Pifil.5193

Almost over, well that's something, at least. I'm most interested in seeing how ridiculous the material list for the third set of mediocre dragon slayer weapons will be.

> @"Tony.8659" said: > The huge grind for the Crimson & Azure weapon collections is just beyond awful. Prismaticite Crystals take a long time to grind this is not content. The only thing I'm doing is to get all the recipes for both collections and thats it, for the achieve points. I can only imagine what other grind collections for the next 2 living world episodes, I don't even call them episodes more like here is more grind content because we have nothing worthwhile to actually give you. Sorry but pass on any more future god awful grind fest collections. Is Arenanet taking a page from Black Desert Online? To me it seems so with the grind. Yeah and you need to have crafted the base Dragon Slayer weapons before you can even buy the recipes for the Crimson and Azure weapons. Apparently, replayability means gating collections behind other collections and requiring rerunning the same content dozens of times. I guess that's one way to do it. In the IBS they have added so many of these grind or gold sink weapon collections to pad out the episodes. Hopefully this over reliance on grind will be dropped soon. I certainly hope it doesn't mark the direction that the game will be going with in EoD and afterwards.

> @"Randulf.7614" said: > > @"Samnang.1879" said: > > > @"Ashantara.8731" said: > > > > @"Samnang.1879" said: > > > > Can we have like a story related to the emperors and empresses of China? No more dragons please, I'm sick of killing them... > > > > > > Well, the expansion's title is "End of Dragons", so naturally it will be about the Elder Dragons. > > > > Hopefully it ends in the first 10 minutes of gameplay, and we can move on to a different theme/storyline :# > > Obviously it won’t and I doubt a half hearted ending after a 9 year arc would satisfy many of us. It certainly won't satisfy me. It already looks like they're going to end both the Jormag and Primordus arcs with a rushed whimper rather than a bang in order to shovel out the expansion ASAP so half assing the story in that expansion as well would be a terrible idea.

> @"Yasai.3549" said: > If yu strip everything away, DRMs are basically watered down Fractals. > > Single scenario - Story driven objectives - Boss at the end with some mechanics. > These are all the makings of a Fractal. Yeah, or a simple open world event chain, a simple event to gather everyone together, escort/defend section and a boss. These DRMs are a lot like a simplified version of the assaults on the fortresses and towns in Drizzlewood. Without everything else in the episode and on that map. It's amazing just how little is in these chapters compared to the episodes that came before them.

> @"Randulf.7614" said: > > @"mindcircus.1506" said: > > > @"Danikat.8537" said: > > > As other people have said I think it's a shame they're so obviously rushing it because of the complaints about not having another expansion after season 4. > > Are they? > > I mean when IBS was originally presented to us wasn't it that the last several parts would be with the developers trying to incorporate the aspects they most liked about s1 into the story? or maybe it was a puff peice for an MMO site where this was mentioned. How they wanted to change the story telling near the end to do this. > > Isn't that exactly what they are doing now? Giving us these instances where places we know are under attack/change? > > And if indeed that was the plan all along, then how is it rushed? > > These DRMs have clearly been the plan from the beginning. To transition the game towards a place where they can tell the stories they want without worrying about the headaches that the development approach to s1 created. In a way that makes them repeatable and relevant as group content. > > The problem isnt that they have rushed the end of Icebrood, the problem is that they are spreading it out too thin. What should have been 4 months of content updates now becomes 6-8 while they continue work on the expansion. > > I don't think this was rushed. I think it was the plan all along, but that the DRMs would release weekly or biweekly. > > > I like what we are getting, but I will forever wonder what we could have had and how much more interesting it could have been if only people had been willing to give them a chance instead of endlessly going on about the game dying because they didn't have to pay for it. > > To blame the portion of the playerbase is a little puzzling. > > This was the play by Anet, > > Don't be surprised if a lot of your End of Dragons story is told in a similar way. > > Quite so. They hinted at the Champions releases being this way as far back as Feb 2020. We simply do not know if there was a change of direction and if there was, when that happened. It's possible Champions wasn't meant to be the end of the Saga and much more was planned of course. With the Game Director leaving and seemingly never replaced, I suspect some change may have happened around the time of the presentation, but it's clear a lot of this was always going to happen expac or no expac Yeah, they said that in February, shortly before Mike Z left and the expansion announcement. However, only 6 months before, around the icebrood saga announcement, Mike Z said that they had no plans of making any more expansions. He also said they had four fully staffed teams to work on the Saga. I think it's highly likely that the decision to make an expansion after all resulted in the icebrood saga being redesigned and scaled back. How else would they be able to get the people to make the expansion for this year? The people to design the maps, events and other content? If those four fully staffed teams haven't been redirected to the expansion then what are they doing? I didn't like everything in the saga but I have to acknowledge and appreciate the ambition shown in the earlier episodes, new world bosses, the visions of the past, the scale of Drizzlewood, the strikes that came alongside those episodes, the finale seems very incongruous with that scale and ambition shown earlier. A single episode's content starting 4 months after the previous release and stretched out over 7-8 months. Is it possible that they always intended to end the saga in this manner? Possible but I think it's very unlikely, this saga is looking increasingly likely to limp to an unsatisfactory conclusion. I can't imagine a world where this was their original plan back when the whole team was focused on it.

> @"DKRathalos.9625" said: > Yes but here is the thing. Brisban Wildland also long escort but on CM even if you don't give NPC swiftness/superspeed you still have reasonable time to beat last boss. > Snowden is just if you don't superspeed, last boss fighting time will be super short. This is the issue alright. I've completed the Brisban Wildlands CM with 8 minutes left. I haven't reached to the boss in Snowden with more than 8 minutes left. The Claw splashes swiftness on his party at the start, I'm not sure if it reapplies it periodically or if it's supposed to do so but something seems off here.

Hi, the Chapter doesn't unlock in the same way that an episode does it's a continuation of the current episode. Do you have Champions unlocked in your story journal? If you swapped to a different story you may have to restart the Champions episode. If it's already there andif you go to the Eye of the North does Rytlock start talking to you? I went to the Eye of the North and got a couple of mails, Rytlock started talking to me and the story continued.

> @"Randulf.7614" said: > I wouldn't expect much either. The dwarves were very much a bit part. The Tengu will likely be a 1 DRM cameo + EOTN NPC as well Yeah, the dwarves are just "there" all of a sudden, gone for hundreds of years and then just back without fanfare or ceremony. Centuries of absence just hand waved away so they can rush an expansion out. It's sad. I've no doubt the tengu will be the same, just suddenly there will be tengu running around a DRM with no real reason other than "hey guys, here's some tengu!" and a line or two about everyone needing to band together something something.

> @"AliamRationem.5172" said: > > @"sniperman.1738" said: > > > @"Konrad Curze.5130" said: > > > > @"Mortifera.6138" said: > > > > So DRMs are continuing in the new Champions episode > > > > > > of course they are. we'r in the age of absolutly minimum effort on ANet's part > > > > > > > > > > I wouldn't say Minimum effort, remember they are trying to finish up a living story while working on an expansion. > > I love GW2, but the decision not to invest in its future by working on an expansion to follow PoF was disastrous. They've since corrected course, but all that time was wasted and now they are playing catch up, causing current content releases to suffer. I'm glad they're working on EoD, but DRMs as a means of advancing the story are indeed low-effort and not at all satisfying. > This is true. They should have carried on with the basic model of expansions followed by LS seasons but they decided to deviate from that saying they could deliver expansion level content in the LS. I suspect it was more because they hoped one of their side projects would pan out and they could switch their focus off GW2 to that but they didn't pan out. So they decided or were told to switch back to an expansion model. Now they are playing catch up and these terrible quarter episode DRM chapters are the result of that. I am looking forward to the expansion but I'd much rather that they took time to finish the saga properly while working on a _polished_ expansion. Instead I fear they will rush the expansion while at the same time pushing out a terrible finale to the saga. If they somehow remove or defeat Primordus and Jormag in one of these DRMs then that will be a real shame and a terrible injustice to the Elder Dragon story-line. Heck, it'll be an injustice to the word "saga."

> @"Hypnowulf.7403" said: > No one noticed, then? How interesting. > > There's an obvious absence here, a presence that ought be felt yet is nowhere to be seen. Where be the march of icy-blue digitigrade legs? Have no others missed the sass and playful conceit of our most recent ally? It was the first thing I noticed—not a sign of them. That in and of itself would suggest that something is afoot, a clawed a-foot. > > There's no Frost legion, loves. That's a mite bit strange. Thus, I exercise my right as a buffoon to call _shenanigans_. I vehemently call shenanigans. I know not what the goal is but the story once again has my attention, for I want to know what Ry-Ry and his frost-bitten brigade are up to! Indeed, the question is to be asked whether these Svanir act trully in the name of Jormag. One might ask whether they've been duped, or if there is something more... duplicitous going on here. Pun intended, if you get my drift. > > Needless to say, I still have faith that Jormag does indeed stand with us despite what this trailer portends. As to why I think so? Well, time will tell. I admit, I have no idea if my crackpot theories will play out but I do wonder. Oh I noticed. As one of the DRMs is in a frozen Lake Doric with Sons of Svanir as the enemy I think it's safe to say that Jormag's inevitable betrayal will occur in this patch. "You will all be preserved... in ice" went Jormag, and everyone went "Gasp! The evil and manipulative Dragon turned out to be evil and manipulative! What a twist!"

Yeah, seems like another release with little to it. New DRMs and either more gold-sink crafting or more low drop-rate items as "rewards". It's a pity that the saga seems to have run out of steam and will limp to a close.

> @"Obtena.7952" said: > Do people not realize the only difference between a completely new weapon type and an existing one is ONLY the name? Yeah, this is a game with a ranged hammer! A hammer! I don't know what people imagine they'll get if they get spears but it's so very unlikely that we'll ever see land spears and all but impossible that we'll ever see scythes as they've already given us staff skins with scythes and spears.

> @"Ameepa.6793" said: > > @"Tzarakiel.7490" said: > > You know scythes have never been used as weapons in reality. The closest people ever got were warpicks, which are basically sharp/spiked hammers. > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_scythe > > "Farming tools such as the scythe and pitchfork have frequently been used as a weapon by those who could not afford or did not have access to more expensive weapons such as pikes, swords, or later, guns." > That section has no citations but it's worth noting the "could not afford or did not have access to" part. That strongly implies that they are inferior to other weapons, which they are. If you look at the diagrams on that page you'll see that the war scythe is configured differently to the agricultural scythe. The war scythe is a polearm like a spear or halberd and the curved blade is in line with the pole. The agricultural scythe (the one depicted in GW1 and in GW2 as staff skins) is impractical for combat, the blade is not only perpendicular to the pole it also faces inwards. I'm sure that the first step in the peasant uprising was to get a blacksmith to correct that and turn the blade 90 degrees.

They took three dull, overly long, escort/defence mini meta events, stuck them in instances and gave no good reason to ever want to replay them. The vendor has nothing worth buying after the first few runs, just some crafting materials. I did the missions enough to get all the achievements and a couple of times more and never saw one of the reskinned Stormcaller weapons, so rerunning the instances to get those seems highly impractical and they're just another, third version of the weapons, not even unique. If they had dropped all ten in one patch it might be something, a bit more variety at least, but instead they're going to drip feed the remaining 7 missions over the next 5-6 months. The actual awards probably won't come until the last chapter of this dull episode so I won't be repeating them beyond the bare minimum required to get the achievements until then. I'm doing that now because I'm sure very few people will be running them in the future apart from when we have to redo them for the legendary trinket. If the legendary trinket for the season hasn't been cut, that is. What could they do to make me want to play them more regularly? Respect my time for a start. This is the same ArenaNet who put the bloated, over long and unrewarding Drakkar fight into the game, so that's unlikely but twenty minutes or so for the awful rewards you get is a colossal waste of time. They need to improve the instances to make them more fun and snappier. They're unlikely to though, the remaining DRMs are probably already finished and ready to be pushed out in a trickle of updates and the chances of ArenaNet pulling people from the expansion is very low. If this low effort update is indicative of the quality of that expansion then I'm seriously concerned about it.

If anything we're going to get new, human faces and new, human hair because we're going to Cantha. Not that many norn, sylvari, asura or charr there, I'd bet.

> @"deatine.2498" said: > In charr society, killing or simply defeating your superior in battle is a valid way to dispose of a leader, so the situation around Bangar is valid. He got defeated. He is not Imperator of the blood legion any longer. > > Crecia technically has no business being blood legion imperator, especially since she is originally flame legion of all things. > But we have seen a few things so far that have not been done in any traditional way. Ruinbringer's name, for example, should've been something with "blood" in it. > > A lot of charr traditions are outdated by now, or have always been a ruse. The legion imperators claim to be descendants of the Khan-Ur, but it's not like they ever needed proof. Yeah, that is true, during the scuffle in Bangar's office Rytlock knocks him down and he says: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bad_Blood_(Bound_by_Blood) **Bangar Ruinbringer:** Go ahead. Be imperator. All you have to do is rip out my throat. **Rytlock Brimstone:** Don't want it. Don't want anything from you. Implies that's enough to become Imperator now, if you can take out the incumbent. Unless Rytlock also has Khan-Ur blood in him, maybe the fact that he had the ability to kill Bangar would be taken as sufficient proof that he has the blood of the Khan-Ur in him. I mean, I don't know what kind of records they keep.

> @"Fueki.4753" said: > GW2 is depending on the free access of current content to keep the player base something stable and keep the loss of players at a minimum. > > If they suddenly started charging for Living World episodes (or droplets, like with Champions), it's likely that many players will just leave or continue playing older content. Either way, the newest piece of living world, if requiring payment, would likely see considerably less players. Exactly, ArenaNet know the login numbers, they have the gem store data, they believe that bringing people back or keeping them playing and invested in the game is worth more than a dollar or two every two to four months.

> @"borgs.6103" said: > > @"Pifil.5193" said: > > If the president of a country is replaced then they're no longer the president of that country. If that leader was a traitor then they sure as hell shouldn't keep the title of president. > > > He's not replaced though... Only those with the bloodline of the first 4 of the Khan-Ur's children can be Imperators. He's not a traitor as well. He's the leader of the Blood Legion. How can you be a traitor to your own leadership? I would say he was a traitor to the High Legions and to all charr. After all the Blood Legion is one of the High Legions Ash, Blood, Iron, (and Flame again now that they have been brought back into the fold) so I don't think they're a separate, soverign nation, just one part of the charr nation. He acted against all the charr when he decided to moff and wake Jormag. > > Bangar didn't go AWOL. Bangar betrayed the Blood Legion when he left and formed the Dominion. When he abandoned the Blood Legion he lost any right to the title of Imperator and left a vacuum that Crecia filled. That was quite logical given that she was his second in command and _didn't_ betray the legion. > > > > I mean you surely don't think that he, a traitor that incited mass mutiny from the legions, formed a new nation and caused a civil war that devastated the legions, should remain in charge of the Blood Legion just because he was in charge of it once? That makes absolutely no sense. > > > > I'm sure that most loyal Blood Legion charr (and quite a few Dominion members at this stage) would love his head on a pike over the death and destruction that he caused. They sure as hell don't want him back in charge. > Again - Crecia doesn't have the Khan-Ur bloodline, so she can't be an Imperator, unless she just suddenly is. And you can't betray if you're the top dog. Who are you betraying? Bangar may be an absolute monster as a leader, but he's still the leader. Blood Legion owes their loyalty to their Imperator. Charr Legions were at war with each other before, This is nothing new. If anything, the non-Blood Legion Charr that joined him are the traitors. Him creating the Dominion and a lot of Charr joining only proves that he's got the charisma to lead. No, he's been deposed, he's not the leader anymore, Crecia and presumably the other Blood Legion Tribunes stripped him of that. How that works in charr society I don't know, I'd imagine that in the past at least it's normally been quite brutal and quite quick but we don't have any information on that. I'm not familiar with charr politics but I know power vacuums will be filled quickly. However, the fact that Bangar is still alive definitely weakens any claim she has on the title of Blood Legion Imperator. I don't know about Crecia's bloodline but apparently she is Blood Legion Imperator now so she might well be part of the Khan-Ur bloodline, I wonder how rare that actually is? I mean, in Europe at least the royal houses tended to intermarry a lot but there are still a lot of distant claimants to every crown in europe. The charr don't have noble houses in that way and nor do they mate for life so I wonder what percentage of charr have at least some Khan-Ur blood from sometime back in the past thousand years or so? It may be that you can't throw a rock in the Black Citadel without hitting at least one possible heir of the Khan-Ur. > I'm with you with that it doesn't make sense Crecia suddenly becoming Imperator. It's like we just time-skipped some Charr politics and suddenly there's a non-Khan-Ur lineage Imperator and everyone's just fine with it. What a way to ruin an interesting lore tidbit for the Charr there. Yeah, I don't like how they do this kind of stuff just "off camera" but this kind of hand-waving, rush-job is all too common from ArenaNet. It's also entirely possible that whoever made that decision had no idea of the need for an Imperator to have blood of the Khan-Ur but yeah, if she isn't of the bloodline of the Khan-Ur then she cannot possibly be the Khan-Ur so it's doubtful that she would be accepted as Imperator. I'm sure they'll conjure up a suitable birth certificate for her. ;)

> @"borgs.6103" said: > > @"Tyson.5160" said: > > > @"anninke.7469" said: > > > > @"Tyson.5160" said: > > > > > @"anninke.7469" said: > > > > > > @"Fueki.4753" said: > > > > > > > @"Eloc Freidon.5692" said: > > > > > > > The way this is released, it doesn't make sense for the Ebon Vanguard to be here without the story and dragon response to be available. > > > > > > > > > > > > There is a number things in this episode that don't make sense. > > > > > > Everyone, except the on-the-way-to-be-redeemed boy Braham, being ok with suddenly siding with Jormag. > > > > > > The commander _not_ murdering Ryland on the spot for being responsible that Jormag is awake. > > > > > > The business decision behind releasing such minimalist content, which obviously had no chance to be liked by most players. > > > > > > The Destroyers reverting back to being fire-only, rather than making use of the dead Elder Dragons' magic. > > > > > > The new Destroyers being able to take damage from Burning. > > > > > > > > > > And Crecia being Blood Imperator just like that. > > > > > > > > Well Bangar went AWOL, so Crecia took over, her title went from acting imperator to the actual imperator. > > > > > > The problem (as I see it) is that it happened sneakily off-screen whith no official announcement, no ceremony, no explanation. And no one, including Bangar when she calls herself the imperator right in his face, has a word to say about it. With her camped in the Eye I hoped we would be able to at least ask her about it. But no, she only offers more blabbering about Ryland... > > > > My guess is because they were in the middle of a civil war, so it makes sense why it was so sudden and no ceremony. Just like if your boss just went AWOL and you were the second in command and got to take over due to chain of command. > > But he's not on AWOL. He's being held as prisoner by our merry band of Dragonwatchers. That's like imprisoning a leader of a country and purposefully replacing said leader with someone on our side. Whatever may happen to him, even at his current position, he's still alive and should still be the Imperator of the Blood Legion. You may say _"but he's now one of Jormag's minions!"_ Then what about us and Aurene? What will the Blood Legion feel about that? Isn't the reason for the Civil War in the first place is because of us? This only solidifies Imperator Ruinbringer's actions. > > This storyline has gone bonkers. I just can't take it seriously anymore. If the president of a country is replaced then they're no longer the president of that country. If that leader was a traitor then they sure as hell shouldn't keep the title of president. Bangar didn't go AWOL. Bangar betrayed the Blood Legion when he left and formed the Dominion. When he abandoned the Blood Legion he lost any right to the title of Imperator and left a vacuum that Crecia filled. That was quite logical given that she was his second in command and _didn't_ betray the legion. I mean you surely don't think that he, a traitor that incited mass mutiny from the legions, formed a new nation and caused a civil war that devastated the legions, should remain in charge of the Blood Legion just because he was in charge of it once? That makes absolutely no sense. I'm sure that most loyal Blood Legion charr (and quite a few Dominion members at this stage) would love his head on a pike over the death and destruction that he caused. They sure as hell don't want him back in charge.

> @"Danikat.8537" said: > > @"Danikat.8537" said: > > I'll probably buy them with the tokens since I like doing the Dragon Response Missions and I have many other uses for karma, but it is helpful to know there's another option so players can choose the best one for them. :) > > Update: it's especially helpful to know that since I'm not sure I'm going to get enough tokens to buy all the skins. I've got the trident, I'm saving up for the shoulder skins but I'm not sure I'll be able to get all the weapons too so it's nice to know there's an alternative. Just so you know, the shoulder skins can be bought for between 9g sell order 7g buy order on the TP, just in case that changes the order that you buy things in. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shoulders_of_the_Ebon_Vanguard_Choice_Chest

> @"finkle.9513" said: > What kind of business plan, is annoying and pushing away current player base.. a we are getting towards a new expansion.. Anet should be ramping up, communicating more ..just going backwards. I m not going to buy the new expansion I see absolutely no reason to so far! My guess is that they they are relying on stringing people along with this kind of limp content and the festivals and then hoping everyone forgets how weak these releases were once they see the new expansion. It may work - after all gamers are fickle - or it may blow up in their faces. I suspect that after this LS season finishes - not with a bang but with a whimper - and before the expansion ships we'll see another content drought like the one before HoT came out but _this_ time with Boss Rush weeks and Fractal weeks and other boring, recycled bonus weeks for weak rewards.

> @"Palador.2170" said: > > @"wolfyrik.2017" said: > > > > That doesn't seem to make sense either. Aurene had to eat the errant magic inside kralk, she didn't just cause it to no longer be there. She hasn't done the same to Jormag or Primordus. How did she take the power that we know Primordus, consumed? Did I miss something? > > I think we can handwave this as a side effect of Taimi's machine being used to drain magic from both Primordus and Jormag back when Balthazar was after them to gain more power. The power drained first was likely the more unfamiliar/alien magics from the other dragons. As they've rebuilt their power, it's been THEIR power and not the stolen/borrowed power they had before. If you talk to him in the Eye of the North Councillor Phlunt posits that "Primordus' slumber may have allowed it time to process the foreign magic - or alter itself to accommodate it. We don't really know at this point."

> @"Sajuuk Khar.1509" said: > > @"Linken.6345" said: > > How so, please explain? > First off there is this > https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/97028/a-message-from-andrew-gray/p1 > Back on February 3rd 2020, just a few days after Episode 2: Shadow in the Ice released, Andrew Gray talked about how, after episode 4, they planned to go back to more LWS1 style content. He specifically mentions the "boss rush" style community events, like what we got with the Crystal Bloom event, as playing a factor in this content. He also mentioned how, unlike LWS1, this content will be deigned to be repayable after IBS is over. All of this is literally what we are getting with Champions. > > The number of Champions releases we are getting, that being 4, also matches up with what we learned from Episode 2 itself in regards to how many major content releases IBS was going to have by the time it was over. Episode 2 was developed for several months before its release in late Jan 2020, so this has been the plan since at least late last year. Long before COVID became a problem, before they couldn't do VA, and before they would have really started working on the expansion. Ashantara said they believe that they cut the IBS short because of the expansion, you counter with no because this is the plan since February. Well that doesn't actually disprove what Ashantara said, does it? When the IBS was announced Mike Zadorojny said that there were no plans for future expansions and that they would deliver expansion level content through the LS. That changed between that announcement and February. It's not crazy to believe that the decision to produce an expansion after all would alter their other plans.

> @"Eloc Freidon.5692" said: > I say we let this event horribly fail and save the support marks for after. You'll be able to buy the boxes and trident after. I'm sure they've calibrated the tiers on this one so that it basically can't fail.

> @"Ashantara.8731" said: > > @"Randulf.7614" said: > > The same vendor as the trident - the Ebonhawke one > > Okay, that's why I'm only seeing the trident then. Thanks. > > > The shoulders I've only seen linked, I haven't looked into how to get. I'm sure someone will chime in with that info > > You don't happen to know their name by chance? :) > > Edit: Never mind. Asked in-game, it's the Ebon Vanguard shoulder skins I already own, hence they aren't showing for me at the vendor, either. Wait, they added the shoulder skins from the Shiverpeaks Strike to the vendor? Wow. I mean, I know they're not worth much anymore, about 7g, but still. Pretty low effort.