Guild Wars 2

You thought the desert hare inspired animal didn’t belong in the desert, but the stingray was fine? I don’t quite follow. I think what you really meant was “I personally don’t like the goofy timid aesthetic of the hare compared to the fierce or elegant other mounts”. Either way, to each his own, I guess. Some people like it just fine.

ilQr.1342:

> your gear looks trash. 1v1 me noob
> getting bothered to duel at random or by some aggressive troll will get on your nerves

There will always be toxic people no matter the game type.

Sheltering people as much as possible and putting them in a safe-space bubble isn’t the way to go. It cuts down on the social and interactive aspect of the community.

This safe-space bubble has already been added to WvW, which is bad choice in my eyes but I digress. (Can’t party invite enemy team anymore.)

Safe space bubble. Sheltering. You were so close to using the word “snowflake”. I can feel it! But you’re right that there will always be toxic people. That doesn’t mean we should just hand them more tools to be so. And no one is trying to shelter anyone. Not annoying people isn’t hiding people from the cold harsh truths of the world, or whatever.
It’s just a game. It’s not that serious. It’s not imparting life lessons. It’s just that the people who made the game decided to go a certain direction, it got largely positive feedback, and they stuck with it. People were mostly happy with no open world PvP or dueling, etc. , and likely probably still are.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Gee, it’s been awhile.

No, to Open World PvP for all the reasons stated in the previous threads.

Yeah, it has. Most nations outlawed open dueling at the end of the 1800’s.

But more to the point of the game, I think I hear far more praise than complaints over the fact that people don’t get harassed for duels every few minutes in GW2. And honestly, I think the lack of easy offhand competition might help engender this game’s overall helpful community. Not everything is focused on “your gear looks trash, 1v1 me noob!” or whatever. Maybe. I could be way off base with that one, but still. I think getting bothered to duel at random or by some aggressive troll will just get on my nerves.

After the SAB one (I don’t particularly like SAB so am not good at it. Like at all.) I had to accept that I can’t hug every cat. But I guess most of the cats will just have to do.

It’s almost surprising that it took this long to figure it out. Isn’t the Crystal Desert made entirely of sand grain sized crystals? And a desert? The place is literally nothing but sun and crystals and it took zephyrites to actually do something useful with it.

The mounts aren’t useless in the zone we got them in. They added a unique way around uniquely built challenges.
They are useless in core Tyria, for all the reasons you mentioned, but whatever. People still want them, and now that we’re getting them, I guess there’s no point in complaining about it. I just REALLY hope they actually make “no mount” zones. Real ones. Amnoon had one, but did literally nothing but give you a little tag above your skill bar. Hopefully that’s just a beta thing, and once more work is done, you’ll actually be forced off your mount in crowded areas.

For perspective, Atlanta, Georgia was founded in 1847. 170 years ago, it was open foothills and swamps with an oddly out-of-place mountain. A lot of rapid changes happen to a place when people decide to build a city on it.
Add another 80ish years and it’s no surprise almost nothing is left of the old map(s)

vicious.5683:

Squee.7829:

I think at this point they’re used to seeing the overblown exaggerated “YOU KILLED MY CLASS FOREVER AND EVER AND EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE!” responses that flood those forums with literally every skill change update. That is until people find out they can just kind of…adapt a little bit and nine times out of ten, they realize that nothing was “OMG RUINED” and quiet down again. Until the next skill update.

you say that because you clearly don’t have a clue of what a HUGE nerf necros received.

My primary character is a necromancer. My power build needs some work now, but my cond build and my lazy “let minions do all the work and make me durable” build are definitely not ruined. I noticed a change, and a drop in performance here and there, but for the next hour or so, I’m going to be seeing what changes I can make tomake it better, as I have with every update so far, and most likely find that I’m really no better off for this patch.

Probably. I mean, sure there’s a chance they really did mess up the class in a way that can’t be fixed. I don’t know yet, and it’s happened at least once before. But it’s not likely the case. Every single time skills change, people outcry the hour(s) after the update without even trying to see what they can do to improve things on their end. It’s nothing new.

I think at this point they’re used to seeing the overblown exaggerated “YOU KILLED MY CLASS FOREVER AND EVER AND EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE!” responses that flood those forums with literally every skill change update. That is until people find out they can just kind of…adapt a little bit and nine times out of ten, they realize that nothing was “OMG RUINED” and quiet down again. Until the next skill update.

Dervishes were pretty human-centric. The entire point of them was religious fervor with human gods. Zealots and whatnot. You’d have to do some mild mental gymnastics to justify bringing those into the secular multi-species side of things. Aside from that, the class as it was in GW1 would be redundant now. The Reaper pretty much fills the role of “durable AoE melee with oversized weapon/ condition spreading” (which is great because Dervish was my favorite class in GW1, and Necro is my main in GW2.)

Paragon isn’ human centric at all. Anyone can shout uplifting battlecries. I can totally see Charr doing it for the whole “teamwork/legion” aspect and Norn doing it because if anyone is going to be enthusiastically shouting things in a fight, it’d be a Norn. But again, redundant. Warriors can take the role of battlefield motivator these days.

Yeah! I’m sick of these incredibly broad concepts coming into GW2! First it was jumping. Just like WoW! Then swimming! Then we had steampunk mixed with magitech in an overarching fantasy landscape. Just like WoW! And now we’re riding animals. Just like WoW!!!

Come on guys. I’m a little cautious about mounts too, mostly for the ungodly eyesore they’ll be in towns and whatnot. But let’s not throw around baseless accusations or comparisons. Mounts make a game “just like WoW”? Seriously? Well we’d better tell Dragon Age: Inquisition, Oddworld, every Final Fantasy game (many of which predate WoW), Horizon: Zero Dawn….I can be here all freaking day.

And I kid you not, before GW2 launch I heard the same thing when people learned we could jump. I wish I was exaggerating. I am not. If you have a legit concern about mounts, you can jump on the bandwagon with the rest of us. Yes, even myself. I’m not really anti-mount, but I am very skeptical about their implementation. But there’s no reason to go around saying this game is “Just like WoW!!!” for having a very simple concept that MANY games share and that WoW in NO way cornered any kind of market on.

Schrodinger’s God. He’s not dead or alive until we check on him.
Interesting note, though, I noticed one of the traits in the upcoming scourge mentioned being able to temporarily step into the Realm of Torment. Not the Realm of secrets, or whatever Kormir is claiming these days. It’s good to see Kormir kept Abaddon’s room just the way he left it, but do you think there might be a reason for it?

Edit: searched Reddit for a related image. It wasn’t a trait. It was the scourge Elite skill. Either way : https://i.redd.it/uwg4kdtj7cdz.jpg

Ranael.6423:

Endless Soul.5178:

I think a lot of it has to do with mount trolling in other games. Standing on top of NPCs, blocking views, clutter everywhere, etc.

Well, already without mounts there is some NPC hiding made by huge Norns and Charrs… and JP “trolling” is also a thing. We survived 5 years without “anti-Norn” zones… we will survive without “anti-mounts” ones I guess.

It would be nice if they didn’t exacerbate the problem though. It’s bad enough with the giant spiky norn and charr with 8 foot wide back pieces and every aura they can buy stacked on top of each other. There’s no need to stick them on top of a large animal and make them even more of an obstruction.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

FrizzFreston.5290:

It is a bit of a side quest to read all the information though. If you merely play through the story, and just leave the story instance after you would quite easily miss all the Livia bits.

That’s how it is for all the lore though.

Want the vast majority of lore on Zhaitan? You have to dig for it. On Mordremoth? Gotta dig. On Caudecus? Gotta dig. On E? Or Lazarus? Or Balthazar? Gotta dig, dig, dig.

That’s how lore has been set up for the entire GW franchise, since the days of Prophecies. The main story has probably only a third of the full lore on the main events happening or the main characters.

FrizzFreston.5290:

To be fair, I thought the same when my character was talking like he knew Livia. I was fairly surprised, and I actually know the whole Livia thing.

To be fair, only asura and human characters react in knowing who Livia is, and just like the PC knowing the White Mantle in Episode 1, it’s presented from knowing due to history class, which would have happened pre-personal story.

(This does seem weird for sylvari who mention hearing about stories, though, given the PS begins with their awakening.)

So they explained how they knew who Livia was. Charr, sylvari, and I believe norn don’t react in a “I know who Livia is” but rather a “so your name isn’t Kerida, but Livia” manner.

Squee.7829:

PS. To all the people linking to the Livia wiki page, I’m glad you’re pointing people in the right direction, but I think one of the key points of this thread is that if you have to look outside of the game to find out why a key figure of the story is important, someone failed at proper story telling. Yeah, we can all search Livia now, after the fact, but it’s kind of too late.

To be fair, the wiki doesn’t have much that isn’t in the games or books.

There are some bits here and there from interviews or dev comments on forums/reddit/etc., but that’s the minority.

That’s kind of the thing about how ArenaNet handles lore – they put bits here, bits there, and have players find them all like a scavenger hunt. And folks put it up on the wiki for those who don’t like scavenger hunts.

Usually it works out well too, I think. This time though, not so much. I think it’s mostly just the way human PC’s reacted to it. And maybe it’s not really bad story telling from Anet and just that we’re used to information being handled a certain way in games.
There are many times in any game where I, the player, might know about a certain subject because I read clues, dug for answers outside the main path, etc. but the PC would act as if they have a minimum amount of knowledge on that same subject.

I think this is just a safe way to handle story telling because any game designer knows that half (at the very least) of all players will not care about all the story details. They’ll just blow through whatever they can with no regard for reading text outside of what is immediately thrown in their faces. (Not trying to sound judgemental. I know some people play games for reasons other than “I want to read a good story”) so they err on the side of caution and make the PC a little ignorant, even if you DID make them read through pages of missing diaries or scrolls or whatever. I guess Anet likes to go the opposite way though. They really want you to read the lore they made so I guess it makes sense that it’s a little punishing for those who didn’t.

Livia was briefly mentioned in out of the way areas of the game (books and letters you had to search for but were in no way a mandatory part of any quest). But they really did vastly overestimate how many people actually did go that far out of their way to find this stuff. I know who Livia is, sure. I was around in GW1, as a person in the real world who played the game. I read about her in one of the novels that took place between the two games. But the PC in GW2 has done none of those things, because she’s not a real person. She’s a bunch of pixels that exists solely in a universe where he/she would have not done or read literally any of the things I have, so even I thought it was a little ridiculous when she was like “YOU’RE Livia?!”

If anything, the PC would probably mention something like “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that name mentioned…somewhere. I think. I dunno.” but it came off in the game as like the PC was fully aware of Livia and was every bit as excited about her as many of the GW1 vets seemed to be. I know I made a post earlier in this thread about player knowledge vs. what the PC actually knows or whatever, but I do still kind of agree that the PC seemed a bit too familiar with Livia in this story.

Maybe it was to please the older players. The ones who rabidly searched for any clue that literally any NPC with red hair and some kind of importance could be their long lost Livia. I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure GW1 vets like myself, numerous though we may be, are vastly outnumbered by people who never played GW1 and who are probably pretty annoyed that this random chick is treated like someone you should have known this entire time.

PS. To all the people linking to the Livia wiki page, I’m glad you’re pointing people in the right direction, but I think one of the key points of this thread is that if you have to look outside of the game to find out why a key figure of the story is important, someone failed at proper story telling. Yeah, we can all search Livia now, after the fact, but it’s kind of too late.

You can upgrade HoT with gems. (standard edition HoT to deluxe edition HoT) This is a completely seperate thing from PoF though. PoF is not an upgrade. It is an expansion. Even if you have HoT you will have to pay for PoF with real money.

If you buy PoF standard version (with money, because I want to stress that this is the only method to do so) you may upgrade THAT expansion with gems.

Common knowledge in game might not always come across as easily or get touched up on much. Some things are just generally understood as "things a common Tyrian would know ". Sort of like how your character can speak/read all the diverse languages of the world (Old Krytan, new Krytan, Ascaclonian, Asuran, Orrian, etc.) despite you never taking your character through any language courses. Or masterties, like you had to do to speak with the frogs in HoT.

Ayrilana.1396:

Squee.7829:

Ayrilana.1396:

It hurts minion builds where the player relies on them for damage. For other builds, it’s not really that much of an impact.

Perhaps they’ll make players’ minion immune to it along with whenever they resolve the server lag on that map.

It hurts minion builds of any flavor. I rely on minions to take my damage, .uptick my bleed stacks and steal health for me more than do any direct damage. But they can’t do that if they’re getting wiped out constantly because I picked something up or are in a Balthazar temple.

I ran necro for dailies on that map and never had issues.

I don’t have issues on it either. I just avoid using minions in some areas.

Too much work for not enough demand. I would like new races too, but am not the least bit upset we’re not getting them, given the work they require and the mental backflips required to fit them into the story.

Ayrilana.1396:

It hurts minion builds where the player relies on them for damage. For other builds, it’s not really that much of an impact.

Perhaps they’ll make players’ minion immune to it along with whenever they resolve the server lag on that map.

It hurts minion builds of any flavor. I rely on minions to take my damage, .uptick my bleed stacks and steal health for me more than do any direct damage. But they can’t do that if they’re getting wiped out constantly because I picked something up or are in a Balthazar temple.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

The Greyhawk.9107:

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

….. I should hope Cantha takes inspiration from one Asian Country and not all of them at once like in Guild Wars 1.

The Country used as inspiration should preferably be Japan(study Inuyasha, Naruto and Bleach for inspiration ArenaNet) as China has already been done by WoW MoP.

Yeah…that’s a bad reason to pick a specific nation/culture as inspiration. Also REALLY bad sources to use.

Plus I’ve never seen using multiple nations/cultures as inspiration for fantasy as being a bad thing, considering how its done all the time with western/medieval Europe style fantasy all the kittening time. Why is it a bad thing specifically for Asians? Seems a bit like a double standard to me.

Didn’t South Koreans and NC Soft complain about the blending of Japanese style fantasy with Chinese and Korean Fantasy? Didn’t NC Soft make ArenaNet get rid of the Canthan District in Divinity’s Reach because of such reasons?

According to some. But according to many others it was removed due to the bickering of just one A net or NCsoft employee who may or may not even work at the company anymore. So, who can tell, really? Aside from actual Anet employees, but I doubt one is going to come into this thread to really clarify.

Removed because of arachnophobia? Sure. That makes sense. Because I wasn’t afraid of the countless champion spiders littering Orr that were 3 times my size and literally trying to kill me. I’m just afraid of the tame spiders that allow me to ride them.

Aenesthesia.1697:

Squee.7829:

Aenesthesia.1697:

xikira.3264:

In the new expansion please give the option to hide mounts. Also give the option for us to do the story and get to places without using them. This is a win win people that want their mounts get them and the ones that dont won’t have to.
I was extremely excited the the expansion until I learned about the mounts. If this problem would be fixed I would be all abored the hype train again. I’m pretty sure a lot of the people that are unhappy with the mounts probably feel the same way.

what problem do you have with mounts? I wasn’t expecting them but i don’t see how they can hurt. Asking to remove them is like asking to remove the masteries. Why would a player close their mind to new additions to gameplay?

These aren’t even remotely the same thing. He’s not asking to remove mounts. HIDING a thing and removing them are entirely different things.

he is asking to hide them and remove the elements of gameplay that make them useful. He intends to play without mounts. For what purpose i don’t know. If it’s because of immersion, this game killed immersion forever when it introduced the waypoints in the storilyne.

Oh, I see. I should have read his post more thoroughly. I kinda confused it for another one that just asked to hide them. But, no he did say something about removing the need for them entirely. That’s a bit far fetched.

Sorry about that.

Aenesthesia.1697:

xikira.3264:

In the new expansion please give the option to hide mounts. Also give the option for us to do the story and get to places without using them. This is a win win people that want their mounts get them and the ones that dont won’t have to.
I was extremely excited the the expansion until I learned about the mounts. If this problem would be fixed I would be all abored the hype train again. I’m pretty sure a lot of the people that are unhappy with the mounts probably feel the same way.

what problem do you have with mounts? I wasn’t expecting them but i don’t see how they can hurt. Asking to remove them is like asking to remove the masteries. Why would a player close their mind to new additions to gameplay?

These aren’t even remotely the same thing. He’s not asking to remove mounts. HIDING a thing and removing them are entirely different things.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

Swizzle.7982:

Calling it now, the new emperor of Cantha will turn out to be Bubbles.

You want the Deep Sea Elder Dragon to be that small!?!

I’d much rather that the Emperor be Ecclesiate Xun Rao going by the name Usoku who should turn out to be Menzies himself thus giving us some tie-in to Path of Fire.

Of course considering Cantha’s new policies as well as their full subjugation and absorption of the Kurzicks & Luxons I should hope Cantha takes inspiration from one Asian Country and not all of them at once like in Guild Wars 1.

The Country used as inspiration should preferably be Japan(study Inuyasha, Naruto and Bleach for inspiration ArenaNet) as China has already been done by WoW MoP.

People were angry enough when GW2 released cat ears. They saw it as obsessive “weeaboo nonsense” catering to anime fanboys/girls and whatnot. They’re not going to be happy about what you’re suggesting either. Especially not if your reasons cite the 3 most stereo-typically annoying anime series to ever spawn from Japan.

Also, diversity is a good thing. There are a lot of beautiful places in all Asia to take inspiration from. Japan isn’t the only cool place in the world. I’m sure it’s lovely, but let’s not just toss out the rest of an entire continent just because someone is a fan of Japanese cartoons.

LezardValeth.9453:

The Veteran Lash during HoT’s announcement was justified because of how they made GW2 F2P and if new players bought HoT alone they’d get the full game while the vets had to pay an extra 50$. In my opinion, a single character slot was not enough.

That being said, the above does not apply to this current expansion, unless they made HoT free if players buy PoF. Day-one vets like myself don’t really have any excuses this time around.

I definitely understand the argument as you put it. Like, if veterans who ALREADY bought core GW2 could get HoT for $30 i and the $50 tag would include HoT as well as the core, that’d be more fair. But the way they did it was pretty terrible.

I don’t want to seem like I’m just jealous that new players got stuff and I didn’t. I’m more than happy with Anet enticing new revenue with free stuff, but it just seems like new players got a fair deal (core game plus expansion for $50) while veterans got ripped off ($50 dollars for an expac that simply didn’t deliver enough to warrant that price)

But, back to the point of this thread, I think the pricing options this time are perfect. Even if PoF turns out to be pretty bad, I think $30 is a fair price to just kind of “get a feel for it” But I’m actually a little optmistic this time. HoT looked a little on the disappointing side to me even before release, but so far what I’ve seen from PoF is pretty nice.

A free expansion? Is that how it’s supposed to work? We don’t actually have to PAY for services and things? I’m pretty sure there are beta WoW players still paying for expansions.

I was kinda on your side of the argument for HoT, because (and I still feel this way) it was not worth $50 when it released. Not even $40. And it was a little selfish for veteran players to whine about all the free core content new players got with it, but whatever, I can see where you’re coming from at least. But this “free” business? That’s pretty absurd. The pricing for this expansion is definitely fair and if you think you deserve to enjoy the painstaking work of Arenanet (or literally any company ever) then you’re going to have a hard time getting things in this world. May as well pack it up, man. Find a nice spot on the street somewhere and beg for stuff.

I’d be happy if mounts were not permitted inside towns and jump puzzles. (Gliders were disabled for most jump puzzles, so I’m confident they’ll do the same for mounts. ) Towns are cluttered and densely packed around services. It can get mildly annoying trying to look at the bank or crafting station when 15 people with 80 foot wingspans and 346743356 .5 stacked auras are demanding your attention. Giving them mounts in these crowded areas would be a nightmare.

I think making them available at all outside the new expansion would be pointless, since traveling in core Tyria is not even remotely an issue. But at least in non-city/settlement maps, people don’t cluster as often and there’s room to get around visual obstructions.

I’ve always been against the ridiculous “GW2 NEEEEEEEEDDDSSSSSssssss mounts!!!” arguments, because…we haven’t needed them. It’s purely 100% cosmetic (So far). But I’m not against mounts overall. There’s nothing wrong with wanting something pretty to sit on. Like the tastefully small broom and carpet. I just hope it doesn’t get out of control like huge backpieces and auras did.

I think it was listed as a reason no one goes to Cantha anymore. That, and Cantha’s extreme xenophobia. Mostly the xenophobia, I think.

mXz.4512:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

mXz.4512:

“Buying” just seems like it only adds and promotes to more cash grabbing. I’d have to say no to ‘buying’ sorry.

What cash is being grabbed by this? And from whom?

Not the point. Surely you don’t think it’s much effort to take a new toon through a new map and run from one waypoint to another?

Then someone else comes along and buys all the waypoints you took the time to get to. Assuming the OP is wanting an option through the gemstore to unlock waypoints, then yes that would be just another cheap QoL gimmick to get people to unlock maps.

I’ll pass.

This isn’t the case at all though. I’m assuming you haven’t been to the new map, so I’ll describe how the bought waypoints work.
In Siren’s Landing, there is a map specific currency called Orrian Pearls. You can not buy these from the TP or trade them in any way with other players. The only ways to obtain them are from harvesting them, buying them with karma at specific vendors, or earning them through some map events. It is not possible to use in game currency to obtain these pearls in any way (unless you consider karma as currency, but then you can not get karma with gold, so still unobtainable with actual money)

There are NPC’s on the map that will unlock a waypoint for you in exchange for Orrian pearls. And ONLY Orrian pearls. As mentioned above, you can not in any way get those pearls with money, so it is impossible for Anet to encourage any kind of gem purchase for these pearls or the waypoints.

mXz.4512:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

mXz.4512:

“Buying” just seems like it only adds and promotes to more cash grabbing. I’d have to say no to ‘buying’ sorry.

What cash is being grabbed by this? And from whom?

Not the point. Surely you don’t think it’s much effort to take a new toon through a new map and run from one waypoint to another?

Then someone else comes along and buys all the waypoints you took the time to get to. Assuming the OP is wanting an option through the gemstore to unlock waypoints, then yes that would be just another cheap QoL gimmick to get people to unlock maps.

I’ll pass.

This isn’t the case at all though. I’m assuming you haven’t been to the new map, so I’ll describe how the bought waypoints work.
In Siren’s Landing, there is a map specific currency called Orrian Pearls. You can not buy these from the TP or trade them in any way with other players. The only ways to obtain them are from harvesting them, buying them with karma at specific vendors, or earning them through some map events. It is not possible to use in game currency to obtain these pearls in any way (unless you consider karma as currency, but then you can not get karma with gold, so still unobtainable with actual money)

There are NPC’s on the map that will unlock a waypoint for you in exchange for Orrian pearls. And ONLY Orrian pearls. As mentioned above, you can not in any way get those pearls with money, so it is impossible for Anet to encourage any kind of gem purchase for these pearls.

Also, what did Livia do with the scepter of Orr? Did she casually toss it off a cliff or something?
(https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Staff_of_the_Mists)

My pocket raptor grew

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Squee.7829:

But here we are in what appears to be a religious hub, probably visited constantly up until the cataclysm,

I’m not so sure about that. Unlike the rest of Orr, which was heavily urban, I don’t think I saw any residential structures on this map, and it’d stand to reason that the gods, and later kings, would tightly restrict who had access to the reliquaries. It’s possible that the statues weren’t any harm because no one would be allowed to come close enough to see them.
EDIT: Went back to look around, and there is a town on the beach, but that seems to be it. I’d forgotten about the little Abaddon statues, however, and one’s pretty close by.

It’s possible that the inhabitants were among the privileged few allowed to know about Abaddon. We knew there were such people, even in Nightfall- most of what we were told about him and the Margonites in-game came from the priesthood of Lyssa in Vabbi.

Ok, so I found out, by gathering those books, why it the Abaddon statues are there. You weren’t too far off. Apparently Abaddon had linked the statues in a way where they were not removable, as was pointed out earlier, so the gods just wholesale veiled the place. It wasn’t necessarily just a “privileged few can be here” kind of thing so much as it was a “this place doesn’t exist, don’t look over here” kinda thing.

Janderson.4670:

There is an NPC you can talk to in the map and he states that the gods could not entirely wipe out Abaddons presence there because of the grid of ley energy. If they destroyed Abaddons reliquary, they would effectively destroy their own. The conversation follows along those lines.

Awesome. Pretty obvious place to find the information I was asking for, really. I feel kinda dumb xD
Anyways, thanks for the information!

I thought Lazarus was given due attention considering he’s just kind of a slightly-more-important-than-normal Mursaat, and in GW1 their only huge advantage (not their only advantage) was that they were invisible and cast Spectral Agony.

And speaking of GW1, I feel like what they’re doing is seeing a lot of feedback from people who never played the game feeling like they’re kind of left out for not getting all these references that are suddenly thrust into the center of important plots. Maybe the story writing team is just trying to tie off those ends so they can get back to stories and characters that everyone can understand while also (albeit hastily) trying to satisfy GW1 veterans waiting for these big characters to stop floating in limbo.

But it is kind of hasty and can see where people think it’s being rushed.

maxwelgm.4315:

If I got my timelines correctly, the Cataclysm in Orr happened long before the fall of Abbadon. When Charr invaded Orr, the gods were still six and all were still openly worshiped, and most importantly, there was still a Crystal Sea. Only a lot of time later was the reign of Doric and the whole Bloodstone thing. And only then was Abbadon banned to Torment and fallen from grace. Given that, and also that Abbadon was also keeper of secrets for the other gods, it should be pretty much expected that his presence be very strong in all of the reliquaries.

Thank you for the response, but Orr fell over 1000 years after the Exodus of the gods, which was the same year Abaddon warred with the gods and was cast down. (0 AE. It was a busy year.) The Cataclysm occurred in 1071 AE. 1071 years afterwards.

It’s easy to get dates mixed up, especially when events span two games. I think even the devs and story writers have trouble keeping up. So I understand the mix up and hope I don’t seem condescending or anything. But here’s a timeline for significant events in Tyria. (I’m using the GW1 timeline page as it goes into slightly more detail about the relevant events in history)

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Timeline

So, I like Abaddon. He always seemed cool to me, but wasn’t he supposed to have been erased? I understand if a few are missed in really hard to reach or obscure places. Like, I got the sense that the shrine from the core story was sunken long before the rest of Orr, and thus had an excuse for existing. But here we are in what appears to be a religious hub, probably visited constantly up until the cataclysm, and there are a lot of Abaddon statues. Not just in the huge shrine in the center of the area, but I even saw one prominently displayed in other God’s reliquaries. What could be the reason for his statues to still be there?

Brief points!:
Everything I hated about Livias personality in GW1 was greatly exaggerated for this game. But that’s not really bad writing or anything. Just personal preference. I just wanted to get off my chest that I always thought Livia was overrated and annoying.

But personal hang-ups aside, I thought A net did a pretty good job. (Even with Livia) Continuity is solid, the new map was good, story instances…did seem a little rushed at times I guess. I didn’t mind the puzzles. Really. It’s a good break from the monotonous “here’s your enemy, hit him and tank his damage!”

I’m generally satisfied with how some loose ends were done. Im glad we can stop speculating who is actually Livia. (And go back to thinking everybody is Lyssa I guess)
I think a lot of people expected Lazarus to be more significant due to hype from previous chapters and wild speculations, but I think he was given the proper amount of attention. He really wasn’t that special in GW1 either. Just slightly smarter than the average Mursaat.

I’m also pretty excited about the expansion. Crystal Desert was my favorite region in all of GW1. And I liked most regions.

Brief points!:
Everything I hated about Livias personality in GW1 was greatly exaggerated for this game. But that’s not really bad writing or anything. Just personal preference. I just wanted to get off my chest that I always thought Livia was overrated and annoying.

But personal hang-ups aside, I thought A net did a pretty good job. (Even with Livia) Continuity is solid, the new map was good, story instances…did seem a little rushed at times I guess. I didn’t mind the puzzles. Really. It’s a good break from the monotonous “here’s your enemy, hit him and tank his damage!”

I’m generally satisfied with how some loose ends were done. Im glad we can stop speculating who is actually Livia. (And go back to thinking everybody is Lyssa I guess)
I think a lot of people expected Lazarus to be more significant due to hype from previous chapters and wild speculations, but I think he was given the proper amount of attention. He really wasn’t that special in GW1 either. Just slightly smarter than the average Mursaat.

I’m also pretty excited about the expansion. Crystal Desert was my favorite region in all of GW1. And I liked most regions.

ugrakarma.9416:

…. I do not know the lore of Guild Wars 1, what is the gap between the events of Guild Wars 1 and 2? Are they 100, 200 years old? Does this mean that most of the GW1 characters are unknown to the “current generation” and remembered to us as old stories or legends? Those who are alive as Livia, are those who had “something special” to have longevity?

250 ish years. Everyone from GW1 is dead, barring some odd circumstances.

FireCrescent.6512:

Khal Drogo.6952:

You need to go to the visions and press F, it will cleanse the debuff and stun the clone. I fought it for 2 hours before figuring this out lol.

Thank you so much for this. I wish they would make this clear in the game. But Haha anet.

Enjoy the thread now, because it won’t be long before we get dozens of posts saying “I figured it out in 3 minutes because I’m amazing!” Followed by chastising remarks about hand holding.

Generally, though, this games community is helpful and it’s awesome.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

Jaken.6801:

Okay, I just went trhough it and of course: Spoilers

• New Orr area is interesting. Didn’t have much time to explore, but it seems like Balthazar was always a danger, according to the ghosts? Was our view on him over thousands of years so wrong?

So Balthazar threw away Honor before the Exodus of the Gods then(explains why the Canthan myths mention a general lack of sportsmanship from Balthazar with Kaolai being the exception to this). The Zaishen Order was deceived the whole time.

We always knew he was a danger BECAUSE of things like Cantha and their stories. It really doesn’t change a whole lot. You can kind of compare it to Hera from Greek mythology. She was honored and worshipped as her station warranted, and was the personification of her sphere of influence. But everyone, especially the worshippers, knew she was a raging vengeful heartless kitten. Balthazar was probably the same way. Honorable and strong, but also temperamental and volatile. I don’t think anything really changed in that end.

Poor Shiro. Would have to die a 4th time. Would also make channeling him weird as a revenant. But then, we used the hounds of Balthazar against the hounds of Balthazar, so whatever.

Randulf.7614:

It seems almost certain Balthazar is the one left behind. Short of them saying balth was always Lazarus from the beginning even in gw1, I suspect the real lazarus will remain a hanging thread.

I hope I’m wrong I really do, but then again is one single mursaat actually a threat?

I have to agree with this one. 6-8 people killed Mursaat by the hundreds once they figured out how to see them. One clever Mursaat should be easy enough. The only reason Lazarus would have been a threat was if he had actually been the one to eat a bloodstone. But we know now that if he did return, he’d be the same regular guy we dispatched easily in GW EotN.

If they do bring back Lazarus they’d have to find a new way to make people care. Make him threatening again.

Ashen.2907:

Pax.3548:

dictator is a person who gets to power through sheer force, without an hereditary succession to legitimate his rule.

No.

Ok, so this is why it’s important to leave a rebuttal ONLY if you have information to back it up. Not only because it gives some credibility to your side of the argument, but also because you can avoid embarrassing situations, such as finding out that your opponent literally just posted the definition of a dictator.
From the English dictionary: “noun
1.
a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession.
2.
(in ancient Rome) a person invested with supreme authority during a crisis, the regular magistracy being subordinated to him until the crisis was met.
3.
a person who authoritatively prescribes conduct, usage, etc.:
a dictator of fashion.
4.
a person who dictates, as to a secretary.”

Also, just saying “No” with no further argument is the internet equivalent of stomping your feet and yelling “You’re wrong shut up!”

I feel like Rox has been an awfully underutilized asset to story telling so far. Up until now she’s managed to be not much more than just a silent tag along. I kind of hope this is just a set up for her to do something really important soon

No! It’s garbage because I don’t like it and my opinion is the only one that matters! Everyone knows the whole player base has the same taste in design that I do, so Anet just needs to get on the ball here and run their ideas past me before they release new designs.

Or the prophecy hinted at in the new trailer was not the Flameseeker Prophecy. There were quite a few prophecies made by different people/things in GW1, I think. Only one of the prophecies happened to be the title of one of the campaigns.

Edit: Apparently Nightfall was a prophecy as well. But the campaign, obviously, was just called Nightfall. Not the Nightfall Prophecy https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Nightfall_

draxynnic.3719:

@Squee: Technically speaking, it was avatars and representatives that were present, and only Lyssa’s Muse spoke. It could have simply been an Eternal that was present there.

@Konig: Also technically speaking, the Shrine of the Traitors description comes from a datamine and is no more canon than Arachnia is. Furthermore, Virashak’s information could have been coming from Balthazar’s deception. However, the fact that Torment Demons and Shadow Army never fight suggests to me that we’re not looking at a ‘the Shadow Army was there to hinder Abaddon rather than to help him’ scenario, unless they were playing a longer game than Tyria had time for.

I have a hard time thinking one of Balthazaar’s eternals, or ANY of Balthazaar’s underlings would be standing with the other avatars if he had fallen from the Pantheon. Avatars or not, they are representatives sent by the gods. If Balthazaar falls from the Pantheon, I don’t think the other gods will keep his employees around, much less have one represent a God that isn’t there and speak to us.