Bast.7253

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > @"serialkicker.5274" said:

> > Here is another idea. No Living story at all,

> If Arenanet goes for the cheap road of having Jormag invade Cantha, we need at least one more episode (or an epilogue) to explain the transition from snowy mountains to Cantha.

> If Arenanet goes for the road that makes a little more sense, we get two or three more episodes fighting (and ultimately killing) Jormag and then get an epilogue explaining why we go to Cantha.

> Also, Arenanet has to bridge the time between the xpac release in 2022 (or maybe Nov/Dec 2012 at its earliest).

>

With the confirmation that the other dragons are now free to move in and out of the mists it could really be any one of them if that's what takes us to Cantha. I'm fairly certain we will get at least 3 more maps though. Just going based on the original Icebrood announcement cinematic there are a number of things we haven't really touched on yet:

1. The Kodan being shipped over a body of water on a funeral pyre and really haven't dealt with that much Kodan outside of Bjora.

2. The Charr burning -whether this is symbolic of the war with Bangar, something involving the flame legion, or primordus it's difficult to tell.

3. The human slaves being herded by Centaur. None of that has appeared so far.

4. The ship sinking beneath the ocean.

It's really hard to tell what could be coming next though. We might get some final involvement with the spirits after the recent revelation with Owl but it doesn't seem like they're going to dive too deeply into those. Jormag is now traveling pretty much anywhere it wants so we're not locked into Northern Tyria.

Drizzlewood is exhausting but one issue for me is the champion train awkwardly in the middle, and that's mainly because it's just not exciting and rather annoying in general. You have to port and speed to these champions, but half the time you're midair on a skyscale and have to land to be able to port. You get there and fight this bounty boss, loot some chests, and then have to speed to the next one.... like 15 times?

Of course you can choose to just forgo them and wait for the next part of the meta to start. The first part of the meta also still feels like it takes forever to me and still feels like there's a lot of downtime in between capturing bases.

It's arguably the same as we get with every living season. The difference is the maps are split in half and the stories feel shorter to me. It's just that now they're planned more carefully in between festivals, which receive minimal updates and can get pretty stale.

I'd have to echo the bit about masteries as well. Even without elite specs each expansion brought masteries that could be used elsewhere in the game. I suppose the waystation does this, as does the stealth ability for mounts, but they're not really the same impact that gliding/mounts have. The essence mastery in general has always been clunky and map-specific. It just feels like filler at this point and flat damage increases with more mastery points. It's obnoxious to collect, the buff doesn't last long, and it has minimal impact outside of zerg phases in metas and bosses. It's also tied to lore. Other masteries like jumping mushrooms and thermal vents can be incorporated into future maps and make sense. The essence mastery really doesn't have any room for implementation moving forward...

In general though, I'd have to say it's felt pretty filler. We've halfway into it and we've had one vision which only served to introduce characters for the following episode. When they were introduced I was hoping they would be used as a mechanic with a broader scope than just setting up future story. Something that would allow us to gain the perspective of things long in the past, of characters we normally wouldn't like a Tengu during the Charr invasion of Drizzlewood, or a Jotun/Kodan/Norn back during Jormag's first movement that pushed everyone south. Something that really went outside of the box. I think the vision was pretty entertaining and fun, but I guess I thought visions would be a new iteration of fractals with strikes being the new iteration of raids that appeal to a larger playerbase.

Sadly, they'll also most likely receive no development or continuation beyond this living season. Anet seems to be the king of inventing new systems and quickly abandoning them. I assume there are some metrics behind it but sometimes it feels like they've abandoned something because it was just easier than improving it.

Ultimately it just feels like more of the same resource/development starved content they've been producing. I hope that means they're going balls to the wall with the expansion as it's probably the wiser and more lucrative investment, but in terms of this living season feeling anymore unique than any other living season I can't say that it does, at least not in a good way. My main praise would just be for the consistency and the cadence of releases, even if they feel artificially extended by halving what would normally be one episode.

Other positive notes would just be about general gameplay and systems. The shooting thing from Grothmar was kind of interesting, the vehicle mechanics, the rocket launcher defending the base, the wvw system in pve, the puzzles in Bjora, and some of the other events like the shrines in Bjora. They're doing a good job making events and the gameplay feel different than standard heart completion or fetch quests. They've also done a pretty good job at listening to player feedback to improve certain things, like inventory bloat with the siege items and salvage items in Drizzlewood. (If only they would listen to feedback about these wretched essence masteries.)

I'm not sure Primordus is the end game here. I know they've introduced the dwarves and some destroyers this season but it feels like a red herring. My money would either be on DSD.. or...

Jormag is traveling through the mists not consuming/destroying anything because they have a goal in mind. Perhaps they're looking to bring some other being from the mists that encourages us to side with it. Jormag constantly mentions a big threat on the horizon and also mentions that it never corrupts anything that doesn't ask for it. It implied that we would want its help eventually and it would be waiting when we do. That doesn't mean Jormag isn't the root cause for said threat being there in the first place and it may just be part of its long-term manipulative game. Create a problem and then offer the solution.

With Cantha coming up everyone just assumes DSD, and as much as I'd like to learn about that dragon and potentially see some ancient largos cities and think the art team could do a fantastic job with some underwater zones, I feel like it could just as easily be something else entirely that leads us there. Whether it be the Celestials, the Orcale of the Mists, or something else entirely unknown. While at present GW2 seems to be pretty closely following pre-established lore and not deviating into new and unfamiliar territory, I'm not excluding the possibility. Especially with the latest art book and some of the evolution of the Utopia lore. I don't feel like that was a coincidence or even a set up for a future expansion because I don't think the writers think far enough ahead to consider plots that far ahead. In some cases you could advocate they have, but from the majority of things I've seen it seems like an abstract bullet point more than a fleshed out concept.

On a side note I find it interesting how close we are to Bastion with all of the weird things going on there. Given the nature of the Mursaat I assume it's possible the creatures we see there and the weird interactions with time and the mists could be something of their doing, but given the proximity to Jormag at the moment whose to say they couldn't tie that in as well, especially given the cinematic for the saga showed human slaves and centaurs. We're already pretty close to the area we could potentially see this and given how linear this plot has been I'd imagine our reason for going there would be pretty closely related to Jormag. The only other option would be somewhere to the far east deeper into Charr territory with a rogue human civilization but with how little detail they've given about the spirits/jotun/existing civilizations in the current zones I doubt they would attempt to introduce something like this in a 30- 1 hour story episode.

Anyway, long-winded but I think Jormag's plot extends beyond what seems like essentially sibling rivalry of conflicting magics and I think Primordus would have to do something pretty drastic to convince us to help Jormag defeat him given what we know about the state of Tyria and the necessity of the balance. Aurene, friendly or not, would likely not be too keen on aiding in this process either unless she had some information that let her realize she could safely absorb the energy without destroying the planet. I do think Jormag seeks domination and it's going to involve a little outside help. Older or not, I don't think Jormag's goal is to corrupt the commander whether for them or to get to Aurene because I don't think they see that as a realistic option. Also, with the emphasis on Aurene's connection to the mists I think that's another indication that this is going to get pretty otherworldly by the end of the saga. Though it is odd that we haven't heard anything about the other elder dragons randomly appearing in the mists for a free all you can eat reality buffet.

> @"Stephen.6312" said:

> > @"thepenmonster.3621" said:

> > > @"Psientist.6437" said:

> > > Aurene's resurrection shook my confidence in the studio.

> >

> > Did you think the giant neon sign saying "**SHE HAS JOKO'S MAGIC**" they had been holding up for six months was too obvious?

>

> Why did Aurene have to die? Do dragons hate mortality? What's the deal there? I feel like Joko is a big piece of the puzzle.

Well we haven't seen the creation/rise of any elder dragons thus far. We don't know how the others came to be or if they just always were. Perhaps consuming this specific soul-binding/immortality/whatever you want to call it magic is what was required to give her the ability to ascend? Sure dragons can naturally consume magic, but would enough cause them to eventually go crazy like Kralk or like the multiple creatures that went crazy from bloodstone magic overload?

Is Aurene different because she wasn't born an elder dragon and already connected to the All and thus presumably tied to one aspect of it like the others? Is that what gives her the edge to handle all of these different magics easier than the others?

If the other elder dragons ascended similarly were they gifted their positions by predecessors? Were they similar to Aurene and consumed something else immortal, whether it be some ancient and long dead pantheon of gods?

Either way, in one of the guild chats they hinted that Aurene may run into the same issue that Kralk had in terms of being tormented by conflicting magics. It was subtle but I feel like it was a pretty strong indication that having her take the place of all elder dragons wasn't really the end game. Sure, the prophecy with Kralk and Aurene being the savior elder dragon for all of the races indicates otherwise, but that didn't necessarily mean that the others weren't existent. They just may not have as much interaction with mankind as humans do and she may act as more of a governing force for the others to ensure the safety of the races of Tyria.

I'm also fairly certain that this season will not end with us killing Jormag. I'm sure Jormag has an ulterior motive, but I don't think it's going to be resolved with us killing it.

Precedent would imply that we will, but if you look at each plot development of elder dragons they all seem to take a different approach or develop them as an entity more.

Zhaitan was just a dominating evil.

Mordremoth was evil but we started to learn a bit more about how elder dragons work.

Kralk was evil but was tormented and we ventured into whatever plane he's connected to inside of him in an attempt to free him and help ascend Aurene.

Who knows what's next on the current plot. We haven't pacified/cured any elder dragons of some presumed torment they may be suffering from similar to Kralk.

The only one I can see not being able to be developed that strongly would be Primordus because he's always just seemed like a relatively ambivalent, yet destructive, force of nature. I don't really see him caring about bargaining with anyone but both he and the deep sea dragon have very little interaction with us as we don't really venture underground or deep in the ocean.

Who knows. I find it interesting that the last remaining ones are Primordus - Fire, Jormag - Ice, and DSD - Water.

Jormag and Primordus' magics cancel each other out, but what does that mean for the DSD assuming one wants domination?

If we help kill Primordus who would have an upper hand in a battle between Jormag and DSD with them both being water based entities? Would DSD have an advantage over Jormag as ice is made from water? Or would Jormag have an advantage as ice can solidify water?

Honestly Primordus and DSD seem like they would cancel each other out too. I mean, water + fire = steam/smoke right. They'd essentially cancel each other out.

With ice and fire, it feels a bit more complicated. You can add more to the fire and melt the ice to steam, or you can add more to the ice add moisture to the air and smother the flame. I know that's kind of an abstract generalization, but I'm just curious how that would all work out.

For some reason I was thinking the old stone architecture we've kept seeing from Thunderhead Peaks cavern to the area under Drakkar lake, to now Drizzlewood was all Dwarven. But it seems it's Norn?

Or is it a mixture of both? If it's just norn how come we didn't really anything similar anywhere else in game before now? I mean I know new assets keep getting created but what's the shift from these intricate underground tunnel systems and lavish stone structure to wooden shacks?

If it's a mix then I suppose these were built closer to the time when the ancient races were more in touch with each other or more prevalent?

Just one thing that struck me as odd.

And we still haven't found any abandoned huge Jotun ruins which makes me pretty sad. :( I mean my hopes are probably unrealistic for the scope of a living world release but one can dream.

Another unrealistic hope I had was for another guild hall option in this area with some of these assets. Maybe a mixture of ocean/PNW forest, cavern systems, and snowy/jagged area or even aurene crystal area.

Anyway. A bit jumbled but yeah, what's with this architecture? Is it Dwarven and Norn just kind of repurposed it or did they just kind of live intermingled at one point? Or is it Norn and it just looks really similar to the stuff that was seemingly Dwarven?

The owl decoration is comically uninteresting for the amount of work you have to do to unlock it, but it’s part of a set so there isn’t much you can do about it.

Was hoping they’d add some more useful decorations like the trees for more war supplies sinks but I guess not.

They could have added some snowy/frozen assets like the icy spikes, some more trees, at tengu tent, some frost citadel structures, etc.

Oh well. Always next time I guess.

If anything I would think Drakkar could potentially be a former Deep Sea Dragon champion or something. I can't remember the exact quote but it seemed like it was implying that Drakkar had some unique ability similar to the spirits that Jormag was able to tap into more than Drakkar just simply being a vessel that gained its abilities via Jormag.

But given the location unless it was way way way back before the known dragon rises I doubt a DSD minion would be anywhere near Jormag.

Honestly, it feels like a pretty shallow episode. Even shorter than usual. I stopped to fail at some At's for like an hour but if I had focused on the story it feels like I would have been done in 30 minutes. The only interesting thing happened at the end and even that just feels like set up for the next part. It's cool we got to see who we got to see, but it was kind of predicable from the start.

Bigger issue I believe is that the second half of the map just feels pointless. There's some extended woodlands area that seems to only exist for adventures and the second half of the map in general is small and seems to only really exist for the meta to take place. The meta that doesn't begin until the first half's meta is done. I get that you wanted to try something new, but I think people will quickly get tired of this.

I really love the jagged frozen area near the citadel but outside of the meta the whole area just seems barren and pointless. No events, and for a brief time you're completely locked out because of the damaging frost stuff. Honestly would have loved to see the whole second half of the map look like this area. Stunning area, but nothing there outside of meta...

It feels like this episode should have never been released in two parts. Probably would have gotten a lot of praise if it weren't.

Just bring a chrono and have them pop gravity well. Game over. lol

> @"Shiyo.3578" said:

> > @"Kuma.1503" said:

> > Holo isn't even that big of an outlier. Every competetive game is going to have a top tier build/class/character. In holo's case, it's strong but not worth quitting over.

> > I'd argue that PvP has some much larger problems currently.

>

> I strongly disagree. Holosmith feels like I'm fighting a game masters character when compared to any other class. The only thing remotely close to this in a pvp rpg was S5 DK in WOTLK.

Necro can feel like that at times too honestly. But holo is definitely the bigger offender.

Well the one guy on the balance team is too busy playing holo to worry about fixing it.

Just kidding, that one guy is actually AI that chooses skills at random.

> @"Sajuuk Khar.1509" said:

> > @"Vancho.8750" said:

> > We have no information about anything about the DSD and its minions. It can be assumed it will be creator dragon like Mordremoth, Primordus and not corruptor like the other 3. You assume that the minions would be more like destroyers and less like mordrem. If we go by some logic and assume the dragons are 3 on 3 corruptor/creator and the compare their minions we get mindless Branded and Destroyers, pseudo autonomous like the Risen Mordrem and we are left with the Jormag type minions which lean in the brainwashed "free" will kind of deal. Or it can be completely different from everything till now.

> > There is also an option that the Canthan empire messed with the dragon. There is so many options with it since it can be written in which ever way they want to since we know kitten all about it. The writers can really go wild with it since it allows allot of creativity.

> I doubt the Canthans have put up any significant resistance against the dragon. If they had, the water dragon wouldn't still be crunching Canthan boats left and right, preventing them from making contact with Tyria/Elona.

>

> The Continued isolation of Cantha, as well as the irregular Canthan sailor washing up on shore after their ship got wrecked, seems to indicate what we would expect based on past experiences. The dragon is around, messing with the Canthans, but hasn't gone full on attack mode yet.

Where have there been Canthan sailors washing up?

I thought they were self-isolationists rather than forced by some elder dragon?

Meaningful balance changes instead of minuscule condition stack reductions, reworks of weapons and traits that do nothing to the existing problems, and maybe a balance patch more than twice a year.

It’s a lost cause. Just play the game for living story.

> @"Hypnowulf.7403" said:

> > @"Psientist.6437" said:

> > That machine opens some interesting plot directions. Bangar could be siphoning draconic energy without Jormag's consent. Banagar didn't walk as though he was a subordinate.

>

> This is my take. I definitely think that someone has Bangar's ear, but I don't think it's Jormag. There are a couple of big players it could be, and the obvious one is Primordius since we've seen his portals about and he is the opposite force to Jormag, but this may go a little deeper than that...

Primordus doesn’t exactly seem like the scheming type. Seems more of a taking things by sheer force kind of elder dragon.

If it wasn’t Jormag I’d wager it’s something else entirely, perhaps not even an elder dragon. But I think it’s going to be as simple as Jormag with a different threat appearing much later.

> @"Tayga.3192" said:

> Because 25 might is not 50% more damage

hy·per·bo·le

/hīˈpərbəlē/

Learn to pronounce

noun

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

If we're going to let them run around with 25 stacks of might with absolutely no effort.

I was looking at traits and it doesn't seem like there's much of a choice other than blood/support or power in pvp now.

> @"Trevor Boyer.6524" said:

> Barrier is fine when it is balanced around reasonable numbers.

>

> Barrier is not fine when you are providing your entire team a 10k health shield every 15 to 20 seconds.

Well I guess I wouldn't notice since my team always actively avoids me and my shades when I play necro. >_<

Honestly I can't say I've even noticed it fighting against scourge comps either. And 10k? That seems a bit much.

I'm sure it's been mentioned countless times, but I was thinking the other day about the addition of barrier. Initially, it seemed like it was primarily geared towards Scourge as one of its primary appeals, (Maybe weavers or were those traits modified later after release?)

Now, however many years later since POF release it seems like it's slowly been baked into more and more traits/weapons/specs. Do you think this has had a positive impact on the game?

Some implementations feel like they should have always functioned that way, and some feel like obvious bandaid fixes for underlying issues.

What changes would you propose?

Personally I think the implementation on scrapper, while borderline abusive with certain builds, is the best implemented because it doesn't rely on using specific stats to gain the most benefit.

There are other specs like Weaver that seem to gain little to no benefit from it if building anything other than Sage/Mender/Avatar because the barrier is negligible. One could argue the trade off is that if you build for high damage on weaver you don't want them having access to large amounts of barrier, but weaver has very little access to stability whereas scrapper can have constant stab and do a high amount of damage by just holding down 1 on flamethrower, in addition to reflects and superspeed.

Then there are outliers like Warrior and Ranger that have specific abilities that grant access to a large amount of barrier, ranger which seems like it was tossed into make "Protect Me" more appealing and more than just a protection buff. Warrior which gains it on Warhorn and still seems to be so unappealing that it doesn't warrant that much attention in comparison to shield. (Outside of MAYBE the longbow build.)

> @"Chaith.8256" said:

> Just letting you guys know, Core Engi can roll around with 25 might, Berserker amulet and get big Grenade Barrages. The reason why its not good is because you are utter food, food without Heat Therapy, Prismatic Converter, Holo Leap & Superspeed. Holo is like a high damage core build with added survivability :joy:

Scrapper can do hella damage too and has just as much sustain. I think people just run it less because it requires a little bit more skill than popping photon forge, spamming every ability, popping some elixirs, and tossing grenades in between dodges.

If Holo wasn't the easier route for the same damage, I'm sure we'd see more scrappers rolling grenades.

But you're right. If they buff something to make core engi better, Holo is going to abuse it tenfold because Holo is the problem. It seems like it's always the first two traits that are taken, prismatic converter and barrier every meta.

Admittedly I don't play engi that much, but it feels like those have been the consistent choices.

> @"Kodama.6453" said:

> > @"CutesySylveon.8290" said:

> > > @"Kuma.1503" said:

> > > Nades are fine. Holo needs to be toned down.

> >

> > Idk, grenade barrage seems to murder health bars on every spec, not just Holo.

>

> Grenade barrage is one of engineer's hardest hitting skills, of course it will deal a good burst of damage.

> But in PvP, the total power scaling of the ability **if** all grenades hit is 2,4. Before the last patch, it hit for 3,0, they nerfed the damage of the ability by 20% already.

>

> How much more do you want it to get nerfed exactly? Grenade barrage is supposed to be one of engineer's burstier skills, considering that it does nothing else but damage.

Blind, bleed, combo fields, 9 stacks of poison - it does plenty. The poison may not be that big of a deal without running a condition build but the healing reduction is. The conditions negating effects like regen. That damage doesn’t need to be baked into a kit. Do ele conjured weapons even do that much damage? And they’re on a cool down with limited charges.

And yes, it hits like a truck on scrapper too.

We could also just stop giving professions easy access to full stacks of might. Or in engineers case, seemingly every boon in the game.

Reducing power coefficients doesn’t mean much when you give a class 25 might for pressing a few buttons, on top of easy access to quickness that’s increasing attack and skill speed.

If you look at over performing classes, it seems the commonality has always been boon access. With the exception of mirage which was mechanic based.

Firebrand, scrounge if running boon on removal, holo, ranger, what else?

Tides of Darkness/Winds of Change. Any sooner than next summer is a pipe dream. They still have half this saga to go, three festivals, visions of the past that can be introduced to extend the saga, the legendary armory and seemingly bi-yearly balance patches and occasional qol patches. I would be surprised to see the expansion before next fall at the earliest.

Given the current cadence and the guess that there are 4-5 new maps with maps being split and falling in between festivals.

Drizzlewood 2.0 - later this month.

Festival.

Fractal in september.

Halloween in October.

Vision of the past or MAYBE episode in November.

Festival.

Second half of episode or first half of episode in January.

Festival.

It’s February and we may or may not be at episode 5.

Leaving 3-4 more episodes and the start of a new cycle of festivals.

2 months on average between map releases.

Yeah, I don’t feel like doing the math but assuming 3-4 episodes are left you’re looking at 6 to 8 months and it seems we aren’t getting one in September so it’s probably another year or more left of this saga, best case.

They’re probably aiming for next fall but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it come at the end of 2021.

We may get some teasers here and there before the end of the year though.

As to the team size, we only know what they tell us and I believe they told us that team size before the Icebrood announcement. They’ve undoubtedly restructured again since then and likely moved more people over to the expansion. It does seem like a last ditch effort to appease the community so it wouldn’t surprise me to see them shuffling the majority of resources to its development.

Which is probably the best decision.

> @"Ysmir.4986" said:

> **GOOD PLAYERS ARE RUINING MY EXPERIENCE BY PLAYING THE SAME GAME-MODE AS ME**

> _The forum post._

I WANT ATTENTION SO I’M GOING TO POST A NON-CONSTRUCTIVE REPLY IN ALL CAPS TO A THREAD I DON’T AGREE WITH.

_Your post._

> @"Shiyo.3578" said:

> > @"Majy.6792" said:

> > There's also no real difference in ranked between 1450 and 1800 US. Skill of the top 3 players is the same as anyone at the top of gold as far as I see. I've seen plenty of gold players who are way better than people I've played against in the top 20. The games feel exactly the same and at 1450+ you start getting queued against top players all the time so that makes sense. Duo queue kind of breaks the pvp game in general, but the state of ranks in ranked is silly.

>

> The first part is untrue but the 2nd is 100% accurate. NA1450 is nothing but rank1 duos over and over gate keeping most people from plat.

And that's only tracking the people that I see regularly. No telling how many of them are the same people on alt accounts.