Guild Wars 2

Away from the front lines like in GW1, I suppose.

Actually, I think they’ve said that they won’t add full campaign expansions like in GW1, but more along the lines of how EotN was. I can’t direct you to where I read that though, since it’s been a long while. But, considering the quality of the areas in GW2, it’d be quite the challenge to create equally immense campaigns on an expansion model.

EDIT: With their current system, adding new major traits wouldn’t be any problem, one of the reasons they made it like it is now was for the ease of expanding it.

Ha, I surprise myself liking this idea! For the charr this would be useless, though, as they share the same armors anyways.

I’ve managed to jump off Rata Sum, it is in fact possible, however after falling for quite a bit, your character dies in midair and falls into the water below (Or to land, if you manage to jump from a section over land). My guess is that there’s a set fall distance that you can fall, and after that you get max fall damage as a failsafe (you wouldn’t want to start falling through the ground and find out that your fall would last indefinitely).

Stop steaming, people. In “that other” MMO, level cap was raised because that was the only way of including new abilities for the classes. In GW2, it’s not like that at all. When they add new content, if they want to add new skills, they add new skills. They simply don’t need to raise the level cap for any valid reason.

How come you’re convinced those parts are taken from somewhere else? We know nothing of their actual origins, only that they are the oldest known beings. For all we know, Zhaitan could have hatched out of a fist sized egg with all those extra heads, wings and limbs.

DISCLAIMER: I do not believe that the Elder Dragons were born from fist sized eggs.

Alright, alright. Time to crush some dreams and tell you people what you shouldn’t drool after because of their blatant impossibility.

- No professions focused on a single weapon. That’s just not how the professions work.

- No Fist fighting. Gear is important, if you fight barehanded or fists strapped, you don’t have much to brag for. Besides, Engineers already have the concept of Utility skills turned weapons covered.

- No Dervish. The whole back story of dervishes in GW1 is about them being mystics who gain their powers from their devout faith for the human gods.

- No race-specific professions. These would against one of the main design philosophies of the game.

- No new weapons that would be unique to new professions. This would only cause problems, and would be against the idea of professions having unique skill sets for the same weapons.

Now, to what I find plausible.

- New races. These would come packed with new areas and storylines alongside new looks. Tengu, Largos and Kodan are all possibilities, with Tengu seeming the most likely if they do add new races.

- Ritualist. Unlikely, but possible. Even though other professions have inherited much of their former abilities, they could just as well use spirits to possess themselves, their enemies or their allies as one of their class mechanisms, instead of summoning spirit turrets like they did in GW1. They also had their weapon spells, which could work wonders with the weapon system of GW2.

- A third soldier profession. As other have said, the ninth profession would bring all armor classes to an equilibrium. What this profession would do? Who knows, perhaps a reworked Paragon, perhaps an offensive armored spellcaster like some hope.

And then to the things I find likely…

- New storylines. Goes without saying that one of the key parts of the game, the personal story, would get 100% natural extensions.

- A new dungeon or two. New challenges, new exotic armors to get.

- New areas. New lands to explore, new maps to conquer.

- New weapons. A smooth way of adding to the skills available to players, a bunch of new weapons so that everyone would get something. Say, scythes, polearms, crossbows… A scythe, for example, would fit right into the hands of Necromancer, Guardian, Mesmer and perhaps a Ranger. Thief and engineer would get crossbows (who can say rockets?), Polearms would go to Guardians and Warriors, where Warrior would also get his hands on a crossbow, and Elementalists would cry alone in a corner because I didn’t think of a new weapon for them in my example case. Point is, new weapons = new interesting skill sets.

- New skills. Utility skills, healing skills, elite skills… Not more powerful than the existing ones, of course, but alternatives.

I think that’s about it. Of course, with the imagination Anet employees have shown us, I’m sure I’ll be surprised with that they bring to the table when the time comes.

Go crazy, that’s what makes a good mesmer,

Racial Sympathy storyline part, Skritt path. In a dialogue between you and your mentor, it’s made clear that normally dragon minions can’t reproduce, but you find destroyer crab eggs. So, the logical conclusion is that the “crab queen” was corrupted after the eggs were conceived, but before they were laid, resulting in the eggs hatching into destroyers.

Could carry the meaning of walking the plank. In other words, she’s telling you to fight or get the kitten out.

Well, it was more of a show of how little information there is about them. Since GW1, they’ve been just enemies spread across the land, with no story attached. To answer your question, never has there been a reported case where a troll killed with care would have risen up again, unless we are talking about those corrupted by Zhaitan.

Lyssa represents duality, the two are one, so to speak. Two sides of the same coin, that through some four dimensional thinking both have their own back sides. That the deity consists of two doesn’t put them at a different position than Melandru or Dwayna. Same applies to Balthazar, too. And since there are records (well, legends) and older beings preceding the arrival of human gods (Dwarves, Elder Dragons, Seers, Giganticus Lupicus). So, all of the human gods came from somewhere, ascended from mortality or not.

Now, my theory is that the power of creation is linked to the Mists – let me quote Nightfall manuscripts here:

“Demons are more than creatures of the Mists – they are made from the Mists themselves, bits of etheric matter that have gained malignant sentience and power.”

In other words, life created spontaneously just from the Mists itself. Deities have used or still use this power to create life on Tyria (On Tyria for more stability, because apparently just Mists makes demons…), and on death, spirits return to the Mists unless cursed or otherwise impaired. In a way, this makes it a closed system. A closed system the Elder Dragons aren’t a part of.

The Elder Dragons don’t create life – they corrupt it. In EotN, it seemed like the destroyers were created and given life by the Great Destroyer, and by extension by Primordus, but this seems to have been retconned so that the destroyers are corrupted living beings, trolls, crabs, harpies and so on. The Elder Dragons also seem to be above Mist Deities in power. However, where does their power come from? They don’t use the power coming from the mists, instead they have their own energy that Inquest is trying to tap into.

So, to put the whole point together, the Elder Dragons are fundamentally different from anything mortal or immortal on Tyria and in the Mists.

They’re big, they smell bad and they have faster regenerative capabilities than humans do. That’s about it.

It’s really more about the methods used to achieve goals rather than how you fight. If you need to get inside a fort, do you bash down the gate, do you build a treb to blow down the wall, or will you find a way past the defenses?

Prophecies plot was one of a kind for a MMO plot, because it wasn’t a MMO plot. It was a cooperative RPG, in which the instanced nature allowed the shifting alliances. The Mhenlo team was not really that major, it was fun following their comments around various areas, but that’s about it.

Oh, and you never wondered why there were no Mantle at Lion’s Arch? For the simple reason of not having one of the antagonists occupying the capital city. It’s not very surprising to end up fighting them after a few mission, just as with old man Vizier Khilbron. If not predictable, the story is a tad bit absurd in it’s turns. Now, the EotN storylines were excellent, and I liked Nightfall too. Factions… Factions had some weird moments that broke the flow of the story, such as when the legendary weapons of Luxons and Kurzicks failed to do a thing to Shiro, resulting in pointless running around which somehow led to Kuunavang.

You expect their physiology to be like that of a human, when clearly it isn’t. Sure, they are able to straighten their backs, but that isn’t the natural posture for them, and would likely result in back pains if used for too long. You say there is no reason for them to be slouching, but there is no reason for them to stand up straight. If you look at human evolution, we have this kind of posture because we stopped walking on all fours to see over tall grass, which later enabled the use of tools. Well, Charr are in a way on a similar evolutionary stage, but unlike humans, seem to have descended from quadrupedal carnivores. Because of this, their back and neck are far stronger, and they can utilize them in ways humans cannot (Ever seen a cat pounce?). If they were to adapt a straight-backed posture, they’d lose the advantage of their physiology. Not to mention that they couldn’t use their natural running form without extra effort.

These are human legends we are talking about, notorious for their inaccuracies and changes.The story we know of Malchor sculpting the original statues could just as well be romanticized, inaccurate and downright false for parts. They may contain “truth”, but they are quite not as credible as older written sources.

Grenth may have been born before the sculpting took place, and may have overtaken Dhuum too. As said before, we know not of how the divine conception happened. Who knows, maybe Grenth was a statue given life by Dwayna.

Also, we can’t dismiss the possibility of Orrians replacing the statues of Dhuum with those of Grenth if grenth took over after the sculpting.

Oh, and while we are at that, if Malchor was loved by Dwayna, the god of healing among other things, and the father of Grenth, the god overseeing resurrections and such, wouldn’t it make more sense for Malchor to remain dead if Dhuum, death inevitable, who denied resurrection, was the god of death at the time?

Here’s a thread on GW2live forum, where you can see the actual model of the dragon in the lake better than ingame. I wouldn’t say that the head in the video belongs to the same creature, though it’s not impossible.

I run 10 30 0 20 10 pure FT build, works fine for me wherever I go. I’m not going to list the traits now, but I can assure you, 30 firearms is worth it with a flamethrower.

If it teleported you away from the enemy, no one would go for the clone, ever. Simply because you teleport to a random spot, it’s hard to tell which one is the real one.

In fact, by comparison humans have much weaker back, as the human natural spinal posture puts the work on abs instead. This is why bad posture causes so much back pain…

I suspect that the Charr have very, very strong back muscles. This would allow them to utilize their hunchback when attacking to give extra momentum and power to their melee attacks (as they seem to do, judging from the animations). This, combined with the fact this is a part of their natural physiology, would prove that they in fact are not crippled by their hunched back.

So… What you want is the Warrior rifle on Engineer?

Dragon minions are unable to reproduce unless they were pregnant when corrupted, see storyline step “A Friend in Deed”, Skritt path dialogue. The Pale Tree has reproduced in a way, creating Sylvari on multiple occasions. Therefore, the Pale Tree cannot be a Dragon minion.

I once got teleported to the upper floor of the windmill in Battle of Kyhlo from the corridor below. I liked it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

As to the ED accessing the Mists by themselves – that seems not the case. In fact, the only means to access the Mists at all seems to be through the aid of a deity figure that resides within the Mists – specifically the Six Gods, Spirits of the Wild, and Koda. As we’ve seen at least.

Fair points, but this is in fact what I’m saying, at least in a way. The deities that reside in the mists are extremely powerful beings. Mortal beings have ascended to be deities, too. But the ED, they are something different altogether. They are even more powerful than those deities, see Jormag devouring Owl and likely Ox, Wolverine and Eagle. Yet they are unable to open portals to the mists by themselves, meaning their origins are not of the mists.

Another interesting thought to consider: Jormag and Zhaitan have both, intentionally or not, replaced “mist deities” in the minds of their followers and minions. As far as I know, there is no dialogue on minions of Kralkatorrik or Primordus, but they might just as well do the same. However, the relevance of this is questionable, as it might just be about power and control.

I just went to check the globe in Chantry of Whispers, and the model looks to be same, but with “grooves” on it that display blue light from underneath, perhaps representing movements of Elder Dragons. Because of that, the distortion caused by the wrapping of the texture around a sphere, and the constant rotation of the globe in various directions, it’s hard to say if it the same map, though. However, the island chain with the “ring island” is present. But, because of all the distortion and clutter going on it, I can’t seem to find the known coastlines and landmasses.

So, back to the point, I would say it’s likely to have been created by the Order of Whispers, as they would have been the only ones getting reliable information from Elona after the kitten of River Elon.

EDIT: I checked the Reddit thread, the model is the same, the concept art is the loading screen for Chantry of Secrets, and while the texture is different, it shares points. The only thing lacking from evidence would be pulling the current texture from .dat and comparing them.

You also have to consider that it might have been Dhuum to present himself at the time, and that later those statues would have been replaced with those of Grenth. It’s not impossible that Malchor would have been the father of Grenth.

Charr. Never underestimate the intimidation value.

If I recall right, this globe is the one located in the Chantry of Secrets, the base of Order of Whispers. Order of Whispers maintained connection to Elona, which would explain the accuracy of the map in that region, and the inconsistencies in Cantha and other further areas.

What are you talking about? It’s silly good, provided you’re not alone for more than ten seconds downed (In which case you’d be shafted anyways, except for if you’re an engineer). More usually than not, the enemy has gone for my clone, and with a very spammable confusion on both you and the clone, it’s far from being bad. The #3… Meh.

Charrs are feline, Rytlock is a Charr. Cats are feline, kittens are cats. See the connection?

Oh, do I love making lame jokes.

Straut Livetongue, mesmer of the Ash Legion.

I disagree, Rytlock is undeniably the biggest kitten in Edge of Destiny.

The Charr have thumbs, they’ve used tools (weapons) from before humans came to Tyria. Surely, the musculature of their hands has developed to allow precise use of them claws. And it’s not like a spark would light a charr in fire, at worst the charr smith would get a small bald burned spot on his/her fur.

Heh, I’ve got one…

Masquarade
-Summon a clone with a high health pool. Lasts 60 seconds. (is replaced by a swap skill you can use as many times as you wish for as long as the clone is alive, you and the clone switch places without a “poof” effect. Would not shatter.)

The icebrood in the mists? Oh wow, I clearly have missed something major. Still, it’s not the dragon itself going, but the minions, right? So there might just be something to it. You see, I find it improbable that the ED would be bound to the mists. They’re said to be older than the gods, more powerful than them, even. The human gods hold their realms in the mists, some by force. If the ED could access the mists by themselves, wouldn’t they claim realms of their own there, instead of remaining in Tyria? Unless, of course, they have a very good reason to remain. What makes an almost infinitely powerful being stay in a world of limitations?

Oh, and the part about the god conspiracies was mostly speculation for the sake of speculation. I like to do that at times.

My Charr Mesmer is called Straut Livetongue. I still haven’t decided which one is the warband name.

I don’t understand what you all are saying, my male charr mesmer looks fabulous in that armor set! Don’t you know, it’s a~ll about distraction!

You are talking about big WvW situations. In situations like that, damage flies everywhere in any case, so nothing with a small health pool (illusions, turrets) stays alive. Me, I was talking about it’s use in dungeons. Dungeons often have ledges and long pathways that allow relatively safe turret placement, provided your party knows how to keep a line. The time fights take in dungeons also make deploying a mortar in some of the rooms with massive amount of enemies worthwhile.

But the Lion’s Arch today was built by those pirates. After the sea routes were lost, I figure the need for a navy seemed smaller, as nothing was getting through the undead, and the undead weren’t coming over – at the time. True, they were terribly unprepared like so many PUG first timers going for AC explorable at level 30.

EDIT: What I meant by the resolve of the humans coming from their heritage is that humans used to be the top dogs in Tyria, but their age of glory is fading, other races rising above them. This is why they must give all they’ve got, because they can’t excel in anything specific over the other races. For the Sylvari, it’s their destiny to fight the dragons. For the Norn, it’s their legend. The Charr have their duty, and for the Asura it’s the logical course of action. For humans, in addition to protecting their homes and lands, it’s about protecting their glory, the history where they defeated liches, vengeful spirits of emperor slayers and fallen gods. That is what the heritage of humanity is. In other words, they’ve got guts, and they’ve got their pride to uphold.

There is a Xunlai Chest in GW2, two if I remember right. Go to Eye of the North, and look around.

How about the entire southern sea floor rising up and forming the whole coastline anew, filled with nearly endless amount of walking, swimming, fighting corpses? I’d say not many merchant ships would take that bet.

They might be harvesters (A little bit like Reapers in Mass Effect), eating almost everything, leaving scraps alive and going to sleep for another cycle.

With that wild speculation of of the way… Tome of Rubicon. The ancient book of the dwarwes, written by the Great Dwarf before the arrival of human gods. It told of the battle against the Great Destroyer, who was later found to be a champion of Primordus. It also told of it’s second coming and the last battle of dwarwes. That happened, too. Zhaitan is seeking out the book, because it contained information on how the Elder Dragons were stopped before. From all that, we can gather that the Elder Dragons were to awaken ages ago, but were stopped, put back to sleep. My theory is that the dragon champions scout out Tyria for their masters before their awakening, seeing if the world is ripe for devouring. We know of three champions from GW1, The Great Destroyer, Glint, and the dragon in the lake. It wouldn’t be far fetched to think others had their champions somewhere, too. Primordus was about to wake in the end of EotN, but the defeat of the Great Destroyer put it back to sleep for fifty years or so. The awakening may or may not have had something to do with the different races banding together to oppose the destroyers. Glint was rebelling against Kralkatorrik, and the dragon in the lake was, well, frozen in a lake. That explains Jormag and Kralkatorrik only awakening later.

The Elder Dragons also have the power to spread corruption through their champions, even when in slumber, as seen with Svanir.

And then to human gods… Kormir ascended to godhood from a mere mortal...as did Grenth. It’s doubtful that the other gods wouldn’t have ascended from something before being gods, too. [wild speculation]They may have taken over the pantheon from older gods, which were left by the Elder Dragons to oversee the re-cultivation of Tyria to be devoured again. This would make perfect sense with the strong reaction of the other gods for Abaddon giving magic to humans. [/wild speculation]

However, it seems like the Elder Dragons are unable or unwilling to travel to the mists. When beings die, their spirit travels to the mists, where they may be directed to the realm of the being they believe to be in charge of overseeing them (So, Grenth for humans). In Nightfall, many lost spirits had been maddened and trapped to the Realm of Torment, the spirits of those manipulated by Abaddon. As a proof of this, there is a Charr spirit in Realm of Torment, but only human ghosts in Underworld aside from the monsters. Now, what of the Elder Dragons? Do they ever really die? If they do, do their spirits go to the mists? Would their spirits devour everything in their path there, too? [wild speculation] Perhaps the Elder Dragons are entirely locked to the “mundane” world, and need to devour magic from living creatures that act as conduits for the power of the mists. For this reason, they might have corrupted Abaddon long ago to give magic to humans.[/wild speculation]

What do humans bring to the table? They bring the manpower that fills the gaps between heroes, because they feel it is their duty to. They bring the workers that build fortifications that others improve on with their special skills. The heritage of humanity is the crown they must protect, the candlelight they can’t let dim. They have their history, which both binds them and gives them a reason to fight.
Humans bring their resolve.

EDIT: Oh, and since Orr rose from the sea, sea travel has been too dangerous, which makes sea connection a moot point

Well to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t compare Grenadier grenades to anything, as that thing is blatantly overpowered and could use a nerf. Also, while mortar might do less damage than grenades, it supplies extensive support, while not requiring you to spec for it – leaving you free to have any kind of build for situations more chaotic.

Oh, and while you can use Supply Crate in any situation, Mortar has larger impact when deployed successfully. You can’t keep Supply Crate up constantly through a long battle, either, like you can with a mortar in an optimal case.

I swear by flamethrower, been using it ever since I unlocked it back in the beta. Is it complicated? No. That’s exactly what it’s not, I can practically afk and put #1 on autoattack and live to tell the tale. You see, it’s all about utilizing those massed hits. And that means critical triggers. I have 30 on firearms, with Infused Precision, Precise Sights and Juggernaut. I have 10 points on explosives for Exploit Weakness. 20 in Alchemy for Invigorating Speed and Backpack Regeneration. The last 10 to tools, just for the Static Discharge (Who doesn’t love Static Discharge?). So, I run ahead and start stuffing those crits down the throats of my foes, gaining advantage as I go. With Infused Precision and Invigorating Speed, I get both swiftness and vigor nearly constantly. Juggernaut gives a rather massive boost in survival, and who’s say no to passive 6 stacks of might (I do miss the stability, though)?

Honestly, I would use flamethrower even if it only had #1. The other skills have their places, too. #2 is handy for a quick AoE between dodges, though I admit I’d like something with a little more utility. #3, need I say anything? Air Blast is an AoE knockback with15 sec cooldown. #4 is for stacking burns on enemies in PvE, and for combo fields. Not the best, but not wasted. #5 is a panic button. An AoE flash blind gives you a second to think of a plan to get out of a situation too hot.

WvW blah blah, solo pvp blah blah. Is that all you people think? Many, many times I’ve found Mortar to be excellent in certain rooms of dungeons, both explorable and story mode. Sure, not every situation, but what elite skill do you use in every situation? If you have a good team, they can keep the enemy at your optimal distance, so that you can keep the mortar up constantly and provide all that AoE support and damage. When you find the right time to use it, it outdoes the other engineer elites by far. Wouldn’t mind seeing it buffed, though…