Rashagar.8349

I've read it a couple of times at this stage tbh and the only bit I find jarring is how someone could dismiss the real world provable examples and come to the conclusion it's an "asinine ideology". In terms of how it's portrayed in fiction in general, I'd contest that the default position for readers/players is one of omniscience. You don't have to be an unreliable narrator to expose the audience to a biased view (unbiased views are exceptionally rare and probably mostly boring haha), and you don't have to retcon to reveal previously-unrevealed information (since retconning carries the connotations that it wasn't planned and was changed afterwards). But I'm glad we seem to agree about it's use in fiction. In terms of how it's portrayed in this game, there's a couple of places off the top of my head where they do employ it quite well, particularly with the Joko bits, and his portrayal of the main character's actions and the legacy "we're" leaving. None of this is me saying that Shiro is a paragon of virtue, by the way, but I do think that, if they wanted, there was room in the narrative/sequence of events where his actions could have been heroic *from his own perspective*. (For a time at least. Whether or not they chose to do this I don't remember, because I only played Factions when it came out and that was a very long time ago).

I mean, your first assertion was that "history is written by the victors" doesn't exist at all, and your new assertion seems to be that it just doesn't exist in fiction, except for the times when it does. I've kind of lost track of what you're trying to accomplish, to be honest.

Disagree. Your argument here is that the saying means nothing in this context, because we the players have perfect information. But us having perfect information doesn't stop characters in the GW universe from having imperfect information, or personal motivations that would cause them to create government-wide lies about the past.

You know that this is exactly what the saying means, right? That the ones in power (the "victors") get to influence the cultural narrative more than those without power. It's not claiming that the only version of events that becomes documented at all is the one the "victor" writes, it's not dealing in absolutes like that. But those in power can make sure that the only version taught to kids is the one they sanction, and thereby shape their own cultural image of themselves. If you think that's limited to totalitarian regimes ehhh.... you're wrong. If it helps, I can DM you a shedload of examples of it if you like? *Editing to say: we're in danger of veering wildly off topic here, hence the "fancy a DM chat?" part heh. 😃

I was going to chime in to make this point, but you made it as well as I ever could! Especially when you consider the current young people view of "capitalism = the root of all evil because it functionally supports environmental disaster", the narrative of "USA = good because it opposed anti-capitalism" takes on a different stint, and is probably a lot less likely to stand the test of time.

I'm very late to the discussion, but this thread has spawned a potential discussion point with me: Do you think that Vindicator would work better thematically if they reversed the initial change of the utility skills of 1 rolling over into the other? (Eg. Archemorus skill 7 becomes Saint Viktor skill 7 after use). While I didn't take part in the betas, that one change of skill 7 A rolling over into skill 7 B seems to make the entire legend make sense to me. I just can't help wondering if the current lack of substantial theme is a result of Anet not sticking to their guns/vision for the legend.

But if it's unlikabe why would you want it? =P

Staff Mallyx is actually one of my favourite things to just have random overworld fun with, could potentially feel a little shadow druid-y for you when combined with Ventari, so yeah, I approve this message.

I still want Owl. Daggers would be fine for talons. Focus on chill, some stealth, and generally just channeling a giant intelligent predator.

If it was to get nerfed, I could see the nerf being halving the amount of concentration/expertise it gives. So if equipped fully in the "dedicated" HoT stats you would have ~40% of one of Boon dur or Condi dur (usually) while the jack of all trades Celestial would give ~20% of both. (Excuse the very rough napkin maths). But I don't particularly have an opinion on if it needs a nerf, or what "balance" is. I do know that pre-Celestial getting concentration/expertise I was enjoying mixing and matching armour pieces to get a desired spread, and post-those changes it seems like it's usually just better to take celestial everything than mix and match anything. I also know that arguing about balance is intensely boring when you can just... play the game and experiment instead...

Though I do remember a time when everyone had suggestions of how to "fix" spirits. I wonder if we'll see the ghost of some 3 year old suggestion materialise in the patch notes after all this time.

Firstly, I just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear you're not having fun with it. However, it sounds a bit like your expectations were a little off, I'll be honest. A druid is just a ranger specialisation, so it's mostly going to still feel like a ranger, unless you're really specialising for instanced group content. The staff is a weapon that specialises in healing and support, so you wouldn't expect it to have comparable damage to a weapon that specialises in damage. However, in saying that, ranger as a base class has always had options that let you lean into the magical aspects of the trope, so between those base abilities, the celestial avatar, and glyphs, you should still have a lot to play around with to live your mystical nature mage life, you might just have to adjust your expectations slightly.

This may well just be a problem with my brain, but does anyone else struggle to actually make a decision regarding which stats to select? My brain seems to get too caught up in worrying about making some kind of theoretical optimal choice, that I don't have enough information/system knowledge to make, so I just end up accumulating gear that I never use, and then going down rabbit holes of how best to get X stats on gear pieces, without ever considering just using the stat selectable gear I have for the thing I actually want, just because it might not be the most optimal/cost-effective use of that gear.

Exactly! =D

Nah, revenant is going to be the one after next! They've teased Mesmer, then Necro, so Rev will be after Ranger because there aren't professions that start with O, P or Q. Don't ask me why they started in the middle of the alphabet though =P

? That feels like a false comparison/complete non sequitur that I'm not really following. What has balance really got to do with it? The only real difference mechanically speaking will be in number of new skills. My personal ideal would be for a new 1-handed weapon rather than another 2-handed weapon.

I've always been in the "I hope it's not GS" camp. But I'm sure whatever they do will be fine.

I enjoy that both of these posts exist.

*Popping out of the shadows to mention my favourite Norn legend candidate, Owl, again.

To be honest I'm finding it difficult to remember a lot of the lore/plot from Factions. I kind of feel like I need to go back and replay it. But in saying that, if the Kurzicks aren't represented, I will feel crushed. Their whole aesthetic was amazing, and it could be a great excuse to resurrect the bunny thumper ranger in the form of their wardens. If I was to do this, I'd probably need to list the themes we have to play around with first. Like with the celestial spirits idea above.I love Dadnir's idea to tie it in to elementalist, but that theme could also be used to give rangers a sparkly spiritual/ethereal aoe buffing kind of pet, or revenants their new legend, or necromancers could cloak themselves in starlight and get divination kind of powers by communing with the celestial heavens, etc.

Same. It's absolutely the most satisfying way to play for me.

I've always wanted a thief build that does well in large scale (large scale being one of my favourites) but I've regrettably never been good at thief, so even if I did find one it'd most likely be beyond my abilities to utilise. My assassin/paragon from GW1 is crying out for a place to be reincarnated though, and personally I'd want WvW to be that place.

What's MvM?

Same, every time these kinds of major changes come in it freshens up my favourite aspect of the game. My characters change, my match ups change because everyone else's characters also change, and things don't feel "solved" any more. Just have to make the most of the chaos before build hierarchies settle again. Also, the intent of these changes is just perfectly aligned with what I'd want for the game, so even though I expect they're going to miss the mark in places I'm more than happy to just see what happens.

I've always liked Mallyx most, for the aesthetic, flavour and feel. My formative revenant experience was staff Mallyx for no other reason than I found them both satisfying, and Ventari Mallyx is still my favourite pairing, from a purely thematic stand point.