Last week’s
update was a doozy and it needs a week or so to really sink in and think about
what happened in the Living Story. The story shifted in fifth gear by throwing
Mordemoth on our plate as the main villain. Not to mention we lost some
characters in the process like Belinda and Drooburt, although Drooburt’s death
might have had more impact. To top it off we took a magical journey through the
Eternal Alchemy and saw the inner workings of Tyria that answered some of our
questions but posed so many more in its place. With all that excitement we
almost forget we got a massive addition to the Dry Top map. And if that wasn’t
enough, we have new rewards, achievements, lots of events as well as skill point’s
vistas and new enemies. Let me share with you my personal top three I take away
from ‘Entanglement’.
Just like last update, number one
and two were set in stone pretty quickly. Number three required some more
thought. The music was masterful yet again and I also enjoyed the new enemies
and events like the big sand giant. In the end my choice fell on the new weapon skins and more precise the
fossil skins. I’m really an esthetic enthousiast. I love exciting skins that not only
look flashy and cool but also fit together and give your character ‘character’
(hmmmm, sounds weird but anyways). Alas, we skin-fanatics haven’t been spoiled
up and until now. The only skins we got were gem store skins that, although not
hard to farm the necessary gold, felt unrewarding and were given in one piece
and not 6 separate armor pieces. Of course the wardrobe function was a gift
from the gods for skin-fans but there was still that lack of new skins. With
‘Entanglement’ Arenanet decided to answer our call and added two new weapon
skins sets.
The first one is the ley line weapon
skins, the visually cooler set of the two. Naturally, it’s based on the ley
lines we’ve gotten to know so well recently. All the weapons look awesome and
most of them have a unique sound upon wielding them. The downside however is
how to get them. You get them with Black Lion tickets which are not that easy
to get as you will probably know. It’s also kind of the reason why I decided
not to go for one of these weapon skins. Even though it’s great you can’t only
get them through the gem store, black lion tickets don’t feel rewarding enough
to go for one.
Luckily there’s an alternative that
doesn’t require black lion tickets: fossil skins. Just like the ley line skins
there are two sides to the coin. On the one hand they look really nice as well
with each different weapon having a unique fossil worked into it. On the other
hand, the way to get them is long, complicating and requires A LOT of farming
(unless you’re extremely lucky). For these you have to craft with the following
ingredients. First, get a nomad weapon inscription (5 sheets of ambrite, 5
ecto, 5 ori plated dowel) you can get from a Dry Top Zephyrite meta-event
merchant. Next, get the two necessary weapon pieces.
That’s the easy part but you need
two more ingredients. One, you need a recipe. These recipes you can get with a
meta-event merchant in Dry Top but they are only accessible in tier 4 and 5 and
cost receptively 400 and 350 geodes. So that means that you will be farming a
lot of Dry Top events to get the necessary geodes and get to at least tier 4.
Experience has taught me that getting to tier 4 is not always guaranteed and
tier 5 is a rarity. I also think this will get increasingly more difficult as
time goes on. The final ingredient you need is a fossil, which, trust me, will
give you headache. You will have to search buried treasure chests to find an
unidentified fossil. You will be able to exchange this with Ghentt, an Asura
merchant in Restoration Refuge, for a specific fossil for each weapon. Now, the
frustrating part is that this is completely RNG. You can get a fossil from
opening 1 chest or 100 chests. As of this writing I still haven’t found one and
I have opened 20-30 chests. So to get one of these fossil skins will require
patience, a lot of farming and A LOT of luck.
So in
conclusion, I love how the new skins look and love the fact that they’re not
only accessible through the gem store and that they’re permanent. Sadly, the
way to get them still needs some work. I guess the ley line set is fine with
the black lion tickets if you consider them as high-quality and rare skins. But
the fossil set should be freed from the RNG. It’s very frustrating to not get a
fossil after more than 100 chests, while someone else finds it in their first
chest. That’s not rewarding but just frustrating. And if you do decide to make
it RNG, then at least make it sellable through the Trading Post. Also, it would
be better if the recipes are accessible over all tiers but exponentially increase
the required geodes. Do that and the skins will feel truly rewarding and you
will have a satisfied community, for the most part anyways. I’m also hoping
that next to weapon sets, we’ll finally get a new armor set as well. Here’s
hoping the future updates will provide this.
Number two this time around are the new zones added to the Dry Top map.
Now, I know last time they were my number one but that doesn’t mean the new
zones are less impressive. On the contrary actually, the new zones look
stunning. From the impressive Raptor Prowl, Tyria’s own Grand Canyon, to the
breathtaking lush and green Upland Oasis. From the dry desert in the unswept
uplands to the moonlike caves in the Cavern of the Shining Lights.
If you compare this addition to what
we got in ‘Gates of Maguuma’, it’s almost double the amount. Also the
verticality that set Prospect Valley apart from previous GW2 maps is back. You
can almost climb and jump on every cliff in Raptor Prowl.
If you have watched the third
episode of POI, the show talking about the most recent update, you
will have seen Josh Foreman and Tami Foote, who are two people responsible for
all the beauty we’ve gotten over the past month. It’s always interesting to
hear these people talk about their work. Tami, for example was basically given
a carte blanche designing and making
Tangle Root.
The Dry Top
map looks nearly complete only missing a small section in the West. The map
breakers among us will probably have already seen how that missing zone looks.
But it does look, however, like we won’t be getting that zone next patch.
Considering the amount of beautiful zones we’ve gotten so far, its fine with me
if we don’t get a new zone next update. I believe we’ll be seeing Dry Top completed
by the time we get to the mid-season break in a 2-3 weeks’ time. After that I’m
hoping we’ll be getting at least one more new map in the second part of the
second season with the same beauty Dry Top has.
To beat the beauty of new Dry Top
zones, number one sure has to be something amazing, right? As my number one I
have chosen the Eternal Alchemy, the epic conclusion of ‘Entanglement’. The
Eternal Alchemy has shook the GW2 community at its foundations and spurred a
stream of speculation across all the forums, making this game look like it’s
never been more alive. To me, it’s the first step to bringing this game, story
wise, to its full potential. Now, it’s difficult to say new things about the
Eternal Alchemy by now, as many have speculated in length about it already.
The Eternal
Alchemy explains the workings of Tyria where the big orb is Tyria and the small
orbs represent the different elements that keep Tyria turning. These elements
can take on many forms such as Dragons (as confirmed by the journal in game),
Gods… These godlike entities goal is to keep everything in balance. I’ll be
trying to give a status questionis of the speculation about the Eternal Alchemy
the GW2 community has offered up and until now.
Occam’s razor
With the kind of scene like the Eternal
Alchemy, which such a heavy impact on the world of Tyria, there is always the
danger of overinterpretating things. Therefore allow me to try to sound smart
and mention a theory everybody knows. Occam’s razor states that the simplest
explanation is usually the right explanation.
So in this theory you have the red
(fire, Primordus, Balthazar), blue (water, Bubbles, Abaddon/Kormir), purple
(crystal, Kralkatorrik, Lyssa), black (life, Zhaitan, Dwayna), white (ice,
Jormag, Dhuum/Grenth) and the green (nature, Mordremoth, Melandru) element. The
big element in the middle is Tyria, which explains why the green element
attacks the big one and corrupts it. That green element would then presumably
be Mordremoth attacking Tyria as it’s currently doing. This is the theory that
seems most straightforward and it’s also the theory I’m advocating unless I’m
seeing real evidence that suggest otherwise.
The green - dark green, Modremoth – Zhaitan Kerfuffle
Making the bridge to the next
theory, where the orb attacking Tyria is not Mordremoth but is Zhaitan. We see
the green orb colliding into the center. While the thought was that this is
Mordy (in the thought green is Mordy) corrupting the center/Tyria itself like
crazy. But what if that’s not the case and this is meant to confuse us. What if
the collision of green into the center is in fact Zhaitan’s Death? Scarlet saw
this just like we did, and she saw that this destroys the whole balance of
forces. It’s an “insurmountable challenge” as she says in the blog-post “What
Scarlet Saw”. We can either die by dragons – or by their magic tearing Tyria
apart once we defeated them all. Her bloody and probably flawed solution was to
empower the dragon opposing Zhaitan – Mordy, so he would eat the excess magic
Zhaitan’s Death pumped into the ley lines. This could also be the explanation
why Tequatl got stronger – excess magic. Lastly, it would fit with what Scarlet
said too about how she now knows how to play these forces against each other.
If that is really the case, we do
have a problem. We can’t kill dragons – we can’t live with them. If it’s true,
we have to dig into the background of bloodstones soon, using them to sponge up
the dragons’ excess magic after we kill them, maybe? And how is the Pale Tree
linked to this center of Tyria? Is it the force of balance behind it? If so,
why does it appear the Tree is encouraging to fight dragons? (source)
The Order Conundrum
The vision of the Eternal Alchemy
seen in Omadd’s machine does not represent the ED’s true awakening as would be
observable by us, but rather their stirring. As we’ve seen, their rise is
inevitable, but delay is a possibility. Primordus, followed by the DSD,
followed by Jormag stirred and awoke in the order we see with the aid of their
respective minions and champions. Mordremoth stirred next, with no champion and
minions, he did not fully awaken. Kralkatorrik stirred next, but as he is also
without a champion, his full awakening is delayed. Finally Zhaitan stirred. As
he happened to be sleeping on top of exactly what he needed to gain power (and
possibly further aided by his own champion), leading to him awakening fully
before Kralkatorrik and Mordremoth. After this Kralkatorrik becomes observably
active (perhaps somewhat more empowered than Mordremoth by that whole Searing
thing slathering the nearby area in magic), creating the Dragon brand and
hunting down his errant alarm clock. Finally Mordremoth awakens fully with the
aid of Scarlet’s ley line tap in a rather spectacular case of better late than
never. (source)
If you now of another theory about the Eternal
Alchemy, don’t hesitate to let me know and I’ll add it. Thx for reading and I’ll
see you next week for Dragon’s Reach Part 1!
After
setting the stage with ‘Gates of Maguuma’ where we got a new zone with lots to
do and an intriguing story, Arenanet has decided to raise the bar with
‘Entanglement’. The second episode of this second season adds a large chunk of
the Dry Top map, almost giving us the entire map. The new area’s adds more
diversity to Dry Top, as well as A LOT of new events. And then we’re not even
talking about the new story part which is fast-paced, pulls in other parts of
Tyria besides Dry Top, embraces the Guild Wars 1 lore and ends on a very
exciting cliffhanger. Let’s take a look.
Entanglement
No big new
feature like the Story Journal this time. This will (hopefully) result in a
shorter article then last time, for which I’m sure you’ll be happy. Therefore
we’ll get into the story part from the get go.
Scarlet’s Secret Room
The last two weeks Arenanet has
really shown it’s 100% invested in this idea of a living, ever changing world.
Most notably we have seen the emergence of vines near waypoints all over Tyria.
These vines showed more than a little bit of interest in these waypoints
suggesting something would happen to the waypoints in ‘Entanglement’. On a
cliff near Prosperity you could also find a centaur, named ‘Mysterious Figure’,
which told you that the centaurs would return. I really enjoy this because it
really keeps you invested in the story and the world in those periods between
updates and feeds speculation.
At the start of ‘Entanglement’,
Mordremoth has decided to make his move on Prosperity by engulfing the little
town in vines. The Scooby Doo gang assembles to basically save Scooby under the
form of Taimi, since she stayed behind to study Scarlet’s artifacts. With this
attack Mordremoth is kind of forced upon us as the main villain by the gang. As
far as I recall, all we ever knew was that a dragon roared at the end of season
1, nothing more. All of a sudden this Dragon is called by name and the vines
are immediately connected with that dragon. It’s like we missed a scene that
gave the gang this knowledge. I feel it would have been better if Mordemoth
wasn’t as rushed on us as the main villain. But on the other hand, I don’t know
if the community would have that patience.
After a
trimmer you discover a secret passage behind a bookshelf. This passage leads
you to the newly added areas in Dry Top. In this passage you can find some
really interesting artifacts that link to GW1 lore. One of them is a note that
references Varesh Ossa, one of the main antagonists in Nightfall. Another
refers to Nicholas Sandford or Nick the Traveler. Together with his dolyak
partner Professor Yakkington, you could find him in a new map every week and
collect trophy items. It’s funny how little things like this can get you so
excited and it costs little to no effort on Arenanet’s part to add them so I’m
glad they’re doing it more and more. Upon exiting the tunnel, you decide to follow
Scarlet’s route to the ley line hub.
Discovering Scarlet’s Breakthrough
After a
long track that basically takes you through the newly added zone, you end up in
the Cavern of Shining Lights. After you deal with the Inquest who were
tampering with what Scarlet left behind, it’s your turn to take a closer look
at Scarlet’s stuff. It turns out we’ve arrived in a ley line hub where multiple
ley lines come together. The amount of magic that comes together here attracted
Mordremoth like honey attracts flies. This is the same magic that functions
waypoints, which explains why vines have been appearing near waypoints all
across Tyria. The two most troubling waypoints are the one in Fort Salma in
Kessex Hills, where Belinda is stationed and Fort Concordia, the Pact
encampment in Timberline Falls. Marjory and Kasmeer head towards Fort Salma,
while you, Rox and Braham head towards Fort Concordia. Taimi, as always,
decides to stay behind to study Scarlet’s lab.
The Concordia Incident
Upon arriving in Concordia, it’s
already too late. Giant vines have destroyed the camp leaving the survivors to
fight for their lives against Mordremoth’s minions. After clearing out the camp
of Mordremoth’s minions, you meet up with tactician Art to assess the
situation. Apparently a caravan transporting magic artifacts are the reason the
camp got attacked but the caravan has gone missing. At this point we see the
return of a mechanic that defined the personal story: choosing a course of
action. Before launch Arenanet made a big deal about the fact that these
choices would make your adventure truly unique. The impact of these choices
turned out to be negligible but it’s nice to see this return for season two,
although you only choose whether you take Rox or Braham with you and not a
choice between two different roads to take. It does however entice you to
replay the story and strengthens my point that I made last time that the
personal story and living story are merging.
Whoever you choose to accompany you,
you track down the caravan, pinned down in a cave nearby. After saving the
caravan, magister Lindsay tells you of one very interesting magical artifact
that she was carrying: the Krytan royal locket. It’s a magical locket and is
said to always have the image of the current heir to the throne of Kryta displayed
inside it. Sounds very interesting but what does it mean? I can’t imagine
Arenanet added it just for the fun of it. If Jennah were to die this locket
could prove very important to choose the successor. Does this mean that Queen
Jennah will die? I don’t know but it does look like the different rules of
Tyria will play a part in this story so I wouldn’t rule it out. I dread to the
idea of Logan’s excessive whining over Jennah’s death though.
After
regrouping with Braham/Rox and the survivors of the Concordia Incident and
dealing with the remaining Mordremoth minions, you decide to head for Fort
Salma fearing the same has happened there. Rox and Braham stay behind and make
sure the Concordia survivors are safe.
The Defense of Fort Salma
You arrive at Fort Salma to the
sight of huge vines and Mordremoth minions assaulting the fort. On a sidenote,
Bloomanoo and Peneloopee make a nice and welcome cameo here as they hide from
the violence. At the camp Marjory, Kasmeer and Marjory’s sister Belinda try to
keep the fort strong but are slowly losing the battle. You learn that krait
obelisk shards from the Tower of Nightmares are the reason Fort Salma got
attacked. It’s nice that they throw these references in there so we don’t
forget what has happened in the past. Luckily you are there to save the day and
after fighting through several waves of Mordremoth minions and a Mordrem
Trasher Boss, you regroup with Marjory, Kasmeer and… Well not with Belinda as
Belinda has met with an unfortunate and, to be honest, quite gruesome death.
Belinda got strangled to death by one of Mordremoth’s vines. Now, even though
Belinda had all the signs of a death women walking, I didn’t expect her to die
so soon because it shows of easy and predictable storytelling. Maybe I had the
writers in higher regard but Belinda never was a strong enough character for
her death to have a big impact. You might as well add Belinda to the pile of
meaningless deaths Arenanet stacked up in the personal story. I do have to say
they handled the scene where Jory discovers Belinda strangled quite nicely. No
sound, you just hear the tragic music and see Jory crying but you don’t hear
her.
After some
emo-scenes between Jory and Kas, Marjory returns to her family to mourn, which
could be a nice opportunity to get acquainted with Marjory’s mother and other
sisters in the next episode. You and Kas return to the Cavern of Shining Light
to see what Taimi has been up too in a riveting conclusion of this episode.
The Machine
In the cavern you regroup with
Taimi, Rox and Braham at the ley line hub. There you share the news of
Belinda’s death. Braham’s “Oh no, that’s terrible” in plain voice, almost
ironic, voices my feelings toward her death quite accurate. After all the
sentiments are said and done, Taimi shares her discoveries with us. She
confirms her theory that the waypoints are connected with the ley lines. And
these vines are not minions but Mordremoth himself tapping into the magic these
waypoints work on. Luckily Taimi has a solution to the waypoint problem. She
can reprogram the waypoint to be immune to Mordremoth’s corruption. This does
make me wonder what this means for the practical side of waypoints in the game.
Dry Top already has less waypoints then the other maps. Could this mean that
we’ll be getting less and less waypoints, making us walk more and more (mounts
anyone?) and making the game also more challenging in the future?
Next Taimi takes us to the machine
in the center of the room. This turns out to be Omadd’s machine that Scarlet
used to see the Eternal Alchemy which would lead to her insanity. Taimi, the
curious little bugger she is, can’t control herself and charges into the
machine. As the hero you of course try to save her not realizing the
consequences. What happens next is the highlight of this episode and will be
subject to much debate amongst the community. You seem to be floating in
something similar looking to space with strange symbols and signs passing you.
You see what Scarlet’s drawing hanging in her room represented. The Pale Tree
with circles on either side. You get pulled into the Pale Tree and you witness
what looks like one big element surrounded by six smaller elements. You have a
red, blue, purple, black, white and green element. The six elements circle the
big element until the green element dives into the big element, turning it
green and looking like an eye. Screen fades to black ending with a road.
Epic, I know but what does it mean?
The scene of the elements reminds me a lot of the popular theory that the six
dragons are connected to the six elements the six human gods represent. You
have the red (fire, Primordus, Balthazar), blue (water, Bubbles,
Abaddon/Kormir), purple (crystal, Kralkatorrik, Lyssa), black (life, Zhaitan,
Dwayna), white (ice, Jormag, Dhuum/Grenth) and the green (nature, Mordremoth,
Melandru) element. I also think the big element in the middle is Tyria, which
would explain why the green element attacks the big one and corrupts it. I think the dragons as well as the gods are
representations of these elements. I also think the small elements are what
define Tyria to its core of what it is and how it functions. This means that by
destroying the dragons, we’re destroying Tyria. It points to somewhat of a very
grim and hopeless scenario where the people of Tyria can never win. Whether
this theory is close to the truth, we won’t know for a long while I’m sure but
it’s definitely food for thought.
On a side
note, I have to say I love the irony in this situation. The majority of the
community hated Scarlet as a character and now that we’ve seen the same thing
Scarlet saw, we’re endangered to end up just like her. I’m curious to see how
Arenanet will handle this situation further. Anyways, upon awakening you share
what you saw with the others. Because you saw the Pale Tree in your vision, you
decide we have to talk to the Pale Tree as it clearly has a part in this. You
also decide that the leaders of Tyria need to know the Mordremoth threat, so
they can rally together. What next? Well, then they decide to end this episode…
With this episode I believe they have redeemed a large chunk of season one and
I can’t wait to see what’s next!
Dry Top
Next to the story we get newly added
zones in Dry Top and once again Arenanet has outdone themselves in how these zones
look. On multiple occasions you just stop and gaze at the beauty of this map. These
additions to Dry Top do feel somewhat linear. It’s almost like the map was
build according to the story. Whether that’s a bad or good thing, I don’t
really know. It doesn’t really bother me but it might limit the possibility of
big open maps.
The first new zone you explore is
the Treadrock Uplands, which is basically centaur territory. This update thus
marks the return of the centaurs which we’ve mainly encountered as enemies in
the past. These centaurs however are peaceful. They don’t have a tribe name and
don’t seem directly connected to the centaur Ventari, who gave the Sylvari
their philosophy. They do seem to follow the same way of life as Ventari
preached. These centaurs have a camp
nearby, Restoration Refuge, which houses merchants and an armor repair anvil
like many other towns and encampments across Tyria have. It also functions as a
refugee camp for the crashed Zephyrites. Treadrock Uplands is a zone where you’re
flanked by big cliffs. It takes you to Raptor Prowl which is a big open canyon
and is just breathtaking. Just take a minute and find yourself a cliff to stand
on and take in the scenery. There’s also a lot of verticality in Raptor Prowl.
With the crystals you can almost jump everywhere you want. Here, you’ll also
find raptors as newly added enemies in Dry Top because well… it’s called Raptor
Prowl.
Raptor Prowl takes you to the next
zone which is the Uplands Oasis. If you thought Raptor Prowl was beautiful,
wait until you take a look at this. Coming from a dry and death canyon, you end
up in a lush and green oasis with a stream, palm trees and where it rains. This
oasis is basically what makes this place hospitable for the centaurs. Once
again, take your time to take in the scenery. A bit further into the Uplands
Oasis, you’ll find Azarr’s Arbor which is a big pit you can cross by using a
big vine as a bridge. This vine is grown by special seeds which are references
to GW1.
From Azarr’s Arbor you wind up in the
Unswept Uplands which is a desert area like Prospect Valley. In it you can find
a centaur camp, events and a new legendary boss: the sand giant. This sand giant
only appears in sandstorms which give you 20 minutes to kill it. Now, I don’t
know if this giant counts as a big open world boss like the Triple Trouble Wurm
or Tequatl but as far difficulty, it doesn’t compare to these two. The giant is
easily zerked down and puts up little of a fight. It does however has a knockback
and fear attack that it spams continuously which is not really a problem but it
is VERY annoying.
From the Unswept Uplands you arrive
in the last new zone: the Cavern of the Shining Lights. Now, naturally this is
a cave but not a cave like we’ve seen before. The walls and ceiling of this
cavern makes me think you’re on the moon or something like that. This is mainly
a story heavy zone but also houses events, a skill point and a vista.
This is basically the run-through of
the newly added zones. The sandstorms that we saw in Prospect Valley are also
present in these new zones every forty minutes. Even though the sandstorm is a
cool mechanic, it’s a shame that it ruins your view of zones like Raptor Prowl
and Uplands Oasis. You’ll also find a lot of new events, vista’s, POI’s and skill
points. This time they made the skill points a little more difficult where you
have to fight something or someone instead of just communing with a source of
power. The skill points also require some more searching then the one on
Prospect Valley. Enemies-wise we got raptors added but also Modremoth’s minions
got two new additions. Next to the tendrils, wolves and husks, you also have a
new kind of wolf with a flower as its head who pack a good deal of damage if
you don’t make quick work of them. The other type of minion is of an entirely
new design. The Mordremoth Trashers are monstrous giant flowers who have a
charge attack that leaves a trail of poison cloud. Some of them also have a
nasty attack that sends roots to attack you and can really tear you a new one
if you’re not careful.
Achievements & Rewards
Concerning achievements, I can be
quite brief. Just like the first episode you can only complete these achievements
upon finishing the episode for the first time. I don’t do a lot of these and mainly
do the Dry Top achievements but they seem very doable to me.
Rewards-wise not a lot has been
added. The events in the new zone also contribute to the Zephyrite meta-event
to get to a higher tier. But because there are now more events, it’s now
possible to get to tier 5. The only new thing is a merchant in Restoration
Refuge. Gentt is looking for exotic insect fossils. Now, I’m planning to craft
a shortbow from this weapon set. For every weapon you need at least: nomad’s orichalcum
Imbued Inscription (5 sheet of ambrite, 5 ecto, 5 ori plated dowel), orichalcum
weapon piece #1 & #2, ambrite fossilized piece (specific one for each
weapon). You can get these ambrite fossilized pieces by trading unidentified
fossilized insects with Gentt. Now, I’m not entirely sure but I believe you can
find these unidentified fossilized insects in buried treasure chests during
sandstorms in Dry Top. The recipes for these weapons you can get in tier 4
& 5 in the meta-event. It does require some farming of the necessary geodes
for the lock picks, recipe as well as the necessary pieces of ambrite. They
look nice to me but you have to decide for yourself if they’re worth the farm. Next
to this fossilized weapon set there’s also a ley line weapon skin set. These
look very cool but they’re only acquirable through black lion tickets which is
somewhat of a shame but beggars can’t be choosers.
That closes the book on ‘Entanglement’.
Turned out to be quite a lengthy post again but I blame the story for that this
time. In ‘Gates of Maguuma’ the new map took all the attention. This time the
new zones still excel and even top Prospect Valley but the story takes the
cake. The story accelerated and fully pulled in Mordremoth into the story. The
cliffhanger will also surely keep the community buzzing until the next update.
Will they be able to top this in the next update or have they peaked already?
Time will tell. Next week I’ll be giving a personal top three once again. So, until
then. See you next time!
After more
of a week of letting the new update sink in and playing the different features
some more, it’s time for a reassessment. Has ‘Gates of Maguuma’ lived up to the
hype? Or were there more bad aspects, hidden in the update, that outweigh the
good? That’s why I thought that after more than a week it’s time to give a
personal top 3 of the best features this update has to offer. Get ready for the
holy trinity of Gates of Maguuma!
Number one
and two were fixed in my mind rather quickly but number three required some
more pondering. What feature made me smile the most, next to number one and two?
I ended up with the music and more specific the Dry Top soundtrack. This soundtrack is basically the debut of
composer Maclaine Diemer. He’s the successor of the much famed (for his music
anyways) Jeremy Soule who’s responsible for the Guild Wars 2 soundtrack at
launch. The soundtrack was composed with a live orchestra in Berlin and as
far as I’m concerned Diemer is a worthy successor of Soule judging by this
soundtrack. I wouldn’t immediately call it epic but this map doesn’t need an
epic soundtrack. Epic soundtracks are more fitted for boss fights, like a
dragon, anyways. No, this soundtrack is more calm, lonely, almost sad which
really fits the map with it’s quiet and deserted desert and it’s dusty deathly
cliffs with almost no sign of life, safe the little town of Prosperity which
also has a secluded and deserted feel about it with the abandoned mine among
other things. Well done Maclaine Diemer and I’m curious what music you have in
store for us in the future.
Number two
is the story in this first episode
of the Living Story. Now, I have already said quite a lot about the story
section of Gates of Maguuma in my review of the update, so I won’t be saying
much new. First reason why I enjoyed the story so much is because Arenanet
clearly listened to the community and the remarks on season one. Season one had
a lot of its shortcomings like easy and lazy storytelling with the returning
different alliances Scarlet used to reach her goal. But also the characters
weren’t fleshed out enough which caused them to be boring and the players
couldn’t connect and invest in the characters. Also the lack of use of the
guild wars lore was a real shame. Guild Wars has one of the riches lore out
there in the mmo universe and not using them sufficiently was disappointing to
say the least. So the writers had their work cut out for them but they managed
to address all these issues. No more boring alliances and more dialogue with
gives the characters more substance. This makes characters like Taimi really
shine in this update. Also the lore looks like it’s being put more in the
forefront, pleasing the GW1 veterans.
The story
itself looks promising as well. Of course this is only the first episode and a
lot more has to happen. But they manage to reuse one of the more popular story
elements of season 1: the Zephyrites by crashing them in the new zone and also
set up some mysteries among the Zephyrites. They also manage to blend in
Mordremoth’s story and his rising powers, which seem to be increasing next
update, with the Sylvari Aerin. Now, I understand some people call Aerin
Scarlet 2.0 but I don’t really agree. For one, Aerin is already dead, so he’s
nowhere near the character Scarlet was. Also, it was clearly mentioned that
Aerin showed very similar behavior to Scarlet but this is because of long-term
story purposes concerning Mordremoth’s rising corruption influence. I just
think some people got such a bad aftertaste after the Scarlet centered season 1,
that every appearance of a Sylvari in the Living Story raises a red flag. The
teaser trailer for the second episode looks very promising as well, so I’m curious to
see how the story progresses.
Number one
in this holy trinity of Gates of Maguuma is the new zone and more specific how
the new zone looks. Even after more than a week, the beauty of this map hasn’t
worn down on me. I love how the sand dunes look and how the desert flows over
in steep cliffs which give a Grand Canyon feel. Whenever I climb on top of one
of those cliffs, I linger to enjoy the scenery. The vista in the West of the
current zone is a worthwhile mention as well, if you want to enjoy the beauty of Dry
Top. Also the mechanic of the sandstorm, that blows over Dry Top everyone 40
minutes, really makes this zone come alive. It makes you wonder if we’ll get
blizzards when we start to venture further in the Shiverpeaks. This all makes
it even more of a shame that we had to wait this long before we got a new map. Map
building is one of their strongest features, yet they don’t use it enough. The
next update also looks very promising in this area. It looks like we’ll be
getting more sand dunes, cliffs and Zephyrite Sanctum wrecks. But it also looks
like they’re mixing it up with Asuran architecture, cave networks and what
looks like an oasis zone. I for one can’t wait. What about you? See you for the
review of the 15 July update: Entangled.
We had to show a lot of patience
these last two months but we’re finally here, the start of the second season of
the Living Story: Gates of Maguuma! Arenanet held true to their words and delivered
an entirely new map chockfull of events, enemies and much more. We also got the
first, rather lengthy episode of the second season of the Living Story and also
a revamped ‘Story Journal’ to ease the transition to the second season. To top
it off, we got new and harder achievements as well as new rewards. But the
question we have to ask ourselves, knowing our notoriously critical community
all too well, is: Was it enough?
The New Story Journal!
First off,
we have the reorganization of the story journal. To its core the story journal
is now the merging of the living world story and the personal story. The name
‘Living World Story’ still is in use and the idea of an ever changing world is
also still in check. But in practice, with the reorganization of the story
journal, the living story has become the personal story or vice versa, however
you like it.
How does it work? If you go to your
hero panel, you’ll find the story journal where you can find the summary of
your personal story, which you probably haven’t checked since you beat the
personal story ages ago. The personal story is still there but it’s joined with
a living world story section. Each episode of season 2 and beyond will be added
to this living world story section in the same way you progressed through the
personal story. During the window, which can be 2 weeks or more as confirmed on
the ‘Story journal behind the scenes’ stream, the latest episode of
the living world is released and you need to log in once to make the episode
permanent. What does this mean? This means that by logging in once, you can
play that episode whenever you want and replay it whenever you want.
When you miss this window you have
to cough up 200 gems to unlock it. But as you might expect, the minute a
free-to-play mmo asks cash for content, the community is up in arms. But is
that justified? How hard can it be to log in once to unlock that episode? It’s
also a clever way on Arenanet’s part to keep the benefit of temporary content.
As long as the content is temporary the player is forced to regularly log in to
play the content. They lost that effect with the permanent content coming our
way but regained it by forcing the player to log in to unlock the new content.
Also, 200 gems are not hard at all if you convert gold. For the moment 200 gems
is about 20 gold (but the exchange rate is rising rather fast), which takes
almost no effort at all to farm. Add to that, that by paying 200 gold you’re
only paying to have the opportunity to get the rewards and the achievements. If
you only want to experience the story you can group up with someone who has
unlocked the episode and you will be able to play the content free, even though
you missed the window. You won’t be able to get rewards or complete
achievements however. As far as season one is concerned, it will not be
available right away. It definitely is in Arenanet’s plans but it needs some
serious re-imagination as season one wasn’t designed to be like season 2. Also
the re-playability of the personal story will be for a later time because of
the different choices you had to make, which heavily influenced your personal
story.
But there
are also downsides to this restructuration. The first one is a clever trick
from Arenanet. There’s no way to buy just 200 gems with real money. The lowest
amount you can get is 800 gems. So if you want to unlock the latest episode of
the living story, it’ll cost you 10 $/€ instead of 2,5 $/€. The second downside
is more directed to the future. This system doesn’t seem to cost-friendly to
future players. Imagine a new player who joins the game midway the third season.
That player will have to cough up a considerate amount of money to play the
past content. A counterargument to this however, is that if the player only
wants to catch up with the story, which is probably his main goal, he/she can
just group up with someone who has it all unlocked.
The
addition of the story journal is the proof that Arenanet does listen to its
community. The community asked for permanent content and with the new story
journal, that’s what it got. It might cost 200 gems to get the content if you
missed the window, but really, how difficult can it be to log in for a few
seconds? It also might be a prelude to an expansion. With this restructuration
it looks easier to add a new big personal story. I for one applaud and welcome
it as a nice addition to the game.
Gates of Maguuma!
Off with the technical mumbo-jumbo
and on with the first episode of the Living Story: Gates of Maguuma. Over the
course of the first season the Living Story endured quite some justified
critique. The narrative felt too easy-going, slow-paced and didn’t have enough
depth. Also the characters weren’t fleshed out enough with Scarlet topping the
lot. And the rich Guild Wars 1 lore was barely used and more often ignored.
So the
Guild Wars 2 team had their work cut out for them but based on this first
episode they seem to be on the right track. The episode is quite lengthy
compared to season 1 and filled with lots of dialogue which gives more depth to
the story and the characters. Also this first episode seems to be using more of
the Guild Wars lore and successfully connecting it to the current narrative.
Disturbance in Brisban Wildlands
We start of the action with a letter
of the Elusive ‘E’. We still have no clue who this ‘E’ character is or why she’s
guiding our actions. The community has taken multiple stabs at the identity of ‘E’.
From Ellen Kiel to Evon Gnashblade, to even going back to GW1 lore with
Evennia. But none of those has any real foundation to make a case for the identity
of ‘E’. What we can expect however is that we’ll see more involvement of ‘E’
and we will eventually learn the identity of ‘E’ during the course of the
second season. It’s one of the better guarded story secrets of GW2 and I’m
curious to see who ‘E’ will turn out to be.
But for now, ‘E’ sends us to ‘Tangle
Root’ to investigate a disturbance in the Brisban Wildlands. You can get to
Tangle Root from either the North, through Aurora’s Remains or the East, through
the Toxal Bog. Either way you choose, if you’re timing is a little unlucky you’ll
find the access to Tangle Root closed off by vines. You’ll have to clear it by
completing a small event. Even though it’s good idea, this event does feel kind
of trivial as the event is quite easy and with a couple of players you can
complete it very fast, possibly making the event more of an annoyance then an
added value in the future.
What the
event does do is bring us face to face with the Elder Dragonic Corruption of
Mordremoth. During the event you come across Jungle Tendrils, small and large.
Also there are Overgrown Husks, and Overgrown Wolfs, which can be considered as
Mordremoth minions we’ll see more and more as the story continues.
After we clear the event we reach
Tangle Root to find out that ‘E’ sends the same message to Kasmeer, Marjory
Delaqua, Braham, Rox and Taimi. Together you wind up at a small Seraph camp who
deals with black market traders. The group offers their help and surprise,
surprise, you find out that Marjory’s sister, Belinda Delaqua is part of this
Seraph encampment. We knew we could expect her to play a part after she was
introduced at the end of season 1. Many people believe Belinda is destined to
die in the story because of the way she was introduced. I’m not so sure about
that, as that would be the same way of easy-going story telling we got last
season and I expect Anet learned from their mistakes in season 1. But for now
an introduction to the character of Belinda Delaqua is all we get. She doesn’t
play a part in the rest of this first episode but I’m sure we’ll see her return
as an important secondary character.
Your conversation is cut short,
however, as the Inquest launch an assault on the encampment. Together with the
group and the Seraph you’ll manage to slay the waves of Inquest assassins to
ultimately face off against a Veteran Experimental Mark I Golem with a rather
annoying bunch of Golemites which can make quick work of you if you don’t move.
Just run circles around the boss, while attacking and you’ll be fine.
After you’ve
shown the Inquest who’s boss, you say your goodbye’s to Belinda and learn from
Kass that there are some difficulties between her and Belinda. We also get some
more background on the Delaqua family, especially the mother. This tells me
that the background of Marjory and Kasmeer will play a part in the future of
the Living Story. After that you’re ready for the new zone. Onwards to the
Maguuma Wastes!
Fallen Hopes
Upon arrival in the new map ‘Dry Top’,
you’re confronted with the ruins of the former majestic Zephyr Sanctum. As you
could see in the trailer they released just a week earlier (source), the Zephyr
Sanctum was sabotaged from the inside. Therefor it’s almost somewhat of a shame
that they didn’t incorporate the exploding Sanctum in the intro cutscene upon
entering the map for the first time. Some people are complaining that they
destroyed one of the best things of the first season by crashing the
Zephyrites. I don’t really agree. It’s important for the narrative to keep us
sharp and surprise us and I must say that I didn’t expect them to crash the
Zephyr Sanctum. Also, this doesn’t mean the Zephyrites are gone, it actually
means the opposite. The Zephyrites clearly have a big role to play in this
second season. Also the jumping, dashing and rolling mechanic which
characterized the Zephyr Sanctum has remained and even been incorporated in the
new map.
Of course, the good Samaritans our
little band heroes are, we offer up our help to the Zephyrites and investigate
the cause of the crash. During our investigation we get some dialogues that
show the evolving, maturing relationship between Kass and Jory. Both of them
show worry for each other when in battle, despite both of them being formable
fighters.
Eventually we find a Zephyrite
corned by some Inquest. After pummeling the Inquest into oblivion we interrogate
their victim before she succumbs to her wounds. She tells us the leader of the
Zephyrites, the Master of Peace, whom we encountered during the Festival of the
Four Winds, is in danger. When asked why, the Zephyrite says she doesn’t know
but Kass remarks that the Zephyrite was lying. Now, the Zephyrites always were
a mysterious people but now they also got a more sinister touch. Maybe the
Zephyrites aren’t as peaceful as they’re cracked up to be. All we know is that
they’re desperate to guard something but whether that ‘something’ will be good
or bad for us, remains to be seen. My best guess would be that it has something
to do with Glint. The first time the Zephyrites landed in the Labyrinthine
Cliffs, there were only hints at a connection between the Zephyrites and Glint.
The second time they landed, they confirmed that connection by clearly referencing
Glint. Now they’re just pushing the connection in our face so blatantly that it
must mean it plays a huge part in this second season of the Living Story. The
Zephyrites are the successors of the Dwarven Brotherhood of the Dragon. They
are protecting Glint’s legacy and that legacy is most likely the cause for the
Zephyrites secretive behavior. But what does that legacy entail? We don’t know
yet but the most recurring idea in the community is that it’s Glint’s
offspring. Although it’s definitely possible, I’m leaning more to the option of
Glint’s body. After Glint died the Zephyrites sought out her body and garnered
the power of the elements out of it aka the jumping, dashing and rolling
crystal mechanic. A dragon’s body is a great source of magic and would be a highly
desired source of power to factions like the Inquest. Also there’s a dialogue
in this update that references Glint’s body as a powerful source of magic that
cannot fall in the wrong hands (source).
Also I’d like to mention that the
fights you do here against the Inquest can be tricky at times. You encounter
quite some veterans and a lot of the time you don’t have a lot of space to move
around in. This means that one rash dodge could send you off the cliffs. Also
if the enemy starts to field target you, it’s difficult to find a save spot.
Anyways, as we continue our
investigation in Dry Top we encounter more and more bodies. We find out that
these Zephyrites didn’t die from the crash but were stabbed. This turns our
investigation into a hunt for a killer. As we hunt for clues and find them, we
deduct that the culprit is a Sylvari and to be even more precise, our culprit
is a Soundless. This points once again to a possible narrative that has a big following
in the community, namely the connection between Sylvari and Mordremoth. Now, what
are the Soundless Sylvari? To be brief, they’re similar to the Nightmare Court
expect for the fact that they’re not inherently evil. Just like the Nightmare
Court, the Soundless refuse to follow the Pale Tree and reject their Wyld Hunt.
The Soundless were always present in GW2 but never on the forefront, which
seems to have changed as of now. As we conclude our investigation we figure
that the Master of Peace would most likely flee to the nearest town. And on
that note we decide to continue our hunt for the murderous Sylvari Soundless in
the little mine town Prosperity…
Cornered
After you’ve asked around in
Prosperity, you end up in the West of Dry Top in Spurbend Canyon. You decide to
explore and quickly encounter the Soundless Sylvari you were looking for:
Aerin. Aerin comes over very confused and deranged, not coincidentally like
Scarlet…but less. Aerin decides to fight you and you beat him down to 50% of
his health at which point Aerin decides to run. Subsequently the gang starts a
wild goose chase fighting Tendrils, Overgrown Husks and Wolfs along the way.
Eventually you hunt Aerin down to a large crevice where you see Aerin has found
the Master of Peace. At this point Aerin is more and more showing extreme
Scarlet behavior. He mentions such things as ‘I’ve seen the bigger picture and
you’re in my way’. Sounds very much like the same being that influenced Scarlet
also has a hold on Aerin. Is this Mordremoth, who would be most people’s first
guess or is there something else pulling the strings? You fight Aerin one last
time but this time you have to use the element crystals to beat him. Now the
crystals are not only a movement mechanic but a fighting mechanic as well. A
really fun addition if you ask me. By adding the crystals as a fighting
mechanic you keep combat exciting and challenging at the same time. Eventually,
Aerin falls and you save the Master of Peace. The leader of the Zephyrites
confirms it was Aerin who blew up Zephyr Sanctum and he did it to gain great
power. Now is this again a reference to a possible magic source in the form of
Glint’s body or Glint’s offspring? Time will tell but the Master of Peace does
remain very mysterious and refuses to come back with us and says his journey
has yet begun. Apparently the Master of Peace is on a quest to some sort of ‘McGuffin’.
What that is and what it means for the story is something for a later episode
as the gang returns to Prosperity looking for a reason behind Aerin’s madness.
Prosperity’s Mysterious Room
After asking around town if anyone
knows something more about Aerin, you indeed find out that there was a Sylvari
hanging around town for a while. But this Sylvari wasn’t Aerin, it was a
pig-tailed redhead female Sylvari everyone choose to stay away from. Sound
familiar yet? Yeah, you guessed it, none other than Scarlet Briar stayed in
Prosperity for a long while. Now, some people might be dreading Scarlet coming
back to the story after we finally got rid of her last season but I don’t mind
it. Even though Scarlet wasn’t the most fleshed out character, she was crucial
to the story, so you can’t expect her to just disappear from the story. Despite
her death she still has a large impact on the story and the writers took this
opportunity to give her character some more depth.
After you force entrance to Scarlet’s
room, you search her room for anything interesting. Especially Taimi is very
intrigued by this room. I must say Taimi is probably my favorite character. She’s
funny, adorable, interesting backstory and cool with Scruffy as her armor
suite. When she was introduced, she kind of came out of nowhere but thank god
for whoever did it, because Taimi really livens up our gang of heroes. Anyway,
Taimi insists on exploring Scarlet’s room, despite the others not seeing the
point of that. What’s interesting about Taimi is, that she always saw Scarlet
in a different light then the others. Taimi doesn’t see Scarlet as an Evil
madman but a misunderstood genius.
Kasmeer stumbles on the first interesting
find, a book called ‘The Nature of Dragons’. It’s indeed a very interesting
find, since the book talks about the undeniable connection between nature and
Elder Dragons. To me, this points again to a possible connection between
Mordremoth and Sylvari and the Pale Tree. That connection becomes even clearer
when Marjory find a drawing on the wall. In the drawing the Pale Tree stands in
the middle of chaos, so the Pale tree will probably become an important factor
to the story. Also some people are claiming that the drawing is very similar to
the Realm of Torment and that this could mean we’ll be seeing the Realm of
Torment sooner or later. I would think if the Realm of Torment would play a
part, it’ll rather be later then sooner. Even though the drawing is indeed
similar, to introduce the Realm of Torment now would feel forced and
shoe-horned in. If they plan to go the Realm of Torment, it has to be a slow
buildup to it, like at the end of season 3 for example. But to be quite honest
I don’t think we’ll be seeing the Realm of Torment. I just don’t see it fit
with the current story line.
We also find the remnants of a steam
creature in Scarlet’s room. If you linger after the instance is done, you can
find a Scarlet hologram that tells her entire story from when she was a young
student. Scarlet says she created the steam creatures. They were her first
experiments before she switched to Aether.
But the steam creatures became independent managing to sustain and
multiply themselves without Scarlet.
Finally Rox find Scarlet’s diary
before she switches over to her hologram log. In her diary she talks about the
first leyline she found right here in Dry Top. It was her first step that set
her on a crash course that would lead to her death and the awakening of
Mordremoth.
While Taimi chooses to stay behind
and delve some more into Scarlet’s clutter, we start our search for this
leyline Scarlet found. What did Scarlet discover at that leyline and what
implication does it have? Questions we’ll sadly have to wait to see answered in
two weeks as the first episode ends here.
So as you can see by the text above,
quite a lengthy episode, this is a significant improvement on the first season.
We also get a lot more dialogue with lots of information and lore, which draws
you more in the story. The character’s and their interpersonal relationships
develop while we get some answers and some more questions to ponder on in the meantime.
So all in all a very good start to the second season. The writers seem to have
learned from season 1 and hopefully they can continue this throughout the
entire season.
Dry Top!
With the start of the second season
of the Living Story, you would almost forget we have a new map. Finally, almost
2 years after South Sun, we get a permanent new map. If you think about it,
that’s a long period without new zones so they had to make this one good.
And good it is! The new map is
called ‘Dry Top’. Dry Top also existed in GW1 but you never had a reason to go
there except for your own curiosity. It situated West of Brisban Wildlands in
the Maguuma Wastes. It’s a desert area with steep cliffs and canyons because of
the effect of the Orrian flood.
Visually they nailed the map. It’s
stunning to look at the sand dunes, the cliffs, the wrecks of the Zephyr
Sanctum and the quaint little town of Prosperity (what’s in a name, right?). Personally
Guild wars 2 is still visually the most beautiful mmo out there. It’s not as
outdated as WoW, not as grim and dark as ESO and not as kiddy and cartoony as
Wildstar. Visually, GW2 is in the sweet spot between those games to me.
Now, you might offer up the critique
it’s a rather small map and I would agree with you but it’s not as small as you
think. This is a very vertical map. Just like the Labyrinthine Cliffs, you can’t
only walk to every corner of the map but you can also climb pretty much every
cliff you set your eyes on using the element crystals. This adds an extra
dimension to the map and is an example of exquisite map design on Anet’s part.
Well done!
Also I don’t believe this map is
complete yet. If rumors are to be believed we just got a portion of the Dry Top
map. In future episode we’ll see more parts of the entire Dry Top map opened up
for us. There are two reasons to support this claim. First, on the world map
the name of the map, ‘Dry Top’ isn’t in the center of the current map. If you
look at the other map the name of the map is always in the center of the map.
Second, the current Dry Top map has an irregular shape. There are parts missing
in the upper left and bottom left of the current map. If you look at other map,
they’ve always been rectangular. How big the entire Dry Top map will turn out
to be, I don’t know but there’s definitely more to come.
With a new map there are also new
Points of interests, vistas and skill points. No ‘hearts’ though but I can’t
say I mind. ‘Hearts’ became tedious over time and added little to the game. But
the same can be said about the skill point the added. It’s a ‘commune with a
source of power’ skill point instead of the more fun skill point where you have
to fight something. The two vistas’ they added aren’t as exciting as I hoped as
well. I always loved the platform element the vista’s added to the game, even
though they can be frustrating at times. One of the vista’s doesn’t require
jumping skills at all to get it and the second vista, you have to use the
element crystals and isn’t hard either. Let’s hope as the map opens up further,
we’ll get more challenging skill point and vistas.
But this doesn’t mean they forgot
the jumping puzzle aficionados. They added a challenging jumping puzzle where
you have to climb Zephyr Sanctum wreckage all the way to the top. Now, the
jumping puzzle rookie I am, I cheated my way to the top using a Mesmer portal.
^^ Thx to whoever supplied me with that portal.
With new map also come new enemies
and events. Next to the Modremoth minions, we also have dust mites, skales,
drakes, wind riders, cocoala’s, devourers and… Inquest. The story behind the
presence of the Inquest is that they’re searching Dry Top for valuable
artifacts. They might also be interested in whatever the Zephyrites are hiding.
You can also find some challenging champions around if you look around.
All in all a great map with lots to
see and lot’s to do. They really put hard work in this map and it shows. Let’s
just hope we get more of this.
New Achievements and New Rewards!
And last but not least we also have
new achievements and new rewards. The way achievements work, has been
reimagined with this patch. First off, meta-achievements are no more. Second,
achievements have been redesigned to be harder and cater to the hardcore
community. Also as stated earlier, these new achievements will only be
available if you have unlocked the episode. Even if you group up with someone
who has the episode unlocked you will have to have it unlocked yourself to get
to the achievements and rewards. I haven’t played a lot of these achievements
but they do seem harder. For example, the achievement where you have to stand
still in the quick sand for 15 secs seems hard because the quick eats your
health very fast. But I imagine it’s doable if you have someone healing you.
As for the rewards, they have their
own mechanic. You get 40 minutes to help out the Zephyrites as much as you can.
The more you help the bigger the reward tier you reach. There are three tiers
and each tier offers better rewards. After those 40 minutes, a sandstorm floods
the map and blows your tier back to zero. After the sandstorm subsides, you can
try again. The rewards themselves don’t seem that noteworthy. You can get new
crafting materials and the usual blues and greens. The main reward you can get
however is a new armor set: nomad. You can buy recipes to craft nomad’s equipment
with toughness as major stat and vitality and healing power as secondary stats.
So a very tanky build indeed with almost no damage output. Although this stat
combo doesn’t really interest, except maybe for an alt, it’s exciting to have
new stat combos. It keeps the game refreshing and diverse.
So that’s about it for the Gates of
Maguuma. Turned out to be a very lengthy post and if you have read the entire
thing, I both applaud and thank you. This was a very successful start of the
second season of the Living Story if you ask me. A breathtaking new map with
lots to do and an exciting first episode of the story. Next week I’ll write a
post about the top three things I liked about this update. Share your thoughts
about this update if you like, I’m eager to hear it. Enjoy the update and I’ll
see you next time.