HotDelirium.7984

> @"sitarskee.5738" said:

> Good suggestions. Pretty interested in what today's patch brings.

...I had no idea there was even going to be a patch today because if there isn't....oof.

> @"DKRathalos.9625" said:

> @"HotDelirium.7984"

> To answer the title it's simple "No, it's not playtested. Why? because we are (the players) are the playtester." there is reason why they don't have test server because they just treat player as the tester.

>

>

Good, bad, indifferent game service practice?

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > @"BrotherofShadows.7426" said:

> > What was the deal with, just out of the blue, Primordus suddenly awaking and bursting lots of flame monsters out everywhere? It struck me like lightning from a clear sky.

> >

> > Last chapter ended with Ryland and Bangar becoming Icebrood and Ryland running off with Jormag to some unknown place, with us having to try and track the two of them down. I was pumped and ready to give chase and then all of a sudden they're just like "Oh haha, another Elder Dragon woke up and now the world is ending =)" Why? Isn't the awakening of an ELDER DRAGON kind of a big deal that we usually use whole living world seasons or expansions to set up? It just seemed to me that everything happened so incredibly fast from Chapter 4 to Chapter 5.

>

> There is a multi-month gap between the end of Episode 4 and the beginning of Episode 5, which gets explained during the Confer with Bangar post-Episode 4 achievement. During this gap, Primordus _began_ to stir, due to the awakening of Jormag somehow causing it (despite there being a 50 year gap between their awakening last time).

>

> Primordus is not yet awake, but is awakening.

>

> They're not spending a whole season on Primordus' awakening because ANet doesn't want to just be retreading the same plot again and again. They did so for Mordremoth because it was the first time they did that plot. With Icebrood Saga, they only spent half a season on that so that they can include other stuff.

>

> > @"HotDelirium.7984" said:

> > I'm still confused about how and what the Spirits of the Wild are doing right now and why did Charr have essence from the 3 spirits if we killed Drakkar?

>

> For the latter: pure mechanics. They wanted to keep the masteries relevant, and they used the same color coding we see in [The Ooze Pits](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Ooze_Pit_Trials) meta, where green=Ash, blue=Iron, and red=Blood.

They need some EPIC reveals and if by the end of Champions we don't get reveals of certain things I will be highly disappointed i.e. the spirits of the wild were dragon champs or Koda was a dragon champ or Jormag is actually Koda...like SOMETHING god anything at this point.

Are we straight up not getting any more spirits of the wild masteries? Wasn't that the point of icebrood saga...to get to know the spirits?

> @"anninke.7469" said:

> > @"voltaicbore.8012" said:

> > > @"anninke.7469" said:

> > > Anyone else getting slightly hopeful that Laranthir's absence may have an actual reason after all?

> >

> > No.

> >

> > After what they did to the Spirits, the norn aspect of the Saga in general, and to my boy Smodur - zero faith in ANet's narrative capabilities. I'd prefer they not ruin Laranthir somehow as well.

> >

> >

>

> Might be the wise thing to do. I'm afraid it will end up like that but I still can't not get my hopes up. Oh well, the dissapointment to come is my own doing I guess.

>

> And slightly off-topic, I was not pleased by Aife coming all the way to the EotN and tell me almost the same thing we've been told for FIVE KITTEN YEARS about the Pale Tree's health.

Longest recovery ever.

I've always wondered though from a narrative perspective- the push and pull between doing what organically and logically would happen from characters and events to doing things slightly different for the sake of keeping it fresh and not treading the same old tropes?

> @"voltaicbore.8012" said:

> > @"anninke.7469" said:

> > Anyone else getting slightly hopeful that Laranthir's absence may have an actual reason after all?

>

> No.

>

> After what they did to the Spirits, the norn aspect of the Saga in general, and to my boy Smodur - zero faith in ANet's narrative capabilities. I'd prefer they not ruin Laranthir somehow as well.

>

>

Well I guess they are right about one thing...its DEF the Icebrood saga and has NOTHING to do with the Norn ._.

> Also, as we have seen with Caithe in Season 4, Sylvari are no longer immune to being corrupted by other dragons. Who's to say Aurene is the only one being able to convert other dragon's minions?

Was that due to the good Sylvari being microscopically still connected to Mordremoth ( a guess highly diluted but still dragon minions) before we killed him?

Maybe he got a new Wyld Hunt?

Voice actors don't usually have it in their contract that only they can voice that character do they?

They could have hired a new voice actress for Zoija by now.

Someone said there was some dialogue of the Pale Tree still recovering?

> @"aleron.1438" said:

> About the Gendaran fields DRM, the Norn shaman buff you get when you spend Tyrian defense seals to

> acquire Norn faction help: 1 bleed stack and cripple on 15seconds cooldown. Is that a private Anet joke?

At the minimum give us that buff without us needing to spoon em!

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> I think we are currently play-testing them.

> To me, it feels like the play-testing of everything in GW2 is being done on the live servers.

Its one thing to be beta-testing content for free and its another to ship gold content and have us find "bugs". Kinda sus

Can I formally request all these Dragon Response Missions get a QA glance-over:

1) Fixing the Champions LFG to create parties instead of squads.

2) Prevent the allies from constantly dying so fast.

3) Allow the DRM to begin once all 3 mini-goals are completed.

4)If we disconnect inside the instance allow us to get back inside the instance.

5)For specifically Gendarran Fields, can you place 2 of the stationary allies in more strategic areas instead of where they are?

For the Norn allies: the jaguar and raven norn shaman are mostly out of the enemy's path. Also, since we fight the boss at three interludes, maybe allow one of the shaman to come and assist us during that interval.

Thank you for your time!

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> Whilst I’m sure this is fun fan faction, the basis for existence in actual GW2 lore is zero. Nothing connects it to the game or the franchise or any of its lore. It’s just made up stuff with nothing to ground it

>

> For starters the Dragons long predate the Gods abs have shown no connection or interest to them let alone working to fix something to do with Lyssa. There is no connection between the Gods and Dragons. The Gods came From elsewhere to seek a new home and eventually left. All whilst the Dragons slumbered. The Dragons only knowledge of the Gods will come from those they corrupted

>

> There’s nothing to connect the theory that the fractals are memories if the Gods. I mean that’s a baffling theory come out of nowhere

>

> There nothing that says Jormag is their leader. In fact if there was even a speck of truth we would have seen something of it by now

>

> I think when theorycrafting, it is always more prudent to use the lore the game actually provides rather than change the lore entirely to make new facts which don’t really tie up. For your theories to work, the game would need to be retold from scratch. As the above poster says, this isn’t a terribly deep story

>

Honestly, the reveal of Balth was one of the coolest moments in GW2 history so if they somehow reintroduce the human Gods i.e. they come back or we go to them it could save this entire franchise in my conspiracy theory opinion allegedly.

I'm still confused about how and what the Spirits of the Wild are doing right now and why did Charr have essence from the 3 spirits if we killed Drakkar?

Its kind of a fail in the delivery and explanation of this release:

1)The tokens, timer and faction cadence- not explained anywhere so in our confusion were not really hyped or motivated to do the content

2)Also, the DRMs themselves are wonky, LFG doesn't work as well as it should (party and not a squad), if you DC you cannot get back inside the instance and get no rewards and if the leader of the instance leaves before your get your chest you are SOL. Happened to me a few times so my motivation to do them pre-patched is next to none.

3) How and why was this allowed to be released with little or no playesting? This content is BETA lol

> @"Cameron Rich.3905" said:

> Wanted to let you know we're looking into this and hope to have a fix out ASAP.

Will we be getting a patch for this sometime?

>

> But then GW2 would be very similar to every other MMO on the market. If that's what people want, then they should simply pony up their sub fees on those games and play them. Personally, I would quit GW2 if it moved to a sub model and I know a lot of others who would as well. Even if it meant a content stream that you suggest.

More money usually means more opportunity. This is complete speculation of course but lets say we gazed into the future and with a sub meant alliances happened and I guess most of the wish lists people have been aching for for the past couple of years. It might have been worth it.

> @"Hannelore.8153" said:

> They're basically just combining story and event concepts to make it more like LS1. I don't see why everyone's disappointed, when events like the Boss Rush have been hailed as crowning achievements of the game and the devs are just continuing that trend.

Its disappointment stemming from (what I assume) is from expectation. I think people expected epic real world areas being affected like what HOT first did in certain areas but we got wonky instances instead. It feels a bit removed and not as...epic. I still think what we got is overall good but needs to be fine tuned. We can't even group up in LFG as 5 ppl we have to do it manually...

> @"Amanda Whitemoon.6173" said:

> im more trying to find out what tokens they ask for to contribute. are they the crystal bloom support marks? than why doesnt it say "earn support marks and purchase rewards"

"Tokens" are the generic name for the type of currency we gain. Crystal bloom support marks are a "token" that shows participation. Its sad players have to be the ones to explain what's going on instead of the game being self-evident.

> @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> > @"zealex.9410" said:

> > The scope has been a mess and thats because you havent set a clear plan for how Gw2 is going to stay relevant and evolve and grow for years to come.

> >

>

> Arenanet isn't a company that does it like it is supposed to be done. They have never been that way. If you've been with us for longer you should have known that. It started a long time ago with the gw1 campaigns that went to an expansion and gw2 and the ongoing changes to the living world.

> Arenanet isn't using proofed business models like other bigger companies. They do it their own way. The result is a game that has been refreshing and renewing the genre. It was Arenanet that started the titles and achievement system. The first without monthly fees and still presented a big game where you can spent a lifetime online. The first to say goodbye to the trinity. Etc.

> To be innovative you need trial and error. It means they constantly try to improve the release schedule.

>

All that Chaos theory though, as we've seen usually delivers mixed results. Doing things on the back of a whim isn't always the most organized of professional business models. I do wonder if you were to give us a vote if we would pick the path more commonly treaded if it meant subscriptions, trinity gameplay, but also meant 25 more fractals, 10 more raid wings, 30 more legendaries, ongoing dungeons and 5 more expansions meaning 5 more elites per profession by now and nobody needing to be fired in 2019. I confess the latter seems appealing...

> @"Kondor.2904" said:

> > @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > > @"Delita Silverburg.8632" said:

> > > 5. Yet another chapter of living story released without a strike mission that prepares players for raids. I thought the goal was to give people a clear path to raiding content? That is what you claimed back at the beginning of the Icebrood Saga.

> > I don't believe that this was ever stated as a goal. Do you have a quote somewhere?

>

> Here

>

> > @"Fire Attunement.9835" said:

> > Hey everybody, my name is Andrew Gray. I took over as Content Design Lead a few months back and I want to talk a bit about last year, this year, and what's on the horizon for _Guild Wars 2_.

> >

> > - Our intention was for Strike Missions to be that intermediary step into 10-person content. As we've mentioned before and you've likely noticed, strike missions are getting harder. Once a full suite of strike missions is complete there should be a graceful ramp up to the existing raid content rather than the imposing leap that previously existed, and our hope is once that ramp is in place, the number of players participating in raids will go up. In addition to that, we're striving to make improvements to Strike Missions themselves to make grouping easier, and to improve the rewards. We hope this will help introduce more people to 10-person content, which will in turn increase the number of people interested in Raids.

There is almost no logic to justify those claims. The correlation just isn't strong enough. Its like saying...if I wash my car windows I might wash my car? Ehhhhh....K.

A true logical ramp for Strike Missions to raids would be to pair a strike mission to a raid boss. For that boss, introduce a few mechanics that would be in the raid i.e. for Vale Guardian have the Ice Construct do similar things (ice pylons or something). There, we literally just trained for the raid boss so when we actually do a training run or group up with raiders we hit the ground running. The current strike missions don't fully work out because on a few of them you can just ignore the mechanics and heal through it all.

> @"Linken.6345" said:

> > @"Adzekul.3104" said:

> > So, trying to form a "party" (party = 5, squad = 10) with the LFG tool for DRMs is not very useful, it seems. You can form Dungeon parties and raid squads and all other sorts, but not DRM parties. Party size is way more than 5 and the Squad UI never gets going. Even if you try to form a squad, people complain they get no invitations.

> >

> > Since DRMs are the new "end game multiplayer content", can this be fixed with priority please?

>

> Seems like someone copied the strike lfg tab renamed it drm and forgot that drm is for 5 man so should have copied a dungeon or fractal tab.

> Also seems like this wasent play tested at all since 1 person putting up a lfg in said tab would have noticed it dont work.

How bloody embarrassing. Imagine shipping content with zero playtesting...

> @"White Kitsunee.4620" said:

> Norn got ignored in their own story. :(

Its not a norn or charr story. Its the commander's story in THEIR territory... but since the aNnOunCemEnt of the SaGa did you not expect a CLEAR and CONCISE vision? lol

> @"Tyson.5160" said:

> > @"Slowpokeking.8720" said:

> > Jormag has such a rich setup in GW2 personal story, the Norn Racial story and the Sympathy not only told a chunk about Icebrood&Sons of Svanir menace, but also connected Norn, Jotun and other races together as Jormag's foe.

> >

> > Including most of the Shiverpeak mountain maps have Icebrood influence. HoW is about Kodan fighting SoS.

> >

> > So it already got a lot of stuff setup, all they need is continue the conflict and tie the plot up along with the GW1 setup.

> >

> > But instead they just discard most of it and added a lot of Charr story, which shouldn't have anything to do with Jormag since it's Norn focused plus a good chance to add more about the Kodan and Jotun. If you want to tell about the Charr, Kralkatorrik should have been the dragon to do so. Even though Drakkar had shown up, it looks entirely different than the GW1 creature, the Ice Column Creature was not explained at all.

> >

> > Now we got Primordus added as I've expected, pretty sure the plot will be superrushed with some kitten twists.

> >

> I personally like what they done with the storyline for this saga. It’s interesting, rather then another repeat story of Zhaitan. Jormag wakes up, we get forces and kill it. This attempt of the Charr attempting to bend an Elder Dragon to their will, then turn around and corrupt the majority of them is a new story. Now we are having a truce with Jormag, which is another interesting twist.

>

> Zhaitan ( War against a dragon)

>

> Mordremoth (Saving our friends from a dragon)

>

> Kralkatorrik ( Saving an Elder Dragon/ Replacing an Elder Dragon)

>

> Jormag ( Stopping an army trying to enslave an Elder Dragon/ having a truce with an Elder Dragon)

>

> They could have just repeated the same story line over and over for each dragon, like Zhaitan, but they are mixing the plot around which keeps it interesting.

I would praise all of that if we got a few more lines of LORE and not speculation. What else is now happening with the spirits of the wild? The Kodan? Laranthir? The charr imperators etc. I heard there were a few lines that the pale tree is recovering but how many years later? They need to be a cit more concise.

They could have explained all the game mechanics a bit more in depth instead of leaving us in the wind wondering if our story is bugged or what exactly we are suppose to do. The Dragon Responce Missions are kind of the new "story" strike missions and allegedly we will get bonus loot per tier and at the end of the 7 day countdown...the next phase, in my conspiracy theory opinion allegedly.

> @"Yasai.3549" said:

> > @"HotDelirium.7984" said:

>

> > Lowkey when Jormag and Waaaaaaaaham were talking I was like YES a spirits of the wild lore moment and then!!!!! Nothing. We have been WAITING for this moment. You enslave my spirits of the wild, ambush us and you don't like OUR attitude?!

> > ._.

>

> Man the writing for this entire season is disappointing.

> Whoever is responsible for writing dialougues need to be fired.

>

> 80% of the Commander's interaction with every plot important character aside from people we know we can trust is "Hehehehe yu know so little"

> So er, yu guys gonna tell us?

>

> Also, Jormag.

> For someone who is all about deception and persuasion, they are awfully bad at it.

> Their shtick is to persuade and seduce and plant ideas, but they way they are written for the entire season is like :

> "ehehehehe listen to me, my plan good, uh er what's my proof and goal or any bait to lure us in? Er..... secrets ehehehehe. Also Aurene, ehehehehe babby dragon, yu know so little."

>

> Oh how far Gw2 writing has devolved.

>

>

>

>

This could have been a shinning moment about building mental resilience. Give us even a few whole community juicy votes like: do you believe Jormag or fight against her? Give that power to the players- ALLOW us to literally be influenced by Jormag...or not. Kinda meta but this game needs big moments like this. Since we defeated Drakkar the whispers are no more? K but the intention is still there isn't it? (or not who knows right?) and now Primordus is here and were just supposed to ignore Jormag. Nah fam. Its a red herring and our Commander is being toopid again. Even Joko was like ":/ really... you're being dumb killing Elder Dragons..."

> @"Pax.3548" said:

> > @"Yasai.3549" said:

> > #Everytime I feel like, hey maybe we are making progress with Braham as a character, and that his growth arc is happening, he regresses back into a baby.

> >

> > Anet. Stop this. Braham doesn't have to express his opinions about everything by whining like a child. He's no longer one.

> > Takes like 4 different parties to tell Braham to focus on the threat at hand for him to kitten about Jormag for 2 steps of the quest and HE BACK AT IT.

>

> I share his reaction though, I too really distrust Jormag, like, really.

Lowkey when Jormag and Waaaaaaaaham were talking I was like YES a spirits of the wild lore moment and then!!!!! Nothing. We have been WAITING for this moment. You enslave my spirits of the wild, ambush us and you don't like OUR attitude?!

._.