Jaken.6801

> @Ithilwen.1529 said:

> @OP

>

> You missed some things. The story line had all the elements of a classic mythological hero's journey. We even sojourned in the underworld to recover knowledge we needed to win in the end. ( of Joko's army waiting to be exploited. ) With some minor flaws, this was outstanding storytelling in the bardic tradition.

>

> The message was essentially the same as that of Nightfall back in GW1. You, hero, and all of the people of Tyria... carry the divine within. You can do this! You don't need to be babysat.

Final Fantasy XIII also had this story on paper.

With faulty gods, fighting and rising against destiny, etc.

However it failed in execution and never really really connected the dots or made the importance of things very clear.

It also suffered from putting too much stuff outside the main narrative. Like the whole background story, or details, which were only explained in some text in the menu.

PoF is kinda the same.

> @Zaklex.6308 said:

> I have two things to say...one is that Bobby Stein knows the lore of GW1, he worked on it, and two, how do you even know that they didn't have this whole story line story boarded out since the beginning? You don't and never will know this...and find me any story that goes over multiple seasons or sessions and I'll tell you how it ends, and maybe even how it gets there, all without having interacted with it...because almost all, if not all, multi-part stories have the same basic beginning, middle and end. The only thing that changes is the characters, the location and themes.

> P.S. - Has Konig commented on the story yet? I'd actually like to read his opinion, at least it would probably be more readable.

A recent interview with former narrative writer Angel Macoy, revealed that they have must of the story planned out already.

Koenigs comment on the story it's, that he is mostly okay with it.

At least with the general story beats.

I don't know his stance on the overall narrative execution.

> @PopeUrban.2578 said:

> > @Rognik.2579 said:

> > Rather than try to defend this choice, I'm curious how you would handle the script for the 10 different versions of the characters. More, if we take the personal stories into account.

>

> I'd have had the player excercise a few meaningful choices. Like the choice that determines which banners and ambient dialogue you get in amnoon, which backpack skin, and literally nothing else.

>

> I'd have let the player choose a course of action literally every time someone else chooses for him. That fortress? The dialogue literally sets it up to choose "front door" or "sneak" and then... makes it a non-option anyway. You go in the front door and pretend to sneak by killing a few named NPCs. Taking over Joko's army? That should have been a choice. You could replace Joko's army with sunspears or cavaliers in the final battle and have the same resolution but the path there could have diverged on a few missions.

>

> It could have used a bit of alternate dialogue for human characters when speaking to Kasmeer about a human crisis of faith. Or When Talking to Kormir about how the gods are abandoning everyone. Or Any time Balthazar shows up if, you know, the human character selected "blessed by BALTHAZAR" at creation.

>

> It could have fleshed out several sections where it hands you two or three tasks and made them choices. Why isn't there a "Zalambur path" and a "Council Path" through act one, allowing the player to choose how to go about getting the required information to move forward? Why is the Commander the one randomly checking out sentry posts in stead of making decisive decisions about what to do with the RESULTS of checking out sentry posts?

>

> Why isn't freeing Joko even an option? It could obviously be useful to us, and would have maintained the same plot structure for the final act with very few changes, arguably even less work than letting us choose our army.

>

> And these are all such minor changes its not even funny. The plot started strong, then veered off in to nothing but exposition about dragons (again), only to finally become interesting again as you impersonate the mordant crescent, only to become trite and predictable and boring again by the final boss fight, and slide straight in to "this is how you write a badcliffhanger" in the epilogue.

>

> See, you don't have to write a script for ten different versions of a character. You SHOULD address those characters that may logically have a drastically outlook on events based upon the rules YOU SET UP YOURSELF in your universe. And, when you're writing an RPG, you should invest the player with more than a token ability to play a role in their own adventure by making impactful decisions.

>

> PoF doesn't even PRETEND to make the "Leader" of his party decisive. Not even to fake it with dialogue. People tell him to do stuff and he does it. It's like being a low level character in a tutorial, only for the duration of an entire expansion.

>

> it is mired in overbearing "fate of the universe" stuff that somehow fails to feel important or meaningful because there's nothing the player cares about at risk. You know the UNIVERSE isn't going to end, and thuis you know its all going to work out. The problem is you don't have anything at stake as a character any more. Aurene literally Deus Ex Machinas all over the plot and she's the closest thing you have to a risk of loss in the whole deal. The HoT story where it was theoretically possible you could lose members of DE (as foreshadowed by the plot actively killing one of them) and being forced to sacrifice a character for the greater good (Traherne) was ultimately more engaging because you gave a kitten.

>

> Are we supposed to be sad about Vlast, a dragon we never met? About Glint? A dragon that died so long ago we're all past it? Snaff? I am really kitten tired of hearing about Snaff. I NEVER cared about Snaff because I never MET snaff. Snaff was only interesting in what he added to the inciting incident of the DE subplot in the release storyline. How is Rytlock still not PAST it? DE getting PAST it was literally the entire dungeon plot of the game at release.

>

> I have literally nothing to care about, as a character, in the plot of this expansion. Balthazar is running around Elona, a place I have no connection to, and I'm given no local ties that would make me give a kitten of the Elonian people got wiped off the map over the course of this war. I'm just doing hero things because I'm a hero. I have no choice in the matter and no emotional stake in it.

>

> Contrast that with release GW2, where I was given a series of close personal relationships to manager, all of which culminated in a dragon fight that closed several character arcs for DE, added validation for avenging your mentor, AND just so happenned to save the world. Contrast it with HoT wherin the same plot beats exist. I was introduced to and made friends with many local factions, was given a complex personal narrative to navigate with my relationship with Caithe and OUR relationship with Faolain and Traherne, and in the end wrap up long running plot threads and character arcs AND just so happenned to save the world again in the process.

>

> In PoF... I just chase a fire god around because he's evil and watch Rytlock and Canach be snarky with each other, and stuff shows up to solve my problems or spoon feed me information.

Bravo, that's exactly what I was missing and thinking off throughout my play.

What am I doing? Why am I doing it? Where am I even heading?

Mhm, you are right.

Maybe the artteam should take a look at that.

Otherwise, no, there is no way to show pictures instead of links. Something that is regreted by most of the community and even Gaile, but it seems like their security is defending that change.

> @Rognik.2579 said:

> > @Jaken.6801 said:

> > > @Rognik.2579 said:

> > > Jaken, did you rush through the story and not do much of the open world content? I get the feeling you didn't play the first game - which is fine - but I think that most NPCs explain the significance of the locations when you get there. Try going back and completing the heart quests around the desert. Talk to the named NPCs. Listen to the ambient dialogue. Guild Wars 2 is designed to be sauntered through, not bulldozed like most other MMOs I could name but won't.

> >

> > I don't think it is right for the story to mostly rely on open world and old game information.

> > It should be cohrend on it's own.

> Not sure if you noticed, but GW2 is about 90% open world information and maybe 10% of the story is exclusive to the personal story. The early steps are a bit more lore-rich, since each race has a couple of things to educate us on.

> > This is our first time as gw2 players to get into this part of the world.

> > So we should act like we rediscover everything and not like _everything_ is common knowledge.

> > Storywise we wouldn't go around as much, as we do with many of the side activities and heart quests.

> I've been playing Guild Wars since Droknar's Forge was actually home to an arena (old school GW players will get that reference), so I've got some heavy nostalgia goggles on, but I don't feel like my character knows all that much about the desert, as he asks every NPC for more information, mostly the heart quest givers but others as well.

> > The open world should enhance the story, instead of being relied upon that heavily.

> > In PoF I really felt that.

> And it does. Augury Rock? Does nothing to the story if you don't do the quests. Mouth of Torment? Aside from map completion (PoI, Hero Challenge and Mastery point), there's no reason to go there. I haven't even seen any events kitten that go there. Tomb of the Primeval Kings? Well, that's actually explored in the story, so it's not a good example.

> > HoT have you a much more reasonable tour through the areas and lore in my opinion.

> Admittedly, the Maguuma Jungle wasn't heavily settled in GW1, so there's a lot more that needs to be explained as we meet the Itzel, the Exalted and the Nuhoch. Even Bloodstone Fen, while a place we visited in GW1, was basically killing a bunch of centaurs than a fight against Justiciar Hablion (unless I'm confusing 2 different missions there). You might think Path of Fire is weaker story-wise, and perhaps it is, but try living in the world and listening the people talking rather than just pushing for that story completion notch in your belt (or wherever you mark them).

>

> Also, can you do me a small favour, if you really are a GW2-only player. Can you talk to Dunkoro at the Lair of the Forgotten, and see if he says that your soul seems familiar? I'm curious if that's because I have my account linked to GW1 or all Commanders are reincarnations of old GW heroes.

First up I played all of GW1 and I am familiar enough with the lore and everything (I look up Donkuro if I find him and call you back).

It makes sense for me. I never said that It doesn't.

Look, I get what you want to educate me about, but I clearly said, that this isn't what I am critizising.

Everyhing I said is based upon my experience with the story, the presented narrative, because that is where the story falls flat.

Again, it doesn't matter how it is, but in what it results. If you just want to play and enjoy a story you get an disjointed and lackluster experience. You don't want to do homework on something that is on the level of a saturday morning cartoon (sorry, but Balthazar is evil and gods are going, etc. is not that well and thoughtful presented. At least for me).

You want to experience a coherend story, that doesn't have you go out and read up on additional material. If I wanted to do that I would play Final Fantasy XV again, or any other media that belives it can put these things outside... oh wait. Guild Wars 2 did that too and got flak (crucial character information in LS1) for it.

It is weird that you don't understand that I think that it isn't helpful that they put so much outside of the stories narrative.

You mentioned Augyr Rock etc.? On one hand it is great that they completly skip it, as it isn't part of the story, but then again, they set barely anything else up. We just go to places and things happen.

We don't discover new things, we just go to places that are already known by people. If they are known and if we are there, I would like to know why I am here storywise.

Most we get is: "Oh, he is going that direction." with us saying: "Okay, then we meet there." or "it is at that place". I felt like a tourist just rushing through all these marvels, disregarding them as I had to go "south".

They want us to feel connected and have feeling to things we have never seen before. I was in front of the Bone Palace. I didn't even recognized that thing at first, more so how easy we got in there in the story. It could be some random bone place to train some of Jokos army, for all I cared. Or the Order of Shadows. Yeah, there was a guy, we met him two times I believe.

The endfight... I was just looking around for the generals, got them pretty easy and enjoyable (loved the overlord minion mechanic) and then it skips right to the final battle.

Last thing I knew was that Balthazar captured Aureen and was building a big weapon. Suddenly we know he has finished and exactly where he wants to attack and we just jump in without any real plan.

Or something not place related. Remember the Sunspear, independed or Joko choice right at the begining? We got a backpack and I never met a Sunspear in the story, except at the end and I have no idea who she was. Heck most people there were random NPCs or people we had one little conversation with. Even the mount trainer got in.

If I have no idea where, who or what everything is and want to use the story as some kind of guide. Only played the PS, LS and HoT, then PoF does a very bad job in explaining why I am somewhere. Don't get me started at some logic leaps and things we just have to accept.

If I played the LS and HoT, or most of the PS, I felt more inclined to suspend my disbelief, then here.

Bottom line. The open world suplement not replace story. Running around following green circles should be enough to get me all the information. Expecting us to go further and beyond should not be neccessary.

> @Rognik.2579 said:

> Jaken, did you rush through the story and not do much of the open world content? I get the feeling you didn't play the first game - which is fine - but I think that most NPCs explain the significance of the locations when you get there. Try going back and completing the heart quests around the desert. Talk to the named NPCs. Listen to the ambient dialogue. Guild Wars 2 is designed to be sauntered through, not bulldozed like most other MMOs I could name but won't.

I don't think it is right for the story to mostly rely on open world and old game information.

It should be cohrend on it's own.

This is our first time as gw2 players to get into this part of the world.

So we should act like we rediscover everything and not like _everything_ is common knowledge.

Storywise we wouldn't go around as much, as we do with many of the side activities and heart quests.

The open world should enhance the story, instead of being relied upon that heavily.

In PoF I really felt that.

HoT have you a much more reasonable tour through the areas and lore in my opinion.

PoF story feels like being a tourist.

An Asian tourist.

We go to very important and famous places, take some pictures and move on.

HoT felt like a disjointed rollercoaster, one singular area and thanks to that managed to feel more connected

Of course there are very important things happening in PoF. However I often felt left out.

Like we went to places, but I often never knew why. We are just told.

Instead of exploring with the narrative, the story expect us know everything already.

This leaves us with great amount of disconnect between scenes.

Sure we are able to connect the dots, but often they feel more like an means to an end, checking of a list, instead of letting things happen organically.

Which is weird, because it showcase how much each segment is like a little bubble.

First warnings were in prologue. No one was acting endangered and was way to calm.

They didn't even show that refugees were a problem (which was way better done work scarlet, mind you)

Then we get to meet the herald, who could be a great foil, but we just kill her the next time.

We get introduced to the idea of Vlast, only to have him be killed before we can even talk to him and only getting to know him or any connection by proxy.

We meet a an order of shadows guy, who we just accept and in the end we learn nothing about them, even if we were order of whispers (it's need to know basis). So another thing that goes barely anywhere.

Suddenly we can go directly to the gods and we don't even act surprised. We just take it for granted. It would have been nice to have someone from the outside at least hint towards that, instead of Kasmeer just blurting it out as if it were coming knowledge.

Gods are written out, even though there were several more logical and more beneficial options.

The PC just has an answer to everything. Often with only an handwaved sentence as a reason.

We want to take over an army, with barely any information given in the story.

It would have been very nice to have met these leaders beforehand.

Balthazar and Joko happen offscreen

We chose a group at the beginning, which only gives us a backpiece and some environmental dialog. I never saw a sunspear in the story, even though I chose them (except at the end, but I had no idea who she was)

Canach appears cause he is bored and is acting like a rouge spy in dialog, but aside from setting him up the casino, it's only off hand comments.

We gather an army by taking the role of a guy we have met once before, then the next moment we end up in a place, with a Deus ex machina sword, which is not really explained and never acted like that before and run towards the final battle.

Bottom line, too many things just happen, have barely any percussion or very thin explanation in the story itself. Too many things are somewhere else (maybe)

I like the amount of work they put into the world, but the story feels unfinished and could really use more meat, instead of the next funny and witty dialog. Thanks to that I never really got any impression that Balthazar and his army was dangerous. The same goes for Joko.

> @VaLee.5102 said:

> The point -> .

> You -----------------------------------------------------------------------> \o/

>

> HoT for example, had an armor set for each map that could be bought only with that map's currency, forcing players to stay on the maps and do events there if they wanted that specific set. Why do you think people still go back to do the HoT events even now?

> The same with dungeons, why do you think people still do them nowadays? For armor skins and runes that can be bought just with the respective dungeon tokens.

>

Two armor sets on four maps.

However you could convert currencies, so that was more manageable.

Weapon sets are a bit annoying

The game is out not even a month.

Of course the market is scarce if these items.

It will die down after most have the stuff unlocked out more people poured the new items in.

The gryphon it's supposed to be a gold sink to a degree. It's more or less an end game goal for the more casual out normal players. Not for the ones who have thousands of gold laying around.

You unlock it as soon as you invest 30 points in it.

You might have it fully unlocked at the third map.

Earlier if you get one of the easier HoT ones.

You can do:

* get the harder collections and achievements

* find the hidden stuff.

* embrace the lore

* get the new armor and weapons (there are some unlocked by some really nice _ quests_ )

* get all masteries

Not a big list on first glance, but there is actually some very interesting things to find there.

However it might vary for everyone.

Furthermore, he sacrificed himself and his people by unleashing the forefire and binding them forever on that land.

I don't like the really big headpiece on heavy and light. I would have enjoyed a smaller, slimmer version.

On the other hand, I love the way we earn it and the overall esthetic.

Next we need some more simpler arabic stuff, though.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> I was rather expecting a scarab too, but dryder probably would have been more fitting. I can understand why they used the Mouth of Zhaitan model.

Yeah, taking things to literaly... I like the model, even though It will always be the former annoying boss of Arah Storymode.

> @"Valik Shin.9027" said:

> > @"supa suop.8026" said:

> > One important thing to note here is that Balthazar himself reignited sohothan when Rytlock was traveling through the mist. So it might have gotten the ability to do significant damage to him sort of like a "fight fire with fire" scenario. It like how they explained the elder dragons weakness we just used Balthazars own magic against him.

>

> I think this is what the devs had in mind but people can't put 2 and 2 together and have to have every little detail explained

This has nothing to do with 2 and 2 together.

Why would you expect someone who is wielding fire to be vulnerable to the same fire?

While there are physcial explanation to fight _fire with fire_ it has often to do with a blowout or a lack of energy on one side.

However we are talking about magic, so we can scratch that, I guess.

The whole sequence of the disempowered Balthazar and the sword is already sketchy.

First of, he was supposed to have no godly power anymore.

So he reignites Sohothin with his own magical capabilities, which might still be stronger than a human, but since he was only snapping his fingers nonchalantly, it might be not much he needed to give off (easily growing back into his armor, as he wanders through the portal, though that could have been an artistic choice)

Secondly if this sword is as powerful, even seeing how he is grateful to Ryrlock later, why would he let that sword get away?

He would try to be nice and sneaky and get it. I mean, he went through all the trouble to get other sources of magical energy to power up again.

Let's say the sword is a magic tool and needed a jumpstart. It only works with humans (which would explain why Rytlock can't unleash it really), because it was created by them (Orrians)/given to them (by the gods? I can't find a citation).

Then again, if your PC is no human, you would also go wild, so that theory is out of the wind anyway.

Balthazar is the God of War. He should be familiar with weapons. More so with mystical weapons that have god killing capabilities.

If I was about to go out and do stuff that might destory the whole world and certainly will people get mad at me, why would I let something out of my sight or even used against me?

He could reignited it, but not to full potential to claim it later and be safe.

However it seems like he didn't as he was clearly vulnerable to it.

At that point he should have been wary of everything

I don't believe Balthazar would be that thoughless.

So no. It's no 2 and 2 situation, as we were given no reason to believe that we are fighting _fire with fire_ here. Kormirs offhand comment was the only reason we have to even think of the blade.

Nothing else points us in that direction and it clearly feels like there is a chunk of story missing (it's not like the endfight was sudden and had any buildup. I mean, we wandered around to gather troops and then all of a sudden know where Balthazar will be, so yeah... )

Okay, our Deus Ex Machina for PoF was the sword, we technicaly had all along. Sohothin.

Here is the problem: "How or why did it work?"

Rytlock was wielding the sword for years now (and we still don't know where he got it, btw. ) and never displayed that kind of power. Furthermore there was no indication that we were _the one_ special person that can unleash it's full potential.

As a Mesmer I was able to conjour up multiple clones instantly for shatter and rain down fire from above. Without any explanation.

So what stopps us from doing it again in the future? I kinda believe they missed something along the line. Something like a _temporary unlock_ or something.

I mean, all we got was Rytlock saying that he had the key all this time and suddenly, without any indication we are the God of War ourself. It kinda comes out of left field.

Furthermore, the swords are said to release their power if they are together. They are powerful magical artifacts createdin Orr and given to the Ascalonians. However we don't know where they came from. They are older than the Exodus of the Gods, but I doubt they were wielded there.

So how come we have god killer weapons with us? Sure Balthazar wasn't at his high point, but still very powerful.

Overall I believe this part does need some explaination. I would have liked if the sudden powerspike was an unlock by litteral divine intervention. A parting gift from Kormir, to show us a future power if we finally get the two swords together, or so. Like one of her handmaiden (or all of them) coming down and help us. I mean, with their wings they can go as Valkyries and I bet they could be great "angels" as they were surely paragons.

I dunno. Maybe I am just annoyed by the closing of one question by opening several others again.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> Interesting concept.

>

> I'm also not certain that we've seen the last of the gods. Aside from the matter of Dhuum and Menzies being left unanswered still, and the question of what happened to Balthazar's original divine magic and who or what now houses such power, PoF promotions were with more than a handful of comments of Anet going "we always knew we'd have to turn back to the gods". They wouldn't be making such claims if this was the full extent of such a return, imho.

Well, we established the realm of the dead again and the master is out.

I don't think Dhuum will let this opportunity unused for a long time, so maybe we get it as a raidwing like the underworld?

Well, she uses a hammer mostly, so it kinda fits.

You mean like this guy, who has literally the same name and is even from the expansion the name is from?

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Eater_of_Souls

Oh and I believe you meant Zaithan and not Mordremoth ;)

Okay, I guess I am in this camp here.

Great build up, dissapointing ending.

Let me say up front, PoF is no desaster. There is actually a lot of good stuff here. Lot's of lore, lot's of attention to detail. Lot's of great throwbacks to Guild Wars 1. You really feel like the writers and designers went back to all these places and tried to bring it all back.

Which brings us to the stuff that didn't go so well. Everything feels like a footnote. While the overworld does do a great thing to paint an awesome, well, world. The story we experience only brushes along, cherrypicking, kinda randomly, specific parts that suit the intended storybits.

For me, a story should get us involved in the world and if we are to explore further we get the details. This was something they actually balanced in HoT. You get to a place and you had a complete grasp on what is going on and you touched upon almost everyone important.

PoF however is so massive, that the story feels like we are tourists in each area. We often just run through, not really interacting with important characters. Only saying Hi and moving on.

We do go get back to some, but in the end I knew nothing about them.

At the epilog, I really felt that they struggled to fill the place with meaningful people. For some reason the mount handlers were there and the sous chef, as someone important.

I didn't recognize the second spear from anything and many other characters who were there, were people I had bearly one conversation with.

The worst thing, looking back is, that beside from silly quips of Canach and Rytlock and some exposition, I don't really remember the connections on how we got to certain places or resulutions.

I can roughly follow why we ended up at certain points, but it feels like often there was no proper build up. We just came to a conclusion out of nowhere and our PC made it sound so witty and smart.

I really wished there was more dynamic there. For example the sudden jump to get Jokos armies. It is a logical solution to the problem at hand, but it just came out of left field.

Let me say it this way. My father was part of a QA team for driving assistances, mostly for parking. In the early stages the car was able to get into the place where it should. So it completed the task, but it wasn't aproved. The reason is, that it did it in a mechanical way, which just didn't feel natural. It was scary and uncomfortable.

So there were adjustments done, so it take the task more like a human (without bumping into things of course) and it did made a lot of difference.

PoF (and most of GW2 in general) feels the same way.

It goes from point A to point C, but going over point B would have better.

For example. At the very end, we suddenly see Majory appearing. She was a major character in LS3. She had a falling out with Kasmeer, but this was never (really) adressed in PoF. Now she is there and they make up. Okay? Why? Just so we can have them back together in LS4? Was there really a build up in PoF? I can't remember.

Overall, many characters feel rather flat. Mostly the new ones who often only have one purpose: Exposition. We don't see them or interact with them beyond that. We get a piece of information and off you go.

It really would have been nice, to have someone with us more and get to know him, because our members, while funny, didn't really get much deeper.

Sure we saw Rytlock admiting his mistake and getting more humble and finally spilling the beans about his mist journey, but I only learned about Canach that he is easily bored and likes to gamble. Kasmeer didn't get much more depth either, aside from emphazising stuff we already knew.

The overall story idea was okay. I didn't like the direction and the (in my opinion) stupid idea to write out the gods. I was hoping for a good twist, but maybe I have to take that there was no twist as that.

Balthazar was as uninteresting as he was introduced. There was no deeper meaning to him. In the end ther was nothing redeeming about the whole scenario.

Most stuff happened off panel. We are only seeing the aftermath and end of his whole ordeal. Which is weird, because the name Balthazar is part of the GW2 mythos for so long. As well as the other gods.

However in the end we didn't really learn anything. Balthazar and all the other gods are handwaved. One becoming a shallow antagonist and the gods just walking of the stage.

**TL;DR: I really enjoy the world of PoF, however the mainstory could have done better with keeping characters around explaining a bit more there. The things PoF's story are adressing is way too much, to have it mostly explained in the world. As the title of this thread says. Great build up, disapointing ending.**

> @dusanyu.4057 said:

> Are we playing the same game? the gods have been gone seance year 0 so them staying gone nothing new there

> Them saying "Its all you dude" they did the same in gates of madness, Sorry the human gods were failures and all of the problems in GW1 came from there mess ups Tyria is better without them.

They had their own jobs to do. Yeah, they could have helped more, but we were enough.

If Abaddon got free, they might have helped, but overall they were very reluctant to do so, because of the last time.

> @Johnny.1634 said:

> > @Ayakaru.6583 said:

> > did you hear nothing of the dialogue?

> > the gods were already reluctantly absent in gw1 because their presence brought a lot more chaos than good,

>

> Yes I heard the dialogue, and its false.... anyone who played GW1 for a decent amount of time would know that. They had a lot of influence back then and would project themselves and lend us power very often.

To be fair, we never saw them, but their emissaries.

Though we fought alongside Grenth, if I am not mistaken.

People would be blind if they saw the real gods. Like we did in this instance, which was a nice touch.

Same for me.

I got him to 60% one time, then he suddenly went back to 100%

I have no idea how to deal with him. I am stuck.

I can't beat him with my balanced gear and Chrono.

A big cop out and I really hope they go back and revise that.

This is just disapointing (the instance was cool, though)

They could have easily said, that with the disturbance in the mana flow, they can't expend any help, as they try to keep the balance. Bam, no write off, they are still there, but unable to help, till we mortals bring the things back into balance.

However, no, they give us a brief cameo and the others are gone, even though it could have been the perfect time (more so with the follow up situation) to let us see multiple. I don't get it. Such a great opportunity, great build up, awesome set-pieces, only to be driven into the next wall.

* How did they strip Balthazar?

* Where are they going?

* Who is the next God of War/Fire?

* Who contains his power?

* Why do they have to go? They can't help because of colleteral damage, but what if they are just there? They can still do their job.

* What was even their purpose then? Beside bringing humans to Tyria and controling magic? They had jobs to do.

* They could still help us with knowledge. They don't have to get involved beyond that.

I am not done with the story, but Balthazars story is just as generic as it can get till now. I don't believe we get any twist anyway, so I can appearently safely say. Disappointing.

Dude... your title is a spoiler in on itself.

Quickly change it to something like. "Secret reward for mount lovers" or so...