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    Guild Wars 2 Shadow of the Dragon is vibing hard

    February 07, 2022

    Guild Wars 2 Shadow of the Dragon is vibing hard

    Shadow of the Dragon is vibing hard

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 04:41 AM PST

    Just sharing a screenshot I took

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 12:16 AM PST

    I made 13 NPC Character Replicas

    Posted: 06 Feb 2022 12:52 PM PST

    ALL Reasons To Be Excited For End of Dragons! My hype, hopes and expectations (Laranity)

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 10:32 AM PST

    In-game Connor cosplay

    Posted: 06 Feb 2022 02:02 PM PST

    GW2: The only MMO that (by design) makes you empathetic towards your fellow players

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 05:38 AM PST

    Art From @MabiWabi of my insane lil Asura <3

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 08:08 AM PST

    The Weekly Map Recap, Week 44 - Domain of Istan

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 10:06 AM PST

    Welcome to the Weekly Map Recap, a series where we look back at one map in the game each week. We'll look with a critical eye at how each map represents its theme, proves faithful to its lore, and implements its design. We'll see how effective its gameplay is, whether the art holds up, and the forecast for the map's long term retention. With 52 maps to date, it'll be quite the journey!

    Links to the previous entries in a reply at the bottom!

    44 of 52 - Domain of Istan - Level 80

    Our first Living World Season 4 map is a big deal for a number of reasons. First, Istan was the well-loved starter island for the Nightfall campaign in Guild Wars 1 - with a unique art and architectural style, as well as a famous player hub, Kamadan. Second, this map established the pattern of map design for much of the season, signaling what kind of meta-events and other structures would be present on the next five maps. Finally, Istan took the throne of 'most profitable map' for some time, and consequently has built a special name for itself among the GW2 player base.

    Theme/Concept - 7/10

    Istan is focused on rebellion, sowing the seeds of what seemed to be the main plot for the season: fighting Palawa Joko. While there are nods to Kralkatorrik on this map, especially in the brandstone meteors we'll touch on later, the focus is very much on Joko, the Sunspears and the Mordant Crescent.

    This theme is showcased through both meta-events: the raid on the Crescent Great Hall, and Palawadan. Most of the regular events on the map are themed appropriately - either helping folks escape the clutches of the Crescent, helping boost the Sunspear's ranks, taking out supply lines, or trying to take down Joko's propaganda machine. It's all very rebels vs evil empire, and that works, for the most part.

    I'm not sure how compelling it is. Part of the issue is that the main 'rebel base' is mostly inaccessible, requiring completion of a certain story step and a daily renown heart to access a mostly empty underground lair. The whole story of the map would have hit much harder, I think, if this underground Sunspear base really was core to the map design - especially if it held more vendors, collections, etc. The team will play with this idea much more successfully with the Sunspear Sanctuary in Jahai Bluffs.

    One thing that does stick out like a sore thumb is the corsair section of the map. Potentially it's meant to be a palette cleanser? Something which ensures that the rest of the map doesn't feel quite so dire? Unfortunately, it comes across as being too silly and too irrelevant when just a few steps away we're fighting an oppressive necro-empire.

    Lore - 6/10

    There's some cool stuff here, but not enough of it. It's good to finally see the home of the Mordant Crescent, but we don't really get much exploration beyond the idea that they're really into Joko and they have mind-control potion - which undermines their villainy, given a core element of why the Mordant Crescent are cool is that so many Sunspears willingly joined them.

    The Astralarium is really the core of the cool lore here, with all of its books and astral weapon quest. The astral and stellar weapons are, for my money, a great implementation of interesting lore in a 'achievement panel quest' format. While the hidden Sunspear hideout is too empty, it also contains some great conversations about what the Sunspears have been up to and what their plans are.

    Other than that, there's not much. There's no reading or conversations in Palawadan, nothing in any of the other settlements on the map, and certainly nothing in the corsair area. For an island with such distinct lore and culture in the first game, it's hard not to feel disappointed by its representation here.

    Design - 6/10

    Istan introduces us to this season's bipolar meta structure: two meta events which alternate fairly quickly, are not particularly difficult, and have lots of loot. The goal of the structure seems to be to ensure that there's always something profitable to do (addressing PoF complaints) but that you don't need to invest too much time to do it (addressing HoT complaints). It's a sound structure for attracting and retaining players.

    Unfortunately, the rest of the map suffers a bit for it. Because there's always one of the two smaller meta events going on, there's very little sense of buildup or tension across the map. While there's technically events to attack the Mordant Crescent supply lines, it matters very little - this is no Auric Basin or Tangled Depths, where the build-up to the meta has an impact. There's just no time for it.

    On top of that, the actual structure of the map creates large dead areas with very little to see or do. Most players will gather exclusively in the center and north-east side, where the Great Hall and Palawadan metas occur. While some will hang out at the Astralarium, that only lasts until the crash of a meteor - which often hits the ground near to the Great Hall anyway. The corsair section, the oppressed town, and large swathes of cliffs and caves are completely irrelevant to the player unless they're hunting for specific achievements or bounties. Compare this to LWS3 maps that have similar meta structures, like Bloodstone Fen, where you're really encouraged to run all over the map in-between the Hablion and Jade metas.

    The terrain is well suited to mount movement, and showcased what the Living World teams could do - how much playable space they could include. It's just a shame that so much of that space is irrelevant.

    Gameplay - 5/10

    Events on Istan are fine. Some of them are tuned strangely, being very difficult for solo players but face-roll easy for five or more. Many of the enemies on Istan - and during LWS4 in general - hit very hard, but are easy to power through if you're in a zerg. This season, even more than LWS3, encourages sticking in a tight zerg ball and just facerolling. You won't find any bosses here that can still wipe zergs like the destroyer wyverns in Draconis Mons.

    This goes for the meta events, as well. Bizarrely, both focus mainly on running around and opening chests while fighting waves of easy enemies and minor bosses. While Warden Amala is a more engaging fight, for much of her event's life players were focused on farming the champions that cropped up while she was spawned. The Palawadan fight is even stranger, with very little sense of stakes or challenge: run around, stick tight to the zerg, open chests. The most engaging thing that happens on this map is the appearance of the ships during the Palawadan meta, and even that leads to either sitting on cannons and pressing a single action button, or jumping onto the ships and spamming your most damaging attack.

    Oddly enough, maybe the most fun to be had on this map is farming kralkite meteors. There's a certain kind of zen in waiting for the meteors, rushing to where they fall, working together with other players to boost their yield, and fighting off enemies while mining as quickly as you can. The special action tool to interact with them is clunky and awkward, but the actual experience can be surprisingly enjoyable as a 'semi-afk' social activity.

    The bounties on this map are the first attempt by the team at creating more engaging bounties than the PoF variants, and they're not quite there yet. They still mostly rely on the random abilities for their challenge, and many of those abilities are simply not fun to fight. Later on in the season (Jahai Bluffs) we'll see bounties that have more distinct designs and engaging fights.

    The skimmer race on this map is great. That is all.

    Art - 4/10

    Istan's art style, in GW1, was a fascinating fusion of Egyptian and Nubian styles mixed with what might be Art-Deco influences from the modern 20th century. It was a different, really exciting environmental art style. All of that is gone, now - replaced by assets from PoF all in a Vabbian style. Even the Astralarium, which in the first game had a more mysterious, foreboding aesthetic, appears to be made entirely of exterior Vabbian building assets thrown together into a pile, like the world's largest wedding cake. The only building which showcases the original aesthetic is the Mordant Crescent Great Hall. Don't even get me started on Fahranur, the First City: all of Istan in GW2 seems like it could all have been set in any region of Elona.

    While there's great work done with fog near the entry waypoint of the map, in the northeast, it's not enough. Istan was all marshlands in the first game, really tying into the ideal of the mouth of the Nile or the Tigris/Euphrates. That is all gone, replaced entirely by Vabbian terrain assets.

    Corsairs, having had a really distinct art and culture in GW1, are similarly mistreated here. Although they have one Istani swan ship (hooray!), their culture and visual style has become generic GW2 'pirate' - no different from anything in Bloodtide Coast in the vanilla game.

    Long Term/Retention - 10/10

    There are few maps which have had as much retention as Istan. Before the rise of Dragonfall and Drizzlewood Coast, it reigned supreme as the highest-retention map in the game. Even today, it is not difficult to find groups running multi-map meteor farms, bounties, or either of the two metas.

    Much of this comes down to a very successful implementation of rewards and meta structure. Not only are the metas themselves relatively short and profitable, with a high number of chests and champ bags, but the volatile magic currency acquired while running them is highly profitable, with a lot of possible options for turning it into gold. Then you've got the astral and stellar weapon grind, which is potentially one of the most prestigious 'I spent time on this' weapon sets in the game - and profitable even if you're not going for full stellar weapons. Add onto that stat-selectable ascended items a la LWS3, and what's not to love? If only the gameplay matched the level of retention.

    Overall - 6/10

    Okay, Domain of Istan. There were some odd decisions made in this map. Perhaps the most immediately striking is the way the map made very little effort to emulate its GW1 implementation. Istan in this game is practically unrecognizable, apart from the Palawadan-Great Hall corridor. Combined with an obtuse implementation of its secret Sunspear Base, and you've got a very weird core to this map's story.

    While it's undoubtedly successful in its meta structure and efforts at player retention, I might put forward Istan as the map least deserving of its success. Its metas are unengaging, its terrain both unfaithful to Istan and largely devoid of activities, its events outside of the metas are irrelevant, and large swathes of it outside of the Great Hall and Palawadan might as well not exist. It's the most successful poorly-designed map in the game, to my eye. Does that mean it's unpopular, or that it deserves to be? Probably not - many people love Istan, and that's perfectly reasonable. I've spent long hours myself farming on this map, and that builds a sense of fondness and familiarity. But I'd still argue it's a poor map overall.

    ---------

    That's all, folks! What do you think of today's map? Any fond memories, or strong complaints? How well do you think Path of Fire stands up in comparison to the other content chunks? Next week, we'll start Living World Season 4 with Domain of Istan.

    submitted by /u/Jonah_Marriner
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    "Being the hero" trope

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 04:35 AM PST

    Hello!

    I might have trouble clearly expressing myself, so bear with me if you are interested.

    Some months ago I had a discussion with a friend about the role of our character (the PC) in the story and the wider world. He took some issue about us being somewhat sidelined despite doing all the work. Yes, he even brought up Trahearne taking away the spotlight.

    It was a valid concern and I didn't really have a good counter argument. If we are the heroes, maybe we should be treated as such? Is our character really that humble? What should be our renown in the story and wider world after slaying dragons and gods?

    This is something I have been thinking when I started playing FF14. After doing something big, you are sometimes relegated down to what appear to be trivial tasks. There has to be something more than that, right?

    So instead of feeling bothered by this lack of appreciation of ending world threats, I decided to take a different approach. What if we shouldn't view ourselves as heroes, but something else?

    So lo and behold, instead of viewing myself as a hero, I presumed the role of a overqualified civil servant. Oddly the inspiration for that came from the BBC comedy "Yes minister" and "Yes prime minister" so take that for what you will.

    That being said, instead of doing a quest as a voluntary contribution for which I am greatly underappreciated, I do it because "Do as you are told, because it needs to be done" and "The appreciation for your work is the payroll you receive" and any praise you receive is a tip for your service. For me it defeated the need of being in the center of attention for the story, despite still frequently being so.

    As I saw some people here throughout the years argue the about sometimes being sidelined in GW2 or in other story driven games, I am interested what the thoughts would be on this rather unorthodox conception.

    Kind regards

    submitted by /u/Intreductor
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    The Commander And A Footnote

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 02:05 AM PST

    My lo-fi version of "Rata Novus"

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 09:11 AM PST

    The BEST Way To Balance Power In Video Games

    Posted: 06 Feb 2022 03:30 PM PST

    I can't draw. It was supposed to be Eir Stegalkin XD. I am not an artist, just found a broken pencil under my sofa and wanted to draw anything. Do not roast me too much please XD PS. I love you guys, wonderful community, I am glad to be a part of it! / Snow.5270

    Posted: 06 Feb 2022 04:39 PM PST

    Looking for Mate to play with GW1/GW2

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 03:13 AM PST

    Hi guys,

    ​

    I own both gw1 and gw2 and i am looking for someone to play those games with. Unfortunately none of my friends want to play these games.
    Im 30 years old and usually have time on the weekends and past 20 pm on weekdays, on CET.

    ​

    I would like to especially explore gw 1, maybe someone feels the same way and also hasnt played the game like me, so we can go on a noob adventure? But given that i doubt finding many players for such a rather old game, im also down for gw2.

    ​

    If you feel interested I would be glad to get in contact.

    ​

    :)

    submitted by /u/gurQe
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    Musings of a Curious Sylvari: Blood of Fire

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 08:13 AM PST

    Musings of a Curious Sylvari: Blood of Fire

    We arrived at the lake as soon as we could. We barely stopped along the way, for I don't think either of us wanted to consider what would happen if the Sanguinary Blade is unleashed. We did find the pirates atop the lake that Sieran warned me about, but due to some deft uses of water magic from Sieran (it seems I still have a lot to learn) we were able to make it to the bed of the lake and out swiftly, avoiding the pirates almost entirely.

    I feel I should write down something, but I feel that I have no time to even think. Sieran said we need to report back to the priory, since we were supposed to report back there after our excursion to the tomb. As fond as I've grown of her, I will admit I was a bit irritated at not being informed of that, but I have no time for those kinds of feelings. We should get back quickly, so we can find and take back the Sanguinary Blade.

    –

    I suppose our return to the Priory was not a complete waste of our time, even if we were placed on probation. I found Carys just outside, who had not changed a bit since our journey into Orr. Apparently, she heard from Tegwen (who heard from Trahearne) that I had joined the Durmand Priory, and she sought to help me. Fortunately, we needed her help, as Gixx is unable to provide any more support from us, and we could use a strong fighter like Carys at our side. Sieran seemed to take a liking to her, so that matter was settled rather quickly. While we had no support in numbers from our Order, we were able to find Steag Frostbeard, the wielder of the Sanguinary Blade, further downriver of the lake, at an abandoned mill. We have no time to lose.

    –

    It is done. Steag Frostbeard is dead, and the Sanguinary Blade is ours.

    I am more than relieved that Carys came with us, as our attempt to avoid fighting the Svanir was in vain. They were willing to give the entirety of themselves, every ounce of free will, as thralls to an indifferent being. There was a small ray of hope, however. Some of the norn tried to escape as Steag began to cut their flesh and turn them into beings of ice. None of them escaped. They were either too slow to escape the reach of the Blade, or held back, screaming, by their former friends and comrades as the blade slid across their back. What men would willingly do this?

    But no, these were not men, but slaves. But these slaves are not like the ones Tegwen would have been forced to become, slaves of the krait. They are slaves to a promise of power, slaves forced to war.

    I stood frozen in the center of the mill, Sieran were locked in combat with the Svanir and the icebrood abominations. That left Steag with a clear path to me, who had since turned into an icy horror himself. He began to approach, and still, I stood, feet planted to the ground by ice, fear. The walk turned to a run, and the norn rammed me to the dirt and slashed the blade across my vulnerable chest.

    It hurt, Pale Mother it hurt, burning like fire.

    Fire.

    It wasn't ice that bled across my skin, but fire. Was it true, burning fire? I am not sure, but it was a fire. I channeled the fire, recalling the fight against Mazdak the lich, and Caladbolg. Climbing slowly to my feet, I channeled the fire inside me to a blade to match the blade that wounded me. Frostbeard had turned away from me, moving to convert Sieran next. He was vulnerable as I once was, so I took the opportunity. With a burst of air to push my feet forward, I fought back.

    Soon after Frostbeard was slain, the fire wore out, and I woke up in the Priory once again, unaware I had fallen unconscious until I had awoken. Carys carried me the entire way back, Sieran retrieving the Sanguinary blade in its dwarven-forged sheath. We had done it. Steag Frostbeard was dead, and the Sanguinary Blade was to cause harm no more.

    Gixx congratulated us and lifted our probation, allowing me time for my wound to heal before I am given my next assignment. I am still baffled that I did not transform into one of the Icebrood. Were sylvari immune to Jormag's corruption? I may have to do some research on that if the Priory healers let me out of this bed.

    I had received a letter from Peter while I was away, inviting me to a party over in Kryta, but I may not be able to make it in time to attend. Besides, some rest may do me some good, the healers were certainly correct that I need it.

    https://preview.redd.it/2p39ogd3rfg81.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b28380d5b9295a07976668e943a43cb4b061e2ed

    submitted by /u/themightylemur
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    why would you afk farm with your tag up?

    Posted: 06 Feb 2022 07:32 PM PST

    Will buying past expansions be necessary after EoD?

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 05:26 AM PST

    For example, as a WoW transplant, you really don't need to buy Legion or BfA if you're going to buy Shadowlands, wondering if GW2 will be similar in this regard.

    Also if not necessary, is there any benefit?

    Edit: Appreciate the replies. To be clear, I love the game so far and have no issue buying them, just want to make sure I'm not buying things I don't need.

    submitted by /u/shiznik
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    Anyone want to play through?

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 08:27 AM PST

    I played gw1 for thousands of hours, and I'm 90 hours into gw2 (played 60 hours 4 years ago). I have a couple lvl 80 chars from boosters and one I got to 40 with booster and just reached lvl 80.

    I'm looking for someone who wants to play through- do the campaigns and expansions together and complete maps. I'm in GMT timezone and play from 7pm until 1am and happy to create new characters to play through

    submitted by /u/abdulmalik1996
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    Do you guys use mouse aim or the cursor ?

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 06:02 AM PST

    I personally use mouse aim. And am very happy this game has choice to use both. Just wondering which one you guys use ? Cause all gameplay videos folks post here have cursor, not many mouse aim.

    Also am sorry if am using wrong terms(mouse aim and cursor) don't know what are correct terms for that.

    submitted by /u/thefirstlunatic
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    Will EoD break d912pxy?

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 11:35 AM PST

    Title. Basically, should I stick with d912pxy and hope it's fine, or should I bite the bullet and go over to the DX11 beta, expecting it to be broken at least some of the time?

    submitted by /u/Chupakazul
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    In guardians we trust

    Posted: 06 Feb 2022 11:13 PM PST

    Somehow, they returned..

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 10:09 AM PST

    Will we ever get Jeweler 500?

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 09:20 AM PST

    ... any information? Does it make sense to learn this crafting profession?

    submitted by /u/Henryk_Spark
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    Finding a guild feels a bit rough.

    Posted: 07 Feb 2022 09:15 AM PST

    Title, pretty much. I've been trying to find a guild or two to accommodate my desire for both PvE and PvP content but I'm struggling. Most guilds seem to be social oriented, which is fine and welcoming, but finding guilds with scheduled WvWvW times or time frames dedicated to PvE content like Fractals and Strikes seems to be near non-existent.

    Am I just unlucky in-game chat? I tried the official forums a while back but only got in with a mostly Australian guild (I'm central US) and while they're super nice, the times just don't work for me.

    What are some dependable resources for finding guilds outside of the official forums? Are WvW guilds not much of a thing?

    submitted by /u/Brodimus
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