RyuDragnier.9476

> @dusanyu.4057 said:

> I still think its Evon knashblade he has agents everywhere even in the commanders inventory

Nahh, he's too full of himself and cares too much about his wares to care about others. Could it be a cover since he IS an Ash Legion member? If so, it's one hell of a cover.

ANET really needs to finish up these old assets. Make them new areas as part of the next LS, or something for a raid. Just do SOMETHING with them, there's no point in keeping area assets in the game if you aren't going to use them.

> @Randulf.7614 said:

> There's a lot of speculation and interesting ideas to explain things, some of which make sense. The problem is, this should not be ambiguous. We suddenly have a weapon capable of cutting through 2 armies, without the need of the army we had spent the preceding time getting our hands on with no exposition as to why this was suddenly so powerful compared to what we had seen before and the fact it was without prior explanation as to why, it was the key to defeating Balthazar.

>

> There was a lot of improvement in the substance and detail in the PoF story, but this was my main disappointment.

I agree with you. I’m really hoping they explain this in the next living story. Is it the link between a dragon and it’s champion? Is it the knowledge of ancient magic? Is it something unmentioned or a god’s blessing? We need answers, not more questions. Hell, they could have given us a foreshadowing moment at the least, but I suspect they didn’t think that far ahead.

> @GWMO.4785 said:

> > @RyuDragnier.9476 said:

> > We're using Ancient Magic with Sohothin, something which if you recall, we mastered during the last Living Story. Rytlock never learned how to use Ancient Magic, so he cannot use that power. That explanation works, at least for me.

>

> I'm sorry what? Ancient Magic's, is just an additional mastery line for the lws3 maps. It gave us certain special skill abilities specifically bound to those maps. You're incapable of using those abilities outside the maps. Next to that: its bound to HoT, you dont have to own HoT to play PoF. So that makes your comment completely irrelevant

I meant from a story standpoint. The events of LS3 happened in the story. We HAD to master the first part of that line at the least to continue. So by a story standpoint, the Commander has mastered Ancient Magics. Sohothin has ancient magic in it. Thus we can use the power because we learned FOR STORY PURPOSES how to use Ancient Magic.

We're using Ancient Magic with Sohothin, something which if you recall, we mastered during the last Living Story. Rytlock never learned how to use Ancient Magic, so he cannot use that power. That explanation works, at least for me.

> @Luindu.2418 said:

> I agree with Sajuuk, next expansion will be Cantha (lot of water with the "not-so-Jade Sea" xD) and new water combat mechanics, even to bring people the underwater weapons for earth specializations.

I'm hoping they adjust all the skills to work underwater and then either make ALL old weapons usable underwater, or just completely deck out our underwater weapon repertoire. Cause seriously...we can't use daggers underwater, we can't use swords, we can't use staves, etc. And the ones I listed make sense in being useable underwater, which is why it makes no sense that they CAN'T be used.

The only way I want to see Caera brought back is if she's a ghost in the Mists (who acts like her original personality before Scarlet), who can then lore drop stuff on us dealing with the dragons. Cause seriously, I don't want Scarlet back at all outside of a replayable Season 1.

If Balthazar has been replaced by another, I would guess the one character the gods would be willing to take from GW1 to fit that role (if they replaced them before said character actually died) would be the player character. They fought in numerous wars and battles, destroyed the Titans, and helped stop Nightfall by killing Abaddon. I can think of no other worthy of being ascended to the God of War.

> @castlemanic.3198 said:

> Well, he died super recently, so we don't have any info at the moment. The Zaishen order will likely kick up a fuss, as will the more zealous priests of Balthazar, while the more levelheaded ones would have stuck more to the shadows in light of Balthazar's atrocities. As it is right now, we won't know until a living world episode takes us back to divinity's reach or some other place with heavy Balthazar lore. Hopefully we'll get some info once season 4 starts.

Imagine how they're all going to respond now that they know their gods are gone and have left them. I suspect a panic will occur, unless they quickly replace it with something worth celebrating, such as the finalization of the treaty with the Charr or Queen Jenna getting herself a King.

> @Athrenn.9468 said:

> Unless Almorra's entire story is a boldfaced lie, she most certainly was under the dragon's flight path and within arm's reach of others in her warband who were changed, but not her. There really is no room for her being outside the area of effect if her story checks out and we have a graphic, moment by moment recounting of what happened on that day from her perspective.

>

> Forbeck, Matt. Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon (p. 97-100). Pocket Books. Kindle Edition:

> >! Her next words were heavy with emotion and memory. “I was there. Four years ago, when Kralkatorrik, the Crystal Dragon, awoke. I was in the Dragonbrand.”

> >! Dougal felt slightly ill. “I—I didn’t know anyone survived that.”

> >! Soulkeeper grunted. “I served as a legionnaire in the Blood Legion at the time. Our centurion was in charge of interdicting enemy supplies and was overseeing the scores of our finest warbands stationed there. I was on patrol with my own warband in eastern Ascalon when the Crystal Dragon stirred.

> >! “I felt it first rather than heard it. The creature’s coming warped everything around it, and the vibrations reached me through the air, not as a low thunder but a strange feeling that reached into my bones and made every bit of my fur stand on end.

> >! “Harthog Soulslasher, my second-in-command, saw it before the rest of us, coming over the edge of the mountains behind us, flying in from the north like an angry sun come to Tyria to scorch us all. Harthog was one of the bravest charr I’d ever known, but I saw his eyes bulge with terror as he raised his arm to point at the dragon.

> >! “The others turned to see what could terrify such a charr as Soulslasher, but I reached out and grabbed my friend by the shoulders to shake the fear from him. As I did, I saw the changes start to take him.

> >! “His eyes began to glow an unearthly purple, and his muzzle shrank back into his face, becoming like the soft but toothy maw of a giant leech. His fur became transparent as his armor sloughed off his thinning shoulders and his arms transformed into flailing, shard-like claws. The skin peeled back from his face, and his lips and nose and eyelids shriveled up and fell away.

> >! “And then he turned into living glass, crystallizing in an instant before my eyes into his twisted form. And at my back, I could feel a pressure, like a great hand was pressing down on the entire world as the dragon passed overhead.

> >! “Despite the fact the dragon soared hundreds of feet above us, its passage turned the land beneath the path of its flight black and transformed the plants into crystalline monstrosities. At the same time, the screams from the rest of my warband tore at my ears.

> >! “I drew my blade just before the creature that had been Soulslasher attacked, his splintered claws reaching for me as he screeched in horror at what he had become and the hunger that now drove him to drool at the thought of devouring me alive. I don’t know what spared me from sharing his fate. Every other member of our warband succumbed to it. I was standing no more than a foot from Harthog, and he and the others were warped beyond recognition, yet I was spared.

> >! “I slew the thing that had been Soulslasher then, but after I tore out his throat, his body kept coming at me. I had to shatter him into pieces to finally put him down. Then I turned, in the deafening silence after the dragon’s passage, and saw the rest of my warband trying to kill each other, each twisted in a unique and horrible way.

> >! “I waited for my warsiblings to tear each other apart, then stepped in and dispatched the survivors as best I could. When it was done, I looked before and behind me and saw that every part of the land that had passed beneath the dragon had been twisted in this same way. The grass shattered under my feet as I walked on it, grinding it into sand.”

> >! “The Dragonbrand.” Dougal breathed the word with horrified respect.

> >! Soulkeeper nodded. “The curse the dragon laid upon the land stretched for untold miles in the direction of the flight, coming from the north and reaching for the south. Everything in its path had been turned to crystal: the trees, the animals, even the land itself nearby.

> >! “The worst part of it all is that the dragon didn’t care about the destruction it caused. It was going elsewhere, on a mission known only to itself. To it, the Dragonbrand was worth nothing more than your boot prints are to you. We might as well have been ants. Everything I lost that day mattered to it not one bit.

> >! “I fell into my own personal darkness, my friends slain by a force greater than I could hope to confront.” General Almorra Soulkeeper seemed to forget that Dougal was there, her lips drawn back over bared teeth. “I became a gladium, a charr without a warband, and refused any aid in my darkness. At last, with the help of a few unlikely allies, I came to myself and knew what had to be done.

> >! “I knew then that this was no foe that a single people could confront,” Soulkeeper said. “To have any hope of defeating an Elder Dragon, the peoples of Tyria would have to band together to fight it.”

ANet REALLY needs to start filling in plot holes and avoid silly things like this in the future. Rule of cool and certain tropes can only go so far.

> @Athrenn.9468 said:

> For some strange reason, Almorra was resistant to his corruption and is the only living being who wasn't Branded during his first flight, even though he went right overhead.

The assumption one could make (which another poster pointed out on another thread), is that where she was located was where "splash damage" occurred. She was lucky enough to stand at a small area the corruption didn't hit, leading to her avoiding it.

> @TheOrlyFactor.8341 said:

> > @RyuDragnier.9476 said:

> > > @Oglaf.1074 said:

> > > > @Thornwolf.9721 said:

> > > > Id be fine if there was a living story episode where it focused on that and other members of your squad and their day to day lives after a epic confrontation

> > >

> > > Now I want an Living Story episode where Taimi has the Commander accompany her during a full day of "Asura School". Carry her tiny adorable books, participate in P.E and utterly destroy the other Asuran children in dodge ball, and deal with bullies etc.

> >

> > I'd like a variation of this tbh. Maybe meet Taimi's parents, see Zojja after so long and probably end up beating the hell out of a few inquest agents. A good time for all will be had.

>

> Too bad it looks like Anet's going to do nothing with Zojja. :| At least I'm not going to hold my breath with the way they bused her. Really disappointed with Anet on leaving that particular story hanging with a bunch of hearsay.

From what I recall, Zojja's VA is really hard to get ahold of. Short of them deciding "We're going to drop her old VA, let's make some excuse ingame for a change in voice," we probably won't be seeing much of her.

> @Oglaf.1074 said:

> > @Thornwolf.9721 said:

> > Id be fine if there was a living story episode where it focused on that and other members of your squad and their day to day lives after a epic confrontation

>

> Now I want an Living Story episode where Taimi has the Commander accompany her during a full day of "Asura School". Carry her tiny adorable books, participate in P.E and utterly destroy the other Asuran children in dodge ball, and deal with bullies etc.

I'd like a variation of this tbh. Maybe meet Taimi's parents, see Zojja after so long and probably end up beating the hell out of a few inquest agents. A good time for all will be had.

> @"Sajuuk Khar.1509" said:

> Lets not even get into the fact that GW2 has been subtly hinting that something is up with Lyssa, maybe even that she helped Balthazar. Lyssa may not be as "good" as she seems.

>

> Or better yet, she is the only one of the gods besides Balthazar(at least before he went crazy) that actually seemed to give a kitten about humanity, and helped Balthazar because of that. Meaning Dwyana, Melandru, and Kormir are the real "evil" gods, while Lyssa is the only good one, and Balthazar was a good god gone bad after being imprisoned.

Considering Lyssa is a pair of twins, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to have one of them having helped Balthazar. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me in general if one of them is evil and the other good.

> @miriforst.1290 said:

> Indeed, both odin and athena are gods of war in their respective mythology and they don't have to fight the chair they sit on for squeaking too loudly.

> And just because grenth is the god of death doesn't mean he wants everyone dead.

You forget the Greeks also had Ares, who Balthazar is very similar to.

> @castlemanic.3198 said:

> > @"Sajuuk Khar.1509" said:

> > Whats with all these stupid and terrible extremism fallacies you keep throwing out where it has to be all or nothing every time?

>

> When you just used that same tactic for "they said what they said", alongside saying it couldn't be menzies or lazarus in finality as well?

>

> Nah, I'm done with this convo. You want to ignore lore, that's fine.

I have an actual question...how many GW2 players have actually played GW1 or even know the lore to GW1? Just wondering at this point.

> @"Blazing Liger.1236" said:

> E is almost certainly Eive, the Master Exemplar of the Shining Blade before Anise, who stepped down. There is no indication that she has since died, and she has the knowledge and the access to sources that would fit with E.

This would be my guess as well. E knows a little too much, that wouldn't make sense unless they have access to Order of Whispers levels of contacts, which the Master Exemplar of the Shining Blade has access to.

Yes, assuming they can fix it so all skills and traits can work underwater, and they come out with new weapons (or allow land based ones to work in the water, with a few caveats).

> @JayMack.8295 said:

> But for the topic at hand, her voice actress did an amazing job, yes. I actually agree with the decision to bring a smaller group throughout the story this time. Just having Rytlock, Kasmeer and Canach in the instances helped in giving their characters breathing room to grow their personalities and flesh out their relationships with each other. It didn't feel crowded.

I agree. I hope the LS has mostly just Rox and Braham around, we really need to flesh them out. We still know next to nothing about Rox (or her links to Ash Legion), and Braham needs an entire season to grow up as an individual.

Balthazar was probably thinking "He's of no consequence right now, once I destroy Kralkatorrik and absorb its power, this world will be destroyed anyway. I'll have no more need of these Forged minions after that." The cliche 'Evil God thinks he has enough time to win, doesn't bother covering his bases' thing.

Ash Legion's Citadel is most likely well hidden. My guess would be east of the Blazeridge Mountains, or maybe built into the mountains themselves. We DO encounter an Ash Legion training camp in Blazeridge Steppes, and I don't think they'd keep it that far away from their Citadel.

If Kralky is indeed heading to the Blood Legion homelands, maybe we'll possibly see who will inherit the title of Khan-Ur in the coming days.

> @castlemanic.3198 said:

> What's more, a lore reason why Kalla could have been chosen over Pyre, Vatlaaw (though WHY would any charr call upon a charr loyal to the flame legion?) or any other gw1 charr is that she pulled off a feat rarely accomplished: she united three legions into one singular purpose. While she was blood legion, her loyalty was to *charr*, not to any one legion, and even went so far as to accept the surrender of the flame legion. She was unbiased in her goal to lead female charr to freedom, which helps make her a 'politically correct' choice in terms of what charr legend could be used.

This just makes me think that if Kalla had lived, she could have been declared Khan-Ur easily just from this feat. This is of course assuming she was part of the bloodline of the Khan-Ur anyway, it's never specified whether she was or not. Or if the high legions were willing to throw the bloodline requirement out the window for their greatest hero.

Considering Joko is legendary for his dictatorship and his evil, why WOULDN'T you turn him down a peg? Hell, why would you even strike a deal with him knowing it was a deal in the far past that gave him such power? I sympathize with the Vabbians due to being brainwashed and whatnot from a young age, but the PC is right in that they have to be opened up to how things should be. But at the same time I personally agree with the Order of Shadows in that it needs to be a slow process, you move too fast and it can cause serious problems.

> @ugrakarma.9416 said:

> she seems also shows some disregard for Sohotin.

Considering that the relighting of the sword caused the entire mess to begin with, I don't blame her.