Jokubas.4265

My Second Round of Feedback I've played around a little bit more with the spec since my last post. My goal was actually just to double check some things I've seen other people talk about, but I ran into some tougher enemies than I was experimenting with last time and it gave me something entirely different to talk about. The Odd: As echoed in a few places, Blade generation feels weirdly random. Unfortunately I can't give more specifics because I'm not exactly sure why it feels this way. To be fair, with my Chronomancer I just use Scepter and know I'm always going to get a clone every third auto-attack, and with only three illusion slots it's easy to instinctively keep track of where I stand even with other passive generation. I think part of it might be that playing Virtuoso is just that much more hectic so it's not as easy to get a rhythm down. This might be something that just takes time to get used to, but right now it feels messy. The Experience: I ended up running into a group of Veterans. They were teleporting around and pulling and immobilizing. It was kind of a nightmare. It made me quickly realize how glass this glass cannon really is. I just wasn't doing enough damage to make up for the damage that I had no opportunities to mitigate. I did kind of eventually make it through the group, but after extensive kiting and convincing part of the group to leash without the rest of them. To be fair, in the spirit of testing, I tried to fight this same group as my Chronomancer... it went about as poorly. The abilities on these guys are annoying enough that they ignore my normal clone defenses. On the other hand, my Tempest beat them fairly handily. They were still nasty, but my Tempest actually has the cannon to make up for their glass, and I'd be surprised if I'm running a competitive build on them. I'm really not sure what to feel right now. I was hoping Virtuoso would allow me to play my Mesmer more like my Tempest, but Virtuoso doesn't come out of this three-way comparison favorably. Elite Skill: The thing I originally came in to test was some specifics on the F4 and in general how easy it was to accidentally interrupt my own cast times for various abilities. For the most part I pleasantly didn't have any issues with that despite other reports (although the fact that the experience is inconsistent is enough reason to look into it). EDIT: Maybe this is because they were going off anyway, just not on any targets? That would explain my damage not adding up, but everything's so hectic I'm too busy trying to stay alive to notice if the flashy effect hit someone or not. The one exception was the Elite Skill. That thing really needs some help. Every little thing seemed to interrupt it, either the casting itself or as if I had never even clicked it on the ground. Then, even when it did go off, it never felt like it was doing anything.

I like Virtuoso overall so far. For a little context, I've been playing Chronomancer in a very specific (and from what I understand, nonstandard) way for a few years now. I use Scepter, skills like Signet of Illusions (even with its bugs), and traits like Shatter Storm, to utterly spam Clones and Shatters. For me, Virtuoso is great because it's essentially an Elite Specialization built for the way I had been playing Mesmer: no deception, just churning out ammo and launching it at my enemies. I am excited to switch to it for real once the expansion comes out. Here are some more specific notes: 1) I really like that Blades are retained when targets die and even outside of combat, but it does make it feel a little strange that most Blade generation doesn't work outside of combat. It really makes it feel like Blades should just passively stock up (at least to 3) naturally outside of combat. This would also make Infinite Forge feel less mandatory. 2) Overall the traits feel sort of bland and tangential to the Spec. Mental Focus feels odd when Dagger is ranged, and the beta character also started with a Greatsword, which prefers enemies further away. The Bleed traits feel odd when Bleed is almost exclusively a Pistol thing, and one of the Bleed traits affects Illusions (and other people are saying Illusion traits don't affect Blades?). I like being given the option to do something a little different, but I feel like I'm missing the option to stay well in line with the Virtuoso. 2b) Overall I'm not really excited by my trait options from any trait line for the Spec, but this was a problem I had before when trying to build my Clone and Shatter spam Chronomancer. 3) Between having to aim the Elite skill, it having a cast time, and it only lasting 3 seconds, it just feels unresponsive. I also don't like the lines at the end of the targeting graphic. I assume the direction arrow is supposed to double for implying the ability's range is further than the graphic, but the lines at the end of the graphic keep making my brain interpret that as the edge of the ability. 3) I expected to have more to say, but while confirming certain things while writing this post a lot of my concerns were alleviated. That isn't to say things are perfect and I'll certainly notice more things once I've been playing the Spec for real for an extended period, but as someone who isn't a numbers person I don't have much else to say. P.S.) Just a little nitpick in the grand scheme of things, but the flavor of the Spec just feels weird. I don't know why it's called Virtuoso and I don't know why the shatters are called Bladesongs. It's just Psyblade and I don't think there's anything to be embarrassed about that; it's within the Mesmer's wheelhouse. I do seriously suggest either renaming things or adding more of a music theme to the animations and abilities.

Scepter 1 (Ether Clone) stops summoning Blades when you have 3. Scepter 2 (Illusionary Counter) can go past 3 Blades just fine. I could find no other skill that would treat 3 as the cap for summoning. Things like Mirror Images and Signet of Illusions properly treat 5 as the Blade cap.

That seems like a pretty sound theory. Weavers already combine elements, but with Virtuoso being a sort of simpler Mesmer without the main gimmick, I could see the new Elementalist removing the element swapping in favor of each weapon being prismatic. Elementalists already received weapon swapping awhile ago, so such a spec wouldn't have to be handicapped in options. I would hope that not every new spec is going to simplify the profession the way Virtuoso does, but it sets a precedent that others could be. Also, it's always possible that such a spec doesn't remove its complexity as much as move it elsewhere.

In theory, I think the illusions were supposed to represent those things. There's another thread about concept art of a nightmarish illusion tormenting someone. The problem is, yeah, they've never actually fulfilled that. The illusions shouldn't be able to be countered directly. They shouldn't have to physically run to a target and be susceptible to being stopped along the way because they're already supposed to be in that opponent's mind. Giving illusions a visual representation is fine and gives the profession a unique feel, but the problem is they're not really illusions, they're just minions. Minions with a physical presence and physical vulnerabilities. I like the sound of Virtuoso for me personally, but I still really hope that Virtuoso committing so directly to the ammo theme means the rest of Mesmer can finally take a good, hard look at its basic premise. I said before that I want the rest of the profession to be more clone focused, but I don't mean that every spec has to be about clones. I just want to see the profession be divorced from the Shatters and let that change cascade. All of these ideas should be able to be Mesmer variants. Let the basic Mesmer be illusion-based, or maybe Mirage, I don't care. But make it where it revolves around the illusions themselves, not sacrificing them. The F skills could be illusion commands or a way to swap between illusions on the fly. Play up the fantasy of confusing enemies with mirror images. Let another spec bring back the torment, let them conjure a real nightmare. Monstrous images that are attached to the enemy instead of the caster.

I think there's a good chance of that myself. The Necromancer artwork posted here has some sort of round flasks at their hip and a big orb thing on the front of their hat. The Pistol may be the spec's new weapon, but there could be other Gun specs and that doesn't mean the icon has to be the weapon. I'm mostly stumped about the rest of the icons though. To be fair though, I feel that way about most of the existing icons. The original Profession icons were really good, but I can never keep most of the Elite Specializations straight. They aren't so clearly archetypal and end up being a little too abstract for me.

If anything, at this point, new elite specializations shouldn't appeal to existing players of the profession, as unintuitive as that might sound (incidentally, it's something I realized makes them less exciting as a selling point to me than they should be). Elite Specializations introduce new playstyles, but you're probably not happy with a profession that you're playing right now unless it already has your playstyle. So it's more important if a different profession that you didn't like the playstyle of suddenly gets a playstyle you do like, and any new playstyle of your existing profession is likely to not be a match for you. I realized that I'm more likely to create new alts from this than change my existing ones, because I'm happy where most of them are. It's more of a coincidence than anything than I'm intrigued by Virtuoso, but that's due to Mesmer in particular having a very strange history.

I'm absolutely crossing my fingers that Virtuoso getting F skills that blatantly match the Shatter skills is a sign that Virtuoso will be the "collect balloons to pop them" spec and free the rest of Mesmer to finally do something else with theirs. I'd like to assume it's outright a hint that the other specs are getting a change. I can't assume that, but I think Virtuoso puts us in a better position for us to ask for this from. Let Virtuoso "Shatter", let Mirage and the rest do something else.

For awhile I've been saying that Guild Wars 2 needs certain things. This isn't about what I want or hope for - it's not a demand - it's an observation about the game being stuck in a strange niche and appearing to always be sort of just hanging on (with a lot of the gaming industry, in my experience, assuming the game went defunct years ago). No one who isn't already obsessed with Guild Wars 2 is going to find any of this information interesting. If anyone hears about Guild Wars 2 marketing Fishing as a major feature of an expansion, most reactions are probably going to be more like "they didn't already have fishing?" rather than "what a cool feature, I have to try that game out!" Guild Wars 2 needs big A-list features like new races or classes. Not showing anything like that just vindicates the disinterest the rest of the industry has. If Guild Wars can't have anything big like that, then it's really no one's fault for demanding things, people already aren't interested. In a general, not Guild Wars-specific way, I see fans blamed nowadays a lot for overhyping things, but there's two layers to that. First is that hype is a two way street. Marketing teams can manage hype a lot more than they like to pretend and they're just as much at fault for encouraging or enabling behavior they have plenty of history to know can backfire. The other is that, in the end, hype only matters so much. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what people wanted or expected a game to have, if it simply doesn't have anything that interests players. That said, sometimes it does feel like a sect of Guild Wars fans try to go out of their way to make the game look bad to everyone else. I wish Guild Wars 2 could have even more and be even bigger, but there is plenty to like there. I get being let down and wanting to vent that frustration, but trashing its reputation further isn't going to light a fire to make it better, it's just going to prevent it from bouncing back.

I feel the opposite, but for the same reasons. I think the rest of Mesmer should be more clone focused, now that there's a spec that doesn't have them. Completely replace the F skills for the rest of Mesmer, leave Virtuoso as the one that builds balloons and pops them. A suggestion I had awhile ago is that the F skills actually become the new way to summon illusions for Mesmer, rather than a way to get rid of them, to allow each spec to have more distinct themes. Virtuoso sort of opens up that door in a roundabout way.

It's very strange. It feels inverted, like Virtuoso is where the Shatters came from and base Mesmer added the illusions as an advanced Elite Specialization mechanic (yes these aren't technically Shatters, but as mentioned multiple times, they fill the same role and have less competing with that role). In theory I'm cool with this. The idea of a theoretically simpler/more accessible Elite Specialization in exchange for being a little more narrow is the sort of alternate playstyle thing that Elite Specializations exist for. It reflects strangely on the rest of the profession, though. If Virtuoso is the simpler Shatter spec, then why do the other specs have Shatter at all instead of something more unique to them? If this was coming with an overhaul to the rest of Mesmer (with Virtuoso essentially catching what got changed so that the playstyle still exists for those who liked it) it would make a lot of sense, but without knowing that it feels like an admission that Shatter is an out of place mechanic for the rest of Mesmer without fixing it.

The Bad: My initial reaction was a fair amount of disappointment. The new F skills mirror the Shatters quite closely, we're getting another one handed weapon, and even the name is misleading. It feels like more of the same in a lot of the places that the Mesmer forums have been critiquing for years (it also fails to address any issues I've had with Elite Specializations as a whole that have me disillusioned over them as expansion features). The Good: After getting to see the actual footage (I missed the stream when it was live), my opinion has changed somewhat. In a lot of ways, this looks like what I've personally wanted out of Mesmer for quite some time now: less gimmicks, just attacking in a fancy way. I'm hoping this might be my new spec and it looks like a lot of fun to play around with (though how survivability turns out could be a deal-breaker). The Ugly: What just plain weirds me out is thinking about how this relates to the Mesmer as a whole. I've started to want something simpler out of Mesmer because the gimmicks just haven't worked for me. How I've dealt with that is by just embracing the Shatters and going all out on them. Virtuoso looks right up my alley because in a lot of ways, this looks like a Spec that is meant to revolve around the F skills (since the blades do not have a life outside of launching). However, making a spec about the F skills just makes the awkward role the Shatters fill for the rest of the profession stand out even more.

"Just"? By a week. ;) Where have you been since the release of the Champions episode several months ago? :oI've been playing on and off during Champions. I played a whole ton during what was apparently the Tengu week, but sort of burned myself out and took a break. I've been sort of confused as to how the event has worked from the beginning, but I never really looked into it because I'd never run into a problem before (the NPCs say they'll explain things but they're all very vague about any details, just that more things are going to happen). I think every other time I had popped in it had been during the week with faction dailies, so I by coincidence wasn't aware anything changed from when a new faction came up to when they switch over. Thanks for the clear response though. :)

So I guess I just missed this and the dailies don't exist anymore. Is the material donations the only way to get Support Marks now? I assume the Mastery will eventually be able to be purchased with Tyrian Defense Seals like the rest of them. When does that change over? I was having a surprisingly hard time trying to look up how this all works. :(

I've been joking about the sudden lack of concern for killing the Elder Dragons, but so far I'm convinced that it's another example of the story being written backwards (though I will lament with the rest if I turn out wrong). My guess is that there will be a solution by the end of this (whether that be Jormag and Primordus fusing into one dragon, or something else that serves as a lead-in to the expansion), and in hindsight it will make sense (but still not explain why the characters didn't think to question this situation until the reveal comes). I don't have proof that's what happened before, but it would explain a lot if the ending is designed first, and as a result knowledge about the conclusion is taken for granted, so characters aren't given the reaction they should be having without that information. In other words, the storytelling might be rough, but the rules would still ultimately be intact.

The point about Living World Seasons coming packaged with their respective expansion is a good one. That I can support without any narrowing down of player engagement. It's definitely a good example of "it sounds good on paper to have more revenue sources, but ultimately backfires when it becomes a deterrent to a new player being invested enough to spend money." As for my last post, I guess the closest we've gotten to an answer is "I don't know what to do", and this even applies to leveling. To the hardcore fans it sounds like nonsense. There's a million things to do in the game. It might have more, actually meaningful, currently relevant options for what to do than any other MMO. When leveling, just about everything gives experience, from combat to crafting to gathering to even just reviving allies. Where to StartThe problem has to be the Quicksand Box problem. When there's too many options, it's very often paralyzing. I remember hating leveling the first time I did it, and always felt like I was behind (now I have so many boosts and level setting items that it'll never be a problem again). It's been so long that I can't entirely trust my memory, but I recall it being a bit twofold. The first is that there's a lot I didn't want to do. I wanted to be able to make my way through a zone, do the Renown Hearts, and move on. This was never enough to actually meet the threshold for the next zone range. I didn't want to do Crafting. I usually hate Crafting. Even in this game, while I appreciate some interesting aspects to crafting, I still find it too fiddly and grindy to care about (which, incidentally, is punishing in the reward system, which is a topic I'll get to later). The other problem was with Dynamic Events. Dynamic Events are great. They're one of the main draws of the game. They're also unpredictable, especially for a new player who may have no concept of what events appear, when, and what timers they have. I would constantly find myself annoyed with Dynamic Events. I didn't want to drop what I was already in the middle of to go run off to an event I knew nothing about. And I'd have to drop what I was doing in progress if I even wanted to do the event, because too often I'd head over to an event only to not make it in time, making the whole journey a waste of time. I'd feel bad if I missed an event, though, because I'd always wonder if it had some unique element to it or granted progress to some achievement. Sometimes I'd be confused by the icons on the map. Sometimes an icon is actually the destination of an escort event, sometimes it would be something you would have to interact with to start an event. Too often I'd rather just stick to what I understood about the game, which wasn't enough to keep me on the leveling curve. I think this uncertainty helps contribute to the number of options, even at max level, being paralyzing as well. There are a million things you can go and earn in this game. Titles, cosmetics, Legendaries, and there's a decent variety of challenge for them as well. The problem is it's not easy to even know that they exist to go after. Most can be found in the Achievement panel, but this is not something other games do, so that itself is a bit unintuitive. The second problem is that even if you know to look there, they're scattered all over the place, and many are intentionally hidden until you find how they start, which you're not likely going to do without already knowing about the thing and looking up a guide for it. It's like needing a key to open a door, but the key is on the other side of the door. Even that, I think, is overshadowed by something else. Reward StructureEven if you know where to look for a goal to make for yourself and how to start on the path, almost every goal you can have is daunting. I think to best illustrate this, I need to admit something that I realized I've been completely taking for granted. You see, I'm a veteran of this game. I've been around since day one. I'm maxed out on (non-raid) Mastery. And yet, whenever a new patch comes out, I've just come to accept that I will earn nothing that doesn't come as part of the main story and map exploration path of the update. I don't even bother trying anymore. I've been enjoying the patches well enough, but I ignore absolutely anything about whatever secret weapon or armor skin or title is in the patch, because I know I'm never going to get it. It seems every new goal that's added, whether it be a title or weapon skin, or emote, is treated like a Legendary. My assumption is that this is done on purpose in order to keep the really hardcore players busy who are caught up on everything. Unfortunately, this means that for everyone who's not caught up on everything, you just have this endless list of lifetime goals to pursue, so nothing feels attainable. I don't feel like spending hundreds of hours of gameplay or hundreds of hard-earned gold (since I'm casual, despite being a veteran, and don't regularly make money) just for some weapon skins that aren't really that special in the long run. I'd love to have more options and I'd be willing to work for them, but there's a difference between dedicating some effort to earning something new, and doing a Herculean effort for just anything. It's also telling that, I'm a player who's super into cosmetics, in a game ostensibly about cosmetics. And yet, after all these years I still have only a little more than a handful of skin options for any given slot. If something is not an absolute, one-in-a-million, perfect for my character, must have, the time (or gem) investment is just too daunting to bother with. If a new player is told that some moderately cool weapon skin they see someone using requires buying their way into a specific patch, making their way through it, and then grinding for hours and hours and spending tens or hundreds of gold, they're just going to give up on that idea. When everything is like that, they're going to say "I don't know what to do". It's a bit of a paradox, but I think things like this need to be addressed before a serious marketing push will matter. Otherwise it might even make things worse, just widening the game's unusual reputation.

The problem with Guild Wars 2's exposure isn't just a lack of marketing, but I'm honestly not really sure what it is. When Guild Wars 2 first came out, we had the most friends and acquaintances we've ever had migrate to any MMO right away. We had a huge guild of real life friends, including people who we didn't know bought the game right away but joined our server by coincidence. All of them but two stopped playing after the first month or so. Why? To this day I'm not really sure. They're not really sure. Every once and awhile we try to talk one of them into coming back. They're super excited to play for the session we bring them in for, then they go right back to forgetting this game even exists. When prodded, they have no answer as to why they do this with the game. To be honest, I'm technically of one of them. If it wasn't for the one person who remained obsessed with the game, I probably would have forgotten this game a long time ago, or at least not bothered to keep up with it. I'd love to say I'd be a good litmus test of this phenomenon, because I'm affected by it but have been kept close enough to the game to bother talking about it. The problem is, I can't place it. In theory, I like this game. I really, really appreciate a lot of what it does. I appreciate the game never having raised the level cap. I appreciate the horizontal progression. I appreciate almost everything being account-wide unlocks. I appreciate the buy-to-play model. I appreciate the Living World giving me a little something to do every once and awhile. I appreciate the dynamic combat that eschews hard-coded roles for actual tactics. I appreciate the movement and dodging and jumping puzzles. I appreciate the way gliders and mounts reinvented movement instead of just being movement speed upgrades. Every time I play Guild Wars 2 around the time I'm playing something else, I always wonder why that other game can't do things the way Guild Wars does. And yet I usually consider myself more of an active fan of anything else. I just don't know why. I wish I did because I'd love to relate that to help this game, because I really do appreciate it. It makes me concerned that as things are, though, that even a bigger marketing push would only just create a new generation of people who hop into the game once and then never return on their own.

I want to see the skills flipped around. Put the Illusions on the Fs, and put Shatters as a set of Utilities. Base Mesmer:F1: Summon a Clone who appear to attack but do negligible damage.F2: Summon a Phantasm that attacks with your current weapon.F3: You and your Illusions swap places at random.F4: You reveal yourself to be an illusion for a moment, gaining Distortion.F5: Illusions switch to attack your current target. Chronomancer:F2: Summon a Phantasm who repeats your last skill.F4: Summon a Continuum Rift. When it expires, you will revert back to your original point with your previous health and endurance.F5: Illusions switch to attack your current target. Mirage:F1: Creates a Mirage Mirror at target location. Touching the mirror shatters it, granting Mirage Cloak to you and weakening nearby foes.F2: Draw in shards of crystal sand based on your current weapon that effect enemies they pass through on their way to your targeted location. The shards form a Mirage Mirror upon reaching their destination.F3: Converts all active Mirage Mirrors into Clones.F4: Teleport to your nearest Mirage Mirror, shattering it.F5: Illusions switch to attack your current target. That's all very rough, but the point is that the main class feature and main class abilities are now one in the same. The main gimmick is now creating illusions and being deceptive with them, whether that be classic Clones and Phantasms, temporal rifts, or distracting mirrors. Each Elite Specialization now has more freedom with how it changes the primary playstyle of the Mesmer, while still being able to fill a similar thematic role. For a smaller scale wish, I'd like an Elite Specialization/weapon/skills that really have some great cleaving with mobility. I know it's not normally the Mesmer's thing and I play other Professions for it right now, but I'd love to see Mesmers try to tackle it. Being able to hit multiple enemies with one swing is something that still makes Guild Wars 2 fairly unique, but Mesmers mostly have to settle for slow, bouncing projectiles or lining up lasers.

I haven't voted because I'm not really sure how to categorize my opinion yet. I would love to see something more bold with the next Elite Specialization. I'm also not sure how feasible it is. In a lot of ways, the Guild Wars 2 Mesmer has a foundational flaw that would require a major rework to properly deal with. (Disclaimer: While my ability to solo shows me that I'm not terrible at the game, I regularly see players, even other Mesmers, doing a lot better than me, so I'm clearly not great at builds either.) Here's the thing. Whether you like them or not, the Shatter skills are our F skills. They're supposed to be our main feature. The problem is... it's backwards? Shatter skills are the finisher to a specific kind of build, not the pieces that you use to make a combo that you finish with your build. When I first started playing, I prioritized setting up my Phantasms and almost never touched my F skills. Nowadays, I have a much more efficient Shatter build, but it's a very narrow build in order to keep the Shatters going. It doesn't really make sense that the main feature of the class limits your build. Looking back, I think it would make more sense if it was the F skills that dealt with your illusions, and Shatters be on the weapons or utilities. For instance:F1: Summons a clone that does no damage but looks like you. Short cooldown.F2: Summons a phantasm with your current weapon. Deals damage but is transparent. Moderate cooldown.F3: Randomly shuffles the position of you and your illusions. Moderate cooldown. Then the F skills would properly involve the main feature of the class, the illusions, while allowing a variety of builds that utilize the illusions in different ways. Instead of the F skills being something that works best with certain builds, and doesn't mesh well with one of the class' actual main features: the phantasm illusions. This would smooth out the access all builds have to the core feature, and make the question what you do with the main feature, instead of the question being whether or not the F skills even make sense with your build. This would also have opened up the Elite Specializations the freedom to play much more heavily with the main feature of the class (without necessarily replacing it entirely). The Mirage's Mirage Mirror skills would have been great F replacements in this situation as things that fill a similar role but reimagine that part of the class. In the above example, instead of summoning a clone at the location, it could summon a Mirage Mirror.Chronomancer could have handled this in a couple of ways. Either the clones and phantasms could have altered, time-based gimmicks (like the summoned phantasm now repeats your last skill specifically instead of just making an attack based on the weapon), or it could have replaced the clones and phantasms entirely with something like: "Summons a Continuum Rift that resets the position of the first ally or enemy that steps within it." In such a situation, we could also get a more Guild Wars 1-themed Elite Specialization that replaces the physical illusions with directly debuffing versions of them (like the reverse barrier idea mentioned earlier). Incidentally, one thing that's always bugged me about the Guild Wars 2 Mesmer's illusions is that... they're not illusions. In Guild Wars 1, they tormented your target, but were otherwise imaginary. In Guild Wars 2, they physically exist for some reason, and it's a weird balance problem. Why do illusions need health or be targetable to begin with (at least any that doesn't just reflect your own for the sake of deception)? How do you root something that doesn't actually exist? How do you damage a person who isn't really there? There are other ways to balance them, like the now-existing-anyway idea of phantasms going away after one attack, or even something like all illusions disperse upon the Mesmer being downed (which would require rebalancing other aspects of the Mesmer, but actually fits really well into the flavor of the usual result when an illusionist finally has their real self sussed out).

I would love to see any general increase in weapon options. Being able to mix and match is theoretically a huge draw of the game when it comes to making a build, but I'm consistently surprised at how limited some of the options are for some professions. So far this has never been addressed, as new weapons have only come with Elite Specializations, and Elite Specialization only ever add one weapon mutually exclusive with any others. Also, the new weapons really don't contribute that much to the identity of the Elite Specializations in practice. Considering the connection between a weapon type and what it can actually do with skills is fairly arbitrary in this game (in a good, creative way, don't get me wrong), a new weapon doesn't really mean anything in particular on its own. Also, when a new weapon is something like an off-hand, it only adds two new skills anyway, so it hardly defines the spec. It's very easy to never even touch the new weapon. The Chronomancer shield has a shield ability and a stun. Sure, the stun is "time stop" themed, but all Mesmers have access to the "speed up time"-themed "Temporal Curtain" on a Focus, so it's not a theme they don't already have. The Mirage axe, despite having a third skill, isn't any more tied to the spec's theme. It's just an axe that you do deceptive things with. What makes weapons special for the Mirage is the Ambush skill, but it gives that to all weapons, not just the new one.

From what I've gathered from the most recent developments is that Jormag's weakness (which explains a lot of their actions in the early parts of the Icebrood Saga) is that they are convinced they are not just right, but righteous. For Jormag, being righteous means doing whatever it takes to deal with that pesky Primordus that they unfortunately share a bond with. I believe that, after all, Jormag does accept that we are the good guys, just that we are slightly misguided on what it means to be a good guy (anything, anything, as long as it means dealing with Primordus). Jormag did not anticipate Braham's actions because, to Jormag, they're not just brash, they're unthinkably evil. It's less a matter of intelligence and more a matter of morality, because for all Jormag's intelligence, their morality is warped.

Same here. For me, going back to Cantha is a huge selling point on its own, and if we get the rest of the bare minimum expansion features at that point, that's enough for me. Anything after that is just a bonus. Also, if End of Dragons means that Guild Wars can finally move on from this plot (and not just toying with us), then it's most of what I wanted all in one place. I still want to get a features list to start throwing money around, but it's going to be hard to betray my optimism.

A tangentially related thing I also want to give credit to is that I recently grew to really appreciate the waypoint fast travel system in this game. I've always liked it, but common knowledge is that fast travel makes worlds feel smaller and hampers the immersion. I recently realized (although I don't remember what triggered it) that I think Guild Wars 2's fast travel system actually benefits its world in comparison to similar games rather than the opposite. The reason why, I think, is that without instant travel, game developers are actually encouraged to make their worlds smaller anyway. Several early MMOs experimented with some truly large and open maps for the sake of immersion, but they mostly ended up abandoned for all that space being wasted and just making the game tedious. It's often critiqued in other MMOs that no one is in any maps but the most recent one or two. Now, a good chunk of that is due to the way other MMOs handle leveling (and level caps) compared to Guild Wars 2, but the waypoints have a subtle yet profound effect on that as well. Maps in most games are now small so that you never have to spend too much time between what's actually content, and most people are going to hang out in the absolutely most relevant content because no one wants to take horse paths back and forth to distant corners of the world for thirty minutes every time they play. Guild Wars 2 found a way around that. There's always the initial travel time to unlock the waypoints the first time around, so you always get the original context for any journey you're making, but that's perfect. By just allowing us to teleport at will after that, travel times are no longer an issue, so the maps can do whatever they want and it's not a drawback, it's a feature. When anywhere in the world is just a click away, you can spend more time enjoying those locations instead of hesitating to move around too much because how much time it's going to take you. Instant travel is more common these days, but still not on the broadly and consistently-applied way the waypoints are in Guild Wars. This also means (for the most part), for the sake of this thread, I can like any map at any time. I don't have to just say "well, I liked this map when it was relevant".

Unlike picking my favorite map, picking my least favorite map is easy:Tangled Depths There's a really easy way for me to put it: The in-game map makes it harder to navigate. The in-game map has had the layer system built-in from the beginning (at least as far as I remember). Presumably this feature was to tackle the issue of mapping three-dimensional spaces (since Guild Wars 2 has utilized height for the Grove being vertical, secret underwater caves, and hidden jumping puzzle cliffs from the beginning). This should have made navigating Tangled Depths more or less okay, but it's just plain broken on that map. There are some roads that appear on every layer, there are roads that appear only on the wrong layer, there are roads that don't seem to appear on any layer, and it just never seems to properly divide up the map like it's supposed to (and does just fine on maps like Verdant Brink). The zone is awesome in theory (though it also has some really nasty Hero Challenges and group-ending events) and really does get across the idea of being in such an overgrown place far from civilization, but as long as the map layers don't work right on it, it just sells that concept too well. I will give an honorable mention to a concept rather than another zone. One thing that bothers me about the seasonal maps is how much they seem to be built around grinding for achievements for Mastery or the meta-achievement. It takes the joy out of exploring, for me, to know that if I'm not actively working on the meta or certain events, than I'm wasting time I will eventually have to spend to catch back up. I like being able to do things at my own pace, but when I know I'm going to need to do this rare event while it's up or that event 10 times, I have to put on the brakes and go do that even if I don't want to, because it'll be even worse to be looking for those thing when I want the reward and then can't find them.

Oh, good question! I don't talk enough about what I like around here. I don't think I can pin it down to a single favorite right now, but maybe a few things I like is better than nothing. :P Grothmar Valley was a lot of fun. I liked how it managed to do some very different things, like barely have a single enemy on the map, but still feel like a real part of the game. It's not easy to leave enemies out of a game designed around action and combat, but Grothmar Valley pulled it off for me. I really felt like we were taking a break from all the world saving and doing some celebrating. The Silverwastes is not the sort of thing I'd like on the surface. The barren landscape isn't particularly inviting and saying that the enemies can be annoying is an understatement. However, the way it all just built up to a single meta was something that was really cool at the time. It also felt like a direct improvement on the Marionette, which was an interesting idea that was hampered by the fact that a single troll or simply less-skilled player could ruin the meta for everyone. I don't find myself in the Silverwastes often anymore, but when I do I often find myself helping to finish off the meta just because it pulls me into it so naturally. Dragonfall was a really cool map on several levels. How it tied into the story was very nicely climactic and it built upon a lot of what I liked in the Silverwastes. The variety in the lanes made them feel even more organic (despite the actually artificial nature of their placement) and gave more replay value to working on the various achievements for the regions. Simultaneous boss take-downs stress me out and the early experiment in a bonus boss rush really drove me nuts originally, but that didn't stick with me as much as the zone and its meta as a whole package. Bloodstone Fen may have been the first season map, as we know them now, and thus was very small and not really used for a lot aside from its relevant gimmicks, I nevertheless had a lot of fun with those gimmicks. There were a few times I wanted to grind... was it Bloodstone Dust? for something, and the way that there's always something to do close by in Bloodstone Fen made it easier for me to turn my brain off for that grind, but I mean that in a good way! Verdant Brink was an amazing introduction to Heart of Thorns. It was also unfortunately the peak for me, but I do think the entire expansion had beautiful zones. I've never seen a game really capture the idea of being so deep in a tangled jungle and it made me realize how basic environmental design is in most games compared to what it could be (especially in fantasy). Verdant Brink just happened to balance everything very well. The multiple layers were mostly clear here and I never got lost for long, it just made for a massive map with several very different things going on at the same time. The meta could be annoying depending on how many people were in the map, but it was still a really organic way to roll out the concepts of the expansion to you and really let you feel each bit of progress you were making with your gliding and mushroom Masteries. Finally, I want to give an honorable mention to the whole of the Crystal Desert. Individually they don't have elements that stand out the way that the maps I listed above do, in amazing metas or awe-inspiring landmarks, but not every map needs those (exploring all of the launch maps was a huge draw to the original game and they weren't designed around any gimmicks). Instead, what these maps did well was just be wide-open vistas that were a blast to explore. Certainly the mounts helped with that, but the entire point was to design them with mounts in mind. Being a fan of the art and architecture of Elona certainly contributed. It was a pleasant surprise in Guild Wars 1 and I was happy to return.