I heard about GAF guild, that they are pretty nice.
You could post your account name here so an officier can invite you.
Guild Wars 2 |OT3| Two Week Updates, One Box, Zero Subscriptions
- Thread starter Retro
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You could post your account name here so an officier can invite you.
DyslexicAlucard
Member
My character's name on the server is Alucard Montag. Does that help?
Guys I'm thinking about coming back to GW2. I left off at I think max level on my necro? And Master Crafter. But it's been oh, 6-8 months. I've obviously missed a ton of content, and I'm kind of OCD about missing a lot of temporary content, depending. How bad is it in that regard? Anything I will be kicking myself over or is it manageable to return after so long? Downloading at the moment, anyway.
Also, the most important changes I should be aware of? Thanks!
Also, the most important changes I should be aware of? Thanks!
Complistic
Member
Now is a great time to come back. But since the game throws new content at you every 2 weeks, it's always a good time to come back.
You should know that necro's been seriously buffed since you left. They've got a much wider range of viable options now,
You should join our guild. Its best if you play on our server (stormbluff isle) but that can cost a lot of money to transfer. What a lot of people find better to do, is if you're not that into your current characters, delete them all, then when you go to recreate your first character it'll ask you to choose your home server.
Again, I don't know if you're just starting out or if you've got 3 level 80's and this isn't an option for you. I just wanted you to know what you could do.
You should know that necro's been seriously buffed since you left. They've got a much wider range of viable options now,
You should join our guild. Its best if you play on our server (stormbluff isle) but that can cost a lot of money to transfer. What a lot of people find better to do, is if you're not that into your current characters, delete them all, then when you go to recreate your first character it'll ask you to choose your home server.
Again, I don't know if you're just starting out or if you've got 3 level 80's and this isn't an option for you. I just wanted you to know what you could do.
Nice to know about the necro since that's my main and favorite class; I'll read up about the changes. Thanks!
Also is this new content every 2 weeks thing for good? Are they focusing heavily on temporary content now?
Going to echo the positive impressions people are having here, although to be fair I never tried Rift.
The event is really, really anti-zerg. But it's tuned such that every mini event except maybe the Aetherblades can be done with a party of five or less. I really like this, and it meant that every time I finished an event I'd check my map, look for a place where commanders haven't quite reached yet, and then yell to myself "DEPLOY!'
But those Aetherblades, man... they're often a kick to the dick.
The event is really, really anti-zerg. But it's tuned such that every mini event except maybe the Aetherblades can be done with a party of five or less. I really like this, and it meant that every time I finished an event I'd check my map, look for a place where commanders haven't quite reached yet, and then yell to myself "DEPLOY!'
But those Aetherblades, man... they're often a kick to the dick.
The two-week update cycle is a permanent thing from here on out (at least for the foreseeable future), every two weeks there will be something new added to the game. This week was a big world invasion event, September 3rd will be the Super Adventure Box. Two weeks after that, who knows what'll be added.
As for the content being temporary, a lot of it has been, but they've said that one of their goals for the first year of Living Story content was to create a portfolio of content that can be 'leaned on' throughout the year. For example, a lot of the assets for Halloween are already done, so instead of a team having to work on that for October, they can just build upon what's already there and focus on bigger things. We should see more permanent stuff from here on out.
I'm of many minds about this. On one hand, I love the concept, and honestly people talking about zerg stuff are weird. It's very much about spreading out and dominating a map.
On the other hand, the execution is absolutely horrible in terms of pointing people in the right direction or giving anything context through the story. The writing is laughably bad, and it does not provide the correct insight into what's going on. I understand they want it to be "mysterious", but you've got to provide some kind of better story context or else it's not very interesting or compelling.
I dunno, the game is overwhelming right now. I need some time to parse everything out.
On the other hand, the execution is absolutely horrible in terms of pointing people in the right direction or giving anything context through the story. The writing is laughably bad, and it does not provide the correct insight into what's going on. I understand they want it to be "mysterious", but you've got to provide some kind of better story context or else it's not very interesting or compelling.
I dunno, the game is overwhelming right now. I need some time to parse everything out.
I was definitely hoping for some more contexual information and story progression rather than still having to piece everything together. I think this patch was a real success mechanically and just a small step in terms of lore, whereas I expected it to be the opposite really. But we did hear that we will be sticking with this thread for a while, so I won't abandon hope of getting some answers soon yet. For now I will just add in a couple new puzzle pieces to my theories, and enjoying the game primarily for the fun stuff to do in it. Was a real breakneck pace today, and definitely the closest I've come to knocking out all of the shiny new achievements for an LS release on the day of.
I think I just expected this story update to provide some clarity, when it really just made everything confusing in an extremely unhelpful way. It's okay to be mysterious, but mysteries need to be compelling. There's so many existing pieces of lore they could use as a threat, but they're forcing a bunch of new elements. It's jarring.
I don't pay a ton of attention to this stuff so maybe it makes more sense than I think, but I thought it was dumb that the
Molten Alliance and the Aetherblades....are allied? Have their strings pulled by the same entity? I thought we had two distinct factions and you could have nuanced stories relating to each with maybe a few strings tying them if you wanted. But now it's just kinda like they're all an amorphous "the enemy" faction with just some different types. I dunno.
That's what's frustrating. They just showed up with no fan-fare at all. It feels like it should be a major plot point, there's no context at all.
The story boils down to
some lady shows up and the aetherblade and molten alliance show up everywhere.
I still need that!
It's a fun instance and there are kind of a surprising number of approaches depending on how many you have. I'm definitely interested in soloing it.
The repeat reward is pure garbo though, which is a bit of a shame.
Still need more time before I unlock the funhouse. Probably tomorrow.
There is a lot of story stuff they need to put out there.
Right now all they've revealed is that we have a portal master. Which makes me wonder why they even have god damn airships,
There is a lot of story stuff they need to put out there.
Such as, are the Aetherblades actually from another dimension? Or perhaps Scarlett stumbled in, did some research at the Rata Sum colleges, and instead of going home figured out how to torment everyone? Or is she just a really smart Sylvari that figured out how to harness the Steam creatures' portals?
The fact that she studied with Norn and Charr is probably the related to the foundation of the Molten Alliance, but why attack Divinity's Reach other than something related to the Clockworks that I don't understand? She already had enough of an army, between the Aetherblades and the Molten Alliance.
And I'm not the only one that remembers seeing Steam creatures as well during the invasion events, right?
Right now all they've revealed is that we have a portal master. Which makes me wonder why they even have god damn airships,
other than for traveling between dimensions in the Mists, maybe?
We still don't know how the Zephyrites tie into all of this. Maybe there will be more story as we go along. And yes,
There has to be a connection there.
I really hope there's more to it, because right now it's
and that sucks.
I was seeing Steam Creatures during the invasion events too. They keep slipping in, and the portal in Gandaren is identical to the ones the steam creatures come out of.
I really hope there's more to it, because right now it's
"Aetherblades and Molten Alliance are attacking for reasons!"
Well there's a little more to it if you take all we've learned into account.
One might assume
Outside of a vague grudge against Kryta and the queen, her motivation is completely unclear and that's not really okay for a villain, at least outside of an opening arc. If we can consider this Scarlet's act 1, we need a bunch of exposition in whatever comes next.
One might assume
Scarlet is the "silver-tongued city-dweller" that organized the Molten Alliance, as had been alluded to previously. I don't think it's totally unreasonable to think she might have something to do with Canach as well. It's possible he was once sort of an accomplice of hers and then had enough, but had to completely blow his position with the Consortium to get out.
Mai Trin's outburst positions Scarlet as the Aetherblade leader, whether or not they come from another dimension. They use airships because they're Sky pirates and they have inquest technology. That's the most straightforward part of this to me.
The Steam creatures on the other hand absolutely do come from another dimension. Their Meta event in Lornar's has an enormous amount of similarities to the invasions we're experiencing now. And as Retro said the portals themselves being used are identical.
So by and large I don't take issue with Scarlet being the puppetmaster behind the three situations; that didn't feel like it came out of nowhere to me. Commanding all of these forces is convoluted, though.
Mai Trin's outburst positions Scarlet as the Aetherblade leader, whether or not they come from another dimension. They use airships because they're Sky pirates and they have inquest technology. That's the most straightforward part of this to me.
The Steam creatures on the other hand absolutely do come from another dimension. Their Meta event in Lornar's has an enormous amount of similarities to the invasions we're experiencing now. And as Retro said the portals themselves being used are identical.
So by and large I don't take issue with Scarlet being the puppetmaster behind the three situations; that didn't feel like it came out of nowhere to me. Commanding all of these forces is convoluted, though.
I've never felt an "evil" vibe from the consortium, just insane greed. Even Anet has mentioned as much. Which, quite frankly, I enjoy. I think it's nice just to have a rogue faction that is neither evil or good, just out for themselves. The consortium is probably their best post-release writing.
Also, what's really conflicting is that the next update, going by the releases page, is Super Adventure Box related. It just seems really inappropriate right now. I want to like the living story and I want to like their implementation of the "zone events", but there's so many rough patches that it's a tough call. At least they're getting all of this out of the way before they bring up the dragons again.
I'm really starting to think Scarlet just did research on the steam portals in general, and figured out using them to teleport across distances would be a good idea, with the side effect of steam creatures coming out for fun.
And that explanation? really fucking sucks. Why? Because it's incredibly circumstantial and random. And it's not very well thought-out. You would imagine it having hooks into previous lore, but....
And that explanation? really fucking sucks. Why? Because it's incredibly circumstantial and random. And it's not very well thought-out. You would imagine it having hooks into previous lore, but....
Was it confirmed that Mai Trin
Also,
It feels like they're going for a plots-within-plots sort of thing, but it also feels like the plots are going to end up being shoehorned together at the end.
Edit: This:
Although if I continue with the plots-within-plots sentiment, then there are unintended consequences that are going to show up.
Oh! Did anyone else notice during the Queen's Speech instance,
Although I think they kind of force you to catch that scene.
acted without Scarlet's knowledge?
Also,
I don't disavow the connection between Scarlet, and the Aetherblades. It's just... did this woman, studying all of this portal technology, really form this group or just became the leader somehow? It's really more about where did she come from and the order of events that lead up to this that bother me.
Edit: This:
Although if I continue with the plots-within-plots sentiment, then there are unintended consequences that are going to show up.
Oh! Did anyone else notice during the Queen's Speech instance,
the pair that got kidnapped by the Aetherblades? Hobo-droid or something and that human? Where did they show up before?
Maybe they'll progress the story with kryta and Scarlet in two weeks in addition to Moto reopening the 'Box for some stress release for some people who really can't catch a break. I mean if it's not dragons it's a new species stumbled upon by a corporation viciously attacking a city or crazy ass moles and cats that shoot fire or having their councillors assassinated during celebrations or
besides the holidays the bazaar, SAB has really been the only non-negative living story event. I'm just glad it's coming back.
edit: Hobo-Tron was job-o-tron when we first met....
lunatics attacking the queen and randomly invading the world with multiple armies.
besides the holidays the bazaar, SAB has really been the only non-negative living story event. I'm just glad it's coming back.
edit: Hobo-Tron was job-o-tron when we first met....
Not when we have an entire race of supergeniuses already in the game. Not to mention, we haven't met any who have graduated from all three colleges and had the time to study under every single race in the game. But of course, it's a Sylvari. They're the Mary Sue of races.
Also, I'm not asking for a masterpiece here. Just thematically appropriate stuff that provides context to their bi-weekly update schedule. I understand they don't want to just use the same ol' fantasy tropes that all the MMO's use, but in terms of genre, this game's going wacky. We had the technologically advanced Molten Alliance, the technologically advanced aetherblade pirates, and now the technologically advanced steam monsters. Sure, there were trace elements of this stuff in the game already, but I liked them as the fringe elements they were. The lore surrounding this game is elegant. But the execution is constantly disappointing. There's just so much potential and it's constantly being wasted.
damn son, other people would consider those fighting words
I think the missing word there was "becoming". They're becoming the Mary Sue of races, at least in terms of the story writing. Trahearne was the perfect leader, Caithe was the only one who wanted to make Destiny's Edge see reason, Canach was able to rambo his way through the molten alliance and form a plan to stop the consortium, and now we have Scarlet who is the smartest being who has ever lived and has trained with every major race and is a brilliant genius mastermind.
I love the Sylvari, but they're often poorly used.
Oh! I remember running into this one:
GW2 Wiki said:
Yeah.
This is a very apt point.
AFollowerNotALeader
Member
So.
The good:
1. When you actually get into an invasion they are fun and the loot is good.
2. You are funneled into zones that you would otherwise rarely visit.
3. Steam monsters and clockwork monsters are always awesome.
The bad:
1. Gameplay quantisation in roughly 1hr chunks.
2. Overflows improved but still fairly disastrous.
3. Made worse by locking off the pavilion until you've done some achievements, so you are always in an overflow.
4. Story item soulbound so it's not clear if you have to use same character, or can get another item and 1, 2 and 3 discourage testing this.
The ugly:
1. Bug deleted watchwork knight minipets for many (all?) players, myself included.
2. Massive login server crash during EU prime time again.
So about usual for living story content: fun, flawed, badly tested. Still better than an expansion.
The good:
1. When you actually get into an invasion they are fun and the loot is good.
2. You are funneled into zones that you would otherwise rarely visit.
3. Steam monsters and clockwork monsters are always awesome.
The bad:
1. Gameplay quantisation in roughly 1hr chunks.
2. Overflows improved but still fairly disastrous.
3. Made worse by locking off the pavilion until you've done some achievements, so you are always in an overflow.
4. Story item soulbound so it's not clear if you have to use same character, or can get another item and 1, 2 and 3 discourage testing this.
The ugly:
1. Bug deleted watchwork knight minipets for many (all?) players, myself included.
2. Massive login server crash during EU prime time again.
So about usual for living story content: fun, flawed, badly tested. Still better than an expansion.
pyros
Member
I've been hoarding karma, but never thought to use them with a booster, idiot
and I think your... you .... you... pikmin suck, there
D
Deleted member 10571
Unconfirmed Member
Here's Bufbaf's absolutely objective 30 Minute Check on this update.
Loaded up the game.
Boring opening cutscene with an incredibly bland "Scarlet" character everyone seems to know all of a sudden, which was advertised to be some amazing queen of chaos and destruction and turned out to be a fanfiction sylvari with so far no story at all. Also, messed up cutscene appearantly no one at Anet ever watched before putting it live. Most interesting part of this was Faren. Which means something.
Nice little instanced battle, then back to ye good olde "find stuff all over the world that spawns randomly at random times in random places, and we won't tell you where to look for it, so it takes longer and we have a reason to use all of our landmass again so new players think there's actually something happening there". I should do that because of achievements I guess, because it sure is not fun to play or something I've never seen before. Pass.
Anything else to this update? Let me check on the heaps of information I get inside the game. Wait there's none at all. Thought so. 30 minutes done. Quit the game.
I honestly thought Scarlet would be something fresh and cool, but I was bored by her basically 10 seconds after she appeared. I should have known better by now.
30 Minute Check over, hf guys doing.. whatever this is,.. while I'm pondering if I should retry Ornstein and Smough or not.
Loaded up the game.
Boring opening cutscene with an incredibly bland "Scarlet" character everyone seems to know all of a sudden, which was advertised to be some amazing queen of chaos and destruction and turned out to be a fanfiction sylvari with so far no story at all. Also, messed up cutscene appearantly no one at Anet ever watched before putting it live. Most interesting part of this was Faren. Which means something.
Nice little instanced battle, then back to ye good olde "find stuff all over the world that spawns randomly at random times in random places, and we won't tell you where to look for it, so it takes longer and we have a reason to use all of our landmass again so new players think there's actually something happening there". I should do that because of achievements I guess, because it sure is not fun to play or something I've never seen before. Pass.
Anything else to this update? Let me check on the heaps of information I get inside the game. Wait there's none at all. Thought so. 30 minutes done. Quit the game.
I honestly thought Scarlet would be something fresh and cool, but I was bored by her basically 10 seconds after she appeared. I should have known better by now.
30 Minute Check over, hf guys doing.. whatever this is,.. while I'm pondering if I should retry Ornstein and Smough or not.
Kos Luftar
Member
Agree with everyone about the story. I guess we really got hyped up about it because of the secrecy and that wooden potatoes video.
Maybe they are going to flush out her reasons for attacking in blog posts...which would kinda be dumb because they should do that in game.
Also, Mister E is still a mystery.
Maybe they are going to flush out her reasons for attacking in blog posts...which would kinda be dumb because they should do that in game.
Also, Mister E is still a mystery.
I guess I'm a winner in not really expecting anything from this update except the Deadeye nerf. I made a bit of income but had to burn it buying runes to upgrade my thief's bags to 18 slotters to deal with the invasion NPC fodder. Damn cycle.
For some reason those invasion events take a lot out of you. I guess it's because even though the fail state isn't being thought about, it's still in the head or subconsciousness and therefore the need to not fail is much greater. I wonder how long til player interest wanes for that matter... or they'll just all converge on a tag somewhere and force champions to spawn for farming purposes. Then again... the Aetherblades throw around a lot of crowd control and that's not exactly fun.
For some reason those invasion events take a lot out of you. I guess it's because even though the fail state isn't being thought about, it's still in the head or subconsciousness and therefore the need to not fail is much greater. I wonder how long til player interest wanes for that matter... or they'll just all converge on a tag somewhere and force champions to spawn for farming purposes. Then again... the Aetherblades throw around a lot of crowd control and that's not exactly fun.
Kos Luftar
Member
So yesterday I read those 3 lines on reddit and almost lost my mind, and even texted my brother and a friend who plays this game letting them know that
Claw of Jormag
It's not Evon?
And yeah, the secrecy was more for the mechanics of the update rather than the story of the update, unfortunately.
I do like how they placed two achievement tracks for this update, and also nested them. Plots-within-plots you know.
First is the world event/living story track, which puts you straight into the whole TYRIA IS UNDER SIEGE stuff as soon as possible. And while doing that, you have the completely skippable or even missable (if you have a friend or guildie rushing you so that you never actually see the Queen's Speech instance) Funhouse track, which may or may not actually have more story inside of it.
An interesting experiment.
Kos Luftar
Member
They never said that it was Evon.
The invasion events really make it feel like a true invasion.
I think ill just get excited about from mechanics from now on because getting excited for the story just leads to a lot of speculation which usually never comes true.
The invasion events really make it feel like a true invasion.
I think ill just get excited about from mechanics from now on because getting excited for the story just leads to a lot of speculation which usually never comes true.
The most poetic line in the entire game
(unfortunately a damn cutoff at the end due to the timing of the event completion)
(unfortunately a damn cutoff at the end due to the timing of the event completion)
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