[New Legendary Focus: The Binding of Ipos [Preview Window]]

Oh man I love this focus. I'm enough of an edgelord to want to spend the time crafting it. If only focus skills were good for necro...

[Feedback: Official Living World Season 4 Episode 1 Feedback]

Pros-Loved having the ability to ask key NPCs for some additional voiced lore, such as the First Spear!! I wish we had this in other maps, as it really gave me that extra level of sensory immersion and gave me an incentive to spend time talking to NPCs.

-When setting sail on our cutscene to Istan, I could have sworn that Aurene flying next to us was actually a griffon. Felt like that might have been an intentional wink-wink nudge-nudge to future events.

-Istan itself was lovely. I’ve very much enjoyed how lively the environments feel in Elona. I was also a fan of what the jungle in HoT accomplished in its environment design and theme, but I was worried that level of detail wouldn’t translate well to the desert. Boy was I wrong. And Istan manages to differentiate itself enough from the main continent that it feels genuinely new. You managed to pack enough care and attention to detail into every point of interest. I felt compelled to spend a lot of time in certain areas just taking it all in.

-VERY happy that the new map wasn’t the ENTIRETY of Istan. Love that extra level of mystery and anticipation for more.

-Keyring. I don’t think anyone would challenge the move to free up more inventory slots. 10/10

-Introducing meta events on these maps is an incredible way to continue the secondary story and world events of the PoF era. I think that it would have been a huge mistake to have simply set aside the awakened and Joko as a threat we would deal with only after we handle Kralkatorrik. Especially when the influence of Joko in Elona has consistently been one of the most well-rounded story elements in GW2.

-KOSS!!!

-The Nyoom Glitch has been (mostly) fixed. While hilarious at times, it got to be very annoying.

CONS-sigh And this is a big one so I'll put it under a spoiler

! Braham. While I do actually like Braham’s character and understand that he does not always have to be a good and helpful character to be an interesting one, I do think he is the most poorly written out of our buddies in recent times. The impact of his outburst at us in Crack in the Ice should have probably been revisited sooner while the wounds were still fresh. I can buy that his insubordination of the commander would have left us stunned and frustrated, leaving us to think as players that “we don’t have time to deal with this kid. We have bigger problems.” But pushing the issue off throughout the rest of LWS3, a potential resolution to Braham’s actions totally fizzled. He didn’t show up to confront us in some way regarding Jormag during One Path Ends, but he really SHOULD have. Maybe with some powerful face to face dialogue, a boss fight between the two of us (how satisfying would that be), and after we defeat him in combat, we reach a resolution to help strengthen the commander and Braham’s relationship with each other. Granted, I don’t write the story for GW2, but even I think Braham should have been addressed earlier, not after the entirety of PoF when we’ve largely forgotten about him and it really doesn’t matter. I find it even less impactful that when Braham exhibits the exact same behavior AGAIN, we don’t challenge him. I realize this isn’t the time for our character to bicker with him when there are other objectives at stake. I just feel that the time to address Braham’s behavior has long since passed with the end of LWS3, and placing it here seems like an afterthought to tie up loose ends. Unless the devs are really playing a long game with Braham’s character arc that will pay off in a major way, this encounter just seems awkward.

-I’m not usually on the side of nerfing intentionally challenging content just for the sake of making it easier, but I agree with the players who are saying that the enemies’ AOE and CC on this map is far too punishing. Enemies spawn too frequently and in too high of numbers that I find myself running halfway across the map to disengage mobs just so I can get on my mount. Clearing an area to make it “safe” enough to mount up for even 30 seconds to a minute is impossible.

-Also, in the loot stage of the Palawadan meta, after we have cleared the city, why are there still so many enemies around? They seem to multiply or come out in even greater numbers after we’re supposed to have raided the place, which makes getting around to find the Supply Chests really painful while trying to dodge a million respawning loyalists.

-While the first instance battle in Amnoon was very fun and the stakes felt high, the bright purple explosions, effects, and crystals were kind of an eyesore. It was pretty tedious trying to find the purple crystals that I actually needed to destroy to take the enemy shields down when there’s SO much other purple chaos happening. Maybe tone it down a little.