Perisemiotics.4579

up until Drizzlewood it was quite good, like a 7/8 (still inferior to S4 imo) but this second half... I don't hate it though, I'm enjoying the diff. mechanics with this 2nd round of DRMs but for a LW season it's extremely underwhelming to say the least. and I don't accept the reasoning that it's because the team is working on the expansion - S3 was running fast and even had that extra final episode whilst PoF got finished seamlessly; granted, different times and studio and yet, to portray an epic clash between Jormag and Primordus through these DRMs and "factions" alone is going to be hard to swallow.

> @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > @"Ronan.9518" said:

> > And given that we had a grp leader system (always the one who opened a grp) at the beginning of the game (which in some cases got abused like mentioned above, kicking all others close to the end of a dungeon just to refill with friends/guildmates) that arena-net moved away from, I don't see why they ever would implement that again.

> Exactly this.

Interesting, coming from two other games much more "toxic" and with a lot more "p2w" that had this feature, I never saw that happening in years, not once.

> @"Hesione.9412" said:

> In addition, what would happen if the group leader dc'd during the fractal/dungeon?

They would be given at least a couple minutes of tolerance to return, during which time the party would have to wait or keep on by themselves; defeating a boss within the "tolerance" window would have the leader's loot mailed to them, not all of it but a portion of it. Since they often spend longer than that waiting around and rounding people up for the instance.

unless anyone here is an ANet former/current employee, whcih doesn't appear to be the case, we don't know if that'll come or not. Yes, devs years ago said probably not because of this and that, but things change, nothing ever stays the same, or almost nothing. Personally idc if they come out as a new race or not but I just find natural (new) players interested in it and asking for it, unlike the bazillion answers "no, no, no, get over it, etc." from other players that are just... players.

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > @"ATMAvatar.5749" said:

> > For those not in the know, it's a reference to the [i am Rich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich) app on the iOS store that was $1000.

>

> The title is a quote from Lord Faren.

> The price may be come from that app, but the title is definitely due to Lord Faren's quote.

isn't it a generic line by "minister/noble" NPCs in DR? I just recall it from the story step during S3E4 when the White Mantle were breaking into the Palace but probably verifiable in the open world, too.

the beginning of the post that read "spawn camped by a thief" made me chuckle =P the reason I guess is to get ppl to at least try different game modes? and if you think WvW is toxic, man, you haven't seen toxic. To begin with, he fact opposing players can't chat already goes a long way... like others have said, focus on the non-pvp dailies, if you get zerg-banged laugh it off, change maps, keep trying different things and you'll get the Gift before you know it.

I'd add to the previous items Southsun Cove - go there for the Queen, then grab your 3 daily Blooming Passiflora nodes, chest from the Reef Rider champion & Skipping Stones JP (both easily cheesable with mounts), chest from Kiel outpost, cheese the easier JP (or just do it, easy enough) and go down for another chest on the ship. By running around the map you'll usually get additional shells from vet karkas and all the wood/ore nodes. I've found this to be a very laid back, fast and non tedious farm.

> @"Jagblade.4627" said:

> The skimmer was never intended to be used underwater and there were even lore reasons for why it wasn't a sea creature. This was just kind of a patchjob for people who wanted an underwater mount without designing brand new content around that. I'm happy we got anything at all though.

couldn't agree more - this felt sketchy to me as soon as they announced it.

> @"Witch of Doom.5739" said:

> > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > I finished it in a very short time last night (using a XP boost). I started out by farming mobs at the Crystal Desert (while also farming tons materials along the way), doing Hero Challenges and Hearts there (which gave a lot of XP) as well as smaller events. It was fun. The remaining ~30% I got by collecting Volatile Magic across Thunderhead Peaks. Easy peasy. :)

> Thank you for the reminder about collecting the Magic motes across Thunderhead Peaks. With a few alts, boom, it's done in a fraction of the time I was spending doing bounties.

...and Bloodstone Fen, with the dive and all the other globs all over the crater.

edit: that actually wouldn't work, would it... HoT mastery... my bad!

my theory: the Sea Dragon has already been dealt with by the peoples of Cantha; Kuunavang is a minor dragon so i'm going to assume she isn't either of the ones portrayed in the logo; the "mother" who is likely talking to Kuu. in the trailer isn't a dragon at all, she's maybe a "goddess" or a Spirit of the wild, or a Titan... maybe even something else altogether, coming from only the devs know where - and she'd be the bridge to future lore after the EoD storyline is over.

The question then remains, who are the yin-yang dragons? they are Primordus and Aurene. Assuming Jormag will be killed at the end of the Saga, those 2 are the only real two dragons worth of battling it out at the end of times.. or the end of their race :P let's remember Prim. comes from the depths (dark) as opposed to Aurene, the dragon of light - this dichotomy placates the very notion of yin-yang perfectly. Prim was the first elder dragon to awake and has been supposedly absorbing all the magic and power that Aurene has now, only he was already elder before she was even born so... who wins, who dies out of the two and how, I won't risk guessing.. maybe they'll just kill each other off? but Aurene is the great-granddaughter of the "mother" so maybe that'll come into play... everyone's guess.

edit: actually... haha, thinking back on the previous logos I think it's safe to assume the one surfacing in a wave is actually the Deep Sea Dragon - the visual clue is too strong to be ignored. As to the other one... considering what Arcaniaxs.4519 referenced about Omadd's machine, Primordus is the more logical choice, since Aurene wasn't even around back then.

> @"Kurrilino.2706" said:

> > @"Perisemiotics.4579" said:

> > I just really wanted a new log-in screen, like that one they had up during the announcement, an icebrood army slowly coming out of the massive blizzard... along with the superb music and sound effects that this Saga has definitely offered.

>

> Didn't they already do that or are we talking about the Character selection screen?

> [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Login_screen](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Login_screen)

Yeah my B, I meant to say "character selection screen" =P

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> To be honest, the scavenger hunts were nothing but chores. Just things to get you to go and do content that you've already done numerous times before. There really wasn't any story or anything special about them. I was glad when they stopped doing them.

Not even close... for a weapon like Nevermore I could relate to your feelings - the extensive T3 collection felt somewhat artificial although even there the revisiting of content is never "just chores" when one gets to experience previously missed dialogues, for example; for the final one of the series, Chuka & Champawat, ANet went above and beyond not only with in-game features (special quest mechanic, tiger den, tiger cubs as backpacks, journal and persistent NPC interaction) but the story itself - based upon the accounts of a famous British naturalist in India - presented a humanistic twist to be remembered as embodied in the weapon itself. I'd go as far as saying this particular storyline along with its various items felt more engaging than any other from PS or LW.

> @"Mewcifer.5198" said:

> > @"Kodama.6453" said:

> > Really a shame that they stopped doing the scavenger hunts because of the work load.

> > Crafting H.O.P.E. was so much fun. I love the alchemy thematic of my engineer and then they gave me a weapon I had to explore the alchemy of Hylek in the lore. It was a great experience and I really hoped that I could get the same with the rifle, but no luck.

>

> Making Chuka and Champawat was such a fun experience. I understand why they scaled back the collections for later legendaries but that doesn't mean I am not saddened that they aren't all like the earlier ones.

> Imagine how much fun a real journey for Claw of the Khan-Ur could have been.

Exactly! your mention of Claw of the Khan-Ur is a perfect example for how much NEW lore they could've released in a very special format, which in turn would be yet another motivation for people to go onto the quest.

If devs go for another round of legendaries they really need to make them journeys with special flavor like those first four; absurd material sinks like Exordium - as amazing as the weapon is - make their crafting feel like a bad joke.

I'm disappointed... one only has to look at that mock Largos expansion webpage made by some players to see all the possibilities missed here... truly disappointing :/ feels like giving in to sketchy design and just filling in the gaps for the sake of filling in...

I just really wanted a new log-in screen, like that one they had up during the announcement, an icebrood army slowly coming out of the massive blizzard... along with the superb music and sound effects that this Saga has definitely offered. I think the reason they stuck with PoF screen is because it's the one paid-for xpack so, yeah, in that sense too the Saga could not be considered xpack-level...

I mean, I recall fondly logging in during HoT days and that crescendo music made me want to get into the game and stomp stuff... PoF is nice but that score many times makes me want to log back out and play the piano instead, lol.

I just hope the Cantha expansion will be a lot more like HoT than PoF - espcially concerning map-wide/meta events.

> @"WorldofBay.8160" said:

> 4. Professor Portmatt's Lab

> possibly one of the more hated ones because it is actually a puzzle this one can also be entirely skipped very easy with a springer, a griffon and the bond of faith. simply climb the lighthouse on stormbluff isle and fly over. use the bond to jump off of the griffon just before the no fly zone and you'll land right on the end chest. you're dead but you still get it counted as completed.

wait... as far as I remember whenever you use Bond of Faith your character will ignore fall damage regardless of height or distance traveled...

I agree with you but I think the problem is, to properly "fix" these no-fly zones would have to be weirdly expanded to the point that, on one hand, new players coming into those areas would be dismounted without knowing why (or they'd suspect a JP is nearby through an artificial measure) and, on the other, players not at all interested in the JP would be forced out of their mounts over a wide area for something they don't care about.

> @"pninak.1069" said:

> another option would be to create no-skill no-mount no-glide zones during the first playthrough of a jp. but this just means that newcomers still have the option to get ported by a mesmer. but are forced to do it normally if no mesmer is present. in consecutive playthroughs the zones no longer exist.

while this sounds interesting at first, imagine how many _thoughtful_ people would park their hovering Skyscales at crucial jumps of the JP - they'd even make a string with them to make sure no one would see a pixel beyond all those flapping wings.

I'd recommend iced tea as it increases the weapon drop rate from _Glitched Chests_ by a few percentage points.

> @"Yitsul.8342" said:

> I'd like baubles to be turned into a currency

this...

> @"Chaba.5410" said:

> Guild Wars Utopia

my thoughts exatcly!

kitten yes... and those trees look a lot more like cherry than "deciduous"... also, that could be the top of a waterfall instead of a shallow river... clearly ANet wouldn't mess with a Cantha concept to mislead everyone later with it not being Cantha.

Yeah... just put it back in ANet, please. I mean, neither version was hard to cheese, just afk on the ledge.... I'm sure hundreds if not thousands of players got this one without knowing what they were doing. Removing this achievement is only rewarding its faulty design - add it back in and for the next release, be a little more sensitive about the mechanics involved =)

Expansion maps are great for sure but let's be honest, it really isn't like you need a fine-tuned build to survive or even get your bearings... when in doubt, go ranger - _ranged_ ranger, lol. Just core ranger will do, longbow and a tanky pet and you'll solo all PoF HPs and a good number of the HoT ones. Equally sound and safe for general solo open-world run-ins.

This is eye-opening... I've always mained "ranger" classes in games but heeding your instructions, I realize as I get older I'm getting fat. My legs don't roll off those steep steps as they once did and even my yearn for being out in the woods has weaned - yet I've grown even more into a mean teaser and trickster, so yeah...

> @"Omernon.9762" said:

> Anyway, **people complaining about lack of content are not understanding that they’re actually getting more than they would if ANet was making expansion.** It takes at least two years for them to release one and now you can possibly get more in just one year. Also I prefer changes to the existing game modes over new specs that will break balance even more so and since we already have gliders and mounts - what else do you want?

I want a pair of skis and earmuffs impervious to Jormie's naughty whispers... for starters. Later on, maybe ride a dolyak through an ice field where the snow blows off so hard, we'd get flown away if not for the bulky mount :P but careful on the icy sheets, you need to use _Wolf's Sight_ to know what route won't sink you as well as _Eagle 's Grip_ to latch on to trunks and stones along the way, besides _Bear's Bout_ to fight off incoming Icebrood - so make sure to train and level up all these masteries!

Also, ice-fishing as the first-tier (lv 100 or so) of the new craft... that's right, _Fishing_ - a craft whose higher tiers will only be available through fishing boats (that is, sailing mounts), with different types for different biomes (meaning they can and should also be used in the desert, jungle, Orr, Kryta, Ascalon, etc.) with respectively unique skills for those map areas.

That's basically what I want, for now. Oh yes, underwater stuff... maybe in another post!

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"lokh.2695" said:

> > At least the "CAPESNAOPLOX!!!!!!!!"-threads can end now....

>

> And the “MOARCAPESNAOPLOX!!!!!!!’” will begin...

hahaha... you guys made my day.

> @"Thornwolf.9721" said:

> This will only grow to be more apparent because Raids are probably dead, and fractals are probably dead and will be replaced by Strikes.

I don't want to think that is so because Strikes are part of the map and episode content, and they're very trivial fights even with some mechanics here and there, basically dodge and switch targets - any fractal has more interesting mechanics, narrative and ambience than an empty room with a "random" boss in it.

> Id love an Asgeri E-spec for rev... or a Nornbear one...

Asgeir as a rev legend would be awesome!

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> Dwayna's Directive...that was part of the acquisition of the Skyscale, same thing with Raven, it technically was one of the Spirits that sacrificed itself so the Norn's could escape...though we know differently now.

Raven didn't sacrifice himself iirc... he went on to be one of the major spirits in Hoelbrak.... I think you're mistaking him with Owl?

I just want to point out this "saga" has very little of Norn to it, it's basically a Charr saga taking place in Norn homelands - apart from aspiring Jhavi (I did like her) and Braham being made a figure of fun as usual, this is all about the Charr. The prologue gave us almost a second Charr capital along with several interesting and fleshed out characters like Ryland, Bangar, Crecia and Greetsglory (not to mention the Metal Legion which is a whole thing by itself) with a lot of potential for future plots. The "prologue" had so much more story and intrigue than the first episode itself, whose climax by the way was the death of yet another great Charr... I know the map will expand and it's early in the season but until we get a lot more Norn characters involved in the story (living characters, not holograms from the past, lol) it feels like a Charr saga to me.