Kynmarcher.2184

I actually explained most of this in my opening post. I never said we should 'always be on the ground' all of the times that we're actually on airships make sense. I just said they should be redesigned to make them more friendly to the solo player because, in their current implementation, it's obvious that the fights are still designed to be fought by multiple people at once (which is very obvious when you have to fight Fafnarin and Horrogos at the same time) but they've just been tuned down so that they can be done by a single person. As for the point of getting Zhaitan to the ground. That's covered too. We actually do that (effectively) in the instance as it currently stands when the Glory of Tyria severs Zhaitan's tail. At that point, he can't stay in the air, which is why he clings to the tower as you pepper him with cannon fire. Instead of doing that, I'm suggesting that we shoot him only a few times to weaken his grip on the tower (maybe even just shoot the tower so that it crumbles and falls on his already battered body), then descend to the ground and fight him there in a climactic finale with Destiny's Edge by your side as you strike down the dragon once and for all.

I don't really see how this was happening, given that you couldn't get the next part of your personal story quest until you reached the level it was designed for. But I may be misremembering. Either way, that's an avoidable issue. If the enemies in a given story instance require the player to be level 36, then only have that part of the story be available at level 36. The real issue here is the pacing. Prior to the 10 level chunks change the various gaps in story delivery made sense. I used Claw Island as an example, and I'll reemphasize that. It used to take a good length of time for you to go through all the steps from beating the Risen scout in Lion's Arch to thrashing the Risen at Claw Island with the three orders at your back. That felt natural, it would naturally take time to accomplish all those things, and it did. With the change they made to give the personal story in 10 level chunks, the entire Claw Island arc can be done in under an hour. It feels rushed because all of these events that 'should' take time are now crammed together with no time gaps between them. It's worth noting that I didn't say 'add more missions' so that you can earn those ranks. I just suggested that you should earn them at different times. So instead of being a Magister/Lightbringer/Warmaster before you even step foot on Claw Island, you instead only earn that title as a reward for defeating Zhaitan, with your second promotion (to Explorer/Agent/Crusader) being earned after you save Claw Island. This makes sense story-wise as well. When you join the order as a fresh recruit, you are in need of a mentor to show you the ropes. You are then shown the ropes, work with your mentor until they sacrifice themselves at Claw Island, at which point you're no longer in need of a mentor, you're a full-blooded member of the Order, and you've earned that rank through your heroism at Claw Island. Yes, she does, after the personal story concludes. Again, I am talking about levelling content from 1 to 80, not post-80 content.

Honestly, when I played through the story when Guild Wars 2 launched I didn't mind it. But now I'm spoiled by how the story is delivered from Heart of Thorns onwards. Cinematic cutscenes that show action sequences and key story moments, dialogue that happens in real-time without the cutaway to a puppet show. If that method of story delivery was never given to us, I wouldn't be asking for it now.

But they've changed it before though. They changed the way the missions were given to the players, so instead of getting one mission every few levels, you'd get a chunk of missions every 10 levels. That didn't lead to any significant issues. As for bugs, aren't they supposed to get fixed? Shouldn't that be the minimum standard? If something is broken, it should be fixed. We shouldn't accept a bug as 'yeah this is just how it is'.

Okay, so, to clarify a point. This is for the personal story only, what you experience as you level up to 80. I'm not talking about post-80 content, like Living World Season 2 and beyond. You do make a point that Deborah appears, but, it's not really as significant as it should be. She is your sister, you saved her life, and then she only appears in one mission, and if by chance you chose the naval assault or the quest to find the research team, you miss out on seeing her entirely. Faren does appear, but only in Living World Season 2 and beyond, which, again, is not what I'm talking about here. As for Petra enlisting, well it's something she said herself when she risked danger to help you fight the bandits in the mission 'Desperate Medicine' Given her skill with Ms. Timber, she's not exactly incapable of fighting, so it wouldn't be completely out of character for her to enlist with the Vigil (and later the Pact) to fight for someone she sees as family, especially with her no longer needing to worry about her father, who you helped heal with the medicine you secured.

EDIT: To avoid confusion, since multiple people have made this mistake in the comments (maybe I wasn't clear) this suggestion is ONLY for the personal story as you level from 1 to 80. I am not talking about post 80 content like Living World seasons, or the Heart of Thorns/Path of Fire story campaigns. Just your adventure from the moment you set foot in the world as a new character, to the moment you defeat Zhaitan in Orr. So, I have a suggestion and I know, honestly that it probably won't be considered, but I'd figure I'd throw it out here anyway. I'd like to see the personal story get a complete overhaul. Now admittedly, that's quite a vague request. What do I mean by overhaul? Well, I've been thinking a lot about that, and first, I want to give some ironclad logic as to why it should be overhauled. The personal story is what new players are going to experience for the first time, and at the moment, it's jarring, with the player being taken out of the scene quite often as they're confronted with multiple small cutscenes where NPCs talk to each other as if they're standing on a stage. It's a night and day difference compared to how the dialogue and scenes have been developed since the start of Heart of Thorns, and as much as I tell those who want to jump into the game that the dialogue and story get better over time? Most of them aren't going to stick around through 80 levels of dialogue cutscene story just to get to where the story delivery vastly improves. A change like this, while it would take a lot of time, would absolutely improve the game for new players. So with that logic bomb delivered, here are the points I've considered: 1. Remove the dialogue cutscenes and replace them with the method that character dialogue and scenes play out from Heart of Thorns onwards.I covered this above, but as this is the introduction that new players will have to the Guild Wars 2 world, I think it needs to be on par with how the story is developed for the past two expansions and all living world content. 2. Change the way the personal story is delivered. No more 10 level chunks.One of the things I remember way back in the day as an original Guild Wars 2 player, was how the personal story was initially handed out to players. Every few levels you'd get to do part of your personal story quest, and it meant that you were constantly progressing the story as you moved through the various zones. This was changed at some point (I can't remember exactly when) to only getting large chunks of the story every 10 levels, which feels kind of jarring, especially with respect to the pacing of the story. Take the Battle for Claw Island as a perfect example. The story right now has you progress through the stages at a record pace. You fight the scout, go to Claw Island, get beaten and be forced to retreat, you gather allies, unite the orders and return to Claw Island to trounce the undead forces. But something this big should take time, and that was reflected in how the story was originally delivered because you'd need to get a few levels before you could take on the next stage of the story. So by the time you return to Claw Island, it makes sense that the undead have managed to entrench themselves because they've had time to build up their forces and create fortifications. So I really think that the story needs to return to how it was originally delivered. Every few levels you get a stage of the story, building up your character as you work towards the goal of uniting the orders and bringing them to Orr to fight Zhaitan. 3. Change the way the orders promote the player character.This part of the story always bothered me from the original days of this game's launch, and sadly the change of pacing due to story delivery hasn't made this better. As we know, each of the orders has three ranks that the player can obtain as they complete story missions, and one of these ranks (Magister/Warmaster/Lightbringer) is considered one of the highest ranks of each order. That should mean that you, as the player, should have to do a lot of work or complete some mighty deeds to be worthy of that rank, but you don't do anything major to earn that rank. By the time you're ready to go to Claw Island, you've already reached the maximum rank in each order, despite only doing two missions. So here is what I would suggest. As the orders are fully ingrained with the personal story from the moment you join them. Make it so that you earn the first rank when you join. You earn the second rank after you finish retaking Claw Island from the Risen (a mighty deed worthy of promotion) and award the final rank when you defeat Zhaitan (another mighty deed). This way, players will feel as if they've earned those promotions, and they won't be handed to the player at a rapid pace. 4. Integrate all the dungeons into the story. Make the story-mode something that can be done solo.The dungeons each represent a key chunk of the story, as they tell the tale of Destiny's Edge and how they reform in time for the final confrontation against Zhaitan. But you're never forced to see that story, meaning that if you skip all the dungeons, the only time you see Destiny's Edge before the final battle with Zhaitan is when they're tearing each other's throats out in Lion's Arch before you join the order you chose to side with earlier in the personal story. This makes it somewhat confusing when you arrive at the start of 'Victory or Death' and see the members of Destiny's Edge fighting side by side as if they were never against each other in the first place. So rather than just send the players a letter telling them about the dungeon and where it's located, I'd suggest making the dungeon stories part of the personal story. Make the story mode able to be soloed, with the difficulty scaling up as more people are in the party. That way players experience the story with each of these characters, and they may feel slightly more attached to those characters as their stories develop in later living world episodes and expansion storylines. And speaking of dungeon changes... 5. Change the entire story instance for the Zhaitan fight.This is probably one of the biggest changes I'm suggesting, but it's also desperately needed. For those who aren't aware (because you may be new players and did not experience the end of the personal story as it was originally created) you used to need to complete a 5 man dungeon to finish the personal story. And while the story mode for this dungeon is now something that can be done solo, it is still very much designed to be something that is done in a group, with multiple portions of the dungeon (such as the portions of the dungeon where you're on the airship) being far easier to accomplish if you've got more than one person in the group with you. Additionally, when you get to the end of the dungeon, you never actually fight Zhaitan. At least with the Mordremoth fight, you fought the avatar of the dragon, which was a fairly engaging battle with multiple stages (and there was even a hard mode for it which needed a full party). But with Zhaitan's fight, the majority of the work is done for you by NPCs and then you just pepper him with, honestly, what looks like fireworks getting shot out of a cannon, and boy does it take a while to whittle him down while you're doing this solo, made even worse by the fact that Zhaitan will drop goo under your feet, forcing you to abandon the cannon unless your character is tanky or lucky enough to dodge the goo because Zhaitan missed. The fight with the Eye of Zhaitan is more engaging than the fight with Zhaitan himself, and this is a problem because it ruins the climax of the story. The epic battle with Zhaitan doesn't feel epic, it feels like you just shot fireworks at a helpless lizard attached to a tower. You also never confirm that he's actually dead. He falls into the mist, and you believe he's dead. Only for his death to be confirmed later. My suggestion? Completely revamp the entire dungeon. Modify the portions that are clearly designed with groups in mind, and when you wound Zhaitan to the point where he can't fly, don't end the battle by peppering him with fireworks while he clings to a tower, instead shoot him down with a few well-placed shots, before descending to the ground and fighting him on foot alongside Destiny's Edge. That way you know 100% that you slew Zhaitan, and you get an engaging boss fight at the end which makes your victory seem all the sweeter. Those were the major changes that I'd like to see, but, there are a few minor ones that I'd also like to point out. Minor ChangesMake it so that the NPCs from your initial stages of the personal story (or those tied to your character creation choices) appear in later stages of the story. For example:Asura: The Crewe that you worked with during your personal story should be present as you progress through the story.Charr: The Warband you assembled, along with your sire, should be present as you progress through the story.Humans: Either Quinn, Petra or Faren should adventure with you as you progress through the story (assuming you saved Quinn) along with Riot Alice if you got her to abandon Two-Blade Pete. For those who chose the Centaur path, your sister should appear alongside you at key moments.Norn: As Norn characters mostly acted on their own with the aid of Eir, it would be difficult to get them allies. Perhaps having Eir work with the player as they progress, except for the times when they canonically ventured off on their own would be something to consider.Sylvari: The Firstborn character that aligns with your calling should pop up from time to time. Have the order leaders pop up at key locations after you've become a member of the order.They play no role after you convince them to join forces and then show up for the victory celebration at the end. At least having them appear during the fights in Orr would be ideal. Make Deborah's appearance conform fully to what option you picked at the start of the Shadows of the Past mission.I chose Elona for one of my characters, and Deborah had brown skin and black hair when I saved her from the bandits, but when I encountered her in Orr later she had white skin and blonde hair. There we go, thread completed. Sorry for the length. Anyway, this is just my feedback, as I said I don't think any of this will be implemented, but I personally feel it would improve the game as a whole if it were, especially for new players.