Poormany.4507

Hard no from me - This would be abused way too easily as others have mentioned, most likely by players making squads solely for getting profits and not so much helping anyone if the rewards are worth doing so, or just not using it if the rewards aren't. I would much rather they add more/better new player guides/tutorials into the game (breakbars, skill combos, dynamic AoE dodging, etc.), as those seem to be very lacking atm and would be more meaningful in the long term than the suggested incentive system.

I'm guessing we'll get reveals of the next two elite specs this week and next before the first beta event. Otherwise, I would expect we'll get gradual teasers around every week or two until EoD is released. - Only a minority of players do PvP, so a first look would almost certainly not include it. - Alliances were announced as the big WvW feature coming at around the same time as EoD- A new WvW map doesn't feel that necessary imo as it would just spread players more and would likely get minimal use, especially if it is centered on a water theme (see Desert Borderlands). - Strikes seem to have replaced raids in terms of challenging content, probably to include more players (likely because raids had too little player interest for the majority of the community). - Fractals can be released anytime and don't necessarily need to be released with expansions. -See strikes comment above. - As others have said in numerous other threads, having a new race would be way too costly for relatively little benefit (A combat tonic could do the same with significantly less effort). - Class seems reasonable for an expac, but probably was not developed due to time/cost/resource limitations spent in other areas. - Shing-Jea seems to be more of a brighter area, but considering it is/was the home of a large monastery and mostly farmland/rich ministers' estates, I would expect it to be so. Other maps will likely be less bright (i.e. Echovald and Kaineng). - Source for strikes just being story bosses instead of separate missions? - Again likely not developed due to time/cost/resource limitations, although it would have been nice. Based on the livestream, it seems like they put a large amount of effort into the open world maps/repeatable content/new masteries, so I don't think not having those specific features implemented will significantly decrease most players' enjoyment of the expac.

Just checked and her pose is very similar to Glint's in Scion and Champion. That seems to lean more towards Aurene dying at EoD as a parallel to Glint's death (possibly against the DsD or its magic in the same manner as Glint was killed by Kralkatorrik?), as a start of the new cycle, whatever that will be.

They did say there are going to be sad moments while showing an in-game screen of Aurene laying on the ground and not looking that great... (@25:50 in the livestream) - Could just be a red herring though. I would not be surprised if Aurene sacrifices herself at the end to keep The All stable or otherwise dies using EoD.

After that announcement, I doubt we'll get any further races (a combat tonic at most). If they wanted to add them in EoD they would have almost definitely have led in with that in their first look.

Vizu was the one who crippled Shiro, and whose advice we sought in GW1 to beat him again. We only see her ghost in game in GW1 and since her and Nika are both assassins, they likely look familiar. Mai and Mai Trin are entirely separate characters - Mai was a henchman in GW1 and one of the first characters to train with and join the GW1 Factions hero. They may write the latter as an ancestor, but I kind of doubt it, given the former's minor role in GW1 (There is a chance though, given that they wrote in another prominent GW1 hero into PoF).

Hyped for the maps, story, and elite specs and curious what they are going for with fishing and the turtle mount. I don't really get the hype about boats - how are those any different than skimmers (if not weaker of a feature since they cannot go underwater)? Overall, I would have strongly preferred a more solid main selling feature on the scale of gliding or mounts, but am still excited.

True, I'm not really expecting any large scale xenophobia for the reasons mentioned, but I think there may be a few more xenophobic antagonist characters here and there that we will encounter (likely either remnants of the Ministry of Purity or their descendants). My guess is they'll write it as "the successor governments were more progressive, open to outsiders, and replaced the old xenophobic Ministry of Purity, but some dissidents still hold out" or something to that effect.

There were also a few Norn and Asura in Embark Beach in the Battle Isles in GW1 (https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Embark_Beach), which also had a Canthan presence, so there was presumably also further contact with them between GW1 and GW2. Sylvari are most likely the only "new" race to Canthans as they've only recently emerged after Cantha went isolationist and Zhaitan rose. I expect/hope Sylvari players to get special dialogue during EoD for this reason (mostly curiosity would be my guess). Interaction-wise, I expect the following: Humans - Mostly sympathetic, possibly some curiosity/disdain for working with other races. Sylvari - Mainly curiosity about them and their beliefs as they're entirely new to Canthans. Likely comparisons with the Wardens in Echovald and discussion of the similarities/differences between the two plant-based races. Norn - Curiosity and possibly some sympathy due to the parallels of the Celestials and Spirits of the Wild concepts. Charr - Likely hostility, as the Human-Charr treaty in Tyria didn't really carry over to Cantha yet and some would probably still view them as enemies after the Searing and human-Charr conflicts in Kryta/Orr. Asura - Depends on how much interaction they've had since EotN and whether or not they've been using Asuran technology since then.

Really against the idea - open world PVE is already pretty easy to solo or find one to a few other players to help you get through. GW1 had individual solo instances by default, so heroes/henchmen made sense there since there was nobody else to help out and playing solo required significantly more skill and was much, much more challenging than playing solo in GW2. Also, I could see this kind of feature being easily exploited for afk farming/botting, especially if there are multiple heroes/henchmen around for no cost indefinitely if they were implemented the same way as in GW1.

I don't recall any npcs in Draconis Mons mentioning the destroyers or Primordus, or even helping to fight them in the events. These just felt like easily missed and forgettable events that I'm guessing a large portion of players never did. I would have ideally preferred if they pushed back the whole timeline a few months to a year and developed the initial two planned world maps, if not adding another episode primarily focused on fighting only Primordus in a depths type map. At that rate we would likely just now be finishing the Saga and getting into the Return to LW/ Marionette/other events in between EoD. Obviously this was all made impossible because Anet was "gifted" (read forced) to come up with EoD as quickly as possible. I do think they did the best they could with Champions under the circumstances + Covid, but it just didn't feel like the usual GW2 quality as a result. I feel like further developing the last few episodes would have given much more world building and setup for the final confrontation, which currently seems to come out of nowhere. (Some Asura councilor most people have never heard of comes up with the idea to use Ley lines to pit Jormag and Primordus against each other - Why couldn't we have done that after episode 1 or 2 of the Saga? Aurene had the ability to manipulate Ley lines back then.) It just felt like a last second addition just to get to the confrontation quickly at the end. The actual final confrontation itself is inexplicably missing all of the allied leaders we spent months gathering, a lot of allies are missing, and it was missing the Stone Summit who Primordus clearly had under his control just 2 episodes earlier. It just felt like it had so many more opportunities, even small ones, to improve on that were foregone because of lack of resources/staff.

I don't see how Primordus has "three major story maps" There were barely any destroyers in Draconis Mons and nobody outside the story even mentions him on the map iirc. DRMs were obvious last second filler content made only to fill time until EoD is released with minimal effort/resources being put into them (i.e. 2012 destroyer models and health sponge enemies), and are consequently mostly disliked by the community. The only world map with a somewhat Primordus focus I can see is Ember Bay, and even then the destroyers were only confined to some parts of the map. All of the other dragons had at least 3-4 world maps that had repeatable quality content in which their minions were the vast majority (>80-90% in the other dragon's cases), if not the only enemy on the map. I don't see a single world map that has that has close to a majority for Primordus.

True the architecture probably wouldn't have changed much (probably something similar to Rata Novus, which also would be great for asset reuse for a fractal or vision of the past), but their society and world outlook would almost certainly have been far different. They were one of, if not the most, powerful races back then without any kind of legitimate threat prior to Primordus, hence why they underestimated it and its effects. It would be interesting and cool imo to see that kind of Asuran society, even more arrogant and isolated than the GW1 Asura were, compared to the tamer ones of GW1 and GW2's times. I really doubt any of the past Asura would have even thought of (or being in need of) associating, working with, or far less asking for help from a human, or any other primitive "bookah" race prior to GW1 EotN's events, a sharp difference from the GW2 Asura.

No, because there are no intelligent panda races in the lore, especially in the four areas we're almost certainly going to in EoD (Shing-Jea, Kaineng, Jade Sea, and Echovald). As others have said, I would like a ranger panda pet like in GW1.

If there is a new race, I think it would need to be heavily restricted in earlier stories (no VA, skipped entirely, etc.), to the point I am doubtful we would get one as it would act as a cosmetic. If we did happen to get one somehow, I feel like Tengu would be the most likely due to the massive player demand and marketability.

I really doubt a large amount of players will be able to do this in a week, especially considering the platform issues that need to be fixed, after which it will most likely be dead content. It would be really nice if the public version were made permanent, or even a regular open world boss.

Next to the scrying pool in Eye of the North

One of the legendary lore additions mentions Lyssa and/or the other Gods being angered by use killing Balthazar. After the elder dragons are out of the picture, I think this could be hinting at a Gods storyline after EoD, which could probably be heavily connected to the Mists and its lore.

Anyone have any theories on who/what the new Mist Stranger in EotN might be?

Do the days associated with each daily activity (listed in https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Activity) stay the same each week, or do they change weekly? If so, is there any way to know which activity is on which day week by week or is it random?

Doesn't seem to be the case based on it driving multiple underwater races out of their homes, including the Largos and Krait. However, seeing as the last five elder dragons we fought are now dead, I think the DsD being more cautious and wary of outright conflict should probably be the case (unless it's already gone tormented beyond reason from the various magics or was always hostile like Kralk).

Shing Jea is entirely separate region from the Jade Sea - The Jade Sea is all the way on the main continent of Cantha, Shing Jea is a smaller island to the west of the main continent. https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Cantha#/media/File:Cantha_unexplored_map.jpg

We did see that many of Jormag's glaciers were directly impacted by their magic (i.e. the glaciers receding in Drizzlewood), so it may very well be possible that they would disappear or melt at a faster rate since Jormag's dead and lost control of that magic. Therefore, I could see some of the settlements destroyed/buried by Jormag's glaciers being potentials for resettlement if the glaciers are no longer there. Gunnar's Hold would probably be the most desirable as it was the closest thing to a "Capital" of the norn in GW1 and was the longest settled, and thus likely holds both historical and sentimental value to many of them. Reclaiming the longest held original settlement(s) of the norn would also most likely be seen as a huge honor among them.

Based on the teaser, it seems like the Aetherblades, who have Asuran members/technology, already have a presence in Cantha (the faded Aetherblade flag in the teaser), and more will likely be going there based on the airships in the concept art. The Canthan people may also have developed their own waypoint technology, possibly using the same magic as the shrines in GW1, which have been shown to act as waypoints in certain areas of GW2 as well (the shrines in One Path Ends in particular).

Agreed - I was mixed between cringing and bursting out laughing during the entire "ritual." Why are the greatest protectors of the Krytan royalty playing pretend and talking like 10 year olds?