The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I don't think everything needs to tie back to the Elder Dragons. The Elder Dragon story has had its time in the sun and has been exhausted. I was disappointed with how the last three (Jormag, Primordus, and the deep sea dragon) were handled but no point in digging them back up from the dead or altering the timeline for a do over now that the original writers who setup that storyline are gone. What Anet needs to do is conjure a new story that is just as interesting and capable of holding people's interest like the Elder Dragons did for a decade. But I've seen this issue befall WoW and FFXIV where once the original threats are gone and subplots finished (the plot threads established in WC3, the Ascians and Zodiark in FF14), the stuff that comes after is generally far less interesting.

 

[Dr1f7]

i've got an idea for a new guild wars story:
Kasha lost her panties!

we need to help her find them

 

[Caim]

I don't think everything needs to tie back to the Elder Dragons. The Elder Dragon story has had its time in the sun and has been exhausted. I was disappointed with how the last three (Jormag, Primordus, and the deep sea dragon) were handled but no point in digging them back up from the dead or altering the timeline for a do over now that the original writers who setup that storyline are gone. What Anet needs to do is conjure a new story that is just as interesting and capable of holding people's interest like the Elder Dragons did for a decade. But I've seen this issue befall WoW and FFXIV where once the original threats are gone and subplots finished (the plot threads established in WC3, the Ascians and Zodiark in FF14), the stuff that comes after is generally far less interesting.

It doesn't need to be the Elder Dragons, no. One possible option would be the return of the gods, who are none too pleased with what happened with Balthazar, and tensions slowly escalate (with or without the machinations of a third faction, which may or may not be some fraction or cult of Abaddon).

As for the theme, something aquatic could work. Make the maps akin to how the sky isles work but wetter: patches of dry land in caves, islands, bubbles or whatever the Asura are cooking up this time and navigate between these places with the help of a new aquatic mount (or maybe get a new way to unlock the Skimmer and its underwater swimming abilities, add aquatic leylines across the maps and call them currents or something), add in new legendary aquatic weapons and legendary aquatic headgear with looks in line with Obsidian armor, add onto existing aquatic weapons to allow players to use them on land by equipping them in their regular weapon slots, and so on. Could make for something interesting.

 

[rubinstein]

One possible option would be the return of the gods, who are none too pleased with what happened with Balthazar,

please, no more rape of human lore. i wouldnt play this new mini-xpac anyway, but just the idea itself breaks my heart as i still consider myself a fan of gw franchise.
btw didnt gods themselves imprison balthazar in the first place? like he was trying to square up, they put him in his place, so i doubt they care about what happened to him in PoF. i mean i get what you are going for with trying to predict this new xpac potential direction, but hopefully (not like i care!) foreground "old lore" will just be omitted in favor of something new. forever. wizards tower is also "the old lore", but its always been this side-mystery, unlike gods who were pretty fucking essential. wizards tower mystery was uncovered, obviously its uncool thanks to mediocre writing and poor gameplay, but ive seen worse shit delivered by the nu-anet. i say: let the nu-anet cook... but exclusively with fresh ingredients. whats already in the pantry, should stay in the pantry. its a wishful thinking though, because we tackled one of tyrias mysteries. ive heard somewhere there are supposed to be at least two additional mini-expacs, so maybe a canthan and an elonian mysteries next?

something aquatic could work

not a chance. except the part about aquatic weapons being used on land, nobody wants aquatic content. i havent played EoD, but i watched WP's entire playthrough shortly after SoTO was announced. EoD was about a deep sea dragon, so wasnt it supposed to be the aquatic expansion... but i cant recall a single story instance with an aquatic combat sequence! (i may be wrong though, its been some time). let that sink in.

>So I'm playing this MMORPG
>I've played it for years, mayhaps even a decade
>But I really dislike the direction the game took several years back
>No, I will not stop playing it
>I will continue to play it and bitch about it on Godforsaken forums which is equal to screaming into the void
Is it just sunk cost fallacy? MMORPGs are dead lmao, just move on.

you paint us as being retarded, but i cannot be mad really. its difficult to disagree with you.
long story short: i skipped almost all of gw2 content from 2019 to 2023, ive only heard from youtubers about how shit it all is. this was predictable. i was already exhausted with this elder dragons saga around PoF xpac, back in 2018. i finished it once and i felt like i was done with gw2. overall, elder dragons saga is over a decade of lukewarm to straight up bad content. the further you went, the worse it got (except for the very beginning, which is abysmal, imo the worst gw major content ever created. not very encouraging start to the saga and to gw2 itself). this mini-xpac is kinda supposed to be a fresh starts. i even brought in a new character, because i was exhausted with my main character - the overachieving "Commander". this mini-xpac is also centered about uncovering a mystery from the very first game, so it contains a nostalgia bait. therefore, on the surface, there were some reasons to give anet another chance with SoTO. but it turned out as usual. seems so obvious in the hindsight.
unfortunately for me, shortly before SoTO was announced i had some apetite for gw2. i hadnt played much in the previous 5 years, so i jumped in just to look around and stayed for weeks farming end-game, enjoying it even. when i think about it now, it was just an unfortunate coincidence. with a clear consciousness i wouldnt buy anything gw2 related. i wont repeat this mistake.

 

[Caim]

Finished the story of the base game.

It was... almost good at times. It reeks of a much larger story being chopped up and forced into a narrative because of a lack of time or resources. The fist three chapters for the personal story were interesting enough, but the Order missions fell kinda short. It's also strange that you're told to make friends with a tribal people because it'll strengthen the Pact, except you only get to talk with one of them and the rest get to eat shit. It would've made more sense if you could recruit all of them to build a major force, but one will do. Some of the missions can be a bit janky, with my favorite being the bit right before returning to Claw Island: you enter an instance on the road to the docks, walk to the docks for a cutscene, exit the instance to respawn on the road to the docks, then walk back to the docks to enter the second instance.

In chapter seven things looked like they could get interesting when I ordered a mortar strike on my own troops... except I knew something was off the moment Trahearne started to mouth off against me. And the entire final chapter seems like it was unnecessary: everything you do in Orr is to weaken Zhaitan... except once the final mission hit nothing you did until that ponit actually impacted the final battle. Seeing a whole slew of familiar faces from various personal stories was fun, even though there is a LOT of artifically constructed drama when people get offed to show how bleak things are. The worst of these was Logan's fakeout death and unexplained return. Honestly, the entire deal with Destiny's Edge returning was out of left field. The initial reunion fell flat on its ass because of four-way butthurt, and now they're suddenly back together to steal the Pact's thunder? Screw them.

The final mission itself was ass of course. The closest the story has to a final boss, a rematch with the Mouth of Zhaitan, was the ONLY fight in the entire story that was even remotely challenging, and the less said about the Zhaitan fight the better.

I'm going to give Living World 1 a try and see if it's any better.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

the Order missions fell kinda short

I think one of the issues with the Orders is that the game does not do an adequate job justifying why you should join the Vigil or the Order of Whispers. How does being sneaky help against humongous dragons? What, are you going to sneak up on it and then stab it's 10 foot thick hide with your dinky little dagger? How do big armies of warriors help against a dragon that can just fly overhead and breathe on everyone, particularly against a zombie dragon that turns your numbers against you? When it comes to fighting the Elder Dragons, it's really a quest for knowledge, for a weakness, which the scholar order would be the most adept at. That being said, the vigil was the only order remotely portrayed as cool

It's also strange that you're told to make friends with a tribal people because it'll strengthen the Pact, except you only get to talk with one of them and the rest get to eat shit. It would've made more sense if you could recruit all of them to build a major force, but one will do.

I think the story would have suffered from a major pacing issue if you had to go help beastmen critters you don't care about for 3 hours before getting back to the characters you do care about and the exciting military campaign against Zhaitan.

And the entire final chapter seems like it was unnecessary: everything you do in Orr is to weaken Zhaitan... except once the final mission hit nothing you did until that ponit actually impacted the final battle.

Yeah. It makes no sense to feed the zombie lich dragon armies of soldiers for him to turn into more zombies to overrun Tyria when you can just load up on airships and fly over Zhaitan's forces and head straight to the soruce. Heart of Thorns better justified marching into enemy territory on foot by giving the enemy anti-air capabilities.

Honestly, the entire deal with Destiny's Edge returning was out of left field.

The Destiny's Edge storyline about them regrouping happens in the vanilla dungeon instances which the main story journal never points you to, and the dungeons can be difficult to solo, so most people don't get to see that development.

the less said about the Zhaitan fight the better.

I liked how the Elder Dragons were too big to be fought on foot and you had to find creative ways to kill them (except for the last one which was lame because the new writers were creatively bankrupt), but yeah pressing 1 to fire a turret over and over was not very exciting.

I'm going to give Living World 1 a try and see if it's any better.

I'd say grit your teeth as it is the lowest point of the story IMO. The plot didn't hook my interest like the base game did. The player character is suddenly unvoiced until HoT which makes the story less engaging to play through, and it revolves around a villain that many people really disliked, though I only found her to be meh. The story begins to pick up again towards the end of season 2. HoT was when I became really invested.

 

[Caim]

The Destiny's Edge storyline about them regrouping happens in the vanilla dungeon instances which the main story journal never points you to, and the dungeons can be difficult to solo, so most people don't get to see that development.

That explains a lot. I've tried taking a peek in the Ascalonian Catacombs but I promptly got my shit pushed in, so I didn't move on. Somewhere down the line I do have to complete at least some parts of Arah to get the stuff I need to complete the Bifrost (mostly the completions themselves), but that's for a later date. It'd be nice if the dungeons got updated to make them a bit more accessible, but given that Anet has abandoned dungeons and raids in favor of strike missions and fractals, I'm not hoping too hard.

I liked how the Elder Dragons were too big to be fought on foot and you had to find creative ways to kill them (except for the last one which was lame because the new writers were creatively bankrupt), but yeah pressing 1 to fire a turret over and over was not very exciting.

The three dragons you fight off right before getting to Zhaitan did it better: you actually had to get to the cannon, target the dragon, shoot it, then fight some enemies before doing it again. Zhaitan himself just sprayed goop around the cannons to force you to step back for a bit before going back to the cannon.

I'd say grit your teeth as it is the lowest point of the story IMO. The plot didn't hook my interest like the base game did. The player character is suddenly unvoiced until HoT which makes the story less engaging to play through, and it revolves around a villain that many people really disliked, though I only found her to be meh. The story begins to pick up again towards the end of season 2. HoT was when I became really invested.

Yeah, I've read that your character isn't voiced for the first two Living Seasons. Once I'm starting with the Season 2 stuff I'll be looking into doing the stuff needed for the legendary amulet. I've seen a video on how to get it and while it looks fun, if you do all the missions first and then go back it'll turn into a major chore, so I'm going to try and get this one step by step.

 

[Caim]

I finished the Diving Master achievement for the Mastery Point. The last one on the list was the dive in the hidden Aetherblade base in Gendarran Fields.

Whoever made that jumping puzzle has something profoundly wrong with them and I hope they find help before they commit a mass shooting.

 

[Caim]

Translating this from Korean, so your security might act up because of all the moon runes.

https://m.inven.co.kr/webzine/wznews.php?idx=294408

NC West’s deficit issue is not something that should be looked at solely based on numbers. Personally, as I have been moving NCSoft for 17 years, I have seen NCWest also undergo various reorganization efforts. Originally, NC had six studios in the United States, and the work was done to organize the six and integrate them into one ArenaNet. Although additional costs were incurred in the process, it ultimately resulted in a competitive ArenaNet. Rather than looking at the deficit as a number, NC contributed to strengthening competitiveness in the United States. ArenaNet has a meaningful IP called ‘Guild Wars’, and after Guild Wars 2, they are currently working on ‘Guild Wars 3’. Looking at this process, we have considerable competitiveness. Although it is not completely profitable, I believe that it has increased its competitiveness.

Welp.

 

[Drakortha]

With the current gamer and developer culture I'm sure it will be amazing.

Hard pass.

 

[Rahdulan]

Now we'll see complaints how it's not like GW1 or GW2.

 

[Caim]

There's going to be at least two more expansions, one coming this summer and one the year after that, so I'd be surprised if we get anything before 2026.

 

[Vyvian]

Calling the content they release now "expansions" is very generous to be fair. It all makes a lot more sense why they pivoted to condensed expansions with less content overall.

 

[Average Manatee]

I find it hard to believe that they've continued GW2 this long if it wasn't profitable. Not sure what they mean by "completely profitable", maybe that it didn't hit profitability targets?

 

[mediocrepoet]

I find it hard to believe that they've continued GW2 this long if it wasn't profitable. Not sure what they mean by "completely profitable", maybe that it didn't hit profitability targets?

Possibly not every expansion/DLC is profitable from an ROI perspective.

 

[Kev Inkline]

I don't think everything needs to tie back to the Elder Dragons. The Elder Dragon story has had its time in the sun and has been exhausted. I was disappointed with how the last three (Jormag, Primordus, and the deep sea dragon) were handled but no point in digging them back up from the dead or altering the timeline for a do over now that the original writers who setup that storyline are gone. What Anet needs to do is conjure a new story that is just as interesting and capable of holding people's interest like the Elder Dragons did for a decade. But I've seen this issue befall WoW and FFXIV where once the original threats are gone and subplots finished (the plot threads established in WC3, the Ascians and Zodiark in FF14), the stuff that comes after is generally far less interesting.

You mean, you guys play these ...multiplayer online games ... for the story?

 

[Caim]

Super Adventure Festival back until May 7th.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/super-adventure-festival-2024-begins-today/

 

[Drakortha]

Super Adventure Festival back until May 7th.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/super-adventure-festival-2024-begins-today/

Played it once like 10 years ago. It was amusing for about 5 minutes before it became just an annoying gimmick. Do people actually want this or are Anet out of touch?

 

[Caim]

Super Adventure Festival back until May 7th.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/super-adventure-festival-2024-begins-today/

Played it once like 10 years ago. It was amusing for about 5 minutes before it became just an annoying gimmick. Do people actually want this or are Anet out of touch?

Apparently you can now FINALLY inspect people for their fashion, so they're not entirely detached from the playerbase.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/...-quality-of-life-feature-cosmetic-inspection/

Oh, and our first preview of the next expansion:

Could be the Blood Legion Homelands, expanding in the direction of Grothmar Valley.

 

[ADL]

Context: They added a cosmetic inspect feature.

 

[Rahdulan]

Crazies everywhere.

 

[Caim]

Guild Wars 2 is a game of drip or drown, and this person chose to drown.

 

[Caim]

And that's Living World Season 2 done.

Honestly, the areas kind of started to grow on me. Dry Top was a cozy little romp to fly around in, and I kind of like the sandstorm mechanic. It's an entirely different vibe from the desert in Path of Fire, and while the additional movement with the crystals is a fun idea thank FUCK I have my Skyscale because this would be a nightmare to navigate otherwise. The Silverwastes is all about its map meta, and it's pretty busy most of the time so there's always some people to do some events with. But the jumping puzzle in this entire map can go fuck itself, an absolute nonlinear nightmare to navigate without a guide. And I haven't collected all the golden badges yet, so I'll have to go back if I want that mastery point. Sure I could go do a lot of fractals (I need to beat the Jade Maw to further the construction of the Bifrost), and I probably will have to given that I'm running on fumes with my base game masteries. Sure I could 100% all the chapters to get some more mastery points that way, but I've seen some of those and fuck that shit.

As for the story itself... well, once again the player character does not talk. A bunch of hippies travel to bring their cargo to safety, but one of their members gets mind controlled by Mordremoth and crashes the ship with... well, a few survivors. From there you're mainly catching up to people and convincing the world leaders that collectively being strangled to death by vines is a bad thing. A dragon attacks, plant mom gets injured and you're catching even more up to people until you learn the truth by looking back in time: the secret cargo is a dragon egg, and some lesbian was salty she wasn't told everything so she committed an ethnic cleansing against some peaceful centaurs alongside one of your friends, and when the salty lesbian was willing to torture someone to death to hear what she wanted to know she conviced said friend to shank her after telling the secret: the Sylvari are actually Mordremoth's servants. You get a final boss fight and the story's done, bridging the gap between the base game and Path of Thorns.

Honestly, the story could've been streamlined a LOT to get the same experience. The bosses were refreshingly complex compared to the base game tank and spank, avoid the red type of boss. Some actual mechanics really help out here. I've used the currency rewards to get to step 3 with the Bifrost, which probably was the best reward I got out of the entire thing. I've also been working on the Season of the Dragons achievement for the legendary amulet: the only thing I still have to do is dig up the hidden chests in the Silverwastes. Which is a pain in the ass because you can only do that with shovels you sometimes get from some events, and they're single use on top of the keys (of which you have enough). I thought I was in the clear when I unlocked the chest in your home instance by beating the story, but that one doesn't count because these chests have to specifically be in the Silverwastes. So now I just need to grind out some shovels for that nifty tier 1 completion on the metaachievement and get a free(ish) ascended weapon. From there I'm going to do some work on the Bifrost, and from there it's onwards to either Path of Thorns or Season 3.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

A dragon attacks, plant mom gets injured

It is odd that is the last we ever hear about the Pale Tree. It is never followed up on.

 

[Caim]

A dragon attacks, plant mom gets injured

It is odd that is the last we ever hear about the Pale Tree. It is never followed up on.

She must've gotten really fucked up by the dragon, then.