Guild Wars 2

Pretty sure Ceara was a high-functioning sociopath, as described. She wasn’t actually crazy, though. At any rate, I don’t think redemption is in the cards for her. At best, fully understanding her might earn her a little of the pity that she would be incapable of showing for others.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

perilisk.1874:

They almost certainly are born in the Mists (non-Sylvari can travel to the Dream of Dreams, so it’s probably as “real” as the Realm of Torment) and maintain a strong connection to it, despite possessing plant matter. In personality, they remind me a bit of Razah.

Sylvari are born in the Mists? Aren’t they born on Tyria, from the Pale Tree? I’m confused.

I guess it depends on what you mean by born. They seem to be born in the Dream well before being born in Tyria; I’m just assuming that the Dream is a place in the Mists, as it seems like the most plausible scenario.

DarcShriek.5829:

I still don’t get why destroy Lions Arch? It seems unnecessary at this time. If all she wants is access to the ley lines to destroy some big bad, why would the people of Lions Arch want to stop her?

Well, it’s possible that “access” is a euphemism for "put a city-sized hole on the map, and render the surrounding lands uninhabitable for miles due to the unleashed chaos energy.

And since they would rather not A) die, and have a giant hole where their city used to be, they will probably attempt to intervene. Which is why they have to be exterminated first.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Sylvari don’t go insane from Zhaitan corruption, it kills them.

True. But they do go insane. And it changes them, not just mentally, but physically. They’re very mind over matter.

If I had to classify them as something based on just those two points (immunity and mutability), it would be demons rather than dragon minions. They almost certainly are born in the Mists (non-Sylvari can travel to the Dream of Dreams, so it’s probably as “real” as the Realm of Torment) and maintain a strong connection to it, despite possessing plant matter. In personality, they remind me a bit of Razah.

As demons, it would sort of explain why they aren’t corrupted — a dragon probably wouldn’t corrupt an elemental or djinn either, it would just consume it.

Who says the Sylvari are a young race? The pale tree is young, yes, but there are other sylvari. She’s more of an ant queen, but there are other colonies, and countless more workers.

Now, the Dream may be unique to the Pale Tree, but certainly there is an alternate explanation for Malyck’s storyline, which explains not only why he knows nothing about a dream, but awoke so far from it and injured: That his tree is dead, and one of its last acts was to send his pod away, like a leafy Kal El.

That would also suggest that there is something rising in Maguuma, something that is slowly eradicating the numerous Sylvari colonies there.

It would be pretty handy in a purely narrative sense, insofar as all races would have a specific Draconic score to settle:

Asura: Primordus destroyed their civilization and drove them to the surface
Norn: Driven out of the Far Shiverpeaks by Jormag
Charr: Not quite such a disaster, but Kraalkatorik left an unsightly gash in their land
Human: The rise of Orr destroyed one of the largest Krytan cities (it got better)

and add to that

Sylvari: They aren’t servants of Mordremoth, they’re his victims. The Sylvari of the Pale Tree are quite possibly the last of their kind, saved only because Ronin took them away from their native land.

bonus theory:
That would make the sixth race a group threatened by DSD. Quaggans are… implausible, so either Largos, or else the cataclysm hasn’t yet happened, and the poor Tengu are going to get it. Largos seem easier from an art perspective.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

In the OP, you’re referring to Abaddon’s Fall, not his death. Abaddon had no dealings with titans or demons until after his Fall – after he was imprisoned in the Realm of Torment for at least 800 years.

He also wasn’t the mad, tormented being we fought in Nightfall. I think you’re looking at it too strictly, I’m just suggesting there are deliberate parallels between the characters and events, and Abaddon’s character arc is about his war and fall, his descent into madness, and his return.

I guess you could argue that Ceara’s “fall” was in rejecting the pale tree and choosing to set herself against it, and the current arc is more a parallel for the events of GW1. In which case, change the subject to “A retelling of Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall”, if you prefer.

The Afflicted weren’t even his intention or doing, but Shiro’s. At least as far as we know. And besides, the demons and titans are, in fact, Dhuum’s creations and army, not Abaddon’s.

Khilbron gained power over the Titans using the Scepter of Orr, and Khilbron answers to Abaddon. Same argument for the Afflicted and Shiro’ken.

I didn’t get the impression that demons belonged to anyone specifically, they’re just born out of the Mists. The demons specific to the Realm of Torment seem to serve Abaddon, however.

Also, Aetherblades aren’t seafaring so that comparison to the Margonites kind of falters.

Nor were Nightfall’s Margonites, strictly speaking. But they have a seafaring backstory. Same for the pirates.

Oh, and the titans weren’t just “earth and flame” they were “tormented spirits that create a body out of the land itself.” The body could be made of fire, stone, plant, ice, or even flesh.

I’m aware. Still, they were primarily (and solely, back when all we had was Prophecies) lava monsters.

You’re working on pure unsupported suggestions just to try and make the parallels, when your entire argument began with “the two are perfect parallels now!”

The most useful theories are ones you can use to make predictions. That said, I still favor Canach as Grenth and Marjory/Kasmeer as Lyssa, I just think Canach as Khilbron and Marjory as Grenth is workable.

I certainly never said there are perfect parallels, just that there are enough that I think it’s deliberate on the part of the writers, and not just a coincidence.

Protomatter* Nothing points to the Mists being ether in any form.

Don’t blame me, blame anet. That text is straight outta the manual.

ftp://ftp.guildwars.com/downloads/gwn-manual-en.pdf

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Marjory is better, being a necromancer who at least at one point talked with and helped settle spirits of the dead so they could pass on. Canach would better suit Melandru for his affinity and talent for working with plants.

But where would that leave Rox?

Of course, that assumes that Canach is going to be redeemed.

But the other parallels are between Scarlet’s and Abaddon’s armies. They’re sort of clear between Margonites and Aetherblades (seafarers + magic/magictech), and Demons and Watchwork (imprinting her madness on metal rather than mist, as she’s an engineer, not a god). The others are more iffy, Titans and MA (earth and flame), Afflicted and TA (spreading plague/toxin), but you could make the argument at least.

Scarlet already has one surviving Lieutenant who plays the role of assassin. Maybe she needs a scholar, a betrayer, an “accidental” bringer of calamity. Maybe the monsters that plague Kryta from beneath the sea actually answer to him. Maybe he goes from normal looking to dark and spooky. Maybe he gets an artifact connected to the army of flame and earth.

Yeah, it’s quite the stretch, and I still expect that Canach is due for a stint on Team Good Guy, but if not? It means that Scarlet still has a key player positioned right in the heart of Lion’s Arch. Maybe he didn’t escape with Mai because it wasn’t part of the plan, because it helps him earn some trust and sympathy. Really, he can probably leave whenever he wants (adventure game logic: use magic lava gauntlets on metal bars).

I think H.P. Lovecraft’s expanded mythos covers that base rather well. By the way, if we don’t have some terrible and horrible Thing from the Mists I’m going to be disappointed.

Outside the world we know, other dimensions exist, realms beyond what we can see and experience. Civilized humans know that when they die, their souls pass on into the Mists, the realm of the afterlife. Some spirits linger in this world, or find ways to walk back into the realm of flesh…yet there are other creatures who watch them and wait, drawn to the energy of countless souls.

Sometimes souls are not enough. In dimensions alien to the physical world, sentient entities scheme of ways to enter the realm of flesh, dreaming of the havoc they can wreak. Just as ghosts can defy death by returning to the land of the living, demons find ways into our world, where they feast on suffering, despair, and the vital energy of intelligent creatures.

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. Whether they appear as monstrous humanoids, bestial abominations, or radically inhuman horrors, they share many of the same aspirations: the strong consume or dominate the weak, reveling in their feasts and victimization. As they are not native to the real world, demons hold an abiding hatred of its denizens. They are also ruthlessly intelligent, more than willing to enter into arrangements that allow them to routinely prey on humans and other foolish living creatures.

moomooo.9357:

I think it’s not entirely a brand new trope, Scarlet likely being the “villain being manipulated by another villain”. I think you’ve managed to squeeze the characters into certain perceptions(but I really liked the Lyssa idea) which aren’t entirely true.

It’s a neat coincidence though

I don’t know that it requires a villain behind the villain. There was no one that drove Abaddon insane, and he was already bad. He just got stuck for what seemed like forever in a prison filled with nothing but his own thoughts, and the evil he took in, his own evil, is what made him that way. Ceara wasn’t exactly an angel even before Omadd’s experiment.

So, that would sort of fit, even if she got the order wrong (first wage war against TPTB, then be driven insane in a prison of thought, then transform the world in the image of your insanity, silly salad).

It’s just been weighing on my mind lately, especially with Taimi being introduced. Not necessarily that there is an actual physical or metaphysical connection between those events, just a narrative allegorical thing.

Scarlet, of course, is Abaddon in this story. Crazy, ambitious, and enough of a threat to require the other “gods” band together to bring her down. The leylines are probably the equivalent of the bloodstone in this telling (which is odd, since they’re actually probably more powerful, not less). The madness and the thorns and such recall the Realm of Torment somewhat, thematically.

Braham is Balthazar — he’s a Guardian, which means he’s a virtuous warrior who likes to light things on (holy) fire.

Rox is Melandru — she’s a Ranger (associated with Melandru, at least in GW1), and is a miner (Earth element). Also, named Rox (“Rocks”) in case the Earth thing wasn’t obvious enough.

Kasmeer/Delaqua are Lyssa. Illusion, Water (“Del Aqua”), Beauty, two females, etc.

Taimi is probably Dwayna. Remember that, in GW1, the legs of Dwayna’s statues were always shattered, and the statue was held aloft by air magic.

That leaves Grenth, who is probably Canach, what with his turn toward the dark and brooding and such. Still, he needs an ice theme to really make it work. Scarlet doesn’t really have any ice alliance, so maybe it’s still in the works.

Thoughts?

Warcry.1596:

If this is true, pending all other speculation, it makes sense that Marjory or Kasmeer will be one of the ones to die. 1 Human, 1 Charr, 1 Norn, 1 Asura, 1 Sylvari. Destiny’s Edge (2.0). Pending Scarlet snaps out of w/e’s making her crazy, I’m sure at some point she’ll become good and be apart of it. Along with Braham, Rox, Taimi and Kasmeer/Marjory.

The only issue I see with this whole theory, is that Taimi and Scarlet are both Engineers. And I’m assuming 1 of each race, and no repeating professions will be the case.

Much more likely that Canach is the Sylvari member. It also tracks better with my theory that they are stand-ins for the gods instead of DE, what with him getting all grim and dark and whatnot.

It’s pretty obvious, isn’kitten Scarlet Briar is crazy, and named after something thorny and red. She’s being influenced by the sixth elder dragon, which sometimes walks in the guise of a mortal.

We all know* that the Pale Tree is a champion of the sixth dragon, that the Sylvari owe their existence to it. If you take the phrase “Mordremoth: Salad’s Dawn” and rearrange the letters, you uncover the terrible secret of the Sylvari, what the Pale Tree tries constantly to suppress, what the Nightmare court work to revive, and what Scarlet discovered by accident: “Mad Oswald Thorn’s Dream”. Clearly King Thorn is the sixth, and most terrifying of all elder dragons, and the true lord of the Sylvari and their Dream. How else could a mortal be so powerful? He was the puppet-master behind Abaddon’s madness, behind the rise of the lesser Elder Dragons, and behind Scarlet’s insanity, so in fact every single major event in Tyrian history is due to his influence.

And who would want to stop him? How about one of his oldest victims — Prince Ewan. Sure, he might act concerned for his “brother”, but it’s just a show. No, Ewan rules the ghosts of Divinity’s Reach (which is why he intervened in Marjory’s investigation under the Ministry), and the rest of Kryta as well, and knows all that his invisible, intangible subjects can learn, which is a lot.

Edit: Though I just noticed that Ewan is also the name of the leader of an ancient tribe that was cursed by Melandru and transformed into plant creatures… so maybe he and Thorn have a much older beef about the fate of the Sylvari. Which is weird, because I wasn’t actually serious.

*some people speculate

What would happen if you performed the ritual on a Sylvari, I wonder?

Are any of the Dragon champions actual dragons? Zhaitan’s champions seem to be made out of numerous corpses, the CoJ could easily be a creation of pure ice. The Great Destroyer did seem more like something that might have once been a creature (though more of a beetle/dragon hybrid).

Kalarchis.8635:

This adds some more pieces to the puzzle. It pretty clear now. Scarlett looked too far and came face to face with Primordus. That eye looks very familiar to his eye when he woke up in GW1. If he’s seen as an image of red thorns strangling the Pale Tree, well:

• He’s very much red and spiky.

• The roots of the pale tree must surely extend for miles, given its height. And where are the destroyers? Why, clearing huge tracts of land under Tyria of course. And lured up by these thumpers no doubt. They’re already surfacing at the Dominon of Winds, and that’s right on the pale tree’s doorstep. Surely they’re already gnawing away at her roots.

Primordus got a hold of Scarlet’s mind. He’s been whispering in her ear. She’s targeting us so we’ll be out of his way. Look at that map she’s got Xs on Vigil Keep, the Durmond Priory, the Chantry of Secrets and Lion’s Arch. She plans to wipe out the Pact and our most important city.

She’s setting the table. The dragon is hungry. Let’s cancel dinner, shall we?

Does Primordus corrupt like the others? I know that his minions tend to be named after other creature types, but I though EOTN established them as just being spawned directly from lava? Though I guess maybe the flaming legion shamans are the counterpoint to that line of thinking?

Tanith.5264:

Doggie.3184:

Her secret is she died a very long time ago to Scarlet before we even knew about her and she used her Mesmer magic to make her last clone last until it finishes it’s mission. Once Scarlet dies she’ll reveal this to Marjory and we’ll have a sad, dramatic scene of them saying goodbye to eachother~ then the clone explodes…

…which will kill Marjory or at least confuse her horribly. Depends on how Kasmeer’s traited.

Seriously, though, I’m getting a vibe that Kasmeer is just who she says she is…only she’s about to go bad on us. She’s been harboring resentment against the other nobles of DR for years for what was done to her family, remember. Then we have the finger-pricking incident, the perilous pursuit of Scarlet, and the lurking menace of ED corruption she must encounter in her travels.

Many have hypothesized the Scarlet will die at the end of the LS arc, perhaps in the act of redeeming herself. But somebody’s gonna have to take up the mantle of Bad Guy/Gal…

But Kasmeer and Delaqua are an analogue for Lyssa, so they’re sort of a package deal. Braham, Rox, Kasmeer/Delaqua, Canach, Taimi, and E aren’t Destiny’s Edge 2.0, they’re the six Gods 2.0, no longer human-only.

Braham: A guardian. Basically, a courageous warrior who lights things on fire. Balthazar, obvs.

Rox: A ranger (in GW1, they were explicitly linked to Melandru). Also, a miner. Name sounds like Rocks. Nature + Earth = Melandru.

Kasmeer/Delaqua: What’s Lyssa all about? Illusion (Kasmeer), Water (“Del Aqua”), Beauty (depends on your taste), and two women entwined tog… uh, I’ll be in my bunk.

Canach: Was a pretty hero Sylvari, then got all grim and dark looking, and acting, but still sort of a good guy. What with Grenth being sort of a better-than-the-alternative deity, he has the attitude, even if he doesn’t have much in the way of an ice motif yet.

Taimi: Not a lot to go on yet. Certainly, her illness could make her more compassionate to the suffering and give her an interest in studying healing magic, but who knows? But, and it may be a stretch, remember that the legs of Dwayna’s statues in GW1 were always broken and fragmented, and the statue was suspended by her magic (presumably, since the whole thing collapsed in the absence of divine favor). Asuran technomancy always seemed sort of air-themed, what with the crystals and sparks (that also being the theme of the Air dragon), and it’s that tech that keeps her mobile. Though if she upgraded Scruffy to fly or at least levitate, so much the better.

E as Kormir is basically just speculation, but E seems to know a lot about things that are pretty deep in the shadows. Secrets are just hidden Truth. Most likely human and male, or else capable of passing as such both vocally and when holding someone from behind with a knife at their throat. Would be the one gender flip, if male, but then again, Abaddon had the role before Kormir. And if we’re talking about secrets…

New skills, including weapon skills, a general rebalance pass, some (probably flawed) attempt at addressing the condition issues in PvE, a way to craft a few new legendary items, and possibly an initial implementation of a skin locker.

Seems like they should replace it with an achievement for killing X number of enemy players by collapsing a single bridge. Though that might be hard to track.

Just a thought, since unlike GW1, AFAIK, animations are race rather than profession specific.

I’m not suggesting removing the concept of Heavy, Medium, and Light Armor, just letting each profession use any armor type as it sees fit, and ensuring that each armor class is equally useful, rather than hoping other class features balance out having an inferior armor class.

There are a lot of ways that armor classes could be balanced out. One would be to just give each piece four equal stats boosts (and eliminate Defense, which is mechanically identical to Toughness anyway AFAIK), ensure that one is defensive and one is offensive, and classify the armor piece as Heavy, Medium, or Light based on whether the remaining two are both defensive, offensive, or one of each.

Alternatively, you could give Medium and Light extra minor stats, or a speed and/or endurance bonus to reflect the improved mobility and lower weight.

The only really obvious downside I see right now is that it might introduce some art issues in terms of mix-and-match sets that were never designed to go together. I guess as a hacky workaround, you could still the leave the profession armor class requirement on the armor skin (similar to race/cultural), though that would remove some of the benefit for players.

Anyway, I’m probably completely overlooking some reason why this is a terrible idea. Please enlighten me below.

I don’t know if they are the same, but there does seem to be some overlap in terms of abilities. Maybe they draw power from the same sources, like there are six fundamental forces of magic?

Anyway, likely linkages from Dragon to God to Race to Element:
Zhaitan – Melandru – Sylvari – Life/Growth
Primordus – Balthazar – Charr – Fire
Kraalkatorik – Dwayna – Asura – Air
Jormag – Grenth – Norn – Ice/Death
DSD – Lyssa – Krytan Humans – Water/Illusion/Duality
Mordremoth? – Kormir – ? – Truth/Secrets

Were there five or six? I thought it was Dwarves, Norn, Jotun, Forgotten, Seers, and Mursaat.

So, is there any comment about the Steam creatures if you did the Infinity Ball storyline?

Vorpp suggested it might be an aspect of the Sylvari dream, not a god or dragon. If we have to go with one of those, I’m going with possessed by the DSD, or possibly Lyssa (less likely), both of which have a twinned thing going on, like Scarlet’s symbol of the red vine and the pale tree (and a water aspect, not that it matters for scarlet). And it would explain the illusions, the charisma, and how she got the Krait obelisks, plus the obsession with duality (alliances, magic/tech) and subversion (watchwork).

If I was going to make a totally off-the-wall, baseless prediction: we will learn that the magic in the leylines is the source of power for the dragons and for the gods (six different forces of magic). We’ll find that Scarlet wants to intercept the leylines at LA to cut the dragons off and ascend to godhood, to regain her independence. We’ll intervene, and Destiny’s Edge 2.0 will have to sacrifice themselves to absorb the energy and become the new gods:

Braham: neo-Balthazar (sort of similar names)

Rox: neo-Melandru (she’s a miner and her name is Rox, of course’s she’s getting the Earth element)

Marjory/Kasmeer: neo-Lyssa. Yes, Lyssa takes two female vessels. It’s her thing. They’re a pair, linked by fate. One does Illusion, very well. One is named “Del Aqua” (of water, get it?).

Canach: neo-Grenth. Because Trahearne is busy. Anyway, poison sort of fits the sphere. And his misunderstood anti-heroism sort of fits the profile of a good death god.

Taimi: neo-Dwayna. Because what else is left? And crystals and sparks and whatnot fit the air magic profile; maybe she doesn’t do healing (unless it plays a role in the LS regarding her medical issues), but that’s because it got kicked out of the trinity.

Of course, that doesn’t leave any LS character to be Kormir. Unless… oh dear gods… nevermind, forget I said anything, this was a terrible idea.

If this actually did happen, it would suggest that the dragons would be getting very hungry, very soon, and might start to go on the offensive.

I’m wondering just how long that staff of hers has been in her family.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

No, I explain it a last time:

Why would players leave the save haven of the underflow for a possibly still emty home server instance?
There would be no winning for the player in this move. He might be the only person going back to the home instance, than what was the underflow good for?
He might be forced by the technical solution, but this might kick him out of a group with players from other servers, would that be fun?

The only solution to populate the home instance to the “minimum” would be to force the players to go back, which would make the players unhappy.

So no underflow.

Well, no underflow as described. You could still get rid of dedicated servers in PvE and just use a smart district system that would assign each district of a map a rating based on how many people from your server, guild, or friends list are present, as well as the need to balance population. If you don’t select a specific district, it uses that rating to pick one for you.

There would still be the issue of how to grant bonuses to servers based on DE status, but effects any larger than a map are currently few and far between. Anyway, it could either be weighted based on the status of districts hosting the server’s players, or changed to something related to player action.

Anyway, it’s a problem they need to address. It seems like one factor guiding their design decisions, especially regarding LS/LW content, is avoiding spreading the player base out too thin (and that’s a good thing — GW2 is an MMO). But I strongly suspect the single largest contributing factor to player dispersion is the use of assigned servers in PvE.

None of the above. The thumpers are going to hit magical fault-lines to rearrange the continents, pushing all the known dragons in the Far Shiverpeaks, Crystal Desert, and Maguuma Jungle far away from the Tyrian continent, and bringing Cantha right up to the SW of Orr. Just in time for GW’s introduction to the Chinese market.

Or… maybe it’s just that we’re going to wrap up loose ends with Primordus, without it indicating anything about future expansion/LS potential. He’s the eldest of the elders, but it doesn’t make him the boss or the strongest.

Nasedo.5349:

But they would be absolutly disoriented and confused under the influence of the poison!
They would left their lair and attack everything.
This could be a benefit for us.
And this is what Scarlet already said:
“I have a great deal of work ahead of me. I don’t know what the world will be when I’m through, but I will very much enjoy finding out. Empires will fall, continents will burn, and when the conflagration is over, I’ll be there to put my stamp on whatever new world this one becomes.”

You know, there aren’t actually any empires on the Tyrian continent. Cantha, sure. Elona, maybe — no idea what PJ calls his system of government. Rule by enlightened undead philosopher-king, perhaps. Not saying this proves a Canthan expansion is in the works, but… I totally am saying that.

And she did say continents. Plural. So…

BrunoBRS.5178:

1- abaddon is dead. not banished, not hiding, dead. i, and millions of others, made sure of it.

2- the abaddon fractal was going to take place far, far before GW1’s playable time, all the way back when abaddon was defeated and sealed by the other 5 human gods. there is no way that anything related to scarlet could be related to that fractal.

Abaddon is currently dead in this version of Tyria, yes, but there are some hints as to portals in time or between timelines (Scarlet’s portals seem more like alt-timeline Steam Creature/Asuran Dictator tech than current-timeline Asura tech, and some of the language about ‘What Scarlet saw’ described it as looking outside of the world). So, who knows.

Maybe the timeline is being damaged, by the dragons or something else entirely, in a way that pre-fall Abaddon can influence the present, or an Abaddon that defeated the gods can reach into our world. Maybe the devs watched a lot of Doctor Who before writing up this season of LS. Or Chronotrigger, if the speculation is true about Scarlet being misunderstood by the plucky heroes and actually wanting to destroy the ineffable force of destruction and consumption that lurks under the planet’s surface. Though if they were going that direction, I think the temptation to add a Hylek knight to Destiny’s Edge2.0 would be too irresistible.

Xiahou Mao.9701:

I believe the reason those circles look different is because they’re signalling an attack that you actually can’t dodge, so you need to get out of the circle entirely before it hits.

Hopefully it’s something we see more of in other places for “undodgable” attacks.

Last time I played, I dodged the attack just fine…

It’s a fun and mostly well-designed fight, though if they made it permanent, it should get some tweaks to scale to smaller groups better, since interest is bound to drop. I’m sure there’s some lore reason they could make up to justify it. If not, well, there’s no lore reason for killing Tequatl over and over for the rest of eternity either, it’s just game mechanics.

It would be a real shame for all the work they put into it to just vanish.

Why do you think the Charr have been experimenting with surface-to-air bovid technology?

Maybe all her shenanigans against the players, Pact, Destiny’s Edge, and so on are mainly to draw their attention to her — while it could be a distraction to let the dragon act unimpeded, it could also be that she plans to confront one, and wants an angry mob of dragon-slayers following her, assuming they will get distracted once the dragon appears on the scene.

Looks like Scarlet found Zhaitan’s copy of Aenima.

If your solution is too difficult to implement, technically, another possible answer is just breaking the 25% fail meter into five independent 5% chunks, so that losing one champ/node doesn’t screw things up as much.

I wonder whether it’s showing a plan for her forces, or her prediction of the dragons’ plans?

We already know that one elder dragon was drawn toward Lion’s Arch (already dealt with, of course, so no need for a big arrow from the south). Maybe LA is sitting on top of a giant pile of magic or something. Or maybe dragons just really don’t like pirates. Dragons being an allegory for the MPAA, RIAA, and large content companies, obviously.

“I know you don’t want people running a boss forever,”

What I can’t figure out is why.

Just implement a reasonably fair DR formula to punish mindless farming while also avoiding making it totally worthless in terms of extrinsic rewards for people to replay content (you know, so people playing after the daily reset can find a group).

If people enjoy a boss fight, let them have a boss fight. Let them fight the boss 10 times in a row, if that’s what floats their boat.

LordMadman.5812:

What I’m asking for is more clarification in-game as to what we’re suppose to do, but make it challenging. Is that possible?

Well, it’s definitely possible. Just do a pre-event (or if the boss is in a gated area, a solo instance) that introduces the core concepts behind the event in a fairly laid back way, so you can focus on figuring things out.

tolunart.2095:

A R W E N.6895:

And the fact that I am not playing Gw1 anymore is that I like Gw2 for what it offers and for its unique design, but it could be even better. I hope it will.

Give it another two or three years.

If everyone who gets frustrated with the game leaves it for two or three years, it might not be around to come back to in two or three years.

Not learned:
At least 20% of any open world zerg are going to be useless — griefers, afks, or just undergeared, underleveled, or underskilled. In playtesting (assuming it’s even done) an event with 100 people, assign 20 to actively try to wreck the event. If you can’t make it work, it isn’t going to work in-game for most groups, without resorting to tricks like overflow abuse and external programs to provide the kind of coordination that isn’t supported in-game.

Realistically, they should take the bosses out of the open world and put them into an instanced (non-server-specific) boss arena. The arena could still support an open-world number of players, if the boss is balanced for it. This is already what is being done with the harder bosses, effectively, so you might as well accept that it works for the players and work with it.

You could still have the pre-events in the same open world areas on each server to open up access, then let players enter and try the boss as much as they want, no timers, so long as the way is open. If there is an issue with farming, address it from the reward side (DR, time-gating, whatever) or tweak the difficulty to reduce the success rate. Don’t arbitrarily restrict access to challenging and enjoyable content, especially for players that might already have a window for play shorter than three hours.

Of course, if I was doing it like that, I wouldn’t put any WPs in the boss arena — once everyone dies, GAME OVER. l2r(ez). That would help difficulty right there, without being an explicit DPS check in the way that a timer is.

Kite.2510:

In the end of this act Scarlet marries Trahearne and they have a baby.

Cue the Omen theme music.

As long as I’m tossing totally random speculation around, Kasmeer will be saved because she is “Mr. E”. “E” standing for “Evennia” (though also for “mystery”) which is why she’s such an asskicking Mesmer and could reveal the ToN. Granted, Evennia was a Monk, but when you have that much time on your hands, and a very strong need to hide the fact of the immortality of the Shining Blade’s leadership… plus, the profession is gone.

It makes more sense than “E” being “Evon” or “Ellen”, given the circumstances of Marjory’s departure from the Ministry — dark magic and murderous Ministers, which points much more to the shadow war between White Mantle sympathizers and the Shining Blade than it does to anything in Lion’s Arch.

But anyway, despite surviving, my guess is she will probably feel it is wiser to step back and let DE2 handle things at that point, so functionally the same result. Alternatively, she might decide that the time is right for the Kasmeer persona to “die”, and let it seem like Canach’s cure failed.

EDIT: Then it would also make Kasmeer more of a Snaff — that is, old, wise, powerful, and something of a mentor to Marjory, even if Marjory doesn’t know it.

pswendel.8179:

Marjory and Canach have no role hunting down elder dragons. Rox and Braham…perhaps, but are entirely Scarlett related from Flame and Frost.

The entire L’S season 1 cast is Scarlet oriented. It would take a large leap for them to go from the current line of revenge/meddling in Mary Sue’s plans to ridding the world of dragons.

Scarlet is just the driver that brings them together for the rest of the story, probably. Maybe her various alliance are sort of aligned with the strengths of each member. The unknown Asura (maybe an associate of Emissary Vorpp?) might have knowledge of watchwork machines, Marjory has experience investigating the Aetherblades, Canach’s use of the Fervid Censer and botanical expertise suggest he is ideal for fighting the Toxic Alliance, etc.

As far as having no role hunting down elder dragons — sounds like an opportunity for a character arc.

I think the speculation about Canach being the final member is promising. I wonder how they plan to bring him into the story. Maybe the Southsun arc isn’t entirely done? Or maybe that’s the point behind Kasmeer’s incident in the Nightmare tower — not to die, but to create a situation where she is poisoned beyond Marjory’s expertise, such that the only person with that much expertise on plant toxins and spores is Canach. Then the players have to bust him out of jail, or Marjory finds dirt on Ellen Kiel, or something along those lines.

Gerrand.3085:

I came across a note somewhere saying that an Asura was going to be introduced in the upcoming “Origins of madness” event.

It has me praying for the return of an already introduced Asura from the Asuran personal story quests. His name is Shodd. What can be said about Shodd? Nothing too specific, no singular trait which raises him above the rest. Except perhaps that going along with his humblest suggestions almost turns your character into an overlord that out-inquests the inquest.

One of my 3 most favored characters in the game, Shodd personifies the sheer audacity of science. The unrelenting potential that can amount to, well, anything. Few aspects represent the prospect of science as well as second guessing can. Sure, bizzare contraptions can pull one out of the most dire of living story events, but staring down at that oh so innocent face of Shodd you are left wondering what you contemplate unleashing – because with Shodd by your side, you’ll fly higher then the flames left in your wake.

Few are the dreamed up characters who manage to portray a passive double edged sword.

Braham portrays quite well the confused desire to do good, or failing that, awesome. Marjory a cynical eye on those she stands besides as well as those she confronts. Kasmee is endearing in ways that are hard for me to pin down, aside from her admissions of how she garbs herself when heading into battle – and I’m sure someone can come up with a reason why Rox is awesome.

Should an Asura step forth? Well, if not Shodd, then I pray for one who steps boldly into the fore. Hardly discernable from the blinding bright energy cores erupting into life behind him as he excitedly cries out, with no reference point to moral or practical goals:

“FOR SCIENCE!”

It’s just a token Asura to make sure that the new LS Destiny’s edge has a full deck of races. Although right now there are two humans and no Sylvari, so that will have to be addressed. Maybe Kasmeer is a Sylvari spy in disguise, or she’ll be killed off and replaced by a heel-face-turn Scarlet, who knows?

ThiBash.5634:

perilisk.1874:

Yes, Scarlet as mad anti-hero. I can see it. Totally not-serious predictions:

…

Just spitballing, tho.

Is it just me or does your theory sound an awful lot like the story from Chronotrigger?

Total and absolute coincidence. Must have been.

Underflow is something I hope they work on, as it would make the open world a little more appealing.

One thing that could also help a little would be reforming the overflow system to redirect players to underutilized core servers before standing up overflow servers. It would only really help if there is a population imbalance across servers for a certain map, not if it’s universally a dead zone, but it would have a marginally beneficial impact, and it seems like it shouldn’t be hard to implement.

Yes, Scarlet as mad anti-hero. I can see it. Totally not-serious predictions:

1. Players discover how to use new time-bending technology (which Scarlet has access to as well), which functions at least in part due to the reality-distorting impact of the Elder Dragons. A gate takes players to a lifeless future Tyria populated only by Steam Creatures and mechanical Golems (and the occasional Wurm), because the Elder Dragons, particularly Primordus, drained Tyria of all life and magic. Fighting our way to escape this future, we learn that Scarlet, present in the time of Guild Wars 1, played an instrumental role in the events of EOTN, somehow causing Primordus to first awaken which led to the rise of the Great Destroyer and eventually the other Elder Dragons (the thumpers, despite being in the present, are preparation for this plot). Players also learn that Scarlet’s mastery of magic and technology has advanced enough that only a weapon built using a material no longer found on Tyria (the last reserves were used up by the Seers in building the bloodstones) can harm her now.

2. Fortunately, there’s time travel, so players travel to the past to get the necessary material. Another time gate takes players back to a time long before humans arrived on Tyria, when ancient races vied for control of the world. Players land in the middle of a war between Cave Norn and a race of serpentine humanoids that served as ancestor of both the Krait and the Forgotten. The Cave Norn help the players recover the needed material, and the reptiles are dealt a decisive blow in the war. Realizing that they are on the path to permanent decline, they opt for a final act of revenge, setting in motion a beacon that will draw the Elder Dragons (and later, the human gods) to Tyria. Also, lots of fights with dinosaurs from EOTN.

3. Finally, the players are prepared to fight their way past Inquest protectors (since they can easily infiltrate ancient Asura society) to face Scarlet in the time of GW1, to prevent her from awakening Lav… err, Primordus. However, in defeating her, they realize that she had in her own misguided way sought to protect the future by defeating the Elder Dragon. Now, however, the disruption of her plan has further destabilized time and space, opening uncontrolled time gates throughout Tyria through which new horrors, representing a hybrid of Margonite and Dragon Minion, have begun to pour, while portions of Tyria are simply transformed completely as incompatible timelines conflict.

4. With Scarlet’s minions (bar the Krait) temporarily allied with the Pact to keep the invasion at bay, the time and location of the invasion is determined to be in the ancient past, around the time of Abaddon’s fall. The players travel back with Scarlet, Destiny’s Edge, and other NPCs, and experience the fall of Abaddon directly — except that the timeline has now changed. Abaddon has reversed the time rifts’ connection to dragons, building a device that harnesses the rifts in his time to extract draconic energy, giving him an edge over the 5 gods. If the players do not intervene, he will be victorious, the timeline will change completely, and the dragons will have awakened even earlier and destroyed all. Toward the end, Scarlet finally shows up and heroically sacrifices herself to disrupt Abaddon’s draconic energy reactor, absorbing its energies and everything connected into it (meaning, Abaddon and his servants) into herself. She is physically destroyed, but her mad, tortured mind, already besieged by the Sylvari Nightmare, continues to exist as a nightmarish realm of torment in the Mists, and as a prison for Abaddon and the Margonites. And that’s how Scarlet Briar was present at the fall of Abaddon. Coming soon to a Fractal near you.

Just spitballing, tho.

I think (in terms of balance only, not in terms of the importance of the change or the technical issues) it would make sense to allow true blocking only for hostiles (so you could block in PvP and use control skills to remove blocking players). Allowing true blocking for friendlies would just encourage griefing.

If you want to reduce stacking, I think it would make sense to give enemies access to more small-AoE attacks, and to increase the target cap for hostile (only!) AoE effects as the radius of the effect decreases.

Nike.2631:

Nike.2631:

The issue of unsatisfying role balance is something to be laid at the feet of the AI design as much or more than any inequity on the player skill choices side.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I want us to get the role balance paradigm just right providing a solid foundation to interact with before turning up the heat in terms of AI behavior. I believe and know this to be a prerequisite.

I must (politely ) call this in to question.

To invert this line of comment to something positive, the AI changes (or at least, mix of abilities not typically found in PvE enemies, which amounts to the same thing) introduced for the Toxic Alliance made them a lot more interesting to fight — not just the more controversial need for stomps, but the increased use of boons, conditions, dodges, and reflects. Reworking existing enemies with similar capabilities might increase the usefulness of counters for those abilities in PvE.

My suggestion for ending zerker meta: Turn DD into DOT stacking quasi-conditions (a few different types, with criticals getting completely separate stacks). Too many zerkers with too high crit rate, you’re filling up all your critical stacks and the extra zerkers are useless. So, you want a mix of non-critical, critical, and old-school condi dmg.

But if there was more to surviving an encounter than DPS and dodging, that would go a long way toward fixing things. And I don’t mean cute mechanics that are accessible to any class, I mean aspects where build introduces pros and cons.