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Official Feedback Thread: LWS4 Episode 5: All or Nothing


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Really love the new map, it's huge! It's so pretty! Disappointed with the lack of things to spend Branded Masses on (the new map currency item thing), there seemed to only be a few mini-pets and a sharpening stone clone, but it's a really minor complaint, the overall experience was amazing.

! The story... WOW. Breathtaking, so well put together. I felt the fear in my chest as I was gliding over Kralk, and I felt absolutely devastated at the end. On another note about the end; I loved how it was made, where you're walking crippled and trying to make sense of what's happened, the fact that you have to actually walk and look around to understand was really cool! It's the best episode to date, I can't wait for the next episode.

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A largely empty map, devoid of any real storytelling and lighter on lore than most other maps. This was the weakest map of LS4 by long way and considering Kourna, that's an achievement. Deldrimor deserved so much more than this.

The instances were filler, with the first instance relying too much on over the top special effects. I had no idea what was going on in trial 1 due to the flashing everywhere. I fluked my way through it

The ending however was much better. Sadly it never felt very dangerous, but the tone was right and the battle about as good as it was ever going to be in a solo instance.Not enough deaths, but nice to see some Pact casualties as we ran to the final balcony. The final scene saved the whole thing for me.

Excellent musical score. probably the best of LS4 alongside ep2.

1 ap achievements again shows to me any feedback we give on this, even though it's been 2-3 years continuously, seems to be redundant.

Overall, an extremely weak and mostly boring episode (arguably the worst of ls2/3 or 4), one devoid of content with the redemption of a decent cliffhanger and one that was the right way forward. I find the inconsistency in map design Vs ones like Jahai and Sandswept astonishing

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I'm too emotionally numb to even attempt to talk about this,

! but the real winner of this episode is the apparent implication that Canach convinced Logan and Rytlock to split their arena into two teams for practice, then convinced them to let him take bets for 'morale reasons', then convinced them to take team names. then convinced them to let him name the teams

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Any complaints I had with regard to the first chapter's gameplay went away when I played the last chapter and beat it. Anet, you absolute mad lads and ladies. You knocked this story out of the part. I’m sitting on $123 in Christmas money and every last cent is going into a gem card purchase this Friday. Bravo, ladies and gentlemen. Best Living Story Episode ever.

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I'm only past the first instance and I'm already frustrated with the achievements. Particularly Power Player. It says "Charge three crystals with the magic of veteran Branded foes." That's not vague at all. The vets don't drop crystals, so I have to drag them in? Do I have to complete the charge with the vet kill or can I kill the vet at any time before the crystal fills? Can I pull them all to any one crystal, or do I have to keep them separate when I kill them?

I hate this achievement. It demands that I somehow avoid the soft-bodied fodder monsters that indiscriminately swarm me as I slowly tick away at an immobile tank, hoping to never cleave down or accidentally kill any of the other monsters, lest I fail the achievement and have to continually log in an out over and over again. And that is assuming that I even know what to do. I'm going to have to come in to this episode specifically with a specially made build on a completely different class, because otherwise this achievement is impossible.

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Let's say this is some SPOILER (Criticism about this episode)

! In the ep 4 we saw aurene's vision of future and there wasn't way she could survive that fight. Also in the end of same ep4 we got some info how Taimi is going to die bcs of her disease. Why are you so focused killing dear characters, what is point of that? New ls5 or new expansion, so let's delete old good/best stuff and make new????! Finally after 3,5 months *clap clap you did it, you finished Aurene, so when will Taimi die? We already know there will be ep6 where probably Kralkatorik gonna die 99% chance so you left us heartbroken and waiting for nothing(all or NOTHING), we already know what will happen and yeah in a 4 months because you aren't Blizzard you are Arenanet. What will be after you kill all dragons and after you kill all heros? Put your own personal real life character into the game and kill it, i would gladly play that episode!

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@"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:I'm only past the first instance and I'm already frustrated with the achievements. Particularly Power Player. It says "Charge three crystals with the magic of veteran Branded foes." That's not vague at all. The vets don't drop crystals, so I have to drag them in? Do I have to complete the charge with the vet kill or can I kill the vet at any time before the crystal fills? Can I pull them all to any one crystal, or do I have to keep them separate when I kill them?

I hate this achievement. It demands that I somehow avoid the soft-bodied fodder monsters that indiscriminately swarm me as I slowly tick away at an immobile tank, hoping to never cleave down or accidentally kill any of the other monsters, lest I fail the achievement and have to continually log in an out over and over again. And that is assuming that I even know what to do. I'm going to have to come in to this episode specifically with a specially made build on a completely different class, because otherwise this achievement is impossible.

You just have to kill 3 vets in total within range of a crystal. It does require manipulating the squishy enemies so they are out of range though since Aurene can quickly kill them if they get close to the crystal. Ideally keep killing mobs out of range until a vet appears and kill that quickly by a crystal

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I don't have the energy to write more than just a couple comments:

  • Cinematics and sound are stunning. Mechanics are fun, aside from the charging crystals, since mob AI made it hard to get them to stay to be charged.
  • I appreciate the QoL updates.
  • The map's pretty (glad to see a Shiverpeaks map again), but it gives me Lake Doric vibes in playthrough (not a fan of that map, sadly).
  • Killing off beloved characters is not good writing. I shouldn't expect any better, given the track record, but this is ridiculous. I'm so tired of the writing team relying on character death for shock value. It's not going to do much, but if I could even have one word with the writing team, please stop.
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Loved the story and enjoy the look of the map. Haven't had a chance to discover the meta yet, if there is one.

I am having trouble doing map completion as the POI I need, Hammer's Hoard, is hidden behind a couple of dynamic events, a series of gates, and a trap maze. That seems more suitable for a mastery point or HP. It's a bit much for a POI.

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The last instance was too long of a fight with a lot of just standing around waiting for branded mob to spawn because i killed a bunch while getting the sapper at the same time. Along with just WAITING for more mobs to spawn and walk over to me to charge the crystals REALLY killed the great story writing build up. REALLY ruined that it was suppose to feel like a fight for your life with all of Tyria and everyone's lives at stake, because i was literally just standing there unharmed waiting around to progress. So maybe make it so the crystals require less mobs to charged up so it goes through faster? I had 1 friend with me and none of the aids from the NPCS. Killing the mobs was not a problem, just the waiting was a real kill to the story's feel.Also getting up close to kralk for the first two blasts felt like nothing, just hitting the thing until it went away. Not much damage taken and nothing to put my on edge to give that sense of danger? The combat was bland. I was in full berserkers gear so any hit if there were any, would have hurted me a lot but there was nothing. The last one though with Aurene was more action, but still felt flat because the damage was little. I know some players don't like the combat being tooo hard, but this is RIGHT infront of the dang big ass dragon, so it should be atleast a little hard?? I'm mostly saying this because the combat ruined the feelings and build up I got from the written story, it just didn't match.

Also in the meta events there is SO MUCH VISUAL AND AUDIO NOISE IT HURTS, turning the entire enemies hit boxes into a ray of light. Purple blasting my eyes out, and just whatever noises from everything being so loud and overlapping all at once.

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I haven't had a chance to finish the story, but it's been amazing so far! My only concern deals with the new map itself. Both metas are fantastic to play through, especially the Thunderkeep one. Though, it doesn't feel rewarding. Maybe adding some small chests such as the ones in Kourna's, Istan's meta would be good. The map itself is gorgeous. Replayability seems the lowest out of the 4 other maps from this season. There doesn't seem to be many events at all.

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Once more, Anet had no consideration for players suffering motion sickness and put again twirling/luring visual effects. I had to take several breaks to be able to go through first instance of the story due to that.My feedback: If it is intended to always have such visual effects in the game, fair enough, but then please give us an option allowing to cancel them. Maybe the post-processing option could cover that too?Thank you.

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Please, for the love of all that is holy, do something about the oil pouring part of the story! Three of my guildies and I are doing the story as I am typing this, and we are stuck at the oil thing; three of us have been successful, and one is hopelessly stuck with it not working. Over and over. We have been at this part for way far too long, almost an hour. It has made a huge slow-down in the story and has become an utter study in frustration. It is no longer fun. Please ANet! Fix this!

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Well, I'm just hoping for my favorite character to be brought back via the magic of another former favorite. I mean, it was definitely short. And I can agree that the map is beautiful but feels pretty vacant. I've been trying to finish off my mastery to check it out and there's like... no events.. or people... and a few branded creatures here and there. As far as visuals go, it's stunning but it almost always is. Repeatable? After going through the dwarven areas and exploring underground and the various hidden places I'm not sure how much repeatable stuff there will be. I guess to grind out the weapons. I also wish there was a dwarven combat tonic or something. Combat tonics are always exciting and I complete the heart vendors each patch hoping there will be one but there rarely is anymore.

So, story and instances were unique and well done, but this cliffhangers with Aurene are getting pretty daunting and I hate that it's usually 4 months before I can actually find out what happened. And just like in Long Live the Lich, you expect to pick up where you left off but then you just randomly start in Lion's Arch or Amnoon and it just feels kind of jarring. Hopefully with this cliffhanger it will actually pick up right where it ended for once. And hopefully it will be on a positive note. Just so depressing to wait so long in between patches and then have all of your favorite characters die or have the pendulum swinging over their heads.

And story-wise? What was the point in the end? What did we actually achieve? I'm sure the next patch will finish what we started, and I have high hopes that it will be in the Blood Legion Homelands because those areas of Ascalon in guild wars 1 were some of my favorites. (Not so much in guild wars 2.) But again, cliffhanger 4 month wait, cliffhanger, 4 month wait, cliffhanger, 4 month wait. I get that's a good tool for storytelling, but at this pace it just makes story enthusiasts like me salty. Especially this particular ending.

Anyway, yes, the final instance branded takes awhile to get to the crystals. Also, the first trial was a bit hard to understand and for someone glassy like my ele it was just a matter of trying to dodge spam and heal and let the damage tick?

I haven't really had a whole lot of time to dive into the zone, but so far I would give it a 5/10, and that's -4 stars for the ending....

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I am absolutely sure the story is going to be controversial, particularly because it chose to leave off there and go into a (probably) three-month wait to pick back up. That's going to be a tough pill to swallow.

It's going to be really important that Ep6 doesn't feel like a good old-fashioned kitten pull. I have my theories, and it'll be interesting to see what the writers do for sure. This is where you show what you're made of. :)

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I am very pleased with the overall release.Having played through the story only at this point, there are two things that really irked me.

The first one is no spoiler. It's just that everything felt pretty rushed and too easy , even with the ending (This season gave me serious plotpoint whiplash). There was also a lot of the good old telling instead of showing , which was a bit disheartening.

The other one is something where I just wildly went: Why would you do that? That's so bad storytelling!

! At the point where Glint pulls us aside to talk in private with us, she tells us that Krakaltorik, one of the elder dragons, something that is supposed to be on the level of a natural desaster is appearently planning things based on a possible vision and is so far up his own kitten that he won't share power, he didn't even posess at this point. Like... oh noes, there could be a time where dragons and other being could live together and I can't do... WHAT? What do elder dragons do? We still haven't cleared that up. We know they are there for some kind of balance. So much did Glint say, but what is the purpose of ELder Dragons? We still have no answer to it? All this time they are this big things with a greater purpose and now you give one of them the notion of oh noes, the humies and stuff might hurt my power. That's not larger than life. That's close to home as everything else. For me that was the biggest downside of this story.

Otherwise it was smooth. I kinda glitched into the big endfight, which was a bit hillarious, just fighting one object there (actually no, that was quite creepy)

So yeah. Time to explore the map now. Has been some time I was at thunderhead.

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Once again, too short imo. I feel my heart racing at the end only for it to stop and I'm like "NOOOOOO!"

Other than that, I really enjoyed the new tech used for this episode. Namely the camera panning to the focus of the action, and the way that the character themselves animate after some trigger is tripped.

(Falling down/stumbling in the last scene)

I'd love to know more about the incredible changes you all made to how that works because it is a great addition to the visual storytelling.

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Spoiler allert!

! With Gwen you got me back in the game. The moment i have seen her my mind was blown. That was the nicest touch of the whole chapter.

Bugs.In the last story ibstance i got stuck under the dredge rubble cause i was standing there. Add a knockback effect.

Story.Was good a really good one but please do not wait 3 months to show us something. You made your point and we got to feel the sadness. Give us something to mend our souls before 3 months end.

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