Guild Wars 2

The coin is pay to be lazy. There is nothing wrong with pay to be lazy, in fact, you could argue that it’s the only model that appreciates that players have different situations in real life (see: Wildstar monetary model). If you can’t afford the 15 minutes to farm PvE for coins, chances are that’s because you have a job and therefor you can afford the infinite coin.

And then everything Walhalla said.

It just occurred to me.

The legendaries are supposed to be a “personal” endeavor – maybe that’s exactly what they are, supposedly weapons designed by the characters (a.k.a. you) after becoming masters of everything. As an example the shield’s text might be your own rendition of Meerak’s words. Even though they are all the same (real-world technology limitations). They really don’t have to have anything to do with the lore surrounding them. Which is somewhat of a weak explanation for the pwnicorns.

That, or because they are created in the mystic toilet, they don’t have to follow the lore exactly because they are derived from/imbued with some other possibility (where things might be slightly different, such as wild-roaming pwnicorns being slaughtered by players for their nyan achievements).

Both are weak explanations. I really can’t come up with a sensible way where the legendaries are fitting.

DevonCarver.5370:

Lead.1784:

EvE doesn’t really get time dilation until you hit about 700-800+ players. Just saying.

While I appreciate the spirit of this response, I think it is clear that EvE and our game have very different types and amounts of calculations to make.

In addition the mechanics of EvE are vastly different – it’s essentially 6DOF WoW. Don’t get hung up on the 6DOF, rather the WoW aspect. There is less for the network stack to do considering that you can press “1” and walk away from my computer (you wouldn’t in practice, but in theory you could). It’s not an action MMO – it’s a classic MMO which is a lot less chatty than something like GW2.

Another action MMO is specifically avoiding a WvW/RvR scenario is Wildstar – very likely because of the overhead involved.

A good example is that in classic MMOs a whether or not a projectile/ability hits is nearly always determined at the point it is launched (at the end of the channeling time). Action MMOs like GW2 have issues like players dodging out of the way and therefore can’t do lazy dice roll-based calculations.

Maps are hard to balance. Polishing takes time – much more than you would think. The current maps have great balance, and while we would all love to see something different we just need to have a little patience.

Imagine they released what they had right now and it was unbalanced: how much would you enjoy the game when one side has a distinct advantage?

One skill point for siege is rather expensive, considering that with the new champion loot system we might get one, maybe two (if it happens to coincide with our natural skill progression) skill points after taking a fortified position. Typically you might drop two to three sup rams to take said tower – meaning you are typically at a net loss in terms of skill points (which are simply a currency once you have unlocked all the skills you want).

Yes, not all caps require superior siege. I am seeing it more and more though (depending on how zealous the commander in question is) in the tier that AG sits within. To the point where I wonder whether we should have normal siege at all; and should just unify it all – although I don’t like that idea from a depth perspective (so it’s a non-starter from my perspective).

I completely agree that a good war effort involves gathering supply from safe grounds (a.k.a playing PvE). I’m not here to say that war needs to be cheaper, just that an alternative but somewhat equally valued cost might be a nice idea.

As an alternate recipe (keeping in mind that they should remain relatively expensive):

• 50 Badges of Honor (yes/no? I am not entirely sure what would qualify as relatively expensive)
• 3 Mithril Ore (one node)
• 3 Elder Wood Log (one node)
• 3 Flame Ram Blueprints (instead of 2)

The point here is to not complain; merely provide an alternative. At the end of the day a worthwhile toilet for Badges of Honor.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

[good stuff]

Sarcasm aside, I generally have agreed with you, or have been corrected by you in the past with purely logical arguments. I will take your word as canon. Thanks, as always, for the clarification.

Lore-wise there is nothing wrong with SAB so long as nothing leaks out of it. It’s like saying Guild Wars 2 can’t possibly exist because there is no magic in reality. SAB is a computer game inside of a computer game. From that purist perspective it’s fine. It’s completely believable and plausible that the Asura would be able to create a computer game. It’s also a lot of fun.

Sadly stuff does come out of it, i.e. the SAB weapons and minis. That’s where it breaks the lore – but it’s not too bad, you could logic it away with Asuran hologram projectors and whatnot.

With that out of the way I have to agree with Mad Queen Malafide. The biggest problem is the legendaries, and I have for a long time lost interest in acquiring one (or have considered getting one for the stats and changing the skin) – hailing back to my unicorns in Guild Wars 2 mindset (strangely appropriate how your specific example of a joke legendary is “The Dreamer”, and that it is unicorns, and honestly I haven’t made that connection until now).

Just enjoy the SAB: it’s the one area of the game we don’t have to care about how one specific writer is ruining all the lore.

Andlat Helsonr.1284:

Pretty much everything you currently see, has been developed in the last several hundred years – since before that the asura were a subterranean race, and with the rise of the destroyers they were pushed to the surface.

We know for a fact that the Asura came to the surface with their advanced technology in-tow. Not only did they have access to this technology, but they also built Rata Sum in record time. Whether their science was accelerated by having a readily available source of magic to experiment with isn’t something I considered though (and would explain their overall nature), maybe making them appear more ancient than they should be. As I said though, underground can be counted as part of Tyria.

Andlat Helsonr.1284:

As for the gods – we know that they, and the humans, originate from another place in the multiverse. The gods brang humans to Tyria, supposedly fleeing from something – as suggested by some lore found in Orr.

Source? We know well that the humans were bought to Tyria, but the gods fleeing doesn’t make sense in terms of the Forgotten who were also brought to Tyria by the gods some 900 years before the humans.

Edit: also I forgot one: the colossus is a big question mark. We don’t know when that fractal happened: the presence of humans indicated it would be within the human timeframe, but the problem with that is we don’t have any written or spoken record of the colossus as told by humans. One would assume that there would be record of these from at least the time that the Forgotten appeared, or fossil evidence from when Giganticus Lupicus went extinct – which may push them further into the past than Giganticus Lupicus. Or the race could be native to the mists.

Apart from the humans, which race would you say is the most advanced or evolved? That would be a pretty good indicator for the modern races. I would be inclined to point at the Asura (if you count underground as part of Tyria) under that assumption.

Your Dragon theory is probably correct, although I am not sure if I would call them a “race” – meaning that from my perspective the Giganticus Lupicus may be the oldest. The Six Gods are also an option – it is known that they did not create Tyria and it is known that they lived in Tyria. If they evolved and ascended on Tyria (if that was how they came about at all) they are still technically part of their ‘precursor race’.

So from what I understand of the lore:

• Living races: Asura
• Extinct or absent races: Giganticus Lupicus or The Gods
• Anything living or anything that has ever lived: Dragons, maybe Tyria itself (depending on where the new ley lines lore goes)

Purecura.1795:

So does this mean Elementalist magic is weaker compared to Mesmer magic?

I can’t remember where I read/saw it; I’m pretty sure it was somewhere canon like the wiki or in-game – but it was suggested that “primitive magic” was more powerful.

My personal speculation around that whether “primitive magic” is more powerful or not is irrelevant as we are working with a modern version of said primitive magic. It’s like saying light sabers are inferior because they are essentially swords, or old English is inferior because new English is more succinct.

Gandarel.5091:

But only Tengu got chances and maybe

Geographically they are in the perfect starting position for starter zones (right next to Caledon forest, a 1 – 15 area), maybe ANet ran out of time and that’s why they walled themselves in? I still doubt it though, a new playable race is smack-bang in the middle of expansion territory.

The biggest problem with Sylvari being dragon minions is that they are a playable race. You need to add an escape hatch to your theory whereby the race can continue being played.

Gandarel.5091:

Colin keeps telling there are no plans for expansions, he did so even yesterday on the forum. So it’s interesting.

I think it would be possible to add a dragon without having to specifically call it an expansion via a permanent “bridging living story” – similar to what they did with Scarlet’s Playground and getting back into the pavilion. Given that there is Mordremoth concept art it seems like they have plans, if not a bridging living story, something else.

As for an actual expansion: agreed – not gonna happen. They have made it incredibly clear.

Sitkaz.5463:

[snip] is over the top racist. A lot of people in-game and out don’t mind throwing around the gentler “salad head” term.

They laugh it off though – because Sylvari are awesome like that. They are just really awesome at everything. Sylvari are basically aesthetically appropriate pink ponies and unicorns in the GW universe (from a recent interview: “… and I’ll see you in my Dream!”).

While the Sylvari from a biological perspective are really innovative; they suffer from a personal-fantasy-induced storyline – a story that nobody can enjoy except the author.

Basically, I agree with the OP. I think the only way to fix them would be to release an expansion where the pale tree turns into Mordremoth (or something equally as evil) – throwing the race itself into an existential crisis (issues such as procreation and the meaning of having your own identity and a real personality) and allowing to break free from their ponycornified identity.

Terrahero.9358:

1) Finishing someone of doesnt reveal the Stomper.

Actually, even though I don’t have a problem with stealth stomping – this does sound nice from a balance perspective: reveal the stomper after the stomp (make it count as an attack).

However, they usually don’t have much more time left after the stomp (1s – 2s tops from what I have seen); so it’s not a big issue.

Castaliea.3156:

If stealth stomping needs to be removed so does; [good stuff]

You get a +1 sir. You just see stealth stomps more often because it’s on of a thief’s job to roam and pick off lone players and break the back-lines – it only seems “silly” to do it on other classes because it isn’t really their job.

lordkrall.7241:

[…]

I had a response, but it seemed like I would joining in with arguing for the sake of arguing – so I deleted it. Now everyone seems to have. You have to love the internet.

Either way, I am not sure exactly what point you are trying to make. A lot of fantasy does use ley lines as an explanation, making it a cliche, making a weak story mechanic. Which means I have a point, do you have one?

Lord Trejgon.2809:

and maybe all folks here don’t understand well what exacly magic is?

The problem is that the interviewee doesn’t understand magic as far as GW lore goes – there may be many explanations for it (as far as general magic explanations, outside of GW, go), but a lot of it was nailed down in GW1 (and therefore we need to work with that, save retconning pretty much everything that was previously established) – and much of the pre-existing lore has been contradicted.

The bit where certain classes augment their physical fighting ability with magic is completely obvious, to the point where stating it indicates that the person is not entirely familiar with GW lore (or fantasy lore as whole, I am struggling to come up with a fantasy game where that is not the case). There are fighters people in GW with no magical abilities (the players are not allowed to play them), and non-magic classes do play a part in other games – but us players can visually see the difference between a person with magic (you) and those who do not (warrior NPCs, for example).

Some people having magic and others not is under the microscope here – it’s how outright ridiculous that interview is.

At first the most logical “who” would be sea pirates (of mixed culture). At some point us players with our good intentions would head over there and thank them for dealing with the biggest risks by slaying them – probably not in the GW2 era though.

Or Trahearne’s cleansing spell is some form of an area denial incantation and the Pale Tree’s objective has been claiming Orr for herself all along, due to the magical history and potential of the area. Again, likely not in GW2 era (or ever with the current happy-go-lucky story telling).

Orr:

We heard that a link exists between the ancient times’ four schools of magic (Preservation, Destruction, Denial, and Aggression) and the classes of the game.

Angel McCoy:

They have fallen out of style as people have realized that magic doesn’t need these kinds of limiting factors.

Wait wait wait, what the kitten? Of course it doesn’t bloody need these kind of limiting factors, it’s subject to them because of what Human Gods did to the Bloodstone.

Or have we just withnessed a retcon of some pretty central lore?

Either way that interview explains a lot; not much about the lore/story, but a lot none-the-less.

Angel McCoy:

ley lines

Really?!?! (look I know they are based in reality, but they are geographic features, not mystical ones). Next thing in GW2: Frostmourne, Conan, and Mickey Mouse.

Mikk:

“Friends and fellows. Due to recent (amazing!) reasoning by scholars of the Astronomagical Society, we are pleased to announce that we have added the five hidden days to our calendar year! That’s five extra days we’ve recognized for you to advance your work before the annual review. Gifts and gratitude are unnecessary. We merely acknowledged them officially; we did not create them. May all your projects be almost as successful as ours.”

Well that’s going to be a problem. If we are at ~ 1325AE it means that we are missing 6625 days; or 18 New Mouvelian Years, which means in order to correct that the need to announce that years 1307AE – 1325AE technically do no exist (which I am sure someone as smart as an Asuran would realise, because us lowly humans certainly did ). If you willy-nilly announce a calendar change in the middle of a year things get rather nasty. Also according to the wiki the seasons still only have 90 days each (summing up to 360), Mikk fails to explain how the new seasons would work (not that all that much is done according to the seasons in GW2). Are the extra 5 days going to be a new season all it’s own? (Which would actually be pretty cool as a festive season around our Christmas, from a practical point of view)

For the uneducated: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bloodstone

Gandarel.5091:

The Tree isn’t evil

We don’t know that – relatively little is known about the Sylvari (for obvious reasons: they are a young race). The Ventari’s Tablet has her “hardcoded” to do no evil, but I have previously explained that just like “I, Robot” those laws are subject to interpretation, especially as more time passes.

Back to the question.

At any rate, the Pale Tree is benevolent at the moment, and the current quality of story writing wouldn’t conceptualize one of the orders doing something so questionable that the Pale Tree would object to it. So as far as the current lore (and the quality of it there-of) goes and the the lore we should expect there is really no reason for the order to not trust the Pale Tree.

If we had a bit more darkness in the story then I doubt the order would have trusted the Pale Tree, especially because of the fact that they are a young race (and haven’t displayed any true motives of their own as yet). Blackmail or a coup would have been logical ways that we would have Sylvari in the order, in the real world.

One thing that we do see in the personal story which could explain it (but is a very weak explanation) is the continual spoon feeding of “my enemies’ enemy is my friend,” the order may be accepting Sylvari because they have a common goal. Whether they are sharing all of their knowledge is another issue entirely.

teg.1340:

You can solve ANY problem by just outmanning your opponent.

No you can’t . A competent thief will deal with two competent players, as they have a tactical advantage (that most use as a crutch). 90% of being competent is not burning a stealth ability cooldown on something as pointless as a death flourish when you can simply continue to DPS them (as you were before). Grouping up and taking advantage of idiots who stealth stomp is part of taking advantage of your enemies weaknesses. Them roaming in WvW killing players who complain instead of improving their game is them taking advantage of a weakness.

To be clear, I don’t have a thief, I don’t intend on making a thief and have never had a problem with death-stomping-thiefs. Every time I have been killed by a thief it was my own mistake.

Working as intended.

1. Put a “+” in team chat.
2. Find a party member. One will do.
3. Make sure both of you have a AOE knockback equipped.
4. Problem solved.

1. Put a “+” in team chat.
2. Find a party member. Make sure that party member has decent AOE (GS warriors come to mind).
3. AOE the area around your party member when they are getting stomped.
4. Thief is downed due to his own arrogance and false sense of security.
5. Problem solved.

1. Don’t run glass cannon builds.
2. Don’t get downed.
3. Problem solved.

Amins.3710:

World vs World is Dead.

No loot.

No Achievement Points.

No gear skins worth getting.

No chance of a Legendary.

No making of anything resembling anything close to what could be considered “decent coin”.

No new content.

Lots of unfulfilled promises.

Substandard quality server(s).

Amins.3710:

… but hey… they fixed the culling…

Fixed it for ya. The difference in lag between PvE and WvW this week is massive – my connection is a smooth as ice with 200-man-roflzergs in the living story yet somehow my character is jumping around WvW in ways that only Schwarzschild could explain, even when there are probably fewer than 100 people on the map (in total). I have effectively been forced to play PvE – which I guess was NC’s goal to be fair.

Kirschwasser.3972:

Why are “misguided good intentions” for six year olds? I would disagree and say that “evil for the sake of evil” is more for six year olds. That’s like every fairy tale/Cartoon villain ever. Misguided good intentions are more realistic, that’s almost the only kind of evil in the real world.

Real world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy
Cartoon heroes: have a purpose. Riches, fame, power, renown: just look at pretty-much any comic.

The reason I say it’s for six year olds is because it’s trying to justify their actions and make everything in the world alright again – the reality is that there are a lot of things wrong in the world. Stories don’t seem real when they blatantly ignore that fact (which is, sadly, very much the case in the GW2 lore). It’s why we hate Trahearne so much: he is just to valiant to be true – perfection upsets us. Every great story has has a flaw in the hero, all the way back to Achilles and his heel.

The reason that, say, Dr. House or Dexter are such beloved characters is because they embody many of our darker traits that we would prefer to ignore (but are there), therefore we can associate with them and we don’t like that, therefore we have a deep hatred for them which intrigues us: drawing us into the story and encouraging emotional involvement in that story. Hence the term “love hate”.

The best characters are more of a psychological exploration than “justified in a twisted way” or actually just bad (yeah, I am contradicting myself, I explained it poorly first time round). What ANet would do well to explore is “what if you had a psychopath or sociopath in a magical world.” They need to drop the Sylvari LS arcs because it seems as though they do not have the capability to be psychopaths – Sylvari are incredibly boring from a human story telling perspective.

Amanda Whitemoon.6173:

she is huge

In two senses: she is a bit of a porker (at least according to her face portrait) – which is extremely unlike nearly (or every?) other Sylvari NPC. I am not sure if you can create a bigger boned Sylvari as your character.

Amanda Whitemoon.6173:

is it really stated she is a sylvari?

She is made out of leaves and stuff visually. Me agreeing that she might be a mesmer has been shot down (for good reason), but I am still seeing it as a remote possibility. After playing the playground I see it is even more remote: but still there. Mesmers are “deceptionists” after all.

Amanda Whitemoon.6173:

you now what first hit me as strange, i think she is one of the few, maybe only one with a last name.

A cursory glance at: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Sylvari confirms “the only one” except for, obviously, Pale Tree. Some of them have titles, which aren’t technically part of their name.

Maybe “Scarlet” is her title/rank? Scarlet is a common dye. Maybe the next character will be a Ruby, Wrath or Cinnamon. Mmmm… Cinnabons. Or, most likely, I am talking crap.

Or maybe she isn’t actually a Sylvari in the first place?

Good observation none-the-less.

Excellent idea!

Remember that joining a commander squad will hide all other commander icons on the map (right click the commander on the map and select “Join Squad”), allowing you to identify that commander through exclusion.

If you do join a commander remember to type something in “/d” (squad chat) so that the commander knows not to flag off (which I do while I am checking the map for the next event I need to help with).

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

head over to an invasion spot that needs more people. Often I’d see two players vastly out numbered

Indeed. I immediately flag off when the event ends so that there is no commander tag on the map while I am deciding where to go next. Often I arrive and see no players and proceed with the freedom charge (and subsequently repair costs).

Although I do rarely command in PvE.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

focus on keeping the other players alive. I revive people, I heal them, I cleanse their conditions

As well as call out achievements starting AND ENDING around my icon (in this case, champions). Agreed though, I spend most of my time attuned to water and ressing because PvE players sometimes have squishier builds (nothing wrong with that).

I really wonder if commanders are required for this event though, apart from making the obvious mistakes (doing e.g. molten alliance events when the portion of the invasion is complete) people would probably spread themselves out on the map quite nicely without our guidance. Something like the gauntlet needs a commander because of the “down-time” that you sometimes get between the champs (so you need a karma train commander), or when there are many events (the commander can choose between them and draw the zerg there).

sostronk.8167:

If your a good commander, your not using regular flame rams.

Exactly. Nor are you letting one of the most defensible positions on the BL fall to 5-8 people, especially if it’s upgraded to T3 (highly likely if you have a lot of broke players on your server).

insanemaniac.2456:

if youre a good commander, you know how to choose between the 2

True, however, as a good commander who is probably escorting dollys when not flagged on, it’s highly likely that using them responsibly is still going to kill your bank.

Swamurabi.7890:

Regular flame rams are built with Flame Ram Blueprints, which can be bought from a Siege Master for either 6s or 6 badges.

The link was to “Superior Flame Ram” which costs nothing near to 6s/6b; which you would know if… never mind.

The skills points you need to craft them drop from champs now, I hear those are everywhere in PvE. Once again “WvW go broke or PvE get rich”.

The elephant in the room is obviously Tybalt – everyone I talked to was really fond of him. I was dreading the Claw Island battle because, for once, I was enjoying the company of an NPC.

I enjoyed Forgal’s company quite a bit. I’m not sure why – the character writing wasn’t too great. I guess I really did believe that he was dependable. Maybe the fact that his character was largely uninteresting was within character and consistent – you knew exactly what how far he would go and you got nothing more or nothing less.

Sieran had some serious consistency issues. Sacrificing herself at Claw Island was completely out of character and that didn’t bode well with me at all, which contrasts strongly with Forgal and Tybalt because I really do believe they would be type to do that and/or wouldn’t have mad that decision flippantly.

Gixx was enjoyable – he was very clearly Asuran but had some interesting personality ticks that had nothing to do with the Asuran status-quo (a good example is “The Ghost Rite” dialogue).

Zhaitan seemed like it had some interesting personality traits (e.g. some creative and psychotic evil during “Estate of Decay”), but you never really interacted with it – and 80% of it’s plans were extremely stereotypical, which is still better than 100%. Still there was some potential there (which was sadly never explored) and I felt I wanted to know more about that character.

The problem with nearly all the villains (sans any directly associated with the dragons) is that they are all incredibly naive and cutesy – they all have explanations for their actions and thought they were doing no overall harm. Misguided good intentions are the type of villains I expect from stories you tell your 6 year old child at bed time.

Tyria needs a psychopath who is doing bad things because they are genuinely want to do bad things, really hurt people and ruin lives in unpredictable and inhumane ways – so that we really feel like we achieved something when we put them down: no “I just want to play” (Scarlet Briar), no “I’m just getting revenge” (Canach) and no “it’s my purpose” (Zhaitan) – someone us players would continue to feel uneasy about when we stop playing and go to bed.

Swamurabi.7890:

I find it hard to believe that someone on the 4th most populated WvW server in NA is losing money.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/21263

The cost of being a commander far exceeds the cost of the badge, and if you are a helpful/zealous WvW player yours will be close to that cost.

If you are brainlessly running around in zergs, then sure, I would find that hard to believe – but that clearly isn’t the case with the OP and most of the people on this thread.

I’m not disagreeing with you, but offering some friendly advice.

Even though this is a game the reality is war does cost money – instead of being a victim to the current WvW loot problem dedicate a tiny amount of time to PvE war funds each week. If, for example, before stepping into WvW each day you did a really quick CoF P1 run you would net 2g or so in total (this shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes).

I’m not saying “then play PvE noob”, I am saying that sometimes war needs funding and PvE is one way to do that – in a way minuscule amounts of PvE form part of an effective war effort. If you find yourself buying a lot of superior siege offset that cost with a little (and be disciplined about that) PvE farming.

But WvWers do need better rewards, I couldn’t agree more – just don’t be a complacent victim while you wait for ANet to sort it out.

Something to remember (which is fairly well known), conditions are generally dreadful against:

• Roamers – very often have cleansing, or have enough vitality that they can deal with a fair amount of conditions. You will need a build that can effectively bait them into creating an opening for your primary condition (by tricking them into cleansing ones you don’t care about).
• Organised Guilds – forget about conditions, organised guilds don’t have cooldown problems (as the cooldown is spread over many players) and can cleanse conditions all day long.

In general conditions don’t offer much in WvW, except when you hit a run-of-the-mill PUG zerg: om nom nom nom. If you have a condition-heavy build (such as this Confusion mesmer ) you will annihilate PUG zergs – but everything else will have you for breakfast (including the WvW NPCs).

Memphisjz.1405:

Just another day of FS WvW reporting (See Attachment).

P.S. Thanks FIRE for letting TUP fight us first (AoA, back at your spawn) instead of just rolling us over with your forces combined!

That would have been [LAND] + friends. We assumed GvGs were going on so decided to go candyzerg other things. I have video footage of it waiting to be uploaded.

BrunoBRS.5178:

everything points towards her being an engineer that happens to be very good with portals (which are not a mesmer exclusive, with the right tools)

By the same logic neither are rifles off-limits to mesmers: she has done a lot of mesmer-like magic (nothing outright mesmer though) which gives credence to her being a mesmer.

Another possibility is that, having witnessed the Eternal Alchemy, she is aware of some workaround for the splitting of the Bloodstone and has limited capabilities to be multi-disciplinary. That’s a long-shot though.

DarcShriek.5829:

Asurans have been known to claim other’s peoples work as theirs. I wouldn’t accept the infinity ball revelations as truth until verified.

Good point. I’ll clarify that in the infographic – the theory still applies regardless of who invented it (although a clarification about that would give us a lot more to work with in terms of the core concepts of this theory – especially if it isn’t the Asuran You).

BuddhaKeks.4857:

1. She is called Scarlet Briar, not Blade. [snip] I don’t recall any rank ever given to her.

I assume that silly typo was only in my post? I looked over the infographic and didn’t see it. It wasn’t the rank that was important, rather the idea that she isn’t the commander/person at the top.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

2. Dessa is from the past[snip]

Thanks for the peer review, I won’t be adding the bit about her in that case (as you are right, it is irrelevant).

I’ll post an updated infographic after some more feedback. I removed enough about her that I am no longer happy that the two concepts may be related (at the same time they have to be because of the infinity ball which is really tied into the concept of the mists, I just can’t come up with a better way to explain it).

Disclaimer: If you see anything blatantly wrong or idiotic feel free to explain the reason and I will update the infographic. Corrections on typos etc. are also welcome, as are further additions that could fit in with any of my explanations.

This is some stuff that has been swirling around in my head regarding the living story and how they all tie up. It occurred to me that ANet might be telling a story where you are given different plots along the way and they all really only fit together at the end (for example, The Fight Club). Some of the stories have started to come together in my head, and this is an attempt to put those ideas in concrete form.

A few core concepts:

• Scarlet Briar was involved with the whole living story so far, likely behind it (even if she isn’t the person at the top).
• I have a few other hypothesis of mine – after all this is speculation, so I assume that all of my ideas are wrong – so I explore other possibilities.

Each character has multiple explanations (e.g. “Manelovent Scarlet Briar”).

Draft 1: http://i.imgur.com/ybzB4Qv.png
Some inspiration drawn from:

• WoodenPotatoes
• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/The-Uncategorized-fractal-and-Proxemics-lab/first#post2655348
• Vodka

Gandarel.5091:

If his body is just a shell and he can rebuild that, why did he do that beneath a sunken peninsula? omg..

Because that sunken peninsula had a surplus of corpses.

I don’t really know what to think. The theory that dragons are mere impressions of the presence magic (like shadows in terms of actual light) has solid theoretic foundations – but that theory has literally zero cannon lore backing it up.

Hypothetically (nothing to do with lore, but from what I understand of the physics of Tyria) if dragons could be killed, nature would be forced to find another solution to maintaining the magical equilibrium – violent and dangerous rifts into the mists come to mind. I strongly doubt we will ever get to see that far into the lore though – although, having likely killed one dragon we might start seeing some of the effects. Hmmm: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/clockwork-chaos-guide/

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

You can’t travel through time and space, and then take a course on how to travel through time and space. That is not the right order.

Read my post again. None of my assumptions are subject to that paradox (nor did I actually say that):

Scarlet Briar from the future: has already learnt the spacetime travel within her timeline.
Scarlet Briar from another space: different events leading to her learning the information sooner in her spaceline; such as having access to more complete research regarding the infinity ball (because “you as the Asuran” continued with the research, or because Sodd did the research in secret from the start)
Scarlet Briar from our spacetime: has already learnt it already (in secret – considering she would have had access to the device) and has visited the future or another space – has become sympathetic with their malevolent plans and has allied with them, or has seen a bleak future and is doing all of this in an attempt to prevent it from happening (an interactive prophecy, if you will).

How else would you explain the steam creatures working with Scarlet Briar? (we have no hard evidence about the Molten Alliance or the Aetherblades, so they don’t have this logical issue yet) The steam creatures are certainly NOT from our space and/or time (hard evidence during the infinity ball story, once again) – so she has had to interact with their creator/leader in order to attain their alliance (provided that they are real).

I personally don’t trust the Sylvari. Through the dream they are imbued with something similar to Asimov’s 3 laws (in this case the Ventari tablet), you [should] know how those three laws worked out – so a race with superior intelligence can interpret those laws and find a loophole.

We don’t know whether all Sylvari have this intellectual capability and that the case is merely that Scarlet Briar is the only one who has flaunted it. I strongly doubt that [genetically] The Firstborn are superior as there is no direct evidence of that, on the contrary it is indicated that it is just a system of control (born out of wisdom, which is distinct to intellectual capability).

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

It’s safe to assume she’s from this world

Scarlet Briar is in the unique position where she is a mesmer (masters of illusion and reality) who has intricate knowledge of Asuran technology (portals, including ones to the mists). She is shown to have ties with both The Molten Alliance and the steam creatures, most likely the one who was pulling the strings regarding their actions (she might not be the “big boss” though) – this means that she might have come from the alternate reality revealed in the infinity ball Asuran personal story (where our Scarlet Briar may not be using that pseudonym, may have been abducted or may have been killed). This ties in nicely with my previous idea of the Ventari’s Tablet being open to interpretation as the Sylvari on that side of the portal may have had more time to ponder it (as it is suggested that the other side of the portal is further in the future, unclear if it is ‘our’ future).

The alternative is that she was able to visit that reality and was recruited by the characters in that time/space-line. Alternatively, she might have visited that reality and saw that something must be done to prevent it from happening in ours and is, as such, acting in a benevolent manner (even though we, with our limited knowledge, see it as malevolent) – that fails to explain why the steam creatures are working with her (they could be illusions though).

Assumptions are all we have – ANet purposefully leave this stuff open-ended, so it doesn’t hurt to throw ideas around.

I have some plans for an infographic explaining my perspective of all of this. A lot have said the living story as chaotic and disorganized, and have criticized it for that – but I am starting to see many parallels (mostly with the help of watching WoodenPotato’s videos), similar to one of those movies or books that make no sense up until the very end (The Fight Club comes to mind as one example).

Asimov’s 3 laws: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

Edit: Wherever I indicate her allies, add The Aetherblade as well – oops.
Edit 2: Somewhat unrelated to the OP, but related to my post is Countess Anise providing Rytlock as the Charr illusion during Thackery’s watch knight fight. She could be doing the same thing to us during this part of the living story.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

(plus, it seems pretty obvious with the dragon champions and Zhaitan that they’ve lost the “not typical dragon” appearance. Well, somewhat on Zhaitan – he’s more like "half of a typical dragon with a hydra mouth).

From what I understand Zhaitan is a lich – one body composed of many (dragon bodies in this case). You might have noticed the two dragons (sans heads) that his tail comprised of when it was shot off by the MEGA-LIT cannon (you can clearly see the wings and the dragon-like shape to them) – his hydra mouths are likely the heads of some of the dragons that it comprises of. Think Frankestein’s Monster; only magical, not scientific.

Which makes him likely the most bad-kitten dragon in any game lore I have ever come across.

https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/369938305133346816

Same, Auroraglade. Game lost connection to the login server when I attempted to change maps. My friend is still in, sitting next to me – seems like it happens when you change zones or try to log in.

Combining a farming world event with a F2P weekend might have not been the best idea.

AndrewSX.3794:

Banner lord is ok imo.

There should be tho

a) a “CD” on it.

Problem solved. Lord gets 30 stacks of:

One Foot in the Grave 6 seconds

• Stacks duration
• Cannot be resurrected with abilities
• Resurrect abilities removes one stack

Effectively 3 minutes of resurrection invulnerability – but that duration can be whittled down by wasting res abilities on the lord.

Similar to defiant: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defiant

Yes yes yes.

Instead of making it account wide you could also make it a lot faster to WXP-level your alts:

Character A: 200 rank (~1000000 WXP)
Character B: 30 rank (~150000 WXP)
Rate adjustment: 10 SM captures to match your highest level character (this is continually adjusted so that it is ‘always’ 10 SM captures away). The rate adjustment would never fall below 1×.
Calculation: It can be shown that character B would need to capture 1134 stonemists to catch up at the normal rate ( (1000000 – 150000) / 750 = 1134 ) and therefore would earn WXP at 114 times the rate (1134 / 10). We round up because you can’t get ‘1/2’ stonemist captures – it’s all or nothing.

Assuming I now went and captured a tower (naturally 300 WXP) with B, I would get 300 * 114 WXP resulting in gaining 34200 WXP (6.8 ranks). Applying the same booster calculation would mean that I would now be earning WXP at 108 times the rate, so if I immediately attacked another tower I would only get 21600 WXP (4.3 ranks).

This has multiple advantages.

Firstly, it’s a quick-route to levelling an alt in rank-terms, but still gives the player the opportunity to learn how that character works in WvW.

Secondly, for players levelling alts, it encourages aggressive play. Killing players etc. is wasting the boost that you get – this will encourage players to get out of their towers/away from their arrow carts and start attacking positions instead. Zergs would be penalized (once again, only if levelling alts) unless that zerg is doing something constructive.

Thoughts?

Edit: A quick calculation shows that you B would match A in 130 tower captures (with 1000200 WXP), or 662 player kills (with 1000020 WXP).
Edit: the boost rate should also be affected by character level. So at level 2 you would get 2/80 the boost rate (2.5% of 114x = 2.85x).

If you can’t land the immobilize he is dodging it. Try and bait dodges (by hitting him with scary-looking abilities that your build doesn’t care about) until you drain his stamina (which would be two consecutive dodges).

If they are using an invulnerability skill (e.g. mist form) they won’t be affected by any conditions applied during the invulnerability effect – you will need to wait for it to wear off.

If he is removing it after you have applied it you will need to try and get all of his conditional removal abilities on cooldown by baiting those abilities with conditions that you don’t care about. This might be impossible to do (e.g. a shout guardian with http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pure_of_Voice) and you will need to resort to plain old dueling.

Basically conditions aren’t great in WvW and you shouldn’t build your character around conditions only – condition are a bonus in WvW that you shouldn’t rely on.

Or just build toughness/vitality + power/precision and smack him in the face until he dies.

My toughness/healing ele brings a lot to the table in dungeons – the continuous regen etc. provided ensures that the party remains topped-up on health.

Summoned weapons are an effective counter for that compromise, especially flaming axe, lightning sword and, of course, flaming greatsword – once in a while I am able to contribute to the DPS quite nicely. Most eles only really take notice of frost bow, which has [by my experience] much less damage than the other summoned weapons – so if you are feeling that your tankier build isn’t really doing any damage experiment with the other summoned weapons (not to mention the awesome mobility they offer).