Saved by the Bell” reference didn’t fly the other day, so I realized I’m old-ish. “Buffy: The Vampire Slayer” is a show from the 90’s. This concludes today’s history lesson.)

The plot is missing so many details that have been questions by numerous people across multiple threads and releases and we are wasting time with hiccups. You can skip the reveal of an Elder Dragon but you can’t skip the dialogue of these four characters (who have so little importance in the overall story it really bugs me they are constantly taking the spotlight). That’s so backwards it’s not even funny.

If the overall plot was solid and the details fleshed out, maybe then we can have trivial things like hiccups, but come on. We know more about Kasmeer’s biological functions than we do about why Scarlet’s armies are still in Lion’s Arch and following her despite failures (a dev post on the forums doesn’t count, it has to be in the game) or emphasising that they are splinter groups rather than the full factions. We see more about their intimate relationship than we see of the three orders and their members (which includes most players) and the role they are playing in the fight for Lion’s Arch (their leadership, who was tasked with certain roles etc). What’s more important for understanding this plot and Tyria as a living breathing world, the fact that Kasmeer has hiccups when she’s nervous or exploring in greater detail why Scarlet’s alliances formed and how they are viewed by the factions they came from? No stories change when you know Kasmeer has hiccups, the politics of the Flame Legion and their relevance to the other three Legions is very relevant when you wonder how the dredge alliance impacts on them and the possibility of molten technology being used by the entire Flame Legion.

Maybe Scarlet would have been better received and the big events shaping Tyria would have been more compelling for players if they had been treated as important as developing four characters who were wedged into the story and steal the show during the final encounter. These characters feel more like fan service (awe how cute, she has hiccups) than good story telling and world building.

The story became so tightly focused on these four characters that the details outside of their group (which is most of the story up until now) felt like they became secondary considerations. I know they think that the story didn’t choose one (characters) or another (story and lore) but I have to disagree, the former felt like it overshadowed everything else.

Now that they’ve done what they set out to do (introduce these four characters) I really hope the future content only uses them when it’s most relevant and can allow them to become part of the background, not front and centre.

Antara.3189:

I’m probably the minority on this,

But the Marjory and Kasmeer scene was over the top to me. Not because they are homosexual versus heterosexual, but because it appeared to become a center spotlight piece to the finale, verus the main conclusion, which was the awakening of the Dragon, Mordremoth.

What’s even more hilarious is you can’t skip any of the Marjory and Rox stuff, you have to watch it as if it’s some kind of important piece or lore that you wouldn’t want to miss. You know what you can skip? The fact that the last year and a half is leading towards the awakening of an Elder Dragon.

Priorities.

I was doing this on my warrior and there are some traits that make it harder. Damage on dodge roll was ruining it for me. I was dodge rolling through the middle to get all three lights and the damage would hit the hologram and give me the debuff.

misterdevious.6482:

• Should there be less difference between the min and max pets?
• Should it be easier to spec for a good pet?
• Should pets have more utility by default that isn’t heavily dependent on their stats?

I like that pets are different but I think the DPS and stat differences aren’t the best ways to do it. Pets are most interesting not when they are doing generic DPS but when they bring something unique to the fight. I would like smaller stat differences between min and max pets and greater emphasis on support, control and utility differences between pets (a pet for every situation).

I don’t think it should be easier to spec for a good pet, I think specializing for a good pet should be mutually beneficial to the ranger and it’s party. Currently pets and the Beast Mastery line are a bit selfish. I’d like to see more changes to that line that make specializing as a Beast Mastery is something that really helps you and your party. One of my problems with ranger builds in general is that most of them don’t offer much to your party. I’d love to see a move to make the Beast Mastery line a bit more supportive. Think bout it, it’s trait line where a ranger invests personal resources into their ally – that’s team work. That spirit should be emphasized.

I absolutely think that pets should have more default utility independent of their stats. If I wanted a passive DPS ally I would choose a necromancer (arguably their minion skills are more interesting than the ranger’s). I think the pet is underutilized as a mechanic and it has a lot of room to grow. Look at how happy players are that Braham, Rox and Healer-Tron are reviving them when downed? Players were also happy when those NPCs gave us a passive buff during the marionette fight. Players love to see when an NPC ally is doing something for them and the current design of ranger pets sees that they often don’t do much for the ranger let alone other party members. Pets are more interesting when they have desirable effects and utility rather than straight up DPS (which isn’t that effective considering strafing and the inability to attack moving targets.

Specific Game Mode
PvE

Proposal Overview

• Change the ranger main-hand axe’s “Ricochet” so that it can bounce off of allies including the pet.
• Give the ally it bounces off of Might or Fury (or both).

Goal of Proposal

• To boost the viability of axe main-hand in situations where there is only one enemy (this is a big issue with bosses).
• To add another support element to the ranger class.
• To take advantage of the ranger’s unique mechanic – a pet always being present means there is always an ally to bounce the axe off of.

Proposal Functionality
If Ricochet is changed (or a trait is added/altered) to allow it to bounce off of allies, this would solve one of the biggest downfalls of this weapon. When fighting single targets the DPS is pretty low, but when there are two targets it’s a nice attack because it can bounce onto a second target then back to the first target. Many PvE counters (particularly long boss fights) only have a single enemy making this bounce mechanic almost useless forcing you to switch the weapon or perform sub optimally.

If Ricochet bounced off of allies, it would always hit twice. Rangers always have an ally present (the pet) and altering the axe to perform this way would be another way to make the pet feel like it works as a team with the ranger. It might also go a long way to giving rangers an additional DPS option to ease the pressure to “choose” sword. Currently the axe isn’t good enough for this meta. This would also give this weapon a unique flavour to how it is used.

Associated Risks

• Removes the drawback of this weapon. Some people might not want all weapons to be good in all situations.
• Always hitting the target twice could be quite powerful. Currently it only happens with two enemy’s in the same place, but this would ensure it’s always the case.
• Adding boons onto this weapon would increase the access rangers have to said boons. Class access to specific boons is a careful balance.

Maybe Evon has more pull with the council than Kiel? He was warning of the threat long before it happened, long before Kiel said anything. Kiel is easy to view as under Magnus’ thumb. If I was on the council, I would expect Kiel and Magnus to support each other on most things. Rather than viewing her as an additional voice it might just make her more of an echo of Magnus’. Evon is probably the most successful businessman in Tyria, you’d have to be a fool not to take him seriously, he knows what he’s doing. The Captain’s Council would have to listen to him anyway because of how powerful and influential the BLTC is. If he was on the council he might be able to get more done (if nothing else, he would have been trying since last year instead of just prior to the attack).

In the real world when predicting election outcomes, a lot of the experts turn who is the favorite in the betting circles. Opinions are cheap but money is honest. Evon’s first interest is his money and his business. Protecting Lion’s Arch is mutually beneficial to those things.

None of that is on topic for Scarlet though, it’s better suite for another thread.

Arosche.7438:

I disagree about the inequality though. There are a ton hetrosexual relationships in gw2, they just fly under your radar because they are so normalised to you. I can count five off the top of my head in personal story (even a married couple!). So a ton of normal hetro sexual relationships for 2 homosexual relationships in the spotlight… seems okay to me.

Prominence is the difference, I don’t think “fly under the radar” is a good argument against prominence because the next most prominent relationship isn’t as heavily featured as this one (at least not in terms of intimacy). This is easily the most prominent romance in Tyria now. No-one else got a kiss scene (in the middle of the finale for some reason). To add to that, this relationship has no plot relevance. Logan and Jennah’s relationship suits the story much better because it has implications for the royal line. Marjory and Kasmeer’s relationship constantly feels like eaves dropping something we have no reason to be involved with. The world isn’t going to change now that they are a couple, if Logan and Jennah married Tyria would change. If Caithe joined Faolain in Nightmare, one of the Firstborn – the closest thing to sylvari leaders – becomes evil. Marjory and Kasmeer’s relationship and it’s presence in the story is self serving, it doesn’t make Tyria a more interesting place, it doesn’t build plots within the world, it just serves as an identity for these two characters. An identity most of Tyria wouldn’t care about.

You talk about a spotlight, but the only other people in a spotlight similair to Marjory and Kasmeer are Rox, Braham and Destiny’s Edge. You can’t fairly compare a random couple from the personal story to two (or three if you count Caithe and Faolain) of the “iconic” characters.

I’m fine with this. I was concerned he would play some important plot role in the final release, he just reses you like anyone in Tyria can do.

Kalavier.1097:

Zaxares.5419:

The Molten Alliance will probably fracture, with the Dredge and Flame Legion returning to their perspective factions with their new technology and/or magic. They may be punished for their initial desertion, or perhaps their new techniques will see them welcomed back. (I’m inclined to think that the Flame Legion will be less welcoming, however. They would not look kindly on “heretics” being gifted with their flame magic, or the shamans who gifted it to them.)

The Toxic Alliance is the only group who may possibly follow Mordremoth, or the Nightmare Court faction, anyway. It seems very doubtful that the Krait would see an Elder Dragon as their “prophet”, but any Toxic Krait who returned would likely be seen as apostates and be executed.

It’s actually been stated by Anet on these forums that Molten Alliance charr would be killed on sight bt the other Flame legion if they returned without some sort of AWESOME victory and rep.

Likewise, the same thing was said for the toxic Krait, other Krait would just plain murder them on site.

Didn’t toxic krait appear side by side with other krait communities without incident when they were first introduced?

Also worth nothing, were any of those things communicated in the game?

Yeah, killing Scarlet before we get any real answers, that seems like a mistake. I actually thought it was a little anti-climactic. This was their chance to redeem Scarlet as a villain, to give some satisfying answers, to explore her fall from Ceara to the person she was when she died. I wanted to know more about her struggle with Mordremoth, more about her descent and more about Scarlet as a person. Instead we get Braham’s silly comment and the shoehorned love plot (really? over a year of this villain and more prominence is given to a “progressive” kiss scene than what is given to the motives of the character this whole thing was about?). Now how are we supposed to get satisfying answers? Unless the Pale Tree’s connection was restored with Scarlet in the end, how are we supposed to see more about Scarlet?

I personally don’t care too much about illusion of choice (I like choice) but it would have been better if I could at least attempt to hear what Scarlet had to say.

Why did Scarlet place teleporters around Lion’s Arch that conveniently allowed us into her fortress? Can you imagine the Trojan war if the Trojans just built four back doors into their city?

I think you guys aren’t doing enough DPS to get loot credit (a big problem for condition builds). At launch this problem existed for champions – it was possible to get gold event credit but not qualify for loot drops. They adjusted that a while back and now it’s much easier to get loot credit on champion mobs. The knight are legendary mobs, maybe they use the old loot algorithm which was excluding people?

Honestly the best bet to get loot credit is to invite random people around you until you have a full party. The whole party’s DPS will count towards the loot credit cap and everyone should get their chest.