Guild Wars 2

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Anyways, in actual seriousness, my bet is on Mordremoth

But but but you reprimanded me for mentioning EDs with the LS . Still ANet have gone against what they said regarding that and Taimi does mention dragons – probably because of the forum warriors demanding dragons.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

If it did influence her, trying to corrupt her, and it is an Elder Dragon, then it 1) cannot be Zhaitan (he be dead), 2) Tower of Nightmares. Giant plant and poison?…

3) EDs cannot physically corrupt Sylvari; but we have had debates about mental corruption a few times on the lore forum.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Zhaitan. Tequatl’s power boost was said to tie into the Living World. Though said to be dead, how can everyone really be sure?

Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead! I couldn’t resist either. Either way the magic leaking out of Zhaitan’s corpse is still corrupt and if Scarlet was dilly-dallying with it; it could have done something to her.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The DSD. She had to get those obelisks from the DSD’s territory. How?

But she was loopy before that, so there’s a chronological issue. However, knowledge gained from one of the other EDs could have given her the tools/knowledge required to [relatively] safely extract the obelisks from DSD’s territory – so it does make sense in that regard.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

that’s because ArenaNet seems to be avoiding demons of that sense

We have asked for darker storylines compared to the current Happy Tree Friends stories: demons would certainly fit that requirement. This patch has shown that us forum warriors can make a difference. I guess we will have to wait and see if we will get more Happy Tree Friends or if we will get The Depths. Both could work given the current evidence – it depends entirely what ANet have planned.

You’re kidding? Nailed it!

zamalek.2154:

If she’s not a demon there is the possibility she could have been corrupted by one (maybe the experiment connected her mind to a demon which shared the hallucination/lie with her?).

Veydar.5017:

Does anyone know what removes the Powder Kegs? We managedto stack 20 once but for some reason after that we couldn’t even get above 6, they vanished too fast

Mobs. Have AOE players clearing the area.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

What’s your current quest step? If it’s still on the “Read your mail” step, logging out and back in again should resend the mail.

Also, wait until the game acknowledges that you have read the message: I have had this issue myself in the past (and Jeffrey’s suggestion fixed it) – it was caused by being too trigger-happy with the delete button.

A Sylvari and a Farmer are walking down the road.
The Farmer says: “Hey Sylvari, I was thinking we should open a restaurant!”
Sylvari replies: “Hm, maybe, what would we call it?”
The Farmer responds: “How about ‘tea-n-scones’?”
The Sylvari thinks for a moment and says: “No thanks. I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved!”

FlamingFoxx.1305:

It would take far too much processing power to ensure that they all thumped at the same time across every single map across every single server.

You could synchronize it with the server clock and simply have the client offset the animation. Still, that’s an implementation detail and I don’t think it’s actually important whether they are visually synchronized.

It’s the intent that matters: “according to the lore are they synchronized?” Or rather “according to the lore is their timing important?” For example, in blasting (mining) a technique called wavefront reinforcement is used – this is where the timing of the explosives is carefully timed so that the wavefront from the first explosion is amplified by the secondary/tertiary/etc. explosions. The purpose here could be similar (a long-shot) – the question is where the epicenter of the wavefronts would be.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I am now picturing a series of great wurms … swarming across Tyria…

The spice, er, magic must flow. Maybe Scarlet is tripping balls on Melange – which would explain everything.

Thalador.4218:

About the Elder Star Dragon: … and mostly benevolent in nature.

Right, due to it’s non-terrestrial nature the Elder Star Dragon (getting tired of typing Elder Star Dragon so I am going to run with “Sparkles”) wouldn’t have an investment in the ebb and flow of magic on the planet. However that raises another question – why would Sparkles even care what happens on the planet? Sparkles could have made the 5 day adjustment but that wouldn’t nessecarily have to be malevolent or benevolent (nor would Sparkles have to have either of those natures) – the dragon lives in so much of a larger realm that our actions (and the other ED’s actions) would likely be entirely inconsequential; unless ANet makes our actions matter (e.g. “Super Ley Lines” that connect the plants in the solar system that we have disturbed by killing Zhaitan); but ANet haven’t mentioned a Star Elder Dragon and therefore I doubt we would get official lore :P . Still, I really REALLY like the idea.

Orpheal.8263:

In 250 years can happen alot, even such tiny revolutions like that the time calculations for a year get “corrected”

It was never explained in a sensible manner such as the one you present. It was simply retconned in the retcon interview of retconning retcons :

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.

So now you see why Konig is in a bad mood. I really like the Star Elder Dragon explanation – it just needs to be toned down a bit from “doomsday” to “yet another ED to kill.”

I might be a little grateful that there is no official attempt at a reasonable explanation because it would have invariably gone something like this: “Scarlet (or some as-yet unnamed Sylvari)…

I’m not sure if this is actually a sensible expenditure of my ArenaNet support points (a.k.a gems).

Current price: 150 gems.

What would you all consider fair?

My opinion: 15 gems.

8. She’s was replaced by a demon during the The Eternal Alchemy experiment. ( https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Theorycrafting-on-Scarlet/page/5#post3498414 )
9. Her mind was corrupted (mind-warp) by a demon during the The Eternal Alchemy experiment. ( http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rukkassa / https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Theorycrafting-on-Scarlet/3499395 )
10. She is something to do with a demon that has not been explained in the lore yet.

Her behaviour is EXACTLY word-for-word in line with what a demon (according to GW lore) behaves like. Edit: Er, http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Demon

The other problem is that the sellers are usually stolen accounts – these have a good chance of having more than 100 AP.

The real solution is to permaban the sellers, and slap anyone who bought (received gold) from them with a 2 month tempban (as well as subtracting the gold from their account, even if they have already spent it and it sends them into the negatives).

Rym.1469:

mature content

Sieran died!

GW1 lore is where it was at; I don’t know what they changed their approach – it was fine as it was.

I heard Trahearne courted Ceara when they were much younger.

We know how it ended.

The best way to get rid of thieves is to kill them. If you kill them they have to run back to you from the WP.

Seriously though, if you can catch a thief off-guard with a well-placed stealth trap their reaction is absolutely priceless and completely makes up for all the injustice that they have dealt you.

Fenrir.3609:

People have ascended. So it is an issue.

I have never owned zerker gear but I still can’t help but agree with this (once again, a balanced build saves me from stress). I think exotics could also be expensive for those who don’t know how to play the gold game (or farmed the wrong dungeons #cough# CoF #cough# for tokens).

shimmerless.4560:

Why people want to bring down the only risk/reward set in the game is beyond me.

Keep in mind that a sympathize with the zerker crowd – however in some cases zerker is ridiculously low risk compared to other builds. If you want a really good example look no further than The Howling King.

Someone said the problem is PvE, not zerker, and I think I might agree with them. There are far too many mechanics that are viable for being broken by pure DPS – most of the time it’s the bad/cheap/dirty mechanics that get broken/fixed. This is why dungeon meta is zerker – it’s a way to avoid the bullkitten cheese with nearly all of the bosses.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

It feels more like blatant fan-service to me.

I don’t know. It’s not like we are privy to their #cough# interactions. I seems to me as there are two possibilities:

• The most likely case is it’s been over a year since that story was written.
• If you do truly believe that it is being overdone then the much more likely case is that someone is a overzealous activist and is overdoing an agenda.

Honestly it’s nothing special. I do find it strange that they have to specifically call out their orientation unless it is actually going to be relevant to the story; that is, unless the combination of these two things becomes important:

• Xukavi.4320 > if the part “it will sting, but brings me joy” is referring to herself.
• Kasmeer has been stung by the toxin already.

In that case the relationship would be setting up a very interesting interaction: considering that Maj/Kas could have been released as females before the plans to have Maj lose her love partner, man or woman, to Scarlet – if that is now actually the plan.

Nike.2631:

Please do. I’m more interested in nailing down what a Player-Proposal-Compiler is supposed to be trying to accomplish than in actually being one …

I was very impressed that you quite possibly made room for every suggestion that was in scope of the thread. Good job Nike, looking forward to seeing the proposal after you learn what you need to do instead.

That being said, the ideas we all came up with for Nike’s first draft sound incredibly exciting – I think we can all pat ourselves on the back.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

@Zamalek: The issue is that demons don’t corrupt. They’re anarchists and opportunists who just seek to bring chaos.

I wasn’t clear on that one – that’s why I left it open to her being a demon herself (my original edit only had her as a demon until I gave it more thought): again – unlikely. What I am trying to get at though is that she is acting awfully a lot like a GW demon – how to explain it I am not sure.

juno.1840:

Imagine the marketing boon that is an expansion announcement along with supporting media. Giant ancient dragon ftw! They announced GW2 itself years before release (not months, not one year, not two years… many years).

/nods

juno.1840:

could be a single new zone

Technically that is a big project and is a possibility – but, I have the standpoint that they would want to see a better distribution of players through the existing zones before adding a new one (that’s my gut feel). I am expecting a lot more content like Tequatl and Wurm before we see any new maps added to the game.

Galen Grey.4709:

bigger stuff.

And does “bigger stuff” explicitly means “expansion”? No. It could, but it doesn’t reliably mean that. I happen to lean on the probably not because I am a pragmatist, but this thread is wildly out of control thinking an expansion is definitely coming.

• bigger stuff could mean more sPvP modes
• bigger stuff could mean Edge of the Mists
• bigger stuff could mean stuff only relevant to Asia/China
• bigger stuff could mean horizontal/vertical progression and results from the CDI.
• bigger stuff could mean engine improvements.

Galen Grey.4709:

Those are all things that you will see in the lifespan of Guild Wars 2

Emphasis mine. 1 year later is hardly lifespan, not by a massive longshot.

Galen Grey.4709:

They said they might release the new content through the living story instead of a paid expansion but they never said they’re not going to do it. Never ever!

I never said “never ever,” I said very likely it’s far too soon for this type of stuff given ANet’s very firm stance on it.

If you need to convince yourself that March is definitely an expansion, then by all means go ahead – but at no point have they said that’s definitive meaning of what they said in the interview. Everyone keeps reinforcing this lie; and what’s going to invariably happen is everyone is going to forget that it one massive delusion you all set up and rage about how ANet didn’t live up to the promise of an expansion.

Look at it this way, if an expansion was coming why wouldn’t they just go ahead and say it’s coming? By this stage they would be dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s if it was an expansion and would easily be able to say “we are aiming for March.” It would make sense for them to say it’s coming so that the playerbase could ramp up in preparation for it. They haven’t. Stop deluding yourselves.

Come talk to me this December and I’ll probably be singing a different tune entirely.

Vol.7601:

tldr: expansion in summer

You are going to be disappointed in summer.

We need to stop setting ourselves up with false expectations that ANet never indicate. The last we heard from them regarding the content expansions is “no classical expansions, just Living World.” (Remember “Living World” is distinct from “Living Story,” LW is the concept, LS was the first attempt at an implementation) March may bring quality-of-life expansions (that would be complete rebalancing, some more horizontal/vertical progression, etc.) but don’t get your hopes up about EDs, Tengu and maps (I am only expecting these when I actually see other players in Timberline Falls).

Next thing we know, in March, there is a thread up here saying that “you broke your promise ANet.” Be very clear – the only thing that they have promised is “big changes.”

Rod.6581:

Difficult? – Yes.
Impossible? – No.
Would we bear with their mistakes while they improve this feat? – Yes.
Would players like it? – Probably. I would.
Could ANet earn some extra money with this? – Yes. On style.

Currently I am not aware of any tech in the game that provides structure deformation (WvW fortified positions are rather simple if you look at the implementation of it – each wall is a single entity that is damaged/destroyed as as whole). Source: from watching the PvP livestreams where the map editor is demonstrated and watching how things actually work in the game. Ship combat comes with tricky territory – blowing holes in your enemies’ ships is a pretty important mechanic and sadly I don’t think the GW tech supports this. My gut feel (having dealt with mesh deformation/soft body physics before) is that this wouldn’t be cheap to implement at all.

Ships are invulnerable with mounted cannons and players can fire upon each other

• Difficult: no.
• Would this live up to your expectations: definitely not.
• Would players like it: from a sPvP perspective, maybe.

Ships are made up of hundreds of entities each with their own health, enough entities destroyed means your ship sinks

• Possible: yes.
• Difficult: maybe. Depends on how expensive the damage/AOE checks currently are.
• Would this live up to your expectations: the community would probably be quite divided.
• Would players like it: maybe. They may enjoy it more if it was presented as a temporary LS map. Keeping it permanent would eventually expose the fact that it’s a hacked up solution.

As the book describes it

• Possible: yes. Battlefield 4 does it with their buildings (conceptually there is no difference between a building and a ship).
• Expensive: very very very expensive in terms of both time and money.
• Qualifies as a complete game concept on it’s own: yes.
• GW2 timeframe: extremely unlikely.
• Recommendation: play Arche Age.

Bit of a strange discussion to have in the Lore forum, seems more like a suggestion.

Another concept I would like to throw out there is demons. I was just reading the GW1 wiki page on them and some of the text really did pop out at me. Keep in mind that I know that there are a lot of counterarguments to this – but it is interesting none-the-less. If she’s not a demon there is the possibility she could have been corrupted by one (maybe the experiment connected her mind to a demon which shared the hallucination/lie with her? Please don’t link this concept to the voiceover in the latest video, ANet have already dismissed that).

The Guild Wars Nightfall Manuscripts

dimensions alien to the physical world, sentient entities scheme of ways to enter the realm of flesh

This would explain her fascination with portals and teleportation (given that some portals connect to the mists). Either she’s trying to bring in a bigger demon army, or her demon master/corrupter is trying to get her to create one so it can enter reality.

The Guild Wars Nightfall Manuscripts

dreaming of the havoc they can wreak. … feast on suffering, despair, and the vital energy of intelligent creatures.

The Guild Wars Nightfall Manuscripts

more than willing to enter into arrangements that allow them to routinely prey on humans and other foolish living creatures.

This explains all of her actions so far – specifically her fascination with Kryta and Jennah. If she is a demon it may also [imaginatively] explain why races such as the Krait were willing to get into cahoots with her (“hey guis, I/my master totally know your Prophets in the mists – we/they hang out together at the sacrificial pit and stuff”).

The Guild Wars Nightfall Manuscripts

They are also ruthlessly intelligent

You don’t say…

The Guild Wars Nightfall Manuscripts

Whether they appear as monstrous humanoids, … they share many of the same aspirations: the strong consume or dominate the weak, reveling in their feasts and victimization.

This would partially explain her physical appearance. While she is definitely is Sylvari she does have some strange characteristics for a Sylvari (those ears).

Another interesting aspect to this whole angle is if you [very liberally/thematically] compare the artwork of the Twisted Watchwork creatures with Stygian creatures and Torment creatures (and more apparently the theme around the naming).

Furthermore, let’s not forget she talked about these phrases from The Metronome: “There’s a secret deep below to find” (the Deep), “A fire is rising you cannot contain” (typical hell/demon theme), “Tyria will burn” (again hell/demon themes).

Counter argument!

Bellyboomer.3048:

Evolved husk in CoE <=>

Emphasis mine. One assumes they could have even done the same thing with a human using ED magic (or slimes, which Subject Alpha seems to form from).

Chokolata.1870:

slithering warrior beast

Chokolata.1870:

RAWR!

Your punishment will be singing Old Mac Donald Had a Farm 6000 times.

1) Tengu
2) Skritt

Chaotic Storm.2815:

Anyone who did that story was jumping for joy when we were getting 3-4 exotic weapons and armors and a very good chance at a precursor. If we had more chests like that poping up ever now and then I imagine people won’t be so sore about how hard it is to get 1.

If everyone has super-powers then nobody is a super hero.

People on my server have a knack for acquiring legendaries (and by requirement precursors) and I see them so kitten ed often that I have absolutely no interest in getting one for myself. They aren’t anything special at all. If ANet made precursors drop like you are implying then all servers would have this problem.

No thanks. Things are precious because they are scarce.

Darkobra.6439:

You don’t need to exploit to beat it and exploits SHOULD be fixed. It’ll make you a better player in the long-run.

QFT.

Exactly why I pitched in this thread. I have actually only done P1 and P3 – legitimately, with friends – and really enjoyed the challenge of the Lupi fight (contrary to those false accusations regarding my agenda). Imagine someone new to the dungeon missing out on that challenge because everyone exploits/skips Lupi (I haven’t PUGged Arah, but I would imagine people do pressure each other into exploiting – just like the old AC).

castle.3689:

There’s no difference between…

I had another reply; honestly though, this discussion is pointless. By extending your logic much further even activities such as murder are acceptable.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

HykCraft.4610:

Guild Wars 2 Dungeons = stacking in a corner to win the game.

Do you blame this on people doing maximum possible damage or poor enemy AI?

Both, plus cheap and frustrating mechanics if you attempt to do it legitimately.

Take a look at the Howling King and the prime example of cheap mechanics – the chances of intentionally kiting the gravelings into the fire are slim at best, 95% of the time they sit there and stare at you until the fire despawns – now that you are sitting in the middle of absolutely bloody nowhere they stagger their attacks to ensure that you run short of endurance and stun breakers. Next thing you know you are dead on the floor and someone is making their way over to res you and draw aggro for attempting to do so. All you can do at this point is stare at horror at your screen – all the gravelings are staring at your would-be savior. Your other party members crawl up into little balls and start muttering about Cthulhu. Your hopes of finishing the dungeon start leaking from your eyes like liquid pain, the song of beserker gear runners will extinguish the voices of mortal man from the sphere I can see it can you see it it is beautiful the final snuffing of the lies of Man ALL IS LOST ALL IS LOST to R’lyeh the pony he comes he comes he comes the ichor permeates to all MY FACE MY FACE h god no NO NOOOO N stop the mobs are not real ZALG IS TO THE PONY HE COMES

Or you could just run beserker stats and stack in a corner.

Edit: why you no unicode ANet?

drkn.3429:

Yes, you should roll a warrior and try to duplicate it, only to see how exactly it works in practice and understand you simply were unlucky

nod – I have a warrior that I frequently play and I never use the rifle. Besides the rare kill shot; the DPS and utility on that weapon is dreadful. Just look at the other skills on it for a second: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rifle Also remember that warriors need to be quite glassy in order to get the silliest of damage numbers for that one ability. The player likely heard about it and decided to troll for a bit; he’ll be back at your throat with his PvT gear, paralyzation sigil and hammer tomorrow – don’t worry.

It would be a problem if we saw it all the time: which we certainly don’t.

castle.3689:

And this is any different from skipping Kholer in AC, how? Kholer is placed in the middle of the dungeon, as is Lupicus, the only difference is the manner in skipping the former is more obvious.

Not sure if trolling.

Kohler kills reward the party with an additional WP and some crappy loot. Skipping Kohler is technically possibly by running straight past him, ignoring his aggro, running over a bridge that is always open, running through an archway that is always open and continuing through the dungeon. Players can avoid his aggro so as to not have an unfortunate accident with his pull ability. There is no glitching or unofficial jumping puzzles required.

Bonus event. Same as Lupi in Paths 1 and 2.

Paths 3 and 4 Arah have this giant closed door (you really can’t miss it) that is intended to physically block your progress through the dungeon. It is designed to only open once you have killed Lupi.

Required event. People use glitches in order to avoid fighting Lupi in paths 3 and 4 – which is in direct violation of:

Zhaitan.2578:

Arenanet made an official statement that dungeon selling is allowed as long as the content wasn’t exploited, yet people do it every day.

castle.3689:

fundamental logic

meep.2601:

devon hasnt posted anything in over a month?

Maybe because he’s working on things such as account-wide WXP.

Stand The Wall.6987:

That moment you see an enemy warrior using a longbow in a zerg.

That moment when you see a Warrior with 0 might stacks.

Stx.4857:

berserker gear then go for it.

That’s usually the case with ele, but as a commander you are usually identified by the enemy and focused – all the skill in the world won’t help you when there are 40 players bearing down on you.

If you are good you can consider not using PVT, or using zerker on some armor pieces. Also don’t forget that you will need to use your staff (if you decide to use one) in melee range, which is strange (but not stupid or impossible).

Considering the type of class that ele is the only recommendation that should really be made is: experiment.

Rhongomyniad.5081:

An ele with a focus equipped so you can block treb shots.

This no longer works. In fact it hasn’t worked for about 1 year I think.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

— Role Diversification: ‘Grail Quest’ (Personal rights of passage) style adventures through the open world (testing the player in combat, discovery, and puzzle solving) …

This also can provide an avenue for you to release new skills/diversification at a later date if you design it correctly. Don’t forget Faerun’s fantastic idea that allows you to draw players into dead maps.

At some point it will become stale and we should possibly do another CDI to determine a new system (which makes me think, maybe we should do CDIs annually?).

Chris Whiteside.6102:

- Players should be able to have multiple methods of achieving ‘Grail Quests’, rather than a section of the journey being based on Jumping Puzzles and that alone for example.

I really like this one. One possible implementation could be “skillful vs. grindful.” We could either kill 65,340,285 boars or do a jumping puzzle – in your specific case scenario. In fact, forgetting HP I really like multiple completion paths as a core concept you could carry forwards, especially in the LS – had you given me another way to light the Flame Effigies I would have much rather have done it another way (a champion flame effigy that we have to solo or something?).

Quote from the future:

Grileenor.1497:

It might even get some retired players back, if offered content for smaller sized guilds.

I really hope we don’t see content which blocks out a good amount of players by being restricted to very large guilds: but I don’t think that will be the case – the word “Factions” was used. If you didn’t play GW1; Factions were like a super-guild (a guild comprised of many guilds). I am part of a 3-man guild; but wouldn’t have a problem if we got faction content because I already have a few guilds in mind that we would ally with. I agree with you, please not another guild missions. Factions yes, guilds no.

BobbyStein.2315:

Actually, we have metrics on every LW release. While SAB was indeed successful in terms of participation, so were the other releases (Scarlet ones included).

Take this in the kindest way possible. The participation in the event does not necessarily mean that players enjoyed the content – remember that loot and AP and two other motivators for participation (the ol’ correlation does not imply causation ). What I would do in your case is sneak in some sneaky voting mechanism into each LS story release: allow the player to go the extra mile for absolutely zero reward (no AP, no silver, no karma, no gold, nada). If players enjoy the release they will be motivated to explore the extra content (at least, I would – I spent hours in the SAB starting area exploring because SAB was just that awesome). For example in SAB, a really difficult bonus world that gives you a 0 AP achievement – wanting that achievement shows that the players really enjoyed the content because they may want to show it off [via a screenshot] later on down the line.

What I am trying to say is that none of us really know. People on the forums tend to have opinions and we feed into eachothers’ beliefs and cause this silly feedback cycle that blow things out of proportion. Also remember your part though – statistics can give you false information.

Basically, we need to work together and that’s what the CDI is for. All I care about is effort and you guys are making plenty.

Darkobra.6439:

solution, please.

1. Start the download
2. Go to bed

I remember waiting a few days for Half Life 2 to download.

Alternatively, copy the game folder from a friend – you will be presented with a 10MB download when you launch it for the first time and nothing more.

Also keep in mind that they were inadvertently nerfed to all hell. Last I heard ANet have acknowledged that there is a serious problem but are unsure how to fix it (the rangers do have a very productive thread with some ideas – you should chime in there if you have any constructive feedback).

Players want to be able to “press 1; get loot” and taking a ranger along means that they may actually have to play the game in order to get their loot. Get into a social PvE guild and you will have less problems with min-maxing PUG trash – I run all my dungeons with a longbow/bear ranger from my guild; and if the kitten hits the fan he usually soloes the boss. So there’s that.

Faerun.3091:

Working upon that idea, we could also see return of NPC similiar to Nicholas the Traveler. He would stay in one zone for 3 days … and would offer items, such as tonics, minis, weapon and armor skins, backpieces, dyes … in exchange for karma and “zone item”. Zone item (new tokens?) can be earned by doing set number of DE and/or after killing set number of champions in the zone where Nicholas is located. Maybe we can even go further than that, incorporate some of the dailies that Nicholas would require you to do in that zone, like Jumping puzzle…

The amount of good ideas I have just seen is impossible.

He could even be the Master for Chrispy’s idea

Faerun.3091:

Only thing I dislike about my idea is that it would introduce new “token”, if I/we can figure out a way to do it without that “token” I would say in my humble opinion this would be AWESOME

Adding a new HP token may not be a bad idea. You could even stave off some of the nay-sayers by e.g. allowing players to trade in dungeon tokens/WvW badges for HP tokens.

On top of what you said; these HP tokens could possibly even be converted into Black Lion weapon skin tickets. You could even allow the player to purchase permanent boosts with the tokens (MF% etc.). You also forget that ANet asked for a way to unlock abilities, which this is a great for. The more powerful abilities could be unlocked using a combination of the HP tokens and the dungeon on the map (if present, otherwise maybe laurels). E.g.

• Ember Sword – Elite – 100 HP Tokens + 500 CoF Tokens – Either: A re-skinned Fiery GS (CoF-inspired), or: the missing summoned sword.

This would make these abilities somewhat unique in that they are time-gated; but you won’t be locked out of them forever (you will have to wait until he re-visits the map with the skill that you want).

I have this friend who is almost the same as Scarlet. People have varying levels of thirst for information/knowledge/wisdom. At some of the extreme levels of this thirst this strange science that is part-way between psychology and philosophy appears. It’s clear she thirsts for knowledge because of her obsession with her education.

If you ever though Scarlet’s plans were without consequence; they were. This friend of mine will provoke people (and he’ll use whatever means possible to provoke them – dead relatives/friends included) with the mere intention of observing their reaction. Every time someone lashes out at him; he has learnt more.

Taking a more extreme and single-minded version of my friend (a.k.a. Scarlet): everyone is merely an experiment.

Scarlet’s plan was a success the minute we caused overflows in Wayfarer’s Foothills fixing signs – she knows we are completely willing to do brainless and mundane tasks so long as we get recognition. Reacting to her invasions taught her about our perversion toward loot and rewards. She knows we like to group up together from the events inside the tower. I’m sure you get the idea.

This is how Scarlet views us – we are psychology test subjects. I mean, heck, she even gave us hallucinogenic substances and put us in pressing circumstances – something some of the worst experimental psychologists in history have done.

Her psyche is completely plausible. We are nothing more than lab rats.

Edit:

Tyria will burn,

Given that we have played into her hands and now she knows everything about our behavior; probably.

To clear the scenario regarding the Pale Tree. Forget about in-game lore – the Sylvari are the writers’ (meta-lore?) favorite race at the moment and PT was clearly designed to be benevolent. Every problem the player-base has with Scarlet can be, in fact, associated with the entire Sylvari race. You simply can’t have an evil PT because GW2 is about the Sylvari.

That’s not to say I haven’t had my ideas about an evil PT (my favorite evil PT wants to claim Orr for herself and the spell Trahearne cast also had the effect of area denial). Evil PT would in a very large way fix the race in my humble opinion – but that’s definitely not the case.

Some more feedback. I have started getting random DCs (as well as the others I hang out with on TS/Mumble). I have also started to see the movement issues that UmbraVictor described.

The overall situation in WvW continues to be far better than it used to be; it’s just slightly worse than it was recently.

Silicato.4603:

Question 2: Are we going to see new lands, areas and zones conected to lore in 2014?

No.

This is a frequently asked question and has been frequently answered by the devs. Adding more areas means that you ultimately decrease the player density in existing areas leading to dead zones/maps (even without adding areas some zones are dead – e.g. Timberline Falls).

Xukavi.4320:

‘This next part will sting, but it brings me joy’ – Reference to Kasmeer (was it her) being stung at the end of the tower story.

At the time I said to my guildies that Kasmeer was totally dead; not sure how I completely forgot about that. Good call.

Sirendor.1394:

Subclasses are bound to fail if they don’t fix their unholy trinity of Dps, Control, Mitigate and add a bigger need for Support, Utility and Tank.

This arises because of the fact that you can “kill or be killed.” You don’t need Support, Utility and Tanks in the group if the group can rush in and kill the boss in 6 seconds – before the boss can put out any meaningful damage.

The original intent (as far as I have read) was to avoid damage in the first place; instead of soaking it up (Tank) or undoing it (Healer). I agree with ANet as far as this goes – Healer/Tank/DPS leads to braindead gameplay that is more like The Typing of the Dead than a challenging fight.

Unfortunately the current design leads to the braindead stacking behavior we see (as well as zerker) and this means that the design needs to be tweaked. Players will always find the path of least resistance.

So while I agree with you about the current problem; I also agree with ANet because they were trying to fix another problem. Here is an idea that is within the parameters of what ANet were originally trying to do by eliminating the [brain dead] trinity:

Drop a whole bunch of new boons, support conditions and statuses; that are very useful and are exclusive to the support/utility classes (when built in a support/utility way). E.g. Apply a shield to nearby allies – the can absorb Healing Power * 3 hit points and explodes for Toughness * 3 damage when destroyed.

Edit: Completely off topic: another thing you could do to encourage diverse builds is to introduce a panic mechanic – similar to enraged; but instead it activates if the boss loses HP too fast. A super-reflective shield for 1-2s (100% reflected back to the source, no cast time)? Another panic attack could be one that deals more damage the closer you are to the other players. Maybe have a pool of 15 or so that every boss has access to?

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

T*THE ASCENDED TIER*

Good grief man, that is a great write-up. Some feedback though:

FoTM is extremely vertical and quickly becomes exclusive. You may have a player who can only really play the lower levels of FoTM who should also have a different way to acquire these stats items: grind (I just went there). Keep your designations as-is, but also add:

• 650 Fractal Relics (FR) – One of the next 5 fractal runs you finish is guaranteed to give you a stash of ascended materials.
• 1300 FR – One of the next 5 fractal runs you finish is guaranteed to give you a random fractal ring.
• 1950 FR – One of the next 5 fractal runs you finish is guaranteed to give you a random fractal ring (infused).
• … all the way up to:
kitten
• FR – One of the next 5 fractal runs you finish is guaranteed to give you a choice of a fractal armor piece (infused).

At ~60 FR a run you would need to do 74 runs in order to afford an armor piece – which seems like you essentially deserve it (if a little over the top in terms of grind, the skilled route is obviously more rewarding).

Ascended Salvaging I like it. Add an ascended-quality salvage kit as well – have it nearly as good as the current black lion (minus the upgrade recovery chance) and re-balance black lion kits.

Paragon System in Diablo 3. The current MF system is very similar to the D3 paragon system (although a little more complicated) – not sure if that would make complete sense; but I like the flair that gets added (maybe they could do cosmetics on your name tag based on your base MF% ?).

My guildie noticed a dragon see saw in the human instance (next to the LS rewards). I also have it in my instance so we couldn’t compare what we have/haven’t done. I know it’s a bit off topic but wondering if anyone knows where it comes from…

Kaleban.9834:

but I’ve got several hundred hours solely on my Elementalist.

Make an alt. I would recommend a Necro – still levelling mine up but the way they play is unique and a fun experience.

Kaleban.9834:

Lately, I find myself logging in, doing the daily, maybe working towards whatever current LS achievements there are, and that’s about it.

PvE is quite bleh at the moment.

Kaleban.9834:

WvW is still a zergfest

They have since improved the skill lag situation; and as it turns out zergfests can be fun in small doses. 3/5 skills may not go off in a SM 3-way but at least now some do and it’s good old faceroll fun – a lot like shooting fish in a barrel.

Kaleban.9834:

Champ Train farming, or grinding my eyeballs

Ignore ascended.

Kaleban.9834:

competitive with the rest of the players, especially in WvW content

Those extra 5% stats won’t make a difference; especially because of the zerg meta.

Kaleban.9834:

Globs of Dark Matter

In order to get to level 500 crafting you need to discover exotics – you can then salvage those exotics to not only get back some of the materials you used to create them, but also dark matter.

Kaleban.9834:

in direct opposition to the original goal.

ANet could have a second look at the manefesto – they are starting to veer off the straight and narrow.

Judge Banks.9018:

BDO weather is where it’s at.

I’m just imagining zerg vs. zerg in that situation – either extremely intense or outright impossible. There’s your fix for the current zerg meta right there.

Conski Deshan.2057:

(short of say making a second copy of the maps where everyone in it is in hardmode)

I actually think this is a good idea – it was one of the ideas I came up with for giving PUGs a chance against Tequatl (have an NPC that will drop you into an overflow with harder and more rewarding XYZ).