What a great experience.

Crafterofstars.4512 · April 21, 2020

I'm currently playing through the Path of Fire story line and I am really enjoying the experience. Being able to get lost in the story, but also step out and get lost in exploring the different map objectives, and join events with others along the way really makes my first play through Guild Wars 2 a really rich experience. This game really has a lot going for it, and I just wanted to show some appreciation. Thanks.

AliamRationem.5172 · April 21, 2020

I wouldn't say the story is winning any awards for writing, but it's interesting enough that I continue to play it. I find myself interested in what happens to the characters. And as you say, playing in open world as you go is nice, too.

Randulf.7614 · April 21, 2020

I struggle going back through with alts, but first time or two I absolutely loved PoF (and HoT) and taking my time and knowing I had a huge expanse of content ahead of me and not just a single small map.

nosleepdemon.1368 · April 21, 2020

The story certainly does improve with each release, I do enjoy Joko :)

GummyBearSummoner.7941 · April 21, 2020

I enjoyed HoT & PoF story compare to core story line & do hope for the future expansion(s) the writing improves (including the voice actors )

aaron.7850 · April 22, 2020

I really didnt care much about vanilla story, but the expansions did a great job of making me like the commander and the crew. I never skip a conversation now.

Zelanard.5806 · April 22, 2020

@Crafterofstars.4512 said:I'm currently playing through the Path of Fire story line and I am really enjoying the experience. Being able to get lost in the story, but also step out and get lost in exploring the different map objectives, and join events with others along the way really makes my first play through Guild Wars 2 a really rich experience. This game really has a lot going for it, and I just wanted to show some appreciation. Thanks.

I wish I could agree with you. But having played through it, I find that they've left a loose end, of so significant dimensions that it's made everything that followed after it, an absolute anguish to play through. :anguished:

! Balthazar has been given many titles, including:! Bringer of War! Finder of Wisdom! He That Shows Us the Final Truth! Judge of the Powerful! Revealer of Strength! Scourge of the Prideful!
! There is NOTHING in the game that inform of us what made Balthazar loose his mind. There is nothing in the story that explains what happened to his mind and how he lost it. There is nothing in the story that justify that he wont hear your character out and Talk with them. There is nothing in the story that tells us, why he is behaving polar opposite of the character traits for which he seems to be worshiped, in the first place.

Through out all of PoF, I hoped for an explanation. I hoped they would elaborate on this, because it makes no sense that they would do this. At least, not in accordance to the established lore. But it never came, and so, It's become very hard for me to replay PoF... It's a great story... It just lacks that one essential element that binds it all together... The worst part is, they had the chance to deliver it... They just didn't ever mention it... It is as though they had completely forgotten who Balthazar was... And I find that very, very sad...

Linken.6345 · April 22, 2020

@Zelanard.5806 said:
@Crafterofstars.4512 said:I'm currently playing through the Path of Fire story line and I am really enjoying the experience. Being able to get lost in the story, but also step out and get lost in exploring the different map objectives, and join events with others along the way really makes my first play through Guild Wars 2 a really rich experience. This game really has a lot going for it, and I just wanted to show some appreciation. Thanks.

I wish I could agree with you. But having played through it, I find that they've left a loose end, of so significant dimensions that it's made everything that followed after it, an absolute anguish to play through. :anguished:

! Balthazar has been given many titles, including:! Bringer of War! Finder of Wisdom! He That Shows Us the Final Truth! Judge of the Powerful! Revealer of Strength! Scourge of the Prideful!
! There is NOTHING in the game that inform of us what made Balthazar loose his mind. There is nothing in the story that explains what happened to his mind and how he lost it. There is nothing in the story that justify that he wont hear your character out and Talk with them. There is nothing in the story that tells us, why he is behaving polar opposite of the character traits for which he seems to be worshiped, in the first place.

Through out all of PoF, I hoped for an explanation. I hoped they would elaborate on this, because it makes no sense that they would do this. At least, not in accordance to the established lore. But it never came, and so, It's become very hard for me to replay PoF... It's a great story... It just lacks that one essential element that binds it all together... The worst part is, they had the chance to deliver it... They just didn't ever mention it... It is as though they had completely forgotten who Balthazar was... And I find that very, very sad...

Considering not many of the gw1 vets seem to be left you might not be far from the truth about them not knowing who Balthazar was.

Zelanard.5806 · April 22, 2020

@Linken.6345 said:
@Zelanard.5806 said:
@Crafterofstars.4512 said:I'm currently playing through the Path of Fire story line and I am really enjoying the experience. Being able to get lost in the story, but also step out and get lost in exploring the different map objectives, and join events with others along the way really makes my first play through Guild Wars 2 a really rich experience. This game really has a lot going for it, and I just wanted to show some appreciation. Thanks.

I wish I could agree with you. But having played through it, I find that they've left a loose end, of so significant dimensions that it's made everything that followed after it, an absolute anguish to play through. :anguished:

! Balthazar has been given many titles, including:! Bringer of War! Finder of Wisdom! He That Shows Us the Final Truth! Judge of the Powerful! Revealer of Strength! Scourge of the Prideful!
! There is NOTHING in the game that inform of us what made Balthazar loose his mind. There is nothing in the story that explains what happened to his mind and how he lost it. There is nothing in the story that justify that he wont hear your character out and Talk with them. There is nothing in the story that tells us, why he is behaving polar opposite of the character traits for which he seems to be worshiped, in the first place.

Through out all of PoF, I hoped for an explanation. I hoped they would elaborate on this, because it makes no sense that they would do this. At least, not in accordance to the established lore. But it never came, and so, It's become very hard for me to replay PoF... It's a great story... It just lacks that one essential element that binds it all together... The worst part is, they had the chance to deliver it... They just didn't ever mention it... It is as though they had completely forgotten who Balthazar was... And I find that very, very sad...

Considering not many of the gw1 vets seem to be left you might not be far from the truth about them not knowing who Balthazar was.

That is, sadly, very true. Though I must add that much of the new content is very, very good... I just can't play it with my HoT enthusiasm... (I played through hot more than 30 times, incl full exploration! xD)

Zaklex.6308 · April 22, 2020

@Zelanard.5806 said:
@Linken.6345 said:
@Zelanard.5806 said:
@"Crafterofstars.4512" said:I'm currently playing through the Path of Fire story line and I am really enjoying the experience. Being able to get lost in the story, but also step out and get lost in exploring the different map objectives, and join events with others along the way really makes my first play through Guild Wars 2 a really rich experience. This game really has a lot going for it, and I just wanted to show some appreciation. Thanks.

I wish I could agree with you. But having played through it, I find that they've left a loose end, of so significant dimensions that it's made everything that followed after it, an absolute anguish to play through. :anguished:

! Balthazar has been given many titles, including:! Bringer of War! Finder of Wisdom! He That Shows Us the Final Truth! Judge of the Powerful! Revealer of Strength! Scourge of the Prideful!
! There is NOTHING in the game that inform of us what made Balthazar loose his mind. There is nothing in the story that explains what happened to his mind and how he lost it. There is nothing in the story that justify that he wont hear your character out and Talk with them. There is nothing in the story that tells us, why he is behaving polar opposite of the character traits for which he seems to be worshiped, in the first place.

Through out all of PoF, I hoped for an explanation. I hoped they would elaborate on this, because it makes no sense that they would do this. At least, not in accordance to the established lore. But it never came, and so, It's become very hard for me to replay PoF... It's a great story... It just lacks that one essential element that binds it all together... The worst part is, they had the chance to deliver it... They just didn't ever mention it... It is as though they had completely forgotten who Balthazar was... And I find that very, very sad...

Considering not many of the gw1 vets seem to be left you might not be far from the truth about them not knowing who Balthazar was.

That is, sadly, very true. Though I must add that much of the new content is very, very good... I just can't play it with my HoT enthusiasm... (I played through hot more than 30 times, incl full exploration! xD)

You're quite wrong on them not explaining why Balthazar went rogue(he didn't lost his mind, he had an agenda to destroy the Elder Dragons and save humanity, the other Gods didn't think it would work since they "lost" once before and banished him, etc., etc.,) they did a nice job of it.

Roche.7491 · April 22, 2020

The storybis mediocre. Honestly they are so dumb. Wish they let balthazar kill klarkatorik and team up with balt to finish the rest of the eldies.

Zelanard.5806 · April 22, 2020

@Zaklex.6308 said:
@Zelanard.5806 said:
@Linken.6345 said:
@Zelanard.5806 said:
@"Crafterofstars.4512" said:I'm currently playing through the Path of Fire story line and I am really enjoying the experience. Being able to get lost in the story, but also step out and get lost in exploring the different map objectives, and join events with others along the way really makes my first play through Guild Wars 2 a really rich experience. This game really has a lot going for it, and I just wanted to show some appreciation. Thanks.

I wish I could agree with you. But having played through it, I find that they've left a loose end, of so significant dimensions that it's made everything that followed after it, an absolute anguish to play through. :anguished:

! Balthazar has been given many titles, including:! Bringer of War! Finder of Wisdom! He That Shows Us the Final Truth! Judge of the Powerful! Revealer of Strength! Scourge of the Prideful!
! There is NOTHING in the game that inform of us what made Balthazar loose his mind. There is nothing in the story that explains what happened to his mind and how he lost it. There is nothing in the story that justify that he wont hear your character out and Talk with them. There is nothing in the story that tells us, why he is behaving polar opposite of the character traits for which he seems to be worshiped, in the first place.

Through out all of PoF, I hoped for an explanation. I hoped they would elaborate on this, because it makes no sense that they would do this. At least, not in accordance to the established lore. But it never came, and so, It's become very hard for me to replay PoF... It's a great story... It just lacks that one essential element that binds it all together... The worst part is, they had the chance to deliver it... They just didn't ever mention it... It is as though they had completely forgotten who Balthazar was... And I find that very, very sad...

Considering not many of the gw1 vets seem to be left you might not be far from the truth about them not knowing who Balthazar was.

That is, sadly, very true. Though I must add that much of the new content is very, very good... I just can't play it with my HoT enthusiasm... (I played through hot more than 30 times, incl full exploration! xD)

You're quite wrong on them not explaining why Balthazar went rogue(he didn't lost his mind, he had an agenda to destroy the Elder Dragons and save humanity, the other Gods didn't think it would work since they "lost" once before and banished him, etc., etc.,) they did a nice job of it.

As it is evident that you're referring to the Kormirs tale, that explains NOTHING about Balthazars complete and utter personality change. It does not explain why he's unwilling to negotiate with potential allies and it does not tell us why he's willing to sacrifice Tyria to kill the elder dragons. It does not tell us why he's carelessly sacrificing innocent people for his army, and it doesn't inform us why he's turned from Good to Evil. NOTHING he does in this story, is in accordance with the personality they established him to have, in previous lore.So no, they did not do a nice job, at all, at explaining why Balthazar changed so drastically. I mean, it would have been far better if they had killed Balthazar off and had Menzies (the mad) take his place. That would've made far better sense to the story...

EDIT: All Kormir is telling us, is what we already knew: He's gone mad and we don't know why and we wont help you. (The "we wont help you" we already knew, because that was the information that the five gave us, in gw1, when we were about to kill Abaddon). Why did balthazar change his mind? In Abaddon's case, he was perfectly fine standing back and doing nothing, telling humanity that we were on our own. What's going on here, makes NO sense at all.

Crafterofstars.4512 · April 22, 2020

Wow, just finished the Balthazar fight and that was insane, so much dodging.

Zaklex.6308 · April 23, 2020

@Zelanard.5806 said:
@Zaklex.6308 said:
@Zelanard.5806 said:
@Linken.6345 said:
@Zelanard.5806 said:
@"Crafterofstars.4512" said:I'm currently playing through the Path of Fire story line and I am really enjoying the experience. Being able to get lost in the story, but also step out and get lost in exploring the different map objectives, and join events with others along the way really makes my first play through Guild Wars 2 a really rich experience. This game really has a lot going for it, and I just wanted to show some appreciation. Thanks.

I wish I could agree with you. But having played through it, I find that they've left a loose end, of so significant dimensions that it's made everything that followed after it, an absolute anguish to play through. :anguished:

! Balthazar has been given many titles, including:! Bringer of War! Finder of Wisdom! He That Shows Us the Final Truth! Judge of the Powerful! Revealer of Strength! Scourge of the Prideful!
! There is NOTHING in the game that inform of us what made Balthazar loose his mind. There is nothing in the story that explains what happened to his mind and how he lost it. There is nothing in the story that justify that he wont hear your character out and Talk with them. There is nothing in the story that tells us, why he is behaving polar opposite of the character traits for which he seems to be worshiped, in the first place.

Through out all of PoF, I hoped for an explanation. I hoped they would elaborate on this, because it makes no sense that they would do this. At least, not in accordance to the established lore. But it never came, and so, It's become very hard for me to replay PoF... It's a great story... It just lacks that one essential element that binds it all together... The worst part is, they had the chance to deliver it... They just didn't ever mention it... It is as though they had completely forgotten who Balthazar was... And I find that very, very sad...

Considering not many of the gw1 vets seem to be left you might not be far from the truth about them not knowing who Balthazar was.

That is, sadly, very true. Though I must add that much of the new content is very, very good... I just can't play it with my HoT enthusiasm... (I played through hot more than 30 times, incl full exploration! xD)

You're quite wrong on them not explaining why Balthazar went rogue(he didn't lost his mind, he had an agenda to destroy the Elder Dragons and save humanity, the other Gods didn't think it would work since they "lost" once before and banished him, etc., etc.,) they did a nice job of it.

As it is evident that you're referring to the Kormirs tale, that explains NOTHING about Balthazars complete and utter personality change. It does not explain why he's unwilling to negotiate with potential allies and it does not tell us why he's willing to sacrifice Tyria to kill the elder dragons. It does not tell us why he's carelessly sacrificing innocent people for his army, and it doesn't inform us why he's turned from Good to Evil. NOTHING he does in this story, is in accordance with the personality they established him to have, in previous lore.So no, they did not do a nice job, at all, at explaining why Balthazar changed so drastically. I mean, it would have been far better if they had killed Balthazar off and had Menzies (the mad) take his place. That would've made far better sense to the story...

EDIT: All Kormir is telling us, is what we already knew: He's gone mad and we don't know why and we wont help you. (The "we wont help you" we already knew, because that was the information that the five gave us, in gw1, when we were about to kill Abaddon). Why did balthazar change his mind? In Abaddon's case, he was perfectly fine standing back and doing nothing, telling humanity that we were on our own. What's going on here, makes NO sense at all.

How would you act if you were stripped of your power and banished, then someone who didn't know who you were came along and released you? Just because he's a "God" doesn't mean he wouldn't react in human terms, I don't know why some people found it so hard to believe he would do anything he could to regain his lost power to try and destroy all the Elder Dragons that threatened to consume the world as he knew it...tunnel vision can be terrible thing to have when you think in your mind that your doing the right thing.

Also, there were still plenty of GW1 vet devs at ArenaNet when PoF was made, including some that had been heavily involved with the original story, and keep in mind all of GW2's story was white boarded before they even started working on the game, so I'm pretty sure the Balthazar track was already a part of the design from the very beginning, just not fleshed out at the time(for those of that remember Joko we knew that at some point we were going back to Elona to take care of him).

Randulf.7614 · April 23, 2020

@Zaklex.6308 said:
@Zelanard.5806 said:
@Zaklex.6308 said:
@Zelanard.5806 said:
@Linken.6345 said:
@Zelanard.5806 said:
@"Crafterofstars.4512" said:I'm currently playing through the Path of Fire story line and I am really enjoying the experience. Being able to get lost in the story, but also step out and get lost in exploring the different map objectives, and join events with others along the way really makes my first play through Guild Wars 2 a really rich experience. This game really has a lot going for it, and I just wanted to show some appreciation. Thanks.