Fipmip.7219

Ah my bad. you said this, then later 'clarified' that peitha can actually be anything. Guess I got confused. Like I said, I'm just defending my original stance on why it is, in fact, not a terrible idea. If that's not what you're saying, I'm not sure why you responded in the first place. maybe you should clarify that. I suspect you were just talking past me however. I mean yes exactly. We can speculate there are multifacets within the demons, much like there were loyalist and rebel kryptis. its no stretch to image many have goal of invading tyria and getting easy access to souls. I'm not sure the shadow army are demons, since they are the forces of menzies and may have been created by him. in any case, there could be many more demon realms than those of torment and dreams. It would certainly be a spectacle to see all these horrors working together.

So now you're saying Peitha can be anything, so i guess you're amending your original statement. My argument is that hypothetically, she could be a recurring character tied to an overarching story and a "final boss" so to speak, much the same way the dragons were in the background for the whole game. so it seems like either you're just talking past me about something irrelevant and don't understand what I'm saying, or your entire point is that "these other people are one and done and just make cameos later so Peitha should be the same" which is... nonsense. the way I'm "acting" seems to be some sort of strawman you've built in your head. im using them as an example because groups can ally in the face of common cause - if the mantle had come to cantha or the purists to maguuma, for whatever reason. As for the kryptis and the other demons, you said yourself that nothing stops them from working together. so what is it that is so difficult to understand? like i said, the races of tyria can unite. do you want to call tyrians an amorphous blob? all demons are interested in human souls, and their exact motives and intelligence and potential for organization have room to be fleshed out. if they can come to tyria even though it has a shield around it, they can certainly communicate across realms. indeed they may even be interested in doing so due to it's weakened state. there's also not much to say the kryptis are going to be benevolent from now on, only some are. Many just wanted to be free of eparch who was trying to eat them, and willing to work with the astral ward to do so. and indeed many didnt, right up to the end. maybe because they actually believed in eparch and wanted what he wanted. now with peitha in charge, they might be more willing to join her cause whatever it may be since she's supposedly not eating everything. maybe she'll realize eparch was right and start trying to achieve the same thing. also, your definition of 'demon' is irrelevant in the grand scheme, since that is just the name for the mist entities in guild wars and not a concrete dictionary description of them. but if peitha and the kryptis were to turn, that might actually fit your idea of them better. Again this is entirely hypothetical. I'm not acting like this is what is going or not going to happen. I'm just defending it as not the worst idea.

Personally I would have had a 'cooldown expansion' before SotO. One where you visit various odd places on the map like some of the coasts or the isles. The commander is travelling with old comrades, reminiscing on past adventures, and getting into a bunch of mini adventures. maybe you could even choose the order you do the first three maps in. then on the final forth map, a hint of demons would occur and then we'd get into the next main thread. probably would have been a better point to put the homestead feature as well. so in essence, I agree that it should be some time before something new is established. but with SotO, we kind of launched into another world ending crisis straight away, which makes the pacing a bit awkward. The timing so far sort of seems to imply things are either just gonna be episodic crises from now on, or they just did what you said they shouldnt do, which is set up the new arc immediately. In any case, I've already said that I'm just speculating on what anet intends to do. yes it's fine to have filler episodes to vary the pacing. I didnt say they needed to be.

you are ignoring it because you think listing a bunch of characters that we havent returned to somehow supports your argument when it's got nothing to do with it. You say peitha should be one and done because... she was built that way or something. I'm saying that's not true and she can continue to develop. I'm also saying that anet could use a new thread and perhaps they could use demons. if they did, then peitha would be a good candidate for an ongoing character. according to you, they shouldnt because... well im not sure anymore. continuing on that hypothetical, peitha's intentions are to take the throne and be a king. so it seems likely she will maintain the kryptis organization. and with that, she may recruit other realms. if the white mantle and purists had a common goal, they would ally as well. The beginning of many story chapters starts with a call to investigation or a letter. the same is true for SotO. but the difference lies in the wider context. with no eventual goal, the wayfinder is just a superhero fighting a weekly cartoon villain. Like i said, filler episodes are fine for variety. you said yourself people wanted to move away from dragons, then return. because there is something to return to. but now there's nothing. and without that, there's no song, just a rythmic beat of one episode, one problem and no final crescendo. Also I'd like to point out that many threads that were left open were also resolved during the dragon conflict. similarly, if a new main plot is established, that does not summarily push aside all other plot threads. they can be resolved as well, the same way we visited open threads during our dragon adventures.

alright so you are ignoring the context of the argument: whether the demons should be used as an ongoing plot device. If that's a given, then peitha is a likely candidate for a recurring character. and so it follows, you are the one who said she was built up to.. something. why not keep building? I mean, do you have the stats on that? or are you just remembering a few lore forum threads? because I certainly didnt feel that way. If anything, my experience with franchise communities is that they actually dislike filler episodes. And here's the important distinction: they are filler episodes. if there's no overarching plot, then they aren't filler episodes, they are just episodes: directionless and endless. Imo a few filler episodes are fine, which is why i didnt mind joko or balthazar. and balthazars connection to the dragons is a moderate one, but appreciated nonetheless. I'm not sure what lore forbids demons working together. you can go ahead and educate me on that one. but presumably, if peitha turned she could work with other demon realms, and unite them against tyria much like the races of tyria united themselves. as far as i know the structure of these realities are not fleshed out entirely, but they could work similarly to the dragons, with there being x number of them, and needing to be dealt with one or some at a time. Ultimately I'm conceding that im just speculating on what arenanet intends to do with the story. but consider this my argument on why it would be a good idea to find a new overarching thread. again these are filler episodes which imo are fine every so often. but ultimately there was a thread that justified the commander's involvement each time. caudecus being from the core story before zhaitan, balthazar following on from caudecus and stealing the primordus slaying device, joko being kind of unavoidable as the lich ruler of elona. SotO was just... getting involved with something that had completely nothing to do with you at first. If that's the setup for each new expansion, then it feels directionless and your involvement is arbitrary. that's why common threads are easier to work with.

and what was it that brought the commander and those villains together? the dragons and the pact. the commander was always after the dragons and ran into them along the way. without a unifying force, they just appear one after the other and some guy apparently plays whack-a-mole with them. it was the dragons that gave the commander the motivation to be there in the first place, and by default be the one to stop them. without that, the commander has no cause, which is literally the name of one of the story chapters. without that, the hero is just the guy they call anytime anyone has a problem and apparently no one else can deal with them.

as i said, there's nothing realistic about having one guy deal with every problem. so they can either just ignore that and do it anyway, or they can get a new overarc. As i also said, not every villain has to be demons, and there's even room for side stuff like the white mantle. but 90% of it was related.

we had a greater bad guy since the start of the game, the dragons. it certainly didnt feel the way you described. there were many villains, and they were all mostly related to the dragons that were established early on. what they should do is set up a new backdrop, and a new path towards an eventual goal. with that established, the story has a foundation on which to march forwards.

You mean the real world? the real world where every bad guy is dealt with by one guy? Having an overarching plot gives focus to our character. the villains we defeat along the way are in service to resolving that plot. and you can do that without doing whatever wow does. you say its more realistic to have unrelated issues all over the place, but there's nothing to suggest that isnt the case. they are just dealt with by other people.

It feels bad when there's nothing that ties them together. all the villians you put on that list, 5 are the dragons themselves and three are in service to them. and balthazar's motivations were to destroy the dragons. now they're gone, something needs to remain in the background to fill that void in order to have a story. otherwise they are disconnected. hence feeling like whack a mole with various villains springing from nowhere. That being said, i didnt know about the demon tie into janthir so if that pans out, then maybe we've got something. as for peitha, her involvement overthrowing eparch builds up to... what exactly? they'll be an ally from now on? or just never get mentioned again? characters can develop their motivations and beliefs over time. it's called character development. maybe not right away, but if written well, it would be good storytelling. in any case, demons dont need to be the enemy every time, much like the dragons and their minions weren't the subject of every expansion - they were the backdrop of the story, and now the demons can be that. I called the demon realm a parallel reality because that's a quote from the game. your point about there being other realms within it is exactly what I had in mind - so we agree on that.

I think the question is should DLC metas push people to improve their builds? There's something to be said for having metas gradually get harder. it certainly keeps me engaged anyway. I dont think all open world content should be a cakewalk for any build. I agree eparch meta is the most killy meta I've been in, but with a 4% heal on crit, heal on might gained and my normal heal, i have a good sustain bladesworn that can survive the fight as long as i dont stand in the death puddles, even at 15 FPS.

There's a bit of a misleading line in the human intro to GW2 when making a new character. It seems to imply Kryta is humanity's last holdout, and enemies press in from all sides. "We make our stand in Divinity's Reach." Yet it turns out humans rule both Elona and Cantha as well. In terms of the playable area, it is dominated by humans. This got me wondering about the actual population statistics for the playable races of Tyria. Who are the most numerous and who are the least? which control the most land? The asura seem to have one city and some labs dotted around. there's more than one asuran complex with the name "Rata," but only one seems to have a high population density begetting a city. and if it isnt and is just some big lab, then it asurans are probably the least populous species. I'd also hazard a guess that they have a low birthrate too. Then we have norn and sylvari. I'd say that if we afford sylvari the premise of multiple trees, then those trees are probably arrayed around maguuma. given their few decades of existence, they may outstrip the asura, but the norn have existed for a long time and have had a lot of space. Recently their number would be reduced by Jormag and their push south. their culture is nomadic and has low density. Given their scattered nature, I'd say the norn come in behind the sylvari, which can multiply like weeds. That leaves two species as the possible dominant race in Tyria, humans and charr. As we've established, despite what the opening says, humans still control a large amount resources and have a large population. However, all three nations have suffered monumental calamities, from the reign of Joko, the jade wind and the void, and the Krytans teetering on the edge of ruination (for a while presumably). For this reason, It seems the current evidence points towards the charr, with their vast lands to the northeast going untouched by the dragons, and their industrial might keeping pace with the other species reliance on magic. Problem is I'm not a lore expert so there's probably mentions I havent taken into account. I'd like to hear them if possible.

decided to pick up ele due to SotO. i liked the sword and shield astral ward members and sought to do the same... only to find you cant use shield on ele. there's earth shield, but of course you cant use a sword with that. so that said, go shield for next weapon, hell yeah

i started playing ele recently and decided to try and authentically do dungeon story while levelling... did anet actually run a dungeon before making this event? a couple of endgame chars joined and oneshot every boss. is there even level scaling in story mode? something seems off here.

it really seems like we're heading into saturday morning cartoon villain of the week territory. I suspected this would happen with the resolution to the dragons but im fully resigned at this point. Imo they should make it so eparchs warning about the nature of his people weren't empty words and peitha starts the process of becoming a villain. And just make it so the demons are the bad for the rest of the game's life cycle. the demon realm is supposed to be a whole parallel reality after all, there's probably a ton more variety to explore there. then in the final expac we seal it off forever. in any case, I just hope the instance designers are able to get their groove back and make some cool missions.

The whole of SoTO was missing these. The ones where big group of NPCs smashes into big other group of NPCs. I've loved doing these ever since claw island in the OG story. and to be honest, since the writing and the easy bosses aren't much to write home about, i look forwards to this category of set piece content more than any other, second only to map metas which are thankfully still pretty good. There was an instance in SoTO where you capture the queen by assaulting her palace. it starts off with you and the rebel general, and he says he's deployed your allies in a horn formation, and you're going right down the middle... and its the two of you vs 8 mobs in a line. like what? is it really that hard to place a bunch of enemies and friendlies down and make them fight? what is wrong with the dev pipeline at anet? its kind of baffling considering the giant battles in drizzlewood, all the fights in PoF and the following season, and all the others across the entire rest of the game. I enjoy these fights because of the spectacle, and they offer something that isnt the photon soup that occurs when more than 3 players fight in the same area. can we get them back please? and keep them? I mean you dont need to shoehorn it in if the story doesnt demand it, but all the talk of the astral ward and rebel kryptis forces made me ready to see a big combined showdown that never came.

anyone seeing these people in map chat going "40g to go until i can get a legendary!" then they start thanking people for sending them gold. sometimes I see others interacting with them saying you're welcome. not sure if they're in on it or they geniunely got scammed. in any case, isnt scamming against TOS? its an option in the report section. not sure if scamming covers in game gold though.

Canon

I just wanna say i dont care what they do as long as they make shield great. sword and shield warrior should be a staple class.

I mean you're basically saying you agree the maps have changed but you like it as opposed to the people that prefer the core design philosophy. which is fine, but what makes you think you know anything about the development pipeline at anet for making new maps? you cant really determine that from surface level observations. How many people ran past all the small metas and hidden quests? how many people just rush the story? do you have the stats on that? I for one go looking for that stuff every time i get a new expansion. I want my money's worth after all. GW2 is a horizontal progression game anyway, so rushing is a lot less incentivized. In any case, I highly doubt the current map design keeps players playing any more than the old ones did.

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so all that just to say "well that's your opinion man." Like yes? you finally got it? I'm pointing out what makes the maps different. I'm pointing out what i don't like, giving examples and explaining why. you ignored the majority of my points. if you like it, then power to you. im just offering my perspective on a sentiment shared by many in the community, case in point, this thread and all the others that have popped up over the years.

again just ignoring what i said. i can oneshot pof mobs with my bladesworn. is it fun now? no, they still aggro from miles away and dismount you as you try to travel. they still tag you as you try to swap mounts to get up a cliff. the world is still ugly and barren with large stretches of areas dedicated to nothing but these mobs. again, they're not hard. they're annoying and pointless.

Yes i remember Orr being my least favourite area in the game due a bunch of tanky zombies standing around taking forever to kill and covering every square inch of the map. Yes i don't complain anymore because i can kill them much faster now. Does that mean they were actually fun during that time? i was just too blind to see it? no dude. just the same way that same design in PoF times 11 isnt fun now. idk why you're going of on this unrelated tangent about mounts being fun. i like them too. my point, which you're ignoring, is the placement and range of them drag down the whole experience.

so you have no answer. got it.