perilisk.1874

I did it a couple of weeks ago. It was the time TTS had on their calendar (Second meta after reset on saturday night, but I don't know if it varies.)

> @"Psientist.6437" said:

> I hope Bangar doesn't become a version of Balthazar, willing to destroy Tyria if they can't get their way. There are many directions to take him besides that one.

Bangar might think this is his plan, but it seems clear that it's actually Jormag's. The fact that the weather is preventing us from following him means the dragon or one of its champions or followers wants Bangar to come, and for the Commander not to follow. Whether he's being magically influenced, or just manipulated the normal way, is not clear. I think the Icebrood artifact was a good find that suggests the former.

I just randomly got a node drop from somewhere. I pretty much never get any good drops, so I wonder if it's less rare than it's supposed to be. Actually, it's pretty weird that it drops at all.

I kinda wish they would transition DEs in new maps to use a Reward Track mechanism more like WvW/PvP, such that most of the rewards come from the track. Let events contribute differing amounts (e.g. a difficult boss event should contribute more than a minor solo DE), in addition to scaling it to participation. Let the map dailies and map completion give reward track progress. And show it in place of the XP bar when there is no mastery track selected, as a motivational thing -- no one cares when they're going to get their 10,000th spirit shard, but if the track rewards are decent, it might be worth watching.

> @"RyuDragnier.9476" said:

> > @"Dragon Priestess.9760" said:

> > Expletives? I've not seen a single F-bomb in the entire game.

> I think he's referring to a 4 letter word starting with D and ending with N. I've seen that dropped a lot, but in this day and age it's not really considered a cuss word.

Dawn? Man, I've never seen that drop. Some players have all the luck.

If it's like other mounts, for some reason it only happens if you have the default mount skin. Otherwise, the mount spawns with the default skin until the proper mount skin loads. So, it technically has a solution, but it's a pretty pricey one.

What I've noticed is that, when you switch maps, any previously fixed stompers show as broken (even though they are still checked off). You can use them and trigger the mini event, but it doesn't actually switch to repaired.

Where exactly are the targets for the fireworks, anyway?

> @"Tukaram.8256" said:

> I was disappointed that it was the same critter we already fought in the story. One jumping puzzle, and one recycled boss hardly seems like any kind of mission, honestly.

I think that's kind of the idea, though. The story teaches you mechanics in a fight that is easy to solo, then the mission is supposed to have you execute them in a more challenging, group-balanced version of the fight. I don't think the implementation quite lived up to the idea, though -- it was basically just a stack and spank fight, and my scrub self could (and did) easily eat a shockwave or two on a zerk guardian.

There isn't much to the first story instance, though -- walk and listen. You can do most of it on autopilot while you're doing something else. The little fight at the end is trivial and no more flashy than the map itself.

1. Great job on creating a slowly building sense of menace toward the end that felt much more real and ugly than the more cartoonish villainy that we've faced so far. How far do you think you can take it before it starts to clash with the overall heroic fantasy feel of the game?

2. The use of camera tricks, rather than pure cutscenes, was new. Is it something we'll see a lot more of going forward?

3. Any reason that the episode was called "prologue", and not "episode 1"? Other than maybe a mastery, it seemed to have most of what you would expect from an episode, and definitely wasn't short on content.

4. The events were great fun, and I didn't remotely miss having hearts. Will the Icebrood Saga maps focus on more, and more unique, events instead of hearts?

5. What's your favorite legion?

> @"Arden.7480" said:

> I think his son will be turned half Icebrood, and Rytlock will have to kill him to not let Ryland suffer, but while dealing the blow, Ryland will spread the corruption on Rytlock, and he will play it cool, but in time Rytlock will also turn icebrood, very slowly, but Sohothin will keep him alive.

No, Ryland will start getting corrupted, but then he will sacrifice himself to stop the evil Prince Braham from killing Jormag, breaking the icebrood curse, and teaching Jormag about the power of true love. Then Ryland and Rox will get married and live happily ever after... until they find out they are actually brother and sister. Dun dun dunnnnnn.

> @"Arden.7480" said:

> Guys, do you think Almorra Soulkeeper also joined the rebellion?

>

> She left Grothmar to go check the status of Jormag if I remember correctly - did she use it as an excuse to really join Bangar?

Are you kittening serious? Bangar's a Charr supremacist. Almorra thinks of the non-Charr in the Vigil as her people as much as the Charr, which is why she was in his office in the first place. Pretty sure most of the Pact Charr are going to be on her side as well -- they have, let's say, a much broader sense of "in-group" than Bangar's folks.

> @"sokeenoppa.5384" said:

> Yeah. Atleast the next step should already teach some actually mechanics. Similar mechanics like VG red seekers, players would learn fast that they need to sidestep or push/Immo those. CC bar would be nice mechanic aswell. Perhaps even something that you need to collect to debuff the boss(like beehives from trio). There is lot of options its up to anet are they gonna use those options or not.

Are baby raids even the best place to try to teach mechanics? The chief issue with nonstandard mechanics (ie, not DPS and dodging and breakbars and circles and such that you pick up anywhere) is that learning takes a certain amount of failure, and most people not only don't want that failure to be public, but also don't want it to screw things up for other people.

It seems like something that would work better if you gave raid areas an OW explorable mode and filled them with Adventures (instanced if need be) that trained specific mechanics, so players could rapidly iterate through failure cycles solo.

Removing the group assembly part of "raiding" is probably the best feature of strike missions.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> Aurene is called solely "Elder Dragon of Light" (or "Prismatic Elder Dragon" as an alternative). She's not called the Elder Crystal Dragon. It's a bit weird, tbh, and gives the implication (to me) that she's an "Elder Dragon of all magical domains."

I think whatever the domain is includes a lot of interrelated things. Desert -> Sand -> Crystal [Crystal Balls -> Prophecy] -> Prisms -> Light -> Sunlight and Lightning -> Storms -> Wind. It's sort of an odd set in general, but the notion that her line's magic is tied to light is not really new, and I don't think in and of itself it suggests she has all domains.

> @"RyuDragnier.9476" said:

> From the way it's looking, the alliance is who I thought.

> >! Was pretty obvious Bangar was going to be the villain. Though the hints that there's somebody else involved as well makes me wonder for how long he'll be a villain...

Scarlet got a whole season. Balthazar got the better part of a season and an entire expansion. OTOH, Joko, not so much. Nor Caudecus, but he was only really important to humans, not to the larger story.

> @"Kalavier.1097" said:

> Well, technically Rytlock does known the anti-foefire spell. It's just the last time it got used it was only in a small area, and it took his sword :P.

Did the spell take his sword, or did it just create an opportunity for a certain someone to summon his sword to the Mists, believing its owner would follow?

> @"Svennis.3852" said:

> Pretty sure Bangar’s fate is sealed long term. We’ll end up killing him or he’ll become Icebrood. Unless they pull a Loghain circa DA:O, but that’s doubtful...

While they describe it as Lovecraftian, it's really more Tolkienesque -- a promise of power that corrupts the soul and eventually even the body. Call him Bangarmir. Presumably the season will end by carrying Jormag to a volcano and tossing him in.

> Definitely curious about Flame. It sounded to me they’re refugees that have fled from the rest of their legion, so it didn’t seem odd that these members seemed “nice” to me. Did seem to be a few veiled hints dropped about something specific that made them run away to Blood tho, but I don’t think there’s any definitive statements made.

Maybe everyone just killed enough of them that the only ones that survived are those with less bloodlust and will to power. Evolution in action.

Anyway, what's interesting to me is the implicit callback to the origins of the Flame Legion and the bad GW1 charr -- that is, the same way the Charr fell under the thrall of the Titans because they felt they needed gods to even the odds against humans, he is seeking power from the Frost Dragon. "You idjit! We'd look like a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies, bragging on our own dragon, don't matter how crystalline."

> @"chris.6583" said:

> i didnt read this back then, for some reason i hoped that sagas will be content for all players, instead of keep dividing the player base with expansions, call me freeloader idc

I think their map design is going to be a lot easier if they can guarantee that players at least have the base PoF and HoT masteries; in fact, that was one justification they gave for giving HoT for free to PoF players.

> @"Vavume.8065" said:

> In terms of AP its a good map, in terms of rewards, not so much, it's fun for now but after the AP is done there will be no reason to play the map. I just hope the next map we get has rewarding meta events. Having said all that I'm enjoying the map for now.

I mean, some of the events are pretty fun, and in a repeatable way. I feel like having real life fun is more important than having imaginary wealth, reward-wise. YMMV.

> @"JUN YANG.4328" said:

> i really want to know, how ls5 worth to such big hype? so far, new mount - no, weapon- no, armor - no. it do have 2 new skin in BLACK LION CHEST. you can spend money on - (RARE drop or 2000 gem). i really dont know why people so excited about. well it do look like a legendary mount. (foot print)

No, just a well designed OW map with lots of fun events and good writing that show Arenanet still knows its strengths.

Good map, good events (especially the concert), and good storytelling.

Need a mastery to regain the ability to see through the stealth for Kas's illusory mordrem snipers too.

> @"Ben K.6238" said:

> This was pretty good, and no race/legion dissonance for once is a big plus.

>

> Kasmeer still showing me up with the mesmer skills though. Can't win 'em all.

Her illusions drop loot. Ergo, Kas can create matter ex nihilo, in unlimited quantities. Do not cross Kas, she may be a demigod.

> @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> When it comes to winning, you need to do two things (individual or as a team). 1

> 1: stay alive

> 2: deal damage.

> The issue is that for the first it is a goal that you can reach and then it is done. The second is that you never deal enough damage as faster killing means more efficiency. So it is always good to have as less heal/support/tank as is needed to survive and the rest focusses on dps. This is how it goes in any game. It is nearly impossible to break with this without changing the goal of the fight. One way to so this is with damage avoidance techniques. Dodge/rolling certain red circles and making this more challenging is one way to do it, but with a risk to turn the fight in a sort of jumping puzzle concept.

> So in short, trinity in itself exist due to effectiveness in a fight and is unavoidable. It can be dimmed, but outcancelling is not possible.

There's no reason they can't change the goals of the fight, though, or kinda-sorta do it through encounter design.

For example, you could theoretically make a boss invulnerable to players, and players have to trigger phases where an NPC pounds the boss while increasing waves of adds try to kill the NPC -- the longer it holds out, and the more offensive boons on it, the more damage done to the boss.

Or, as a non-boss encounter, just have a "hold out until the cavalry arrives" scenario.

In either case, DPS helps relieve the pressure, but it doesn't actually win the day. Of course, those fights will still have a meta, but it might at least be a different one.