The Case for the Mastery System

What’s up internet? Time for a close-up of the next major feature in GW2: Heart of Thorns (HoT). Today we’re not looking at just any feature. As a matter of fact, in several of their interviews ArenaNet put this feature forward as their most important one. It’s supposed to be the foundation of the future of GW2. It’s the Mastery System.

If you look at any MMO and their expansions, the first thing they do is raise the maximum level and add another tier of gear. This is what we call vertical progression. Not our cup of tea says ArenaNet, we prefer horizontal progression and evolve GW2 without adding levels or gear. It was their selling point at the launch of GW2 almost 2,5 years ago. It’s also what has been keeping them afloat and not failing like Elder Scrolls Online and Wildstar are looking to do. A very ambitious goal but is it feasible?

This is what Colin Johanson had to say about the Mastery System at Pax South: “

"The mastery system is an account-based, PvE progression system. As you progress through the jungle, it is available to every character you have that is level 80 - you will complete content and overcome challenges in the jungle that reward you with mastery points (MP)." ”(source reddit) 

The first thing to note is 'account-based' meaning you will not have to repeat earning your MP’s for every character. Second thing to point towards is '‘PvE’' because Colin was being pretty specific when he mentioned that. At launch The Mastery System (MS) will be solely a PvE-element and will not factor in PvP or WvW. Finally, this  system  is also locked behind the expansion HoT. So no HoT, no masteries which makes sense to be honest. As to the goal of the MS,  lead designer Isaiah Cartwright says the following: “

"What we've really done is try to make a system that works a little bit more like what we've seen in console games like Metroid or Zelda where the progression systems feel a little more natural, feel a little more integrated with the environment and content and allow you to interact with the world around you," (source IGN-article)

”You’ll be spending your MP’s in tracks containing several tiers. The progress of your masteries will be traceable  next to your nameplate just like it shows you your level as well as on the training bar that will replace your experience bar when you reach level 80. This is a really good example of how this is a progression system. This MS should equip us with the abilities to survive in the jungle and will, because of that, mainly impact the new areas we’re getting in HoT. The original GW2-areas are not forgotten however, as you will also be able to earn MP’s there. A good thing if you ask me as it will not make GW2 and HoT feel like different games isolated from each other but rather unite the two as one whole. The MS will be expanded upon in the future. It is actually very possible you’ll already receive some MP’s when HoT launches as you may have completed some challenges like exploration or group content. 

Let’s have a look at one of the things you can spend you MP’s on: Hang gliders. Yes you heard it right, gliders. It’s one of the more eye-catching elements of this expansion. It’s also ArenaNet’s answer to all the people who wanted traditional mounts. With enough MP’s you will be able to reach areas in Maguuma that you couldn’t before on your glider. This raises some questions however and one of them is the way gliding will be implemented. Will you be able to glide anywhere everywhere or will it be restricted to certain areas? Colin mentioned wind currents that will be used to gain altitude which seems to point towards a rather restrictive way of gliding. Then again, from the footage we saw in the IGN-trailer, it seems gliding is more open worldly and non-restricted to certain areas. As to the implementation ArenaNet said the following: 

“Once you’ve unlocked the Gliding Mastery track, you can pull out your glider any time you’re in free fall in the Heart of Maguuma. When you first pull out your glider, you’ll notice that you have a limited amount of energy while in the air. Be careful—if you run out of energy while gliding, your glider will collapse and you’ll be in for a rough landing!” (source)

Another question we have to pose is the added gameplay value gliding brings with it. It’s all neat and cool to glide but if it’s just used  to reach places you couldn’t reach before it feels rather wasteful. What happens, for example, to your skills when you glide throughout the jungle? Can you still use your skills? Because if you can that basically adds the possibility of air combat to GW2 and a whole new dimension to the game. However, as I mentioned earlier the MS at launch will be a PvE-feature so gliding in WvW or PvP is out of the question for now. That doesn’t mean however that the possibility of air combat in PvE is gone. In both the trailers currently out, you can see several enemies soaring throughout the jungle. ArenaNet also said the following: 

“When you train the Gliding Mastery, however, you’ll have the option to soar freely through the treetops, escape the dangers that await you on the jungle floor, use the air to your advantage in combat against certain foes, and save yourself from accidental death by slipping.” (source) 

Does this mean we’ll have to fight enemies in the sky with our gliders? I don’t know but if we do get air combat for PvE, it isn’t unimaginable to think of air combat in WvW. Can you imagine the impact air combat could have on WvW if done correctly? I doubt we'll ever get something masteries-related in sPvP, since Masteries is locked behind the expansion and sPvP is all about equality between all players. To be clear, air combat is just a wild speculation on my part. It’s very possible speculation is all what it is ever going to be but it's still very exciting nonetheless.

The Mastery System doesn’t stop with gliding however. In the IGN-interview we saw these mushrooms which we, with enough MP’s, will be able to use as jump pads to reach previous inaccessible places. The MS also doesn’t forget the lore junkies as yours truly. HoT will add new civilizations to the game and with them come new languages. These languages will only be understandable to the player if they spend MP’s. By understanding these languages we will be able to access areas we couldn’t otherwise. It’s a very nice way to change lore from a passive element to an active element and make even non-lore junkies care about the rich lore GW2 has to offer. MP’s will also factor into the combat as some new enemies will have special defenses like very sturdy bark armor which will only become penetrable if you spend MP’s on it. This is a very good example of how the Mastery System acts as a means of progression. Masteries will also help you in fractals as it will enable you to conquer higher fractal levels which will probably be new ways/abilities to counter agony. Finally the MS will also impact crafting, collecting and building and more specific it will impact crafting a legendary. The most frustrating about crafting a legendary the past 2,5 years was finding a precursor. The drop rate is so low and so RNG (=luck), it’s amazing we had to wait this long for the precursor hunt. We don’t really know yet how the MS will make acquiring precursor easier but it should give us less headaches as it has been doing thus far.

In the end the Mastery System looks like a very brave and exciting idea. It could be a revolution in the way player progression works in MMO’s. On the other hand it could also land GW2 on its face to be mocked and ridiculed by the MMO-landscape. Only time will tell what it will be.

The Case for 'the Heart of Maguuma'

What’s up internet? I have been looking for the right time to get back into writing GW2-articles. Lately I haven’t been able to because of basically life getting in the way. But the announcement of the first expansion pack for GW2: Heart of Thorns (from now on referred to as HoT) seemed like the perfect moment to get back into it. Over the next couple of articles I’ll discuss all of the HoT-features as announced by ArenaNet at Pax South. I’ll give you an overview of the information we have available as of now, give my own two cents, speculate and try to remove some misconceptions. Anyways let’s get started with the first feature: the Heart of Maguuma.

Heart of Maguuma basically entails the entire new area we’ll be venturing into in HoT. This is what Colin Johansonsaid about it at Pax:

“Now as Mo [Mike O'Brien] said earlier, the maps in the Heart of Maguuma are some of the richest, deepest content experiences that we have ever built in GW2. The game space is tremendous, the amount of space that you can play in, and the jungle is made up of three distinct biomes: The Core (the jungle floor itself), The Roots of the jungle that run deep beneath the jungle itself, and The Canopy, high above, where the remains of the Pact fleet are scattered across the top of the jungle.” (source reddit)

The very pessimistic among us will gather from this that we only get one new map. The little bit less pessimistic will take from this that we’re only getting three maps. In reality we don’t know how many maps we’re going to get. All we know is we’ll have more than one as you can read the word ‘mapS’ in the beginning of the quote. My personal guess is we’ll get somewhere in between five and ten maps although Colin said that we shouldn't expect a slew of new maps.

"I think historically you'll see expansions for MMOs do a bunch of maps that players progress through very quickly and leave a wasteland of empty worlds behind them. We're really focusing on doing less total maps and instead making them really, really deep, filled with a ton of replay value; a ton of content to explore and see."

 "And so we're really focusing on: let's do a little bit in the grand scheme of things; let's do a smaller sized area for total scope, and focus really on depth."

(source pcgamer)

Something else we have to keep into account is that Dry Top and Silverwastes might have been intended for HoT but because of the growing discontent amongst the player base they decided to release it earlier to quell the discontent.

Those two maps are a nice Segway into another part of the above mentioned quote, namely the three biomes. So these are not maps but rather levels/dimensions in a map. The best way to explain is to point towards Dry Top and Silverwastes. As I mentioned in a review of the Living Story-episode that introduced Dry Top (S02E01;S02E02), it’s not only a breathtaking but also very clever map. At the face of it, Dry Top is a small map but by dividing it into multiple levels they’re roughly tripling the explorable terrain. The same goes for Silverwastes. Just imagine that for HoT. If we get somewhere between five and ten maps and each one is divided into three biomes we’re getting somewhere in between 15 and 30 maps of explorable terrain.

Based on the trailer we can expect mainly lush jungle in the new areas with some desert wasteland areas. It also looks like we’re only getting new areas in Maguuma although what we know now is still very rudimentary. There are some people that think that Primordus will play a part in Maguuma based on the fiery monsters in the trailer but that seems very vague to me right now. I do hope that we’ll get some minor map changes in the original areas so the dragons don’t feel as isolated from each other.  For example they can change Gendarran Fields into Gendarran Icefields to show that Jormag’s corruption is growing. In the same way you could make Kralkatorrik’s Brand branch out into other maps or let a volcano erupt causing serious damage in a map adjacent to Primordus’ territory. It would keep the threat of the other dragons present and would also fit nicely in their Living World-philosophy. We did get confirmation that LA will be rebuild for HoT so here’s hoping they don’t stop there .

What else can we expect in the heart of Maguuma? New rewards, achievements, new types of content to experience, new creatures, new civilizations and maybe even more. We don’t know enough yet to go deeper in those features but that will change soon enough. Jumping puzzles are also making a return for us to enjoy or get frustrated by depending on you jumping skills.

Clearly we have just scratched the surface of what the heart of Maguuma has in store for us. I’m sure more will be revealed as we head towards Pax East in six weeks where we’ll see gameplay footage for the first time. However, this is it for now. See you next time for the next feature!

Dragon's Reach Part 1

Better late than never but ArenaNet finally released Dragon’s Reach part 1 late last Tuesday, the 29^th of July. This third addition to the second season of the Living Story is heavily story-based and adds little else in regards to new zones. It does add some new rewards like the new back skin but we’ll get there in a bit. It may be because this update is so story-focused but Dragon’s Reach Part 1 wasn’t on the same level as the previous two episodes. It was predictable, repetitive, long-winded and ultimately boring. Granted, the cliffhanger was noteworthy but didn’t compare to the cliffhanger we got in ‘Entanglement’. Let’s break the episode down and see where the problem lies.

Dragon's Reach part 1

Rallying Call

Dragon’s Reach part 1 picks up where Entanglement left of. The threat of Mordremoth has become all too clear, making it necessary for an audience with the Pale Tree. Kasmeer sends you a mail where she says she’s expecting you at the Omphalos Chamber. Upon arriving Kasmeer is already there and so is Rox and Braham. We learn that Taimi has returned to Rata Sum to study… nerd.  Also Marjory is missing and will remain absent throughout the episode because she is till spending time with her family after Belinda’s funeral. Sheesh, how long can this mourning thing take, somebody needs to tell her there’s a dragon rampaging through Tyria…

Rox asks about our health after our vision but that whole experience in Omadd’s machine gets ignored for the rest of the episode, which irks me to be completely honest. We saw the Eternal Alchemy and we saw what that did to Scarlet. I expected at least some consequences to the mental health of your character after that. But the entire episode you keep on trucking, almost forgetting that you went through it. A real shame if you ask me. The mental struggle of our character because of that vision could really have made us feel like we’re pulled into the story and not only as a side stander. The Pale Tree even mentions that the vision can crack our mind but we just keep on fighting like we only bumped our head.

We are being escorted by Warden Lochin who recognizes us as the destroyer of Zhaitan. Upon meeting the Pale Tree, she follows Lochin’s example and calls us the destroyer of Zhaitan and Commander of the pact. This is ArenaNet’s little way of making it 100% clear that this takes place after the personal story, something the community wanted for a long time. The Pale Tree says we used to fight alongside Destiny’s Edge but now hang with a new group that will do great things in the future. This is also ArenaNet’s little way of telling us we don’t have to expect much more screen time of Destiny’s Edge as a group. The reasons why will come up later.

Next, as some sort of summary section, you inform the Pale Tree of recent events concerning Mordremoth. The need for a summit becomes clear and the Pale Tree agrees. She will make preparations for the summit while we, the hero make sure each race sends a representative. Luckily for us each of our friends has a connection to powerful people of the different races. Sounding like Barack Obama, we respond  ‘Yes, we can!’ and start our long, repetitive and tedious journey to find a representative of each race. Someone has to do it, right?

Uprooting the Iron Marches

In a mail Taimi informs us about Mordrem vines in the Iron Marches and asks us to investigate. This episode is somewhat different from the others because it completely takes place in Open World, making use of old and new events from the game at launch to progress further into the episode without ever going into an instance. After helping the charrs deal with the Mordrem vines and Mordrem minions in a number of events you end up in… well nowhere really, since it ends this part, making ‘Uprooting the Iron Marches’, dare I say it, pointless? All it really does is make us aware that Mordremoth’s influence reaches as far as the Iron Marches. This is kind of the first part of what makes this episode disappointing.

The Waypoint Conundrum

We quickly leave the Iron Marches because we got another mail from Taimi. She contacted Zoija, who then contacted the Arcane Council. It leads to the arrival of Councillor Phlunt at the ley line hub. This brings us to one of the reasons why the original Destiny’s Edge will probably never reassemble on screen. This was the perfect time to reintroduce Zoija to the story. Sadly Zoija arranges an asuran representative off-screen without us even seeing or better, hearing her. This is because Zoija voice actor is Felecia Day and she is currently very busy with other projects making it impossible to hire her for Guild Wars 2. This is also the case for Logan’s voice actor I believe and is the reason why we never see the original Destiny’s Edge reassemble onscreen and why we have this new group of Rox, Braham, Taimi, Kasmeer and Marjory accompany us as the new unofficial Destiny’s Edge.

Anyways, we arrive at the ley line hub at the scene of Taimi and Phlunt bickering. Thanks to Taimi’s connection to Zoija, Taimi has been able to continue her research on Scarlet’s ley line lab without interference. With the arrival of councilor Phlunt, this has come to an end. It shouldn’t have surprise us but Phlunt isn’t too keen on the idea of attending our summit. We broker up a deal where we help out Taimi to finish up her work and Phlunt can see it. Only then will he attend our summit. If all this is what it takes to get him to attend the summit, I can only imagine how the hell we’re going to get him to join our fight against Mordremoth.

To finish Taimi’s waypoint device, she still needs three parts. Taimi loans us her now automated Scruffy to get the parts. After completing the chore, Taimi finishes her waypoint device and gives Phlunt a demonstration. Sadly, Taimi forgot to mention that actual results would take a few weeks (two weeks?). Of course, this doesn’t sit well with Phlunt and he refuses to attend the summit until he sees actual results. It’s at this point that Kasmeer joins the scene. Kasmeer contacted countess Anise to ask jennah to attend the summit. It stood out to me that this marks the somewhat indirect return of Anise to the story. Could this mean that speculation like this could prove to be true? Kasmeer informs us that, unlike Phlunt, Queen Jennah was immediately prepared to attend the summit.

Before we head out to Braham, we get a letter from none other than Trahearne. God knows what he has been doing the last year but he writes us that he is attending the summit on behalf of the Pale Tree. We don’t see in part 1 but expect to see him for part 2.  Now, Trahearne’s return was bound to happen sooner or later and I’m curious what he will have to tell us next update. I just hope we see a different Trahearn than during the personal story. After more than a year he should have undergone some character changes, so I hope he doesn’t retake his place as Marshal just like that. So to summarize, Queen Jennah and Trahearne is in and councilor Phlunt is also sort of in if he gets his desired results from Taimi’s machine.

Summit Invitations

On to Braham and his mommy issues. To get to Knut Whitebear, the leader of the Norn, Braham must contact his mother Eir Stagalkin. This marks the return of Eir to the story and because her voice actor is more easily contracted, Eir is much more heavily involved in the story. I’m glad Eir is invested in this story, since she is one of the more interesting Destiny’s Edge members. Anyways, we meet up with Braham to support him through his mommy issues (what a whimp). A neat trivia fact is that you can start the conversation with Braham and Eir by using the /sit emoticon.

Eir doubt that Knut Whitebear will hear us. He has Jormag and the Sons of Svanir to worry about and will have to prove ourselves to have his ear, meaning Eir has a chore for us to do. This brings me with another big beef I have with this update. It’s predictable, repetitive and easy story telling. It also worrisome reminds me of Scarlet and her different alliances. Just like with Scarlet and her alliance there’s a structure that keeps coming back in this update, as we meet up with the different representatives of the races. We meet up with someone connected to a world leader. Next it turns out we have to do a chore and after we complete it we can add a representative for our summit. That’s not fun to me but that’s unimaginative and boring.

But it has to be done and we set out to assault a Sons of Svanir stronghold. So if you expected to see Jormag join the fray, I’ll have to disappoint you. The conclusion of this part isn’t much interesting. Knut recognizes our feat and will consider our problem and Eir and Braham will grow a bit towards each other during this endeavor. The bonding of Eir and Braham is also easy storytelling. Braham’s rocky relationship with his mother was quite interesting but with one mission it’s being resolved rather quickly. Its shame for the possible story plots we’re missing because of it.

Plan of attack

Last stop in our journey that took us throughout the whole of Tyria is the Charr lands. There we meet Rox for…well, basically the same thing we had to do with Taimi and Kas but just a different setting. Of the entire episode this part was the most interesting lore-wise. It deals with the curse of the Ghost of Ascalon but sadly they also somewhat miss the ball in this one as well. We support Rox in her encounter with Rytlock but aside from some snarling on Rytlock’s part it doesn’t enthrall much.

Surprise surprise but Rytlock doesn’t want to help us in our fight against Mordremoth because he has the ghosts, Flame Legion and the branded to deal with. Luckily there’s a way to reverse the Foefire with Sohotin. It turns out Rytlock is somewhat of a nerd because he has been studying the Priory archives for a way to reverse the Foefire. Apparently there’s a crown that was given to Adelbern together with the two legendary swords Magdaer and Sohotin. Sadly the crown was broken into four pieces and lost. Rytlock has found one crownpiece and off course tasks us to find the other three. Now, although I love the fact that they’re bringing very old lore back to the game, the way how this problem of the ghosts is solved is just too cut and dry for me and I hoped they handled it in a different way. It’s once again proof of easy story-telling in this update in the same way children shows do story-telling. There’s this problem and there comes this object, like a crown, out of nowhere and solves the whole ordeal. I just expect something more convoluted then that from ArenaNet.

After clearing some events and some looking, you find the other three crown pieces and you’re ready to return to Rytlock for the climax of this episode. You meet up at the Barradin burial site just outside of the Black Citadel and where you do your first mission as a charr. By the way, for the lore fanatics, Barradin was the actual true heir to the throne of Ascalon but because they saw Adelbern a greater hero, they chose Adelbern instead. Anyways, you charge into Barradin’s tomb to perform the ritual but the Ghosts aren’t going to back down and possess the Barradin Statue like they did in the first Charr mission. After destroying the Barradin statue, Rytlock plunges Sohotin in the group, creating a big hole. Apparently, Rytlock got attached to Sohotin since he decides to jump after it as Sohotin fall into the hole. Before we can jump after him the hole closes leaving Rytlock to fend for his own. Imperator Smodur tells us that hole goes into the Mists and that apparently he isn’t worried Rytlock will get out unharmed.

So the question is: what’s the impact of Rytlock disappearing in the Mists? Well not a whole lot if you ask me. For one, it didn’t break the curse. Smodur states the battle against the Ghosts is not over. Will the disappearance of Rytlock have a huge impact on the fight against Modremoth? I doubt it unless Rytlock comes back with information to beat the Elder Dragons. Even though this cliffhanger redeems this update in some way, it still can’t hold a candle against the cliffhanger of ‘Entanglement’. I also fail to see the big impact of this event but maybe that will come in a future update.

We do however get Smodurs word that he’ll attend the summit, completing our run of invitations and setting the scene for the actual summit. Sadly, that’s where the episode end, which means we’ll have to wait another two weeks for the actual summit which should be interesting.  I do think however that they could have redeemed this episode even more, if they added the actual summit to this episode. But the episode was already pretty lengthy so let’s just hope they kept the best for the second part.

Achievements & Rewards

All that’s left to do is have a look at the achievements and rewards. Not a lot to say about achievements, except for the fact that they added new ones of course. On to the rewards where they added three new kites: Ventari Follower, Prosperity Mine and Crystal Shard. But if you’re a fan of these you’ll find them in the buried treasure chests in Dry Top, which means a lot a RNG to go through. The RNG and the actual kites aren’t worth the hasstle if you ask me. But if you do go for them I wish you luck and my thoughts are with you…

The other reward is new skin which promises to change appearances next update. I decided not to for it because it doesn’t appeal to me and doesn’t fit any of my chars. The other reason is… well the grind. To get this back piece you need: 270 to 350 Geodes, 29 Pile of Incandescent Dust, 25 Thermocatalytic Reagent, 5 Glob of Eectoplasm, 48 Foxfire Cluster, 300 Bloodstone Dust,200 Thick Leather section,14 Potent Venom Sac, 14 Vial of Potent Blood, 14 Large Bones, 14 Slab of Red Meat, 14 Ghost Pepper, 14 Saffron Thread. So a lot of work and if you go for, good luck and God bless you.

So in big parts this episode disappointed me. I feel like this episode was ArenaNet’s way of telling us that they haven’t forgotten about the other maps and that Mordremoth has implications for the whole of Tyria. But there must be a way to do that, so it doesn’t feel like a chore. Also the rewards are few and require a lot of luck and grind, making them hardly worthwhile to go for.

But after two very good updates we should maybe forgive ArenaNet for one minor update. Maybe we should just wait and see what the midseason final has in store for us. I myself have big expectations for the next update story-wise. I hope the underlying tensions will be felt and we’ll hear some interesting stuff, like where Trahearne’s has been. Off course, I also expect a major cliffhanger, like we saw in Entanglement. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Next week you can expect a top 3 of this update, although I’m not sure if I’ll find three things I like about this update... See you next time!

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!