Racial skills seemed like a neat idea, but they are all underpowered in the name of balance.
This is a great idea, but they would probably have to change the way they are deployed as well, causing them to need to do additional work.
No one has suggested playing GW1?
There already are night- and day-times. Just turn your brightness way down at night.
More seriously, I wouldn’t mind having night be a little darker than it is now. I often don’t notice until I see my FDS glowing brighter than usual.
6 gods..
6 dragons…
anyone?
That’s just coincidence. The Gods have changed frequently. In GW1 there were only five gods, for example. Kormir was just a blind woman that followed you around and threw spears.
I’d guess it’s an attempt to remove the confusion of having resurrection shrines in a game without resurrection. The things were tied way too much into GW1 mechanics, and way too little into GW1 lore, to be ported to GW2.
Most of the ruins that are in-game now aren’t particularly important to lore either and are there because players of the original game recognize them. Did something important happen at Fort Koga that it had to be included in the game? What about the Temple of Grenth in Lornar’s Pass? Both of those have practically no importance yet were included in a big way. At least, they could have had a background scene of a few asura tinkering with an old res shrine or a shrine tucked into the ruins somewhere.
There wouldn’t be any confusion, anyone that played GW1 would just see them and have it add to the experience, and any new players would just think it’s an old ruins like all the others.
Even the ones that weren’t a fancy god statue were fairly large. You would think maybe you might see one among some ruins on occasion.
Where did they go? They were literally everywhere in GW1 yet they are nowhere in GW2.
Unless the cave that held the bridge collasped?
Also, I’ll check it out next time I’m in Ashford, but fairly sure the one entrance is collapsed/blocked. The other side is holed up as well.
As I said, maybe they built a new entrance to the Catacombs from there during the years past GW1, maybe in response to damage from the original entrances.
In Ashford, the left entrance just seems to be missing. In pre-searing, you would turn left and go down stairs to the res shrine, then go right. In current Ashford it just goes straight left too far with walls on all sides and no sloping down where there should have been steps. The other side of the remains were made as if the right entrance never existed at all. Instead of being able to go around the building like you could in pre-searing, the building is built into the wall.
I suppose it is possible that they built another entrance, but why would they take the time to remove the rubble from the doorway to the catacombs, then turn around and choose a random spot to dig down until they found catacombs?
I need to bring to someone’s attention the overpowered combination that is potentially game-breaking in how powerful it is. My main character is a warrior running with a sword main hand and my friend is an elementalist. Together, we have done things I didn’t think possible for only two characters to manage through using this technique. My friend and I have extensively tested this two-person build, dubbed “Firestring” by our guild, and found that it is seriously overpowered. I’ll break down how to do it:
1. Have your warrior charge in and activate the sword main skill chain, ending in the skill “Hamstring”.
2. Simultaneously, the elementalist casts “Conjure Fiery Greatsword”.
3. The warrior picks up the fiery greatsword and uses the fifth skill, ’Firestorm".
I understand that a major part of the game is interaction between professions, but this goes TOO FAR. Not only will your enemy be struck with a hamstring attack to cripple your fleeing opponent, but then fire will rain down on him as he slowly limps away!
Ashford Abbey was pretty destroyed in GW1 post searing. Not shocking that some places would get cleared out mostly by time or other factors.
Catacombs, well they were an expansive set of caves in the first game. Maybe the Ashford entrance collapsed, and they built another way into them.
There were two entrances. The one in Ashford Abbey and one north-east of the Barradin Estate. The one in Ashford was blocked in post-searing and the Barradin’s Estate entrance was inaccessible in post-searing.
In GW2 Ashford Abbey, the blocked doorway to the catacombs in open, but both the left and right entrances are missing. The area which should have the Barradin Estate entrance is instead a cave filled with flame legion, with no sign of a giant bridge or any gargoyles at all, like in pre-searing.
The only entrance that exists currently is located just east of the hill that was always full of bandits in pre-searing. There was never anything there in either pre- or post-searing, yet there are old ascalonian ruins there now. Why would the game designers put the entrance to the catacombs here, when there are two perfectly usable entrances already?
I was a little disappointed to find that they didn’t explore the ruins more. Ruins like Grendich Courthouse and Serentiy Temple were clearly recognizable and were nostalgic even, but many locations like Piken Square were just vaguely similar ruins filled with ghosts. Worst of all, some were just missing or plain wrong. There’s hardly any ruins for Ashford Abbey, King’s Watch just doesn’t exist anymore apparently, and the entrance to the catacombs isn’t even one of the two that existed in GW1, not to mention that the inside of the catacombs is completely different and much less impressive than in GW1.
Being the main hero of everything made sense back in GW1 mainly because it was instanced gameplay. There weren’t another hundred Chosen skirmishing in the Temple of Tolerance, there werent another hundred Ascended Chosen who saw the mursaat on the Ring of Fire, there werent another thousand who were granted another chance at life by the envoys when Shiro killed them. The story of the game fitted well with the technical part of the game. However when we were told to be just one of the many (ascalonian prodigy, Shing Jea student, sunspear recruit), it still worked because we played a minor role.
I have to disagree. You were never the singular hero of any of GW1. You were never without your band of Ascalonian adventurers and the you were always talked to as a group. They were with you at the Temple of Tolerance (in addition to other White Mantle defenders), as well as in the Ring of Fire. The Flameseeker Prophecies mentions a group of Chosen Ascended, not just one super powerful hero that was destined face an army of titans and a lich by himself. You had to win the allegiance of the Luxons and Kurzicks to get to Shiro, and you were with the entire Sunspear army for the assault on Gandara. You started singular with some direction, then got thrown into something larger. In the end, you formed part of a team to tackle a common goal.
There are only two sections of the GW2 story that I feel were well done:
First is the mentorship under the order representative. You actually get to spend enough time with an interesting character to form a bond. You both work and explore together for a common goal instead of the your Destiny Edge character forcing all their personal issues on you or Trahearne randomly showing up and dragging you off somewhere then leaving again. This section have the appeal of the “small team” feel. You never did anything alone, but you were a great contributor to the success and vital to the effort.
Second is the work up to the assault on Arah where you follow an Order’s plan. Instead of just following around Trahearne and killing what he says, you join in as an integral part of an operation currently in motion and contributing to the overall advancement to Arah rather than babysit angsty Destiny’s Edge or follow Trahearne around some more. While Trahearne is out giving orders and all that, you’re actually out in the field joining in with the other soldiers. One of the part of the story that I find most enjoyable isn’t even a mission. The explorable areas of Orr are wonderful because it really makes you feel like you’re contributing to the effort. You can wander around and find an encampment under siege and join in the Pact defenders, then have other players run in to help, then the NPC thank you and mention that they are going out to fortify/set up another camp and so you follow them. In general, what I like is that these give the feel of actually being a commander. Trahearne is a fine general and can sit in Fort Trinity and plan all he wants, but the commander should be out in the field with the troops guiding them to success instead of watching Trahearne talk to various people and tree spirits.
In conclusion, I have to disagree and say that GW2 is way more “singular” of story than GW1 ever was. While GW1 was always a group following a natural progression of events, GW2 is nearly always “You must choose what plan should affect the entire race,” “You must follow Trahearne and do what he tells you do to,” or “You must come and try to fix my personal issues with my ex-friends.”
I agree completely to the OP.
LS 2 is most likely opening up with a new permanent zone.
I hope so. I want to see what happened to Dry Top and The Falls. We didn’t get nearly enough Maguuma Wastes in this game and hardly any mentions of the Shining Blade vs. White Mantle.
This is a little disappointing but it’s for the best.
Also why do so many people assume everyone wants to buy a weapon with their tickets?