coollizzylou.9387

Not sure if this is intended behavior or a bug, so I'm putting my forum message here.

(note: This isn't a joke, it isn't ironic, I'm not sucking up to anyone. I genuinely enjoy this new update and have nothing bad to say. It may not be your opinion but it is mine which is why I made my own forum post. If you would like to contribute anything except for earnest appreciation, maybe don't do that here?) Hi. I just. This update is so cool. The map? Beautiful. The meta? Very neat and fun. The cosmetics? SUPER pretty! AND THE STORY oh my word the story. I haven't been this invested for some time. I'm making fan art, I recorded my commander's mental breakdown and made a montage out of it, I even made a theory bingo card (and nearly got a bingo too!). I am going certifiably feral. Rama, Gorrik, and Yao played wonderfully off of each other and the character and political drama is very very good! I am so excited to see the commander in the pit of despair. The writing in this update has been so engaging and funny and emotional and the voice direction and music elevate it so much. Not even mentioning the art design! Also, I like how the caves have incorporated the bounce mushrooms! It's always neat to see. This game is so important to me you guys and I am eating well off of this content. There are so many things to think about and do and I am very very excited to see where this all goes next. (also, the gw2 tumblr blog has been radio silent since november and not gonna lie I am kinda worried about who(m)ever mods that. If anyone at Anet actually does see this, could you pass along my appreciation and well wishes? ty kindly!)

that's valid! and i said that i expect that to happen. I just was trying to relate my experiences where hopefully the devs could see them. my main point isnt necessarily that the event itself is too hard, but that it's very difficult for disorganized groups because there's so little room for error, if that makes sense? because in my experience leading metas it's very hard to get every single person organized and doing mechanics, and that's what this seems to require. i hadn't meant for the post to come off as ungrateful or aggressive, i just wanted to share my concerns

Now, let me just preface this with saying that i do expect this to get better as the community adjusts to the new content and a widely accepted strategy is developed. That being said, I just finished attempting the twisted marionette several times. it's a really fun boss fight! i like it a lot! But as a person trying to lead it in the LFG for the community, it's virtually unwinnable with a disorganized or semi-organized squad. here are the things that made it impossible: the small number of available players in one squad (50) is simply not enough to complete the boss fight unless the group is hyper-organized: players must split the squad exactly ten to each lane to ensure the reasonable possibility of victory. Even with locked subgroups and many requests in text chat for players to stay in the lane their subgroup coincides with, this simply does not happen. the wardens are nearly impossible to kill within the time limit, let alone the chain: because the amount of squad members are so limited, the maximum available players per platform is two. Oftentimes, these two players would not be able to duo a champion in the allotted time in the best conditions. The problem is compounded by the need to dodge attacks from the marionette and address mechanics from the warden. Additionally, if there are not the full 10 people in the lane, players will have to fight the boss solo. this can be extreamly frustrating as a heal focused character is almost guaranteed to be unable to kill the warden, while even the most skilled damage focused character will most likely be killed. And even if the warden is killed, the chain must also be destroyed. the time limit is simply too short for two players of varying skill and gear to do. For instance, I was playing my heal firebrand, and was put on a platform with another heal firebrand. We were only able to kill the warden because other players on a neighboring platform were able to use AoEs to assist us. We were not able to destroy the chain. platform assignment will sometimes not fill a platform, leading to an automatic fail: this is probably the most frustrating thing about the marionette as it is. Because the players are so limited, whatever system that decides which players go on which platform is ineffective. As such, it is not uncommon for a platform to simply never have a player in it, leading to an automatic, unavoidable failure of the attempt. This in turns leads to confusion and frustration that is very hard to manage as a commander. TLDR: there is simply not enough room for error for a semi-organized squad of casual players, largely stemming from the fact that there is a maximum of 50 players available. if the twisted marionette is superposed to be for only the most try-hard of players, then I'm sure it is very enjoyable for them. But for the rest of the community, it's practically impossible.

I understand that the prologue is unavailable to replay, but entire chapters worth of dialogue and conversation seam to be missing the option for replay. is this a bug? I really hope this is a bug

There's a really interesting ambient dialogue between two norn locals in the fighting pit in Holebrak (technically there are 2, the other one is about S, but I'm talking about this one) and it goes like this: Now, I have no idea who Visin is, the wiki had nothing on them. But the implication of resettlement efforts to the north suggest that the Norn are taking back their ancestral homeland now that Icebrood saga is over. Thoughts?

anyway,,,,,,,, i just want to say, as a story and lore nerd, Champions has be absolutely FEEDING me. like.... gosh i could go on and on about the character drama, the lore implications, the world building? EOTN is an absolutely incredible little hub of interest. we have all 5 races and the pact, along with all of the factions we're recruiting. it's so great! Logan telling you that the Pact is strained is so good because it's conformation of the pact's trajectory. the ambient dialogue and the npcs that are there are just so cool. it's so cool to see the orders and the governments and the factions intermingled as they prepare for the upcoming battles. we got an update on the pale tree! Sigfast is there! Phlunt! and the character drama? the fight between Braham and Taimi? the back and forth fishing for information between Caithe, the Commander, and Ryland? the friction between Jhavi and Jory? SO GOOD! they're both showing the stress of the current story and following through on story beats that were laid in advance (the asura and Primordus, what being a champion means, and how far is too far when it comes to war respectively) and i am so glad! the writers are pulling out all the stops for this and I am so, so excited to see where it leads. that is all

ok ok ok here's my only question. Is that all for this chapter? Totally cool if it is, but it feels like something should come after the bonus event. I'm mostly just confused because the trailer made it seem that we would at least have the Crystal Bloom AND the Ebon Vanguard this chapter, and there's an achievement for buying Ebon Vanguard support boxes. I don't know if that means that content is for the next update and just slipped through the cracks, or if that's part of this update but coming later. I'm genuinely happy with the content already, it's really really good! i just am a little bit confused because I thought something else was coming after the countdown but it doesn't look like that's the case.

I just want to take some time and say how much I appreciate the work all of the wonderful devs do! it feels like the world has been falling apart lately and I know I've been using gw2 as a lifeline and i'm willing to bet that a lot of other people are too, so here's a heartfelt thank you to all the ArenaNet staff :) you guys are amazing!