Guild Wars 2

draxynnic.3719:

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

If you are right than Balthazar is behind the Unseen One plot, is infact the mysterious Unseen that Abaddon was summoning to the Domain of Fear and the man behind the man of everything in Guild Wars!

That would mean that Menzies’s forces’ not actually speaking to Abaddon’s forces like Dhuum’s forces(we only see them in the same general area) were may not be a coincidence.

The only indication that they are allied with Abaddon are Forgotten and since Balthazar is likely using his Ghostly minions to perpetuate the façade that he’s still on the side of the Gods they’d believe anything he tell them.

All they know for a fact is that the armies of Menzies are tracking down the Margonite leaders. No actual statements on the actual reason.

Now, that would be twisted…

However, you can bring them into contact with one another without them fighting, so if that does turn out to be the case, I’d consider it a retcon.

(I was going to cite the Darknesses, but I don’t think there’s anything that actually indicates that the Darknesses are actually Menzies’ followers)

Also, wasn’t the avatar of Balthazar present in the cutscene near the end of NF when Lyssa was telling us the gods were about to leave us alone and that they were giving Kormir her “special gift”? I know only Lyssa spoke to us, but I’m pretty sure all the God’s avatars were present.
If he was removed from the pantheon before that moment, why would he be represented with the other gods?

If the voice saying “Your divine lord…” is the male Norn PC, then I have solid hope that we at least get some good race specific dialogue this time. I was a bit disappointed when my human and charr both gave 0 kittens about having to attack Balthazar.

Alek Seven.2374:

Where do you guys see Livia ? I must be blind to not see her.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/2/23/Livia_concept_art.jpg

Wooden Potatoes heavily speculated that the red haired lady in the fire scenes was Livia based on her dark skin, red hair, and overall implied “awesomeness”.

He then immediately corrected himself and showed a link where that woman was a previously introduced priestess of Balthazaar, and definitely not Livia.
Aside from that, there’s the voice that no one is willing to say for certain is even the same VA as Livia, but might be. Maybe. I honestly think they just desperately want it to be Livia, so they’re finding/ hearing her in places where she may not actually be. But who knows.

Edit: The voice is not Livia’s VA. That would be Mari Weiss. http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0002985/filmotype/actress?ref_=m_nmfm_1
She has not been mentioned to have returned to the GW story on either IMDB or anything I can find from Anet.

I feel like Aurene will stick with the “cute” angle at least a little bit longer. I’m not doubting she’ll learn to talk one day, I just feel like, as a dragon, who probably lives an insanely long life, she’s not going to be growing into even a toddler like stage any time soon. If she had a voice, I imagine it will be child like.

And as for outside of lore, adorable Aurene got a lot of positive feedback. I doubt they’ll rush her into adolescent/mature Aurene any time soon.

I’ve always liked their trailers. They tease just enough information for people to pick apart vague details without outright telling you the story.

This one was a bit of a mess, but normally, I think they do a good job. You just have to speculate a little and not expect to be spoon fed everything.

That being said, I return to my previous statement that this particular trailer is pretty disjointed. I will definitely agree there.

Vesuvius.9874:

Haha so much for “no reason to return to Orr”. In the words of the Risen, “Return to Orrrrrrr…..!”

Death, good! Everyone, come! (A message from the Orrian Board of Tourism)

It’s less prone to blowing up because of the simple matter that the important buildings are made of concrete. Not boats that have been rotting in the moist harbor for a century or more. Also, ships are not designed to stand on their ends like many of them did. They’re designed to float. Sea faring ships couldn’t even support their own weight like that.

I’m not really sure traditional sea-faring ships would be safer for trade. Would be cheaper at a glance, definitely, but as far as I know, there are no longer any threats to flying ships in and around LA. As for the ocean, there’s still a dragon out there. We’ll probably never see it in game, but as far as the story is concerned, it’s still there. And still eating boats. Ultimately, I think airships might be cheaper because of this. You don’t have to replace airships if nothing is breaking them (aside from user error and wear and tear) and you get to avoid the PR nightmare of getting your crews eaten.

Also, airships are not just being made by the military. The Zephyrites had an entire city made of the things. They’re coming into the game pretty quickly and seem to be getting pretty popular. And in the case of the Zephyrites, seemingly easy to make. Those things were just a patchwork of floaty bits. Far different from the majestic thing we used to kill Zhaitan.

I just want to see more about the Tengu. And open that giant sealed area attached to LA. We prevented their dominion from being overun by zombies, the least they can do is let us peak inside.

I think the key (lore related) reason it looks the way it does now is so nothing can blow it up. At least not as easily.
Seriously, I get that people like the pirate theme. I personally, don’t, but whatever. Personal taste. But not EVERYONE does. I actually like the new design better, and it makes more sense. Rotting boats from a bygone era of sea piracy (Tyria has made boats pretty much obsolete for anything other than fishing) make for a terribly dangerous city to live in.
Wooden boats forced to stand in odd positions they’re not designed for would require constant maintenance to keep upright. They have no chance against any kind of attack. But most importantly, the aesthetic just does not fit anymore. In a world now full of magitech and steampunk marvels of engineering, the richest trade hub on the continent is a bunch of people squatting in ancient boats. It’s weird.

Arden.7480:

Well I feel so weird everybody says we are going to Orr in ep 6.

If the picture we got would show some butterflies I’d not have any doubts we are going to Orr in the Finale, but it looks like the jungle… and this parrot.

On the boat there’s standing a man with a staff. Who’s he?

I think my theory it’s not the current Orr and this is the picture who shows the Fractal has 20/30% to be true.

You are most likely right but maybe am I?

We will see in a few days. Until then have fun speculating

Kinda confused about the butterflies. Aren’t butterflies pretty much everywhere? Why would the presence of butterflies be a specific reference to Orr?

As for the jungle, it’s my understanding that Orr was a pretty tropical place in its day. If nothing else, the native gorillas would indicate this. It’s only not verdant and pretty at this moment because the maps we get are locked in a time where it’s just risen from the sea and being zombified by a dragon.

Also, that arch is distinctly Orrian. The boat, as I’ve said on a couple of threads, is an incredibly generic design and could be from pretty much anywhere, but I don’t think anything closely resembling those arches has been seen anywhere except Orr. So that’s where most of the speculation comes from.

Although, I think the “fractal” idea is a pretty plausible one too.

Simple, curved, wooden base. Large, segmented sails. Looks more like this boat to me:
http://wallup.net/guild-wars-2-concept-art-boat-lake-trees/ (Guild wars 2 Bloodtide Coast loading screen. Not Canthan)
Or maybe this boat: https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Consulate_Docks_loading_screen.jpg (sails a bit different, but the base is the same. Also from a loading screen. From Consulate Docks in Elona.)
Or even this boat! The sails are pretty identical, although the body is harder to see and has a cabin: https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Chahbek_Village_loading_screen.jpg (Also from Elona)

The point here is, while I like hype and tenuous links as much as anyone, I feel like people are REALLLLY grasping at this Cantha thing over nothing. This is an INCREDIBLY generic boat design with features that Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 have used over and over for MANY different places. The boats I linked aren’t exactly spitting images of the teased ep:6 boat, but look far more similar than the squared Canthan sailing ships posted above. This boat is no more Canthan than literally any other sea faring vessel we’ve seen in GW2 so far.

That boat looks no more Canthan to me than literally any other generic boat. In fact, if anything, I’d say it looks the least like anything in Cantha, since their boats were kind of blocky and covered in sails and cloths. While I couldn’t find that boat design in particular, I did see generally curved boat designs from literally every part of the game. Especially GW1 concept art. From the maguuma jungle river boats, to Krytan fishing boats, to Elonian…everything boats and Kournan swamp boats. Cantha had a few too, but mostly, as I mentioned, their boats had little to know curvature in them.

I’m not saying it’s not a Canthan boat, I guess. I’m just saying that it’s an INCREDIBLY generic boat design. Especially in Guild Wars. It can be from literally anywhere. Maybe it’s a Skritt boat, or whatever. Nearly ALL the boats in this series are curvy and simple. Except the pirate inspired large ships of Lion’s Arch in Guild Wars 2. But those are more recent and pretty specific to Lion’s Arch.

Edit: here’s an example of pretty much the only in game model of Canthan boat I could find. https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Canthan_Ship.jpg

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I just tried it, and it’s saving my Invisible status; I usually play in Invisible mode.

You might consider trying a -repair of the client, and/or clearing the GW2 cache, whilst awaiting a CS Team response.

Good luck.

Cool, I’ll try that. Thanks.

Orr is literally right next to Elona. I think that alone would be a good reason to go back there. On top of all of the other things mentioned in this thread.
You could also go through the disabled Asura gate at Ebonhawke, but that area is probably infested with branded and Joko zombies. Pact race controlled Orr would probably be a much safer (albeit probably still horribly dangerous) jumping off point for any campaign into Elona. And won’t threaten whatever border security Ebonhawke has going on.

Ever since the last update, it seems I am forced to log in as visibly online now. If I set my status as offline, and then log out of the game, I automatically am listed as “online” when I return. I used to be able to log in discreetly and remain hidden in “offline” status.

Ugh! So racist!!
But really, I can see why this idea would look good on paper, but in practice, it kind of starts to fall apart. The game would have to be designed with racial traits/abilities in mind and would leave a lot of people at a disadvantage in a lot of odd situations and force people into “roles” they might not want to play.

Like, say, for example, there’s an instance or area in the game that is designed to need a tank. The level designers have to consider that some races will be inherently more durable and must consider them when making the area. So, in order to make the area challenging enough that say, a Norn, can’t just stand there and use his inherent durability to soak up damage and not use a lot of effort, they’re going to have to make that area pump out a lot of damage. Even his big buff, probably hairy form will need to really work as hard as he can.

Now, say, you like Sylvari. They’re pretty. But on top of that, their racial traits make them really agile and their inherent curiosity makes them great elementalists, necromancers, and engineers. But they’re small frail plants. They’d be terrible guardians or warriors. (I imagine that’s how it’d go at least.) But you need to get past this aforementioned “tanky” area. The area is designed to be barely beatable to a tanky Norn that is FAR beyond your ability. You can spec all you want as a Sylvari guardian, but your max durability won’t be close to a Norn guardian’s max durability. So the area might be impossible for your little Sylvari to handle, because if a squishy frail plant can pass the area, even with difficulty, it would be a breeze for any Norn.

As the game is now, I don’t need to be so picky about race. If I want to be a great necromancer, I don’t have to be a Sylvari or human. If I want to be a great warrior, I don’t have to be a Norn or Charr. I can be durable and still look like a pretty plant. I can be a fierce and intimidating Charr, but not suck at magic. The benefits of racial equality outweigh the negative effects of unique racial traits.

Bethesda did something similar with an NPC in Fallout 4 and it was pretty well received (by the people who found out about it)(https://www.pcgamesn.com/fallout-4/fallout-4-nuka-world-dlc-tribute-evan) But it’s really not a common thing for game companies to do. I guess it’s just not reasonable to throw up a monument to every person who plays a game and passes away, and as terrible as it is, there are probably people out there who think “THAT guy got a memorial, but my friend/family member/very talented video game playing pet doesn’t?” So game companies probably like to avoid that messy (rather selfish) situation.

It’s good that the devs gave what condolences they could on reddit though. I hope the family gets the support they need to pull through the tough times they’re surely having dealing with their loss. And who knows, maybe you can organize a little player run in game event for the player. The community in GW2 has somewhat of a reputation for being very kind and supportive for an MMO community, so it may be something to consider.

There are no trebs in Bitterfrost. This was a purposefully exaggerated response to the Lake Doric trebuchets. Because apparently people are still bitter that they can’t get loot for sitting around and not actually doing anything.

And probably also bitter that this is what many necromancers in Bitterfrost are doing and they haven’t been nerfed yet. Probably because they weren’t as noticeable.

I don’t know about Chilled to the Bone, but the reaper does have a shout that makes all of your skills unblockable for a while.

Guardian utility skill. Shout: LALALA I’M NOT LISTENING!
Makes player and nearby allies immune to enemy shouts.

Amaimon.7823:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Yes, the Foefire ghosts see everyone as a charr, even humans – even animals, asura, sylvari, norn, etc. every living being is a charr in their eyes.

I’m not sure as to how they see everyone as charr, rather than just everyone as an invader.
They’re stuck in a loop of defending Ascalon from invaders, and everytime they die, they just reform, think it’s yesterday, and continue. The reason they attack humans is because they don’t recognize you as an ascalonian, I think they were still hostile to krytan and orrian humans at the time. As for all the other species, just blind rage, nothing but blind rage

I thought my human character was called a Charr once by an Ascalonian ghost, but I don’t see any evidence of that on the wiki. Im probably remembering it wrong. But what I did find was this line in the Ascalonian Ghost wiki page “Their zeal to defend Ascalon is absolute and anything living is seen as charr or an ally of the charr”
In further context, it notes they were all driven mad, so anything goes at this point.

The hill isn’t the farm area? Could have fooled me, given all the farmable centaurs. But what do I know? I can’t read a full post, I guess. That, or you don’t know what an area is.

You having a bad map also doesn’t change anything about what I said. You claimed the farm area was empty. That’s literally the opposite of what I’ve been seeing every time I log on since the nerf. So your implication that your farm area was empty is not a testament to the leather farm being dead, it’s a testament to your bad luck. Overall, the area has never been more lively.

I’ve been making it up the hill just fine. I’ve seen constant groups going up there since the engi nerf. It seems like you’re just making up problems to justify your anger at your inability to sit in one spot.

Menadena.7482:

Warcry.1596:

Menadena.7482:

Warcry.1596:

Menadena.7482:

Warcry.1596:

Fivona.5061:

They found new spot. Less effective but still.

Yes, and why do you care? There is NOTHING against the rules about doing this. Stepping away from your computer for a little bit at a time is okay. While farming often people need to use restroom, check dinner, he a parent, etc. Sometimes those just involve a quick ark of one or two minutes, or even longer. There has been a LOT of discussion in the past about that and it has been determined to be okay per A Net.

Going afk is not bannable unless it becomes chronic.

Oh come on.

Yes, RL interruptions happen all the time. Get to a safe space quickly if you can. If you have time to deploy turrets you do not have that excuse though.

In this case, nothing safer than being surrounded by turrets and people. If my child is in screaming pain I’m not gonna run to a safe spot I’m gonna bolt from my computer asap.

I do not have kids but if I did and they were screaming I would not waste the time to get my toon to a safe space. If my character dies it it a silver or 2 to WP, compared to a possible emergency going on. Where are your priorities? You call yourself a parent?

Yeah… thats what I said.

I’m NOT gonna move my character. Why did you agree with me then call me a bad parent when you said you would do the exact same thing I did?

Maybe because I would not waste time deploying turrets and coming back in a few minutes to put them out again?

Hold on, honey. Mommies going to take you to the hospital in a second. I just have to refresh my turrets!

Seriously though, the condescension of some of these people is remarkable. “I can’t always dedicate time to this game because I have a job/kids/a life in general”
We’re not all teenagers and children playing this game. Most of us have lives, and we do well enough finding time to ACTUALLY play the game without having to resort to idling away most of it in a stationary farm. Maybe you need better time management techniques.

I don’t think banning them was ever really part of the equation. They just wanted a fix to the farm so it isn’t exploited. The rules are intentionally very vague, and it’s true that no rules were technically violated, but a huge number of people were concerned about this very legal exploit and demanded a fix. It was fixed. No one was banned, just no longer able to exploit a design.

“Going afk is not bannable unless it becomes chronic.”

Chronic: (of an illness) persisting for a long time or constantly recurring.

That is EXACTLY the description of the engi farm. I mean, aside from the illness part I guess. I think the anti-farm side might disagree with me, but it’s not an actual illness like a cold or something. But the point is, there are a lot of people doing literally nothing but occupying a map 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Literally “persisting for a long time or constantly recurring”.

You might want to re-word your argument.

DeWolfe.2174:

Squee.7829:

I spent 25 minutes on the map before work today and saw 2 centaur hill runs and 3 map events get done. I hadn’t seen a single map event done in almost an entire week before the engi farm nerf. “Dead map”…if anything the engi farm is what was killing the map. It’s more alive now than it has been in weeks.

I don’t believe you. Also, how many instances of Lake Doric are now running? I believe more Lake Doric instances were running and more overall events were being completed before this nerf.

I don’t believe you either!

See how easy that is? Anyways, I don’t care what you believe, and I honestly can’t answer your question about the instances. All I can do is tell you what I saw. You can believe me or not. It really doesn’t matter.

I spent 25 minutes on the map before work today and saw 2 centaur hill runs and 3 map events get done. I hadn’t seen a single map event done in almost an entire week before the engi farm nerf. “Dead map”…if anything the engi farm is what was killing the map. It’s more alive now than it has been in weeks.

Who said anything about banning? They’re just making it harder to stand around and spam turrets.

“Only one stat should do damage because math is hard”.

Those are amazing. I’ve never had a commission done, but I’m seriously considering it.

Koss
Koss The Great
Koss The Mighty
KOSS!

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Being “totally unpredictable” is being chaotic. If you’re just wrecking havoc all the time, that’s not being chaotic but destructive. Being chaotic means either having randomized/unpredictable patterns and behaviors.

Then the point still stands. She is unpredictable/chaotic. Even the sources who comment on her serenity also mention being chaotic. So, back to the original point, it would be a mistake to predict she would not pose as royalty if she felt it was necessary.

But, again, I don’t think she IS posing as Queen Jennah/ Anise/ my Miniature Chickenado or whatever the theory is. I’m just saying you can’t judge what she MIGHT do based on what she has done in the past.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

There is this statement, though and I would find it odd for a priest of Lyssa to contemplate the stillness of water if Lyssa is a primarily chaotic or whimsical goddess.

Further, water is often used in reference to mirrors for Lyssa – that is her tie as the now “goddess of water” after all – but this is only possible for calm, predictable, and stable waters. While mirrors may hold a strong mesmer link, it feels odd to relate stable water to chaotic god all the same, just for the sake of a reflection.

That same priest says “chaos combats darkness”. Kind of an odd thing to say about a calm, not chaotic goddess.

Edit: I think the take away isn’t that lyssa is inherently chaotic or calm, but totally unpredictable. I see I originally said chaotic AND unpredictable and perhaps I was wrong to say chaotic. She could be calm when it suits her, or chaotic. But overall, she is wholly unpredictable.

Isn’t Lyssa supposed to be chaotic and unpredictable? I don’t think it’d be easy to predict her acting in any specific way. She may have dressed as a peasant once, but that has literally no bearing on her future actions. She might disguise herself as a gerbil if it suits her mood.

But then, I still don’t think Jenna is Lyssa. The gods left ages ago, and she’s probably off doing whatever it is the gods are doing elsewhere. Balthazar came back because he’s not really a god anymore. That doesn’t mean the other gods are hiding about on Tyria also.

I don’t know why it’s considered a “leather farm”. You get next to no actual leather from the engineer turret farm. It’s mostly for loot bags that may or may not, but almost never, contain actual leather. I think people are getting confused with the ACTUAL leather farm where you go up the hill and kill bloodstone crazed centaurs who drop hides that are salvaged. For actual leather. You can’t do that by spamming turrets in a single spot though. The centaurs at the base are not bloodstone crazed, and the ones on the hill don’t venture into the base unless someone manages to pull the 2 or 3 at the bottom of it.

Amaimon.7823:

sorry to pop the bubble of your theory, but that honor already goes to Menzies.
The story is kinda vague, but at some stage, Balthazar confronts Menzies, who is holding the head of their father, as the dripping blood turns Menzies light into darkness and shade.
Balthazar doesn’t kill Menzies but (I dunno, I think he knocked him into a lower realm or something)
Then Balthazar comes back out with the head of his father.
Menzies is not nicknamed The Mad as a joke.
Balthazar probably became a grumpy old man because he had to take out his brother after he killed their father.

Wooden Potatoes recently made a video with a crashcourse on the history of Balthazar based on all the lory-bits

I’m not sure what’s being implied here. Are you saying that Balthazar killed his father and THEN went after Menzies? Or that Menzies killed their father and Balthazar was bitter about it? Because as far as I can find, the ONLY information we get regarding the whole Balthazar/father’s head thing is that he appeared on Tyria holding the head of his father. That’s literally it. For all we know, he could have found it in a random field and was carrying it around as emergency rations.
It’s not even mentioned that he was fighting Menzies in that battle in which he held his father’s head. He could have been leading humans in a battle against Charr or something.

CAA.9653:

It’s been pointed out. The castle has been around since GW1. I hope A-Net addresses this mystery in the near future.

People have been hoping this since 2005 when it appeared in GW1. Closest we got was killing a bunch of cultists on the cliff near the castle as it floated menacingly out of reach.

I think his reason for the Mursaat disguise was to get access to the Bloodstone. The White Mantle aren’t super into the regular 6 human gods (they repeatedly harassed and attacked a temple to them in GW1) and likely would not have let Balthazar just walk up to it. And the bloodstone was literally his first magical snack on his agenda.

Why he stayed in the disguise is another matter altogether. There have been a lot of speculations, such as, maybe he’s hiding from someone/thing, or Marjory was shadowing him, not giving him a way to discreetly ditch the facade, and even that being a Mursaat gave him more, non-human-specific, opportunities for employment but I don’t think there’s anything really solid to explain that.

Samaelle.9301:

I had no idea Trahearne was disliked to that point, I’m actually shocked!

He is my favorite character, it made me cry to see him die and the game feels a bit emptier now that he’s gone. People say that he was taking all the credit, I never felt that way, when you would defeat someone or something, people would always be cheering for you and when Trahearne was getting “the credit” he would be really humble about it and say he “couldn’t have done it without you”. I wish they wouldn’t have killed him but instead, don’t know, made him less important in the story or make him take a different path, knowing he’s still alive and might cross paths again later.

With the cinematic at the end of the HoT story, when you kill Trahearne and the ley lines go crazy and hit the egg, I really hope that somehow a part of his soul (his uncorrupted one) merges with the egg and lives on in Brill’s baby dragon. I think that would be interesting and cute! But that would be too cool to be true and since people disliked him, I guess they were pretty happy to get rid of him.

Anyways! I feel your pain, Trahearne lovers.

Trehearne got on my nerves too and I just didn’t like him, but I really don’t see why people thought he got “all the credit”. As you said, he went well out of his way to make sure that you got the credit you deserved. He blatantly admitted that he was nothing without you.

Surely, it’s a conspiracy!!

The dragons being the cause of the God’s departure just doesn’t add up to me. Primarily, chronologically. They physically left LONG before the dragons showed any sign of waking. They kept limited contact for a bit over a millennium, but cut even that off before the very first stirrings of a dragon’s alarm clock even went off.

Them knowing dragons were around the corner (and by corner i mean about 1200 or so years) is a speculative reason at best for why they left. But we don’t need speculative reasons. We have solid already confirmed reasons why they left, and those reasons don’t involve dragons.

MFoy.3284:

Uh… well after 4+ years and 2,814 postings from players asking for Cantha back in the game Anet has decided to… Bring back Elona!

Next thing you know they’ll use a Trenchcoat for our medium Legendary Armor. Oh, wait…

You seem to be under the impression that no one was also asking for Elona.
There are even people (like myself) who would even prefer Elona over Cantha.

Manimarco Devil.1790:

Inc.4753:

I’m not so sure the humans would make as useful an ally as the mercenaries will:

• Humans are just one of the major races. Mercenaries can come from all races, so a much larger pool of potential soldiers.
• How many humans would eventually follow Balthazar? He is just one of the six gods, I don’t imagine all followers of the other gods would just follow him immediately.
• Jennah probably can’t put all her soldiers behind Balthazar. The Centaurs are still a threat, and the human kingdom aligning itself with such a powerful being could endanger the treaty with the Charr.
• If Balthazar’s goals or his means to achieve those goals are not in the interest of humans, his group of followers could turn on him/abandon him. Mercenaries would stay as long as he pays them and they think they are on the winning side.
• Balthazar probably wouldn’t need to explain as much about his goals to mercenaries (‘do your job, get paid, don’t ask questions’) as he would to loyal followers. Only religious fanatics would blindly follow orders without questioning them. This means that using mercenaries enables Balthazar to keep his intentions and actions secret for a longer time.

It seems we have a disconnect about how venerated the Six are. I believe Balthazar supersedes Jennah’s authority with most humans. Only a few worship specific sects, most humans follow all Six gods. Even then Balthazar could deceive the followers of the rest by claiming he would call the other Gods once his goals were accomplished. No one would question Balthazar’s motives lest they be branded a heretic.

I think he still has a point though. Most humans in Tyria WOULD want to follow Balthazar over Jenna, but would likely have the sense to know that it would doom the last remaining human city in Tyria.
Their devotion to Balthazar does not negate the fact that the humans are besieged on all sides by centaur and white mantle. They’re not just going to up and leave the defense and follow Balthazar and let DR get trampled. So, the “only human” recruitment pool is still awfully small. Mercenaries from ALL races is a much better force.

Anet gave us a character to hate. I argue that I am not wrong for hating him. It would be wrong of me not to, probably.

I think people can argue all day about philosophies and honor, but I don’t think it’s really all that necessary. The takeaway from all this is that we have a God of War who no longer believes in war. He’s a fallen God. That’s it. Speculating on where there is or is not honor doesn’t change the fact that Balthazar is not the god of War anymore.

Or summoning the hounds of Balthazar to kill the hounds of Balthazar. That must have been confusing for the poor puppies.

The most logical thing I can think of for Balth’s mercs is that he needed that bloodstone. That was goal one. That was literally the first thing (that we know of) that he did. The only realistic way to get access to it was to disguise himself as someone who… was supposed to have access to it. I.e. a mursaat. The White Mantle, as shown in GW1 have a bit of a problem with the regular human gods and the worship thereof (think back on their attack on the Temple of Ages) so showing up as himself would have elicited hostility. So, be a mursaat to accrss the stone and recruit White Mantle, and have a solid contract for additional non fanatical forces.

As for why he KEPT that facade, I don’t know. After he got the bloodstone, he could have easily just disappeared as Lazarus and reappeared later in DR as balth and gained plenty of followers. We’d all wonder where Lazarus went, but that’s not really Balthazar’s problem. He’d have lost his white mantle followers, but gained a lot of other Human ones

Nope. Can’t interact with it. It just sits there:/ would be cool if it had dialogue of some kind though.

Someone on reddit made a map to it. It’s not near any place you need to go for map completion. I found the Largos just kinda sitting there. Steaming.
http://imgur.com/gallery/TLh3F