Story after HoT

For a long time, I've been thinking about how I want the story to continue. There were some hints ingame, like for example Trahearne talking about attacking Kralkatorrik. I also want the Tengu to be playable in the next expansion, but they have no connection to Kralk, so I made a workaround, that will make it work. :) So check it out!

CAUTION: WALL OF TEXT AHEAD!

The story begins in Hoelbrak. There occurs a big funeral of Eir and Hoelbrak is full of heroes that came to honor her. The funeral is suddenly interrupted by the series of earthquakes. We get the messages about the earthquakes happening and new volcanoes erupting around whole Tyria. Two of the messages are especially troubling. A new volcano has erupted in Heart of Maguuma in Auric Basin. Another one reports Kralkatorrik's move from east to west, which has created a new Brand in south.

We rush to Tarir and find it in ruins. Exalted are fighting with the Destroyers. At least half of the city is destroyed and Glint's egg has disappeared. It seems that Primordus minions got an egg. Braham leaves to Rata Novus to check on Taimi.


Another bad news reach us in Tarir. Logan sends us the message that the Queen Jennah has disappeared in the occuring chaos. We leave Rox in Tarir to look for the traces of the egg and rush to Divinity's Reach while Rytlock leaves to help Black Citadel.

Queensdale has been changed to the land full of fire and destroyers that constantly attack human city. We fight through and meet up with Logan. Together we search for the queen but she has disappeared without a trace. Even countess Anise has no idea, where the Queen is. Humans need a ruler and so Minister Caudecus is voted the King Regent in queen's absence. He recognizes us from the time when we disrupted his plans in his manor. Because of this he refuses to help us and the Pact with the search for the egg and containing Destroyers and Branded.

We meet in Lion's Arch with Zojja just in time to welcome the Tengu delegation. The Tengu have been hit from both Primordus and Kralkatorrik. They come to ask us for help and in return they promise to join Pact. We make a deal with them and divide the forces so that one part of the army goes to the Black Citadel to help with the Branded and another one goes with us back to Maguuma.

We travel to Rata Novus and meet Rox on the way. She confirms that the egg was indeed stolen by the Destroyers. When we reach Rata Novus, we find Taimi and Braham in company of Inquest. They reveal that their base was close to Rata Novus and reveal that they are tracking the destroyer army, travelling with an egg. It seems that they are bringing the egg to their master. The Inquest are shady but they seem to get along with Taimi, so we decide to trust them.

Rytlock come to Rata Novus with the news. The Pact has defended the Black Citadel and they are marching south to deal with the Kralkatorrik. Across all Tyria there are fights between the Branded and Destroyers. Inquest have a schematics of flying fortress that could be a great help in fight against the dragons, so we send Taimi with Zojja and Inquest to Rata Sum. Meanwhile we pursue the Destroyer army and get reports of Branded force coming the same way.

While we prepare our offense, we get an unexpected visitor - Palawa Joko. He reveals us the exact location of the egg and promises us help if we let him control Orrians. After the defeat of Mordremoth, we don't have much at our disposal, so we don't have any choice but to agree. 

Everything seems to be ready for the battle. With Inquest's help, Taimi has found out the weakness of Primordus and the flying fortress has been finished. Right before we attack the Destroyers, the Branded attack them first with Kralkatorrik in the lead. Primordus crawls from under the ground and the dragons start fighting each other. We try to contain both forces but the flying fortress is damaged in the fight and crashes down on Palawa Joko. 

Zojja is gravely wounded and tells us to command the whole army to run from the fortress as far as we can. She explains that the fortress has a selfdestruction mechanism strong enough to destroy an elder dragon. She's dying so she offers do it.

It's our choice which dragon to hit.

We don't have any better option so we reluctantly agree. The fortress explodes and the beam of magic hits one of the dragons. The second one grabs the egg and escapes to Elona. 

We send the remains of the army to set up the offense in Elona. The risen army has disbanded after Palawa Joko's death but Rytlock offers to channel Joko's legend as revenant. We need that army.

We travel with him to Arah. While he does that, he explains to us how he got into the mists and how he became a revenant there. He's successful, Joko appears as the spirit and reveals to us that his risen army has taken Zhaitan's body to Elona and that he serves the elder dragon, who will revive Zhaitan as his lieutenant and by doing this, controlling not only his minins, but also Zhaitan's minions. He tries to stop us from leaving, but E appears and helps us escape the Arah through the secret tunnels. 

E is revealed to be Kasmeer's father. He tells us that he has found out that the Joko had an agreement with Caudecus. He has no idea why would Joko do that but at least he knows the location of the Queen - Elona. We rush to Elona to find it under the control of Joko's and dragon's minions. We rescue the queen but we are too late already. The dragon has destroyed the egg and with the newfound power, he revived Zhaitan. Elder Dragon flies away to Divinity's Reach. If he consumes the bloodstone, it will unleas an incredible cataclysm and we will have no chance to stop it.

We hurry to stop him but first we need to kill Zhaitan that has been transformed into a "dunediver". We pursue the dragon on charr tanks and defeat him for the second time. We muster everything and everyone, we can find and rush to Divinity's Reach. It's under the attack of the elder dragon. E gives us the Scepter of Orr that he has managed to steal from Joko but noone of us is able to control such powerful weapon. Anise reveals that she is Livia, she takes the weapon and we manage to defeat the dragon with her help. 

There is a peace again, at least for a while. Caudecus is brought to justice. Taimi joins inquest despite our objections. We take a journey back to Maguuma to finally bury Trahearne with honors and find out a celestial avatar near his place of demise. It's revealed to be a spirit of Eir, who has returned in this form because she has been learning druidism before her death. She warns us that soon we need to expect Jormag's attack because he has got a ton of new magic from the deaths of Kralkatorrik and Primordus.

***

So, what do you think? I think that this could be really exciting. 

Also with Tengu coming as a playable race, this could offer us another part of the story. The Tengu would be accessible only to those that finished the story of Zhaitan and HoT because their story arc would start after that. Levels 1-30 would be their story of being attacked by two dragons and about them trying to survive. After 30, the story would continue with their arrival to LA and offering to join the Pact.

The number of maps therefore would be higher than in HoT. Tengu would get 3 starting maps + the map of their city. Together with these, we would get 5 more maps in Elona. 8 new maps (+ city) would be IMO an optimal number.

WP WHEN DEAD - Teaser 2

A new character enters the story! Teaser 2 :)

WP WHEN DEAD - Teaser 1

First teaser! (There will be at least one more ;)) And yeah, you can see that the first episode will be released on the 13. Feb. Stay tuned :)

I'm still missing some things here

State of the Game blog has just been released. I am mostly satisfied, though I'd like to see at least release date for Living Story 3. The story of HoT has finished abruptly, and LS3 can't come soon enough. I say this from the perspective of a pve player. I know that wvw and pvp have huge issues. Still... 

This post is not about whining. It's awesome that Anet is revisiting Shatterer. It's great that we will be able to glide anywhere (though I can't find so many high spots in the old maps). New fractals? Awesome! Tybalt being a new mist champion? I fear that the other champions won't be used so much because of how much people love him. :)

So what is this post about, you ask? It's about things I'd like to see also in GW2. Some are small features, some are big. So let's get to it.

A MERCHANT OPTION TO BUY MORE PIECES OF AN ITEM

This together with removing the bags in bags in bags is in my opinion very necessary. It's a standard in other MMOs, why it isn't in GW2 from the start, is beyond me. Basically, I'd like to click much less. Much less. Same with consume all option. I trust Anet to gradually implement this for all other items, but just for sure ;)

INSPECT

This may be a controversial feature and we want to keep our friendly community and this would promote elitism and so on. You know what? Add a dps meter with it! Now if people want to see what you wear in dungeon/raid, they'll ask you to ping your armor anyway. I doubt that the community would suddenly become bad. Sure there would be some bad apples, but there  are already some. In general it would benefit the game because people could improve and get advice. Also you wouldn't need to whisper somebody, what's the name of his/her gloves.

DUELLING

As I said, I'm a pve player. I play pvp rarely and wvw extra rarely. And still I'd like duelling. It's fun. Many people like it. To prevent from being spammed, just add an option to opt for getting duelling requests or to automatically block them and that's it. People that won't want to duel will just check this and they won't be bothered. Everybody will be happy.

HOUSING + REWORKED SCRIBING

Proper housing. With scribing redone to be normal affordable profession. With decorations lootable across the world. This has so much gemstore potential for Anet if they'd implement this system correctly. Both players and developers would be satisfied. 

Wildstar has introduced an awesome housing system. I played that game only for it (and also for being able to play as maniacal evil hamster). If it's too difficult to implement, I'd suggest an easier system from LOTRO. Each house had a number of spots for the decorations. But I'd definitely love the WS system where you can put anything anywhere at any size.

TAXIDERMIST PROFESSION

I'm thinking again of LOTRO. Almost anything had a rare chance of dropping a special item that could be redone with taxidermist into a house decoration. This was huge! Even farming for specific mobs was exciting when you wanted each type of bear or some specific animal in your house. Each boss had also a chance to drop a special decoration trophy. Why not design a crafting profession around this? With affordable scribing, I'd never go back to any other crafting professions than these two.

FISHING

I'm suggesting this because of the Taxidermist profession and also because it can be a lot of fun if done right. Farming for the mentioned different bear trophies was not so exciting as fishing for some rare huge fish that you could hang on your wall. And also it was a great relax. GW2 has already enough water for this. I'm sure that people would love it. It also could be an alternative option of getting some mats for jeweler (Pearls etc.)

MORE ARMOR AND WEAPON SKINS

Obtainable ingame of course. HoT has brought some great looking skins, however I think that there should be more. Damn, if it were me, I'd gave each map a set of unique armor and weapons. Seriously, we need more of those. I understand Anet's position and why they develop a lot of skins for gemstore, but for each 2-3 gemstore sets, we should get one set ingame. I may sound entitled a little bit. Oh well.

For this, there is quite an easy maybe temporary fix - remake town clothes tonics into universal armor skins. Those skins were so awesome. I still dream of my asura engi using a Leather Hoodie. 

MORE MAPS

I'm 90% certain that we'll get new maps in new Living Story but seriously, 4 maps is not much. They are huge, they are interesting and they are beautiful. But after a month you are done with them. And if you're like me and you also grinded  mats for new legendaries there, then you are already sick of them. At least two more, Anet. And please implement them with Living Story. (Yeah I want them ASAP)

NEW RACE

Tengu, Kodan... Yes, I miss them, don't judge me! I know it's an expansion content. I know that introducing a new race requires a lot of development. I want to play as them. Their lore is very interesting. Seriously, I want them playable. I just hope that Anet won't make Largos playable as first. It would be a lazy solution IMO to introduce a human butterfly. Meh. 

CONCLUSION

I won't talk here about promised features that are still at works (legendaries *cough cough*). I know that eventually they'll be implemented. Funny thing is that suggested Taxidermy, Fishing, New race or Housing are even more important to me than new story. Maybe because they offer a huge incentive and replayability.

Let's hope that Anet will implement those some day. Or you know, Soon TM ;) 

WP WHEN DEAD tumblr

Yeah, another useless webpage :D The webcomic will be primarily published here: http://wpwhendead.tumblr.com/

WP WHEN DEAD (A GW2 webcomic) announcement!

In February, I'll start releasing a weekly Guild Wars 2 webcomic. The release date of the first episode is yet to be determined, because I'll be traveling until the beginning of the February, so I'll see if I'll manage to release it at the start of the month.

For now, I'll leave here a little tease ;)

Grim Flametooth

Flame Legion mesmer

Zapspur Blackpowder

My Druid tank :)

Grind and new legendaries 

or why I don't want to see HoT maps after I finish H.O.P.E.

Caution: Wall of text ahead.

Many people are not satisfied with how Anet did the precursor collections. "IT'S JUST A MONEY SINK AND GRIND! IT'S AWFUL!" - they shout. I'm at the opposite side. I didn't expect these collections to be anything unreal.

Of course the precursor collections couldn't not be a money sink, that would devalue the precursor price. Besides, only one of the 3 collections is money sink.

I'm not going to discuss here that the price for the collections is more than the price for the TP bought precursor. Devs tried to adjust the collection price according to the TP price as best as they could. If you dislike it, go grind gold. I'd rather do small steps even if it costs more.

My experience with building the new legendary has been quite positive. As I said, I don't mind the money sink that the 2. collection is. It has been fun despite that. My problem is elsewhere.

So let's explain the legendary creation process on HOPE legendary that I've been working on.

You get the precursor from the collection as mentioned.

Gift of Mists is quite easy to get. You can buy almost everything on TP and if not, you can obtain it quite quickly.

Icy Runestones and specific material gift (Gift of Wood) are basically the same as with the old legendaries, so that is ok with me. Combining these three with the Gift of Catalyst (T4 collection) will give you a Gift of HOPE. Now you have already 2 of the 4 parts. Easy, right?

Third part, the Mystic Tribute is similar to Gift of Magic. One of the bigger money sinks, for which you need T6, T5, T4 and T3 materials. Everything can be bought from the TP.

The cost of these 3 parts doesn't bother me. Legendary is not supposed to be cheap, you might have to grind some of them but they are obtainable from multiple sources.

I have the problem with the 4. part. The Gift of Maguuma Mastery. Shocking? Let me explain.
It is also created from 4 parts:

1. Gift of Maguuma is obtained for 100% exploration of 4 new maps. It may take some time, but it's nothing difficult.
2. Gift of Insights requires you to get 800 from each new map currency. It seems like a lot but it can be done quite quickly. No problem with that. Couple meta runs and you're finished.
3. Bloodstone Shard, just ridiculous. Buy it from Miyani for 200 Spirit Shards.
4. Last part is 250 Crystalline Ingots. 

CRYSTALLINE INGOTS - IMO the only bad part of the new legendary creation process. 

My reason is that it doesn't only cost A LOT, it's based on heavy rng based grind.

You can buy 250 Amalgamated Gemstones or you can create them in multiple ways. They are expensive but you have multiple ways to get them.

250 Globs of Ecto is nothing after running the new map's metas few times.

The remaining ingredients can be obtained ONLY one way each - by looting map specific "chests".

Crystalline Ore is one of them and after a big player outcry, devs patched it to be guaranteed at least 1 from each looted pod.

Why hasn't this been done with Piles of Auric Dust and Ley Line Sparks? 

Bottle of Airship Oil is OK, it can be obtained from Airship Cargo in VB during both day and night, that's why I'm ok with it being random. You can however get Pile of Auric Dust only after successful meta by looting 27 exalted chests that MAY give you 1 or 2 or 0 of it. There is a limited number of chests available for only a limited time. Why doesn't it guarantee 1 Auric Dust per chest is beyond me.

And don't even get me started on Ley Line Sparks. You need keys for the map currency like with the previous mentioned ones. However TD meta is not so fast as AB or VB metas. While I can get 300+ AB currency in one full meta, I get only about 170+ in TD. The TD "chests" appear only after successful events and I've noticed that I get 1 Ley Line Spark for 2 opened "chests". For one meta run I was able to get 17 sparks. For one 2 hour meta run.

Someone was maybe more lucky than me. I don't even count how many times I've run Gerent or Tarir or DS and to be honest, this grind made me dislike the maps. They are great, look awesome and have interesting events, however I've been there so many times that after I finish H.O.P.E. I don't plan to return there for a very long time.

And that is a thing that Anet should be aware of. Grind is not bad if it's not insane. This would be quite ok, but rng makes it bad. Again RNG.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT