Bast.7253

The fact that people can duo queue in a 3v3 set-up is pretty ridiculous in general.

> @"Stephen.6312" said:

> > @"Tyson.5160" said:

> > > @"Stephen.6312" said:

> > > > @"Sajuuk Khar.1509" said:

> > > > > @"Stephen.6312" said:

> > > > > Why do you think that Aurene is an Elder Dragon?

> > > > She has literally been called such several times now.

> > >

> > > By mortals. Has a fellow Elder Dragon referred to her as such?

> >

> > Yeah, Aurene has...

> >

> > Aurene: I'm the youngest Elder Dragon, but I wasn't born yesterday.

>

> All that demonstrates is that Aurene *thinks* of herself as an Elder Dragon. That doesn't mean that she is. What criteria do you use to assess whether a dragon is an "Elder"?

Really? Even in the prologue release magazine Aurene was listed as one of the elder dragons? How is this news? lol Did you miss last living story season or are you just trolling?

I don't think adding a third to this franchise would be beneficial. I've loved this game for years but the past few have just been consistently disappointing and inconsistent pretty much everywhere else. The only thing we can ever truly count on is gemstore updates every 2 weeks.

They've had multiple features throughout this game's lifespan that they've just completely abandoned. Fractals (one every 2 years is pretty much life support.) Dungeons (since vanilla.) Raids (never did them and can understand not wanting to spend the resources on them in their current state but why not try to improve or iterate on them instead of converting them to a one boss, one room encounter with crap rng rewards?) Guild Halls (aside from the occasional decoration drop here and there.)

Living story releases that feel smaller, and smaller, and smaller. Bounties were abandoned. Not that they were overly exciting to begin with as the rewards for doing anything in this game are generally nothing more than mats that might equate to .01% of what you need to craft a legendary.

To be honest it just seems like there's no organization behind the scenes, there's hardly any marketing to appeal to new players despite having beautiful artwork and an engaging combat system. They have seemingly some of the most talented devs in the business but it just feels like there's a total lack of direction and over the past few years it just feels like more and more resources have been starved out of the game. Less updates, less content. We might have had interesting current event releases awhile back, but those have now been shoved aside in favor of some generic bonus event that gives us some low dollar gemstore items, magic find boosters, and rng boxes with .0000000001% chance at a new shiny infusion. They're not even consistent with these events? I love no downstate wvw but we've gotten it twice in what.... a year? You'd think during this downtime they would be able to automate some of these bonus events like the boss rush, meta event rush, fractal rush, similarly to how they've automated festivals. But it's just totally random.

Anyway, yeah, I don't think I'd invest in a third rendition of this franchise. Unless it had substantially more funding and some semblance of consistency or seemed to reflect that it was the majority focus of the studio. As it is right now it just seems like there's a few passionate people left developing this game and the rest are off working on another project.

> @"Kickpuncher.8109" said:

> Can't wait for all the non-answer answers. Willing to put money on CMC saying a bunch of stuff but not actually saying anything, like a true politician.

They have a spreadsheet filled with vague corresponding answers that serve just this purpose. Do you want a sprinkle of hype and a garnish of reassurance on that word salad?

> @"Head Kracker.4790" said:

> The name of a group of Skyscales?

> Its a flight of dragons

> a murder of crows

> a flock of Geese

> What's your thoughts on what a grouping of them should be?

>

> Is it a Breeze of Skyscales?

Didn't Taimi make a comment about a "Glory of Dragons." As in the grouping would be called a glory?

> @"Fenom.9457" said:

> I like the idea that each ED has their own reason for being evil in the modern day -

>

> Zhaitain was driven by fear and insecurity at his own strength

>

> Mordremoth was arrogant and prideful and allowed us to get into his territory without truly defeating us

>

> Kralkatorrik was frightened by his visions of the future, and besides that, he's older (at least than mordy and zhaitain, maybe older than most of them) and had consumed too much magic.

>

> Jormag is the only one to retain full mental capacity, not hindered by things like fear, pride, or rage. However its undoing will likely be the fact that it tried to deceive us instead of just being honest (underestimating mortals in a different way than the other dragons; placing value on them, but thinking we can be easily manipulated)

>

> Primordus will be the biggest and probably oldest one, driven by greed, all he wants is more magic, more destruction, more power. Perhaps we'll beat him by giving him exactly what he wants (I imagine too much magic could kill, just like too much of anything else can, even oxygen)

>

> The Sea Dragon will be, simply, evil. The kind of person that just wants to cause suffering and death (it relishes being such a mystery to people and loves to make mortals afraid). We'll beat it by facing fear head on

>

> I also like that underestimating mortals is an underlying cause of defeat for them all

Kralk wasn't really "frightened" though. He pursued Aurene and might have been seeking her destruction because of the threat she caused to the greedy side of his torment that wanted to consume everything, but I'm not sure that was motivated by fear or just a, "well this thing is problematic so I'm going to eliminate it."

As far as Primordus goes, I'm not really sure what his motivations are but I like the part about killing him by giving him too much magic. I think that's one thing we haven't covered since we discovered Kralk's torment. We haven't tested intentionally giving an elder dragon as many different conflicting forms of magic as possible. Say, if we gave another god's magic to an elder dragon or found yet another source of magic that has a similarly detrimental effect. (Say another being connected to the all somehow that doesn't have its magic converted like elder dragon and god magic. Though arguably something about Balthazar's magic despite not being a god allowed the elder dragons the ability to enter the mists.) It's all still a little unclear and seems made up on the fly but aside from what Balth did with Primordus and Jormag and Omaad's machine it feels like a potential method we could deal with in the future.

> @"Multicolorhipster.9751" said:

> > @"Bast.7253" said:

> > They need to just remove the algorithm and make it random. At least then you wouldn't know when matchmaking clearly wants you to lose.

>

> Without calling this a good or bad idea; if matchmaking were totally random, you'd be getting like up to -30 rating for losing and like +2 for winning most games as soon as you got close to plat2, maybe even lower. Would also occasionally get these games in the low-mid tiers like gold.

> If you don't care about your rating, its fine, but if you were playing to compete you'd be looking at like ~10 consecutive wins to make up for 1 loss.

If it were random would that still be true though? I thought the points were based on the level of the competition you were up against in comparison to your team? If it were random it seems like they could just make it a flat rate either way.

I don't know. Every other season I've been able to hang around plat 1 or push into plat 2. This season it's become substantially more obvious that matchmaking is in complete control with teams filled with 2+ bots or teams that just seem like they're silver/bronze level. I'm certainly not great at this game and could be better at rotating/strategizing but it's never been as bad as it has been now. Maybe that's due to the last balance patch and the current meta or something. I also can't say that I've ever seen as many bots as I have this season. It's unbelievable how many mirage bots there are and I thought that was just in EU. Not counting the core guards and the flamethrower engis. Fortunately rating doesn't really mean anything to me anymore as I'm just using the system as a means to earn easy gold. Just would be nice to lose a little less so the gold would roll in faster. :angry:

> @"mozlima.4015" said:

> Matchmaker in GW2 is : win 10, loose 10

> At least for me

And no matter how well you perform or what you switch to that counters the majority of the other team, you'll still lose.

Because the rest of your team will be so unbelievably bad that the points they give from repeated deaths can never make up for the amount of points you can get outrotating, keeping their team outnumbered, or generally trying your hardest.

It's unbelievably trash. Only I don't have the energy to invest in creating 50 alt accounts to jump on and game the system, nor do I have the desire to duo-queue or queue-dodge. Sad that you have to go through such extreme lengths just to beat a system this terrible.

It's garbage, like the rest of this game mode.

They need to just remove the algorithm and make it random. At least then you wouldn't know when matchmaking clearly wants you to lose.

It's great they're taking time to focus on the expansion and abandoning this game mode. I just wonder how many people will be left playing or interested in buying a product that will ultimately degrade like this one.

> @"Sajuuk Khar.1509" said:

> > @"Telwyn.1630" said:

> > Some one sees that like I did Norman is no more better then the other dragons.

> I've never really understood the need to try to make Bubbles the unstoppable doom dragon of doom. If it was that powerful we surely would have seen something of it by now.

>

> Its going to pose its own challenges sure, but nothing worse then any of the other dragons.

Unless it's intentionally spent all this time avoiding focus to collect as much magic and forces as possible? If you become stronger when the others die it's kind of like that Halloween event right? Just find a nice little cubby somewhere and hide until the rest have been eliminated! That is one thing we have to consider though. Originally it posed no more threat, but with the death of others they become increasingly more of a threat. And given we don't know the location it's possible it could have absorbed the most of each elder dragon so far. Kralk, right in the ocean. Balthazar, Zhaitan right in the ocean, and Mordremoth right by the ocean. It's presumed he's much farther away but given that Jormag was able to obtain magic from Kralk, Mordremoth, and Zhaitan's death, it's reasonable to assume that Steve could have too. And potentially more as we really don't know where he is. That being said I'd imagine Primordus would have gotten a substantial power boost as well given he was last in the Fire Island chain which is really only furthest away from Kralk. I can't remember why Primordus was in that area but if he relocated due to the death of Zhaitan and Mordremoth it's reasonable to assume that Steve did as well. Jormag's really the only one that didn't move much.

> @"zolcor.2601" said:

> I think Jormag wants to either take Bubbles's power of water to amplify himself, or to truly help Tyria survive the prophesized flooding of Tyria as said by the krait by freezing a portoin of Tyria's ocean, and then use the freezing tactic to finish Bubbles. After Jormag takes some or all of Bubbles's powers of water I would expect Jormag to turn on the Commander for good saying it has no further need of him/her. In the end I think Jormag is secretly playing for extra power.

>

Also, what? What prophecy about flooding Tyria? I'll have to check the wiki on this.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > @"Stephen.6312" said:

> > It's possible that the two dragons were duelling as competitive rivals, rather than open enemies. Jormag and Primordus have been at work for a long time and neither have appeared to attack each other in that period. Jormag's got a long memory, as evidenced by it's comments on the nature of the ED cycles, so if it took the injury dealt by Primordus that seriously, I expect that it would've taken revenge against the Fire dragon long before now.

>

> It's entirely possible Jormag didn't make a move against Primordus yet because Primordus woke up 50 years earlier, so it would have a major head start on obtaining power and forces. Primordus also consumed six asuran underground cities all on par to Rata Sum, while Jormag merely got a few norn shrines, and was even injured shortly after waking. Jormag would probably be on the lower end, meanwhile Primordus had been slowly hampered and prevented from surfacing by the stone dwarves until the past couple decades, so may want to stock up on more power before making another move on Jormag.

>

> > @"Bast.7253" said:

> > And everyone keeps on insisting that Jormag is out to get Primordus because they're each other's natural weaknesses, but wouldn't eliminating him just potentially give the remaining elder dragons that same advantage?

> Well, if Jormag has any scions capable of replacing Elder Dragons, that would be a good cause for Jormag to seek out Primordus' death - to have their own children then replace Primordus just as Aurene replaced Kralkatorrik.

>

> Or if ANet goes with the boring route of Aurene replacing all the Elder Dragons in the end, Jormag could see Aurene as a means to remove Primordus without the DSD getting its powers - thus would be why Jormag's been playing nice to Aurene. [Though I like the idea of Jormag wanting to use Aurene to remove its own magical Torment more, personally.]

But would having a scion replace Primordus even be a benefit to Jormag if they all go insane and get greedy in the end? I guess we're assuming Jormag would have control over the scion even after ascenscion? Or somekind of loyalty? It just seems like the torment would inevitably get to it as well and repeat the same cycle of them inevitably battling each other. Only then I feel like the scion would have an advantage over Jormag due to being its scion originally and having a connection/being more familiar with Jormag's magic? Maybe I'm missing something about the benefit of Jormag's scion taking over the role.

I mean, I wouldn't expect the writers to go in either of these directions and inevitably we'll just kill them both. But I'm just not seeing the advantage either way.

> @"Cynder.2509" said:

> Maybe Balthazar wasn’t evil like we thought because maybe he saw how bad it was to gift magic upon the races of planet Thyria, especially humans, like Abaddon did. Maybe He understood why Abaddon wanted to take this gift back.

> I have this own headcanon that Abaddon knew of everything that will happen in the future but when he gifted the world magic he didn’t quite realize because his heart was too good and later when he saw what harm it caused he wanted to take it back. And because of this, because Abaddon was misunderstood, the other Gods cursed him and so he turned under painful circumstances into the very being we fought in Nightfall.

> Later Balthazar realized this too and because he rebelled and thought that humanity is better off dead for what harm they’ve caused he was exiled too.

> I also have this theory that the Elder Dragons were once created as guardians to Thyria and its magic but later they became corrupted by an unknown evil. The fact that Kralkatorrik said to Aurene that he never wishes for her to kill anyithing she loves shows that Elder Dragons are capable of emotions and the concept of love. Also in the end Kralk’s last words were “Mother...” which leads to a greater mystery and the fact that even Elder Dragons recognize their family.

> My theory:

> Zhaitan became evil because he knew he was the weakest of his bretheren and he feared that. Zhaitan was relatively small compared to the others and he feared that. Zhaitan couldn’t even speak aside from his servants because he wasn’t strong enough. Zhaitans fear drove him mad and caused him to be evil.

> Mordremoth slumbered but he was still stronger than Zhaitan because he was more gifted. He was originally the keeper of Life, Preservation and Mind. However everything changed because his pride and greediness corrupted the once Elder Keper of Life when he noticed that his brother Zhiatan, the Keeper of Death and Shadow was slain. At first the Jungle Dragon denied it but then he realized that even Elder Dragons are mortals. A bit of fear but mostly his pride and hunger for more power drove him more and more mad.

> We know that Kralkatorrik was around for longer than them and he caused havoc far before these two. It’s simply because Elder Dragons are forces of nature and guardiand to the elements and magic flow of the planet. After all it is simply in their nature to dominate and to protect. However Kralkatorrik was gifted with seeing into the future and he was also the Keeper of Crystal/Beauty and Fury. However he knew that his own blood will be his weakness and he feared betrayal deeply. Once his visions had overcome him he became mad and it turned his keeper likeness into evil. But fear not, his gift as an augur sprung over to his child Glint and later to Aurene. In fact Kralkatorrik cared deeply for his offsprings and that’s why he passed his leftover sane wisdom on to Glint and Aurene. Later on Kralkatorrik’s agony after he consumed too much magic corrupted him even more and crazed him absolutely. However after the Commander and Aurene granted him salvation he passed on all of his wisdom to Aurene and the lesson that Aurene should “never kill what she loves” which means that Aurene should never succumb to corruption and never hurt what she has sworn to protect.

> Anyways there’s also Primordus of which we don’t know much as of the other dragons but I guess that his gluttony and wrath have driven him mad.

> Now there’s Jormag, the keeper of Illusion and Ice. Jormag also had the gift of visions but with the side effect of altering it. We still don’t know much about the real Jormag but I believe they are aware of their weaknesses and Thyria’s future and they really want to change something but there’s also that urge for manipulation and dominance.The keeper of Ice and Pursuation is also known for inheritenting Lust as they can seduce others easily. We still don’t know how much Jormag has been corrupted and if maybe Jormag has cured their corruption a bit already. The dragon seems too self aware but maybe this is all a trick. We’ll never know. However I think Jormag is the most conflicted Elder Dragon of them all.

> Now on to the Ocean Elder Dragon... we truly don’t know anything about it but I believe it’s connected to Kuunuvang and that Kuunu is its champion but the ocean dragon has good intentions and actually wants to preserve and protect life on the planet. “Mortals are little flames. Brilliant hot, then gone...” either Kuun or the sea dragon said this but if the sea dragon said it it’s clear that the dragon knows that even the Elders are mortal and can go out like flames at any moment. But it could also refer to that the dragon realizes that anything on Thyria is mortal, fragile and deserves to be protected. Maybe the dragon observed the other actions of its relatives and wants to truly change something. Maybe it is the only dragon untouched from corruption.

> However know let’s assume that Kunnuvang said this trying to convince the ocean dragon to be good and to cure the corruption among dragons. Anyways, I think it will still be the same. Only time will tell.

That was a lot. I'll let someone else touch on the majority of it but the part about morals being little flames, brilliant, then gone seems less about acknowledging the mortality and protecting the mortal lives as it is ensuring that they stay mortal. It sees the value in them knowing that their lives are short-lived and are more meaningful because of it. Also why it seems to be advocating for the cycle insisting that Tyria needs them. It needs them to ensure that these mortal races, these civilizations, remain fragile and fleeting. It's like a villain telling a superhero that without them they're nothing, they serve no purpose. They're still a villain and doing wrong, but they've justified their actions by insisting they're a necessary evil.

As far as the elder dragons being corrupted by something else, I do believe that is plausible. Though the idea suggested by another poster that they went mad due to their corresponding spirit going missing similar to the other animals being disoriented due to their spirit of the wild going missing seems like a pretty solid take and has actually had a fair amount of set up with this saga.

As far as Abaddon goes, I'm still keen on the theory that he was corrupted by Arachnia or whatever. Assuming the Utopia lore is setting us up to dive into the gods at some point it would seem plausible to me that whatever entity corrupted the pantheon that they presumably replaced/saved could have gotten to Abaddon. I'm just not buying the "he had evil in his heart that grew and he went nutso" statement. I do think something else happened to him, but I'm not sure if it was the other gods as they could have just done to him what they did to Balhazar and presumably stripped him of his magic and imprisoned him somewhere. If anything I think Balthazar was always a little crazy and vengeful by nature. He was the god of war and, whether due to him finally winning the battle over Menzies or some adventure with the gods in the mists after the departure, perhaps wanted a reason to start another war to give himself purpose again.

> @"Zietlogik.6208" said:

> I mean...this exists too 

>

Is that thief staff 2? Aka the most avoidable skill in the game?

And on the glassiest build possible as that damage can't be done without running crit strikes?

lol Not even a slight comparison. Let's factor in glass sword weaver builds while we're at it. Nevermind the can be one shot by a holo auto.

> @"Megametzler.5729" said:

> Tempest CC spam is OP? I will make a video where a thief constantly headshots someone and call the CC perfectly balanced, as all things should be!

Thieves don't have an aura they can provide everyone that stuns on attack. Or a very large reasonable damage lightning field capable of further dazing people with combo finishers. Also, while headshot spam is annoying, it uses a lot of initiative so if not timed right it can be pretty punishing.

I'd say shortbow 4 is more comparable than headshot and possibly even more spammy.

Either way though, shocking aura is quite a strong ability to be shared to a whole team repeatedly during a fight. Not only do you have overload but you also have dagger 3.

That being said, neither are as punishing as a bonus damage, blind, and daze on dodge, knockbacks and a tossable ranged daze with shield, or holoforge 5 ontop of elite turret drop. And I still feel like I'm missing more cc from holo even after all that. Ridiculous...

> @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> > @"Meteor.3720" said:

> > Anet said a long time ago that no class should be able to generate 25 might stacks by itself...

>

> I'm pretty sure it's still easily doable with most professions. Being able to maintain 25 might stacks is harder thought.

The only ones that come to mind are engineer, rev, and warrior. None of the others really get that high. Chrono maybe if you’re running a really classy build. Ele just converts theirs to burns and small explosions. Tempest maybe but it takes work and isn’t very effective in matches. Scourge if conveying burn stacks I guess?

I’m hoping it’s just gen 2 underwater legendaries but well get some usable above land.

> @"Paradoxoglanis.1904" said:

> You are supposed to keep track of every ability and cd the engi uses and predict exactly when they are going to use their burst and preemptively dodge it. If you cant do this every fight you are just bad. /s

And the 10 times they reset during the same fight. ?

> @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > @"Yggranya.5201" said:

> > > @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > > Curious: How many threads that have asked and/or demanded responses from Anet have actually gotten any? Isn't this the definition of insanity?

> >

> > Do you really think they were made by the same person, or do you just assume that they are all connected to a hive mind or something? I admit that i DON'T know if the OP has posted on all the threads before this, but that is why i'm asking you.

> No, I don't. Where did you get the idea that I thought that these were all being made by the same person? That's a stretch from my post.

>

> My point is that we have had a lot of threads like this in the past and I don't remember anyone from Anet responding because of them.

>

To be fair it’s mostly occurred after repeated reddit posts. I don’t think they really read the forums as much as they do reddit. Lol

> @"kharmin.7683" said:

> Curious: How many threads that have asked and/or demanded responses from Anet have actually gotten any? Isn't this the definition of insanity?

When enough people post it we do get communication. We have in the past. So I think it’s good to create these kind of threads. Nothing wrong with getting a little update. People are also a lot more likely to spend money when they know there’s new content on the horizon and are hyped about something.

lol meanwhile some Mesmer just popped all cooldowns with full clones and could barely put out this damage.

Some follower system maybe? Or something that affects combat? Not much room for any movement abilities.

I guess boat is possible but I’m not sure we’d have much need for it in the mainland.

> @"Friday.7864" said:

> They won't do anything huge this quarter due to the Steam release and holidays thereafter.

> You'll get the usual festivals and that's it.

Sadly this. Really not expecting an episode at this point.

Yeah, there really isn't that many though?

Core necro shroud 2 which is highly situational. Rev's shiro teleport. Thief has a sigil and steal. Mesmer has Illusionary Ambush and the other mirage ability that has pretty much zero use in any game mode. I guess sword 3 technically has a teleport to but it's really short range. Weaver air sword 2.

Uh, what else? Soulbeast f2 if they're running smokescale?

Are we counting blinks too or just abilities that directly teleport you to a player?

I was hoping for another roadmap, but as with most things they’re consistently inconsistent. ?

We might still, but with a new expansion on the horizon and the episode cadence having broken up a bit it feels like it’s a little overdue.

There are also the numerous systems they’ve talked about many months back like the legendary armory and the alliance system that I assume is a no-go at this point. (To be honest I don’t know that it would make that big of an impact anyway.) Lots of balancing in competitive modes that hasn’t really been addressed since their big coefficient patch that was intended to be a building block for better balance.