Bast.7253

> @"dodgerrule.8739" said:

> Need I remind people the elder dragons are just a side plot of the main story. They were never meant to be the main story

But they are the main plot of the guild wars 2 franchise? I mean, the dragon is the logo... lol

The envoys and the oracle of the mists idea could be an interesting tie in to Cantha, but I’m not sure what role they would have at this point

> @"Palador.2170" said:

> They've been doing one living story chapter a week in the "welcome back" event. Next week is the current chapter, LS 4-5. I figure they'll let that be the focus for a week, then preview the final part of LS4 the week after to build some hype. So I'm expecting LS4-6 two weeks after the balance patch. That also gives them two weeks to squash any bugs from the balance patch before the final chapter hits. And I'm sure the final chapter will end with something to hype us up for LS5.

>

> It seems logical to me, but I could easily be wrong.

Yeah, a lot of people were predicting the patch on the 30th, but with this sudden balance patch coming next week.. I really don't see them 1.) Finishing off their catching up series with episode 5, 2.) Revealing a trailer for the next episode. 3.) Releasing requiem. 4.) Releasing a balance patch.

Obviously they don't have to do all of those, and I'd love it if we got the episode on the 30th and a trailer this Tuesday, but I think the best case scenario at this point is that we get the final Requiem story next Tuesday with the Balance Patch, just in time for the welcome back to hit on episode 5. Then the trailer the following Tuesday and the episode after that.

I think best case, we maybe get a small teaser like we did with the mount about something else coming with this release, i.e. the new legendary, a small teaser of the zone or something.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s further off than May 7th. Given that we’re getting a balance patch next Tuesday now.

I still wonder what the fake joko tonic was all about

> @"Poormany.4507" said:

> > @"ThatOddOne.4387" said:

> > More to the point, the Gods are quite literally the only beings left that know the details of the Forgotten's plan, their back-ups and likely have their own contingencies as well, and I cannot stress enough how, in the narrative, the Commander and no one else knows what to do and thinks the world is going to end. Suddenly turning around at the start of episode 6 and going "guys i have a plan" will be... Well, there'll be some whiplash.

>

> Agree to this. Really hope they don't pull some random solution out of nowhere, which is why I hope they don't suddenly and randomly involve the Pale Tree, who's been out of the story since LWS2, or some other random character. Would much rather have Aurene use Joko's magic to come back than some kind of random out of the blue solution, or at least have us do some kind of work to find a solution without someone else on our team randomly making up an idea (Looking at you, Taimi...) without any effort from the PC.

I think, if they're going to resurrect Aurene, the best alternative at this point to appease all of the people that want her death to "mean something" or not "cheapen" the plot, the best way at this point would be to have her be a death branded champion that we cleanse the way Glint was cleansed. But at this point, I don't think that's the direction they're going. It would be an awesome experience to have in game, but it doesn't feel like they're moving in that direction. I do wonder though, how all of this jungle foliage and the new map relates to the story and the Skyscales. Could we be visiting a map that contains Malyk's tree? Doubtful, but who knows. I do find it interesting that the Skyscale has the same expanded forehead nasal area like Aurene, which I always believed she gained from absorbing Mordremoth while she was in the egg.

The horns are interesting though, as Zhaitan was the one with horns. Of course none of it may matter in the end and it could be a completely unrelated new species of dragon with its own physical attributes.

I think at that point, it's more interesting to think about how we discover this area. Are we just following the tracker inside of Kralk? Are we going to be led to this area via Caithe as the golden child messenger as usual guiding us - this time via knowledge she gained when she melded with Aurene, or some other method of discovery? I hope we get a trailer next week though, because it's getting quite frustrating.

We also have Caithe's requiem though, and I don't know if they would release both the trailer and Caithe's requiem on the same day. So, that leads me to wonder if perhaps we'll get the final requiem, and then a week later we get the trailer, and then the week after the patch. The fact that we didn't get the requiem this previous Tuesday makes me think that the episode is probably further off than people are expecting.

> @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> Joko’s gone.

> Aurene ate his magic, unbound it, thats how you kill an immortal. Thats the end of that story.

>

> War Eternal is referring to the mists.

> With Glint, Glaust, Aurene and other scions dead, their spirits are waiting for kralkatorrik in the mists.

> War Eternal means we’ll seal Kalkatorrik in the mists where he can have literally all eternity to reconcile with his daughter.

> They’re already dead so he can’t do anything to them anymore, and they dont have to kill him, and make the magic lost.

Not sure how you're going to trap Kralk in the mists unless you somehow extract the part of his magic that allows him to enter and exit as he pleases.

And if that's the case, what's the solution going to be? Have the gods magically reappear and help us beat him down until they can extract Balth's essence or whatever?

Her being sick was probably just meant to be yet another, “oh no” our baby Aurene is in danger again” cliffhanger like they did with seemingly every other story chapter or episode. But I guess now that they’ve decided to potentially write her out of the picture I wonder how they’re going to provoke that same emotional response.

It could mean more, but it seems more and more likely that moments like these aren’t really meant to be foreshadowing and are more likely to just be quick semi-gimmicky tools to obtain emotional response for the lifespan of that episode and that scene.

At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the Skyscale is some hidden dragon race and Aurenes entire plot will just be a method of abstractly delivering us to discovering this race. Badda-bing, stay tuned for next episode when we kill off another character.

> @"phs.6089" said:

> > @"MithranArkanere.8957" said:

> > > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > > > @"MithranArkanere.8957" said:

> > > > My guess is that she ascended because of her fight with the dragon, and transcended her physical form.

> > > >

> > > > Maybe the skyscale is her 'legacy' in some way.

> > >

> > > I guess another potential is that she did somehow mind meld into Caithe, and now Caithe can act as a vessel until we plant Aurene into a skyscale? I don't know. lol Was kind of hoping for another teaser of somekind today, to provide a bit more speculation. But oh well. Maybe next Tuesday.

> >

> > Caithe said that she could no longer feel her.

> >

> > When Mordremoth hid inside Trahearne he could still feel the dragon inside him. Whatever is left from Aurene doesn't seem to be in her remains, inside Caithe or anywhere else in the physical plane.

> >

> > That limits it mostly to her being sent to mists, being absorbed by Kralkatorrik, merging with the Commander and the commander being unable to feel it, or fading into nothingness.

>

> Maybe because Trahearne was Mordremoth creation?

> While Caithe and Aurine just had tiny moment, Caithe couldn't even explain properly what she feels.

> There is one question left if Aurine is dead, what happened to her energy?

Given that joko had a small magic bubble burst, I don’t recall seeing that with Aurene. But they conveniently structured the scene to not show that. So, it could go either way at this point. Given that Aurene had to chomp down on Joko to unbind and devour his magic, I would assume Kralk would have had to do the same with Aurene which we didn’t see happen in this episode. So he didn’t need to for whatever reason, or it’s still there and will just slowly drip out over time assuming that the vessel for it is completely dead.

> @"MithranArkanere.8957" said:

> My guess is that she ascended because of her fight with the dragon, and transcended her physical form.

>

> Maybe the skyscale is her 'legacy' in some way.

I guess another potential is that she did somehow mind meld into Caithe, and now Caithe can act as a vessel until we plant Aurene into a skyscale? I don't know. lol Was kind of hoping for another teaser of somekind today, to provide a bit more speculation. But oh well. Maybe next Tuesday.

> @"flog.3485" said:

> No need to resurrect aurene, we have caithe essentially replacing her as a minion.

> I will also go further and say that aurene never truly died in the same way that Mordremoth truly died once we sacrificed Trahearne because Mordremoths’ spirit was still present even though we killed him within his mind.

>

> All in all, we just need to make sure that Caithe never dies to ensure that Aurene is never truly gone.

If the guild chat was sincere, the devs originally planned on killing both Aurene and Caithe off in this episode but decided it would reduce the impact of Aurene's death to kill Caithe as well.

So to me, that implies that Caithe wasn't really intended to portray that large of a role in the story moving forward. Whether they changed their minds and rewrote it so that she would be, or have plans to kill Caithe in a later episode, perhaps one involving the resurrection of Aurene, who knows.

I would have thought Caithe's requiem story would divulge a little more detail about what Aurene told her her purpose was that she was so 'humbled' by, but they could be saving that for the actual episode. I would assume there is a reason they are saving hers for last though, so we may find out in the next couple weeks what happened during their little mindshare moment.

> @"zolcor.2601" said:

> I had a theory on Kralkatorrik and Aurene getting killed by him. Glint's spirit told the Commander something about how magic can be "molded" or something like that. My theory is could Aurene have melded her mind, spirit, or both into Kralk therefore becoming him in a sense? Could such an act stabilize Kralk's evil mind, or cause him to go insane (as if he wasn't already insane.) LOL! I think this is very unlikely given the sneak peak trailer we saw of the new content coming out, and that the mistwalkers are still causing problems, but what if the white flying creature seen in the trailer was not Aurene but something else.

You mean the skyscale, new mount, we saw flying at the end of the trailer?

> @"dodgerrule.8739" said:

> If my theory is correct the jade sea was never from Shiro but from shiros master the dragon

Shiro's master was Abaddon and the magic used to create the Jade Sea was the stolen magic of Dwayna wasn't it?

I do find it interesting that the solid ocean fractal boss is a giant tentacled monstrosity akin to what you would expect from the DSD's minions.

I just look forward to seeing more dragon mount skins. I wound up liking the humming bird way more than I thought though. And I'm glad they decided to get a bit more creative this time than just throwing a sparkle texture on the regular model.

> @"MetalGirl.2370" said:

> I hope not. Kaineng was super ugly.... it looked like 2-3 planks just copy-pasted in all sorts of directions to make the city

I’m hoping if they did do it they would make it a cyber futuristic city with flashing neon lights and stuff instead of the old wooden planks. Especially given how much time has passed.

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> Indeed, he fled very fastly, it means something I think we don't really know what happened during the blackout of our character between the instant where aurene put itself in front of kralk and when we woke up, it also been never confirmed if aurene absorbed joko powers, but we saw lights and ley lines around aurene when she ate joko, anything is still possible. If absorbed means eating, then no kralk haven't ate aurene, but still, aurene is dead. I have the idea that Joko's power passed through kralkatorrik confusing it, trying to pacify kralk? Dunno here it's pure speculation, and could explain why it fled rapidly without devastating more the area.

You know, as much as I absolutely hate the idea, the title War Eternal could be indication that Aurene really did mind meld with Kralk and War Eternal implies that she’s just going to pull be forever fighting Kralks mind to keep him from doing more damage... I mean, it looks like he’s a boss fight in the new map. But what if we’re it’s pulling a Mordremoth and weakening his physical body to help her gain control? Idk. I hope this isn’t the case but it makes me wonder.

I think one full season is good. But if they push it to two it’s just going to be a little dull.

And on that previous note, if the next map is in scavengers causeway it could be interesting if they find a way to tie in a death branded Aurene that we have to free like we did glint. But that’s a lot of ifs.

> @"Windu The Forbidden One.6045" said:

> > @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > TBH, I'm not really sure.

> >

> > And she 100% will not combat "because she ate an immortal lich's immortality magic" because that was just her eating necromancy and she already got a bunch of death magic from Zhaitan's death via Mordremoth.

>

> Isn't Palawa's necromancy different from Zhaitan's though? Palawa Joko's magic allows him to revive himself after death, I doubt Zhaitan has that ability, because he would've used it if he did.

>

>

The argument to this is that Joko doesn’t technically die, he just persists indefinitely. But we don’t know how he became a lich and it would seem that he died at least once before his reign but who knows. The other argument being that there’s nothing to show that he’s a god or a dragon so this aspect of his magic wouldn’t be absorbed by Aurene. Time will tell though.

I'm hopeful that she comes back and takes Kralk's place, and it concludes the story with her. She fulfills her destiny and lives in peace in her own little part of the world that gets phased and we can visit her after she's ascended. If for no better reason than to have a happy ending that brings closure to our journey with her all these years. There's plenty of room to tie in future plot threads, and having something that doesn't immediately jumpstart us into another completely linear bordering on melodrama character death after character death plotline would be a nice change of pace, and might allow us dive deeper into completely new aspects of the lore that haven't had any room to be brought in due to how everything's been going since Path of Fire launched.

But given the title of the episode, I think most people are leaning towards her being resurrected but "War Eternal" being more that she is possibly perpetually at war with Kralk? Not really sure. I find it interesting that this ties in with episode 4's vision. She dies over and over and over again in the visions, but what if that's what actually happens? What if her entire existence isn't to replace Kralk but act as an immortal jailor thanks to Joko and she just keeps him at bay. That's depressing, and not what I want to see happen, but it's something I could see happening given the foreshadowing we've seen.

I'm not really sure what the point of her being in the mists would be if she were resurrected and did take over Kralk. Because, theoretically, she would also absorb the ability to go in and out of the mists. So it seems unlikely that she's going to take his place. And I'm not sure what the point of her needing to be in the mists is in order to fulfill her destiny.

Who knows. The introduction of the skyscale leaves me wondering if, 1.) They're introducing her and decided to make a new mount based off of the tech they had to use for our fight with Aurene. 2.) If we discover some other McGuffin dragon that is able to do the same thing, that for some reason we didn't know about until this episode.

I think she's coming back though. I suppose there's always the possibility that they decide to introduce Shiny and it ties in with the discovery of this new dragon mount, but I think any speculation at this point is kind of pointless. Between dragon mounts being added, the god teasers awhile back on twitter, and the little foreshadowing hints in the previous episode it feels like they wanted to create as much doubt or as many red herrings as possible in terms of speculation for the episode. Even an educated guess at this point doesn't hold much weight, imo. The only real lead we have at this point is the title, "War Eternal" which is pretty vague. And most of the titles make significantly more sense in retrospect anyway.

> @"LucianDK.8615" said:

> People are just jumping about like the sky is falling down. Remember what they said when the Beetle came out and people QQed over its limitations, it took time to sink in that it wasnt meant to displace any other mounts, but having its specific niche. Aka omg fast travel on long, mostly flat maps. You can be sure that the Skyscale will complement, but not replace the Griffon. Just like how you can still land travel everywhere with the Beetle if you want, but its not the most efficient land travel on many maps.

I’m more worried that the dragon mount won’t fill any nice that the others can’t. Apart from sticking to walls on the rare occasion you need to actually do that. The gryphon can already gain altitude, it just takes work. So unless the altitude gain from this mount is far superior I’m not sure how different it will be.

That doesn’t seem like climbing though, at least from the video. It seems more like it just sticks to one point and is stuck there until you use your endurance to push yourself off. And it doesn’t seem like it flaps any higher than the gryphon. Too soon to tell I guess

I was originally thinking blood legion homelands as well, but that seems to not be the case. Technically, the post mentioned that going to an open world mists map was "unlikely" not impossible, so it still could be a map in the mists, which I find a little more likely at this point, especially given that it's a finale and the context of the story right now. It makes more sense to do now than it did in previous story episodes. The only issue would be tying it into the waypoint system and the map overview I guess. But, that technical challenge being done now could make room for other plot threads in the future and encourage them even more to do it with this episode.

But anyway, other contenders that I am inclined to agree with:

1. South of Mount Maelstrom as suggested. The cliffs do kind of resemble Labyrinthine cliffs a bit, but also ties in Maguma assets that could mix well with Mount Maelstrom's jungle aesthetic. It's also close to where we just fought Kralk. The video also shows a lot of water on the ground level.

2. Barborous Shore area - potentially. We have a watery ravine, a coastline, and elonan cliff assets. A little less likely imo.

3. Scavenger's Causeway - seems a bit more likely to me right now, especially since there was some minor map changes awhile back to the coastline on the southwestern side near Orr. But it has water, elonian cliff assets and foliage potential, and possibly Maguma esque jungle assets that you would associate with something that would have been connected to Orr pre-cataclysm. It also keeps it in the same area that we've been in.

4. Alcazia Triangle - the elonian cliff assets and foliage wouldn't make a lot of sense, but the maguma assets would, the tall rocky cliffs weren't really prevalent in Guild Wars 1 in that area that I can remember, but that doesn't really mean much considering how much some of the zones have changed since then. Downsides being the elonian assets, and it being on the opposite side of the map. But, to counter it being on the other side of the map.. the latest current events show rifts spawning all over Tyria. This could be explained by Kralk's movement to the other side of the map, and his movement to that area potentially being fueled by something revolving around Caithe and the pale tree. This seems fairly unlikely, but I'm just going based on the map overview topography and what I can actually see in the teaser as it seems to be large chunks of cliff separated by water with a definite coastline to one side.

5. His purple mountain, which doesn't fit the topography on the world map with it being pretty low on water except on the coastline, but could be remedied with a map art update.

6. It's somewhere else on the map entirely. A completely unpredictable and potentially new area that hasn't ever been seen before, that we would normally have no reason to go to but are discovering it because we are tracking Blish and Kralk's movement.. who just happens to be able to enter and exit rifts from the msits and reappear anywhere he wants on Tyria. And if we're going based off the current viewable map art, we could be looking at anywhere from the top northeastern corner on a coastline deep in unfamiliar territory past the charr lands, to the southeastern corner coastline, or even an island chain on the map that isn't in the viewable overview at the moment. (I find this unlikely considering how much the map was already expanded.)

So to summarize, my guess, would be that it's Scavenger's Causeway near Orr, or in the mists. And while I'm leaning towards it being in the mists, especially given the spirit beings we see in the trailer, the potential it could have for tying in season 5 if located in Scavenger's Causeway could be quite exciting. We not only have potential to introduce these new draconic creatures that could tie in lorewise to Zhaitan, potential story with Aurene and the altar of Glaust should she be risen with Kralk's death-branded magic and us having to free her if she isn't revived this episode, or even the potential for the proximity of Kralk's potential death this episode to be a catalyst for a more aggressive deep sea dragon.

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" at 0:12 seconds, on the right hand side, can you recognize the architecture of that little village in the background? I can't really tell what it is. From screenshotting it and zooming in, it looks like either ruins or debris. The bit on the left looks like it could be standard airship debris, but the part on the right looks like something else. I'm assuming it's probably just airship debris, as the pact has tents set up on the cliff in the shot before meaning there may not be a friendly base of operations or something set up elsewhere in the zone.

Also, at 0:17 seconds you can see on the right the "coastline" which just drops straight down into... deeper water? Or is there something else going on here? It just seems very mist-like to me. I think Sandswept had a similar style of water and then dropping straight down on the eastern coast near the Djinn fight. But it still seems different.

Also, sorry, at 0:22 seconds I think it was mentioned that that was Auric Basin, but it isn't. You can see in the background there is a bunch of floating volatile magic orbs. And I've played a lot of Auric Basin and it doesn't look familiar. The assets do, but the layout doesn't. Especially with the big winding path in the background to the left of the floating orbs. The ground also seems like it's covered in water and flowing left. So this is definitely a part of the new map, especially with the spirit creatures. It's definitely new. Wherever it is, they really used a lot of maguma assets to give it the feel they did. And that's part of why I wondered if this isn't Acazia Triangle or somewhere in that area, despite the geography differing a bit from the original game and it being on the other side of the map. But again, that could easily be tied in with the story when the episode is released or even the requiem story for Caithe that they're intentionally saving for last.

As a final note, since I doubt anyone will read this far anyway - is that, even though most of the shots make the zone look rather barren and it could be because they cut stuff out to prevent spoilers, that 1. we're in the mists and there just isn't much left since Kralk has been eating everything. 2. We're above where a large chunk of the action is. Perhaps despite us typically being safer underground, the only time you really see mobs in the video is on the ground. The spirit beasts showing off the dismount fire breath ability, and at one point you see a branded hydra walking in between the cliffs on the very bottom. Perhaps the pact has set up on the top outer part of the zone where we arrived from, closer to safety, and when you consider that we're just on the outer coast, the rest of the map could look entirely different and be covered up by those huge cliffsides. I guess we'll know in a week or two if they release the actual trailer.

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > @"Adenin.5973" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > So basically, there’s now no more need to use Springer.

> >

> > Nice I hated that bunny anyways.

> >

> > I was waiting since before PoF release for a mount like this. I hope we immediately get a real wyvern skin with this.

> > Also, some ppl claim this works more like a "helicopter" as opposed to the griffon that works more like an "airplane"

>

> Not just some people - Linsey Murdock from Anet said that in the article. Apparently it's slower than the griffon but will be able to gain height when taking off. (Presumably more than the griffon can from doing a wing flap on take-off.)

I don't think the clips they showed are really telling about the mount. We have one clip of the dragon leaping off of a cliff from a standing position, and it looks like it's the same height as a griffon wing flap..... so if it's the same height will the main gain in height come from landing on cliffs? And to that note, the clip they showed of the dragon "climbing a wall" looked like an already slanted cliffside that you could probably stand on without a mount, and it charged like the springer and kind of awkwardly flung itself up to the flat surface of the cliff.

So, my first impression from those cliffs outside of wanting a dragon mount in general are that the mount won't be as useful as a gryphon. But they may have just chose awkward clips or intentionally held back so as not to spoil the excitement of the mount at release.

I rather like the idea of it being able to scale up cliffsides and charge and fly when it wants to, but that doesn't seem like the way the mount is designed. More like it just anchors to one spot and is glued there until you use adrenaline and propel yourself up a bit.

Of the other clips I noticed, we see it doing a pseudo-dive similar to the gryphon, and I'm not entirely sure what the point of that is other than to do a nice twirl. You don't really dive straight down like the gryphon, and you don't go as fast as the gryphon, so I wonder how that twirl/dive comes into play with the rest of the mount's movement. Is it going to be a minor speed boost like the gryphon and allow for a higher vertical boost?

Lastly, we have the clip of it gliding towards the end and it looks like it's gliding down at the same speed as a gryphon. I get how this would be broken, but it seems like it would stay at the same altitude without gliding down to set it apart from the gryphon. Or that the vertical flap from a grounding position would be more like a straight shoot like the gryphon dive down but straight up instead? Just launching straight up, not doing one or two gryphon height flaps and then going into gliding mode?

So in short, from these clips, I feel like the main use of this mount will be to use it to potentially awkwardly shimmy up cliffs with springer-style endurance charges and then once high enough it seems like you would be better off just using bond of faith and switching back to gryphon?

Then again, I've gotten good enough at gryphon that I don't really find myself needing to scale up cliffs. Also, what kind of surfaces is it scaling up? Are they straight vertical, are they specific textures/ground/rock terrain? Are they semi-vertical cliffs that if you landed in the right spot on a gryphon you could do the same thing you're doing with the dragon?

They've done really well with all the mounts so far, so I'm sure I'll enjoy this one. I'm just not sure that this video was a great representation of the mount or its functionality, whether that's intentional or unintentional.

> @"Erasculio.2914" said:

> Ever since the beginning of Season 4, I have been wondering when would we have Aurene as a mount.

>

> Now, with ArenaNet introducing a dragon mount, and considering how each time we meet a dragon in GW2 it's a big deal, looks like we will finally be able to ride Aurene.

>

> It's an elegant solution. They could have just introduced a new Aurene skin for the Griffon, but that would have been a bit underwhelming. They could have introduced a new mount limited to a specific story instance, but that would be a waste of the resources required to program the new mount. Adding a permanent new mount, that we will get to experience as using Aurene, is a nice idea.

>

> IMO, just like the Raptor doesn't make the Jackal redundant, I think the new mount won't make the Griffon redundant. It's nice to have options.

Secretly hoping for a griffin Skyscale combo as a secret Aurene mount so I can get the best of both in one. >_<