Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Svifnymr]

Is that the lady that go fired? I would take her word with a nice tablespoon of salt.

She does set her knowledge in it's place ("came in during ep3, fired before ep4" kind of thing), but the idea that this season finale may have been "the end" seems like an odd thing to put forward. The end of GW2 with no replacement in sight? Seems unlikely. Even if one of the canceled projects was a replacement for GW2, the firings were like 6 months ago and there was nothing announced, so there's just no way, IMO.

Rest of her twitter was full of political stuff so I didn't look further than this one thread.

I kind of hope they revisit the gods. There's a story there with Balthazar's war on everything, Kormir's brief appearance in POF, the Hall of Chains raid, where we fought Kralkatorrik. It's kind of like they are foreshadowing but don't know where they want to go with it.

They ran from the dragons. Now the dragons are sleep or dead. Aurene is now a god? There's a story there if Anet wants one.

Guild Wars has always had an odd vagueness to some things, like the gods or the Planes (the Mists might be Ethereal-ish, and there are gods realms, but the gods came from elsewhere, so... who knows). If all magic is just aspects of each other, Fire Magic, Life (Mord) Magic, War Magic, uh, Crystal Magic, then maybe the God Magics don't fit into the Dragon Magics that make Tyria work.

As I mentioned before though, what does that make Palawa Joko? I figured he was a prominent human that learned a magic that let him cheat death and return folks to unlife, but it was a bit of a process and wasn't something he can just crank out (or why are any humans left?), but the ending just seems like he had a special facet of magic that Aurene absorbed and thus gained his abilities with no training.

Also, though Kralk absorbed Balth's magic and whatever the Mists had, previous installments made clear that Primordus at least did absorb some Life & Death magic, so I wonder if Aurene has Crystal + War + Joko magics with a hint of Life & Death but no fire/ ice/ water or...

I guess it doesn't really matter, since she's flown off to something something and won't be around.

[PACOX]

Guild Wars has always had an odd vagueness to some things, like the gods or the Planes (the Mists might be Ethereal-ish, and there are gods realms, but the gods came from elsewhere, so... who knows). If all magic is just aspects of each other, Fire Magic, Life (Mord) Magic, War Magic, uh, Crystal Magic, then maybe the God Magics don't fit into the Dragon Magics that make Tyria work.

As I mentioned before though, what does that make Palawa Joko? I figured he was a prominent human that learned a magic that let him cheat death and return folks to unlife, but it was a bit of a process and wasn't something he can just crank out (or why are any humans left?), but the ending just seems like he had a special facet of magic that Aurene absorbed and thus gained his abilities with no training.

Also, though Kralk absorbed Balth's magic and whatever the Mists had, previous installments made clear that Primordus at least did absorb some Life & Death magic, so I wonder if Aurene has Crystal + War + Joko magics with a hint of Life & Death but no fire/ ice/ water or...

I guess it doesn't really matter, since she's flown off to something something and won't be around.

From my understanding, the gods are basically aliens (except Grenth and Kormir) from somewhere else in the Mists. They aren't actually divine, just exceptionally gifted in magic. They function kind of like then dragon's, controlling the flow of magic on Tyria, maybe that's why Kormir said the dragons and gods couldn't coexist. Aurene now has both the power of the gods and elder dragons in her (she also has a bit of Primos magic since Balth was able to get someone before the dragon retreated).

I think Joko is a 'demigod' from an era where there was a lot more free magic in Tyria. He claims to be a Primeval King but they say he is a liar. He did know the Mad King and was already a an undead lich by the time Mad King Thorn died. Joko was also said be have been a necromancer when he was 'alive' So Joko could have been a 'Pretender King' (been reading GW lore today), kings that claimed to be from the Primeval Kings after that dynasty died out. Joko mastery of necromancy allowed him to become a lich. Livia is another necromancer who figured out how prolong her life so its possible. Boom, we have have the Joko everyone knows and loves.


I keep forgetting that the water dragon is still a thing, so we'll probably tackle that before we get into any god or political storylines. Maybe the 'Mother' Kralkatorrik mentioned before dying was the water dragon? Maybe it doesn't like the gods for whatever reason. Aurene goes to see it, let's say make sure it's not insane like Kralkatorrik was. The dragon senses 'god magic' in Aurene, causing it to go to war with Aurene. We have to figure out how to reconcile the situation or kill it. The campaign puts takes us to the shores of Cantha. LS5.

LS6/Xpac. The way to Cantha is now clear. The Commander finds the continent under the rule of an oppressive xenophobic emperor who threatens to conquer Tyria (the continent).

[Svifnymr]

From my understanding, the gods are basically aliens (except Grenth and Kormir) from somewhere else in the Mists. They aren't actually divine, just exceptionally gifted in magic. They function kind of like then dragon's, controlling the flow of magic on Tyria, maybe that's why Kormir said the dragons and gods couldn't coexist.

I don't feel like looking it up, but I thought the gods came to Tyria with the humans or brought them over or whatnot. And of course, Kormir got the power of Abadon.

[PACOX]

I don't feel like looking it up, but I thought the gods came to Tyria with the humans or brought them over or whatnot. And of course, Kormir got the power of Abadon.

Yeah, that's why I said they were like aliens, as in not native to Tyria. They are from other world in out in the Mists.

Grenth and Kormir were born on Tyria. Grenth imprisoned the old god of death.

I forgot there's the whole Ascalon storyline they could pick back up on too.

[Jamie081]

She does set her knowledge in it's place ("came in during ep3, fired before ep4" kind of thing), but the idea that this season finale may have been "the end" seems like an odd thing to put forward. The end of GW2 with no replacement in sight? Seems unlikely. Even if one of the canceled projects was a replacement for GW2, the firings were like 6 months ago and there was nothing announced, so there's just no way, IMO.

Rest of her twitter was full of political stuff so I didn't look further than this one thread.

GW2's sales numbers had broken down drastically by Q4 2018. When we look at the high number of layoffs recently which also included many developers, animators and designers that contributed massively to GW2, the layoffs didn't just affect the unannounced secret projects but also GW2 itself. The future being uncertain for the game was not unlikely at all.

Source of NCSoft Report: https://imgur.com/a/wCeOPV7
Source of layoffs hitting GW2: https://massivelyop.com/2019/02/25/g...veforarenanet/

I also do not see why there is this assumption in this thread that Jessica Price has some sort of vendetta against Anet just because she got fired for political reasons. If you read the thread she gives the LW4 final episode high praise and said they did an amazing job.

Yes she has reason to spread negative rumours, but to suggest she's doing that because she said the team wasn't sure about the future of the game doesn't mean that she's trying to slate the game or Anet. Her twitter thread is very positive and there is no slating in it whatsoever.

The firings were at the end of February, that's just over 3 months ago, not 6. Episode 5 released in 8th January, so by the end of February the development for episode 6 will have already been in process. I feel like you guys are undermining what she shared because you don't like her, when what she shared is very insightful of what the development process was like for the last few episodes of LW4.

[Rogalicus]

GW2's sales numbers had broken down drastically by Q4 2018. When we look at the high number of layoffs recently which also included many developers, animators and designers that contributed massively to GW2, the layoffs didn't just affect the unannounced secret projects but also GW2 itself. The future being uncertain for the game was not unlikely at all.

I mean your first picture confirms that the game was performing better than in 2016 overall and you are basing all your conclusions on one quarter without new releases (episode 4 was released in September and episode 5 was postponed until January due to its' ending). It's also impossible to know how many actual developers of GW2 at the time were let go, e.g. Josh Foreman confirmed he wasn't working on anything GW2 related for quite some time despite being well known for his insane jumping puzzles and SAB.

[PACOX]

GW2's sales numbers had broken down drastically by Q4 2018. When we look at the high number of layoffs recently which also included many developers, animators and designers that contributed massively to GW2, the layoffs didn't just affect the unannounced secret projects but also GW2 itself. The future being uncertain for the game was not unlikely at all.

Source of NCSoft Report: https://imgur.com/a/wCeOPV7
Source of layoffs hitting GW2: https://massivelyop.com/2019/02/25/g...veforarenanet/

I also do not see why there is this assumption in this thread that Jessica Price has some sort of vendetta against Anet just because she got fired for political reasons. If you read the thread she gives the LW4 final episode high praise and said they did an amazing job.

Yes she has reason to spread negative rumours, but to suggest she's doing that because she said the team wasn't sure about the future of the game doesn't mean that she's trying to slate the game or Anet. Her twitter thread is very positive and there is no slating in it whatsoever.

The firings were at the end of February, that's just over 3 months ago, not 6. Episode 5 released in 8th January, so by the end of February the development for episode 6 will have already been in process. I feel like you guys are undermining what she shared because you don't like her, when what she shared is very insightful of what the development process was like for the last few episodes of LW4.

She was fired almost a year ago for bad conduct. Well before the last batch of episodes even came out. And if course she would throw minimal praise before throwing shade at Anet, it's an attempt to appear genuine.

We also know that the layoffs were primarily aimed at Anets two other projects. LS5 has already been announced so its hard to say they don't have plans for the future.

[Jamie081]

She was fired almost a year ago for bad conduct. Well before the last batch of episodes even came out. And if course she would throw minimal praise before throwing shade at Anet, it's an attempt to appear genuine.

We also know that the layoffs were primarily aimed at Anets two other projects. LS5 has already been announced so its hard to say they don't have plans for the future.

I think that's just reaching, she isn't shady at all. Also I didn't say they had no plans for the future. I said Jessica mentioned the future of the game being uncertain BEFORE they greenlit LW5. They plan ahead with a lot of stuff so it's not like she had no idea where the future of the story would lead.

I mean your first picture confirms that the game was performing better than in 2016 overall and you are basing all your conclusions on one quarter without new releases (episode 4 was released in September and episode 5 was postponed until January due to its' ending). It's also impossible to know how many actual developers of GW2 at the time were let go, e.g. Josh Foreman confirmed he wasn't working on anything GW2 related for quite some time despite being well known for his insane jumping puzzles and SAB.

I'm basing my conclusions off what Jessica Price, a former employee at Anet, said and the results of Q4 2018. I said that what she said about the future of the game being uncertain was likely because: 1. She was part of Anet, 2. She was more specifically part of the LW team, 3. Definitely had more knowledge about the state of the game as opposed to its players, 4. The future of the game looked uncertain because of Q4 reports.

NCSoft have shut down Wildstar and City of Heroes despite both of them still bringing in profit. They don't always look at the bigger picture. Profits are not good enough if they're not constantly higher than the quarter before. The difference here is that they knew there was an expansion in the works. This time they have nothing but another living world season.

[Rogalicus]

I'm basing my conclusions off what Jessica Price, a former employee at Anet, said and the results of Q4 2018. I said that what she said about the future of the game being uncertain was likely because: 1. She was part of Anet, 2. She was more specifically part of the LW team, 3. Definitely had more knowledge about the state of the game as opposed to its players, 4. The future of the game looked uncertain because of Q4 reports.

NCSoft have shut down Wildstar and City of Heroes despite both of them still bringing in profit. They don't always look at the bigger picture. Profits are not good enough if they're not constantly higher than the quarter before. The difference here is that they knew there was an expansion in the works. This time they have nothing but another living world season.

She was fired in July 2018 and she was one of the script writers, not some manager. If you want to bring opinons, here's what the guy who was fired in February has to say.

As for CoH and Wildstar, don't kid yourself. CoH barely outperformed GW1, that was in maintenance mode since 2007, just several months before closure.

Wildstar was around longer than it should have. Launch was a failure, F2P conversion was a failure too.

[Svifnymr]

GW2's sales numbers had broken down drastically by Q4 2018. When we look at the high number of layoffs recently which also included many developers, animators and designers that contributed massively to GW2, the layoffs didn't just affect the unannounced secret projects but also GW2 itself. The future being uncertain for the game was not unlikely at all.

My point is, if this episode was the end of new GW2, with no new game ready, it would be the end of Anet.

I also do not see why there is this assumption in this thread that Jessica Price has some sort of vendetta against Anet just because she got fired for political reasons. If you read the thread she gives the LW4 final episode high praise and said they did an amazing job.

I'm not assuming any vendetta, I'm assuming she doesn't have complete information, even regarding the full direction of the company at the time she was there. I'm sure she still has some friends at Anet and may have some information, I'm just not sure it's a complete picture.

The firings were at the end of February, that's just over 3 months ago, not 6. Episode 5 released in 8th January, so by the end of February the development for episode 6 will have already been in process. I feel like you guys are undermining what she shared because you don't like her, when what she shared is very insightful of what the development process was like for the last few episodes of LW4.

It being February shows my point more, actually. My point was, if those teams were working on a replacement for GW2, in February it was not in good enough condition to ANNOUNCE it's existence, let alone publish the game in a timeframe to defray the END of GW2. If you end GW2 in June, but have nothing new?

Of course the possibility is that one of those products was just an addition to GW2, changing the core game in some way, but not being an expansion or something. I've no clue.

[Edge-]

NCSoft have shut down Wildstar and City of Heroes despite both of them still bringing in profit.

*Sigh* I'ma stop you here.

WildStar was a fucking financial disaster for them. It sold moderately well, at best, at launch and quickly cratered in terms of revenue. Things got so bad that NCsoft removed WildStar from their earnings charts. They folded that into "other" revenue. All while the game was still seeing dwindling, but still surprisingly strong (they were working on new prototypes all the way to the end) support given how much of a money pit it was on a quarter to quarter basis. There is no reality in which WildStar was anything that at best a minor loss for them when the numbers are tallied.

CoH sucks and folks have every right to be mad, but it made business sense. GW2 was just launching and blowing up, meaning it was eating up more and more resources, and they had WildStar coming up and about to be announced. They likely looked at their internal resources to support the titles, the MMO market, and the growth potential for CoH (it was profitable, but had already peaked with the F2P transition so would continue to taper slowly over time), and made a calculated decision to redirect those CoH resources to the more promising GW2 and WildStar. It paid off with GW2 in a big way, even if revenue has never really recovered since the HoT slump, but they missed hard with WildStar. It sucks that that CoH was functionally "sacrificed" for a failed game, but sometimes bets don't pay off.

They don't always look at the bigger picture. Profits are not good enough if they're not constantly higher than the quarter before.

While you're not wrong here, what you write here, especially the second sentence, can apply to just about any publicly traded company ever. If you're not growing, you're dying.

The difference here is that they knew there was an expansion in the works. This time they have nothing but another living world season.

I mean all this and...well...and? So they didn't know what they were going to go forward with while she was there. Sometimes shit happens at the last minute. Maybe they're actually running out of ideas or steam. If we get another living world, that's totally fine by me, and likely by NCsoft. They don't have any more major western titles announced right now, and they have space to support another one if they want given that WildStar is gone (and I'm continually surprised they haven't shuttered L2 yet). GW2 remains profitable, and as long as they continue to do so NCsoft will treat them like they usually treat their western studios - hands off unless shit starts going wrong.

[Rogalicus]

Dragon Bash returns next week.

[Edge-]

Neat, I may finally jump into that, never really done it.

So I think Firebrand has ruined me. I keep trying to play alts while doing world boss/meta trains (GIMME A PORTAL DEVICE FOR POF META'S PLEASE!) to change things up and hopefully get a bit of gear for them but for the life of me I keep coming back to playing my guardian. It's not the best build, but my janky hybrid build is just so bloody fun to play since I can quickly swap roles.

Tweaked it so I run staff and mace/torch rather than axe/scepter and torch so I lost a decent chunk of damage, but damn if it didn't give my healing a huge boost and my tanking a bit of a boost. Seriously, Firebrand is truly what I always wanted out of my guardian and I'm so happy they finally delivered. I keep kicking myself for being pessimistic about Firebrand when it was announced, it's infinitely more fun than I ever gave it credit for.

[Svifnymr]

I wander through many alts nowadays. My "main" that I do the stories with is my mesmer/ mirage, usually do dailies on whatever the short bow revenant is, but sometimes holosmith or spellbreaker. I like firebrand for wandering around though.

I tell ya, being an alt-aholic has really paid off during this last story chapter though. Needed more currencies for old zones, so parked some alts in them to run Hearts. Now I need bridges in the new zone, so I've got an alt on each bridge and just cycle through them every now and then to see if there's a bridge event. 5 alts in the tomb, still, but I think I might pull the alts out of jump puzzles since the rewards for them got changed and it sort of sucks now.

[PACOX]

Neat, I may finally jump into that, never really done it.

So I think Firebrand has ruined me. I keep trying to play alts while doing world boss/meta trains (GIMME A PORTAL DEVICE FOR POF META'S PLEASE!) to change things up and hopefully get a bit of gear for them but for the life of me I keep coming back to playing my guardian. It's not the best build, but my janky hybrid build is just so bloody fun to play since I can quickly swap roles.

Tweaked it so I run staff and mace/torch rather than axe/scepter and torch so I lost a decent chunk of damage, but damn if it didn't give my healing a huge boost and my tanking a bit of a boost. Seriously, Firebrand is truly what I always wanted out of my guardian and I'm so happy they finally delivered. I keep kicking myself for being pessimistic about Firebrand when it was announced, it's infinitely more fun than I ever gave it credit for.

It only took most of the year but the meta is finally accepting the Renegade/Firebrand duo for support (traditionally Chrono and Druid).

[Edge-]

It only took most of the year but the meta is finally accepting the Renegade/Firebrand duo for support (traditionally Chrono and Druid).

Neato, i've always hated the dogmatic need to stock to the meta for some folks. Pure support FB (what I run in fractals) is ridiculously fun, and while I've only gone up to T3 (no desire to push much further) it's always performed very well in the support role. Probably less damage than others and not quite as high uptime for some boons, but I can still crank out a huge amount of offensive/defensive boons while having a bit of decent CC to go along with it. Never felt like it held my groups back.

Speaking of, I should run some fractals again, it's been a while.

[Flarelaine]

It only took most of the year but the meta is finally accepting the Renegade/Firebrand duo for support (traditionally Chrono and Druid).

If I can believe the lamentations of my guild master, repeatedly nerfing Chronos also has something to do with this.

- - - Updated - - -

Speaking of, I should run some fractals again, it's been a while.

Same for me. I usually run with my guild, but we have 6-7 people in total and don't usually manage the weekly runs since two of those had twins.

[Edge-]

Same for me. I usually run with my guild, but we have 6-7 people in total and don't usually manage the weekly runs since two of those had twins.

Awwww. I've generally had really good luck pugging them (at least through T3), not too hard and there's usually a fair amount of daily groups per tier.

[Flarelaine]

Awwww. I've generally had really good luck pugging them (at least through T3), not too hard and there's usually a fair amount of daily groups per tier.

I do PUG every now and then but I prefer playing with the homies. We're all IRL friends (basically, my Sunday tabletop group).

[Edge-]

Damn, real talk: The world boss/HoT meta teleport items are like, the best thing ever. Pop on some YouTube videos/podcasts and then just mindlessly kill bosses/do events with the zerg while burning through video/podcast backlogs. I don't even care how "profitable" it is, it's just damn fun to be able to use my wonky hybrid build effectively bouncing back and forth between burning shit hard and pumping out quite a bit of raid healing/boons.

REALLY hoping they add one for PoF zones, been a while since I've even been back to those and I need to run those meta's more often. Also, makes getting skill points on alts a damn breeze with the free teleports to zones.