Showing Posts For draxynnic.3719:

Decay timer?!?! Are you kidding!

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Are you serious decay timer? I understand you want everyone to be active so you dont have afkers getting pips. What about defending a tower or a keep and im alone not getting participation, It will start to decay? What about the guild raiding for 2 hours and decides to take a medium break to give players a chance to go to the bathroom, get something to eat the participation starts to decay? Seriously Anet just keep destroying WvW.

You get 10 min for a defense event.

Decay always started after 10 min (AFAIK). So nothing changed there.

Getting credit for defence events is pretty hit and miss. I’ve had a few times when I’ve participated in a defence and not received credit, and that’s without even considering times when the defence you provide is in the form of providing a deterrent and the enemy doesn’t engage.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Decay timer?!?! Are you kidding!

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

To expand on my earlier points regarding ‘cashing out’…

I think, in outright rejecting the idea because the system can’t accurately predict how many pips a player would earn if they stayed, you’re falling victim to the perfect being the enemy of the good.

Let’s say that Hesacon’s system was implemented, wherein ‘cashout’ granted pips at the lowest possible level (no outnumbered, only 1 pip for server status – let’s say no squad leadership pip too, because let’s not encourage people to form a squad just to cash out). Sure, some people would still hang around looking to get the maximum possible number of pips. But let’s consider some people who wouldn’t:

1) Players on losing servers in primetime. Outnumbered is rare in primetime, and let’s face it, rankings are unlikely to change within 10-20 minutes unless it’s the start of a skirmish. Such players have little or no incentive not to ‘cash out’ once they’re done, since they’re probably going to get the minimum number of pips anyway. This also, incidentally, potentially allows the server to trade an inactive player for an active one, giving a boost for the server that needs it most.

2) Players that have something else they could be doing right now. Maybe it’s a world boss. Maybe they have a friend asking for a teamup in PvE or PvP. Without a cashout option, a player with a lot of participation has an incentive to turn that down and/or to start running down their participation beforehand. With a cashout option, then they could more easily decide that being able to move on to the next thing without a 10-20 minute wait is worth the opportunity cost of a few pips.

It would probably be fairly simple to to estimate how many ticks the player would still be able to earn pips for, and how much reward track progress they’d get over that time, and then lock them out from earning participation for a time afterwards. Sure, it won’t get rid of all the players waiting for their participation to run down, but as long as it causes some to move on, surely that would be an improvement?

Alternatively, what about simply allowing players to still receive rewards as their participation ticks down even if they aren’t on a WvW map? That way, there’s no prediction needed, and the only incentive players would have to remain on the map once they’re finished actively playing would be to get the Outnumbered bonus, and let’s be realistic here – if there’s a queue to get into the map, you’re not getting Outnumbered.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

A "Better" idea for outmanned pips.

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Or…

How about you just play WvW and if you get an Outnumbered BONUS be happy.

Problem with that is that for players with lower WvW ranks, the “bonus” isn’t a bonus – it’s by far the biggest contributor to your pips.

Particularly if your server is coming third.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Decay timer?!?! Are you kidding!

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I think some people are confused and think that whenever you do something that gives participation it adds to the decay, which has not been and is not the case.

Is this supposed to have never been the case?

Because I remember a time (not in this build, a few months ago) when capping a ruin would lead to a sharply reduced delay before decay kicked in – short enough, in fact, that if you held the ruin for the time it took to get Bloodlust, decay WOULD have kicked in by the time you got it. This could happen even if you’d capped a regular objective such as a camp or tower shortly beforehand.

So it seems there might be a bug in the code such that something that grants you participation, albeit with a shorter decay timer than your current timer, will sometimes overwrite your current timer. While this wasn’t that big a deal beforehand when most things had longer timers, when you have a lot of things with short timers, there’s probably a much greater chance for that bug to come into effect.

That is working as intended. These changes are just an extension of that system.

Okay, now I’m confused…

The sort of bug that I’m talking about was one where it seemed that, to use the present numbers you quoted earlier in the thread, if you capped a camp (which normally has a 10-minute timer), then claimed a ruin while you had about 8 minutes left on the camp timer, it would replace your 8-minute timer with the 2-minute timer of the ruin. Thereby meaning that if you cap a ruin after capping a camp, you lose 6 minutes of your timer.

In your earlier post, you indicated that this should not be happening. In the quoted post, however, you appear to be saying that the scenario I describe above is working as intended. There seems to have been a miscommunication in here somewhere…

Cashing out has a lot of issues. For example, we would somehow need to make cashing out be exactly as good as the rewards you would get if you were still playing. If it does not give as good of rewards no one would do it and still afk, and if we make it too good then everyone would just constantly cash out. It is impossible to predict all the rewards someone would be expected to earn because we cannot predict if a map will become outnumbered or if your world moves placements. We also wouldn’t want people to constantly cash out so then we would need to accurately lock them out of WvW for a set period of time. The period of time would probably need to be longer than just the amount of time it would take to decay because otherwise it could still be more ideal to play a little, cash out go back, repeat. We have considered it, we just don’t believe it is a viable option.

There’s an obvious answer to the problem of people cashing out multiple times to gain more than they’d otherwise get.

Either prevent them from returning to WvW, or prevent any participation gain, until an appropriate time limit is reached.

For example, it’s decided that cashing out grants 3 ticks worth of pips and reward track gain. That’d be 15 minutes of gain. When someone cashes out, their participation is zero’ed out, and for the next 20 minutes, they cannot gain any participation. That would need to be 20 minutes of real world time, account wide.

That’s not exploitable in the slightest, and gives people a reason to cash out and drop out of the map rather than AFKing in the spawn or safe areas. After the 20 minutes is up, they can return then start rebuilding their participation from scratch, that makes it worse to try to use it to gain more than is intended, while still giving the option to be useful to people who genuinely want to cash out for the day and don’t want to AFK.

I bolded a section. There already is a built in mechanic in game that prevents participation gain. When you have squad participation and the squad is idle, you get no participation and nothing you can do grants participation. This could be modified.

In terms of cashing out, just cash out at the lowest possible level:

  • No outnumbered
  • 3rd Place

Regardless of server position or map condition. It’s not optimal, but it’s a choice you’re making. You’re done and can go play another game mode or turn off the game.

To put in my 2c…

This is an option I would at least consider using. for two reasons:

First, it would mean that I can actually go and do something else, rather than sitting around for however many minutes waiting for the participation to tick down.

Second, the rate of gaining the reward tracks is not going to be affected, while pip-based rewards are very threshold-based. If I feel I’m done with WvW for the week, and ‘cashing out’ will still be enough to get me over the threshold I’m aiming for, than any additional pips I’d get by hanging around aren’t going to benefit me anyway. If anything, I’d be happier not having them, as it would mean that I don’t end up wondering if I should try for the next threshold after all.

Mind you, I very rarely WvW in primetime, so I wouldn’t be occupying a queue anyway. With that said, if someone is in a map other players are queuing for, they probably don’t have the outnumbered buff, so at most, ‘cashing out’ under Hesacon’s proposal would mean losing six pips.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Decay timer?!?! Are you kidding!

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I think some people are confused and think that whenever you do something that gives participation it adds to the decay, which has not been and is not the case.

Is this supposed to have never been the case?

Because I remember a time (not in this build, a few months ago) when capping a ruin would lead to a sharply reduced delay before decay kicked in – short enough, in fact, that if you held the ruin for the time it took to get Bloodlust, decay WOULD have kicked in by the time you got it. This could happen even if you’d capped a regular objective such as a camp or tower shortly beforehand.

So it seems there might be a bug in the code such that something that grants you participation, albeit with a shorter decay timer than your current timer, will sometimes overwrite your current timer. While this wasn’t that big a deal beforehand when most things had longer timers, when you have a lot of things with short timers, there’s probably a much greater chance for that bug to come into effect.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Guardian alignment question.

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Guardian magic is rooted in Tyrian magic, just like necromancers, mesmers, and elementalists. It’s channeled through faith and conviction, and it’s likely that it can draw on power from the Mists to an extent (just as necromancer seems to), but the core of guardian is in the same school of magic once practiced by monks.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Jennah's kingdom and Kryta nation

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

In LWS2, Entanglement there is a Priory caravan holding a locket that can reveal the identity of the Krytan heir. I believe that either Jennah has a sibling or possibly a child. It is stated the Priory was entrusted with its protection so they move it from one place to another.

It’s indicated in the Order of Whispers arc that the Order knows who the next heir would be. The locket might well have been mentioned to explain how the Order might know that there is a distant heir, and how said distant heir might actually be verified.

Whoever the heir is, they seem to be distant enough that it’s not common knowledge that he or she exists.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

"Leaked" Engie Spec

in Engineer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Well, Reaper is more the other way around – it’s more a power specialisation that can be made condi-compatible. Neither greatsword nor Reaper Shroud inherently have damaging conditions, but if you choose the right traits and eschew greatsword for more condi-oriented weapons, you can make a good condi build out of it.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

How to stop outnumbered abuse

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

One thing that might encourage people to use the Obsidian Sanctum would be if the Sanctum still allowed you to check your participation, so you can know when to leave without having to wait for the next tick.

I think a ‘cash out’ mechanic would be better, though. A player who’s hanging out in Obsidian Sanctum might not be blocking players from entering the map, but being able to ‘cash out’ the remaining participation would allow players to leave WvW and do something else while still getting the rewards they’ve earned.

Changes to how the outnumbered bonus is acquired is coming in the next release.

I do hope it will also address the fact that, currently, the outnumbered bonus is by far the biggest contributor to pips for players with lower ranks. That’s probably a large cause of the problem because of how important it makes it to get the bonus.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Who is Rytlock...really? [spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

@Arden: If you look at the preface of my post, you’d note that I expressed that it was most likely that Rytlock was Rytlock, but “if we are going to go down that rabbit hole…” You could view it instead as speculation on which god might be influencing Rytlock, as that’s a more likely possibility.

@Konig: I don’t think Jennah’s lack of forcefulness against Caudecus was out of disinterest, but out of the need to have really good evidence if she’s going to arrest the Legate Minister for treason without it looking like an autocrat’s ploy. The Minister who gives that speech isn’t White Mantle, or at least wasn’t revealed to be.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

"Leaked" Engie Spec

in Engineer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

The Daredevil ‘physical skills’ actually follow the precedent set by the Warrior. Warrior physical skills are, basically, physical attack skills that are not tied to a specific weapon – a charge, a kick, a stomp, and throwing bolas. Daredevil physical skills follow the same principle -Bandit’s Defence is a block that does not require a specific weapon (it does NOT conjure a shield out of nowhere) and ripostes with a kick, and the dagger-throwing skills are a similar principle of ‘draw and throw a weapon that isn’t the primary weapon’ to Throw Bolas.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Guardian alignment question.

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Oh, they can definitely be vicious…


Minister Estelle appears to be a guardian, in fact. PC guardians don’t have access to her flame tornado thing (yet, anyway, and we’ll probably never get anything quite that powerful) but pay attention to her attacks when she’s attacking normally. They’re guardian sword autos.

For a non-boss equivalent, White Mantle Clerics.

In fact, since guardians are using broadly the same type of magic as monks, you could even go back to Confessor Dorian…

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Jennah's kingdom and Kryta nation

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Little would prevent Jennah from marrying a Pact Marshal. Less than what could prevent her from marrying a Seraph captain, in fact.

In fact, one possible explanation is that she’s deliberately pushing him away so that he could achieve his own rank and reputation independent of being one of her generals. Which is something she’s been gently trying to do since Caudecus Manor story – now she’s being harsher about it.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Who is Rytlock...really? [spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Define an echo

The Mists create reflections of people, places, and events, and the more significant the thing being echoed, the stronger the reflection is. The legends channeled by revenants are the echoes of particularly significant individuals. They have personalities that are at least similar to the being that they are a reflection of, but they do not contain (or, at least, do not have to contain) the spirit of the entity in question.

So when a revenant channels, say, Mallyx, they are not actually channeling Mallyx per se but a memory of Mallyx which is imprinted into the Mists.

2000% more story about Revenants presented by random forumer than is present in game. ANet, I am disappoint.

Thanks for the detail!

No worries!

And yeah, it’s a problem. All that was in the prerelease discussions of the Revenant, but when its not in-game, it’s easily forgotten. Although at least I think the discussions were hosted by ArenaNet, so they can probably be found if you go looking, rather than simply disappearing like some of the prerelease Guardian lore has.

But yeah, they really need to get Zipper-Lips to unzip a little. Being secretive is one thing, but it’s a bit silly when stuff that’s been said out-of-game isn’t even being transferred in-game.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Who is Rytlock...really? [spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Define an echo

The Mists create reflections of people, places, and events, and the more significant the thing being echoed, the stronger the reflection is. The legends channeled by revenants are the echoes of particularly significant individuals. They have personalities that are at least similar to the being that they are a reflection of, but they do not contain (or, at least, do not have to contain) the spirit of the entity in question.

So when a revenant channels, say, Mallyx, they are not actually channeling Mallyx per se but a memory of Mallyx which is imprinted into the Mists.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Guardian alignment question.

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

It was in interviews at the time that the Guardian was announced, back in 2011. Unfortunately, they were on mainstream gaming media sites that didn’t see value in continuing to host prerelease articles on a released game, so good luck finding them now. (The original reveal that the guardian was a combination of monk, paragon, and “other traditions” came from the same sources.) It may also be mentioned in Towertalk’s Lore of the Classes podcast, which may be easier to find, but I don’t recall for certain and I’m not inclined to listen through a one-hour podcast again just to see – if you haven’t, though, it’s a good listen (introduction is in German, but switches to English quickly).

One thing that they were quite explicit about was that it really didn’t matter what the guardian had faith in. For instance, the example was given of a charr having faith in their comrades in arms or in “the manifest destiny of the legions”. The power isn’t bestowed by an external agent, it just seems to be something that flows through faith in some manner – it’s entirely possible that a particularly narcissistic guardian might be able to have faith in his or her own inherent superiority.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Does Kormir intervene in Tyria?

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

In fact, if anything, it seems that Kormir’s ascension might have been their trigger to go silent. Abaddon was their ‘unfinished business’ on Tyria – once Abaddon was brought down by human heroes, they decided that humans could stand on their own.

At least, that’s what we were being told by the devs until Balthazar showed up apparently not caring that his actions could kill every human on the planet…

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

You have been removed from matchmaking ?

in PvP

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I’ve just had the same thing. Tried to queue (solo, ranked), and I didn’t even get the clock for how long I’d queued and how long the average queue is. After about half a minute to a minute, I get the same message as the OP.

Doesn’t seem to happen when queueing for unranked. I just hit an end-track chest and I haven’t particularly been enjoying this season, so I have to admit to a certain amount of temptation to just not bother with the remaining season if it’s going to be buggy as well…

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

Skirmish Tickets is a fulltime job

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Problem is, you can have outnumbered for 4 out of 5 minutes, and then lose it just as the tick happens, probably because of people shopping around to get the buff on the tick and ruining it for the people who actually deserved it.

The real issue, I think, is that for players with lower WvW ranks, having Outnumbered literally doubles (or more!) your pips per tick. That makes it very frustrating when you lose it at the last moment, and encourages exactly the sort of ‘shopping’ that causes that to happen. IMO, the system should be rejigged so that you get more pips by default, and having the Outnumbered buff is a smaller contribution. I think increasing the base rate by two and decreasing the Outnumbered buff by two would probably be in the right ballpark – still an incentive, but it doesn’t create the situation where players with lower ranks feel they have to have the buff for it to be worthwhile.

Seriously, at the moment, a player who’s yet to reach Bronze can get as few as one or two pips per tick (depending on their server’s performance and whether they have the commitment bonus), while Outnumbered jacks it up to six or seven. That’s a big incentive to play ‘hunt-the-buff’ rather than playing WvW as intended.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Elite Specializations - were a terrible idea

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Except that the devs explicitly stated in an interview that Elite Specs will NOT be an upgrade from normal specs, they would simply offer a new option to the class. And with the design that GW2 was sold on, having elite specs as an upgrade is NOT a selling point. The freedom to “Play it your way” was the selling point… people were excited when they announced that Elite Specs would not be an upgrade. The fact that they were not supposed to be an upgrade was actually a selling point.

Which is a problem with the implementation, not the idea itself.

I think the idea itself was a good one, for the problems it was looking to solve. The problems that have been discussed here are mostly relating to them being too powerful. There ARE viable core builds in various environments, but not as many as there should be, statistically speaking, and when having an elite spec is an obvious choice and you only have one, that does impact build diversity.

(Although don’t go looking back at the pre-HoT days with rose-tinted glasses. There always was a relatively small set of truly competitive builds.)

The period after HoT launched and people realised that the elite specs were almost always better than a third core spec, however, are probably going to prove to be where the problem was worst. ArenaNet have been toning down the elite specs over time, and it’s plausible they’ll eventually get to the point where choosing between an elite spec or a third core spec remains an interesting choice for any build that doesn’t rely on the elite spec to function. Meanwhile, unless the second set of specs prove so OP that the current set get dropped entirely, build variation should open up again after the second expansion.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Did Rytlock cause [Episode 5]?

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

The bloodstone is a little different, because of the timescale involved. There was one dev post a long time back that put a bit of a question mark on things, but most sources place the bloodstones becoming a problem and the gods doing something about it as about a year apart. Sure, from the human perspective, it might seem like Doric’s trek to Arah inspired action, but it could just as easily be that the gods needed a few months to draw their own conclusions. Fifteen hundred years, though, is a bit of a separate beast.

All possible, but the fact does remain – from what we know, it was Doric that pushed them to make the decision. Whether it was truly him that stirred them to action, whether they were already leaning that way and Doric pushed them over the edge, or even whether Doric’s arrival was pure coincidence, we just don’t know.

That said, the same could be true of Rytlock. Some of the gods might already be feeling that Balthazar was possibly a liability, and Rytlock may have pushed them over the edge (or put them into a position where they had to take action or lose face themselves).

I’m not sure I’m convinced by the justice thing, either. On several occasions in the past you’ve argued that the sins of the past don’t justify atrocities in the present, and I tend to agree. What happened with the Foefire is pretty clearly the fault of Adelbern, the charr, the titans, and Abaddon, in about that order. Orr starts with Khilbron or the charr, depending on whether Khilbron knew what he was doing, and again winds up with Abaddon. To hold that against Balthazar would require a reasonable expectation that he could have foreseen the outcome, and I don’t think that’s a very just thing to expect.

Well, the full argument is generally about how the sins of past generations do not justify atrocities upon their innocent descendants. It’s a little different when you have the specific person who did it at hand.

I’d be inclined to agree that judging Balthazar for events that happened afterwards, mostly through the machinations of Abaddon, would be a little harsh – however, the gods might not think that way. Certainly, though, Balthazar’s actions could be argued as having made that possible. For some people, possibly including the gods, consequences that could not be foreseen still matter – and Balthazar’s possible loose-cannon behaviour had set up those events. It may be enough for the gods to decide that they could no longer afford such behaviour… but while the gods decide that they can’t afford to have Balthazar as one of them any more, they don’t deem Balthazar as being deserving of further punishment. So instead of being imprisoned in a hell-dimension as Abaddon was, he’s set loose, with the means to disguise himself against any of his enemies that might seek to exploit his reduced state to finish him off.

If there does wind up being a story about Rytlock’s arrival prompting the gods to kick Balthazar out of the club, I imagine it’ll be rooted pretty firmly in the present. Something along the lines of Rytlock asking/demanding help, doing a good job of convincing the other five that it’s in everyone’s best interest, but Balthazar pitching a fit, either because of some pro-human bigotry or simply because his ego and Rytlock’s struck sparks. Making it some twist where Balthazar is held responsible for basically all of the conflict on Tyria between the humans’ arrival and the dragons waking up seems quite convoluted when a simpler explanation would do.

Also a plausible scenario!

I do find it unlikely that disagreement alone would cause the gods to cast out one of their number, however – the gods have had arguments amongst themselves in the past. Actively casting him out is a pretty big action to take that would require more than a mere difference of opinion. That said, Balthazar could have aggravated the difference of opinion in some manner – by attempting to kill Rytlock himself after the other gods had agreed to help, for instance, or by declaring that if the gods were to end their policy of non-interference on Tyria, then he’d go down and crush the charr himself. That might be enough to trigger the other gods to depower him – either permanently, or perhaps they might have intended to give his power back once he calmed down.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Did Rytlock cause [Episode 5]?

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Keep in mind that it wouldn’t be the first time the gods have waited until a mortal brought something to their attention before they acted. That’s how the whole Bloodstone thing that lead to the fall of Abaddon happened, after all.

One consideration there is that at the time the gods left, the conquest of Ascalon had been a successful campaign. Dwayna and Melandru might have preferred a different way, but once the war had started, they were committed… and an argument could certainly be made that peace with the charr was not possible and thus they needed to be put in their place.

In the present, however, it’s clearly not so successful – the final end result was the destruction of two nations, with many of the souls of the dead being denied their final rest – something that Grenth probably isn’t happy about. Grenth’s focus on justice might well mean that he’d be inclined to seek justice for the victims of those events against Balthazar, particularly if he was confronted about them by a mortal (one which might have released some of those souls, what’s more). Furthermore, the fact that there is now a peace with the charr, and that there is now a charr in front of them who is talking rather than mindlessly attacking, could well be enough to make the gods change their minds about any justification Balthazar might have offered along the lines that peace with the charr was impossible.

It’s a long shot, I know, but I think it is possible there’s a connection there, and it would mean that there is actually a reasonable explanation for Balthazar’s fall that fits into the story rather than simply being a “we need a new villain that isn’t just another dragon, I know, we’ll just do a fallen god plot again!” nether-region-pull.

As an additional twist… we know the Khan-Ur died under mysterious circumstances. What if there is some record – perhaps on Tyria, perhaps in a fractal somewhere that Rytlock came across – that the Khan-Ur had actually invited Balthazar into a peace conference, and Balthazar took it as the opportunity to take the Khan-Ur out? It goes against what we know about the ancient charr, I know, but the Khan-Ur was clearly an impressive leader – it’s possible that the Khan-Ur recognised an enemy that the charr could not beat (at the time) but which they could possibly negotiate with. If this was something unknown to the other gods at the time, finding out about it could be enough to cause them to turn against Balthazar now.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Did Rytlock cause [Episode 5]?

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Warning: Spoilers below!

So, while making a response to this thread, I was struck by a thought…

Rytlock’s probably not a god in disguise. Rytlock’s almost certainly not a god in disguise.
However, one theory as to why Rytlock is no longer pursuing ending the Foefire, and had been avoiding the Black Citadel until his arrest, is that he was warned against it… and his apparent blindness suggests that he might have had an encounter with a god. One at full power, not diminished like Balthazar was.

Meanwhile, from the Orrian History Scrolls, it’s indicated that Balthazar was responsible for inciting humans to war against other races – against the wishes of Melandru, and it is implied, Dwayna as well. While the causes of the initial human-charr war remain obscure to us, then, it’s possible to conclude that it was Balthazar who started that war.

What if Rytlock found himself before the gods and made a case to them that Balthazar was therefore basically responsible for all of the suffering caused directly or indirectly by the charr-human war – the Searing, the Cataclysm, the White Mantle, the Foefire, and all of that. And a majority of the gods agreed with him, and Balthazar’s punishment was to be, in his words, “abated”?

It would fit the timeline – Rytlock pops out of the Mists in the aftermath of the downing of the Pact fleet, seemingly in just the right place and with a pretty good idea of what was going on – as if he’d been informed of what he was going into. Meanwhile, the depowered Balthazar has the opportunity to make his way to Tyria, check on the bloodstones (the most obvious sources of magic to go for that aren’t dragons), find the White Mantle operations around Bloodstone Fen, and spot an opportunity. It would also provide an additional explanation as to why Balthazar would use a disguise – if he tried just revealing himself in Divinity’s Reach and exploiting his divinity to gain a following, there’d be a risk that Rytlock would show up and reveal that he’d been cast down by his fellows.

Conveniently, Rytlock is removed from the plot before we get the first hint that Lazarus is a fake, denying him the possibility of putting two and two together and warning us of the possibility as soon as we discover the substitution.

Thinking more broadly, this might also go some way to explaining why Evon Gnashblade, of all people was interested in researching the fall of Abaddon. It’s possible that some of the charr had already pinned the blame on Balthazar and had been gathering evidence in case the chance to put him to trial came up, and Gnashblade’s interest in the human gods was related to this.

It’s a long shot, but I think there could be a connection here. Thoughts?

(Title edited to remove potential spoiler)

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

Who is Rytlock...really? [spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Rytlock. He clearly had experiences in the Mists that have changed some of his attitudes (and blinded him, which may be a hint that he ran into a god at full power), but I don’t think he’s been replaced.

If we are to go down that rabbit hole, though…

The entity we currently call Rytlock is a revenant, so if he is a god in disguise, this basically becomes a question of “which god would bring the revenant profession to Tyria?” This probably rules out Dwayna, Melandru, and Lyssa – revenant doesn’t seem likely to be linked to any of them.

This leaves Grenth and Kormir.

Grenth comes up first for a couple of reasons. First, the revenant is essentially a spiritual warrior-successor to the ritualist, which is within Grenth’s domain. Second, while there is a question mark on whether Jalis is actually dead or not, the revenant seems to be calling on the spirits of the dead, which is, again, Grenth’s domain.

Kormir, however, may also be a possibility. The link between revenants and blindfolds may be significant (although that’s easily explained away – ritualists blindfolded themselves as well, after all…) and it’s worth keeping in mind that the core ritualist legends were either adversaries of Kormir (and thus part of her own legend) or at least alive and influencing the world at the same time. There’s also the connection that making contact with a legend will involve learning about the legend, either in advance or by interacting with it – this produces a potential link between the revenant and Kormir’s primary sphere of knowledge. Thus, the revenant is a profession that combines Kormir’s scholarly and martial (as the former Spearmarshal) aspects.

I do think, though, that it’s more likely that Rytlock met a god than that there is one impersonating him.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Guardian alignment question.

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

While Guild Wars 2 generally doesn’t explicitly tell you what profession an NPC has, there are a number of villains that use magic that is clearly at least very similar to guardian magic. I have some specific examples in mind among the villain factions of humans and sylvari, but if you’re new to the lore, I’ll hold back on giving examples in case revealing them would also be spoilers.

The path of the guardian requires that you have faith in something, and a desire to defend that something. It does not require that the thing you have faith in to actually be virtuous.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Which lore theories of yours were right?

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

First one that comes to mind, probably because it was relatively recent, is Caudecus being high-ranking White Mantle. Pretty obvious, I know, but I saw so many people who insisted that Caudecus must be the good guy simply because he was the democrat seeking to limit the power of the despotic monarch. Never mind that the Ministry is probably no higher than a 7 on the democracy index, and that may be being generous.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

A hypothesis about Jennah [Spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

There is some validity to this, however the writers have to consider players who aren’t familiar with the off-screen lore. So should you, by the way.

With all the off-screen mentions of awesome displays of magical power, it’s reasonable to expect that sooner or later there will be one on-screen.

Sure, there’ll be people who’ve never paid attention to the various lore books and other stories which include such feats, and will be surprised when it happens on-screen. However, this does not need to mean any more than that something that has been well established offscreen as being possible has now been moved onscreen.

And even if we don’t take the city-wide dome as a feat of godlike power – which is the valid point in your argument – the theory isn’t based solely on it. There has been enough mystery around Jennah since the personal story days, to make the theory plausible.

No more than around most other significant NPCs, really. We probably know more about Jennah than, say, Smodur or Phlunt.

Anise, now… but we know that one Master Exemplar of the Shining Blade has extended her lifespan via magical means. Could be that another has. Could even be the same one, who had plenty of time to master mesmerism over the centuries in order to hide that the Shining Blade has actually never had a leadership change since the end of the last Krytan civil war.

And don’t try to strawman me. Read your own posts. They are full of condescension toward the writing and you’re basing much of your case on this. To be precise, you cannot argue that the White Mantle were used to “remind us of human prowess” without implying incompetence in the writing.

Nevertheless, you took something that was not my main point, dressed it up as my main point, and attacked that, while ignoring what was actually my main point. Deliberate or not, that’s pretty much textbook strawmanning.

Granted, there are aspects of ArenaNet’s writing I’ve been disappointed by – including much of Season 1 and that I think they overcompensated in downplaying humanity’s strengths and importance to break people out of the mindset of humans being central to the setting – but again, this is context and not relevant to the main point. I’d also note that ‘incompetant’ is a stronger word than I’d use. Mistakes can be made without it being incompetance, particularly if those mistakes are learned from and addressed later.

Finally, come on, a whole raid story and half a living world season just for that? Now that I’d call incompetent writing. It would be utterly disappointing and anti-climactic.

Well, the White Mantle weren’t involved in episodes 2 and 3, so it was just the raid story and episodes 1 and 4. Even there, episode 1 – apart from the final instance – and the raid is more about setting up “Lazarus” (and therefore Balthazar), which is an ongoing plot which will probably continue into the expansion – Episode 4 was simply a matter of tying off the loose ends.

(I’ll have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that they dropped the mursaat plot in order to make Balthazar into a villain, but I’m reserving judgement there until I see more on how that develops.)

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

A hypothesis about Jennah [Spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

1) It’s not incompetance. It’s actually the opposite – ArenaNet finally showing that they remember some of the lore that hasn’t previously been shown “on-screen”, as it were, and that humans can do more than simply being the victims.

“Finally showing that they remember” implies incompetence already. So yeah, it is.

Semantics. Claiming that I’m “attempting to reason everything with incompetance” is a misrepresentation of my point, and your response gives me the impression it is deliberate.

My point is this:

While they had not previously been shown on-screen in Guild Wars 2, the lore contains numerous examples of human spellcasters performing feats of similar size, scope and power to Jennah’s city dome, alone or with the assistance of magical devices. The writers will know this, and therefore not expect the player base to ascribe any deeper meaning to the city dome than that Jennah is an exceptionally powerful mesmer – which we already knew.

That people may be ascribing more significance because this is the first time we’ve seen something like this done on-screen in Guild Wars 2 provides context but is not the meat of my argument, let alone the question of whether the lack of on-screen precedents implies incompetence on the part of the writers. Attacking my point on this ground, therefore, is a strawman argument.

Which makes them a plot device, because they were specifically made a bigger threat. This only happens for a reason. A storytelling reason. Consider their role in the story. They didn’t really succeed in anything. They tried to bring back Lazarus and failed. They tried to attack Divinity’s Reach and failed. They tried to study the Bloodstone and failed. Caudecus tried to overthrow Jennah and failed. All of these story threads are more or less over. The Maguuma bloodstone is destroyed, Caudecus is dead, Lazarus is actually Balthazar who used them and abandoned them to pursue his own agenda and Queen Jennah isn’t contested for the rule over Kryta. If anything, her political power is larger now, after Meeting of Ministers.

There isn’t anything left for the White Mantle to do. Their leaders are all dead, their order is in ruins. So what plot purpose did they serve? There’s Balthazar, of course, but they didn’t need to launch an attack on DR for that story to resolve. Balthazar betraying them could just as well lead them to ruin. However the attack did happen and it all revolved around Queen Jennah.

Every story needs to climax eventually if it’s not to drag on indefinitely.

For the White Mantle story to climax, they needed to turn from a shadowy insurgency that only the Shining Blade still existed to being a credible threat to Queen Jennah and Divinity’s Reach. To achieve this, they needed to either turn Divinity’s Reach into a warzone, or exceptional efforts had to be made on the part of those defending Divinity’s Reach to prevent this. ArenaNet went with the second option.

Naturally, the episode which concludes the side arc of the plots against Queen Jennah is going to revolve around Queen Jennah.

Fair point. I’m not saying she’s must be god, I’m saying she might be one.

Yes, it’s possible. I think the evidence that people are citing is better explained by more mundane means, however.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Static Field Nerf

in Elementalist

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

All that was needed to make it more “effective” is apply the stun like engineer’s field. Pulsing stun inside the nice and big field, as before. Tada, problem solved.

Unless I’ve misread what you’re asking for, that would be a stronger effect than Gravity Well.

Slick Shoes is the only engineer effect I can think of off the top of my head that applies a pulsing CC. Thunderclap can feel like it, but it only has an initial stun when it first lands – any additional dazes come from exploiting the lightning field with leap finishers.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Why can't Webby come?

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Somewhere safe like inside M.O.X., perhaps?

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Stop those PvP only fixes, make it worldwide

in Revenant

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Eh, it’s a step in the right direction – at least Inspiring Reinforcement isn’t a big “interrupt me now” sign. I for one am not racing to take a Jalis rev into ranked, however…

Interestingly, this particular change (2 sec stab during channeling of the skill) has made it into WvW as well.

It’s in PvE too, but stability in PvE isn’t exactly noteworthy.

I think that was one that they figured was safe to put in because it didn’t affect DPS much, and thus could be safely included without disrupting their carefully tuned raid balance.

(Because let’s face it, raids are the reason they’re being so cautious with PvE balance and generally splitting skills to make them better in PvP than in PvE, as opposed to GW1 where the opposite was generally true.)

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

"Leaked" Engie Spec

in Engineer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Core engineer lacks a power offhand so, if we stick to that rule, it will never have a power main hand.

Not necessarily – the warrior leak indicates that they’ll get dual-wielding daggers. So it’s possible that a future elite specialisation could come with a power mainhand and a power offhand to go with it.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

A hypothesis about Jennah [Spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Well I have another explanation of Jennah’s separate attacks. As the goddess of beauty she wanted to give a chance to the white Mantle, so she wanted to deal with them slowly.

Except that she goes through the first three pretty darn quickly.

“You?” [points and kills]
“Maybe you?” [points and kills]
“And you?” [points and kills]
“And you, my friend? Where you surprised?” [points and, notably, does NOT kill.]
[Mook #4 runs]

She gives the first three virtually no opportunity to process what’s going on, killing them all in the space of about ten seconds. She then gives the fourth an extended speech (relatively speaking), and he doesn’t run until after she’s already pointed the finger – for each of the others, at that point they were already dead.

If she was motivated by a general feeling of mercy, then she hasn’t really gained much by letting one run after killing three. Such a motive would have been better fulfilled by taking out two and then giving the third the opportunity she gave the fourth, so that both the third and fourth could run. (Even this, though, has the flaw that those that ran would probably still rejoin the Mantle and cause more damage elsewhere, so is it really mercy to let them live?)

If there’d been more than four, I could buy the general mercy motive, or if she’d given the third the chance to run that she gave the fourth.

Since she only gave one of the four a chance to run, I think this can only be explained in one of two ways:

First, and most likely in my mind: She only had three shots, and was relying on intimidation to get rid of the fourth.

Second, she recognised something about Mook #4 that caused her to give him, and only him, an opportunity to run.

Broadly speaking, regarding the rest of the post:

You can come up with further explanations, but at the bottom line, the critical flaw in the theory is that it’s based on the assumption that what Jennah has done is outside the bounds of mortal magic, and thus needs a divine explanation. However, there is good reason to think that what Jennah has done is within the bounds of what a powerful mortal spellcaster is capable of achieving, especially if you abandon the assumption that Jennah has performed these feats purely through her own personal power. That Jennah had the assistance of other spellcasters in producing and maintaining the dome (noting that the dome has a lot of guardian blue in it when viewed from Lake Doric), or that Jennah had the usage of powerful magic artifacts, or simply that people are just underestimating what the top end of mortal spellcasting is capable of at a time when magic is stronger than it’s ever been since the Elder Dragons were last active, all seem to me to be simpler and better explanations.

(PS I will say that the idea that Lyss and Ilya need to combine to wield their full strength is a valid one, and could be interesting if and when they do interact with us directly. However, I would observe that if Countess Anise had been present, someone would probably now be citing that as evidence that the two need to be together to use their full power. When both the positive and negative scenario can be cited as evidence for a theory, than neither makes for convincing evidence.)

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

A hypothesis about Jennah [Spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Lazarus took an entire flippin’ platoon of White Mantle with one inferno. Jenna took out three White Mantle, and she had to take a seperate action for each. These are not equivalent actions. I’d also note that while mechanically mesmer power attacks are affected by armour, thematically there’s no reason why a mental attack would be – in GW1 they generally weren’t, after all, but GW2 has simpler mechanics in that regard.

Sure, she was ‘disabled’, but consider this: She took out three of the White Mantle, but relied on intimidation to deal with the last. Almost like she was using some kind of skill that can be prepared in advance, can be released instantly, but only has up to three charges before its gone. Like, say, a mantra.

When looking at cinematic mode, rather than game mechanics mode, it really wouldn’t surprise me if the PC mesmer would theoretically be able to one-shot three mooks in a row with a charged Mantra of Pain. We’ll never see it, because ArenaNet can’t assume that the PC is a specific profession in their writing, let alone that they have a particular skill loaded, but seriously, I don’t find it outside the realm of possibility that a powerful mortal mesmer could quickly take out a few mooks without being some kind of divine being. This goes double when ArenaNet have stated that the Mesmer Collective has access to mesmer spells that the PC, being a non-member, does not have.

So I don’t think it’s all that different. It’d just evidence that the rules in scripted scenes are different to the rules in game mechanics, which we all have to agree are a bit abstracted and not really all that realistic when you think about it. Scripted scenes can be a little more realistic.

The ability to break Estelle’s trap links to how mesmers have always been associated with the ability to unbind somebody else’s magic. We don’t see that in GW2’s game mechanics, unfortunately, except in the odd boon strip or condition removal, but we do see it in plot: Kasmeer revealing the Tower of Nightmares, for instance. So that’s hardly surprising either.

That just leaves the city dome, and that’s been discussed ad nauseum. Suffice it to say that there is plenty of evidence that mortals can pull off things like that, particularly if they’re not working alone… and Jennah has all the resources that come with being the queen of Kryta behind her.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

A hypothesis about Jennah [Spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

1) You can attempt to reason everything with incompetence, but it’s a weak argument.

2) As far as I remember from the human personal stories, the White Mantle was portrayed as a secretive and subversive organization. It was never hinted at all they have a substantial military power at their command. Which is already all the reason you need for them not being able to bombard the city to rubble. Their military power was written as a surprise and as such it obviously had intention. It’s not an accident which the later story deals with, it’s a setup. See (1) again.

3) Logan isn’t the consumer of the story, we are. His conclusions are only relevant as far as the story needs them. And the story can only need them because of us.

4) See (1) again.

1) It’s not incompetance. It’s actually the opposite – ArenaNet finally showing that they remember some of the lore that hasn’t previously been shown “on-screen”, as it were, and that humans can do more than simply being the victims.

There are a lot of instances in the lore of humans performing powerful feats, alone, collectively, and/or with the aid of powerful magical artifacts. ArenaNet’s writers could easily have thought that Jennah’s city dome was not really so impressive because it’s been established all along that under the right circumstances, potent human spellcasters can pull off some truly amazing feats… and Jennah has always been established as a potent spellcaster. There are three examples I can think of in the lore prior to E4, just off the top of my head, where a human mesmer changes the course of a battle with a powerful magical working, one of them by Jennah herself… except that they’re all in the books and histories, not something we’ve been shown firsthand. The only thing that makes this special is that we’re actually shown it ingame rather than reading about it.

2) In the personal story, yes, but it’s made very clear in raids, and to a lesser extent episode 1 and season 2, that the White Mantle were a lot more powerful than they had previously been given credit for, including having a weapons program that could lead to weapons capable of leveling Divinity’s Reach. Even without a set of magical superweapons, all it takes is medium-intensity street combat to see a lot of destruction in the city, particularly since the White Mantle make heavy use of magic. I know a few people who were expecting Divinity’s Reach to be devastated like Lion’s Arch was, including at least one who did a screenshot tour before the update so they could remember Divinity’s Reach as it was.

3) Logan isn’t the ‘consumer’, but the plot effect of Jennah showing off is that Logan (finally) realises that Jennah really doesn’t need his protection and thus he is free to take another assignment elsewhere. Any requirement for Jennah’s display of power to have a greater plot “purpose” is discharged by the character development it created in Logan, without the need for the audience to start forming conspiracy theories about how a character that is well established as a powerful spellcaster must actually be a god just because her power has stopped being an Informed Ability (for the purpose of the game itself, see #1) and has been shown on screen.

4) See #1.

Kasmeer, being connected to the ability to detect lies, may have a connection to Kormir, the goddess of truth, thus, the reign of Jennah and Anise, which ahs been filled with lies, will be replaed with a reign of golden truth by Kormirs chosen avatar and human representative on Tyria, the speaker for the gods.

Any more crazy theories?

Jennah’s fondness for the flower gave us some clues, but lets look at Lyssa’s very dogma too. Lyssa speaks of beuaty being two things, internal and external, not all beauty is about good looking things in Lyssa’s eyes, this is why maybe Jennah represents the plutonic and gentle and serene aspect of Lyssa while Anise represents the passionate, exciteable lusty and direct aspect.

First, Kasmeer’s ability is supposedly connected to the thorn she got pricked with in the Tower of Nightmares. I don’t know how a thorn from a nightmare tree grants the ability to detect lies, but apparently it does.

Regarding the Krytan Spiderwort… the ‘payoff’ for that discussion is the potential redemption of Valette. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there won’t be more down the track, but I don’t think there’s any need for there to be a deeper reason – that Chekhov’s Gun has already been fired.

Nope she did not. She can be really powerful ally in our guild, she smashed away 3 White Mantle WITH ONE SHOT.

Caudecus also killed Demmi with one shot.

We need to remember that game mechanics and how various skills actually work in lore are two very different things. We’re used to hacking away at somebody for at least ten-fifteen seconds or so to deplete their hit points before they go down. In reality, a person with a sword through the gut is probably down right away. Actions shown in cinematics are not limited to game mechanics (consider that in combat sequences earlier in the instance where Jennah is limited to game mechanics, she does less damage than most PCs…)

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

Aries and Balthazar (Wonder Woman Movie)

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Well, you see, when the lore threads move out of the lore forum, Konig follows…

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Story of next episode?

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Pretty much – Faolain says, when you find her in the cage, that the Nightmare Court is about freedom. Sure, it may be the freedom to be massive kittens to everyone else, torture other sylvari until they die or turn into psychopaths, and to obey the orders of your superiors in the Court if you don’t want them to exercise their freedom to murder you, but hey, at least they don’t have a non-sylvari telling them what to do!

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Stop those PvP only fixes, make it worldwide

in Revenant

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Eh, it’s a step in the right direction – at least Inspiring Reinforcement isn’t a big “interrupt me now” sign. I for one am not racing to take a Jalis rev into ranked, however…

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Story of next episode?

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

The Nightmare Court continues – it even seems to have a new leader.

Exactly what’s going on there is something that apparently was intended to have more focus on in HoT, but got cut for time. So it’s likely that with Faolain removed from the picture, the Nightmare Court will become something more… palatable. But it might not. That plot thread is still dangling, either way.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

A hypothesis about Jennah [Spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

1) For all Anise’s ruthlessness towards her enemies, Anise does have enough empathy to be able to tell how uncomfortable Kasmeer was about, basically, having her nose rubbed in her family’s disgrace by the herald’s slip.

2) Anise knows about Kasmeer’s ability to detect lies and wants to make use of it – and unlike Canach, Kasmeer is a fly that she has to catch with honey.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

why are canine still not amphibic?

in Ranger

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I think it might be because the AI-activated skills for canines are leaps, which wouldn’t work well graphically underwater.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

No Underwater Glint, Ventari & Dwarf stance?

in Revenant

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Most minions survive underwater, as long as you have the minions on your underwater skillbar. Flesh Golem is the exception, because Flesh Golem doesn’t have an underwater version.

Why Flesh Golem doesn’t have an underwater version, I don’t know.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Next Elite Spec Weapon should be...

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Personally, I’m not convinced that moving a water weapon to land is any more likely than introducing an entirely new weapon type. Sure, they can re-use art assets if they make a weapon amphibious, but on the other hand, they’d also need to tweak the interface so that the water weapons can go into either the water slots or the land slots. That may not be trivial.

If and when they do debut either, though, I don’t think they’ll go to that effort for just one profession. Every weapon in the game had at least two professions that used it on launch – that seems to be what ArenaNet considers to be the smallest amount of usage that justifies a new weapon. And when it comes to using a spear or polearm… guardian is probably about as fitting as warrior, so if they were introduced I’d expect them to debut on both, and possibly a third profession such as ranger.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

[SPOILERS] "There is no Honor in War"

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

It’s more of being dead than undead. Undeath is a “partial return to life”, or rather giving the dead a semblance of living; excluding game mechanics (whether video game or tabletop), undead are virtually always mobile corpses – being neither dead nor alive. Ghosts are dead, ergo are not undead.

In my experience, in basically every setting, ghosts (and other incorporeal undead such as wraiths, which are essentially a specific kind of ghost) are a subclass of undead. I’m pretty sure Adelbern has been referred to as an undead king, for instance. “Undead” is basically anything that was alive once, is not alive now, and isn’t “properly” dead.

That would undoubtably be due to Dhuum’s whole “unjust punishment” side.

A final death can easily be part of such punishments, but there’s plenty of implication that Dhuum did more than simply make souls cease to be.

Which implication is this? I’ll have to admit that I thought that there was something more solid saying that Dhuum destroyed souls than when I first raised it (although his titles are indicative of that), but there’s also nothing solid saying that he does something else either.

About the only real indication is Dhuum’s minions sending souls to the Realm of Torment, but this seems to be more of part of a strategy of supporting Abaddon (and possibly Mallyx after Abaddon’s fall) than an indication of what his ultimate goal is. Letting the souls continue to exist for a longer period of time in order to empower an ally could simply be a necessary compromise in Dhuum’s eyes.

Nearby deaths and consuming souls are very different things, however, and not all killed are souls anyways – in fact, the majority of Dhuum’s servants are living demons.

Which essentially just makes his attempts to control the Underworld a win-win for Dhuum.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Break Up the Distribution of Claim Tickets

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

but you should be able to get something from the lesser chests as well.

lololol .. welcome to WvW

Is that a ‘WvW rewards suck’ crack?

In this case, they’ve copied the system over from ranked sPvP, where backloading the most important reward makes sense – it encourages people to want to complete a track, and since seasons last for eight weeks, there’s plenty of time to do so. For the WvW tracks, though, it basically becomes ‘If I don’t think it’s practical to get to the end of the current tier, there’s no point playing at all’, at least if you’re looking for tickets (and really, those are the drawcards – the other rewards are mostly pretty meh). That doesn’t seem to be to be the best incentive, and it seems that other people in this thread agree.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Sylvari = Canon race for GW2 story?

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Well, two years or so probably would be regarded as a long time by miners who are members of the playable races. The gap is a bit weirder, though.

One possibility is that she sent them to Lornar’s Pass earlier, but to an isolated region where they weren’t bothering anybody, and then they spread from there – becoming a threat that was noticed by the Orders around 1325.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Break Up the Distribution of Claim Tickets

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I’ve been suggestng this pretty much since the system was introduced and we were able to see how it actually worked. I can understand a reason to want to weight the final chest more heavily, but you should be able to get something from the lesser chests as well.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

Sylvari = Canon race for GW2 story?

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

yea, all (read: ‘most’) the personal stories happened canonically, but also canonically, only one of them became the pact commander, I think the others are just high-ranks, or associates in the pact. But there are also a few contradictory stories, like the Asuran College (first PS). They couldn’t all three have happened since only one person can earn the Savant title. In that prospect I think its the teleporter gun that canonically happened.
It’s also nice to note that in Kudu’s description the weather-ball is mentioned so that one is truly canonical

The very old energy detector shows up in Orr as well. You’re right in that only one could have won, but I think all three inventions existed.

No its not obscure.

“Wait until you get to know my creations. In my reality, they conquered Tyria.”

We know they existed in Lornars Pass long before Scarlet did anything, that she was interested in the infinity ball and that her inventions was based on salvaged materials.
The obscure part is whether that other reality, dimension or future still exist. Because they said all the things, meaning the infinity ball could literally reach out anywhere anytime.

Since the Lornars Pass steam creatures exist even when not picking the infinity ball, we know it affects all reality anyway. Also those steam creatures are noted to come from portals from the future…

The term “creations” IS ambiguous about who the initial inventor was. Somebody who builds an airplane today isn’t going to hold back from calling that airplane their ‘creation’ just because the Wright Brothers were the first to build an airplane.

The steam creatures in Lornar’s Pass are Scarlet’s. She mentions sending them to Lornar’s Pass in her holodiary, and it’s a plot point that the reason she was able to take control of the Watchknights was that the Watchknights were made using reverse-engineered steam creature technology… and the human designers failed to notice and remove Scarlet’s control mechanisms from the design.

(Regarding Konig’s point about how recent the invasion was… Scarlet sending them to Lornar’s Pass is the last thing in her diary. So it might well have happened just before the personal story starts.)

You forgot about Levvi driving The Lost Shores, Canach driving Southsun Part 2, and Dessa… There was Ellen Kiel, who was basically the second main figure (just after Scarlet) as while half of the plot dealt with “Scarlet’s actions” the other half dealt with “Kiel’s actions”, but she largely played second fiddle during her arcs (either to Levvi or to Magnus).

More ‘summarised over’ than ‘forgot’ – however, the general principle stands. Southsun 1 was essentially driven by Levvi (an asura), the Consortium (multiracial but run by asura) and Canach (sylvari), and Southsun 2 was driven by Canach (sylvari) and the Consortium (asura), with Canach essentially playing the role of the villain, and the Consortium being, at least, morally questionable. So… those parts fit the trend of being driven by asura and sylvari, and mostly being villain-driven. (Levvi and Kiel are reacting to events more than driving them.) Granted, they don’t fit in the category of Scarlet and Inquest, but I was generalising the season as a whole rather than trying to account for every release.

Furthermore, I would add that in Kiel’s case, the fact that she’s human is irrelevant to the story – it would work just as well if she were any other race.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

[SPOILERS] "There is no Honor in War"

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Ghosts are neither undeath nor resurrection. What I got from all the lore about Dhuum is that he’s a sadistic kitten who punishes those who don’t deserve the punishment they’re given (thus “unjust”), and that’s what the Foefire effectively does.

We also know that Dhuum is very hypocritical when it comes to the things he hates. He’ll use them himself, but not allow others to do so. And he certainly isn’t against using ghosts as minions either.

being a ghost is a form of existence after death that isn’t life. It’s undeath. Mad King Thorn is technically a ghost, albeit a particularly powerful one, and he’s concerned…

What I get from it is that his ‘unjustness’ is that he simply consumes them. It’s not explicitly stated that I’ve found on a quick search (I thought it was, but nevertheless), however, many of his many titles relate to a concept of ‘final death’ or ‘oblivion’ – bringing the soul to a final end. His method of gaining power is connected to this – it is death in the underworld that empowers him, which gives him further incentive to just consume souls rather than granting them an afterlife.

Regarding his minions… I’ve generally regarded them as being demons that have characteristics of being undead rather than undead per se. There is some precedent to this: the partially-formed demons of the Stygian Veil, for instance (they don’t have vulnerability to holy, but then, neither to Dream Riders or Mindblades). That said, it is possible that Dhuum transforms his followers while destroying all other souls that come under his domain. It’s also possible that he regards processes that remove all trace of the soul’s original personality as a ‘final death’.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

"Leaked" Engie Spec

in Engineer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Raids aren’t PvE.
Raids are a very “special” PvE nook.

Scrapper can be “special”, no doubt. But it doesn’t work well in most PvE areas.

The same benefits apply in five-man content – in fact, even more so, since five-man content doesn’t have enrage timers and the occasional DPS check like raids do. So it’s more viable to sacrifice max DPS in exchange for more survivability, whether for yourself or to throw function gyros to res downed allies.

Similarly, in open-world content when you’re not attached to a zerg, or in story instances, you might find yourself alone against stiff opposition, where a few more defensive skills might be the difference between living or dying.

Basically, apart from open world bosses and farming trains (where it really generally doesn’t matter what you bring), raids are probably the circumstance where scrapper is least useful.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.