Guild Wars 2

Less zerging, more story.

I’d much rather have them focus on making the content itself engaging and fulfilling, as opposed to just adding more carrots to the end of the stick.

There are (were?) a few points in personal story where having a certain personality type enables special dialogue options and choices (one example I remember being Confronting Captain Tervelan, where with Brute personality I had the option to kill him. The choice is not documented on the wiki, though, and I’m not sure if it’s possible to pick now after the patch.). I do miss seeing the personality icon there on the menu.

Some harpoon guns are essentially a mix of a crossbow and a fishing rod, such as Krytan Speargun and The Stingray. The skills a ranger uses with the harpoon gun reflects this nature, as well – all ranger harpoon gun skills are single shots, whereas warrior and thief have rapid firing skills, and engineer shoots torpedoes.

However, it’s true that it doesn’t quite fit them to use harpoon guns, but I’m willing to attribute that to the fact that there are just three different underwater weapons, and ranger had to have two. Melee? Check. Ranged? Check. Spells? No. The trident is clearly a “caster weapon” along with staff, scepter and focus, and while ranger does use magic, it’s not used in spell casting in the way elementalist, necro, mesmer and guardian use it. So, having an underwater casting weapon while none of the terrestial casting weapons would have been equally odd.

I’ve had my my TA medium coat for ages now, but I always feel like it’s not as “living” as it should be. By design, I like it much more than any of the cultural coat medium coats, and I know it works differently on sylvari than it does on other races – there’s an area where the skin tone bleeds on the coat (which I personally love). So, if glow would be added to that armor for sylvari, that would be absolutely lovely.

I always get creeped out by screenshots where people have a long line of identical human female faces in character selection.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Tuomir.1830:

So, since it’s not the Dominion of Winds that’s behind the gate… then what is? Surely, the tengu wouldn’t build a gate just to kitten off merchants. There’s a fairly large inaccessible area behind it, that can’t be land connected to the Dominion.

So, I can think of three plausible explanations.

1. A tengu port. Means for the tengu to move to Lion’s Arch, and from there all over Tyria.
2. A tengu fort. A fort built to protect the Dominion from north.
3. A second tengu city. Destroyers have surfaced in Dominion of the Winds, so the tengu have started evacuating the populace to another, safer, location.

Originally, the tengu were one of the considered playable races. This may have connected to their lvl 1-15 zone. So I don’t think that it’s any of those, but more of “remnants of the entrance to a scrapped zone which could have anything now”.

In terms of lore, that area was once D’Alessio Seaboard, which had the Temple of Tolerance and a small town further west (which may be Garrenhoff), as well as Hakewood to the east.

So unless Hakewood and the Temple of Tolerance were completely destroyed and never rebuilt, that’s at least where the merchants would be going. The tengu are likely trying to expand their territory (could be due to destroyers), and they’re blocking off that new territory off. But since there’s a gate in Garrenhoff going east (where that supposed starter zone would get its second entrance no doubt – with the third being the dominion of winds itself), the entire area isn’t likely to be solely tengu-controlled. Otherwise, they left their backdoor way open.

Ah, yes, I’m aware of the tengu once being a planned playable race, though I did forget to take into account the development history in my post. However, that doesn’t answer what’s in there here and now, lorewise.

Temple of Tolerance may have been destroyed during the events of War in Kryta, or abandoned after the White Mantle was overthrown. Hakewood could have been flooded with the tidal wave that destroyed Lion’s Arch. Mays and coulds aside, we have an area separated by a hefty gate built and guarded by tengu from Lion’s Arch, which, looking at the map or from Garrenhof and Claw Island, can’t be a part of the same walled in complex as the Dominion of Winds further south. Yet, before LA was destroyed, the tengu guarding the gate claimed that the location was Dominion of Winds. What this leaves me with is that beyond the shuttered gate, is an area that the tengu consider an extension of their walled city. However, as you pointed out, the gate in Garrenhow attest to that the tengu-occupied are doesn’t extend to the edge of Kessex Hills – but then again, in most cases, zone boundaries are arbitrary when it comes to lore.

Liza.2758:

a lot of noobs rely on healing power like Settle or Celtic.

Try to play something that actually do dmg and learn to dodge at right time / using skill at right time. this will improve your game play. ….. not just trying to out heal and do little to no dmg ( that bring your team down as well )

shout warrior could do a better job at that role.

Real good sign of your expertise there, writing “Cleric’s” as “Celtic”….

So, since it’s not the Dominion of Winds that’s behind the gate… then what is? Surely, the tengu wouldn’t build a gate just to kitten off merchants. There’s a fairly large inaccessible area behind it, that can’t be land connected to the Dominion.

So, I can think of three plausible explanations.

1. A tengu port. Means for the tengu to move to Lion’s Arch, and from there all over Tyria.
2. A tengu fort. A fort built to protect the Dominion from north.
3. A second tengu city. Destroyers have surfaced in Dominion of the Winds, so the tengu have started evacuating the populace to another, safer, location.

CHIPS.6018:

If what you said is true, there are 3 problems that need to be addressed.

1) Aliyana’s body was turned into a Risen. Zhaitan clearly got full control over her body. So what made her soul “unreachable” by Zhaitan? Why wasn’t her soul forced back into her own body to fight? How was she able to keep her soul from corruption?
Aliyana’s soul wasn’t in the Underworld neither, since she was seen wondering around in the living world. So even if Zhaitan got minimum control over the Underworld, Aliyana should still have been corrupted on the spot in Mount Maelstrom. She was killed by Risen, so Zhaitan knew she was there.
My conclusion: Aliyana’s soul wasn’t needed because Zhaitan already has more than enough “spare” souls to put into dead bodies.

Her soul wasn’t pulled to the body, because the risen made from the body was weak, an everyday risen, cannon fodder with no need for a soul.

2) If dead bodies have memories, why aren’t the “good guy” necromancers taking advantage of this? Why isn’t there necromancer minions using Hundred Blades and Meteor Shower?

In GW1 necromancers summons minions directly from dead humans all the time. Often times this is done on their very own allies! So morality/legality isn’t the problem here.

My conclusion: Necromancer minions cannot use Hundred Blades and Meteor Shower because those skills requires a soul/mind to use. And forcing a spirit to fight is illegal. There is no memory in a dead body.

Necromancer minions are not dead bodies reanimated, they are animated constructs made of the flesh and bones of the dead. A vital difference. And Tyrians consider animating dead bodies if not immoral, then at least very disrespectful.

3) Prince Rurik’s soul was forced back into his own body, and forced to fight against the players in GW1. Why is this even needed, if his “soulless” dead body will fight just as well by memory alone?

As Konig pointed out, just having the body without the soul wouldn’t have half the psychological impact. Khilbron was a schemer, his whole character is about control, so naturally enough, he sought to make use of the heroes’ dearest companion when they no longer were his pawns.

CHIPS.6018:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

CHIPS.6018:

Has it been stated that Zhaitan have total control over the whole Mist and Underworld? The fact that we can still enter the Mist in GW2 states otherwise.

I believe Zhaitan captures spirits and ghosts from Kryta itself. Spirits and ghosts do exist in the “living” world. But this is of course speculation.

The personal story step with the reaper does say that Zhaitan managed to steal the soul of one of Grenth’s own priests from the Underworld. Assuming Grenth is unlikely to give his own priesthood less protection in death than the rank-and-file dead, that seems to indicate Zhaitan can get to just about any soul in the Underworld.

That does beg the question, though, of rather Zhaitan went to the trouble of deliberately pulling a soul from the afterlife, or if that kind of thing just happens as a side effect of corruption- if the later, it is likely that the vast majority of risen, mooks or not, have souls, and oddly enough remaining in Tyria as a ghost might be the only way to keep out of his reach. If the former, we must then ask also why Zhaitan didn’t do this for all of his minions- assuming as the lot of you do, that the soul is correlated with powerful minions, the cost must have been high enough to make it untenable on a mass scale, which would pose its own questions and implications regarding the interplay between the Elder Dragons, the Gods, and the Mists.

Alright so we can confirm that Zhaitan can pull souls from the Underworld. But I don’t think he got full control over the Underworld. Dhumm would have to be dead/corrupted for that to happen. Maybe this explains why the likes of Gwen, Cynn and Mhenlo (powerful heroes at the time) wasn’t pulled from the Underworld and forced/corrupted to fight for Zhaitan. They reside in an area of the Underworld that remains untouched by Zhaitan.

It is also unclear if all 100% of his minions’ souls came from the Underworld. Because if he can access the underworld, he most likely have no problem taking/corrupting souls in the living world. But then we see all those wondering ghosts in Ascalon and we got to wonder why they aren’t taken/corrupted. It is true that Ascalon isn’t directly under Zhaitan’s corruption. But if he can get to the underworld, one would expect him to get to Ascalon no problem.

Unlike Orochimaru and Kabuto, who can summon from the Underworld whoever they want, there does appear to be some sort of limit to Zhaitan’s ability to gather souls. Else we would see Prince Rurik and many others.

I find the answer to be simple – Zhaitan had no control over Underworld, but since body and soul are tied to each other (otherwise there’d be a whole host of issues regarding resurrection, possession and other instances where a soul might leave the body and return later), the dragon may pull the corresponding soul back to the body, intentionally or consequentially. However, as I presented earlier, the weaker risen are without a soul, remaining as simple drones animated by the corruption, retaining their memory but not the mind.
EDIT: To make it clear, I mean that to pull a soul from the Underworld, the dragon requires the corresponding body.

draxynnic.3719:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Technically, there’s little evidence of rangers in gw1 using magic. The closest thing was the nature rituals but that is never explained for what it is. Furthermore, when the ranger was revealed as a Gw2 profession the very basis of lore for them was “they distanced themselves from technology and turned to magic” – which would seem weird if they already were turned towards magic.

I’d disagree on this, actually. Healing Spring to me at least seems to be magical as well, and there’s a lot of skills in the GW1 ranger lineup that have a kind of ‘plausible deniability’ – sure, they COULD be nonmagical, but become quite a bit easier to explain as a mix of primitive elemental magic and non-bloodstone ritualist-like magic.

Especially the healing skills. Doubly especially the ranger’s ability to heal their pet at range.

I don’t think the statement about turning away from technology and towards magic means that they had no magic before any more than it should be taken that they did have technology before. What I think the intent of that line was is simply that the rangers made a conscious choice to focus on magic rather than technology.

Considering that in the past, there was no choice on using technology (or rather, they used the same technology others did), it indeed is the logical thing to assume that the statement meant not using the new “modern” technology of GW2, as opposed to starting using magic.

Memory=/=mind. A computer has memory, but you can’t say it has mind. It can perform tasks when ordered to do so, including “saying” things. However, it can’t think independently, that would require a mind.

So what am I saying? All risen have their memory more or less intact(explains how all those farmers keep tilling the ground in Orr), but only those powerful enough have had the ties between their soul and their body enforced. I presume these risen with souls are higher in the hierarchy of their forces because they have souls, not the other way around, them having souls because of their status.

I still hold on to my theory of the Dragons being a completely different life form, primordial beings tied to Tyrian mundus, not originating from the mists, incapable of entering it themselves, and naturally opposed to beings originating from the mists. However, as there’s nothing to or against that theory as far as I see, I won’t be driving it forwards as of yet.

My point, however, is that those NPCs that are labeled “Undead Abomination” etc. are all risen. There is no case of “there are undead mixed in with the risen”

- its just risen being called undead.

I have my reasons to insist to tell both apart.

If you have a valid reason to believe it, why not present it? Telling you have your reasons is no argument at all and contributes nothing to the discussion.

To put home the point: non-champion dragon minions attack anything that isn’t connected to their hive mind mentality. Even with many Sons of Svanir, the icebrood will attack them.

So if you have something that doesn’t outright look risen, walking amongst risen and not being attacked… it is corrupted by Zhaitan, thus is a risen.

The sparks at the statues of Dwayna don’t automatically attack the risen there if the temple is cleaned. Does it turn sparks into risen? The cleaned Lyssa statues has several elementals around it which also do not attack risen. Does it turn earth-, fire and iceelementals into risen? That they automatically don’t attack each other, doesn’t mean they are of the same kind, the ones are risen and the other are undead.

Elementals can be corrupted by the Elder Dragons, see Icebrood Elementals and Branded Earth Elementals. The sparks could be corrupted, or the risen might not recognize them as alive beings. Afterall, they are pretty much just balls of electricity.

They are not a gate. They are a spring (an underwater cave system) which happens to gather a lot of magic, and is where the Six Gods first stepped foot on the world – a gate opened at the Artesian Waters, the Artesian Waters are not a gate.

It’s a physical place which was connected to the mists. Why should this connection go away, when it is listed as the first place where the gods came to Tyria.

How about Lion’s Arch, then? Balthazar opened a mist portal there after the Battle Isles sunk. Again, the gods can open portals seemingly anywhere they wish. As seen from Godslost Swamp and Grenth’s former temple in Shiverpeaks, effects may linger and new portals may tear open, but always to Tyria from the Mists, not the other way around. And even though the gods stepped on Tyria at the Artesian Waters, it doesn’t mean that the place had a particularly strong connection, nor that the portal lasted for a long enough time to create a powerful link.

Nope. All gods left the world of Tyria physically during Year 0 (aka 0 AE), over 1,000 years before Zhaitan awoke. The comment about Lyssa hiding in Wren takes place around 45 BE, when her scriptures’ event took place (meeting and blessing Sara), and likely beforehand.

There are 1300 years in between and Orr was 200 years underwater. We cannot say for sure that the gods stayed there and if one of them liked to wander around in Orr, he could do it without meeting any living human around.

We also cannot say for sure that all of those Santa Clauses you see around holiday season are just acting the part, but it’s fair to assume that there is no real Santa amongst them. It’s a poor theory to suggest something happened when all present information suggests otherwise.

EDIT: fixed link
EDIT2: fixed more broken stuff…

If you did any of the sylvari personal storylines, you’d know that there is a fine difference between their original/proclaimed goal (“free the sylvari from the Ventari Tablet”) and their actual goal (sending all sylvari into nightmare).

There is no difference between these goals. The only failure about that is that the nightmare court is well seemingly blinded too, thinking that the nightmare is a desirable state.

You clearly do not know enough about the information regarding the nightmare to make theories of it. Nightmare isn’t a view or philosophy, it is a thing, something Faolain and Caithe found, and it changed the Nightmare Court. Why do you think the founder of the Court is a subordinate to Faolain?

In Shield of the Moon storyline, if you decide to defend Astorea instead of goign with Tiachern, he falls into nightmare and his personality completely changes, and such is irreversible.

It is irreversible, but have you ever asked yourself why? What if the nightmare is not the desirable state of the world, but the truth that we are living in?

See above.

Malyck, whom is not affected by either Nightmare nor Dream, acts very differently than the Nightmare Court – so we know that the NC are not “true sylvari”.

They outright state they would corrupt other pale trees.

Malyck is a trap. And like stated before, the nightmare court is still connected to the Pale Tree while Malyck isn’t. Showing that the nightmare court are no free sylvari, influenced at any time from the Pale Tree. Malyck is also far away from calling him a true sylvari. The only information that we get from him is that there is/was another Pale Tree and the physical appearance is comparable.

The Nightmare Court wants to corrupt the pale tree, but the teachings of Ventari make it difficult. If the existence of other such trees were to be known to Nightmare Court, they would seek to corrupt them, as it would be easier.

Dream != Ventari teachings

Do you not read?

You combine the two, my point in bringing her up is that they are not the same. She doesn’t reject the Dream (unlike Nightmare Courtiers), but she does reject the Ventari Tablet – and she rejects the nightmare.

She will never be disconnected from the Pale Tree, never be disconnected from the dream, never be disconnected from Ventari’s teachings (and his tablet). All of them are connected, you cannot choose to omit one and stay with the other.

Sylvari have full freedom of choice. Canach, for an example, was neither Nightmare Court or Soundless, yet hardly acted on Pale Tree’s behalf.

“Means of acquiring something” isn’t what the Eternal Alchemy is. It is how things work together, not how they will act nor their future.

If the eternal alchmy excludes a way to go then there is an intention behind. As a concept it would basically been used to explain the world and how it works, but not forbid actions or predetermine any way. The only thing that the eternal alchemy usually would support are changes and explanations how it affects the world. Macha says the sprocket could be replaced, but they are still missing. In an concept the sprocket doesn’t need to be replaced, just the result would change without the sprocket.

But the Eternal Alchemy doesn’t forbid actions or predetermine any way. It is the philosophical view of seeing everything as connected, the causal relationships between the entities and forces of the world.

The risen will only tell you what they want you to believe is the truth.

And red haired are witches which worship satan. Nobody tells the full truth, neither does our enemy nor do our allies. So I have to search. I adjust your sentence to: “The Pale Tree will only tell you what it want you to believe is the truth.”, because if the one side has this flaw, then I have to check if the other side has this flaw too. Real wars use truth and lie on both sides, just to give their people enough reasons to fight blindly and many other reasons. I wouldn’t have started this post if I had the opinion that this one is lying. I am searching for evidence that it is lying, but simply saying don’t trust a risen doesn’t help to tell truth and lie apart. Furthermore are a lot possibilities given to demotivate people, so why did it choose the gods as topic, especially if we have 4 playable races who don’t worship the six?

So… you use the argument that lies are used to motivate troops and demoralize the opposition… to reason that the risen are trustworthy? You are not making a lot of sense. And you are speaking of human priests and priestesses, how is it strange that they would talk about their own gods?

Horst Hortensie.5420:

Kalavier.1097:

And yet we blasted Tequatl many times with the megalaser before (which is canon), and he lived and returned.

The whole event has changed with the update. Before Tequatl update he fled after being defeated. After Tequatl update he dies at the end of the event. This is an important difference. If you don’t believe me, then check how Shatterer dies at the end of the event (he doesn’t). If we can take this as a real confirmation in addition with Rox’s statement, he is possibly dead now. I looked the end of the event up again and there is still the possibility that he rises over and over again.

Check your facts. Shatterer dies after a successful event, he flies north and explodes. Each Shatterer is a new dragon champion.

About the gods, Jeff said in an interview that the gods are in the mists. So none got eaten by Zhaitan. They’ve been in the mists for a long while now.

We know that Jormag tried to enter the mists of the spirits. With a place that is connected to the mists close to Zhaitan, it is possible that he tried to enter the mists too. Further are the gods missing (at least it is stated often enough in this Forum).

There are no implications of a strong connection to the mists at Artesian Waters. The gods can open portals to their realms seemingly wherever they want to.

“Zones are stuck in time unless affected by the Living World”

The big feature update changed a lot balance in the world. I think we can assume all maps are up to date at the moment.

The feature pack had nothing lore related in it, sans the not-so-serious reasoning for removing repair costs.

Harathi Hinterlands is stuck in time because no Living World has progressed that storyline. We don’t really know the state of the human-centaur war, especially where the battles are now taking place – it seems unlikely that humans are being pushed back in Gendarran, Queensdale, and Kessex while at the same time humans are pushing back centaurs in Harathi Hinterlands.

If I use level as an additional time indicator, then is Harathi after Gendarran after Kessex after Queensdale. And all belong to the same war, so it could be that we even haven’t entered Harathi Hinterlands with our forces, but we are on the way. There is a reason why all is repeating endless, so it could be this one too, but Ulgoth dies at the end and he doesn’t have obvious signs that he revives over and over again.

Your logic is flawed. Continue that thought and place the events in level order. Whoops, Zhaitan dies at level 80, now we know that Ulgoth dies before that, so it’s not in the future. And you are just violently agreeing with Konig there about the zone being locked in time…

But that and this are different. Him not knowing about something that has no recorded history about it and him knowing the state of the risen after Zhaitan’s defeat are two separate matters.

He can replay orrian culture with his magic. We see it through the personal story. And there are recordings. If he knows nothing about orrian culture, then he has basically the equal amount of informations or even less about risen. The recordings of the dragon are by far older than the recordings of the gods. Even if the dragon is active, while the gods aren’t, we still know nothing for sure about risen, because we have recordings about an elder undead orrian dragon.

The source of Orr isn’t Orrian culture and isn’t something there would be records for. Trahearne studied Orr and the risen, he’s the foremost expert on their workings. Forgive me, but I don’t see you making much sense.

Murder is also known as homicide, the act of killing a human deliberately. Feel free to knock down a few asura, it’s not murder by the book!

CureForLiving.5360:

Tuomir.1830:

Well, largely because the gods have stopped meddling in the matters of Tyria.

Or because they’re not as powerful as the term god would indicate. For gods they’re rather mortal. Abaddon died and I’d imagine that Balthazar’s father was also a god (who was beheaded). Dhuum and Abaddon were both imprisoned for a very very long time (why does god need a spaceshi— I mean, why does god have such a hard time getting out of jail).

While imprisoning Abaddon, the five gods turned a large inland sea into a sulfurous wasteland. Abaddon was stronger than any of the other gods alone. Dwayna’s magic misused turned a huge inland sea into jade and a huge forest into stone. They’re pretty powerful, alright.

I’m aware of the magic flowing from dragons when they sleep, however I did present my idea badly.

We know that when there is no more magic for the dragons to devour present, they fall into slumber. We also can assume that them waking up is a result from high levels of magic in the world. What hasn’t been examined is how they notice the difference in the amount of magic.

The easy answer would be that they just sense it, because magic. However, we’ve recently seen Mordremoth waking up as a direct result of a surge of magic through the ley line straight into it’s mouth. Also, the magic the dragons exude while sleeping seems to radiate out of their bodies, instead of flowing along the lines. So, from these points, I draw that the dragons are not the source of the ley lines, and that they slumber in places where the magic naturally flows through in order to wake up when the meal is ready.

Thank you for the laugh. You amused me greatly.

Not only is the helmet not available, the shoulders too are out of players’ grasp.

Destiny’s Edge was there during the fight against Zhaitan, too, so that makes 10 heroes, and the dragon was severely weakened during the whole advance to Orr. Not to forget the big guns we had against Zhaitan. Never forget the big guns.

To sum it up? Not five heroes + an army against Zhaitan at its strongest.

Guile’s theme. A warband of fifteen charrs was needed to post this message.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

About Thaumanova Reactor, do consider that even though in real world Chernobyl disaster happened, nuclear energy is still used, just with better safeguards.

But no one would put a nuclear reactor over a fault line. This is my point. Have all the safeguards you want, it doesn’t matter for kitten if you put it over a location where it is the location that would compromise the facility.

But the ley lines aren’t fault lines, they are lines of energy. If it’s a reactor, it’s supposed to transform energy to a more usable form, and as far as I know, we don’t know what was the source for the energy. So, if the reactor was built to utilize the magic of the ley lines, then of course it makes perfect sense for the version 2 to be built on them, as well.

Also, an idea that just popped into my head, it could very well be that the ley lines aren’t directly related to the dragons – that is, the lines don’t go according to their locations, but instead, they chose to slumber in places they knew the magic would flow through.

Well, if magic leaks from them, then it’s highly likely that it would go from them through channels of least resistance. So the magic would, theoretically, seep directly to the ley line via a path of least resistance.

Ley lines are basically just the channels for magic to move – as said, the paths of least resistance. Magic exists outside ley lines, but if it is left to its own device, they’ll go to them.

So the theory would be that the ley lines would begin at the dragons, and immediately find a path of least resistance from there – like if you were to spill a glass of water over a cracked surface. From the point where the water hits the surface (where the dragon is), the magic will immediately head towards those cracks as they’re lower ground (less resistance) and spread out from there.

But in that case, the magic always would flow from the dragons to the lay lines, and if the dragons feed on the lay lines, that wouldn’t make much sense, would it? My theory is that the ley lines are inherent to the world of Tyria, natural pathways of massed magic, not affected directly by the dragons. Of course, massive geographical changes would alter them, so in that way they are affected, but my point is that the lines do not originate from the dragons. They are just very convenient for them.

Edit continue, there’s no reason to believe the Eye of the North was built at a time of low magic levels, or that the ley lines would have changed. I believe it has high potential of being built on a ley line focal point. It’s an artifact of unknown origin, with nothing similar around it. Whoever built it, built it there for a reason.

The Eye of the North’s origin is completely unknown. Unknown even to well-learned dwarf historians. This means that it is very old. Either shortly after the dragons fell asleep, when they were last awake, or even older. At this point, magic would be lower – the closer to the dragons’ rise, the less magic in the world. While theoretical, it makes perfect sense seeing how magic was so low it was barely noticeable on the surface prior to the gods unleashing magic from the Bloodstone. If it’s older than 1 BE, then it was around in a time with little magic in the world. And given that it is hinted to be tied to confronting the Elder Dragons – given its usefulness in Eye of the North (though this is really just player interpretation of its plot devicness), that hints to it being tied to an elder race.

Exactly, we only know that it’s ancient, and we don’t know just how ancient it is. Therefore, I don’t exactly see the logic in your assumption that it must have been built during a low-magic era. It could have been during any of the earlier dragon risings for all we know. And even if it was built during a low-magic era, if the ley lines were the same, as stands in my theory, wouldn’t it be logical to build an important magical tower in a place where as much magic passes as possible?

One of the makeover kit exclusive male Asura hairdos has streaks that you can pick the color of (as the accessory color).

It would be great to have the chat window in character selection, considering you can open your contact list from there anyways…

Yes, I’m aware that there are far too many lines on the map, that’s just the method I use when working, presenting all plausibilities and then sanding it down to the most likely possibility.

About Thaumanova Reactor, do consider that even though in real world Chernobyl disaster happened, nuclear energy is still used, just with better safeguards.

Also, an idea that just popped into my head, it could very well be that the ley lines aren’t directly related to the dragons – that is, the lines don’t go according to their locations, but instead, they chose to slumber in places they knew the magic would flow through.

Edit continue, there’s no reason to believe the Eye of the North was built at a time of low magic levels, or that the ley lines would have changed. I believe it has high potential of being built on a ley line focal point. It’s an artifact of unknown origin, with nothing similar around it. Whoever built it, built it there for a reason.

Here’s a new version of the map, with LA, Thaumanova Reactor, Artesian Waters, Eye of the North and Central Transfer Chamber being as the major points, an all the lines drawn in between.

Notes, the line going through EotN and CTC also goes through Infinite Coil Reactor, and the Artesian Waters – Central Transfer -line crosses with the LA – Thaumanova -line right at the center of Hoelbrak, where the totem prism stands.

And I’m well aware that the lines not be straight… but what else would I spend my time on then? I believe that while on a short distance, the lines may be contorted, but when looking at the big picture, they go more or less straight.

Another solution, which I have suggested before as a way to solve the Shrödinger’s Dragon issue, would be to pack up the current Personal Story, so that new characters wouldn’t start it to begin with (characters who already started their personal story could continue theirs through) but instead would start from Personal Story Season 2. New characters would start from a intro chapter like now, and characters with completed PS season 1 (as in, the current personal story) would start at a later point, retaining their status as the Commander of the Pact. With progression like this, both Living World and Personal Story would fit nicely into the same time frame.

Would it be positive diversity if female asura had access to both male clothing and female clothing, while male asura would only have male clothing? Matter of fact is, often the female armor is much better looking and clearly has had more effort put into it.

How exactly would it defeat the purpose? It’s not away from the female characters if male characters can use it too, now is it?

Well, largely because the gods have stopped meddling in the matters of Tyria.

Most of the lines on that map are guesses and conjecture, but the two crossing in Lion’s Arch I have a strong feeling about. I’ll have to clean off all of the two-point lines from there and add some more points once I iron out their location on GW2 map.

Infinite Coil Reactor, while built to last longer than the Thaumanova Reactor, could have been built to utilize the ley line. It also lines up nicely with the Glint’s Lair – Thaumanova -line and forms another line on the hotspot on Wayfarer Foothills, very close to the Heart of Corruption when lined with the Eye of the North. A line drawn through Artesian Waters and the reactor links the Ring of Fire islands and Mount Maelstrom, and further look reveals that it also connects the two locales known to be inhabited by Eidolons, “…a bestial creature made from malice and shade. This creature has a natural defense against the magics of the Mursaat”. I do not think there’s enough reason to discredit the possibility of Infinite Coil Reactor residing on a ley line, or a crossing point of ley lines. They could well provide it with dragon energy required for the experiments.

And yes, this line of thinking only works if the lines are, in fact, straight lines.

Here’s a slightly cleaner version of the map I started on, make what you will of it. Used the Artesian Waters, the two Inquest reactors, Glint’s Lair and the Eye of the North for the most important focal points. I figured that if the Thaumanova Reactor was on a ley line, chances are the version 2.0 was on one as well, and both were very convenient spots to lay lines over.

Only if the male asura can wear those dresses and such too, the same version.

Interesting idea… I put together a rough merged GW2 map, and drew some lines on special landmarks. Assuming the leylines are more or less straight (in the cinematic, it seemed to be rather wavy, but since it’s deep underground, the place where the energy bursts to the ground might not be exactly on top of the line), and that Lion’s Arch (the wreckage of Breachmaker used as the exact spot) is a crossroads of at least two ley lines, one of which goes through the Thraumanova Reactor, some interesting things can be found.

Line A (goes through Lion’s Arch and Thraumanova Reactor), passes over Hoelbrak and cuts close to Haunted Nolani. It further continues to Blazeridge Mountains, and on the other direction, runs through Magus Falls.

Proposed Line B runs through Arah and Lion’s Arch, through Vigil Keep to Woodland Cascades. Nothing particularly in interesting I found.

Proposed Line C runs through Eye of the North, to Lion’s Arch, to Claw Island, to Karka Hive, to The Grove, to Abaddon’s Mouth and from there onwards to the Unending Ocean. This one seems quite promising.

Later today I might think of some more lines to add, but I have a feeling about line C. Also, another interesting thing to note is that line C is right in between lines A and B, forming two 30 decree wedges on both sides of LA.

Can’t wilderness be wilderness without the influence of great and powerful beings? In that fractal I saw a hostile old forest, it’s hostile guardian, and a crazy norn living in it.

…You can set them off. In the sound options, there’s a slider for dialogue volume.

Thalador.4218:

It doesn’t say it was Balthazar…

My bet is that the Scepter was in Mazdak’s possession. He might’ve received it as a gift from his – suspected – King Doric, when he led the proto-Krytan Orrians north with the well wishes of his father… so before the war. Remember that the Scepter is taken from a Krytan crypt, which could’ve been retcon’d to be Provernic Crypt for Guild Wars 2.

The Staff could’ve been once in the hands of a Margonite king. Or a Primeval King. Both had influence on the coastal regions of the Crystal Sea, where the Staff was entombed along with its corrupted owner.

Quite a while ago, I proposed a theory about the twin staves being held by King Doric and a margonite king. I’ll see if I can dig up the thread…

EDIT: Found it.

The key is that the Stygians were born from the Dreadspawn Maw, not spontaneously spawning from the mists. It’s a different manner of reproduction from two-sex reproductive schema, but it’s also different from simply spawning from the mists. We have very limited confirmed examples of demons, most originating from the Realm of Torment, so we can’t say for sure that rules that apply to those examples apply to demons from elsewhere in the mists, either. How ants reproduce is quite different from how horses reproduce, after all.

Furthermore, Tyria is not outside of the mists – it’s within them. While not as present as in some other realms, it still is present in a way, so it isn’t unthinkable for fleshreavers (or, indeed, any creatures) to draw to it’s power when conceiving offspring.

You rise a good point about reproductive systems, but, demons are known to be bred from other particular individuals of their kind, Dreadspawn Maw to name the known example. Demons can reproduce, so it would stand to reason that being capable of reproducing by themselves does not prove that fleshreavers couldn’t be demons.

And make them have interesting mechanics, too. I’m bored of weak sandbags.

Observed Ally: Skritt. They breed like, well, rats, and given large enough numbers, they use their group intelligence extremely efficiently (I’d much rather have a hundred skritt than a hundred asura).

Guessed Ally: Zephyrites. Glint’s insight passed on to them, her remains and the ability to use the power within them, quite likely knowledge about her offspring as well. If they choose to take an active role in the world and partake in the fight against the elder dragons, they could be invaluable allies.

Observed Enemy: Can’t think of anything more factually threatening than Primordus.

Guessed Enemy: Fleshreavers. Sure, we’ve fought some, perhaps threatening but nothing out of ordinary, eh? But those have been scattered and probably young and weak fleshreavers. They seem to originate from the mists, and my theory is that they are demons (not to be confused with the subsets of demons specific to Realm of Torment), as are dryders and Kanaxai. Now, imagine facing an ancient fleshreaver lord, with a body built of countless would-be heroes who tried stopping it.

Note, I’m using the Nightfall manuscripts definition of demon, “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”.

I logged on with a low level character, personal story on racial sympathy step, and got the same mail. So much for Trahearne and PC initiating the pact…

Cinnamon Goddess.3869:

I hate being forced to do something. If I don’t want to fight then I am not doing it being slowed or not; It just makes my gameplay suck. My characters run pathetically slow even out of combat. There are times where I just stop playing because everything just takes to long! Get rid of the immensely annoying in-combat slowdown! There is no out-of combat boost as some are trying to claim. I move too slow out of combat also. Also get rid of the WP fees! These just hurt the game. I am less likely to play with other people and help them because it just wont be worth it to me to spend 4 silver to do so. GW2 is starting to feel like a chore with all these annoying aspects constantly interfering with the fun you might have had. I deal with annoying stuff in real life and use the game to relax and get away from this only to start up GW2 and have to deal with more annoying crap. I guess they don’t want people like me to play their game?

This might sound rude and offensive, but I laughed out loud at this. Go on, feel free to find a game where everything is handed to you on a silver platter. You might enjoy that more.

zaxziakohl.5243:

Charr paranoia ~snip

This one I think is more of an interpretation difference. I feel that their trust is extremely limited. The most Charr-like example of this I can give, is that I may trust my war-band with my life, but I don’t trust them with my gun or knife. They ARE militant. Your completely right on that. But they are NEVER above believing that someone has betrayed them. To be instantly capable of believing that, is to mean you never fully trusted them to begin with. It means that thought was always in the back of their mind. They could betray me/us. It’s a part of their culture. There is no, OMG no way, they can’t do that, they WOULDN’T do that, I trusted them! It’s a resolute, they betrayed me, and I will do whatever is necessary to make sure they don’t do it to anyone else.

This property of the Charr is part of the reason it took me so long to play one. I play MMO’s to relax. The story, and the culture of my characters if very important to me. That lore based immersion, is important to me. It was very hard for me to do that with a Charr and maintain that relaxed feel while playing. They are ever vigilant and always wary of anyone. None of the legions trust each-other. Half the time, members of their own legion have no trust for each-other. There is always a traitor, a spy and it could be you. It’s exhausting. But at the same time I LOVE the complexity that the Charr have. As a culture freshly out of a war, they are changing, rehabilitating and amazingly complex. As you play a Charr, your interpretations and experiences might be very different. No matter what, when we play, the game will be tinted by the glasses of our real lives. I feel personally that there isn’t a clash of the statements considering their fear of magic. To me, as I’ve immersed myself, it makes perfect sense.

I don’t know what game you’ve been playing, but from all I’ve seen, charr society is based on two things: trust in the warband and loyalty to the legion. The charr have the least amount of treachery and backstabbing within from the five races, save for perhaps the norn who don’t have large organizations anyways. They distrust magic users not because they’d have any reason to fear betrayal, but because they associate them with the Flame Legion. To that, it would seem quite strange if every charr would be casting magic as little cubs.

“Mind if I try on your armor? You don’t have to take it off”
From Belcher’s Bluff. It was hilarious when I pulled that one off on my friend’s charr with my very thin sylvari male.

Exosferatu.2961:

Rytlock Brimstone is accurate. Charrland was a nomenclature like: England, Ireland, Poland, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Thailand, New Zealand, Scotland, Netherlands, and Swaziland.

Oh really?

Exosferatu.2961:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Exosferatu.2961:

Ascalonians were not wiped out. They retain their human forms but their flesh has been replaced by a pale-blue ectoplasm.

Not completely, no, but no human survived near the vacinity of Ascalon City. Of the Foefire, at least. Many survived the Searing, but that’s not when they were turned into ghosts (their flesh was not “replaced” – they were outright killed and their souls forced to remain as ghosts, unallowed to pass on).

According to Ghosts of Ascalon, Ascalonian ghosts retain their human forms but their flesh has been replaced by a pale-blue ectoplasm. Killing an Ascalonian ghost outright is difficult – attacking them only removes ectoplasm from the form until they dissipate and, after a period of time the ghost will simply reform.

That means they are dead. They have been turned to ghosts that retain their human forms, but they are ghosts, killed by the foefire and so dead. Basically, what you are saying is that turning into a zombie is surviving a zombie apocalypse.

I don’t think Anet is trying to make her sound cute. I think it’s more her superiority complex kicking in, when she’s defeated, she acts like the player character is really nothing big and taunts him/her. Or maybe she really doesn’t feel threatened at all.