The Holy Trinity of 'Entanglement'

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!

Entanglement

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!

The Holy Trinity of 'Gates of Maguuma'

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.

Gates of Maguuma!

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.