There is always the possibility that the Jotun’s gods were usurped in the same way as Abaddon and Grenth, and whoever/whatever took their place had no favor for the Jotun.
“Living story EXPLICITLY starts after personal story. Anet has said this, timeline says this. "
Except that it wasn’t true for anyone who actually played the game! Each character created their own time sequence through the ambiguity written into the game. They could not create their own continuity errors. Anet are saying for LS2 that there is no ambiguity and every character who starts LS2 before finishing the personal story will see continuity errors.
We’ve very little knowledge of the alliances at all. Any speculation about things missing from the Living Story has been pointless so far. If it wasn’t in the Dead End investigation then it never happened, it wasn’t relevant, nobody noticed, or nobody cared. Whatever.
“Living story season 1 took place after personal story”
98% of Living Story 1 was written to have a deliberately ambigious time setting.
Reflects were too good. The problem was that they scaled up too well against strong enemies, particularly boss mobs, and that had to be fixed. This fix isn’t great but there’s no going back. Suggest something new that is fairer than both what went before and what we have now.
Now that they’ve announced that Living Story 2 will continue from after the end of the Personal Story, Trahearne has to make some appearance surely? I’m guessing it will take us longer than we expect to prove that a new dragon has arrived, so the Pact will not turn up immediately, and Trahearne will want to stay in Orr anyway.
From the latest press release it sounds as if we will get a second personal story from Living Story 2. That will be the closest equivalent to a paid expansion that people will get. I imagine that once season 2 is over, any future players will be able to buy all of the season as a package and for them it will be the equivalent of an expansion.
You can already spend $15 per month on gems and get whatever you want from the trading post. It’s really simple. Just do it if you really want to convert your real life money/time into virtual goods. You’ll probably have lots of time left to do the things you enjoy in game, whether it’s farming or anything else.
Living Story 2 might deliver some of this with dungeon instances similar to those found in the personal story. Imagine a Claw Island type instance with achievements for the more dedicated players. That’s what they might be retrospectively selling for the 200 gems. It would also make sense for any new dungeons in the Living Story to have a solo story mode but an explorable mode for groups.
Some of the best thing about these dungeons are that
- you can fail
- they are just the right content for a couple of friends and not PUGs
- the rewards are not important as they are fun to do once.
If we put those into the Living Story though those strengths become weaknesses. Story based sections are meant to be completed by players with low capability. The Living Story sections should be repeatable for fair rewards. The Living Story should support open access and pick up groups.
I am suggesting that revenge is highly important to Grenth as it played an important part in his life, presumably the killing of Dhuum. If Desmina was exiled (by the Gods?) for her power and ambition then perhaps Grenth appreciates another of his own aspects, the power and ambition to threaten the Gods .
Dhuum could possibly be Grenth’s stepfather. That might explain animosity between the two. “Where is the god to Whom I may beg revenge against those who scorn me?” is the appeal to Grenth, and that suggests to me that Grenth was scorned by Dhuum.
“thx for the tip Astral but dont u think that its unfair?because i couldnt play for such a long time i shouldnt be able to earn it by my own??”
Ascended crafting is for players who can sink a lot of time (or money) into the game. If you’re that sort of player then spending gold on the materials isn’t a problem. If the cost is a problem for you then keep going with your exotics for the time being. You can do everything except top fractals with exotics quite happily.
Why do players always think that because they have something it should be valuable?
There’s just panic at the moment because PUG tactics need a change. They will change. PUG groups will then run fine with the new tactics. You never know, those tactics might actually involve some skill and knowledge from the players and that wouldn’t be the end of the world as we know it.
The basic fix for venoms is to remove venomous aura (or limit its potential to roughly 2x for a master trait rather than x5 for grandmaster) and then balance venom skills accordingly. We can then get to the stage where balanced venoms are worth a slot without traits, balanced for SPvP but also balanced in PvE.
Many thieves have known this for a long time and there’s no point in throwing away all the existing design until this one obvious fault is corrected.
Given the nature of Gods, it may be wrong to assume that Grenth was conceived, born, and raised in a natural human manner. There is also always the possibility that the father is an unnamed sculptor who worked during the original founding of Arah. It would not surprising that his name had been erased from history if the Gods wished that to happen.
(edited by Stooperdale.3560)
I’d always thought that the most sensible way to deal with the Pact for season 2 was to have Trahearne assassinated (or otherwise removed) and the Pact dissolve. Having the Pact available to fight all the future Dragons was always going to get in the way of adventuring story lines.
“I don’t really know why I continue to argue because the more I think about Living Story, the more I realize that the only reason it even came about was because NCSoft still hasn’t given Anet approval to develop an expansion”
As a person who has bought many expansions in the past I’m happy to see an MMO try something different. Expansions were a marketing dream. Put new content into a package that customers have to buy. Make the game without the expansion so poor that everyone has to buy it. Raise the level cap, but only for people with the expansion. New pack and bank space, but only for people with the expansion. New top gear, but only for people with an expansion. If you want to play with friends, everyone needs the expansion as nobody wants to be in the old zones. Everyone has to play the new expansion to get back to where they were on the gear treadmill.
If you’d come back to an MMO but not kept up with paid expansions then you would be way behind where you are now with GW2 Living Story. You could argue that by paying money you could catch up, but that’s exactly what the greedier MMO sellers want – everyone needing to pay to keep up with the game.
GW2 has some good ideas how not to run an MMO but still doesn’t know exactly what to do instead. This leaves some players very happy about open access events, living story, no subscription, etc but leaves others unhappy because they don’t see what replaces grind, expansions, gear treadmills, instanced raiding, trinity, etc.
It’s worse when you see rangers in high level fractals. You have to ask yourself why they chose to repeatedly bring a ranger to fractals (when other classes clearly do it better) and why they bothered gearing up their ranger for fractals. It must be difficult for them to get groups too. The time investment is big enough that surely they would have tried out other classes?
(edited by Stooperdale.3560)
“So, people who take a break are traitors and don’t deserve content?”
When you come back you have exactly the same content available to play as everyone else. Someone who logs on today can play the festival events and it doesn’t matter whether they have been away for 1 minute or 1 year, that’s the content.
Why do you feel the game owes you extra content? You haven’t been paying money for the time you weren’t there.
It’s probably too late to bring in mob AI to exit combo fields and aoe now. The game is designed for players to be fighting in fields with combo finishers. It won’t be the same if the mobs run out of those fields so the combos hit thin air. Some weapon sets, like thief offhand pistol, will become instantly broken. AOE fields shouldn’t become become barriers or fear zones that keep mobs out.
This is just a state of mind. When you turn on the radio, you don’t worry about the thousand shows you missed across all the radio stations since yesterday. You turn on the radio to listen to the show that is on now. Treat your GW2 the same way. Log on and play the living story that is there now. A returning player has exactly the same content now as anyone else. Just like the radio, you don’t need to know what has gone before in order to enjoy what is there now.
There should be a story line recap for returning players. Comparing the storyline to Game of Thrones is a bit laughable though.
A massive series of random numbers will have sequences, streaks, long leads, and any numbers of other features that will look ‘unlikely’ to the casual human observer. Random does not mean ordered, without patterns, similar, symmetrical, consistently average, or consistently inconsistent.
So nothing to see here. Move along.
Normally a good suggestion will get no replies on a forum. Nobody has anything bad to say about it.
In this case though, you need to be careful about giving players low quality content. More content or more variety of content seems good but players can tire of it. In this case players seem to be doing something that they can already do easily at any time (kill open world mobs) and the longer they persist at it the more loot they get. That is grind.
The answer would be to design new enemies and encounters, but if a developer is creating new content why would it be hidden behind a guild invitation?
The saboteurs are troublesome but reasonable. You can watch for them, they don’t one shot you, and you can control them (with blind, say). The knockdown is trouble but that’s what stun breakers are for. Saboteurs are far, far, less dangerous than the risen plague carriers that are summoned directly into the middle of an event and blast everyone into oblivion after half a second.
The one thing that annoys me about the saboteurs is that you can blind them and the bomb misses, but if you kill the blinded saboteur the bomb will suddenly hit you. That’s hard to control in a raid event.
The solution is for players to stop buying from them!
The talk around the Heal-o-tron might just be a recap for the new players in China. He probably wasn’t covered anywhere else.
It sounds like a graphics card problem. Run any test software that came with the card and some dx diagnostics.
Boom-boom seems to need more people than the other wings anyway since a scratch group of 5 can take down some of the other bosses easily within the gold limit.
All the bosses should stop scaling upwards when the blitz timer is ended and they should probably lose their shared abilities. Boom-boom could even stop summoning turrets. With that change made it would be easier to see if there’s anything intrinsically wrong with Boom-boom herself.
That’s all I saw. The Hobo-tron is less fun now he’s honest. Tiami needs to give him a reboot. A lot of the chat just seemed like a character update but since most players aren’t going to be interested in Braham’s frequently mentioned leg, it might be relevant to something later. The talk may also be introducing a billet storyline, the obvious person with a billet being Canach.
It’s not a bug. Whatever criteria the boss is using to pick a target just isn’t changing. Lupicus tends to pick a target for each attack too and stick to it. Once you are fore warned you can use it to your advantage and maybe decide not to revive people.
For open world content you might as well take a longbow. For dungeons you can swap in any weapon that’s good for a fight beforehand. There are plenty of instances where you can use a greatsword or hammer without ever needing a bow.
Heal-oTron: Thank you for your assistance. Returning to Divinity’s Reach was a concern, as I was not sure I’d be allowed to leave.
Rox: And the fact that you came anyway proves you’re worthy of respect.
Heal-o-Tron. I had to come. Lion’s Arch still needs help that I am in a position to provide.
Braham: Stick close. If the law hassles you again, I want to be there to set ‘em straight.
Heal-o-Tron: Agreed. And if the local authorities do incarcerate me, I hope you will buy my billet.
Rox: I don’t think they do that here. But rest assured. If they lock you up, we’ll get you out. One way or the other.
Braham: Tell me the truth. Was Rytlock furious you chose to help me over killing Scarlet yourself?
Rox: It’s hard to tell. Rytlock mad is a lot like Rytlock overjoyed. Or Rytlock sleeping.
Braham: Well, did he say anything? Offer congratulations? Threaten you?
Rox: All I got was a dispatch from him after it all went down. It said “Interesting choice. Now live with it.”
Braham: Oh. So, uh, is that good or bad?
Rox: Your guess is as good as mine.
Rox: How do you think Jory and Kas are doing with Taimi?
Braham: I figure by now Kas wants to adopt her and Jory wants to stuff her in a bag. Or visa versa.
Braham: Either way, each will stop the other from getting what they want.
Rox: You miss the little squirt, don’t you? Never really pictured you as a willing babysitter for someone like her.
Braham: What can say? Norn love a challenge.
Rox: For the last time no. I’m not going to try to hit you.
Braham: I’m fully healed, and I can prove it. Take a shot. I insist. Come on, hit me. Hit me!
Rox: (sigh) Fine. Frostbite?
raham: Okay, maybe I’m not ready for the Pavilion. But I took that better than I thought I would. I’m almost fully healed.
Rox: Burn me, you’re just not going to let this go, are you?
Braham: Just stop your whining and hit me again. Come on! Hit me!
Heal-o-Tron: Your information is outdated, constable. I have already paid my social debt to Divinity’s Reach.
Heal-o-Tron: The Lionguard has recruited me as an emergency relief worker. I am here today in that capacity.
Ministry Guard: Tell that to the tribunal. You’re a known collaborator. You sang for Scarlet. Come quietly or I’ll dismantle you.
Braham: Whoa there! Did you just threaten a hero of Lion’s Arch?
Rox: If you want him, you’ll have to go through us. And afterward you’ll answer to Magnus the Bloody Handed himself.
Ministry Guard: I … er … Grenth’s teeth! If your story doesn’t pan out, I’ll be back.
(edited by Stooperdale.3560)
Ranger sword is one of the least liked weapons in the game and it is only appreciated by the players who control the #1 skill manually. Most players don’t want to micro manage skill #1 even if they know how and why. They have enough to think about with health, dodges, utilities, camera, boons, etc without worrying about the skill #1 chain getting them killed with a badly timed leap.
Now having done it once on gold level on a server that did make an effort to organize, I’ll have to say that it can be fun and can work well. The problem is really just the dreadful scaling for a failed blitz if players are unable/unwilling to organize. It really is very little fun once the scaling punishes the players.
It is actually fun if players can organize. Getting 10 people onto each boss is enjoyable and takes the right amount of time. Players just can’t organize properly for open access events though, not with the support currently given through the game interface.
There is another Feedback thread open you know?
I found a skill on cooldown immediately after swapping it during play on my warrior. The skill had not activated, none of my other skills had any cooldowns, and the display was only counting down half the cooldown (so I don’t know how I could mis-click to do that). I then tried to reproduce the problem in Lion’s Arch while I was typing this up and got it twice more, but with many attempts in between where the skills changed correctly. It must be intermittent or have some more conditions. Anyway this I how I found the error once in Lion’s Arch.
1) Activated banner of defense with 120 second cooldown in slot #3.
2) Assigned banner of defense to slot #2, so slot #2 is on now cooldown and slot 3 is ready.
3) Assigned another skill to slot #3 and it inherited the former cooldown of the banner. Both utility 2 and utility 3 are now on cooldown for the remainder of the 120 seconds.
I’ve had this problem for a long time and been persuading myself that I’ve been misreading the numbers but today I was absolutely certain this bug happened.
Rarely, when I heal my character does the animation the skill goes on full cooldown but I don’t get healed. Up to now I’d been suspicious that I’d taken some unseen damage as I’d healed up, at the same time, since I’m always in combat. However today I definitely did not take that damage. I’m not getting interrupted with fears, dazes, pushes, or anything else. I think that I do always have conditions when this happens, and it can happen when I have agony (with high AR though). It happens on more than one character. I typically use the left mouse button to click on the heal skill rather than use keys.
“Have ArenaNet thought about what this leaves for the rare kind of player that doesn’t want to go all out damage? They are even immune to stun and daze despite this not being mentioned in the buff”
Indomitable is lazy design but the defiant system wasn’t much better and was equally meaningless. Did you feel any better when you removed one of the 50 defiant stacks?
You can still use crowd control to help you kill multiple adds safely. That’s how GW2 often works. There are plenty of people getting themselves killed by attacking the bosses so take a break and kill some adds for them. It even helps clock up your achievements.
Use skills on the trash mobs. Use dodge on the bosses.
I think some of these Pavilion bosses are fun but it’s impossible to get the right number of people. I had over 15 minutes of fun earlier tonight dodging around Wiggin until the enough people showed but then the zerg arrived and the lag made it impossible to dodge anything.
Once the timer has expired the bosses should stop scaling upwards as much they do now, or perhaps they should lose the shared abilities. Players should have to kill them all or else casuals or will miss out on the achievements, but it shouldn’t be such a drag.
Benefits :
1) People can finish off the event and get their loot and go.
2) The six bosses can always be completed for achievements.
3) The event recycles quickly so new people can start it.
4) The last boss in a failed event isn’t going to scale ridiculously high once the whole zerg turns up (as they always do, no matter how they were split before).
(edited by Stooperdale.3560)
Other MMOs have been far more intrusive with the advertising. I hardly notice it in GW2.
There is a point of view that you can adopt as a free player. The advertising is for the people who want to spend money. Let those people spend money on gems and that will help fund content for free players like you, and like me. If nobody bought gems with cash then the game would get into trouble, not only for Anet but also from the gold→gems perspective.
First step for improving the Pavilion: stop upscaling the bosses once the boss blitz timer has finished.
Any player who comes into the Pavilion after the blitz time has finished is stuck looking at a zone with stupidly scaled bosses and no new events happening until those bosses are cleared. Players are stuck with whoever else is in the zone and they can’t control how easy or hard it is to clear the final bosses. Players could just leave the Pavilion but surely the event should encourage them to stay in there!
There are two very simple tactics using just your weapon skills. They work even at level 1.
- Use sword/pistol to fight enemies using auto-attacks in a smoke field created by black powder (skill #5). Enemies blinded by smoke will miss.
- Use pistol/dagger to kite enemies using auto-attacks and dancing daggers (skill #4) for cripple.
These are not complicated, exciting, or fast ways to kill things but they will give you some basic tactics.
Fractal runners with no AR who fall over at the slightest agony. Come on guys, it can’t be that much fun watching me play GW2 while you lay on the floor all fight?