ChronoPinoyX.7923

I doubt they would do that given they have free players. At best, they'd add the decors and have similar events between the two locations but I doubt they'd put that much effort into it.

The problem with this theory is as Konig states, Kormir had literal interactions with Lyssa before the gods left Tyria. That interaction recorded in her diary shows that Lyssa was present at the time of departure so it wouldn't fit any scenario where Lyssa would be consumed by the Elder Dragons.

At most, only Balthazar fits the scenario of being consumed by any Elder Dragon, and that's an aspect we had to fight _inside of a dragon_. If Lyssa, or any of the other Gods sans Balthazar, had any interaction with the Elder Dragons before their departure, more than likely they simply attempted to keep the dragons dormant for as long as possible. Past that, there's no real record of direct confrontation between the dragons and the Gods (one that would cause the twins, or any of the dragons, to consume Lyssa) until recently. Balthazar was adamant in taking on the Elder Dragons, making him the only real God that wanted to have any direct confrontation with them, and that didn't happen until after Lyssa, Kormir and the rest of the Gods imprisoned him in the Mists. The Gods always knew of the Elder Dragons as being part of the natural laws and balance within Tyria, which is more than likely why they never wanted to touch on the subject matter, or even interfere with it to begin with.

Genuinely cannot wait to see just how much Cantha has changed over the years. The biggest aspect of Cantha was the Jade Sea and Echovald Forest and how those were affected by Shiro Tagachi's demise due to the Jade Wind. I really want to know how those regions of the Luxon and Kurzick have been changed and whether said Alliance are still super important to Cantha's current state even after the many years that have passed.

And just seeing Kuunavang in her colorful appearance just makes tear up a bit after the last time we saw her being an Afflicted Dragon that we had to purify.

Genuinely hyped to see what they have in store for this next expansion, I need to know how Cantha has changed since the Elder Dragon rising and the closing of their borders in terms of architecture and general landscape and whether certain factions still exist outside of the Luxon and Kurzick (Jade Brotherhood and the Am Fah gangs).

Also, I can't help but feel like there's gonna be another Glint scenario if we're talking about Elder Dragon relations to other dragons. Feels like Kunaavang might be a spawn of good ol' Steve/Selbbub like Glint was to Kralk and that might be another way to get an Elder Dragon replaced, but speculating here at best.

Still waiting on my Rifle Ranger here

> @"zityz.6089" said:

> If we ever do, it won't be until the dragon problems are solved. Pointless to go traveling to another continent when you got dragon frat boys causing trouble in your neighborhood.

There's literally a dragon that is living in the ocean right now without a name... They can easily tie that Elder Dragon to Cantha

> @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> what is this huge bump on 4q12 ?

2012 was the release year of GW2 and Q4 would be around holiday season which is pretty much the perfect time to get GW2

I'm probably wrong here but I feel like part of that issue is to do with the unreleased and unannounced IPs that NCSoft were trying to get out but never did and that really hampered the quality of production for Guild Wars 2. Looking at the numbers of the other project, it seems like there were better focus on production on some of the other games where they maintained their usual production whereas Guild Wars 2 got shafted due to them taking staff and eventually offing them during last year's layoffs.

Again I could be wrong, but I genuinely think the decline in quality content did start to happen around last year and that pretty much just kept going until Q4. Really hoping there's a turnaround for this year but I'm also gonna keep my expectations regarding the situation to neutral levels. Don't want to hear hype again and then it becomes a lukewarm quality content.

> @"YTKafka.4681" said:

> People probably crashed support page as well by clicking on "Forgot your Password". I wouldn't chalk it up to anything particularly malicious.

Doubtful that it's that since people in-game are also having issue with things not loading in the game and getting constant connection errors.

Known issue, they are already working on it

They are already looking into it (announced on Twitter). They are currently experiencing server issues

Seems like they are having server issues as of right now. Forums remain unaffected as it's hosted by a forum hosting service but game and account management servers are currently having issues.

> @"Slowpokeking.8720" said:

> Why can't? They have their icon, their skills, of course it makes perfect sense for them to have their style. Even the elite spec have armor pieces. It's not a must do, but a you can choose to be. If most of the ppl chose such predictable same thing, then it means they like it better than the current armor. You have to either accept it or improve current armor style. I think most of the current armor skins doesn't look good enough.

That's a highly subjective opinion. What you might think is actually a "good design" could be complete garbage in the eyes of others. Saying they need to improve current design is basically saying you want them to make something that you personally think is good, not something that is universally seen as good by everyone.

I genuinely think Raid could have been solved with a proper difficulty scaling with proper rewards based on difficulty. There was no need for Strike Missions. Higher difficulties providing better rewards in a difficulty scaling situation means that if players are still not confident with their skills to do raids, then they can stay within comfort zone whilst those who actually feel like they are ready to take on the harder challenges for better rewards can do so. That puts less pressure between those who are more casual and those who are more hardcore when it comes to raids. They both get the same rewards, but doing something on a lower difficulty means you have to do more runs of that lower difficulty than someone who is doing higher difficulty runs. One scenario is more casual and can take their time, the other is more hardcore and would go through more difficult tasks to get to the goal much faster, but both will be on the same knowledge base if they talk mechanics.

If we're talking early GW1 henchmen where the henchmen were built so that they don't replace actual players, then there may be some degree of possibility as we already see that, in a way, in GW2. They wouldn't replace anyone for fractals and raids because that's literally what happened with GW1. You run a Sorrow's Furnace or a FOW run with purely henchmen in early GW1, expect your party to get repeatedly wiped. They literally couldn't stand their ground against actual endgame content, they were made purely for progression and getting yourself ready for endgame.

If we're talking Hero/Merc level stuff, then that's a different situation entirely. Heroes/Mercs were created to slowly put GW1 into maintenance mode, which is why they could be micromanaged to the point of us actually being able to click on their skills so that they actually use it. Hero/Mercs were created to replace the upcoming decline in players in GW1 so that anyone who is interested in playing the game can actually play it without having to think they need to run with actual people due to population decline, GW2 isn't in that position as it's not in maintenance mode therefore it wouldn't need any form of Heroes/Mercs. Heroes/Mercs in GW1 can literally run extremely late endgame stuff as the endgame content was made with single player in mind to the point that mechanics in the endgame of GW1 can be done by one person.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> This is, however, the first time we've seen an alteration of a *pre-existing* dragon minion without raising it from the dead.

> Primordus' minions on the Ring of Fire were all made there by every indication, as we see destroyers in PoF that lack the death and vine magic. And all the Death-Branded were animated corpses (either of non-branded, or of branded; including the Death-Branded Shatterer and Death-Branded Wraithbringer).

True, but as the game already shows, Elders can mold their minions and champions to whatever they want regardless if alive or dead, the only real difference between Drakkar and the Shatterer was that we got to the Shatterer first, if it were the other way around, I'm sure we'd still see a completely different Shatterer

> Based on Season 3, Kralkatorrik had actually absorbed far more magic from Zhaitan (and possibly Mordremoth) than Jormag did - distance is relevant here. Primordus absorbed the most of both, due to moving to the Ring of Fire islands, and Kralkatorrik seemed to have gotten more Zhaitan than Mordremoth. And the amount of magic from Balthazar and Kralkatorrik would also be far less ,given that they were even further away.

>

> So Drakkar's more drastic change isn't due to Jormag getting more power from Zhaitan, Mordremoth, or Balthazar.

Jormag would still have more than enough to change a champion into something else regardless of the amount as Jormag is changing one champion, he's not pulling a Kralk and changing multiple, that's where the difference in the amount of magic lies between Jormag and the other Elders. The Balthazar part was a moot point, forgot he got Thanos'd next to Kralk so my mistake on that.

On a side note, the one thing that ANet hasn't exactly covered as of this current moment is whether or not Aurene pretty much absorbed everything from Kralk or if they did another split with Aurene getting most of Kralk's magic with a portion going to Jormag, Primordus and Steve. If the case is the latter, then that would mean there's plenty more death magic on Jormag than we might think, but that's an ANet thing that needs to be addressed.

This isn't exactly the first time we've seen alteration in the bodies of Elder Dragon minions based on the amount of magic absorbed by the Elders. Death-Branded Shatterer and the grunt minions getting mixed Elder powers was literally explored by the game before we got Drakkar back.

Drakkar happens to have the most drastic change due to just how much Jormag absorbed in terms of overall magic from the other Elders, plus Balthazar, at this point. If Kralk, for example, managed to absorb more power at this point if it was still alive, I'm sure the Shatterer would look even less of a Shatterer.

Pretty much got the whole thing covered by Cycninja. Personal advice, if you're going for high tier Fractals, then feel free to work towards full ascended. If not, then Ascended trinkets is something you want to work towards at the very least, and with the all of the LW seasons we got, it's even easier than before to get ascended trinkets with the right stats.

Ascended weapons come close second but I wouldn't prioritize them over ascended trinkets cuz ascended weapons aren't exactly as easy as the trinkets to get.

The overall approach to the story is definitely a plus on my personal viewpoint but in terms of how quick it went story wise, I gotta agree that it's far too short. Given how expanded the prologue was in terms of the story, the fact that it cuts us off at an important plot point is that moment where I went "Was that it?" Defo enjoyed the portrayal of Jormag and the Raven Spirit in this episode. Jormag being cunning and manipulative to the point of making use of Aurene as leverage to parley with the Commander was good touch, I'll give it that and the cutscene was top notch but the fact that they didn't do it as a real-time cutscene like they did the Aurene cutscene or Joko cutscene was a bit disappointing, still I enjoyed the Fraenir spooksfest. And I like the fact that the Raven Spirit is an absolute ***, gave me a good chuckle knowing the Raven Spirit is just there to say "lol anything you do is bad".

Map overall is defo unique in atmosphere. The background music is on point with the whole deceptive and psychological vibe they wanted to have going on but the whole scenario regarding notifications on the map was rather annoying and broke the atmosphere. I get it, I don't have the mastery, I don't need to be reminded every 10 seconds that a monster drops the buff for said mastery. Other than that, the only other real issue is the fact that only half of the map gave you that chilling vibe, the other half of the map was bog standard Sons of Svanir map a la LS3 and didn't really feel any different from that. Would have been nice to actually keep that horror/psychological thriller vibe going. I enjoyed the Raven Maze as well with the whole fake giants cuz I kept thinking I was gonna get seen and would need to fight them.

I like the fact that some NPCs (outside of the main ones) actually have a bit more personality rather than just being meatshields. The fact that one NPC is just shouting herself into catharsis cuz of the misogyny behind the Sons of Svanir was definitely something I enjoyed cuz ya don't really get any that much in the game since most of the NPCs feel like they either don't care enough about what's going on or they just gave up on life and are just doing things cuz they got told to.

Meta event was fun but the actual meta boss was absolute trash. Map I was in for the meta nearly got demolished cuz we were so unprepared since everyone was doing story missions but when we finally got footing, we did well enough. One of the raven statues got destroyed but overall once we started actually getting together proper, we managed the Meta. The Meta boss though, again, absolute trash. It was just casually strolling and eating damage, didn't even try to fend for itself so that was disappointing.

I think for the most part, I enjoyed the new LS chapter albeit very briefly. It's defo not the best of the LS chapters and it's definitely too short but it does have its moments that I enjoyed. I still think the Meta was absolute trash, cuz all of that defending and mob rush just for the boss to go down without a fight.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> > im software developer for 20yrs++ i cant believe someone saying a simple back screen+music is "hard to change" or something hard to give a option to customize.

>

> At this point I just assume their coding is so kittened up that it wouldn't be feasible. I heard that they can't simply change values for traits and instead have to completely rebuild them if they were to change something.

If they can make Fractals, which pretty much replaced dungeons, they can make a new system to replace the old character select screen. And literally Fractals has far more programming and coding involved in it than a simple character select screen would.

Honestly, it would be too generic for another Eir moment a la Rytlock. If anything, I'd be more surprised if Rytlock did end up being Kahn-Ur. Especially considering the fact that Rytlock already has issues with his position as Tribune of the Blood Legion. He genuinely doesn't want to rise into the ranks, he just prefers the smell of the battlefield above all else and Kahn-Ur basically sounds like a president like job.

> @"Substance E.4852" said:

> > @"ChronoPinoyX.7923" said:

> > > @"zealex.9410" said:

> > > > @"ChronoPinoyX.7923" said:

> > > > People are expecting too much especially considering the shafting of things is pretty recent (especially since it hasn't even been a year since that shafting).

> > > >

> > > > I cannot deny that perhaps in comparison to what they could have done previously, this felt a tad bit too small, but I can't deny the fact that, from a development standpoint, there's only so much they can do with the resource they have available to them.

> > > >

> > > > I'm surprised they even got anything out at this stage.

> > >

> > > I was expecting to watch an event about gw2, the future and its content, not about merch. What should ppl that flew or drove to watch that should feel when you sell them merch?

> >

> > I mean given the amount of red lights on what's going on with GW2 right now, you'd think people would be aware of what's happening with GW2 and ANet as of current.

> >

> > Honestly, I didn't even watch the livestream of the event because this was exactly what I expected from them. Either way, people expected way too much from a dev team that got a huge shafting very recently.

> >

>

> I think a lot of us were expecting them to hint at proposed solutions to the problems people voice. Especially when they stated they had a renewed focus on the game.

>

> I wasn't upset that they didn't reveal a bunch of new instanced party content but I am upset that they didn't mention it at all.

>

> They didn't have to showcase half a dozen new dungeons, but simply saying "we're bringing back dungeons with new locations and revamps to existing ones" would have blown people away. Even just saying "we have X amount of new fractals and new rewards in the works" would have been enough.

>

> I have a feeling the general idea was we thought getting more LW instead of another expansion meant we'd be instead getting a more diffused improvement of the game but all we know for sure is we're getting fake raids and more LW content.

>

> If you were someone who struggled to log in during season 4, that presentation was a giant sign that read "Maybe come back in 10 to 12 months".

>

> And that goes for pvp/wvw people as much as the pve folks.

I won't deny that people expecting a good number of things is definitely gonna happen and ANet made a **huge** mistake in announcing the next LWS via an event instead of something simple like a stream.

That said, I still think the red flags were pretty obvious from the get go with the recent things happening in GW2. I support this game wholeheartedly but when red flags show, I think it's better to simply lower the expectations for the moment. And them not mentioning other things despite the fact that they were mentioned in the past and were told that they were working on it is definitely a wrong move by ANet.

> @"Iozeph.5617" said:

> > @"ChronoPinoyX.7923" said:

> > > @"Substance E.4852" said:

> > > > @"Tiviana.2650" said:

> > > > Anet was always under company rule since the day ncsoft bought them.

> > >

> > > Which is literally before GW1 even came out.

> > >

> > > NCsoft is a boogieman people invoke to absolve Anet of poor decision making

> > >

> > > Guild Wars is not City of Heroes

> >

> > ANet didn't decide to sack and move people around mid development of certain things to start failed projects. It was NCSoft, who were trying to be Blizzard with stuff like MxM when they know they can't compete.

> >

> > Calling NCSoft a boogieman is far too much of a compliment when they themselves killed off GW2's development by killing their resources.

>

> No, but as many above have stated before and as Anet will tell you over and over that while being a subsidiary of NC they are/were autonomous. Instead of using that power and their resources to iron out the flaws and imbalances in gw2, instead of revitalising all modes(dungeons included) and by extension making gw2 an experience that encouraged current players to bring their friends to come and play and in turn keeps the new blood hooked and playing too - the sort of thing that gives you the creative and financial security to THEN pursue new ventures, they did none of that and wasted what trust and leeway they had with NC.

>

> As the person quoted above said NC soft is portrayed as a bogeyman. It's not true though. They're a holding company. They're truly in it to make money. They're more than willing to help you help them make more money- to a point. Again, as per ANet's insistance, they didn't come in and change the company culture at all. All they've ever done is give ANet(or any other studio) the freedom to fly or to hang themselves. When the latter turned out to be the case for ANet that's when the letters stating that layoffs would have to be made came in.

>

> Nobody's pretending NC soft has ever been a touchy-feely company. And yes, we all know what happened with City of Heroes. Or we should. So knowing this history and continuing to allow their flagship product to wither on the vine, setting there with their thumbs well-placed, pretending the money would never run out until their staff had to be gutted? Whose fault was that again?

>

> Why do people continue to treat ANet as victims here when they're living in a hell of their own making?

Because ANet never had this much of an issue in the early stages of their company until NCSoft had full control of their overall production and funding. Yes, ANet themselves are not perfect, no one is claiming they are perfect, but ever since NCSoft had full control over production and resource with different studios such as Cryptic Studios and E & G and so on, a lot of the games that were published under NCSoft failed because NCSoft themselves terribly managed the studios under their banner.

Tabula Rasa alone literally lasted only 2 years because of the terrible management which was all done by NCSoft to the point that Richard Garriott was terminated without much of his knowledge and actually won his case against NCSoft for $28mil. And of course, the terrible handling of City of Heroes further showed NCSoft's lack of management behind the scenes which led to both Cryptic Studios being taken in by Marvel (a good move by Cryptic) and their Paragon Studio being litigated because they knew they handled the situation terribly despite the game's genuine popularity and large community.

Arena Net have made a number of mistakes in the past which we can understand as being their own genuine mistakes, but overlooking the fact that NCSoft are the ones who hold reigns over production cost, resources and management means people would be ignoring the fact that this situation that we are seeing with GW2 as of right now is something very similar to that of the other games that were under NCSoft, and we know that certain games that are in the same situation as GW2 right now ultimately closed down due to NCSoft, not because of the development studio behind them. Guild Wars 2 is lucky enough as the game is currently well established and the game has very small chance of closing down especially since the prequel game is still running to this date (even if it's just maintenance mode), however, other games under NCSoft were not so lucky as they ultimately met closure, with some games not even lasting long enough due to NCSoft's terrible handling.

> @"Substance E.4852" said:

> > @"ChronoPinoyX.7923" said:

> > > @"Substance E.4852" said:

> > > > @"Tiviana.2650" said:

> > > > Anet was always under company rule since the day ncsoft bought them.

> > >

> > > Which is literally before GW1 even came out.

> > >

> > > NCsoft is a boogieman people invoke to absolve Anet of poor decision making

> > >

> > > Guild Wars is not City of Heroes

> >

> > ANet didn't decide to sack and move people around mid development of certain things to start failed projects. It was NCSoft, who were trying to be Blizzard with stuff like MxM when they know they can't compete.

>

> Do you have a single fact to back that up?

>

Same as above, maybe not MxM, but games like Tabula Rasa is proof enough that NCSoft holds most of the control. They literally sacked the creator of Tabula Rasa without his prior knowledge and Richard won his case against NCSoft because of this.

> @"zealex.9410" said:

> > @"ChronoPinoyX.7923" said:

> > People are expecting too much especially considering the shafting of things is pretty recent (especially since it hasn't even been a year since that shafting).

> >

> > I cannot deny that perhaps in comparison to what they could have done previously, this felt a tad bit too small, but I can't deny the fact that, from a development standpoint, there's only so much they can do with the resource they have available to them.

> >

> > I'm surprised they even got anything out at this stage.

>

> I was expecting to watch an event about gw2, the future and its content, not about merch. What should ppl that flew or drove to watch that should feel when you sell them merch?

I mean given the amount of red lights on what's going on with GW2 right now, you'd think people would be aware of what's happening with GW2 and ANet as of current.

Honestly, I didn't even watch the livestream of the event because this was exactly what I expected from them. Either way, people expected way too much from a dev team that got a huge shafting very recently.

People are expecting too much especially considering the shafting of things is pretty recent (especially since it hasn't even been a year since that shafting).

I cannot deny that perhaps in comparison to what they could have done previously, this felt a tad bit too small, but I can't deny the fact that, from a development standpoint, there's only so much they can do with the resource they have available to them.

I'm surprised they even got anything out at this stage.