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wher to start OMFG map key spot on to first half of map still on going but so far seems like it will go fast as for achievs GAAAAAA grindig my least fave thing to doOO that armor yea need some of that but big prob trial of Koda #1 have no clue wher or what to do and that's just to un lock a box witch ill have to buy 4 times or more just to get skins un locked but this is the kicker every one is saying is the strike mission kittens to me then I don't do raids wvw pvp why do them Ateam you all keep missing the mark take a look at your gem store and the my little pony griffon mess shame on you all for calling it a pegaus seriously seems the only way to get something kool in this game any more is grinding hell and being forced to do thing like raids or WVW and strike missions witch take up so much time are fill with ppl being so picky if you don't have this gear or this build or do as I say BS well then KITTENS TO GW2 ill go back to D&D table top game at least if the GM picks me off I can injoy the fact he is just to wasted to know better

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Events: kinda cool, lot of variety. Liked most of 'em. "Timber! " was a funny reference.

World Boss, Drakkar: can't say, haven't done due to a whole set of bugs influencing the event.

Story: liked the last mission, the rest were rather lackluster. Enjoyed the tidbits with Rytlock and Crecia, their dialogue was the highlight of this episode - whereas the rest tended to be either cliché or cheesy. Boy, does Aurene look beautiful. I want to smack Bangar's face in instead of being the commander doormat for this one, though.

Strike Mission: this one was good. Enjoyable mechanics, some learning curve, shouldn't be too difficult for casual players after a some tries and tips. Overall, props to the devs on this one.

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@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"ugrakarma.9416" said:
  • their hate for coeherent content, the only new title is locked behind a jumping puzzle, the "new" armor didnt have appeal to anyone who want roleplay a "winter wasteland adventurer".

Okay, I have to ask: where is that ominous JP?

There isn’t one, it’s just more light reflecting puzzles. You get a new title once all are done.

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i enjoyed it a lot. very good music, mood and map. :)I'm glad we got a better sky graphic than just low res clouds like on the previous episode. the sky looks much better. map events are nice too.the episode still suffers from some issues the previous one did though, mainly short story. i relaly think story needs to be like twice as long for every chapter.still it was fun to play.

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Story was okay, too dialogue heavy again.

I actually enjoyed the boneskinner/wolverine shrine hide event, and the overall aesthetics of the shrine.Ox shrine needs faster respawn / allow everyone to take those boxes. At the moment you have to camp the spawn locations to get event credit.

I really like the small open world light puzzles you can access with the raven gates.Drakkar needs to deal more damage, at the moment his attacks don't have any impact.

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You know, I have not played the episode yet, but I explored the map, and was thinking: "oh so that what the complete map should have been at release last November. They just cut a third of it and released it previously so they can sell us that they are providing more updates."

Seems the same regarding story based on this thread. So much for more "frequent" updates.

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@"Ashantara.8731" said:I'm fed up with being spoon-fed little bits every few months of what seems to be a well-written and interesting story arc

I don't disagree that the tiny amounts of story at a time has made it hard to maintain focus. I can see it being excruciating if you're a "Gimmie all nao!" type of personality. But it's obvious they're using S2 as a template (Which is why it seems a bit samey for long time players) . S2 was also a series of short stories but overall the plot had the direction and focus that was missing from S3. This seems like we're going to have to wait until it's all done before a valid critique can be made.

getting the Icebrood Saga as an expansion would have resulted in a much more satisfying experience than receiving little bits and pieces every few months

Get real. If it were released as an expansion folks will still be saying it's too short, the masteries are pointless, the bosses are too easy, "Where's muh raid wing?", "How come this wasn't an all PvP expansion?", and so on.

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I think people get upset over the story because it kind of seemed like by doing smaller maps or splitting them this season, we would be getting more story and compact gameplay in the parts of the map they create. But it kind of just feels like the exact same map and level design we had last season, but split in half. And somehow the story still seems shorter, once you take out the parts that force you to complete events and play open world.

But I definitely agree with the dialogue. I went to the eagle shrine earlier and right as some npc was blabbering my com went off and they were both so loud that I had to read chat to figure out what was being said.

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@Randulf.7614 said:

@Zaklex.6308 said:First off, Drakkar was nothing but a skeleton in a lake in GW1, a lake mind you that is probably a little smaller than the current broken ice version in this release. He was nothing in GW1, not a boss or anything, just a skeleton that turned Svanir to Jormag. I liken this to reading a good book series, you have to wait an eternity for the next release, at least with this game it's only a month or two between episodes, so the wait isn't as long.But I'm not as cynical as some or expect a lot either, so it's harder to be disappointed.

Given the location of Silfhalla to the west instead of the north east, that fractured ice lake doesn't appear to be the original Drakkar lake (which is a lot bigger in GW1).

Drakkar also wasn't a skeleton, it was a fully slumbering beast. No we didn't fight it nor did we know what it truly was until GW2, but it's one of those names which the legend and the lore mixed together to create something bigger than what it started out as. It an integral an important part of the Svanir/Jora/Jormag/Norn lore which makes it an important name. Much like how Kralk and Primordus were both nothing in GW1 but obviously became highly significant.

Well, I was going from the picture in my memory without logging in(which I'd have to dl to this computer to do) and it wouldn't be the first time locations got moved slightly, but it's really doesn't matter, at least I don't feel it matters. Same with Drakker, I always saw it as just a skeleton, I'll bet one with very large bones, but still a skeleton from my point of view, I think people will describe it as each person sees it. Overall it was what I expected, so not disappointed...I long ago learned to temper any hype for any game coming out(that even includes Cyberpunk).

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@Ashantara.8731 said:

@brenda.9723 said:being one-shot by Bangar was really lame

He was using Eir's magical bow, so...So.... what? :) Other foes don't use magic against us? We're somehow icebrood and weak to the spell?The scene was okay, but that oneshot was really a bit strange.

I liked the episode more than the last one, but the bar was really low here. The mix of open world and instances and how the story is delivered through different forms of communication and camera is pretty fun. The map... Idk, I don't care for snow maps in general, even if they are objectively good maps. Great soundtrack, though.

Rytlock is increasingly getting on my nerves. Can he and Crecia please sort out their drama somewhere off screen and off communicator?Aurene's return was a nice surprise, though. I didn't expect to meet her in person so soon again. Although now I am a bit concerned that she might believe Jormag too easily.And the second part of the tooth prophecy is new. And concerning.

Also, wasn't Drakkar supposed to be one of the harder world bosses, like Tequatl or TT? We were just zerging it down on the first day? How is that comparable to TT?I suspect it just wasn't ready and we'll be getting an update sometime?

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@Randulf.7614 said:There was zero challenge in the Drakkar fight. The mechanics just added a way to break the fight up a bit and extend the time. It would have been better at least to force players into all 3 portals simultaneously.. The debuff you get from doing a portal wasn't a hindrance, because there was always going to be a small group to go in and beat on the champ even if most were blocked out. And the smaller the group, the quicker the champ died.

There was a debuff from doing a portal/cave? Interesting to know. :) My buff bar was sooo full of icons/buffs, that I did not see this.

Several players (including me) during the event were wondering, why they could not enter the portal and thought the portal was buggy (it is sometimes buggy, because the portal sometimes shows the message, that you have to train the mastery to use it, to players, that already have the mastery completed)

And the debuff did not work always. Because I definitely was in at least one Drakkar fight, where I could enter all three portals/caves.

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Lack of History in the map and HOM Mountains do not change much in three centuries no Sifhalla ruins no rabbit holeHOM should have shown the account holders legacy if they are tied to GW EotNThe map was a separate area in original storiesStoryline was not long enough again for the several months of waiting if you are going to put snippets out do it at a quicker pace

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@Fenella.2634 said:

@brenda.9723 said:being one-shot by Bangar was really lame

He was using Eir's magical bow, so...So.... what? :) Other foes don't use magic against us? We're somehow icebrood and weak to the spell?The scene was okay, but that oneshot was really a bit strange.

But he's a kittening Blood Legion Imperator. That would make a champ at the very least. Never been one-shot by a champ or higher? I think the bow's magic is not even needed if the shooter is OP enough. Add to that some hypothetic debuff from the fight just fought and it makes sense just fine.

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@thepenmonster.3621 said:

@"Ashantara.8731" said:I'm fed up with being spoon-fed little bits every few months of what seems to be a well-written and interesting story arc

I don't disagree that the tiny amounts of story at a time has made it hard to maintain focus. I can see it being excruciating if you're a "Gimmie all nao!" type of personality. But it's obvious they're using S2 as a template (Which is why it seems a bit samey for long time players) .

So regression is a preferable state for us long time players?

getting the Icebrood Saga as an expansion would have resulted in a much more satisfying experience than receiving little bits and pieces every few months

Get real. If it were released as an expansion folks will still be saying it's too short, the masteries are pointless, the bosses are too easy, "Where's muh raid wing?", "How come this wasn't an all PvP expansion?", and so on.

Perhaps you should "get real." Had it been developed as an expansion, we wouldn't have had any of the garbage you mentioned. Instead, we would have gotten a well-rounded, thought-through, coherent product.

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Story - Seemed quite short, but decent dialogue and interesting.Map - decent design, no issues with the usual events/layout, not done drakkar yet.

however - Achievements.Really not liking the direction these are going in episodic content. There have been a couple in previous episodes with issues, namely

  • Constant Vigilance (where you have to save ALL survivors fighting the boneskinner, I completed this right at the start of last episode, where there was a large group of decent players. Have watched it fail most times since.
  • Divide by Zero (where you need a coordinated group to kill all the final blobs) - had to organise a map with another person in order to even come close.

These are not individual achievements, they require a large group or coordinated group to complete. Which can fail multiple times before you get it, and is reliant on other people to succeed, this is frustrating, especially as it adds an incentive to rush any and all achievements very early on in the episodes release in order to get enough people/experienced people to complete.

Which brings me to this episode, where a large number of the achievements are tied up behind strike missions. I'm not quite sure what the purpose of strike missions is, but, if its a bridging mechanic between fractal difficulty and raids, most of these are on the raid boss side of the difficulty spectrum. As such, normally you will need to use lfg to get a decent group together, as my experience with walking through the portal for a random group has usually resulted in multiple fails and hours of wasted time as you watch players 11111 through. You have then added grindy achievements that in some cases again requires the group to coordinate in order to get, such as the torches achievement on the boneskinner strike, if other people aren't bothered, good luck getting that. To cap it all, you added them into the meta achievement, really they should be a separate category from the story journal, under strike missions. You separated the drakkar ones, fractals and raids, these would also be good candidates if we are going to get more challenge mode type achievements for these group only achievements.

Very grindy, not particularly fun to get if you rely on having a group and increases the feeling you need to rush through the episode in order to get alot of these done.

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@Zok.4956 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:There was zero challenge in the Drakkar fight. The mechanics just added a way to break the fight up a bit and extend the time. It would have been better at least to force players into all 3 portals simultaneously.. The debuff you get from doing a portal wasn't a hindrance, because there was always going to be a small group to go in and beat on the champ even if most were blocked out. And the smaller the group, the quicker the champ died.

There was a debuff from doing a portal/cave? Interesting to know. :) My buff bar was sooo full of icons/buffs, that I did not see this.

Several players (including me) during the event were wondering, why they could not enter the portal and thought the portal was buggy (it is sometimes buggy, because the portal sometimes shows the message, that you have to train the mastery to use it, to players, that already have the mastery completed)

And the debuff did not work always. Because I definitely was in at least one Drakkar fight, where I could enter all three portals/caves.

The debuff works like Vinewrath. When u clear a portal, you get a 4 min debuff preventing you entering another. Which actually helps because the smaller the portal group, the quicker it clears.

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@anninke.7469 said:

@brenda.9723 said:being one-shot by Bangar was really lame

He was using Eir's magical bow, so...So.... what? :) Other foes don't use magic against us? We're somehow icebrood and weak to the spell?The scene was okay, but that oneshot was really a bit strange.

But he's a kittening Blood Legion Imperator. That would make a champ at the very least. Never been one-shot by a champ or higher?In a story instance? We should at least be at champ level there ourselves. The last one oneshotting the PC was Kralkatorrik and I think Bangar should not be on that level. :lol:
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@Fenella.2634 said:

@brenda.9723 said:being one-shot by Bangar was really lame

He was using Eir's magical bow, so...So.... what? :) Other foes don't use magic against us? We're somehow icebrood and weak to the spell?The scene was okay, but that oneshot was really a bit strange.

But he's a kittening Blood Legion Imperator. That would make a champ at the very least. Never been one-shot by a champ or higher?In a story instance? We should at least be at champ level there ourselves. The last one oneshotting the PC was Kralkatorrik and I think Bangar should not be on that level. :lol:

Depends on the PC... well, the player behind them anyway :D

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Hello,After an initial, casual playthrough of the patch, I typed out this feedback to A Shadow In The Ice on reddit, it was meant as a feedback to the team working on that episode. However, it was too long for reddit. So I am posting it here instead. It is addressed at the team, so don't let that irritate you.

I'll use this as an opportunity to comment on what I have played, I might edit once I've played the rest (e.g. the western light puzzle or the Drakkar world boss, which was bugged in my map yesterday). I have some positives and some negatives.

THE MAP DESIGN: WESTERN BJORA MARCHESThank you, map designers, for finally bringing us into the Shiverpeaks! Yes! I don't want to say that Eastern Bjora had no charm at all -it did have some - but except for Asgeir's Legacy, it felt a little flat and predictable to me, and it made me miss the verticality, the sense of scope that came with the Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire maps. As I climbed up the frozen waterfall in the northern part of the map and looked in all directions, I felt that sense of awe and joy that the boldness of GW2's map designs has repeatedly inspired in me. Now I am truly feeling like I am in the Shiverpeaks. Had we gotten a Shiverpeaks expansion, this is what I would have wanted the maps do be like. I already can't wait for the next thing these designers will put out.SOUNDS AND MUSICStunning, simply stunning. After about a few minutes of playing I put in my headphones and decided to listen very closely, and it just pays off so much. You hear the winds howling, you hear the ice cracking, there is a real sense of dimension to the soundscape that just makes it all so REAL, and at some point, it was like the very wind itself was carrying ominous, unintelligible whispers... I paused a while and listened: creepy! Creepier than Jormag directly whispering into your head, I must say. A job well done.The music is a joy to listen to! I love the emotions the tracks convey. I would describe how well the music fits the map and how on point it is in what it means to express, but I kind of lack the words. I just love what it does, that's that. It's its own dimension of storytelling, for sure.

VISUALS:

  • I love the ice in this episode. It looks so beautiful, these deep blues with the cracks running through them. Stunning!
  • Drakkar's shadow looks really ominous
  • I love the scene with the bonfire where things are represented in fire, very nice touch
  • Map design is top notch visually

GAMEPLAY AND EVENTS:In regards to the gameplay in the map, well, I would say the events are decently enjoyable as far as events go. There are some minor bugs here and there - the Ox event had some slabs of rock that couldn't be interacted with even though the hand symbol was on them. But overall, they work. However, the three "main events" - I am talking about the shrines - all left me feeling a bit irked in some regard.

OX:I really don't like how, when transformed into an Ox and pulling a rock, you can't really fight the Fallen enemies. It's just annoying knowing that, as soon as two or three mobs swarm me, I am basically done for. After all, Ox is about endurance, not about evasion/stealth. Maybe it is supposed to encourage cooperation - some players deal with the mobs and some pull the slabs - but why not give the Oxen a sort of "barrier skill" they can trigger the moment they are attacked on their own, so they can last a little longer, maybe gain the precious seconds they need? Why not make their charge do more damage so they can actually use it to overcome a threat instead of just "poking" at it? I even tried to use the charge skill in a directional sense, because I figured it would be a cool way to quickly bridge some distance between me and the shrine, but that felt wonky, too. I think there is some wasted potential here.EAGLE:
I kind of like the idea of this event - the sense of being caught in a whirlpool and having to work with or against the flow in order to get where you want. Unfortunately, I feel like the winds are quite random and you cannot really time anything, you kinda just have to stubbornly try until you succeed? Maybe this is on me for not seeing the patterns or visual cues here yet, but if there aren't any, I think there should be. It would fit the theme of vigilance: Watching out for visual cues and then acting on them like a strategist. And when you really pay attention, you can get through the entire "maze" structure with no problems at all. Maybe that can be done, I'll have to replay it some more. But if not, that's kind of a pity.
WOLVERINE:First of all: Playing the mini game in the Boneskinner forest made me a lot more afraid of Boneskinners than the Eastern half of Bjora did. While I wouldn't say Episode 1 made me not care about the Boneskinners - there certainly are some things they did with them that made me feel a little creeped out - this just really nailed it, at least on my first few tries. When you just KNOW that, mechanically, it will be game over once one of these creatures spots you, that just creates a very distinct and powerful sense of excitement and adrenaline when you are trying to avoid them. The boneskinners at the Wolverine shrine genuinely make me be on edge, I feel like prey. It reminds me of the spectral Mordrem wolves in the Silverwastes, and I am glad something is done with this again, because it is just something that works well, gameplay-wise.However, with this event, I haven't even made it to the shrine a single time, and I feel I need to understand the mini game better in order to judge it appropriately.

OVERALL:Fortunately, for each of the shrine events, you get event participation for simply trying, but I must say that this almost feels too generous. Especially for the Wolverine event: It's just such an all or nothing kind of event. Either you make it to the shrine or you don't. There is no tangible contribution to the actual goal of the event, and it just feels off to be rewarded. However, given that time was invested one way or the other, it's probably smarter to compensate the players - I see that.To be completely honest, I think the three shrines would have worked better as hearts. You only make progress when you succeed, there is no timer that runs out so you can take time to figure stuff out. However, considering for each of these events, other players can intentionally or unintentionally sabotage you - e.g. pulling Fallen enemies towards a transformed player at the Oxen shrine - maybe it's better that it's not hearts. Or adventures, for that matter. If it could be instanced to you alone, adventures would have been a nice addition.

TRIAL SYSTEM:My most positive experience with the new trial system was that of a powerful Svanir champion spawning in Eastern Bjora after - I believe - defeating a bunch of Svanir patrols. We were just three players, none of us at the skill ceiling with our specs, so it felt decently challenging. I haven't paid enough attention to the system yet, but it could work pretty well if done right.

OTHER FORMS OF GAMEPLAY:Exploration:Events are not the only type of gameplay, there is also exploration. I feel like that was very rewarding with this map, no complaints here. I have seen some of the secret Raven areas because of other players who opened gates for me, and the areas seemed well done. Doing the Mysterious Labyrinth, I once again felt like I didn't completely understand it at first, which I just really like. Especially with it being Raven themed. Challenge me, game.I was hoping for some more jumping puzzle style content, and I am really glad we are getting it here, though I think I prefer singular lengthy parcours (like the Thunderhead "puzzle") to multiple shorter ones scattered across a map. Nonetheless, I'll be doing them a couple of times!A final touch on exploration: The vistas were well worth getting to in this patch, I particularly enjoyed the one showing the wrecked Kodan Sanctuary.Bosses:There weren't a lot of interesting bossfights in the story, but I liked the one meaningful fight we got: against the Whisper of Jormag. That felt reasonably difficult and exciting for the average player! Why not put in two to four of these per patch? Season 4 did way better on that end, but I feel like the reason is the same reason we aren't currently getting new fractals or raids: There is a certain shortage in resources that are invested towards mechanically challenging content. That is a pity. But I guess it's just how things are at the moment.We DID get a strike mission, which, from what I have heard, actually challenges players more than any previous one. That's a positive in my eyes, but I can't say more just yet. Have yet to play it.

MASTERIES:[The mastery system hasn't been exciting or particularly meaningful since HoT. This is my subjective opinion, but I strongly believe in it. Playing this patch once again reminded me, why:1) The EXP required is too little. I play without EXP boosts, just so that masteries actually feel like something I am working towards. With EXP boosts, they would be so much of a breeze, they might as well not be there at all.2) There are too many mastery points/ the masteries require not enough mastery points. While I do enjoy picking them up in the open world via exploration, I feel let down by the fact that these will most certainly be enough for me to actually get the next mastery. It just isn't challenging, demanding or exciting. Gating some mastery points behind specific things like crafting would be so much more worthwhile IF YOU ACTUALLY NEEDED THOSE POINTS.The mastery system as it currently works encourages maximum laziness. You don't have to try new things, even actually work, ever. I am still mad that I have 13 Path of Fire mastery points that I will NEVER, EVER USE, and probably just as many gated behind various collections that I would have worked on more actively if I had been looking forward to the mastery points that came with them. But I will never look forward to those points, because I always will have enough from just exploring the map... whhhhyyyy?!3) There often aren't enough "inconveniences" or "lures" that actually make you want to master a mastery in the first place. You just want to master masteries because it offers a tiny, tiny sense of progression. Path of Fire could have made masteries really big by having it take a lot of time until Raptors could be mastered to jump that extra bit further and unlock secret areas, instead, you basically master everything relevant by just playing the main story.I get why these things are done. I get that some people, maybe even many people out there, just want instant gratification and can't possibly fathom that something they paid for is walled off to them until they actually put in some work. I know people like this myself.But it's holding this system back. ]

RAVEN MASTERIES:As far as the Raven masteries go: I think the Raven locks are a joke (you get the mastery without lifting so much as a finger, it's basically just lore flavor), the Raven barriers are kinda decent.The new Raven gates are an interesting idea. I liked seeing these gates out in the wild with no one around to unlock them for me and thinking: I will have a reason to come here again!That's what masteries should do. Give you something to look forward to. And the payoff is there, because there is actual content that opens up to you once you can open these gates.It's still too easy to get, however. Once you have it, you won't feel proud, because it just didn't take a lot of effort. And once every active player has the mastery, the joy of having someone open a gate for you is down the drain, too.I would suggest having daily charges for the Raven gates. You can open one gate a day. One. Or maybe three - maybe. Yes, it's restrictive, but it also makes you want to cooperate with other players! It brings people together. There would be a sense of having to be careful with what you are given. Once more maps introduce Raven gates, there would be trains of people running to various locations and opening gates for the benefit of everyone in their group!Yes, it would, in some ways, be considered timegating. But it would make the mastery ten times more meaningful, is my opinion. I know it's too bold a thing to propose, but I can't help but wonder what that'd have been like. Of course, the rewards behind the gates would have to be appropriately worthwhile as well. Yeah. Not gonna happen... but one can dream, right?

STORY:I really, really liked the voice acting in this story. It was so well done. Very immersive, and a lot of distinct voices for characters throughout the map - or so it sounded to me.The actual story was... a mixed bag, in my opinion. Honestly, the trailer made me hope that Wolf was actually Jormag trying to corrupt Braham. That would have been rather dark indeed. That would have raised the stakes for the season. Instead, we got Braham... unlocking his ability to become the Wolf... by absorbing three completely different spirit essences that no Norn, not even Eir (who also COULD BECOME THE WOLF) had access to for the longest time? It just feels off. Wonky. I know the actual purpose of the essences was to be used against Drakkar, but Wolf simply appearing and giving these oddly specific instructions towards becoming "True Norn" was strange. .. it would just have worked better if it was a ruse. If Jormag had been behind it.Besides, we put in the actual work in at the shrines, and Braham just had to backtalk at the mean, corrupted spirits ... I don't know. I get the idea behind it, I get why it supposedly carries a lot of weight, but the execution just didn't feel that exciting. It was even somewhat corny to me. I kinda hope that this marks a sort of "change" in Braham's arc, because, while I enjoy having him around, I am getting a little tired of his "journey to maturity and courage" being such a prevalent theme.Other things I did not quite enjoy:

  • Rytlock and Crecia just popping up in the final instance instead of there being a "little reunion", a "catching up", after everything that happened over the comms. It felt too artificial.
  • Bangar's explanation for why he "now is a Dragon champion and can control Jormag because he killed Drakkar" felt sort of awkward? I just couldn't quite follow that logic, it seems so constructed. It makes him look a bit too stupid. Then again, he probably IS very smart in some ways and very stupid in others.
  • The part where we were pursuing Drakkar through ice tunnels felt artificial, probably because the area seemed to be designed just so that the voice acting would have some space to unfold, and that just kind of... felt super apparent. This is actually more on the gameplay side of things, I guess. I just felt like the tunnel part of the story was slapped together really quickly.
  • Generally, the way the characters behaved throughout the episode seemed artificial at times, tailored to fit where the plot needed them to be. Braham just going places that Jhavi points out as being incredibly dangerous because why not, Bangar and Ryland just suddenly splitting from their army to take care of Drakkar... I don't know.
  • Rytlock and Crecia trying to murder us from one moment to the next, and not properly apologizing for it afterwards. That was off, too. Maybe it was meant to be, but eh.
  • The way our Commander was shot with a super powerful magical bow and somehow survived, when visually the cues were a lot like our pre-dying moments in PoF; then later there not being any proper explanation as to how or why we ended up with Aurene in the Eye of the North. Who healed us and how? Rytlock and Cre carried us, but who knew to bring us to the EotN instead of anywhere else? Did Aurene call out to them? How much time has passed? There was not enough time spent on these questions. Of course, the answers are not that hard to find, but the instance could have provided them. It felt a bit rushed.
  • This is a super personal nitpick, because I know why it's not done... but: I want more opportunities to express something towards Aurene - at least sometimes! I wanna tell her I missed her. I wanna tell her I'm proud of her. I wanna tell her how she's grown. I wanna ask her how she's feeling. I wanna pet her again. Things are just so formal, ugh. :P

Things I enjoyed:

  • The initial setup of the map, talking to the Kodan in Still Waters Speaking, felt really immersive. I loved that.
  • I loved that bit with the bonfire embodying things like suffering Kodan etc. That was really cool.
  • I always love these parts where you can ask a handful of questions and the answers are actually long and voice-acted, each. Thanks for bringing that back!
  • The conversations with Rytlock and Crecia over the comms were actually rather well done, you kind of felt like you were losing control of the situation but couldn't do much about it because they were somewhere else entirely.
  • Did I mention the voice acting was great?
  • Events had nice dialogue as well, I loved just listening to event dialogue even when I didn't bother actually doing them.
  • While it felt off how every important character was suddenly at the lake in the end, I really did enjoy what Bangar did and how he means to instrumentalize it. It fits him, and that he would try to kill us (AFTER using our help to kill the Whisper) fits as well. I still don't get why he thinks killing Drakkar makes him a dragon champion, but maybe that is what Jormag told him...?
  • I was thrilled that the Whisper of Jormag was a sort of parasitic creature that emerged from Drakkar's corpse, that was really nice and disgusting. Well done!
  • I like it whenever Jormag actually converses with us, I want it to last even longer...
  • While I already mentioned some gripes with Braham's journey this episode; seeing Braham actually becoming the wolf was very satisfying.
  • I loved how you brought back Aurene into the story in the end, and I really liked what she said about everything, and that additional bit about the scrying pools.Oh, and...
  • YOU ADDED LORE BOOKS! THAT GO BEYOND ONE PAGE OF TEXT AND ARE GENUINELY EXCITING TO READ! YES! USE THAT FORMAT MORE, I WANT MORE! I'VE WANTED THIS FOR SO LONG!

REWARDS:The event rewards are nothing worth speaking about, but the actual vendor rewards are really great!

  • As a lore nerd, I am super glad you brought us the Raven Shaman outfit
  • Tier III Boreal weapons look really snazzy and I want to get my hands on them
  • The corrupted spirit minis are some really cool minis
  • The new strike mission rewards (I think that's what e.g. the Ice Construct Helmet and Boneskinner staff are?) are nice too!
  • I am really looking forward to earning the /shiver emote

I think the team shipped a pretty good release overall, and there are a lot of things, big and small, that deserve appreciation. It has its flaws, and the absence of fractals and raids is still a bummer, but this episode makes me wanna stay around and play actively for some time, and it makes me look forward to what comes next as well. Thanks for that!

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I want to start this by saying I've completed every bit of the story since the launch of this game.

With that being said I have not enjoyed any of the saga. Having events clog up the map pretty much all the time for me frustrates me greatly. You can barely stay on the ground anymore. Sometimes I do like to look around outside of combat mode. I think there needs to be a better balance of instanced content vs non instanced. Lets face it those events really don't matter after you have progressed past that part of the story...

The map itself is great and I do enjoy the meta's even though the focus of the meta is just to take your time and not really challenge you. I have always been a fan of the winter maps.

The story has been good. Better than it has been since season one in my opinion. But it does feel like the amount of content being released is very small comparing to previous updates. Since we are not getting an expansion I guess I was expecting more. Maybe my bar was set to high. I am not sure if it has anything to do with the reduction of workforce that happened recently or what but it has been very underwhelming.

Masteries have been a joke and will continue to be a joke until they make them useful no matter what map you are on no matter if your in Core, HoT, PoF, or Saga. Mounts and Gliding are the exception to this.

Where is the next big thing? Isn't it time for it? I am talking about a game changer something that we would use everyday. For example HoT brought Gliding. PoF brought Mounts. What will the Saga bring? Every other living world we have had something major to look forward to. So far, and it saddens me to say this because I really do love this game but I am starting to fade out.

Keep in mind these are all rhetorical questions that do not need answers its just what I've been thinking lately and this latest update just woke up my feelings again.

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