firedragon.8953

> @"radda.8920" said: > Braham champion of primordius. > I think it was difficult to have a worse idea than this. Primordius is viciously humiliated.. Why do people get this from the trailer? I seriously don't get it. You think Primordius wants/needs a Champion? I doubt it. Also, from the details about this chapter. >**Scry into the Past** >Play as Braham Eirsson in a solo story mission, and use his powers and skills on a journey to seek the meaning of the Owl Spirit’s prophecy. I'm pretty sure Braham is just finding a way to end the elder dragon cycle without having to side with Jormag. It should be obvious by now that the combined power of all the Spirits of the Wild can contend with an elder dragon, if not defeat it. If the Great Spirits didn't leave Owl and the other's behind in order to guide the norn, they possibly could have defeated Jormag, but at the cost of certain norn extinction. The spirits (along with Koda) have all been about "balance" as well. So, I don't think Braham is the Champion of Primordus, but more likely the Avatar of the Spirts.

GW2 is the only MMO I play. I will play other single player story driven RPGs or other game types once and a while too, although 80% of my gaming time goes to GW2. If GW2 was more time consuming (note, that I do not mean less difficult) and required more repetition and grind, I just wouldn't play it. I have a near zero interest in all the Icebrood Saga Champions content for this very reason, but there is still tons of stuff, even in the core game areas, that I like doing. I like the game world (lore) of Tyria even if the story telling could be better. I like the tab-target active combat system. Social interaction (fun community) and character customization are probably one of the reasons why I play GW2 and not just an open world single player RPG. So, GW2 is my MMO and I am glad it doesn't prevent me from enjoying other games and still having a real life.

> @"Mortifera.6138" said: > I like the norn idle posture.. so no. What? This doesn't even make sense. I said current norn options would still exist. I am asking for ADDITIONAL ones. I thought I outlined that clearly. So I will respond here just in case others think this is another request to "rework" the norn. It is not.

> @"radda.8920" said: >Lots of decors ruined by Kralkatorrik or the zombie atmosphere. > Hope the cantha vibe won't be destroy in the same way Although I understand that Anet was going for an apocalyptical atmosphere, I totally agree with this. Personally, I hate Orr the most just because it is so ugly and I don't really like the undead stereotypical mindless zombie trope enemies littered around the landscape. It's fine from the story telling aspect I guess, but it is pretty stale. So far, all Elder Dragon corruption seems scary or ominous. Dead and tattered risen sea remains, monstrous vines and devil like minions, burnt/crystalized landscapes and crystal impaled minions, and the same kind of thing but with ice. They were all pretty nightmarish, but I would kind of enjoy an Elder Dragon (even if they are evil) to make stunning landscapes (maybe even beautiful minions?), pristine shiny water, etc., but being dangerous as hell. Since we have not seen any DSD minions or corruption, or we are unaware of it anyway, I think Anet has a great opportunity here, because they basically have a completely blank slate to work with and be really creative. As long as we don't have to deal with undead or zombies, or another Canthan plague, I'd be pretty happy. Maybe more of a shift towards mysticism, secret human (and non-human?) societies working in Cantha. I always thought the White Mantle and Svanir were interesting since they were not controlled by corruption/branding, but had this weird dragon/magic cult thing going on, and wouldn't mind more of that kind of enemy, with less apocalyptic landscapes and gory-facade enemies.

I usually play alone, but like meeting other players in open world because there is no competition that reduces my own gameplay, and it is much easier for others to enhance my experience. I especially like when I run into one or two other random players and then we complete some event that would have been really hard or close to impossible alone. I also find it fun to do combo fields for some reason.

I'm not a fan of the new mount either. I doubt this is going to show up anywhere in Cantha. I am sure Cantha dragons are going to look more like saltsprays.

I just love LWS4 in general. Interesting dialog with Joko, a giant Elder Dragon battle (most epic one so far?), two new mounts, suns refuge, well designed maps with various movement mechanics, pretty decent character development (e.g. Blish). I see how Anet thought they could make expansion level content with Icebood Saga, since honestly, LWS4 was so close to expansion level content.

I hope there will be more realistic and elegant armor designs with EoD. With all the shiny armor and weapons sets, it does get a bit ridiculous. At least I don't have to spend RL money or grind out achievements for much of the gaudy stuff available. So personally I don't mind, but being glowy is definitely not special in this game. If anything, staying in "regular" armor makes you stand out more. haha

> @"Fueki.4753" said: > They should use the Scrying Pool for that though, not the DRM system. > There already are parts of Season 1 in the Scrying Pool, just not enough. The fundamental flaw with the Scrying Pool is that it is because of Aurene during Icebrood Saga that the pool is activated. So unless the commander finds a way to use the pool before Aurene's Visions of the Past, this does not help with continuity, helping new players continue the story after the core story and before LWS2. Having the commander use the pool pre-HoT may also bring about problems since the commander acts as if they first experience a vision when Aurene introduces it to them. Providing LWS1 content several hundreds of hours after a new player should be introduced to it wasn't the smartest move in my opinion, and honestly the devs have weaved themselves an overly convoluted and poorly structured narrative in doing so. Although I am happy _something_ was partially done to try to correct the plot holes. Visions of the Past: Season One Missions should not be within Icebood Saga, they should be in Season One after watching the cinematic when talking to Ela Makkay. We are told the Asuran Gate in the Hall of Monuments is reopened once we hit level 80. We are also prompted to watch that forgetful cinematic in Lions Arch (which should also be made rewatchable by the way) when the first character on an account reaches level 80. Using the gate would be much easier to tie these two things together based on the current world building. But then, yes, we have the problem with the current Scrying Pool episodes. I guess devs could build a new story with some priory scholar group looking to activate the pool and asking you to go out and finding the things like the Blighted Thorn etc. at the Hall of Monuments after the personal story. Then move the Visions of the Past LWS1 episodes to the LWS1 story journal. I don't know how easily this kind of restructuring can happen since there are achievements that players will already have completed. Honestly, I am surprised how long this has been neglected. This is literally the finish line in observable story progress where new players who are F2P decide if they want to become paying customers. Imagine playing through the personal story, and thinking, wow, I wonder what happens next. Watching that cinematic. Thinking, "oh that's too bad I can't play it". Then buying LWS2 and the expansions with real money, to only feel super left out of the loop. Then thinking, "maybe I should watch that cinematic again, I don't know who all these members are", but then realizing you can't replay the cinematic (not that it would help much). For me this was a huge turnoff. It made me question the quality of the game and be skeptical of if it would be able to maintain a story line or if there were other giant holes in development. If it wasn't for the community picking up the slack...or rather weaving the rescue rope with their bare hands, I would have left the game because I simply would have lost interest in it. It is also fairly obvious that ArenaNet themselves have now kind of made the story the "selling point" of GW2 and generally make it a central point for each new release. But, it felt like I had to "research" to understand what happened in LWS1 and who my team are, and I am pretty sure many players are likely to feel the same. It is still one of the biggest criticisms of the game from new (and even veteran) players.

I would be happy if they used this system to reanimate the main story plot points of Living World Season 1. LVL 80 Scarlet War cinematic (include note about repayable episodes at Eye of North) Mail that Eye of North portal open [currently in game] 1 DRM style chapter introducing each member of the B Team (e.g., Retake Craigsted with Braham) with a short cinematic when going through gate to establish backstory (Braham rejected help by Eir, etc.). A few more DRMs, including the destruction of the old Lions Arch. Finally "fix" the giant plot hole that literally has us miss the introduction of the team we are stuck with for the rest of the game. Also implement Scarlet's War achievements, etc. Really sell the new cast, make the story fast paced (something I think DRM style could do well) and leave F2P players wanting more to go buy expansions, etc. The smaller social aspect with both private and public instances is also a nice change from just "solo" or "blob" gameplay which has become common for story and meta content.

Just like the real world, it takes effort, money and time to look beautiful. I used to loathe transmutation charges as well, but then I just logged in enough that I guess the problem resolved itself, since I generally stick with a look I like for a while. If I was a heavy transmutation user, I guess I would be forced to fill Anets coffers. I do however wish that we could temporarily change our character appearance for like one hour before we commit to using a cosmetic kit, or can revert/refund changes within 24 hours or something. As a norn, I had some clipping issues on certain things that I only noticed once I started playing again...very annoying and also costs money/gold. The preview window doesn't really allow a decent preview.

I like the terrain design and map art. Flying around a griffon is super fun! Some reason flying out of the snow capped mountains and down towards the bridge and river, then through the forest is always fun. So A+ for aesthetics in my opinion. The meta is okay I guess. I like that it kinda has a WvW feel, which is different than other metas, but I wouldn’t say it is super fun. Honestly, I don’t think most metas are fun anyway. Generally I have no clue what is going on and just follow the blob and collect loot. I usually do them once and rarely ever again in their entirety. But yeah, I like the Drizzlewood map and definitely think it is the best Icebrood Saga map.

I also started about one year ago (or well, I bought the game 7 years ago, but didn't really begin playing it) and have finally caught up (600+ hours, thanks pandemic?) and am playing through Champions now. So yeah, I'm a fan. I actually think core isn't that bad. Yes, it is dated. But honestly, I really liked exploring the maps (I didn't get mounts early). There is of course a lot to be desired, but meh, the world still seemed so huge and there were still so many things I was trying to figure out. I guess I did spend a lot of time reading the wiki and watching youtube vids about the lore, but the lore is one reason I got sucked into this game, which may be different for different players. However, playing through the expansion I think it would be much harder for me to go back to core Tyria and play through the initial story again, just because the quality is so much lower and I've gotten used to the newer style ArenaNet went with. But I definitely didn't feel bored, although I think I played the last 10-15 levels through some kind of XP boost event or something, which could have helped, I dunno. I agree that the gaping hole of Season 1 is really a travesty, and **probably one of the worst decisions this game's developers has made**. Honestly, if ArenaNet knew they would never be able to "bring it back" and make it replayable, they should have introduced a whole new cast in Season 2 and "started over" and basically forgot most of what happened in Season 1, with maybe a few references to past events in passing for those players that actually experienced S1. I HATE that I have a team that I have no idea who anyone is and they call me "boss" and S2 with references to Scarlet and Omadd's machine and all these things I apparently "experienced". This just plain sucks as someone who places importance on lore and character/world building, and honestly I almost did quit the game at that point. It is even worse that this same crew has stuck with us up until now, so basically ArenaNet built the characters on the graves of ghosts since we will never be properly introduced to these characters, and will just be forced to have them "grow on us". It is for this reason that I hope EoD leaves the majority of the "team" in Tyria, phasing them out, and introduces a new cast. I guess Braham will be around as long as Jormag is (if it is still here at the end of Icebrood). I also liked the expansions. HoT was great for introducing gliding and I actually liked the confusing and frustrating feeling of the maps at first, since it really gave me that *oh, f..., we need to survive out here" feeling. I think the meta/final story chapter split thing was really confusing though, but this seems to be a thing GW2 does (same with LWS4) so I eventually I got used to the parallel timeline thing, where I can experience two scenarios that temporally overlap with each other. PoF looked amazing, I still love the desert at night, the mounts were super fun, and the story was pretty good. By far I think LWS4 is probably the best content with various play styles in the missions, extra mounts, some good cut scenes, etc. The Kralk battle is the closest to what I imagine an actual Elder Dragon battle to be like. As a norn player, I am pretty disappointed with Icebrood Saga as far as story telling goes (I hope EoD continues with norn stuff). I really like the Drizzlewood map though, even just flying around on my griffin from lush forests to icy landscapes and through bridges, etc. In general think map design is really something the GW2 devs excel at.

First, there are already multiple languages available, as has been pointed out. Also I wouldn't consider the Guild Wars 2 story simple or "easy to follow" although granted this probably isn't because it has an overly complex plot, but more just issues with telling a coherent story through the content delivery system of an MMO like GW2. The lore is pretty expansive and interesting, but without out-of-game discussion and fan sites I wouldn't know most of it. For players who do not have language support, generally they are in a guild with bilingual players. For example, I am in a small Japanese guild. Some of the bilingual members will actually translate some dialog and a short synopsis of the plot in a text file and share it on the guild discord server. Don't underestimate the power of fan translations. ;) There is even a Japanese GW2 wiki, however plot details haven't been updated since PoF. I do know that these players would love to hear the voice acting in their language, but alas, I don't think a language like Japanese has the player base to even begin making economic sense to begin translation.

I love the art direction in Guild Wars 2. One of the main reasons I enjoy this game is exploring all the interesting places, including the places in the core areas of the game. I also think the graphics range from fine to excellent, especially in terms of asset resolution. Some of the original assets seem "dated" but obviously if you want to have ray tracing, UHD textures, and all the modern graphical eye candy, an 8 year old MMO is not going to do that. I'd say give it a chance, and if your looking for something else, move along. There is a lot of eye candy to play with in the modern gaming market.

The minions of Primordus, as with most elder dragon minions, are bestowed by the intelligent races of Tyria. Not the dragon. Dragons have no need to name their minions (with some exceptions with Jormag which thus far has been one of the human-mimic like dragons, etc.). Primordus is intelligent. However, you're not going to be sitting down with a conversation with him. He does not need you. Zhaitan needed sentient life so that he could control death, Moredemoth needed non-sentient life to create sentient life and imbue with a psyche. Kralk is probably closest to Primordus, however Kralk still relied on life force (branding minons) to a certain degree to obtain many of his desires. Jormag possibly needs life the most. It needs to manipulate people, not control them, and wishes to preserve life, whereas Primordus needs no sentient life and is able to build artificial constructs with the only desire to destroy everything else. Besides being fire, which is the antithesis to Jormag, he works against Jormag's goal of preservation. So when Primordus appears to just be a beast, this doesn't mean he is unintelligent. We just don't understand him, because quite literally, he likely cares the least of all about Tyria and would be more than happy to just consume the whole world with fire and make it a molten ball in space, even if it resulted in his own demise. Generally elder dragons are more powerful the bigger they are, through their consumption of more magic, and well Primordus is the biggest _known_ Elder Dragon. Thankfully Primordus would be unable to consume the whole planet as long as the Deep Sea Dragon exists. Quite literally it would turn into a battle of land and sea. Maybe not so good for those trying to live on the planet though.

Why do anything in a game? Do you play games for rewards? All points don't matter? All prizes are pixels? I am guessing, as others have alluded to, that it is because the achievements merely exist. Some people like playing a game for a challenge. The devs set some goal that should be attainable by players, and players want to see if they can reach such a goal. Isn't that what a game is at it's most simplest level? lol

Jotun. Before the dark times. The Eye of the North is/was the grandest jotun citadel, likely built with aid of "others".

I play from Japan with about 250 ping if things are good. I really do wish this could be under 100, but thankfully it doesn't really affect most aspects of the game, except maybe sPvP. I do like the idea of making map instances that are hosted in Asia though. No need to make a whole new region, just have an overflow map that connects Asia IP addresses within the NA server mega server to a map hosted on physical servers in like Singapore or something. Sure it won't result in consistently lower ping, but it would be nice once and a while when the megaserver system is able to calculate such a move. Also adding an option for a selectable Asia PvP region may make some people happier. But I think it is mainly a cost thing. I'm just glad ArenaNet allows Asian IPs to connect to their servers.

It's populated, but not crowded. In open world sometimes I will not really see many people if it isn't a popular map, but most times I am playing and there are other players around and sometimes we "team up" to do a meta or world boss, etc. and don't have any problems.

> @"eunaovinada.7953" > @"Kritiko.1732" I'm a professional translator, but not for Portuguese and English. But I have an honest question that you may be able to answer. In the past I have played a few MMOs that are not localized/translated into Portuguese, but as you say the Portuguese speaking community (primarily Brazilians) is huge, probably second to the English speaking population. Do you know why this is? Are MMOs just a popular genre in Brazil? Are other MMOs available in Portuguese? I am just genuinely curious since this is something I've noticed dabbling in MMOs (without Portuguese language support) since the early 2000s. Edit: Also, although I don't know what translation rates for ENG>PT would be, but I imagine it would be pretty costly considering if it is anywhere near what I see in the Japanese-English translation market.

Foreshadowing.

I feel your pain. However, I agree with others when they say this is an Apple issue. Apple made decisions that Arenanet is not able to comply with. Good news is, you can emulate Windows (for free even) on a Mac. You could also purchase a PC for probably about $300 to play Guild Wars 2. It really just depends on how much Guild Wars 2 is worth to you and how much you are willing to spend on your hobbies. I think it is terrible that there wasn't a longer window for support after the announcement. Supporting the Apple OS for 6 more months (or until EoD) after an announcement so players have a better opportunity to prepare and transition. OpenGL is likely to still work for that timeframe. 2 months or whatever is pretty harsh. This could also be an indication that they may be updating the client with EoD and really only have resources to update the PC client.

No I like updrafts being a glider-specific skill. It helps keep the glider a relevant game mechanic. Updrafts and being able to glide while in combat are the only reasons gliding hasn't been sent to the gates of oblivion.

In 2020 I came back after 7 years, created a new character (I couldn't remember anything to continue my original) and played all the way up to Ice Brood Saga. In 2021 I plan to finish Ice Brood Saga before EoD so I am all caught up with the story and can explore the new world with everyone else. Also get the last mount, the Skyscale.