Poormany.4507

As long as every other enemy does not have instant knockdowns/stuns (PoF), I'm fine with anything from PoF to HoT levels of difficulty.

> @"voltaicbore.8012" said: > > @"Fueki.4753" said: > > > How is there any inconsistency? > > The first statement is about how Arenanet's plan to replace expansions with Sagas failed. > > The second one is my wish Arenanet hadn't just given up on the story and instead continued to develop it properly to the end. > > You answered your own question - initially, you just talked about the Saga in general terms for both the first and second statements, without any real distinction. Now it's much clearer, and I still agree with you on both counts. The expansion-like content was destined to fail from the very beginning, while the story had decent potential (that ended up wasted). > > As for the original topic of the thread, I have to say I agree there too. Ryland isn't really demonstrating leadership as much as he simply capitalized (or rather, let Bangar, then Jormag exploit) his popularity with a certain sector of Charr. I don't find him compelling at all, and would welcome either his permanent exit from the story, or a Braham-like redemption. > > Ultimately pulling off the joint Charr/Norn story in one season was going to be a steep challenge to begin with. At best, we would have seen two pretty large storylines competing for space within one narrative arc. At worst, we have what we do now, which is just... something that feels like abandonment or a rush to get things to a point where we can transition to EoD. Now, if this was exactly the way they planned the narrative to work from the start, perhaps ANet really has some deeply embedded writing problems. To me it feels like the Saga had at least half of its initial plans scrapped around halfway through when EoD development was started in full scale. Going by the season trailer and earlier stuff in the Saga, it seems like there were going to be more Visions of the Past, more Season 1 scrying pool episodes, more maps, and more larger-scale storylines (Centaurs, DsD or other water content, etc.) that would have been more expansion-like and had potential to be good content. The moment they suddenly started to imply Primordus was the "big threat" and began the Champions episodes it seems like the entire development of the Saga was given up in favor of getting to EoD as fast as possible with the Saga running on maintenance mode as filler until then.

I really doubt Aurene will be killed (or even is killable), but I do see the possibility of her absorbing too much conflicting magic (maybe even as soon as the end of the Saga if Jormag and/or Primordus are killed) in a self sacrificial type of way and becoming tormented so that we have to seek out a cure for her. This could even be what drives us to go to Cantha in EoD.

Agree that the centaur storyline probably wouldn't add much to the story at this point and would need to be too rushed. Also, if they went the route of Jormag trying to corrupt warmongering centaurs, it would have just been the exact same plot already done with the Charr civil war/Bangar. However, I do hope we get to visit more of the centaur homelands, see some of their more peaceful settlements in the Woodland Cascades, and see a conclusion to their war with the humans in the future (maybe in LWS6?).

I enjoyed them up to the boss fights on my first run throughs (haven't repeated any of them yet). The boss fights are just way too overscaled for a single player and it took me >10+ deaths to get through most of them, without dying once before them. Combined with the huge HP pool, each boss alone takes 30-40 minutes, which seems way too long to spend on a single, largely boring fight on normal mode. The one in Brisban got stuck on an environmental obstacle for me and I honestly almost fell asleep spamming it because it took so long. Imo, their HP should be cut to half, or even a third of their current one. Also agree that the start time should be scaled for solo by at least 2-3 minutes more, as I can only finish 1-2 of the three initial objectives each run before the timer runs out. Other than these annoying issues, I think DRMS do have a good place in GW2.

5/10 - The prologue was excellent, but then the Saga just seemed to go downhill for me in many ways. Bjora was an average LW map, and I haven't been back since doing a few of the achievements. Drizzlewood was much better in terms of replayability, but suffered due to the meta event being too long due to the split map. Champions just feels like filler content that solely exists to fill the content drought until EoD is released. Story and map-wise, I was expecting a full Jormag vs Primordus expac with epic maps for each dragon, including new underground content, so the Saga putting all of that into a very rushed story was a huge letdown to me ever since they made clear that was the direction they were going. If they kill off Primordus in a single episode of DRM missions without a new map, I will be very disappointed. However, if they do tie the Jormag/Primordus conflict into EoD, I do think it would be a good way to go. Gameplay wise, some of the masteries are useful outside of the Saga maps, while others (primarily the Raven and essence ones), just don't feel worth getting due to their limited use. Achievements in the Saga have been very bad imo, as the amount of grind they require makes me not want to start them. Before the Saga, I aimed to get every meta achievement and played regularly to do so, but since then, I only got the prologue one and did not even try to get the others due to boring, repetitive grind (do x event 25-50 times) or expensive skin collection achievements being required for the meta. I really hope they go back to the pre-saga achievement variety (exploration, non-material/gold gated collections, lore collection etc.) in EoD.

> @"draxynnic.3719" said: > > @"EdwinLi.1284" said: > > > @"draxynnic.3719" said: > Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking. By Elder Dragon standards, Jormag is relatively extroverted and downright chatty. Zhaitan and Mordremoth mostly spoke through minions (apart from sylvari). Kralkatorrik and Primordus, on the other hand, have been pretty quiet - our main insights into Kralkatorrik's personality and motivations required someone jumping into his mind, and we haven't had the opportunity to do that with Primordus. > > Now, don't get me wrong - Primordus' behaviour is _definitely_ also perfectly consistent with just being a monster. But it is common behaviour among animals that feel threatened to lash out at anything nearby, which can become permanent behaviour if they're sufficiently traumatised to push them to permanent paranoia. Humans under these circumstances don't necessarily do so physically, but might push people away through rude and antisocial language and behaviour to stop anyone from getting close enough to hurt them again. The Elder Dragon equivalent of this would likely be sending minions out to attack everything within reach indiscriminately. I do wonder though if in the near future Primordus will be able to communicate with us, and/or start using tactics, as it is mentioned in game that Primordus has recently processed Mordremoth's magic to a further extent. We've already seen Jormag and Primordus gaining their new "hive mind" type abilities to absorb power through their minions from the dead elder dragons, so I wonder if Primordus gained some form of intelligence from the newly processed Mordremoth magic and not just being a mindless raging monster anymore. This could also tie in with the "Braham is becoming Primordus' champion" theory floating around if that's the case.

Still waiting for years since HoT launched to get this issue fixed. 100% of the time I disconnect is at the very last moment of story instances just after the final cutscene with no other disconnect issues at all in the open world. The problem almost definitely seems to be on Anet's server side, as that is way too specific to happen repeatedly on most story missions I do with cinematics at the end. For me, The Departing mission is the worst for disconnects and I am certain to get at least 2-3+ disconnects at the end before it works.

I don't think a full rework is necessary at this point in the game, as it doesn't feel worth it. However, I would be in favor of updating older graphics to match those of newer maps, as a lot of the environment in older maps is very inconsistent (and slightly poorer looking) than similar ones of new maps. It wouldn't need as much work as a full rework, but it would still be a nice update, especially for for retaining new players.

Just suspend characters after the first time they die. It would give a new meaning to "God Walking Amongst Mortals"...

**Pros:** Revisiting old locations was nice and didn't feel forced. Concept of Response Missions seems like a good idea to let players choose to play solo or with other players. Strike mission allies being helpful in combat, even taking out veteran enemies by themselves, felt natural. Voice acting for the chapter was very well done (still haven't replayed Drizzlewood yet). Braham was not whiny and one of the only few characters who considered the long-term effects of allying with Jormag. **Cons:** Bosses were too much of HP sponges and felt like they were just made like this to extend playtime, despite it being very boring. Everyone accepting Ryland with little reservations seemed really unbelievable. I would have expected him to be attacked on sight by most of these characters, much less them openly chatting with him and battling alongside him (even as a single, easily unnecessary ally in the Brisban mission). Much of the characters' dialogue and drama seemed unbelievable and forced. Taimi's argument seemed laughable for her to be making, and doubtful that she would so easily dismiss the long-term consequences of allying with Jormag entirely. Would have been much more reasonable for Phlunt or one of the other traditionalist Arcane Council Members. Unless Jormag's directly messing with all of these characters' minds, which doesn't seem to be the case, this just seems like forced drama just for the sake of having it.

I feel like Jormag's plan to use us against Primordus might backfire and Jormag themselves will end up dead against Primordus, with either Primordus and/or Aurene absorbing its power, and leaving Primordus without an opposing weakness. Deep sea dragon could probably help with that, since it controls water. Alternatively, both Jormag and Primordus could end up dead, with Aurene overloading herself with their magic and being negatively affected by that (similar to Kralk) and we might have to go to Cantha to find some kind of cure or magic transfer method (Kuunavang or DsD maybe?).

Air/Mists route seems most likely to me as well - We could ride Aurene directly overseas or through the Mists (although the Mists would probably be the easier/shorter route. Alternatively, we could use airships, particularly if we do end up getting Aetherblade allies in Champions (getting something similar to the teaser art with the Aetherblade ships). Going by boat or water when there's a deep sea dragon somewhere out in the water that is known to be able to control it seems unnecessarily risky, especially if/when its revealed to be near Cantha, and would be less convenient anyways.

> @"EdwinLi.1284" said: > > @"hugo.4705" said: > I expect Anet to keep Allied Factions to be resonable factions we know are siding with our character lore wise so I don't expect any antagonist factions to join unless the Main Story has already established them as allies or atleast potential allies. > Based on the teasers and having "unlikely allies", I would not be surprised if the Aetherblades were one of the Allied Factions, despite being antagonists back in Season 1 and not receiving much attention since. As some people have already said, they may also provide passage to Cantha for the expac.