draxynnic.3719

> @Oglaf.1074 said:

> > @Ayakaru.6583 said:

> > My stance. Anet rushed the model. They should've taken more time into designing the release model. Better options exist if more care and time was taken.

> > That said i am very disappointed in BOTH anet AND the playerbase. While anets methodoligy is often careless or not thought out well enough, the blatant overreacting of the crowd is equally, if not more, out of proportion.

>

> The playerbase's reaction is perfectly normal when you consider the timing:

>

> Loot boxes in triple-A games like Shadow of War, Battlefront, Call of Duty have everyone up in arms about the practice.

>

> They couldn't possibly have picked a worse time to "expriment" (if you're generous enough as to call it that - I am not. My view on it is far, faaar more cynical - Anet saw everyone else doing it and thought they could get away with it too. But as I said, I'm cynical.).

Pretty much. NCSoft probably wanted to jump on the bandwagon, but the bandwagon has already generated enough negative publicity that it was only going to bite them.

To be fair, as far as lootboxes go, they're fairly innocuous. For all people say that the endgame of GW2 is cosmetics, they _are_ purely cosmetic. They're not even like the Cox Boxes that the sclerite and dragon's jade weapons were originally released in: you are guaranteed to get one every time, and there is a cap (even if that cap is ridiculously high) on how many you'd need to buy to get what you want.

On the other hand, it's still RNG, and selling things randomly is pretty much always a result of the company feeling they can get more that way than by offering things for direct sale at a fair price (through people buying a lot of things they don't want before they get the thing they want). I, for one, am not going to support that, any more than I'm going to support VIP passes that are predicated on the amenities in the base game being deliberately made less convenient.

On the whole... the answer is a bit of a non-answer. I see it as a recognition on their part that people didn't like what they did and therefore that they'll take this into account in future business decisions. It's also good on their part to directly address the criticism and - at least thus far - not attempt to stifle the discussion (it's not like they have moderator power on Reddit, though...). On the other hand, for someone who's really fired up (my own status is "not angry, but disappointed"), I don't see that this response is going to do much to win hearts and minds. Too easy to take the Aes Sedai principle and deduce that it doesn't actually say what they might want you to think it says.

> @Torolan.5816 said:

> Why did the Chak then not go all Starshiptroopers onTyria already? Something must be keeping them in check. It´s probably not an elder dragon because he would draw them all close very quickly in a ravenous wave of claws and chitin. Maybe they, while able to move in it, dislike the sunlight or something.

>

> And if they filter out the unwanted magic maybe it returns to ley lines until they are basically black with death magic. Or maybe there is a strain of chaks that like this kind of magic and Taimi found only a rather common chak?

They did go Starship Troopers on Rata Sum...

The more serious answer is probably 'time' and 'food'. The chak probably go where they think the food (ley line magic) is, so if they haven't been able to follow a ley line to Tyria (or they have better ley lines going away from Tyria), then they'd probably go elsewhere.

Furthermore, they've probably had relatively scarce food supplies until recently, which could mean they didn't have much in the way of numbers in the past, and/or that they're less aggressive presently because they have enough magic to feed on currently without having to expand their territory.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > @draxynnic.3719 said:

> > > @ugrakarma.9416 said:

> > > > @draxynnic.3719 said:

> > > > Skeletons of Dhuum was my first thought as well.

> > > >

> > > > Unfortunately, any 'cleaning up the god realms' content is 90% likely to be confined to raids, so if you're not a raider, temper your expectations.

> > >

> > > usually they dont put things related to Raids to affect core Tyria.

> > >

> > > Perhaps, its seems new **side histories**, it can hint the direction new lore goes for.

> > >

> > > http://dulfy.net/2017/08/08/gw2-side-stories-achievements-guide/

> >

> > The bandit leader events were pretty much only related to raids when they appeared. They ended up related to LS3 as well, mind you, but that was because the raids were closely related to LS3 (with the original three wings being a prologue) rather than being a 'side story' per se.

> >

> > So the comment about raid stuff not affecting core Tyria is inconclusive at best.

> >

> > A Dhuum breakout, though, would be a prime candidate for a raid. It's something that's easily decoupled from Tyria itself, with the main event happening in the Underworld. It would be a followup to what was essentially the GW1 equivalent of a raid in GW1. It would be very easy to make a Dhuum instance into a series of boss fights in the style of raids. And it's not (necessarily) directly related to the current main story involving Kralkatorrik, Aurene, Joko and Dragon's Watch - certainly less so than the first raid wings were to the LS3 story.

> >

> > It's perfect raid material, and thus, I'd be quite surprised if it wasn't. Perhaps pleasantly surprised, depending on what it is they decide to make the raids instead, but surprised nonetheless.

>

> The bandit champions weren't the only Side Stories stuff - ley lines were also present, and only related to S3. Furthermore, the first bandit Side Story stuff came out post-raid, rather than a prelude to the raids. I'm pretty sure even the third wing was already out by the time the first bandit champions and posters were.

>

> I would also that depending on how it's done, Dhuum can very much be directly related to Path of Fire, given that PoF established that both the Realm of Torment and the Underworld have become weakened and chaotic in the gods' absences, and became even worse with soul-eating demons (which is exactly what Dhuum's minions were) when Balthazar had came and left, and that Palawa Joko was imprisoned and thus escape from the Underworld - his escape could easily lead to others escaping.

>

> Furthermore, detracting from returning to the Elder Dragons in full force would keep the game from continuing back down the repetitious and boring path of "every expansion deals with a new Elder Dragon" that was the primary purpose for Path of Fire not dealing with the Elder Dragons. And with them having brought the gods back into the plot, it seems highly silly to completely end the gods' plots with PoF.

>

> I do think we'll be getting a god-related raid soon, but I'd bet it'll be tied to Mingus, I mean Menzies more than Dhuum.

>

> But I suppose I'm just hopeful that my favorite GW1 villain of all time and most looked forward continued plot from GW1 will be getting a bigger spotlight than a mere raid. Hopefully it won't be getting the treatment that my fourth favorite GW1 villain got (Lazarus).

The first bandit champions showed up between Wing 2 and Wing 3.

Given the precedent of the first three being basically the prologue to Season 3, I really don't think the possibility that Dhuum _might_ be related to Season 4 is any protection against Dhuum being a raid. They've shown that they're willing to make raids out of things that are intrinsically tied to the main storyline - and heck, even Saul had the potential to be much more important if he hadn't simply had his age catch up to him and died. With PoF's ending already having multiple things on the PC's to-do list, I could definitely see going into the Underworld to put Dhuum back in his box being a raid-level side story rather than part of the main plot. It's too big to be a 'Side Stories' achievement, and my expectation is that Season 4 will mostly focus on going deeper into Elona, at least to begin with.

> @ugrakarma.9416 said:

> > @draxynnic.3719 said:

> > Skeletons of Dhuum was my first thought as well.

> >

> > Unfortunately, any 'cleaning up the god realms' content is 90% likely to be confined to raids, so if you're not a raider, temper your expectations.

>

> usually they dont put things related to Raids to affect core Tyria.

>

> Perhaps, its seems new **side histories**, it can hint the direction new lore goes for.

>

> http://dulfy.net/2017/08/08/gw2-side-stories-achievements-guide/

The bandit leader events were pretty much only related to raids when they appeared. They ended up related to LS3 as well, mind you, but that was because the raids were closely related to LS3 (with the original three wings being a prologue) rather than being a 'side story' per se.

So the comment about raid stuff not affecting core Tyria is inconclusive at best.

A Dhuum breakout, though, would be a prime candidate for a raid. It's something that's easily decoupled from Tyria itself, with the main event happening in the Underworld. It would be a followup to what was essentially the GW1 equivalent of a raid in GW1. It would be very easy to make a Dhuum instance into a series of boss fights in the style of raids. And it's not (necessarily) directly related to the current main story involving Kralkatorrik, Aurene, Joko and Dragon's Watch - certainly less so than the first raid wings were to the LS3 story.

It's perfect raid material, and thus, I'd be quite surprised if it wasn't. Perhaps pleasantly surprised, depending on what it is they decide to make the raids instead, but surprised nonetheless.

> @Dragonhero.1852 said:

> Yes please, anything that makes Guardian staff from incredibly boring farming weapon, to interesting support weapon I am all for!

>

> I have hated Guard Staff since launch, and have always felt it should be Guards primary support weapon, but ever time anyone asked to have the weapon reworked, people would start complaining about wanting to keep it as is for farming in open world and WvW. It frustrating.

You assume that just because people disagree with you it's only because lootstick...

Staff was a unique weapon - it was a hybrid between a flamethrower-type playstyle while still having long-range support options. This is, I think, a useful thing to have in the game. It was also good for situations where you needed to kill lots of enemies with low health, including things that don't grant experience and therefore don't trigger Renewed Justice for Tome of Justice. Examples can include the flowers in Twilight Arbor and the bomb golems in CoE.

Nowadays, of course, it's just uniquely useless.

Skeletons of Dhuum was my first thought as well.

Unfortunately, any 'cleaning up the god realms' content is 90% likely to be confined to raids, so if you're not a raider, temper your expectations.

Pretty much as Konig says.

The chronology seems to be:

Abaddon is defeated

Dragons start to rise.

Balthaddon wants to fight.

The other gods recognise this as an 'even if we win, Tyria loses' scenario.

Balthazar rebels

Balthazar is depowered and chained.

> @"Dark Red Killian.3946" said:

> Did anyone sort of think that maybe the band of heroes got caught up in the dragonbrand, considering the lightning, etc, going on at the end of PoF? The glimpse of grown up Aurene could have suggested that she grew up some over time and had to find the heroes and was able to undo the branding on them. Just a thought. Maybe the story takes place years in the future, which could make for a very different world. Thoughts?

There's already evidence to the contrary. Hallowing 2017 has an indication that Palawa Joko has been moving troops towards Lion's Arch in response to the Mad King, which indicates that the timeline has moved forward (without Dragon's Watch having been Branded or the like).

I suspect the change to Aurene is reflective of her having something of a 'growth spurt' in response to an influx of magic. One such influx lead to her hatching, so another might have hastened her maturation.

> @Quadtwo.9347 said:

> for me is engineer, well I'm new player, I tried ele and engi and now I have necro alt, I can tell that my low hp ele can survive one attacked camp in maguma alone, yet my engi with every tools kits he got can barely make it even with 2 other people arround. So weak in defense. Until today I never bring my engi to pvp or wvw or even fractals. engi got like 3 sec shrink to mini form and thats all. you die. My ele? now thats a monster. I can spam reduction damage like almost 100% all the time, no to mention he can go invisible with a couple skills too.. bring up toughness while on earth, healing over time with water, create aura that reduce damage up to 40% on tempest etc. I hope they could change it, cuz I hate using toolkit ( have 1 block skill but meh). Even my lvl 28 necro can survive tough battle... I love my engi and I hope anet could love them more too

Much as I acknowledge that engineer has a lot of problems, I don't think 'lack of survivability' is one of them - if built for it.

That's a key distinction, though. One of the primary distinctions between elementalist and engineer is customisability. An elementalist will pretty much always have at least _some_ defensive abilities built-in, from weapon skills if nothing else. Engineers, and scrappers in particular, can go heavily into active defences and damage avoidance skills if built for it (hammer, shield, Elixir S, thrown Elixir U, tool kit, elixir gun, bulwark gyro, rocket boots, etc) but it's also possible to make an engineer where the only defensive skill they have is their healing skill.

> @Inc.4753 said:

> God of _selective_ Truth she is...

Well, she is also the god of secrets, which would seem to mean that she's not required to tell the _whole_ truth...

There is a book - "An Instinct for Dragons" - that makes the argument that dragons are a kind of composite of all the things that gave monkeys nightmares (birds of prey, big cats, and snakes). I'm not convinced, though - the book kind of rests on using the modern Western image of the dragon, while if you trace the development of the myths back, dragon-equivalents in pretty much every culture started off as giant serpents or possibly crocodiles.

> @lakdav.3694 said:

> Dragons in western culture usually infer an otherworldly evil, most likely due to the image of the Serpent tempting Adam and Eve to commit the original sin. Then occasionally medieval people found dinosaur bones and the most clever people of the era, the priests came up with the dragon image. Cue in Saint George the dragonslayer. and his legend, and you get the origin of the knight in shining armor defeating the evil dragons, a story structure that survived to this day and thrived significantly in the rise of Fantasy.

>

> Now as for this dragon image connecting GW2 and the real world issues, consider that Elder dragons are forces of nature, like natural disasters the likes of which are the only things capable of scaring modern humans (more than we scare ourselves that is). Elder dragons are not evil in the sense of the biblical serpent, but beyond and above moral contemplations, and are suggested to be the natural part of a system that unfortunately doesn't care about the wellbeing of sentient races as long as the world/planet itself remains intact. This kind of disposition is probably meant to be the reflection of modern humanity's struggle with climate change, the new evil of a more sophyisticated and wiser world.

That 'usually' is a 'since the rise of Christianity'. Pre-Christian beliefs had benign dragons mixed in, but they all got demonised by Christianity.

One possibility is that they're leaving the Mists to engage in a 'hands-on' approach towards another world that they're currently working on, similar to how they dwelled on Tyria while Tyria was their current project.

> @Redfeather.6401 said:

> > @draxynnic.3719 said:

> > > @Redfeather.6401 said:

> > > I still think lyssa could be two entities and something significant happened between lyssa and balthazar (such as possibly becoming a retainer for his power?).

> > > Kind of suspicious that balthazar didn't curse lyssa, when cursing the gods by name, and that he had the mirror.

> > > Also suspicious that wintersday is right around the corner, and that means the beginning of the season of zephyr. Which means, the festival of lyss being celebrated in.... Vabbi! Possible Living Story episode? :astonished:

> >

> > Joko seems to have banned worship of the gods (in favour of himself), so it's likely that the old traditions like the Festival of Lyss are no more.

>

>

Pretty sure that 'fled' was the official story. Doesn't mean it's _true,_ though.

Chak having greater numbers somewhere off the map seems quite likely - I recall seeing a few areas where it was implied that the chak have hives deeper in that we can't access. It'd probable that once Rata Novus stopped drawing power, it also stopped being so attractive to the chak and they dispersed again - the nearest hive to Rata Novus is labelled "Decaying", after all.

The scary thing - for the asura - is that the chak hives don't appear to be that far from Rata Sum. Perhaps this is where they'll be very glad that Rata Sum floats...

> @Arcaedus.7290 said:

> > @starlinvf.1358 said:

> > Anet has a whole doesn't have a favorite..... but the 3 lead designers have pretty clear bias' in their design methods. Now if you want to identify which one always gets way above their power budget, it would be the Guardian given their in-line support mechanics. It also represents their soft trinity design philosophy as functional concept, as it can fit into any meta the game currently enables.

> > I wouldn't claim its their Favorite.... instead I would claim that its their most successful proof of concept.

>

> Well said. Guard always seems to come out at least along the middle of the totem pole at worst in any game mode. Definitely not a favorite but tends to be one that they almost never overnerf.

It's something I like about the profession. "In a good place" is a bit of a curse on the guardian forum (almost as bad as "purity of purpose" among engineers), but the truth is it generally does seem to be about the power level ArenaNet wants and thus doesn't have massive balance swings like some other professions do. It's rarely at the top, but I don't think it's ever been at the bottom either, and I think the only time it could be said to have had a 'your build just got removed from the game' update was when spirit weapons were reworked.

> @Arcaedus.7290 said:

> > @starlinvf.1358 said:

> > Anet has a whole doesn't have a favorite..... but the 3 lead designers have pretty clear bias' in their design methods. Now if you want to identify which one always gets way above their power budget, it would be the Guardian given their in-line support mechanics. It also represents their soft trinity design philosophy as functional concept, as it can fit into any meta the game currently enables.

> > I wouldn't claim its their Favorite.... instead I would claim that its their most successful proof of concept.

>

> Well said. Guard always seems to come out at least along the middle of the totem pole at worst in any game mode. Definitely not a favorite but tends to be one that they almost never overnerf.

It's something I like about the profession. "In a good place" is a bit of a curse on the guardian forum (almost as bad as "purity of purpose" among engineers), but the truth is it generally does seem to be about the power level ArenaNet wants and thus doesn't have massive balance swings like some other professions do. It's rarely at the top, but I don't think it's ever been at the bottom either, and I think the only time it could be said to have had a 'your build just got removed from the game' update was when spirit weapons were reworked.

> @lakdav.3694 said:

> Or maybe he was the one in the first place who extinguished it. Took its fire, probably hoping that he would be able to get free. I suppose it didn't work on its own (makes sense to chain a former god of fire with fire-resistant chains). When Rytlock arrived Balthy offered to relight the blade, and as to return the favor Rytlock cut off the chains. (It wasn't an actual deal between Rytlock and Balthazar, it was a favor returned. Rytlock never asked for the price, he probably just assumed what the nameless prisoner wanted.)

>

> What I'm more interested in is how did Sohothin land so close to Balthazar, and why would the Foefire cleansing ritual do this. Did the ritual try to tap into Balthazar's power that was no longer available (new god of fire and war already left along with the others except Kormir), and so the blade was just... sucked to the closest thing, that being Balthazar himself? I wouldn't think Balthy in his chained state would be able to manipulate the ritual as it is performed...

It's also possible that the Fissure of Woe was the intended destination for the Foefire ghosts after they were released from Tyria - after all, having spent their time as ghosts in constant conflict, the FoW seems like a fitting enough final destination.

> @Foxraging.1269 said:

> Whaaaaaat whyyyy the nerf on hammer? They don't want core guard viable?

>

> Hope this doesnt come true

ArenaNet have a history, which goes back to GW1, of avoiding nerfing the skill that is actually causing the problem and instead nerfing everything around it in an attempt to weaken the overall build, until eventually they admit that the skill that is actually causing the problem needs to be nerfed directly, nerfs it, and leaves the rest of the skills in a nerfed state that renders them virtually useless whenever they're _not_ being used in whichever OP or gimmicky build ArenaNet was trying to nerf in the first place.

I think this is the point Loop is making. With maybe an edge of cynical "they'll nerf everything that's a competitive Guardian build that isn't Firebrand to force people to buy PoF to get Firebrands" mixed in.

> @Abelisk.4527 said:

> All Mesmer needs is a single buff to make it work very well.

>

> I remember when Scepter/Warhorn Tempest was meta in raids, but when Phoenix was nerfed it was out of the game. What I think needs to happen is a Phantasm rework. Bullet system in place, where you can activate the Phantasm by simply using up its charge. It doesn't count as an illusion. This way you would be able to shatter while maintaining Phantasms.

So, kinda like what they did with guardian spirit weapons?

I'd... rather not, to be honest, although it could be done as an elite specialisation's "thing".

> @Buran.3796 said:

> > @draxynnic.3719 said:

> > > @otto.5684 said:

> > > Honestly, I do not think core or herald will see any changes tomorrow. I am expecting them to get some buffs, but not tomorrow.

> >

> > This is pretty much my thinking. Tomorrow's patch will probably be focused on the PoF elites, particularly those that are viewed as overperforming. Core and HoT specs probably won't be looked at much until they've got those more-or-less normalised.

>

> Yeah, but took them ~18 months to balance the huge disparity between the HoT specs and the core professions (and without a full success). That pace is utterly unaceptable in a game with competitive and cooperative modes. Maybe can be good (enough) for solo games as Skyrim (which was released with totally broken mechanics) but here people do left their classes or even the game when unfair disadvantage is perceived.

It is. They've been hiding behind not wanting to shake up the meta midseason, but dropping PoF elite specialisations midseason blew that argument out of the water entirely.

Nevertheless, I'd bet that their focus this patch is going to be on the new elites, so the best revenants can realistically hope for, I think, is renegade buffs and nerfs to some of the specialisations that are currently dominant. The fact that they really SHOULD be doing balance passes more than four to eight times a year is a separate issue.

> @otto.5684 said:

> Honestly, I do not think core or herald will see any changes tomorrow. I am expecting them to get some buffs, but not tomorrow.

This is pretty much my thinking. Tomorrow's patch will probably be focused on the PoF elites, particularly those that are viewed as overperforming. Core and HoT specs probably won't be looked at much until they've got those more-or-less normalised.

> @"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:

>

> Well, according to the lore the Charr did win. The Charr sent a force (it has to be significant enough of a force) to destroy the Krytan forces and caused fear to the sitting king that he abandoned the throne. This is when the White Mantle stepped up to the plate. As far as we can see in the game, the Krytan forces were reduced to a few Lionguards.

The impression I had is that the king jumped the gun and fled before the military campaign begun in earnest, leaving a leadership vacuum in Kryta (which Saul and the White Mantle would fill). If King Zolan had remained and organised a defence, his efforts would probably have been about as effective as the White Mantle's, albeit without the benefit of mursaat intervention.

Whether Kryta would have won in the end without the mursaat is difficult to say. As far as I know there weren't any Searing Cauldrons brought to Kryta, which removes that deus ex machina as well as indicating that it was the least important front for the charr.

Some of them have stories based on lore tie-ins - the Flameseeker Prophecies, the Shining Blade, and so on.

Broadly speaking, I think that's the idea behind precursor crafting collections, that is until ArenaNet stopped making specific collections. Legendaries are items that were crafted in the present day, rather than ancient weapons passed down over time, but the crafting process does involve drawing from other power sources. You'd need to look at the original collection to see what those sources are.

For instance, Frostfang involves first collecting essence from significant champions of all the Elder Dragons (except Stevebubbles) and then collecting ice from all across Tyria.

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> > @Westenev.5289 said:

> > It could be possible that previous information given about Sylvari Souls was simply an incorrect informed guess. I mean, at the time, it would make more sense to explain that sylvari are created, not born (thus having no souls) than leaping the gun and assuming Sylvari are Dragon Minions.

>

> The thing is, there was _no_ previous information given about sylvari souls. There's an Inquest asura in Mount Maelstrom who seemed to believe that they existed, but beyond that it's always been one big blank in our knowledge.

>

> Now that we know the answer, it's (in my biased opinion) honestly been one of the more exciting things about PoF. Like Rognik mentioned, it has implications for what exactly a soul is in the Guild Wars setting, as well as how sylvari fit into that bigger metaphysical picture.

I vaguely recall that there's a sylvari somewhere wondering if they had souls, but the whole 'sylvari have no souls' thing had no basis in it beyond that. Now that's been answered.

We also know that certain powerful Risen contain the souls of the being they were before they died (the priest of Grenth and the Eyes of Zhaitan being two examples) but like constructs, the souls are not necessarily actually in control. We do also know that some of those who become Risen have their ghosts elsewhere, so the more robot-like minions probably don't have souls. Where the line is, we don't know, but the precedent does suggest that anything that's fully sapient has a soul.