Jaken.6801

Crackpot theory... All we did this episode was just a vision by Glint, showing us how we fail.

It was a lesson so we don't rush things, making the whole *rushed* feeling of the past episodes more substancial.

The last episode will be about finding a real way to fight of Kralkatorrik, leading into the next season.

I mean, remember. We get seperated from everyone by Glint. Sure we meet with Caithe afterwards, but that was all *magic space*.

While it would be a *kitten* move, it would hammer down the whole Kralkatorrik is deadly thing... though the ending at the moment does that very well too.

It would be a way to slow down the commander for once

Tami got plot and OOC armor. She will mostlikely ascend. Either into something higher or a golem, as hinted.

I personaly don't enjoy the thing where Glint explained the *reasoning* of Kralkatorrik.

Not before giving us a real reason behind *what Elder Dragons do*. I mean, all we know is that they are there for some kind of balance and thus akin to a natural force.

Now he is just scared about a possible future, where he isn't there... all signs of a self fullfilling prophecy aside, he could do other stuff instead of lashing out. Right now he is just a petty big bad, who is afraid to loose his standing...

I dunno. I feel like we are missing steps here. Kralki being so humanised feels kinda wrong. I mean, sure. The others allready went there, but why does it have to be spelled out.

More so, this whole *reasoning* didn't really answer anything and I felt like I learned more or less nothing new in that scene. Well, there are hopes for Aurene to come back, with ascension and stuff. It's about time, that plays a role again. Not like it was something big in GW1, you know.

I liked the overall story, though it felt rushed, loosing some of is impact.

Though I was still pretty amazed by the ending. Got some neat Mass Effect 3 Flashbacks here, fromt hat ending. I kinda expected it to be one of these hallucinations.

However there is one storybeat I personaly don't agree with. It's just one little thing of the whole:

>! Why did you have to make the whole *eating the world* a personal thing for Kralkatorik. I thought the EDs were supposed to have a greater purpose in the world. They were supposed to be there for some kind of balance. Why did you include the line of Kalkatorik being just petty and scared of a time, where he isn't needed anymore? A future which was just a possibility and even then would be able to control? Why would did you lay it so bare open, by having us Glint tell us what Kalkatorik wants? Or appearently fears? Why did you humanise him, while the most important question hasn't been answered? WHAT DO THE ELDER DRAGONS DO? We know they are there for some kind of balance. Nothing really more. I can't really take Kalkatorik seriously anymore now. He was this big ominous being. A force of nature, we can't really comprehend. Now he is just scared to loose his power and leashing out. That's mostly sad.

I am very pleased with the overall release.

Having played through the story only at this point, there are two things that really irked me.

The first one is no spoiler. It's just that everything felt pretty rushed and _too easy_ , even with the ending (This season gave me serious plotpoint whiplash). There was also a lot of the good old _telling_ instead of _showing_ , which was a bit disheartening.

The other one is something where I just wildly went: *Why would you do that? That's so bad storytelling!*

>! At the point where Glint pulls us aside to talk in private with us, she tells us that Krakaltorik, one of the elder dragons, something that is supposed to be on the level of a natural desaster is appearently *planning* things based on a *possible vision* and is so far up his own *kitten* that he won't share power, he didn't even posess at this point. Like... *oh noes, there could be a time where dragons and other being could live together and I can't do...* WHAT? What do elder dragons do? We still haven't cleared that up. We know they are there for some kind of balance. So much did Glint say, but what is the purpose of ELder Dragons? We still have no answer to it? All this time they are this big things with a greater purpose and now you give one of them the notion of *oh noes, the humies and stuff might hurt my power*. That's not larger than life. That's close to home as everything else. For me that was the biggest downside of this story.

Otherwise it was smooth. I kinda glitched into the big endfight, which was a bit hillarious, just fighting one object there (actually no, that was quite creepy)

So yeah. Time to explore the map now. Has been some time I was at thunderhead.

Here are some little observations that I didn't see anyone comment on:

* As you approach Joko he says: "Maybe it's time to finaly use that crystal" , I saw no crystal in the fight, nor on Joko.

* There are very big "livers" (?) inside the tubes where we fight. While we have seen big enemies, these look like the size of a Lupicus.

* What's up with all the tar? It's even running over Joko himself. Did we ever get an explanation of why there is Tar everywhere in his kingdom?

Cyborg Taimi confirmed...

Meh, I am mostly annoyed that they established "Cool teleport everyhwere portals" with Scarlet, had a professor Asura who was proficient with them, had a way to block portals established and then never use it again.

Suddenly stuff like Joko and his new teleport army is suddenly "OMG we are screwed" instead of getting proactive and block these things.

I think some things have been said allready, but ehre are my two cents (By the way, did you just really plaster some quotes over an old video? If that is final, then it is lazy and doesn't reflect what the game is about. This was teaser material):

* **You need to advertise the actual content** that get's into the game and not only tease the type of content (you don't have to reveal the whole hand, but get people excited by showing gameplay is much better than showing some sweeping shots). You can also hide (like in the past) new rewards in the backgrounds (like weapons. The Scythe weapon would have been awesome for the last release)

* **You need to differenciate between teaser and trailer.** So far the recent trailers were close to teasers, or movie trailers, but not game trailers. **A game needs interaction, so show the game beeing played.**

* **don't obfuscate by special dev angle shots.** It is great to show off art and enviroment, but also show the same area of the game in _normal play_

* If you want to jump on the (in my eyes boring, because self inflating) acolades trend, then do two versions: The Player and the Critic version. It's more genuine. For the fan version allow more than "It's so awesome", but also "I am not a fan of this, but I abusolutely love that", because it shows you are aware of different peoples likes and not only bathing in praise.

As for future marketing:

* Create a place, where people can see the _biggest_ changes to the game, since release and keep it up to date. Things like the Wardrobe, Fractals, Archievments, Mastery system, Mounts, PvP overhaul, with new maps, details, leagues, etc., WvW overhaul with new maps, features, etc., Legendary Weapons, New Maps, new rewards, etc. There has so much changed since release, that no one who saw the initial game might be aware of. Ignore balance, but highlight things "no more rep costs, because it was in the way of fun" (Add to that a simple coding to which part is part of which expansion and you are golden)

* Link to that place if you put out an update, to see what people can get for free and with an investment of 30$ for a lifetime

* Make a video that highlights this content. Or three videos. One for general changes that are part of all gametypes. One for PvE and one for PvE and WvW (I was personal working on making something like that, but life got in the way and I wasn't even able to transcribe the patchnotes so far, but there was another reddit user who made a compelling list)

* Overhaul your website. If I go to GW2, I mostly see _GW2_ and info regarding the base game. It would be much better if it would incorporate the expansions as well. On one hand it is great beeing so _simple_ but on the other hand it is very barren. I get info about races, the normal classes and lot's of outdated info. It would do good for the game to adress these things and add the beforementioned _contentupdates_ to the mainpage. People who played in the past or only knew the reviews of old don't know about awesome features like the wardrobe, LFG, Elite-Classes, Guild Halls, Guild Missions, etc. **UPDATE THE FRONTPAGE TO REFLECT CONTENT CHANGES THAT APPLY TO EVERY USER**

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> It is not a bug. Each area of the game is frozen in time. Sometimes, you will even find characters in two places at the same (your) time.

>

> Good luck.

She was gone before, that's why it is weird.

She should be gone after the HoT step, like new characters appear in your home instance after certain story steps.

Hello.

i finished every storystep throughout the game and at the end of HoT Eir wasn't alive anymore.

Now I entered her home after PoF and see her as if I never played the game.

Might be a bug, might be because I am in no storystep right now.

However, it kinda bothers me that she is there, even though she is dead for my main character.

> @"Mike O Brien.4613" said:

> You have valid concerns about random boxes. We hoped that the design of the Mount Adoption License would be reassuring. In this case, we made some missteps:

You got to be kidding with this answer?

This is the understatement of the year so far. People were never _really_ on board with the gambling stuff in the first place. Why would they? As soon as you think about it, it is a sick system to monetize your players. Sure, there are some who like the thrill, but that is short term vs. long term.

You are introducing so many RNG parts into the gemstore, that it isn't even funny anymore.

* You got the BLC, which is RNG, combined with the BLT (which is split RNG, that is also doubled now, because you raised the price to 2 tickets) + limited RNG items.

* You got RNG minis.

* Now you got RNG mountskins for a system you just introduced into the game.

Right now we have to fear that everything cool and new you introduce has only one purpose: **Getting you to buy stuff on the gemstore** (mind you, it is not wrong to use these systems that way, but if you go around with it, as if you were swinging a sledgehammer you are indeed just anti-consumer and excuse my french: stupid)

> @"Mike O Brien.4613" said:

> * The Adoption License is a large set at 30 skins. We stand by the work our artists put into each skin, but it’s understandable to see this as pushing down the odds of acquiring any one skin, and to worry that we might add more skins to lower the chances further

Don't hide behind your artists. That is the wrong attitude to go in the digital market. These skins aren't worth the same, as you blatantly showed with the 2000gems skin you put out alongside the new pack.

Furthermore, you seem to have no clear pricepoint on how to price your stuff, as of right now, most of it is designed to have you spend at least 20$ in gems, if you want more than 2 pieces out of the store. Things that were formerly priced at about 300-400 gems, now get the 500-600 gems treatment, which means if it is a split set, you won't get by with a nice and simple 10$ investment. No, you have to fork over more than you want.

If this isn't manipulating, I don't know.

> @"Mike O Brien.4613" said:

> Here are some of the benefits we had in mind when designing the Mount Adoption License:

> * You get a brand-new, unique mount skin every time, for a substantial discount versus an individual purchase price.

> * It uses a progressive mechanic. Every license gives you a new skin to use and increases the odds of acquiring any remaining skins.

> * You’ve requested variety, and this is a way to support variety. Individual sale is a mechanic that works with a few, flashy skins. Using a grab bag mechanic gives us leeway to create skins to suit a wide range of player tastes while offering a lower price per skin.

If you call these befefits that should outweigh the downsides, I want you to go back and learn about consumer health, consumer benefits and most likely being a decent human beeing, because what you are saying does in no way adress the problems people have.

*Yes we wanted variety and naturally not all skins will sell equaly, but forcing them upon us via RNG is wrong. It's a digital market, you only have server costs and one time creation costs. Are you telling me you pay your artists on the amount their piece sells? Even if one skin doesn't sell well, it will raise the status of another. It's simple psycholgy.

* How is that progressive? If I get my skin at the first try, there is no progress. If I get it at my last, it's mostly frustration and lots of money lost. Sure I _increase_ the odds, but not by progressing. I sacrifice time, money, paticence towards an unclear and blurry goal. By that I can call playing the ticketgame at a fair "progression". Buying all tickets to get the biggest price, will cost me more than buying it outright. Sure, I progress with every ticket, but it is not worth it.

* Who cares about a new mount skin, if I don't use it? It's like getting a pair of ugly socks from my grandma and have to pay for them myself. Who would do that?

I gladly pay 400 gems for a skin and 1600gems (maybe 2000gems) for a grabpack. This is a fair price, because I can choose which one will take (btw. I hate ever price for single items over 400gems, if its just a cosmetic thing and no bundle)

> @"Mike O Brien.4613" said:

> Microtransactions can be polarizing, and we’ve received both positive and negative feedback on the license. We won’t change the existing license in a way that would invalidate the investment players have made, but I want to confirm to you that our next planned mount skin releases will focus on individual sales like the Reforged Warhound and bundles like the Spooky Mounts Pack. We will not add any skins to the currently available Adoption License, thus not pushing down the odds of acquiring any one skin in that set.

Your unwillingless to even think about a solution and change to the problem just shows how blind you are to the matter:

* Just change the thing to **choose your skin**

* Everyone who bought all, did so with a discount now, they are happy

* Everyone who gambled and lost, should just get the option to choose new ones, based on the amount of licenses they aquired.

There problem solved. If you throw in refund for people who didn't want all the skins they got, you make even more happy, but I guess that wouldn't be beneficial for you.

> We appreciate the thoughtful feedback many of you have provided, and that you hold us to high standards for monetization. It’s been a challenging but wonderful goal to support live development and Living World purely through optional microtransactions, and it’s your support that’s made that possible. Thank you.

Look MO, know you want to spin it in a good way, but there is no way you will get out of the predatory microtransaction zone. Your statement completly fails on the basic level to adress any concerns that have been build up over the past few year.

i mean, I would have spend much more money on the store personaly, if you put the BLC weapons in weapon crates, alongside the BLC. 200gems a pop, no biggie. The rate you introduced these skins quickly outrun my ability to spend anyway, so getting a full set and getting some for free via collections is quickly diminished, because old skins cost several tickets.

However, you will loose more and more support this way. This was marketing speak in it's worst form and you know it. Why are you even defending this? This isn't good for the publicity, for the artists that worked on it, the company or even for you.

As I am really not a fan of the random feeling prices in the gemshop, as well as the RNG, I really don't like that implementation

Giants are most likely added to help people with giant eyes and the giant slayer archievment.

Djins were always weird in their behaviour. often used as guardians.

Kralkatorik did get some of Zaithans magic, thus he is able to reanimate even dead beeings for his army. We fight a named forgotten we killed in GW1 in one of the metas for example.

The ending of PoF should emphasize that change in power.

I don't know how this will really strenghten the story. I don't get what you really want to acomplish with this thread. A general question thread based upon PoF? Critic on the established and some musing on how it would have been better?

_Why are the human gods disinterested in Tyria?_

Because appearently they can go somwhere else. The human gods are said to come from somwhere else and bringing the humans with them. Now I don't say that is a good reason for their disinterest, but that is what has been given as an explanation.

A better reason for why they are absent would simply be: _if they intervene, the colleteral damage would be too much and they are doing their best, to keep the balance that has been shifted, allready._ There, done. No need to write them off, or introduce some other mystical stuff from otuside, or another threat at this time. I think the writers made clear that right now GW2 is about the Elder Dragons and their purpose, with the rest of the lore filling in the gaps and adding flavour.

_Who has been chosen to replace Balthazar?_

Why The Judge? What makes him special? What makes him different from any other henchmen of the gods? He is a follower of Grenth, so why would he become the new god of war?

The other questions about other pantheons are of course another thing and actually a good point. Why did other races appear there and do they watch something more aligned to their believe?

_Is Kralkatorrik trying to harness godly power?_

Not really. Only if Balthazar was able to convert other magics in _divine_ ones, however the nature of these was never be clear. So to simplyfy, there shouldn't be something special about Kralkatorik right now, because Balthazar was scrapping for magics from all sources, but divine, in his striving to regain his former powers.

_The gods of Tyria need our help?_

Everything is kinda in danger right now. All need help. The Eternal Alchemy however doesn't, because it is more or less the rules, on which everything works, so it doesn't work as a living beeing.

_The Pale Tree evolving?_

No real reason why it should. The Pale Tree was nothing more than a sentient minion manufacture, that god purified and instead of Mordrem, produced Sylvari. Even if it got some of the energy, most of it was split towards several others, so it might only got a little power boost. othing indicates that the pale tree would be able to wield that power anyway.

_How did Palawa Joko backstory?_

Most of it can be found in the wiki. How we kill him? Well like any other undead with a vast amount of magical power, however we have to get to him first and wittle him down. Something the people of the past weren't able to.

Otherwise, throw another rock on him.

Well, divine magic shouldn't be the problem for the sword, since we gave Magdeer to mortals.

If they can fix it, then the sword might only need a magic jumpstart

Maybe Balthazar wasn't wielding divine power.

I mean he was stripped of his rank and power and left to rot. Maybe he only had his own former magic to sustain himself. Maybe he was strong enough to survive in the mists and reignite Sohothin (or it was artistic in the cinematic).

What if he was adapting his old look with all the new magic he consumed over time, but not wielding divine power at all. For all we know, he mostly has the bloodstone and the Elder Dragon magic in him.

> @"Daniel Handler.4816" said:

> > @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > It's also possible the purified Blighting Trees (Pale Tree, Malyck's Tree, possibly even the Tower of Nightmares) were intended to replace one or more spots, but I doubt it - they're trees, not dragons. And the dragon thing seems to be key, which would make Joko not a valid candidate.

>

> What's so special about being a dragon?

At this point nothing really.

Mostly consitency.

With Mordremoth's representation in his mind it isn't even sure that he was a dragon to beginn with. Maybe an reptile.

So far we can only asume that the eldar dragon energy does have a tendency to turn it's wielders into a dragon like creature (or in case of Mordremoth into a giant snake like beeing).

Otherwise (and thanks to the lack of information), it could just have been the case, that in the past dragons were the dominant species and they were the only ones able to _handle_ that power. The six survived several of the magic consuming circle and now we call it the _elder dragon energy_ or something. So far we have no real explanation of the whole ordeal, to be honest.

> @"Gorgaan Peaudesang.8324" said:

> > @Jaken.6801 said:

> > Meh, they should just stay in their realms and do their job.

> >

> > If they can't help directly, they can at least do that.

> > Going away is just a kitten move and it's really more annoying.

> > It does only devalue their role in the whole guild wars story, because apparently their role is not as crucial to the world as they made us believe.

> >

> > In the end we get a world where no one believes in anything and Asura run the world.

> >

> > It just feels bad.

>

> Three months ago we went to a map solely dedicated to the gods in Orr. One week ago we went to explore an area of the world that was created following the outcome of a clash between the gods.

>

> Don't worry about these entities, leaving Tyria now didn't devalue their overall contribution to its rich history.

You are aware that they still did their job.

They did govern over their realms and influence?

So even if there was that occurrence where one went AWOL and it came to a war of the gods, that doesn't mean they had no role or purpose in the world.

Even if only the humans were following them, we know that what they believed was true, because we went to several realms of the gods in gw1.

They were doing stuff we believed to be important. At least to humans.

Now it seems like it could be done by a stand in (see the judge we meet).

I am a bit disappointed by Kralkatoriks look.

I hoped he would be more earthly, like his gw1 part we saw in the past.

Only with some part crystal, not his whole body

Meh, they should just stay in their realms and do their job.

If they can't help directly, they can at least do that.

Going away is just a kitten move and it's really more annoying.

It does only devalue their role in the whole guild wars story, because apparently their role is not as crucial to the world as they made us believe.

In the end we get a world where no one believes in anything and Asura run the world.

It just feels bad.

> @RyuDragnier.9476 said:

> > @ugrakarma.9416 said:

> > she seems also shows some disregard for Sohotin.

>

> Considering that the relighting of the sword caused the entire mess to begin with, I don't blame her.

And is also their solution.

I get mixed messages here.

A little bit offtopic, but I was quite amused doing this and running around there, while wielding my flamessekers prophecy ;)

That's one of the things I don't really enjoy about GW2 anymore.

Too much is just handwaved away, even though it could have been very interesting.

I don't even want to go to Cantha anymore. Last thing we knew it was a human centric racist place that isolated themselves from all or most lesser races. That's why we have Tengu and the great wall.

So they have to adress that and the fact that our PC might not be human. I would be really sad to see this just handwaved, even though there are so much great opportunities here.

On the other hand, seeing how PoF also feels like jumping quickly through the story, I don't really expect that much right now.

Okay, pro and cons:

**Pro:**

* The mainstory has some really nice mechanics and objectives that reminded me of gw1

* The mainstory went to interesting places

* The new maps are beautiful, detailed and have some really great callbacks to gw1

* The mounts feel great

* The new visuals are stunning

* You heard the feedback of the beta and implimented it

**Contra (mostly nitpicking):**

* The mainstory does lack focus and feels disjointed. It feels more like a checklist, than a story

* The mainstory lacks too much personality, as many things just feel like footnotes.

* The mainstory relies too much on the open world information and can be hard to be enjoyed if you don't experienced the dozens of open world content

* The mainstory does intoduce stuff´, which doesn't come back and has no real bearing on the plot (like choosing a faction just for a backpack)

* While more reduced, there are still too many items I don't know if I still need them, or if I can toss them after completing the archievment (bounty hunter tablets. The text suggests it will be used somewhere, the same goes for some granite slabs... do I have to keep them?)

* While 5 armor sets are certainly more than the 3 in HoT, I am missing some more subdued and less busy ones. I would have loved some _casual_ regional clothes.

* The weaponsets feel rather plain and I hoped for more regional weapons

* It seems like we don't have many unique weapons to find, which was already a problem with HoT

* Heart Vendors feel to similiar and I wish there were something else to find, beside the same recipes and the occasional mini (some unique skins for example)